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
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
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
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
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
Apostles even al this time of the Apostacy since the man child hath been caught up to God and was not to be found in the earth which makes it seem such a strange thing for people to say Christ is in them and the woman hath been in the wilderness and not in the habitable part of the world Rev. 12. 5. 6. if al this time any one wil look for the true religon for the true Church for the true knowledg and worship of God he must not look on any Nation or any People or among the Tongues which are cried up in Nations and people for the original and as the chief interpreters of the original for they are al drunk with the whores cup they are under the power dominion authority and service of the whore who rides upon the beast to whom power was given over al kindreds tongues and nations But look among the Nations who was persecuted whose blood was drunk whom the powers of the Nations made war against ther alone the testimony of Jesus is to be found Rev. 12. 17. ther alone are the witnesses against the present idolatry and corruption and to some truths or other of Christs which God enlightned them with and wherto he stirred them up to give their testimony though with the loss of their estates liberties or lives Now by what hath been expressed is it not manifest to every ey that hath room but to let in the letter of the Scripture in simplicity and plainness that there hath been a great apostacy from the true knowledge of Christ and an universal corruption power of death sprung up instead of the power of his life and grace The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath disappeared and the abomination of desolation hath took up its place and filled it with deadly venome against the truth and against the life so that enmity against God under a pretense of love and zeal to him hath reigned generally in the hearts of men from the times of the Apostles to this present day And as the light breaks forth and their eys come to be opened they wil see that they have been and are haters of God and of his life and spirit but lovers of the world and of such a religion as suits the worldly Spirit Position II. THat in this great Apostacy the true state of Christianity hath been lost This must needs be for if ther was an Apostacy from the thing ther could not be a retaining of the thing about which the Apostacy was If they apostatised from the spirit from the light from the life then they wer gone from it they lost it Now it may be instanced in every particular how the state of Christianity was lost but that would be too vast and tedious it may suffice therfore to instance in some considerables ones which may lead into the discovery of the rest 1. The true rule of Christianity or the rule of a Christian which is to direct guid and order him in his whole course was apostatized from and lost What is a Christians rule whereby he is to steer and order his course A Christian is to be a follower of Christ and consequently must have the same rule to walk by as Christ had A Christian proceeds from Christ hath the same life in him and needs the same rule Christ had the fulnesse of life and of his fulnesse we al receive a measure of the same life We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30. yea we came out of the same spring of life from whence he came for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are al of one for which cause he is not ashamed to cal them brethren Ebr. 2. 11. Now what was his rule was it not the fulness of life which he received And what is their rule is it not the measure of life which they receive Was not Christs rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit wrote in his heart And is not their rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit writes in their hearts How was Christ made a King and a Priest was it by the law of a carnal commandment or by the power of an endles life And how are they made Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 6. Is it by the law of a carnal commandment or is it by the power of the same endles life Lo I come to do thy will O God saith Christ when he cometh into the world Ebr. 10. ver 5. 7. but by what rule by what law thy law is within my heart Psal 40. 8. And the same spirit who wrote it ther is also to write the new Covenant with al the laws of it in the heart of every Christian from the least to the greatest Ebr. 8. 9. 10. yea the same spirit that dwelt in Christs heart is to dwel in their hearts according to the promise of the Covenant Ezek. 36. 27. This was Pauls rule after which he walked the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1 2. This made him free from the law of sinne and death Wher is the law of sin writ wher is the law of death writ is it not writ in the heart And must not the law of righteousness and life be writ ther also if it be able to deal with sin and death The spirit forms the heart anew forms Christ in the heart begets a new creature ther which cannot sin He that is born of God sins not and this is the rule unto righteousnes the new creature or the spirit of life in the new creature Gal 6. 15. 16. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them Mark ther 's the rule the new creature which is begotten in every one that 's born of God If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and this new creature is to be his rule And as any man walks according to this rule according to the new creature according to the law of light and life that the spirit continually breathes into the new creature he hath peace but as he transgresses that and walks not after the spirit but after the flesh he walks out of the light out of the life out of the peace into the sea into the death into the trouble into the condemnation Here then is the law of the converted man the new creature and the law of the new creature is the spirit of life which begat him which lives and breathes gives forth his law continually in him Here 's a Christian here 's his rule He that hath not the new creature formed in him is no Christian and he that hath the new creature hath the rule in himselfe Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know al things 1 Joh. 2. 20. How came they to know al things
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.
of God were in them this enmity could not stand nor such fruits of it shoot forth But they have not seen the father or the Son and that life of them which appears in the earth the evill spirit in man seeks to destroy that he may keep up his own image and shadow of life which the nature of the true life in its appearance fights against By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciple if ye love one another And by this may all men know that those that now go for Christians are not Christs Disciples in that they do not love one another They are not in unity in the light and so cannot love one another there but are onely in unity in forms in opinions in professions in practises so any difference there stirs up the enmity causing risings in the heart against them at least if it proceed not further The true love grows from true union and fellowship in the light where that is not known there cannot be true love in the spirit but a fained love in the flesh 5. The true hope joy and peace is lost The true ground of hope is Christ in the heart and the true hope is that hope which ariseth from this ground from the feeling of Christ there Christ in you the hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. What is the true Christians hope it is Christ in him he hath eternal life abiding in him and he knows that cannot but lead to glory But what is the common Christians hope He fastens his hope upon the relation and his beliefe of an History He that believeth shall be saved I believe therefore I shall be saved And thus as he hath got up a wrong faith and a wrong love so he gets up a wrong hope And this hope will perish for this is the hope of the Hypocrite or an hope in the hypocritical nature which complies with Scripture-words but is not in union with God nor with the life of the Scriptures and so being without the anchor is tossed in the waves of the Sea And the true joy is in he spirit from what is felt and injoyned and hoped for there But the common Christians joy is from things which he gathers into and comprehends in his understanding or from flashes which he feels in his affectionate part from a fire and sparkes of his own kindling from whence he fetches his warmth and comfort And the true peace stands in the reconciliation with God by having that broken down which causeth the wrath and to which the wrath is where ever it is found The Lambe of God breaks down the wall of separation in the heart the blood of Jesus wherein is the life clenseth away the sin there maketh the heart pure uniteth the pure heart to the pure God here 's union here 's fellowship here 's peace But the common Christians peace is from a mis-understanding of Scriptures while the wall of separation is standing while wickednesse lodges in the heart They reason themselves from Scripture words into an apprehension that God is at peace with them and that they are in union with him while that of God which is in them witnesseth against them and checks them and wars with them and they are not one with it nor cannot be in that nature and understanding wherein their life lies to which belongs no peace 6. The true repentance conversion and regeneration hath been lost The true Repentance is from dead works and from the dead principle whence all the dead works proceed but these have not been repented of but perished in the apostacy The praying the striving the worshipping the fighting hath been from the dead principle The building up and whole exercise of Religion in the Apostacy hath been in that understanding which is to be destroyed and the will which should have been crucified hath been pleased and fed with its religion The true Conversion is from the power of Satan to God from the darknesse to the light But in the Apostacy men have not known God or Satan the light or the darknesse but have mistook taking the one for the other worshipping the Devil in stead of God Rev. 13. 4. and following the dark conceivings of their own and other mens minds concerning scripture and calling them light Regeneration is a changing of man whereby the birth is born of the Spirit the stripping of the creature of its own nature of its own understanding of its own will and forming it anew in the wombe of the Spirit so that the old creature is passed away and there comes forth a new thing which growes up daily in the new life towards the fulnesse of Christ But men have been so far from being born of the spirit that they have not so much as known the gift of the spirit in them but to this day are enemies and at a distance from that of God in them which is pure And if they could but open their eyes they would see that their birth is fleshly and consists at best but in such a conformity to the letter as the old nature may imitate and attain but the immortal seed is not sprung up in them nor they dead to the mortal or alive to the immortal 7. The true wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption is lost The true wisdom stands in the fear of God and departing from evil This those that are taught of God learn and thereby are made wise unto salvation But most that are called Christians are not come to the fear of God and many are got above it looking upon it as legall and not appertaining to the Gospel but the Gospel state is love which casteth out fear Doth the love of God refuse or cast out the fear of God Nay it casts out the fear that brings bondage the fear that came in by transgression which fear is stirred up and discovered by the Law And this is a fear of sin or a fear arising from sin through the Law 's manifestation of it and the wrath against it which causeth both the fear and much bondage from the fear And this the Gospel which discovers the love the mercy the grace the power and unites to them frees from and casts out But then there is a fear of God a fear wrought in the heart by his spirit a fear which is part of the new Covenant I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me a fear which is part of the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6 7. and endureth for ever Psal 19. 9. And this fear is not bondage but liberty it is indeed bondage to the unjust but liberty to the just for where this fear is sin is departed from it sets free it delivers the feet out of the snare of iniquity there 's true liberty Can sin prevail in that heart where the pure clean fear of God is placed by God to keep it down The love of God doth not cast out this fear but keeps
or from the inventing wisdom though this wisdom hath founded its inventions upon the Scriptures are not in the true worship in the true Church or under the true Ministry They that are in the faith which hath since been gathered into the understanding and did not spring up from the mystery of life in the heart are not in the true faith The same may be said of love hope joy peace and all the rest mentioned before yea and all other things in religion for all hath been corrupted even the inward part And while here hath been a great contention about forms of worship and Church-Government the power of godlinesse and the Government of Christ in the heart hath been lost Observe diligently what I have now to say When the Apostles who had the true Ministry preached the Gospel they stirred and raised up the power of God in the heart and the power of sin corruption and deceit sunk down and was under foot and trampled upon by the power But when Antichrist and the false Prophets arose they raised up the corruption again and fed it with doctrines of deceit but the power sunk down and was not felt but buried all that time of the prevailing of the corruption and deceit Now the power was not lost all this while in it self but onely lost to man so that he knew not where to find it Yet this power in this time of loss did stir and move and make men in some degree sensible of the losse causing them to part and seek after the living truth And this was good this was of God But then there was an evil spirit which was neer to the good and lay lurking in the serpentine wisdom of the heart and that drew the mind which was bent toward the seeking of a right thing a wrong way that cryed loe here loe there look into the Scriptures the Church was so and so go get into such a thing the Christians there did so and so go do such a thing there 's the way there thou shall meet with the life and the power And thus it drew from that which stirred within into an imitation of a form without and there they came to a losse I dare appeal to all honest hearts Was there not a good thing stirring in you when ye went into your Church forms were ye not led into simplicity hoping to meet with life and power there did ye find it so did ye meet with the life and power there nay did ye not lose it there and become deader I know if ye have not forgotten the taste of life ye will confesse to me that that which now ye have is not life but far short of that which ye had when ye entred into your form Ah poor hearts the whore betwitched you the harlot in your bosomes and the false Prophets without helped to increase the witchery crying lo here and lo there but ye knew no that the kingdom of heaven was within from whence that stirring of life was in you where ye should have kept and not have gone forth But now ye are dead and buried in your graves lying there without sense and are now got into the spirit of the world and into the enmity against that life in others which was then your own life And do ye know where ye are and what ye are doing Can ye bear to hear it Of a truth ye are in the snare of the enemy in the inchantment from the life in the whores bed in the strumpets bosome and not in the bosome of your beloved And your practises are branches of the sornication parcels of the whoredom inventions which have been gathered in by that understanding and set up by that will which whored from God They are the effects and products of the whores cup which gets new dresses new habits new forms new wayes to cosen and deceive the simple with but still she remains the whore and those who are seduced by her are led into her whoredom For when God discovers and hunts her out of one form then she decks her self with another perhaps more seemingly spiritual more Scripture like and so more likely to take with the simple heart and then she lies in wait for the young man to entrap him again saying Come in hither This is the true way of God without doubt did not the Saints meet with life here formerly Come thou hither also here 's the bed of thy beloved take thy fil of life thy fill of love And thus the poor honest simple heart followes her going like a fool to the correction of the stocks not knowing that it is for his life until he come to feel the loss of life And there if she find she cannot keep him there but fresh stirrings of life spring up in him again and withdraw him from that which had deceived him then she paints again and lies in wait for him again to catch him in some more refined appearance or in some elevated notion or at least in the shadow of that which was true for the whore hath not onely art and power to invent forms and likenesses of that which is true and make Idols and Images of them but it hath power also given it over the outward Court so that that which is found there it can make idols and images of That which is corruptible it can get into and corrupt and make an enemy to that life which lived in it before it was corrupted and when it is corrupted then there is no more truth or life to be found there but the Idol and the idolatry The Apostle John who fore-warned of Antichrist and gave a mark whereby he might be known namely by his not confessing Christ come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 3. which he that setteth up any thing of the old Covenant or any invention or imitation of any thing therein doth not he bids also beware of Idols Little Children keep your selves from Idols 1 Joh. 5. 21. Now what is an Idol The Apostle Paul saith An Idol is nothing in the world An Idol is no true thing in its place but a false thing set up in stead of the true A false conception of God in the mind is an Idol A false Church or Temple is an Idol a false Minister who is not made according to the appointment of God and by the gift of his Spirit but came in another way by the appointment of men is an Idol-shepherd and the worship in this Church and by this ministry is publique Idolatry and all the worship in families which hath been erected after the same maner is without the guidance of the spirit of God is private Idolatry Were the heathens Temples Altars Priests Sacrifices and other inventions of theirs in imitation of the Jews Idolatrous and are not the inventions of the heathenish spirit or Antichristian nature in man are not they also Idolatrous Object But is praying Idolatry preaching Idolatry singing Idolatry Baptising of Infants Idolatry breaking
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
to this covenant he saves Man by his disunion and distance from God he perisheth by being brought again to God he lives again which thing Christ effecteth by the new covenant So then he that is not lead by Christ into that covenant is not in the state of salvation 3. That the new covenant is written in the heart or there is no other way of coming into the new covenant whereof Christ is the High-priest and Mediator but by having the Laws of God written in the heart This is the covenant c. I will put my Laws into their minde and write them in their hearts c. they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest Heb. 8. 10. 11. He is speaking of the covenant whereof Christ is mediator ver 6. which he cals a new covenant ver 8. and saith it is not like the old ver 9. instancing in two main particulars wherein it is very unlike 1. The old was writ outwardly in letters to be read by the outward ey but this is writ inwardly in the heart and minde and so can only be read by a spiritual ey 2. Under the old they needed teaching from men the priests lips were to preserve knowledge and they were to seek the law at his mouth but now they should have the law so neer them so cleerly written in them that they should need none to teach them From the law is the knowledge of God the law is in the heart and from the law in the heart springs up the knowledge of God in the least and in the greatest that are within this covenant that they need not say know the Lord. This is the state of the new covenant which the Christians came to in those dayes 1 Joh. 2. ver 27. but it hath been a strange thing in this dark night of Apostacy and is yet a strange thing to many But let such consider can a man be a Christian and be out of that covenant whereof Christ is the mediator Can a man be brought back again to God by Christ and yet be out of that covenant whereby Christ brings men back to God O how hath Satan deluded poor souls in this thick night of darkness to make men believe they have faith in Christ and shall be saved thereby while they are quite ignorant of and strangers to that covenant whereby Christ the mediat or saves They shall all know me from the least to the greatest Marke there is not the least in this covenant but hath the law so written in his heart that he need not seek out for knowledge 4. That the spirit of God alone can write the covenant in the heart or that Christ writes the covenant by his spirit Man by all his wisdom cannot attain it Man is driven out from God and cannot finde the way back again to him without the teachings and leadings of Gods own spirit It is not the being educated in any way of Religion from ones childhood or the leaving of that and running into any sect afterwards that will avail any thing hereto but the alone hearkening to the true voice of the true spirit It is written in the Prophets concerning the children of this covenant that they shall be all taught of God And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. It is the Lord alone who by his spirit teacheth them to come to Christ and to receive the new covenant into their hearts from Christ For man is in an incapacity to know or receive Christ or his covenant until the spirit hath fitted and taught him John 14. 17. but when he hath prepared and fitted his heart then with his own finger he writeth the pure law of the nature and life of Christ therein by the receit where of he cometh out of his old dark spirit and nature into the true knowledge of God and union with him I will put my spirit within you Ezek. 36. 27. This is part of the covenant and indeed that part whereby all the rest is wrought 5. Therefore the first proper step in Religion is to know how to meet with Gods spirit There is no progress no true progress to be made in the true Religion till a man comes into the covenant and there is no coming into the covenant but by the spirit therefore the first thing that is absolutely necessary to be known in Religion is the spirit his writing or at least his motions and stirrings in the heart It may further be evidenced thus all things in Religion acceptable to God flow from the spirit All knowledge is to come from him for he alone hath revealed and can reveal truth and is appointed by Christ to lead into all truth All worship is to be offered up in him they that worship the father must worship him in the spirit and in the truth for the father seeketh such to worship him but rejecteth all other worshippers and worship how glorious soever their worship may seem to them Particularly praying is alwayes to be in the spirit Ephes 6. 18. Jude 20. so singing c. yea the whole life and conversation is to be in the spirit Galath 5. 25. The mortifying of all corruption is to be done by the spirit If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Indeed a Christian is nothing and can do nothing without the power and presence of the spirit of God in him So then if nothing in Religion can be done with acceptance to God without the spirit then the spirit is the first thing to be looked after by him who would be truly and well-groundedly religious 6. The first way of meeting with the spirit of God is as a Convincer of sin Here is the true enterance This is the Key that opens into life eternal He that can receive it let him It is not by soring alost into high imaginations and forms of worship but by coming down to this low thing This is the first and most proper work of the spirit of God toward fallen man whereby he makes way toward the writing of Gods Law in the heart namely to convince of sin And where should man look first to meet with him but in his first work upon him When Christ promised the comforter the spirit of truth he said this concerning him that he should convince the world of sin John 16. 8. They who are created a new in Christ and become his Disciples receive comfort from the spirit but what is he to the world or how may they feel any operation of him why he is to them a convincer of sin and they may finde him checking them for and convincing them of their sins So that the great work for man while he lies in the darkness for when he is translated into the light it will be easy is to know how to distinguish the movings and
Serpent that truth cannot come any where but it finds the enmity already stirred up and prepared to withstand it This is a new way a new light saies one we know a Religion before this came up and we wil keep to that let who wil run after these new sects and ways A natural light the old light of nature saith another or the corrupted light of Adam which hath run along through all his posterity Another out-cry is that it makes the Scriptures void and useless Others cry out that it teacheth things contrary to the Scriptures that it sets up free-wil that it leads to a covenant of works that it breaks down Relations Laws Governments takes away due respect from Magistracy and Superiours and turns the world upside down Thus the worldly spirit is every where up in arms and a zeal kindled every where to keep it out of every heart and out of every place and country Now these are not real things but such kind of slanders and reproaches as alwaies have attended truth The Prophets of God Christ and his Apostles though they have been spoken wel of afterwards yet they have ever been hated spoken il of and persecuted by the generation of professors of their age The Scribes and Pharisees could not with so great advantage have persecuted Christ and his Apostles without a seeming zeal for the Law and Prophets and yet it was the same spirit that so vehemently cryed up the Law the Prophets the Ordinances of Moses that persecuted the spirit and life in Christ and his Apostles from whence the Law the Prophets and Ordinances came And thus it is at this day though that Spirit is as blind now as it was then and cannot see through its own cover though it be as weak and narrow as theirs was The guilty chargeth the innocent that it might hide its own guilt and keep its covering The guilty Jewes and the guilty Scribes and Pharisees charged the Prophets Christ and his Apostles that they might not be found guilty by them and their formal covering rent from them And thus it is at this day Truth is risen to make manifest mens false coverings and the guilt and hypocrisy that lies hid underneath now to save themselves they are prepared before hand to lay that charge against truth which truth hath against them Search thine heart resist not the light thou that haste charged the truth with any of these things and thou wilt find it thine own condition The truth is no new light or new way and they that hold it forth do not hold forth any new way or new light but it is thou that hast left the good old light the good old way which was before the apostacy and hast fallen in with some new light some new way invented and set up since the Apostacy It is thou again that settest up the natural light the fallen wisdom the wisdom which is out of the life and in enmity with the life with this thou feedest that understanding which is to be brought to naught and when thou hast done this thy selfe then thou callest the spiritual light wherewith God hath pursued it in all ages a natural light It is thou that with this wisdom searching into the Scriptures and gathering the oldness of the letter into the old understanding makest the Scriptures void and useless to thy soul and canst not meet with that life and power which they speak of but stil art alive in thy sins and dead unto God and then thou cryest out against that which comes to discover this to thee and to bring thee out of this dead knowledg into the life of the Scriptures thou cryest out against this as if this made the Scriptures useless And when thou hast set up an whole body of knowledge religion and worship quite contrary to the Scriptures which the truth comes to make manifest then Cains nature riseth up in thee and thou takest up Cains weapons and fain wouldest thou kill thy brother because his sacrifice in the faith testifies against thine which is out of the faith and contrary to the true testimony of the Scriptures Again for free-wil and a Covenant of works Thou hast set up a religion in the old will and works not according to the new Covenant of life but according to the old Covenant of death and by this thou preachest that wil to be free which is in bonds and settest up the works of mans righteousness and conformity to the letter for the works of the new Covenant And for Governments and Laws That which is according to God which is a terror to the evil and a praise to them that do wel that which is liberty to the just and a curb to the unjust this thou art against and cryest out daily for the turning of the Magistrates Sword against the innocent because they are a light to discover thy deeds of darkness which be out of the light and disturb thy peace and thy settlement in that which is fleshly and of man and not of God So for relations and honour to Magistrates The transgressing nature hath brought up a wrong thing a fleshly thing an honour a duty which is of the flesh and pleaseth the flesh and is not according to God And this is not honour indeed not an honour that wil stand not an honour that will be justified in the sight of God but is a shame to them that give it and a shame to them that receive it discovering that they are servants to the flesh giving to and receiving from the fleshly part that which the fleshly part which crucifies the life cals for and is pleased with All that the light doth to these things is to discover and condemn them and the end of its discovery is that they might be removed and truth and righteousness brought in the stead of them But mans evil heart which is the cause of them cries out against the light as if the light brought them whereas if man could but be quiet and stil and suffer the work of the light upon him he would find that the same light which discovereth them would also purge them away and leave neither root nor branch of iniquity either in mens hearts or in relations or families or towns or cities or laws or governments and there would be no want of honour Now though the Serpents wisdom is irreconcilable that understanding which stands there cannot be satisfied but must be confounded and brought to nought 1 Cor. 1. 19. yet because underneath all this there is a simplicity in some which is betrayed for the relief of that somewhat further may be spoken in answer to these things Object 1. To the first Objection that this is a new way or new light I answer Answ It is new indeed to them who have lain long in the Apostacy and set up another light but it is not new in it self but the same that was in the beginning yea and before the beginning also
Christ reign in the heart and let him trample all mans invented forms of knovvledg and vvorship under his feet and give up thy self to be led by him into the true knovvledg and vvorship in the spirit and in the truth And now you who find your hearts touched and convinced of the truth and find any desire kindled in you after the living God and an hungring and thirsting after his righteousness Take notice of these three things which I have upon my heart to say to you by way of advice 1. Know and take up thy cross the Cross of Christ the daily Cross of Christ The Cross of Christ is that which crosseth the natural and this is the power of God to deliver from the natural How should the earthly understanding the earthly wil the earthly affections with the elementary nature which have had their swinge in the earth be crucified and slain but by the cross of Christ he therefore that wil have a Religion to please himself in any thing must not come hither and he who after he is come hither admitteth of any thing pleasing to the earthly and starteth from the cross which would deny and turn from it so far as it doth so he goeth backward and not forward It is no wonder that there is such an enmity in all sorts against the truth for it striketh at their life yea at the very root of their life If there were any new way or form of Religion held forth mens understandings and affections might by degrees be wrought of to it and find pleasure in it but this is direct death to that nature and spirit that hath lived in any form of Religion and to the whole course of that nature and spirit yet through this death the true life springs up in those who receive the strokes of it Therefore be willing and learn to die dayly and bring every thing which is contrary to Christ to the Cross Deny self in every thing take up the Cross in every thing follow Christ in every thing This is the way which Christ himself prescribes to become his disciples by If any man wil come after me let him deny himself take up his Cross daily and follow me seek not ease in the flesh no not in the least but take up the Cross every day in every thing till the earthly be slain til the wisdom and strength of the flesh be wholly subdued and then the wisdom and power of God will become natural 2. Keep to the sence keep to the feeling beware of the understanding beware of the imagining conceiving mind These cannot be for God not bring forth any thing for God until they be new cast and new moulded The one seed of life lies in the invisible in the hidden man of the heart among multitudes of seeds of death all which have their growth up into and strength in the corrupted natural So that this seed cannot shoot up into any part of the natural but the other seeds shoot up with it and endeavour to choak it Now the other seeds spring up two wayes either in a way of opposition against the the true seed or in a way of similitude There cannot a good thought or desire or beam of light enter into the understanding or will but multitudes of evil thoughts evil desire or fleshly reasonings against it wil spring up with it and strives to over bear it And if the enemy be at length overcome by the power of God fighting with him and vanquishing him then he hath his garments of light then he brings in thoughts and desires and motions like Gods which easily pass for good if the soul keep not close upon the watch The forward understanding is apt presently to own them and the forward will to embrace and the forward affections to let themselves forth into them until the soul come to feel a loss in life and miss the power and presence of God and find the enemy strong again Yea the enemy hath yet a more subtil way namely to raise motions like the motions of Gods spirit and suddainly before the light hath given the discerning of them to raise opposition and reasonings against them that so by the opposition which is manifestly evil the motion it self which is also evil though good in appearance might be the less suspected and swallowed Now the onely way of safety is to keep out of the natural whereof the enemy hath possession and where his strength lies and to keep in the sence and feeling of the invisible seed and onely to come forth with him into the natural in that sence and feeling And when he comes he wil come with strength above the strength that the enemy hath in the natural and by degrees conquer him But by no means rest or abide in the natural but retire with the Lord who will not dwel there until it be clensed into the resting place These words may be hard to you at present but hereafter as you come into the exercise you will feel them And this is the reason why the formal and outward part of Religion doth so commonly eat out the life because things there are sutable to and exercise that part wherein the strength of the enemy lies and there can never be perfect freedom and safety until that part be subdued and all that belongs to that part removed The Lord is risen to shake what may be shaken that the kingdom which cannot be shaken may appear and happy are they who are shaken by his hand in all that is outward and established in the inward life power and rest which remaineth for ever and cannot be shaken 3. Wait patiently the Lords leasure Be not hasty after life and salvation in the wil of the flesh but leave the Lord to chuse his own season for the showring down of his mercy and blessing The Lord will not presently entertain that spirit which hath adulterated from him prostituting it self to strangers and defiling it self into his bosom but there must be a time of sorrow a time of purifying and clensing The soul must know and feel that it hath been an evil thing and bitter that it hath forsaken the Lord the living fountain of living mercies and hath sought life from vanities and among dead Idols And all the Idols must be thrown away and the heart washed from that nature that ran after them and become a pure virgin to bear and bring forth the living seed and by faithfulness to that seed and waiting in that seed in the Lords season it shall receive the mercy and the blessing and the inheritance which belongs to that seed The Husbandman doth not presently reap but waits long even till the seed be grown up to maturity Jacob the type of the seed said O Lord I have waited for thy salvation It is the election that obtains it is to the seed and for the seeds sake that the mercy is bestowed and there must be a waiting till the seed be
tasted of in any of the Ordinances of the Apostacy ye wil all one day acknowledge this to be a true testimony held forth to you in true love it were good for you that ye could see it now J. P. A brief account of what we are and what our work is in the World WE are a people whom God hath converted to himself a people in whom God hath raised up the seed of his own life and caused it to reign over the earthly part in our selves a people whom God hath divorced from the spirit of whordom and joyned to his own spirit We many of us sought truly and only after God from our child hood our consciences bear us witness in the sight of God but the honesty of our hearts was stil betrayed and we led aside by the whorish spirit and knew not how to turn to that of God in us which inclined us towards God By this means we came to great distress and misery beyond all men Not but that all men were in as great a want of God his life power and presence as we but the sence thereof was not so quickned in others as in us Now it pleased the Lord at length to pitty us and to inform our minds towards himself to shew us where life lay and where death lay and how to turn from the one and to the other and he gave us his helping hand to turn us And by being turned to him we have tasted of the truth of the true wisdom of the true power of the true life of the true righteousness of the true redemption and by receiving of this from God and tasting and handling of it we come to know that that which the World hath set up in the stead of it is not the thing it self Now mark we are not persons that have shot up out of the old root into another appearance as one Sect hath done out of another till many are come up one after another the ground stil remaining the same out of which they all grew but that ground hath been shaken and shaking destroyed and destroying removed and removing in us and the old root of Jesse hath been made manifest in us and we have been transplanted by the everlasting power of life and a real change brought forth in us out of that spirit wherein the World lives and worships into another spirit into which nothing which is of the World can enter And here we have met with the cal of God the conversion to God the regeneration in God the justification the sanctification the wisdom the redemption the true life and power of God which the World cannot so much as bear the name of And what we are made of God in Christ we know to be truth and no lie and when we testifie of this to the World in the measure of the life of God in us we speak truth and no lie though the World which knoweth not the truth cannot hear our voice Now our work in the World is to hold forth the vertues of him that hath called us to live like God not to own any thing in the World which God doth not own to forget our country our kindred our Fathers house and to live like persons of another country of another kindred of another family not to do any thing of our selves and which is pleasing to the old nature but all our words all our conversation yea every thought in us is to be come new Whatever comes from us is to come from the new principle of life in us and to answer that in others but we must not please the old nature at all in our selves nor in any else And walking faithfully thus with God we have a reward at present and a crown in the end which doth and will countervaile all the reproches and hardships we do or can meet with in the World We are also to be witnesses for God and to propagate his life in the World to be instruments in his hand to bring others out of death and captivity unto true life and liberty we are to fight against the powers of darkness every where as the Lord calleth us forth And this we are to do in his wisdom according to his will in his power and in his love sweetness and meekness We are not to take wayes according to our own wisdom but there must be a strict watch set in the life least that get up again nor must we speak such words as mans wisdom would call wise nor may we go in our own will to seek any but the Lord must go before nor may we make use of our own strength but feel his arme in our weakness nor may we go forth in that love sweetness or meekness vvhich is pleasing to the fleshly minde but vve must be true to God handling the svvord skilfully and faithfully judging and cutting down the transgressor in the power and authority of God and when the meek the lowly the humble thing is reached and raised then the true love the sweetness the tendernesse the meekness must go forth to that The Lord God is tough with the transgressor and all a long the Scripture heweth and judgeth him and if we come forth in the same spirit we shall finde the same leadings where we meet with the same thing for the Lord God will never be tender there nor can that which comes from him lives in him is lead by him be tender there where he is not Now the very root of this severity is good and of God and hath love and sweetness at the bottom of it yea in pittie love and bowels do we use the sword It is in pitty to the poor captived creature that that might be cut down which keeps it in bonds and captivity And though we seem enemies to all sorts of men for the Lords sake yet we are not enemies nor could do the least hurt to them any way but are true friends to their souls and bodies also and our only controversie is with that which captives and makes them miserable for we fight not at all with flesh and bloud but with the principality and power which led from God and rules in it against God to the poor creatures ruine and destruction Yea if we had all the powers of the earth in our hands we could not set up our own way if after the manner of men I may so call it or so much as disturb others in their way thereby but should waite in patience till God gave us an entrance by his power Now let not men run on in heats against us but let them seriously consider whether we be of God or no and let them consider not with the reason and understanding which is alienated from God but with the witness which lies hid in the heart There is one great palpable argument that we are of God which is this all the World is against us the Wordly part every where fights with us the Wordly