refreshes comforts and strengthens the body and it preserves the life of the body and thus did the woman in that understanding and knowledge that then she had look upon the tree to be good for food and so it was pleasant to the eye and a tree to be desired to make one wise she so saw it to be good for food that in the eating of the fruit thereof she should be contented and satisfied in the enjoying of it that is in the eating of it her desire her hunger after it would be satisfied and to speak after the manner of outward eating she in the eating thereof should be so refreshed comforted and strengthened as to be no more wise as a Creature for so she was before the temptation entred into her she was wise as God had made her wise but to be thereby made wise which was another being made wise than that being wise as God had made her it was to be made wise as gods and to live in the being as gods in knowledge knowing good and evil as God knew good and evil this was that which caused the tree to be desired and hungred after it was to make one wise which making wise must be that being wise that the Tempter tempted to that was in the day they eat thereof then their eyes should be opened and they should be as gods knowing good and evil this was that in the tree that was desired and hungred after and the expectation of content and satisfaction in the eating thereof was in that to be as gods to be wise as gods knowing good and evil and thereby to be refreshed comforted and strengthened as to live as gods knowing of good and evil And thus man mis-spent and made a bad use of that portion of understanding and knowledge that God had given to him in which he as he knew Gods will so he was to obey God in the doing of Gods will But instead of keeping in his obedience in doing what he knew to be Gods will there was something in him that caused him first to question whether what he once knew and believed to be Gods will whether it was Gods will or no and having prevailed therein with man then the Tempter caused man to see a good in what man once saw to be an evil that was to eat of the forbidden Fruit and in that man once saw such an evil to be in it as to be the cause of death if he took and eat thereof Now the Tempter caused man to see such a good to be in it that if he took and eat of it he shall be as Gods knowing good and evil and when man saw this at that very instant of time the desire of the mind was to the enjoying of it and at the same instant of time he took and eat of it and then man made his full manifestation and appearance of his going out of obedience in doing Gods will into his disobedience of doing his own will And although then when man took and eat there was the full discovery of mans will in the Temptation yet there was something of mans will that was in the beginning of the Temptation although then it lay hid The substance of mans eating of the fruit of the forbidden Tree consists in this That man went out of his obedience to God which he was once in and so was in the doing of Gods will and went into the disobedience in the doing of his own will which man knew nothing of any will of his own before the temptation entered into him that is he knew nothing of any will in him contrary to the will of God in him Some question there may be which was first in man to draw man into disobedience Pride or Will they are so nearly joyned and united together as it is hard to discern which of them was first But I believe Will was first in man although Pride made his first appearance to be there Man in that great understanding and knowledge that he had of God was therewith lifted up with Pride which caused a desire in him to be as Gods But what was that which so lifted man up was it not his Will in that he would be as Gods And this Will wrought in the earthy part in man as the Mole doth in the ground hidden and not discerned the earth that the Mole raiseth up is first seen before the Mole that is the cause of raising it up so it was in the Temptation Pride did first appear before the Will that raised up the Pride for was it not Pride in man to be so bold to ask a question thereby to question the truth of what God had said Thus Pride first appeared in the Temptation that which would seem to have an equality with God in that it would undertake to question God in the truth of his Word and this was Pride that which was so lifted up with that great understanding and knowledge that it had of God was Pride and it was by the understanding and knowing part in man that that question was asked it was by that which knew that God had spoken to man and knew that man was to eat of the trees of the garden and by this knowledge it was that Pride asked the question yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden And what was that that thus lifted up man was it not his Will wherein he desired to be as Gods but this Will was not so strong at first as to prevail with man to go out of Gods will there was a greater appearance at first of Pride in questioning the truth of what God had said than there was an appearance of Will to be as gods And in this the Serpent the Tempter was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made for man having the enjoyment and dominion over all them they never lifted up the heart of man into pride nor did they cause in man a will or desire to be as gods When God had made man the tree of Life was in the midst of the garden in the midst of mans heart or the inward part of man which was Jesus in man keeping man in obedience to God As long as man obeyed God he lived in God and God lived in him and the tree of knowledge of good and evil both trees were in the midst of the garden and were not forbidden to be there that which was forbidden was the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil The eating of the fruit of it was forbidden and not onely to be eaten but not to be touched and that is the great mystery of the Creation of man which God in his time will make known in man and to man his Creature that both trees were in man as made in his Image To be tempted is no sin nor forbidden that which is forbidden is to yield to the temptation that is sin To eat of the
given as Help-meets for the life of Jesus in man When I speak of the Life of Jesus in man I do not mean that eternal Life and Being that gave life and being to all things for that Life and Being the works or actions of man cannot reach unto to do it either good or harm but I mean the Life of Jesus as a Saviour in man as he is sent of the Father and is come into fallen man and is of that eternal Life and being that gave being to all that life of his that was slain in man by sin and is come again into man to be raised up to life and thereby to save man from sin and to bring man to God and into God again from whence man fell by his sin And so as man keeps in obedience to his being drawn or led forth by the Spirit of Jesus in him so he in his obedience being thereunto led or drawn forth by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in him is as an Help-meet for that life of Jesus in him to save him from sin which the woman given to Adam as an Help-meet I believe was a figure of And mans going out of his obedience in the time of the drawings or strivings of the Spirit of Jesus in him is a hurt or hindrance to that Life of Jesus in him that is to that Life that is a saving him from sin And so that which was as an Help-meet is deceived by the subtilty of the Serpents self that in man that yielded obedience to God is deceived in and by its disobedience God's Spirit striving in man to keep him from sin that is God's drawing of man and as man keeps in obedience to those strivings and drawings of the Spirit of God in him so he becomes an Help-meet to the Life of Jesus in him that is to that Life that saves from sin The end of Paul's preaching was to bring men to repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26. 20. And it was Gods Command by the Apostle to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Philip. 2. 12 13. Every one is to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling But how are they to work out their own salvation It must be according to the strivings or drawings of the Spirit of God in them to do it For it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure The work is God's but he doth not do it without man working with him and as God chose man to work with him so he makes man as an Help-meet for the Life of Jesus in man to save man from sin as man yields an obedience to the working of God in him but when man goes out of his obedience and yields not obedience to the working of God's Spirit in him then the woman is deceived and found in the transgression While the woman stood in obedience to the strivings or drawings of the Spirit of God in her which strove in her to keep her from yielding to the temptations of the Serpent and caused her to resist the temptations of the Serpent telling him that they might eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden But of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden God had said they should not eat of it nor touch it lest ye die While the woman stood thus in obedience to the working of the Spirit of God in her that strove in her to keep her from sinning she was as God wrought it in her an Help-meet for the preserving of the Life of Jesus in her that kept her from sin But while the Spirit of God thus wrought and strove in her she hearkened to the Serpents temptation and went out of her obedience into disobedience then she was deceived and found in the transgression as all men in the state of disobedience are How doth experience teach the truth of this at this very day the subtile Serpent presents to man his temptation The Light the Spirit which is Jesus although in several names yet but one Being God makes known to man that what the Serpent tempts to is a breaking of his Commands and the penalty that follows the breaking of the Command is death This is the striving or drawing of God by his Spirit in man to keep man from sin this was in the woman While man stands in obedience to these strivings or drawings of God in him he is kept from sin and so was the woman And as man is thus an Instrument in Gods hand for God doth not save man from sin without mans joyning condescending or being willing thereunto and although the work be wholly Gods who worketh both to will and to do yet God doth not do this his great work without his Instrument man And as man is an Instrument in Gods hand so God makes him a fit Instrument to do his work withal And so man may be said to be an Help-meet for the work of God in man as a man that hath a work to do makes an Instrument fit to do his work with and so his Instrument is an Help-meet or fit for him to do his work withal God strives or draws in man by his Light his Spirit his Son Jesus to keep man from yielding to the temptation of the Serpent The Serpent also then strives in man and draws in man to yield to his temptation this was the cause of the woman The Serpent in his temptation causeth man to behold a good and pleasantness to be had in the sin in the forbidden Fruit the woman saw that the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye When the understanding part in man the knowing part in man beheld a good for food and pleasantness to the eye in what was contrary to the Command of God and that there was so much good and pleasantness in it that he shall thereby have content and full satisfaction as being wise as Gods Then there is a desire in the mind stirred up after the enjoying of it this was the case of the woman when she saw the Tree to be good for food and pleasant to the eye then there was a desire stirred up in her to take thereof to be made wise thereby So when the understanding and knowing part in man looketh out and sees that there is a good a pleasantness a satisfaction and full content in what God hath forbidden man to do and that thereby he shall be made as Gods then a desire gets up in the mind to get the enjoyment thereof that he may be wise as Gods that is that he may know what good what pleasure what satisfaction what content there is to be had in the doing the thing that God hath forbidden to be done And so mans desire is to be wise in that God hath forbidden him to do and to know what
put themselves forth into the doing thereof they having eaten of the forbidden Tree they having done that which they knew God had commanded them not to do And the eyes of their understanding and knowledge being opened they see themselves naked that is that they have sinned against God and that there is judgment due to them from this God that they have offended and that makes them afraid and to passifie the apprehensions that they have in them of the anger of this God which by that understanding and knowledge that they have of him they know to be due to them for their sins And by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they know that he is good and that it is good to pray to him and to worship and serve him And the subtile Serpent that by his temptations drew them in to eat of the forbidden Tree the doing of what God had forbidden them to do he perswades them that their eyes being opened by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they of themselves know what is Gods declared will that they should do in praying to him in worshipping and serving of him and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done and they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in performing of their Prayers Worship and Service to God And thus the subtile Serpent perswades them that their eyes being opened they are as Gods to know will and to do all of themselves and so of themselves they pray worship and serve God as they call it and are not contented to be as Creatures to know nothing but as they wait upon God to reveal it in them by his Spirit and to will nothing but what God in his will willeth in them and to do nothing but what God by his Spirit led or draw them forth in the doing thereof Although few are so bold or ignorant of God as to confess with their tongues that they of themselves do know Gods declared will that it is good and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done in them and that they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in praying to him and in worshipping and serving of him yet by their actions they manifest the truth of what with their tongues they will not confess for by their actions it doth appear that they do all as Gods of themselves in that they do not wait upon God for him to do it in them by the leadings or drawings of his Spirit in them but they yield to the stirrings movings or drawings of their own wills and as their wills lead them out for to do so they go forth in their Prayer Worship and Service to God as they call it It were well if all those that are in the use of Set Forms of Prayers and those that pray in their Families at set times would consider what is the leading stirring moving or drawing Cause of their so praying and to see whether or no they do pray as the Apostle said of himself and the Saints That they knew not what they should pray for as they ought but as the Spirit it self made intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered and that their Prayers be performed in Gods Spirit and in truth or else they are not acceptable to God who is a Spirit I so well love all of them whose Lives and Conversations as to the outward are blameless and use those Prayers as a Sacrifice or Offerings to God as to beg of them to have a care that in the use of them the Serpent do not deceive them as he hath deceived me in praying worshipping and serving of God For by experience I do know that what is done in praying worshipping and serving of God that is not done wholly and alone by the Spirit of God in man and man in the doing thereof to be but an Instrument in Gods hand to do his work by And so indeed and in truth it is no other but God the Son in us praying worshipping and serving God the Father that hath begotten us in himself again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead And what Prayer Worship and Service is not thus done in God unto God is not acceptable to God and all other Prayers Worship and Service that hath been done in me and called by me Prayer Worship and Service done to God I do now know and have experienced it to be true that it hath onely been done by the subtilty of the Serpent in me in that understanding and knowledge that I had of God that caused me to have high thoughts of my self and that of my self in that understanding and knowledge I had of God I could pray worship and serve God and was as God to my self that is to will what I knew was Gods will and to do what I knew to be Gods will that I should do that is as to an outward obedience to God And now I do know that all that then I did in obedience to God was done in my own will and for my own self-ends And knowing the danger that I was then in being in the womans deceived state and so in the transgression and so in danger of perishing I cannot but out of love and pity to those that are in that state give them warning for them to have a care that they do not fall into that Quick-sand that lieth so hid in man and as an honest Traveller in the outward Land having fallen into a Quick-sand setteth a mark there that so others may have a care of falling into the same place This being the end of all my making known of what I know of the subtil Serpents self-will in me And further to make it more clearer that it is the work of the Tempter in man as man is in the fallen state to perswade man to have high thoughts that of himself in that understanding and knowledge that he hath of God he can know Gods will and can will Gods will and can do what God would have him to do And if this be not the true state of man in the fall to have the subtile Serpent to be thus in him tempting of him I desire then to know from whence it comes that many now see it to be so hard for man to become a very nothing in the Work of his Salvation that so God may be all in it and man nothing but onely as God makes him an Instrument in his hand But they who are not in some measure come to the knowledge of that in them as to know how hard a thing it is to become a nothing in the working out of their salvation that so God may be all in them in that great work of saving of them to them it is as hard to believe the truth of what I have said concerning the experience that some have seen of the Tempter how