God shed abroad in thy heart and so thou canst shew thy faith by its work the work of love that is the ground and foundation of it in thy heart in that of those three Faith Hope and Charity that is the greatest as being the bond of perfection And this is it thou art differenced by from the worst of men even by the love of God and his grace and favour therein and flowing forth there-from that thereby thou hast a Christians mark and by all men art known to be a Disciple and Follower of Christ because of thy love by which thou art translated from death to life or that thou canst not see any thing hurtful to thee in the first death even of the body in and under the enemies power fallen Object But in that thou art further reasoning yes this I believe that God hath blotted out all my former transgressions now I am come to lay hold on him by faith and my sins in the time of ignorance I believe are winked at by God but since that day I have sinned and come short of the glory of God who never did evil and this appears to me to be a sin of wilfulnesse and a falling away after I have tasted of the Heavenly gift and of the power of the world to come and so being against the grace and favour of God though I cannot say it was and is in despite to the spirit of grace but is through the weakness of the flesh that wars and lusteth against the spirit that is willing to obey and follow God in the regeneration where-ever he goeth yet there remains nothing but a fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation from Heaven on that part and nature in me that thus hath betrayed the Just under sufferance again and hath crucified the Son of God afresh who in that he dyed once for all dyeth no more for me in that death hath no more dominion over him but by and through me and there remains no more offering for sin therefore what have I to offer up to make a second attonement Answ The attonement is already made for thee in thy faith though not in the doubting and unbelieving mind and part for that was it that betrayed the Just under sufferance again and is the unrepenting part and nature of Esau that hath been hunting abroad for its prey and so hath lost the blessing and birth-right and cannot again be renewed by any worldly sorrow in the dayly and hourly repentings of the worldly mind that may seek a place of acceptance thereof which cannot be found but in the Godly sorrow is the repentance never to be repented of and so Judgement witnessed and born again on that mind and part and nature that hath went out to the burdening and crucifying of the Just afresh and thus is Sion redeemed even through the Spirit of judgement and of burning where the house of Esau is as stubble and the house of Joseph for a flame that leaves it neither root nor branch and so the root of the matter that was once within a bitter root of envy and that hath lusted to vanity and in which thou hast used the liberty of what had the beginning of its work in thee as an occasion to the flesh and cloak of maliciousnesse that thy joy and content hath not continued and the satisfaction thou once began to take in God when thy Castle seemed to be strong and thou to say in thy heart I shall never be moved is not lasting but in the hiding of Gods face to thee in that state thou art presently troubled this being removed by the Ax that is laid to the root of the tree as those hidden things of Esau are sought out the matter is clearly seen that hath caused the wound of the Daughter of Gods people to be healed deceitfully and while the Core of corruption wrought thus hiddenly and secretly needs must there be the breakings out of the botches and boils of that imposterous infection of depraved nature that hath contracted guilt on the soul and made thee like a Tree that cumbers the good ground of God in which his mercy and pity and grace and forbearance hath wrought for any honesty of heart God hath beheld that being wearied out and weary to bear thee any longer the Angel Mowers are seen come forth to reap the earth and a voyce comes Cut it down so it hath a curse because of unfruitfulnesse to him that looked for fruit but beheld none no Figs for his taste and then why cumbers it the ground So that that part in which the enemy hath wrought after the grace and love and favour of God is or hath been manifest to a condition thy souls peace and good is concerned in is that which the Judgement is to that is to be laid to the Line and Righteousnesse to the Plummet and so comes Sion again the Daughter of God to be healed and cured perfectly that is redeemed by Judgement and her Converts with Righteousnesse and though the sinner in Sion be afraid and fear doth surprize the heart of the hypocrite whose hope is perished and perishing yet is not this thee that art again returned unto God and dost love his Judgements and canst truly say O how I love thy Law that is sweeter to me than the honey and the honey-comb and thy Commandements are not grievous and burdensome to me no though thou hast felt a part was afraid of Judgement to which and in which the fear of death wrought and wherein was received the spirit of bondage that it was made subject to that feared death on a part and mind it delights in in the world where was the fearful looking for of judgement and a spirit of bondage received again to fear that concerning the coming of Christ to judgement and his day of vengeance on the world might be terrified with Letters and Epistles because of the falling away for else that day had not come 2 Thess 1. And yet let this comfort thee though many may be upbraiding thee and thou mayest be made sad that God hath not made sad yea though many may say I am not so and it hath not been so with me but they have left thee smiting thy hand on thy breast c. thou art rather justified in this state than the other he that thinks his standing is and hath been so sure that is like a Rock concerning whom it may be said his confidence is strong and on that Rock God will build his Church but being held in the wrong mind and part and the confidence of and in the flesh and selfs work for see presently when the sufferings are foretold of to and in that part Master save thy self and then Get thee behind me Satan Oh was not this the part to which the Corn and Wine and Oyl encreased and that would say It is good to be here and would erect and build a Tabernacle in the transfiguring glory of his
though thou see the Pharisee making his loud acclamations Lord I thank thee I am not thus and thus nor aâ— this Publican but pay tythe of all that I possesse and fast oft and the out-side of the Cup and Platter made very clean whereas thou art found daily smiting thy hand on thy breast and art crying Lord have mercy on me c. and though his cry be stand off I am holyer than thou so that as Joshua the High Priest hath been found standing before the Lord in his filthy vile raiment the Devil hath been ready to resist him untill a voyce came from the Angel take away his vile garment and give him change of raiment and thou in like manner seest nothing in in thy self but vileness that is in thy flesh and if thou hast ought to boast and rejoyce in as of thy self it must be in that only and thy glorying in thy infirmities which rather humbles thee and is a Thorn in the flesh Satan to buffer least thou should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations of the Spirit that makes thee cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me and who shall change this vile body I say Is this thy state and are thy sins and transgressions brought alwayes before thee that something seems yet to be imputed and laid to thy charge and not all blotted out and carried into the Land of forgetfulness especially when thou look among men of upbraiding minds and corruptly bent that are gone from the Spirit of God that is liberal and upbraideth no man with things by-past as doth the world in the worldly nature and spirit of mischief in their tatlings tale-bearings whisperings backbitings and false accusations and reportings of evil in a mind delighted therein and therewith yet let not this any way trouble thee as that thou shouldest be led into despondancy and doubtings concerning the love and mercy and pity and forgiveness of God for Gods way is not like unto mans not his thoughts like unto his that is thus gone out of the life of God out of the life of forgiveness and mercy and pity and now would devoure and destroy at once but this is the voyce of his Spirit in the hearts of such let not wickednesse be so much as once more mentioned amongst you for these things are but the shame of thy youth and the reproach of thy widdow hood which no more shall be remembred nor charged against thee by God since thy return hath been indeed and in truth to him and he is returned to thee and will blot out thy iniquities by-past and thy sins will remember no more because these things were done in a state and time of ignorance in which God hath winked at thy faults or corrected thee lightly with Rods and they are transgressions against the first Covenant which the one offering hath made the attonement for and a way of reconciliation for thee therein in the flesh of his body that put an end to the many offerings under the Law and also blots out all the infirmities both of thy actings and offerings in that state unto whom thou coming as unto a stone indeed disallowed of by all the master builders of the earth he is precious in thy lively faith as the head of the Corner that was once offered up for all in the eternal spirit of the Fathers good pleasure and is offered up no more in that he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified For in that spirit thou art come and returned to that thou seest sin a burden to thee in and of which thou art weary and heavy laden God will freely blot out and do all for thee that hast an offering brought before thee that is everlasting and so is the Covenant thereof in the eternal spirit of him that sanctifieth and not as was and is the offerings and Covenants under the Law that were confirmed by strength of words and declarations of a Testament in which a better good was shadowed out and the promises therein and thereof confirmed by an Oath and strong Protestations but this is finished to and for all that can believe therein whose Maker is their Husband the Lord of Hosts is his name and the betrothment here is in righteousnesse and in faithfulnesse and in loving kindnesse for ever and all that thou hast to do is to believe perfectly and fully and wholly in him and the goodnesse of his salvation and he will do all for thee and in thee without thy workings and actings and strivings and buslings in a mind cumbred with the cares and sorrow of a life below wherein thy soul hath been pierced through with many darts and it hath been and proved the worldly sorrow that works death yea and by it all thou couldest not adde a cubit to thy stature but by believing in him that hath wrought and done the work it is finished to thee in thy faith for the questionings and reasonings thereof with all the doubtings and fear and distrust of God are but the enemies work of darknesse and clouding thoughts that hath vailed the extent of Gods goodness and love and pity and mercy to the souls necessity that the largenesse thereof in the unspeakable and unalterable bounty of his liberallity hath not been apprehended and seen into and all this continues by reason of unbelief which the Son of God is come to destroy and to that end is he manifest and he thou must believe in that is already come to work all thy works in thee and for thee er'e it can be the work of the eternal spirit in God and all to continue and remain eternally with thee that of thy joy and rejoycing there be no end and the comfort everlasting that abides with thee that art comforted in the eternal Spirit of God and what it works Without thy help as a Creature in the old man and state but in the new man as new created after God in which thou art a meet help unto thy Maker and fellow-worker together with him to bring forth his works into manifestation and appearance and then thou canst say truly that to destroy the works of the Devil is Gods work and the end for which he was made manifest in thy mortal flesh and because of that part mortality in which he hath wrought and works thou hast felt the work of mortification to be also the work of God and so is sanctification and justification for it is God that must kill and make alive and to all the works of the enemy must make thee dead and then holy and just after himself which thou art on him waiting to do for thee knowing that of thy self thou art able to do nothing and when thou hast done all that thou canst as of thy self art but an unprofitable servant yet that little strength thou hast in God thou art ready and willing to put forth because thy faith in God works by the Love of
temptation of Satan through a sence of forgiveness that came up in the manifesting cause to look at mens hardnesse and ruggednesse and want of love and mercy and pity and forgivenesse is not at all my work but is beneath me and out of my way I walk in for it is not as I would be done by in that God who hath healed my backsliding freely for his own name sake hath made me of the same mind to others knowing that he is blessed that covereth and hideth sin and transgression by converting a sinner to God where a multitude of fauls are blotted out and for me to uncover what God hath hid and reveal and diâ—close anothers shame and nakedness would get me but an ill name that cannot delight in the destruction of any as God doth not neither have I any joy to hear and see any ones backslidings but must pity them with my heart and pray for and wish their returne again unto God else I should degenerate from what God hath made me and change from my natural disposition And this is Because God hath proved the good Physitian and doth heal perfectly he is the good Samaritan that binds up the wound and in the day that I was cast out in the open fields when no eye pityed me but I was naked as in the day that I was born neither salted nor swadled at all neither was I washed in water to supple me nor any garment put on and over me to cover and hide my deformity but I was in my blood then did God pity me and in my blood said Live and hath done all these things for me though the Priest and Levite passed by and there was no bowels among men of that spirit and he being come to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to gather a remnant of the out-casts of such and to call the sinner to repentance and not the righteous and to the sick and poor and needy and weary and maimed having lift up his voyce and stretched out his hand what shall I turn my back against such a work shall I be offended because he talks with the Samaritan woman because she hath no fellowship with the Jewes and that because he asketh her for water or that he hath entred the house of a Pharisee and there hath been found eating with the Publicans Oh! no such work is not the work of God in me but Gods work hath confounded it all of this nature and the upbraider cannot stand here in that I am come to the liberality of God to the inlargednesse of heart to him and to be upheld and sustained and supported by his free spirit by the work of the Spirit of Truth that makes free indeed and to use my liberty as an occasion to the flesh or cloak of maliciousnesse I cannot nor dare I be so imbondaged to Jew or Greek Barbarian or Scythian bond or free male or female Samaritan or Pharisee that I should forget that love that would do good to all and thinks well of the work of God towards all So that concerning the Apostate and Back-slider and Prodigal I dare not accuse any particular sect or opinion or perswasion or person of men in such perswasions as that you or thou art the only Apostate and Backslider but I doe see a part in all as it hath been and is wrongly perswaded and opinionated that until the creature be again returned in it and from the cause of its digression degeneration and depravation is that Apostate Back-slider from the Commandements of God and prodigal from the Spirit of truth the Fathers house and dwelling place to wit the flesh and it was and is the cause of the breach between God and his creature which no upbraidings can heal neither is the Spirit of God even it and him that God was in before the world began reconciling it to himself but that all might be laid wast of this nature 〈…〉 in and over all these things hath bâ—â—â— suffered even breach upon breach and devotion upon devotion and in the midst of heapes of confusion is God come to and bringing up order who must be and himself is come to be the healer and repairer and restorer thereof ere the healing can be perfect and by his Spirit that many are come to they see into the cause and ground of all these things and of all botches and boyles and putrified sores and breakings out in the particulars of persons or in any particular people gathered into a body infected with the deadly wound of an imposterous nature under mens daubings with untempered morter that cry peace while their mouths are put into and such patched up health could never long continue in a common-wealths body but since God is come to do the work and hath undertaken the cure that will be the teacher of his people himself their Councellour Judge Law-giver Instructor Correcter Physitian and All in all I question not a perfect cure of all that is amiss that such are witnesses of that come unto him through faith in the life of forgivnesse the Sons life that is the repairer of all breaches and the restorer again of a path to dwell in and then out of all the self-boastings and confidence in and of the world And thus though sin hath abounded yet grace hath much more abounded but not that we should continue in sin God forbid but all having sinned and come short of the glory of God thou that art brought into the sence hereof art not in the worst state neither is there any ground of despondency and doubtings to thee of Gods favour of thee thus returned into a sence of the work of God and into faith in the workers will and good pleasure whatever hard judgment and usage thou meet with among men of different judgments and opinions for thou art not left alone and let them upbraid and mock on be thou still and wait in patience out of the grumbling murmuring complaining nature and thou wilt come over it all and grow through all reproach of this nature untill thou come to leave such works withering and dying as untimely fruit but look thou at God in the midst of all and let them taunt on they cannot hurt and stop thy glorying in a life that is out of the worlds reach to hurt though in this life of the â—â—â—sh and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—yings they may think they hurt thee but thou art as willing to dye from that as all things else and thy repute is not a creaturely esteem but through bad reports hast learned to passe as well as good reports and canst say If my hope was in this life I was of all men most miserable but Christ in me is the hope of my glory with whom my life is hid and in him is hid all my treasure c. And when he my life appears I shall appear with him in glory And that which hath been done in secret shall be manifest openly and what spoken
in the ear preached on the house top but until he appear to be my life I must suffer with him waiting for a further manifestation of his glory and the appearance of the Son of God therein And so for reports alass thou canst not but know more of thy self in the root and ground of things and that to the light and heart-searching spirit art come than men can have to accuse thee and now being come to know nothing by thy self yet thou art not thereby justified what therefore is in this more than to manifest the frame and temper of such spirits that yet have a root of the same hidden that in thee hath broken forth and thou art therefore like to come first to the day of healing for their covering and false healing is the same that was thine and thus have they been daubing and are daubed with untempered morter as thou wert in that the same that hath been upbraiding when it is displeased will flatter when it is pleased and is it that is flattered deceiving and being deceived Therefore whatever they threaten and wait to see concerning thee wish not the same to them no not in thy heart because of him that seeth its secrets but wait on the Lord for preservation and the end of that spirits woâ—k thou shalt see manifest before thee and shalt be made able to judge of it And then as to thy state thou wilt see there is no need of a second offering or attonement for the offering is through the eternal Spirit once for all and the atonement for ever perfecting in the sanctified life and in thy going from that Spirit and the sence therein and thereof begotten the life of God hath been brought into a suffering state and to be afresh crucified which thou being again returned to and with the Spirit that manifesteth the cause thereof come into unity feelest the atonement makeâ— and the atonement making to be for ever then what the many offerings under the Law of works where was the blood of Bulls Goats of a year old sprinklings of an Heifer could not do in that they make nothing perfect â—s pertaining to the Conscience thou being come to that which manifesteth the nature that the Bull was a figure of and also the Goat at left hand that being offered up and slain on the Crosse all sufferance to the Lamb that went before for a peace-offering and is the atonement maker ceaseth and so the offering is but one and once for all that being offered to God which his Spirit hath begotten and wrought and the kindling and inflaming being of that nature and so no false fire put into thy Sensure Object 2. All this I confesse very true to my condition concerning the cause and ground of the apostasie and back-sliding and falling away from the truth of God in the prodigality of that mind a part and nature in the creature that could not be content to trust the Father withall and to have the portion in his hands and now I plainly see that the Apostate and Backslider and Prodigal is not so much such a Sect or Opinion and Perswasion and People of such a different Judgement from me though I confesse in these different Perswasions some are more deeply tainted with this apostatizing spirit than other-some as the spirit and nature of a part in all that hath backsliden from the Law and Commandements of God and in the adulteration of that mind hath been caused the breach that is yet standing between God and his Creture untill the spirit of atonement and reconciliation be so received and adhered to that it make up all again And seeing thou art not in Pauls state of unconversion from the ignorance of a blind zeal that persecuted and spoke evil of that he knew not when concerning the Law he could say he was blamelesse yet was one at whose feet was laid the garments of the witnesses neither art crying Lo here or Lo there or I am of Paul or Apollo c. but art found comforting the Babe and partaking with the afflicted in their way and as one that hath passed through the state and condition I am in and that would not have sin and wickedness countenanced under any pretence whatever but the creature of God pityed in every state betrayed under the enemies power and yet the Axe of God layed to the root of the tree and the root of the matter relating to the cause and ground of the apostasie and backsliding from the truth of God seen into that it may be removed and taken out of the way of God utterly the conditions of many being concerned herein I further query how and when it came in and how it may be removed again perfectly seeing it is generally the voyce and cry of the world it came in but just now and that the deceiver entred but as in their dayes and yet excuse themselves of his entring of them that they may lay the burden heavy on others Answ The first Apostate was old Adam that went from the guidance and government of the Spirit of God and as all have taken a nature and part from him who was of the earth earthly and as was the earthly so are they that are earthly though he was made a living soul nevertheless the soul that sinned having dyed in the day he eat of the forbidden fruit and so death having past over all from Adam c. all are to wait again for and in the power of the second Adam a quickning spirit and yet as to the first man as he was and is a natural man he was betrayed under and into this state and is not properly reckoned for the sinner and offender and transgressâ—r as to the natural part further than creatures in it are so joyned and united to the cause thereof that they neglect the work of that and him who gives the sight of the misery of such state and so in the end comes to sleight and dis-regard the remedy out of it for the mistery of iniquity that hath wrought and yet works in the hearts of many oppâ—sers of the work of the Spirit of Truth there is spiritual wickednesse in high places so that though death came on the bodyes of all as by one man that sinned they have taken a nature and part from for the souls sake that is immortal whom the tribulation and anguish hath rested on as a death that came by reason and means of sin yet the feeling of a remedy to the one to wit the soul once relapsed and fallen under the power of a second death is through the begettings and working up of a faith in the spirit of him that endured the one for the conquering the dominion and power of both Thus is there a man of sin or man by whom came sin whom God will destroy by the breath of his lips and nostrils and brightnesse of his appearance with an everlasting destruction and yet not properly the first