houshold of Faith a Religionist a Christian an heir and child of God but he that hath not such a Faith nor suffereth the fruits of love to grow and blossome in a right godly and not seeming-holy way or nature he knoweth neither of Faith Religion nor Christianitie yea of no God in truth though he understood all the Scriptures all mysteries and Articles of beleef and could thereof talk and dispute eloquently and rationally even as an Angel of Light yet is he in Gods sight an unbeleever a miserable and contemnable man for he hath not in him the living power of the living Faith which alwayes is fruitfull in love therefore he talketh and prateth much of Faith and its righteousnesse yet he knoweth not what either Faith or Faiths works are whiles he doth not find and feel them experimentally inwardly in spirit and truth nor outwardly sheweth his talking and knowledge in deeds and works which God and good men may approve With such unprofitable Bablers is alas at this day all the world replenished namely with such as with open mouth cry Lord Lord prophesie and do signes and wonders but fulfill and accomplish not the will of God in power all these are but external plaisterers external cryers and seekers of Christ and the Faith despisers of the inward power of God or of the living Word of Faith and the whole kingdom of God in men in whom and by whom is the fulfilling of the Commandements and also the true Christian freedome in holinesse and righteousnesse Therefore thou Faith-conceited Man beseech God that he would work this living Faith in thee and free thee from this damnable and wrath producing imaginarie faith since that thou by this faith prated into thee hast imagined to thy self a freedome to sinne to transgresse Gods Commandments relying upon Absolution according to thy accustomed manner whereby alas thou art verily free but not from sinne as Christs kingdom requireth but from God and the fulfilling of his will and the observation of his Commandements in perfect obedience and so art become truly a slave of Satan 1 Joh. 3. v. 7 8 9 10. Every one therefore that will be a master of Faith let him behave himself as a pattern unblameable inwardly by the office of the holy Spirit in doctrine and outwardly in life as a follower of Jesus Christ He that boasteth of faith let him shew the new obedience of faith by a new righteous holy and to Christ-conformable life and conversation in the Love of God and his neighbour He that vaunteth of the Articles of Faith let him shew them forth in deed and truth for God is served neither with knowledge babling nor disputation nor yet the Church of the Saints which overcometh all things with Love in Patience and consequently not with words but with power Therefore O beloved Man that sayest that thou beleevest in God or but that there is a God make thy faith appear with true fruit in the strict observation of his commandements otherwise is thy saying vain and thou in truth beleevest on no God nor that there is a God for otherwise thou wouldest tremble and shake at the breach of his Commandements Thou that sayest I beleeve that Christ is dead for me shew then by thy self in deed the death of Christ namely that thine old Adam is buried with him thy lust and desire is crucified with him and thou risen again with Christ in a new nature or life of the Spirit otherwise is thy faith of Christ an historicall knowledge without all power and propertie of Faith Thou that sayest I beleeve a Church of Saints which the holy Spirit enlightneth sanctifieth and purifieth examine thy self whether the holy Spirit doth inwardly enlighten teach chastise admonish anoint guide govern lead and direct thee and thou also hast by the power of the holy Spirit the kingdom of God revealed in thee so that thou resistest all that exalteth it self against Gods will his knowledge and confession through the office or power of the holy Spirit and that the tentation from the world flesh and blood and wicked enemie is a right hellish torment to thee so then art thou a true member of the true Church of Christ Sayest thou O Man so I am for I am a baptized Christian O beloved Man shew forth the drowning of the old Adam the mortification of his lusts and desires and the renuntiation which thou hast made to the Devill the World and the Flesh in truth so that they rule no more in thee nor move thee to sin though they entice stirre and egge thee on to it Doest thou not or findest thou not this so then art thou an unbaptized and unchristened man for thou livest in the old and not in the new birth therefore art thou a violator of the Covenant of God Sayest thou yet I partake of the flesh and blood of Christ If thou partake thereof then shew the living-making power of the flesh of Christ and that the blood of Christ hath cleansed thee from all sins in words and works so hast thou truly partaken of the flesh and blood of Christ otherwise goest thou to the Lords Supper to thy double condemnation In summe all the Articles must live sensibly in thee and outwardly demonstrate the living power of love otherwise is thy Christianitie meer hypocrisie seeming holinesse self chosen godlinesse and imaginarie faith which do but further the destruction both of body and soul as alas appeareth before our eyes and yet no man taketh it to heart or will duely examine himself Two Questions verie necessarie concerning these present and continuing Warres viz. 1. From whence Warre doth spring 2. By what meanes it ends AS the inward exterpation or rooting out of Jesus Christ with his holy and threefold office in mans soul which when she is obedient unto and receives him he then as the true and onely high-Priest perfectly reconciles sanctifies cleanses and presents her as a new creature to his heavenly Father in holy attire of Love and as the onely Master and Teacher in her sent from the heavenly Father makes her remember her miserie in penitencie chastises her instructeth teacheth guideth and preserves her from the spirit of errour and thus in her powerfully exerciseth his royall office as her Head and LORD to the utter ruine and demolishing of the Devils Sin pallace bruising the head of the subtle and holy-seeming Serpent quenching and suppressing of all that shall exalt it self against his inward kingdom of grace as also to the overcoming of all outward enemies through the Spirit of Prayer and his iron Rod or Scepter and thus killeth and crucifieth sin Death the Devill Hell the Flesh and Blood and break asunder the whole kingdom of sin so that it can no more bring under subjection or into darknesse the soul which he hath redeemed is the onely cause of unbelief and from thence springing unrighteousnesse wickednesse malice hypocrisie self-chosen godlinesse outward false worship of God or Sectarie
for the time of Life to Repentance passeth and hasteth with greatest speed to an end bring forth true and upright fruits of Repentance for with false and seeming fruits God will not be baffled off nor appeased and with Nineveh humble your selves from your very Heart unfeignedly and prostrate your selves down before the highly displeased God or else you shall perish in a more terrible manner for the slowlier the sharper and severer the Judgement of God will break forth which no going to Church Preaching or hearing of Sermons shall divert though ye should use and practise them daily according to your accustomed manner as other Nations in other places have done and yet for all that are ruined but bring upon you the like judgement as other confumed Countreys and Regions have felt nay draw and hasten upon your selves a farre heavier judgement Therefore he that yet will be advised and take counsell let him arise and go forth out of his own private little and fleshly Babell and consequently also out of the great and publick Babel lest he perish in them in body and soul For the wrath of the Lambe shall soon shew it self in a right Lion-like property against his mockers and despisers Therefore let him kisse with true and heartie penitentiall tears him that may be kissed lest he perish in his own vain Way and be thrown from bodily into everlasting Destruction O thou blinded Babel be I beseech thee intreated for Gods sake and for thine own salvations sake to relinquish that damnable Imaginarie-Belief being but an opinion prated into thee as if thou sufferest as a right and pure Spouse of Christ for the true Religion and right fear of God for were 't thou the Spouse of Christ and practised the right and true Fear of God without all doubt God would be thy mercifull Father and not thy consuming fire O how heartily would Christ thy Head and thy Husband take care for thee and cover thee in motherly Love and tendernes under His Wings Ah how would the Holy Ghost intercede for thee with unspeakable Groanings so that the Just Fire of Gods Wrath could not thus consume thee yea how heartily would thou rejoyce if it should be the will of God to baptize thee with the Baptisme of the Crosse for the confession of His Son for as much as thou thereby shouldst be made like unto the Image of God But O Babell thou art neither inwardly nor outwardly fashioned and framed in the right form after Christ Jesus thy Lord and God Ah thou Arch-whore wherefore imaginest thou thy self to be a Virgin since thou art so throughly impregnated and defiled with the Diabolical seed of Sin that neither in thee nor about thee there is no appearance at all of any thing else to be seen or heard but sin sin sin O remember how by thy kingdom of sin thou shalt together with thy Paramour the Devill by whose instigation and motion thou dost plead so hard for the cursed kingdom of sin in thee and not so much as de firest once through Christ to become perfectly Righteous and without sin but wilt to the utter Contempt of His Holy Merits use thy Saviour as a daily servant of sin be cast into the pit of Hell with a double hellish torment for all thy crying and saying Lord Lord and for all thy Preaching Prophecying Signes and Wonders c. and then thou shalt rightly and really perceive and know whether as Babell saies Christ cannot chuse but love the wicked and malicious sinners whom He both threatneth and also makes to feel wo wo temporally and eternally Now he therefore that will escape the place of torment temporally and eternally let him in right earnest without any hypocrisie and simulation direct his Heart to God powring it out and all that is in it wholly and fully before him lamenting and saying for himself and for others with a broken heart and contrite spirit bitterly heartily and moanfully thus O Thou great God and terrible LORD of Hosts Ah we Men have sinned we have committed unrighteousnesse and have been ungodly we are wholly revolted from Christ Jesus our inward Living Fountain whereby we are totally departed from thy Commandments and statutes and are become sinners deserving nothing but punishment Ah Lord our Teachers Princes and Rulers and all the people have so trespassed against thee that they have forsaken thine inward Law and Testimonie transgressed thine outward Covenant neglected thy Voice nor would hear the same in them but have sought all from without and are thereby become so unprofitable that there is scarce one that doth good yea not one and yet we will not learn to be ashamed that thy beloved Son Christ Jesus is rooted out of his true inward Church Temple and Dwelling nor freely and openly confesse and acknowledge these our great sins and horrible transgressions that thereby thou mightest be again reconciled to us in and by Christ the onely Mean of Reconciliation and unition with thee the living God and turn thy countenance to us in grace through the Mercie-Seat which we by the new extirpation of him out of our souls have more horribly committed then ever the Jews did by the outward crucifying of him Nay we plaister over such our misdoings with our outward customary worship of God by which we moreover wickedly varnish over our heathenish ungodly yea altogether Diabolicall life and doings with a manifestly pernitious and damnable doctrine as though we could not chuse even in and by the New Birth otherwise but be sinners and to deserve punishment whereas by the testimony of the holy Scripture through the true and new Regeneration which is wrought by Christ Jesus in us by the effusion or imparting of his holy Spirit we must be purged from sins freed from all punishments of wrath to serve God in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life and to walk in fear and trembling before his presence which is the perfection of the true Christians in Christ Jesus their Head in this Time of Grace But whilest that we as did the Jews reject the inward Circumcision and Baptisme and relie on the outward covenant in our open sinfull courses and fleshly doings according to the first birth therefore thy just curse and hideous execration on all sides lighteth upon us O righteous God in that thou hast sent such miseries upon us that are but Name and Mouth-Christians and outward Religionists wherein many are already languished both in body and soul yea O righteous God thou art readie in thy just anger to send yet greater plagues upon us for the vials of thy wrath stand prepared to be effused upon us who are not yet right Christians but godlesse revolting children who yet still as thou according to thy righteous judgements afflictest plaguest and punishest us we adde more and more to our backslidings that so we may be destroyed from the earth and our Name be never any more remembred O God heavenly Father seeing that
from thy Grace Goodnesse and Mercie all things spring and all good Gifts have yet their originall and must through Christ flow into us therefore mollifie we beseech thee through the power of thy Spirit our stony Hearts break them to pieces by thy true sorrow Contrition and Repentance which thou thy self workest in Men. O bruise them so that they may come to a true knowledge of their sins and in a sincere penitencie lay themselves down before thee in a sorrowfull and continuall prayer crying seeking knocking and not leaving off in their repentant Lamentation Ah Lord mark Ah Lord hear Ah Lord be gracious Ah Lord mark Ah Lord delay not for the honour of thy Name sake for thou art our Creator and we the work of thy hands O Father thou knowest that after thy Name we are called wherefore wilt thou then thus utterly destroy us that we be no more a People Ah righteous God this have we merited by our sins that thou in justice shouldst everlastingly cast us from thy sight for all our doings in and with our wonted externall Religion or formall God-service it proceeding not out of the Living Faith Spirit and Truth forasmuch as the inward powerfull office of the holy Spirit is alas ascribed to the outward Ministerie and thereby all is perverted and subverted they are in thy sight O righteous God a truly polluted and defiled thing much more odious then Dung and Filth wherefore thou O holy God throwest in wrath the dung or durt of our holy dayes and the noise of our Songs and Psalms back into our faces Ah that we were not so hard hearted but that we might perceive that the Curse instead of the Blessing on all fides pursueth us O Father we turn us to thy bottomlesse Mercy which is greater then all our sins and cry heartily to it that thou wouldest not enter into Judgement with us nor lay the sin to our charge for we can answer nothing else but this Ah Father we have sinned and our sins are more then the sand of the Sea which have alas seperated us from one another and brought wo upon us because we have cast out of us and rejected the Throne of Mercy with its Office and have adhered to Idols and humane Traditions O God of all grace and goodnesse forgive us we beseech thee our great sins and be gracious to us Oh have mercy upon us for we are but dust ashes and earth wherefore then should we be thus utterly consumed in thy wrath without all Mercie O most loving Lord Jesus Christ look upon that great calamitie and destruction with thy Love-replenished Heart which thy Father in his just displeasure hath determined now to let passe upon whole Mankind the like whereof never hath been under heaven before nor shall be the like for ever hereafter seeing that the wickednesse of the present world also farre exceedingly surpasseth all the ungodlinesse heretofore practised from the beginning of the world therefore the judgement shall light so much the more heavily and hidcously upon the hard hearted and deriding Mockers and despisers O thou onely Mediatour intercede thou for us out of meere grace and mercy fot without thee there is no means to be found neither in heaven nor earth betwixt thy Father and us poore miserable and forsaken people O intercede thou onely right and true Intercessour seeing thy heavenly Father doth at all times heare Thee O thou heartie Friend of Men let this move thee to compassion that men for whose cause thou becamest man should wholly be ruined and destroyed and that thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed with thy rosie red Blood should become a spoyle and prey to thine enemies Ah we perceive mark and find that by reason of the new crucifying of thee thou wilt exercise vengeance upon vengeance through Heaven and Earth upon men and beasts Ah we have really deserved that the pit of darknesse should swallow us up everlastingly as right fuell for that hellish fire because we have indeed loved Darknesse more then Thee the true Light when thou wouldst inwardly aright have enlightned us and revealed thy kingdom in us therefore we deservedly also reap our unfruitfull works of darknesse and shall in Hell smart for it according to thy righteousnesse and judgement and have nothing to say against it But O God thou blessed holy Spirit who hast thy chiefest delight in and among the children of Men to heal them again to sanctifie them and to purge them from sins O hide not thy self now in this time of extremitie and urgent calamitie because that we have grieved thee and expelled thee with our reigning sins O thou Divine Flame of Love assist our cold hearts with unspeakable sighs Ah mediate Ah intercede Ah kindle our hearts with a true fervent and heartie sorrow and repentance that we may not so unawares and suddenly be snatched away without all Mercie Ah thou true chastiser chastise and reform our unnurtered Hearts Ah thou onely Enlightner enlighten thou we beseech thee our darkned hearts Ah thou onely Sanctifyer sanctifie our unhallowed hearts O thou true Cleanser cleanse now out hearts that are unclean and altogether defiled by the world money fleshly lust and spirituall pride O thou true Circumciser circumcise our wholly uncircumcised hearts O thou onely true Converter turn to day out of thy meer grace and mercie and convert our perverted hearts for without thy gracious drawing and powerfull operation in us we are able to do nothing therefore thou onely true worker of the will and the deed make thou to day to day the beginning in ours and all mens hearts to a true and cordiall Ninivitish Conversion For if thou turnest us we are rightly turned and converted from our wayes so that we do truly repent and cease to sin relinquish the world hate the flesh and blood and fight in thy strength against the subtle assaults of the world the flesh and the devill and obtain the victorie and not in a deceitfull way make a shew of holinesse for a day as if we therin were become religious men according to the customary naturall seeming Mouth-Repentance and notwithstanding all this remain inwardly the very former sows and dogs and in the dayes to come shew forth plainly the same properties of sows and dogges and upon a new pretended Remission sin afresh again and think to plaister over again outwardly such works of the Flesh with a Sacrament not considering that such use of it is turned to a double torment in hell for them for no Remission is ordained for such Hypocriticall Repentance but Hell and everlasting damnation Come O come thou true Divine Flame of Love and guide us to the true divine worship and pierce to day our souls with the true beams of thy grace whereby all accustomed hypocrisie false holinesse Phatisaicall godlinesse and the fair externall glistering shew being nothing but a meer Devils cloud may vanish for these are and for ever shall be an enmitie with