Freedom than that wherein man was at first Created in that mutable and Primitive state of purity And what this Freedom is we shall shew that is so worthy to be obtained and fought after in exchange for the other This Freedom consists in the witnessing every respect which is wrought in the Understanding and Will of man by Regeneration and Divine birth of the one or other sort to render them of entire use and service unto that higher and superiour Will in the second Adam the Lord from Heaven that is made and given of the Father to be a quickning Spirit unto them in a twofold capacity First of their natural Head and Sovereign whom they are to serve as in relation of Subjects to their King and Law-giver and therein fulfil and answer the very end of the Law of Nature and actually become those righteous persons against whom there is no Law that can take hold of them to punish them or take the least exception to their perfect Righteousness that have given to them a constant and perpetual Will to do right to every one and love the Lord their God most intirely by influence from their Head who in this respect is the common Parent to both the sorts of Children whom he makes free Citizens and Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem his own glorified man-head which is the Mother of us all But secondly Christ the second Adam comes forth also in another Headship to the second sort of these Children which is that of Husband and Bridegroom gathering them up into a state of higher Love and Duty than that of Servants and Subjects and receiving them unto more honorable use in familiarity intimacy and a kind of equality comprehending the Love and Duty of righteous and faithful Servants but in respect of the nearness of relation and union becoming much the more excellent and transcendant The Inspiration and holy Anointing which flows from Christ in this twofold Headship of his into the hearts of these his Members hath that effect upon them as joyns them to him in unity and agreement of spirit or of judgment and will and so entirely possesses them engrosses them in the service and to the use of their Lord that it leaves them at no liberty to 〈◊〉 the use or service of any other but in subordination to his will which excludes sin and all evil esteeming it their greatest happiâ—… thus to be bound up in a way of love delight and entire obâ—…nce in the Will of their Head their second Adam and Lord frâ—… Heaven Hence they experience that they are not their own in â—…ny thing for it is not they that live but Christ liveth in them and with his Princely prevailing Influence as their Head is their infallible Guide and firm Security in all their operations giving them such an abiding and growth up in all things into him in an entire resignation and obedience to his Will as co-workers together in every thought word and work that they cannot miscarry nor shall ever be hurt by the second death but shall be rewarded with those pleasures that are at his right-hand and at his left in his Kingdom for evermore And although this most perfect Freedom which is obtained by this binding and conjunction in unity and agreement of spirit with Christ be esteemed by the Possessors of it of price inestimable yet it is the greatest bondage and cross that can befall a wicked heart and is that which is reserved by Christ to be their torment for ever in the end which will be given by him to his first Ministry in the hearts where he is finally rejected from whom after he is departed and withdrawn for a season as if they should never hear of him as indeed they shall not to their comfort yet they shall to their terrour and sorrow be made sensible of him by the fastning which he will make of his Darts of enlightnings into the minds of the wicked as sharp Arrows and a gnawing Worm that shall never dye when by the breath of his mouth he shall kindle a fire of Conviction and self-judging in their Conscience together with the just sence of his Divine Vengeance they can no longer flee nor escape from But on the contrary the truly regenerated souls are made willing and exceedingly pleased to draw in this yoke with their Head to see with his eyes and act by his quickning in all they do and to put on with him this lowliness meekness and purity of spirit which feeds on that which is incorruptible and is with God of great price so great as no righteous workers have his praise and blessing but these who are properly Christ's Mystical Body the Branches that abide in him and whose Fruit is permanent unto Life Eternal and this Body or Church of invisible Saints and spiritual Worshippers of the true God even whilst they are in their Wilderness and suppressed state Christ the great Overseer of their souls doth feed with Teachers afâ—â—â— his own heart and is not wanting by an outward Ministry under him â—o feed and refresh with Oyl the Lamps of all sorts that he makes use of as his Witnesses and bear his Name whether according to the knowledge his Will that is revealed in the first or in the second Covenant that so hâ— may by upholding such an Office under him edifie all that are under his Charge as he sees occasion and is agreeable to the condition the Church is in whether of restraint or freedom from the Powers of the World By those which Christ puts in to the Ministry of his Spirit under him we are to understand such ahe gives his Vnction and Mission unto as he is the Head of Nature or of Grace and from their own Experience are made able to minister the knowledge of Christ in his healing and restoring work or in his regenerating and New-creation-building before described giving their Witness according to what they themselves have received of the Spirit in the three distinct Dispensations of it before expressed in the first of which because of the mutable state of the operation thereof both in themselves as well as in their hearers they that are eminent Preachers unto others by the excellency of Gifts with which they are anointed and that from Christ may nevertheless themselves be found at last Cast-awayes But in the other two they which experience the Anointing thereof become Pillars in the House of God that never go out more and may obtain the highest Order and Rank of Ministry in the Church even that of Apostles in the same way as Paul himself did by such a Spiritual Light of Christ as he sayes 1 Cor. 9. 1. Am not I an Apostle have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord And as thus the Apostolical Order came to have being in the Church by the immediate sight of Christ in Spirit as we see in Paul's Case which comprehends in it all other the inferiour Ranks of Ministers whether Prophets
matters for the good of the VVomans Seed during the third Day or Age of the world This day reaches from Christ's Ascention or departure into a far Country to God's bringing again this his only begotten Son into the world that every tongue may confess and every knee bow to the honour of his most glorious Name Then shall he in the quality of Universal King as well on Earth as in Heaven enter upon and keep the possession of his Kingdom against all Usurpers and Opposers whatsoever This space of time between Christ's Ascention to Heaven and Reign on Earth is measured out in three great and distinct Sections or Divisions in the Book before-mentioned as Mr. Mede takes notice and every of these three are again made to contain in them seven Sub-divisions of that portion of time that is allotted unto each of them Hereupon Mr. Mede's own words are The order of the Seals and in them of the Trumpets is certain and undoubted to wit the same which the number to every one ascribed doth point out 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The rest therefore of the Prophecies in that Book being compared first between themselves and afterwards with the Seals by way of Synchronism the Order of the whole Revelation will be evident This Assertion of his I take to be most clear He therefore begins with that notable quaternion of Prophecies which are so very remarkable by reason of the equality of their times 1. The first is the Prophecy of the VVoman's remaining in the VVilderness for a time times and half a time or 1260 dayes as is there more manifestly declared 2. The second is that of the seven-headed Beast restored and ruling forty two months 3. The third is of the Court or of the holy City trodden under foot by the Gentiles 4. The fourth and last is that of the two Witnesses prophesying 1260 dayes that is years Now although as Mr. Mede well observes the character of equality of times will not be sufficient to evidence that they are the same times but may be before or after yet by other characters which that Book affords to make out the demonstration it seems very clear These other characters he brings as well he may out of the twelfth Chapter where 't is plain that when the Dragon is cast down by Michael out of Heaven the VVoman escapes from his â—â—â—sence into the VVilderness ver 6 and 14. The Dragon being 〈◊〉 that he had failed of his attempt to destroy her in Heaven reâ—â—â— to his earthly weapons and applies himself to make war with the VVoman and with the rest of her Seed to wit those which she should bring forth in the VVilderness ver 17. And for this purpose he gave his Power his Throne and great Authority to the ten-horned Beast out of the Sea ascending Chap. 13. 1 2. By Chap. 11. it appears that the times of the Beast and of the Prophecy of the VVitnesses are equal and that they are finished together at the end of the sixth Trumpet which shews they began and held on together the whole space The twelfth verse shews the Ascention of the VVitnesses into Heaven which puts a period to their mourning Prophecy as also that great Earthquake wherewith the Imperial City being overthrown the Kingdom of the Beast comes to be abolished noted by the very moment in which the second Woe which is under the sixth Trumpet went out On this the third Woe is quickly to ensue at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet In that very moment of time that the Witnesses whom the Beast ascending out of the bottomless pit had slain being at the point of finishing their Testimony in sackcloth were revived by the spirit of life from God entring into them and ascending up into Heaven the same hour the tenth part of the City fell by means of the great Earthquake Then matters are brought to that pass that the seventh Trumpet sounding all the Kingdoms of the World become our Lord's and his Christ's In the same moment also the Wrath of the Lamb comes to be poured out by the Ministry of the Vials and the Temple of God is to be seen in Heaven ver 15 19. The great Harlot or mystical Babylon chap. 17. is of the same time with the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast as are also the hundred forty and four thousand sealed Ones being Virgins these are of the same time with the Whore of Babylon and the Beast The period of the Tyranny of the Beast and of this Company of the sealed virgin-Virgin-Saints is at the coming forth of the multitude of Palm-bearers For out of what tribulation could they come but of the Beast's persecuting the Saints Therefore they leave the Tyranny of the Beast behind them and are of one Mystical Body or Church with the sealed Ones and have been under the same Persecution with them but are Saints of an inferiour rank and station to those that have the priviledge and dignity to be sealed with the Name of the Father in their foreheads Chap. 7. The two â—orned Beast hath contemporized with the ten-horned Beast Chap. 13â—…e Whore with both and all these three with the Woman in the Wildernâ—… the treading under foot the holy City and the Witnesses mean time mourning in sackcloth The company also of the sealed Virgins and the company of Palm-bearing Virgins brought from under great tribulation into a safe and blessed state though no mention be made of their being sealed these as to the season of their tribulation under the persecuting Beast contemporize with the Whore and the Beast All these contemporize one with another and fill up the same space of time After this succeeds the Ministry of the seven Vials at the Rising of the Witnesses and the moment of their ascending into Heaven This will come to pass at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Then the triumphing state of the Witnesses will come on The power of the Keyes and the pouring forth of the Vials of God's Wrath upon the Kingdom of the Beast will be visibly committed to them and the time of the Beast's and Babylons inclining to Ruine or the visibly declining sinking state of both will fall in together with this Dispensation of the Vials to make way for the Marriage of the Lamb and the coming down of the New Jerusalem out of Heaven to be seen as the Tabernacle of God amongst men here on Earth The remaining difficulty then is to fill up the first of the three great Sections and Divisions of time before-mentioned to wit the space which had an end put to it by the Womans actual flight into the Wilderness This began when John received this Prophecy in the Isle of Patmos Mr. Mede very judicially summeth it up in these three Particulars 1. The value and preference which is put by God upon the state of the Church as it answers to the inward Court of the Temple of old comparatively with those who in their spirit principle
of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of
take an account who they are that have acquit themselves as they ought to do in their witnessing-stations and callings and what fruit their witness had how it took place in the hearts of others among whom they conversed and what returns they met with from a wicked and ingrateful world for all the labour of Love and Service they shewed amongst them Of all which Christ intends to take a formal and judicial account at the time of the end that is set by him to this witnessing-work in his witnesses that upon this employment Prophesying in sack-cloth were to continue as in constant war and violent persecution from the Powers of the world for twelve hundred and sixty years together At the end of which time the Judgment or time of Wrath is to come not that which is the final Judgment and Wrath of the great Day but a like proceeding of God towards the World in pleading with it by Fire and Sword upon the finishing the Testimony of his Witnesses as he did by Water upon the first World where he made a visible distinction between the Wicked and the Righteous and between them that truly fear God and are sincere and them that fear him not but are tainted and corrupted with Hypocrisie and Apostacy as is plainly expressed Rev. 11. 18. And the Nations were angry and thy Wrath is come and the time of the Dead or the Cause of thy slain rejected Witnesses that they should be judged and an Inquisition made after their Blood and the hard usage they have met with in the World in order now to receive Countenance and Reward for their Sufferings according to the nature of them and the condition and place in which they gave their Witness whether they were Prophets or Saints that fear God's Name small or great and to yeeld Vengeance and Destruction to impenitent and hardned Sinners that they may no longer corrupt the Earth And therefore as in this place we may see Christ lighteth up his Candles in the World of all sorts and sizes and indeed in all places of it from East to West and hath given the Light of his Glory and Kingdom as that Testimony which is appointed to be given and preached in all the World as a Witness to all Nations and immediately after this is finished then the End comes the End that God will manifest of his patience and long-suffering which he hath exercised towards the World in forbearing to avenge the Cause of his Elect which hath been night and day crying to him How long Lord how long which in this day of his Wrath he will avenge and that speedily and cut the work short in Righteousness And because we have said the Candles or Lamps which God lights up in the World for this his Witnessing-work ever since his Ascention to this day according to the Commission he gave to his Disciples Act. 1. 8. and in them to all his Saints small and great that fear his Name as we shewed before are of several sizes and kinds it may not be improper to declare them As first Their Witnessing-Lights may be such as are in publick Office and Place in the visible Church and so are either those that are in the Ministry or those that give their Witness as the Body of some particular Congregation that own themselves in the sight of the world as a Golden Candlestick or some particular Church-Assembly of visible Saints in order and practice of the Gospel according to their measure and light And under this first head will fall all sorts of Principles and Professions of Godliness that make the Rule of the Word and Spirit of God the Ballance of the Sanctuary the Standard by which they desire to regulate themselves in their Doctrine Worship and Conversation what-ever difference in Principles or Ministry of the knowledge of Christ they are under as hath been before opened and distinctly spoken unto Secondly Their Witnessing-Lights may be Publick Persons with relation to their Office in the Magistracy For it is by me saith Christ that Kings reign and Princes do Justice So that in the administration of pure and impartial Justice as a Magistrate in whatever Place and Calling we are set by God and a lawful Appointment from men we keep on the right way without turning on the right hand or on the left for fear or favour discovering a just mind that is a constant and perpetual or unchangeable will to do right to all whatever discouragement opposition and hatred we meet with in doing our duty This is a Light before men which Christ will own in the day of his appearance to have been for his Service and shall not go without its due reward Thirdly There are also the same witnessing Lights in the lesser sphears of every man's particular station and calling which shine forth in a personal righteous and blameless conversation or where their vote or consent is given in reference to the good of the Church or State or to the private Rule which every Master and Head of a Family is by Christ entrusted with in reference to his own Children and Family who are under his charge and not so much at their own dispose as his who hath a right over them by God's Law and man's and by the duty of this relation every man may be somewhat directed even by the world what he is and what Witness he gives in the measure of the Knowledge and Light of Christ he hath received and shall accordingly be taken notice of and judged by Christ in the day of his Judgment ministring Perdition to ungodly men In this little a faithfulness to Christ is expected and that according to the measure of Light received and the Anointing we are under of which there hath already the several degrees and kinds been made known The use therefore that Christ makes of this Light in the world that these several wayes he makes to shine like Lightning from the East to the West from Jerusalem to the utmost ends of the Earth is as to the world to leave them without excuse and ripen them as white fields to the harvest of his just Vengeance when the time is to put in his Sickle And as to the Witnesses themselves to bring upon them a time of refreshing and rest from the presence of the Lord in the sight of their very Enemies where a Table shall be prepared for them and their Cup shall be made to overflow This then being the Testimony that must be finished and these the Witnesses in their several Places and Callings who have been imployed in bearing and giving their Testimony in the World ever since Christ's Ascention the course whereof hath had its progress from East to West and is now come to these utmost ends of the Earth The Scriptures do with great clearness as to the present dispensations of our day teach us three things First That this Testimony is now upon its finishing point in the World and upon these
of Christ Jerusalem is destroyed by Titus Vespasian and there ended the second great Period and Revolution of this War that was managed between the two seeds All along this second War the seed of the Serpent was possessed of the Universal Monarchy of this World had all the countenance and assistance which that could afford The main visible Protection vouchsafed by God on the other hand to his Church and People was continued in the line of Abraham accounting from Sem downward unto God's judicial rejection of that seed of Abraham according to the flesh upon their crucifying the Lord of Glory In this second War we find the seed of the Woman bruised still in the heel and coming off with loss Yea upon the winding up of this second great Day or Period of time wherein the Prince of Life was by wicked hands put to death and the whole Nation of the visible Church of God on Earth rejected and their Worship prophaned and destroyed the Devil might seem to himself and others to have come off compleat conqueror But the War is again renewed by the Serpent and his seed against the seed of the Woman who are repeated and brought forth again by the Regeneration from amongst the very heathenish Nations of the World that were not before accounted by God as a People of his but given up as it were to the dominion of Sin and Satan This third War had its foundation laid in the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ who though a Son was taught obedience by suffering and in the condition of a sufferer obtained the victory Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil And by tasting death for every man as became the Captain of our Salvation he was made perfect through sufferings This way of fighting and overcoming the Devil and Sin was a great mystery till then and the most unlikely of all other ever to break the Serpents head and dispossess him and his Instruments of their worldly Thrones and Powers Yet in this way of the Cross by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony do the true Witnesses of Christ manage and carry on this third War One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes that is yeares have bin alotted them for prophesying in sackcloth in a persecuted wilderness condition Then they are to rise out of their graves stand again upon their feet and prophecy with power 'T is past all dispute that the conquest must fall on the side of the Lamb and his followers at the ending of this third great season and revolution of time wherein the seed of the Woman hath still been on the suffering hand The end of their suffering season will be when the seventh Trumpet begins to sound immediately after the effect which the pouring forth of the Vials shall have upon the Beast and his kingdom This is the Rise Progress and Issue that is given unto things in the third Age of the World called Christian that was made to spring up and have its being out of the destruction of the Jewish World Rom. 11. 11. The cleer view and prospect of things in this Christian World both as to the Civil and Church-government as also the War between the two Seeds brought on again and continued was given by Christ unto the Apostle John and revealed to him by his Angel in the Book of the Revelation For there we find the period that must happen also to this third World and to the Heavens and Earth or the Civil and Church-state appertaining to it and carried on under this dispensation in order to give place to a world to come which is yet to succeed This World to come will be of a more heavenly and spiritual Constitution as to the general state and frame of things which is to be brought forth by Christ's second appearance upon the spirits and bodies of men on this side their compleat and utmost glorification The final ascending up to the Father to sit down at his right hand is after this world that is yet to come or the thousand years Reign of Christ withall his Saints on earth shall have had its course Unto the risen state of Saints when they shall begin to come forth in their victorious posture and unresistable power of Faith and Prayer doth the Prophet Hosea seem to refer chap. 6. vers 2 3. After two dayes sayes he or great seasons of Affliction and Suffering already described he will revive us by the WORD 's being made Flesh and the day-spring from on high therein visiting us This Hab. 3. 2. is called a reviving the work or preserving it alive in the midst of the years of Wrath and Oppression from the Serpent and his seed that was yet to be under-gone for the space of 1666 years after Christ's birth as will appear in its proper place In the third day sayes Hosea that is at the end of it when the Witnesses are to arise we shall live in his sight By following on to know the Lord we shall perceive that his going forth in this his third great revolution of time hath been as the morning shining more and more unto a perfect day and that his coming to us according as hath been by him purposed in his first and in his second Appearance will be as the former and latter rain unto the Earth The former rain of Christ's Spirit in the season of his first Appearance began at the day of Pentecost in visible gifts and distributions of the holy Ghost dividing to every man severally as himself pleased By this means he raised up a Ministry that formed and laid the Foundation of the Primitive Church That Church was upheld in its original purity more or less as long as they kept the Word of God's Patience and withstood the opposition made against it after a right manner by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony in the giving whereof they loved not their lives unto death This appeared all along those hard and cruel Persecutions they under-went until such time almost as Constantine came to the Empire But to avoid Persecution Christians then began to mingle Interest with worldly Powers and to please Governours took their rest in the outward Court some out-side form of godliness so as that which we call Christian Religion became the Religion of the Empire or of the body of the Nation unto which it was received as commanded and compelled by the Laws of the State and power of the Sword This practice commenced and bears date about four hundred years after Christ from which time little of the former rain hath fallen upon such visible or state Christianity in their Publick and National Meeting-places of Worship That rain became then hidden Manna the peculiar food and refreshing of the Woman and her seed in the Wilderness where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time From about the time that Christian
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us
Whether we be able to drink of the Cup he drank of and be baptized with the Baptism he was baptized with Was it not to intimate That if we die with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him and have it granted to us to sit down with him on the Throne of his Glory our very Enemies beholding What would it be less even in this world if he should but please to cause upon this occasion of our Suffering that the Spirit of God and of Glory should rest upon us and bring forth his Kingdom within us in Power giving us that Mouth and Wisdom that will make us mighty in word and deed that Faith to which all things are possible that Spirit of Supplication and Prayer that he will alwayes hear and immediately answer God's Arm is not shortned doubtess great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ to be admired in them If we come not to live here in the actual fruition and full accomplishment of them as they will be experienced by Believers even on this side the death or full change of their mortal body yet if we die in the certain fore-sight and embracing of them by Faith this will be no small blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his Work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is exposing to the Light His Sons must be manifested and evidently distinguished from those who say they are such and are not There is a glory to be revealed in them unto which their Suffering is made the needful Preparation and this is called the Redemption of the body In that day the tabernacling of God in men shall be visible Their very bodies shall be the Temple of the Holy Ghost In them as his Sanctuary will God dwell for evermore whence shall be given forth such visible signs of his extraordinary Presence as shall render it past dispute to the sight of every man that God is in them and with them of a Truth This state of entire resignedness and subjection of our bodies to our Spirits and of our Spirits unto Christ the Father of them shall certainly be brought to the view of the whole World The eyes of those that see them shall acknowledge them and the ears that hear them shall bear witness to them that they are the Seed and Off-spring which the Lord hath blessed Our body thus considered as capable of such advance and honour is not meerly the outward case or shell that must return to dust but includes also the bodily organical state of Life or that souly animal Life which the Spirit of man exercises in conjunction with his mortal body In this kind of Life it is we see hear and speak have the exercise of our Senses after a distinct manner from Angels and intellectual Substances in a way of operation inferiour to theirs proper and peculiar to the rational Soul as needing and using the earthly Organs or Instruments of the mortal body There is also in man that which is peculiarly called Mind or Spirit in distinction from his Soul or from the souly Life and activity of the same Spirit in and by its earthly body 1 Thess 5. 23. The Spirit or Mind of man as distinguished from that life and operation it performs in the mortal body is capable even while in the body to be awakened by the Father of Spirits and come forth in a superiour way even of natural life received by man in his first creation to act as out of the body or without the use of bodily organs as an equal or associate to the very Angels Now because the bodily and inferiour powers of our mind are the instruments of that converse we are subjected to in these dayes of our vanity so that if we will be sociable it must be by the use thereof the Apostle James comprehends all the action of these inferiour powers by the sensible organs we make use of in the exercise thereof under the name of the tongue when he saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body To bridle and regulate the tongue order all the language action and expression of the animal powers aright is to bridle the whole body under the government or ruling authority of the Mind or Spirit considered in its superiour and angelical kind of life and acting as out of the body or above and without the use of bodily organs The Mind or Spirit of man thus considered is as the Pilot that turns the Ship about whithersoever he listeth If it well and truly exercise its governing power it causes the animal life in all the operations and affections thereof to obey its dictates and commands however fiercely driven by contrary Winds false Doctrine any corrupting violent influences of Devils or men upon it and fetches it off from whatever tumultuous disorder it s own sensual lusts and passions are ready to run it into Jam. 3. 2 5. To be partaker of the Redemption of the body is to be made this perfect man which is taught so to live and act from right spiritual Principles as not to offend in word through the Power actually conferred on him and exercised by him for the bridling of the whole body in the sence above declared and for the keeping it in subjection to the Spirit or angelical part in him in righteousness and true holiness This taming of the tongue or subduing of the bodily part in us to the spiritual and intellectual is a work of no small difficulty a thing that is not to be purchased but at a dear rate It may cost us all that we have and no ill bargain neither since by our words it is that we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned For until we have brought under our body and reduced it into a fixed subjection and entire resignation to our Spirits let us boast never so much that which is perfect is not yet come even that perfection which in a very eminent degree shall be experienced by the Saints here on Earth on this side the grave and during their continuance in the mortal body This for ought I can discern will be the product of the present sharp and fiery Tryals that God hath brought upon his People all the World over After they have suffered a while and the same Afflictions have been accomplished in the rest of their Brethren that are in the World they may so far have the work of Patience perfected in them as in this sense to become perfect and entire wanting nothing and to shine forth as so many bright morning stars and fore-running signs of the near approach of the brightness of the Day of Christ's second coming This God hath set before the eye of my