works and this made the Apostle Paul write the same truth as in Heb. 9.14 And while any mans heart or will yeeldeth obedience to such a conscience all his obedience is evil because his conscience is evil Heb. 10.22 And so long as man findeth any life in these conscientious walkings he hath but besprinkled his conscience with the blood of Bulls and Goats and his own mark is upon the post and saveth himself from the destroyer as he thinketh But the conscience being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus then doth man truly know himself to be a sinner and by that blood his peace and safety is to be procured and full wel knoweth that all his good actings are as bad as his evil actings And from hence it cometh to pass that sin becometh to be out of measure sinful and by this means all the bloody offerings and sprinkling of his own conscience becometh to be rubbed off and blotted out and then the blood of the Lamb becomes to be sprinkled upon the conscience whereby the same hath no power to condemn This made the Apostle say there was no condemnation to those that were in Christ c. Rom. 8.1 Secondly the understanding as holden out by the other side post before it be sprinkled with the bloud of the Lamb is but darke in the conceiving of truth and in its darknesse mans Conscience cannot give out right commands to the heart or will for the right command of the Conscience proceedeth from the purenesse of the understanding and the understanding being darke how great is that darknesse Luke 11.35 and while man walketh in this darknesse he is deceived himselfe and deceiveth others also his condition being nothing else but deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 yea stumbleth and falleth and knoweth not whereupon Prov. 4.19 But when man once knoweth his darknesse then doth he cry after wisdome and knowledge and seeketh them more then silver and then it is that the Lord sendeth his Angel to seale or set a marke on the forehead of such a soule before the destroying Angels worke their worke Revel 7.2 viz. To give man the right knowledg and understanding of the great Mystery both of sinne and godlinesse and by that the destroyer is kept out for then he is that wise man that fore-seeth the evill and hideth himselfe Prov. 22.23 and when the eyes of the understanding are opened the soul is sealed with the character of wisdome and all this is by the bloud of the Lamb which is that eye-salve spoken of in Revel 3.18 and where the understanding is thus marked then the soule can truly see Christ and close with him in the propitiation of his Blood but not before But the sprinkling of the lintel which holdeth out the heart or will is that which keepeth all together and maketh the safety compleat for it is the sealing of the heart by the Blood of the Lamb that bringeth the soule into the union of the Father and then is it with all the affection kept in under the wings of the Almighty and then is the Blood of the Lambe rightly sprinkled upon the intellectuall powers of the soule viz. the Conscience understanding and the will and fitly framed and being so marked with the sprinkles of the Blood the destroyer passeth over and the sprinkling of the Blood in this manner doth bring us out of all danger of ghostly enemies so that our soules passe safely out of Aegypt from the bondage of Pharaoh and the Aegyptians and over the red Sea through the Wildernesse into the Land of rest and this the Apostle affirmeth where he saith We are not come to Mount Sina c. but we are come to the Mount Sion c. And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things for us then the blood of Abel Heb. 12.18 19 c. And of this our Saviour made a promise to his Disciples that they should live in the union of him and the Father Job 17.24 And the truth of this Promise they were all partakers of for having their understanding sprinkled marked clensed or made pure by the Blood of the Lamb thereby they were made able to see and understand the truth as it was in Jesus and by the cleare vision of that Light their Consciences being purified by the same Blood did beare witnesse to the truth of that Light and their hearts being sprinkled by the same Blood it was freed from the power of Sin and Death and errours of an evill Conscience Heb. 10 22. and did enjoy the vertue of that Light so that the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts whereby they were made able to love one another and thus it was they became freed from sinne both in the understanding in the Conscience and in the will and this made the Apostle Iohn say that the blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne 1 Ioh. 1.7 And when our Saviour instituted this Type hee would have them to remember and not to forget what was to be fulfilled in them by the power and efficacy of his Blood but I feare your understanding is too weak to conceive any further explaining of the Mystery of the second Type instituted by Christ else I would have proceeded further in laying open more in this particular therefore I give you but these short touches and glimpses that thereby you may somewhat grope after the great Mystery herein contained So I will proceed and give you some glimpse of the manner of the preparation of the Passeover in its signification for the Paschall Lamb was not to be eaten raw nor to be sodden in water but to be roasted with fire Exod. 12.9 Now I would have you to understand the Mystery in water upon this occasion and why the Lamb was not to be sodden therein First Water in its signification here pointeth out the overflowing of Sin and Lust which compasseth about the Soule and by the out-breaking of its flouds the Soule becometh in danger of drowning and David knew this when he prayed to God to deliver him out of the deep waters Psa 69.14 15. Likewise water is unstable which signifieth the unconstancy of man in Nature and how subject to waver and turne from one sinne to another and how easily to be drawne to all iniquity and this made Iacob use these words to Reuben unstable as water c. Gen. 49.4 Likewise water is but weake yet of a destroying nature when man is over-head in it for there is no hold to be taken of it whereby man can save himselfe so is sinne a weake deliverer when the soule is in the depth of it for there is no hold to bee taken by it whereby the soule can save it selfe but rather to be drowned in the depth thereof Likewise whatsoever is sodden in water it looseth part of the vertue thereof for the water draweth part of the vertue into its selfe Under these considerations
them before others insomuch that some may judge them to have received something of God but yet this is but the proper work of wit which hath power to metamorphise man into any shape which it conceiveth to be most in fashion and wherein most safety seems to be But others amongst you I know that their pride and malice is so great that they will beat down truth both with word and sword and their zeal is so great for the advancing of the glory of God that they will both preach pray and fight against the truth and by all means seek to devour and destroy all persons in whom the truth appears But it is no marvel for truth always found many enemies amongst men but especially among Priests in all ages and it will be so as long as the order of Priests is in date Yet I confess though your coming into the Ministry be absolutely against the minde and command of God as was the first order of Kings in Israel and that God hath winked at you above thirteen hundred years and suffered you to come into the Ministry by the ordinance of man yet as God owned some of the Kings in Israel so I make no doubt but that God hath owned some amongst you but yet I beleeve Solomons account may be their number and those amongst you whom God hath owned or to this day do own they are made to see and confess the emptiness of their wits and schollarship in the understanding of the minde and will of God and findeth their art learned in the Universities to be one of the greatest enemies against the truth of God the which they have to deal withal and they can speak by experience that Universitie learning is but a meer cheat and a foolish thing to make a right Minister of the word of truth and so is made to renounce all the curiositie of art and schollarship And as they have received the truth from the Fountain of truth so are they made to speak and these souls cannot envy any man in whom the truth is but rejoyceth to see them and hear them speak and accounteth them as the Ministers of God though they were never put to the Holy Universitie for the same spirit proceeding from the same Fountain maketh no difference and these men accounteth it their joy to be in the societie of people who be experienced and they seek no Lordship over the people nor are they so hungry hearted after Tithes and great Benefice but can rather condescend to work with their own hands for their Bread But I beleeve you have not many of these amongst you for the curse hath covered the faces of the most of you in your generation under which you are close sealed from the right knowledge of truth and can no more beleeve your deceit then the Apostle Paul before his Conversion But seldom doth God execute justice upon any people before he give them warning of their sin and after that a time to repent But who is it that dare bring such a Message from the Lord as shall declare the iniquitie of the Priests and give them warning to repent and forsake their sin and falshood and foretel them of their destruction if they repent not Who I say dare be so bold as proclaim such a thing seeing the Authority of Nations stands for them and accounteth them men worthy of honor and sit men for the promulgating of the Gospel and most of the people esteem them little less then gods yea and themselves account themselves the onely men fit to be forewarners and instructers of all others May not such a one as bringeth such a sad Message to them expect to be envied and evil spoken of yea and persecuted to death I know the man that shall be sent with this Message cannot escape no more shall I for when first the Lord put this into my heart the which my Pen hath put down in these lines I was very unwilling to yeeld obedience thereunto because my Reason set before mine eyes the great hazard I should run if I should meddle in any such thing but the Lord would not suffer me to be quiet until I undertook this Message and better had I abide your fury and the displeasure of all men then to be disobedient to the voice of the Lord And as the Lord liveth in me my malicious part hath not caused me to write these lines though you may so judge of me for I protest in the presence of God I unfainedly wish all your good and should very much rejoyce to know of your repentance and should no less be heartily sorry for your destruction if I should live to see it For that which I have received of God teacheth me to love all men and wish well to all men and I am glad at the welfare of all men and cannot but be sorry at the suffering of any though he be my greatest enemy and would lend him my help if I could do him any good if he came into distress either of body or minde Therefore my spirit being free I hope to bear all that any of you shall either inflict upon my name or person and though you shall hate me yet I cannot chuse but love you as you are my fellow Creatures and of the same flesh and blood with me And my advice to you is that you slight not these lines but search your own hearts and if the light of God go along with you you shall finde that I have not wronged you at all for what I here declare unto you shall be found true either to convince you or to be a witness against you But my Friends I would have you to know that I have not said the tenth part of what I have committed to me to speak concerning you for I have been as much sparing as possible I could be in what I had to declare to you and if this my first Message be slighted by you and return upon my self it is very possible it will draw out a fivefold heavier message with it but I will not be too tedious at present If I may pray for you I wish that God would open your eyes and make sensible your hearts that you might be acquainted with the great Mystery of sin and selfness in you and out of the true knowledge and right sence thereof that you may be made fit to discover the mysterie of sin and selfness in all other And that you may be rightly made partakers of the mystery of the Divine Nature that from the enjoyment thereof you may be made able to know and comprehend with all Saints what is the height and depth c. And to know the fellowship of the love of God which passeth knowledge that so you may be able to hold out to others the mysterie therein contained and then shall you be acquainted with the Will and Minde of God and what you know that shall you speak and then you should see that
is no Astrology for that you will not believe though never so true But this that I tell you shall undoubtedly come to pass and sooner perhaps then you look for it I will not tell you at present what I believe of you least when it cometh to pass you say I was a witch for I know you will not allow a true speaker the name of Prophet But me thinks I hear some of you object and say In what thou hast said thou hast not spoken truth for there hath many been converted by our Preaching and many godly people have we begotten and the Lord hath given a blessing to our Labors and by this we know we are the Lords Messengers to his people and the true Laborers in his Vineyard O my Friends do not think in what I have said that I have any minde to detract from you what is your due or to wrong any of you in the least For I confess Like may beget like for that is oft a truth in nature and so in you For I do not deny but many of you have a form of godliness and as you are in that form you may beget others also into the same form and so make them like your selves and yet all of you without the power of God and love of God and wisdom of God For if the love of God were shed abroad in your hearts it would turn your hearts into its own image but as yet you have not that love and therefore you have hatred in your hearts both against God and man And from hence it is That you can freely persecute and destroy all that worship not God in your way and this you have no order for nor example either from Christ or any of his followers but you and all your Converts go not a jot further then the Scribes and Pharisees but in that you believe Christ is come in the flesh and have an Historical or Notional Faith of him in your head but the world and selfness lyeth in your hearts and you are as hide-bound to the Gospel-forms as the Scribes and Pharisees were to circumcision and the formes under the Law and as they being hide-bound or heart-bound to these forms so became they to be the enemies of Christ when he appeared in the flesh And the very same are you and all your Converts fast tied in your heart to the Gospel-forms and hereby you are become the enemies of Christ appearing in the spirits of men and so are you become the persecutors of Christ in the Saints and yet in this you think you do God good service and the greatest perfection in your Converts is when they are made exceeding zealous for the honor and glory of God as they say so that whosoever worships God in any other way then theirs then are they sure of persecution by you or them if it be within the compass of your power and this you have in your generation and that faith and love and full assurance of your salvation alwaies is accompanied with pretended zeal for the honor and glory of God and from hence you count all other the enemies of God who have not the same garb that you have And all this great conversion you brag of is nothing else but a conversion from evil to far worse for you have turned some of your Hearers from some outward grosse offences and have brought them into a conformity to duty as you call it and by the refraining the outward grossnesse and closing to and with the outward duties your Conscience beginneth to cease biting so long as you walk obsequiously therein and from hence the foule Feind transformes himselfe into the Angel of Light and secretly wraps himselfe in your actings and by his power when once gotten rightly joyned to Selfe Righteousnesse then hath he power to worke Wonders and can worke like God and give consolation to the Soule and bring it into raptures and ravishments and can bring the Promises to remembrance which is suitable to confirme his workings and from such working he can make the Soule beleeve its regeneration and its calling and election to be made sure and that with a witnesse too in which assurance the Soule will oft rejoyce and shall have many false flashes of Love which the Soule can no way know but it is the feeling of the love of God and if you have brought any Soule thus far as to this full assurance and to be partakers of such feeling you thinke you have brought them farre on in grace and thus farre I know you may bring a Soule by your Ministery and yet this Soule is but two-fold the Childe of Satan more then it was before I will make this plaine unto you for when the Soule before was in the grosse actings then was that person in a more hopefull way for God to bring it to himselfe by his owne way then it is now for then when God would have brought these persons from their sinne in his bringing them either by himselfe or by those whom he would use for that worke then I say there was hope these Soules might have been led in a way whereby they should have escaped the snare of Satan But being that these soules are in the snare they are more in captivity to him then they were before and the reason is because then God had some power in the Consciences of them and oft times condemned them for their outward grossnesse but now they being brought out of these outward sinnes into the obedience of outward formes their Conscience loseth that priviledge and now instead thereof the Feind hath power to feed the Soule as is aforesaid the which he had no power to doe before and in this condition the Soule is well pleased to be and can stand for it selfe stoutly that it is sealed to God and made sure of Salvation and so is become exceeding fool-hardy rejoycing in its fooles paradise and being fed by false consolation and herein that person is once more the childe of Satan then before And secondly whereas before these soules were converted by you they would not persecute or bring any to death for not walking in their waies but now your Converts must seeke the honour of God and so in zeale for his glory they must become persecutors and destroyers of their fellow Creatures because they will not honour God in their way and thus are they become Murderers and yet they doe not know it but the same spirit that ruleth in them must they of necessity bee obedient to and it is proved before that that spirit in them that ruleth is Satan and he it is that setteth them on work For as our Saviour saith He was a murtherer from the beginning and his works will you do Joh. 8.44 And herein are your Converts twofold the children of Satan more then they were before It was not the Publicans and sinners that put Christ to death no no it was the religious zealots under the Law
also how many ways you will object against what I have written to you but I warrant you I have an answer for every one of your objections and I would have answered them all before I had left you but that I know if you will not lay this to heart it had but been follie in me to write any more for if I as I make no doubt but I very wel could have stopped all your mouths in what you could object yet I know your will is so bent in the way that when you had nothing to say you would stone me to death if you durst for you are of the same generation with whom Stephen had to do who was not able to resist his spirit he spake with yet they could stone him to death Acts 7.58 For the truth is that the God of your Fathers whom you worship viz. Self-pride self-praise self-profit self-wisdom self-power self-righteousness c. Self being the first person in the Trinity who by his spirit of wisdom doth so inspire you and in obedience to the same you become always resisters of the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 But being past hopes of doing good to the generality of you because I know your blindness and hardness of heart at present I will adde no more to what I have said for to you who are sealed up for destruction here is too much but if happily there be some amongst you who are not sealed and setled in blindness having some want and emptiness in their souls and the same lying upon their spirits in making them to finde little but ease comfort or content in any thing they either act or speak and that can finde nothing but wo and sorrow in all they go about either in the world or their forms of Religion I say if there be any such souls amongst you I know they have that within them that will cause them to close with what I here have offered to them and confess that I have said nothing but that which is as true as truth it self And to such souls this I know will be useful for one reproof enters more into a wiseman then a hundred stripes doth into a fool Prov. 17.10 But for all other before-said they are but fools and will not believe and therefore I leave them to be destroyed by their own folly and will return to the poor deluded people under them and give them a friendly advice and shew them how they have been cheated and cousened by these foul Beasts whom the Devil hath most subtilly brought into the Ministery and have reigned by his means so many hundred years whereby the true knowledge of God is worn out from amongst the sons of men and all under a form of faith in Christ and a brain-knowledge of God and performing some duties which they tell you is holy and therein have they strangled your souls and made you believe you were in the ways of God when alas you were but in your own ways and the way of God as yet you never knew Then hearken O ye poor deluded souls who have a desire to know your own deceit and have a willingness in you to know what the way of God is and where this God is and where the way to meet with your God is and see and know that your ways you have lived in and rejoyced in how they are but poor weak beggerly things and so long as you live in them you live but in your self and as long as you live in them you are not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven neither to know the Mysteries of God nor the misery of the sin that is in you and without you know that you shall not know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God As I have shewed you the original of the Ministers from whence they came so I will shew you your Religion and your duties and observations from whence they came and upon what grounds your forms are pitched and what is all that you can reap out of the very best of your forms and how far you may act in your forms and yet have your spirits deprived of the love of God which is the salvation of all souls that are saved and I will shew you from what principles your performances arise and by what power they are performed And first for your Religion I finde it to be nothing else but a feigned fantastick thing raised up by and through the vain conceits of your blinde Ministers who have no grounds for what they affirm but onely false conclusions which they draw from true principles in others and likewise the best grounds they have for any thing contained in the profession it is no more but examples from others who had command to observe such things and know the minde of him who commanded these things and observed these things according to the minde and intent of him who gave them command to observe such things but your Ministers being ignorant of the minde of the Commander observe the same by example not knowing the minde of the Commander and therefore they have given out these things to you and their own minde in them and from them have you observed these things in your Religion But now I will come to some particulars and I wish you to observe well what is delivered unto you by my Pen and the Lord give you hearts to understand the truth I shall deliver to you And first I come to that which is a principal point and part of your Religion viz. The observation of the Sabbath as you call it but that is not a proper name for it except you profess Circumcision and so become one with the Jews for to them was this delivered amongst the other Commandments but instituted at the beginning and when God had given out the rest of the Commandments to Moses he repeateth over this Commandment of keeping the Sabbath and telleth Moses for what end and purpose he had given that charge of keeping it viz. That it should be a sign between him and the people that they might know who sanctified them and whosoever did not refrain from all manner of work upon that day was to be put to death Exod. 31.13 14 c. And this was to be a sign between God and them in all their Generations Now if it were delivered to the Jews as a sign then was there something signified in it and appointed out by it to them I will tell you what it held out to them it held out three things in its signification As for the first it was the righteousness of God by which he sanctified them without any thing in them or by them whatsoever and as they were to cease from all labor whatsoever on pain of death so were they not to look at any thing within themselves whatsoever whereby they should look to be made holy for if they did it was the very death of their souls and God knew it well that they would be looking at something
Israel go And this Passover was kept of the Jews for a memorial of what was done and at the very time of the Jews keeping this Passover it was that Jesus instituted this Type which Type holdeth out a more clear beholding of himself to the world then the other Type of the Passover did for that Type of the Jews Passover was but as a shadow whereby to know the substance and a shadow is but a dark representation of a thing and so this dark shadow was to be done away that the Image is a clearer representation of the substance then the shadow and yet both the shadow and the image are but representations of the substance the one more clearer then the other the darker done away and the clearer established And this was one reason why Christ instituted this Type or Image at that time that after he was departed the sons of men might have a more clear sight of him after his appearing in the flesh then they had before for then they lived under the shadow or dark representation but now under the Gospel we have the Image or clearer representation as you may see Heb. 11.1 Likewise at the time of the institution of this Passover God had a marvellous work to do viz. To bring the Israelites out of Egypt from under the bondage of Pharaoh and the Egyptians so at this very time of Christs instituting of this Type God had a wondrous work to do viz. To bring the souls of believers out of the captivity of the Devil Sin Death and Hell for after the death of the Paschal Lamb the first-born of Pharaoh and all Egypt were slain and so their proud hearts were made to stoop So by the death of Christ the first-born of the Devil viz. Sin was destroyed and Death and Hell conquered and so a way was made for all souls to come out of their captivity for sin is the first-born childe of the devil his beloved and his power and strength For this is a truth in nature that the first-born is the strength and power and dignity of the Parents as Jacob saith to Reuben his first-born Gen. 49.3 So sin being the first-born childe of the devil therein consisteth his power and strength and when this is slain then is he overcome and so death being the childe of sin loseth his power for as sin is the first-born of the devil so death is the first-born of sin for death is brought out by sin Jam. 1.15 And as death is the first born of sin so Hell is the first-born of death and alway follows its father Revel So all these first-born were to be destroyed by another first born and that was Jesus the first-born of God a Type of whom we have in the Levitical Law by the first-born of all things which should be called holy to the Lord Numb 3.13 And as this first born Son or Lamb of God overcame the Devil Sin Death and Hell by himself so that they had no power over him so by the same power he overcometh all these for those who are the true followers of him in his life and example obeying his commands and taking up his cross and bearing it to the very death those shall know the power and vertue of his life death and resurrection and shall live with him in the union of the Father and when he instituted this Type he would have them to remember this whensoever they would do the like Likewise as the first-born of Pharaoh and Egypt were slain so on the contrary the poeple of Israel was saved from the power of the destroyer by the efficacy of the blood of the Paschal Lamb where it was sprinkled upon the two side posts and the lintel of the gate viz. The Will the Understanding and the Conscience the Noble Faculties of the soul for as the two posts and the lintel do differ in their property yet in close joyning together they make but one so in their properties they may be distinguished but in unity they are not distinguishable And these three in their distinct properties being sprinkled by the blood of the Lamb the destroyer viz. the justice of God can have no power to enter to destroy any of the Inhabitants contained within the habitation of that minde viz. Faith Hope and Love c. In case that none of the Inhabitants went out of door beyond the sprinkled post and to the very same purpose our Saviour gave command to abide in him Joh. 15 4. for herein is the safety of the soul with all its affections c. And this blood of the Lamb being sprinkled upon the posts as before said is the mark or sign of Gods sanctification or setting that soul apart in the more noble parts until he have executed justice of and upon the world flesh and devil death sin and hell who have their habitation in the inferior parts of the soul viz. the sensuality and the reason and imagination which by their great power have kept the inhabitants of the noble part in bondage But to illustrate a little more the sprinkling of the two side posts and the lintel in their threefold property I will shew you how the Scripture in other places pointeth at them and first for the property of the one post and its sprinkling viz. the Conscience First for its property As the one post of the gate having hinges whereupon the one leaf of the gate is hung so that thereby it hath the glibness to open and shut so the Conscience hath two hinges viz. the outward teachings and the inward dictates of God upon which the one leaf of the gate hangeth viz. the fear of God And the understanding as the other post hath other two hinges on which the other leaf hangeth and these two hinges is true wisdom and right knowledge upon which the other leaf hangeth viz. the pure desire of God and these two leaves being close shut and safely kept together the adversary hath less power to enter But these two posts are not fit for the bearing of the two leaves of the gate until the lintel couple them together So neither the Conscience nor the Understanding can be suitable for carrying the fear and desire of God in their right order until the will with its property yeilding obedience in its ghostly acting bee conjoyned to both and so when all their threefold properties meet in union then are the two leaves of the gate hung in right order Now to come to the sprinkling of the first side post viz. the Conscience As for Conscience before it be sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb it is but the leader of men into error as well as into truth as may be seen in the Apostle who by and through the leading thereof persecuted the Saints And likewise the Scribes and Pharisees that put Christ to death and though man have never so much zeal for God yet his conscience not struck or sprinkled all his works is but sin and dead
he was the Son of God and what his coming was for and what his office should be John 1.33 Now when Jesus Christ was in the flesh he baptised none for this his baptism was to be in its time and place suitable for its operation and that was to be after his Ascension though he had promised the same before his death yet that promise was not to be fulfilled till after his death and at the first administration thereof the Holy Ghost fell upon the persons baptized in a visible form of cloven tongues of fire Acts 2. By which visible appearance was held out the nature of the operation of that Ghostly Baptism viz. A twofold speech or speaking rising out of a twofold ground viz. The sensible feeling of love joy and life c. And likewise the sensible feeling of sorrow suffering and death And from these two grounds was to arise all their speaking who was baptized with the Holy Ghost and this was the pure language that God had promised to return to the people Zeph. 3. And those who had this pure language returned to them in this Ghostly Baptism was able to speak of the wondrous works of God Acts 2.11 Now this third distinct property of God viz. The Holy Ghost or the third out-letting of the Godhead in the third distinct property is the most clearest way of manifestation that man attaineth to in the flesh for this is that which giveth man the true knowledge of the mystery of God and the mystery of sin and selfness and the operation of this distinct property worketh the spirit of man out of the mystery of Self into the mystery of God and this work it worketh by bringing man into the fellowship of the suffering with Christ whereby the body of that sin and self becometh to be crucified and likewise it comforteth man and maketh him able to bear the Cross with Christ until the death of sin and self be accomplished and so the spirit be made partaker of the life and vertue of the Resurrection of Christ and with him become ascended above all powers and principalities and so to reign with him And therefore it was necessary that Christ should both suffer and rise again and ascend before he gave out the Holy Ghost because as he suffered so he left the same example of his suffering to be undergone by those who should be his followers And while he was with them in the flesh they could not suffer as they should do afterward for then he was the Bridegroom and they were the children of the Bride-chamber Luke 5.34 And so long as he was with them in the flesh they could not grow up to be perfect men nor to the stature and fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 For while Christ was in the flesh his followers looked too much at his bodily presence and therefore it was meet that his bodily presence should be taken away that so his ghostly presence might be manifested to them and therefore he told them except he went away from them the Comforter would not come John 16.7 But his Disciples being but as yet the children of the Bride-chamber was but yong in the holy understanding neither being acquainted with great joy or great suffering because as yet they were not in a condition so sutable for either as they should be thereafter but this they could not believe but sorrow filled their hearts when Christ told them of going away from them John 16.6 But herein is the great wisdom of God made known in the orderly and successive out-lettings of himself to the sons of men stooping to his capacity in every condition that so by little and little man may be wrought and drawn up into himself and to live and abide in that center from whence he had his Being And therefore as he had made his Name known in the first dark dispensation by appearing in our flesh but most clear of all by taking the two former away that the third might appear wherein we might see him and live in him in the spiritual Life and worship him as he is a Spirit the which we cannot do while we are so much in our selves both in reason and sence while we are under the first and second dispensation and therefore it was that Christs bodily presence in the second dispensation was to be taken away that made his followers look too much upon him as he was in that appearance whereby their Reason and Sence got too much life and therefore that both Reason and Sence might lose their lives his first bodily presence must be out of the way that his ghostly presence might appear in the Divine Nature in which and by which he would become the baptiser of Souls with the Holy Ghost and with fire by which baptism he would burn up and consume all the old rubbish and reliques of sin and self both in Sence and Reason and bring the Spirit out of and from the captivity of the same And while Christ was in the flesh he shewed them an example of life which he would have those that would be his Disciples to follow and likewise he told them how great things his followers was to suffer under the Ghostly Baptism and so he left them the example of his own suffering and death also the which they should have as a rule to walk by until the body of sin should be crucified and destroyed Phil. 3.17 And so it was that after Christ in the Divine Nature began to administer the Baptism of the Holy Ghost the person who was baptised therewith by the vertue thereof became so carried out after the example both of the life and death of Christ that they thought nothing too dear to forsake so that they might but attain to the fellowship of Christ both in his life death and resurrection And this was the whole delight of these souls who had been baptised of Christ by the proceeding or coming of the Holy Ghost out of the Divine Nature into their souls by which they were led out of all things acted or created or enjoyed wherein self had gotten life or might get life And this the Apostle Paul witnesseth when he said he counted all things but dross and dung in comparison of Christ c. And that he might be lost in all things and found in Christ by way of conformity to his suffering and death that thereby he might attain to the resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.7 8 9 c. And so it is to this present day that those souls whom God draweth into a near union of himself he draweth them out of the first and second out-letting of himself in the first and second dispensation and so bringeth them into the third dispensation or Ghostly Baptism in which the body of sin and selfness becometh found out and forsaken for whilest the first and second dispensation is in force the body of sin is not so clearly found out nor can be so forsaken as it
ought But who is it that will believe the truth hereof for the sons of men is blinded of the right sight and knowledge of the truth and by reason of the love they have to lust sin and selfness they are become enemies of the Cross of Christ and if any have attained to the first dispensation beforesaid they think themselves to have attained all that is necessary and that they need no more and so becometh to settle upon the lees of their own performances and so becometh the resisters of the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 And if any be brought out of the first Baptism under the first dispensation which containeth in it the Covenant of works and so be made partakers of the second Baptism by which they are brought into and prepared to meet Christ in his first appearance and when they have known the Son of God or God in his distinct property of the Son manifesting himself to their soul by which the soul hath comfort and content and refreshment and deliverance from its former troubles and now it finding the effects of the propitiation of the Son in covering and hiding its sin and in justifying the soul and taking of the power of condemnation from it then doth that soul conclude That all is done and can be pleased with that present condition supposing they have that which never will fail and say in their heart They shall not be removed because the Lord of his goodness hath made their mountain so strong Psal 30. And from these false conclusions many a soul becometh to lose it self and turn back again into the world and into the captivity of the Creature from which it was delivered and so man foolishly concluding That being in the Land of Canaan he shall see the bondage of Egypt no more but while man is but in the enjoyment of the first manifestation of God in the first appearance of his Son he is but a babe and but ignorant of what the minde of God is in that present condition and therefore they are very subject to be content with that present station because it pleaseth them so well supposing that there is none that have attained any further then what they have already attained too when as alas they know not as yet what it is to die with Christ on the Cross nor what the fellowship of his sufferings is nor what the vertual power of his resurrection meaneth And so it is that from the idolizing of that present enjoyment they in a very short time become to be cast out of that enjoyment and yet do they not know that they are so cast out because of the false fiend who hath got again into the house from whence he was gone out and counterfeiteth God through the help of the imagination and so maketh these souls believe That God is their present portion and that they have such a fast hank of him that nothing can be able to separate them when at that very instant of time the heart is in captivity with the Creature I fear that this is the very condition of many now adays who having known God after this manner beforesaid and yet have forsaken him again and turned to the Creature and yet do but little know that they be so far carried away from God as they are But when God in his orderly proceeding goeth on in bringing the soule through all the dangers and difficulties of the creature and Selfe then doth he not suffer the soule to have what it would have nor injoy what it would injoy in that first manifestation of himself in the name of his Son but as the bodily presence of Jesus was to be taken away in his appearing in the second dispensation in the flesh that so he might come againe in the Spirit or ghostly Baptisme by which they should still be led on till they were in the nearest and safest union of the Father and the Son that could be attained to in the body so it is that the ghostly presence in the first manifestation in the Spirit must be taken away that so the spirit may come to a further and more sure partaking of the Divine nature then it could in the first manifestation For as Christs followers could have been pleased to have still injoyed the bodily presence of Christ in the first appearing in the flesh so would a soul be pleased with the first manifestation of Gods appearing in the name of his Son to the spirit But as Christs bodily presence must be taken away that thereby the life of Selfe which lived in the sence and reason of his Disciples under that present injoyment might become destroyed and over-throwne by the coming againe in the power of the Spirit or ghostly Baptism So it is that the first appearance of God in Christ in the first appearance of the soule must be hidden and taken away because of so much life of selfe in the sence and reason and that by a further and more cleare and safe way to manifest himselfe in the soule and that is by the pouring out of the Holy Ghost into it by the vertue of which the soule becometh Baptised into the suffering and death of Christ whereby the life of sence and reason becometh to dye and the spirit brought out of the clawes of Sinne Death Devill and Hell and the power of the Resurrection of Christ becometh to be known and the body of Sin becometh to bee destroyed by the powerfull working and burning of this ghostly Baptisme and this was the very Baptisme the Apostle Paul spake of when he said Know you not so many of us as were Baptised into Christ were Baptised into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptisme into his death c. For if we have been planted together into the likenesse of his death we shall also be in the likenesse of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin c. Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 c. And those soules who know God in this worke can witnesse to the truth of the three-fold name of Father Son and Holy Ghost because they know the power and working of God in these three Baptismes under these three names and none else can speak rightly of them because they have but the knowledg thereof by relation though God let out himselfe in this three-fold manner as is before said yet God is but one and the same God and though there bee these three Baptismes yet they all make up but one perfect Baptisme by which the soule is perfectly compleated in one faith Ephes 4.5 whereby the soule becometh led out of all things acted or created and all sufferings or injoyments in any condition below the injoyment of the fellowship of Christ in his Suffering Death and Resurrection and this is the very end and effect of all former out-lettings of God in any of the
will not oppose it neither will the flesh oppose it and I am sure the world is a friend to it and then it is possible there is nothing that is evil that will oppose it And no marvel though the multitude dance so madly after your pipe I know you see no greater evil then that which is the idolizing of Forms but that is because you know not the evil of your own hearts and how the great mystery of evil lyeth there and because you know it not you are carried out to see the evil of others who is not of the same faith with you and some of you yea those who be of your cheif Teachers are so exceedingly carried out by the power of Free-grace as they pretend that they go about to do marvels viz. to pluck up where never any thing hath been planted and to take away acting from these people who never troubled themselves with acting any thing for God or for any kinde of formal worship to God But if such were but half wise they might spare their speaking for such people have a teacher within them that will teach them to forsake acting any thing for God or the worship of God And therefore they need not any of your outward teaching to help them But do you not think you do a great peece of Gods service herein be judge your selves I would know of you whether acting or believing be the first brought out in any man if you say Faith I would know what Faith it is for the justifying Faith it cannot be for that is manifest after works and never doth any man know it truly until he have acted and found the emptiness of his actings and these things which he thought should have brought out life bringeth out death Rom. 7.10 And yet when this faith is brought out yet doth not that Faith make acting voide For faith without works is dead Jam. 2.17 But if you say a man may have justifying faith without works that I deny for where-ever faith is that justifieth the same cannot be without works I know man may have an historical faith without works but the justifying faith no man can have without works but it is one thing to have works and it is another thing to be justified by works and here is the Mystery finde it out if you can but for the want of the right knowledge of the Mystery you become to make a division and jarring between faith and works which in themselves do not differ but agreeth in a sweet harmony in those souls who have found out the mystery in them both And never shall you bring any soul to be a true believer before you have brought him into an active way before except you can command God to work miracles in his immediate way But my Friends I know full well where you erre and what is the ground of your opinion even you who are the purest in this your Free-grace tenet For even you who have some experience of the grace of God I know you knew it was the goodnesse of God that freed your souls from what they were captived with and that all your actings could not do it till God himself bestowed his Free-grace upon you This I confesse is truth but did every any of you finde the Free-grace of God made known to you before you had acted to your utmost endeavor and was made to see the emptiness of your actings I know as many of you as have known true freedom will confess this and can you tell me truly That if you had not acted and thereby seen the emptiness of your actings whether you should have known the freenesse of grace yea or nay but because that you were not freed by your actings is therefore actings of none effect God forbid for though the Apostle were not justified by the Law yet did he not make voide the Law but counted it of necessary use for thereby cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 7.13 So actings though they do not justifie yet by them man becometh to know the emptiness that is in them for before any action be brought out the goodnesse or badnesse of it cannot be known and it is as natural to man to depend upon his actings as the skin cleaveth to his flesh and man cannot be freed from depending thereon until he truly see the evil in them and he cannot see the evil in them until they be brought out and until he see the evil in them he cannot be justified by Free-grace And for this very purpose God hath given man power to act and given out commands that he should act that thereby man might be brought to see what was in his actings and how far he could recover out of his faln condition by his actings that so where he came short he might know the goodness of God in his Restauration and therefore while you pretend and preach Faith so much you bring but the souls of the people into a snare and they are in as great danger to perish by your doctrine as is the souls of those people who are taught to merit Heaven by their actings for you run as far in your extream as they do in their extream But I would have you to take notice of one thing viz. In case you have been freed by grace whether hath your spirit or your flesh got better hold of the freedom if your spirit have gotten the freedom then is your flesh in bondage and then be sure it will be striving for freedom and I believe you shall have no great quiet so long as it hath any power to move For though your spirit may be freed from the condemning of your conscience yet I beleeve your spirits is not freed from the strivings of the flesh but in case the flesh have stoln your freedom from the spirit then its possible all will be quiet within and then no marvel if you cry up Free-grace so fast But let me tell you one thing He that knoweth most of Free-grace knoweth most of bondage with it This may seem a paradox to you but if you know not what I mean you may take it for granted That your flesh hath got the greater part of your Free-grace and then while you tell other people of freedom by grace you your selves become the servants of sin 2 Pet. 2.19 LOok into your own hearts and try whether this be true or not for if you finde your hearts and affections carried out to any thing below God and that you have any complacence in either pleasure praise or profit or what else is below the center of Spirits you may believe That all is not as it should be but yet I know you will not greatly care for it is God must do all and the Creature can do nothing and therefore you need but onely beleeve and all will be well enough but the time will come that every one must be rewarded according to his works and he that saith Lord Lord shall not enter into Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father must enter Behold I come quickly and my reward is with with me and will give to every man according as his works shall be FINIS