is full of languishing this is a very low ebb but thou art not forsaken of the father though thy perswasion is much shaken the reason of all is this The pure law of the spirit is scorching and burning up the unbeliefe of thy flesh to make thee know God and to make thee bright in the eyes of God and men hereafter Now speake if this be not true you that have waded in or through this fire some are wading in this fire few have waded through it all must be burned herein more or lesse before they lie down quietly in the lap of providence Well this is the power of darknesse and bondage under which the divell or troubles within doth buffet you The power of my unrighteous flesh strives to maintain the kingly power in me and the righteous Law or the pure spirit strives to maintain his owne righteous and kingly power in me by tredding the other under foot If proud flesh stand then the the King of glory in me must be destroyed but if he keep the field and raigne in me then the head of my troubles which is the Serpent must be bruised And this is the enmity of natures between God and me this is the Divell and the power of this Divell or enmity doth not worke without the will but according to the will of God in killing the disobedient creature when the serpent in flesh kills then the creature man dies from God but when the law comes and kills then the creature begins to live again to God The flesh and darknesse within me is the Divell that is the father of lies that never spoke truth And the power of the perfect law taking hold thereupon threw me under sorrow and sealed up my miserie and this is utter darknesse for my soul lived below the life and nature of God in sin and disobedience and while that strong man kept the house I had peace and I lived below the comforts and joyes of God in sorrowes and miserie under the sence of Gods wrath for that sin and then my sinfull peace was taken from me And this is Hell yea and extremitie of the power of darknesse But this Divell is not a middle power distinct from God between God and the creature and so waits as a Gaoler to do his Office when the Judge condemns the sinner as some say and as I thought but it is the power of proud flesh and the power of the pure spirit mixing together not as friends but enemies opposing each other and so killing the weaker party the creature and taking peace from him And though God suffer the Divell to act and gives him a power sometimes over the creature yet God doth suffer it not to ruine his creature man but to ruine the Divell to bruise that serpents head and to reconcile the creature to himselfe and so to raise him up to enjoy the life of God that is dead under the power of the Divell This proud flesh or Divell is called the wicked one in his severall degrees in mankinde which is the serpent which bends his bow and makes ready his arrowes that he may shoot privily at him that is upright in heart that is at the appearance of God in the heart of man in every degree and measure of it This is that envious uncleane and wicked man that gathers to himselfe and that scatters from Christ for let a man in whom any measure of this serpent rules preach pray beare rule or do any thing he gives not the honour to God but he gathers up the honour to himselfe for he is full of selfe-seeking and selfe-praise and this is the wicked one whether he be little or big And God is angrie with this wicked one every day And this lordly power of the serpent must be killed before the manifestations of the fathers love favour sweet to the creature This is the father of lies this is the tempter this is he that deceives the Nations this proud flesh that would sit in Gods Temple and be as God is the mysterie Babylon the mother of all abominations this is the first mover to all enmity against God for it will not own the Father the King of glory But now it is the righteous Law that makes this appear to be enmity for light discovers darknesse and the spirit of fire discovers coldnesse Now the great mysterie of God is this he will remove this great stone or mountain that lies between him and his creature for he will swallow up his own dispensation of wrath as the creature cals it which is the Law of holinesse proving the creature a sinner and so casting him under sorrow which is sense of wrath and he will swallow up the enmity of our natures into love even into himself and so to make of two one when this mixed murderer is cast out of heaven And this devil or murderer appears sometimes within a man in troubling and filling the heart and flesh with sorrows and misery and sometimes he appears without when the spirit of proud flesh in other men envies me God may and many times gives way that that spirit of envy shall go forth and prosper and enjoy his will for if the envy hypocrisie and cruelty that breaths in others be acted upon me it is not the will of that envious spirit for my ruine but the will of God is done in suffering that spirit to act for its own ruine and my healing And truly I have a great perswasion that though God suffer this unclean spirit to run up and down and range in this Kingdom of England yet God will heal England in conclusion and cast this devil or unclean spirit into the lake of fire and so consume him There is one Scripture that gives great light into this truth The devil troubler or spirit of darkness in other men did envy Job which indeed is but the imagination of proud envious flesh for this is Belzebub that devises mischief and told God that if he would lay his hand upon him Job would curse him to his face Imagination thought arising from envy that afflictions would be a means to make a breach between God and Job as those wicked men did imagine in Wisdom 2. 21. Well God said Amen to the request of that evill spirit behold saith God to the devil Job is in thy hand even under that very power of temptation and suffering as thou wouldst have him to be under only touch not his life so that here is a power limited to Satan or to the envy of flesh in other men against Job but this power is not Satans power properly distinct from God but it is the very power of God which the God of wisdom hath given and limited to Satan whereby God will honour himself and shame the devil and bruise his head by Jobs sufferings The spirit of envy imagines that if Jobs Cattle and goods should be taken away by robbery
actings breathings of your soules is within the center of the same spirit in which the man Jesus Christ lived acted and breathed If you live in the flesh that is if you be subject to the powers of the flesh within you then you believe in the flesh and bring forth the fruit of the flesh which is self-conceit covetousness envy pride hypocrisie and the like But if you live in Christ that is in that mighty and spirituall man of truth then you believe in him and bring forth the fruit of the spirit which is love joy peace humilitie obedience sincerity and the like If Jesus Christ that mighty King rule in you he will check and condemne every unrighteous thought as well as extravagant words and loose actions though no other man see and know your secret wickednesse but your selves and he will speake peace and Justifie you within when your flesh in any things is subject to him though you are hated slandered and mightily oppressed by the injustice of others But if King-flesh rule then you go on in secret and open wayes of unrighteousnesse with greediness and delight and have no checks within at all Now the strong man of sin keeps the house your bodies and every thing enjoyes a seeming peace within you But this is not the peace nor the liberty but a fore runner of great torment in the day of Judgment that is when the Judge the King of righteousness shall appeare to sit upon the throne within you judging and condemning this serpent or man of sin within you and so bruising his head that you who have been and are pisoners thereunto may live in the light peace of the father so set at liberty from bondage assure your selves you that glory in flesh you shall not go scot-free you shall be cast into the everlasting burnings as well as others and tryed in that fire as gold in the furnace And this fire is the father himself into whom when any creature fals he burns up the drosse in the creature which is the curse that came in through unrighteousnesse which is all the imaginary glory of the flesh and so makes man to appeare and stand bright before him you cannot burne away the drosse but the gold must suffer the heat of the fire the father cannot consume the serpent the man of sin out of my body but I that have been incorporated into that nature of the serpent must needs suffer paine this drosse and gold in man is so mixed together that nothing can separate them but the fiery orb which is the father himselfe that tries all things And here likewise lies a great delusion within mankinde you call the father your God and the word God is much in your mouths but here you deceive your selves for you know not the father to be your God nor Lord neither can you call him your God till you see and feele by experience that he rules and governs in you and that your proud and coveteous flesh stoopes and is made subject to him When the spirit within you doth command your flesh in rightousnesse and will not suffer frowardness covetousness pride hypocrisie and the like to arise and act but presently checks and condemns and shames you you can then speake in experience that the father who is the mighty governour is your God and your Lord for the powers of your poysoned flesh are made suctject to him But so long as King-flesh raignes doth act pride envy covetousness hypocrisie unrighteousnesse within you then he that you call God is the devill that cursed serpent or poysoned flesh even the power of darkness is your God and you cannot say the father is your God for if you do you deceive your self you are subject to the devill you are not subject to the father He that looks for a God without himself and worships God at a distance he worships he knows not what but is led away and deceived by the imaginations of his own heart which is Belzebub the great Devill but he that looks for a God within himself and submits himselfe to the spirit of righteousnesse that shines within this man knows whom he worships for he is made subject to and hath communitie with that spirit that made all flesh that dwells in all flesh and in every creature within the globe And this is the law and the testimony even the law of the spirit of righteousnesse within and testimony of the spirit within a man when a man can say I see feel and know that my flesh is in part subject and is daily subjecting to the great power that dwels in the whole creation what I heare another man speak or write it is nothing to me till I finde the same experience within my self this is the law and testimony of Jesus and if any man speak not according to this rule it is because there is no knowledge in him not in the booke of scriptures which is another mans testimony and the testimony of others is known to be a truth by the testimony of the same spirit within your self and no other way whatsoever There is one scripture hath been often laid before me by others and I knew not the meaning of it if I went about to studie or imagine the meaning I was lost presently and trouble took hold upon me Well after I found the spirit of contentednesse to come with power and made me quiet within so that I said within my self let my father give me the knowledge of this or any other truth or deny me the knowledge of it his will be done I can know nothing till he teach me therefore I will lie down before him and wait with a quiet spirit upon him I say I was no sooner brought into this waiting frame of spirit not only this but divers other truths was and I can almost say daily is given into me from the father to the abundant satisfaction of my soul The scripture is this Mat. 8. 28. where the two men that were possessed with devills cryed out to Jesus Art thou come to destroy us before the time I deny not the history but that there were two men really filled and tormented with devils or distempers which is the curse in mankinde and that at the Command of Christ those troublers in them went into the heard of swine and the swine ran into the sea and perished there But now the matter in this history settles peace within my spirit as it is shewed unto me and that is this By the two possessed is pointed out to me First the earth mankinde by reason of his unrighteousnesse is filled with thornes and bryers that is with troublesome distempers of all sorts which are called devills or serpent or the curse of the earth or the wicked man that sowes tares in Gods vineyard mankinde so that here is mankinde or flesh full of troublers or devills distempering the creation for do but crosse
gave consent and so eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill even his own selfe and imagination The same whisperings of flesh appeared in the humane nature Jesus Christ for he was thereby inticed to dislike that condion his father had put him in for first he was moved to murmur against the father as though his father were carelesse of his son in letting him fast forty dayes and forty nights and so the flesh would have had Christ to have waited no longer on his father but to Command those stones to become bread But Christ rejected that inticement Then the flesh begins to move him to presume upon his fathers protection that is to cast himselfe down from the pinacle of the Temple upon this conceit that he was the son of God this is an unreasonable attempt even mere confusion as all the wisdome of the flesh is But Christ rejects this likewise Then the flesh intices him to Convetousness and vaine glory after the things of the world and told him that if he would cease waiting upon the fathers providence and follow the imaginations of the flesh all the glory of the world should be his for the imagination of the flesh thinks it can compasse any thing by its own wit and policy But Christ rejects this likewise and because he was the son he delighted to obey and to wait upon his father and was content with his condition his father had put him in so that here was whisperings of unbelief whisperings of pride and whisperings of covetousness and vaine glory all which are the fruits of the flesh But Jesus Christ gave no consent thereunto as Adam the first man did but stil kept close to his father sinned not so that here was the divell the motions and imaginations of the flesh the father of lies that tempted Adam and slew him And here was the same divell that tempted Christ for he did partake of flesh and was tempted in all things like unto us But Christ slew him and cast him out of heaven humane flesh and therefore this Anoynting is said to be the earnest of our Inheritance that as this power of God did dwell in Jesus and trod the divell the father of lies the fleshy imagination under his feet so that he killed him that killed Adam and us in him even so the same power in the fathers times and seasons will bruise the same Serpents head in every son and daughter of Adam and tread them under his feet in them But till such time as Christ hath finished this great mysterie there is will be troublers in this flesh our bodies for the risings up of a mans own concupiscence will trouble him and the flaming sword the dispensations of the righteous law laying hold thereupon will affright and terrifie the enslaved creature and raise mountains of miserie against him and so from hence comes all those horrors within a man and all those alterations and hurly burlies in the world upon mens estates families and persons as we see befell Iob which losses and miseries to Iob were the breakings forth of a righteous law upon Iob tempered by the wisdome of God not for Iobs hurt or the Devills good but for Iobs liberty and peace with God and for the devils utter shame and distruction Well in all your troubles I could wish you could look upon the hand of God that smites and not upon the Devill at a distance from God as I have done and I know you do for when God is pleased to open your eyes as to see that it is he that smites affrights torments shakes kingdoms families estates persons through the power of his righteous law which all flesh have gone astray from and which the power of darkness even the imagination of your proud flesh stil flashes against I say if the father please to let you see this then that which you call devill will appeare to be in you his power wil appear to your sight you will see that by the power of the Anointing the law of love and by no other power you will must be set free from the devil in short time For first the Father doth quicken and awake you and then he takes away the flaming sword causes the creature that was lost to come into him and to taste and eat of him who is the tree of life and so to wait upon him and live for ever The Apostle Paul saith it is the letter that kils but the Spirit gives life that is the strictnesse of a righteous Law being broken by the creature it kils the creature for this is the flaming sword that turns every way upon the thoughts words and actions of the sinner presenting nothing but wrath misery and death in the inward sight of the minde But now the Spirit the Law of love this quickens and unites the Father and his creature again and makes them one This Spirit doth burn up and cast away the flesh and that enmity and it casts the dispensation of wrath out of Gods hand and so removes that enmity likewise And now God appears not in anger as an enemy and his Declarations are not in terms of killing and bruising and making the creature grone under misery affrightings and death But he appears in manifestations of love peace and fatherly oneness Now all the clouds and storms are blown over and the love of the father shines bright and hot upon the soul making it fruitfull in love joy and peace in humility obedience and delight in God now the troubler or devill is cast out and goes and there is a onenesse of life peace liberty and joy between God and his creature Wel this may be a burthen to some to heare me thus speak but to you that the son hath given liberty to I am confident it will drop a pretious favour into your spirit CHAP. IV. A poor soule that lies under bondage before the father sets him free is troubled in a two-fold sence both which are the fruits or effects of the righteous law which hath first slaine the creature by taking advantage of disobedience and then holds him under the bondage of that death till the law of love swallow up the murtherer and set the creature free First the poor enslaved creature is tossed with many troubles within his own spirit which no man sees but himselfe such as these sometimes he cannot pray then he is troubled when he doth pray he either misplaces his words or he hath been too long or too short or some self-praysing thoughts arise and then he is troubled he cannot understand nor speak what is in his heart and when he findes himself able to speake then memory fayles him and then he is troubled when people do not regard him for his preaching and praying then he is troubled when others tell him that he must cease praying and preaching and self-acting and wait upon the Father for his pure teaching
of love truth and onenesse is near at hand and that England Scotland and Ireland so set at liberty from the bondage of the serpent within and the dispensation of wrath without shall be the tenth part of the City Babylon that shall fall off first and bow down at the feet of the Anoynting which is the wisdom and power of God that rules in flesh as Esay prophesied but whether God will manifest so great a work in this kingdome or no at this time his will be done but this I know much may be said of the workings of Gods power in this kinde in particular mens experience and as the father enlarges his hand this manifestation of his love will spread There is more hopes of a bitter storming spirit to be brought into God as this kingdome is generally full of then of a smooth close fawning hypocriticall self seeking fearefull spirit that playes of all sides for self-ends sake God received persecuting and bitter spirited Paul to mercy when as he let hypocriticall self-seeking Simon Magus go by as it were not counting him worth the minding All that I shall say is this you Saints of God that taste how sweet the love of the father is bear patiently with hot spirits God doth beare with them for he suffers more then you he is called the great long sufferer and when Gods love begins to shine forth upon them he can and it may be wil make some of them to out-strip you in experience of his love good will and power and so fill them abundantly with the spirit of joy But some do object against what I have spoken and say are not those Angels which fell devils distinct from God as man is distinct from God as Jude speaks And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in chaines of darkness unto the Judgement of the great day To answer this First I shall note that as heaven is set before us in a two-fold glory so are Angels As first every particular Saint is a true heaven or place of glory not only because the Father dwels in him but because he dwels in the Father likewise as thus the Father delights in him and manifests himselfe to this his son and his son by the clear sight and feeling of this manifestation is filled with joy and glory in his Father so that here is a mutuall fellowship of joy and oneness of love between them And this is Gods Kingdome even for flesh to be filled with Gods glory and indwelling presence in love and this is heaven in a lesser sence Secondly the whole City Sion is true heaven or a place of the fathers glory which is but the perfection of the former joy for as the father dwels and rules as a King of righteousnesse and love in one Saint so he dwells in all and all of them dwell in him as he enjoyes them for his delight so they enjoy him for their delight And as all and every one of them sees enjoyes and glories in the Father so they see enjoy and glory one in another every one knowing seeing and sweetly rejoycing in the unity and oneness of each others spirit it being the spirit of the father nay the father himself who is the spirit that fills all in all and knits them together into one body treading down all oppressing powers of the flesh for ever under their feet and this is heaven in the largest sence which every particular son and daughter of the father shall enjoy hereafter though they are now scattered abroad among the Sodomites of this unrighteous world that vexes their pretious soules from day to day And as heaven I say is set before us in this two-fold glory so the Angels are set before us in a two-fold glory likewise For first the particular sparks of glory or heavenly principles in man which the father hath set as lights to make known himselfe in his Saints as love humility sincerity content and rest in God and such like these are Angels and Angels of glory too because they are sparks of glory issued out of the father into earthen vessels and makes them to become the salt of the earth and light of the world Then secondly Men that are wholly taken up into God are called Angels such as have all their sences spiritually exercised in the father that can see hear taste smell and handle the excellent and glorious father and so Jesus Christ being a man so taken up into the father for he was a man fully anointed the God-head dwelt bodily in him he was called an Angel the Arch-Angell and Angel of his presence for he was the glorious sparke and light of the father And when men shall be and are so taken up into God they are called Angels and Angels of heaven too because the father dwels and glories in them and they live dwell and glory in the father and these are the Angels which the father sends to do his will As first the severall measures of his spirit are sparks of his glory as love joy humility sincerity and peace in God and such like these are particular Angels which the father sends down into humane flesh to keep it in all his wayes that it may not desperately blasphem God and so dash against the rock and such Angels as these every son and daughter of the father doth enjoy more or lesse and if it were not for these temptations would presently overcome them but these are spirituall powers from God that keep them upright in all their wayes and which makes them differ from the world And then for men that are wholly taken up into God as Moses and as Christ was they are ministers or Angels which the father sends forth to speake and do his will before and in the world therefore let the world in these dayes learne meeknesse and wisdome and lay aside their envy lest in the day of account they be found beating and killing such as the father sends in his name But now to answer to the objection We are to note that Angels in this latter sence which are men taken up into God and made perfect can never fall from God and so become Devils and enemies against God for this is the work of redemption which is unchangable and the father dwels and rules in them and hath bruised the serpents head in them never to revive again in them and they likewise live and dwell in God whose power treads all enemies under their feet And they have the sparks of glory or Angels of light within them which are the severall measures of the fathers spirit poured into them which remaines for ever and they themselves are Angels of light sent from the father to do his will here in this low condition of weak flesh But now Angels in the former sence which are divine sparks of glory planted in humane nature in its
covetousnesse pride lust and envy feeds below and licks the dust of the earth under bondage and distemper But the love faith humility and righteousness of the spirit lives above in liberty freedom perfect peace And God is said to live above the heavens that is the spirit that is the life and peace of all things which is reason is incomprehensible flesh cannot comprehend the largenesse of it nay the Saints themselves which are the heavens that live above cannot contain him nor finde out the heigh depth length and breadth of that pure spirit therefore he is said not only to live above the earthy and imaginary minded men but above the heavens likewise spirituall men that live in the spirit and whose flesh is subject to the spirit these are not able to reach the incomprehensiblenesse of him And so he is said to be above all to live in the heavens the Saints yea and to live above the heavens in wisdom and power yea and to tread the earth under his feet for the wisdom of the earth or flesh is foolishnesse not worthy the name of wisdom when it stands before the spirit The swine ran into the waters and perished there By waters are pointed out to me the wisdom of poysoned flesh which is branched forth into established doctrines of the flesh into formes customs and governments of the flesh which deceived men conform unto for fear and shame of others And so the doctrine and practises of Rome being altogether after the flesh is called the sea of Rome sometimes multitudes of people that are deceived by the flesh and follow after the wisdom lust thereof are called seas or great waters for these indeed are the waters whereupon the Whore the disloyal flesh sits makes war against the spirit in them Now swinish men that Iohn cals the inhabitants of the earth that live in the flesh not in the spirit of the father they are drowned and they perish in this sea into which they are run that is they live in this sea which the flesh hath made glorying and delighting in that sea and in those waters as a fish doth in the materiall water his proper element they are separated from the life of God and are dead to him But it is said Suffer us to go into the swine c. The meaning given to me is this that all the distempers that trouble the creature man is hereby declared that they shall be cast out of mankinde the pure creation into the very body of the serpent which is King flesh a swinish nature a herd of swine for all the branches of it are like so many filthy swine snudling upon the earth as covetousnesse snuddles upon the earth pride licks the dust of the earth envy lives in the filth of the earth hypocrisie and self-conceit with the imaginary glory of the flesh do tumble and dwell and live in the mire of the earth that is delight in nothing but the filth of mankinde like so many swine as they are they do not delight in God they are enmity against him And this corrupt power of darknesse and swinish nature shall run into the sea and confusion of his own invention and imagination and perish together while as mankinde by the power of the anointing shall sit down in peace in the father the Lord our righteousnesse And where it is said Christ suffered them to go it points out this that though King flesh rule vvith povver in mankinde yet he is but suffered so to do for a time by the King of righteousnesse and this sufferance is for his destruction and mans deliverance from the bondage of the flesh for the two men were made quiet by Jesus Christ while the swine perished in the sea that is the creation man and the righteous Law the spirit sweetly embraces each other while the filthy powers and wisdom of the flesh do perish in the sea of his own invention forms customes governments and imaginary glory So that the Devill is not a third power between God and man but he is the curse in flesh and the power of utter darknesse is this when the father shines forth in man and lets him see his curse and so begins to condemn and burn up the curse now the poor creature not knowing the mysterie of the father dieth presently under sorrow beholding no way of comfort but misery on every side for the spirit of brightnesse hath so beset the power of darknesse within a man that the poor heart sees there is no possibility of peace and comfort till one side be subdued or a reconciliation be made By this means which is a means or work of the spirit within not any outward means of preaching c. the Father kils and destroyes the powers of disobedient flesh and at length made the created flesh to submit to him and live before him And for proof of this I will appeal to the experience of any of you that have been sensible of your bondage through the combate that hath been between flesh and spirit in you whether you have looked upon your troubles as inflicted upon you by the devill and adverse power between God and you or have not rather beheld the anger of God upon you through the bright shining Law of righteousnesse in you shaming condemning and tormenting of you for disobediences sake It may be the thought of the Law of God hath not been in your minde but the sense of anger and wrath hath lien upon your spirit and whence comes that wrath but from the shining of the Law of the spirit within you and wherefore through this Law but because the principles of the flesh in you seek to advance self above the spirit or at least to be equall with him And so long as the powers of such aspiring self-seeking lusts and sin rules within you so long will the power of the Law in dispensations of wrath and anger in your apprehension rule in you and over you so that this compound murtherer is of a mighty power and may be well called a power of darknesse for it holds you under darknesse and death and you live far below both the comforts and life of God As soon as disobedient flesh appears against the Law of the spirit in you the spirit appears presently against the powers of the flesh in you and so holds you in fear of death all your life time For indeed your disobedient flesh which rules powerfully in all the branches of it which you take pleasure in as in pride covetousnesse uncleannesse envy self-conceipt hypocrisie in their severall measures till they rise up to a number of a legion of devils You think this is your liberty to have your filthy wils satisfied herein and alas this is your bondage and it is that Devill that was a liar from the beginning that never gave true peace to his children though he promised much he carries you away from God by