by the Law which he consents and agrees to as that which is righteous and holy and spiritual and good and a will to put it in execution as that which in the doing thereof he doth but his duty and which he is obliged to by GOD and his own voluntary Engagement and to continue therein under the danger of the Curse upon failer Here the Command is a Lamp and the Law is Light to instruct man in his Duty and the Spirit and Mind of man keeping to this Light and walking up to it and faithfully in it is in a good and perfect state by God approved and justified so that there be but a continuance in it And this Christ seems to acknowledge to him that put him the Question Luke 10. 25. What shall I do to inherit Eternal life In the Answer he gives bidding him do that which is written in the Law which sayes Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength and with all thy mind do this and thou shalt live Where then lies the difficulty what is it that is yet wanting The difficulty lies in man's part whereof he is not enough sensible and the want is that of a Guide and Surety to set and to keep man's spirit right in the doing of that which the Law requires in the manner God prizes and most esteems For there is a way that is right in man's eyes even in yeelding obedience to the Law of God wherein man glories and is puffed up in himself but hath no praise from God and this is from that spring and principle of activity which is seated in the freedom of Will which is natural to man in his first righteous Nature and was found in him before his Fall and is capable of Restitution since nay is actually restored through the benefit of his Death more or less in every man by that common Light and Grace which Christ doth no more withhold from any man than he doth his Rain from raining upon the Just and Unjust but in way of further bounty doth confer in large proportions where he pleaseth a distribution of his Goods and Spiritual Gifts in which he causeth the Receivers thereof to differ one from another according to the use he intends them unto By which enriching of man's nature upon this his restored natural bottom of a free active righteous spirit according to the Law whilst the primitive mutability is still continuing with him he is so far from being made a New Creature and truly regenerate as is but too generally conceived that nothing but passing under the new Creation-work translating man out of his primitive natural freedom and activity into an activity and Freedom of another kind is capable to hinder this first freedom from engendring to bondage and the righteousness accompanying it from failing and ending in the death of Hypocrisie and final Apostacy which made Christ in Joh. 8. 31. to deal so plainly with the Jews that in this wavering spirit were for the present such as passed currant for Believers and were so called by the Evangelists but Christ knew they were not of continuance and so told them ver 31. together with the Remedy which he had by him for the cure of it For they stood in need to be made free by the knowledge of the Truth or rather to be known of him that is True the Son that abides in the house for ever who is able to bring them into that state of freedom that shall make them free indeed with an impossibility ever to be imbondaged more or to serve sin as their lord and master This mutable state wherein man did at first receive God's Image by Creation and doth in the way of Restoration again partake of it by vertue of the Ministry of Christ's first anointing and comforting Presence in which he takes up his habitation in the soul as a so journer and passenger although there be given that knowledge of God's Will and Mind to man which is true and as perfect and full as the Vessel that takes it can bear yet the weakness of the Vessel is such that it is like the wave of the Sea tossed with every wind when temptation arises and is either of it self apt to mistake and misunderstand the Rule given him to walk by or to close and fall in with a false deceitful spirit transforming himself into the Image of Righteousness and imbrace him for the True one for whatever Image of God that which is a meer Creature and no more is found in the old Serpent knows how to imitate and personate the same in the very likeness wherein it shines forth in Christ's own Person and with the same to seat himself in the hearts of his followers as in the Temple of God and to shew himself as far as that will go for proof and demonstration that he is God to the imbondaging and carrying captive by this deceit all that receive not the Truth in the love of it Whereas the Image and knowledge of God and of his Will which is given by the Truth or by his coming into the Soul who is the true One doth anoint and impress the Soul with that Name of God which doth exclude by the very Nature of its evidence all possibility of falshood deceit or uncertainty as doth the Dayes-spring of Light to the natural eye which by its self-evidence assures it It is that Light wherein is no darkness at all but is able to distinguish it self as that which is separate from the darkness of every counterfeit and false representation This comes only by the Law of Faith and true Regeneration that Gift of the Holy Ghost as he is the Second and better Comforter the Spirit of Truth which the World neither doth nor can receive Christ therefore calls himself the Truth as he is the receiver and giver of this Anointing as these Rivers of Living Waters flow from him that fail not but are a well-spring unto Life Eternal as it is written Joh. 7. This spake he of the Spirit for the Holy Ghost was not yet given that is in this Ministry and by the means of Christ's Manhead because Jesus was not yet Glorified Jesus was a man and the most perfect righteous natural man which ever was the form of which is made in him Incorruptible having its first mutability fixed by being subjected and made a Servant though the elder unto a New-spring of Light and Divine Birth that was added to him as he became the engrafted Word and wherein he and the Father are One and not he but the Father doth the work Therefore he sayes in Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the Keyes of Hell and of Death According to this pattern of man's Natural Perfection made in Christ incorruptible and brought forth in perfect subjection and subservency unto and agreement with a more excellent birth
knowledge of the Life which is hid with Christ in God Those that are in this Kingdom and in whom the Power of it is are fitted to flye with the Church into the VVilderness and to continue in such a solitary dispersed desolate condition till God calls them out of it They have VVells and Springs opened to them in this VVilderness whence they draw the VVaters of Salvation without being in bondage to the Life of Sense and the objects depending thereon as touch not taste not handle not which perish in the using 2. But Secondly Christ's Kingdom is also outward appearing to sense and to the eye of the sensual or inferiour part of the mind which works only by bodily organs judging by the sight of that eye and the hearing of that ear whose life is in and by the body consisting in bodily exercise and is therefore compared Revel 11. 2. to the outward Court and the VVorship thereunto appertaining This is the Dominion of God in the Conscience also though but in the inferiour or sensual part of the mind where it becomes a Law in our Members to put in execution and perform the Law of the Spirit of our Mind that so our very bodies may become the Temple of the holy Ghost and we may be able to glorifie God not in our Spirits only but in our Bodies also as clean Vessels and earthen Tabernacles upon which may be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD Zech. 14. Now the Kingdom of Christ comes not properly to appear in outward shew and visibility but as it shines forth in this lower and earthly part of the Soul witnessing the Dominion and Power of God to be there as a Law and commanding Principle in and over the outward man With respect to this kind of its Appearance in affecting and influencing the bodily part of man and becoming the Life thereof it is capable to come forth in a Power and Glory that is corruptible fading and that wears away as also in that which is incorruptible and abides for ever The first of these is meant 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. where 't is said Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or have the like appearance with him for we shall see him as he is The Sons of God are not yet in the proper appearance of his Sons but do bear the form and appearance of the fleshly man to the making a fair shew in the flesh They have their Treasure but in an earthen Vessel unredeemed from its present bondage unto corruption But the time is hastening when they shall in Spirit shine forth as the Sun in its strength in the Kingdom of their Father and their very bodies shall be as the Firmament transparent and of service to unvail the glory of the inward man and not cover and disguise it as now they do But alas This fair shew in the flesh which may also be made by those that are strange Children passes with most for the Kingdom of Christ even yet in these last dayes some crying Lo here and some lo there according to that form of service and divine worship they are perswaded in their minds is according to the Rule of God's VVord though it be but that only which appertains to the outward Court which is given up by God into the hands of the Gentiles to possess and tread under foot at their pleasure The Heavens hereof are passing away with a great noise and these worldly Elements are melting apace As a Vesture they shall be folded up and changed they shall perish and wear old as a Garment whilst Christ's inward and spiritual Kingdom shall remain and in its due time come forth in an appearance that shall be lasting and unshaken for ever VVherefore we receiving this Kingdom which cannot be moved let us hold fast and have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For our God is a consuming fire But to return and apply our selves to the subject we were on before which is To give the view of what Word God is fulfilling and what part of his Counsel he is executing among us in this our day The Heavens are now black over our heads the Sun is turned into darkness the Moon into blood and mens hearts are failing them for fear of what God is bringing upon the Earth Great distress is in the Land and upon the Nations Wrath is coming upon that People who say they are Jews and are not but shall be found liars The Sea and the waves also will roar the prophane heathenish party of men will be in great perplexity too Surely the Figtree and all the Trees are shooting forth and after this cruel sharp Winter that is and for some space is yet to be upon us the Summer approaches that will make amends for all Great cause there is for the Sons of God to lift up their heads as foreseeing that their Redemption draws nigh In this point the Book of the Revelations will be every day more and more opened to give us light and instruction the Providences of God helping much every day too as to the interpretation thereof together with the Spirit of Truth that dwells and lives in the hearts of Saints Through mercy the Lord who is that Spirit hath not been wanting in his Teachings of this kind to a poor Worm in my present solitude and bonds I shall have occasion to tell you by and by that there appears cause to me of dissent from Mr. Mede as to some applications that are made by him in his learned Commentary on that Book when I come to speak of some particulars concerning the Witnesses and their twofold time and state of prophesying 1. Their thousand two hundred and sixty years prophesying in sackcloth in a persecuted wilderness state 2. Their prophesying in power and glory during the space of the pouring forth of the seven Vials of Wrath as a fore-running Eliah-like Ministry preparatory to Christ's thousand years Reign on Earth Yet as to that which Mr. Mede calls his great Key for the opening of that whole Book to wit his Synchronisms or Contemporations of things which he finds to agree and fall out together in the same age and time I exceedingly reverence his Judgement and look upon him as one that hath most happily found out the hidden order and method used by the holy Ghost in that Prophetical Book This method being once known to the very rational judgment of man that may be exercised upon the matters contained in that Book they are thereby rendred much more easie and intelligible Let us also take it for granted as that which is the common judgment of those that acknowledge the Scriptures that in this Book of the Apocalypsâ— are contained and revealed in an orderly method the things which were to fall out in the course of God's Providence and wise ordering of
as in a wilderness condition for 1260 years now near expired And although from that state of servitude and hard bondage unto which you have been exposed by the Rulers no wrestlings or contendings by humane wisdom and power have availed to work your deliverance because the appointed time set by God is not come Yet this ought to be your comfort that so soon as that time comes there will then need very little other help than the Grave it self to cast you forth as the Womb doth her fruit which it cannot longer detain For of this be assured that Christ's dead body mystical can no more be held in its figurative grave after the set time is come than his natural body could in his literal grave Acts 2. 24. where it is said that after Christ by wicked hands had been slain God raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible he should be held of it Nor are you to be too much grieved and discouraged in this your low depressed and dead estate under the rage and indignation of the World and Powers of it since to you is the promise of Life and Resurrection and you are sure for the present to be fed in the Wilderness and to be kept green and flourishing in your inward man by secret dew inspired and distilled from Heaven whatever perishing and decays are brought upon your outward where you are bearing the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus Hearken therefore to the Call that is given you of retiring inward into the life of your Head and Root the life that is hid with Christ in God And as the means to be so with more freedom labour to keep the door of your sensual part shut and fast closed about you as much as may be that the noise and diversions of this sinful and unquiet World may not disturb nor interrupt you For though through impatience and unbelief you may be arguing and concluding against your selves as the whole house of Israel did Ezek. 37. 11. that your bones are dried your hope is lost and you are cut off for your parts yet ye shall know that the Lord he is God when he hath opened and brought you up out of your graves v. 13. He will then own you visibly for his people by wonderfully putting his Spirit within you and causing you to live And when you see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb and the hand of the Lord shall be known towards you his servants and his indignation towards his enemies He hath the weapons of his vengeance in readiness full Vials of his wrath to be poured forth by his heavenly Militia and Troops upon the Beast and his Worshippers when all humane means fail This you are therefore to know that though the Saints who have adventured to oppose the Beast and the kingdom of Antichrist all along contending in a good Cause have been still crushed and subdued as is foretold Rev. 13. 7. yet the time is coming yea is even at the very door for God to take the business into his own hands and to put forth the power of his wrath by heavenly Instruments forasmuch as the earthly ones as you have seen have proved ineffectual And this ought to be a teaching to us to depend upon God for the avenging of his people even when all humane ability to perform it is vanished and not hastily to run out in the use of any indirect means though tempted and allured thereunto But to return to the things which we propound to set before you in this Epistle They are reducible unto these particulars following 1. First The sight and knowledge of Christ as he is the Invisible and Holy One from whom as from the Head all natural as well as spiritual good doth flow 2. Secondly Christ's Headship exercised by him ever since his Ascension as he is the Son of man glorified and this in the two distinct branches and administrations of it The one that wherein he is the Lord and restorer of pure incorrupt Nature upon the Principles of the first Covenant renewed and confirmed in his blood The other that in which he is the giver of the Holy Ghost or the Minister of the Spirit and new Name as Ointment poured forth which where it is received upon the Principles of the new Covenant never fails but abides with such for ever 3. Thirdly The true Annointed Ones or Witnesses of Christ according to both his before-mentioned Administrations and the Annointing which is given by the one and by the other 4. Fourthly Those that in Principles are opposite unto these two Annointings and the effects of them declaring their enmity in and by the continued war they maintain against them in the posture of open enemies or dissembled friends both making up but one and the same Kingdom of Antichrist 5. Fifthly What Word and part of his Counsels contained in the Promises and Prophesies not yet accomplished is the Lord now fulfilling in the present dispensations of our day 1. To the first 'T is the Testimony which came out of Christ's own mouth concerning Himself and his Father Luke 1. 22. That no man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal Him which plainly declares that the beings both of the Father and of the Son are great and hidden Mysteries The one as well as the other is mystical and invisible and must be taught and revealed before it can be truly and fully known and understood what they are Agreeable to this is that Joh. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time that is immediately but by the means of the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him The Son therefore who is the only begotten is said to be the Image of the invisible God The first name and similitude whereby God is possible and capable to be known to others beside himself For by and from Him as the Head the knowledge and fruit of the whole Deity is derived and communicated in such fit Images and lively Representations as He hath fore-determined within himself to be known by unto his whole Creation from the beginning to the end thereof Hence it is that we find Christ the Mediator by the Prophet Isa 43. 10. speaking of himself after this manner Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant whom I have chosen The Lord the Mediator hath and owns for his Witnesses the Womans Seed in the head and in the members the promised Seed in his Servant the Branch the chief and principal one and in his Brethren the same Seed and who are made to bear his Fathers Name by Adoption as well as himself and to continue it for ever that one Seed Gal. 3. which saith the Apostle is Christ the mystical body that are Heirs according to promise Ye are my Witnesses sayes
the other sort of these Witnesses is because that is wanting to them which should fix them and make them unchangeable in well-doing and cause them to be Pillars in the House of God that never go out more That they are partakers of righteous Principles and are qualified with Power to work Righteousness and this from present annointing and impression of the true and right Spirit is not nor ought not to be denied them They may be Virgins and have Lamps well trimed with Oyl fresh and full and yet not able to keep this Oyl from spending and going out nor prevent their own being to seek for want of it when they should have the greatest use of it And indeed the first sort do confess as much and own their Righteousness to be mutable and they no longer to have certainty in it than they can stand in the Obedience and that their standing or falling may be or may not be as they give their free assent or dissent to the Good and Evil that presents it self to them But with many under the second sort of Witnesses it is not so for they fasten upon the Righteousness of Christ that is wrought in his Person as that which is unchangeable in it self which it is if they do but rightly apply it and hold it upon the Texnure of the absolute and better Promises which are by the new Covenant whereof they make no doubt but they do And as to their Sanctification they have the Law for their Rule which in it self is Moral and Perpetual and so they believe all real and true Conformity to it wrought in their hearts must also be although their hearts be not yet made that good soyl that where it hath received the Word and retained it for a season are not prepared to keep it for ever and to bring forth fruit with that patience as will lose all other things rather than ever be prevailed with to let it go From both these sorts of Witnesses Christ is Preached and Righteousness made known and Propagated in the World and a Testimony kept up against open Looseness and Prophanness Atheism and Idolatry and by these Spiritual Traders and Merchants in the Traffick of Christ's Goods and Talents of the Common Gifts and Graces of his Spirit there is by some a right good use and approvement made so as they are at last perswaded to put them to the Exchangers for their Lord's Advantage and their own benefit being willing to purchase the one Pearl of great price which is obtained through saving Faith and Regeneration for many of these small Pearls that in the Day of Proof and Tryal will not endure And those that do eat and drink unworthily of this Table of the Lord notwithstanding the many wonderful things they do in his Name he will profess he knows them not but let them see they have eat and drunk their own damnation and left themselves wholly without all excuse And therefore both these degrees and growths up into Christ Jesus as branches in the Vine that after real union must either by better husbandry applied to them come to receive a fastening in and with the Root that cannot be shaken nor dissolved or else prove withered branches at last that upon tryal are only fit for the fire Their great care and business should be to make their Calling and Election sure and from evidence which cannot fail nor deceive experience that the Root bears them and not they the Root And thus we come to the Consideration of the other two sorts of Witnesses that are the standing Plants and Olive Trees in the House of God which are planted by the Fathers right hand and none whatsoever can pluck up In the former I have spoke to Christ dwells as in his Tents and mutable habitations who in that respect are called Temples of the Holy Ghost that may so be defiled that God may destroy and cast them out of his sight for ever but these we now come to describe do Constitute that Mount Zion that cannot be moved that Heavenly Jerusalem which is made a quiet habitation a place of everlasting Rest a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down as the first must in order to be new built in the Regeneration not one of the Stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the Cords thereof be broken but there the Lord will be for ever a place of broad Rivers and Streams that shall spring up into life eternal and that from the lowest Ebbs at first no higher than the Anckles become still ascending not only to the heighth and stature of man in his fullest perfection but also above it till it come to be a River to swim in a River pure and clear as Cristal that proceeds from the Throne of God and of the Lamb the Son of man glorified in the midst of the street and on either side whereof is the Tree of Life or those who live and feed upon that incorruptible Fruit. The work which is wrought by Christ in and upon the two first sort of Professors of his Name is that which seals them and binds them fast up in the bundle of life unto the Redemption that is eternal and makes them to give witness to what Christ is and doth in his second Ministry as he sends the holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth which abides in them that are made Receivers of him under an Obligation never to depart from them nor suffer them to depart from him that is he that stablisheth us in Christ pouring out that Anointing which sealeth us with the Seal of the living God as with the Name of our Father in our forehead the effectual calling of whose Name upon us by working in us and making us fit Vessels to receive it and bear it is our Adoption and that manner of admitting us unto the right and dignity of Sons which makes us heirs according to the Promise And this is done by Christ not as Creator and the Giver of the Law and Life of pure Nature upon its first Principles but by Christ as he ministers that Spirit of Truth which is the Inspiration before-described that proceeds from the Father and the Son by the operation of the holy Ghost or third Person in the Trinity whose work is Perfection and consummative of what is already in being by the Creation and Operation of the Son or Eternal Word and yet causeth so great an Alteration in the natural being of man taken at his best from what it was before and that so much for the better with respect to abundance and immutability of that which Nature it self calls good and righteous that it justly deserves to be call'd a new Creation or Regeneration that gives a new Creature Being and Life far excelling the first and much differing in glory from it To evidence this Let us consider Man in the righteousness of his Natural being wherein he hath a right understanding of God's mind in what is required
of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of
seat and suitable habitation in the hearts of his Children who is the Father of all Unrighteousness and Deceit these flow from him as from their Fountain and Well-head and he is their Countenauce Protection and Propagation for the encrease and enlargement of his Kingdom of Darkness By the means of this Two-fold hatred that Satan begets in the subjects of his Kingdom against the Light of God's Glory shining in the Face of Christ and in the witness of those that are the Members of his Mystical Body here on Earth he blows up a continual War and keeps on foot a fixed Enmity between the subjects of the one and of the other Kingdom and the Enmity is still the same in effect whether it be open and allowed or dissembled and hid the hatred and opposition is not the less in it self but the last of the two is the worst and most dangerous This he Heads with a visible Power as well as sowes the Seed of it invisibly in the Children of his Kingdom and either by violence or fraud or both hath never failed from the beginning of the World to this day by the wise permission of God for the bruising of the Heele of the Womans Seed in the Head and Members to shew himself the God or chief Potentate and Ruler in and over the whole World And so influence in such manner all the visible Rule and Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical that is exercised on Earth and is supported by humane Wisdom and Power centring in the foresaid Principles of batred and prejudice against Christ and his Kingdom that he hath ever got the better of it in the eye of flesh and blood over the true subjects and servants of Christ and hath as much as is in him slain Christ's Witnesses and kept them under in a most oppressed and dispersed condition Of this the Seed of Abrabam beginning in Sem and so downward until Christ's Incarnation and Death and as the Consequence thereof the rejection of the Seed according to the flesh were the living and known examples in their dayes what Servitudes and Captivities were they not exposed unto and did they not undergo And at last the very visibility of their own Church and State was wholly defaced and lost though both of Divine Constitution and supported not only with divine Laws but with the visible signet of the Divine Presence and by whom was this People upon whom the Name of God was called brought under persecuted and suppressed but by those who were foretold by Dan. ch 2. and most lively represented and described by that great Image which was the subject of Nebuchadnçzzar's Dream that none but Daniel could rehearse and interpret signifying the Persons and their Successors that should be found possessing the Universal Empire and Command of the World during the continuance of those known Four Monarchs that have followed successively one after another according as they were fore-told and charactered out some thousand years ago and are now standing upon their last legs the time drawing on apace when the spiritual seed of the same Abraham shall be made heirs even of the World by Faith and what was done by Abraham in Figure and Type as to his Conquest over the Four Kings Gen. 14. must have its accomplishment in Reality and Truth by those of his seed that are the true Israel in Spirit who by the Spirit of Life entring into them at the appointed time together with the Charge committed to them of pouring out the seven Vials of the last Plagues of God shall bring the final downfal and destruction of those Four Monarchs and in and with it of the Kingdom of the Beast and of Antichrist and bring home again and receive the true Lots that have been sojourners in the Sodom of this World all this time under the Power of their Oppressors And as it did befal Israel after the flesh that were Abraham's Natural Seed under the three first Monarchies and part of the Fourth our Saviour suffering Death Under the Roman Empire so are the Scriptures very plain and express if considered with a spiritual eye that the Israel after the flesh that have been adopted into the room and place of the former and though wild by Nature yet engrafted upon the same Stock and Root of the good Olive Tree the true anointed One that is the Father of many Nations as he is the Second Adam whose standing is by Faith that if they exalt themselves and become hardened and resist the Ministry of the Holy Ghost as the Jews that were their Predecessors did Christ will then make it appear also in the Case of these latter Jews who say they are so but having not the Spirit and Nature of true Faith in them do lye and deceive themselves as well as others that it is not they that bear the Root but the Root that bears them who therefore can cast them off as he did the others and once more not only shake the Earth but the Heavens although called Christian to make way for that Kingdom of his that cannot be shaken whereof we have already shewed and how nigh this is accomplishing and is even at the very doors we shall have occasion to make mention of more particularly as the next and last Particular we are to speak unto For an Introduction whereunto let me only mind you of some few things that the Apostle John in his Book of the Revelations layes before us on this behalf declaring first the things that were to befal the Heathenish Roman Empire and the Church of God abiding under its Protection during the time of the first Six Seals which by Computation continued till somewhat more than four hundred years after Christ j about the end of which period that Empire as Heathen dissolved and a new face of things in Church and State rose out of it at last for so mnch as concerned that part of the World which thereupon in Name became Christian And because the Spiritual part of the Church at that same time began to be most suppressed being forced to fly from the fury of the Serpent into a wilderness-state and condition therefore the visible Constituted Frame of Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Power called Christian were represented unto John The First under the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea And the Second under the two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth answerable to what was under other similitudes intimated of them in the Iron Legs and the Feet and Toes of Nebuchadnezzar's Image part of Iron and part of Clay Whereby the Iron leggs are the Civil Power as it became Christian and retaining still the Reliques of the Roman Empire and by the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay is meant the Ecclesiastical State and Power partly Papal and partly Reformed as an earthly Jerusalem yet visible and both enemies to the Jerusalem that is above and yet not very good friends between themselves whose
could take in by its first make and constitution of being upon natural Principles he proceeds to declare his purpose to speak again and form a hearing ear and seeing eye proportion'd to his second voice adding this kind of hearing and sight to the samâ— Creature-being whose first Principles of Knowledge and Will aâ— too short and weak to bear this Voice called in Scripture the sight and hearing of Faith that must be mixed with our natural Principles as their stability and consummation and have the place of guide to them and Lord over them that the Scripture in this sense may be made good that the elder shall serve the younger The Root of this Second sight of God is wrought out in Christ as he is the only begotten that lies in God's bosom and from thence is made the Minister and Giver of what himself first receives and enjoys So that now supposing the Spirit of the Mediator that is the only begotten and first-born of every creature to be the Root of all natural Principles and Perfection as he is the Messiah and the hearer and obeyer of God's first Voice of which we have already spoken we are now to know that God proceeds to make the same only Begotten to have being and abode in him as his peculiar possession and choicest object of his Love in the relation of his Spouse and Consort He is formed and prepared hereunto by becoming him that is made able to hear receive and obey God's Second Voice his highest most excellent and fullest manner of manifestation of himself to Creature-understanding with power in the dispensation of the fulness of time to become Man made of a Woman under the Law and afterwards raised up from the dead and made to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high working out the same work in Jesus his Servant the chief and principal Branch which is first wrought out in himself as in the root and head of all natural and supernatural perfection It is then a kind of working over the Creature again out of its first frame and constitution of being into a frame and constitution much more excellent and capacious a state incorruptible never needing nor being subjected to change of any kind afterward which the first building upon natural principles doth and did need This working over or re-building the Creature again called in Scripture Regeneration is not simply restoration or confirmation conveying immutableness to the first Principles and no more but it is quite a new Creation that takes down of the first building as much as the Builder pleaseth and leaves no more of it standing than what is consistent with and grows up into perfect harmony use and serviceableness to and with the new addition and enlargement that is made not destroying the first Image of God in man This rebuilding work then produceth not a total anihilation of the natural being but brings upon the life and manner of operation that flows from natural principles such a cessâ—â—ion as amounts to a kind of death at least to a bitterness more than dâ—ath it self rendring it impossible for the Creature to live or move any longer unto sin and evil and quickning it and raising it out of this dead state into the greatest freedom to and stedfast perseverance in all kinds of good that is imaginable as that which becomes most natural and delightful the contrary thereunto most grievous and disquietful to it This Second Life which accompanies Salvation and brings Immortality to light is a kind of life from the dead that the natural beings of Angels and Men are begotten into by being made meet Temples and Subjects for the Holy Ghost in a state of life eternal by a union with God that can never be dissolved Angels therefore as well as Men are called Children of the Resurrection Luke 20. 35 36. as they are brought into a state never to change more Hence it is even amongst these Children of the Resurrection that the immortal life wherewith they are quickned by Christ as he is the giver of the Holy Ghost is of two sorts as to the degree and measure of the glory thereof First Such wherein Men and Angels are equal And the Second Such wherein some Men are made in such manner Christ's Equals the Lamb's or Bridegroom's Wife that lies in his bosom that they are the Angels superiours and are made joynt-heirs with Christ of that Name which he hath obtained better than that which is the Angels food that Word of God's mouth that they live upon So that now when we speak of Christ as the Author of life Eternal in this second sort of Ministry wherein the natural beings of the creature are as it were wrought over again and rebuilt we would be understood that there is a birth of this Immortality which amounts to the giving of the Holy Ghost in the single portion of it and also in the double portion of it as we shall distinctly open in its place both being distinct from that pure holy righteous life of Nature that was at first given by Creation or afterwards renewed by a Restoration and kind of new Creation of qualities but falls short of true and saving Regeneration properly and rightly explicated and made known by which the natural frame and make of the natural soul and spirit of man is in a manner wholly altered and changed and much for the better because it is raised out of its frail mutable wavering as well as sinful natural state into a strong stable immutable posture of mind in Righteousness and true Holiness as a Rock and Stone that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against This further Gift and Grace of God though it be the end of Man's Creation and that which God as the reward to those that are obedient under the first Ministry doth promise and hold forth in a way of Promise yet is conditional and so that which in Justice God need not confer upon any that perform not the Condition but by their sin do forfeit it And therefore it so happens that all who inherit this Blessing are made receivers of it by Promise and by a second and new Agreement with God which he enters into with them in regenerating them and makes them new Creatures thenceforward to serve him and live to him in newness of Spirit and Life 3. We now come to shew according to the Third Particular proposed who those be that are Christ's Anointed Ones and Witnesses under both his fore-mentioned Administrations and the Anointing it self which is given by the one and by the other Christ is as we have shewed the Original and primitive Pattern of all Perfections the Works that were finished from the beginning known to God from all Eternity and actually wrought and set up from Everlasting in the Mediator through that Eternal Wisdom which was by God as one brought up with him Prov. 8. and whom he possessed in the beginning of his way before his Works of
Religion hath been made National and in the Rules Ordinances and Doctrines thereof been embodyed with the Laws of each Nation in the Empire and so enforced by the Civil Sword those that truly keep the Commandments of God and Testimony of Jesus have been driven into a state of desolation persecution and dispersion and are so to continue and be warred upon forty and two Months by the Earth and her Inhabitants on the one hand and by the Sea and her Inhabitants on the other Both these sorts of Inhabitants and Enemies of the Church in the Wilderness do make up and constitute but one great City or incorporated Society of the Serpents seed spiritually called Egypt and Sodom under the headship of worldly Government as it arises out of the Sea This worldly Government is still but the same fourth Beast and universal Romane Empire in Principles of opposition to the Kingdom of Christ and Seed of the Woman as before It seems indeed to be now healed and reformed with the shew of Christian Religion under the headship of Church-Government and coercive Power arising out of the Earth or apostate Principles of the worldly Church departing from the Primitive Power Purity and Patern retaining still something of the form of Godliness but denying the Spirit and Power thereof The first Beast carries the second and is willing to be rid upon by it finding great benefit and advantage by having the Whore upon their back for the propagating of servitude and rooting out of the earth the pure and chaste Principles of the Primitive Apostolick Catholick Church Thus the War is managed between the two seeds in this third day Towards the latter end of this day is our lot fallen who are at present alive in this world But before the period and shutting in of this day the Sufferings of the Womans Seed shall have an end Then that Ministry of the Spirit shall come in which is compared to the latter rain This is that which shall break the Serpents head utterly tread him his kingdom and followers under foot This is that which by the pouring forth of the seven Vials of the wrath of God upon the kingdom of the Beast to the utter ruine and destruction thereof will prepare the way for the coming down of the new Jerusalem out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband and so for the thousand years Reign of Christ on Earth At the beginning of that Reign Satan shall be chained up and there shall be no more Sea or prophane worldly-Interest and beastly Government left In the evening-time of this third day or age of the World wherein we now live it shall be light by the coming on of the Kingdom and Reign of Christ with all his Saints Zech. 14. 5 7. This then that we have been describing is the third signal season or great revolution of things in this world wherein the same War that was from the beginning hath been and still is carrying on between the two Seeds under the name of Christian or of Christ's followers The Seed of the Serpent under pretence of being for Christ do prove at last universally against him most shamefully and wickedly rejecting him and falling in with the kingdom of Antichrist in direct opposition to his Kingdom This they will do notwithstanding that he hath been graciously striving and contending by the Ministry of the Gospel to work the whole World into a state of Obedience and Subjection to the Righteousness of his Scepter For this end hath he been many hundred years giving forth the light and glory of his Gospel and Kingdom from the Eastern parts of the World to the West and suffered himself all along to be cast off and his Members to be oppressed and troden under foot by degrees in one Nation and Country after another till at last it came to these Western parts and was spread from hence in America which with these Nations we live in seem to be the last piece of Ground this Quarrel is to be fought out in Yea and probably this is the time as well as the place wherein the Witnesses are finishing their Testimony being the last that are signally to be slain by the Beast as the proper accomplishment of that Prophesie Revel 11. 7. The Beast is represented here as generally in his ascendant posture being gratified with some remarkable Rise in his affairs as a lightning before death to enable him for the accomplishing of this great counsel of God that is to be acted upon the dead bodies of his slain Witnesses within the three years and half before their rising again and standing upon their feet Then they are to enter upon the second part of their Prophetical Ministry compared to that of Eliah's in Ahab's time and that of Moses in Egygt when at their word they shall shut Heaven that it rain not have power over Waters to turn them into blood and to smite the Earth with Plagues as often as they will By them also Heaven shall be opened and a fuller and more excellent discovery of Christ in Spirit ministred than ever yet hath been Amongst them shall be found those seven Angels or Officers of the Church to whom shall be committed the pouring out of the seven golden Vials full of the wrath of God These Vials contain a like universal Ministry of Wrath and of the Judgement of God by Fire upon ungodly men as was brought by Water upon the old World in the dayes of Noah This ministry of wrath by Fire shall put a period to the third state of things in the world as that by Water did unto the first Out of the destruction of the present World and frame of things by this fiery ministry of God's wrath is the thousand years Reign of Christ to spring up in that Kingdom of his that shall never end And here bear with me in giving by way of digression some few broken Notions in order to the better and more distinct opening of Christ's Kingdom which we shall find Luk. 17. 20 21. and chap. 19. 11 c. to be distinguished into a Twofold state 1. A Kingdom inward The Kingdom of God is within you and is the dominion of God in the Conscience and Spirit of the Mind This Kingdom stands not nor comes in or with any outward observation but is the commanding ruling Principle of Life in the true Saint as a Law written in his inward parts Christ's Kingdom as thus considered is intended Rev. 11. 1. where it is called the Temple of God or the inward Court and those that worship there glorifying God in their Spirits This Kingdom of Christ is capable of subsisting and being managed imwardly in the minds of his People in a hidden state concealed from the eye of the world By the Power thereof the inward senses or eyes of the mind are opened and awakened to the drawing them upward to a Heavenly converse catching and carrying up the Soul to the Throne of God and to the
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us
Whether we be able to drink of the Cup he drank of and be baptized with the Baptism he was baptized with Was it not to intimate That if we die with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him and have it granted to us to sit down with him on the Throne of his Glory our very Enemies beholding What would it be less even in this world if he should but please to cause upon this occasion of our Suffering that the Spirit of God and of Glory should rest upon us and bring forth his Kingdom within us in Power giving us that Mouth and Wisdom that will make us mighty in word and deed that Faith to which all things are possible that Spirit of Supplication and Prayer that he will alwayes hear and immediately answer God's Arm is not shortned doubtess great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ to be admired in them If we come not to live here in the actual fruition and full accomplishment of them as they will be experienced by Believers even on this side the death or full change of their mortal body yet if we die in the certain fore-sight and embracing of them by Faith this will be no small blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his Work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is exposing to the Light His Sons must be manifested and evidently distinguished from those who say they are such and are not There is a glory to be revealed in them unto which their Suffering is made the needful Preparation and this is called the Redemption of the body In that day the tabernacling of God in men shall be visible Their very bodies shall be the Temple of the Holy Ghost In them as his Sanctuary will God dwell for evermore whence shall be given forth such visible signs of his extraordinary Presence as shall render it past dispute to the sight of every man that God is in them and with them of a Truth This state of entire resignedness and subjection of our bodies to our Spirits and of our Spirits unto Christ the Father of them shall certainly be brought to the view of the whole World The eyes of those that see them shall acknowledge them and the ears that hear them shall bear witness to them that they are the Seed and Off-spring which the Lord hath blessed Our body thus considered as capable of such advance and honour is not meerly the outward case or shell that must return to dust but includes also the bodily organical state of Life or that souly animal Life which the Spirit of man exercises in conjunction with his mortal body In this kind of Life it is we see hear and speak have the exercise of our Senses after a distinct manner from Angels and intellectual Substances in a way of operation inferiour to theirs proper and peculiar to the rational Soul as needing and using the earthly Organs or Instruments of the mortal body There is also in man that which is peculiarly called Mind or Spirit in distinction from his Soul or from the souly Life and activity of the same Spirit in and by its earthly body 1 Thess 5. 23. The Spirit or Mind of man as distinguished from that life and operation it performs in the mortal body is capable even while in the body to be awakened by the Father of Spirits and come forth in a superiour way even of natural life received by man in his first creation to act as out of the body or without the use of bodily organs as an equal or associate to the very Angels Now because the bodily and inferiour powers of our mind are the instruments of that converse we are subjected to in these dayes of our vanity so that if we will be sociable it must be by the use thereof the Apostle James comprehends all the action of these inferiour powers by the sensible organs we make use of in the exercise thereof under the name of the tongue when he saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body To bridle and regulate the tongue order all the language action and expression of the animal powers aright is to bridle the whole body under the government or ruling authority of the Mind or Spirit considered in its superiour and angelical kind of life and acting as out of the body or above and without the use of bodily organs The Mind or Spirit of man thus considered is as the Pilot that turns the Ship about whithersoever he listeth If it well and truly exercise its governing power it causes the animal life in all the operations and affections thereof to obey its dictates and commands however fiercely driven by contrary Winds false Doctrine any corrupting violent influences of Devils or men upon it and fetches it off from whatever tumultuous disorder it s own sensual lusts and passions are ready to run it into Jam. 3. 2 5. To be partaker of the Redemption of the body is to be made this perfect man which is taught so to live and act from right spiritual Principles as not to offend in word through the Power actually conferred on him and exercised by him for the bridling of the whole body in the sence above declared and for the keeping it in subjection to the Spirit or angelical part in him in righteousness and true holiness This taming of the tongue or subduing of the bodily part in us to the spiritual and intellectual is a work of no small difficulty a thing that is not to be purchased but at a dear rate It may cost us all that we have and no ill bargain neither since by our words it is that we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned For until we have brought under our body and reduced it into a fixed subjection and entire resignation to our Spirits let us boast never so much that which is perfect is not yet come even that perfection which in a very eminent degree shall be experienced by the Saints here on Earth on this side the grave and during their continuance in the mortal body This for ought I can discern will be the product of the present sharp and fiery Tryals that God hath brought upon his People all the World over After they have suffered a while and the same Afflictions have been accomplished in the rest of their Brethren that are in the World they may so far have the work of Patience perfected in them as in this sense to become perfect and entire wanting nothing and to shine forth as so many bright morning stars and fore-running signs of the near approach of the brightness of the Day of Christ's second coming This God hath set before the eye of my
Faith as the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus This is that perfection which by conformity with Christ in his Death and fellowship with him in his Resurrection is in a most eminent degree attainable before our dissolution and the putting off our earthly Tabernacle It shall be so far attained by the Power and Glory of Christ that is to be revealed in us that it shall not much fall short of a very Transfiguration And the state of the then glorious Church will be no less than an Heaven upon Earth in the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness This glorious state of things we look for and therefore are or ought to be hasting a-pace unto the coming of that Day of God Yet when I say until we experience this kind of perfection in Power in us that which is perfect is not yet come my meaning is not that the incorruptible Seed and Principles of this very perfection are not already seated and rooted in the inward man and in the Spirit of the Mind so soon as we are regenerated and that Christ is formed in us dwelling in our hearts by Faith Thus it is that we are all glorious within Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is within us liken'd to the hidden Treasure which when a man hath found in the field he keeps it concealed till he hath sold all that he hath and bought that field Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of that Glory which doth not yet appear is not unfitly expressed when it is called a light shining in a dark place that is in our bodily and sensual part which continues so for a long time after our new birth But those that are all glorious within must have their time of manifestation and be made all glorious without also The outward-man of the heart and the outward Court of the Temple must come to be measured and be of account and estimation in the sight of the World Then the whole body shall be full of light having no part dark as when the bright shining of a Candle doth give thee light This is the Perfection which is near us even at the very door ready to be testified and witnessed unto after another manner than those do pretend to who are for the subjecting and keeping under the body but by those mutable and wavering Principles of Perfection which amounts but to that visibility of Saintship which is the subject of Apostacy yet hath hitherto passed for currant Coin Nor would I have it thought that I have already attained the powerful practice of this holy Duty and Perfection but it is much in my desire aim and hope The difficult Circumstances I am in and that I am still more and more every day cast into by God's wise-disposing Providence to the sequestring me from the World and with-holding all sensible Comforts from me so much as he doth make me in some sort confident it is for a good end and that out of love and faithfulness I am made to drink of this bitter Cup the better to help forward this necessary work in me and upon me wherein consists the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God If I may have and enjoy this it would seem a very little matter to me to be in outward bonds banishment want or any other afflictions Help me then in all your solicitudes and cares about me to what will further and advance this Work in me The Lord grant me and mine to be content if he deny us to live of our own and will bring us to the daily bread of his finding which he will have us wait for fresh and fresh from his own Table without knowing any thing of it before-hand Peradventure there is a greater sweetness and blessing in such a condition than we can imagine till we have tryed it This may add to my help even our making little haste to get out of our Troubles patiently waiting till God's time come wherein he will open the Prison doors either by Death or some other way as he please for the magnifying his own great Name not suffering us to be our own chusers in any thing as hitherto hath been his way with us And why should such a taking up Sanctuary in God and desiring to continue a Pilgrim and solitary in this World whilst I am in it afford still matter of jealousie distrust and rage as I see it doth to those who are unwilling that I should be buried and lie quiet in my grave where I now am They that press so earnestly to carry on my Tryal do little know what presence of God may be afforded me in it and issue out of it to the magnifying of Christ in my body by Life or by Death Nor can they I am sure imagine how much I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which of all things that can befal me I account best of all And till then I desire to be made faithful in my place and station to make confession of him before men and not deny his Name if called forth to give a publick Testimony and Witness concerning him and to be herein nothing terrified What then will the hurt be that I can or shall receive by the worst that man can do unto me who can but kill the body and thereby open my Prison door that I may ascend into the pleasures that are at Christ's right hand prepared for those that testifie and openly discover their love to him by not loving their lives unto the death Surely this will prove better than to prefer sin or evil so much as in appearance unto Affliction and the Cross which Christ would have me take up daily and follow him in If the Storm against us grow still higher and higher so as to strip us of all we have the Earth is still the Lords and the fulness thereof he hath a good store-house for us to live upon There is nothing more destructive to us every way then the uncertainty we are in God can and if he think fit will chalk out some way wherein he may appear by his Providence to choose for us and not leave us to our own choice And being contracted into that small compass which he shall think fit to reduce us unto we may perhaps meet with as true inward contentement and see as great a mercy in such a sequestration from the World as if we were in the greatest outward prosperity I know nothing that remains unto us but like a tossed Ship in a storm to let our selves be tossed and driven with the Winds till he that can make these storms to cease and bring us into a safe Haven do work out our deliverance for us I doubt not but you will accordingly endeavour to prepare for the worst March 7. 1661 -62 FINIS ERRATA In the Epistle to the Reader Page 1. line 30. leave out if and now In the Epistle General Pag. 6. l. 9. f. well r. dwell P. 7. l. 30. f. manhead r. manhood the same word is so misprinted all along and to be so corrected P. 8. l. 23. f. their r. your P. 10. l. 39. leave out or would not P. 15. l. 17. f. or r. nor l. 37. r. see him not P. 21. l. 30 31. leave out the fountain of these outward senses his inferiour part to be in his Soul or Spirit l. 37. f. his r. it s P. 23. l. 17. r. much as hearers P. 24. l. 22. f. and r. which l. 23. leave out in P. 25. l. 9. f. of his r. for his P. 26. l. 10. f. are r. seem l. 40. f. duly r. daily f. by r. find P. 27. l. 9. f. other r. one l. 40. leave out not P. 28. l. 6. f. by r. amongst P. 29. l. 7. f. first r. last l. 25. f. perfection r. perfective l. 29. r. to the. P. 30. l. 22. f. his r. Christs l. 28. leave out which P. 33. l. 1â— f. nor r. or l. 23. f. by r. thereby P. 34. l. 8. f. his r. it s l. 28. f. into r. unto P. 35. l. 7. r. witnessing in every respect l. 39. f. their r. the. P. 37. l. 3. f. a r. as P. 38. l. 27. f. our r. open P. 43. l. 14. f. so r. to l. 37. f. Monarchs r. Monarchies so p. 44. l. 8. P. 45. l. 14. f. whereby r. whereby P. 48. l. 25. f. heads r. headship l. 35. f. one r. his own P. 52. l. 23. f. directed r. discerned P. 53. l. 21. f. duty r. duties Many other obscurities through the mistake of words and misplacing of Points have happened in the Printing of this General Epistle by reason of the several difficulties that attended its Publication It being twice taken in the Press and two Presses well furnished with Materials taken away in the doing of it Errata in The Face of the Times Page 64. line 26. for forme runder read former under P. 70. l. 33. f. unto r. into l. 37. leave out or P. 78. l. 36. f. o r. or P. 95. l. 10. f. doubtess r. doubtless