Apostles even al this time of the Apostacy since the man child hath been caught up to God and was not to be found in the earth which makes it seem such a strange thing for people to say Christ is in them and the woman hath been in the wilderness and not in the habitable part of the world Rev. 12. 5. 6. if al this time any one wil look for the true religon for the true Church for the true knowledg and worship of God he must not look on any Nation or any People or among the Tongues which are cried up in Nations and people for the original and as the chief interpreters of the original for they are al drunk with the whores cup they are under the power dominion authority and service of the whore who rides upon the beast to whom power was given over al kindreds tongues and nations But look among the Nations who was persecuted whose blood was drunk whom the powers of the Nations made war against ther alone the testimony of Jesus is to be found Rev. 12. 17. ther alone are the witnesses against the present idolatry and corruption and to some truths or other of Christs which God enlightned them with and wherto he stirred them up to give their testimony though with the loss of their estates liberties or lives Now by what hath been expressed is it not manifest to every ey that hath room but to let in the letter of the Scripture in simplicity and plainness that there hath been a great apostacy from the true knowledge of Christ and an universal corruption power of death sprung up instead of the power of his life and grace The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath disappeared and the abomination of desolation hath took up its place and filled it with deadly venome against the truth and against the life so that enmity against God under a pretense of love and zeal to him hath reigned generally in the hearts of men from the times of the Apostles to this present day And as the light breaks forth and their eys come to be opened they wil see that they have been and are haters of God and of his life and spirit but lovers of the world and of such a religion as suits the worldly Spirit Position II. THat in this great Apostacy the true state of Christianity hath been lost This must needs be for if ther was an Apostacy from the thing ther could not be a retaining of the thing about which the Apostacy was If they apostatised from the spirit from the light from the life then they wer gone from it they lost it Now it may be instanced in every particular how the state of Christianity was lost but that would be too vast and tedious it may suffice therfore to instance in some considerables ones which may lead into the discovery of the rest 1. The true rule of Christianity or the rule of a Christian which is to direct guid and order him in his whole course was apostatized from and lost What is a Christians rule whereby he is to steer and order his course A Christian is to be a follower of Christ and consequently must have the same rule to walk by as Christ had A Christian proceeds from Christ hath the same life in him and needs the same rule Christ had the fulnesse of life and of his fulnesse we al receive a measure of the same life We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30. yea we came out of the same spring of life from whence he came for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are al of one for which cause he is not ashamed to cal them brethren Ebr. 2. 11. Now what was his rule was it not the fulness of life which he received And what is their rule is it not the measure of life which they receive Was not Christs rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit wrote in his heart And is not their rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit writes in their hearts How was Christ made a King and a Priest was it by the law of a carnal commandment or by the power of an endles life And how are they made Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 6. Is it by the law of a carnal commandment or is it by the power of the same endles life Lo I come to do thy will O God saith Christ when he cometh into the world Ebr. 10. ver 5. 7. but by what rule by what law thy law is within my heart Psal 40. 8. And the same spirit who wrote it ther is also to write the new Covenant with al the laws of it in the heart of every Christian from the least to the greatest Ebr. 8. 9. 10. yea the same spirit that dwelt in Christs heart is to dwel in their hearts according to the promise of the Covenant Ezek. 36. 27. This was Pauls rule after which he walked the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1 2. This made him free from the law of sinne and death Wher is the law of sin writ wher is the law of death writ is it not writ in the heart And must not the law of righteousness and life be writ ther also if it be able to deal with sin and death The spirit forms the heart anew forms Christ in the heart begets a new creature ther which cannot sin He that is born of God sins not and this is the rule unto righteousnes the new creature or the spirit of life in the new creature Gal 6. 15. 16. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them Mark ther 's the rule the new creature which is begotten in every one that 's born of God If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and this new creature is to be his rule And as any man walks according to this rule according to the new creature according to the law of light and life that the spirit continually breathes into the new creature he hath peace but as he transgresses that and walks not after the spirit but after the flesh he walks out of the light out of the life out of the peace into the sea into the death into the trouble into the condemnation Here then is the law of the converted man the new creature and the law of the new creature is the spirit of life which begat him which lives and breathes gives forth his law continually in him Here 's a Christian here 's his rule He that hath not the new creature formed in him is no Christian and he that hath the new creature hath the rule in himselfe Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know al things 1 Joh. 2. 20. How came they to know al things
of God were in them this enmity could not stand nor such fruits of it shoot forth But they have not seen the father or the Son and that life of them which appears in the earth the evill spirit in man seeks to destroy that he may keep up his own image and shadow of life which the nature of the true life in its appearance fights against By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciple if ye love one another And by this may all men know that those that now go for Christians are not Christs Disciples in that they do not love one another They are not in unity in the light and so cannot love one another there but are onely in unity in forms in opinions in professions in practises so any difference there stirs up the enmity causing risings in the heart against them at least if it proceed not further The true love grows from true union and fellowship in the light where that is not known there cannot be true love in the spirit but a fained love in the flesh 5. The true hope joy and peace is lost The true ground of hope is Christ in the heart and the true hope is that hope which ariseth from this ground from the feeling of Christ there Christ in you the hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. What is the true Christians hope it is Christ in him he hath eternal life abiding in him and he knows that cannot but lead to glory But what is the common Christians hope He fastens his hope upon the relation and his beliefe of an History He that believeth shall be saved I believe therefore I shall be saved And thus as he hath got up a wrong faith and a wrong love so he gets up a wrong hope And this hope will perish for this is the hope of the Hypocrite or an hope in the hypocritical nature which complies with Scripture-words but is not in union with God nor with the life of the Scriptures and so being without the anchor is tossed in the waves of the Sea And the true joy is in he spirit from what is felt and injoyned and hoped for there But the common Christians joy is from things which he gathers into and comprehends in his understanding or from flashes which he feels in his affectionate part from a fire and sparkes of his own kindling from whence he fetches his warmth and comfort And the true peace stands in the reconciliation with God by having that broken down which causeth the wrath and to which the wrath is where ever it is found The Lambe of God breaks down the wall of separation in the heart the blood of Jesus wherein is the life clenseth away the sin there maketh the heart pure uniteth the pure heart to the pure God here 's union here 's fellowship here 's peace But the common Christians peace is from a mis-understanding of Scriptures while the wall of separation is standing while wickednesse lodges in the heart They reason themselves from Scripture words into an apprehension that God is at peace with them and that they are in union with him while that of God which is in them witnesseth against them and checks them and wars with them and they are not one with it nor cannot be in that nature and understanding wherein their life lies to which belongs no peace 6. The true repentance conversion and regeneration hath been lost The true Repentance is from dead works and from the dead principle whence all the dead works proceed but these have not been repented of but perished in the apostacy The praying the striving the worshipping the fighting hath been from the dead principle The building up and whole exercise of Religion in the Apostacy hath been in that understanding which is to be destroyed and the will which should have been crucified hath been pleased and fed with its religion The true Conversion is from the power of Satan to God from the darknesse to the light But in the Apostacy men have not known God or Satan the light or the darknesse but have mistook taking the one for the other worshipping the Devil in stead of God Rev. 13. 4. and following the dark conceivings of their own and other mens minds concerning scripture and calling them light Regeneration is a changing of man whereby the birth is born of the Spirit the stripping of the creature of its own nature of its own understanding of its own will and forming it anew in the wombe of the Spirit so that the old creature is passed away and there comes forth a new thing which growes up daily in the new life towards the fulnesse of Christ But men have been so far from being born of the spirit that they have not so much as known the gift of the spirit in them but to this day are enemies and at a distance from that of God in them which is pure And if they could but open their eyes they would see that their birth is fleshly and consists at best but in such a conformity to the letter as the old nature may imitate and attain but the immortal seed is not sprung up in them nor they dead to the mortal or alive to the immortal 7. The true wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption is lost The true wisdom stands in the fear of God and departing from evil This those that are taught of God learn and thereby are made wise unto salvation But most that are called Christians are not come to the fear of God and many are got above it looking upon it as legall and not appertaining to the Gospel but the Gospel state is love which casteth out fear Doth the love of God refuse or cast out the fear of God Nay it casts out the fear that brings bondage the fear that came in by transgression which fear is stirred up and discovered by the Law And this is a fear of sin or a fear arising from sin through the Law 's manifestation of it and the wrath against it which causeth both the fear and much bondage from the fear And this the Gospel which discovers the love the mercy the grace the power and unites to them frees from and casts out But then there is a fear of God a fear wrought in the heart by his spirit a fear which is part of the new Covenant I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me a fear which is part of the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6 7. and endureth for ever Psal 19. 9. And this fear is not bondage but liberty it is indeed bondage to the unjust but liberty to the just for where this fear is sin is departed from it sets free it delivers the feet out of the snare of iniquity there 's true liberty Can sin prevail in that heart where the pure clean fear of God is placed by God to keep it down The love of God doth not cast out this fear but keeps
to this covenant he saves Man by his disunion and distance from God he perisheth by being brought again to God he lives again which thing Christ effecteth by the new covenant So then he that is not lead by Christ into that covenant is not in the state of salvation 3. That the new covenant is written in the heart or there is no other way of coming into the new covenant whereof Christ is the High-priest and Mediator but by having the Laws of God written in the heart This is the covenant c. I will put my Laws into their minde and write them in their hearts c. they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest Heb. 8. 10. 11. He is speaking of the covenant whereof Christ is mediator ver 6. which he cals a new covenant ver 8. and saith it is not like the old ver 9. instancing in two main particulars wherein it is very unlike 1. The old was writ outwardly in letters to be read by the outward ey but this is writ inwardly in the heart and minde and so can only be read by a spiritual ey 2. Under the old they needed teaching from men the priests lips were to preserve knowledge and they were to seek the law at his mouth but now they should have the law so neer them so cleerly written in them that they should need none to teach them From the law is the knowledge of God the law is in the heart and from the law in the heart springs up the knowledge of God in the least and in the greatest that are within this covenant that they need not say know the Lord. This is the state of the new covenant which the Christians came to in those dayes 1 Joh. 2. ver 27. but it hath been a strange thing in this dark night of Apostacy and is yet a strange thing to many But let such consider can a man be a Christian and be out of that covenant whereof Christ is the mediator Can a man be brought back again to God by Christ and yet be out of that covenant whereby Christ brings men back to God O how hath Satan deluded poor souls in this thick night of darkness to make men believe they have faith in Christ and shall be saved thereby while they are quite ignorant of and strangers to that covenant whereby Christ the mediat or saves They shall all know me from the least to the greatest Marke there is not the least in this covenant but hath the law so written in his heart that he need not seek out for knowledge 4. That the spirit of God alone can write the covenant in the heart or that Christ writes the covenant by his spirit Man by all his wisdom cannot attain it Man is driven out from God and cannot finde the way back again to him without the teachings and leadings of Gods own spirit It is not the being educated in any way of Religion from ones childhood or the leaving of that and running into any sect afterwards that will avail any thing hereto but the alone hearkening to the true voice of the true spirit It is written in the Prophets concerning the children of this covenant that they shall be all taught of God And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. It is the Lord alone who by his spirit teacheth them to come to Christ and to receive the new covenant into their hearts from Christ For man is in an incapacity to know or receive Christ or his covenant until the spirit hath fitted and taught him John 14. 17. but when he hath prepared and fitted his heart then with his own finger he writeth the pure law of the nature and life of Christ therein by the receit where of he cometh out of his old dark spirit and nature into the true knowledge of God and union with him I will put my spirit within you Ezek. 36. 27. This is part of the covenant and indeed that part whereby all the rest is wrought 5. Therefore the first proper step in Religion is to know how to meet with Gods spirit There is no progress no true progress to be made in the true Religion till a man comes into the covenant and there is no coming into the covenant but by the spirit therefore the first thing that is absolutely necessary to be known in Religion is the spirit his writing or at least his motions and stirrings in the heart It may further be evidenced thus all things in Religion acceptable to God flow from the spirit All knowledge is to come from him for he alone hath revealed and can reveal truth and is appointed by Christ to lead into all truth All worship is to be offered up in him they that worship the father must worship him in the spirit and in the truth for the father seeketh such to worship him but rejecteth all other worshippers and worship how glorious soever their worship may seem to them Particularly praying is alwayes to be in the spirit Ephes 6. 18. Jude 20. so singing c. yea the whole life and conversation is to be in the spirit Galath 5. 25. The mortifying of all corruption is to be done by the spirit If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Indeed a Christian is nothing and can do nothing without the power and presence of the spirit of God in him So then if nothing in Religion can be done with acceptance to God without the spirit then the spirit is the first thing to be looked after by him who would be truly and well-groundedly religious 6. The first way of meeting with the spirit of God is as a Convincer of sin Here is the true enterance This is the Key that opens into life eternal He that can receive it let him It is not by soring alost into high imaginations and forms of worship but by coming down to this low thing This is the first and most proper work of the spirit of God toward fallen man whereby he makes way toward the writing of Gods Law in the heart namely to convince of sin And where should man look first to meet with him but in his first work upon him When Christ promised the comforter the spirit of truth he said this concerning him that he should convince the world of sin John 16. 8. They who are created a new in Christ and become his Disciples receive comfort from the spirit but what is he to the world or how may they feel any operation of him why he is to them a convincer of sin and they may finde him checking them for and convincing them of their sins So that the great work for man while he lies in the darkness for when he is translated into the light it will be easy is to know how to distinguish the movings and
Believing from the letter without you that ye are justified may easily deceive you but if once ye come truly to feel in your selves the thing which justifies and so find the power and life of it in you above the power of all that which condemns casting out the condemned thing and the condemner with all his works out of your hearts this cannot deceive The virtue of life was lost in the Apostacy and that which was living did not so much enjoy life as mourn after it and the power and safety of life did then appear most in mourning but now the Apostacy draws towards an end and the virtue begins to shoot up again and he that wil be a Christian now must be so not by retaining his old notions but by feeling this new virtue and by growing up in this new-sprung life and power of the Lord whose appearance is new to us who have not been acquainted with it but have been brought up in the darkness of the apostacy and lived in the waters where great Leviathan ruled and who was able to make war with him there But he that seeketh is joyned with and keepeth to that power which drieth up the waters and putteth an hook into the nostrils of the Leviathan shall find the world with the whole course of it ending in himself and the beginning and growth of an endless life and in whom that life lives they shall live also but wher death keeps the power of life down such shal not live or know the blessing but abide under the curse of misery and death and under the powers of darkness Therefore look about you and make a wise choice for his servants ye are whom ye obey whether the Prince of darkness in his invented forms of godliness or the Prince of light it the living power and your reward shall be according to your choice and work either death in the death if ye chuse and joyn to that or life in the life if ye joyn to that He that hath an ear to hear let him hear J. P. A Table of the Contents AN Apostacy from the truth fore-told of Page 1 That this Apostacy began in the dayes of the Apostles p. 4 The poyson of it infecting the Churches then p. 5 The general overspreading of the Apostacy over the whole earth p. 7 Witnesses raised up against the Apostates but still persecuted and slain by the Apostates in all ages since the Apostacy p. 8 Where the true Religion and Church hath been to be sought for all the time of the Apostacy 9 The general corrupting of the Doctrine of the Gospel and of the whole state of Christianity by the Apostacy 10 The rule of Christianity lost in the Apostacy 10 An objection concerning the rule answered 13 The true rule which was before the Apostacy infallible 16 A dishonor put upon the Scriptures under pretence of honour 17 The Scriptures honor to be again recovered 18 The true worship lost in the Apostacy 18 The true faith lost in the Apostacy 21 The true unfeigned love lost in the Apostacy and a feigned love got up since among professors of all sorts 22 The true hope lost in the Apostacy 23 The true joy lost in the Apostacy 24 The true peace lost in the Apostacy 24 The true repentance lost in the Apostacy 24 The true conversion lost in the Apostacy 25 The true regeneration lost in the apostacy 25 The true wisdom lost in the Apostacy 25 The true righeousness or justification lost in the Apostacy 26 The true sanctification lost in the Apostacy 27 The true redemption lost in the Apostacy 27 The difference between Christians before the apostacy and Christians since in the very substance of Christianity 28 The true Church lost in the Apostacy 29 The true Ministry lost in the Apostacy 30 Witnesses raised up in all Nations to testifie against the Apostacy and some sparks of truth such as God saw fit for them to testifie to the present age revived in them 32 As the whorish spirit changed her dresses to keep up her deceit and to with-hold the honest hearted from the truth so witnesses still raised up against her to discover her and witnesse against her in all her new forms and shapes 33 Affliction and persecution good for the witnesses to keep down the flesh and keep the life pure in its weak appearance in them in the time of the Apostacy 33 The tender kindness of God to the simple and honest hearted in the time of the Apostacy 34 The ill use that the carnal mind now makes of it 34 The Ministry of the apostacy wrong in its nature and whole course feeding the fleshly part but not able to raise up and feed the soul 34 Of a recovery from the Apostacy the Lamb and the Saints again ruling 35 The preaching of the Gospel again in the world 36 The fall of inventions traditions and false worship with that whorish spirit which invented them and bewitched all Nations with them 36 Plagues to come upon them that abide in any part of Babylon 37 Who are still in some part or other of the apostacy and not recovered from it 37 What the spirit that ruleth in the apostacy raiseth up in men and what it suppresseth 38 How this Spirit intangled the simple hearted and held them in her snares even when there were pure stirrings of life to get loose from her 39 What the worship of men is in the apostacy and whom they worship 40 The onely way of recovery out of the apostacy 43 The enmity of this Nation against that Spirit which would recover it out of the apostacy 44 The danger of this enmity to the Nation 45 Salvation onely by the true knowledge of Christ 46 By the new covenant 46 The Laws whereof are to be written in the heart 47 Which can be done by none but the Spirit 48 Therefore the first thing to be known in Religion is the Spirit 48 The Spirit is first known as a convincer of sin 49 He convinceth by his light in the conscience 50 The light of conviction shineth in every conscience 50 Believing in this light is the true way to life 51 Believing in this light unites to God and opens the springs of life 52 How we came to the knowledg of the way to life 53 The true Heirs comfidence in God against all the powers of flesh 53 The springing up of the seed of God in this Nation with the great opposition against it 54 The spirit of error chargeth truth with those things which belong to it self 55 Truth would take away the error with that from whence it springs and wherein it lodges but that it is opposed and withstood at the very first even when it doth but begin to discover 57 Object That this is a new way answered 58 Obj. That this light is natural answered 59 Obj. That it makes the Scriptures void answered 59 Obj. That it teaches things contrary to the Scripture answered 61 Obj. That it sets up free-will answered 61 Obj. About wanting power answered 63 Obj. That this sets up a covenant of works answered 63 Obj. That it breaks down relations laws governments takes away due respect from Magistrates c. answered 65 A false healing of a true wound is the cause of error from the Spirit of life in ones self and of persecuting it in others 67 The wisdom which hath been gathering knowledg from the Scriptures in the apostacy must fall and all that knowledge come to naught before the truth can be received 68 Gods love in discovering the Apostacy and calling from it and
in this fear and this fear keeps the heart clean from the evil which defiles and preserves the love from the enmity which springs up where this fear is not Now this fear in the Apostacy was lost or else what needed there an especial ministry to be raised up to preach it again Rev. 14. 6. 7 And the estate of Christians every where doth manifest this loss for their hearts are not kept clean which sheweth that the fear which doth keep clean where it is is wanting in them There 's pollution there 's filth there 's deceit there 's high-mindedness self-conceitedness and love of the world and worldly vanities and many other evils to be found in the hearts of those that go for Christians and the purity of heart which comes from the fear and stands in the wisdom is not known They are wise to do evil but want the knowledge to avoid the evil and do the good They are wise to get and enjoy the world but know not the true riches They are wise to gather together many Scripture-words against sin and yet still keep the nature and life of it in the heart and it as a sweet morsel under the tongue They are wise to apply promises to comfort themselves with when sometimes they receive a just wound in their hearts from the righteous one but know not that nature or that estate and condition to which all the promises are made but are yet in that nature and in that estate and condition to which the curse appertains The true righeousnesse stands in the faith in hearing and obeying the word of faith How comes the righteousnesse of the law but by hearing and obeying the voice of the Law And how comes the righteousnesse of the Gospel but by hearing and obeying the word of faith who is preached and the Preacher of righteousnesse in the heart The Apostle Paul makes this comparison Rom. 10. The righteousnesse of the Law speaketh on this wise The man that doth those things shall live in them But how speaketh the word of faith The word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart he that doth that he that heareth that shall live in that The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Disobedience to the Law is unrighteousnesse and brings death and disobedience to the living word is unrighteousnesse and cannot be justified but condemned and obedience to it cannot be condemned but justified So that when the soul hears believes and obeyes then it is justified then its former sins are forgotten and this is imputed to it unto righteousnesse But when the soul will not hear will not believe will not obey this unbelief is judged in him and his sins retained and not remitted Now is not this a just and equall way of justification O ye sons of men is not your way unequal shall a man continue in the unbelief and rebellion against Christ against the light against the faith and yet be justified by Christ by the light by the faith This cannot be Gods way of imputation will stand but mans invented way of imputation which sprung up in the Apostacy will not stand If we walk in the light as he is in the light the blood clenseth but not otherwise If we walk after the spirit and not after the flesh there is no condemnation and not otherwise The true Baptism is the plunging down of the old thing with all its filth and the raising up of a new thing and it is the new thing the circumcision the baptism which is justified God justifieth his Son and man onely so far as he is bound in his Son The true sanctification consists in the growth of the seed and its spreading like a leaven over the heart and over the whole man By faith Christ is formed in the heart the hidden man in the mistery is formed there and as this seed this leaven this man growes so he makes the man holy in whom he grows The seed of life the Kingdom of heaven is an holy thing and as it grows and spreads it purgeth out the old leaven and makes the lump new But now in Christians that have grown up in the Apostacy this seed is not known this leaven is not so much as discerned but their holinesse consists in a conformity to rules of Scripture received into the old heart and understanding And what a noise hath this made in the world all this night of the Apostacy as if this were the heir and should inherit the Kingdom Nay nay The heir hath appeared by whose presence it is seen that this is not the heir and ye shall not be able to kill him but he shall live to enjoy his inheritance and the inheritance shall not be yours Redemption consists in being bought by the price of the life out of sin out of death out of the earth out of the power of the devil It is a casting off the strong man out of the heart with all that he brought in and a delivering from his power It is a dissolving of the work of sin which the Devil hath wrought in the heart and a setting the soul which is immortal at liberty free from sin and free unto righteousnesse this is the true Redemption But this redemption in the Apostacy is a fained redemption wherein salvation from sin and the Devil and his power is not felt but the strong man is still in the heart and keeps the soul in death and brings forth fruits of death daily The Christians formerly in the first day of the breaking forth of Gods power had Christ in them the living word opened their hearts to him received him in felt him there sound him made of God to them their wisdom their righteousnesse their sanctification their redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. They had the thing that these words signifie and speak of and knew the meaning of the words by feeling of the thing But Christians now in the Apostacy have got several apprehensions from the words without feeling the thing the words speak of and ther lies their Religion And now the true heir being come holding forth the thing they have been all talking of all Sects upon the earth are mad against him and would fain kill him They would not have the living substance which is the heir live and nothing be esteemed life but that but they would have their dead apprehensions from the words live and their dead forms and practises owned and the heir of life must come in their way in the way that they have hoped and waited for him or they will not own him Awake awake O ye Sons of the Apostacy and of the night rise up out of the fleshly wisdom out of the dead fleshly interpretations of Scriptures out of the dead invented forms of worship and bow to the Heir kiss the Son lest ye feel the force of that dreadful sentence Those mine enemies
which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me For of a truth the great Prophet is arisen and speaks in the heart and his sheep hear his voice there are many faithful witnesses thereof and he that will not hear his voice must be cut off there is no avoiding of it for the two-edged sword is in his hand and he will cut down the transgressor 8. The Church the true Church was lost The true Church was a company gathered out of the world into God begotten of and gathered into his life by the living word and so had a true place and habitation in God The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians stiles them a Church in God A Church under the Gospel is made up of true Israelites gathered out of their own spirits and natures into the measure of the spirit of God in them as Christ was into the fulnesse They are such as are begotten of God born of his spirit led by him out of Egypt through the wildernesse to Sion the holy mount there they meet with the elect precious corner stone which is laid in Sion and they being living stones are built upon it into Jerusalem the holy City 1 Pet 2. 5 6. Ebr. 12. 22. This is the true Church Every one that believes in Christ is a living stone and being a living stone he is laid upon the living foundation and so is a part of the building in the Temple of the living God Yea his body and and spirit being clensed he himself is a Temple wherein God dwels appears and is worshipped And the gathering of any of these together at any time in the life in the name of Christ is a larger Temple and such a Temple as Christ never fails to be in the midst of But the great Temple the ful Church is the general assembly of the first-born This is the unerring pillar and ground of truth This alwaies bare up truth truth never failed here but when it was at any time lost in the world it might from hence be recovered again when God pleased and as far as he pleased Indeed the Law of the Lord hath alwaies gone forth from this Sion and the living word from this Jerusalem But what hath the Church been in the Apostacy a building of stone say some and that not onely among Papists but here in England also many have called the old Mass-house a Church a Temple the house of God pleading for it to be a holy place and have showed it by their practises keeping off their hats while they were in it Others say not the stone building but the people that meet there is the Church whereof many are openly prophane yea so far from being gathered into the spirit and so ignorant of his motions that they are ready to scoffe if they hear a man speak of being moved by the spirit What are these are these living stones whereupon the true Church alone can be built are these children of the day Nay these are children of the night children brought up in the Apostacy from the true light the true life the true rule of Christianity the true worship the true faith the true love c. and so are dead stones in that building but not true living stones in Gods building Other sorts separate from these and gather Congregations out of these but still in the same spirit in the same nature being not themselves gathered out of the Apostacy from the spirit into the spirit again and so they build but with the same stones as were in the old building and not with the new and living stones and so are but a more refined appearance of a Church but not a true Church Not a Church in God and by the gathering of his spirit but of their own gathering after a form according as they have imagined from their reading and studying of the Scriptures 9. Which may be the last instance The Ministry the true Ministry hath been lost The true Ministry was a ministry made and appointed by the spirit by the gift of the Spirit bestowed on them and by the spirit sending of them and appointing them to their work Christ bid his Apostles and Disciples wait at Jerusalem for the promise of the spirit and when he had given them the spirit he gave them to the Church for the work of the Ministry Ephes 4. 11. 12. Act. 20. 28. And if none can be a member of the true Church but by being begotten out of death into life by the spirit surely none can be able to minister to him who is so begotten but by the same spirit So these receiving their Ministry of the Lord Jesus Act. 20. 24. and the gift of the spirit from him they were made able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the spirit 2 Cor. 3. 6. They were able in God to minister from his spirit to the spirits of his people And they did not minister a literal knowledg of things to the understanding of man but they led men to the spirit of God and ministred spiritual things to that spiritual understanding which was given them of God Neither did they make use of their own wisdom and art to tickle the natural ear but spake to the conscience with the demonstration of the spirit in the sight of God as it pleased the spirit to give them utterance But how have Ministers been made in the Apostacy By orders from men set up in their own wils after their own inventions And how have they been qualified but by humane arts and languages which have been of high esteem in that which men call the Church since the language and skill of the spirit of God hath been lost God who chose in his own Church doth not chuse here who shall be his Ministers but any man can appoint his Son to be a Minister if he will but educate him in learning and send him to the University and so bring him into that way of order wherein men make Ministers and then he is able to minister unto man the things of man according to human skil And this in the dark night of apostacy must go for a true call to the ministery of God Indeed they are as true Ministers as the Church is to which they minister but they never were nor never can be thus made Ministers of the Church of God but as God alone can form and build his Church so he alone can fit and appoint the Ministers thereof And though others having seen the grossenes of this make their ministers by a call in their Church yet neither is that out of the apostacy but onely a striving of man to get out of it which man cannot possibly do till he meet with the spirit of God to lead out of it So that that Ministry also is but an invention of man made by man and comes not from the spirit nor is able to minister spirit to the spirit
Object But hath there been no true Religion since the daies of the Apostes no true rule no true worship no true faith no true love no true hope joy or peace no true repentance conversion regeneration no true wisdom righteousnes sanctification and redemption no true Church no true Ministry What hath become of all our fore-fathers did they all perish And hath not this ministry converted many to God were not yee your selves converted by it Nay have not many of them been Martyrs and witnessed to the truth of God And though some of them are bad yet are not many of them zealous and conscientious Preachers of the Word at this day By such reasonings as these the wisdom of man much strengthens and hardens it selfe against the truth Answ The rule in Nations the worship in Nations the faith love hope joy peace repentance conversion regeneration c. which have been cried up in Nations for the truth the Churches in Nations the Ministry in Nations all these have been corrupted and never recovered their true state to this day There have been changes from one thing to another but the restauration hath not been known The whorish spirit hath been hunted puriued and so run out of one form into another traversing her way and changing her ground and garments but hath not been taken and judged to the death and the true spirit hath not been able to find the bed of her husband but hath wandered from mountain to hil all the time of this cloudy and dark day forgetting her resting place Yet though the whole earth was corrupted and false doctrine and worship set up every where among the Nations which continued the fornication and whoredom from the spirit of life in the publick wayes and national worships notwithstanding this even all this while God reserved a seed to himselfe which he caused to spring up in a remnant and which he moved and carried on to witnesse against somewhat of these corruptions in their several ages and generations And as fast as the beast killed and knocked down these God raised up more yea though the whorish spirit in some Nations painted her self curioussy leaving some of the grosse Doctrines and Worships of Popery and got into a more refined way yet God raised up witnesses against her there also and still doth into what form soever she gets for though of late she hath decked her self very pleasingly as she think and covered her selfe round with scripture-words and professions and practises as like as ever she can form them to the practises of former Saints yet quick and lively is the spirit of God that searcheth after her who hath found her out and raised up witnesses against her there also Now this seed this remnant though they were not able to recover the possession of the life and power that was lost yet they had a true taste of it and their testimony which they gave out from that taste was true and so far as they kept to this testimony in the faith and in the patience which they had learned and received from God though but in a low measure they were accepted of him So that all were not lost in this night of darkness but such as feared God and knew and hearkned to his voice had the testimony of his presence with them and tasted of his life and power in measure God was not an hard master to them but tender and gentle and contented to reap what he sowed But the appearance of God in this dark time was weak and low and easie to be made a prey of And this is very observable that so long as the simplicity ran pure it was preserved but so soon as ever the spirit of man was tempted either into any old or into any new invented form the wisdom of the flesh got in with it grew up more than it and when it had gathered strength corrupted the vessel betrayed the simplicity and lost the life Thus many pretious beginnings and buddings forth of life have been betrayed in these late daies There was a pretious thing stirring in Queen Maries dayes the life whereof was more hurt and suppressed by that dead form of Episcopacy succeeding afterwards then by the foregoing persecution The persecution did clear and brighten it but the fleshly form of Episcopacy brought death over it And the forms of Presbytery Independency Anabaptism have been little lesse then graves to bury and keep down the life How many spirits that had a precious savour in them at their entrance into those forms did soon become fleshly earthly and very unsavory loosing the quicknesse and freshness that was in them before and falling into the deadness of the form withering with it And as touching the Ministry though in it self it was evill being in the degeneration from the true Ministry all this time of the Apostacy and the persons therein for the most very corrupt being brought up to it as to a trade and making use of it as a trade yet I do believe that there was a simplicity of heart in some persons among them which did cause them in some degree of faithfulnesse to seek the Lord his service and the good of souls And in the time of ignorance and darkness it pleased God to wink at and over-look the evill and to cause good to passe from the good in them to the good in others through the evil that hung about both And this was the great tenderness of the Lord in pitty to his poor creatures who were very destitute to help in the thick night of darkness and should not now be made use of to justifie and keep up the evil Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unkind Because his mercy and goodness extended to you notwithstanding the evil which might have hindered will ye make that an argument to keep up the evill and to oppose the light which discovers it Because God causeth light to shine through the darkness and visiteth man in the dark wil ye therfore set up the darkness as his proper way of ministration The corrupt way call and exercise of the corrupt ministry could not keep out the tender love of God but he had respect to the simplicity of some who were found in it and to the simplicity of others who waited on him for instruction there and did please to give some answer to both And will ye make this uningenious use of it to interpret it as his approbation of that ministry which sprung up in the Apostacy from him among those that were apostatised and is a great dishonour to him and the abhorring of his soul A ministry of Christ a ministry set up by his spirit is precious but a ministry made by man according to his will and ministring in his wisdom the soul of the Lord beareth as a burthen and is pressed with it and as he raiseth up his own life wil ease himself of it And what do they minister from but the literal
part of the Scriptures which killeth and cannot give life and what do they minister with but their own understanding part what meanings they can invent what deductions the wisdom can draw from the Scriptures but do not see the true meaning in the infallible and unerring light and what do they minister to but the understanding part in you whereas there is somewhat else to be ministred to by the true Minister and what do they minister to you but food for the understanding food for the serpentine wisdom which alwaies fed upon knowledge but never upon the true bread and hereby another thing is fed in you and not your souls but they are kept in leanness and barrenness under death and the bondage of corruption which Paul cryed out upon as a wretched state and could find no ease rest or freedom from condemnation there and without the true life and redemption I do do not deny but ye may there meet with some kind of warmth in the affectionate part which may be heated by a fire and sparks of mans kindling and blowing up and this may go for life with you now but in the presence of the truth where the eye is opened it vanisheth yea the spirit of the Lord hath so blown upon it that it is even withered in the sight of a more inferiour eye in many people Position III. THat there is to be a recovery a true recovery out of this state of Apostacy into the true state of Christianity again God will not let the desolations of Sion remain for ever but he will again build up Sion and appear in his glory He will set his King upon his holy hill of Sion The new Jerusalem shall again come down from heaven The Man-childe which was taken up shall come down again conquering and to conquer the Lamb shal get the victory over the Whore and over all her apostatized Nations and Churches that have a name and not the life and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and make them a desolation which have made his holy city desolate and trample them down which have trampled upon it The lofty City he will lay low he wil lay it low even to the ground he wil bring it even to the dust The foot shall tread it down the feet of the poor the steps of the needy The whore shall be judged with the beast whereupon she rode the life which they trod upon shall rise up in the mighty power of the Lord and over-turn them The everlasting Gospel shall be again preached to them that dwel on the earth and to every Nation and kindred and tongue and people Rev. 14. 6. Mark the Gospel that was preached to the Nations all the time of the Apostacy was not the everlasting Gospel that Gospel did not bring life and immortality to life but they were hid from mens eyes and men had only a sound of words in stead of the thing And thus poor Nations kindreds people tongues were every where bewitched with a form of things with an outward knowledg a perishing knowledg in the perishing part a vain traditional invented worship which stands in the wisdom and will of man but had no union and fellowship with that which is everlasting And thus all the Nations in the smoke of the bottomlesse pit run into the pit from whence the smoke came But the Lord hath a time to pitty the poor Nations and to send forth his true everlasting Gospel again to deliver the Nations from that witchery and sorcery and spiritual inchantment which got up in the dark And as this everlasting light springs up then down goes Babylon down go all invented doctrines all invented forms all invented worships and that wisdom and evill spirit that raised them up Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drunk of the wine of the cup of her fornication Rev. 14. 1 And now the new wine of the kingdom which is tasted of in the everlasting Gospel purges out the old wine and the drunkennesse which thereby came upon the Nations wasts And they that have tasted of this life and know this life can never be bewitched back again by the whorish spirit to dead forms â—nd likenesses without life Nay when Babylon falls she can rise no more Though the life fall often it can rise again but when the witchery from the life is discovered and cast into the pit it can get out no more Indeed the beast hath had all the strength of the Nations and the whore hath had all the wisdom all the esteem all the honor who can make war with the beast who can shew miracles and wonders like the false Prophets who can teach but the wise learned orthodox men that have the arts and know the original yea there 's another that can make war and a Prophet that can preach better then them one that can preach life one that can preach the everlasting Gospel and knows the original of it one that is wiser and stronger then the whore and by his wisdom and strength is able to judge her and cast her out of the Nations though she hath got very strong possession Rev. 18. 8. Now learn wisdom know the parable of the fig-tree come to the life that is arisen and abide not in the death that is passed and passing away Ye have heard the voice of the Whore ye have drunk of her cup ye have been bewitched ye have set up her inventions but have wanted the thing which cannot be invented and which the inventing understanding cannot comprehend But if the force of the wine still remain upon you so that ye cannot hearken after or let in that which is everlasting assure your selves as the life rises ye will meet with plagues and wrath from it in stead of the refreshments it brins to others and know what it is to sit down under a dead talk of without feeling the living power of redemption Therefore be wise and know the times and seasons That will not be born with now which was born with formerly but as the love and power of God to salvation hath more appeared so the severity against those who now resist will appear more also And death shall have its sting which they that will love darknesse and hate the light shall feel Position IV. THat they that are in those things which have been set up in the times of the Apostacy are not yet come to the recovery from the Apostacy They that are in the Doctrines and bodies of Divinity which have been formed since are not in the true Doctrine They that are in the rules of life which wise Church-men or Synods or Councils have given or which they themselves have gathered by their industry out of the Scriptures are not in the true living and everlasting rule They that are in the worship or under the Ministry or of any Church which hath been set up since by the power of man
of bread Idolatry Answ The praying which God appointed is not Idolatry Praying in the Spirit of God when he moves and according to the will of God which is onely known in the Spitit is not Idolatry but thy praying in thine own spirit and at thine own times and according to thine own wil perhaps in way of imitation of the Jewish morning and evening Sacrifices this is Idolatry This is that which thou hást set up in stead of that which God set up and so it is not the true thing which God set up but an Idol of thine own making and so thou worshippest not God therein but that spirit which helped thee to invent and set up the Idol The same might be said concerning preaching singing washing with water breaking of bread and what ever else is practised in Religion upon these terms Object But doth not the Scripture mention these things and did not the Saints practise these things surely they were not Idolaters Can I be an Idolater in practising that which they practised Answ Nay thou art mistaken they are not the things which they practised The stress of their Religion lay in the life of it in the presence of the spirit of God in it it was his breath made it the truth Now if thou couldst have the same things that they had yet without the same living breath they would be but dead things but Idols But thou hast not the true form of things neither thou hast not the true Church the true Ministry the true Ordinances according to the form but things set up in their stead by the invention of man in the time of the Apostacy from the true things and what can these be but Idols The world wondered after the beast and they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast Rev. 13. 3 4. Behold what was worshipped at the time of the Apostacy That which arose from the beastly invention of man and not from the true spirit of life And the inventing and setting up of these and worshipping according to these inventions is worshipping the Dragon for he getteth in and lodgeth in mans inventions and not the living God And therfore God at the end of this Apostacy raiseth up a new ministry to recal the Nations from worshipping the Dragon to the worship of God again ver 6. 7. of that Chapter What the Gentiles sacrificed of old they sacrificed to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10. 20. And what the late Gentiles sacrifice I mean Christians in the heathenish nature Christians to whom the outward court was given Rev. 11. 2. and who have not a profession of the Saints words and practises but without life they sacrifice not to God neither but to that spirit that helped them to invent and form a likenesse or image of the truth Transgressing the principle of God within they go from God and from his worship and the Devil who went out from the truth gets in and they go into his power and whatever they perform in worship there is to him for when they go from the principle of God in them the Devil gets into their hearts and God goes out and his true life power and worship is not known but an image or likeness which the Devil sets up in stead of the true thing So then in that state let men consider what they worship for there they cry up ordinancies and duties and kill one another about them thinking that they worship and honour God thereby but know not nor are come to that wherein God alone can be worshipped and honoured I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not saith the spirit Rev. 2. 9. is this blasphemy For a man to call himself a Christian who is not what is that to call that a Church which is not what is that to call him a Minister of Christ who is not what is that to call those the Ordinances of Christ which are not what is that to call that faith which is not that justification which is not c. what is that Can ye spy out the blasphemer ye have made a great out-cry against him long are ye willing now he should be put to death The Lord hath lighted his candle he is searching for him and he will find him out and as he have desired so it shall be the Lord will not spare him O be awakened be awakened ye heathenish Christians Open the eye that can see and behold where ye are and what ye are doing and how fast ye are running into the pit Ye have forgotten God ye have lost the true line of judgement ye have lost the key of knowledg and the light that is in you is darkness and leads to darkness though ye cannot possibly believe it Oh come back to the remembrance of God and and to true holinesse without which no man shall see him for the wicked shall be turned into hel and all the Nations that forget God and ye have forgotten him days without number Position V. THat the onely way of recovery out of the Apostacy is by returning to and keeping in that spirit from which the Apostacy was The Apostacy came by leaving the spirit of God and running after another spirit and the recovery must be by leaving that other Spirit and returning to the spirit of God again How did Christians formerly begin their Religion They began in the Spirit Gal 3. 3. and so they were to go on to perfection and not intermix any thing of the flesh And had the anointing been kept to Antichrist and the mystery of iniquity had been kept out and where that is returned to the Antichristian spirit is purged out by degrees and the wayes thereof discovered and forsaken Therefore know the whorish Spirit in thy self which is busy to form likenesses in thy mind to seduce thee and to make thee fall in love with the likenesses which she hath formed in other mens minds and let her not deceive thee with her paint and gawdy appearances but know likewise the little seed of life from which truth springs up in thee and in which the spirit of truth dwels and is to be found and take heed least the serpentine wisdom teach thee to despise and turn from it From this spring it was that truth sprung up in the witnesses all the time of the Apostacy for they had their testimony from the spirit of Prophesie Rev. 19. 10. So far as they kept to that they gave a true testimony so far as their own spirits mixed with it they corrupted it But to abide in that was very hard and there was need of much affliction and persecution to keep the flesh down and to preserve the life pure But as the life springs up more strongly and overcomes that spirit inwardly I mean the wise fleshly spirit there wil be less need of outward afflictions or persecutions yea or inward either but there will be a safe
entrance into and abiding in the joy the rest the peace where the whore within which seduced from the life where the power is into some form where the power is not is burnt Learn then and know in thy self that spirit of prophesy which spake in all the Martyrs Hear that come to that keep to that feel the union the fellowship the spreading of that in thee When that bids thee go go when that bids thee come come when that bids thee do this do it But the flesh is grown strong and strongly resisteth this spirit both inwardly and outwardly and will not suffer him to rise up in the heart or to rise up in the Nation but at any time when he stirreth and offers to speak or lead to God there 's a reason rises up in the fleshly wisdom that knocks him down and denies his voice and hearkens to another voice in stead of his Thus they first give way to the fleshly wisdom and suppress the truth in themselves and then they would go forth and suppress it in others and they think them mad and their rage riseth against them where the truth is suffered to grow and mans reason or fleshly wisedom denyed And thus is the Lord of Glory evil intreated and slain at this day by this generation of Christians as he was by the Jewes slain formerly in the Prophets in that his appearance in a fleshly form and in his Apostles and his blood will be required for the earth shall not alwaies drink it up and cover it nor the adulterous woman be alwaies able to wipe her mouth and say she hath done no wickedness Ye have saved alive the unjust and killed the just The murthering nature is alive in you O ye Christians but the holy one is slain and lies buried in your graves and ye have painted your graves and speak good words of him but still keep him down and let another rise up and live in you Ye cry up that appearance of Christ in the flesh and the words he then spake and the words of his Apostles and think that if he had lived in those dayes ye would not have killed either him or his Apostles and yet ye resist and oppose the same life in your selves and in others with such a kind of wisdom in the letter as the Pharisees had O what will ye do the uncircumcised ear is got up in you and ye cannot hear and the uncumcised heart and ye cannot understand but when this is told you ye despise and wonder and go on in the perishing state My bowels my bowels I am pained at my bowels O England England thou that killedst the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes thou that persecutedst the non-conformists afterwards that thou wouldst not suffer the people of God to meet together to seek him with an honest heart but wouldst confine them to thy gross formal wayes of worship Though the Lord hath appeared and broken the horns of the Oppressors yet the persecuting spirit is not broken in thee but thou still huntest after the precious life of the seed and wouldst not let it spring up in the Nation The spirit of enmity is still up in thee which knows not the Lord of life but by a natural instinct opposeth him and would fain keep up some grave or other it cares not what so it might but thereby keep down the life for thou canst now bear with any form and cherish it and thy onely enmity is against those who are sent by the Lord to gather out of all forms into the life How often would the Lord have gathered thee but thou wouldst not and yet seeks to gather thee but still thou wilt not but as if the former laws made in Queen Maries dayes were not sufficient desirest new laws to ensnare and entangle the innocent What wil become of thee or what wil thou say to the Lord when he ariseth to plead the cause of the innocent for that Spirit which he raised up to witness against the whorish spirit which lies hid in thy forms of worship and religion appears in all thy Laws Councils and waies of Government so far as they formed and so far as they are guided by the wisdom of the flesh is innocent even as that spirit which witnessed formerly against Popety and Episopacy was innocent before the Lord though accused by them as guilty of error in it self and of disturbance to the publique peace as this is now by thee Some Principles guiding out of the Apostacy to the Christian Spirit and Life again 1. THat there is no salvation but by the true knowledg of Christ The Jews had received the ordinances of God and knew of the Messiah to come and believed it and were very zealous in their worship in observation of Circumcision the Passeover New moons and Sabbaths c. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God and yet God complains of them by his Prophet My people perish for lack of knowledg And the state is the same under the Anti-christian Apostacy wherein the whore hath made all nations kindreds tongues and languages drunk with the cup of her fornication the true knowledg and worship hath been lost though the eyes of them that have been in the apostacy and drunk with the cup could not see it no more then the Jews could in their day But to come close to the thing The knowledge of Christ is not litteral traditional or fleshly nor can it be received by the natural understanding but it is spiritual and the understanding must be given by God which receives it He hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5. 20. A man may read Scriptures hear Sermons c. and thereby gather a knowledge into the old understanding but neither this understanding into which the knowledge is gathered nor the knowledge it self which is gathered is spiritual but fleshly and so cannot save He that comes once to receive an understanding from Christ and to have the knowledge of Christ powred forth from Christ into his heart knowes the difference between that and the understanding into which he gathers things The knowledge of Christ after the letter and a faith in him answerable to such knowledge will not save but a man must know him in that spirit life and power wherein he lived if he groundedly hope to be saved by him 2 Cor. 5. 16. 17. 2. That Christ saves by the new covenant Not by any thing got into the minde by the oldness of the letter but by a life begotten which is new There are two covenants made mention of in Scripture one whereof is called the old the other the new The old belonged to the Jewes which is done away with their ceremonies state and polity the new which is better then the former Christ is the mediator of Heb. 8. 6. By mediating between God and the creature or by bringing them together in and according
light and there enjoyes the fulness of life and he gives a measure of his own light to draw from the darkness and he who believes and follows this is led by it unto God from whom it came and being come out of the darkness unto him he begins again to feel the springs of life the fresh springs of life which are in him He that believeth is come to the well of salvation and draws living water out of it and drinks of the living water continually so that he can thirst no more yea out of his belly flow rivers of living water This is the fruit of the true faith but this is not the fruit of the faith of the Apostacy but there the soul remains stil disunited to God and united to the darkness and drinks not of the living streams but drinks dead water the fountain of pure life is not open to it but the fountain of iniquity and that blood which clenseth and taketh away the sin is not known There is onely a dream of these things in the dark night of apostacy by which dream the conscience is a little quieted for the present but when the witnes awakes and the light of the day shines the soul which is lean wil find it self in the hands of the enemy in the bonds of sin and feel that it never new that power that could redeem it but the subtil Serpent deceived it with a name in stead of the thing This is the true way the narrow way I can in the presence of the living God set my seal to the truth of it which it hath pleased God to discover and make manifest again after the long dark night of Apostacy And we come not to it by hearing or receiving of any new notions or apprehensions of things but by feeling that which puts an end to all creaturely notions and apprehensions and we grow in it by the increase of that thing in us The seed to which the promise was made the seed which was before Abraham was is felt and his day is seen and rejoyced in and by the light thereof the darkness is discovered and the kingdom of darkness is assaulted And as it dayly fals in many particulars so it shall at length fal in the general and the Kingdoms of this world shal become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and ye shal reign upon the earth where sin and Antichrist have long reigned and kept him down And though there be a great rage and out-cry among the people and heathenish professors yet the decree is gone forth and Sions King shal reign upon the holy hill of Sion and the hills and mountains shal melt before him and the earth shal shake round about him Therefore gather your selves together muster up your strong forces O ye several sorts of carnal professors Let all your differences one against another fal and joyn together against him who is against you all improve the Serpents wisdom and form arguments out of the Scripture thereby with the utmost of the skil and understanding of flesh get the Kings Rulers and Magistrates of the earth on your side too handle all the weapons of the flesh skilfully Dispute reproach revile whip stock imprison starve nay put to death See if you can uphold your kingdom for there is a mighty one come forth against you who will take the vineyard the kingdom the inheritance from you and give it to another and on you shall come that death and darkness that misery and destruction which ye have put far from you and preached as the portion of others Therefore consider your condition in the fear of the Lord and if ye feel not your selves able to fight it out make your peace betimes and let your greatest crowns your choisest wisdom and strength in the flesh be laid down at the feet of Christ at the lowest appearance of his light in the conscience Let not the least check of his spirit be spighted there but esteemed above the highest notions of light that ye have gathered in or can gather with your fleshly understandings And indeed it is no less then its due for this which runs fresh from the Spirit is more living in it self and more proper to that mans present estate to whom it comes then whatever he himself by his understanding can gather from the letter There hath been a precious seed of God long stirring in this Nation but it hath been oppressed and kept in bondage by the spirit of Pharoah and his wise Egyptians who would subject it to their laws and worships and not let Israel go out of Egypt at Gods cal to worship him in spirit and truth but would keep him in forms and waies of mans invention The Lord hath poured out his plagues upon this spirit and more and more wrought out the liberty of his people but as the plagues cease this spirit hardens it self and assaies the reducing of Israel into bondage again And as Pharoah renews the bondage of Israel so God renews the plagues on Pharoah and his Egyptians Pharoah hath a stubborn wil and a great wisdom and power and is loth to let Israel go but the Lord also is wise and strong and hath a wil more righteous then Pharoahs and by his wisdom and strength will he effect his will and Pharoahs shal not stand Who is such a stranger in Israel that hath not observed that as God began to raise up the seed in this Nation and cal it into liberty so the spirit of the wise Egyptians rose up against it exclaiming of error heresy blasphemy new waies new lights c And doubtless many tares have sprung up but the aime of the enemy was not so much to pluck up these tares as to destroy the one good seed of wheat Herod did not aime at killing all the Infants in Bethlehem but he would rather kill them all then have Christ live What preaching on the one hand what running to the Magistrate on the other hand and all to destroy this young babe When any different way of worship did appear as of Independency Anabaptism or of seeking and waiting for the truth how did they make an head against them and cry out against them for fear the young child should be born and appear there And now they see their own image brought forth there they are at peace with them and having discovered that where no part of the image or mark can be received but there is another nature in life and truth brought forth and no form without life wil down now they know where to shoot all their darts now they know against whom to invent and speak all manner of evil and against whom to direct all their envy rage and out-cryes and to prepossess all sorts of persons every where with all manner of prejudices that the truth may not spread any where but be opposed every where And all persons minds there are so filled before hand with the venome of the
Serpent that truth cannot come any where but it finds the enmity already stirred up and prepared to withstand it This is a new way a new light saies one we know a Religion before this came up and we wil keep to that let who wil run after these new sects and ways A natural light the old light of nature saith another or the corrupted light of Adam which hath run along through all his posterity Another out-cry is that it makes the Scriptures void and useless Others cry out that it teacheth things contrary to the Scriptures that it sets up free-wil that it leads to a covenant of works that it breaks down Relations Laws Governments takes away due respect from Magistracy and Superiours and turns the world upside down Thus the worldly spirit is every where up in arms and a zeal kindled every where to keep it out of every heart and out of every place and country Now these are not real things but such kind of slanders and reproaches as alwaies have attended truth The Prophets of God Christ and his Apostles though they have been spoken wel of afterwards yet they have ever been hated spoken il of and persecuted by the generation of professors of their age The Scribes and Pharisees could not with so great advantage have persecuted Christ and his Apostles without a seeming zeal for the Law and Prophets and yet it was the same spirit that so vehemently cryed up the Law the Prophets the Ordinances of Moses that persecuted the spirit and life in Christ and his Apostles from whence the Law the Prophets and Ordinances came And thus it is at this day though that Spirit is as blind now as it was then and cannot see through its own cover though it be as weak and narrow as theirs was The guilty chargeth the innocent that it might hide its own guilt and keep its covering The guilty Jewes and the guilty Scribes and Pharisees charged the Prophets Christ and his Apostles that they might not be found guilty by them and their formal covering rent from them And thus it is at this day Truth is risen to make manifest mens false coverings and the guilt and hypocrisy that lies hid underneath now to save themselves they are prepared before hand to lay that charge against truth which truth hath against them Search thine heart resist not the light thou that haste charged the truth with any of these things and thou wilt find it thine own condition The truth is no new light or new way and they that hold it forth do not hold forth any new way or new light but it is thou that hast left the good old light the good old way which was before the apostacy and hast fallen in with some new light some new way invented and set up since the Apostacy It is thou again that settest up the natural light the fallen wisdom the wisdom which is out of the life and in enmity with the life with this thou feedest that understanding which is to be brought to naught and when thou hast done this thy selfe then thou callest the spiritual light wherewith God hath pursued it in all ages a natural light It is thou that with this wisdom searching into the Scriptures and gathering the oldness of the letter into the old understanding makest the Scriptures void and useless to thy soul and canst not meet with that life and power which they speak of but stil art alive in thy sins and dead unto God and then thou cryest out against that which comes to discover this to thee and to bring thee out of this dead knowledg into the life of the Scriptures thou cryest out against this as if this made the Scriptures useless And when thou hast set up an whole body of knowledge religion and worship quite contrary to the Scriptures which the truth comes to make manifest then Cains nature riseth up in thee and thou takest up Cains weapons and fain wouldest thou kill thy brother because his sacrifice in the faith testifies against thine which is out of the faith and contrary to the true testimony of the Scriptures Again for free-wil and a Covenant of works Thou hast set up a religion in the old will and works not according to the new Covenant of life but according to the old Covenant of death and by this thou preachest that wil to be free which is in bonds and settest up the works of mans righteousness and conformity to the letter for the works of the new Covenant And for Governments and Laws That which is according to God which is a terror to the evil and a praise to them that do wel that which is liberty to the just and a curb to the unjust this thou art against and cryest out daily for the turning of the Magistrates Sword against the innocent because they are a light to discover thy deeds of darkness which be out of the light and disturb thy peace and thy settlement in that which is fleshly and of man and not of God So for relations and honour to Magistrates The transgressing nature hath brought up a wrong thing a fleshly thing an honour a duty which is of the flesh and pleaseth the flesh and is not according to God And this is not honour indeed not an honour that wil stand not an honour that will be justified in the sight of God but is a shame to them that give it and a shame to them that receive it discovering that they are servants to the flesh giving to and receiving from the fleshly part that which the fleshly part which crucifies the life cals for and is pleased with All that the light doth to these things is to discover and condemn them and the end of its discovery is that they might be removed and truth and righteousness brought in the stead of them But mans evil heart which is the cause of them cries out against the light as if the light brought them whereas if man could but be quiet and stil and suffer the work of the light upon him he would find that the same light which discovereth them would also purge them away and leave neither root nor branch of iniquity either in mens hearts or in relations or families or towns or cities or laws or governments and there would be no want of honour Now though the Serpents wisdom is irreconcilable that understanding which stands there cannot be satisfied but must be confounded and brought to nought 1 Cor. 1. 19. yet because underneath all this there is a simplicity in some which is betrayed for the relief of that somewhat further may be spoken in answer to these things Object 1. To the first Objection that this is a new way or new light I answer Answ It is new indeed to them who have lain long in the Apostacy and set up another light but it is not new in it self but the same that was in the beginning yea and before the beginning also
part in every sort and Sect of men opposeth us the rage of man every where riseth up against us But those that are so hot against us if at any time they become but meek and calme patiently considering our cause and consulting there upon with the testimony that they finde in their own hearts concerning us they soon become pacisied and see that we are no mans enemies against no righteous Law not against relations not against Governments not against any thing in the World that is good but only against that which is evil and corrupt And of a truth the corruption of things God hath shewed unto us and daily cals us forth after an immediate manner to witness against Therefore let men be sober and take heed what they do least they be found fighters against God for the reproaches the scoffs with other presecutions which seem to be cast at us light on him It is not as we are men but as we are obedient to him as we stand witnesses for him that we meet vvith these things Novv as it is not vve our selves that do these things but the life and povver of God in us so it is not vve that are struck at but that life and povver If it vvere not for that vve might be as acceptable as other men It is because vve are not of the World but God hath called us out of the World that vve are so hated of the World This is the true cause though the World vvill no more novv acknovvledge it than it vvould in former ages Yet I do not speak this for my ovvn sake to avoid my share in the cross for the reproach of Christ is our riches yea far greater treasure then is to be found in the Palace of Egypt Yea the presence of God the svveet povver of life makes up all our losses so that vve have no cause to complain It is very svveet pleasant and profitable for us to be found sufferers for God but vve knovv it vvill not be profitable for you to be found persecutors and this is told you in true love and good vvill by one vvho vvishes no evill to you for all the evill that ye have exercised tovvard the dear and precious people of God for these many years O that God vvould open your eyes that ye might see vvhom yee have opposed and against vvhom ye have hardened and strengthned your selves that ye might bovv to him and receive life from him and not perish in your gainsaying and opposition I. P. The cause of all error from the truth and the Universall call out of it into the low voice and beginnings of the true Eternal light which is the only leader to Eternall life and to followship in it NOw is the calling in of the Jews of the Papists of the Christians of all Sects upon the earth to the Lord into the fould into the covenant of God into the end of the Prophets the end of Moses the end of Abrahams words the end of the Apostles preaching into the substance Christ who is come to gather together in one and reconcile in one things in heaven and things in earth into covenant with God and this is the age the call is gone out the voice is gone out and the trumpet sounding for all to come in and the spirit bids come and he that hears may come and the bride and the Lamb saith come who raigns and the great war is begun and the slaughter shall be till the tenth of the spoile shall be offered up and the gathering of all Nations is come and the war among all Nations shall be and all shal be on heaps before the light of the Son of God be risen in the hearts of all people with which he must be seen and receive his government upon his shoulders Now is he come to raigh who doth enlighten every man that comes into the World Jews Gentiles Papists Christians Independents Baptists Heathens and all the Sects upon the earth whatsoever and all in the light are to be gathered into one minde and heart and soule and spirit concerning God and the Scriptures concerning the Prophets concerning Christ and the Apostles and concerning the types and parables and the figures with the light they shall see all and have unity with all who being out of the light they see not one another nor the Prophets nor Christ nor parables nor types nor figures and so have not unity with their words and so out of covenant with God and one another in the earthly nature in lusts strife and pride which causeth the wars which must be all burnt up and the cause of all peoples upon the earth setting up Images and Idols is because they are gone from the light which Christ hath enlightned them with all and so bows down to them but to the light should every one bow to Christ and to confesse him to the glory of God the cause of all them that are called Christians in Christendom setting up and making Images crosses and Idols likenesses and pictures names and worshipping Names 〈…〉 hath enlightned them withall and so they set up likenesses Images and Idols and fals down to them to put them in minde of Christ which coming to the light which Christ hath enlightned them withall every knee shall bow to him who is Immanuel and confess him to the glory of God and receive his minde and they need not have any outward thing to put him in their minde and the cause of all high notions of God Christ and Scriptures that are making Images and likenesses of things in heaven and setting up their imaginations of the Prophets Christs and the Saints words and falling out about them is because they be from the light which Christ hath enlightned them withall and t is the cause why the Jews rest in the types in the outward letter preist tythes temples shadows is because they be from the light which Christ hath enlightned them withall in which all people should have unity one with another with God and with Scriptures Jews and Gentiles to be gathered together in one with God with one another with Scriptures in which light people should have peace with God and one with another which is the covenant of God with man in which covenant people being in covenant one with another shall shake all Nations saith the Lord that that may appear that cannot be shaken and such an earth-quake shall be upon the World and the cause of all heresy and Sects and opinions Judgments and errors and false Prophets and deceiving men is going from the light which Christ hath inlightned them withall and the devil going out of truth which truth destroyes him and his works and death who being the power of it who hath blinded the minds of all the transgressors upon the earth who went out of the truth So this is the true light who hath inlightned every one that cometh into the World that all through the light might believe and