Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	apostle_n	head_n	75	3	5.8783	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65195	Two treatises ... both written by Sir Henry Vane, Knight in the time of his imprisonment.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Epistle general, to the mystical body of Christ on earth.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Face of the times.	1662 (1662)	Wing V80_PARTIAL; Wing V67_PARTIAL; ESTC R7026	96,369	132

that is not only not in my sight but not in preference to him that I have given to you as my face and mouth Provoke him not for my Name is in him intimating withall that herein they were the more inexcusable because they had him with them and amongst them In him the light of God's Glory was shining forth as in God's own face and very similitude speaking his Mind by his own mouth and he was to be incarnate that the same Word might be near us even in our mouth and in our heart to hear it and do it This is the Prophet like unto Moses which God said he would raise up unto them out of and from the midst of their Brethren Let us then acknowledge this great Mystery of the Father and the Son distinguishing what God is by Nature and Essence from what he gives himself to be in the Person of the Mediator the only begotten that lieth in his bosome who yet is also his Messiah whom he sends and makes his Substitute by way of his in-dwelling Deity and Presence for the performing of all his pleasure in both Worlds The Trinity is the head and immediate cause of the being and fulness which is set up in the Person of the Mediator whom they not only inspire with each of their Names and Similitudes but make him a Vessel of meet use to convey the holy Oyl in the way of a twofold Ministry and Pipe to both Creations He therefore became incarnate that he might make use of no other spoksman immediately to interpret and declare the Mind of God unto his People than the Son of man glorified of which we have the lively Type Exod. 4. 15 16. in the Office of Aaron to Moses shewing that Aaron was made the mouth to Moses and Moses the mouth to God Aarons Office of spoksman figuring out that of Christ's Manhead and Moses his that of Christ's Mediatorship in spirits before his Incarnation upon which occasion God promiseth there in the Type that which he fulfills in Spirit and Truth in Christ's Person For as Moses had Commission to speak to Aaron as God's spoksman to him so hath the Spirit of the Mediator to Jesus the Son of man And as it was Aaron's Office to be spoksman to the People so is it the Office of Christ's Manhead to be the spoksman of Him that Moses typed out that great Prophet the Angel of God's Face and Presence and to be to him the Interpreter and Declarer of God's Mind and signifier of God's Commands to all in both Worlds Christ as he is the Son of man is to himself as he is the Word of God instead of a mouth or Prophet And Christ as he is the only Begotten or Word of the Father is instead of God most high unto his own Manhead answerable to the Promise made vers 15. and thou shalt speak unto him and put words into his mouth meaning Moses to Aaron and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you that is both of you what ye shall do Here we see and may see it with Admiration as the Queen of Sheba did in Solomon's Temple which was the Type the Glorious Ascent into the House of God and the gradual access which by one spirit we have through Christ unto the Father I would have you know saith the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11. 3. that the head of every man is Christ the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God Christ that is the head of every man is the head of his own manhead and therefore was Christ God's Angel Messiah or sent-one before he was Man and had for his Head the one God and Father of all things How God is the Head of Christ we have shewed The blessed Trinity is the Father to that only begotten One who is the hidden Wisdom ordained before the World was to our glory The Angel that is the Messenger and Mediator of God's Covenant of whom he commands us to beware Exo. 23. 21. and to obey his voice Provoke him not sayes he for he will not pardon their Transgressions for my Name is in him What can be more plain The most high God hath his Messiah his Angel or sent-one invested with his Majesty and Power of Command whose Voice must be obeyed as the Voice of God it being his Office to be instead of God to his Church What he binds is bound what he remits is remitted for the Name of God is in him He is in likeness and truth so near to God that he is God's equal the true Michael that is second with God in the Throne and yet he that is found in the Form of God and accounts it no robbery to be equal with God doth not disdain to have also his Equals the man that is his fellow the man of his right-haud whom he hath made strong for himself With the most knowing Jews the acknowledgment of Christ in this his heavenly and spiritual being before his incarnation was most usual and avowed The Angel that redeemed Jacob Gen. 48. they call the Divine Majesty owned for God and for Christ that was tempted in the Wilderness whose Voice say they is to be obeyed as the Voice of the living God and his Office is to be the Leader and Guide of the true Israel the great Prince that is the Presence and Majesty of God and the Lord and Ruler over all the Earth as well as Heaven all that is therein being governed by his hand Unto Him the pure and simple Essence of God is the Father and he is set up from everlasting the Father and Root whence that chief Branch springs that is Jesus the Lord and Christ in the capacity of Son to this Father who must reign till all things be subdued under him that is all inferiour Rule Authority and Power whatsoever that officiate or ought to do so in his right But when that is done and finished then shall this Son also himself be subject unto Him that is his Father that raised him from the dead and put all things under him that God may be all in all This occasioned Christ whilst he was on Earth to say Joh. 12. 28. Father glorifie thy Name speaking therein to God the Mediator to Him whose Office is to be to him the Mouth of God from whom he receives the lively Oracles to deliver to his Church as it is written I will declare thy Name to my Brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing Praises unto thee And again I will put my trust in him even in him who wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right-hand of the Majesty on high or in the heavenly This made Christ say When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me that is mediately and in order afterwards to resign them up unto his Father and give up all his interest of Rule in them

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 happi●… thus to be bound up in a way of love delight and entire ob●…nce in the Will of their Head their second Adam and Lord fr●… Heaven Hence they experience that they are not their own in ●…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 af●●● his own heart and is not wanting by an outward Ministry under him ●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 h● 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

Religion hath been made National and in the Rules Ordinances and Doctrines thereof been embodyed with the Laws of each Nation in the Empire and so enforced by the Civil Sword those that truly keep the Commandments of God and Testimony of Jesus have been driven into a state of desolation persecution and dispersion and are so to continue and be warred upon forty and two Months by the Earth and her Inhabitants on the one hand and by the Sea and her Inhabitants on the other Both these sorts of Inhabitants and Enemies of the Church in the Wilderness do make up and constitute but one great City or incorporated Society of the Serpents seed spiritually called Egypt and Sodom under the headship of worldly Government as it arises out of the Sea This worldly Government is still but the same fourth Beast and universal Romane Empire in Principles of opposition to the Kingdom of Christ and Seed of the Woman as before It seems indeed to be now healed and reformed with the shew of Christian Religion under the headship of Church-Government and coercive Power arising out of the Earth or apostate Principles of the worldly Church departing from the Primitive Power Purity and Patern retaining still something of the form of Godliness but denying the Spirit and Power thereof The first Beast carries the second and is willing to be rid upon by it finding great benefit and advantage by having the Whore upon their back for the propagating of servitude and rooting out of the earth the pure and chaste Principles of the Primitive Apostolick Catholick Church Thus the War is managed between the two seeds in this third day Towards the latter end of this day is our lot fallen who are at present alive in this world But before the period and shutting in of this day the Sufferings of the Womans Seed shall have an end Then that Ministry of the Spirit shall come in which is compared to the latter rain This is that which shall break the Serpents head utterly tread him his kingdom and followers under foot This is that which by the pouring forth of the seven Vials of the wrath of God upon the kingdom of the Beast to the utter ruine and destruction thereof will prepare the way for the coming down of the new Jerusalem out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband and so for the thousand years Reign of Christ on Earth At the beginning of that Reign Satan shall be chained up and there shall be no more Sea or prophane worldly-Interest and beastly Government left In the evening-time of this third day or age of the World wherein we now live it shall be light by the coming on of the Kingdom and Reign of Christ with all his Saints Zech. 14. 5 7. This then that we have been describing is the third signal season or great revolution of things in this world wherein the same War that was from the beginning hath been and still is carrying on between the two Seeds under the name of Christian or of Christ's followers The Seed of the Serpent under pretence of being for Christ do prove at last universally against him most shamefully and wickedly rejecting him and falling in with the kingdom of Antichrist in direct opposition to his Kingdom This they will do notwithstanding that he hath been graciously striving and contending by the Ministry of the Gospel to work the whole World into a state of Obedience and Subjection to the Righteousness of his Scepter For this end hath he been many hundred years giving forth the light and glory of his Gospel and Kingdom from the Eastern parts of the World to the West and suffered himself all along to be cast off and his Members to be oppressed and troden under foot by degrees in one Nation and Country after another till at last it came to these Western parts and was spread from hence in America which with these Nations we live in seem to be the last piece of Ground this Quarrel is to be fought out in Yea and probably this is the time as well as the place wherein the Witnesses are finishing their Testimony being the last that are signally to be slain by the Beast as the proper accomplishment of that Prophesie Revel 11. 7. The Beast is represented here as generally in his ascendant posture being gratified with some remarkable Rise in his affairs as a lightning before death to enable him for the accomplishing of this great counsel of God that is to be acted upon the dead bodies of his slain Witnesses within the three years and half before their rising again and standing upon their feet Then they are to enter upon the second part of their Prophetical Ministry compared to that of Eliah's in Ahab's time and that of Moses in Egygt when at their word they shall shut Heaven that it rain not have power over Waters to turn them into blood and to smite the Earth with Plagues as often as they will By them also Heaven shall be opened and a fuller and more excellent discovery of Christ in Spirit ministred than ever yet hath been Amongst them shall be found those seven Angels or Officers of the Church to whom shall be committed the pouring out of the seven golden Vials full of the wrath of God These Vials contain a like universal Ministry of Wrath and of the Judgement of God by Fire upon ungodly men as was brought by Water upon the old World in the dayes of Noah This ministry of wrath by Fire shall put a period to the third state of things in the world as that by Water did unto the first Out of the destruction of the present World and frame of things by this fiery ministry of God's wrath is the thousand years Reign of Christ to spring up in that Kingdom of his that shall never end And here bear with me in giving by way of digression some few broken Notions in order to the better and more distinct opening of Christ's Kingdom which we shall find Luk. 17. 20 21. and chap. 19. 11 c. to be distinguished into a Twofold state 1. A Kingdom inward The Kingdom of God is within you and is the dominion of God in the Conscience and Spirit of the Mind This Kingdom stands not nor comes in or with any outward observation but is the commanding ruling Principle of Life in the true Saint as a Law written in his inward parts Christ's Kingdom as thus considered is intended Rev. 11. 1. where it is called the Temple of God or the inward Court and those that worship there glorifying God in their Spirits This Kingdom of Christ is capable of subsisting and being managed imwardly in the minds of his People in a hidden state concealed from the eye of the world By the Power thereof the inward senses or eyes of the mind are opened and awakened to the drawing them upward to a Heavenly converse catching and carrying up the Soul to the Throne of God and to the

or Priests with Christ or both that is joynt or co-heirs with Christ in the dignity and perfection of his Manhead in one or both of these Considerations of it This is intimated Isa 43. 10. Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant Christ whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me or be one in Judgment and Will with me and understand that I am he Before me there was no God formed nor shall be after me And they are called Witnesses not only because they know and believe him and are one in Spirit with him as he is a glorified earthly man and a man also that is Michael God's fellow but as they Prophesie in Sack-cloth or in a suffering state not loving their lives unto the death rather then cease to be Witnesses and to bear their testimony to the Truth when called thereunto under the greatest contradiction of sinners 9. By the Woman chap. 12. clothed with the Sun c. who being with Child cried travelling in birth with a Man-child and pained to be delivered is meant the true Sarah or spiritual Womb of Christ's dead body Rom. 7. 4. which lawfully discharges us from the Covenant of the Law or obligation to act singly by the activity it gives that we should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we may bring forth fruit unto God as quicken'd into a life and activity much more excellent There is therefore set before the eyes of our Faith the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in-Christ Jesus risen from the dead for us hence-forward to be conformed and live unto as that birth of manly perfection which shines forth in him who was crucified indeed in weakness but was raised in power or a man of Power in whose hands all Power in Heaven and Earth is intrusted And those who become one in conjunction of Spirit with him by the new and everlasting Covenant are with him caught up to the Throne of God in the one or other capacity before intimated of the two sorts of Citizens that by the new birth are members of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of the remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The great Contest and Battel which happened between the Witnesses on the one part comprehended under the name of Michael and his Angels and the Serpent and his brood on the other was as the one were Friends and the other Enemies to the Cross and Death of Christ and as the Judgment Opinions and Practises of the one or other made void or else established and advanced the Mystery and Efficacy of the Cross and the Law of it which those that observe and follow peace will be upon them as on all the Israel of God In this Quarrel the Witnesses do fight under the protection and blessing of Michael their Head as the other do under the support and encouragement of the Old Dragon their Head 10. By the Old Dragon we are to understand the Spirit that rules in the Children of disobedience who is for the present Head and chief Ruler over the World as managing the universal Scepter thereof by Christ's permission The Ensigns and Characters of this Empire according to Scripture phrase is seven heads and ten horns intimating the nature as well as perfection and universality of that worldly Power which is exercised by the Old Dragon in waging war against the Woman and her Seed This War he is capable to manage either as an Angel of Light and a false Prophet in the Church or as an universal Monarch and Governor in the World In the first Capacity as this Dragon transforms himself into an Angel of Light and Minister of Righteousness he works with all Power Signs and lying Wonders As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and Aaron in their Commission so do the Serpent's Seed in Sheep's clothing and Christ's own likeness resist the Witnesses in their Testimony and oppose the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem by pretending a greater Friendship to Christ and conformity to his written Law in all their words and actions than the true Seed of the Woman having indeed the form of Godliness but denying the Power and Spirit thereof After this manner did the Dragon and his Angels in the Primitive Church fight with Michael and his Angels to prevent the birth of the Man-child and to keep up the Credit and Authority of the Law and their following after Righteousness in the Principles and upon the terms of the first Covenant in opposition to the Ministry of the Spirit according to the Promise and Tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant This battel continued in the Primitive Church about four hundred years and came at last to this issue Satan was cast down out of Heaven upon an evident discovery of his deceitful workings and lying wonders in the Teachings and Inspirations which came out of his mouth as a false Spirit and Prophet so that he was not able singly this way to bear up any longer against the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit of Truth in the mouth of the Saints but found himself necessitated to resort to his earthly and worldly Weapons the Power of the Civil Sword that so joyning both his Interests together that of the Magistrate and false Prophet he might grow up into such a formidible posture as is mentioned Chap. 13. 4. where it is said Who is like unto the BEAST or able to make War with him This posture the Apostle John beheld the Dragon putting himself into when the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arose out of the Sea and the two-horned Beast out of the Earth Both of these together do become the Seat or Throne to which the Dragon gave up his Power and Authority The first of these two Beasts receives him as the old unclean prophane heathenish Spirit they that are meant by that Beast are still the same in Principles as before only outwardly baptized into the name of the Christian Profession or Religion when Christian Religion became the Religion of the Roman Empire Thus was that Beast healed of its former Wound when Paganism was destroyed and pull'd down And because the bare name of Christian Religion or out-side Profession thereof without something of real Reformation and Power of inward Principles was not of credit or authority enough to advance Antichrist's Kingdom therefore the Ministry of the Law or first Covenant even the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh as it is capable to serve the Serpents Seed for a cover and vail of their enmity against the Cross of Christ and Power of his Resurrection doth spring up over the head as it were of the first Beast This second Beast or branch of Antichrist's Subjects and Kingdom with two horns like the Lamb but speaking as the Dragon chuses rather to joyn Interest with the first Beast than to suffer the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem to come out

of their Wilderness-condition Yet this earth or miry clay cannot when all 's done cleave heartily and thorowly to the heathenish prophane Spirit of the first Beast but at last is preyed upon by it This Earthly Jerusalem is unexpectedly surprized and overflowed as with a flood by that prophane Interest it ventured to call to its assistance against the true Seed of the Woman in which respect it is said that the Earth helps the Woman the wrath of the prophane party of Antichrist's Kingdom or of the ten-horned Beast being chiefly spent and poured out upon that Professing Party that make up the second or two-horned Beast 11. By the Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea chap. 12. 12. are meant First The Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem who are under Grace Secondly The Citizens of the earthly Jerusalem who are under the dominion and curse of the Law And Thirdly The prophane Party who live under sin moving therein as in their Element past feeling by reason of the blindness and hardness of their hearts This state of Sin is nevertheless not unchangeable nor those that are Captives under it in a condition irrecoverable for Christ died to redeem men out of it 12. By the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arising out of the Sea is to be understood the Empire or Governing Power of the World in whose hands soever it be found as it is made the Seat and Throne of Satan and promotes the Interest of the Devils Kingdom in corruption of manners and prophaness even by the countenance of humane Laws or at least in the execution of them 13. By the two-horned Beast arising out of the Earth we are to understand the Usurpation of the Prophetical Office of Christ by a false Spirit or the said Office as deceitfully executed in a private Spirit of self-byassed Reason in disjunction from the Spirit of the true Head undertaking to counsel and lead men in the interpretation of the written Word or other evident signification of God's Will This once joyned with worldly Government and Power made its vassal and ridden by it is that Spirit and Principle for promoting of worldly Religion which is founded in and supported by humane Laws under the Name and Form of Christianity The two-horned Beast and the false Prophet are therefore the same as by comparing chap. 13. vers 14. with vers 20. of chap. 19. is most clear And the ten-horned Beast is wont also to be called the Image of the Beast where ever therefore the Beast and the false Prophet are mentioned together as they are three times there by the name of the Beast is meant no other but the ten-horned Beast as by the false Prophet the two-horn'd Contrarily where with the Beast we find coupled the Image of the Beast as chap. 14. vers 9 11. chap. 15. vers 2. chap. 16. vers 2. chap. 19. vers 20. chap. 20. vers 4. there by Beast is to be understood the false Prophet and by his Image the seven-headed and ten-horn'd Beast as restored For this Beast seeing he acknowledgeth the false Prophet as his Restorer and suffereth himself to be guided by him as his supream Lord chap. 13. vers 12 14 15. he is not without cause called his Image not as representing or bearing the similitude of the two-horn'd Beast but he is the Image which the two-horn'd Beast speaking like the Dragon did restore and which he challengeth for his own To justifie this that very Image of the Beast which the false Prophet did give life unto did cause that whosoever would not worship the Image of the Beast should be slain To conclude of the self-same is the Image of the Beast and the Name or Number said to be chap. 15. 2. The Name and Number seem not to be called the Name and Number of any other Beast than of the two-horn'd as of the principal Founder and Lord. 14. The Number of the Name of the Beast being said to be the Number of a man signifies that it is the sensual part of man's Wisdom or Reason become devilish by joyning in combination with Satan in his revolt from his true Head and in exercising enmity against all Righteousness upon one account or other This sensual part of man's Wisdom savours and minds Earthly or seen things and delights in corporeal fleshly objects whether actually corrupt or only corruptible This is the Wisdom that is prevalent with the generality of men in the World according to the Principles of which the Empire and Government of the World is managed and the judgment and interpretation of the very Law and Word of God is made for the Rule in matters of Faith and Worship This Wisdom is in its best estate unstable and unfixed so as from the top and height of its honour there is suddenly a being made like the Beast that perishes and so a falling short of the true Rest This was the case of the first Adam who was created on the sixt day and whose unstable perfection is therefore numbered by six thrice repeated This sensual part of man's Wisdom is the executing or performing Power of the Soul in reference to the dictates and enlightnings that declare themselves in the intellectual and angelical part of the mind which many times serves and approves the Law of God whilst the sensual part serves and obeyes sin and as with a Law of common consent from the Members opposes and resists the good and right Rule which shines forth in man's intellect and which we call sound or right Reason But as this sensual part in its movings and actings holds agreement and is in conjunction with the intellectual part as its Ruler and Guide following the dictates thereof so far the actings thereof are sound and right holding conformity to the Law of God Thus even the sensual part as subject to the right dictates of the intellectual is it self a Rule unto humane action and is the principle and foundation of righteous Magistratical Government amongst men Now when this Principle in Magistrates ceases to be any longer found in a state of down-right Paganism and comes to be healed and restored out of darkness and prophaness by receiving of the Scriptures or written Word of God opened and interpreted by such as pretend to be commissioned and gifted for that purpose unto which it owes its healing and restoration it doth by way of acknowledgement receive and set up that prophetical Office in an administration countenanced by humane Laws and the Magistrates Power Where-ever this kind of Magistracy is in both the branches of it both Civil and Ecclesiastical setting up for themselves and their own Interests in their own wills in disjunction from Christ and his Spirit the true Head and in opposition to the Remnant of the Womans Seed and their testimony in word and action there is the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast and Antichrist leading the People over whom it is exercised into servitude both of Soul

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