that change which is felt and knowne here And here is the great contention in the world between these two births the one contending for their knowledge in the letter and the other contending for their knowledge in the life the one setting up their faith from the naturall part calling it spirituall and the other who have felt the stroake of God upon this and thereby come to know the difference setting up the faith of the true heir which faith hath a different beginning and a different growth from the other and will be welcomed into the Land and Kingdom of life when the other will be manifested to be but the birth of the bondwoman and be thrust forth with its mother to seek their bread abroad for the seed of the bondwoman is not to inherit with Isaac the seed of promise Quest What then is that faith which is the gift of God and which is distinct from this Answ. It is that power of beleeving which springs out of the seed of eternall life and leavens the heart not with notions of knowledge but with the powers of life The other faith is drawn out of mans nature by considerations which affect the naturall part and is kept alive by naturall exercises of reading hearing praying studying meditating in that part but this springs out of a seed of life given and grows up in the life of that seed and feeds on nothing but the flesh and blood of Christ in which is the living vertue and immortall nourishment of that which is immortall This faith at its first entrance strikes that part dead in which the other faith did grow and by its growth perfects that death and raiseth up a life which is of another nature then ever entred into the heart of man to conceive And by the death of this part in us we come to know and enjoy life and by the life we have received know and enjoy we come to see that which other men call life and which we our selves were apt to call life formerly to be but death And from this true knowledg we give a true testimony to the world of what we have seen and felt but no man receiveth our testimony It grieves us to the heart to see men set up a perishing thing as the way to life and our bowells are exceedingly kindled when we behold an honest zeal and simplicity betrayed and in tender love do we warn men of the piâ— into which they are generally running so fast though men reward us with hatred for our good will and become ouâ— bitter enemies because we tell them the truth and the most necessary truth for them to know which they can bear neither in plain words nor yet in parables Yet be not rough and angry but meekly wait to read this following parable aright and it will open into life The parable is briefly this That which sold the birth-right seeks the birth right with tears and great pains but shall never recover it but there is one which lies dead which hath the promise which stirs not which seeks not till he is raised by the power of the fathers life and then he wrestles with the father prevails and gets the blessing from him Therefore know that part which is up first and is so busie in the willing and in the running and makes such a noise about duties and ordinances and graces to keep down the life which it hath slain and know that seed of life which is the heir which lyes underneath all this and must remain slain while this lives but if ever ye hear the voice of the Son of God this will live and the other dye And happy for ever will he be who knows this but misery will be his portion who cannot witnesse a thorow change by the Almighty power of the living God but hath only painted the old nature and Sepulcher but never knew the old bottle broken and a new one formed which alone is able to receive and retain the new wine of the Kingdom whereas the other Pharisee like can only receive a relation of the letter concerning the Kingdom SOME Assertions concerning faith its nature rise c. with its receiving of Christ and what follows thereupon namely a growing in his living vertue with a knowledge of the true living unerring rule and an obedience to it in the life Assertion I. THat the true faith the faith of the Gospel the faith of the Elect the faith which saves the sinner from sin and makes him more then a conquerour over sin and the powers of darknes is a beliefe in the nature of God which belief giveth entrance into fixeth in and causeth an abiding in that nature Uâ—belief entreth into death and fixeth in the death faith giveth entrance into and fixeth in the life Faith is an ingrafting into the Vine a partaking of the nature of the Vine a sucking of the juice of life from the vine which nothing is able to do but the faith but the beliefe in the nature And nothing can beleeve in the nature but what is one with the nature So then faith is not a beleeving the history of the Scripture or a beleeving and applying the promises or a beleeving that Christ dyed for sinners in generall or for me in particular for all this may be done by the unbelieving nature like the Jew but an uniting to the nature of God in Christ which the unbeliever starts from in the midst of his believing of these Yet I do not deny that all these things are to be believed and are believed with the true faith But this I affirm that they also may be believed without the true faith and that such a belief of these doth not determin a man to be a believer in the sight of God but onely the union with the nature of that life from whence all these sprang and in which alone they have their true value II. That the true faith springs from the true knowledge or comes with the true knowledge of the true nature of God in Christ which it believes in He can never believe in the nature of God who hath not first the nature of God revealed to him If a man search the Scriptures all his dayes hear all that can be said by men concerning God Christ faith justification c. be able to dispute about them and think he can make his tenets good against all the world yet if he hath not received the true knowledge of the nature of these things all his professed faith in them cannot be true III. That the true knowledge is only to be had by the immediate revelation of Christ on the soul No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live There is no raising of a dead soule to life but by the immediate voyce of Christ Outward preaching reading the Scriptures c may direct
hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall
but the Lord God is feared and the Dragons arm withers and the head of his pollicy whereby he ensnared intangled from the life is crushing glory to the endlesse power of life for ever and for ever Be wise now therefore loose not your share in the immortal Crown Take heed how ye be found fighters against the Lamb in the wisdom power of Babilon which is to fall Painting will not passe now That bloud of the Lamb is felt which washes off the whores paint even all her painted notions of the blood of christ of sanctification and redemption c. the whorish nature being discovered underneath all these Ye have got the name of Church the name of Christians the name of ordinances c. by the whores help but the nature of life ye want and the living power is come to recover the name from you and we his living witnesses testifie to your faces that ye shall not enjoy it but the name and the thing shall go together and he that hath not the thing shall also loose the name Yea your eyes shall see that ye have been the sacrilegious ones who have stoln holy names and tirles which ye never received from the hand of God but the whorish spirit which out of the life and an enemy to the life hath handed them to you And this is told you in dear and tender love that ye might not perish but have eternall life abiding in your hearts and the new name written by the Spirit of life on your foreheads which all that know the writing of the life may be able to read and acknowledge There are severall touches of these things in diverse of of the Epistles of the Apostles but the full relation is given forth in that book of the Revelation which was penned by the Spirit of God to be read in the light of the Spirit and so to be a preservative against the overspreading contagion of Antichristianism Adn it is said at the entrance into it Blessed is he that readeth they that hear the words of this prophests keâ—p those things wch are written therein But men having lost the Spirit have not been able to read it and having lost the right ear they have not been able to heare the words it speaks and how then could they keepe the things written therein He that doth â—ot understand what he is warned against how is it likely he should be preserved by the warning The Spirit of God judged this warning necessary but the spirit of deceit cryes it is a deep thing not to be medled with Now this is a plain demonstration that men generally are overtaken with the whoredom and drink of the whores cup submit themselves to the beast and exalt his horns and receive his mark and some or other of his names because they have not the knowledge of that which discovers these things and was given by the Spirit of God to forewarn and so to preserve out of them He that knoweth not the mistery of iniquity working under a form of godlines may not he easily be deceived with the mistery of iniquity He that knoweth not what is become of the true Church ministry and where to look for them may not he easily own a fall Church and ministry He that knoweth not the Spirit of the Scriptures which the Church carried with her when she left the letter behind her may not he easily set up the letter for his rule He that knoweth not the living mark and name of a Christian with which the Spirit of life seals all the Lambs of Christ in the life may not he easily give this name to himself and to others who have not this mark but the beasts mark He that knoweth not the true faith the true love the true hope the true joy the true peace the true rest the true consolation in Christ the life the true meeknes and patience of the Sâ—ints c. may not he easily set up shadows or liknesses of these which he gathers from the letter of the Scriptures and the promises thereof receiving the knowledge of them into the wrong part applying them to the wrong thing instead of these Ah poor hearts The book of the Revelation is easie to that Spirit that wrote it and it was not given forth to be laid by as uselesse but to be serviceable in the hand of the Spirit for the ages after the dayes of the Apostles and in the true light it is easily read and they that can read it can see that in it which they that cannot read it cannot beleeve And this is plainly seen That theâ—e is but the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of deceit but the Lambs wife and the whore which hath whored from the Spirit which hath made use of the lotter to run a whoring from that Spirit that wrote it that there is but the true Church and the false Church but life and death but form and power but Christ the mistery of godlinesse and Antichrist the mistary of iniquity but God and the dragon God in the Church or Temple in the Wildernesse and the dragon in the worlds churches and temples appearing there as if he were God giving sorth lawes and ordinances like God and all the world falls down before him and worships him as if he were God and hopes by this worship which they perform to him and by their faith and hope which they receive from him to be saved at last I say there are but these two and he that is joyned to the one of these is not joyned to the other Let him that readeth understand which he may easily doe by the wisdome of the Spirit but never can by the wisdome of the letter For though we know how to join these two in the life yet there is a necessity of seperating them at present till the letter be gained out of the hands of the whorish spirit which hath built up severall forms of knowledge religion and worship in mistery-Babilon by the letter without the life all which must fall with Babilon AN Exhortation relating to the workings of the mistery of Iniquity and the mistery of godlinesse in this present age ALL people upon earth who love your souls and have any true secret pantings after God look to the nature of your Spirits and look to the nature of those things ye let into your minds least ye take in death for life error for truth and so sow to your selves corruption and rear up a fabricke in mistery Babilon which will be turned into desolation and utter ruins by the power of life from Sion Strong is the Spirit of deceit that is entred into the world and glorious and very taking are his images and likenesses of truth which will deceive all but the very elect who were chosen from the foundation of the world and whose eyes are opened to see the foundation of life which was before the foundation of the world It
truth aright in others Nay thou measurest by a false appearance of things in the fallen understanding and in the wisdome which thou hast gathered there since thou thy selfe fellest from the living principle and this must needs commend that most which is neerest to it and not that which is neerest to truth And this is the great error of this age men with a gathered knowledge from Scripture-words without the true faith and life go about to measure that life and knowledge which comes from the faith and because it suites not with the apprehensions which they have taken into their minds they condemn it And thus being in the stumbling wiâ—dome and way of observation to which truth was never revealed but was ever an offence they stumb'e at it and thus men generally dish and split themselves against the same rock now as the Pharisees did of old Now this understanding must perish and this wisdome in men be brought to nought before that can be raised up which can judge aright Hearken therefore to my exhortation as ye love your souls Come out of popery indeed and in truth come out of the spirit of popery burn the whore in her new forms as well as in her old Cast off all these new names of the Beast under which the old spirit has made a prey of the life in your own particulars and lies lurking to make a prey of the life in others and to force it into its own deceitfull forms of death and slay it Leave defending your faith and church by the Beasts horns and come to that faith and church which is received gathered and defended by Christ the one horn of salvation Leave your reasonings and disputings in that wisdome which has slain the life and come to that wisdome which comes from the life and springs up in the life and ye will find more certainty and satisfaction in one touch of true life then in all the reasonings and disputes of wise men to the worlds end The ground wherein mens religion grows even of the most zealous is bad even the same ground wherein the Pharisees religion stood and grew and it hath brought forth such kind of fruit namely such a kind of conformity to the letter as theirs was which stands in the understanding and will of man rearing up a pleasant building there but keeps from the life and from building in it But the true religion stands in receiving a principle of life which by its growth forms a vessell for it selfe s and all the former part wherein sin on the one hand or selfe righteousnesse on the other hand stood and grew passeth away These things following strike at the King of Babilon himselfe yea even at the very root of the Antichristian spirit in every man which he that can mild y receive the stroake of may feel the true Spirit of life which lies slain underneath spring up in him and give life to his soul which when it is delivered will be able truly to know and rejoyce in the Lord its Saviour And when the root of that spirit is cut downe which never brought forth sweet pleasant fruit unto life but only sowre fruit finely pâ—inted and dressed for the eye and palate of death its body branches leaves and fruit will wither and dye dayly and truth come to grow safely A Distinction between the faith which is of man and the faith which is of GOD One whereof is the Faith of Sion the other the Faith of Babilon the one laying hold on Christ as he is revealed the King of life in Sion the other layes hold on an Historicall relation of Christ the fame whereof hath sounded in Babilon THere is a faith which is of a mans selfe and a faith which is the gift of God or a power of beleeving which is found in the nature of fallen man and a power of believing which is given from above As there are two births the first and the second so they have each their faith and each beleeve with their faith and seem to lay hâ—ld on the same thing for life and the contention about the inheritance will not be ended till God determine it Cain will sacrifice with his faith and he beleeves he shall be accepted if he had not beleeved so he would not have been so angry when he found it otherwise And the Cainish spirit in man the vagabond from the life of God which hath not an habitation in God nor the eternall life of God abiding in him he is busie with the same faith at this day and hath the same expectation from it as Cain had This is the root of the false religion of the false hope of the false peace of the false joy of the false rest of the false comfort of the false assurance as the other is the root of the true In this faith which is of man and in the improvement of it stands all the knowledge zeal devotion and worship of the world in generall and of the worldly part in every man in particular but the true knowledge the true zeale the true devotion the true worship stands in the faith which is given of God to them which are born of the immortall seed which liâ—es in God and in which God lives for ever Now it deeply concerns every man to consider from which of these his knowledg religion and worship proceed and in which of them they stand for if they proceed from and stand in the faith which is of man they cannot please God nor conduce to the salvation of the soule but though they may tast very pleasantly to mans pallate now and administer much hope and satisfaction to him at present yet they will faile at the time of need For as Christ said concerning the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees so may I say concerning this faith Except your faith with the works of it exceed that faith and all the works of it even to the utmost improvement thereof which is to be found in mans nature it will never lead you to the kingdom of God nor be able to give you any right to the inheritance of life For he that will inherit must be the right heir must have the faith of Abraham the faith of Isaacâ— which springs up from the root of life in the seed and this leads the seed into that spring of life out of which it shot forth as a branch which is the inheritance promised to the seed And here is Christ Alpha and Omega in every particular soul where life is begun and perfected â—unning its course through time back to that which was before the beginning Therefore observe and consider well what this faith which is of a mans selfe can doe and how far it may goe in the changing of man and in producing a conformity of him to the letter of the Scriptures And then consider where it is shut out what it cannot do what change it cannot make what it cannot conform to