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
in outward things of worship and disciplinewithout sin yet of no other but as the wisdom of God shall direct to edification and with care of offence and Scriptures allow To the weak I became as weak to them that were under the Law as under the Law to them that were without Law as without Law though not without Law to God Now in this Scripture liberty to things of former institution by God and of no such institution 〈◊〉 discovered those words under the Law contain liberty to things once instituted and those words without Law to things noâ—instituted and therefore the Apostlesaith We know an Idol is nothing Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge and again To the pure all things are pure and that that goes into the man defiles not the man And yet I know this very truth as well as that of the grace of God and all other truths may be turned into wantonness and licentiousness and not pure Christian liberty I am for the knowledg of God in the Father Son and Spirit and for true Christianity as it is in life and Spirit and power of godliness and for love to all but to the sins of all We are circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the Flesh I have spoken of the true Christian under that more grosse form of Episcopacy not approving that form but in order to higher and more spirituall discoveries and this I do because I finde God in lower as well as higher in purer as well as more corrupt administrations and in tenderness and respect to many thousands in this Kingdom and many other Kingdomes who are not yet out of this form and yet God may be in them as in Germany Sweadland Denmark in England formerly and of late God having his more spirituall times for them as well as others I have spoken of things here sometimes very briefly because I finde less of man in writing the substance and truth of things so far as revealed in us then in tedious discourses and Paraphrases which are many times rather the works of reason and wit and art then of the Spirit of God and I have writ not in that common method of men because I received it not accordingly I finde two things which make some outward Ordinances so exceedingly and in divine right stood for the one is an opinion that there is a very modell in the Letter of Scriptures to be discovered which is to reduce Christians to bondage again and to a form without those very gifts which is not to be found in the word The other opinion is that the setting up such a form is an immediate way of fixing God and his Spirit upon it which indeed is a finer kinde of Idolatry to conceive that God enters into outward things and conveighs his all glorious and Almighty Spirit by them when as they are only signs figures and Images of more spirituall things enjoyed or to be enjoyed and that of Gods appearance and conveyance of himselfe in outward things according to this opinion is such as the Papists hold as to Images to things conferring grace Ex opere operato and all Idolaters accordingly conceiving that God immediatly informs glorifies and spiritualizes those formes and figures to the beholders as the Israelites when the Calf was made cryed these are they Gods O Israel I know Ordinances used in their true nature and as things that are the Parables figures and types of spirituall things are not to be rejected but many christians do sweetly partake of them in this their state of weakness and bondage wherein God makes heavenly things appear by earthly that men as Thomas may see and believe though blessed are they that have not seen and yet do believe All I have now to say to ye is this Something of a mysterie of God and something of a mysterie of Satan That of God is this that the Lord doth in much wisdome suffer the weaknesses of some spirituall men to come forth and by this he carries spirituall things in more mystery and manages the glory of his spirit through wayes and things which are an offence and scandall before the World by which some stumble and fall and are broken Christ was set up for the falling as well as rising of many in Israel That of Satan is this to observe how he fortifies corrupt nature against the spirit of God which spirit he knowes can only destroy his Kingdome and reveal the Kingdom of God and therefore counterfeits the spirit by false Revelations and appearances transforming himself into an Angell of light and then casting all this as a scandall upon the pure Spirit of God by reproaches viz. of praying by the spirit and preaching by the spirit and new Revelations and new Light thus making the world blaspheme and the weaker Saints afraid of the glory of the spirit lest it prove a delusion THE TABLE THE two Creations or Natures of Flesh and Spirit Pag. 1. The true Church 15. Antichrist within us 24. The Doctrine of Baptisms 26. The Baptisme of sufferings 27. The Baptisme of water or of John 29. The Baptisme of the Holy Ghost or gifts 33 The Baptisme of Christ 37 The diverse Ministery with the Ministery of Christ in his Saints 41 The passage from lower ministrations to higher 56. The Baptists 78. The spirit and life of outward Ordinances 84. The Christian under Prelacy Presbyterie Baptisme Independency c. 93. The Christian in truth 102. The Witnesses in Sackcloth what 105. Magistracy a power ordained of God 135. The discerning of Spirits 141. Principles of War and Peace 149. In order to Peace and Suffering and Love 1. The Will of God 154. 2. God changing dispensations 157. 3. The Law of nature and grace 159. 4. The Gospel method of victory 161. 5. How resistings in some are of the flesh and of the Law of nature in others 162. 6. The advantage Christians have of bondage 164. 7. upon what account the purest and freest outward liberty is 166. 8. A word concerning Heresie and Schisme 170. Heresie 173. Schisme 175. 9. Truth 177. The mysterie of true Christian liberty from God not from man or the power of man 182. A discovery of the highest attainments of the Protestants generally in the mysterie of salvation 185. Of Faith 189. A further discovery as to free-grace 190. A discoverie as to the generall point or Christ dying for all 196. The last discovery and as some say the highest and most glorious concerning the whole mysterie of God to men and this Creation 198. An additionall concerning Antichrist and the mysterie of iniquity 208. The severall attainments of the Common Protestant 218. The generall Redemptionist 219. The free Gratian 221. A discovery of prayer 223. A discovery of the Law 235. A discovery of duties and works 242. A discovery of outward Ordinances 244. A discovery of the Jewes and their
The other Ministration was the Gospel in the flesh of Christ or in gifts and ordinances something more clear and in more discovery and revelation for the flesh of Christ in which he taught and did miracles and was circumcised and baptized was a copy or draught of that ministration of gifts and ordinances which was as perfect as the first Creation in its glory and purity and yet higher and neerer to God coming forth in more revelation of an Immanuel or God with us A further Ministration was more neerness and participation of God manifested in flesh or of Christ and that was in graces or operations and fruits of the Spirit as of faith repentance love self-denial humiliation meekness all which are a sweet spiritual administration even the light of the glorious Gospel of God shining in the face of Iesus Christ Another Ministration respectively to a more excellent glory to come is that by Angels in their highest administration which is the only Angelical and Seraphical revelation being something below the Spirit yet higher then reason or mans highest principle and this Iohn received all those more excellent discoveries to be fulfilled in their seasons There is another Ministration of more Spirit of love meekness self-denial suffering overcoming evil with good and conquering by receiving in the wrath and enmity of the world and this I take one of the last and glorious truths respectively to the flesh and the world into which God wil gather up his people by times and degrees from all worldly and fleshly interests and ingagements wherein they shal be carryed up into a more ful enjoyment of God and conformity to Christ in his sufferings death and resurrrection The Lord Jesus walkt first in this truth he was led as a sheep to the slaughter when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not The Lord Jesus revealed this Gospel-truth and distinguished it from the law which law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But he saith resist not evil but whosoever shalsmite thee on the one cheek turn to him the other also Ye have heard it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbour but I say unto ye love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your heavenly Father The Apostle to the Romansreveals this dearly beloved avenge not your selves vengeance is mine c. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good The Lord Jesus prophesied of this blessed are the meek for they shal inherit the earth through their meekness they shal inherit through their meekness only shal the jealousie and enmity of the Nations be allayed concerning them Iohn in his vision of the latter times saw an appearance of this Here is the patience and faith of the Saints of them that have the commandments and the faith of Iesus to which that of the Apostleto the Hebrews answers there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God and he that is entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his The last and more ful andrich Ministration and mostnaked is that of God by himselfin Spirit to the sonnes ofGod into which Iesus Christ the fore-runner is entred andI saw no Temple therin forthe Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it And this Ministration is fulfilled then when Christ shal have delivered up the kingdom unto God and this is not only done upon the whole body of Christ at the last but is fulfilled in its particular accomplishments and mystery of Spirit here there being sound these transitions passages and resignations and exchanges of glory in the Saint He that can receive it let him receive it The more ful and naked Ministration of God by himself in Spirit and I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it And as God hath appeared in all these former saving the last into which Jesus Christ hath entred so they remain stil as figures and as so many several Signes or Planets in this Creation and the other for beleevers to be born in and to pass thorough in some proportion and measure till Christ hath delivered up the kingdom unto God God hath appeared in all these former administrations to his people and they have enjoyed him in these degrees and distances and approaches and they remain stil as figures and as so many signs and planets in the first Creation and the second for Christians in some measure and proportion to pass thorough so as he that is of any spiritual discerning in these may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the height and depth and bredth of Gods ministration to his People and to know Saints according to the measures they receive and the ministration they live in with God I have drawn out these ministrations in their particular orbs and spheres and circles which I could have folded up in three only of Law Gospel and Spirit or of letter graces and God or of the first second and third heavens but I saw God something abounding and variously dispensing and I followed him in that fulness and variety so far as he hath lighted my candle I shal now discourse a little more generally of all these and of the passage from these and of God appearing in these and his going out from these til he hath scattered all these vails before him that he and his may see and enjoy each other with open face where we shal see as we are seen and know as we are known The Christian passes through several ages and dispensations as Christ was in the world so is every Christian he was made under the Law under Circumcision under Baptism and the Supper of bread and wine and then he crucified all that flesh he walkt in under those dispensations and entred into glory for thus it behoved Christ to suffer and enter into his glory The Jewish Church or dispensation which was according to Moses and the letter in which they were led out in carnal and more fleshly courses as in the proceeding against the Nations by war and fighting with all their other legal rites and rudiments were a clear figure of the Christian under age or under tutors and governors and worldly rudiments The Disciples of Christ according to Iohns ministery and Christs in the flesh were another type or figure for all Disciples of their age and ministry and the Spirit of Christ works in all the Disciples according to such a way and proportion and measure and dispensation the heir as long as he is a child differing nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all until
Arguments for Liberty of conscience and thus far it hath been wel in order to the peace of those whose consciences in outward things runs cross contrary and destructive to others both in rule and practise so as when Christians are under several forms and administrations and these diametrical or opposite to each other and mutually contradicting and expelling each other here can be no Peace nor Preservation of all but from an indulgency or liberty in all and this is such a liberty as men may give to men this is the liberty of the outward man and is upon the old legal and first Gospel or New Testament-account as in the meer letter as in those Scriptures but this is yet below the true Christian Liberty and a mystery unwritten which is originally from the Spirit of God and is meerly spiritual and works from a pure enlargement of Spirit and a true spiritual Prospect of all outward things which is an image of that liberty which is in God who appears under his several forms of Creation pure and holy in himself or his own nature But this is a mystery yet and a land of peace and purity not yet clearly discovered nor the right inhabitants of it but to some and this liberty wil further appear as the Lord Jesus is more and more revealed in the Saints judging the world in Spirit and raigning over the tyranny and power of men in a glory of Spirit which shal judg and torment their adversaries while they shal triumph over all the practises in the flesh against them A Discovery of the highest attainment of the Protestants generally in the mystery of salvation ADam was the first man created after Gods own image he was a publick person and he sinning sin entred upon all and death by sin the Law was afterwards revealed by God to Moses wherein was a copy of that first image or righteousness from whence man fell and under the condemnation of which all mankind were by nature or as born of their first Parents The way of life or salvation which was revealed to be a way our of this condemnation and death was by Iesus Christ the Son of God born of a Virgin in the fulness of time made under the Law and fulfilling the Law bearing our sins crucified dead buried and risen ascended and entred into glory and sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for us and by the Preaching of this Iesus Christ in the Ministry of the Word which he hath set in his Church a true and lively faith is begotten in the hearts of men such as are elect or chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world were layd not from any works foreseen but of Gods meer grace and by this faith so begotten they apply Iesus Christ and all his merits to righteousness and justification and through this and the sanctified use of all other ordinances of God as Preaching Prayer Sacraments the regenerate are more and more sanctified and so built up in graces of faith repentance love new obedience and made to persevere through the power of God unto salvation Nor is the Ministry of the Law useless in this the Law being a part of this Ministry to bring men to Christ or to make them seek out for mercy they discerning their misery by the preaching of the Law it being Gods usual method in Scriptures not to offer the Gospel without this preparatory of humiliation and contrition and men so humbled and wounded by the Law are only fit for the mercy of the Gospel or of Jesus Christ This Iesus Christ they beleeve to be one ascended according to that body he appeared in and sitting at the right hand of God and in the figure of glorified flesh according to which all the Saints shal be glorified in their souls and bodies and in Jesus Christ thus glorified in flesh and entred thus into his Fathers glory they beleeve and to the Lord Jesus in this figure and form of glory without them they are carried out in faith and through Jesus Christ thus they believe that they are justified and through the Spirit of God in this Iesus Christ they are sanctified Of Faith FAith they say is a grace wrought by the Spirit of God whereby a beleever rests upon Jesus Christ for justification and this they cal faith of adherence and when this faith works through love obedience self-denial and other fruits they call it faith of assurance for they say assurance is obtained through the Spirit of God bearing witness in promises and good works as wel as by it self and faith working thus is sanctification too or holiness wrought by graces A further Discovery as to Free-Grace THey beleeve Iesus Christ ascended in the body accordingly and glorified in flesh and through Iesus Christ thus ascended and sitting on the right hand of God in this figure and bodily form they accordingly conceive all graces of Spirit to flow forth into the Saints in faith love obedience c. But they look not on justification as flowing from Christ acted upon by the faith of a beleever first and so a consequent of beleeving or of faith but an antecedent or going before faith they hold Jesus Christ to be righteousness and justification to a sinner and that all are justified before they beleeve or repent and faith repentance are fruits of righteousness or justification Christ being given to open the eyes of the blind and to bring the prisoners out of prison c. and that all such righteousness and justification clothes the sinner so compleatly through Gods imputation that all sin is done away like a thick cloud and none imputed to beleevers Christ hath taken away all sin by his offering up one sacrifice once for all and that faith in the beleever doth nothing no not instrumentally as to justification but as by way of revelation and manifestation of that justification Hence it is that they affirm no beleever ought to pray for pardon of sin being a righteous person at once in Christ and wholy pardoned but all this righteousness and justification they take upon the account meerly of Gods imputation of Christ without us or in heaven who calleth things that are not as if they were and they look upon all works and duties c. as works flowing from love and from justification or righteousness not directed to justification or in any order to it we beleeve repent love and obey say they not that we may be saved but because we are saved and any other way of beleeving obeying c. they look upon as legal and not so purely Evangelical and they hold forth all the work of justification and righteousness to be of meer grace and that all Gospel-promises are free and Christ is freely offered to sinâ—ers as sinners in the Ministry of the Word So as their highest attainment is this that God
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