Master it wil be bitternesse in the belly as it was to him for the jealousie of the Lord shall burn hot against thee so that thou shalt cal upon the mountains to cover thee from his presence and wish that thou hadst never been born and all the sorrowes spoke of in Scripture shall overtake thee and such presumptuous sinners as thou art and thy joy shall be turned into mourning and thou shalt be cast into the everlasting fire which God hath prepared and appointed for the Serpent and his seed or for the Devil and his Angels and while thou art in it the worm of thy gnawing conscience shall never die nor the fire of Gods wrath or the sense of his anger upon thee shall never goe out and shall be a pain more intollerable then the plucking out of the right eye or the cutting off the right hand But now lest scruples should arise in others as though I writ contradictions or as though I made God changeable First to bid a sinner depart into everlasting fire and yet afterwards take him out again Now to give answer hereunto First know that this was and is the great mystery worke and counsell of God after he had made a visible creature in a pure Being distinct from himselfe his purpose being to destroy all the inventions and actings of this creature that did spring up and arise from the creatures Being as a creature and not from Gods acting in the creature and God foresaw that the first buddings of this creature would be a desire to maintain it Selfe or Creature-Being and so cast God off therefore God made him under a Law that if his creature did consent to that selfish desire he should die if not he should have lived a pure Being still though distinct from God yet under his protection as a Creator Now every thing that is in or about the Creature that is of God shall stand but every thing that is in or from the creature that is not of God shall fall and perish Therefore to proceed a little further that this truth may shine in its own beauty God does teach me to see that every action or dispensation of God is called a Spirit or an Angel and every action or aspiring principle that rise up in Adam which led him to disobedience it pleased God that it should have a Being and likewise be called a Spirit but it is a dead Being and a Spirit of darknesse quite opposite to the God of Light and Life and God gives it the name of Serpent Dragon Murtherer wicked one and unclean Spirit because it twisted it selfe into the middle of the Creation and was an aspiring to be like God but God did not make the nature of it for it was the first fruits of a created Being without God Now God is pleased to make known himself in divers dispensations in the carrying on of this great work of his As first he declares himselfe by way of a Law In the day thou eatest thou shalt die now this Law though it was holy just and good yet it was a killing word or the killing Letter for it took hold of Adams disobedience and flew him so that word Thou shalt dye because flesh for all flesh broke the Covenant in Adam and all flesh died and all humane flesh was cast under that dispensation of death and the more we stirre to climb up to God by the workes of the Law the more we intangle our selves in death for by the workes of the law no flesh shall be saved And here is two murtherers which mankind is to be delivered from before it can live again First this word of the Law which is holy just and good which ties the creature onely to acknowledge the Being of God and no other when the creature began to minde another Being this righteous Law killed him for it is not the King but the Kings Law that hangs an offender and if the rigorous Law stands still in force no flesh can be saved because every man and woman are selfish and minds a sinfull Being opposite to God therefore the condemning power of the Law is to be taken away The second murtherer is the Creatures own invention or aspiring spirit to be as God knowing good and evill or to maintain Selfe and this killed the creature and threw him under the curse of the righteous Law because this would be a Being equall with God and acknowledge another being besides God whereas there is no other righteous Being to be acknowledged but onely God or what is in God or God in it Now in the first discovery of Gods counsell and purpose to the Creature if he be redeemed this compound murtherer must be cast out of heaven by a strong hand and out-stretched arm of God so that the Being of God might be preserved the Law of God kept pure and yet fallen man redeemed As first this dispensation of death Do this and live Do not this and die must be cast out of Heaven that is out of Gods hand and God must not in the redeeming of him appeare to the creature under that dispensation for if he doe it will still hold the lost creature under death and bondage and if the creature were made pure again and left still to deale with the Law by his created strength onely as Adam was truly he would fall again for a meere created strength being distinct from God the Creator would fall again for no Being can stand pure but such a created Being as God is pleased to dwell bodily in for every opposite Being will seek to advance it selfe Therefore if God redeem his creature from death he must appeare absolutely a God of love under no other dispensation but the law of love doing all in and for the creature and thus in the Gospel he does for this is the Spirit that quickens and saves the creature and when this Word of Love was made Flesh it was the first discovery from God to assure the creature of his redemption from death and this was when Jesus Christ or God was manifested in flesh working doing suffering all things for the creature pardoning accepting and taking the creature freely into communion with God by Gods own power and for his own name sake promising never to remember disobediences any more but would blot out that hand-writing the Law of Doe and live not doe and die And now the killing letter or murderer is cast out of heaven out of Gods hand God will never have that to stand between him and his creature any more but hee himselfe who is the Law of Love even Love it selfe will dwell and rule a King of Righteousnesse in the Creature and be the Creatures wisdome strength life joy and comfort and his All in All But secondly the other murderer which is worse then this must be cast out of heaven too or else the creature cannot live and that is the Serpent or this
senses therewith and so brake the Law and Covenant of God fell from his purity and died according to the word of his Maker That in the day thou eatest thou shalt dye And all the faculties and powers of that living created Being Adam are now become absolute rebellions and enmity it selfe against the Being of Godlâ—… And that garden of pleasant plants Adam is become a stinking dunghill of weeds and brings forth nothing but pride envy discontent disobedience and the whole actings of the spirit and power of darknes And if the creature should bee honoured in this condition then God would be dishonoured because his command is broke and yet the creature remains glorious therefore he died And if so be the creature be utterly lost and perish and this garden should never be so dressed as to bring forth fruit to Gods delight then likewise God would suffer dishonour because his work is spoyled in his hand and there is no hopes of recovery But the work of God shall be restored from this lost dead weedy enslaved condition and the fruit of the created Being shall utterly perish and be ashamed And things being thus considered God is pleased to lead us to see a little into these two mysteries First the mystery of Iniquity or work of the Serpent which was the aspiring fruit of pride and selfe-love that sprung up in the created Being to be as God and so to be an absolute Being of himself as God is an absolute Being of himselfe and so this selfe-honouring would sit in Gods Temple that is the humane Nature which God made a Garden for Himselfe to walk in and if that Spirit of Self-love could not be destroyed and the Humane Nature recovered from that bondage God would suffer much dishonour because he being glorious and happy in himselfe hath made a creature to be a vexation and scourge to him and cannot subdue it And this mystery of iniquity or power of darknesse hath does and will fight against the Being of God till it be taken out of the way and quite subdued as the Father hath promised he will subdue it under the feet of his Sonne the Humane Nature Then secondly God leads us to the mystery of himselfe and makes us able to see into the knowledge of that great work that hee is in working and that is to destroy this Serpent out of the flesh and all Beings that is enmity against him and to swallow up his Creature Man into himselfe that so there may bee but one onely pure endlesse and infinite Being even God himselfe all in all dwelling and walking in this garden Mankinde in which he will plant pleasant fruit trees and pluck up all weeds Cant. 4. 16. Since Adam fell to this present day wee see the wisdome power and affection that dwels and rules in Man leads him any way either to just or unjust actions so that Selfe may be preferred not caring whether God be honoured yea or no Now the mystery of God is this hee will destroy and subdue this power of darknesse under the feet of the whole Creation Mankinde and every particular branch Man and Woman deliver him from this bondage and prison and dwel in his own House and Garden himselfe so that the wisdome power love life beauty and Spirit of truth that dwels and rules in Man may be God himselfe even the Lord our Righteousnesse and no other being or power but himselfe And as God did dwell bodily in the Humane Nature Jesus Christ who was the first manifestation of this great mystery of God so when his work is compleated he will dwell in the whole Creation that is every man and woman without exception as he did dwell in that one branch Jesus Christ who is the pledge or first fruits And therefore you shall finde that when Adam had broke the Covenant and died by the Law God did not denounce an utter destruction without recovery to the Creation Mankinde which was his own work which his own wisdome and power did produce and bring forth But he pronounces the finall curse against the Serpent or mans work which was the fruit that sprung up in and was acted both inwardly and outwardly by the Creation or created Being in rebellion against the Being of God Therefore sinne is properly mans owne act The words of the Father run thus speaking to the Serpent I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele So that the Serpent must be killed for bruise his head and he dies Now the curse that was declared to Adam was temporary That he should undergoe sorrows and suffer a bruising in his out-member but not a killing though Adam had killed himselfe so that he hath brought himselfe under the bondage God will not strike him now he is downe and make his death without recovery but God will destroy death and quicken Adam or Mankinde againe that we may all see our salvation is from God though our misery was from our selves that so whosoever glories may glory onely in the Lord And now by the way mind one thing That when this Serpent rules and causes the creature to act such actings become the creatures losse shame but when God acts in the creatures life glory and redemption to advance selfe and deny God is the creatures death But to deny self and to acknowledge God is the creatures life before Adam acted Rebellion this aspiring spirit of pride to be as God led the humane nature to disobey God And ever since the fall the same selfish spirit leads every man and woman captive at his will and inslaves them in that prison and bondage and darkness to walk in wayes directly contrary to the God of light and yet many times perswades them that they do God good service let a man read hear study preach pray perform actions of Justice yet if God be not mercifull to the man this power of darkness will deceive him making him to conceit or think he pleases God when the truth is he serves but selfe all the time it is so full of secret strong delusions Therefore I say the mystery of God is this God will bruise this Serpents head and cast that murderer out of heaven the humane nature wherein it dwels in part as in the man Christ Jesus And he will dwell in the whole creation in time and so deliver whole mankind out of that bondage This I see to be a truth both in my own experience and by testimony of scripture as God is pleased to teach me As first by experience I shall instance in my self who am a branch of Adam or part of the humane creation And I lay under the bondage of the Serpent my own invention as the whole creation does from Adams fall and I saw not any bondage but since God was
mens own inventions and purges the drosse from the gold divides between the marrow and the bone that is makes a separation between his own work and mans work So likewise Rev. 20. 10. And the Devill or murderer that deceived the Nations was east into the lake of fire and brimstone and v. 14. And death and hel were cast into the lake of fire the Nations were not cast in at this time for this Scripture I believe points out the great day of Judgment when Nations shall be delivered out of that fire and there shall be no more curse death sorrow nor pain lie upon any part of the Creation but all teares shall be wiped from its eyes and the Serpent only shall perish in the Lake for after that the City-work is finished and the number of the Elect gathered in and established in glory then the dispensations of God who is the tree of life send forth a healing vertue to the Nations and then the Nations likewise that are saved or those that were lost while the City or Elect was in gathering do now bring their glory into the City likewise for every man shall be saved saith God through Paul without exception though some at the ninth houre some at the tenth houre and some at the last houre and this salvation of every man or the making of the whole creation a pure River of the water of life cleer as Cristall proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb that is from the judgment seat of God judging condemning and killing the Serpent and so restoring his own creation to purity and life So likewise 2 Cor. 5. 4. For we in this Tabernacle do groane being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life By mortality here is not meant the laying of the body in or raising of it out of the dust or grave but it is the very death which Adam by disobeying fell under and that is the death of his purity or pure being which is a falling from God into a being directly opposite to the being of God as rottonness of flesh is death to soundness of flesh darkness is the death to light for whereas before the fall Adam knew God loved and acknowledged God and was in every part so pure as God said Behold it is all very good but after the fall he became envious proud disobedient full of all lusts and concupiscence of evill even as we find by experience our bondage and so from a friend he fell to be enmity against God of a pure creature he became unclean and of a Child of Gods delight he fell to be a Child of wrath and of a pure garden he became a stinking dunghill and this is the death or mortality which not only Adam in particular but all the branches of Adam men and women lie under Even under a corrupt Being Now this rottennesse or death under which the whole Creation is fallen and lies in bondage too it is that Serpent or power of darknesse which Paul desires might be swallowed up of life that is that God who is life would be pleased to come and dwell in him and in his creation and so cast out that mortality or strong man that is so strongly armed and this is the Serpent that God hath pronounced the dreadfull curse against for this is mans work and it must bee destroyed I conceive God calls it mans own invention because it was the first fruit that the creature brought forth after he was made and left to himselfe even this aspired and sprung up in him to which he gave consent to promote Selfe and become as God I shall onely mention one Scripture more though I beleeve I could bring above a hundred Scriptures that doe countenance this truth And if you seriously minde what you read you shall finde that this is the Royall blood that runs through the golden veines of the writings of the Prophets and Apostles It is Rom. 8. from vers. 19. to 26. but for shortnesse sake I shall mention onely the 21. and 22. verses Beeause the creation it self also shall be delivered as well as we that are members of the elected Citie from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God For we know by our experience that the whole creation of which we are branches groaneth and travelleth in pain together untill now By Creature or whole Creation I see it to be a cleare and soul-comforting truth to be only mankinde for whose use or for the time that God hath determined to finish this great designe to make his garden Man a garden of pleasure to himselfe when he hath plucked up all the weeds and so husbanded the ground that weeds shall never grow again I say all the time God hath made all other creatures for mans use or rather to serve his own providence while he is in working this great mystery about man and when the work is finished then all other creatures shall bee dissolved into nothing as at first for as God is a Spirit he delights in spirituall things but these outward creatures were made for the pleasure profit and use of man while he is carnall and stands in a Being distinct from God and when man is made spirituall and swallowed up in life or taken up into the Being of God there will then be no more use or need of these outward creatures as Cattell Corn Meat Drink and the like nor of Sunne Moon nor Starre nor of Creature-light either literall or mysticall for God and the Lamb shall dwell in the Citie and in the whole Creation and be the light thereof as the Lord Christ said In that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you in Me and I in you And labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endures to eternall life Some may say If this be true that God will save every one then I will live and take my pleasure in sin and eat drink and be merry and take all delights while I live for I am Gods workmanship and he will not lose his own work I shall be saved But if he will not lose his work yet thy work shall perish think upon that and truly I beleeve that the Serpent in thee will make such a merry conclusion and cry down this truth of God for an errour presently in others because it beares testimony of his destruction as the Jewes called Christ a deceiver or a man of errors and killed him because he bore witnesse that their deeds were evill Well make that conclusion and take liberty to sin yet for all that know thou enslaved creature that thou shalt be brought to judgement and thou shalt not escape punishment for though sinne be sweet in thy mouth as it was in Judas to take the 30 pieces of silver and to act treachery against his
aspiring spirit in him to promote Selfe for so long as the creature acknowledges any other being but Gods he is lost and truly I think none can be ignorant of this that the spirit of selfishnesse is in himself and in every man and woman therfore it must be cast out of this heaven Mankinde before it can live again to God When Jesus Christ or God in Man appeared then the word of Love was made flesh That the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head And when Jesus Christ fought the great battell or rather God and the Serpent did fight in heaven that is in the creation the man Christ Jesus and God or the anoynting prevailed he cast the Serpent out of heaven out of that humane flesh which he took up as a part for the whole or as an earnest of the Fathers love to all the rest for I beleeve that all temptations that Jesus Christ met withall for in all things he was tempted like unto us they were but the strivings of the Serpent as he did strive in Adam that fell to maintain its being opposite to God but Jesus Christ or the anoynting in flesh being not a created power but the power of God in that created humanity did not consent as the first Adam did for he with strong hand resisted the whispering of the Serpent and would acknowledge no other Being but God and so prevailed and cast the Serpent out of flesh and hath obtained a legall power to quicken whom he will or to cast the Serpent out of what man or woman he will so that it is this anoynting that sets us at liberty from the bondage of sin and the Serpent and he himselfe becomes our life and strength and the Lord our Righteousnesse And when Michael our Prince had prevailed over the Dragon then there were voyces and Songs heard in heaven that is in the creation Mankind Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night This song I conceive was sung by the Elect the Citie Sion or Saints of God who are first enlightned and they sing Glory to God in the name of the rest that shall be redeemed for the Serpent that accused the Creation before God is cast out in part for the whole or a part for an earnest peny to the whole So that now mark The Law of God that did accuse and condemne the offending creature this is cast out of Gods hand and hereafter he will be a God of love in an intire dispensation of love I speak as God doth manifest himself now under the Gospel and as he ever will be when the creature is perfectly redeemed And the Serpent which is the Sting or Worme to the Creatures conscience because it was still acting a self-being opposite to God and then accusing the creature before God day and night by the force of a condemning Law for disobediences which is the creatures bondage and misery for the spirit of sin within this enslaves him and the condemning Law this casts him from God and so throwes the sinner under utter darknesse and sorrow I but for the creatures comfort this Serpent is cast out of heaven the Creation likewise and though for the present many poore creatures lie under the bondage yet the time is drawing neer that they shal be delivered and the wicked one himselfe the Serpent shall be cast into the Lake and perish for ever Indeed the Serpent would have Gods created work to die with him for he knowes he must dye irrecoverably but God will redeem his creature and the Serpents head only shall be bruised which will be his death Well this two-fold murderer is cast out of Heaven that is the condemning Law is cast out of Gods hand by Jesus Christ the Law of grace and love and the Serpent is cast out of the creation in part and shall be cast out of the whole when the Mystery of God is finished by the power of the same anointng Jesus Christ for God the Father is reconciled and he hath taken the creature into fellowship with himselfe For God was in the Man Christ Jesus reconciling the world that is mankind to himself not imputing their sins to them Now this Mystery or work of God is finished fully and compleatly in a two-fold sense but not in a third as yet and when this third term is finished then the whole work is finished and not till then First in Gods everlasting counsell and purpose this worke was done from all eternity before the foundation of the world was laid and God declared so much when he uttered this word I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed her seed he shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele Here the Curse and Death is sealed up to the Serpent but here is Mercy and Redemption sealed up to the creature the creature shall bee redeemed but he shall goe through bruisings or pain Secondly it is compleatly done in action in the pledge and earnest-penny When God was manifested in flesh in the Man Christ Jesus who was born of a woman And this is the first fruit of the Fathers love manifested and sealed up to the whole Creation Mankinde that as he dwels bodily in that part of humane nature Jesus Christ so in time according to his own counsell and pleasure hee will dwell bodily in the whole creation likewise therefore saith Christ I goe to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and he doth not onely speak to his twelve Disciples but to all others that shall beleeve through their word And when the Kings of the Earth and the Nations are healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life and so bring in their glory into the City Sion as it shall be in the latter end I beleeve there will not be a man that partakes of humane nature nor woman neither that shall not partake of faith so beleeve in God through Christ the anointing that fils all and is all in all But now in the third sense the worke is not yet compleated in the whole Creation for God is pleased to doe this worke in length of time by degrees calling some at one houre and some at another out of the Serpents bondage and the times and seasons God hath reserved to himself Therefore in the further clearing of this Truth God is pleased to shew forth six dispensations or discoveries of himselfe more which he will have the creature to passe through before he finish his work to cast the Serpent Death and Hell into the Lake and before he himselfe appeare to be the Tree of Life on each side and in the middle of the pure River of the water of Life which I conceive is the whole creation Man
they called the man full of errors that deceived the people So now the Church is at a stand and the worship is partly light and partly dark some resting upon the bare letter according to the example of Christ and the Apostles only which is a worship after the flesh and was true and was of God in the time of its dispensation And others do acknowledg God not exemplarily but by the faith the name and anointing of Jesus Christ ruling teaching acting and dwelling in them therefore think it not strange though some old professors and the book-hirelings especially be offended hereat and brand the Saints for men full of errors and seeke to suppresse their testimony it was so then it will be so now for the same spirit of the world the Serpent does still persecute the same anointing of God in this as in the former dispensation but you Saints of God be patient waite upon God this troubled sea the Serpent shall not over-whelm you for stronger is he that is in you then he that is in the world rejoyce the time of your redemption drawes neere And againe think it not strange to see many of the Saints of God at a stand in a wildernes at a losse and so waiting upon God to discover himself to them many are like the tide at full Sea which stands a little before the water runs either way and assure your selves I know what I speak you must be dead to your customes before you can run in the Sea of truth or the River of the water of life some walk still according to example and have either seene nothing or very little of the anointing in them and some walk more in spirit and truth as the same anointing of the Father which dwells bodily in Christ teacheth them and leadeth them into all truth The same anointing unites Christ and the Saints and makes them but one mysticall body I pray not for these alone saith Christ but for all that shall believe through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that is in thee who art the only pure and holy being Secondly not that under this dispensation is the time that the elect which is so much spoken of in the Scriptures are to be gathered into one City and perfected and this anointing is the Angell which God hath sent forth in these last dayes to gather together his elect from one end of heaven to the other or out of every nation kindred tongue people in the earth And where it is said that God will send forth not his Angel but his Angels to gather his elect together it points out the severall measures or dispensations of the anointing to every Saint as God will according to the measure of the guift of Christ Now sometime God calls his elect by the name of one in the singular number and hereby God declares his first born Jesus Christ who is the head in the name of the whole body As the Prophet writes behold my Servant whom I have chosen mine elect in whom my soule delighteth God hath not chosen the Serpent or creature-invention to dwel in flesh for this he hath rejected and takes no delight in But he hath chosen the anointing or his own power and name to dwell in flesh and this he delights in therefore Jesus the anointed is called the Son of God in whom he is well pleased And sometimes God calls his elect in the plurall number as many and then he declares the mysticall body or the City Sion or those that he hath given to Christ and whose names are written in the Lambs book And in this 6. generall dispensation these only shall be gathered into the City and whosoever is not writ in the Lambs book of life shall not enter in at this time and season of the Father though there is a time and season known to the Father when they shall be healed likewise and enter in and eat of the heavenly Manna the tree of life that is in the middle of the City Now this City Sion which consists of head and members Jesus Christ and his Saints who are all baptized into and knit together by one spirit of God the anointing And this City God will redeeme first or he will subdue the Serpent under the feet of this his Son first All that do his Commandements that is have faith and love these shall enter into the City but the fearfull and unbeleevers murderers Idolaters and every one that loveth and maketh a lie are without and are cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death or the death of the Serpent and the Serpent ruling in man is the first death which God redeemes us from All those that were not found writ in the Lambs book of life were cast into the lake of fire Or as Mathew calls it into everlasting fire Or as Matthew calls it into everlasting fire and shall lie under that dispensation of wrath for ever that is all the time of this dispensation or till the day of judgement be ended that the Serpent Death and Hell are cast into the Lake of fire and that there shall no more curse lie upon the Creature but from the judgement seat or Throne of God the whole Creation being redeemed shall flow forth a pure River of the water of life for every Dispensation is called a full period or tearme of time and an everlasting season All this time that God is gathering together his elect he hath given a time times and halfe time to the Serpent Which in those threefold shapes and a halfe or in those three dayes and halfe he is called the Beast or the Whore and this time is given him to make warre and to fight against the Prince of Princes and his Saints and to overcome them and to waste and destroy the holy people mightily And this appointed time is the yeare wherein the Beast lives and God gives all advantages to the Beast as riches outward liberty worldly power and generally humane Authority into his hand And puts no weapons into the hands of his Saints but faith or the anointing to fight against the reproaches slanders oppressions poverties weaknesse prisons and the multitude of temptations which the Beast through her wit malice and power casts upon the Saints like a flood of water to drowne them And to overthrow the work of God by great hand if it were possible Likewise the Serpent stirs up some whom she deceives to be seeming professors outwardly religious having a form of godlinesse but through hypocrisie pride and selfishnesse might dishonour God discourage the tender Lambs of Christ and bring an ill report upon the wayes of God And hence it is
of which God in all ages of the world is pleased to choose some to be Members of his Son or Citizens of Sion and hath appointed in his Councel that mankind shall increase in the world and act a while and then return to dust and one generation passe away and another come in the place but when the elect are gathered as wheat into Gods store-house and the City made compleat and the chaffe burned in the fire and none enters into the City but such whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and none enters into the lake of fire but such as are not writ in the Lambs book so that Gods will under this dispensation is done then followes immediately the great day of judgment or the resurrection of mens bodies out of the graves And this day of judgment is the 7. dispensation of God and this day windes up the whole mystery of God and makes the eternal councel of God compleatly manifest and true That the Serpents head is bruised and the whole creation Adam redeemed from the bondage of death and in this dispensation we are to mind two things First in this great day of the Lord he raises up the bodies of believers and unbelievers out of the dust again wherein he hath reserved them all the time of the battel between the anointing and the Serpent as a man would keep his jewels in a box for an appointed time Secondly God brings every man to judgement and rewards every man according to his work some rises to the resurrection of life and others to the resurrection of losse and death and the bookes were opened as John writes that is first the book of the mystery of iniquity or the nature of the Serpent in flesh laid open and made manifest to be a power and spirit of darkness that strived to be a being equal with God nay above God but being weighed in the ballance it is found too light And then the book of the mystery of God or the anointing of God in flesh this is made manifest and laid open to be the great power of God and the spirit of truth which hath advanced God to be the only one infinite being even God all in all and that besides him there is none And then another book was opened that is the book of life and death or the book of the Law and of Judgment which gives the sentence Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and to unbeleevers Go ye cursed into everlasting fire And now every man is judged according to his works the anointing or the righteous one is rewarded with life and all they in whom the anointing did dwell who are the elect City and spouse of Christ are called blessed and taken up into Gods Kingdome that is into love never to fall again But the Serpent the wicked one is rewarded with death and all those disobedient ones in whom the Serpent dwelt are cast into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels this is a second part in the day of judgment which is a trying of every mans work and the establishing the City which is the Lambs wife in perfect glory and in justly condemning the rest and here God is glorified in the salvation of believers and in the damnation or losse of unbelievers for his work stands and abides triall but mans work suffers losse and is ashamed But this is not the end for as yet the Son hath not delivered up the Kingdom to the Father for he must raign till all enemies be subdued but death curse and sorrow is not yet quite subdued for it raignes over part of the Creation still even over those poor creatures that were lost or that did not enter into the City but were cast into the lake of fire The Serpent as yet holds a power for there is part of Gods work not yet delivered from his bondage And the Serpent would be glad and it would be some ease to his torment if any of Gods work might die and perish with him As I have heard some say that they would be content to suffer the misery of a new war in England so that such as they mentioned might suffer as well as they this is the spirit of the Serpent I but the Serpent only shall perish and God will not loose a hair that he made he will redeeme his whole creation from death The spirit of darknesse cannot beare this speech therefore reader observe thy heart as thou readest it will either close with a tender spirit of pitty and love herewith or else swell and fret against it Therefore in the third part of this great day of judgment after the City work is finished and the triall over then does the tree of life God himself that dwells in the City and is the light and life and glory of it send forth dispensations or Angels bringing love to heale the Nations and to bring their glory into the City likewise that for the present lies under the dispensation of wrath and throws the Serpent that deceived them death and hell into the Lake but there is no mention that the nations are cast therein in this last casting in for they are redeemed from it as the tree of life brought forth fruit every change of time and age of the world to heale the elect the lost sheep or City so in this last and great day it brings forth leaves to heale the Nations or such as were not of the City their turne to receive mercy comes though it be at the last houre And then all Israel or whole creation that groaned under the bondage of death shal partake of the glorious manifestation of the Sons of God for now the deliverer comes out of Sion and shall turne away ungodlinesse from Jacob Therefore saith John I saw a pure River of the water of life cleare as Cristall proceeded out of the throne of God and the Lamb Now I conceive clearly that this pure River is the whole creation mankind fully and compleatly delivered from death and curse as in that 3. verse And this pure redemption proceedes from the throne of God and the Lamb that is from the judgment seat of God judging condemning and bruising the Serpents head and so setting his own work mankind free from that death and bondage I shall mention one Scripture more that countenances this truth And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sate like the Son of man having on his head a Crown of gold and in his hand a sharpe sickle And another Angel came out of the Temple crying with a loud voice to him that sate on the cloud saying thrust in thy sickle and reape for the harvest of the earth is ripe and he that sate on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped And then another Angel came out of the
altar and cryed in the same manner to him that had the sickle as you may read By a white cloud I conceive is meant the City Sion or spouse of Christ that is arayed in pure and white in whom there is no spot for she is perfectly redeemed by him that sate upō this white cloud is ment the whole anointing or the great manifestation of God in one person Jesus Christ And the severall Angels that cryed one after another are severall dispensations or discoveries of God that proceed from Christ at several times and seasons Therefore the City being made white now the manifestations of Gods love begin to appeare towards the earth or nations which entred not into the City now the time and season requires that the sickle of Christ should be thrust into the earth that is that the brightness of Jesus Christ the Lamb might appear and shine forth upon the Nations also as it did shine upon the City And we see the conclusion in the 20. verse And the wine-presse was troden without the City mind that and blood came out of the wine-presse even unto the horse bridles c. This phrase I conceive points out the utter ruine and destruction of the Serpent that held the earth or Nations which were without the City in bondage But now the anointing or the great dispensation of the love of God hath reaped the earth as well as the City and destroyed the Serpent there as well as in the City the wine-presse or the bruising of the Serpents head and shedding his blood was without the City and so both City and Country City and whole earth of mankind is made a pure River of the water of life which proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb But here arise 3. scruples First is not God changeable saith one In saying go ye cursed into everlasting fire and yet afterwards takes them out againe I answer this fire is the dispensation of Gods wrath and it is everlasting without end to the Serpent it was prepared for him and his Angels and though God bid the unbeleevers depart into it yet he did not say you shall lie there and never be redeemed But the scruple lies in the word everlasting which I as well as you have taken it to be a misery without end to the creature But I answer that in scripture phrase every dispensation of God was called an everlasting time as in the day of Moses every service in the Temple that Aaron was to perform God said it should be a Statute and a Law for ever which notwithstanding ended to be a Law in the beginning of the next dispensation or the appearance of Christ in the flesh and so though God send unbelievers to lie under the dispensation of his wrath and call it everlasting fire it is but for the time of his dispensation while he is finishing City work and judging and rewarding every man that is the Serpent and the anointing according to their works and after this comes in their healing time and season and these times and seasons the Father hath reserved to himself the Son knowes them not A second scruple is this Shall a man be ever delivered out of hell out of hell saith some there is no redemption I answer first that there is no Scripture as saith out of hell there is no redemption therefore the scruple is raised upon it without ground indeed the Prophet speaking how that the living praise God and the dead cannot hath these words in preferring life before death The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth But secondly to answer more directly let us consider what hell is and then whether any shall be delivered out that is there Hell is called death or a condition below life and this is twofold either a death of purity far below the nature of God or a death of sorrows which is a condition far below the comfort and joyes of God Now every man and woman as they are branches of Adam have no purity in them and therefore are in a hell far below the life and nature of God and likewise they are unavoidably subject to the sorrowes of that death as an effect following the cause therefore unavoidably subject to a condition far below the comfort and joyes of God This is the condition of every man and woman and they have no power for to deliver themselves for God only is our Redeemer And then it followes that a man may be in hell and yet may be delivered out for as in all this discourse past it appeares that as we spring from Adam we do all lie under the bondage and death and power of the Serpent which is one part of hell and yet God delivers his elect from out of it and therefore it followes cleare that if men are capable of so much mercy being Gods creatures as to be delivered from sin and death which is one part of hell or of a condition below God they are capable to be delivered through the mercy of the same God from the sorrowes and paines that follow sin both which are but the bondage of the Serpent which God will deliver his creature from this twofold death is the Serpents head which God will bruise A third scruple is concerning the day of Judgement Some think it is but one single day of twenty foure houres long nay some make it lesse but the length of the twinkling of an eye because the interpretation of Scripture runs thus That in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the last Trumpet the Dead shall be raised up to judgement But to answer this phrase Twinkling of an eye it onely shewes that the day of judgement is very short in comparison of the dayes by-past like that in Rev. 8. 1. And there was silence in Heaven for the space of half an houre which is not a direct halfe houre according as men account but it declares a very short time Therefore I conceive this is not a single day of 24. houres but a longer time while the Judge sits upon the judgement seat judgeing the Serpent so long time it is called a day of judgement because that is the work of this day or tearm of time or the full length of that dispensation as formerly it was called the Day of Moses which was the time while that dispensation of the Law continued in force whereof Moses was the Mediator and so Abraham desired to see my Day saith Christ and saw it that is the day and time that Christ reignes as King in the power and law of Love in and over the Saints and this Paul calls the Day of Christs rest And this in the truth of it is that which we call the Sabbath Day or Day of a Christians rest and it is not one day in seaven still typicall as the Jewish Sabbath was but it is the