hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall
and blasphemed those that lye still under any of the beasts forms they go for good Christians for members of the visible Church â—o called by them Now mark He that calls any thing the Church but what this book calls the Church he adds he that doth not know the wildernesse and own the Church in the wildernesse he diminishes The Church of Rome is not the Church in the wildernesse the Church of Scotland is not the Church is the wildernesse the Church of England is not the Church in the wildernesse the severall gathered Churches are none of them the Church in the wilderness all these have sprung up since the Churches flight and have appeared in her abâ—ence usurping her name appropriating it to themselves but God who gave it to the Church hath not given it them and so they must loose it again when God brings back the Church out of the wildernesse So he that calls those which formerly wâ—re the institutions and ordinances of Christ which the woman left behinde her and which the harlot hath got and attired her self with which she now appears in and wherewith the Dragon is now worshipped he adds to this book which sayes the outward court was given to the Gentiles and the true Church had nothing left her but the inward temple wherein alone the true worshippers worshipped and they that worship elsewhere are the fals worshippers worshipping in false Temples in Temples of the whorish spirits building take it either outwardly or inwardly for it holds true in both He that makes the beasts names fewer then they are or his marks fewer then they are or his hornes fewer then they are or his image lesse then it is be diminishes And the danger hereof is not small For if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name Rev. 14. 9. c. Now this I affirm whosoever has not the name of Sion the mark of Sion which he received of her in the wildernesse where the living God is with her and where he is taught by God the laws of the wildernesse-worship and in some measure to testifie against all the corrupted ordinances and institutions which have the beasts marks and go now abroad in the world under the beasts name I say whoever has not the true mark of Sion it is impossible for him to avoid the mark of Babilon and he who avoids not the mark cannot escape the plagues But he that hath the mark of Sion he by a secret inward instinct of true life is led from the marks of Babilon and if he faithfully follow the guidance from out of all the names and from under all the horns It is nor enough to rent from Popery and sit down under the power and government of the same spirit in another form or to rent from Episcopacy and the same spirit sit down in Presbitery or to rent from Presbitery and the same spirit sit down in a form of Independency or Anabaptisme or to rent from these and the same spirit sit down in a way of seeking and waiting and reading of words of Scripture and gathering things from thence without the life but the true religion consists in knowing and following a true guide to the Church in the wildernesse and there to receive the marke the living marke which will preserve out of all inventions and further progresse of the dead spirit Now therefore look about you know the spirit of whoredom and see how ye have been begotten in the adultery and born of the whore and have served the Dragon and worshipped his dead idols and not the living God And be not satisfied with changing of forms dresses which are but the several deceitful appearances of the whore but put off that spirit least when ye have hated the whore and burnt her flesh as she appeared in one form ye give your selves up to her again when she appears in another forme for the plagues are not so much to the form wherein the whore appears as to the whorish spirit and whosoever is found under her dominion in any of her territories under any of her formes with that mark of hers upon them which belongs to that particular form though never so curiously painted he shall drink of the unmixt cup of wrath Therefore tremble all sorts of people pluck off your false coverings see the shame of your nakednesse while it may be for your advantage so to doe The Angel is gone forth the corn is reaping and gathering into the garner many Lambs are brought into the fold of everlasting rest Sion is redeeming the true life is rising the whorish spirit is judging the dore of life is yet open doe not lye secure in the whores wisdome Do not lye slumbering and reasoning and disputing from the letter of the Scripture till the gathering be finished till the doore be shut till the eternall flames seize upon you and ye find your selves in the bosome of hell unawares and see the children of the Kingdom in Abrahams bosom but your selves shut out and left to weep and waile and gnash your teeth Quest But how may I avoid adding to the things and dimishing from the words of this prophecy and of other Scriptures that I may not meet with the weight of this curse or misse of the blessing Answ. Dost thou ask this question from thy heart in the simplicity out of the fleshly wisdome then hearken with that ear and thou shalt set thy seal to mine answer 1. Wait for the key of knowledge which is Gods free gift Do not go with a false key to the Scriptures of truth for it will not open them Man is too hasty to know the meaning of the Scriptures and to enter into the things of God and so he climbs up over the doore with his own understanding but he has not patience to wait to know the door and to receive the key which opens and shuts the doore and by this means he gathers death out of words which came from life And this I dare positively affirme that all that have gone this way to work have but a dead knowledge and it is death in them that feeds upon this knowledg and the life is not raised Consider now the weight of this councill in the true ballance There is no opening of the Scriptures but by the true key nor is there any coming at the key till the Lord please to give it What then is to be done but only to wait in the silence of that
but the Lord God is feared and the Dragons arm withers and the head of his pollicy whereby he ensnared intangled from the life is crushing glory to the endlesse power of life for ever and for ever Be wise now therefore loose not your share in the immortal Crown Take heed how ye be found fighters against the Lamb in the wisdom power of Babilon which is to fall Painting will not passe now That bloud of the Lamb is felt which washes off the whores paint even all her painted notions of the blood of christ of sanctification and redemption c. the whorish nature being discovered underneath all these Ye have got the name of Church the name of Christians the name of ordinances c. by the whores help but the nature of life ye want and the living power is come to recover the name from you and we his living witnesses testifie to your faces that ye shall not enjoy it but the name and the thing shall go together and he that hath not the thing shall also loose the name Yea your eyes shall see that ye have been the sacrilegious ones who have stoln holy names and tirles which ye never received from the hand of God but the whorish spirit which out of the life and an enemy to the life hath handed them to you And this is told you in dear and tender love that ye might not perish but have eternall life abiding in your hearts and the new name written by the Spirit of life on your foreheads which all that know the writing of the life may be able to read and acknowledge There are severall touches of these things in diverse of of the Epistles of the Apostles but the full relation is given forth in that book of the Revelation which was penned by the Spirit of God to be read in the light of the Spirit and so to be a preservative against the overspreading contagion of Antichristianism Adn it is said at the entrance into it Blessed is he that readeth they that hear the words of this prophests keâ—p those things wch are written therein But men having lost the Spirit have not been able to read it and having lost the right ear they have not been able to heare the words it speaks and how then could they keepe the things written therein He that doth â—ot understand what he is warned against how is it likely he should be preserved by the warning The Spirit of God judged this warning necessary but the spirit of deceit cryes it is a deep thing not to be medled with Now this is a plain demonstration that men generally are overtaken with the whoredom and drink of the whores cup submit themselves to the beast and exalt his horns and receive his mark and some or other of his names because they have not the knowledge of that which discovers these things and was given by the Spirit of God to forewarn and so to preserve out of them He that knoweth not the mistery of iniquity working under a form of godlines may not he easily be deceived with the mistery of iniquity He that knoweth not what is become of the true Church ministry and where to look for them may not he easily own a fall Church and ministry He that knoweth not the Spirit of the Scriptures which the Church carried with her when she left the letter behind her may not he easily set up the letter for his rule He that knoweth not the living mark and name of a Christian with which the Spirit of life seals all the Lambs of Christ in the life may not he easily give this name to himself and to others who have not this mark but the beasts mark He that knoweth not the true faith the true love the true hope the true joy the true peace the true rest the true consolation in Christ the life the true meeknes and patience of the Sâ—ints c. may not he easily set up shadows or liknesses of these which he gathers from the letter of the Scriptures and the promises thereof receiving the knowledge of them into the wrong part applying them to the wrong thing instead of these Ah poor hearts The book of the Revelation is easie to that Spirit that wrote it and it was not given forth to be laid by as uselesse but to be serviceable in the hand of the Spirit for the ages after the dayes of the Apostles and in the true light it is easily read and they that can read it can see that in it which they that cannot read it cannot beleeve And this is plainly seen That theâ—e is but the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of deceit but the Lambs wife and the whore which hath whored from the Spirit which hath made use of the lotter to run a whoring from that Spirit that wrote it that there is but the true Church and the false Church but life and death but form and power but Christ the mistery of godlinesse and Antichrist the mistary of iniquity but God and the dragon God in the Church or Temple in the Wildernesse and the dragon in the worlds churches and temples appearing there as if he were God giving sorth lawes and ordinances like God and all the world falls down before him and worships him as if he were God and hopes by this worship which they perform to him and by their faith and hope which they receive from him to be saved at last I say there are but these two and he that is joyned to the one of these is not joyned to the other Let him that readeth understand which he may easily doe by the wisdome of the Spirit but never can by the wisdome of the letter For though we know how to join these two in the life yet there is a necessity of seperating them at present till the letter be gained out of the hands of the whorish spirit which hath built up severall forms of knowledge religion and worship in mistery-Babilon by the letter without the life all which must fall with Babilon AN Exhortation relating to the workings of the mistery of Iniquity and the mistery of godlinesse in this present age ALL people upon earth who love your souls and have any true secret pantings after God look to the nature of your Spirits and look to the nature of those things ye let into your minds least ye take in death for life error for truth and so sow to your selves corruption and rear up a fabricke in mistery Babilon which will be turned into desolation and utter ruins by the power of life from Sion Strong is the Spirit of deceit that is entred into the world and glorious and very taking are his images and likenesses of truth which will deceive all but the very elect who were chosen from the foundation of the world and whose eyes are opened to see the foundation of life which was before the foundation of the world It
wrath without mixture torment day and night in the presence of the Lamb c. As the growth and fulness of the mistery of iniquity is spoken of in this book so the measuring out of the fulnesse of wrath to it is spoken of also And great is the life and blessedness that is here promised to those that fight with and overcome the mistery of iniquity and receive not any of the marks or names of the beast nor are subject to any of his hornes though â—e push never so hard with them Now to meet with all the plagues here threatned and to miss of all the blessednesse here promised is it not a sad state Why he that addeth to these things here spoken or diminisheth from the words of this prophecy the Lord hath said this shall befall him Therefore in the fear of that God who hath spoken this and will make it good let every one search who is the adder who is the diminisher Now mark see if this be not a clear thing He that giveth any other meaning of any Scripture then what is the true proper meaning thereof he both addeth and diminisheth he taketh away the true sence he addeth a sence that is not true The Spirit of the Lord is the true Expositor of Scriptures he never addeth nor diminisheth but man being without that Spirit doth but guess doth but imagine doth but study or invent a meaning and so he is ever adding or diminishing This is the sence saith one this is the sence saith another this is the sence saith a third this saith a fourth another that is witty and large in his comprehension he sayes they will all stand another perhaps more witty then he sayes none of them will stand and he invents a meaning different from theÌ„ all And then when they are thus expounding them they will say take the sence thus it will yeeld this observation or take it thus and it will afford this observation Doth not this plainly shew that he who thus saith hath not the Spirit of the Lord to open the Scripture to him and manifest which is the true sence but is working in the misery of darknesse And yet this very person who is thus working with his own dark spirit in the dark will in words confesse that there is no true understanding or opening of Scripture but by the Spirit of God If it be so how darest thou set thy imagination thy fancy thy reason thy understanding on work and so be guessing at that which the Spirit doth not open to thee and so art found adding and diminishing Now he that is adder he that is the diminisher he cryeth out against the Spirit of the Lord and chargeth him with adding and diminishing for man being judge he will judge his own way to be true and Gods to be false That which is the adding and diminishing he calls the true expounding of the place but if the Spirit of the Lord immediately open any thing to any son or daughter he cries this is an adding to the word The Scripture is written there are no more revelations to be expected now the curse saith he is to them that adde Thus he removes the curse from his own Spirit and way of study and invention to which it appertains and casts it upon the Spirit of the Lord And man cannot possibly avoid this in the way that he is in for having first judged his own darknesse to be light then in the next place he must needs judge the true light to be darknesse He that hath aforehand set up his own invented meaning of any Scripture to be the true meaning he must needs oppose the true meaning and call it false and so apply himselfe to forme all the arguments he can out of other Scriptures to make it appear false Thus man having begun wrong in his knowledge of the Scriptures stands engaged to make use of them against the Lord and against his own soul and yet really in himself thinks that he makes a right use of them and that he serves the Lord and that he is not opposing his truth but opposing error and heresie while he himselfe is in the error and in the heresie and against the truth being a stranger to that Spirit in whose immediate life and presence the truth grows Did the Lord in these words of forbidding to adde or diminish upon so great a penalty lay a restraint and limit upon his owne spirit that it should no more hereafter speak in his sons daughters or did he intend to lay bounds upon the unruly spirit of man Did God leave mans spirit at liberty to invent and form meanings of his words and bind up his owne spirit from speaking further words afterwards When Moses said thou shalt not adde nor diminish was this to be any stop to the Prophets in whom God should speake afterwards Is not this one of the subtle Serpents inventions to keep up the esteem of mans invented meanings as the true sence and to make a fortification against the entrance of that spirit which can discover all his false interpretations of the true words of God and to make him see that he is the adder and the diminisher and that his name will not be found in the book of life when the true light is held forth to read by But this is generall extending to all Scriptures my drift is more particular concerning adding to the things or diminishing from the words of the book of this prophecy There are two things chiefely spoken of in this book Mistery-Sion Mistery-Babilon the true Church the false Church the Lambs wise the whore the hiding of Mistery-Sion the appearing of Mistery-Babilon in her place the flying of the Church out of her heaven into the wilderness leaving all behind her which she could not carry along with her even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ wherein once she appeared worshipping and serving God and the starting of the false Church into her place taking up all that she had left even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ in the letter thus covering her selfe with the form of godlinesse with the sheeps cloathing that she might passe the better for the true Church And the Dragon who mannaged the war against the woman and her seed raiseth up first one beast and then another and sets this whore on the top of them who with the cup of fornication makes all the earth drunk all nations peoples kindreds tongues languages And the beast he has his horns every where his marks every where his names every where and also his image in every part of Babilon And who will not worship him he fights with yea such as are led by God to rent from the whore he calls schismaticks hereticks blasphemers and persecutes them as persons not worthy to live Thus the state of things is quite changed the power of truth lost the form set up without it those that seek after the power hated persecuted
part which would be forward and running before hand till the key be given and to know how to receive it as it is offered in the light and not to wait in the will or expect to receive it according to observations in the fleshly wisdome from the letter 2. Let not thy understanding have the mannaging of this key when it is given but know the true opener the skilfull user of the key the hand which can only turn the key aright and let him have the mannaging both of his own key and of thine understanding Do not run in thine own understanding or in thine owne will to search out the meaning of Scripture for then thou feedest with the Scripture that which it is the intent all words of life to destroy but as thou waitest for the key at first so continually wait for the appearances and movings of the user of the key and he wil shut out thy understanding and will continually which would stil be running after the litterall part of Scriptures and let thee into the life both of the prophecies and doctrines thereof Man when he hath received a true gift from God he would be mannaging of it himselfe and to be sure he will mannage it for himselfe for the gratifying and pleasing of himself and not for God and then God being provoked takes away the substance and leaves him the shell Therefore he that hath received a gift must be very watchfull against that which would betray or he may easily loose it for though the gifts and caling of God are without repentance yet if that lay hold of the gift which was not called and to which it was not given the Lord will thrust that by and take away his gift from it 3. Do not grast any of the fruit of the tree of life upon the tree of knowledge for it will not grow there an appearance a likenesse of the true fruit may grow there but the true fruit it selfe will not My meaning is doe not make a treasury of knowledge in the understanding part which is to perish but know the true treasury of all the things of life which is in the life it selfe and in that understanding which is formed kept and lives in the life Lay no manna by to feed upon in the old store house lest the fleshly part should be running thither when its fleshly appetite is kindled after food but daily receive the continuall bread from the hand of life The wisdom of the life strikes at â—hy wisdom and understanding and if ever thou wilt grow wise any more there thou loosest this and canst not possibly retaine it for that part is then getting up in thee in which it cannot be held but only a shadow an image a resemblance and likenesse of it which feeds and pleases that part which fain would have life but cannot know it and therefore is necessitated to make images and likenesses of things in Heaven or things in earth that it might have somewhat 4. Take not up a rest in openings of things though by the true key Take heed of over-valluing that kind of knowledge for that part which over-vallues that knowledge will presently be post up with it but there is a more excellent and safer kind of knowledge to be pressed after which is a knowledge of things by receiving of them There is a knowledge of things by the Spirits opening the words which speake of them or by inward immediate prophecies from the word of life in the heart this is an excellent knowledge and not to be found in the earthly part of man yet the earthly part when this knowledge is given is very apt to be swelled and exalted with it but then there is also a knowledge which ariseth from the gift of the thing it selfe This knowledge is very precious and much more full and certain then the other having the nature and immediate power of life in it self and so is perfectly able to preserve As for instance to make it more plaine There may be a knowledge of Justification by the Spirits opening the words written in Scripture concerning justification and the blood of sprinkling and this is a good knowledge where there is a true opening of it from the Spirit but then there is a knowledg by feeling of the blood of sprinkling in the heart and by seeing with the new eye the way of its justification and in this knowledge is the power and the cleansing of the life received which in the other was but spoken of Therefore rest not in openings or prophecies or true meanings of these things though this kind of knowledge is very excellent and hath been very rare but wait to feele the thing it selfe which the words speak of and to be united by the living Spirit to that and then thou hast a knowledge from the nature of the thing it selfe and this is more deep and inward then all the knowledge that can be had from words concerning the thing 5. When thou feelest things then seek their preservation in the proper spring of their own life Let the root bear thee and all thy knowledge with all that 's freely given thee of God When thou feelest thy selfe leavened with the life and become a branch shot out of the life then learn how to abide in the life and to keep all that 's given thee there and have nothing which thou maist call thine own any more but to be lost in thy selfe and found in him Know the land of the living wherein all the things of life live and can live no where else Now in all this in this whole course from the very first step of it there 's certainty there 's stability there 's infallibility From the very first opening of the true key I begin to learne somwhat of God and to learn certainly and feel an assurance and establishment in it and growing up here I grow up in the true learning and in the true settlement and so I am not unlearned and unstable wresting the Scriptures to my own destruction for I take none of the knowledge of the Scriptures from my selfe from my own understanding from my own study and invention or from the studies of other expositors but from a certain hand And how can he rest Scripture who is kept single and has no desire to have any thing to be the meaning of it but what is the meaning nor no will to know the meaning further then the good wil of him whose Spirit penned it thinks good to give forth the meaning to him and who waits to receive this not to feed the lustfull knowing pare in himselfe but to feed the life with it and when the life hath no use for it he is content to have it shut up and to be without it I say how is it possible for this man to wrest Scriptures But now a man that hath taken in a body of knowledge already he goes to the Scripture and bends it to make it speak
THE AXE LAID TO THE ROOT OF THE OLD CORRVPT-TREE AND The Spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life among both Papists and Protestants hath arisen and by which it is nourished and fed at this Day In a Distinction between the Faith which is of man and the Faith which is of GOD And in some Assertions concerning true Faith its nature rise c. It s receiving of Christ its abiding and growing in his living Vertue With a warning concerning adding and diminishing from the Scripture in generall and the Prophesies of the Revelation in particular Discovering what it is and the great danger of it with the only way of preservation from it where is added a Short touch about the Use of Means As also a brief History concerning the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles With an Exhortation to the present Age By the movings of the Life in a friend to the Living truth of the most High God but an utter enemy to the spirit of error and blasphemy where ever it is found as well in the strictest of the Protestants as among the grossest of the Papists Isaac Penington the younger LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Lodowick Lloyd at his shop next the Castle in Cornhill 1659. THE PREFACE THere was a glorious day and bright appearance of truth in the times of the Apostles They had the true Comforter who led them into all truth and kept them alive in truly and truth alive in them By this Spirit they as living stones were built up a spirituall house founded upon Sion the holy mount into Jerusalem the holy City which is the church of the living God the pillar and gâ—ound of truth And here they had their conversation in heaven with God the Judge of all with Christ the Mediatour and with the Spirits of â—ust men and the holy Angels which alwayes behold the face of God They lived in the Spirit they walked in the Spirit they prayed in the Spirit they sung in the Spirit they worshipped in the Spirit and in that understanding which the truth had made free and had God dwelling with them and Christ walking in the midst of them and by the presence and power of his life in them were truly dead unto sin and alive unto God they being not strivers against sin with mans legall spirit but by the power of grace which made them more then conquerours through him that loved them This was part of the glory of that state in that day of the Sunshine of the Gospel But behold a thick night of darknesse overspread the beauty of this Some false brethren went out from the true Church into the world getting the Sheeps cloathing making a great outward appearance and drew the world after them yea and some from the very Churches themselves how hard was the Apostle Paul fain to plead with the Corinthians about his own Apostleship and Doctrine that he might preserve that Church from the false Apostles And when they had gathered a sufficient party in the world they made head against the true sheep lambs of Christ fought with them and overcame them And when they had overcome them that had the living testimony of Jesus and the true power and presence of the Spirit among them they set up their own dead form making a cry all over the nations of the earth Revelation is ceased there is no looking now for such an infallible spirit and such immediate teachings as the christians had in the Apostles dayes who had the anointing to teach them all things but they point men to traditions to the church as they call it which title the whore hath engrossed since the dayes of the Apostles or to searchings of the Scriptures and reading expositions upon it and bodies of divinity formed by the understanding part in man to instruct the understading part Thus the whole course of religion and of the knowledge of God came to be out of that Spirit and life wherein it first came forth and wherein it first stood and consisted in doctrines of men and a form of worship and knowledge which the wisdome of man had framed in an imitation of that which formerly stood in the life And now men being gone from the life from the Spirit and his immediate teachings into an outward form of knowledge and worship of God in the wrong nature now Antichrist is got up and the Dragon sits in the Temple appearing there as if he were God giving out laws and ordinances of worship in publique and putting men upon duties and exercises of devotion in private and he is obeyed and bowed down to in the observation of these but the true living God is not known nor his secret still voyce which calls out of these heard because of the great noise which the Dragon makes in his Temple for so it is now he having gained it though it was once Gods about his laws and ordinances of worship which he would have all compelled to and none suffered to testifie against them that they are his and not the Lords Yet it pleased the Lord all the night of this darknesse to raise up some witnesses against the Dragon and all his invented forms of worship though they were still hunted persecuted knocked down and their testimony cryed out against as error heresie schism and blasphemy and the wayes worships and ordinances of the whore the beast and the dragon still cryed up as the truth Thus the Papists they cryed out against the Protestanus as heretiques and schismatiques who were witnesses against them and the Protestants they cryed out against the non-conformists seperatists and brownists who were witnesses against them and every sect cries out most against them who are led further from the apostacy and raised up by the Lord as witnesses against them against their setting down in their forme and not pursuing the guidance of that spirit which would lead them quite out of the darknesse and not have them sit down by the way Now the Lord God in these latter dayes hath not only raised up witnesses against the Whore the Dragon the Beast the false Prophets with all their inventions which they have set up instead of the truth but hath assayed and begun to deliver his people out of this Egyptian darknesse and to bring them back to the light of the land of Canaan And now great enemies have appeared the sons of the night exceedingly strengthening themselves to keep out the day light every one crying up his own form and all joyning hand in hand against the power yea that spirit which first tempted from God is exceeding busie to cause those whom the Spirit the Lord hath been drawing out of the land of darknesse to make a Captain to return to Egypt or at least to sit down in some form or some pleasant notion of things by the way not to follow the Lord through all his intricate
can ye see it Christ is descended into the lower parts of the earth and ye are using means to ascend upwards in the wrong nature how can ye meet with him the Gospel hath been hid the Sun hath not shined it hath been night and ye have got many fals candles which way can ye acknowledge the little glimmering of the day star who have such satisfaction in the warmth of your false fires ye are far from the true light who have not yet received so much of it as to discover the darknesse of the night Ye are too high too wise too knowing for Christ or for the sight and acknowledgment of the true means which lead to life And if ye could once come to see this there might be some hope but in that wisdome wherein your life and knowledge stands ye are shut out and ye are reasoning and stumbling at the stone while others who are broken in spirit and in meeknesse and humility led to try find it a sure foundation even a foundation of eternall life for the true seed of life and are built into the living City which is made without hands and without any of the tools of mans wisdome A Brief History of the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles with the living seal to it which he that hath eternall life abiding in him can read and witnes but that wisdom zeal and devotion which is in the death cannot AFter the universal degeneration and corruption of the Jewish state and the putting an end to the shadows thereof by the appearance and succession of the substance it pleased God to dissolve that people state and pollicy and by the power of his life without either the wisdome or strength of man to set upon the heathenish world which he subdued and brought under the power of his life By his Apostles and messengers who preached the everlasting Gospel the word of eternall life he gathered assemblies up and down the nations whom the nations by all their persecutions could not subject but they reigned over them in the power authority and dominion of God For they were Kings and Priests to God in the sight of all the Nations and they did reign upon the earth in somuch as the heathenish spirit of man observing their order in the Spirit and the wisdom and power of the Spirit among them who by his living light was able to search the hearts of those that came to observe them could not but acknowledge that God was in them of a truth Now the next thing to be expected is Satans opposition against this power of life his stratagems to undermine it He withstood the growth and settlement of the Church all that he could by open force making use both of the heathenish devout worshippers who fought for their Jupiter their Diana and other gods and goddesses and of the Jewish devout worshippers who fought for their Temple-worship with the Laws and ordinances of Moses which were now expired But neither of these would doe but the Church in the power of life gained ground upon him and did rather thrive and increase then diminish by this opposition Therefore now he falls to this stratagems he gets some false brethren out of the Church they went out from us these he cloaths as Angels of light puts the sheeps cloathing on their wolvish nature makes them appear as like the Apostles as may be endues them with an excellent taking knowledge of life and spirituallity in appearance forms in them an image of the truth and inspires this image with the spirit of his own life and with these he goes forth into the world and gathers the world about him Now the world was presently taken with this the world went after him for this is that the world would have an appearance of religion an image of truth but their own spirit in it The worldly spirit that flies off from the life from the power can readily close with this because it is its own Bring forth never so high notions of religion and spirituall wisdome the world will hug them the world will feed on them the world will cloath it selfe with them The world can swallow and digest any thing but life Any pleasant picture of things in heaven will down with the world but the nature the life the truth the Spirit Christ in his true arid living crosse this will not down with the world Now the Devil having thus set up his false image in the world and gathered a party after him then he sets upon the Church and the battel goeth very hard life striving to defend and death to overcome How hard did the Apostles strive in their day to keep their converts to the simplicity of truth to the way therof which even then began to be evill spoken of writing Epistles to the Churches warning them of the false Apostles and wishing them to stand their ground yea Christ himselfe writes severall Epistles from heaven to some of them cheking their backslidings and encouraging them to renew their zeal and strength putting them in mind of the Crown which attended the victory But at length the Divill with his stratagems prevails gets the possession of the Churches territories and the Church is faine to fly for her preservation and such of her seed as are left behind her the enemy makes war against slayes drinks their bloud Now here 's an end of all the glory of that state now the Divil hath gained the world again The same spirit that lost it under the heathenish power for there he was conquered recovers it under an Antichristian appearance setting up the same wickednes and the same course and current of death under forms of Antichristian religion as he had done before under forms of Heathenish devotion Thus the Devil being conquerour having gained the field he divides the spoils among his army he takâ—s whatever was the Churches and make his own and ranks them in his way of Antichristian religion and devotion so that now hence forward those things which were once Christs and the Churches they are noâ— all his and distributed by him among his followers He gives the name Church to the whore which he sets up he gives the name Christian to his Disciples he prescribes baptisme and the Supper which he calls Sacraments and praying and preaching and singing which he calls publique ordinances and be prescribes private duties and exercises of devotion and he gets the letter of the Scriptures and forms multitudes of meanings and expositions and has lying signs and wonders for such as need them that he might keep all the severall Brigades of his army quiet under his pay and might have some pleasing wares of traffick for every sort of his Merchants in his Babilon For this is the City of that King which he built after his conquest over the life and which he hath enriched with the spoils from the life And here all his subjects shall have content they
shall have what they will if they will but be faithsull to him in the main Call for what likenesse what invention what appearance of truth they will they shall have it so they will but be content without life No notion about the Spirit wil be deny them so they will be content with the notion without the presence of the living Spirit They shall have light in their understandings warmth in their affections joy peace hope comfort out of the Scriptures They shall apply as many promises to themselves as they will have what they will do what they will so they keep out of the feeling of the living principle but if once that stir and there be any hearkning after that then he begins to shew his tyranny on the one hand to force them back and his stratagems on the other hand to tempt them aside from it The devil having thus gained the form and enriched himself with the Churches spoils and slain them which had the living testimony then he falls to corrupting the form For that filthy spirit though he can cloath himself with the form to deceive from the life abid there to keep down the life yet he does not much love it he loves his own form better and when he is out of feare of assaults from the life then he returns to his own form againe or patches up a garment more suitable to his own nature taking iâ— somewhat of the other with it to make his own passe the better for if he should have returned to the direct heathenish forms of idolatry and false worship he could not so well have â—ayn hid therefore he makes a mix uâ—e of somewhat which was prescribed the Jews with some things sound practised among the Christians Thus he brought in inventions of crosses and images and beads and pictures and reliques and ceremonies beyond number insomuch as not only the life and power was lost but the true likeness also even so lost that it is impossible for all the wisdome of man to recover the knowledge of the likenesse againe Men have striven much but they never could form a true likenesse of the Primitive Church and the way thereof Now though it is the desire of the Devill to keep men in the grossnesse of darkness yet rather then loose them he will let them have some part of the form again nay he will tempt them with a gaudy appearance of the form to keep them from meeting with the power and life when he perceives true secret inward stirrings in them which will not be quieted without somwhat Thus when there was a stirring against Popery he tempted aâ—iâ—e into Episcopacy when that would hold no longer then to Presbitery when that will not serve into Independancy when that will not keep quiet but still there are searchings further into Anabaptism if that will not doe into a way of seeking and waiting if this will not satisfie they shall have high notions yea most pleasant notions concerning the Spirit and concerning the life if they will be but satisfied without the life yea they shall have all the liberty in the creatures they can desire the best painted liberty if they will but be satisfied without that liberty which stands not in the creatures out of the life but over the creatures in the life And he that turns aside to any of these he is still under the dominion of that spirit and there he holds his knowledge and there he performes his worship and there he has his unity his liberty his life his rest his peace his joy his hope Now no man can worship God till he comes out of every part of this Babilon and his feet touch Sion though there may be a secret panting and an unknown safety and an acceptation of the poor mourning soul in the passage Yea all sorts of people here ye were accepted in your stirrings after life in hearkning to the leadings of life from out of the Babilonish Spirit but your turning aside to the Babilonish wisdome in a new dresse and sitting down in a new form of her inventing hath brought you to a losse of life and hath made you hatefull to the living God who hath drawn his sword against you and hath prepared his vialls his thunders his plagues his woes and ye must drink of his cup with sorrow as ye have drunk of the whores cup with pleasure Ye that have found a bed of pleasure in any of your forms or in any of your notions and so have found ease in the Sion of the whores painting ye must be cast into the bed of sorrow and know the fire the Gods Sion and the furnace in his Jerusalem if ever ye become an habitation for God or expect to feed on his holy mountaine The condition of the Church all this while all this time of Satans reigne in forms of knowledg and worship hath been very lamentable and is expressed in Scripture by parables and resemblances of a sad state She hath been as a City pulled down like a ruined City which needs rebuilding before she can come to be a City again when the Lord shall build up Sion She hath been like a wildernesse barren undressed unregarded She hath been like a mournfull widow whose husband hath been rent from her and her children slain She hath lost all her ornaments all her garments all her ordinances all her appearances and wayes of life in somuch as the wayes of Sion mourn But Babilon the mother of harlots she has got all the beauty all the glory all the Churches attire all the Churches ordinances and all the trade and traffiqe runs thither and she is cryed up for the true Church and if any dare speak a word against her for the true Church indeed they are exclaimed against for schismaticks and hereticks and war prepared against them and some or other of the beasts horns presently pushing at them Thus it has gone all the time of the Apostacy the whore has flourished with the name of the Church making great merchandize of souls selling their formall stuff for mony and abundance of children hath the whore brought forth and nourished with her milk of deceit but the true woman the Lambs wife with her seed and the living food from her living breasts have had no place on the earth But this state of things is ended in part and ending apace The Lord God of life is arisen out of his holy habitation to assault the Dragon to discover and strip the whore to recover a possession for his life in the earth to make roome in the world for his Church which he is bringing out of the wildernesse The battel is begun the territories of Antichrist are assaulted the Lamb hath appeared on his white horse and hath gathered many of his called faithfull and chosen about him the Ensign is liâ—ted up the light which searcheth the inwards of the enemies dominions hath appeared and his inmost power and wisdome is not feared