and incourage men to hearken after and waite for the voyce but it is the immediate voyce of Christ in the soul which alone can quicken the soule to God and till the light of life shine immediatly from Christ in the heart the true knowledge is never given 2 Cor. 4. 6. Therefore they that never yet heard the immediate voice of Christ are still dead in their sins and have not yet received the true living knowledge but a dead litterall knowledge which gives a false shining of things in the dead part but kills the life Indeed the proper use of all means is to bring to the immediate voice life and power and till this be done till the soule come to that to hear that to feele that to be rooted there there is nothing done that will stand but men stick by the way crying up the means the means and never knowing tasting or enjoying the thing which the means point to But he that knows God comes into the immediate presence and he that dayly lives in God lives in the immediate life and the true faith leads to this giving the soul such a touch and tast of it at first as makes it unsatisfiable without it By this Christ cuts off the Jewes with all their zeale and knowledge Joh. 5. 37 38. Ye have not heard his voyce at any time nor seen his shape and ye have not his word abiding in you There 's the hearing of the voyce the sight of the shape and the having of the word of God abiding in the heart which gives both the hearing of the voyce and the sight of the shape and keeps the soule quick and living in the life The voyce gives life the sight of the shape daily conforms into the image which is beheld by the eye of life and the word abiding in the heart nourishes and feeds the living soul with the pure bread of life But the Jews knew not this but were crying up their Sabbaths the Law of Moses the ordinances of Moses the Temple of God the instituted worship of God and so were shut out of the thing it selfe which those things ended in and out of a capacity of receiving it And thus many zealous ones at this day not having come to this no more then the Jews did but sticking in the letter of the Gospel as the Jews did in the letter of the Law stumble at the present dispensation of life and cannot do otherwise IV. That Christs immediate revelation of the nature of his Father is to his babes Not to the wise not to the zealous not to the studious not to the devout not to the rich in the knowledge of the Scriptures without but to the weak the foolish the poor the lowly in the heart And man receives not these revelations by study by reading by willing by running c. but by being formed in the will of life by being begotten of the will of the Father by coming forth in the will and lying still in the will and growing up in the will here the childe receives the wisdome which is from above and daily learns that crosse which crucifies the other wisdome which joyns with and pleases the other will which loves to be feeding on the shadowy and husky part of knowledge without life Therefore if ever thou desire to receive this knowledge from Christ know that eye in thy self that is to be blinded which Christ will never reveal the Father to read at home know the wise and prudent there whom Christ excludes from the living knowledge And if thou canst bear it that eye that can read the Scriptures with the light of its own understanding that can consider and debate and take up sences and meanings of it without the immediate life and power that 's the eye that may gather what it can from the letter but shall never see into the life nor â—ast of the true knowledge for Christ who alone opens and gives the knowledge hides the pearl from that eye The true knowledge is only powred into the new vessell It is the living soul alone that receives the living knowledge of the living God from Christ the life The old nature the old understanding is for death and destruction The wisdom of flesh though painted never so like to the spirituall wisdome is not to be spared anywhere but that wisdome with all its zeal and growth and progresse in religion must perish All mens knowledge of the Scriptures which they have gathered into that part will profit them nothing but hinder them Every building which the leprosie of sin hath overspread is to be pulled down therefore he that hath had only the old house swept and garnished never received the true knowledge from whence the true faith spring but his life lies in the oldnesse of the letter in the conformity of the dead part to that and he knows not the vertue of the knowledge of God in the newnes of the spirit the vailt being over his heart which is only given to the new understanding V. That this faith which springs from the true knowledge is Gods gift and is not that power of beleeving which is to be found in mans nature but of another nature even of the nature of the giver And when man is called to beleeve he is not called to put forth that faith wherewith he beleeveth other things but to receive and exercise the gift of faith which is from above That which is to be believed in is spirituall and that must be spirituall which believes in it Man with all the powers of his nature is shut out it is another thing distinct from man which is let into life and which lets man in For man receiving the faith entering into the faith and becoming new-formed in the faith then he also may enter but till then he is shut out and knoweth not the life let him beleeve and read and pray and hear and exercise himself in that which he cals duties and ordinances never so much for all these set up in the wrong part in man they onely feed the wrong part and that withall its food and nourishment falls short of the life Therefore the true entrance into religion is to feele that power which slayes mans naturall ability and propensity to beleeve that so the gift of the true faith may be received for there is no rising up and living of the second without the death of the first with all his naturall faculties and powers VI That by this faith alone which is the gift which is from above and not that faith which grows either in the wilderness or garden of the old nature and is fed by the oldness of the letter and not by the newnesse of the Spirit is Christ received For Christ can be received by the faith alone that comes from him and that faith which comes from him cannot but receive him Mans faith refuseth him it receiveth a litterall knowledge of him from what it heareth from
hath been an heavy dull time for many ages There have only been witnesses hitherto raised against Antichrist and he hath sound it an easie matter to knock them down and keepe up his wayes of prophanenesse and of formall superstitious kinds of devotion up and down all the nations But now it is a quick time the Spirit of the Lord God hath arisen the searching eye is opened the pursuit after the very Spirit of Antichrist is begun yea very quick and fresh is the scent of that Spirit which hunteth the whore and now she goes forward and backward traverses her ground changes her paint and colours often shifts her garments continually and uses all the art she can to save her life Now the king of Babilon opens his treasury brings forth all his likenesses all his images all his appearances with some or other of them if it be possible to tempt the simple soul and keep it satisfied therewith in some of his chambers of darknesse and imagery out of the life and power Therefore now be warned and look about you and be not cosened with any of the wares of Babilon where the marchandize and traffique is for souls and where all the wares of deceit are which are proper to cosen souls but seeke for the nature of that thing which the inward pantings of your heart at any time have been after and waif for the opening of that eye which can see through all manner of paint to that nature and keep low in the life simple and honest-hearted and then gawdy appearances will not take with you for they are only temptations to the aspiring part which is lifted up above the pure low humble principle and if that part were brought down ye would be safe but while that stands ye will not be out of the danger of temptations Now this know There is nothing whereof Sion is built but the likenesse of it is in Babilon and the likenesse is very taking even more taking to that eye which is open in men then the truth it selfe The truth is a plain simple thing it is not gawdy in appearance its excellency lies in its nature but the appearances of truth which Satan paints are very gawdy very glorious seemingly very spirituall very pure very precious very sweet they many times even ravish that understainding and those affections that are out of the life Oh what shall I say shall I speake a little of the wares of Babilon where is there an ear which can hear me yet he that opens my mouth can open thine ear Therefore set me speak a little plainly 1. There are many glorious fals births in Babilon There is no inheriting the Kingdome but by being born againe This doctrine the king of Babilon preacheth he is fain to do so else the letter of the Scripture would overthrow his kingdome Now therefore to keep from the true new birth he hath his images of the new birth his severall false births A great while outward baptisme and a formall knowledge was enough to make a man a christian but now since that is discovered and will not do he brings forth better births he hath inward changes of the minde multitudes of them fit for every one who is seeking after the life to be tempted from the life with and he tempts every one with a proper bait with that which is taking to him in his present estate What changes any kind of knowledge by vertue of the notion with the devills quickning power added to it can produce in any man the Devill can transform man into Yea many are these changes and he that doth not know the nature of the true birth may easily be deceived with that which is just like the thing he looks for A man looks for a new birth for an inward change he looks for a knowledge to change him he shall have just the very likenesse of that which his heart desires the lively likenese the devill is ready at hand to furnish him with it which way can the man who never saw the true thing espy the cheat 2. There are many glorious desires in Babilon many pantings many breathings after that which this birth of Babilon takes to be life The devil hath these wares these images in his shop too As he hath a false birth in imitation of the true so he hath false breathings for his false birth If his child could not seemingly breath towards God as if he were a naturall child of God he would soon be detected therefore he inflames him with desires of growth with desires of enjoyment of that which he calls life with seeming desires of serving and glorifying God and here come in the prayers of the fleshly birth which are many times carryed on with exceeding great earnestnesse of the flâ—shly part to which also the father of this birth given answers And now which way can deceit be so much as suspected here And yet here also the deceiver lodgeth and herein he worketh raising strong desires in that part wherein he dwels that he may allaâ— those pure desires which otherwise would be arising from the life underneath and which notwithstanding all this sometimes doe arise especially when the soul is in anguish 3. There 's false food in Babilon false knowledge to feed this wrong nature with There 's knowledge falsely so called There 's severall appearances of all the truths in Sion There 's outward knowledge of the letter and there 's inward misticall knowledges and each of these have their warmth and their freshnesse and do nourish up this child and cause it to grow Yea what knowledge and experience which at first sprang from the true life this spirit makes a prey of and daily brings into his Babilon therewith to feed and fatten that which is born of him and to cover the old deceitfull nature under which is not slain thereby but daily lives and moves and puts forth it selfe this is certainly felt by that which is made sensible in the life but hard to be spoken because the deceived heart is so grosse and the ear so heavy Now here the painted whore which hath dealt treacherously with the life fits as a Queen and saves she shall see no sorrow This knowledge is certain to her these experiences she hath had the feeling of and knows they can never be shaken But O thou Princesse of Babilon the Lord will strip the the Lord will unbare thy inwards thine own eyes shall see they nakednesse which shall be for a perpetuall reproach among all the inhabitants of Sion and then thy dark deceitfull spirit shall have no more to say against those who now see through thy covering to thy nature in the light and judge thee not of themselves nor in their own wills and understandings but from the true power and in the true guidance of the life whose work it is to pursue overtake and judge deaâ—h even to death For all this knowledge and all these experiences in thee
THE AXE LAID TO THE ROOT OF THE OLD CORRVPT-TREE AND The Spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life among both Papists and Protestants hath arisen and by which it is nourished and fed at this Day In a Distinction between the Faith which is of man and the Faith which is of GOD And in some Assertions concerning true Faith its nature rise c. It s receiving of Christ its abiding and growing in his living Vertue With a warning concerning adding and diminishing from the Scripture in generall and the Prophesies of the Revelation in particular Discovering what it is and the great danger of it with the only way of preservation from it where is added a Short touch about the Use of Means As also a brief History concerning the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles With an Exhortation to the present Age By the movings of the Life in a friend to the Living truth of the most High God but an utter enemy to the spirit of error and blasphemy where ever it is found as well in the strictest of the Protestants as among the grossest of the Papists Isaac Penington the younger LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Lodowick Lloyd at his shop next the Castle in Cornhill 1659. THE PREFACE THere was a glorious day and bright appearance of truth in the times of the Apostles They had the true Comforter who led them into all truth and kept them alive in truly and truth alive in them By this Spirit they as living stones were built up a spirituall house founded upon Sion the holy mount into Jerusalem the holy City which is the church of the living God the pillar and gâ—ound of truth And here they had their conversation in heaven with God the Judge of all with Christ the Mediatour and with the Spirits of â—ust men and the holy Angels which alwayes behold the face of God They lived in the Spirit they walked in the Spirit they prayed in the Spirit they sung in the Spirit they worshipped in the Spirit and in that understanding which the truth had made free and had God dwelling with them and Christ walking in the midst of them and by the presence and power of his life in them were truly dead unto sin and alive unto God they being not strivers against sin with mans legall spirit but by the power of grace which made them more then conquerours through him that loved them This was part of the glory of that state in that day of the Sunshine of the Gospel But behold a thick night of darknesse overspread the beauty of this Some false brethren went out from the true Church into the world getting the Sheeps cloathing making a great outward appearance and drew the world after them yea and some from the very Churches themselves how hard was the Apostle Paul fain to plead with the Corinthians about his own Apostleship and Doctrine that he might preserve that Church from the false Apostles And when they had gathered a sufficient party in the world they made head against the true sheep lambs of Christ fought with them and overcame them And when they had overcome them that had the living testimony of Jesus and the true power and presence of the Spirit among them they set up their own dead form making a cry all over the nations of the earth Revelation is ceased there is no looking now for such an infallible spirit and such immediate teachings as the christians had in the Apostles dayes who had the anointing to teach them all things but they point men to traditions to the church as they call it which title the whore hath engrossed since the dayes of the Apostles or to searchings of the Scriptures and reading expositions upon it and bodies of divinity formed by the understanding part in man to instruct the understading part Thus the whole course of religion and of the knowledge of God came to be out of that Spirit and life wherein it first came forth and wherein it first stood and consisted in doctrines of men and a form of worship and knowledge which the wisdome of man had framed in an imitation of that which formerly stood in the life And now men being gone from the life from the Spirit and his immediate teachings into an outward form of knowledge and worship of God in the wrong nature now Antichrist is got up and the Dragon sits in the Temple appearing there as if he were God giving out laws and ordinances of worship in publique and putting men upon duties and exercises of devotion in private and he is obeyed and bowed down to in the observation of these but the true living God is not known nor his secret still voyce which calls out of these heard because of the great noise which the Dragon makes in his Temple for so it is now he having gained it though it was once Gods about his laws and ordinances of worship which he would have all compelled to and none suffered to testifie against them that they are his and not the Lords Yet it pleased the Lord all the night of this darknesse to raise up some witnesses against the Dragon and all his invented forms of worship though they were still hunted persecuted knocked down and their testimony cryed out against as error heresie schism and blasphemy and the wayes worships and ordinances of the whore the beast and the dragon still cryed up as the truth Thus the Papists they cryed out against the Protestanus as heretiques and schismatiques who were witnesses against them and the Protestants they cryed out against the non-conformists seperatists and brownists who were witnesses against them and every sect cries out most against them who are led further from the apostacy and raised up by the Lord as witnesses against them against their setting down in their forme and not pursuing the guidance of that spirit which would lead them quite out of the darknesse and not have them sit down by the way Now the Lord God in these latter dayes hath not only raised up witnesses against the Whore the Dragon the Beast the false Prophets with all their inventions which they have set up instead of the truth but hath assayed and begun to deliver his people out of this Egyptian darknesse and to bring them back to the light of the land of Canaan And now great enemies have appeared the sons of the night exceedingly strengthening themselves to keep out the day light every one crying up his own form and all joyning hand in hand against the power yea that spirit which first tempted from God is exceeding busie to cause those whom the Spirit the Lord hath been drawing out of the land of darknesse to make a Captain to return to Egypt or at least to sit down in some form or some pleasant notion of things by the way not to follow the Lord through all his intricate
truth aright in others Nay thou measurest by a false appearance of things in the fallen understanding and in the wisdome which thou hast gathered there since thou thy selfe fellest from the living principle and this must needs commend that most which is neerest to it and not that which is neerest to truth And this is the great error of this age men with a gathered knowledge from Scripture-words without the true faith and life go about to measure that life and knowledge which comes from the faith and because it suites not with the apprehensions which they have taken into their minds they condemn it And thus being in the stumbling wiâ—dome and way of observation to which truth was never revealed but was ever an offence they stumb'e at it and thus men generally dish and split themselves against the same rock now as the Pharisees did of old Now this understanding must perish and this wisdome in men be brought to nought before that can be raised up which can judge aright Hearken therefore to my exhortation as ye love your souls Come out of popery indeed and in truth come out of the spirit of popery burn the whore in her new forms as well as in her old Cast off all these new names of the Beast under which the old spirit has made a prey of the life in your own particulars and lies lurking to make a prey of the life in others and to force it into its own deceitfull forms of death and slay it Leave defending your faith and church by the Beasts horns and come to that faith and church which is received gathered and defended by Christ the one horn of salvation Leave your reasonings and disputings in that wisdome which has slain the life and come to that wisdome which comes from the life and springs up in the life and ye will find more certainty and satisfaction in one touch of true life then in all the reasonings and disputes of wise men to the worlds end The ground wherein mens religion grows even of the most zealous is bad even the same ground wherein the Pharisees religion stood and grew and it hath brought forth such kind of fruit namely such a kind of conformity to the letter as theirs was which stands in the understanding and will of man rearing up a pleasant building there but keeps from the life and from building in it But the true religion stands in receiving a principle of life which by its growth forms a vessell for it selfe s and all the former part wherein sin on the one hand or selfe righteousnesse on the other hand stood and grew passeth away These things following strike at the King of Babilon himselfe yea even at the very root of the Antichristian spirit in every man which he that can mild y receive the stroake of may feel the true Spirit of life which lies slain underneath spring up in him and give life to his soul which when it is delivered will be able truly to know and rejoyce in the Lord its Saviour And when the root of that spirit is cut downe which never brought forth sweet pleasant fruit unto life but only sowre fruit finely pâ—inted and dressed for the eye and palate of death its body branches leaves and fruit will wither and dye dayly and truth come to grow safely A Distinction between the faith which is of man and the faith which is of GOD One whereof is the Faith of Sion the other the Faith of Babilon the one laying hold on Christ as he is revealed the King of life in Sion the other layes hold on an Historicall relation of Christ the fame whereof hath sounded in Babilon THere is a faith which is of a mans selfe and a faith which is the gift of God or a power of beleeving which is found in the nature of fallen man and a power of believing which is given from above As there are two births the first and the second so they have each their faith and each beleeve with their faith and seem to lay hâ—ld on the same thing for life and the contention about the inheritance will not be ended till God determine it Cain will sacrifice with his faith and he beleeves he shall be accepted if he had not beleeved so he would not have been so angry when he found it otherwise And the Cainish spirit in man the vagabond from the life of God which hath not an habitation in God nor the eternall life of God abiding in him he is busie with the same faith at this day and hath the same expectation from it as Cain had This is the root of the false religion of the false hope of the false peace of the false joy of the false rest of the false comfort of the false assurance as the other is the root of the true In this faith which is of man and in the improvement of it stands all the knowledge zeal devotion and worship of the world in generall and of the worldly part in every man in particular but the true knowledge the true zeale the true devotion the true worship stands in the faith which is given of God to them which are born of the immortall seed which liâ—es in God and in which God lives for ever Now it deeply concerns every man to consider from which of these his knowledg religion and worship proceed and in which of them they stand for if they proceed from and stand in the faith which is of man they cannot please God nor conduce to the salvation of the soule but though they may tast very pleasantly to mans pallate now and administer much hope and satisfaction to him at present yet they will faile at the time of need For as Christ said concerning the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees so may I say concerning this faith Except your faith with the works of it exceed that faith and all the works of it even to the utmost improvement thereof which is to be found in mans nature it will never lead you to the kingdom of God nor be able to give you any right to the inheritance of life For he that will inherit must be the right heir must have the faith of Abraham the faith of Isaacâ— which springs up from the root of life in the seed and this leads the seed into that spring of life out of which it shot forth as a branch which is the inheritance promised to the seed And here is Christ Alpha and Omega in every particular soul where life is begun and perfected â—unning its course through time back to that which was before the beginning Therefore observe and consider well what this faith which is of a mans selfe can doe and how far it may goe in the changing of man and in producing a conformity of him to the letter of the Scriptures And then consider where it is shut out what it cannot do what change it cannot make what it cannot conform to
that so the true distinction may be let into the mind and not a foundation layed of so great a mistake in a matter of so great concernment 1. A man may beleeve the history of the Scriptures yea and all the doctrines of them so far as he can reach them with his understanding with this faith which is of man As by this faith a man can believe an history probably related to him so by this faith may he beleeve the historyes of the Scriptures which are more then probably related As by this faith a man can receive doctrines of instruction out of Philosophers books so by the same faith he may receive doctrins of instruction out of the Scriptures Reading a relation of the fall of man of the recovery by Christ that there is no other way to life c. This faith can beleeve the relation of these things as well as it can beleeve the relation of other things 2. This being believed from the relation of the history of these things this naturally sets all the powers of man on work kindling the understanding will and affections towards the avoiding of misery and the attaining of happinesse What would not a man doe to avoid perpetuall extremity of misery on soul and body for ever and to obtain a crowne of everlasting blessednesse This boils the affections to an height and sets the understanding on work to the utmost to gather all the rules of Scripture and to practise all the duties and ordinances therein mentioned What can the Scripture propose to be believed that he will not believe What can it propose to be done that he will not do Must he pray he will pray Must be heat he will hear Must he read he will read Must he meditate he will meditate Must he deny himselfe and all his own righteousnesse and duties and hope only for salvation in the merits of Christ he will seeme to do that to and say when he has done all he can he is but an unprofitable servant Does the Scripture say he can doe nothing without the Spirit he will acknowledge that too and he hopes he has the Spirit God hath promised the Spirit to them that aske it and he has asked long and asks still and therefore he hopes he has it Thus man by a naturall faith grows up and spreads into a great tree and is very confident and much pleased not perceiving the defect in his root and what all his growth here will come to 3. This being done with much seriousnes and industry there must needs follow a great change in man his understanding will be more and more enlightened his will more and more conformed to that to which he thus gives himselfe up and to which he thus bends himselfe with all his strength his affections more and more warmed he will find a kind of life and growth in this according to its kind Let a mans heart be in any kind of study or knowledg applying himselfe strictly to it he gathers understanding in his mind and warmth in his affections so it is also here Yea this being more excellent in it selfe must needs produce a more excellent understanding and a more excellent warmth and have a greater power and influence upon the will 4. Now how easie is it for a man to mistake here and call this the truth First he mistakes this for the true faith and then he mistakes in applying to this all that which belongs to the true faith and thus entring into the spirit of error at first he errs in the whole course of his religion from the beginning to the end He sees a change made by this in him and this he accounts the true conversion and regeneration This leads him to ask and seek and pray and this he counts the true praying the true seeking the true asking This cleanseth after its kind his understanding will and affections and this he takes for the true sanctification The justification which is to the true beleever he also aplyes to this faith so he has a peace â— satisfaction a rest here and an hope of happinesse hereafter Thus he receives what is already revealed he waits for what may be further revealed which he can embrace and conform to turning still upon this center and growing up from this root And he that does not come hither in religion falls short of the improvement of mans nature and of the faith that grows there which naturally leads all the powers of nature hither and fixes them here which is but dead And now this man is safe he is a beleever he is a worshipper of God he is a Christian he is an observer of the commands of Christ when the overflowing scourge comes it shall not touch him all the judgements plagues threatnings in the Scripture belong not to him but to the unbelievers to them that know not God to them that worship not God to them that observe not the commands of Christ thus by his untempered morter from his false faith he has built up a wall against the deluge of wrath which wall will tumble down upon him when the wrath comes The growth of this faith and great spreading of it into all this knowledg zeal and devotion hath not changed the nature of it all this while but it is the same that it was at the beginning even a power of nature in the first birth and all these fruits are but the fruits of the first nature which is still alive under all this All this can never kill the principle out of which it grows but feeds it more and fattens it for the slaughter Thus far this faith can go But then there is somewhat it is shut out of at the very first There is somewhat this faith cannot receive beleeve or enter into What is that It is the life the power the inward part of this Though it may seem to have unity with all the Scriptures in the letter yet it cannot have unity with one Scripture in the life for its nature is shut out of the nature of the things there witnessed As for instance it may have a litterall knowledge of Christ according as the Scripture relates of his birth preaching miracles death resurrection ascention intercession c. Yea but the thing spoken of it knoweth not The nature of Christ which is the Christ is hid from that eye So it may have a litterall knowledg of the blood of Christ and of justification but the life of the blood which livingly justifieth that birth cannot feele but can only talk of it according to the relation it reads in the Scripture So it may have a litterall knowledge of sanctification but the thing that sanctifieth it cannot receive into it selfe So for redemption peace joy hope love c. it may get into the outward part of all these but the inward part the life the spirit of them it is shut out of and cannot touch or come neer nor can it witnesse
that change which is felt and knowne here And here is the great contention in the world between these two births the one contending for their knowledge in the letter and the other contending for their knowledge in the life the one setting up their faith from the naturall part calling it spirituall and the other who have felt the stroake of God upon this and thereby come to know the difference setting up the faith of the true heir which faith hath a different beginning and a different growth from the other and will be welcomed into the Land and Kingdom of life when the other will be manifested to be but the birth of the bondwoman and be thrust forth with its mother to seek their bread abroad for the seed of the bondwoman is not to inherit with Isaac the seed of promise Quest What then is that faith which is the gift of God and which is distinct from this Answ. It is that power of beleeving which springs out of the seed of eternall life and leavens the heart not with notions of knowledge but with the powers of life The other faith is drawn out of mans nature by considerations which affect the naturall part and is kept alive by naturall exercises of reading hearing praying studying meditating in that part but this springs out of a seed of life given and grows up in the life of that seed and feeds on nothing but the flesh and blood of Christ in which is the living vertue and immortall nourishment of that which is immortall This faith at its first entrance strikes that part dead in which the other faith did grow and by its growth perfects that death and raiseth up a life which is of another nature then ever entred into the heart of man to conceive And by the death of this part in us we come to know and enjoy life and by the life we have received know and enjoy we come to see that which other men call life and which we our selves were apt to call life formerly to be but death And from this true knowledg we give a true testimony to the world of what we have seen and felt but no man receiveth our testimony It grieves us to the heart to see men set up a perishing thing as the way to life and our bowells are exceedingly kindled when we behold an honest zeal and simplicity betrayed and in tender love do we warn men of the piâ— into which they are generally running so fast though men reward us with hatred for our good will and become ouâ— bitter enemies because we tell them the truth and the most necessary truth for them to know which they can bear neither in plain words nor yet in parables Yet be not rough and angry but meekly wait to read this following parable aright and it will open into life The parable is briefly this That which sold the birth-right seeks the birth right with tears and great pains but shall never recover it but there is one which lies dead which hath the promise which stirs not which seeks not till he is raised by the power of the fathers life and then he wrestles with the father prevails and gets the blessing from him Therefore know that part which is up first and is so busie in the willing and in the running and makes such a noise about duties and ordinances and graces to keep down the life which it hath slain and know that seed of life which is the heir which lyes underneath all this and must remain slain while this lives but if ever ye hear the voice of the Son of God this will live and the other dye And happy for ever will he be who knows this but misery will be his portion who cannot witnesse a thorow change by the Almighty power of the living God but hath only painted the old nature and Sepulcher but never knew the old bottle broken and a new one formed which alone is able to receive and retain the new wine of the Kingdom whereas the other Pharisee like can only receive a relation of the letter concerning the Kingdom SOME Assertions concerning faith its nature rise c. with its receiving of Christ and what follows thereupon namely a growing in his living vertue with a knowledge of the true living unerring rule and an obedience to it in the life Assertion I. THat the true faith the faith of the Gospel the faith of the Elect the faith which saves the sinner from sin and makes him more then a conquerour over sin and the powers of darknes is a beliefe in the nature of God which belief giveth entrance into fixeth in and causeth an abiding in that nature Uâ—belief entreth into death and fixeth in the death faith giveth entrance into and fixeth in the life Faith is an ingrafting into the Vine a partaking of the nature of the Vine a sucking of the juice of life from the vine which nothing is able to do but the faith but the beliefe in the nature And nothing can beleeve in the nature but what is one with the nature So then faith is not a beleeving the history of the Scripture or a beleeving and applying the promises or a beleeving that Christ dyed for sinners in generall or for me in particular for all this may be done by the unbelieving nature like the Jew but an uniting to the nature of God in Christ which the unbeliever starts from in the midst of his believing of these Yet I do not deny that all these things are to be believed and are believed with the true faith But this I affirm that they also may be believed without the true faith and that such a belief of these doth not determin a man to be a believer in the sight of God but onely the union with the nature of that life from whence all these sprang and in which alone they have their true value II. That the true faith springs from the true knowledge or comes with the true knowledge of the true nature of God in Christ which it believes in He can never believe in the nature of God who hath not first the nature of God revealed to him If a man search the Scriptures all his dayes hear all that can be said by men concerning God Christ faith justification c. be able to dispute about them and think he can make his tenets good against all the world yet if he hath not received the true knowledge of the nature of these things all his professed faith in them cannot be true III. That the true knowledge is only to be had by the immediate revelation of Christ on the soul No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live There is no raising of a dead soule to life but by the immediate voyce of Christ Outward preaching reading the Scriptures c may direct
hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall
and blasphemed those that lye still under any of the beasts forms they go for good Christians for members of the visible Church â—o called by them Now mark He that calls any thing the Church but what this book calls the Church he adds he that doth not know the wildernesse and own the Church in the wildernesse he diminishes The Church of Rome is not the Church in the wildernesse the Church of Scotland is not the Church is the wildernesse the Church of England is not the Church in the wildernesse the severall gathered Churches are none of them the Church in the wilderness all these have sprung up since the Churches flight and have appeared in her abâ—ence usurping her name appropriating it to themselves but God who gave it to the Church hath not given it them and so they must loose it again when God brings back the Church out of the wildernesse So he that calls those which formerly wâ—re the institutions and ordinances of Christ which the woman left behinde her and which the harlot hath got and attired her self with which she now appears in and wherewith the Dragon is now worshipped he adds to this book which sayes the outward court was given to the Gentiles and the true Church had nothing left her but the inward temple wherein alone the true worshippers worshipped and they that worship elsewhere are the fals worshippers worshipping in false Temples in Temples of the whorish spirits building take it either outwardly or inwardly for it holds true in both He that makes the beasts names fewer then they are or his marks fewer then they are or his hornes fewer then they are or his image lesse then it is be diminishes And the danger hereof is not small For if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name Rev. 14. 9. c. Now this I affirm whosoever has not the name of Sion the mark of Sion which he received of her in the wildernesse where the living God is with her and where he is taught by God the laws of the wildernesse-worship and in some measure to testifie against all the corrupted ordinances and institutions which have the beasts marks and go now abroad in the world under the beasts name I say whoever has not the true mark of Sion it is impossible for him to avoid the mark of Babilon and he who avoids not the mark cannot escape the plagues But he that hath the mark of Sion he by a secret inward instinct of true life is led from the marks of Babilon and if he faithfully follow the guidance from out of all the names and from under all the horns It is nor enough to rent from Popery and sit down under the power and government of the same spirit in another form or to rent from Episcopacy and the same spirit sit down in Presbitery or to rent from Presbitery and the same spirit sit down in a form of Independency or Anabaptisme or to rent from these and the same spirit sit down in a way of seeking and waiting and reading of words of Scripture and gathering things from thence without the life but the true religion consists in knowing and following a true guide to the Church in the wildernesse and there to receive the marke the living marke which will preserve out of all inventions and further progresse of the dead spirit Now therefore look about you know the spirit of whoredom and see how ye have been begotten in the adultery and born of the whore and have served the Dragon and worshipped his dead idols and not the living God And be not satisfied with changing of forms dresses which are but the several deceitful appearances of the whore but put off that spirit least when ye have hated the whore and burnt her flesh as she appeared in one form ye give your selves up to her again when she appears in another forme for the plagues are not so much to the form wherein the whore appears as to the whorish spirit and whosoever is found under her dominion in any of her territories under any of her formes with that mark of hers upon them which belongs to that particular form though never so curiously painted he shall drink of the unmixt cup of wrath Therefore tremble all sorts of people pluck off your false coverings see the shame of your nakednesse while it may be for your advantage so to doe The Angel is gone forth the corn is reaping and gathering into the garner many Lambs are brought into the fold of everlasting rest Sion is redeeming the true life is rising the whorish spirit is judging the dore of life is yet open doe not lye secure in the whores wisdome Do not lye slumbering and reasoning and disputing from the letter of the Scripture till the gathering be finished till the doore be shut till the eternall flames seize upon you and ye find your selves in the bosome of hell unawares and see the children of the Kingdom in Abrahams bosom but your selves shut out and left to weep and waile and gnash your teeth Quest But how may I avoid adding to the things and dimishing from the words of this prophecy and of other Scriptures that I may not meet with the weight of this curse or misse of the blessing Answ. Dost thou ask this question from thy heart in the simplicity out of the fleshly wisdome then hearken with that ear and thou shalt set thy seal to mine answer 1. Wait for the key of knowledge which is Gods free gift Do not go with a false key to the Scriptures of truth for it will not open them Man is too hasty to know the meaning of the Scriptures and to enter into the things of God and so he climbs up over the doore with his own understanding but he has not patience to wait to know the door and to receive the key which opens and shuts the doore and by this means he gathers death out of words which came from life And this I dare positively affirme that all that have gone this way to work have but a dead knowledge and it is death in them that feeds upon this knowledg and the life is not raised Consider now the weight of this councill in the true ballance There is no opening of the Scriptures but by the true key nor is there any coming at the key till the Lord please to give it What then is to be done but only to wait in the silence of that
part which would be forward and running before hand till the key be given and to know how to receive it as it is offered in the light and not to wait in the will or expect to receive it according to observations in the fleshly wisdome from the letter 2. Let not thy understanding have the mannaging of this key when it is given but know the true opener the skilfull user of the key the hand which can only turn the key aright and let him have the mannaging both of his own key and of thine understanding Do not run in thine own understanding or in thine owne will to search out the meaning of Scripture for then thou feedest with the Scripture that which it is the intent all words of life to destroy but as thou waitest for the key at first so continually wait for the appearances and movings of the user of the key and he wil shut out thy understanding and will continually which would stil be running after the litterall part of Scriptures and let thee into the life both of the prophecies and doctrines thereof Man when he hath received a true gift from God he would be mannaging of it himselfe and to be sure he will mannage it for himselfe for the gratifying and pleasing of himself and not for God and then God being provoked takes away the substance and leaves him the shell Therefore he that hath received a gift must be very watchfull against that which would betray or he may easily loose it for though the gifts and caling of God are without repentance yet if that lay hold of the gift which was not called and to which it was not given the Lord will thrust that by and take away his gift from it 3. Do not grast any of the fruit of the tree of life upon the tree of knowledge for it will not grow there an appearance a likenesse of the true fruit may grow there but the true fruit it selfe will not My meaning is doe not make a treasury of knowledge in the understanding part which is to perish but know the true treasury of all the things of life which is in the life it selfe and in that understanding which is formed kept and lives in the life Lay no manna by to feed upon in the old store house lest the fleshly part should be running thither when its fleshly appetite is kindled after food but daily receive the continuall bread from the hand of life The wisdom of the life strikes at â—hy wisdom and understanding and if ever thou wilt grow wise any more there thou loosest this and canst not possibly retaine it for that part is then getting up in thee in which it cannot be held but only a shadow an image a resemblance and likenesse of it which feeds and pleases that part which fain would have life but cannot know it and therefore is necessitated to make images and likenesses of things in Heaven or things in earth that it might have somewhat 4. Take not up a rest in openings of things though by the true key Take heed of over-valluing that kind of knowledge for that part which over-vallues that knowledge will presently be post up with it but there is a more excellent and safer kind of knowledge to be pressed after which is a knowledge of things by receiving of them There is a knowledge of things by the Spirits opening the words which speake of them or by inward immediate prophecies from the word of life in the heart this is an excellent knowledge and not to be found in the earthly part of man yet the earthly part when this knowledge is given is very apt to be swelled and exalted with it but then there is also a knowledge which ariseth from the gift of the thing it selfe This knowledge is very precious and much more full and certain then the other having the nature and immediate power of life in it self and so is perfectly able to preserve As for instance to make it more plaine There may be a knowledge of Justification by the Spirits opening the words written in Scripture concerning justification and the blood of sprinkling and this is a good knowledge where there is a true opening of it from the Spirit but then there is a knowledg by feeling of the blood of sprinkling in the heart and by seeing with the new eye the way of its justification and in this knowledge is the power and the cleansing of the life received which in the other was but spoken of Therefore rest not in openings or prophecies or true meanings of these things though this kind of knowledge is very excellent and hath been very rare but wait to feele the thing it selfe which the words speak of and to be united by the living Spirit to that and then thou hast a knowledge from the nature of the thing it selfe and this is more deep and inward then all the knowledge that can be had from words concerning the thing 5. When thou feelest things then seek their preservation in the proper spring of their own life Let the root bear thee and all thy knowledge with all that 's freely given thee of God When thou feelest thy selfe leavened with the life and become a branch shot out of the life then learn how to abide in the life and to keep all that 's given thee there and have nothing which thou maist call thine own any more but to be lost in thy selfe and found in him Know the land of the living wherein all the things of life live and can live no where else Now in all this in this whole course from the very first step of it there 's certainty there 's stability there 's infallibility From the very first opening of the true key I begin to learne somwhat of God and to learn certainly and feel an assurance and establishment in it and growing up here I grow up in the true learning and in the true settlement and so I am not unlearned and unstable wresting the Scriptures to my own destruction for I take none of the knowledge of the Scriptures from my selfe from my own understanding from my own study and invention or from the studies of other expositors but from a certain hand And how can he rest Scripture who is kept single and has no desire to have any thing to be the meaning of it but what is the meaning nor no will to know the meaning further then the good wil of him whose Spirit penned it thinks good to give forth the meaning to him and who waits to receive this not to feed the lustfull knowing pare in himselfe but to feed the life with it and when the life hath no use for it he is content to have it shut up and to be without it I say how is it possible for this man to wrest Scriptures But now a man that hath taken in a body of knowledge already he goes to the Scripture and bends it to make it speak
can ye see it Christ is descended into the lower parts of the earth and ye are using means to ascend upwards in the wrong nature how can ye meet with him the Gospel hath been hid the Sun hath not shined it hath been night and ye have got many fals candles which way can ye acknowledge the little glimmering of the day star who have such satisfaction in the warmth of your false fires ye are far from the true light who have not yet received so much of it as to discover the darknesse of the night Ye are too high too wise too knowing for Christ or for the sight and acknowledgment of the true means which lead to life And if ye could once come to see this there might be some hope but in that wisdome wherein your life and knowledge stands ye are shut out and ye are reasoning and stumbling at the stone while others who are broken in spirit and in meeknesse and humility led to try find it a sure foundation even a foundation of eternall life for the true seed of life and are built into the living City which is made without hands and without any of the tools of mans wisdome A Brief History of the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles with the living seal to it which he that hath eternall life abiding in him can read and witnes but that wisdom zeal and devotion which is in the death cannot AFter the universal degeneration and corruption of the Jewish state and the putting an end to the shadows thereof by the appearance and succession of the substance it pleased God to dissolve that people state and pollicy and by the power of his life without either the wisdome or strength of man to set upon the heathenish world which he subdued and brought under the power of his life By his Apostles and messengers who preached the everlasting Gospel the word of eternall life he gathered assemblies up and down the nations whom the nations by all their persecutions could not subject but they reigned over them in the power authority and dominion of God For they were Kings and Priests to God in the sight of all the Nations and they did reign upon the earth in somuch as the heathenish spirit of man observing their order in the Spirit and the wisdom and power of the Spirit among them who by his living light was able to search the hearts of those that came to observe them could not but acknowledge that God was in them of a truth Now the next thing to be expected is Satans opposition against this power of life his stratagems to undermine it He withstood the growth and settlement of the Church all that he could by open force making use both of the heathenish devout worshippers who fought for their Jupiter their Diana and other gods and goddesses and of the Jewish devout worshippers who fought for their Temple-worship with the Laws and ordinances of Moses which were now expired But neither of these would doe but the Church in the power of life gained ground upon him and did rather thrive and increase then diminish by this opposition Therefore now he falls to this stratagems he gets some false brethren out of the Church they went out from us these he cloaths as Angels of light puts the sheeps cloathing on their wolvish nature makes them appear as like the Apostles as may be endues them with an excellent taking knowledge of life and spirituallity in appearance forms in them an image of the truth and inspires this image with the spirit of his own life and with these he goes forth into the world and gathers the world about him Now the world was presently taken with this the world went after him for this is that the world would have an appearance of religion an image of truth but their own spirit in it The worldly spirit that flies off from the life from the power can readily close with this because it is its own Bring forth never so high notions of religion and spirituall wisdome the world will hug them the world will feed on them the world will cloath it selfe with them The world can swallow and digest any thing but life Any pleasant picture of things in heaven will down with the world but the nature the life the truth the Spirit Christ in his true arid living crosse this will not down with the world Now the Devil having thus set up his false image in the world and gathered a party after him then he sets upon the Church and the battel goeth very hard life striving to defend and death to overcome How hard did the Apostles strive in their day to keep their converts to the simplicity of truth to the way therof which even then began to be evill spoken of writing Epistles to the Churches warning them of the false Apostles and wishing them to stand their ground yea Christ himselfe writes severall Epistles from heaven to some of them cheking their backslidings and encouraging them to renew their zeal and strength putting them in mind of the Crown which attended the victory But at length the Divill with his stratagems prevails gets the possession of the Churches territories and the Church is faine to fly for her preservation and such of her seed as are left behind her the enemy makes war against slayes drinks their bloud Now here 's an end of all the glory of that state now the Divil hath gained the world again The same spirit that lost it under the heathenish power for there he was conquered recovers it under an Antichristian appearance setting up the same wickednes and the same course and current of death under forms of Antichristian religion as he had done before under forms of Heathenish devotion Thus the Devil being conquerour having gained the field he divides the spoils among his army he takâ—s whatever was the Churches and make his own and ranks them in his way of Antichristian religion and devotion so that now hence forward those things which were once Christs and the Churches they are noâ— all his and distributed by him among his followers He gives the name Church to the whore which he sets up he gives the name Christian to his Disciples he prescribes baptisme and the Supper which he calls Sacraments and praying and preaching and singing which he calls publique ordinances and be prescribes private duties and exercises of devotion and he gets the letter of the Scriptures and forms multitudes of meanings and expositions and has lying signs and wonders for such as need them that he might keep all the severall Brigades of his army quiet under his pay and might have some pleasing wares of traffick for every sort of his Merchants in his Babilon For this is the City of that King which he built after his conquest over the life and which he hath enriched with the spoils from the life And here all his subjects shall have content they
shall have what they will if they will but be faithsull to him in the main Call for what likenesse what invention what appearance of truth they will they shall have it so they will but be content without life No notion about the Spirit wil be deny them so they will be content with the notion without the presence of the living Spirit They shall have light in their understandings warmth in their affections joy peace hope comfort out of the Scriptures They shall apply as many promises to themselves as they will have what they will do what they will so they keep out of the feeling of the living principle but if once that stir and there be any hearkning after that then he begins to shew his tyranny on the one hand to force them back and his stratagems on the other hand to tempt them aside from it The devil having thus gained the form and enriched himself with the Churches spoils and slain them which had the living testimony then he falls to corrupting the form For that filthy spirit though he can cloath himself with the form to deceive from the life abid there to keep down the life yet he does not much love it he loves his own form better and when he is out of feare of assaults from the life then he returns to his own form againe or patches up a garment more suitable to his own nature taking iâ— somewhat of the other with it to make his own passe the better for if he should have returned to the direct heathenish forms of idolatry and false worship he could not so well have â—ayn hid therefore he makes a mix uâ—e of somewhat which was prescribed the Jews with some things sound practised among the Christians Thus he brought in inventions of crosses and images and beads and pictures and reliques and ceremonies beyond number insomuch as not only the life and power was lost but the true likeness also even so lost that it is impossible for all the wisdome of man to recover the knowledge of the likenesse againe Men have striven much but they never could form a true likenesse of the Primitive Church and the way thereof Now though it is the desire of the Devill to keep men in the grossnesse of darkness yet rather then loose them he will let them have some part of the form again nay he will tempt them with a gaudy appearance of the form to keep them from meeting with the power and life when he perceives true secret inward stirrings in them which will not be quieted without somwhat Thus when there was a stirring against Popery he tempted aâ—iâ—e into Episcopacy when that would hold no longer then to Presbitery when that will not serve into Independancy when that will not keep quiet but still there are searchings further into Anabaptism if that will not doe into a way of seeking and waiting if this will not satisfie they shall have high notions yea most pleasant notions concerning the Spirit and concerning the life if they will be but satisfied without the life yea they shall have all the liberty in the creatures they can desire the best painted liberty if they will but be satisfied without that liberty which stands not in the creatures out of the life but over the creatures in the life And he that turns aside to any of these he is still under the dominion of that spirit and there he holds his knowledge and there he performes his worship and there he has his unity his liberty his life his rest his peace his joy his hope Now no man can worship God till he comes out of every part of this Babilon and his feet touch Sion though there may be a secret panting and an unknown safety and an acceptation of the poor mourning soul in the passage Yea all sorts of people here ye were accepted in your stirrings after life in hearkning to the leadings of life from out of the Babilonish Spirit but your turning aside to the Babilonish wisdome in a new dresse and sitting down in a new form of her inventing hath brought you to a losse of life and hath made you hatefull to the living God who hath drawn his sword against you and hath prepared his vialls his thunders his plagues his woes and ye must drink of his cup with sorrow as ye have drunk of the whores cup with pleasure Ye that have found a bed of pleasure in any of your forms or in any of your notions and so have found ease in the Sion of the whores painting ye must be cast into the bed of sorrow and know the fire the Gods Sion and the furnace in his Jerusalem if ever ye become an habitation for God or expect to feed on his holy mountaine The condition of the Church all this while all this time of Satans reigne in forms of knowledg and worship hath been very lamentable and is expressed in Scripture by parables and resemblances of a sad state She hath been as a City pulled down like a ruined City which needs rebuilding before she can come to be a City again when the Lord shall build up Sion She hath been like a wildernesse barren undressed unregarded She hath been like a mournfull widow whose husband hath been rent from her and her children slain She hath lost all her ornaments all her garments all her ordinances all her appearances and wayes of life in somuch as the wayes of Sion mourn But Babilon the mother of harlots she has got all the beauty all the glory all the Churches attire all the Churches ordinances and all the trade and traffiqe runs thither and she is cryed up for the true Church and if any dare speak a word against her for the true Church indeed they are exclaimed against for schismaticks and hereticks and war prepared against them and some or other of the beasts horns presently pushing at them Thus it has gone all the time of the Apostacy the whore has flourished with the name of the Church making great merchandize of souls selling their formall stuff for mony and abundance of children hath the whore brought forth and nourished with her milk of deceit but the true woman the Lambs wife with her seed and the living food from her living breasts have had no place on the earth But this state of things is ended in part and ending apace The Lord God of life is arisen out of his holy habitation to assault the Dragon to discover and strip the whore to recover a possession for his life in the earth to make roome in the world for his Church which he is bringing out of the wildernesse The battel is begun the territories of Antichrist are assaulted the Lamb hath appeared on his white horse and hath gathered many of his called faithfull and chosen about him the Ensign is liâ—ted up the light which searcheth the inwards of the enemies dominions hath appeared and his inmost power and wisdome is not feared
but the Lord God is feared and the Dragons arm withers and the head of his pollicy whereby he ensnared intangled from the life is crushing glory to the endlesse power of life for ever and for ever Be wise now therefore loose not your share in the immortal Crown Take heed how ye be found fighters against the Lamb in the wisdom power of Babilon which is to fall Painting will not passe now That bloud of the Lamb is felt which washes off the whores paint even all her painted notions of the blood of christ of sanctification and redemption c. the whorish nature being discovered underneath all these Ye have got the name of Church the name of Christians the name of ordinances c. by the whores help but the nature of life ye want and the living power is come to recover the name from you and we his living witnesses testifie to your faces that ye shall not enjoy it but the name and the thing shall go together and he that hath not the thing shall also loose the name Yea your eyes shall see that ye have been the sacrilegious ones who have stoln holy names and tirles which ye never received from the hand of God but the whorish spirit which out of the life and an enemy to the life hath handed them to you And this is told you in dear and tender love that ye might not perish but have eternall life abiding in your hearts and the new name written by the Spirit of life on your foreheads which all that know the writing of the life may be able to read and acknowledge There are severall touches of these things in diverse of of the Epistles of the Apostles but the full relation is given forth in that book of the Revelation which was penned by the Spirit of God to be read in the light of the Spirit and so to be a preservative against the overspreading contagion of Antichristianism Adn it is said at the entrance into it Blessed is he that readeth they that hear the words of this prophests keâ—p those things wch are written therein But men having lost the Spirit have not been able to read it and having lost the right ear they have not been able to heare the words it speaks and how then could they keepe the things written therein He that doth â—ot understand what he is warned against how is it likely he should be preserved by the warning The Spirit of God judged this warning necessary but the spirit of deceit cryes it is a deep thing not to be medled with Now this is a plain demonstration that men generally are overtaken with the whoredom and drink of the whores cup submit themselves to the beast and exalt his horns and receive his mark and some or other of his names because they have not the knowledge of that which discovers these things and was given by the Spirit of God to forewarn and so to preserve out of them He that knoweth not the mistery of iniquity working under a form of godlines may not he easily be deceived with the mistery of iniquity He that knoweth not what is become of the true Church ministry and where to look for them may not he easily own a fall Church and ministry He that knoweth not the Spirit of the Scriptures which the Church carried with her when she left the letter behind her may not he easily set up the letter for his rule He that knoweth not the living mark and name of a Christian with which the Spirit of life seals all the Lambs of Christ in the life may not he easily give this name to himself and to others who have not this mark but the beasts mark He that knoweth not the true faith the true love the true hope the true joy the true peace the true rest the true consolation in Christ the life the true meeknes and patience of the Sâ—ints c. may not he easily set up shadows or liknesses of these which he gathers from the letter of the Scriptures and the promises thereof receiving the knowledge of them into the wrong part applying them to the wrong thing instead of these Ah poor hearts The book of the Revelation is easie to that Spirit that wrote it and it was not given forth to be laid by as uselesse but to be serviceable in the hand of the Spirit for the ages after the dayes of the Apostles and in the true light it is easily read and they that can read it can see that in it which they that cannot read it cannot beleeve And this is plainly seen That theâ—e is but the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of deceit but the Lambs wife and the whore which hath whored from the Spirit which hath made use of the lotter to run a whoring from that Spirit that wrote it that there is but the true Church and the false Church but life and death but form and power but Christ the mistery of godlinesse and Antichrist the mistary of iniquity but God and the dragon God in the Church or Temple in the Wildernesse and the dragon in the worlds churches and temples appearing there as if he were God giving sorth lawes and ordinances like God and all the world falls down before him and worships him as if he were God and hopes by this worship which they perform to him and by their faith and hope which they receive from him to be saved at last I say there are but these two and he that is joyned to the one of these is not joyned to the other Let him that readeth understand which he may easily doe by the wisdome of the Spirit but never can by the wisdome of the letter For though we know how to join these two in the life yet there is a necessity of seperating them at present till the letter be gained out of the hands of the whorish spirit which hath built up severall forms of knowledge religion and worship in mistery-Babilon by the letter without the life all which must fall with Babilon AN Exhortation relating to the workings of the mistery of Iniquity and the mistery of godlinesse in this present age ALL people upon earth who love your souls and have any true secret pantings after God look to the nature of your Spirits and look to the nature of those things ye let into your minds least ye take in death for life error for truth and so sow to your selves corruption and rear up a fabricke in mistery Babilon which will be turned into desolation and utter ruins by the power of life from Sion Strong is the Spirit of deceit that is entred into the world and glorious and very taking are his images and likenesses of truth which will deceive all but the very elect who were chosen from the foundation of the world and whose eyes are opened to see the foundation of life which was before the foundation of the world It
though thou seest it not nor canst see it with that eye wherewith thou lookest to see are held captive by that which transgressed and hath erred from the life and are made use of to keep thy soul in bands and as they are thus held death and the curse must overtake them or that life in thee from which they first sprang can possibly arise Grasp not after the knowledge of this in the understanding part but wait for the sence of it from that life which lyes slain underneath these and by that part which exaltâ— these 4. There are false keys to open the several chambers of imagery in Babilon This food man cannot gather of himselfe it must be given to him this knowledge man cannot get into by himself but as this spirit leads him and opens to him for he hath the keys of death and opens into the treasures of death Now this hugely confirms a man in the deceit without the least suspition of it Why saith he I had not this knowledge from my selfe I came not to it by mine own skill or understanding but it was given me it was opened to me and it came in fresh and warmed my heart begetting sweet and pure disires in me and hath made me eye the glory of God and not my selfe Yeâ— it might come thus in the likenesse and work the likenesse of this in thee and yet it self not be truth nor be able to work the truth of this to thee and this is proper to deceive thy very heart and make thee a pleasant inhabitant of Babilon and a joyfull worshiper of the Kingt thereof whom through this deep deceit and most subtle false appearances in thy heart thou mistakest for the King of Sion 5. This false spirit hath his false crosses his selfe combats and fightings The very Papists have not only their wooden and stone crosses but they have also then wayes of self-deniall their wayes of crossing the naturall part of resignation to the divine will as they call it of fighting against corruption c. It is manifest that a man must deny himselfe or else he cannot be a Christiâ—n his own will must not cannot live if he truly give himselfe up to Christ therefore that spirit which lyeth lurking to deceive both severall wayes of self denyall to teach all which must have some hardnesse in them to the naturall part or else they would not passe and these may produce great and constant conflicting in the flesh and yet the fleshly nature be still kept alive under all these conflicts and exercises of selfe deniall He hath a circumcising knife which cuts off a great deale but alwayes spares the nature and as long as the nature is speard the Devil still hath that wherein he can dwell 6. He hath his false love to God and man and his false zeale for God Love and zeale are two distinguishing things All men conclude that love determines a man to be a Christian and so they take up some appearance or other of love somewhat that satisfies themselves that their love is right both to God and man The very Papists who are full of blood and cruelty yet pretend to love they have an image of love which contents them But there are far higher images even images of universall love and sweetnesse which no eye can perceive but that which knows the truth And take one word from me ye to whom it belongs all ye that cry up universall love from the sweet sense of its image ye shall one day know that one act of particular love from the true nature exceeds this in its utmost extent 7. He hath his false life The devil hath not only a dead formall religion but he hath a resemblance and imitation of the quicknings of the Spirit The devill puts his life into this image where need requires He hath not only a dead litterall knowledge but he hath paintings of the life he draws a thing to the life he makes his dead image of truth as like the living substance of truth as possibly he can insomuch as his images of life at a distance without being beheld in the true life cannot but be taken for living Now here is the depth of deceit when the devils images of life in the heart are taken for the living thin for the life it selfe 8. He hath his false liberty There is a glorious liberty in the Gospell there is perfect freedome in the service of the life there is liberty in the power of the life over all the creatures God made all things for man and he denies him nothing he being in subjection to him in the life and using all in the dominion of the life Now the devil paints a liberty like this yea a liberty that seems greater then this even a liberty wherein the fleshly part whose very nature is eternally shut out of the nature of true liberty hath scope which liberty is not surrounded nor cannot be surrounded by the power of life as this is and in this painted liberty that spirit which painted it lives which paint the true liberty takes off slaying that which calls it liberty and gathering in the name of liberty from this false appearance to that which is liberty indeed And by the way he that can read this let him The perfection of the true liberty lies in the perfection of bonds in the perfect binding down of that which is out of the life for the true liberty is the liberty of the life and of nothing else and when all that is contrary to the life is perfectly bound down then the life hath its ful scope without the least controul of the fleshly paâ—t and when the life lives then that which is joyned to the life lives also Now here 's the mistery of iniquity here 's the inward Kingdom of darknesse here 's the glory of Babilon Here 's he that contends for the Kingdome for the inheritance Here the son of the bond-woman thus dressed thus furnished thus filled within and without will have it go for granted that he is the right heir and yet all this while wants the nature of that which is to inherit and cannot possibly receive that nature into himselfe but only such images afore mentioned And if in tender love to his soule from a clear sight of this thing we warn him and bid him look about he cries doe not judge He really thinks he is right in the main and he seemes willing to refer it to the day of tryal Ah poor hearts the eye is opened which can see That which hath judged the deceit in us can also judge the deceit in thee Cannot the spirituall eye see things in its kind to what end hath God given it Canst 〈◊〉 see and judge naturall things in the naturall part So can they see and judge spirituall things who are in the light and who live in the life yea we shall continue judging thee in the â—eâ—â— and in the humility till God open that in thee which can sâ—â—l to our judgement Object How difficult doe you make the way to life if not utterly impossible If all this be true who can be saved Answ. The way to life is very difficult yea and impossible to that part in man which is so busie in willing and running towards life but it is as easie on the other hand to that which the father begetteth raiseth up leadeth The wayfairing man though a fool shall not erre The wisest and richest Merchant in Babilon connot set one step in it the least child in Sion cannot erre there Therefore know that in thy selfe to which it is so hard and know that which God hath given to thee which will make it easie Thou hast a living talent given thee by God let not thine eye be drawn from that but joyn to that keep there and thou art safe and that will open thine eye to see all deceits just in the very season and hour of temptation For thou must expect to meet with all these temptations as thy growth makes thee capable of receiving them And as they come the true eye being kept open they will be seen and being seen they will easily be avoided in the power of life for in vain the net is spread in sight of the bird Therefore that thou mayst be safe 1. Know the light the eternall light of life the little glimmerings and shinings of it in thy soul This comes from the rock to lead thee to the rock and if thou follow it it will fix thee upon the rock where thou canst not be shaken 2. Keep in the light keep within the the hedge step not out of thine own keep out of the circumference of the spirit of deceit the power of whose witchery and sorcery extends all over the regions of darknesse 3. Love simplicity love the nakednesse of life stand single in the honesty of the heart out of the intricate subtle reasonings and wise consultings about things for by these means the serpent comes to twine about and deceive thy soul but in the simplicity of the movings of life in the light lies the power the strength the safety 4. Lye very low continually even at the foot of the lowest breathing and appearances of the light Take heed of being above that wherein thy life lyes for the wisdome the power the strength yea the great glory lyes in the humility and thou must never be exalted thou must never come out of the humility but find and enjoy the honour and glory of the life in the humility 5. Mind the reproofs of the light for that will still be setting thee to rights That will still be bringing down that which would get up above and there lyes the preservation Oh the chastnings of the light the sweet chastenings of the love by the light These are healing stripes This brings down the exalter and that in thee which loves to be exalted and to be seeking the honour of the spirituall riches before the humility is perfected Thus in love to souls have I powred out my soul before the Lord and held forth gentle leadings even to the most stubborn and stiffe-necked THE END