ground of truth sets up an Idol and prefers an Idol above the life and so are in the Idolatry But let none mistake that I say water is an Idol nay it is a good creature of God or that I say Iohns baptisme with water was an idol nay he was in the power and spirit of Eliah and his baptisme a figure of a good thing which was to come which afterward was received by the diseiples and Christs words made good unto them Iohn indeed baptized you with water unto repentance but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire not many daies hence that was Christs baptisme I am not Ignorant of the many and great contests in this age that have been about these things and I know many scriptures that speaks of baptism all which I have searched narrowly with the measure of Gods spirit given unto me into the true ground of things the true state of each administration and in this thing I am satisfied fully that the baptisme with water was Iohns baptisme and not Christs and the baptisme of the spirit is Christs and not Iohns I have no desire to wrangle or Jangle about words or contest about shadowes but that all may come to know him in whom all ministrations ends in and there will be peace and satisfaction to wit in Christ But to say some thing to the main bassis and foundation which Priests and Separatists builds much of their arguments upon the last of Mat. and the last Goe teach and baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost as for all the Priests about their baptising of Infants here is no ground at all for here is first teach and then baptize and here 's no infants neither and so I know what consequences hath been drawn from this by the unlearned in their imaginations but them that hath the least measure of true light will not take a consequence to build a foundation on for this is contrary to their own rule they say the scripture is the Rule then their consequence is not the Rule and if the scriptures be the Rule let all people of your parishes know if you can by the Scripture shew when John or any Disciple of his or Christs baptized infants and taught them Principles of Religion â—0 years after but they are willingly ignorant that sees not you to be idolaters and as to the Baptists separates who builds upon this for their water baptisme they are as groundles as the Priests and all their Arguments are as invalled as the rest for here is baptizing the Nations in the Name of the Father in the name of the Son and of the holy Ghost and any who are judicious or wise and are in any measure of Gods pure wisdom will not say that the Name of the Father is water or the Son or holy Ghost is water the name of God is I am and a strong tower and the Name of the Son is the word and the word is the power but this is not water but further they say the Disciples had received the holy Ghost and did baptize with water after and they were Baptized with water after they had received the holy Ghost they bring divers Scriptures to prove this I shall not deny but Peter Baptized with water and Paul two or three families and thanks God he baptized no more and said he had declared the whole counsel of God and he makes not mention in all his Epistles that baptisme was any part of his command neither in all his counsel to the Churches any where doth he exhort either Timothy or Titus or Apollo or any of the brethren to Baptize with water but as for Peters Baptizing with water I know no more command he had then Paul as for the commission which Matthew writes of Mat. 28. and 19. and that Mark mentions 16. 15. there is no water and so it s the Baptisme of John I grant and Christ bearing witness to John that he was a Prophet and did baptize many and therefore he or they in honour to Johns Ministry might baptize some as well as Paul did circumcise Titus and and then in 1 Cor. 7. 19. said it was nothing and again in another place neither circumcision nor uncircumcision did avail but a new creature and because it was a figure which people did not Idolize so much then as they did circumcision for the weakness of the people for a time and the wise in heart may understand that when any representation or figure outward was set up it was not easily denyed again nor an easie thing to be laid down when the thing signified was come for many of the Jews believed in Christ and were said to be brethren and yet they came from Jerusalem and troubled the Church of Galatia and would have brought them under the figure circumcision again and the Apostle in Gal. 4. asks them now when ye know God why turn ye again to the beggarly Elements Circumcision observing dayes moneths times and years I would ask the moderate a question whether water be not an Element and pertains only to the Elementary part in man which is to passe away and be dissolved when the seed is raised up whose nature is not elementary but Celestial I shall say no more to them at this present who are contentions who are so zealous for their water upon so weak a ground but take heed that while you are striving about your outward water you neglect not the washing of regeneration and the cleansing of the spirit many have been baptized but which of you hath received the holy Ghost there is not one among you dare own or witness an infallible spirit but rather counts it an error that any should speak or witness or look to enjoy any such thing in these dayes well I say unto you your day is a day of darkness and gloominess you live in and thick darkness covers your tabernacle for who ever have received the holy Ghost or spirit of truth in any measure are led by that which is infallible and not fallible and if you look not for this you are no sons notwithstanding all your washing the outside for as many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and this is witnessed praises to the Lord for ever the Lord is unto his people an everlasting light and this is the sum that water is owned to be a figure of the one baptism and was an Element and pertained to that which is Elementary but the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and be dissolved in the day of the Lord and then the seed comes up which is heir of the promise which is nourished with the water of life which is not an Element nor Elementary but is Celestial and springs up in them that believe unto everlasting life and comes to be born of the water and the spirit and enters into Gods Kingdom dominion power life wisdom excellency
and Eternal glory happy is he that believes and abides in patience unto the end Now since the dayes of John the Kingdom of God hath been Preached and as many as were ordained to Eternal life believed and many in the day when Christ was manifest in the flesh believed unto whom he declared the mind of the Father and by him was the Father glorified he fulfilled the Law and did many works and miracles by the power of the Father and herein was the Father glorified and them that did believe in him their faith was strengthened and he opened the mystries of the Kingdom of God unto his Disciples and bore witness and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and of all their worship and said no more at Jerusalem nor at Samaria but the time was coming when they that worshipped the Father should worship him in spirit and truth and declared against the Pharisees righteousness and said to his Disciples Except their righteousness did exceed the Pharisees they could not enter the Kingdom of God and yet the Pharisees performed all the outward things commanded but were in the idolatry and did not believe in the life Now he declared of his suffering many things also how he would go away and how he would come again and would not leave them comfortless but these things were hard to be believed then by his Disciples and further he told them he must be betrayed and suffer and rise again and when the hour was come that he was betrayed when he was with his Disciples even the same night he was betrayed he took bread and broke it and blessed it and said take and eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me and after he took the cup and after he had Supped saying this is the cup of the New Testament in my blood as often as you drink it do it in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11. 23. 24. and Matthew Mark and Luke declares the same and this was reall bread and reall wine which was a representation of that which was to be enjoyed in the spirit and never intended for any further thing but as a figure or a representation of the bread of life and of the cup of blessing which afterward they came to be witnesses of and as oft as they eat and drank they did shew forth the Lords death till he came Now this was practiced among the Disciples after he was risen from the dead and did converse with them at many times and exhorted them and comforted them and instructed them and told them that they should be witnesses of his name unto the ends of the earth and gave them commandment to teach all Nations and Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost and did promise to be with them to the end of the world and told how the Comforter would come and that the Father would send him in his Name even the spirit of truth which was with them and should be in them to be their teacher leader and guide and bring all things to their remembrance Now that which he gave them as a figure and to be a sign unto them of the clearer manifestation of himself which afterward came to be fulfilled and they witnesses of it who grew up in the pure invisible being and did see the mystery through the Revelation of the spirit which did more clearly show unto them the mysteries within the vail for as I said of water it was a sign of a good thing to come so the bread and the cup was also a sign of a good thing to come as all outward figures were but they that did believe and grew up in the faith in the seed Christ they came to see the substance in whom all figures ends in and had communion with him within the vail after he was ascended where he was before now the Apostle he spoke as to wise men judge ye what I say 1 Cor. 10. 15 16. the cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and v. 17. for we being many are one bread one body for we are all partakers of that one bread mark all they that did believe though they were many yet they were one bread one body and were all partakers of that one bread which bread was the flesh of Christ John 6. 48. I am the bread of life and Joh. 6. 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Now I speak unto wise men and let the wisdom of God in them manifest judge what I say for where the body of Christ is witnessed and the flesh of Christ known they know that which all the figures ends in the Manna that God gave to Israel in the wilderness they died that did eat thereof which was as pure a type of the hidden Manna as lively a type as bread outward which was but a type of the of the flesh of Christ and both they that did eats the Manna and they that eat the bread outward and drank the cup outward are both dead but he that eat the flesh of Christ and drinks the blood lives for ever and he that eats the hidden Manna hath overcome death and lives for ever and feeds upon the bread of life feeds upon Eternal life Now this is a mystery to the Papists who are idolaters who have sprung vp in the Apostacy though they have Scriptures as it was to the Jewes John 6. 52. who strove among themselves and said how can this man give us his flesh â—o eat and so the Papists who strives about the flesh of Christ and his blood and yet have the Scriptures and they say it s in the bread and in the wine after consecration so they worship the imaginations of their own hearts not deserning the Lords body and have killed thousands and taken away the lives of thousands because they would not confesse their idol to be of God And the protestants they are setting up the bread and the wine and contenting themselves therewith and are making an idol of it and comes not to discerne the body of Christ but one saying he hath a carnall body and another a fleshly body another a mystical body another sayes his body is devided from his members and so speaks out of thick darknesse their own imaginations and hath not communion with the body of Christ neither knowes the flesh of Christ which is the bread of life which is given for the life of the World Iohn 6. 51. And as godlinesse began to work and the mystery thereof in the dayes of Christand the Apostles wherein the Lord discovered much of his wisdom and power
sounds although there be many languages and each have interpretation and a signification they are all short to declare the life the immeasurable being of eternal Life you with all these are on heaps disjoynted one from another Your Rhetorick Phylosophy your framed and devised disputations your Tongues and the significations of all Tongues cannot know the mind of the spirit neither knows the original of eternal salvation by all these and so not knowing the signification of the living eternal spirit in your selves you invent study devise forms and frames up things in your carnal minds by the strength of your learned studied devised parts and framed speeches and hath filled the whole world with your dark muddy conceptions and hath led all out from seeking after the living wisdom of God which is from above which was before your Tongues and Languages was and they have sucked in your conceptions and distinctions and your devised fables and your imagined worship that many have lost the sence of any thing of God in themselves to guid them and when you have come as far as you can in those things and have divised in your minds by the strength of those parts natural you are farther from the knowledge then before and all that hear you and sucketh in your conceptions and Imaginations into their hearts they are further off Gods true knowledge then they were the day in which they came out of their mothers womb it is a lamentation to see how people are gone out of the pure simplicity which is in Christ into subtilty and deceit stuffed up full brimful of that which must be all poured out as water before they and you all come to the least measure of Gods true and saving knowledge Oh! a dreadful day is coming upon many it lingers not but will come swiftly as a theef upon you who have taken away the key of knowledge and gives people that which will not open and tels them of a litteral carnal thing that must give them enterance you and all they will be shut out together among the uncircumcised as fools though you count your selves wise men your wisdom will perish and your honour will be laid in the dust the time hastens it is the word of truth to you all And you literal professors who have got the Scripture into your head and into the carnal mind to talk on and are run into so many heads you are almost past numbring and hath exalted so many horns yet the number is read the number of the heads of the beast and the number of his name you have taken up things and are exalting a visible shadowish practice and neglecteth the life and are making Idols of those things which were but a figure and representation in their purest time now you like the Pharisees are limiting the Lord that if he will not appear unto you in those things that you have prescribed unto your selves and fetched in from the letter and goâ—ten it into the fleshly part which is heâ—ped up as a mountain in many of you so high above Gods pure witness in you and so high above the appearance of God in you that you have quite lost the sight of that in your selves which should give you the knowledge of the living God and make you sensible of his pure presence I say if he appear not in the way you would limit him to in those things you would confine him in you cannot receive him the Lord open your understandings that you may see your selves and how frothy vain light and wanton you are one with the world in all things in the very ground pretending liberty in Christ and priviledge in him when you may see you are servants to corruptions and to many noisome lusts that makes war Again what are all outward appearances any more but as a Curtain or as a vail and as a shadow in respect of Christ Gods righteousness within but you are filled too full of your apprehensions of his righteousness at a distance that you have forgotten all at home and your own conditions for his righteousness will not be a cloak for your self-righteousness and unrighteousnes and if Christ be not formed in you Gods righteousness and live in you and act in you and work his work in you you are in the self-righteousness and a talk of imputation will not save you while you are not in that capacity and nature and faith unto whom his righteousness is imputed Are you not weary with tumbling up and down among the earthly Hills among which you have situated your selves Do you not see your land grows barren and your possessions dry and your worship dead heaven rains not on you the bottles are stopped the dew falls not on you you wither dayly as a stick without sap what have you found that which will last unto perpetuity oh nay it s rusted already it 's canckered already its moth-eaten already it 's fading the glory is staining the renown of all earthly things is fading and all terrestrial appearances though never so glorious they are all to cease a consumption is coming blasting is near there will be no more glory in these things they will flie away as a shadow when the Sun arises your riches are wasting when will ye seek after that which endures for ever I pity you who have had breathings after God and hath sate down at ease in that which is not eternal Be warned return home consider see what corruption thou hast power over now which had once power over thee Dost thou rest in that faith that thou shalt never be cleansed here that faith is curst it 's reprobate it s rather properly unbelief It 's not the faith of Gods elect by which they were sanctified and overcame the wicked one in themselves by the power of Christ who is able to save and manifests his ability in all them that believe in the light which they are enlightned withall through which he manifests himself to the creature and makes known his power in the creature to redeem the soul out of death and to redeem the creature from under the bondage of corruption to serve him in the free spirit of God in which the sons are made free from sin from the act and guilt they become the Temples of the holy Ghost How far you are from this consider who are yet temples of uncleanness and a habitation for many noisome lusts repent and minde that which empties you of your thoughts and conceitedness that you may know poverty of spirit that the kingdom may come unto you and be yours in possession else you are everlastingly miserable this is the true state of many of you own it repent that if it be possible you may finde a door of mercy yet opened unto you that you may enter in thereat for it is not setting up and conforming to a visible practice without that will justifie you while that which is in the transgression and
THE INVISIBLE Things of GOD Brought to light by the REVELATION of the ETERNAL SPIRIT who was an ey-witness of the wonders of the Lord in the beginning Wherein is declared the Felicity of all things in the beginning and the sad estate of all things after the transgression How all the reformed Churches so called in Christendom are yet in the Apostacy The estate of the true Church before the Apostacy and her state in the Apostacy And the glory that shall appear after the Apostacy By one who believes God will shine out of Sion in perfect beauty again after the dark night of Apostacy called Francis Howgill The Light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun as Seven days And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail that is spread over all Nations Isai. 25 7. London Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER OR Readers TO the upright hearted Reader in all the Regions of the Earth wherein this may come who have walked in the thick fogs and mists which hath arisen out of the botomlesse pit which hath been raised up since the transgression which have dimmed your eyes hurt your sight so that you could not behold the pure Celestial being nor him that dwels in it whose presence gives Life nor any thing within the vail because the vail hath been spred over all Nations and it hath been so thick that it hath been hard for any to rent it and the night of Apostacy and darknesse hath been so long since the woman fled into the wildernesse and since the man-child which was born hath been caught up to God that few or none for this many ages past hath come to see the end of the night but hath mourned without hope and few or none hath seen or hath been able to discerne the time of the womans return out of the wildernesse again into which she fled and few or none hath seen to the end of the times after which shee should return and mens sight in the Apostacy hath been so dime and in the vexation that when the man-child which was caught up unto God would appear again few hath had faith to believe or sight to he hold him or an understanding to deserne of the times But praises be to the Lord God everlasting who hath opened is and opening the windowes of heaven and showring down his wisdome as a mighty rain his knowledge as the morning dew and an understanding is pouring forth as the water out of the bottles of heaven as the water spouts so that ages times things daies and years is measured and seen And him that was before all things is beholden by whom all things was made who hath been as in a far country all this long night of darknesse but the time is fully expired and now is he returning and his appearance is as a morning without clouds as clear as the Sun and as pure as Christal and now is he scattering the clouds fogs and mists as with the East wind his pure breath clears the air and by his arm which is mighty is he renting the vail of the covering according to his promise revealing himself in his naked glory that the solitary may rejoice and the feeble may be comforted and them that have erred may come to a good un-understanding what I have writ thou must read me onely in that which is invisible and eternal in thy self else I am sealed from thee my words are a riddle and although the the dreamers of this age in the apostacy say Imeditate revelation is ceased and not to be looked for yet I must needs bear my testimony against them all for what I have here written I neither received of man nor from man nor books nor other words but by the eternal spirit who saw these things and was an eye-witness of them and God through it hath revealed them in me and to me that I might beare my testimony of the hidden things of God which are eternal although I have made use of the scriptures and the saints words and cited some it is not for my sake but thine who reades that so every truth may be confirmed by 2. or 3. witnesses If thou wait to know and find the key of David who opens in what I have declared thou wilt see the state of things before the fall and after the fall how all men in the fall have corrupted themselves in all administrations thou wilt see the state of the Church before the apostacy in the apostacy and what shall be after the apostacy and if thou cannot reach into the things as they are declared judg them not before the day appeare in thy selfe for till then they will be obscure to thee but as it appeares in thee thou shalt bear me witnesse that these things are holy faithful and true and hath and shall be fulfilled in that which is immutable I bid thee farewel F H. The chief particulars or heads in the ensuiug discourse treated upon aud opened by the Spirit of the Lord who was an ey-witness unto these things 1. THe work of the Lord declared which was in the beginning when the word was with God and man in the image of God 2. Although the heavens and the Earth were created and all things therein finished yet the world was not begun that lay in wickednesse which the Devil is the God of neither was Christ the mystery hid nor the Lamb slain 3. The understanding may read the Wisdom of God in a mystery and also may see the sottish Doctrine of the apostates 4. An objection answered 5. Another objection answered 6. How peace joy and delight possessed every thing that God had made how every thing which he had formed glorified him with one consent in the beginning 7. How man lost his state and dominion and unity with God and all the creatures and how the Lamb came to be slain and the world that lay in wickedness came to be framed in man after the tempter entred how endless misery can in upon all after the transgression 8. How sin entred into the world and death by sin and how man is dead while he lives and all is dead works that he acteth and the state of all the sons of men and their works may be seen in the fall 9. 3. Objections answered about this particular 10. Self righteousness deeds of darkness also and dead works and are to be condemned also and man who acteth them in the fall 11. An objection answered as to the present state of the Ministry of the Nations their practice and their worship 12. An objection as to the Churches so called and their worship in the Nations 13. The dark and blind Doctrines of the Ranters denyed 14. An objection about reading the Scriptures and conforming to the outward practice of
thee evil and shewes thee good thou wilt see how it appears Even as the light shineth from the East unto the West so is the coming of the day of the Lord. And the eye which is spiritual sees it and the power and the glory of the Lord comes to be seen in the day which is pure and spiritual in the heart and the eye which is pure doth behold when it comes where it comes and how it comes and it 's hid from Vulterous eyes and from their eyes which are full of adultery and cannot cease from sin Now the day of the Lord cometh not where the carnal mind may imagine nor when Man will neither according to the carnal desire of the carnal heart neither according to the evil eye that looks out can see it but it is seen in Gods own light and by the measure of Gods holy spirit And the day of the Lord is a mystery the spirit of the Lord is the onely discoverer of it None knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God and the day of the Lord and his bright shining forth in the heart of man is one of the glorious things of God which onely the Spirit of God doth give the knowledge of to man and in man and not the letter nor the Scripture for the Jews had the letter and they had neither heard Gods voice at any time neither ever did see his shape neither did they see the day of the Lord nor the power neither in a word did see or perceive God or any of the mysteries of Gods Kingdom at all but dreamed imagined thought and conceived of things in their minds their foolish hearts being darkned for the further a man drawes from the Light his heart comes to be more dark and their understandings closed up and shut up that they cannot behold the Lord neither his glory which is revealed only by Gods holy spirit which spirit is near man though he sees it not What the spirit of the Lord is and how it comes to be received which discovers the things of God THe spirit of the Lord is pure holy equal purity it selfe holinesse it selfe equity it selfe and is one with the Father and the Son The Father the word and the Spirit are one its Life its pure power pure strength purity it self which mixeth not neither joyneth to any thing but what is of its own nature it s an immeasurable pure substance its Life issued forth an active living power and is everlasting alters not changes not keeps its holinesse its purity for ever it is unsearchable unfathomable undeclarable words are all too short too narrow to declare its excellency and glory but onely as it makes it selfe out to them that believe and opens it self and sheds it self abroad in them that wait upon it it is revealed in its own purity manifest in its own power and received in its own Light felt in its own vertue the living Father of Life himselfe is manifested by it and appeares in his power majesty and excellency through it to man and to the sons of men to the righteous and unrighteous to godly and ungodly to the upright and to the deceitful to the children of darknesse and to the children of Light that which searcheth the heart of man and sees through all things and maketh manifest all things even the hidden things of God and the secret works of darknesse and reproveth for all evil all iniquity that is the pure act of the spirit which convinceth every man and as the creature comes to join to it it arises and shines forth more clearly and maketh it self known in its power and operation its power comes to be felt it checks and reproveth judgeth and condemneth all actions which is done and past and brings them to the creatures remembrance and as it is waited upon and hearkned unto it sheds its selfe abroad in its own pure brightnesse and bringeth all things to Light even all the deeds of darknesse and maketh manifest the intents of the mind and manifesteth all things reproveable Now as there is a waiting upon the pure appearance of it and the minde be still quiet and calm the creature comes to feel and sensibly to know his own condition and sees his minde is alive to other things and other lovers and not to God and so he sees himselfe dead to the things of Gods kingdome and in the losse and in the fall and in the transgression now this which shewes the vain motions and the vain thoughts and checketh them is an operation of the spirit and purity comes to be felt working in the heart and as it is loved obeyed it leadeth converteth the heart to the Lord and draweth towards it self out of unholinesse and from under the dark power and brings that under and so it arises in its strength as it is believed in and waited upon and judges and condemns for all evils for it is the discoverer of the mind of the Lord to the sons of men or the Father by it makes known his mind to and in the creature and doth discover the things that be eternal in their true property and nature which onely they that have the spirit and have received it and are brought out of the sensuality comes to discerne him who is invisible and the things that belongs to everlasting happinesse which is not seen by a natural eye neither received by the spirit of the world who never received the things of God neither the testimony of them who were in the Life Now all that comes to receive it that is to say the spirit of truth must wait in that which is pure unto which it joines it joines not to the corrupt man neither to the sensual heart neither to the vile affections neither to them whose eyes are full of adultery which cannot cease from sin neither to the seed of falsehood neither to the corruptible birth neither unto that which is born of the flesh nor unto the will of the creature yet notwithstanding though it join not to these yet it is near man even the natural man its manifestation or the shining forth of its brightnesse maketh all these things manifest before mentioned to be evil and thus far the spirit of God hath appeared to the world and all mankind to convince the world of sin yet still it remaines in its own purity and while the heart of any man is taken up with that and joined unto that which the light reproves that is to say the worker of iniquity that man hath not received the spirit neither is made possessor of it nor injoyes it but it stands off man and from man at a distance shewing the worker of iniquity and the works of darknesse and manifesting to the creature in its light and letting him see to whom he is joyned for so far as a man denies himselfe in acting or joyning to that which the manifestation of Gods spirit shining forth in its own
quenched but as there is a submission unto its pure operation it burnes up and destroyes that which hinders the growth of the seed it purgeth the heart of them that have confidence in it from all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit and worketh up the creature into its own frame and nature and fashions and makes and moulds all that are in the Faith into the Image of the Father and so the Fathers love comes to be shed abroad in the heart and as the wrath was revealed through the spirit and condemnation so now the peace of God comes to be enjoyed and his consolation shed abroad largly in which there is pure rejoicing for ever Vnto whom the Spirit of the Father bears witness and seals assurance of the Fathers love and of justification with God declared NOne hath the witness of Gods Spirit bearing witness to them nor in them who have not believed in the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world by whom alone life is begotten by the powerful operation of Christ in them that believe in him who is eternal light it self whose word is spirit and life by which the new Creature is framed formed in them that believe unto whom he maketh manifest his power for unto him who is the life of men is all power committed both in heaven and earth for nothing was made or created but by him neither is any turned from sin but by him and by his mighty power without him is death in him is life and the life is the light of men So that none but they that are born of the light and are begotten by him who is light can have the spirit of Christ who is light to bear witness unto them neither the assurance of the Fathers love for onely they that are born of the spirit and walk after the spirit are justified by the spirit of the Lord for the assurance of his love is not made manifest to his enemies but unto them that are born brought forth in his own image in his own likeness and nature which is pure and incorruptible without stain or defilement the holy seed which is heir of the promise who knows the living hope which purifies the heart and bringeth the answer of a good conscience unto them that feel and witness the washing of regeneration and have known in themselves the clean water poured forth upon them which hath taken away the stains and spots and blemishes and the defilements for where these are no washed out the heart cleansed from them that believed in wherein Gods all-sufficiency is felt and his power made manifest there cannot be assurance of the Fathers love in the heart nor in the soul neither doth the spirit of the Father bear witness unto such nor assure their justification but on the contrary where sin remains unsubdued and taken away the spirit of the Father condemneth the sin and the creature now is joyned to it and is become one with it for no sin is brought forth but there is a consent and an assenting to the instigation of the Devil although when a temptation ariseth either within or without there may be a resisting and a striving against it for a little but the heart not being kept close to the spirit the enemy often enters and so captivates the understanding then there is an agreement and a joyning to the adversary and so the spirit pronounceth the sentence of condemnation upon him who is joyned to the harlot and becomes one flesh and joyned unto strange flesh which is not the flesh of Christ the seed and that which hath joyned and consented to drink of the cup of fornication must drink of the cup of indignation and terrour and bear the stroke of Divine Justice and lie in patience under it till that be cut down which hath joyned to deceit before there can be the remission of the transgression or the Creature justified in the fight of God For sin is not blotted out of the book of Gods remembrance till it be turned from and repented of neither doth the creature stand clear in the sight of God when God judges in righteous judgement which the light in every ones conscience shall answer Now he that is born of God sins not for the seed of God remains in him which is life And as the creature joyns to that seed which is heir of the Kingdom and of the Crown immortal he comes to be made partaker of its vertue and operation which seed is Christ and by his power by which he limiteth the seed of the Serpent and weakens his strength in the creature as man cometh to believe in his strength unto whom all power is committed the covenant with Death is broken and that agreement that the creature hath made with death comes to be disannulled by the arm and power of the Lord and so the creature comes to be delivered from the bondage of corruption and the new man comes to live or the new creature which is born of God which sins not comes to be framed and fashioned in the image of the Father and the Fathers love is manifest unto him and in him and he hath the assurance in himself The Babe that is born from above of the Spirit which is from above of which he is born and brought forth of the just by the just he is justified by the just God and the just witness of the spirit sealeth this in him And he hath the record of his justification For there is three that bear record in the earth the water the blood and the spirit and he that is born of that which is pure in it self hath the witness of all these three in himself for they agree in one That which one beareth wit-witness to and for the other doth the same and the record and testimony and witness of all these three hath he that is born from above Moreover there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the spirit and these three are one So he that is born of the Father and begotten of the Father in Christ the seed through the Spirit he and he alone comes to feel the Fathers love made manifest in him and is justified in the sight of the Father and hath the record of all these witnesses before mentioned in himself so that he hath his assurance and evidence near him and in him the seal of the Father the seal of the Spirit And so when the adversary comes to tempt and to assault and would raise up doubts in the mind the evidence is near which puts him out of all doubt that he is in the love of God blessed for ever and happy are all they who have waited for these things have felt these things and are witnesses of these things for flesh and blood hath not revealed these things Now let every man who reads this prove himself and try himself whether he be in the faith or
hath transgressed the life and hath disobeyed the light in your consciences is head in you and above the pure that will not recommend you unto God neither can you have any access or acceptation with God in that state till you come out of the waters upon which the Whore sits which is unstable and boisterous and reels too and fro and unsetled which is all to be dried up and all the springs cut off that nourishes and you must come to the Rock before you know any thing that will endure to build upon which rock is Christ who abides for ever but you are all gone from that which should give the knowledge of him in your selves and doth not retain him in your knowledg neither that which gives the knowledge of him the light of his Spirit which shines in your hearts making manifest in your hearts the intention of your hearts when motions unto evil do arise This must you all come to before Gods salvation or redemption you come to know in your selves or have the witness of Gods holy Spirit without which there is neither seal nor evidence nor assurance enjoyed or felt of the love of God The time of restoring is come and many are restored again into Gods Covenant and are delivered out of the jaws of death and feels him who is the healer of the Nations and the restorer of the desolate places to dwell in but first you must come to see those places made desolate wherein the wilde nature lodges before you come to have a share in the restoration Come off these barren mountains where you are feeding to Christ the life of men who hath lightned you and wait in it that you may feel his mind in your selves and the signification of the Spirit of truth from your own spirits or else you will still erre for lack of knowledge and perish for want of understanding and so lay down your heads in sorrow The Kingdom of God and of his Christ declared in some measure as it is revealed what it is and where it is to to be waited for and how it cometh to be revealed to them and in them that believe that all who are waiting for it may know wherein it consists and so receive the end of their hope and the end of their expectation and know the Dominion which hath no end THe Lord hath prepared his throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all his dominion is an everlasting dominion and without end God is a Spirit his Kingdom is spiritual his habitation is suitable to his own nature he is immortal his Kingdom is so he is light his dwelling place is so a pure scituation in which there is no uncleanness nor ever shall be It 's eternal dignity it is an immutable being that remaineth always in it's purity and pleasantness Eternally glorious it consists in power in righteousness in purity in joy in hope in peace in life in vertue eternal in quietness it s a quiet habitation it is incomprehensible unsearchable and indeclareable words are too short they are but as sounds as vails It is unexpressible in it is the treasure-house of wisdom out of which all that believe in him who is the King of eternal and immortal glory comes to receive of his wisdom of his life of his power vertue righteousness and comes to enjoy him who is the fulness that filleth all things whether visible or invisible whether terrestrial or coelestial his power is over all his dominion is over all who is eternally blessedness it self and felicity it self who makes all that believe in him to partake of his kingdom of his grace of his power of his dignity of his dominion and of his glory coelestial but these things are hid from the world who are not redeemed from the earth neither never looks to be while they are in the body Unto such I say Gods kingdom you shall never see nor enjoy while you are in that faith which is reprobate but may be truly called unbelief although you imagine a glory and a kingdom in your earthly minds and dream of a thing to come suitable unto that wherein your glory now standeth but that will all fail and those imaginations will be confounded and dissolved into nothing because they are centred in that which is out of the truth Christ and so are without ground or bottom and are out of that which should give you the sight and knowledge of God in your selves and his kingdom Christ when he taught them that followed him exhorted them that first of all they might seek the kingdome of God even while they were in the body Mat. 6. 36. The Pharisees were gazing abroad in their earthly knowledge although they had the Scripture that declared of Gods kingdome yet they knew it not and this generation is the same who are in the same nature and in the same wisdome which is earthly and litteral and they are imagining as the Jewes were and are loe here and loe there in this observation and the other and look to see it there Nay Christ said The Kingdome of God is within you to the Pharisees He bad them and others seek it first what strange doctrine was this might the Pharisees say he saith the kingdome of God is within us and yet bids us seek it Need we seek that which is in us may professors say Yea it 's like a pearl hid in the field it s like a grain of mustard-seed among many great seeds which is not easily found it 's like a piece of silver lost in the house among much rubbish till that be swept away thou wilt not find it thou must dig deep sweep clean search narrowly before thou find it although he did say to the Pharisees The kingdom of God is within you he did not say they were possessors of it or that it was theirs but to the Disciples whom he taught to pray in faith thy kingdome come and they came to find it that which they prayed for that pearl that groat that grain of mustard-seed which it was like and having found it and believed in it he saith unto them Mat. 5. 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God And in Luke 6. 20. And he lift up his eyes on his disciples and said blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God They had seen it and were possessors of it it was theirs And Christ said unto his disciples There are some of you standing here that shal not taste of death till ye see the kingdom of God come in power And his words were fulfilled they declared what they had felt and seen and some of them said The Kingdome of God is not in word but in power And Paul to the Romans writes Rom. 4. 17. who was also made partakers of the same power and the same kingdome he spoke his knowledge of it and sayd It 's not meat nor drink but righteousnesse and peace and joy
in the holy Ghost And the Colossions who had waited for it and believed in that through which it was revealed the Apostle was in the same Faith Coloss. 1. 12. 13. Who hath made us meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath transformed us into the kingdome of his dear Son And those things were seen in the body and witnessed in the body And the Apostle to Hebrews saith He that believes is entred into the rest And this and all these things were feeled within by the seed immortal the birth immortal and they that witness the birth immortal to live in them One said He hath made us joynt-heirs with Christ who is the King of eternal glory and they were Joint-heires with him of the kingdome that fades not away and all that ever comes to see the kingdome of God in the spirit which is spiritual must wait in the spirit and in its manifestation that so God and his Kingdome and the things of Gods Kingdome may be felt and seen and enjoyed in the spirit which is glorious Object All this which thou hast spoken may some say is the kingdome of grace and that we hold there is a two-fold kingdome the one of grace here the other of glory hereafter which none comes to enjoy glory or any part of it in this life or in the body Answ. People hath long been blinded with confused distinctions about names and being full of imaginary thoughts and conceptions have brought forth foolish and unlearned distinctions and that which God hath joyned together they would separate grace is glorious and glory is gratious he that can receive it let him the kingdome of God which was like a grain of mustard-seed afterwards it became a great tree the tree in its strength and glory and height is more glorious then when it s in the seed yet the seed and the tree is in nature and quality and kind one if the kingdome be in dominion in purity and power and glory is not here unity yet a greater measure yet still the dominion is one the power one the glory one and the thing one wherein grace standeth and glory standeth wherein the kingdome standeth grace is glorious Eph. 1. 6 7. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children and to the praife and glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved In the Fathers house there are many mansions places in the kingdome of God there are many heavenly places and they that walked to the praise of his grace came to sit also in heavenly places Eph. 2 6. through grace salvation through grace glory comes to be revealed in the earth Isa. 6. 3. The Earâ—h is full of his glory he that makes heaven and Earth glorious is glory it selfe from whence grace aud every degree of gloly receives its being the least measure of Gods strength and power is glorious and to be gloried in in the Lord by all that have seen it Things might be declared which God hath revealed which is not lawful for me now to utter for as one star differs from another in glory yet all glorious even so is it with the children of the resurrection who are quickned and made alive and raised from the dead and fashioned like unto his glorious body partakers of the glory of God of his kingdome of his power the power is his in which the kingdome stands the kingdome his wherein glory stands the kingdom power and glory stands all in him who is the glorious God and the God of eternal glory who is revealing his power his kingdome and grace and his glory unto all that patiently wait upon him in that which yet is as a grain of mustard-seed they will come to feel his presence his power and glory revealed in their hearts through the spirit and injoy God in his kingdome in his power and in his glory and through faith shall see the weight of his glory which God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will reveal unto all that patiently wait for his appearance and in his appearance Obj. But some will cry out grievous blasphemy and error what I think you look for no other glory but in this Life nor for no other Kingdome but what you enjoy in this life thus I know dark spirits reasons Answ. The Saints looked not afâ— any other glory but that which stood in eternal life and in the immortal Life and in the incorruptable life and the Country they sought after was that which God was the maker and builder of and they looked and waited to receive of his power in which the Kingdome standeth and did in this life I do not say the full weight of glory and to know and injoy and to be made partakers of his eternal dominion and authority is that which all the Saints in measure witnesse and in due time came to injoy through faith for by faith they saw him who was invisible and the things of his kingdome which is invisible spiritual and eternal but to speak of the carnal corruptable life in the flesh who are dead while they live there that life neither the kingdome nor the power nor the glory of God is revealed to them not till after the death of that life and till after the death of him who hath the power of death which is the Devil which ruleth in the hearts of the children of disobedience where all the mysteries of Gods kingdome is hid from their eyes and ever shall while in that state and so let the Serpent be blind and they that have an eare to hear blessed is that eare for the kingdome of God is come nigh unto many and the salvation of God and the power of Christ is seen by many honour and praise unto him everlastingly who is the onely Potentate that puts down all authority under his feet that God may be all in all but first every one must come to feel the kingdome which is as a little grain in himselfe and in it believe before any can come to know the Kingdome or wherein it consists and after it be known in its measure yet this is far short of glory in the fulness so many may come to be partakers of the power in some measure yet this is far short of the eternal weight of glory He that believes is entred into the rest and made partakers of the heavenly gift and of the heavenly power and of the heavenly grace which is glorious and doth witness a heavenly place in Christ Jesus and yet many enemies to be subdued and much of the heavenly habitation which they see not which comes to be revealed as there is an abiding in the faith which stands in Gods power in which the kingdom stands the mysteries of God and of his kingdom comes in due time to be revealed through death they come to be known that is to say through the death of death for Israel the true type after they passed over Jordan and had taken Jericho and Ai and had made an entrance into the land yet there was many enemies to be subdued and much land and possessions which they were not made partakers of long after even so after there be of the true rest enjoyed and possessed an entrance made into it yet there is many enemies to be subdued and much of the heavenly inheritance to be enjoyed by them that stand in the power which giveth dominion over sin the devil hell and the grave and they come to be made partakers of God and so the enmity being slain man comes to enjoy God who is eternal life and comes to receive the crown immortal which God the eternal power and strength giveth in due time to them that wait in patience and in faith through which the immortal inheritance comes to be revealed to all the children of light And so to conclude in few words this I say unto all who are longing after God and waiting to feel his power keep in your minds to the pure measure of Gods holy spirit and therein wait to see his kingdom and his dominion and to be made partakers of it which brings the world to an end and will let you see to the end of it too before it was and him who is now glorified with the Father in the kindom of God with the same glory he had with the Father before the world began and who so comes to the end of the world and to the beginning again comes to see him and his glory and the kingdom of glory which fades not away which who so comes to enjoy are eternally happy THE END ERRORS PAge 14. l. 9. blot out of p. 25. l. 20. for Angei r. angel p. 32. l. 24. for presumptions r. presumptious p. 33. l. 8. f. he r. the the same p. l. 12. for undeclareble r. undeclarable p. 46. l. 23. f hit r. his p. 71. l. 27. f. soul. r. fold p. 86. l 25. f. ntichrists r. Antichrists p. 99. l. 18. f. power r. popery p. 101. l. 11. f. neral r. funeral p. 124. l. 10. f. our r. your p. 156. l. 3. f. corrupt ble r. corruptible p. 160. l. 24. r. a moment f. moment p. 208. l. 12. f. cnrst r. curst