the Lord came to the Prophets at several times and upon severall occasions saying Thus saith the Lord c So then they spake and writ vvhat they were commanded by the Word of the Lord so that it is plain to them that have a right understanding that the words vvere given forth from the word vvhich word was hid in their hearts as David saith vvhich vvas there before the words vvere given forth Holy men of God vvere moved first by that vvhich is Holy to speak and vvrite before they did speak or vvrite forth the Scriptures vvhich are a true declaration of those things vvhich were done and spoken by the word which was in the beginning and Iet none say that the report is the arm of the Lord seeing Isaiah a true Prophet of God did make a true distinction between the report and the thing reported of for saith Christ the Scriptures are they that testify of me c but in him was the life and Salvation and not in the Scriptures though they are an outward testimony and true declaration And yet how ignorant have people been since the Apostles dayes in the Apostacy of these things calling the Scripture the Word of God when the Scriptures themselves saith Christ is the Word and in the beginning was the Word and the World was made by the Word but the Scriptures were not in the beginning neither was the World made by them for they are many words spoken at sundry times since the beginning and so are many words which declares of the Word and of those things which are certainly believed among us Luk. 1.1 Concerning the Gospel AND so in the time of ignorance and darkness which hath been for ages both teachers and people who have been and yet are in the Apostacy from the Apostles Life and Spirit have frequently called the writings of Matthew Mark Luke John the Gospel and so have called the Scriptures the Gospell when as the Scriptures the true declaration saith the Gopsel is the power of God and the Gospel is everlasting and the Gospel was preached to Abraham long before Marthew Mark Luke John were born which Gospel is the power of God and Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God who sayd Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad so Abraham knew the glad tidings who was before Moses for God saith to Moses I am the God of thy Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob this was before the Scriptures this was the power of God and the wisdom of God by which the soul immortal comes to be redeemed the captive delivered the chaines of darkness death and hel broken and all its enemies scattered this is glad tidings indeed and this is rightly called the Gospel of salvation of which Paul nor we are not ashamed for it is the power of God and many have the Scriptures and yet have not salvation or redemption by them but are in the errour ignorance and darkness not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God of which the Scriptures declares And in this state people have been in great contentions and debates striving in their dark imaginations about these things and can never be satisfied nor never shall till they come to the Light in themselves which only can give them the knowledge thereof for that is the Key of David that opens to them who do not exercise themselves in things too high for them but are become as weaned children for saith Solomon wisdom is to high for a fool and she dwelleth not with consuming envy neither wil she enter into a froward heart for wisdom is a loving Spirit she is the beginning of all the works of God and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom unto which if a man comes not he shal never know Gods secrets nor the mysteries of his kingdom which are hid to that part nature or Spirit in man that would always be knowing and climing up into the tree of knowledg and would know the mysteries but not obey his call and come down as Zachens did but the Cross is to obey according to what is already known though it be never so little of stature and without this daily Cross which crosseth the hasty mind the wil and wisdome of man there can be no true knowledg of the Mysteries and will of God and without it thou can never know true peace and satisfaction though thou compass sea and Land in thy comprehension the Lord hath spoken it Concerning the body of Christ AND now having mentioned somthing concerning Christ and concerning the Word and the Scriptures and the Gospel c. There is somwhat in my heart remaining concerning the body of Christ about which great contentions opinions and debates have been amongst them whose eyes are not in their head but at the ends of the earth First I beleive and we beleive that Christ had a body and came and preached and suffered and dyed and rose and ascended and sitteth at Gods right hand c. According to the Scriptures but yet some are saying to us with a lying Spirit You deny the Resurrection and the body of Christ c. To which for the simple-sake according to the Scriptures of truth I shall answer As for Christ I do beleive in my heart infallibly that he had a body prepared him to do the will of God and that he suffered the contradictions of sinners in the days of his flesh and was crucified by wicked men great professors chief priests rulers Souldiers and elders and was laid in the grave and rose again according to the Scriptures and did ascend over all the principalities and powers of the darkness of this world and now sitteth at the right hand of God c. And I do also beleive that he hath yet a body which was prepared and is yet preparing to do Gods will in earth as it is in heaven c. But me thinks I hear some say in their reasonings and imaginations What body hath he and where is it seeing it is sayd he is at the right hand of God this I shall answer with his own words which he spake here on earth viz. No man ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven the Son of man which is in heaven he that hath an ear to hear let him hear and take notice what body that was which come down from heaven when Mary sayd unto the Angell How can this be seeing I know not a man when he told her the Saviour should be born and that holy thing that should be born of her should be called the Son of God c. Now mark the answer The power of the most high shall overshadow thee by which power the body was prepared here on earth and saith Christ the Saviour the wisdom of God and the power of God a body hast thou prepared me mark the distinction thou me and a body this me that spake in the
the Lord and be very still and serious with your hear to upright before him that you may in very dead and truth perfectly come to know and enjoy the thing that belongs to your Souls everlasting peace and read these things without prejudice consuming envy which boils in the brest of that birth which shall never inherit Gods Kingdom of Rest 3. Of the Sabbath day FIrst take notice that the day in which God Rested was Sanctified who commanded that in it should no manner of works be done and that they were not to speak a vain word nor think their own thought either kindle a fire or bear a burthen in that Day which was commanded to be kept Holy for indeed it is an Holy Day in which God Rests and in the same In which he Rested he dwels for evermore for he called the Light day and the Darkness he called night and saith the Scripture God dwelleth in the Light with whom is no variableness or shaddow of changing and this is the first day in which he began his Works and this is the last in which he finishes which is Sanctified in which he Rests and this is that Holy Day in which a man by Gods command is forbid to speak a vain word or think his own thoughts but this is a mystery hid from them in whose heart the World is so set that they know neither the beginning nor end of the Work of God for saith Christ Jesus by whom the World was made the beginning of the Creation of God the end and substance of the types days figures and shaddows who fulfill them and the law that gave them for their times and seasons I am the Alpha the Omega the beginning and the ending the first and the last who was before all things by whom all things were made whose Throne and Kingdome must endure for ever who said I am the Light of the World Learn of me for I am meek lowly in heart and you shall finde Rest unto your Souls and this is the substance of the outward days or Sabbaths for the word Sabbath is rest So that if you will be exact in the observation of the outward day as the Pharisees were which was but a figure of the inward rest you must onely rest from all manner of Labour or work outwardly and yet when that is done it makes nothing perfect as partaining to the inward conscience For the Pharisees judged Christ not sent of God because said they he keepeth not the Sabbath and so in their blind zeal judg him to be a transgressor who was the very Substance of all those outward things and is the onely rest prepared for Gods People and they who have entred into it have ceased from their own works as God did from his and such only knowes the Sabbath day which is kept Holy unto the Lord in which the vain words must not be spoken nor the vain thoughts lodg for the tongue of the just in this day is as choice silver but the heart of the wicked which knows neither the beginning nor the end of the works of God is little worth but we who have known it and his wonders in the deep upon the face of which the Spirit of the Lord did once move do know right well that the same day in which God began his Works is the same in which he compleats it and in which he rested when he had made all things Good and Blessed but this is a mystery to the natural man or that outward birth that sticks in the outward natural things which cannot perceive the things of the most inward Spiritual God and his Kingdom which is within in the Invisible hiden man which is spiritual So it is onely the pure in heart that sees God and knows his Sabbath and throne which endureth for ever where the vain thoughts are judged and cast out and not suffered to lodg within for that defiles a man which is Gods Temple if the Spirit of God dwelleth in him whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem Blessed is the eye that sees Therefore if you would rightly know the Mysteries of God and Godliness and of his everlasting Kingdom of Righteousness and peace to your Souls satisfaction you must enter in by the door and not clime up another way as many have done in their imaginations which door is Christ the Light the First day that Lighteth every man that cometh into the World that all men thorow him might believe and this is the beginning of the work of God where it is not only given you to believe but also to suffer for his sake in whom you have beleeved in which state you will know the six days labour before the true Sabbath be witnessed wherein God resteth from his Work for there is no rest or peace unto the wicked saith my God therefore he that condemns the sin in the flesh and destroys the works of the Devill in whose hand is the Law which is the School-Master to bring unto him who is the end of it for righteousness to every one that believeth must needs be the rest or Sabbath to the soul So his yoke being known upon you and the daily cross taken up to the will and wayes of man in which he hath walked in his own thoughts and vain words and the bridle to the tongue witnessed without which all religion is vain here you will know some work standing stil in awe in which you wil learn in the lowliness of heart in so berness of mind to put on the Ornament of a meek quiet Spirit which in God's sight is of great price and here you may know the Sabbath day and also the first in which he moved at the beginning upon the face of the deep which is but one the Alpha and the Omega the true and saithful witness the beginning of the creation of God who is the end of all things at hand who saith I am the Light beleive in the Light and before Abraham was I am He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith So come ye all down to the door and enter in thereat if you would know the sheep-fold where he makes his flock to rest at noon which is the Light of Christ Jesus in all your consciences despise not the day of small things though it be but a spark shines in a dark place it is the sure word of prophesie to which if you take heed you wil do wel it is the testimony of Jesus which will let you see all that ever you do if you be still standing in awe and God's fear in your closets our of all reasonings and imaginations and this must you come unto to know the beginning of the work of God even the Light and Spirit of God in which the Saints of old began and in which they walked and saied the Apostle to the Galathians Ye did run well who did hinder you c ye
begun in the Spirit and would you now be made perfect by the lesh and the Spirit is within and the flesh is without Mark They began in the Spirit and afterward run in observations of days and months and times and parties who were saying J am of Paul and J am of Apollo c are ye not now carnall and walk as men J am afraid of you saith he lest J have bestowed upon you labour in vain yet he travels again in birth with some of them that Christ may be formed in them who is the end of the outward days months and years the wisdom and power of God whose years never fails but is the same yesterday to day and for ever the beginning and the ending of the Works of God which is but one whom the heart in which this world is and the love of it knows not though be came into it and is come into it and the World was made by him and for him and he is before all things blessed is the man that doth witness this in his own particular for such only have the comfort of the Scriptures which declares of these things Therefore come to the Spirit of God which reproves the vvorld for sin and walk in the Spirit that it may lead you into all truth and shevv you things to come in vvhich is no occasion of stumbling or disputing about dayes or times meats or drinks or the like but you vvill see plainly of the Father and it vvill take of Christ vvhat he did and suffered and shevv it unto you that you shall not need to say Whatis this meaning and vvhat means the other Scripture and the like but you vvill being faithful be made partakers of his sufferings vvithin and vvithout and knovv his death vvhen you are made conformable unto it bearing in your body his dyings that his life may be manifest in your mortal flesh c. This the Apostles and Saints did and do vvitness vvho began in the Spirit and vvalks in the Spirit and vvorships God in the Spirit and in the truth vvho have no confidence in the flesh but are Jewes invvardly vvhose circumcision is not outvvardly of the flesh but invvard of the heart and of the spirit vvhich the other vvas but a type of or a shaddovv as vvas also the Seventh or Sabbath day of the rest prepared for the seed and heritage of God So if you would rightly know and observe the day in which God is only acceptably worshipped you come to the Light which is the first day and in which God dwels for ever and is the last as it is written In thy Light shall we see Light for with thee is the Fountain of Life and the secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Now what canst thou desire more O man then the Fountain of Life and to know the secrets and everlasting covenant of his mercies and loving kindness in which is the treasures of wisdom and knowledg which are made manifest unto them who waits at that wisdoms gate which was before the hills was whose voice cryed in the streets to the simple saying turn in hither eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled forsake the foolish and live Therefore take my advice in Gods Counsel and come now to the fear of the Lord and wait in his Light which makes all things manifest for that is the beginning of wisdoms path which leads unto the perfect day in which the most holy unchangable everlasting God is worshipped and out of this there is no true knowledge of him or his worship or any acceptance with him or any assurance stability or satisfaction which will endure for ever and this is the word of the Lord unto you all For the hour is come that the true worshippers who know what and whom they worship do worship God in the Spirit and in the truth these are the true worshippers who worship the Father this is the childrens worship that honours their Father and their Mother whose days are long in the Land of the living even the everlasting day which sprang from on High So all the worship and sacrifice without the guidance of God's good Spirit of truth is false and they that run strive and act without it are false worshippers let them profess in words and show what they will for the Spirit is the guide of its children the true vvorshippers into all truth in vvhich they vvorship their father vvho seeketh such to vvorship him And all such as are not guided by it do run before it and talk of the things of God in their dark understanding sensuality out of God's covenant of Light and doubt of his fear in the contentions and debates strivings disputings and vain janglings about them and those things that shall for-ever in that state be hid from their eyes So that all people upon earth in all their professions of religion vvithout the leadings of God's Spirit are at best but vvill-vvorshippers like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord and the Lord is that Spirit the beginning of vvhose kingdome is Babel confusion read your state vvith God's vvitness the Light in all your consciences vvhich vvill ansvver the truth and do not dissemble not strive to make coverings vvhich vvill be too narrovv For it is even so The very beginning of that Kingdom worship or building where the Spirit of God is not the guide and leader is Babel and there the mighty hunter who is a mighty one in the earthly comprehension goes before the Lord that Spirit which should guide and go before them But the day is at hand that Nimrod and his Kingdom both City and Tower which was built in the high imaginations must fall and all the untempered morter-daubers shall fall with it and the wall shall be no more at all nor them that daub it the Life of God hath spoken it which is come down to confound the Language of all the Earth and to restrain them from what they have imagined to do Therefore hear all ye people in whose hearts are any honest desires or true breathings after the true and living God and the Knowledge of his wayes and worship come ye all to the Light of Christ Jesus with which you are Lighted in which as you abide you will come to know the one pure Language in which the Righteous Pure God of Truth is onely worshipped with one consent which was before Babel the many Languages and before the hunters confusion and contentions about these things was in which you will come to feel the path of Peace and way of Holiness in which a fool shall not erre where your Immortal Souls may be satisfied as with marrovv and fatness in Gods House vvhere the Bread is sure and the Water fails not vvho makes Rivers in the desert and the dry Land springs of vvater and makes the Wilderness a fruitful field and the barren
body was the Christ which had a body prepared to do his will that prepared it Now was it the body or an invisible power Spirit or Soul that sayd A body hast thou prepared me He that hath an ear and understanding let him hear and judge But yet here this question may rise concerning the body of Christ is it not written The heavens must contain him untill the restitution of all things And was he not taken up into heaven when the cloud received him out of the sight of the Gallileans that guned outwardly after him To this also I may answer unto thee who lookest dayly for his personall appearance and coming if the heavens must contain him until the restitution of all things why doest thou thus so much expect his coming before that time of the restitution of all things or canst thou say that that time is come if not let it come first before thou so earnestly expect his coming but indeed it is but a cloud that hath received him out of the fight of the gazers but saith the Lord to his children I have blotted out your iniquities like a thick cloud and to the people your sins have separated between me and you and have with held good things from you And indeed this hath hid both his body and face from you for the kingdom of heaven and the Lord from he aven comes not with outward observation but the kingdom is within and the Lord from heaven is that quickning spirit which quickens them that have been dead in the sins the trespasses the clouds of separation that they might live unto God and behold the beauty of the Lord in his temple which temple they are in whom he dwells and in whom he walks and he is their God and they are his people and the day being come and the Sun risen the clouds and the shadows are fled away but they who live in iniquity are dead unto God whose God he is not the cloud is stil between that they can neither see darkly as in a glass nor face to face but are in darkness clouds blindness even until now But if the inquisitive mind be not yet answered but art still saying as they did in the Apostles days concerning the Resurrection How doth the dead rise and with what body do they come I must answer unto thee as he did Thou fool that which thou sowest it not that body that shall be c. But the Lord giveth every seed it 's own body as it pleased him It is sown A naturall body but it is raised a Spirituall body It is sown in weakness but it is raised in power a Spirituall body raised in power now canst thou tell what body this is But if thou understand it not thou hast little or no knowledge of the mysteries of God I speak to the shame of that inquisitive mind that would know these things which are hid in Gods treasury and yet will not come to the door nor the keys that gives the understanding of them without which no man can enter this Kingdom which is prepared for that birth to which only it be longs for no man knoweth the things of God but by the Spirit of God which searcheth all things yea the deep things of God which are spiritually discerned So that unless you come to the Light and Spirit of God the door that reproves the World for sin and lets you see the evil of your wayes and obey it enduring the cross and bear the condemnation and in dignation because you have sinned against the Lord and turn at his reproofs that he might powr forth his Spirit upon you and make his words and secreta known unto you I say unless you enter in this way at Gods Light and Spirit that shines in your hearts you shal never rightly know understand or enjoy any of these things of Gods Kingdom before mentioned it 's an infallible word of Truth from God unto you all For they are hid perpetually from the out-birth of the wisdom of this World and revealed onely to the Babes in the inward spiritual ground in Christ Jesus who is still a mystery hid to the professors Scribes and Pharisees rulers elders and hypocrites as wel in this age as in the ages past who then were saying among themselves notwithstanding his mighty works which were done among them Is not this the Carpenters Son whose Father and Mother we knew and are not his brethren and sisters among us c. Undervaluing and contemning his low and mean appearance who was in the forme of a servant and these did love to be called of men Master and greetings in the market and upermost Rooms at Feasts and to go in long robes and stand praying in the chief or highest places in the Synagogues and were the blind Pharisces to whom the woe belonged as at this day it doth to them who in the same spirit are contemning the low appearance and manifestation of the Son of God saying Is not this you preach or declare of which people must believe in natural Light even this which checks and reproves us for sin Have we not had this alwayes with us from our child-hood and do not we know its father and moher Is it not some of the remainder that was left in Adam after he fell to restrain him and his children from gross evil c. And is it at best any other then restraining grace and not saving or but natural conscience and the like this hath been the reasonings amongst many though mighty works hath been done and are yet a doing and must yet be done by him who is the Light the Power the Grace the Truth and the Wisdom of God in these last days thorowout the earth But O ye Children of men and high in the tree of Knowledg which is forbidden as to seed upon let me answer these your reasonings with a few questions in Gods Wisdom which is hid from the eyes of the prudent of this World c. 1. What was that seed and where was it after man fell which was promised that it should bruise the Serpents head And what is that Serpent and where is he whose head must be bruised 2. What was that which let Adam see his Nakedness when he had transgressed What are the Eyes of the Lord that are in every place beholding the evil and good and where are they if not in every conscience seeing the Lord saith to his faithful I will guide thee with mine eye 3. And what is the true Light that Lighteth every man that commeth into the World and what is that Light of men that shineth in the darkness which the darkness comprehendeth not and where is it if not in the conscience of every man 4. What grace is that and where is it which hath appeared unto all men which bringeth salvation which is the Saints teacher is it onely restraining and not saving seeing the Scripture saith it bringeth Salvation 5. What Light