is in the Divine nature and the reason is because that the faith according to Christ in the flesh doth not take away lust out of the heart but rather conformeth the heart to lust and lust to the heart and lust is lovely to the heart and the operation of the Divine nature or faith issuing out of and from the Divine nature it killeth lust in the heart and draweth the heart with all its affections into the right center and from hence it is that many in their forms fal short of that which is the true center and becometh enemies of Christ and yet none preach Christ nor pretend Christ more then those but can you who are so compleatly congregated people thinke that you be any such as be the enemies of Christ I doubt you will hardly beleeve it but let me tell you in plaine termes you had best beware lest you be found in the number of such for whosoever are enemies to the Crosse of Christ shall be found enemies to Christ but I feare you doe not rightly understand what the Crosse of Christ is and then how should you be friends to it for I assure you none knoweth the Crosse of Christ but those who be rightly incorporated into the Divine nature and that is not an incorporating in Kirk-fellowship as you call it and while you are bound up in that incorporating I may upon safe grounds conclude that you as yet know not what the Crosse signifieth But it may be that some amongst you would know what I meane by the Crosse of Christ and would heare my opinion of the same for I know this is a time wherein man is addicted to heare new things but yet I have not any new thing to tell you for what I have to say to you is no more but such old tales as hath formerly been told both by Christ and his true follower but when the following of Christ ceased then the old sayings and tales which was formerly told grew out of fashion and new sayings and wise sayings and learned sayings and studied fictions being new became to be in request But to answer what some of you may desire I will bring old sayings to explaine the truth hereof to you and these shall be the saying of the Apostle Paul who oft insisted upon this very subject viz. the Crosse of Christ but this was not the wooden Crosse upon the which the Body of Christ was crucified that was a type indeed of the other Crosse spoken of by the Apostle and in respect of the reference the one had to the other made the Apostle use that Metaphorical speech in sufferings for suffering is this Crosse and by suffering we have fellowship with Christ and beare him company but what suffering is it that maketh man have fellowship with Christ and rightly may bee called the Crosse it is the daily selfe-deniall of our owne hearts with the inclinations thoughts loves and desires which is daily tending and bending downe to the creature in one kinde or other and the creature with its objects arising to meet the affections to carry them after them from the living and abiding in God as he is a Spirit and in Christ as he is in the Divine nature or the union of the Father and in that union of the Father and the Son to keep the heart with its affections that so the fellowship of the Father and the Son may daily be the fellowship of our hearts and this is that which ought to be the center of all hearts without which there can be no happinesse in any forme yea this leadeth the heart out of centering in formes and this was that which the Apostle would have those whom he wrote to to injoy and for that end he declared the truth as it was in Jesus that so they might have fellowship with them who were partakers of the truth and hee affirmeth that their fellowship was with the Father and the Sonne 1 Jo. 1.2 3. And where the heart is rightly called and rightly carried on in the way of Christ and those who were his followers they rest not in Formes and Kirk-fellowships for they finde in themselves other matters to goe about and that is to presse after the fellowship of the Father and the Sonne and their longing empty mourning spirit is not nor cannot be content with any thing below that fellowship and out of the great desire hereof the soule is set at varience with all created things or whatsoever may interpose or keep back the Spirit from that which is the object of its desire and when by pure inlightening the pure beleeving is fixed in the will or heart then I beleeve there will be suffering in the daily striving to keep the created object from the heart and the heart from the creature by objects and then shall appeare and be made manifest that which never did appeare before even the great body of sin and selfnesse which of necessity must be destroyed and crucified and made as dead as the Body of Jesus when it hung dead upon the Crosse of wood and this daily withstanding the body of sin in the heart and affections is the Crosse upon which the body of sin must be crucified for this body of sin or this selfnesse in the heart must dye or the soule must dye instead of it and it is not a few daily duties or being incorporated into a congregated way that will destroy it no no for this body of sin and selfnesse is of another nature then so for it will cost man the best blood in him before it be subdued and the Apostle who knew the evill of it and the necessity of having it crucified could not rejoyce in any thing more then in the Crosse of Christ by which hee was crucified to the world and the world to him Gal. 6.14 and by this daily denying of the out-goings of the heart into the creature and the incoming of the creature into the heart man becometh planted into the likenesse of Christs death without which none can be partaker of his resurrection Rom. 4.5 and being baptised into the death of Christ by way of suffering in the selfe deniall the body of sin is destroyed or the old man crucified Rom. 6.6 and the Apostle counted but all things dung and drosse in comparison of knowing Christ in this manner and to be found in him and to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering and a conformity to his death if by any meanes he might attaine to the resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.10 11 c. this was the marke he aymed at to which he walked by the rule of the suffering and example of Christ and in obedience to his commande which most was for selfe deniall he pressed hard after him in the way of his suffering that so nothing that was of selfe might live in him yea when he found that selfe got life and food by way of consolation then was
Creature that help to put on the Garment viz. Conscience and he was pleased and delighted to be sucking and drawing at that Pipe for there issued from the vertue of that Garment a certain sweetness which distilled through that Pipe and with that was he well pleased and by it his frighting looks was changed in smiles and by this he was satisfyed and sat in great silence and quietness Now the name of this Pipe was called Vnregarding of the heart and the oyl or vertue that passed there-through was called Secret reflecting upon outward actings and when Conscience was well satisfied by the vertue he sucketh through that Pipe then doth he rest and to salute him in his peace I saw the three former Beasts viz. Self-wisdom self-power and self-righteousness And I saw an unclean spirit attend them and he was like a Lamp and shined like a lightning and they all were compassed about with that light and this spirit was called The Angel of darkness transformed into an Angel of light and amongst them there was great triumph and mirth and this was called Seeming joy in the Holy Ghost And I saw them make a certain Law or Act amongst themselves to which they all subscribed and they sealed it with the promises and they delivered it to the Conscience to be kept and they grounded this act upon antiquity viz. Predestination and Eternal decree And this act was like the Laws of the Medes and Persians for it was concluded by them it should never be broken And this Law was named Full assurance of Salvation So when I had seen and heard all this it was said unto me Behold and understand for this is no other then the Great Mystery of Iniquity hid under outward Formality and to this day it hath been undiscovered amongst most of those who profess the name of Religion Therefore bend thy Bow and let those Arrows committed to thee flie abroad if thou hit or miss do not thou care for I will be thy warrant fear not what may be done or spoken against thee be not backward in delivering what is committed to thee Now my Bow being ready bent and the Arrow committed to me I let flie at thee thou false-hearted Presbytery thou which couzenest them that adhere to thee Come and let me expostulate the business with thee for it seemeth thou must be called in question before the face of the most High and before thou be called thither let me give thee warning to repent of thy folly and learn in time to see how thou art befooled in and with thy own conceit Thou wilt hardly believe that this foresaid Mystery is in thy heart for thou hast never found it there for thou hast covered thy self from it with thy outward Formality and if thou have but half an eye open I will let thee see thy forms is nothing but things of and within thy own power to act and that they be all or most of them but grounded upon rotten foundations of thy own wisdoms invention and that thou art carried on in them by thine own good thinking whereby thou art become the enemy of God whatever thou pretend And first I will draw my Bow at thy Priests but this name they will not own because say they it doth not belong to them for it is a ceremonial eptithite yet I say thou needst not dislike them for it were well if thou wert a Priest indeed for then shouldst thou be that spiritually which the Priests in the time of the Law were ceremonially and thou shouldst do that office and offer these gifts spiritually which they did ceremonially And this then shouldst thou be which I fear thou art not one redeemed from the earth and thy sins would be washed from thee by the blood of Jesus Christ Revel 1.5 But this name thou wilt not own and indeed thou dost well in not owning it for it doth not belong to thee But yet I know what name thou wilt own viz. a Minister of the Gospel but this name thou dost but assume to thy self for thou knowest not what the Gospel is neither was or is it committed to thee to deliver therefore thou canst not give to others that which thou wantest thy self but I will tell thee what thy right name is if thou wilt but own it and that name is a taker from men that which thou hast no right to have And if this should be rightly understood thy proper name would prove none other then the name theft And I am sure if I or any other should out take an hundred shillings from any man which I or they had no right to take and yet as good right to take it as thou hast to take an hundred pound per annum I know by the Law of the Land I or he should be hanged for so doing yea and we deserved it too then be thine own judge what thou deservest for taking so much unjustly every year But I know how thou wilt avoide this and clear thy self of being this great theif for thou wilt say thou hast nothing but what belongeth to thee of right and thou wilt prove it by Scripture too having the word of the Apostle to back thine Argument where he saith by way of comparison Who goeth a warfare at any time c. 1 Cor. 9.7 And likewise he useth other metaphors As he that plougheth and thresheth should be partaker of his hope and I kewise he bringeth in the comparison of sowing spiritual things And further he saith The Lord hath so ordained that they that Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel c. Here is as much as thou canst properly alleage for thy self in thy doing to keep thee from being guilty of being a theif and thou thinkest this will be thy warrant for what thou dost for I know thy interpretation of these words well enough and thou understandest them as well as thou dost the Mysteries of the Gospel and both alike but I pray thee hearken and I will expound the same unto thee truly But it may be thou wilt not believe the truth when thou hearest it spoken for if it please thee not thou wilt question that I have not been at the University to get my spirit inspired thereby to understand Scripture rightly But let my inspiration come from what Fountain it is come from at present I will not give thee account from whence I had it but minde thou what I here hold out to thee and let me give thee out the truth of the thing in hand In the first place I would have thee to consider who the Apostle meaneth on when he spake these words Was it those that preached Christ by hear-say and by Schollership and their own brain-knowledge gathered from the works and words of other men and that chused out one sentence of Scripture as thou dost and falleth to thy wit studying the minde of God in it and so divideth one sentence into so many several fractions and out of
upon the heart and thus your prayers is turned into sinne and this you have by asking and receiving counsell of your blinde Priest and hereby you make a cover for your selves that you may adde sin to sin this you may plainly see in Isa 30.1 but those who knew or doe know the true ground of Prayer were never tied to set times but to occasions and the occasions being so many made our Saviour give out this caveat so oft Watch and pray Mar. 13.33 and the Apostle who knew the ground of prayer and the many occasions to pray made him bid the Thessalonians pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 and those who know the evill of themselves shall not need to have one to teach them when to pray or how to pray neither can they be tyed to set times for they shall finde that sin in themselves that cannot bee limited to times and therefore they cannot limit themselves to pray against it at times for to those both sin and prayer is unlimitable and this made the Apostle utter his desire in the well-wishing of those whom hee taught in the truth and right knowledge of God and themselves and willed them to pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 Secondly for the forme you use in your prayer it is but your owne human invention which causeth you to straine your braine drawing out from thence so many words and multiplication of speech and to fill up your houre is oft put to use the same words over and over and so contrary to the command of our Saviour you use vaine repetitions Mat. 6.7 And herein you differ not from the Heathens for they think to be heard for their much speaking and this your beat-braine Duty is but the sacrifice of fooles and yet you know not that you doe evill but this your doing pleaseth your selfe and pacifieth your blinde Conscience and from hence you draw conclusions that God is pleased also making him such a one as your selves Psa 50.21 but those who know the right ground of prayer they are not tyed to times neither are they tyed to a forme in prayer for the true ground of prayer turneeth set times into occasions and it turneth selfe formes and repetitions into short and feeling expressions yea oft times such expressions as you could not heare if you were besides the Persons who uttereth these expressions and those are the cryes that ring and eccho in the eares of the Lord of Hosts and these are the prayers that prevaileth with the Lord in answering and filling the desires of such soules and these prayers and cryes are the very vigorous out-pourings of the Spirit which maketh intercession for the Saints and he who is a Spirit knoweth the minde of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 and in this manner Moses who knew the right ground of prayer called upon the Lord in his greatest distresse not so much as speaking one word that any of the people heard and yet his spirit cryed out so vehemently to the Lord that the Lord said unto him Wherefore cryest thou unto me and all that while his spirit was calling upon the Lord with his tongue he was admonishing the people to beleeve in the Lord as you may see Exod. 14.13 14 15 c. And in this manner Hannah poured out her prayer to God and prevailed with him in the thing she desired though Eli before he knew the truth accounted her a drunkard 1 Sam. 1.13 14. but the truth is that you know not the right ground of prayer and therefore you cannot depart from your set times and set formes and therefore you aske and receive not because you aske amisse Jam. 4.3 And the reason why you have not the right ground of prayer is because you know not God but as a Person and not as he is a Spirit and you know not the wisdome righteousnesse and power of God viz. his Christ but according to the flesh and therefore all your worship and holy duties as you call them is framed according to the knowledge that you have of God and Christ and this knowledge you have is no more but by relation of others as you have heard and seen in the Scriptures and the speaking thereof by your relative Priests and from hence it is that you have formed in your heads an Historicall faith and fantastick beleeving for as yet you have not been in the City of God and what you have heard and seen therein you cannot speake of and no further then you have knowledge of God you can beleeve God and no further then you can beleeve God can you call upon him and what God is in his Spirituall being you have not yet beleeved then how can you call on him in whom you have not beleeved Rom. 10.12 and why is it that you have not rightly beleeved even because you have not rightly heard of God and why is it that you have not rightly heard of God even because you have not had him rightly preached to you by your Priests and the reason why they could not rightly declare and preach God as he is a Spirit and Christ as he was and is in the Divine nature is because they were never sent Rom. 10.14 15. But I know that you may object against me and say that you you have some examples in Scripture both for your set times and set forms of prayer for you will say that David praised at even morning and at noon c. and that our Saviour himself prayed at sundry times and the Apostles themselves used prayer in this manner very oft with others c. It is true I do not deny vocal prayer and times for vocal prayer in case the right ground of prayer be in the person or persons praying for I would have you to understand what I have formerly said for I do not deny but confess occasional praying but that which I deny is the set-times and set-forms of prayer which is but good thinkings rules and blinde Priests precepts without any command or example in Scripture but vocal prayer occasionally the persons rightly grounded this is all that you or any can gather out of any example in Scripture And in this wise David oftentimes both prayed and praised and occasionally Christ in the flesh both prayed and praised and occasionally did the Apostles and the believing people in the primitive time both prayer and praise And according to this same rule the Apostle bad those that were afflicted pray and those that were merry he would have them to praise in singing of Psalms Jam. 5.13 And so I would have all men while they be in the body and the body of sin in them to use vocal prayer occasionally and that their expressions may arise from the very sence of the occasion and such prayers or expressions of desires accompanied with the right ground God will hear and answer the desires of such and will deliver them from fear and trouble and then shall such have cause to praise and glorifie
them before others insomuch that some may judge them to have received something of God but yet this is but the proper work of wit which hath power to metamorphise man into any shape which it conceiveth to be most in fashion and wherein most safety seems to be But others amongst you I know that their pride and malice is so great that they will beat down truth both with word and sword and their zeal is so great for the advancing of the glory of God that they will both preach pray and fight against the truth and by all means seek to devour and destroy all persons in whom the truth appears But it is no marvel for truth always found many enemies amongst men but especially among Priests in all ages and it will be so as long as the order of Priests is in date Yet I confess though your coming into the Ministry be absolutely against the minde and command of God as was the first order of Kings in Israel and that God hath winked at you above thirteen hundred years and suffered you to come into the Ministry by the ordinance of man yet as God owned some of the Kings in Israel so I make no doubt but that God hath owned some amongst you but yet I beleeve Solomons account may be their number and those amongst you whom God hath owned or to this day do own they are made to see and confess the emptiness of their wits and schollarship in the understanding of the minde and will of God and findeth their art learned in the Universities to be one of the greatest enemies against the truth of God the which they have to deal withal and they can speak by experience that Universitie learning is but a meer cheat and a foolish thing to make a right Minister of the word of truth and so is made to renounce all the curiositie of art and schollarship And as they have received the truth from the Fountain of truth so are they made to speak and these souls cannot envy any man in whom the truth is but rejoyceth to see them and hear them speak and accounteth them as the Ministers of God though they were never put to the Holy Universitie for the same spirit proceeding from the same Fountain maketh no difference and these men accounteth it their joy to be in the societie of people who be experienced and they seek no Lordship over the people nor are they so hungry hearted after Tithes and great Benefice but can rather condescend to work with their own hands for their Bread But I beleeve you have not many of these amongst you for the curse hath covered the faces of the most of you in your generation under which you are close sealed from the right knowledge of truth and can no more beleeve your deceit then the Apostle Paul before his Conversion But seldom doth God execute justice upon any people before he give them warning of their sin and after that a time to repent But who is it that dare bring such a Message from the Lord as shall declare the iniquitie of the Priests and give them warning to repent and forsake their sin and falshood and foretel them of their destruction if they repent not Who I say dare be so bold as proclaim such a thing seeing the Authority of Nations stands for them and accounteth them men worthy of honor and sit men for the promulgating of the Gospel and most of the people esteem them little less then gods yea and themselves account themselves the onely men fit to be forewarners and instructers of all others May not such a one as bringeth such a sad Message to them expect to be envied and evil spoken of yea and persecuted to death I know the man that shall be sent with this Message cannot escape no more shall I for when first the Lord put this into my heart the which my Pen hath put down in these lines I was very unwilling to yeeld obedience thereunto because my Reason set before mine eyes the great hazard I should run if I should meddle in any such thing but the Lord would not suffer me to be quiet until I undertook this Message and better had I abide your fury and the displeasure of all men then to be disobedient to the voice of the Lord And as the Lord liveth in me my malicious part hath not caused me to write these lines though you may so judge of me for I protest in the presence of God I unfainedly wish all your good and should very much rejoyce to know of your repentance and should no less be heartily sorry for your destruction if I should live to see it For that which I have received of God teacheth me to love all men and wish well to all men and I am glad at the welfare of all men and cannot but be sorry at the suffering of any though he be my greatest enemy and would lend him my help if I could do him any good if he came into distress either of body or minde Therefore my spirit being free I hope to bear all that any of you shall either inflict upon my name or person and though you shall hate me yet I cannot chuse but love you as you are my fellow Creatures and of the same flesh and blood with me And my advice to you is that you slight not these lines but search your own hearts and if the light of God go along with you you shall finde that I have not wronged you at all for what I here declare unto you shall be found true either to convince you or to be a witness against you But my Friends I would have you to know that I have not said the tenth part of what I have committed to me to speak concerning you for I have been as much sparing as possible I could be in what I had to declare to you and if this my first Message be slighted by you and return upon my self it is very possible it will draw out a fivefold heavier message with it but I will not be too tedious at present If I may pray for you I wish that God would open your eyes and make sensible your hearts that you might be acquainted with the great Mystery of sin and selfness in you and out of the true knowledge and right sence thereof that you may be made fit to discover the mysterie of sin and selfness in all other And that you may be rightly made partakers of the mystery of the Divine Nature that from the enjoyment thereof you may be made able to know and comprehend with all Saints what is the height and depth c. And to know the fellowship of the love of God which passeth knowledge that so you may be able to hold out to others the mysterie therein contained and then shall you be acquainted with the Will and Minde of God and what you know that shall you speak and then you should see that
is no Astrology for that you will not believe though never so true But this that I tell you shall undoubtedly come to pass and sooner perhaps then you look for it I will not tell you at present what I believe of you least when it cometh to pass you say I was a witch for I know you will not allow a true speaker the name of Prophet But me thinks I hear some of you object and say In what thou hast said thou hast not spoken truth for there hath many been converted by our Preaching and many godly people have we begotten and the Lord hath given a blessing to our Labors and by this we know we are the Lords Messengers to his people and the true Laborers in his Vineyard O my Friends do not think in what I have said that I have any minde to detract from you what is your due or to wrong any of you in the least For I confess Like may beget like for that is oft a truth in nature and so in you For I do not deny but many of you have a form of godliness and as you are in that form you may beget others also into the same form and so make them like your selves and yet all of you without the power of God and love of God and wisdom of God For if the love of God were shed abroad in your hearts it would turn your hearts into its own image but as yet you have not that love and therefore you have hatred in your hearts both against God and man And from hence it is That you can freely persecute and destroy all that worship not God in your way and this you have no order for nor example either from Christ or any of his followers but you and all your Converts go not a jot further then the Scribes and Pharisees but in that you believe Christ is come in the flesh and have an Historical or Notional Faith of him in your head but the world and selfness lyeth in your hearts and you are as hide-bound to the Gospel-forms as the Scribes and Pharisees were to circumcision and the formes under the Law and as they being hide-bound or heart-bound to these forms so became they to be the enemies of Christ when he appeared in the flesh And the very same are you and all your Converts fast tied in your heart to the Gospel-forms and hereby you are become the enemies of Christ appearing in the spirits of men and so are you become the persecutors of Christ in the Saints and yet in this you think you do God good service and the greatest perfection in your Converts is when they are made exceeding zealous for the honor and glory of God as they say so that whosoever worships God in any other way then theirs then are they sure of persecution by you or them if it be within the compass of your power and this you have in your generation and that faith and love and full assurance of your salvation alwaies is accompanied with pretended zeal for the honor and glory of God and from hence you count all other the enemies of God who have not the same garb that you have And all this great conversion you brag of is nothing else but a conversion from evil to far worse for you have turned some of your Hearers from some outward grosse offences and have brought them into a conformity to duty as you call it and by the refraining the outward grossnesse and closing to and with the outward duties your Conscience beginneth to cease biting so long as you walk obsequiously therein and from hence the foule Feind transformes himselfe into the Angel of Light and secretly wraps himselfe in your actings and by his power when once gotten rightly joyned to Selfe Righteousnesse then hath he power to worke Wonders and can worke like God and give consolation to the Soule and bring it into raptures and ravishments and can bring the Promises to remembrance which is suitable to confirme his workings and from such working he can make the Soule beleeve its regeneration and its calling and election to be made sure and that with a witnesse too in which assurance the Soule will oft rejoyce and shall have many false flashes of Love which the Soule can no way know but it is the feeling of the love of God and if you have brought any Soule thus far as to this full assurance and to be partakers of such feeling you thinke you have brought them farre on in grace and thus farre I know you may bring a Soule by your Ministery and yet this Soule is but two-fold the Childe of Satan more then it was before I will make this plaine unto you for when the Soule before was in the grosse actings then was that person in a more hopefull way for God to bring it to himselfe by his owne way then it is now for then when God would have brought these persons from their sinne in his bringing them either by himselfe or by those whom he would use for that worke then I say there was hope these Soules might have been led in a way whereby they should have escaped the snare of Satan But being that these soules are in the snare they are more in captivity to him then they were before and the reason is because then God had some power in the Consciences of them and oft times condemned them for their outward grossnesse but now they being brought out of these outward sinnes into the obedience of outward formes their Conscience loseth that priviledge and now instead thereof the Feind hath power to feed the Soule as is aforesaid the which he had no power to doe before and in this condition the Soule is well pleased to be and can stand for it selfe stoutly that it is sealed to God and made sure of Salvation and so is become exceeding fool-hardy rejoycing in its fooles paradise and being fed by false consolation and herein that person is once more the childe of Satan then before And secondly whereas before these soules were converted by you they would not persecute or bring any to death for not walking in their waies but now your Converts must seeke the honour of God and so in zeale for his glory they must become persecutors and destroyers of their fellow Creatures because they will not honour God in their way and thus are they become Murderers and yet they doe not know it but the same spirit that ruleth in them must they of necessity bee obedient to and it is proved before that that spirit in them that ruleth is Satan and he it is that setteth them on work For as our Saviour saith He was a murtherer from the beginning and his works will you do Joh. 8.44 And herein are your Converts twofold the children of Satan more then they were before It was not the Publicans and sinners that put Christ to death no no it was the religious zealots under the Law
day the Lords Day though every day be the Lords yet he hath two dayes which he more usually claimeth for his owne as we may see in Scripture viz. a day of his executing his anger against sin and man for sin and this is called the Day of the Lord as you may see in Isa 2.12 13.6.9 34 8. Ier. 46.10 Lam. 2.22 c. and another day he hath wherein he will shew to man the Mysteries of his Kingdom and the favour of his loving kindnesse in which day the Souls of his people shal be glad and rejoyce and this is the Lords Day wherein he will be glorified and magnified in the souls of his people when they are made to see and know his wonderfull loving kindness manifested in their soules and that his Sonne Jesus only ruleth and reigneth above all Power and Principalities and this day you may see set out in many places of Scripture also as in Isa 25.9 26.1 28.5 29.18 c. and 2 Cor. 1.14 and in this Day of the Lord was Iohn in the Spirit where was made knowne to him these great Mysteries And well might he call it the Lords Day for so it was but from thence none can justly gather that this day you observe can be called the Lords Day more then any other and in so doing you follow but traditions of men having no command for it in all the Scripture therefore take heed you make not the Commandements of God of none effect by your tradition for this was the doing of the Scribes and Pharisees by which they were blinded and could not know Christ to be the Son of God when he was amongst them in the flesh But in calling it the first day it may be said that is the most proper name of it because of some grounds in Scripture for so doing but yet you have no evidence nor command in all the New Testament for observing the first day after the manner of the Sabbath only you have some examples in the Primitive time for some things occasionally which were done upon it as one time the Disciples were gathered together to breake Bread Acts 20.7 and all that the Apostle gave command to them to observe upon that day was to make a collection amongst them for the poore Saints 1 Cor. 16.2 for no other thing to be observed upon that day have you any command and this command I doubt you doe not obey upon that day for your foolish holinesse hath eaten out your charity which you should have shewed upon that day And this was an invention of your wise preaching Ministers who changed the worke of that day into a submissive hearing of them speake so long upon that day and for this they have neither command nor example from or in the Primitive institutions but from the time of Superstition in which time their forefathers tooke away the worke of that day and erected a greater holinesse upon that day then to make collections for the poor and thus you have observed what they invented and yet you cannot see wherein you are blinded But you may object that in what I have said I seem to make voyd the Sabbath or Lords day or first day It is true I make the Iewish Sabbath voyd and likewise the name of this day to be the Lords Day more then any other because I have no command for them in the time of the Gospel but as for the first day I allow of it in ease it be observed according to example and command in the time of the Gospel and Primitive institutions but no further may any man allow of it in making the observation of it like to the Sabbath of the Iewes and so place it as a principle in their religion this I deny and that upon better grounds then you have for making it what it is not but if you will observe this day I would have you to set it in its right place least in your good thinking you give that to the day and your duties observed upon that day which doth of right belong to Christ and in so doing that day becometh Lord over you whereas those who are in Christ are Lords over that day And in observing of that day I would have you to observe it as by tradition and not by command and likewise in respect of the obedience to the higher Powers who would have such a day observed for some pious end and in these respects I could wish that not only the first day of every weeke but the fourth also were set apart for pious ends but not to make them principles in Religion But herein is the weaknesse and ignorance of men made manifest for whatsoever hath been instituted by men in the time of their purity and for pious ends and was good so long as they were used and observed for no other end then they were aimed for but not long could any institution stand untill the ignorance of men through their good thinking made more of these things then ever they were intended for and so the same became to be made either a god or a principle in mens religion and then the same did more hurt then good to those who were the observers of such things because of their too much Idolizing of these institutions Likewise I know it to be good to rest one day in seven if it were but to crosse the cruelty and oppression of Mankind whose Lust is so great that he would too much wrong his fellow Creatures by keeping them at too hard and too long labour as many Masters would their Servants yea their poore Horse and Ox yea and their owne bodies too And whoso goeth about to observe that day upon any other consideration then what is before said doth erre in so doing and is nothing else but being beguiled by the precepts of the Priests in which they erre themselves and cause all other to goe astray who are led by them and so the blinde leadeth the blinde till both fall into the ditch Matth. 15.14 I might have said much more upon this subject but what is said may serve to make appeare that the observation of a day without any command for it cannot be a principle in Religion as blinde ignorance hath stated it but letting it passe I come to a second principle in your Religion viz. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper but that Sacrament is not a proper name for it for it is but a superstitious epithite and there is no such name for it in all the Scripture Indeed for this you have a command by our Saviour it being his owne institution and some examples also in the Primitive time for what you doe herein but yet I would have you to know that you have neither command nor example for what you affirme of the breaking of Bread or otherwise called the Lords Supper for you affirm that in the receiving of Bread and Wine that in that act you have your faith
him Psal 50.15 But in drawing from example of occasions wrong conclusions and so making set-times suiting to others occasions herein you erre greatly as also to draw conclusion from the example of others expressions who spake according to the sence of the occasion For your formal repetitions this also is but foolishness and fantastick conceit without any ground at all and long may you call upon your God even like the Priest of Baal before he grant what you would have onely this I know you may have granted of God even as you have framed him a person in your fancy and comprehended him in a place so he answereth you again by way of your fancy by suffering the Angel of Light oftimes beguile you in making you believe you have received a great deal of comfort and refreshing in your soules from God when it is no more but the deceiveable spirit working in the imagination and fancy I would have inlarged more upon this principle in your Religion but that I would be at some other thing and what is said of this may give you some sight and glimpse of light that you thereby may darkly see where about you are in this your holy duty of prayer for in case you come to see your selfe in this particular you shall know assuredly that you differ not from the Papists themselves for this your holy duty of prayer as you call it was first instituted according to times and formes amongst them and you from them have borrowed that fashion of prayer and you and they are both one in the substance though you differ in some circumstances in your formes yet both of you worship one and the same God in your hearts But no more of this at present But to proceed I speake a word of another principall ground of your Religion viz. your blinde zeale in being so carried out to heare the Ordinances of God as you call them viz. your blinde Priests who have the lying spirit of errour in them by which they have preached to you and having bewitched you with their Charmes they have made you beleeve lyes instead of truth and from hence it is that you are altogether out of the way of the truth both inwardly and outwardly and yet you have no more knowledge thereof nor no more sence thereof then Witches whom the Devill have cheated with his fantastick delusions so that they finding or indeed conceiting they finde such comfort and content in these delusions so that they cannot be sensible of the danger they be in even so are you cheated by your false Priests and have no knowledge at all of the dangerfull deceit you are in but instead of finding out their deceit you are in love with them for their deceiving but no marvell for they have offered chanting powder to you and you have received the same of them and have eaten it in your morsels and so by the vertue or rather poysonable nature thereof you are made to goe and run starke mad after them and in this mad zeale you have lived and doe live in and in so doing you thinke you doe Gods service and seeke to honour him by attending of his Ordinance O poore blinde cheated soules I pitty you for your great ignorance herein for I was in your condition formerly and I had as great zeale in that way as any of you have or can have and I had the same thought of duty that you have yea and I doted in my madnesse upon these your false Priests and did very much adore them I am sure as much as you can doe and I owned them as the Ordinances Oracles and Ministers of God but when the loving kindnesse of God appeared to me and that he was pleased to make the way of his truth knowne to me then did I see my great folly and madnesse and then was manifested to me the great deceit of the Priests and more and more as God was pleased to owne me and teach me so more and more they were discovered to me and out of my love and pitty toward you as my owne flesh and blood I give you warning of them for they are none of the Ministers of God neither ever sent hee them but they have been brought into their places by other meanes as I have somewhat shewed you before therefore as all the rest of your duties and performances taught you by them is but by their owne wisdomes invention so is this also for this duty of hearing them is that which most of all exalteth them for thereby they have both their praise pride and profit upholden and that causeth them to beat so sore upon that very point and layeth load upon your poore blinded Conscience and by help of the lying spirit that is in them they have wrested all the Scriptures to and for their owne purpose in this particular and so have blinded you of the right sence of many places that painted them out in their right colours and have made use of them and applied them for the upholding of themselves and for the opposing and putting downe of all who had more appearance of God in them then themselves and beside when or where they had or have power they took to them the help of the Sword of Justice to uphold themselves and destroy others who had God more clearly manifested in them then themselves and thus have they become the Man of Sin who exalteth himselfe above God or any that are called by the name of God as you shall see plainly opened afterward but in the interim beware of them and thinke not that you performe any acceptable service to God in going to heare them for by this very act of yours you become transgressours against God and so he giveth you up to be deceived and the way of truth is hid from you But you may object and say In case they be not sent Ministers of God yet you may heare them for Christ bad the people heare the Scribes and Pharisees which sate in Moses Chaire and yet they were such as were against Christ and taught the people to observe the Law and yet themselves observed not what they taught to others It is true Christ bad the people observe and doe whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught them but yet he commanded not the people to heare them but only as you may inferre from the other words but in case he had in plaine words commanded them to heare them that maketh not for your hearing of unsent Ministers in our dayes as I shall plainly prove the same unto you For in these last dayes both the Law of Commandement and the Law of Ceremonies and the observation of Circumcision was all in force untill the death of Christ in the flesh but when he spake these words he was in the flesh and so the observation of the ceremoniall Law and Circumcision was tollerable and to be observed of the people and those Scribes and Pharisees who then sate in Moses
dainties viz. pleasures of all sorts which concernes the satisfying the corruptible part in man but when God goeth on in his wondrous workes and shewed upon Pharoah viz. The Devill and his people then the Israelites is made willing to depart viz. the noble faculties of the soule and affections from thence proceeding and when the first borne becometh slaine viz. the strength of the will begotten in it by the Devill then the Devill is forced to let the noble faculty depart from the bondage of the Lusts beforesaid then out they goe to the red Sea whereat the people was in greater strait then ever viz. though the noble properties and the will be going and departing out of the bondage beforesaid yet the Devill raiseth up all his forces and pursueth the noble faculties of the soule thinking to take them againe into bondage in that strait at the red Sea viz. when the noble faculties is in departing out of sin then it is that temptation is more raised up then ever and doth so heap up and flow before the understanding that to passe over them there is no hope or likelihood to reason in which strait the Devill with his army driveth on apace in the Irascible faculties and cometh on the back side of the noble faculties of the soule and so raiseth despaire and secret feare out of which anger and passion is produced and in the operation of which in that great distresse of the soul wisheth it selfe that it had never stirred out of its former condition rather then to have moved thus farre and to be swallowed up in that present sad condition But when God will have his name more clearly manifested then doth he divide the Sea viz. all these great over-flowings of temptations and so the noble faculties and the spirit passeth through them all and the Devill and sin and despaire is all over-whelmed in those temptations and this is the great work of God in the defeating of the Devill and destroying him and sin in the same way wherein he thinketh to destroy the noble faculties of the soule and when the noble faculties becometh thus delivered having undergone this first Baptisme or suffering or plunging as before said then doth man begin to feare the name of that great God who hath done these great things for his soule and so becometh to be obedient to Moses viz. to the outward requiring of the Commandment and knowing God to be so great and terrible the feare of his name doth cause man to yeeld obedience to his Law and in the transgressing or going astray from its requirings the same appearance of God is manifested as was at the giving out thereof and this terriblenesse of God is knowne in the condemning part of the soule viz. the Conscience and so in the obedience to God in his terrible manifestation in the first Baptisme under the first dispensation man acteth in that feare to all the outward requirings of the letter and seeketh thereby to asswage and allay the appearance of that anger and goeth about to please God and satissie Justice by outward sacrifices and so it is that man living under this dispensation and acting zealously therein the condemning part or conscience becometh somewhat pacified and quietnesse beginneth to appeare and from hence it is that men draw conclusions that God is well pleased with their Sacrifices and as under this first Baptisme in the first dispensation wherein is contained the first Covenant of workes men apprehend God in terror in the manifesting the whole Deity in the one Name they become to yeeld obedience accordingly viz. in a fearful servile manner like flint stone and the steel who being forcibly beat together from which fire is produced even so the heart of man in the first dispensation is hard as the nether milstone and will not yeeld any obedience except the hand of God by the Hammer of the Law smite upon the same and thereby force out obedience to what God requireth in the first dispensation So in time when the heart is made more willing and answerable to the requirings under the first dispensation then by the obedience there-under man hath peace as is before said from whence he concludeth that God is well pleased with him and so from these two grounds viz. The terror or anger of God out of which ariseth the fear of Hell and out of the life and peace of conscience out of which ariseth the hope of Heaven man worketh all his works and so is under the condition of the first Covenant of works in which the Deity standeth in one Name though we in our days know not the mystery hereof for when any soul is but under the first Covenant of works he can talk of the Deity as it is divided in its properties but that is because of the living in this present dispensation under the Gospel wherein we have received a Historical relation of Christ and the Holy Ghost by which men have got the relative knowledge of the threefold name of the Deity and yet know not the power and proper working of the Deity in the threefold names but blindly looking upon them as they were put out in the outward Types and so make a humble jumble of them according to the history or relation of the same and from hence it is that men talk and Preach and confer of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet live not in the power of what they preach or speak for they have not known the operation and proper work in their souls of the Deity in the threefold names or three distinct properties of the Deity in the orderly manifestation of it self in the conditions suitable for the same But those who lived in the time of the first dispensation under the Covenant of works where they had the Law of Commandment and the Ceremonial Law also and the Ordinances therein contained they were not in the dispensations of the Deity in its distinct properties as we be but the distinct properties was all included in the whole essence of the Deity viz. Christ and the Holy Ghost was both one in the Father and the Father in them and all but one God and though the Godhead was thus whole in it self yet God let out himself in distinct properties into the souls of the upright people under the first dispensation and by the very same way they were saved as we be and did enjoy God in the same way that we do though not in the same dispensation for though they lived under the Covenant of works and Ceremonial observations yet those souls whom God had let out himself to in his distinct properties of mercy and loving kindness and wisdom by which they knew God and felt God as he was in those properties though they did observe these things in that time yet they knew that salvation was not in these things but in the observing of them their hearts was led and drawn out of and beyond the things they
he was the Son of God and what his coming was for and what his office should be John 1.33 Now when Jesus Christ was in the flesh he baptised none for this his baptism was to be in its time and place suitable for its operation and that was to be after his Ascension though he had promised the same before his death yet that promise was not to be fulfilled till after his death and at the first administration thereof the Holy Ghost fell upon the persons baptized in a visible form of cloven tongues of fire Acts 2. By which visible appearance was held out the nature of the operation of that Ghostly Baptism viz. A twofold speech or speaking rising out of a twofold ground viz. The sensible feeling of love joy and life c. And likewise the sensible feeling of sorrow suffering and death And from these two grounds was to arise all their speaking who was baptized with the Holy Ghost and this was the pure language that God had promised to return to the people Zeph. 3. And those who had this pure language returned to them in this Ghostly Baptism was able to speak of the wondrous works of God Acts 2.11 Now this third distinct property of God viz. The Holy Ghost or the third out-letting of the Godhead in the third distinct property is the most clearest way of manifestation that man attaineth to in the flesh for this is that which giveth man the true knowledge of the mystery of God and the mystery of sin and selfness and the operation of this distinct property worketh the spirit of man out of the mystery of Self into the mystery of God and this work it worketh by bringing man into the fellowship of the suffering with Christ whereby the body of that sin and self becometh to be crucified and likewise it comforteth man and maketh him able to bear the Cross with Christ until the death of sin and self be accomplished and so the spirit be made partaker of the life and vertue of the Resurrection of Christ and with him become ascended above all powers and principalities and so to reign with him And therefore it was necessary that Christ should both suffer and rise again and ascend before he gave out the Holy Ghost because as he suffered so he left the same example of his suffering to be undergone by those who should be his followers And while he was with them in the flesh they could not suffer as they should do afterward for then he was the Bridegroom and they were the children of the Bride-chamber Luke 5.34 And so long as he was with them in the flesh they could not grow up to be perfect men nor to the stature and fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 For while Christ was in the flesh his followers looked too much at his bodily presence and therefore it was meet that his bodily presence should be taken away that so his ghostly presence might be manifested to them and therefore he told them except he went away from them the Comforter would not come John 16.7 But his Disciples being but as yet the children of the Bride-chamber was but yong in the holy understanding neither being acquainted with great joy or great suffering because as yet they were not in a condition so sutable for either as they should be thereafter but this they could not believe but sorrow filled their hearts when Christ told them of going away from them John 16.6 But herein is the great wisdom of God made known in the orderly and successive out-lettings of himself to the sons of men stooping to his capacity in every condition that so by little and little man may be wrought and drawn up into himself and to live and abide in that center from whence he had his Being And therefore as he had made his Name known in the first dark dispensation by appearing in our flesh but most clear of all by taking the two former away that the third might appear wherein we might see him and live in him in the spiritual Life and worship him as he is a Spirit the which we cannot do while we are so much in our selves both in reason and sence while we are under the first and second dispensation and therefore it was that Christs bodily presence in the second dispensation was to be taken away that made his followers look too much upon him as he was in that appearance whereby their Reason and Sence got too much life and therefore that both Reason and Sence might lose their lives his first bodily presence must be out of the way that his ghostly presence might appear in the Divine Nature in which and by which he would become the baptiser of Souls with the Holy Ghost and with fire by which baptism he would burn up and consume all the old rubbish and reliques of sin and self both in Sence and Reason and bring the Spirit out of and from the captivity of the same And while Christ was in the flesh he shewed them an example of life which he would have those that would be his Disciples to follow and likewise he told them how great things his followers was to suffer under the Ghostly Baptism and so he left them the example of his own suffering and death also the which they should have as a rule to walk by until the body of sin should be crucified and destroyed Phil. 3.17 And so it was that after Christ in the Divine Nature began to administer the Baptism of the Holy Ghost the person who was baptised therewith by the vertue thereof became so carried out after the example both of the life and death of Christ that they thought nothing too dear to forsake so that they might but attain to the fellowship of Christ both in his life death and resurrection And this was the whole delight of these souls who had been baptised of Christ by the proceeding or coming of the Holy Ghost out of the Divine Nature into their souls by which they were led out of all things acted or created or enjoyed wherein self had gotten life or might get life And this the Apostle Paul witnesseth when he said he counted all things but dross and dung in comparison of Christ c. And that he might be lost in all things and found in Christ by way of conformity to his suffering and death that thereby he might attain to the resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.7 8 9 c. And so it is to this present day that those souls whom God draweth into a near union of himself he draweth them out of the first and second out-letting of himself in the first and second dispensation and so bringeth them into the third dispensation or Ghostly Baptism in which the body of sin and selfness becometh found out and forsaken for whilest the first and second dispensation is in force the body of sin is not so clearly found out nor can be so forsaken as it
will not oppose it neither will the flesh oppose it and I am sure the world is a friend to it and then it is possible there is nothing that is evil that will oppose it And no marvel though the multitude dance so madly after your pipe I know you see no greater evil then that which is the idolizing of Forms but that is because you know not the evil of your own hearts and how the great mystery of evil lyeth there and because you know it not you are carried out to see the evil of others who is not of the same faith with you and some of you yea those who be of your cheif Teachers are so exceedingly carried out by the power of Free-grace as they pretend that they go about to do marvels viz. to pluck up where never any thing hath been planted and to take away acting from these people who never troubled themselves with acting any thing for God or for any kinde of formal worship to God But if such were but half wise they might spare their speaking for such people have a teacher within them that will teach them to forsake acting any thing for God or the worship of God And therefore they need not any of your outward teaching to help them But do you not think you do a great peece of Gods service herein be judge your selves I would know of you whether acting or believing be the first brought out in any man if you say Faith I would know what Faith it is for the justifying Faith it cannot be for that is manifest after works and never doth any man know it truly until he have acted and found the emptiness of his actings and these things which he thought should have brought out life bringeth out death Rom. 7.10 And yet when this faith is brought out yet doth not that Faith make acting voide For faith without works is dead Jam. 2.17 But if you say a man may have justifying faith without works that I deny for where-ever faith is that justifieth the same cannot be without works I know man may have an historical faith without works but the justifying faith no man can have without works but it is one thing to have works and it is another thing to be justified by works and here is the Mystery finde it out if you can but for the want of the right knowledge of the Mystery you become to make a division and jarring between faith and works which in themselves do not differ but agreeth in a sweet harmony in those souls who have found out the mystery in them both And never shall you bring any soul to be a true believer before you have brought him into an active way before except you can command God to work miracles in his immediate way But my Friends I know full well where you erre and what is the ground of your opinion even you who are the purest in this your Free-grace tenet For even you who have some experience of the grace of God I know you knew it was the goodnesse of God that freed your souls from what they were captived with and that all your actings could not do it till God himself bestowed his Free-grace upon you This I confesse is truth but did every any of you finde the Free-grace of God made known to you before you had acted to your utmost endeavor and was made to see the emptiness of your actings I know as many of you as have known true freedom will confess this and can you tell me truly That if you had not acted and thereby seen the emptiness of your actings whether you should have known the freenesse of grace yea or nay but because that you were not freed by your actings is therefore actings of none effect God forbid for though the Apostle were not justified by the Law yet did he not make voide the Law but counted it of necessary use for thereby cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 7.13 So actings though they do not justifie yet by them man becometh to know the emptiness that is in them for before any action be brought out the goodnesse or badnesse of it cannot be known and it is as natural to man to depend upon his actings as the skin cleaveth to his flesh and man cannot be freed from depending thereon until he truly see the evil in them and he cannot see the evil in them until they be brought out and until he see the evil in them he cannot be justified by Free-grace And for this very purpose God hath given man power to act and given out commands that he should act that thereby man might be brought to see what was in his actings and how far he could recover out of his faln condition by his actings that so where he came short he might know the goodness of God in his Restauration and therefore while you pretend and preach Faith so much you bring but the souls of the people into a snare and they are in as great danger to perish by your doctrine as is the souls of those people who are taught to merit Heaven by their actings for you run as far in your extream as they do in their extream But I would have you to take notice of one thing viz. In case you have been freed by grace whether hath your spirit or your flesh got better hold of the freedom if your spirit have gotten the freedom then is your flesh in bondage and then be sure it will be striving for freedom and I believe you shall have no great quiet so long as it hath any power to move For though your spirit may be freed from the condemning of your conscience yet I beleeve your spirits is not freed from the strivings of the flesh but in case the flesh have stoln your freedom from the spirit then its possible all will be quiet within and then no marvel if you cry up Free-grace so fast But let me tell you one thing He that knoweth most of Free-grace knoweth most of bondage with it This may seem a paradox to you but if you know not what I mean you may take it for granted That your flesh hath got the greater part of your Free-grace and then while you tell other people of freedom by grace you your selves become the servants of sin 2 Pet. 2.19 LOok into your own hearts and try whether this be true or not for if you finde your hearts and affections carried out to any thing below God and that you have any complacence in either pleasure praise or profit or what else is below the center of Spirits you may believe That all is not as it should be but yet I know you will not greatly care for it is God must do all and the Creature can do nothing and therefore you need but onely beleeve and all will be well enough but the time will come that every one must be rewarded according to his works and he that saith Lord Lord shall not enter into Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father must enter Behold I come quickly and my reward is with with me and will give to every man according as his works shall be FINIS