doth all to sinners in meer grace that no sin is imputed to sinners but they are pure only by imputation and so no beleevers are punished for sin but from sin and all works of grace in a beleever is because they are saved or pardoned not that they may be saved or pardoned and all they are to do is from love not from bondage or from a meer outward Commandment and the Gospel or grace of God in Christ is free and in free promises and so to be preached to sinners as sinners They commonly called Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. hold all points of doctrine as to justification sanctification faith c. the ministry of the word and Sacraments which they call means of salvation all these hold alike with the common Protestant this being the summ of the Articles of the Church of England made by the Bishops and confirmed by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charls and there hath been uo Reformation further nor any higher attainment in these things then the Bishops made and the Synod in England formerly And all the Reformation that hath been endeavoured hath been only in some outward things as Discipline or Church-government and some outward ordinances of Baptism and the Supper not any purer or more glorious discoveries of God or the Spirit or Jesus Christ or our union with the Spirit or glory as to spiritual things or Christ risen but as to Christ in the flesh or under the law of which these ordinances were a sign A Discovery as to the general point or Christ dying for all THey say the Scriptures hold forth all sinning and Christ dying for all and the promises of Christ generally to all upon condition and exhortations to all to repent beleeve and come to Christ and therefore conclude the Lord Iesus or second man was given from the Father to give a price of redemption for all those who fell in the first man and those they say were all mankind and with Christ a Ministry of reconciliation and graces to all that will not wilfully reject or refuse or put by the offers of grace and salvation so tendered but remain passive and so far as in them lies not oppose the Spirit and means of grace though they acknowledg they can do nothing of themselves to obtain faith or any other work of salvation but all that is meerly of the Spirit of God working in those who are called and upon these general terms of grace they affirm also the election of some which they conclude from that work of God in them who are called of God through the means of grace they not resisting that call or present offer of grace And this they say is the Gospel of salvation preached to all which all may receive if they resist not The last discovery and as some say the highest and most glorious concerning the whole mystery of God to men and this Creation GOD being infinitely one yet in a three-fold manifestation to us of Father Son and Spirit would make out himself in an image in this Creation or nature and therefore he takes to himself one part of it into union to himself according to one way of manifestation called in Scripture light love grace salvation father bridegroom glory and that part of nature which enjoys God in this manifestation of grace or salvation is called the Angels the Saints the Elect the Son the Tabernacle of God the new Jerusalem the Temple the Spouse He takes to himself the other part of the Creation and there he is present but not in this way of grace and light but of another manifestation called law justice wrath everlasting burnings and these are called devils wickedmen flesh which live in God and subsist in him as creatures in their being but not in his grace and glory not in that manifestation of his the light shining in darkness but the darkness comprehending it not This is the mystery God is in as to this Creation and the brighter part of it as to Angels Saints and to the darker part of it as to devils and wicked men and All that God doth here below under the Sun is to preach this in several ways or ministrations as in the appearances of this Creation in light and darkness and in the Scriptures The Scriptures are no other then a way or ministration by letter of this mystery and all the passages there from the first man to the second from the Old Testament to the New with those two very appearances of the two men or Adams were but a ministry or way of God to signifie or figure this mystery and so all the rest we read of as of Cain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Iacob and Esau Israel and Iudah Saul and David Iudas and the Eleven Christ and Antichrist and thus these set forth and figure this mystery They say Adam was a way by which God preached first to man and was not the first man in whom all stood fel but a way by which this mystery of God was made to appear first to the Creation Adam held forth nature or a part of this Creation in communion with God as to grace and love while he stood and another part of the Creation or nature out of communion with God as to love and grace but in communion or union to God as to law and justice or wrath and thus they interpret those Scriptures of mans first glory and fall less in the very letter and more in the mystery and according to Adam in this two-fold state were all the rest Cain and Abel c. They say that God in the Old Testament preached this mystery though more darkly and in shadows as in the law and sacrifices and in the children of the bond-woman and of the free of Israels walking with God and apostating And that the Gospel or fulness of time of the clearer discovery of this mystery was the Lord Jesus himself or God manifest in the flesh or as in one man a figure of the whole mystery as to grace and love or God in flesh or in his or of God in that other part of his Creation his Church or Saints And all that God did in this single and particular manifestation in flesh as in one man was only a more full clearer excellent and full and spiritual Ministry of the mystery of salvation therefore Christ is called a Minister one sent an Apostle And all that Christ did from his childhood to his crucifying death and cross was a discovery of God by this figure in the whole mystery how God is in all his and how he works and hath his times of law of graces and Gospel of crucifying and offering up all to death through the eternal Spirit which is the blood of the everlasting Covenant or Seal whereby God witnesses to
he that sits upon the Throne in his Spirit saith behold I make all things all new old things in him as corruptions and lusts do pass away The Ministry that hath been since Antichrist or the mystery of iniquity reigned without or in the worship of God in all Societies of Christians called Churches whether in Presbytery Independency or Baptism is not the same with that first Ministry of the Gospel in pure gifts and is no other then the witnesses in sackcloth THe Lord Jesus ascendedup on high out of flesh into Spirit and gavegifts unto men he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Prophets some Pastors some Teachers In this administration of gifts the mystery of Iesus Christ or the Gospel was revealed and carryed on till the time Prophesied on by the Spirit of God wherein the mystery of iniquity should prevail and the falling away should be and the man of sin should be revealed and perillous times should come and this mystery of iniquity did so darken and overcast all this administration of the Gospel in gifts and ordinances or outward administrations as there was a visible Apostacy respectively to those very pure gifts of the Spirit and pure administrations respectively to the first institution and this is no more then the experience of our own age and the times before so far as any History can make apparent doth clearly demonstrate so as that administration of Spirit or Ordinances which hath been in several times since the first pure Gospel-day or time wherein the Spirit did minister in truth and demonstration hath been but in some faint and smal discoveries of the Spirit and Letter as in those of Huss Luther Wickcliff Calvin Peter Martyr and Bede with all the rest of our many Martyrs in the kingdom who were glorious lights respectively to the darkness of that generation yet if compared with the pure glory of the first Gospel-administration in gifts and ordinances were far below and in darkness and weakness to that so as I look upon all Gods ways of the administration of his Gospel to hold some proportion one with another the Tabernacle and Temple and Laws of outward administration were such ways and means God did appear in and so in the Priests and Prophets God at sundry times and in divers manners speaking to our fathers and afterward God took up our very flesh to administer in and so came and spoke to us by his Son and after all these the Lord went out from these after his usage of them and appearance in them and then they were no more an ordinance or way to God as they formerly were nor did ever the Lord enjoyn the restitution or reassuming of them again when the Temple was once rent the vail of it the Lord was no more in it nor in their Priesthood and Sacrifices c. nor when once the Lord Iesus had ended his administration in the flesh upon the Cross did he ever restore it in that very way again or intend it according to that first appearance but in a more glorified state And so in all reformations respectively to these former administrations they never returned back or reassumed the same again after once God had refused it and laid it by When Christ came in the flesh he did not make it his work to settle the Priesthood again but to lead them into the spirituall glory and fulfilling of all those legal dispensations and carry them on into more Gospel-administrations and that which was more excellent and perfect So it is in that first Gospel-administration of gifts and ordinances after Christ ascended there were such pure operations of Spirit as in gifts and some outward institutions and Church-administrations but these were only the Ministration for that age as the Tabernacle was for its age and the Temple Priesthood and Sacrifices for their age and the flesh of Christ for its age or time so as the falling away is no more but the Lord gathering up or taking in the out-goings operations or gifts of his Spirit in such a way of ministration and till this was done there was a withholding of the mystery of iniquity from being revealed therefore saith the Apostle to the Saints Ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time and he who letteth will let till he be taken out of the way and truly that mystery did not work freely nor powerfully till the Lord had removed the glory of his Spirit from the Churches the presence of which did exceedingly prevent and withhold and put an hinderance to the revelation and dominion of that man of sin And the Spirit of God foreseeing God about to leave this ministration of Gospel-glory to the world and bring a night upon all that day and brightness of his Son prophesied of the times to come and to succeed that glory viz in the last dayes perillous times shal come men shal be lovers of themselves covetous proud boasters c despisers of those that are good high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the Power thereof But there were false Prophets among the People even as there shal be false Teachers amongst you who privily shal bring in damnable Heresies c. and many shal follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shal he evil spoken off and through covetousness shal they make merchandize of you Beloved remember ye thewords which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last times these be they Seperating themselveshaving not the Spirit Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist should come even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time So as from all these places of the Apostles we may see their Prophesies of the Antichristian times which are the times of the flesh and of the Spirit of iniquity raigning amongst the Saints or in the Christian world the Lord of Glory Iesus Christ in Spirit being all this time crucified in Spirituall Sodome Aegipt or Babylon which is the Kingdom of the Flesh and the Powers of Darkness and this is the State and condition of the Church of Christ or those who are the Spiritual vessells or Golden cups of the Lords Temple and carried away captive and live under the Power of Flesh and of Spirituall wickednesses So as all the time of the raign and Preuailing of this mystery which mystery is in a threefold Principallity or eminency viz. of the beast the false Prophet the devil all which three work as well without unto the world as within in the flesh of every Saint all the time of this raign or prevailing is not a time of any restitution or restauration of the first ministry or gifts or ordinances as was in the Apostles times but is the
and a rain-bow round about the Throne which rain-bow is a glory of many colours or a figure of the glory of Jesus Christ in many appearances of things below 3. The law of nature and grace THe Christian is one who should live in an higher region then flesh or nature and when God saith come up hither he shal live there even in Spirit with him so as though grace destroys not nature yet it perfects and glorifies nature and leads it out into higher and more excellent attainments then it can find in it self nature lives by this law preserve thy self thy life thy lands thy rights and priviledges avenge thy self an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and love only thy neighbor Grace lives by this law deny thy self forsake lands life houses take up the Cross if he take thy cloak let him have thy coat also love thy enemies bless them that curse thee when thou art reviled revile not again when thou suffer'st threaten not 4. The Gospel method of victory SUfferings are ways of victory in another method and form he that conquers under persecution receives in the enmity wrath and opposition of his enemies into himself and there quenches it and destroys it in Spirit for the Christian being one with the Lord Jesus flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone is partaker of that power and glory which was in Christ and through him who hath overcome the world we are more then conquerors and this is our victory even our faith and the strength and life of Christ is shed abroad through all his People so as death hath no sting for them and the grave no victory over them the violence of fire is quenched mouthes of lyons stopped kingdoms subdued 5. How Resistings in some are of flesh and of the law of nature in others REsistings are ever from want of conformity to the will of God and though God order and dispose all the ways of man and act them to his own purpose and glory yet the weakness and self-ish courses of man are no way excusable because of that for man acts from a principle of his own and of flesh contrary to that revealed and manifested providence that God held forth to him and in that he originally and naturally departs from God and becomes a god unto himself judging good and evil for himself which is the tasting of the forbidden tree and seeks out many inventions Thus it is in some yet in others it is from that very law of nature and self-preservation under which they live and are acted 6. The advantage Christians have of bondage THere are times of bondage which God hath for his and through which they must pass into more spiritual liberty and enjoyments of Jesus Christ for God hath this design to encrease his Gospel by scattering such as profess it amongst other people that the earth may be filled with knowledge and to make his own fulness the portion of his people and to carry them through some conformity to the flesh of Iesus Christ even the fellowship of his sufferings and death which is most spiritual as it is most inward and in Spirit or sinful flesh but as it is more outward and carnal as in persecution so it is a figure or image of the more spiritual and further the bondage of Gods people according to this account I speak on is in the type of the Iews bondage when the Caldeans were to take Ierusalem Ieremiah told them he that goeth forth to the Caldeans shal live and shal have his life for a prey and go forth says he to the King of Babylons Princes and live but if ye stay in the City ye shal be consumed which is a figure or shadow of abiding longer in any dispensation or way then God is clearly in it and his presence appears upon it 7. Vpon what account the purest and freest outward liberty is THe People of God shal receive their best and purest outward liberty upon another account then their own strength design and activity and that is by these wayes The glory of Christ and the light of God shining more in their faces and outward man the nations shal bring their glory unto them and shal take hold of the Skirt of him that is a Jew and say we heare that God is in you The meekness peace love and righteousness that shall appear from them as beams from the Sun shall much prevail upon the world which are those only graces that the world can love and be enamoured on in Gods people for they are graces that go out to the blessing and prosperity and preservation of the world and in such a dispensation as this it is that all men love God because he appears to them in things of their own nature his Sun shining upon the unjust and his rain upon the wicked and in such a dispensation it is that men shall love the people of God while they shine upon them in such things as they can bear and love though stil according to another Revelation of them or manifestation of God in them they shall be hated as they do God himself And the other way for liberty is the power of God upon the hearts of Princes and nations of which Cyrus and Darius were figures and the King of Babylon lifting up the head of Iehoiakin And that other way is the Spirituallity of Gods people raising them from the love of worldly Interests and Ingagements save only for righteousness sake and the good of nations in administration of judgment and peace and when Christians appear to the world more disingageed from the love of power Dominion Riches earthly glory and the nations find them not in their own ways nor desiring to live with them in their borders and fruitfull plains nor seeking their vineyards nor plucking apples from their trees their jelousy revenge enmity in part and persecution shal cease towards them the other way is God shal make Ierusalem a burthensom stone and a cup of trembling to all nations they shall be weary of afflicting them because of the affliction that shal come upon them where they are carried away captive and the Philistines were a type of this when they found the Ark of God plaguing them with Emrods and they were to send it away with an offering 8. A word concerning Heresie and Schism SOme books have been writ against me and I have been silent and was rather willing to sit under the shadow of anothers contradiction and reproach then to reply till God by his Spirit in the hearts of such as did oppose might bring forth my righteousness as the noon day and then we who had been enemies through the several measures of light we see by and judging each other rather in flesh then Spirit might rejoyce and embrace as brethren in the unity of the same faith and I saw further that in books of controversie
people who are his Angel or the Angel and Messenger to him as he is the Angel to God or Messenger or he that was sent of God and this Ministry is a Ministry of Iesus Christ in all his Saints or people according to his administration of light and glory and truth in them shining in them to the revelation of truth and the Gospel This Ministry exceeds the Priesthood of the law which was but in one tribe and one sort of men and was but a Ministry of Christ to come in the flesh this Ministry is of Iesus Christ the Prophet in the whole body of his Saints come in the flesh and perfected in spirit and entred into glory This Ministry of Iesus Christ the great Prophet in all his saints or people or body is a Ministry exceeding the Ministry of the Gospel in gifts of miracles and other gifts for that was in some this in all that of men more immediately this of Iesus Christ more immediately that of some gifts which though excellent in their nature and operations of the same Spirit yet these might be in such as were not spiritual but carnal but the pure Ministry of Iesus Christ in his Saints in himself as he is the quickning Spirit and Lord from heaven is in none but such as are of his body and in one Spirit with him The present Ministry of men amongst all the Churches at this day according to any appearance of the Spirit of God in them though running through the channel of Arts Sciences and Languages acquired by natural power and industry is such a Ministry as we may hear and receive or partake of any thing of God or Christ there that we find in their administration though this be not that pure Ministry of Christ in Spirit as we find the Apostles and Disciples of Christ in the Jewish worship in the Synagogues and Temple under the Apostacy and Corruption And this Principle of bodily and local separation I find is both Legal and Iewish and literal and is suckt in by the Saints from the first Gospel-discoveries and from the law and Mosaical principles of separation and when the Spirit of God is more in them they shal see it and hath bin as I clearly find no little hinderance and is at this day to the power of the Gospel and Iesus Christ in Spirit and the body of Christ in the unity of the Spirit and since our controversies in these outward things and Church-ways c. have increased the law of love and Spirit and power of godliness hath much abated while form and meer letter and something of outward order have taken up the place And though this may be an offence to such as Paul saith who make conscience of the Idol yet we know saith he an Idol is nothing nor an Idol Temple but when they shal see the Christian as he is in Spirit and the new Creation and no other thing part of him but what is glory spirit and life and that all the law of outward order and form is only a supplement to the absence of the Spirit of God and to order their outward man amongst men to their fellow saints and the world while the law of the Spirit of life is not in them shining and conforming them in Spirit and love to the Image of Christ And for my part I am far from denying any Gospel form or way which appears to be the practice of the Saints then because I conceive that saints see gathering and practising are yet under such a ministration and are to walk in it while they are in bondage and weakness But on the contrary I am far from thinking these administrations to be our glory and high point of Reformation which our Brethren of the Independent and Baptism and Presbyterian way do but in all tenderness love and yet faithfulness to them rather a ministration of bondage and weakness to the Saints because the Scriptures make it clear calling such ministrations our seeing darkly as in a glass and seeing in part and that when the more perfect is come then that which is in part shal be done away The passage from lower Ministrations to higher THe administrations in which God hath appeared and doth appear yet in some proportion are these The law or righteousness of the first Creation in which God had communion with man and man with God yet rather as with a Creator then with a Father or an Immanuel and in the outward Court or first Creation not in the inward or holiest Paradise it self being but an Image of the excellency of this Creation Man having fallen through the temptation of the serpent or fleshly wisdom and the espousals of the woman or the weakness of that Creation wherein he was made hath the first law of righteousness presented to him in a new ministration of letter by Moses in Tables of stone from God in which the first glory and excellency was ministred to man in his faln and apostated condition And because the law or first righteousness was weak through the flesh there was the lowest ministration of Angels viz. by vision dreams c. added and likewise a ministration of Priests Sacrifices Ceremonies Tabernacle Temple Prophets by which man might have access unto God and speak with him yet but in the outward Court or flesh or things of this Creation though he filled these with another glory a richer and a more excellent discovery of his love in the promised seed There was another ministration added of war and peace of the Nations enemies in the flesh and of a promised land or blessing in the flesh and the Israelites or Iews were to pass under this ministration through all the enmity oppositions and battels of the Nation to this Canaan all which was accomplished to them in letter and in that in figure of a more spiritual enmity and kingdom and glory which is fulfilled in the more Gospel-revelation when the fulness of time came The next ministration is something clearer then all these and something brighter then the law yet not so clear nor ful as that of the fulness of time which followed it or of Christ in the flesh and this ministration was that of Iohn then whom a greater Prophet did not rise yet he that was least in the kingdom of God was greater then he he was a burning and a shining light The law and the prophets were till Iohn he was the Prophet of the highest and was sent to prepare his way and to make Christ manifest to Israel by word and water and this was only a ministration in order to one more spiritual was to decrease as the other did increase The Baptism of the Spirit or fire was to lick up this of water as in that figure of the sacrifice performed by Eliiah the Prophet when the fire came down and suckt up all the four barrels of water
the time appointed of the Father And I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat And the great and excellent design or mind of God in all these things is only to lead out his people Church or Disciples from age to age from faith to faith from glory to glory from letter to letter from ordinance to ordinance from flesh to flesh and so to Spirit and so to more Spirit and at length into all Spirit when the Sonne shal deliver up the kindom unto the Father and God shal be all in all which last transition or resignation or resolution of all into the kingdom of God is not as some think only when the fulness of times or ages is come but is transacting and finishing in parts and members of the body of Christ and is not one single act point or effusion of glory but a perfecting and fulfilling it in the several members of Jesus Christ till the fulness of the stature of Christ be made up and the Church become the fulness of him that filleth all in all For the day dawns and the day-star arises in the heart shining more and more unto a perfect day and he who is the bright and morning Staris stil shining into the glory of the Sun of righteousness and the light of the Moon shal become as the light of the sun and the light of the Sun as the light of seven dayes till the Lord God himself be the everlasting light and our God our Glory Thus is the Christian or Disciple of Christ passing on upon the severall degrees and measures into the glory of Christ and crucifying each condition as he passes thorough it as all the Disciples have done before the Jews passed out of that of the Tabernacle into the Temple and from thence into the flesh of Christ that Temple destroyed and raised up in three dayes a greater then Solomon being there and from thence into Christ Crucified and so into a ministry of spirit and life And the Disciples all of them had a measure of time and season in each Ministration and God had his when he filled the Tabernacle with a cloud and the Temple with Glory and the flesh of Christ with unction or spirit above his fellows and while God lived in each ministration quickning and glorifying and acting it for himself that presence of God and of Spirit was to the Disciples like the Sun in Summer shining upon them the candle of the Lord shining upon their heads and his secret upon their Tabernacles But when the line of Gods season was run out to its point and extremity that he would no longer stay there nor have his glory inhabit in such or such a ministration then that ministration became but a place of desolation a solitary place for the Satyrs to dwell in and the screech Owle to sing in that is for the Spirit of Apostacy and of Antichrist or iniquity to possesse and act in And for Disciples to stay longer in any ministration then the Lord or the life and Spirit of Christ is in it is as if Lot should tarry in Sodom Israel with the Ark when God was departed the Iews in the Temple when the Vail was rent and the glory gone off to the threshold and from thence too their house being left unto them desolate even that house or ministration where the light of God did formerly dwell As if the Disciples of Christ that went into the Grave should step in and sojourn there where his body had lain and was risen and gone seeking the dead amongst the living The disciples of Christ were a true figure of such who when Christ was dead were embalming the body and would preserve it with spices and ointments when the spirit and life was out of it The Iews were a figure of such who would preserve their Law and the shadows of all their worship when Christ had left them who was the life and substance of all that ministration Peter and the rest were a true image of such who in that sword he wore was a true figure of all such as Christ suffers in a warlike and defensive posture about his flesh or whom he suffers to be so far conformed to the fashion of the world as to guard and preserve those fleshly priviledges of his presence and power amongst them and in that activity of his to rescue and preserve that flesh and body in which so much glory and excellency had appeared and so many miracles were done beyond that point or end of ministration which God even the Father and the Son himself had set was a figure of all such as should stretch out any dispensation or ministration of God farther than the line or spiritual sinew of it wil bear Let the Reader take notice that this following of the Baptist should have been placed next after the Doctrines of Baptism but by reason of the Authors absence it was misplaced The Baptists BAptism of Water being a Legall Ordinance though a more cleer administration of Christ was administred alwaies by persons of more than ordinary gift and spirit for in all Legall administrations which pointed at and shaddowed Christ still they were performed by some properly and specially and extraordinarily enabled for that Office or Ministration and therefore the tribe of Levi was for administration of Ordinances then under the Law and Abraham for circumcision Moses and Aron c. Iohn Baptist the Apostles and the more then ordinary gifted Disciples and Philip and Ananias not is there any extant in all the new Testament who did administer Baptism but they were such as by a power and gift more than ordinary could make demonstration of their calling to the administration of water which was first in that way of doctrine performed by him then whom a greater Prophet hath not risen even by Iohn who Baptized and so Philip and Ananias the one working glorious miracles at Samaria the other having a vision from God to warrant and glorifie his call to that administration upon Paul and so all the Apostles and seventy Disciples were such who went about doing miracles as men excellently gifted for administration and whereas the Scriptures make mention of some Disciples as those with Peter who did not appear to do any thing more then others nor Philip nor Ananias at the time of their administration of water it ought to be sufficient to us that the Scriptures doth set forth Iohn Baptist and the Apostles and Disciples that were more than ordinarily gifted and Philip and Ananias who had sufficient warrant to themselves by such glory upon them for that Office and administration of water upon any and for those other Disciples surely we see and read enough to tell us in those that were so gifted and in them and their gifts there is light enough to shew us
his as they are in Christ not in such or such an outward way or form There remaineth two or three choice Scriptures to open concerning this and they are these And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith c. And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversities of tongues Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you to the end of the world From all these Scriptures these Conclusions are made 1. That there is a Ministry of gifts of teaching and ordinances 2. That this is for the perfecting of the Saints 3. That this is to last to the end of the world Now these Scriptures are much mistaken according to such results and conclusions The Scripture to the Ephesians Eph. 4. shews only that there was such a Ministry of gifts and offices but not any such continuance of them to the end of the world For where it is said for the perfecting of the Saints c. till we all come c. that hath relation to the tenth verse or to Christ ascended that he might fill all things and this of the perfecting of the Saints c. is only an exposition or clearer interpretation of that tenth verse how he fills all things viz. by perfecting his Saints in the work of the Ministry or that glorious and spiritual administration of himself upon his to bring them all into the unity of the faith so as he may be one in them and they in him the Lord one and his name one which is that unity of the faith Nor can this Scripture intend any other thing then this viz. to shew first how the Lord fills all things as in verse the tenth and how he set up a ministration of gifts in the first discovery of Gospel-glory he gave some Apostles and how he himself perfects the saints by being their fulness and so edifies or builds up his body and brings forth that unity of the faith or one glorious evidence and revelation of himself in the whole body Nor can any other thing bear the weight of such expressions but Christ himself Who can perfect the Saints but Christ Who can edifie the body or build it up but Christ Who can bring forth unity of faith but Christ For no gifts either of Apostle or Prophet or c. can perfect the saints Though I have the gift of Prophesie and understand all mysteries and all knowledg and though I have all faith and have not love or Christ who is the love of the Father it profiteth me nothing But suppose it were so that the Ministration of gifts and offices there spoken on were for the perfecting of the saints till the unity of the faith be what doth this prove to the present Ministration of gifts and offices now or since the falling away amongst us for we have none of them in the pure gifts of the Holy Ghost or Unction and we must either have all or none there is no taking these gifts and offices in pieces and parts as they do generally distinguishing them into extraordinary and ordiary the extraordinary they say are Apostles Evangelists Prophets and these they say are ceased but Pastors and Teachers they say are ordinary and remain But where is this distinction to be found in the Word are not all gifts of the same spirit Doth not the Scripture reckon them all equally necessary in the Church Doth it anywhere speak of Apostles Evangelists Prophets only for the first Age and Pastors and Teachers for the Ages after Doth not the Scripture say expresly he hath set some in his Church 1 Cor. 12. 28. and so reckons according to some order in the excellency of gifts and office not according to the expiration of some and the life and continuance of the rest saying Apostles Evangelists Prophets are to cease only Pastors and Teachers remain but he saith plainly he hath set all these in his Church not excepting one sort more then another nay a Pastor or Teacher in the true and proper gift and office was as spiritual as the other viz. of the pure anointing or the holy Ghost but Pastor and Teacher hath been considered in a lower capacity and industry art natural parts and learning have been taken in in after times to the composition of a Pastor and Teacher and upon this account those offices have been thought ordinary which were upon the meer and pure account of the holy Ghost so as if they will have Pastors and Teachers only remain where is the Scripture for excepting the rest and where are the very same gifts And pure anointing of Spirit for watching feeding and teaching And if they will have these Scriptures to hold forth such a continued Ministry of necessity to the perfecting of the Saints where are all the rest viz. Apostles Evangelists c. for all are reckoned both in Eph. 4. â— Co. 12. 28. and where are those very gifts of pure anointing And why so many hundred years without these What hath become of the Saints since the first great falling away How have they been perfected If all these were for that very work and yet not visibly extant for so many years Nay the pure gifts of the anointing of the Holy Ghost not appearing in any of the most glorious Reformers as Luther who had much darkness as in that of Consubstantiation and in his passions to King Henry and in many other particulars of his c. and so of the rest save only they shone forth in the more glory because of the darknesse of that Generation For that other Scripture in Mathew 28. Go teach and baptize and lo I am with you it is only as I take it and meerly in application to the Apostles and Disciples of that Age and Ministration whom the Lord bid go and teach what he had commanded them and baptize into the name or mystery of God which word baptize is a figure Christ uses to express the depth of a spiritual mystery as in that can ye be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with And he shal baptize you with the Holy Ghost c. And that phrase to the end of the world is if more clearly translated to the finishing of the Age or that Age of Ministration Some of these things are scatteringly spoken on in other places of my Book but here more perfectly and clearly Magistracy a Power ordained of God THe Magistrate is a power ordained of God an Image of
of the children of the bondwoman and of the Christians under the Apostacy or in meer letter and corrupted forms of worship and as the Jew was reckoned before to be the people of meer Ordinances and of the worship of God according to the letter of Scriptures to whom the Oracles of God were committed and to whom pertained c. so the Christians generally who are now the people of the New Testament as to letter and of all the worship according to the scriptures in the letter are that Jew under the new Testament answering to the Jew under the old there being two seeds according to the flesh and according to promise though they by promise or faith are counted for the seed The calling of the Jews is the bringing up the Christians from letter to Spirit and according to this mystery the Jews shal be called and converted dayly and are for in the whole Nations of Christians as of Italy Germany Poland Denmark Spain France Scotland England c. the Lord shal call in many by his own Spirit into himself and shal be revealed in them in power not in form That the Jews who are by nature Jews or according to fleshly generation shal be no otherwise called but as the other Jew of which they are a figure and thus they interpret the call of the Iews and not in any such outward observation as men commonly suppose not remembring that the kingdom of God comes not with observation as to the world and that the day of the Lord shal come as a snare upon all the earth All false worships ways practised in Conscience or in Liberty will be destroyed in Christ's day GOD hath a time before Christ come in Spirit as he had before Christ came in the flesh a time wherein he suffered long and was patient and was revealed to his people though dwelling in much Gentilism Judaism and ignorance and therefore Gods appearance or communion with his people from the time of the falling away or of the man of sin being revealed hath bin in grace and long suffering and hath patiently born his being crucified in spirituall Sodome or Egypt and therefore he hath been with his people under Popery under Episcopacy and is at this day not in approbation of their forme but in his own meer love grace and long-suffering and is at this day accordingly with the people in Independency Presbytery Baptism c. and all other male-administrations The Lord Jesus hath a day and time to be revealed in which is his coming in the Saints when he will judge the World and then shall Antichrist be consumed and the flesh of the whore or Babylon in all her administrations shall be tormented and burnt with fire and not a little one of Babylon shall be spared but dashed against the stones not the purest Idols she hath even Idols of gold and silver with all her merchandise pearls and pretious stones and cynamons and odours and frankincense all things of false worship c. and administration though very sweet and pretious in the judgement of flesh and blood and then shal all the saints Indulgencies cease to all these things under which they are now walking some in Conscience some in Liberty even then when Gods indulgency ceases A discovery of Christ in us SOme say it is no other but habits of grace in us and such a work of sanctification mortification wrought by the graces of the Spirit and this they say is Christ formed in us the image of Christ the conformity to Christ this the Protestant generally Others say Christ in us is when we are made the anointed of God which is the Christ or the whole entire Christ as one spiritual new man And that the image of Christ in us is Christ manifested in our flesh as to sufferings and death whereby the flesh is crucified in the power of God and of the Spirit and the outward man or the Flesh is dying and perishing even day by day and is then dead when the very life of the Flesh is slain and we live no more unto our selves but God or Christ liveth in us it being no more we that live and manifested as in resurrection or in the life of the Spirit wherein we who were dead in sins and trespasses are risen with Christ who is the resurrection and the life I am the resurrection and the life The Fiery Tryall THere is a State and condition of Christians scarce known and it is the fiery Tryall or that power of God put forth upon the administrations that Christians are under and so passing out of them into higher discoveries of God and the fiery tryall is the Spirit of God burning up or destroying such an administration to a Christian as when a Christian passes from a meer legall state into a state lesse legall or more Gospell receiving some more precious and sweet appearances of God in Grace and free promises in this passage there is a Fiery Tryall upon that first Administration that was Legall whereby mans own righteousness is consumed and crucified to a more excellent discovery of God and even in that more Gospel-State of a Christian whereby he enjoyes God in that ministration of graces gifts and Ordinances there will be a fiery Tryall in a Christians passage into more glorious manifestations of God and there will be a burning and torment even in that ministration of his graces and gifts c. And this State is Prophesied of in that Scripture the sun shall be turned into darkness the moon into blood before that great and notable day that is not only the Lord Iesus the Sun as some say wil be as darkness to the world c. but all that which was the glory and light of a Christian and his way of communion with God his Sun and Moon and Stars shal be darkned and become as blood before that notable day or that more excellent revelation of God and that of Peter but the day of the Lord will come c. in the which the heavens shal pass away with a great noise and the elements shal melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up which is not only a Prophecy of the last judgment but of the particular judgment upon former administrations in a Christian which is figured out in the heavens and earth and elements which are those more or less glorious administrations and the fire is that trial by the Spirit of God which as fire burns and destroys This is accordingly figured out in that to the Corinthians The fire shal try every mans work of what sort it is If any mans work shal be burnt he shal suffer loss which work is those several administrations of gold silver pretious stones wood hay stubble which pass under the revelation of the day or glory of Christ or fire of the spirit This is