rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things having learnt to be content in all estates and conditions Content the pleasant companion for a Christian knowing how to suffer want and how to abound every where and in all things c. And where there is true content there is no want no poverty no sorrow but what is turned into plenty riches and rejoycing In sum the true Christian hath found the stone of the wise men or the universal tincture or medicine which cureth all inward diseases of the soul mind and spirit The wonderful riches vertue power and operation of the precious pearl none knows but he that hath it makes him sound and clean every whit works mighty wonders for him makes him more precious than Gold yea than fine Gold makes him rejoyce in sorrow sing in the stocks makes a Dangeon a Palace Bonds and Chains liberty makes Poverty Riches turns loss into gain darkness into light before him these and many more are the vertues and powerful operations of the precious Pearl the white Stone the elect and precious Stone the chief corner-stone which the wise Master-builders set at naught and stumble at and will not use in their Building but to the Christian indeed he is precious he is his foundation corner and top-stone also and as a treasure better than mountains of Gold and as a Rock out of which issueth the water of Life that makes the River of Pleasure that never ceaseth running at the right hand of God these things are known and enjoyed by the true Christian as he arrives at the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and all that are but travellers therein taste of the same in the way thereto but the bare professor or formalist or titular Christian knows nothing hereof for The life riches and enjoyment of a Christion is inward and hidden his life is hid with Christ in God none knoweth it but he that hath it his conversation is with God in Heaven and his treasure is laid up where he walks and dwells and where he sits in heavenly places with his Saviour Christ Jesus who is made unto him wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption and not only so but he is come to see what is the fellowship of the Mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God he is come to know the Lord one and his name one to the one Body one Spirit one Hope one Faith one Baptism one Way one Truth one Life one God and Father of all who is above all through all and in all This is the blessed end of all the appearances manifestations and dispensations under all the variety of names and various workings of the one eternal God towards mankind ever since the fall mentioned throughout the Holy Scriptures and witnessed to by the true Christian who really enjoys the end of Paul's bowing his knees * Not to Jesus the Son of Abraham David and Mary Saint or Angel but to God the Father all worship honour and glory is to be given through Jesus Christ c. or prayer unto the Father of his Lord his Jesus and his Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Ephes 3. Now when the true Christian hath travelled through multiplicity into unity through the various dispensations operations and workings of the Spirit of God before the Law under the Law through the Law to the Prophets and to the ministration of John and so to Jesus the Son of Abraham David and Mary and hath * The only Pilgrimage of a Christian all other Pilgrimages to places Tombs and Reliques are vain and fruitless followed him from the Manger to the Cross and from thence to the Grave and know a being dead and buried with him and a rising with him and not only seeking those things that are above but hath found them having known and experienced Christ in all his Offices as the great Ordinance †These things are not only to be read professed and talked of but experimentally known of God as a Mediator Reconciler Intercessor maker of peace healer of the wound and maker up of the breach the first Adam made as a quickening Spirit and Lord from Heaven as a King Priest and Prophet as a Saviour Sanctifier and Redeemer as a Purifier and maker an end of sin and bringer in of everlasting Righteousness and as a High-Priest to present to God without spot or wrinkle or any such thing when he is thus known to perform all these offices in and for his people he is then by such known to sit down at the right hand of God having accomplished the work the Father gave him to do having put all things under This is the ascending of Christ up where he was before he descended and before there was any cause for his descension he that can understand let him and restored all things into their primitive order he then is also known to surrender up the Kingdom to the Father and God to become all in all * Thus the Lord is known one and his name one here the first is known to be last and the last first the beginning the end and the end the beginning and the heavenly rest with him who is without beginning or end I say rest with him in a pure coelestial stillness from all self-working willing running and thinking and though an innocency or innocent self be attained unto and a harmless will known yet that must not act work will run and think of it self as the true Christian who hath travelled and experienced as before is hinted knows right well being always of his elder brothers mind and frame of spirit saying to his Father Not my will but thine Herein he receives wisdom to dress and keep the Garden power and strength to resist and overcome the Serpent in Paradice and the Dragon in Heaven and to keep his habitation in the heavenly City Jerusalem which comes down from God out of Heaven whose walls are salvation and whose gates are praise for ever and evermore Concerning the Worship of a Christian or the Christian Worship what it stands in and how it is performed THere is a great contest in Christendom among the diverse Sects and bare professions of Christianity about Worship and many are the Modes Manners Forms and Ceremonies that are cried up among them every Sect conceiving imagining and supposing his Way Manner and Fashion to be right c. all being full of Dispute Contention and quarrelling one with and against another envying and hating one another fighting killing and destroying one another about them when they are all but of their own devising forms and images of their own making mostly from the example of Jews Gentiles and Apostate Christians and are not led thereto nor guided therein by the unerring Spirit of God as their fruits make fully manifest to the great scandal of the
Therefore my mind is in good will to mankind having received knowledge and understanding of the means God hath ordained for the good and salvation of mankind And being something acquainted with the two great mysteries of Godliness Iniquity and the way and working of each to impart and signifie something of the same in a few words to instruct and inform those to whom this my testimony may come how they may attain thereunto and how they may come to be rid of those troublesome companions viz. Evil Thoughts and Imaginations that do may or shall arise in their hearts whila corrupted and how the same may be purified and made a holy habitation for God as it was before sin entred before Innocency was lost before the Serpent deceived the weaker vessel when all was good yea very good The way that leadeth thereto I affirm and declare to be as followeth and whoever thou art that hast a mind or desire to find that which is lost observe believe and receive what I say or write as Truth not received or learned by Tradition but by the experimental powerful work and operation of the Spirit of Truth in my own Heart Mind and Conscience and what I have said or shall say is and shall be according to the Holy Scriptures and witnessed to by them for I cannot write contrary to them being in unity with them with the just mens spirits that wrote them First then know thou O man whoever thou art and whatever thy thoughts and imaginations are how far soever thou art run into corruption darkness and degeneration from the state of innocency purity and holiness yet there is a measure of Divine Light attends thee though thou art darkness it-shines in thee in order to show thee thy way out of it though thou art degenerated and run from God into the earth yet this pure light Spirit of God follows thee and calls thee back again and thou mayst in this state hear it as a voice behind thee saying Return return this is the way come and walk in it this is the kindness and love of God to thee in his Son who is the light of the world and lighteth every one that cometh thereinto If men would hear and obey the voice of the Son of God Death Hell nor the Grave could not hinder them from Salvation if thou hear and obey this voice of the light of the Son of God though thou wert dead in sin and buried as in a grave thou shalt arise and come forth and live before him the bars and gates of Hell shall not be able to retain thee But if thou slight and despise the Light of God that visits thee and shut'st thy ear against its voice it will be as a thousand witnesses against thee while thou rebellest against it and art found following thy own thoughts and imaginations and doing the thing that is evil for this Light I speak of is the eye of the Lord that runs too and fro through the earth beholding the evil and the good and that discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart 't is the word that 's nigh in mouth and in the heart which is quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piereing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow this is the candle of the Lord that searcheth Jerusalem and gives light to the sides of the earth and corners of the world from whom the shadow of death cannot hide nor the Rocks and Mountains cover or defend for be that formeth the Mountains and createth the winds and declareth or sheweth unto man what is his thought that maketh the morning darkness and treadeth upon the high places of the earth the Lord the God of Hosts is his name This is the Spirit of truth that convinceth the world of sin and that sets mens sins in order before them and reproves and smites in secret for evil and that brings to judgment the hidden things of Esau from this eye or light of the Lord thou canst not hide thy self no more than Adam and Cain could though thou shouldest hate the light which sheweth thee thy thoughts and love the darkness so as to dwell in it No hiding from the eye of God yet the light or eye of God will pursue thee and find thee out Hell nor the utmost parts of the earth and darkness cannot secure thee from the * Mans condemnation is just because he hates the light the way and means of Salvation just condemnation of God because thou hatest the shining of his light and stopest thy ear against the voice and teaching of it and lovest the darkness and dwellost in it while thou doest so thou choosest the way of death and neglectest the means of salvation that God hath ordained for this is the condemnation of the world that light is come into it and men love darkness rather because their deeds are evil Now as the first step towards restoration and everlasting happiness thou art required †The first step in the way to life or towards everlasting happiness to turn thy mind from the darkness in which thou dwellest to the light Eye or Spirit of God and to decline the power of Satan that works in the darkness and embrace the power of God and when thou dost but begin to do so thou wilt find the scales to fall from thy eyes by degrees and the veil to be taken off thy heart and the setters and chains of darkness to be loosed and the prison doors opened so when thy candle is lighted and thy eye opened thou wilt discern thy way out and see the Angel of the Lord go before thee and guide thee in the same And thou wilt also perceive what is in thy house and clearly understand what hath lodged in the dark room of thy heart and when thou comest to see things as they are †Mistake in the understanding concerning the nature of things that do present themselves before mankind is the cause of error Thence it is that some call darkness light and light darkness thou wilt receive wisdom to give them names according to their nature and to judge righteously concerning them and as thou lovest this light thou wilt be enabled by it to divide betwixt thought and thought and begin to make conscience of a thought and to hate every vain thought and when thou canst not be easily rid of them nor remove them from their old lodging-place thou wilt breath and cry to the Lord in the Spirit as one of old did who was burthened and oppressed with their company Search me and try me O God and know my heart try me and know my thougts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting This is the cry which the Lord hears and will answer in due and needful time And Jeremiah's cry to Jerusalem was Wash thy heart from wickedness that thou
mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Now the only way to dislodge them and to be rid of their company The way to be rid of evil thoughts and to see their destruction is to shew them no countenance make no provision for them give them no entertainment but by the light of God which discovers them to be thy enemies judge them and keep thy mind exercised in the light and power of God that it is turned to and not in thy thoughts and imaginations give them no regard and though they do and may arise pursue and compass thee about like Bees yet thou keeping thy eye fixed in the light and power of God which is as nigh thee as thy thoughts are and sheweth them unto thee thou wilt see them in due time scattered as chaff before a fierce wind and destroyed as stubble before a devouring fire Now as thou comest to be a believer in the light and to trust in the power of God to which thy mind is turned thou wilt become in very deed a child of it and soon be able to say darkness is past and the true light now shineth by which thou canst see and judge every thought and motion that ariseth and stirreth in thy mind whether evil or innocent hurtful or harmless and have wisdom to order them accordingly And this is that primitive wisdom mankind had in the beginning but he abode not in it through looking at the temptation and beauty of the thing presented to the eye of his mind A dam's temptation was inward and mysterious or through receiving from the Woman for he was not deceived with the beauty of an Apple or some other outward fruit nor by the talk and perswasion of any creature like our English Snakes or the Devil in the shape of it as vain man in his carnal mind imagines when he reads the History thereof but the temptation was more mysterious and inward the Woman was deceived in her Thoughts in her Judgment and Understanding was she beguiled before she obeyed the Tempter it appeared good for food Gen. 3.6 pleasant and desirable and able to make one wise before she eat 1 Tim. 2.14 Rom. 8.20 or gave to her Husband Paul saith the woman being deceived was in the trangression subjected to vanity not willingly but through hope she hoped to find the Serpents words true and to become more wise and more happy by taking the Serpents counsel but instead thereof fell into the depth of misery the same danger attends the Children of light the Sons and Daughters of God for Adam was a Son of God before Transgression * The Sons and Children of God of the light and of the day are only capable to fall as Adam did and not the children of the Devil Darkness they are to be restored into Innocency into uprightness before they are in danger to fall from it as Adam did And it is only such who are in the restoration children of the light and of the day that are capable to fall as Adam and Eve did and to sin after the similitude of Adam's Transgression and to lose innocency purity holiness and uprightness as they did and be driven out of the Garden of God as they were Such as were never in it nor ever dwelt in the state of restoration innocency purity and holiness cannot be said to fall from or lose it c. Children of Darkness and children of the Devil who have gone astray from that womb and always dwelt in darkness end in the region and shadow of death never knew what a harmless innocent estate is what the life of purity and holiness is nor what the simplicity of the Gospel and Christ is so cannot be beguiled as the Serpent did Eve of that they never knew nor had as men and women now in the world yet such are beguiled by the Serpent in another sort not of what they have had and did once enjoy but of what they might have and should enjoy And this he effects by keeping the eyes and minds of people abroad and by perswading them to follow any thing The way and work of the Devil to keep man in the fall in the degeneration in death and darkness slaves in his kingdom and walk in any way rather than to turn the eye of their minds inward to the Light Word Power and Spirit of God which shines which speaks which works in man in order to lead to teach to guide and direct him into the way of life and salvation and to bring him into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God into a perfect translation from darkness to light and from the Kingdom and power of Satan to the Kingdom and power of the Son of God and to know Christ made unto him Wisdom Sanctification and Redemption This is the blessed end of God in sending his Son a light into the world The precious love of God in sending his Son even to enlighten the Gentile Jew Professor and Prophane and that through him they might believe and receive eternal life and enter into that blessed rest that God hath prepared which the Primitive Christians who believed entred into where they did not speak their own words nor think their own thoughts nor do their own works their heavenly Father spake in them and their thoughts were thoughts of God and he wrought all their works in them and for them This is a blessed state indeed and none are entred into the rest which God hath prepared but such as are come to witness and experience these things now in this age as the Primitive Christians did in ages past For while any are found thinking their own thoughts speaking their own words and doing their own works though under a profession of Christ and Christianity they cannot enter into the rest which God hath prepared though they may create to themselves false rests and kindle a fire and walk by the light of their own sparks but in the end lie down in sorrow True rest and peace is obtained or comes through a true self-denial a dying to self-sinning and self-righteousness self-thinking and self-working contriving and inventing self-wisdom knowledge and understanding also all these things must bedenied annihilated or brought to nothing and confounded the feeding upon these things occasioned The seeding of the forbidden Fruit which was good in it self though not for food occasioned and occasioneth at this day all the misery that attend monkind and occasioneth the Curse add all the labour and turmoil trouble forrow and torment that hath attended and doth attend mankind since the fall to the death must they all come before a sitting down in the Ringdom of God can be witnessed or before any can cease from their own works as God did from his Now thou who art a child of light understand this one thing for thy comfort and encouragement in thy warfare against evil thoughts that notwithstanding