doth not John say it was by the unction the anointing was in them a foundation or wel-spring of light and life issuing forth continually such Rivers and streams of life within as they needed no other Teacher in the truth and way of life ver 27. The Comforter did refresh their hearts sufficiently and lead them into all truth Search the Apostles Epistles and ye shall find them testifying of the Lords sending his spirit into the hearts of Christians and exhortations to them not to grieve or quench the spirit but to follow as they were lead They were to live in the spirit and to walke in the spirit Gal. 5. 25. and the spirit was to walk and live and bring forth his own life and power in them 2 Cor. 6. 16. And what can be the proper and full rule of Gods Sons and Daughters but the light of the spirit of life which they receive from their father Thus God did advance the state of a believer above the state of the Jews under the law for they had the law though written with the singer of God yet but in tables of stone but these have the law writ by the finger of God in the tables of their hearts Their's was a law without at a distance from them and the Priests lips were to preserve the knowledg of it and to instruct them in it but here is a law within nigh at hand the immediate light of the spirit of life shining so immediatly in the heart that they need no man to teach them but have the spirit of prophesy in themselves and quick living teachings from him continually and are made such Kings and Priests to God as the state of the law did but represent The Gospel is the substance of al the shadowes contained in the law A Christian is he that comes into this substance and lives in this substance and in whom this substance lives and his rule is the substance it self in which he lives which lives in him Christ is the substance who lives in the Christian and he in Crhist Christ lives in him by his spirit and he in Christ by the same spirit ther he lives and hath fellowship with the Father and the Son in the light wherin they live and not by any outward rule 1 Joh. 1. 6. 7. But what is the rule now in the Apostacy Among the Papists the rule is the Scripture interpreted by the Church as they cal themselves with a mixture of their own precepts and traditions Among the Protestants the rule is the Scriptures according as they can understand them by their own study or according as they can receive the understanding of them from such men as they account Orthodox And hence arise continual differences and heaps and sects one following this interpretation another that An this is a grievous apostacy and the root spring and foundation of al the rest for he that misseth in his beginning he that begins his Religion without the true rule how can he proceed aright in any thing afterwards Object But are not the Scriptures the word of God and is not the word of God to be a Christians rule If every one should be left to his own spirit what confusion and uncertainty would this produce Answ The Scriptures are not that living word which is appointed by God to be the rule of a Christian but they contain words spoken by the spirit of God testifying of that word and pointing to that word which is to be the rule Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye might have life Joh. 5. 39. 40. The Scriptures are to be searched for the testimony which they give of Christ and when that testimony is received Christ is to be come to and life received from him But the Pharisees formerly and Christians since I mean Christians in name search the Scriptures but do not come to Christ for the life but stick in the letter of the Scriptures and oppose the life with the letter keeping themselves from the life by their wisdome and knowledg in the letter Thus they put the Scriptures into the place of Christ so honor neither Christ nor the Scriptures I had been no honour to John to have been taken for the light his honour was to point to it nor is it any honour to the Scriptures to be called the word of God but their honour is to discover and testifie of the word Now hear what the Scriptures cal the word In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God Jho 1. 1. and the word was made flesh vers 14. This was the name of Christ when he came into the world in the flesh to sow his life in the world And when he comes again into the world out of a far Country to fight with the beast and false Prophets and to clense the earth of the Whores fornication and idols wherewith she had corrupted it he shal have the same name again his name is called The word of God Rev. 19. 13. So Peter calleth that the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. And this word that liveth and abideth for ever was the word that they preached ver 25. And they that believed did not cry up the words that the Apostles spake for the word but received the thing they spake of the ingrafted word which being received with a meek quiet and submissive spirit is able to save the soul Jam. 1. 21. This is the word of faith that is nigh in the heart and in the mouth Rom. 10. 8. This is the word that stands at the door of the heart and speaks to be let in Behold I stand at the door and knock and when it is let in it speaks in the heart what is to be heard and done It is nigh it is in the heart and in the mouth to what end that thou mightest hear it and do it The living word which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two edged sword divides in the mouth and divides in the heart the vile from the precious yea it reacheth to the very inmost of the heart and cuts between the roots Ebr. 4. 11. and this thou art to hear and do Thou art to part with al the vile words the vile conversation the vile course and worship of the world outwardly and the vile thoughts and course of sin inwardly as fast as the word discovers them to thee and to exercise thy selfe in that which is folly and madnesse to the ey of the world and a grievous cross to thine own worldly nature yea when the word reaches to the very nature life and spirit within from whence al that comes that strong wise root of the fleshly life in the heart must not he spared nor that foolish weak thing to mans wise ey which is brought in stead
life from which they came ther 's the false Prophet ther 's the Wolf ther 's the Apostate ther 's the Seducer from Christ Aagin Christ fore-tells of many false Prophets Mat. 24. 11. And many false Prophets shal rise and shal deceive many and vers 24. For ther shal arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shal deceive the very Elect. And as Christ himself so his Apostles also after him by the same spirit foretel of the same thing The Apostle Paul speaks of seducing spirits in the latter times and of Doctrines of Devils which should prevail to cause a departure in some from the faith 1 Tim. 4. 2. And if in those days the power of Seducers was so great as to draw from the truth which was then so manifest and living how easie would it be to keep from the truth afterward when it had been long lost and out of remembrance and thereby deceit got into the place and name of it The Apostle Peter also foretold of false Teachers who should privily bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and that they should so prevail that their pernitious wayes should be followed by many and the way of truth evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. Again Paul in his 2 d Epist to Tim. speaks of the last days that the times therin should be perillous Chap 3. Christ had said The love of many should wax cold and iniquity abound Mat. 24. 12. And Paul showes how the times would prove very perillous by the abounding of iniquity In the last dayes perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their owne selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankeful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God 2. Tim. 2. vers 1. 2 3 4. Behold what kind of fruit sprung up from the false doctrine of the false Teachers in the Apostacy from the truth And yet al this under a form of godlinesse Having a form of Godlinesse but denying the power therof vers 5. Christ sent the power of Godlinesse into the world to subdue the root from whence al this springs to kil the evil nature inwardly but in the Agostacy the evill nature is not killed but the power denyed which should kil it and the form kept up to cover the evil nature with The inwardly ravening nature which devours and destroyes the stirrings and shootings forth of the just one in the heart that gets the sheeps clothing the form of Godlinesse to cover it selfe with Look any wher among the Apostates from the Apostles spirit and doctrine and see Is selfe-love killed is covetousnesse killed is boasting and pride killed is the love of pleasures killed are Persecutors and oppressors killed and is your honour and glory laid in the dust Nay they are but covered with the form there life is stil in them the power wherewith they should be killed was at first denyed and now is lost and not known wher there is the life ther is the power and wher ther is the power the evil nature is killed but wher the evil nature is not killed ther is onely a form of godlinesse a covering a painted Sepulchre but rottennesse within Now those last dayes and last times were not far off but begun then For the Apostle exhorts Timothy to turn away from such vers 5. From such turn away intimating that even then there wer such to be turnedaway from And he saith vers 8. that they did then resist the truth like Jannes and Jambres who with a likenesse of what Moses wrought but without life did strive to resist the life and power that was in Moses And this is the work of all deceivers to get their own spirit into the likeness and then to make use of the likenesse to oppose and suppresse the true life and power So that they were come even then when the Apostle wrote this Epistle to Timothy And Jude saith that ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse and denying the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ were crept in already vers 4. of his Epistle And the Apostle John speaks very expresly 1. Joh. 2. 18 19. Little Children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shal come even now are ther many Antichists wherby we know that it is the last time They went out from us c. Christ instructing his Disciples concerning the last times tells them ther shall arise false Christs with great power of deceit Mat. 24. v. 24. Now saith John here ther are come many Antichrists wherby we know it is the last time Mark Ther wer many Antichrists to begin and lay the foundation of the apostacy and make way for the great Antichrist who was to be their successor in the apostacy and not the successor of the Apostles in the truth And these did not abide in the doctrine of the Apostles who preached the everlasting Gospel nor in the spirit and principle which they were in but went out from them from theit spirit from the anointing to which they kept and by which they were kept into another spirit and preached another Gospel a Gospel which was not the power of God to kil the earthly but consisted in such a dead literal knowledge of things as the earthly might be fed and kept alive by And as the great Antichrist was to come so there Antichrists who were to make way for him were already come and were already laying the foundation of and beginning the apostacy So that the Spirit of Antichrist that very spirit wherein Antichrist succeeded and in which he grew up and perfected the apostacy was then in the world as this Apostle saith yet more manifestly 1 Joh. 4. 3. This is that spirit of Antichrist wherof ye have heard that it should come à nd even now already is it in the world Nor was it idle but it was at work working it selfe into the form of godlinesse that it might eat out the power drive out the true spirit and make a prey of the life The mystery of iniquity saith the Apostle Paul doth already work 2 Thes 2. 7. This spirit did work in a mystery of iniquity to eat out the mystery of godlinesse and to set up this mystery of iniquity in the world instead of the mystery of godliness And it did prevail to wind it self into the form get possession of the form and also to trample upon keep under the life It gained the outward Court for when that spirit had corrupted it the Lord did not regard it but gave it up to it and it trod down the holy City Rev. 11. 2. And this mystery of iniquity did not begin to work many ages after the Apostles but even then in their dayes already The mystery
which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me For of a truth the great Prophet is arisen and speaks in the heart and his sheep hear his voice there are many faithful witnesses thereof and he that will not hear his voice must be cut off there is no avoiding of it for the two-edged sword is in his hand and he will cut down the transgressor 8. The Church the true Church was lost The true Church was a company gathered out of the world into God begotten of and gathered into his life by the living word and so had a true place and habitation in God The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians stiles them a Church in God A Church under the Gospel is made up of true Israelites gathered out of their own spirits and natures into the measure of the spirit of God in them as Christ was into the fulnesse They are such as are begotten of God born of his spirit led by him out of Egypt through the wildernesse to Sion the holy mount there they meet with the elect precious corner stone which is laid in Sion and they being living stones are built upon it into Jerusalem the holy City 1 Pet 2. 5 6. Ebr. 12. 22. This is the true Church Every one that believes in Christ is a living stone and being a living stone he is laid upon the living foundation and so is a part of the building in the Temple of the living God Yea his body and and spirit being clensed he himself is a Temple wherein God dwels appears and is worshipped And the gathering of any of these together at any time in the life in the name of Christ is a larger Temple and such a Temple as Christ never fails to be in the midst of But the great Temple the ful Church is the general assembly of the first-born This is the unerring pillar and ground of truth This alwaies bare up truth truth never failed here but when it was at any time lost in the world it might from hence be recovered again when God pleased and as far as he pleased Indeed the Law of the Lord hath alwaies gone forth from this Sion and the living word from this Jerusalem But what hath the Church been in the Apostacy a building of stone say some and that not onely among Papists but here in England also many have called the old Mass-house a Church a Temple the house of God pleading for it to be a holy place and have showed it by their practises keeping off their hats while they were in it Others say not the stone building but the people that meet there is the Church whereof many are openly prophane yea so far from being gathered into the spirit and so ignorant of his motions that they are ready to scoffe if they hear a man speak of being moved by the spirit What are these are these living stones whereupon the true Church alone can be built are these children of the day Nay these are children of the night children brought up in the Apostacy from the true light the true life the true rule of Christianity the true worship the true faith the true love c. and so are dead stones in that building but not true living stones in Gods building Other sorts separate from these and gather Congregations out of these but still in the same spirit in the same nature being not themselves gathered out of the Apostacy from the spirit into the spirit again and so they build but with the same stones as were in the old building and not with the new and living stones and so are but a more refined appearance of a Church but not a true Church Not a Church in God and by the gathering of his spirit but of their own gathering after a form according as they have imagined from their reading and studying of the Scriptures 9. Which may be the last instance The Ministry the true Ministry hath been lost The true Ministry was a ministry made and appointed by the spirit by the gift of the Spirit bestowed on them and by the spirit sending of them and appointing them to their work Christ bid his Apostles and Disciples wait at Jerusalem for the promise of the spirit and when he had given them the spirit he gave them to the Church for the work of the Ministry Ephes 4. 11. 12. Act. 20. 28. And if none can be a member of the true Church but by being begotten out of death into life by the spirit surely none can be able to minister to him who is so begotten but by the same spirit So these receiving their Ministry of the Lord Jesus Act. 20. 24. and the gift of the spirit from him they were made able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the spirit 2 Cor. 3. 6. They were able in God to minister from his spirit to the spirits of his people And they did not minister a literal knowledg of things to the understanding of man but they led men to the spirit of God and ministred spiritual things to that spiritual understanding which was given them of God Neither did they make use of their own wisdom and art to tickle the natural ear but spake to the conscience with the demonstration of the spirit in the sight of God as it pleased the spirit to give them utterance But how have Ministers been made in the Apostacy By orders from men set up in their own wils after their own inventions And how have they been qualified but by humane arts and languages which have been of high esteem in that which men call the Church since the language and skill of the spirit of God hath been lost God who chose in his own Church doth not chuse here who shall be his Ministers but any man can appoint his Son to be a Minister if he will but educate him in learning and send him to the University and so bring him into that way of order wherein men make Ministers and then he is able to minister unto man the things of man according to human skil And this in the dark night of apostacy must go for a true call to the ministery of God Indeed they are as true Ministers as the Church is to which they minister but they never were nor never can be thus made Ministers of the Church of God but as God alone can form and build his Church so he alone can fit and appoint the Ministers thereof And though others having seen the grossenes of this make their ministers by a call in their Church yet neither is that out of the apostacy but onely a striving of man to get out of it which man cannot possibly do till he meet with the spirit of God to lead out of it So that that Ministry also is but an invention of man made by man and comes not from the spirit nor is able to minister spirit to the spirit
had been kind to me in breaking of me in my religion and in visiting me with sweet and precious light from his own spirit but I knew it not I felt and could not but acknowledge a power upon me and might have known what it was by its purifying of my heart and begetting me into the image of God but I confind it to appear â—â— a way of demonstration to my reason and earthly wisedom and for want of satisfaction therein denyed it and rebelled against it and so after all my former misery lost my entrance and sowed seeds of new misery and sorrow to my own soul which since I have reaped So that I have no cause to boast over others but to lie low in abasement of spirit And what I write is not in any dominion or authority of my own but to bring others unto that dominion and authority which it is good for me and for every one else to be subject to The Lord strip us of our own understanding and of that righteousness which is but ours though we have called it his that so we may be gathered into and receive his understanding and be cloathed with his righeousness and feel his rest and peace And happy is he that loseth all to gain this but he that keepeth what he hath too long shall in the end lose all and yet not gain this neither Therefore be no longer wise in the eye of flesh or according to what man calleth wisdom but be truly wise If the Reader before he peruse this Book would be perswaded to amend with his Pen these Errors and mistakes of the Press some whereof make the sense difficult some wholly pervert it it may prove for his own ease and benefit Smaller errors as of adding or substracting letters or mistaking the stops the sence may somewhat help him in PAge 13 l. 7. r. And l. 31. r. It p. 16. l. 2. r. when l. 11. r. man p. 17. l. 3â— r. light p 18 l 15. r. is profitable p. 19. l 33. r. moving p. 21. l. 13. r. known p. 24. l. 11. r. enjoyed l. 36. r. cherished p. 27. l. 31. r. found p. 28. l. 19. for this r. the. p. 24. l. 15. r. of help p. 36. l. 8. r. to light p. 38. l. 27. r. pant p. 39. l. 1. 2. r. in simplicity l. 38. r. And then p. 40. l. 28. is dele p. 41. l. 2. got p. 44. l. 29. if ye p. 45. l. 1. thou that l. 23. were formed p. 51. l. 38. 39. would reach p. 53. l. 4. knew l. 20. he p. 54. slighted p. 60. l. 1. and witnesses p. 61. l. last Answ p. 66. l. 2. one of p. 67. 68. for the r. thee where the sence requires p. 68. l. 17. these l. 24. the delc p. 70. l. 7. as he doth p. 73. l. 14. as l. 24. betrayers of the life And so p. 75. l. 9. bringing forth p. 76. l. 16. world p. 77. l. last r. this p. 81. l. 6. seat p. 96. l. 19. this day l. 20. that Scripture l. 27. then they Some POSITIONS concerning the Apostacy from the Christian Spirit and Life Position I. THat ther hath been a great Apostacy from the spirit of Christ and from the true light and life of Christianity which Apostacy began in the Apostles dayes and ripened apace afterwards That the Apostles and Christians in their days had the true Spirit the true Light the true Life I think will not be denyed We know that we are of God and that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternall life 1 Joh. 5. 19. 20. They wer truly born of God and knew the Son of God come receiving from him a true understanding and the true light and knowledge in that understanding and both the understanding and knowledge was rooted and seated in him that is true wher their scituation abiding was we are in him that is true wher they met with the true Spirit the true God the true Life even life eternal That they had the true spirit from God because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts Gal. 4. 6. that they had the true light from God God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts c. 2 Cor. 4. 6. that they had the true life from and in the spirit if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Gal. 5. 25. is generally acknowledged concerning them Now of an Apostacy from this beginning even in their dayes and to be compleated not long after the Scriptures also make mention The Apostle Paul speaks expresly of the thing that ther must come a falling away and a revealing of the man of sinne the son of perdition 2 Thes 2. 3. Christ the man of salvation had shewed and declared the path of life had discovered the true Church which was the pillar and ground of truth against which the gates of he I could not prevail had sent the true spirit which could lead into all truth and preserve in the truth but ther must spring up a man of sinne a son of perdition who in a mystery should work against this and cause a falling from this to another thing And this the Apostle did not onely give a touch of here in writing but he had likewise told them of these things by word of mouth to which he refers them vers 5. This wer enough to an ey opened but for further illustration to the thick understanding of man which is surrounded with fogs and mists of darknesse some more evidences from Scriptures may be given Christ foretold of false Prophets Mat. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves The Lord sent true Prophets under the Law and gave them true visions to declare Christ sent true Apostles and Ministers under the Gospel and gave them the truth which they should preach and propagate But then ther wer false Prophets false Apostles and Ministers to come after who never wer sent by Christ nor never received the truth from his spirit Now these do not come to gather into the life and truth of Christ but to scatter from it and so either to begin or uphold an Apostacy And saith Christ beware of them for they come very subtilly they come in the sheeps clothing They get the garment of the sheep upon their backs even that very garment which the sheep did wear but they have not the nature of the sheep but the nature of the wolfe which is ravenous after the life of the sheep Mark wher ther is the Garment without but not the nature within wher ther is the form of Godlinesse but not the power wher ther are Scripture-words and practises but not the spirit of
worship not God they honor not the Scriptures but they honor and worship the work of their own brain And every Scripture which man hath thus formed a meaning out of and hath not read in the true and living lights of Gods eternal spirit he hath made an image by he hath made an idol of and the respect and honor he gives this meaning is not a respect and honor given to God but to his own image to his own idol Oh how many are your idols ye Christians of England as ye think your selves to be how many are your idols ye gathered Churches how full of images and idols are ye ye spiritual Notionists who have run from one thing to another with the same mind and spirit wherewith ye began at first But the founder of images hath never been discovered and destroyed in you and so he is still at work among you all and great will your sorrow and distress be when the Lords quick eye searcheth him out and revealeth his just wrath against him In my heart and soul I honor the Scriptures and long to read them throughout with the pure eye and in the pure light of the living spirit of God but the Lord preserve me from reading one line of them in my own-will or interpreting any part of them according to my own understanding but only as I am guided led and enlightened by him in the will and understanding which comes from him And here all Scripture every writing of Gods spirit which is from the breath of his life profitable to build up and perfect the man of God but the instructions the reproofs the observations the rules the grounds of hope and comfort or whatever else which man gathers out of the Scriptures he himself being out of the life have not the true profit nor build not up the true thing but both the gatherings and the gatherer are for destruction And the Lord will ease the Scripture of the burthen of mans formings and inventions from it and recover its honor again by the living presence and power of that spirit that wrote it And then it shall be no longer abused and wrested by mans earthly and unlearned mind but in the hand of the spirit come to its true use and service to the seed and to the world 2. The true worship was lost The true worship of God in the Gospel is in the spirit The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Joh. 4. 23. The true worship is in the spirit and in the truth and the true worshippers worship there and such worshippers the Father seeks and such worship he accepts but all other worship is false worship and all other worshippers are false worshippers such worshippers as God seeks not nor can accept their worship Did God refuse Cains sacrifice formerly and can he accept any sacrifice or worship now that 's offered in that nature why he that worships out of the spirit he worships in that nature But he that worships aright must have his nature changed and must worship in that thing wherein he is changed in that faith in that life in that nature in that spirit whereby and whereto he is changed For without being in this and keeping in this it is impossible to please God in any thing He that is the true worshipper is a believer and in his worship he must keep to his rule the law of faith the law of the spirit of life in him the law which he receives by faith fresh from the spirit of life continually He must heat and observe the voice of the living word in all his worship and worship in the presence and power and guidance of that as that moves and as that carries on or it is not worship in the spirit I shall instance only in prayer Praying alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the spirit Ephes 6. 18. Mark all prayer and supplication must be in the spirit yea it must be alwaies in the spirit which speaks in the heart to God and makes the intercession or is is no prayer If a man speak never so much from his own spirit with never so much earnestness and affection yet it is no prayer no true prayer but only so far as the spirit moves to it and so farr as the spirit leads and guids in it If a man begin without the spirit or go on without the spirit this is out of the worship this is in his own will and so will-worship and according to his own understanding and so fleshly worship both which are to be crucified and not to be followed in any thing under the Gospel Wee are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit here are the true worshippers the circumcision and here 's the true worship in the spirit and they have no bounds and limits in the flesh wherein their strength and confidence is broke and have no confidence in the flesh If a man address himself to any worship of God without his spirit hath he not confidence in the flesh If he begin without the ving of his spirit doth he not begin in the flesh if he go on without the spirits carrying on doth he not proceed in the strength and confidence of the flesh But the worship of the spirit is in its will and in its time and is carried on by its light and power and keeps down the understanding and affectionate part of man wherein all the world worship and offer up the unaccepted sacrifices even the lame and the blinde which Gods soul hates Now this worship as it is out of mans will and time and in that which continueth so it is continual There is a continual praying unto God There is a continual blessing and praising of his name in eating or drinking or what ever else is done There is a continual bowing to the majesty of the Lord in every thought in every word in every action though it be in worldly things and occasions yet the spirit of the Lord is seen there and the tongue confesseth him there and the knee boweth to him there this is the true worship And this is the rest or sabbath wherein the true worshippers worship When the creation of God is finished when the child is formed in the light and the life breathed into him then God brings him forth into his holy Land where he keeps his Sabbath They that are in the faith which is the substance of the things hoped for under the Law are come from all the shadows and types of the Law and from all heathenish observation of dayes and times in the spirit of this world where the spirit of man is hard at work into the true Sabbath into the true rest where they have no more to work but God works all in them in his owntime and according to his own pleasure We which have believed do enter into rest Ebr.
4. 3. and he that is entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God from his vers 10. He that hath the least taste of faith knows a measure of rest finding the life working in him and his soul daily led further and further into life by the working of the life and the heavy yoke of his own labouring after life taken of from his shoulders Now here 's the truth here 's the life here 's the sabbath here 's the worship of the soul that 's led into the truth and preserved in the truth But what is the worship now in the Apostacy Among the Papists a very grosse worship a worship more carnal then ever the worship of the Law was for that though in its nature it was outward and carnal yet it was taught and prescribed by the wisdom of God and was profitable in its place and to its end but this was invented by the corrupt wisdom and set up in the corrupt wil of man and hath no true profit but keeps from the life from the power from the spirit in fleshly observations which feed and please the fleshly nature Look upon their daies consecrated to Saints and their canonical hours of Prayer and their praying in an unknown tongue with their fastings feastings saying of Ave-Maries Pater-nosters Creeds c. are not all these from the life out of the spirit and after the invention and in the wil of the flesh Ah their stink is greater then the flesh-pots of Egypt And the worship of the Protestants comes too near them for their worship is also from a fleshly principle and in their own times and wils and according to their own understanding and apprehension of things and not from the rising up and guidance of the infallible life of the spirit in them for that they will quench They also observe dayes and times and perishing ordinances and are not come out of the flesh into that spirit where the worship is to be know and to be in 3. The Faith the true faith was lost The faith which gives victory over the world the faith which feeds the life of the just and slayes the unjust the faith which is pure the mystery whereof is held in a pure conscience the faith which gives entrance into the rest of God the faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen this hath been lost and is not yet to be found among those who go for Christians For those who challenge the name of Christians and say they believe in Christ and have faith in him cannot with their faith overcome the world but are daily overcome by the world Where is there a Christian but he is either in the honours or in the fashion or in the customes or in the worships of the world if not in them all He is so farre from overcoming these that he is overcome with them yea so overcome so drunk therewith that he hath even lost his senses and thinks he may be a Christian and in a good state while he is there And the life of the just is not fed by their faith but the unjust nature is fed and the righteous witnesse which is raised up and lives by the true faith is kept down and cannot bring forth his life in them because of their unbelife for that is the proper name of their faith for being not true faith it is not faith but unbelief And the faith of Christians so called is not a mystery they know not the mystery of it which is held in a pure conscience but consists in believing an Historical relation and in a fleshly improving of that and can be held in an impure conscience Neither are they entered into rest by their faith for they know not the Sabbath in the Lord but are still in a shadowy Sabbarh Neither is it the substance of what they hope for but the substance of what they hope for is strange to them They are not come to Mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem to the innumerable company of Augels to the general assembly and Church of the first born to God the Judge Christ the Mediator and the blood of sprinkling and so to unity and certainty in the life but are in opinions waies and practises suitable to the earthly spirit which may easily be shaken and must be shaken down to the ground if ever they know the building of God and the true faith 4. The love the true love the innocent love which think no il nor wishes no ill much lesse can do any il to any but suffereth long and is kind meek humble not seeking its own but the good of others this love is lost The love unfained is banished and a fained love such a love as enmity and violence proceeds from is got in the place of it The true love loves the enemy and cannot return enmity for enmity but seeks the good of them who hate it but this love can persecute and hate that which it calls the friend nay the brother because of some difference in opinion or practice The love that was in Christ taught him to lay down his life for his sheep and he that hath the same love can lay down his life for his brother But the love that is now among Christians tends rather to the taking away of life What is the love among the Papists See their Inquisitions their wraths their fire and fagot c. What is their love in New-England is it not a love that can imprison or banish their brother if he differ but a little from them in judgement or practise about their worship yea they can whip burn in the hand cut off ears just like the Bishops of old England If one had told them when they fled from the persecution of the Bishops here that they themselves should have done such things they would have been apt to reply with Hazael what are we dogs But they fled from the Cross which would have crucified that persecuting spirit and so carried it alive with them and being alive it grew by degrees to as great an head there as it did in the Bishops here And what is the love here in old England is it not a love that whips stocks imprisons stones jeeres yea the very Teachers which should be patterns of love to others they will cast into prison and distrein the goods of their brother even almost to his undoing for maintenance according to a Law of the Land made in the Apostacy See the Record of Sufferings for Tythes in England which may make any tender heart bleed to read it and is like to lie as a brand of infamy on the Magistracy and Ministry of England to succeeding generations Is this the love of the righteous seed or is it Cains love which is in profession in word in shew but not in deed and in truth And how can these love God nay if the true love
of bread Idolatry Answ The praying which God appointed is not Idolatry Praying in the Spirit of God when he moves and according to the will of God which is onely known in the Spitit is not Idolatry but thy praying in thine own spirit and at thine own times and according to thine own wil perhaps in way of imitation of the Jewish morning and evening Sacrifices this is Idolatry This is that which thou hást set up in stead of that which God set up and so it is not the true thing which God set up but an Idol of thine own making and so thou worshippest not God therein but that spirit which helped thee to invent and set up the Idol The same might be said concerning preaching singing washing with water breaking of bread and what ever else is practised in Religion upon these terms Object But doth not the Scripture mention these things and did not the Saints practise these things surely they were not Idolaters Can I be an Idolater in practising that which they practised Answ Nay thou art mistaken they are not the things which they practised The stress of their Religion lay in the life of it in the presence of the spirit of God in it it was his breath made it the truth Now if thou couldst have the same things that they had yet without the same living breath they would be but dead things but Idols But thou hast not the true form of things neither thou hast not the true Church the true Ministry the true Ordinances according to the form but things set up in their stead by the invention of man in the time of the Apostacy from the true things and what can these be but Idols The world wondered after the beast and they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast Rev. 13. 3 4. Behold what was worshipped at the time of the Apostacy That which arose from the beastly invention of man and not from the true spirit of life And the inventing and setting up of these and worshipping according to these inventions is worshipping the Dragon for he getteth in and lodgeth in mans inventions and not the living God And therfore God at the end of this Apostacy raiseth up a new ministry to recal the Nations from worshipping the Dragon to the worship of God again ver 6. 7. of that Chapter What the Gentiles sacrificed of old they sacrificed to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10. 20. And what the late Gentiles sacrifice I mean Christians in the heathenish nature Christians to whom the outward court was given Rev. 11. 2. and who have not a profession of the Saints words and practises but without life they sacrifice not to God neither but to that spirit that helped them to invent and form a likenesse or image of the truth Transgressing the principle of God within they go from God and from his worship and the Devil who went out from the truth gets in and they go into his power and whatever they perform in worship there is to him for when they go from the principle of God in them the Devil gets into their hearts and God goes out and his true life power and worship is not known but an image or likeness which the Devil sets up in stead of the true thing So then in that state let men consider what they worship for there they cry up ordinancies and duties and kill one another about them thinking that they worship and honour God thereby but know not nor are come to that wherein God alone can be worshipped and honoured I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not saith the spirit Rev. 2. 9. is this blasphemy For a man to call himself a Christian who is not what is that to call that a Church which is not what is that to call him a Minister of Christ who is not what is that to call those the Ordinances of Christ which are not what is that to call that faith which is not that justification which is not c. what is that Can ye spy out the blasphemer ye have made a great out-cry against him long are ye willing now he should be put to death The Lord hath lighted his candle he is searching for him and he will find him out and as he have desired so it shall be the Lord will not spare him O be awakened be awakened ye heathenish Christians Open the eye that can see and behold where ye are and what ye are doing and how fast ye are running into the pit Ye have forgotten God ye have lost the true line of judgement ye have lost the key of knowledg and the light that is in you is darkness and leads to darkness though ye cannot possibly believe it Oh come back to the remembrance of God and and to true holinesse without which no man shall see him for the wicked shall be turned into hel and all the Nations that forget God and ye have forgotten him days without number Position V. THat the onely way of recovery out of the Apostacy is by returning to and keeping in that spirit from which the Apostacy was The Apostacy came by leaving the spirit of God and running after another spirit and the recovery must be by leaving that other Spirit and returning to the spirit of God again How did Christians formerly begin their Religion They began in the Spirit Gal 3. 3. and so they were to go on to perfection and not intermix any thing of the flesh And had the anointing been kept to Antichrist and the mystery of iniquity had been kept out and where that is returned to the Antichristian spirit is purged out by degrees and the wayes thereof discovered and forsaken Therefore know the whorish Spirit in thy self which is busy to form likenesses in thy mind to seduce thee and to make thee fall in love with the likenesses which she hath formed in other mens minds and let her not deceive thee with her paint and gawdy appearances but know likewise the little seed of life from which truth springs up in thee and in which the spirit of truth dwels and is to be found and take heed least the serpentine wisdom teach thee to despise and turn from it From this spring it was that truth sprung up in the witnesses all the time of the Apostacy for they had their testimony from the spirit of Prophesie Rev. 19. 10. So far as they kept to that they gave a true testimony so far as their own spirits mixed with it they corrupted it But to abide in that was very hard and there was need of much affliction and persecution to keep the flesh down and to preserve the life pure But as the life springs up more strongly and overcomes that spirit inwardly I mean the wise fleshly spirit there wil be less need of outward afflictions or persecutions yea or inward either but there will be a safe
entrance into and abiding in the joy the rest the peace where the whore within which seduced from the life where the power is into some form where the power is not is burnt Learn then and know in thy self that spirit of prophesy which spake in all the Martyrs Hear that come to that keep to that feel the union the fellowship the spreading of that in thee When that bids thee go go when that bids thee come come when that bids thee do this do it But the flesh is grown strong and strongly resisteth this spirit both inwardly and outwardly and will not suffer him to rise up in the heart or to rise up in the Nation but at any time when he stirreth and offers to speak or lead to God there 's a reason rises up in the fleshly wisdom that knocks him down and denies his voice and hearkens to another voice in stead of his Thus they first give way to the fleshly wisdom and suppress the truth in themselves and then they would go forth and suppress it in others and they think them mad and their rage riseth against them where the truth is suffered to grow and mans reason or fleshly wisedom denyed And thus is the Lord of Glory evil intreated and slain at this day by this generation of Christians as he was by the Jewes slain formerly in the Prophets in that his appearance in a fleshly form and in his Apostles and his blood will be required for the earth shall not alwaies drink it up and cover it nor the adulterous woman be alwaies able to wipe her mouth and say she hath done no wickedness Ye have saved alive the unjust and killed the just The murthering nature is alive in you O ye Christians but the holy one is slain and lies buried in your graves and ye have painted your graves and speak good words of him but still keep him down and let another rise up and live in you Ye cry up that appearance of Christ in the flesh and the words he then spake and the words of his Apostles and think that if he had lived in those dayes ye would not have killed either him or his Apostles and yet ye resist and oppose the same life in your selves and in others with such a kind of wisdom in the letter as the Pharisees had O what will ye do the uncircumcised ear is got up in you and ye cannot hear and the uncumcised heart and ye cannot understand but when this is told you ye despise and wonder and go on in the perishing state My bowels my bowels I am pained at my bowels O England England thou that killedst the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes thou that persecutedst the non-conformists afterwards that thou wouldst not suffer the people of God to meet together to seek him with an honest heart but wouldst confine them to thy gross formal wayes of worship Though the Lord hath appeared and broken the horns of the Oppressors yet the persecuting spirit is not broken in thee but thou still huntest after the precious life of the seed and wouldst not let it spring up in the Nation The spirit of enmity is still up in thee which knows not the Lord of life but by a natural instinct opposeth him and would fain keep up some grave or other it cares not what so it might but thereby keep down the life for thou canst now bear with any form and cherish it and thy onely enmity is against those who are sent by the Lord to gather out of all forms into the life How often would the Lord have gathered thee but thou wouldst not and yet seeks to gather thee but still thou wilt not but as if the former laws made in Queen Maries dayes were not sufficient desirest new laws to ensnare and entangle the innocent What wil become of thee or what wil thou say to the Lord when he ariseth to plead the cause of the innocent for that Spirit which he raised up to witness against the whorish spirit which lies hid in thy forms of worship and religion appears in all thy Laws Councils and waies of Government so far as they formed and so far as they are guided by the wisdom of the flesh is innocent even as that spirit which witnessed formerly against Popety and Episopacy was innocent before the Lord though accused by them as guilty of error in it self and of disturbance to the publique peace as this is now by thee Some Principles guiding out of the Apostacy to the Christian Spirit and Life again 1. THat there is no salvation but by the true knowledg of Christ The Jews had received the ordinances of God and knew of the Messiah to come and believed it and were very zealous in their worship in observation of Circumcision the Passeover New moons and Sabbaths c. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God and yet God complains of them by his Prophet My people perish for lack of knowledg And the state is the same under the Anti-christian Apostacy wherein the whore hath made all nations kindreds tongues and languages drunk with the cup of her fornication the true knowledg and worship hath been lost though the eyes of them that have been in the apostacy and drunk with the cup could not see it no more then the Jews could in their day But to come close to the thing The knowledge of Christ is not litteral traditional or fleshly nor can it be received by the natural understanding but it is spiritual and the understanding must be given by God which receives it He hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5. 20. A man may read Scriptures hear Sermons c. and thereby gather a knowledge into the old understanding but neither this understanding into which the knowledge is gathered nor the knowledge it self which is gathered is spiritual but fleshly and so cannot save He that comes once to receive an understanding from Christ and to have the knowledge of Christ powred forth from Christ into his heart knowes the difference between that and the understanding into which he gathers things The knowledge of Christ after the letter and a faith in him answerable to such knowledge will not save but a man must know him in that spirit life and power wherein he lived if he groundedly hope to be saved by him 2 Cor. 5. 16. 17. 2. That Christ saves by the new covenant Not by any thing got into the minde by the oldness of the letter but by a life begotten which is new There are two covenants made mention of in Scripture one whereof is called the old the other the new The old belonged to the Jewes which is done away with their ceremonies state and polity the new which is better then the former Christ is the mediator of Heb. 8. 6. By mediating between God and the creature or by bringing them together in and according
stirrings of the spirit of God And this is the best way for man in this state to know them by That which discovers that which is evill that is good that which discovers that which is spiritually evill that must needs be spiritually good for evll is darkness and cannot make it self manifest That which discovers that which is undoubtedly pure and inclines to it that must needs be of God Now to know this and be joyned unto it is a joyning of the creature unto God by some what of him that comes from his spirit and so is a true beginning of life eternal 7. That whereby the spirit of God convinceth of sin is his light shining in the conscience Fallen man is darkness The light shines in the darkness and shews man the evill which otherwise would ly covered in him Man fel from God lost the image of God and became wholly darkness but the spirit of God is light and shines in the darkness and strives with man to reduce him back again to that light from which he fel. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God c. 2. Cor. 4. 6. Where did the Apostles and Christians in those dayes meet with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ God shined it in their hearts He that made the light to shine out of the dark deep Genes 1. 2. by his spirit he by the same spirit made the light of the knowledge of life shine in their dark hearts and there it is also that the work of conviction is wrought by the same spirit He that perfects the good work in the heart the same is he that begins it there and his beginning is by reproving and convincing of sin and so turning the heart from it unto God and unto the obedience of that righteousness which he makes manifest And he that meeteth not with the spirit in the beginning of his work or slinketh back and goeth not on with him but smothereth his reproofes not forbearing that or parting with that for which he is reproved is never like to meet with him in the end And then it will be too late for him to blame that Religion wherein there was only a dead form but not the living power of God He that will come to life eternal must be translated out of his dead understanding and all his dead wayes and worships which please that understanding into a living principle and keep in that principle and then he shall know life indeed and the true food of that life and the true worship and service from that life and the reward belonging to all 8. That this light convincing of sin shineth in every conscience He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6. 8. The life which was in Christ was the light of men Joh. 1. 4. Christ is the light of the World Joh. 8. 12. God as he loved the World so he manifested his love to the World by sending his light into it to enlighten every man that cometh into the World that with the light they might see his Son and as many as receive him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God As God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth So he hath given that light to all which may bring to the knowledge of the truth which saveth He is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World Joh. 1. 9. The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men c. As the enemy got possession of every mans heart by filling it with darkness so Christ pursueth and seeketh to dispossess the enemy by the light which he sendeth after him into every man And this is the condemnation of man not that he wants a light to witness against and draw him from the enemy but that he loves the enemy and chuseth to be one with the enemy but hates the light and turns from it Joh. 3. 10. 20. He hearkens to the reasonings of his minde against the light and so smothers and choaks it but does not turn to the light to have all the reasonings and strength of his minde subdued by it and subjected to it 9. The true way to life eternal is by believing in the light of the spirit which shineth in the conscience Man is in darkness which keeps him in death and there is no way to come out of the death but by coming out of the darkness and there is no way to come out of the darkness but by following that light which discovers it and cals forth from it And he that doth follow that cannot remain in the darkness but must needs come out There is an evil principle in man calling for evil and there is a good principle calling from the evil to the good Now he that follows the good cannot follow the evil but departs from it I am the light of the World saith Christ he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life Joh. 8. 12. But this is that which undoes man he loves the darkness he loves the world the course of the world the worships of the world He loves his own understanding and his own will and so hates that light which crosseth these which teach would him by the denial of them to crucify that nature from whence they spring and to which they are sutable And from hence it comes to pass the love to sin within being strong and Satan the strong man keeping the house that the motions of Gods spirit are easily overborn either by reasonings of the understanding or by perversnes of the will But if man durst trust himself to them he would quickly finde of what nature they were by the strong opposition of the strong man against them It is indeed a strait and narrow way into which no flesh can enter and walk And yet it is the only way for there is no life in God no peace with God while the enemy lives in the heart But when the light is received and turned to then the power begins to work which slayes the enemy in the heart and that being done there is no more war but peace Then the true peace which passeth understanding fills and refreshes the heart where as the peace which was in the soul before was but the peace of the enemy and will abide no longer then the enemy is suffered to keep possession quietly 10. That believing in the light of the Spirit which shines in the conscience unites the soul to God and opens the springs of life to it Belief in darkness which is unbelief towards God disunited the soul and closed up the springs of life from it belief in the light which is sent to lead from the darkness unites again and opens the springs again God is light he dwels in the
unto entring into the spirit of love by true union with Christ in the spirit which union is by the faith which comes from Christ 5. That this justification or righteousness is upon all that believe v. 22. He that receiveth the faith believeth and he that believeth hath the righteousness and he that believeth not cannot have the righteousness but the condemnation wrath abideth on him 6. That this justification is freely by the grace v. 24. There is no way to come to this righteousness but by the gift of grace which gift is given freely Therefore if ever man wil be justified he must know the grace and the gift which comes from the grace and receive it receiving it he cannot miss of justification and not receiving it but either being ignorant of it or resisting of it he cannot possibly be justified 7. That this justification is by the redemption in Christ v. 24. Christ is redeemer the redemption wherein is the justification is in him and there is no way of meeting with the justification or redemption but by receiving of him in whom it is and he who hath him hath the justification and is made partaker of the redemption and he who hath not him hath it not Mark then the justification or redemption is not by believing of a thing done without man though that also is to be believed but by receiving of him into the heart For the virtue of all Christ did without is within him I cannot be made partaker by believing that he did such a thing without or that he did it for me but by receiving the virtue of it into me and feeling the virtue of it in me This is that which saves me and makes that which was done without to be mine 8. That Christ is the propitiation v. 25. or that which pacifies and makes way for sinners to God so that he that truly receiveth Christ hath the atonement but he that hath not received him only dreameth of peace with God but stil remaineth in the enmity and is liable to the wrath having the bond of iniquity over him and is in the night 9. That this Propitiation is by faith in the blood v. 25. There is nothing pacifies God but the blood of his Son and thre is nothing feels the blood but the faith and that which is in the faith A man may read Scriptures and gather notions about justification and think he believes a right and shal be justified but he never comes to feel the blood nor the life which is in the blood till he receive the faith and then he knoweth the true propitiation and the true peace which before he did but talk of 10. That this faith is the righteousness Faith is the gift of God and this gift justifies this gift is the justification this is that which God imputeth for righteousness ch 4 v. 3. 5. The faith is in the blood and the blood is in the Son and in the true receiving of the Son both the faith and the blood are known and felt These are true words though hard to the fleshly ear do not stumble in the wisdom but calmly wait for the revelation of the spirit and then thou wilt say the price of this knowledg is not to be valued if once thou come to tast truth here all thy knowledg in the letter wil be but dross with thee Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling O do not rest in an outward way of believing an outward thing but seek out the way of coming to the blood of sprinkling 11. That the justification is of the ungodly v. 5. He whom God maketh righteous was ungodly before he made him righteous There was nothing but unrighteousness could be imputed to him in transgression before he gave him his Son and made him righteous in his Son for nothing is righteous with God but Christ and man only as he taken into his righteousnes which is done not by a believing from the bare leter but by a receiving of faith in the life 12. That the justification of the ungodly is by believing in him that justifieth v. 5. The gift of faith goes forth from him is received into the heart now both by the gift it self and by the exercise of it is the justification by receiving of the gift is the person justified by the exercise of the gift are all his actions justified Christ being let in to the heart justifies the heart into which he is received and Christ being in the heart justifies every motion and action that comes from his life and any other motion or action is not justified for it is out of that which is justified and is in and from that which is condemned Abraham believed God and it was counted anto him for righteousness v. â— God promised him a seed he believed God God bid him sacrifice this type he believed This was it was imputed to him for righteousness Now if he had not believed if he had not received the gift or not exercised the gift could he have been righteous so that Abraham was not justified by any work he did or could do but by receiving and exercising the faith in the seed by going out of his country kindred and fathers house not of himself but by faith and by living to God and obeying his voice in that land to which he was led not in his own wil or power but in the faith And by hearing the call of God and receiving the faith and living out of self out of a mans own understanding wil and power in the faith and living power and wisdom of God is the justification now and they that do thus are the children of Abraham born of the free woman when as they that take up practises from the letter without being ingraffed into the life are but children of the bond woman but such children of Abraham as the Jews were if so much and can not inherit that promise which belongs to the spiritual seed while they live in that state 13. That wher the faith which is imputed unto righteousness is found there sin is not imputed but covered which is a blessed state v. 6 7 8. Sin cuts off from God who is life blessedness sin laies open to the wrath of the creator which is too great for the creator to bear woe and misery wil be his portion to whom God imputes sin But happy is he who has his sin covered this is an happy condition life and immortality will soon be opened to him Now this blessedness cometh not by the works of the law for they cannot remove the sin but by the righteousness of faith which is able to cover the sin even from the pure ey of God O Christians christians do not imagine your selves covered from sin but know it feel it never rest till ye are so made partakers of the true righteousness that by its virtue in you ye may be past all doubt that it is it
Believing from the letter without you that ye are justified may easily deceive you but if once ye come truly to feel in your selves the thing which justifies and so find the power and life of it in you above the power of all that which condemns casting out the condemned thing and the condemner with all his works out of your hearts this cannot deceive The virtue of life was lost in the Apostacy and that which was living did not so much enjoy life as mourn after it and the power and safety of life did then appear most in mourning but now the Apostacy draws towards an end and the virtue begins to shoot up again and he that wil be a Christian now must be so not by retaining his old notions but by feeling this new virtue and by growing up in this new-sprung life and power of the Lord whose appearance is new to us who have not been acquainted with it but have been brought up in the darkness of the apostacy and lived in the waters where great Leviathan ruled and who was able to make war with him there But he that seeketh is joyned with and keepeth to that power which drieth up the waters and putteth an hook into the nostrils of the Leviathan shall find the world with the whole course of it ending in himself and the beginning and growth of an endless life and in whom that life lives they shall live also but wher death keeps the power of life down such shal not live or know the blessing but abide under the curse of misery and death and under the powers of darkness Therefore look about you and make a wise choice for his servants ye are whom ye obey whether the Prince of darkness in his invented forms of godliness or the Prince of light it the living power and your reward shall be according to your choice and work either death in the death if ye chuse and joyn to that or life in the life if ye joyn to that He that hath an ear to hear let him hear J. P. A Table of the Contents AN Apostacy from the truth fore-told of Page 1 That this Apostacy began in the dayes of the Apostles p. 4 The poyson of it infecting the Churches then p. 5 The general overspreading of the Apostacy over the whole earth p. 7 Witnesses raised up against the Apostates but still persecuted and slain by the Apostates in all ages since the Apostacy p. 8 Where the true Religion and Church hath been to be sought for all the time of the Apostacy 9 The general corrupting of the Doctrine of the Gospel and of the whole state of Christianity by the Apostacy 10 The rule of Christianity lost in the Apostacy 10 An objection concerning the rule answered 13 The true rule which was before the Apostacy infallible 16 A dishonor put upon the Scriptures under pretence of honour 17 The Scriptures honor to be again recovered 18 The true worship lost in the Apostacy 18 The true faith lost in the Apostacy 21 The true unfeigned love lost in the Apostacy and a feigned love got up since among professors of all sorts 22 The true hope lost in the Apostacy 23 The true joy lost in the Apostacy 24 The true peace lost in the Apostacy 24 The true repentance lost in the Apostacy 24 The true conversion lost in the Apostacy 25 The true regeneration lost in the apostacy 25 The true wisdom lost in the Apostacy 25 The true righeousness or justification lost in the Apostacy 26 The true sanctification lost in the Apostacy 27 The true redemption lost in the Apostacy 27 The difference between Christians before the apostacy and Christians since in the very substance of Christianity 28 The true Church lost in the Apostacy 29 The true Ministry lost in the Apostacy 30 Witnesses raised up in all Nations to testifie against the Apostacy and some sparks of truth such as God saw fit for them to testifie to the present age revived in them 32 As the whorish spirit changed her dresses to keep up her deceit and to with-hold the honest hearted from the truth so witnesses still raised up against her to discover her and witnesse against her in all her new forms and shapes 33 Affliction and persecution good for the witnesses to keep down the flesh and keep the life pure in its weak appearance in them in the time of the Apostacy 33 The tender kindness of God to the simple and honest hearted in the time of the Apostacy 34 The ill use that the carnal mind now makes of it 34 The Ministry of the apostacy wrong in its nature and whole course feeding the fleshly part but not able to raise up and feed the soul 34 Of a recovery from the Apostacy the Lamb and the Saints again ruling 35 The preaching of the Gospel again in the world 36 The fall of inventions traditions and false worship with that whorish spirit which invented them and bewitched all Nations with them 36 Plagues to come upon them that abide in any part of Babylon 37 Who are still in some part or other of the apostacy and not recovered from it 37 What the spirit that ruleth in the apostacy raiseth up in men and what it suppresseth 38 How this Spirit intangled the simple hearted and held them in her snares even when there were pure stirrings of life to get loose from her 39 What the worship of men is in the apostacy and whom they worship 40 The onely way of recovery out of the apostacy 43 The enmity of this Nation against that Spirit which would recover it out of the apostacy 44 The danger of this enmity to the Nation 45 Salvation onely by the true knowledge of Christ 46 By the new covenant 46 The Laws whereof are to be written in the heart 47 Which can be done by none but the Spirit 48 Therefore the first thing to be known in Religion is the Spirit 48 The Spirit is first known as a convincer of sin 49 He convinceth by his light in the conscience 50 The light of conviction shineth in every conscience 50 Believing in this light is the true way to life 51 Believing in this light unites to God and opens the springs of life 52 How we came to the knowledg of the way to life 53 The true Heirs comfidence in God against all the powers of flesh 53 The springing up of the seed of God in this Nation with the great opposition against it 54 The spirit of error chargeth truth with those things which belong to it self 55 Truth would take away the error with that from whence it springs and wherein it lodges but that it is opposed and withstood at the very first even when it doth but begin to discover 57 Object That this is a new way answered 58 Obj. That this light is natural answered 59 Obj. That it makes the Scriptures void answered 59 Obj. That it teaches things contrary to the Scripture answered 61 Obj. That it sets up free-will answered 61 Obj. About wanting power answered 63 Obj. That this sets up a covenant of works answered 63 Obj. That it breaks down relations laws governments takes away due respect from Magistrates c. answered 65 A false healing of a true wound is the cause of error from the Spirit of life in ones self and of persecuting it in others 67 The wisdom which hath been gathering knowledg from the Scriptures in the apostacy must fall and all that knowledge come to naught before the truth can be received 68 Gods love in discovering the Apostacy and calling from it and
Object But hath there been no true Religion since the daies of the Apostes no true rule no true worship no true faith no true love no true hope joy or peace no true repentance conversion regeneration no true wisdom righteousnes sanctification and redemption no true Church no true Ministry What hath become of all our fore-fathers did they all perish And hath not this ministry converted many to God were not yee your selves converted by it Nay have not many of them been Martyrs and witnessed to the truth of God And though some of them are bad yet are not many of them zealous and conscientious Preachers of the Word at this day By such reasonings as these the wisdom of man much strengthens and hardens it selfe against the truth Answ The rule in Nations the worship in Nations the faith love hope joy peace repentance conversion regeneration c. which have been cried up in Nations for the truth the Churches in Nations the Ministry in Nations all these have been corrupted and never recovered their true state to this day There have been changes from one thing to another but the restauration hath not been known The whorish spirit hath been hunted puriued and so run out of one form into another traversing her way and changing her ground and garments but hath not been taken and judged to the death and the true spirit hath not been able to find the bed of her husband but hath wandered from mountain to hil all the time of this cloudy and dark day forgetting her resting place Yet though the whole earth was corrupted and false doctrine and worship set up every where among the Nations which continued the fornication and whoredom from the spirit of life in the publick wayes and national worships notwithstanding this even all this while God reserved a seed to himselfe which he caused to spring up in a remnant and which he moved and carried on to witnesse against somewhat of these corruptions in their several ages and generations And as fast as the beast killed and knocked down these God raised up more yea though the whorish spirit in some Nations painted her self curioussy leaving some of the grosse Doctrines and Worships of Popery and got into a more refined way yet God raised up witnesses against her there also and still doth into what form soever she gets for though of late she hath decked her self very pleasingly as she think and covered her selfe round with scripture-words and professions and practises as like as ever she can form them to the practises of former Saints yet quick and lively is the spirit of God that searcheth after her who hath found her out and raised up witnesses against her there also Now this seed this remnant though they were not able to recover the possession of the life and power that was lost yet they had a true taste of it and their testimony which they gave out from that taste was true and so far as they kept to this testimony in the faith and in the patience which they had learned and received from God though but in a low measure they were accepted of him So that all were not lost in this night of darkness but such as feared God and knew and hearkned to his voice had the testimony of his presence with them and tasted of his life and power in measure God was not an hard master to them but tender and gentle and contented to reap what he sowed But the appearance of God in this dark time was weak and low and easie to be made a prey of And this is very observable that so long as the simplicity ran pure it was preserved but so soon as ever the spirit of man was tempted either into any old or into any new invented form the wisdom of the flesh got in with it grew up more than it and when it had gathered strength corrupted the vessel betrayed the simplicity and lost the life Thus many pretious beginnings and buddings forth of life have been betrayed in these late daies There was a pretious thing stirring in Queen Maries dayes the life whereof was more hurt and suppressed by that dead form of Episcopacy succeeding afterwards then by the foregoing persecution The persecution did clear and brighten it but the fleshly form of Episcopacy brought death over it And the forms of Presbytery Independency Anabaptism have been little lesse then graves to bury and keep down the life How many spirits that had a precious savour in them at their entrance into those forms did soon become fleshly earthly and very unsavory loosing the quicknesse and freshness that was in them before and falling into the deadness of the form withering with it And as touching the Ministry though in it self it was evill being in the degeneration from the true Ministry all this time of the Apostacy and the persons therein for the most very corrupt being brought up to it as to a trade and making use of it as a trade yet I do believe that there was a simplicity of heart in some persons among them which did cause them in some degree of faithfulnesse to seek the Lord his service and the good of souls And in the time of ignorance and darkness it pleased God to wink at and over-look the evill and to cause good to passe from the good in them to the good in others through the evil that hung about both And this was the great tenderness of the Lord in pitty to his poor creatures who were very destitute to help in the thick night of darkness and should not now be made use of to justifie and keep up the evil Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unkind Because his mercy and goodness extended to you notwithstanding the evil which might have hindered will ye make that an argument to keep up the evill and to oppose the light which discovers it Because God causeth light to shine through the darkness and visiteth man in the dark wil ye therfore set up the darkness as his proper way of ministration The corrupt way call and exercise of the corrupt ministry could not keep out the tender love of God but he had respect to the simplicity of some who were found in it and to the simplicity of others who waited on him for instruction there and did please to give some answer to both And will ye make this uningenious use of it to interpret it as his approbation of that ministry which sprung up in the Apostacy from him among those that were apostatised and is a great dishonour to him and the abhorring of his soul A ministry of Christ a ministry set up by his spirit is precious but a ministry made by man according to his will and ministring in his wisdom the soul of the Lord beareth as a burthen and is pressed with it and as he raiseth up his own life wil ease himself of it And what do they minister from but the literal
he that believes hath the witness in himself and he that believes sets to his seale that God is true who hath sent his Son to inlighten him him by whom the World was made in whom was life and his life was the light of men and this is it which shines in darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it And there is the state of all confusion and Sects and opinions upon the earth the darkness professing Christs the Prophets the Apostles Davids Abrahams and the Saints words and yet the darkness cannot comprehend the light which Christ hath inlightned them withall so the darkness is not in unity with Abrahams Davids Christs and the Apostles words but be all on heaps about them Therefore as light shines out of darkness shining in the heart giving the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ the end of the Prophets Abrahams Moses Davids and the Apostles words Christ Jesus is known in whom is the unity and reconciliation and no darkness at all but unity with God and with his Prophets words and his Apostles and servants before Abraham was in this unity all come into life and light to the spirits of just men made perfect And to you this is the word of the Lord God and to your age and generation the cause of all deceit and strife upon the earth is because men have been in transgression Heathens Jews and Gentiles from Christ the light under the devils power out of truth the cause of all Christians being on heaps one with another and their bad conversation that the heathen cries shame of them hath been because they have been out of the light which they have professed in which they should have served God and had unity with Scriptures and one with another and with God and with that answer the principle of God in all upon the the earth and not by serving Jdols because of the vanities of their minds and unconverted state so all upon the earth that sets up likenesses and Jmages are under vanities because of the corruption of their own minds and the vanity of them But the day of restauration is come into Christ the light and covenant of God and all upon the earth that sets up Jmages and Jdols liknesses and serves dead works and hath a dead faith and not the faith of Abraham the faith of the elect that gives every one to see Christ and have accesse to God and such need not to have any dead thing to put them in minde of him so all that set up such things whatsoever likenesses and Jmages doth the light which Christ hath inlightned them withall bring them off from into light and covenant with God loving it unto salvation and to see it and to covenant with God there is every ones teacher loving it there is every ones condemnation hating it and they there with the light that every one is inlightned withall shall come to see the Prophet raised up and there none shall be cut of that do hear this Prophet and there every one shall have his reward according to his works from the Son who hath inlightned them who is come to judge the World in righteousness who is now set down upon his Throne So all Nations are called are commanded to come in and to hear the Son of God and learn of the Son of God hear the beloved Son of God and cease from all them that are made of men and by men that they may come to hear the Son of God themselves and receive the Son of God and receiving him they receive life by whom the World was made coming into the light that he is enlightned withall then every one may freely declare what he sees and hears and handels and every one sees him by whom the World was made who is the light and life and resurrection and wisdom and sanctification and justification from all things in which light the covenant of God you have peace with God that you may see him to the beginning G. F. An addition concerning the doctrine of Justification BEcause the doctrine of Justification is of great concernment and the enemy of mankind hath exceedingly endeavoured to corrupt it and in the Apostacy hath greatly prevailed and the darkness which springs up in the fleshly wisdom is exceeding thick at the day concerning this thing therefore in true love to souls it is laid upon me to search into the Scriptures which chiefly speaks thereof and from thence to clear it up to such who are not yet come to the life that gave forth the Scriptures The Apostle Paul doth largely and fully treat of it in his Epistle to the Romans and lays down several things concerning it which if wel heeded may dash mens present apprehensions about it and bring them to wait for the opening of those Scriptures to them in another light then you have yet known 1. He affirms that Justification is not by the deeds of the Law Ro. 3. 20. If a man could say with the young man All these things have I done from my youth or as Paul that he was as touching the Law blameless yet could he not be justified thereby And the Apostle gives a mighty reason for by the law is the knowledg of sin Now Justification is not by the making of sinne known but by that which saves and delivers from it The knowledg of sin may put a man upon seeking out for justification but it cannot justifie him but rather condemn him but that which delivers him from the sin which the law makes known that justifies him 2. He affirms that the righteousness of God which is the justification is manifested without the law v. 21. The Law makes sin known and shews the sinner the need of justification but the justification it self is not thereby but is manifested without it The Law commands the nature to act that pertains to similitudes figures and types and shadows to the obedience of them but the seed takes away the nature that pertains to similitudes and shadows and the works of the law so to the obedience of those things the law commands there is justification by the law in the obedience to the works it commands but the justification Christ removes the nature that pertains to those things the law commands so that justification the law ends in Christ 3. That this righteousness or justification is witnessed by the law and the Prophets v. 21. The law though it is not the justification nor can the justification be by obedience to it or by the deeds of it yet it gives testimony to the justification for the substance of what the law and all the Prophets witness is that nothing can justifie but the righteousness of God 4. That this righteousness or justification is by the faith of Christ v. 22. by believing or entring into that which justifies As condemnation was by unbelier by joyning unto and entring into the spirit of enmity so justification is by joyning