the sin whereby (p) 1 Pe. 4. a to draw and arm us to the same mind and so we to offer up our sins through the daily offering in the holy and to burn the same upon his holy Altar The which is his cross or patience in the holy 10. So even thus doth Christ through himself namely through (q) Rom. 9. a Eph. 2. a. Col. 1 c. 2. b. the incorporating us into his death of the Cross prepare the life and peace for us making us free and washing (r) Heb. 10. c. us from the evil conscience And so we obtain through him in that manner a free entrance into the holy for to accomplish the God-service in the holy to inherit the abundant riches of God the Father and the everlasting life The which cometh unto us plentifully and appeareth in cleerness if that we for our parts do (t) Mat. 16. c Luk. 9.14 c daily take up our Cross with Christ follow after him in the holy and so become (u) Rom. 6 a baptized in his death Rom. 4.5.8 a. to be an offering for the sin whereby to be (x) Col. 2. b. justified from the sin through Faith that meerly by Grace not by Works 11. Behold such a manner of offering and daily God-service in the holy is no doubt very convenient for us to use and perform For so then namely in the performance of the daily offering or God-service in the holy there appeareth or cometh to us in the spirit the spiritual high Priest or Christ according to the Spirit who is not of this earth neither of flesh and blood but of the heavenly God-head the same high (y) Heb. 7 8 9 10. Priest is also very needful for us because he is faithful and remaineth for ever 12. Whose service or high Priests office is not outward according to the manner of the foregoing service of the Elders administred among the unregenerate or unrenwed men as in the letter and with the letter or with speakable words but his service cometh to pass in the new birth of the inward spiritual and heavenly man (z) Heb. 7 8 9 10. with the ministration of the spiritual and heavenly goods according to the spiritual and heavenly Priest-office 13. And to that end namely to bring men to the new birth of the inward spiritual heavenly man have the outward ministrations of the Elders the foregoing with the man (a) Gal 3. c. 4 5 a under the which he to the training up of him in all good nurture and order is kept and taught even unto the new birth in Jesus Christ through the which he doth then likewise live and walk in (b) Luk. 1. g. all upright righteousness both inwardly before God and outwardly among men and to such an upright (c) Ioh. 3. a. Titus 3. b. birth or the outward services or administrations of the Godly testimonies of the holy Spirit of Love a foregoing office or (d) 2 Co. 3. a light unto the man which witnesseth declareth and holdeth forth the godliness unto him as in a Glass And so then the man if he believe the requiring of the fore-going service and desire to stand obedient thereunto becometh prepared thereby to the same godliness and taught to the Kingdom of heaven And that is the same ministration which (e) Gal 3 c 4. a. Heb. 7. b. reacheth to the spiritual and true being in Jesus Christ And it is the upright Priests office of the Elders of the holy understanding which in its office or service hath the foregoing to the (f) Ioh. 3. a. 1 Cor. 4. b. Gal. 4. b. new birth in Jesus Christ as is already said which services are all witnesses and directions unto the very true and spiritual office in the Spirit And although the same services being ministred in the letter and through the letter or serviceable word do bring (g) 2 Co. 3. b a great illumination and clearness unto the unilluminated ones yet are those same for all that no more but a serviceable shaddow proceeding from the spiritual and heavenly service of the great glory and cleerness of Christ in the inward being and form 14. For Christ according to the Spirit hath (h) Heb. 3.8.9 a. an higher function or office or a more excellent service and a greater lighâ— or clearness then hath all flesh and blood writing letters or speakable words For he is a Minister or an high Priest in the Spirit (i) Heb. 8 a. 9. a. b. c. as a Minister of the spiritual and heavenly goods as is before said For he himself is the (k) Heb 1. a. right heir in all the riches of God his eternal and Almighty Father 15. Behold this high Priest is spirit and life the true (l) Isa 9. a King and a faithful Lord a peaceable prince And not this or that without us But he (m) Act. 17. c is in us all which believe on him according to the truth And we all which abide stedfast in the faith have the life through him who is neither unfaithful nor falling away like unto a man For he doth not shrink nor fall away either from us or from his Father but through the Love (n) Mat. 28. c Ioh. 14 b. continueth with us and with his Father for ever 16. Also he is not changeable in his office or ministration like as are the children of men who do one while setup one thing for an obedience or for a God-service and that altogether without the service of Christ and his Love and then again some other thing which directeth not to the true life of Christ nor unto the upright being of his Love 17. But his service will and commandement is both now presently and at all times like as it was in the beginning and it shall so remain unchangeable for evermore For his Commandment Will and Precept is (o) Da. 6.10 Math 22. d Ioh 15 b. 1 Tim. 1. a nothing else but the love and the life of godliness And that is the old commandment from the beginning (p) Ioh. 2. a And it is the new commandment as being for to come or for to be made manifest in this same last time in the obedience of the requiring of the service of Love 18. Therefore seeing now that this high Priest which is invisible but yet is known in the spirit hath such an unchangeable commandment or service among us in the ministration of the service of his Love So standeth he likewise firm and immovable towards us in the same service to an everlasting reconcilement for our sins as a true (q) 1 Tim. 2 a Heb. 9. b mediator betwixt God and us 19. He himself also is partaker with us in suffering touching (r) Heb. 2. b 5. a. our griefs and purgeth us in his service of Love through himself and through none other or any other services 20. Therefore hath God likewise sworn unto
4. b a shape in him as a Kingdom of God or of Christ which is the upright being or real form it self full of all Love 13. Till unto this same day namely till that the light of life as a true being an upright righteousness be come unto the man doth the daily God-service for the sins cause endure in the holy so long also (r) 1 Co. 3. b remaineth the vail before the most holy namely till the holy be performed or ministred in his full course of ministration with upright daily oblations which are acceptable unto God 14. But this daily offering or gift which the man is Debtor to offer in the holy or that wherein God hath a pleasure is not alone the outward for God hath (s) Ps 40.50 never willed nor required the same without the good will of the heart 15. Therefore it is a spiritual offering proceeding out of (t) Psal 11. c Isa 57.66 a lowly and humble heart and the beginning of the same upright offering soundeth even thus in every man that is good-willing towards God and towards his righteousness 16. O God I come and have a lust to (u) Psa 40. a Heb. 10. a do thy will 17. Now when the man findeth himself thus minded and desireth to enter into the service of Love and his requiring in this sort is his heart prepared and altogether become willing to (x) Mat. 16. c Luk 9.14 c take up his Cross and obediently to follow after the (y) 1 Pet. 2. c crucified and killed Jesus Christ in the belief under the obedience of his love till unto his death even the death of the Cross (z) Rom. 6. Col. 2. b. and to be baptized into the same death whereby to enter even so into the life out of the deadly sin (a) Ioh. 3. a Rom. 6.8 b 2 Cor. 4. through the second birth from death Wherethrough he is likewise made free The true holy of the holy and true Tabernacle of God is the belief tending to the mortifying of the sin in the after following of Christ till unto the second birth from the death the which is the willing obedience of the belief which holy and his service or obedience in the belief wherein the death of the sin cometh to pass is the very true holy and the right difference between the most holy and the fore-front or delivered from all choosing of this or that according to his own will or pleasure saying with his whole heart 18. O GOD (b) Act. 9 a WHAT wilt thou have me to do 19. Behold in such a mind intent or inclination to the obedience of the belief and to continue (c) Eccl. 2. a Math. 24. â— stedfast therein till unto the death and to the new birth from the death consisteth the mans conversion to his God and he becometh so clean turned about from his selfness that he is like unto (d) Mat. 18. a 1 Pet. 2. a a new born babe that hath no manner of self-wisdom or self-willedness but that liveth only that life that is given and brought unto him by God In such a manner is the man meet also to come into the Kingdom (e) Ioh. 3 a of God to enter thereinto 20. But behold with such a heart and mind cometh the man unto the (f) Deut. 6.10 b. 1 King 15. true obedience which God regardeth And so through Faith he goeth out of all deadly corruption or perdition and cometh into the life of his God in the everlasting immortality in all Love and is filled with all fulness of the holy Ghost (g) Rom. 8. b and inherriteth with Christ all the treasures riches of God and of (h) Isa 33. a Col. 2. a the spiritual and heavenly goods Those verily are the promises of God the Father through Jesus Christ to the blessing of all the generations of the earth 21. By this means as is said the man cometh again to his soundness and to his (i) Ioh. 8. d precious freedom whereunto (k) Gen. 1. c Sap. 2. c Eccles 17. a God hath created him from the beginning as being unbound or untyed from all vain and unprofitable things The tenth Chapter NOW when as the service of the offering in the holy hath once had his full course with such a good will as is aforesaid and the debt-offering sin-offering and death-offering is all through the like-suffering of Christ accomplished on the Altar through the belief then (a) Isa 25 a Math. 27. 2 Cor. 3. b doth the vail as opening asunder divide it self from before the most holy and so there is then discovered in the most holy the mercy-seat the Ark of witness and the heavenly bread with many costly treasures pertaining to the most holy Sanctuary and all that sanctified likewise that is in the holy with the (b) He. 9 10. sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ the high Priest for an everlasting forgiveness of sins 2. That verily is the New Testament of the grace of God touching the sins of the people even as God hath promised the same to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah for a stedfast and continuing Testament 3. This high Priest over the house of God is the old antient one in the holy and godly understanding and is the (d) Col. 1. first born of all creatures (e) Rom. 6 a Phil. 2. a who was slain with the death of the Cross and hath suffered in the holy for the sins cause and is (f) 1 Cor. 15. c Col. 1. b as the firstling risen from the death where-through he hath prepared the everlasting life for all his Believers which follow after him in the holy (g) Mat 16. c Rom 6. a 1 Pet. 2. till unto the death of his Cross 4. He himself verily is the Light and Life that is everlasting which was (h) Ioh. 1. a Psal 210 a with the Father from the beginning and is at the right hand of the (i) Heb. 1. a Almighty in the heavenly being or estate who also as high Priest entreth into the most holy maketh alive his believers from (k) Rom. 8. b 1 Cor. 15. b Eph. 2. a. b Col. 1.2 b the death and (l) Eze. 36. c Isa 44. a Ioel 2. c Act. 2. b poureth forth the holy spirit of his love abundantly over them The true most holy of the holy and true Tabernacle of God is the Love the everlasting life and the perfection from which most holy in his service that is in the making alive from the death in the pouring out of the holy Ghost and in ministring of the spiritual and heavenly good the vale is put away whereby to inherit the everlasting life of God in his cleerness in the same service ministred under the obedience of the Love of the holy Ghost which most holy in his service maketh right difference betwixt the living and the dead
them will be their God and (x) Apo. 21. a wipe away all tears from their eyes and will put away (y) Isa 61. a their contempt from them they shall also serve the strange nations no more but only the Lord their God 14. They have doubtless been constrained a long time to suffer with the Lamb for the wickedness and ignorances cause of the people but now (z) Baruch 5. b doth the Lord bring them again with joy that they may rejoyce them in the holy Israel even as it beseemeth the children of light to do who do rejoyce them only in their God 15. This verily is the blessing which was published and affirmed unto all generations of the earth according to the Promises for that they might be all saved through the Love of God the Father which blessing and salvation they do all now obtain if they do believe the word of truth and stand good of will and humble them under the Love and her service The one and twentieth Chapter BEhold and consider ye dearly beloved both these forms natures or beings which are here figured or set forth unto you before your eyes even according to the life namely the (a) Isa 1 a Apo. 9.12.13 a. murderly seed of the high-minded beast or the names of the people that are her members which do raign in the perditionable world which is full of blood-guiltyness of the innocents and also the names of the people of Israel or house of Love the high commendable seed of the (b) Apo. 7. a. b 14 15 19. a benignity or loving kindness of the Lamb the which hath even hitherto (c) Apo. 6 b. kept and born the patience with the Lamb because of the wicked 2. Verily the house of Israel or the commonalty of the Love the elected Saints of God do follow after Christ their King even (d) Ro. 6. a. c unto their death and also to the life for they do in like manner bear the cross of the Lamb and therein keep the word of his patience They likewise even according to the obedience of the Lamb do shew a faithful obedience (e) Phil. 2 a till unto the death namely unto the death of the Cross whereby to obtain the dominion with the Lamb over the sin death hell condemnation and the world to the end they might in like manner through the Lamb and the death of his cross keep the victory against (f) 1 Cor. 15. f all their enemies 3. With which Saints of the lovely and upright being the (g) Isa 60 61 62. 2 Pet. 3. b now coming or new world shall also be inhabited in a perfect delight of God in all Love in (h) Eph. 4 a unity of peace and in upright righteousness and holyness which God esteemeth of But the ungodly shall perish or weare away out of the Land of the living for that the Land may be inhabited in rest and peace and with triumph and joy for evermore to the laud and praise of the glory of God according to the Promises 4. Therefore O all ye people look now into both these forms natures and beings and choose either the one or the other of them whom ye will incline unto whether it be (i) Deut. 30. Ier. 21. a Eccles 15. the death or the life the Devil or God the old wicked world or the new upright world and then cleave only to the same to the end that ye may sever your selves accordingly and so express thereby with whom ye do hold or stand agreeably minded or what ye do love (k) 3 Kin. 18. and halt no longer on both sides 5. If therefore you will incline or cleave to the Lamb or that ye look into or esteem his being to become a godly being then love the same with a single and humble heart standing submitted to rhe Love and so depart out of the death into the life put your trust in God in your proceeding on to the same life (l) Ioh. 5. c Rom. 6.8 b and stand firm in the hope of your salvation 6. But if ye be yet young or weak and unable for to live in the good or if ye be yet over-mastered by the evil against your will for God is both reasonable and courteous and if the man be of a good will then doth God require no more but that the man will still remain stedfast in the same good will for unto such a good willing man doth he (m) Phil. 1.2 b bring his power and strength for that the man should with the same obtain through Faith and that in a suffering manner the righteousness against the sin 7. Therefore possess your souls with (n) Luk. 21. c patience rest believing and continue in the hope and ye shall assuredly in the patience evidently perceive that the evil waxeth weak and that your soul shall be sound or whole 8. Shew or let it alwayes appear what ye love namely the good or the evil for look what one hunteth after that he catcheth and whatsoever one loveth of that he is willing to hear some speech or tydings and he is desirous also to be with the same for no man would willingly be separated from his best beloved therefore judge your own selves now and look rightly into your selves according to the truth to note what ye love and with what ye would willingly be and have your fellowship namely (o) Psal 8. b with the good being of God or with the pernitious and naughty Being of the wicked and deceitful world 9. If now therefore ye love and stand inclined unto the good being (p) Psa 34.13 d Amos 5 b then forsake the evil or ungodly being and separate your selves quite and clean with all your will (q) Isa 52. 2 Cor. 6. Apo. 18. from the evil or iniquity departing out of the same from day to day and be patient in the hope till that all the ungodly being do go under and perish or consume to nothing in you 10. This is our Cross which (s) Math. 10. d. 16. c Luk 9.14 we ought daily to take up in the belief And so in that manner to follow after the vertue of the godlyness Also to love the wisdom and the Information and not reject the chastisement (t) Prov. 3 b Heb. 12. a or correction of the Lord that meeteth with us the whilest our hearts are yet captivated with the sin and (u) Eph. 4. b blindness 11. Behold even such according as of meer Love we have testified herein is the right way to the God of life and to his righteousness from the which (x) Psal 14. Sap. 5. Rom. 2. b the man is departed and estranged In which way the man being in his estranging from his God is by (y) Eph. 2. a Gods grace called and bidden to come again unto his God through the belief or confidence in God touching the salvation to the end he should according
shall come to pass saith God in the last dayes when the end of the (c) Luk. 21. suppression of Ierusalem is come and the fulness of the heathen is come in or performed (d) Isa 59. c Rom. 17. because that all Israel in that sort become saved according to the Promises 2. Wherein God now sheweth that he is not forgetful of his Covenant as he hath (e) Gen. 12 13 15 17 21 22. made the same with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and that he is a God of Abraham and the God of his seed for evermore Through whom he hath in times past made known his holy name and will also in the last time make it known therethrough according to the Promises And they shall effectually perceive that (f) Deut. 3. d Isa 43 44 45 48. he the God of Israel is only the Lord and that besides him there is no God more and that all heathen that fear not the same God nor yet do learn to keep his Laws Statutes and Riâ—es are an ignorant people without understanding even as hitherto it hath appeared among many multitudes of people or heathen who through their own wisdom how ingenious and through-lighted or cleer of understanding soever they have been have (g) 1 Cor. 1. b. not known or understood Gods holy wisdom 3. Therefore hath it pleased God to (h) Isa 29. 1 Cor. 1. b shame the world in her wisdom to incompass or go beyond all chosen religions in their self-framed holyness and to save his people through himself because he would establish them all in his Love to become a Temple for his holy dwelling In the which (i) 1 Cor 3. Heb. 1. a God doth behold his best beloved whom he hath alwayes loved from the beginning namely the very (k) 2 Cor. 4. Col. 1. b like being of his God-head the which the God of life hath formed in the man from the beginning 4. But alass this same is unknown unto many or they are by reason (l) Gen. 3. a. of their fall and estranging from God so covered with the darknesses that they cannot according to the spirit of the inward man behold the being or real form of their God But when as the man through the hearing and believing of the gracious word turneth him in the spirit (m) 2 Cor. 3. b. 4. a unto God then becometh the fore-skin of his flesh or the covering of the sin put off from his heart For (n) Ioh. 4 b 8. c. 14. a. God is a Spirit a Light or a Life and is not otherwise known and beheld but in his own spirit light and life 5. Now when the man turneth him as aforesaid thereunto under the obedience of his gracious Word and service of Love the same like being cometh unto him in the spirit then (o) Eph. 5. b is the Image of God raised up in him and awakened unto him in the spirit 6. That same verily is the life whereof the Kingly Prophet David hath spoken in time past where he saith (p) Psa 17. b I will behold thy face in righteousness I will be satisfied when thine Image awaketh 7. When the man turneth himself in the spirit (q) Eze 18 d. Ioel 2. b. unto God as also humbleth himself with all his heart to the holy and gracious Word and is good of will to the obeying of the requiring of his service of Love then appeareth to him the difference between the (r) Lev. 10. b Eze. 44. c holy and unholy 8. Now when the man turneth himself away from the unholy of the uncircumcised hearts and turneth him obediently to the holy or to Gods sanctuary of all God-fearing and circumcised hearts and wholly gives himself to enter into the same and that so (s) Pro. 1. a Eccl. 1. b. 2. a the fear of the highest God gets a shape in him then doth the right departing out from all heathenishness and the entrance into the forefront of the true Tabernacle of God come to pass even there with the same man For he goeth out of the uncircumcision into the circumcision of the (t) Ier. 4 a foreskin of his heart and receiveth in that sort through the service of the holy and gracious Word Gods Covenant of circumcision in the flesh 9. In which service of the holy and gracious Word ministred in the fear of God the fore-skin or covering of the darknesses wherewith all heathen are covered or grown uncircumcised The true fore-front of the holy and true Tabernacle of God is the turning unto God in the fear of God and so through the service of the holy and gracious word to separate ones self from all heathenish misnurture or to turn away or circumcise ones heart from all wickedness which fore-front in his service is the upright circumcision which maketh the right difference between the holy and unholy and betwixt the circumcised ones the Lords people and the uncircumcised or heathen is (u) Isa 25. 2 Cor. 3. put off The which is the laying away of the (x) 2 Pet. 2.4 a. Heb. 12. a sin in the flesh whereby to shew due obedience according to the Law of the Lord namely to fear God uprightly to desire the good with fervency of heart and to circumcise or purge the heart and all whatsoever is manly The which is (y) Rom. 2. Phil. 3. Col. 2. b the true circumcision that God regardeth 10. Finally that same is the fore-front of the true Tabernacle of God and the right difference (z) Lev. 10. b Eze. 44. betwixt the circumcised and the uncircumcised heathen Betwixt those that fear God and are good of will and those that fear not God and are evil of will and (a) Jer. 7. c. 11. a. 13 18. so live according to the sensuality or self-mindedness of their own desires or according to all manner of light-mindedness as that are without rule loose unbridled or wilde of heart and do neither love nor obtain any wisdom nor any holy knowledge whose hearts take hold of nothing else but all manner of filthiness 11. But through the fear (b) Prov. 1. a Eccl. 1. c. 2. a of God by means of the circumcision of the heart through the good will the man cometh to the godly wisdom and holy knowledge and so the fear of God driveth him to turn away (c) Rom. 8. a from the sin And then proceeding forward even to the holy he becometh justified from the sin through the Faith in the daily taking (d) Lu. 9 14. c up of his Cross in like suffering with Christ till unto (e) Ro. 6. a. 8. b. the death of the sin which is the daily offering in the holy 12. But now when the man is turned (f) Eccl. 2. a unto God with a good will in Godly fear and under the obedience of the Love is coupled or joyned to a Commonalty of the Saints of God then is he departed out of
the vpright virtue 〈◊〉 â—atient in the â—â—pâ— to the godlyness â—â—â—k minded faythfull and cometh also with the feare peace â— joy to God to â—â—â—vâ—nly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 everlasting The forth goâ—ng in the heathenisâ— impurity bringeth the man to the six of Death The forth goâ—ng in the feare of God the Obediâ— to the ordinance of the lord 〈◊〉 bringeth the man to the Righteousness of the Life The sin of death bringeth the man into all Ignorance hipocrisy 〈◊〉 falsehood into all chosen holyness according to the pleasure of the 〈◊〉 and is therein â—ratefull bitter and cruel and also dispaireth and so â—o maâ—â— to the destructionable calamity and to the divel hell and Condemnation (c) Psal 4 a 2. If the man now have by Gods grace gotten a good will to enter into the upright way directing to the everlasting life then must he with his heart (d) Isa 51 b 2 Cor 6 b Apo. 18 a depart out of the heathenship or uncircumcision and out of the straying being or nature yea from all what is not any being of God also separate himself from the darkness and turn him (e) Isa 55. a Ier 18.25 a 35. b Ezek 18 d. Ioel 2. b to the Lord his God namely to the God of life the (f) Ioh 1. true light full of light and life who hath created both him and all what is an thing (g) Luk. 1.2 b. c. likewise fear the same living God and circumcise his heart from (h) Deu. 10. b. 30 a all manner of darkness namely from all abominations of desolation which do separate the man from the living God 3. See or annoint your eyes with eye-salve that ye may see (k) Deu 1â— b. Ier. 4. a circumcise your selves or put away the foreskin of your hearts and continue not stiff-necked for that ye may rightly understand and know the true life which is a life unto you and may live therein 4. For even therefore because that the life might now in the same day through our (l) Deu 30. b Eccles 25. a most holy servlce of the Love be understood from the death and the light known from the darkness So have we out of the Love to the righteousness described and figuratively set forth even in the most evident manner here in the same Circle both these wayes both of death and of the life and all the ends whereunto each one hath his passage or course The which the inward man entreth into or liveth there whether it (m) Exo. 18. Rom. 6.8 a be then the deadly sins extending to the eternal death or else the righteousness to the everlasting life 5. Hereunto next adjoyning followeth the Figurative description or declaration of the inward Tabernacle of God according to the spirit after the which we do treat at length in large manner of both these natures which do bring in either the death or the life and we have likewise signified or marked out by writing the names both of the confused and of the Godly being or nature Take it to heart for it yieldeth to every one of us either the death or the life The twelfth Chapter THE true fore-front of the house of God or of the true Tabernacle (a) Deu. 10. c Eccles 1.26 is the fear of the living God serving to a turning away from the sin and from all heathenish foolishness Through whose service and through the obedience of the requiring thereof the man becometh circumcised in his heart in (b) Heb. 12. a 1 Pet. 24. a the laying away of the sin in the flesh and to the obtaining of the knowledge of the truth of God entreth into the way of peace Feare God The Way to the Truth In this same service of the holy and gratious word vnder the Obedience of the Love in the feare of God cometh to pass in the hart and minde the vpright repentance of the man to the living God and so walking in the fears of God he is circumcized of hart and is turned away from all the bewiching of the heathenish being that he may not be bewitched or taken with any destruction but be prepared to the entrance into the Sanctuary of God Jer 4. Eezek 4.4 wherefore repent you with all your hart in the spirit and feare the Everlasting invisible God which is the bgining to come to the Wisdome or the first entrance of the true Tabernacle or house of God in the spirit Whereof God himselfe is the Workman Turne ye not therefore from the lord in your hart nether trust in men nor take flesh for your Arme or Strength and so inherit the Cursing 2. For the same circumcision of the (c) Phi. 3. a Col. 2 b heart is the true circumcision which cometh to pass in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of man but of God Rom. 2. c. 3. Therefore (d) Ier. 4 a circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and be not hence forth stiffnecked any longer Deut. 10.8 4. Plough (e) Eze. 10. b upon the new and sow not among the thorns circumcise you unto the Lord and put away the foreskin of your hearts ye men of Judah and ye people at Jerusalem Jer. 4. a. 5. There shall none (f) Isa 52. Ioel. 3. come into the Lords sanctuary that hath an uncircumcised heart and an uncircumcised flesh Eze. 44. b. 6. Therefore shall the Lord thy God circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed (g) Deu. 10. c Math. 22. that thou maist love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live Deut. 30. 7. If thou (h) Deu. 10 c Isa 19 b wilt turn thee O Israel then turn uno me saith the Lord and if thou wilt put away (i) Jer. 15. b Zach 1. a Mal. 3. a thine abominations from before my face then shalt thou not be driven out but then shalt thou without hypocrisie swear rightly and holily as true as the Lord liveth and the heathen shall be blessed in him and make their boast of him Ier. 4. a. 8. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God (k) Mat. 4 b Luk. 4. a him shalt thou serve him shalt thou cleave unto or depend upon and swear by his name he is thy praise and thy God Deut. 6. a. 10. b 9. Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of all Heavens and the earth and all what is therein that (l) Psal 24. a Ier. 27 a is the Lords your God O Israel and Iudah (m) Deut. 4. d yet hath he had notwithstanding a lust only to your Fathers and loved them and chosen their seed after them namely you above all people Deut. 10 b. 10. O all ye people fear the same God for he is that God which hath created (n) Gen. 1. a Ioh. 1. a all whatsoever is any thing for truly all heathenish bewitching is nothing but foolishness Their wisdom and Laws are
openeth it self asunder when the foregoing service in the (e) Heb 9 c holy is accomplished 2. For the vail before the most holy cleerness of the Godly being of Jesus Christ and before his spiritual and heavenly goods departeth not away from before the cleerness of the most holy (d) Heb. 7 8 9.10 unless that the former God service in the holy have first his full course the which is the accomplishment of the daily God-service in the holy in the (e) Mat. 16. Luk. 9. c taking up of our Cross in the willing obedience to the belief for to continue therein obediently till (f) Mat. 10 2â— unto the end that is till unto the (g) Rom. 6. a Phil. 2. b. death of the Cross 3. Which death of the Cross of Christ and to be implanted or incorporated into Christ with the same like death and so (h) Rom. 6. a Col. 2. b. baptised or washed into his death is verily the (i) Math. 28. Mar. 16 b upright Baptism unto salvation wherein the man is rightly baptised or washed according to the truth of the holy Scriptures and so then (k) Rom. 6. a out of the same death regenerate (l) Ioh. 3. b or born again as a new Creature in Jesus Christ 4. For that the same (m) Tit. 3 b 1 Pet. 3. c baptism is the right font of regeneration serving to the washing away of the sin wherethrough the believing man who doth with Christ according to the flesh lay away mortifie and (n) Rom. 6. a Col. 2. c. 3. a bury the sin in the flesh is made alive again with Christ and also according to the spirit in upright (o) Luk 14. Eph. 1. a. 4. b righteousness and holyness and so through the second birth from the death or the resurrection of Christ he becometh holy and altogether renewed in the spirit of his inward mind and the (p) Act. 2. b. holy Ghost poured upon him in whom Christ also with the cleerness of his Godly being getteth (q) 2 Cor. 4. a Gal. 4. a a shape or form By the high priest Iesus Christ the new and liuing way is prepared for us through the â—imple that is to say his flesh Heb 10 5. And that same verily is (r) 1 Co. 13. b. 2 Cor. 3. b the cleerness of the true being and of the holy spirit of Jesus Christ where through one beholdeth and inheriteth in the spirit the Love in her vertuous nature that most holy as likewise the fulness of the riches of God the Father in the heavenly being or essential form 6. Behold and consider that is the true (s) Ioh. 11. c resurrection from the death according to the Scripture (t) Ioh. 17. a through the which the living God of heaven and his Christ is known according to the Spirit and Truth 7 It is true the (u) 1 Cor. 15. c. same is sown in the mortality and it riseth up in the immortality And God giveth it a body after his own pleasure and that of the seed of his own body 8. See that is the everlasting life against the death And the (x) Eze. 13. b 1 Cor. 15. f Heb. 2. b conquest or victory against the Hell and against all the enemies of the life whereby all those that follow after Christ have or possess that life and (y) Ioh. 10. b that in fulness 9. That is verily the (z) Heb. 3.4 a. Rest of life which God hath reserved or kept and is left in store for the children of God as a perpetual inheritance in the last time according to the Promises The fifteenth Chapter THE true most holy of the inward Tabernacle or Sanctuary of God is the Love for that (a) Rom. 13. Col. 3. b is the perfection (b) Rom. 6. a the incorporating into God in the spirit the (c) Ioh. 17. everlasting life (d) Col. 2. b and the fulness of all the riches of God 2. If one now be not (e) Ioh. 1. a born anew then can he not see the Kingdom of God Ioh. 3. 3. Therefore if there be a new (f) 1 Pet. 2. a Gal. 6. c creature in Christ then is the old (g) Isa 43. c Apo. 21. perished or worn out behold it is all become new but that altogether of God who (h) Col. 1. b hath reconciled us with himself through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5. 4. The Lord our Almighty God hath gotten (i) Apo 12. the Kingdom let us rejoyce and be glad and give (k) Ioh. 9. him the honour for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his bride hath made her ready and it is granted unto her to cloath her self with white glistering silk and the silk is the Justification of the Saints Apo. 19. 5. The Members or Commonalty of the body of Christ in the love which are (l) Act. 2. Rom 8. b Eph. 1.4 c sealed with Christ in the true being through the spirit of Love is (m) Apo. 21. a living Tabernacle of God wherein God liveth and worketh In the which the fore-front the holy and the most holy is revealed or made known according to the spirit 6. In which true Tabernacle of God also the (n) Deut. 32. song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb is sung and it soundeth even thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 EMÌ„ANVEL God and Man Loue The everlasting life the perfection in the service of the holy gratious word vnder the obedienâ— of the Love God with the man is vnited the man with the God head namely in the everlasting mind being all with God 〈◊〉 christ it is of one being with the man all what is manly be it the being will mind is then minded w th the God head so it is all one God the man one being one will one thought or spirit one hart one everlasting life Behold here the tabernacle of God is in men hee shall live in them they shal be his people hâ—e himselfe shal be with them for he is their God Apoca 21 the Kingdom of God shall not cvm with outward shew men shall not say Behold here or there it is for behold the Kingdom of God is inwardly in you Luke 17 this saith the Truth of God who loveth mee he shall keepe my words and my father shall love him and wee shall come to him and make an habitation in him John 14 7. Great and wonderful are thy Works Lord (o) Ier. 10. a thou Almighty God righteous and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Lord who should not fear thee and praise thy name for thou only (p) Levit. 19. art holy Apo. 15. 8. Consider now how that the mans knowledge is but (q) 1 Cor. 13 a peice-work or a thing unperfect the which among those that do yet remain divided or as broken off is
the man should live in peace and joy and in all upright Love and should not know nor take on any thing without the same but live only therein and not dye 10. If so be now that the man knew nothing without the same forementioned life nor took on any thing besides the same whereon to tye his heart wits and thoughts or understanding Then should he know taste and feel nothing else but all good Also walk in all Love Concord and Peace and so have (m) Gen. 1.2 b the whole earth in subjection under him and govern uprightly to the life all whatsoever is upon the earth according to the commandment or word of the Lord. 11. For that same is the life and the freedom of the manly generation for the which many creatures do sigh and long there-after which upright freedom of the children of God doth now come unto us according to the Promises because that all manly creatures might assemble them with us to the same rejoyce them with Godly joy in the same and live in all truth and upright righteousness 12. Behold the same was unto the man in the beginning (o) Gen 2. a Phil. 3. b 4 Esd 8. f Apoc. 2. a a Tree of life in the middst of the Paradise of the Lord for that he should live and that (p) Sapl 1. b it should go well with all that which God had created 13. But now when the man would know the good and the evil and had eaten of the same tree then (q) Gen. 3 a tasted he both the life and the death the which God had forbidden him because he should not eat nor tast of any other thing but of the good that is of the life and not feel any evil or death but should live unto his God in the life for that (r) Sap. 1. b it might go well both with himself and also with all what God had created 14. Whatsoever now therefore is taken on besides the same good or life whereon we do witness that is the evil the death or the destruction the which God hath not willed that it should be upon the earth for that the man might stand perfected from all evil and destruction 15. But now hath the man through that same prepared to himself the driving forth out of the Paradise of God and caused the peace to cease upon the earth also brought himself and all what is upon the earth into (s) Gen. 3. b much calamity and misery and is utterly estranged from the way directing to the Tree of life and so is taken captive in all kind of deadly and damnable fruits 16. That verily is the knowledge of the good and evil which he himself hath taken on and (t) Dan. 9. Math. 24. 2 Thes 2. it is the confused abomination which standeth in the holy place whereout all violence calamity and grief is come upon the earth 17. If the man now will (u) Ezek 14. a turn himself away from all the abominations of the wicked world and humble him rightly under the Love and her service then shall he likewise through the administration of the holy word of the Lord and his requiring have his regard unto the inward upright life whereon the word pointeth for that is Gods living being or substance it self and he shall also according to the requiring of the word try or examine himself diligently in his inwardness whether he can perceive yet still remaining there any ungodly or deadly being which is not the life or that serveth not the life unto the life but which (x) Eph. 4. b is minded to destruction through the lusts of error 18. So long then as the destruction besides th preservation of the life is looked neto or esteemed of by the man and that likewise the death besides the life the evil besides the good and the bondage besides the freedom is known tasted and felt so shall the man in his obedience to the requiring of the word of the Lord daily (y) Mat. 10. d 16. c Mark. 8. Luk 9 14. take up his Cross on him with the life die the death or the evil and bury the same according to the word of the Lord and so shall he by means of following the life in his like behaviour or (z) Ro. 6. a Phil 3. b death of the Cross become planted into the same good life who suffereth the death of the Cross by the evil 19. Out of which dying of the death or of the evil which death hath brought the death unto the life and hath had the dominion over the same the life riseth up again and cometh gloriously in Lordly manner against all his enemies 20. Even thus now through the rising up or resurrection of the upright life out of the second birth from the death the man also is raised up (a) Ro. 6. a from the death or born again out of the death for that he might live and not dye any more 21. Upon which resurrection of the dead according to the Scripture all Believers of the life do likewise hope and long thereafter for the life shall swallow up (b) Eze. 13. 1 Cor. 15. the death in victory in all his Believers which be incorporated or planted into him and so bring his enemy under him according to the Promises 22. For all what is not the true life that is against the true life and whatsoever is against the true life that is the death and the enmity unto the true life is also an enimy unto God and to the Lamb which enmity is minded neither according to the true being or nature of God nor of the Lamb nor yet according to the upright righteousness of the true life which true being of God and of the Lamb together with the upright righteousness of the true life ye may behold in the endless (c) Apo. 5.20 b book of the Lamb which is full of writing both without and within written with the finger of God and it is the everlasting life whereon we do witness The eighteenth Chapter THen when as thou O thou precious man hast looked into both these Natures Books and writings inwardly according to the spirit namely the straying being of the wicked world and the good being of God from eternity which good being is the (a) Apo. 20 21. b book of the Lamb written by the God of life besides the which the straying being which destroyeth through the lusts of error is come in place and written by the Devil the Father of death So judge then with the truth which of them it is that ought to have the superiority or preheminence in us for the od of life vouchsafeth unto us nothing else but all God life love and peace 2. Therefore let us be agreeably minded with the same good being of God and Love the good being for wherefore do ye receive and take unto you the destruction and why will ye in perditional manner perish
meer error (o) Isa 44. a Ier. 10. a their Gods and God-services are vain and unprofitable 11. Therefore there is no God but Israels God whose God-services Wisdom Ordinances Statutes and Rights are alone upright holy and true Deut. 4. a. 12. Happy is he that hath the same God to be (p) Psa 33. b 144. b his God or which seeketh him with all his heart Deut. 4. c. 30. a. Ier. 29. b. Sap. 1. a. The thirteenth Chapter THE true holy of the house of God or of the true Tabernacle is (a) Rom. 5. a the belief of Christ unto Justification through whose service and the obedience unto the requiring thereof the man if he have a lust with all his heart (b) Psa 40. a Heb. 10. a to do the Lords will becometh Justified from the sin Also the way of his course of walking prepared (c) Isa 40 a 57. b. to be an even path before the Lord. And the truth of God extending to the everlasting life revealed unto him in the spirit Beleefe The Truth to the Evâ—rlasting Life In the service of the holy and gratious word Vnder the Obedience of the true beleefe is the man in the spirit of his hart in Jesus Christ justified from the Sin and brought to the everlasting life Therefore beare patience and vpright fruites of repentance The Kingdom of heaven is nigh Mat 3 a Luke 3 a Behold so crieth the Voice in the Wilderness of the Mans harte The which crieth prepare the way of the lord make straite his pathes Esay 40. Behold the word that thou shouldest beleeue is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thine hart that thou mightest doe it Deutri 30 and that is the word of beleefe which formerly hath beene preached in the World through Christ to Salvation and Obedience of the Beleefe Rom. 10. And is now preached under the Obedience of the Love 2. Behold the Lord sendeth forth his (d) Mal. 3. a Math. 11. b Angel or Messenger who in his service prepareth the way (e) Math. 4 a Luk 1. b before him and he goeth before in the spirit or power of Elias that he may turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers and the unbelievers to the prudence of the just whereby to prepare an upright people for the Lord. 3. How delightful are the feet of the (f) â—o 10 b messengers that publish the peace from the mountains preach a good Message and reveal the salvation Isa 51. Nahum 2. 4. Leave off from the evil and learn to do good labour after that which is right and help the oppressed Isa 1. b. 5. Let the ungodly leave off from his waies (g) Eze. 18 33. b. and the evil doer from his imaginations and turn him to the Lord so shall he be merciful unto him Isa 55. a. 6. Let every one turn him away from his wicked wayes and amend his being or life and so do that which is right Ier. 7. a. 7. If the ungodly will turn him from all the sins that he hath done c. Then shall he live and not dye for the Lord desireth not the (h) Eze. 33. b Sap. 1. b death of a sinner but much rather that he should turn him and live Eze. 18. d. 8. Repent now and amend you that your sins may be put out Act. 3. b. 9. Lay away from you now (i) 1 Pet. 1. b 4. a. according to the former walking the old man which destroyeth through the lust of error (k) Ro. 12. a and renew you in the spirit of your mind and put ye on the new man which is formed like unto God in upright righteousness and holyness Ephes 4. c. 10. But before all things take hold of the Shield of Faith with the which we may quench out all the fiery darts of the wicked enemy Eph. 6. b. 11. Hold fast what thou hast that no man bereave or take away thy Crown from thee Apo. 3. b. 12. Whosoever continueth steadfast unto the end he shall be saved Math. 24. b. 13. The Messenger or voice of the Angel which crieth in the heart Prepare (l) sa 40. a the way of the Lord is the serviceable ministration of the gracious word of the Lord which the Lord willeth to be ministred unto the man before (m) Act. 3.17 c. his revealing of his great day By which means in the grace and mercy of the Lord. (n) Rom. 10. the belief that very true holy and the (o) Heb. 10 b boldness to enter into the same is prepared to serve the man to an accomplishing of the service in the said holy whereby the true fore-going service might likewise be ministred unto the Believers in their conversion unto God and in their doing (p) Math. 3. upright fruits of repentance Also to kill (q) Rom 6. a Col. 2. b and bury the same under the obedience of the belief And through the baptising or washing (r) Rom. 6. a Col. 1 b in the death of Christ to justifie the believing man from the sin 14. And so then after that in fulfilling or accomplishing the same fore-going service cometh the (s) Mat. 19. c Ioh. 3. b new birth from the death through the annointing by our Saviour who doth quite and clean take away or blot out the (t) Heb 9. sins of his people and so in his spiritual office or heavenly ministration serveth them (u) Heb. 8. with the spiritual and heavenly goods and leadeth them into the everlasting life and so bringeth the perfection unto them or setteth up the same in them and as (x) Heb. 7 8 9. a chief Priest declareth his (y) Isa 27. a Math. 27. highest salvation unto them in the most holy namely in the Love which is the holy-Ghost where through the vail betwixt the holy and the most holy and (z) Isa 59. a Eph. 2. b Col. 2. a the portion betwixt God and the man departeth away and of two (a) Eph. 2. b. is made one to wit the man and God 15. That verily is the everlasting (b) Rom. 3. a 2 Cor. 5. c Col. 1. b Ioh. 2. a 4. b reconcilement of the man before his God and so he cometh again to the seat of grace and into the true light of the (c) 2 Cor. 3. b. 4. a clear shining of God and into the everlasting life with thanksgiving and joâ— the which is the (d) Isa 60. a Apo. 21. a true rising of the light and life out of the high heaven in the spirit The fourteenth Chapter THE true vale before the most holy of the true Sanctuary of the Tabernacle of God (a) Heb 10. c is the flesh of Christ the which is before the cleerness of his uncovered naked being or substance and before his spiritual and heavenly goods and (b) Mat. 27. 2 Cor 3. b it departeth away therefrom or
b or understand the truth except that he should first of all be or stand grounded therein according to the spirit and that the truth as a light of life repugning or striving against his lyes were risen up unto him in his obeying of the requiring of the service of Love For in that sort do we attain to know the truth from the lye the life from the death and the sin from the righteousness Because that we should rightly or according to the truth hate or reject that which is worthy to be hated or rejected and according to the truth in like manner love that which is worthy to be loved And so then might with a good understanding come to (s) Eph. 4 b the knowledge of the right commonalty of Saints whose names are written in the (t) Apo. 5.20 21. b living Book of the Lamb. 12. Which Book of the Lamb the mysticalness of God shall not alwayes remain shut but his seals shall be opened and the book being full of writing both without and within shall likewise be read to a comfort of life and to a perpetual Godlyness unto all those whose names are written in the Book of the Lamb whose bodies are killed even like unto the Lamb and (u) Apo. 6. b their blood cryeth vengeance in the height upon those that dwell upon the earth unto whom the recompence thereof shall be made by God and the Lamb. 13. For although the Lamb be killed yet shall he notwithstanding condemn the living ungodly ones and raise up those that are his (x) Eze 37. b Dan. 12 b Ioh 5. c 1 Cor. 15. f from the death out of the grave and make them Lordly and glorious with himself over all his enemies namely through his righteous judgement to the (y) Mat. 25. c 2 Pet. 3 b condemnation of all ungodly ones to the end that they may be rooted out and (z) Apo. 18 a that it may be recompenced again even as they have done unto the Saints of God 14. Even thus now from henceforth be reputed for a praise or an advancement unto all that are his whereby to keep the judgement against every one which hath brought forth ungodlyness judged Gods truth falsly and shewed no repentance and to exhalt and garnish his Saints above all what is upon the earth for (a) Apo 5 b 1 Pet 1. b the Lamb hath bought them with his blood out of all generations people and nations He hath made them Kings and Priests unto God and they shall raign upon the earth and triumph in joy everlastingly with the Lamb for they shall live for ever and not dye any more 15. And that same is the everlasting life which was preached in the world in times past to the end that men should believe on the same And which also cometh unto us in the last time in the resurrection of the righteous dead ones The seventeenth Chap. THerefore give ear O all ye that live upon the earth consider of the words of wisdom ye children of men For the life to the end that ye may live is now published unto you likewise as well as unto the people (a) Gen. 6.18 19. Exo. 3 4. Deut. 3. in times past because that ye may shew repentance assemble you with us to the mercy seat of the love of Jesus Christ and enter (b) Heb. 3.4 a. into the rest which is reserved for the children of God inasmuch as the entrance into the rest of the Lord and of his children or Saints of Jesus Christ cometh to pass and is to be enjoyed now in the last time according to the Promises 2. Therefore give ear attentively that ye may once understand whereunto ye are created and turn you to the same if ye will remain preserved and not bide lost for ever 3. Apply your hearts unto the good that ye may live and not be buried in hell everlastlngly (c) Psa 55. Apo. 21 22. with the ungodly 4. Shew upright fruits of repentance that ye may serve the (d) Deut. 6. b Lord your God only and walk in all love like children of peace And halt no longer neither (e) 3 Kin. 18. on the one side nor on the other 5. For although that ye which covet after knowledge do daily read many Scriptures or writings whereout ye do also gather some sentences or get a certain kind of knowledge therethrough wherein ye think to rejoyce your selves Yet is not the same the life for all that for it is neither the Scripture nor yet the knowledge thereof (f) 1 Cor. 8. that maketh us righteous but the life of Jesus Christ wrought through the belief or faith 6. For that same life is (g) Deut. 30. Rom. 10. the word of God the Father and the very true light wherein we stand grounded or whereon we are set for to believe the same because that we should live and not (h) Deut. 5. Prov. 4 c turn or shrink therefrom with our mind wits memory or thoughts neither to the right side nor to the left 7. If so be now that ye stand not minded hereunto as in tending to live in the Love and to stand upright therein to what end then do ye assemble together and to what end do ye read the Scriptures For if ye read the Scripture only for the knowledge sake and rest unbelieving unto the life whereof the (i) 1 Ioh. 5. Scripture witnesseth then do ye (k) 3 Kl. 18. halt on both sides and break the bond of wedlock and go a whoring with that which is not the life namely that ye cleave unto that which ye neither are grounded in nor created unto by God neither yet called through Jesus Christ nor also through his service of Love ministred now in the last time 8. But if ye will perform the Scriptures counsel then follow the Scriptures counsel Turn you to the life and to his service of Love And in the obedience of the requiring of the life of Jesus Christ and of his service of Love behold in the spirit your own being or estate And consider there inwardly in your selves whether that your memory wits senses and thoughts do in all their course or proceedings stand minded to the true life of Jesus Christ and not run out after this or after that for to go a whoring after that which is not the life it self and also whether that they being without the life are bound or tyed unto any other thing that is not the life And likewise whether they have or gather all their knowledge wisdom and understanding only out of the l fe of Jesus Christ and out of his love and so do neither know discern or understand any thing without the Life and without his upright Love For behold to such a concord hath God joyned together the thoughts and the life 9. This doubtless was the life of the man in (l) Gen. 1. b Joh. 1. a the beginning for that
whereby to know thee as a true God which liveth everlastingly 21. For thou O God art a God that lovest the very best of the fruits of the field and (b) Exod. 13.34 Le. 1 2 3. Deut. 12.14 hast a delight unto the fat of the Sheep and Lambs as it is a burnt-offering unto thee of a sweet Savour upon thy (c) Psal 43. Isa 56. holy Altar in thy Tabernacle of thy dwelling which thou hast chosen unto thy self (d) 2 Par. 6. a. 7. b in thy holy City Jerusalem 22. But thou (e) Isa 57.65 despisest all oblations offered in Forrein Lands as likewise all God-services upon their mountains and upon all their hills and high-places 23. Thou also rejectest (f) Amos 5. all songs of praise used under their trees and under all their green eaves 24. Thou abhorrest all presumptuous arrogancy of the flesh they do all displease thee which seek thee through their own doings to the end to be at one with thee and yet have no regard unto thy Promises 25. Their God-service is (g) Isa 16.43 Amos 5. Hos 5.6 an abomination unto thee their self-Sanctification although the flesh appeaseth it self therewith doth altogether stink before thee 26. Unto their Sabboths Holy-dayes or self-made rest-dayes thou hast no desire or liking 27. Their prayer also cometh not before thine ears (h) Prov. 11 Isa 1.59 Mich 3 4 Esd 3. as that it pleaseth thee any whit at all For it is all filthy before thee if they seek thee without thy Promises For they seek not thee O God but themselves and how to please themselves 28. Their waies that they walk lead not unto thee But they run apace towards Hell and have a lust unto error 29. There is nothing among them but manly fear and snaring of the heart with captivated consciences according to the old custom of the vain heathen which O God knew not thy wayes but upon their own wisdom and self-made wayes they (i) Isa 3. b are proud and very bold 30. Therefore is not likewise (k) Isa 59. b the right knowledge of their sin among them as to account the same for sin that they might turn them unto thee because they know not O God of thy peace nor understand rightly any thing thereof 31. Thy rebuke and chastionable information have they not rightly felt neither also rightly taken heed to the same nor yet understood what thou intendest therein and requirest therewith therefore doubtless the right fear of God is not before their eyes like as the fear of men is for to please them O God plant thy (l) Psal 40. Isa 51. Jer. 31. d Law in their hearts as a Glass or a clear light unto their inwardness then shall they rightly know their sin (m) Rom. 7. d how or in what manner she is sin to the end that sin may make up her self and shew in what form she is the fruits of death or the deadly being the which she estrangteh the man from the living God-head for that the sin thereby may be consumed (n) 1 Co. 15. f for thy Law is an encountring or enveighing power against the sin and then shall they know and understand whom they ought to fear and cleave unto 33. For when as thy Law O God groweth up in us in our earthly and weak man-hood and requireth thy righteousness of us then are we burthened and grieved wherethrough we grow to discern our fall from thee and the (o) Psal 51. a great abundance of our sins and that likewise it is all sin wherein we are conceived wherein we have lived 34. Yea that which in times past we supposed to be good is now found to be meer wickedness and sin by reason whereof our souls become humbled before thee for to obtain mercy from thee out of thy abundant grace Even then also do we confess what we are according to our earthly manhood namely (p) Gen. 2. b Eccl. 10 17. b dust earth and ashes and that we of our selves being without the effect or estate of thy Love are altogether (q) Ps 14.53 a Rom 3. b ignorant and lying and utterly estranged from thy righteousness And so with lowly hearts by reason of the depth of our necessity or extremity for the sins cause we become then O God rightly turned unto thee whereby through the drawing or allurement of thy Love to come again unto thee 35. By means of which humiliation or abasing of our selves we through thy grace and mercy become endowed by thee with the most holy belief through the which we be then likewise baptized or washed in the (r) Rom 6 Gal. 3. Col 2. death of Christ and do stand firm in the hope to the obtaining of the health of our souls and so through the belief ministred under the obedience of thy Love we become made (s) Rom. 8. a. free from the Law of sin and death by the spirit of thy Law which maketh alive in Jesus Christ 36. Oh how far is the man departed and estranged from the upright knowledge of this wisdom of God 37. O God that my heart might rent open it self and might cry unto thee with a forcible courage And that thou wouldest hearken to my voice and wouldest vouchsafe to look down towards us with thy merciful eyes and take compassion of our misery deformity and fall and over the blindness of our errors and wouldest in chastionable manner draw us unto thee that we might rightly convert or come again and live in thee For we are doubtless fallen estranged and strayed very deep and far from thee and thy Christ we have mingled our selves with the strangers and walked in many errors 38. O God let us in every part see into our (t) Iob 13. Psa 14. Isa 59. transgressing and make known unto us the lyingness of our hearts against thee 39. For many do say It is very good whereas doubtless it is meer evil And they say moreover out of the blindness and ignorance of their hearts Behold (u) Ier. 8 a Math. 24. b here is the holy Scripture we have the right or the truth the being of God and the holy Ghost And also the mind and sense of the wisdom for to understand the same we have the true belief in Christ and are the Lords people O God they speak lyes before thine ears and understand not the counsel of thy wisdom but are children of the fall or transgression among whom there is neither being of God nature of thy love nor belief of thy Christ but only a vain and false boasting whereby they seduce both themselves and others more for they oppress the little ones and the poor and resist thy holy service of Love therefore one may easily find many masters and vaunters but very few servants and yet (x) 1 Cor. 4. b many fewer Fathers in the Office of the Love 40. Oh that many of them saw their vain wisdom
in misery and in unrestfulness O ye children of men turn you to the (e) Deu. 30. c life with humble hearts and in like manner to the Love that ye may live 3. Awake up I pray thee O thou precious man for behold death and life (d) Deut 3. b Eccles 15. c Ier. 21. a evil and good destruction and preservation damnation and salvation the old wicked world in the which all wickedness dwelleth and the (e) Isa 61. b 1 Pet. 3. b Apo. 21. a new good world in the which all love peace and righteousness dwelleth is held forth or presented unto thee and figured out before thine eyes therefore choose or incline thou now unto that which thou seest or knowst to be Gods righteousness extending to the laud and praise of his glory and apply thy self to live only the same that (f) Deut. 6. a o. b Math. 4. thou mayest serve and live unto the Lord thy God only 4. If so be now therefore that any one do look into or esteem the being of the Devil the treasury of iniquity (g) Sap. 2 4.14 b Rom. 1. c 2. a. and the form or fashion of the wicked world to be an upright life tending to the praise and glory of God and if it be the same whereunto God hath created the man to have that raign over him then let him incline and stick unto it and serve the same only and let him separate himself from all what is contrary thereunto and accompany him with those that are of one mind with the iniquity or with the wicked world that he may beare or receive either his salvation or condemnation with those that are his own members which are agreeably-minded with each other and let him (h) 2 King 18. c halt no longer on both sides nor feign nor dissemble before the upright Love which is held forth and proffered unto him 5. But if now any man do look into or esteem the Being of God or Treasure of vertue to be the salvation of men tending to the land and praise of the godly glory and so understandeth or perceiveth that (i) Gen. 2. c Sap. 2. c Eccles 17. a God hath created the man to that end that the same should raign over him So let him then likewise submit himself obediently under the Love and incline or cleave wholly to the same good being even with a fervent good will that he may serve the same only (k) Deut. 6. a 10. b. 30. a and live only unto the eternal God 6. For to that purpose is the service of the word both by writing and by speech under the obedience of the Love administred unto men to assist them to the life of God and to the eternal truth because they should live in the same truth and life as in a Treasure of vertue and that altogether in a lively meek minded being or nature but not to the end to catch to snare nor to bring any one into bondage therewith or to (l) 2 Cor. 1. c 1 Pet. 1. a raign over his faith O no but in him free or at liberty to yield to the obedience of the Love and to the (m) Luk. 1. g Eph. 1. a righteousness of Faith because the righteousness of Faith which God esteemeth of might by that means be set up in the belief under the obedience of the Love And that the peace might appear upon the earth according to the Promises 7. For that cause to the end that the life of the eternal truth might be manifest and that the mans understanding might be planted into the same life therefore do we through our service of the holy word as by an inclination of the Love take (n) 2 Cor. 10. a captive all understandings under the obedience of the Love 8. To that end namely for the Love and the good lifes sake shall men also hear and believe the service of the holy and gracious word administred under the Love But with their spirits they (o) Isa 53. 2 Cor. 6. b shall depart out of the evil or that which is perditionable and enter into the vertue of the life 9. For the outward writings or speakable words which be testified or ministred unto the man out of the inclination of the Love to do him service and stretch to the incorporating of him into the vertuous nature are all figurings forth of the upright righteousness and godly word who in their service do go before the man and guide him to the living book of the Lamb which lieth hidden in (p) Apo. 12. a the Ark of witness namely within our hearts and consciences for there inwardly in the spirit is the life of God formed or written according to the truth 10. And that same life of God is the (r) Apo. 5. a book which John saw in his Revelation which was full of writing both without and within and which also was shut or made fast with seven seals for which books sake John wept because there was none found worthy neither in heaven nor upon the earth to open to read nor to look into the same book 11. Howbeit in the midst among the Elders or wise there stood a Lamb in manner as though it was killed and he took the book unto him and all prophesies testified of him with triumph and joy saying Thou (s) Apo. 5. d art worthy to receive the book and to open his seals for thou being killed hast bought us with thy blood 12. John hath also heard a voice of many Angels (t) Dan. 7. b Apo. 5. b whose number is many thousands of thousands saying with a mighty great voice the the Lamb that was killed is worthy to receive power riches wisdom strength honour praise and blessing 13. Behold this living book of the Lamb is a book of spirit and life and (u) 2 Cor. 3. a not a book of the sinful flesh and death for it is the (x) Eph. 5. c Apo. 14. commonalty of the Lamb in the spirit 14. Which Lamb is the living being of God it self the which was driven to (y) Isa 53. b 1 Pet. 2. a suffer and the book of life occasioned to be shut (z) Apo. 5. a with seven seals because of the great Dragon which is the (a) Apo. 12. murderly beast namely the self wisdom of the flesh unto (b) Dan. 7. Apo 11.13 a whom power hath been permitted to kill the Saints of God but the same power is now even in the uttermost or last time (c) Apo. 17.19 20. b taken away from her for God showeth his power and dominion against the same in the restoring or setting up again of his Saints (d) Eze. 37. Dan. 12. Apo. 2. whom he raiseth from the death 15. Verily now it shall no longer prevail with the Dragon how murderly soever the beast be neither shall her Kingdom which is full of abominations prosper any longer for her (e) Apo. 18.
sins are ascended up even unto heaven and now shall her descending or fall be even into the bottomless pit 16. For the self-wisdom or self-mind of the flesh which hath exalted her self very high against the Lamb even as though she were Gods wisdom (f) Apo. 5.13 b hath killed the Lamb from the beginning of the world and likewise his members the (g) Apo. 6.12 b 16. a innocent guiltless blood and so for a time hath gotten the upper hand upon the earth but now must she fall and go under whereas contrarywise the Saints of God shall (h) Apo. raign for ever according to the Promises The ninteenth Chapter SEing now that the Saints of God have (a) Apo 6.12 13 16. suffered with the Lamb for a certain time and have been killed upon the earth therefore is the book of the beast most loved and read everywhere (b) Apo. 17. b 18. a men have lived according thereto but forasmuch as it is all now made manifest through the (c) 1 Cor. 4. a light or day of the Lord so becometh the book of the (d) Apo. 18 19 20. beast to be found a false book full of deceit and subtile falshood whereunto also all false men all wicked hearts of the Scripture-learned ones and all false setters forth and preferrers of religion have their lust and affection bent 2. For of all the names of her felfness or private holyness and of all her false hearts and Scripture-learned ones together with all the nature of the heathenish distraughtness who do every one even joyntly with each other serve and worship the beast there is not (e) Apo. 13.17 a. 20 21. b one written in the living book of the Lamb for the names of the people that serve and worship the beast whereby the Dragon hath had the dominion are (f) 2 Pet. 2. all names of darkness and of the good thinking wise and disobedient ones and are all likewise (g) 1 Ti. 4 a spirits of errour as being all one and of one manner of substance according to one manner of nature 3. That same verily is the cord or chain of darkness or the band of the Devil wherein all good thinking wise ones and false hearts which do neither fear the living God of Israel nor stand obedient to his requiring are captived or caught bewitched therewith tyed thereunto and (h) 2 Pet. 2. a. b. Apo. 20. b led with the same even into Hell the which is the everlasting death and damnation from the which God hath willed that the man should keep himself and serve only the living God that (i) Eze 18. d he might not dye but that it might everlastingly go well with him and that he might live 4. The names of the people of the evil wicked world The wicked world with her servants and fellow-companions who are written in the book of the Dragon that murderly beast are these envy division contention or discord high-mindedness or pride subtilty deceit craftiness unquietness cruelty arrogancy disorderlyness masterfulness mischieveously disposed violence honour or vain-glory stubbornness resistance unto Gods nature in all disobedience wrathfulness presumptuous boldness churlishness bitterness maliciousness commotion or uproar treachery striving fighting persecuting lying war or battle vexing or troubling cursing swearing destroying spoyling oppressing killing murdering dishonest dealing unreasonableness or injustice gluttony unchastity whoâ—edom adultery knavery buggery thievery unprofitable searching high vain boasting ambition dissembling hypocrisie Sectuarishness framed or chosen holyness idolatry false God services false Laws blasphemy self-wisdom swelling in minde curiousness self-mindedness unadvisedness mens commandments giving credit to the imaginations of the good thinking in the spirit unbelief to the gracious word of the Lord despair doubtfulness accusing ignorance bondage of the heart to something without the nature or being of God vain comfort slothfulness mens fear covetousness niggardlyness undiscreetness scoffing or mocking dis-favour self-Love 5. There is yet moreover (q) Rom 1. d 1 Pet. 2. a back-biting or evil reporting of others whereby to make them seem odious and contemptible before the people and to cause themselves to be had in favour and well-liked of 6. Behold such a nature hath the partial Back b ter who doth yet oftentimes for all that greatly bewitch the people with his abominations as with a show of holyness which witchcraft is full of foolishness and is an unprofitable delusion even like as are all vain games also table-playing maskings or mummeries c. and are also unedifying even like as are all manner (r) Eph. 5 a of rude light behaviour disorderly toying and unseemly jesting all which likewise are names of the people of the wicked world furthermore there is also death darkness false spirits devil hell and condemnation c. 7. These and such like are the abominations before God and the pernitious mischief to a destruction over the children of men and for one to yield or apply his heart hereunto is the falling off and the turning away from God 8. That is finally the perverse and wicked nature (s) Deut. 32. a. c. which hath corrupted every thing and stoln from the man and quite defaced in him the mind of his God and corrupted his understanding through the affection born to the knowledge of good and evil by which manner the noble understanding of man is become bewitched with the abundant lying being in such sort that the man can very little understand (t) Deut 32. Isa 44. Ier. 5.8 a or comprehend for it entreth too too little into the consideration of his heart for to come rightly to the conversion or turning again to his God for be continueth even generally cleaving fast and depending with his heart upon one thing or other that is not God because he doth not quite and clean forsake the Idols and their services nor thrust nor chase them out of the Temple of his inward mind But stands affected either to this or to that according to the imagination of his own understanding and so serveth the God-service or God himself falsly 9. That same is it verily which God hath oftentimes rebuked by the mouth of his Prophets (u) Isa 1 b 28. b. 29. 57. b. 58. a. 59. a. b. Ier 2 3 4 5 6 7. Eze. 5 6. Amos 1. b Mich. 6. a because that the people of Israel when they would seem to turn them and to use God-services did alwayes incline their hearts towards one thing or another that was not God and served that which God never commanded or required 10. Therefore hath God also in times past witnessed unto them by the Prophet Jeremiah which mind of God remaineth perpetually for thus saith the Lord as an everlasting continuing word 11. O Israel (x) Ier. 4 a. if thou wilt turn thee then turn thee unto me saith the Lord And if thou wilt put away thy abominations from before my face then shalt thou not be cast out