with the wicked and the rich in his death 250. What it is to have the pleasure of the Lord for to prosper in his or in our hand 251. The Lord shall see us as the travel of his Soul 253. We are the Lords spoil and portion Ibid. The Lord makes the barren to sing and to bring forth gloriously 254. The seed of the living God out of a barren womb wonderful 255. The Lord thy husband that comforts thee 256. I will be thy God and Husband from everlasting unto everlasting 257. The foundation windows and gates of the Saints the Lords house and building of what precious stones it is 258. The Lord is that water that wine and that milk to them that thirst after him and that hunger in him 260. Three things to be observed here more especially on the best wine kept last 261. That which is bread and satisfieth and is good and delights the soul and makes it live and prosper in fatness is from the Lord alone 263. Christ the true Witness and Leader to the People 265. The people that know thee not shall run afterthee for the Lord hath glorified thee in their eyes and their thoughts and ways shall be as the Lords thoughts and ways are 266. The Word that comes from Gods mouth shall prosper in what it is sent 268. No man is just but he to whom Salvation is come 269. The stranger and the Eunuch joyned to the Lord and made sons and heirs to God 270. The righteous man perisheth but not his righteousness yet none lays it to heart 271. The Lord will dwell in Holiness both on high and below 272. The sin and iniquity of Jacob the Fast that is the Lords the good and acceptable day that he chuses how we must love one another and walk in the light and not in darkness as the Lord doth to us 274. The exceeding sinfulness of sin the misery that it brings till the Lord arise against it in Justice and in Truth 277. Arise and shine for thy light is come 279. The glory given to them whom God doth glorifie Ibid. All Glory comes when Gods Glory comes 280. I will bring gold and silver strength and beauty unto thee 281. The Lord thy everlasting Light thy Sun and Moon that shall darken all other Suns and turn them to blood but himself in the end 282. The Spirit of the anointing of the Lord what works it doth binding and loosing doing all good 284 Our righteousness brightness and our salvation a burning lamp 286. The Lord thy Watchman day and night 287. The Lords dyed garments coming from the great slaughter of his enemies sin and Satan 288. The Lords coming down with power to destroy flesh 289. The Lord God is found of them that sought not after him 290. How all things are made new of God 292. Though heaven and earth be my house yet I will dwell in you 293. Zion brings forth yea a Whole Nation in a day and that without pain 294. THE Sealed Book of GOD opened in MAN The Mystery of the holy Scriptures the Volume of Gods Book written in mans heart in the Spirit and to be read in his life in the Letter HEB. chap. 8. vers 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people CHAP. I. §. 1 Christ the Sum of all Things NOw of the things which we have spoken and write saith the Apostle in the beginning of the chapter this is the sum Christ is the sum of it all the Figures Types Priest-hoods Sacrifices Temples Tabernacles Prophets and Prophesies in their severall parts Christ is their totall sum Let them be all numbred together they all make up but one Christ who is such an High Priest as is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majestie in the heavens they all give him 1. The right Hand 2. The Throne 3. The Majestie 4. The heavenly Thing in the Priest-hood and in all things else hath this preheminence SECT II. §. 2 The true Ministry A Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man Christ is the sum of all the Ministry there is no other Ministry but Christ and Christians who make but one Spirit he the male they the female whom God the Father hath joyned together his Spirit poured out and married to their flesh the Divine Nature the Male our Humane the Female making one Emmanuel God with us so that as the two witnesses agree in one so be these SECT III. §. 3 Christ the true Temple-Sanctuary CHrist was also the Sanctuary the Temple of God upon the Altar of which Temple he offered himself a Sacrifice to God Soul and Body so are Christians SECT IV. Christ the true Tabernacle §. 4 CHrist also is the Sum of the Tabernacle God dwelling so richly in him the Tabernacle of God was then with men the life was manifested the true Tabernacle the Lord pitched and not man so are Christians SECT V. Christ is the heavenly Thing in Christians §. 5 ALL which serve for the example and shadow of hâ—avenly things as Moses when he was admonished of God about making the Tabernacle See saith God that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount Now the truth and substance the heavenly Thing and the good Thing to come is Christ and the Christian this is the Tabernacle that God pitches even the man Christ there he will dwell that is his House Now Christ brings forth more excellent things then any in the Mount you have seen them all the Ministry Tabernacles Sanctuary Sacrifice the whole Worship the Law and Covenant also they all wax old vanish away from the Mount but not the other SECT VI. §. 6 Christ is the new Covenant in the new Creature BUt now Christ hath obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises It is a Ministry in Spirit a Covenant in Spirit making intercession in our spirits an establishing in Spirit and precious promises written in our spirits so that if the first Covenant Promises Ministry Tabernacle had been faultless pure or perfect there had been no need of the second but the Lord finding fault with the first and the Worship and Worshippers thereof He saith Behold the days come that I will make a new Covenant a new Promise a new Tabernacle a new Ministry and all things new a new Heaven and Earth with the House of Israel and the House of Judah In those days saith the Lord all old things shall then pass away and all things become new and all things shall be of God who hath reconciled us to himself in Jesus Christ SECT VII §. 7 What is that
what is Paul or what is Apollo or â—ephas It is the Lord alone that wil be exalted he will put his Law there where all the devils in hell all the powers of flesh and spirit cannot prevail against it if he put it there what shall be able to separate remove or pull it out of his hands or out of our hearts SECT XX. §. 20 Mans blessing or curse is within himself ANd I will write it in their hearts It is the heart of man that God ayms at and therein are the issues of death or life there is every mans Heaven or Hell his blessing or his cursing for if our own hearts condemn us shall not God much more If this Tree be good then all the fruits are good but if it be bad then all is corrupt look to your hearts then for from thence is discovered your weal or woe SECT XXI §. 21 What God writes in us is such writing as nothing can blot it out ANd here see how the phrase is changed to enlarge the sense what before he called his putting into our minds he enlarges it to the writing or rather explains the manner how he will put his Laws in our hearts and that is by writing them in our hearts or else what he will do after he hath put his Laws in our minds how he will preserve and keep it there that it may never be forgotten but abide in us for ever by an eternal written character that shall never be blotted out Sin may but Grace cannot and when it is thus printed in us no theeves can steal it nor rust corrupt it nor fowls gather it but it 's safe under Hand and Seal and we never have sure comfort till then we may then say I know that my Redeemer liveth and I see him and I know whom I have trusted I am perswaded fully that nothing is able to separate me from his love nor blot me out of his Book I was in much doubt of his word and promise before I had this Hand writing but now I thank God I have obtained the victory by the Lord. SECT XXII §. 22 Where God begins to write he perfects it in us NOw be assured of this all you that know any thing of God that when the Lord puts his hand to the pen and the pen to the paper which are the tables of our minds it will not be in vain he stays not there it is for this very end to write something therein either a protection to keep thee I wil be with thee or else a warrant to do something in his name and he will deliver thee or a Commission to go and teach all Nations to go forth to conquer and overcome fearing nothing SECT XXIII §. 23 The writing of God in us is by degrees ANd when the Lord begins his writing it may be in weakness in a letter first because of the smoaking flax and bruised reeds and from a letter to a Word a Word of Life and from a Word to a Promise and from a Promise to a Precept thus going on with line upon line and precept after precept here a little and there a little till he hath finished it his whole Will in us that in the volum of our hearts we may see it written Lo I am prepared to do thy Will O God When we shall see all his Words Promises Precepts Prophesies Exhortations Consolations Doctrines Reproofs Uses Means Motives and all compleated in Man It may be in the beginning like a grain of mustard seed but comes to a tree it is begun in free-grace but it ends in full Glory it is at first God manifested in the Flesh and thence justified in Spirit at last received up into Glory this is the writing called the Lords SECT XXIV §. 24 Gods magnifying himself in Man ANd all this is done for his own name sake to make his Glory Name known that he is the Lord the only God and there is no Beloved like to this Beloved this made David in his eight Psalm magnifie God so when he looked upon the three-fold writing of God 1. That in Nature saying O Jehovah God how excellent is thy Name in all the world thou hast set thy Glory above the Heavens this he read in Natures Book The second Book or Writing is in Letter Word or Promise and in this he is magnified in the same Psalm Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength stilling the enemy and avenger The third Book is in Spirit in Man and that is the highest of all Gods Writings there he is read plainest and best first in the first Man Adam secondly in the new Man Christ thirdly in the new Man the Christian this made him say more When I consider the the Heavens the works of thy hands Sun Moon and Stars which thou hast ordained Lord think I then what is poor man that thou art so mindfull of him or the son of man that is the second man that thou hast so much visited him as to dwell in him and be God with him making him a litle lower then the Angels in his flesh and crowning him with so much glory and honor in Spirit in us as to think Heaven Earth Angels Men Creatures Scriptures Means Sabbaths Ordinances Graces Promises Ministers Magistrates things Temporal things Spiritual Christ God the Spirit all is ours therefore I must say once again O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the world SECT XXV §. 25 The state of the two Adams THe Lord is pleased to make man an epitome of all things as he is a little world created of God Heaven and Earth being in him and he made up of both so the fulness thereof is in him a compound of all at first as he was in the first Adam But now in the second Adam in the generation of Jesus Christ as he is brought forth a new to God dying to the World and living to God in spirit in a new world whereof this first is but the image so is he the sum of all that spiritual state For as Christ in the flesh was the sum of all the legal Rites Ordinances Sacrifices Worship and All so is Christ Jesus in spirit in the new Creature the sum of Gospel Ordinances Prayers Hearings Writings Preachings Church-fellowship Breaking of Bread and Excommunications SECT XXVI §. 26 The Lord is all the Book and Scripture his people have him they preach hear read practise NAy the Lord will be to us Heaven and Earth Lands and Livings Father and Mother Sister and Brother Children and Friends Master and Servant Gifts and Graces Knowledge and Wisdom Temple and Sacrifice Sabbath and Sermon Creature and Scripture yea Doctrine and Psalm Revelation and Consolation New Testament and Old Law and Gospel Letter and Spirit Promise and Precept Writing and Printing our Bible and Book all things past present and to come Therefore he saith when he comes to do this I will write What a
rock of offence a snare a gin to others here they shall fall be broken and taken but the stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner and it 's the Lords doing and the Law and the Testimony shall be bound and sealed in my Disciples and they shall go no more to them that have familiar spirits to be taught but shall be taught of God not of the dead but of the living and they shall go to this Law of Life in them and speak according to that Light of the Lord that shines in them SECT XII §. 12 The joy of the Lord and the people that sate in darkness and see light and are governed by the Lord himself THe people that sit in darkness shall see great light and those that walk in the region and shadow of death light shall spring up there and thou shalt multiply their joy as the joy of harvest and as them that divide the spoil this shall be the Light of the Lord shining in them their joy and the Lord shall break the yoke and burden of the hands and traditions of men nay their bonds and bondage the staff and the rod of the oppressor and this shall be with burning and with fuel of fire by my Spirit faith the Lord For unto them is born a Governor the wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace the Government is upon his shoulders and of the increase of it there is no end it shall be established in Justice and Judgment Rejoyce therefore O Zion thy God raigneth and instead of the bricks that shall be thrown down and the Sycomores we shall have hewen stones and Cedars instead of earth and fleshly things spiritual in the room of all the Land this Government of the Lords Spirit shall throw down all other and endure for ever and the Lord shall joy in nothing but this Government for the wrath of the Lord shall darken the land and burn the thorns and bryars and eat the flesh of their own arm every one pulling out his eye and cutting off his hand casting them from him as unprofitable members and all manner of divisions shall then be reconciled the Lords anger turned away When this Government is established then neither shall Manasseh vex Ephraim nor Ephraim Manasseh nor both against Judah brother shall not condemn nor cast out or betray brother but they shall have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace SECT XIII §. 13 The proud Assyrian is brought low and Israel to be exalted THe unrighteous Decrees of men that turn aside the needy from judgment and the poor to take away their right robbing the fatherless and making a prey of the widow but the day of visitation shall take them all away and leave them without help or glory the tyrant shall cease from any oppressing And the Assyrian the rod of anger with his pride that rules in fleshly power and glory lifting up it self above all when I have done my work with him I shall make him to cease and pull down his stout heart that boasts of his Princes and his idols as if they made him to prosper and he knoweth not me saith the Lord Thus the Ax Saw Rod Staff boasteth and lifteth it self against him that made and rules it and can take it and burn it but the Lord will send a leanness upon them and their proud flesh and the light of Israel shall be as a fire and the Holiness of Judah like a flame and it shall devour the thorns and consume his glory his fruitful fields and all his idols but Israel shall turn to the mighty God and stay her self in him for a remnant shall be saved And as for the Assyrian all his yokes shall be broken off thy neck because of the anointing of the Lord thy God upon thee SECT XIV The peaceable and righteous Kingdom of the §. 14 Branch and the great encrease thereof from the four corners of the earth THe branch of the Lord Christ Jesus shall grow out of thy roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee in wisdom understanding counsel might and of the fear of the Lord and it shall make thee of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord and not to judg after the sight of the eyes or reprove after the hearing of the ears but in spirit and truth shall he judg and reprove all things and smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked and righteousness and faithfulness shall be our girdle of loyns and reins then and thus shall the Wolf and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid the Cow and the Bear and their young all lie down together and feed together the Lion eat straw like an Ox and a young childe shall play on the hole of the Asp and a weaned childe put his hand on the Cockatrices egg for there shal be no poyson nor hurt in all my holy mountain saith the Lord for the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord God and to the ensigne upon this mountain shall the people seek for rest which shall be glorious and from the four corners of the earth the Lord will gather them in even the outcasts of Israel All envy and adversaries shall depart enmity and all between Ephraim and Judah brother and brother we shall flee upon the shoulders of the Philistins Edom and Moab and Ammon shall obey us and joyn hands and hearts together and the tongue of the Egyptian sea shall be utterly destroyed and her mighty rivers dryed they shall be no more a let to my people Here is much glory indeed both a restoration reconciliation and gathering all into one head the Lord Then old things shall pass away and all things become new indeed SECT XV. The day of the Branch brings joy and §. 15 thankefulness ANd in that day the Branch being grown up all boughes and branches shall be cut down and spred under his feet in the way in joy and thanksgiving and the babes and sucklings shall say Blessed is he that cometh Hosanna Hosanna to the highest Thy anger is turned away and thou comfortest us behold thou art our salvation strength and song therefore rejoyce and draw water of his wells of salvation Sing unto the Lord for he doth excellent things and this shall be known to all the earth and great is the Lord in the midst of thee SECT XVI §. 16 The destruction of Babylon in us the glory of the earth BAbylons destruction the Lord musters the Army they are sanctified ones and the onely mighty men such as rejoyce in his highness and these shall destroy and overcome her such as were tormented by her and pangs shall take hold of her and the sinners destroyed out of her her Stars shall fall her Sun shall be darkened and her Moon turned to blood yea thy heaven shall be shaken
am sought and found by them that never knew me nor sought me but I them and they loved me and beheld me I opened my heart to them and spred forth my hands and drew them from gâ—rdens altars graves and groves mountains and valleys and from eating swines flesh and abominable things and from thine own holiness and filthiness which was like a smoke and filth to me to my own self and my own mountain to dwell in for my blessing that is amongst you I will not quite destroy you but my inheritance shall be with you and I will dwell with you and all that is with you and in you that forsakes me I will number to the sword and bow down to the slaughter all that is disobedient to me and thus I will do to you my servants in you and amongst you you shall eat drink and rejoyce but what is my revenge in you and amongst you you shall hunger thirst and be ashamed and cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit and slain but his servant shall be called by another name and he that blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of earth and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of the earth so that heaven and earth shall give glory to God and all that dwell therein SECT XCI §. 91 How all things are made new of God ANd behold I make all things new and these shall be remembred but all the former forgotten and thou shalt rejoyce forever at what I create for I create truth peace salvation and righteousness yea my rejoycing and my praise there shall be no more an infant nor a father but all shall be as one strong man in Christ yea they shall have houses vineyards possessions of their own and no others they shall no more labor in vain nor bring forth for trouble but you shall be called the blessed of the Lord and his off-spring thy God I will be that hears and answers thee who lives and abides with thee there shall be nothing that doth hurt in all my Mountain but the Wolf and Lamb Lion and Bullock shall lie down together there shall be nothing else but rest amongst them all living in one SECT XCII §. 92 Though heaven and earth be my house yet I will dwell in you ANd though heaven be my throne and the earth my footstool yet this is not my dwelling nor the place of my Rest but in the houses and dwellings of men you are my building and house the humble and the contrite heart will I live with and till I come to live with them all their worship and sacrifice yea their lambs and offerings are abominable to me I hate them all till I am formed in them and when I am thus formed in thee all that hate thee hate me then your souls shall not delight in these things which I delight not in nor when I call shall they not answer but they shall delight in the Lord alone and nothing else SECT XCIII §. 93 Zion brings forth yea a whole Nation in a day and that without pain THe soul that trembles at my Word though he be cast out falsly for my names sake and think they glorifie me in it yet let them know their zeal is without knowledg and who hath required this at their hands but you shall be justified and they ashamed and the Voyce of the Lord shall be heard from his Temple with us that Zion travelleth and is delivered without pain Was ever such a thing heard or seen that a whole Nation should be born at once and brought forth in one day And why cannot the Lord do it Shall he bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth or then shall the Lord shut the womb No no be glad and rejoyce with her all ye that love her take of the brests of her consolation and be satisfied delight thy soul in the abundance of her glory for her peace shall be like a river and her glory as a stream you shall be born on her sides and be dandled on her knees I will comfort you as a mother comforteth her children for by fire and a sword shall the Lord plead with all flesh and make it as a loathsom carcass but you shall remain for ever and worship before me Thus I have finished this Book of Isaiah in much sorrow weakness and trouble and dare not yet venture to proceed till I finde a more convenient time for it then I have had for this first Volume it being brought forth in the midst of our troubles here at London while the Army was amongst you and these great things acted as the Charge Tryal and Execution of the King in all which time this was some repast and refreshment to write these things though it was by fits and starts yet the Lord may make it useful in some measure for the good of others Being called away now from London I am forced to break off here in the midway else I might shew you the Book of Jeremiah opened in Man Ezekiel and Daniel with the lesser Prophets one by one fulfilled in us as also the New Testament how we have the everlasting Gospel taught us by the Spirit of Christ in our hearts together with his Birth Life Doctrine Works and Death of Christ formed in us as also his Resurrection Ascension and Glorification within us Christ risen Again how we are the Acts of Christ and how Christ is all our Acts and Works it is he doth all for us and in us And again how we are his Epistles yea the heavenly and holy Epistles of Christ written by God on the Tables of his Hand our hearts known and read of all men how we are the Lords Church Spouse Members and Body his Building Planting Temple and Dwelling Lastly how we are the Lords Revelations and Visions to whom he shews himself and the things that are have been and are ro come things past present and to come afar off or nigh at hand we are these whom the Lord ravishes in Spirit in his day when that comes upon us and then he tells us all things and takes us up to heaven to see himself in all and all in himself opening heaven and revealing his whole Will and Counsel We are that sealed Book whom the Lamb takes and opens for he is worthy and we are these that shall have the honor to say Come come come Lord Jesus come quickly Thus the Bride shall say and we are those that shall have either all these Blessings Graces Gifts Mercies Promises Comforts and Glories that are in heaven and earth written or revealed in the whole Scriptures or else all the curses woes lamentations miseries threatnings and torments written in the whole Book of God to fall upon us thus eternally happy or eternally miserable but all these things I leave to the Day of the Lord to bring forth in me to perfect his praises that as the Lord hath began so he would continue and bring to the end of this Book of the Scriptures that we may be in the Lord God both the Alpha and the Omega of it I Know many things are amiss here the faults can hardly be numbered that come either from the Author Writer Printer or Reader I pray thee pass them by amend what is amiss and make use of what is good trying all things holding fast that which is good considering thou also mayst do amiss and truly this is all I can say in excuse that I wanted time to write what was in my mind only made use of the night never read it much less time to correct it but am importuned to print it and to press thy patience with it let patience then have its perfect work here Thine T Butler FINIS
THE LITTLE Bible of the Man OR THE Book of God opened in Man BY THE Power of the LAMB Wherein God is the Spirit or inside of the Book and Man the Letter or out-side of it In whom as in a Glass you may both behold the Spirit and Letter of the holy Scriptures in the new Man fulfilled and Explained from Genesis to Jeremiah This is the first Volume of Gods Book in Man Written by a weak Instrument of the Lords Capt. T. BUTLER LONDON Printed in the first year of Englands Liberty 1649 For Giles Calvert at the black spread Eagle at the west end of Pauls TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE Lord of Pembroke AND To the Right Honorable the Lord of Mulgrave all Peace and Happiness My Lords IT is the Design of Heaven to pull down the pride of all flesh and to have the Lord alone Exalted that no flesh might glory before him but all that glory may do it in the Lord God they being the Lords For the day of the Lord is come upon all flesh to destroy it like grasse but the Word of the Lord abides for ever and he that is built upon that Rock the gates of hell can never prevail against him though the Lord cometh to shake terribly the Earth and the Heavens also yea though the mountains and hils remove out of their places though the stars fall from heaven and the Sun be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood by this terrible Earthquake yet the foundation of God stands sure their Sun never sets nor their Moon changes For the Lord himself is their everlasting Light and thy God their glory And though the fashion of this world perisheth waxing old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them yet thy Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome O God and thy Dominion throughout all ages thou changest not but art the same to day yesterday and forever thou shalt raign till thou hast made this world become the Kingdomes of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Saints and great shall be the day of the Lord. My Lords I could doe no less then recommend this new born babe unto You which hath been brought forth in sorrow and much weakness of flesh though in the willingness of spirit the Lord gives it his grace and blessing that it may be growing up in you in strength and power which shall be the joy and desire of Your Servant T. Butler From my Quarters in Black-Fryers Mr Delaines February 8. 1648. To his Worthy Friend Mr Tho. Appletree Worthy Friend LEt him that stands saith the Apostle take heed least he fall and be not high minded but fear for God gives grace to the humble and exalts the meek but the proud he beholds afar off it is good therefore for every man to look to his feet and consider how he stands by sense or by Faith by Flesh or Spirit by Grace or by Works and where he stands on holy or unholy ground or the Sand or the Rock upon the Sea or the dry Land on Earth or in Heaven in himself or in God whether the Moon be under his feet and he clothed with the Sun whether he serve God or Mammon for if we stand in the Lord we are safe but if we stand any where else we sink and fall the Lords Angels pitch their tents about his to preserve them in all his ways they shall walk and not be weary run and not faint they walk as wise men and not as fools redeeming the time because the days are evil And while God gives You opportunity do good to all but especially to the houshold of Faith and be not weary of well doing for in due time you shall reap if you faint not faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it Your labor of love is well known to many Saints in Dedington and thereabout in Oxfordshire whose bowels You have refreshed the Lord make You more and more to abound in Faith and Love that You may never see Christ naked hungry or in prison but You may minister to him and relieve the oppressed judg the fatherless and widow and let the cause of the poor be maintained still keeping Faith and a good Conscience in all things that Your good example and counsel may win upon many and if J or my poor endeavors herein may advantage You any way in this kind it will be the travel of my Soul and the joy of my Spirit Sir Your Friend and Servant THO. BUTLER TO The Vertuous LADIES Mrs Elizabeth Mrs Anne Mrs Margaret Mrs Katherine and Mrs Lettice Babingtons my dear and precious Sisters together with the rest of that noble Family My deer Sisters AMongst the Catalogue of Gods great mercies to me I account it not the least to be of the number of that sweet and precious society and Family and to see how the Lord hath multiplied his mercies towards us as not onely to make us one Body but also one Spirit giving us the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace whereby we have fellowshp with the Lord and one with another in the Spirit praying rejoycing conversing walking and living together continually this never dyes neither can it be parted it s such a threefold cord that nothing can break it such a fellowship nothing can divide it and such a joy and life none can take from us I have through the love and goodness of the Lord to me drawn some spiritual Discoveries upon a part of the Scriptures as God gave me opportunity Onely my dear Sisters let me desire this from you What you finde herein of God glorifie him for it and what is not of God as you apprehend judg it not after the flesh but judg righteous judgment and withal remember the weakness of him that was but a poor instrument in it And if it may by the blessing of God give any light to you God speaking the same things in a vail to it in your spirits how will it rejoyce mine Thus leaving all to the good guide of the Spirit of Truth in all things I take leave and remain Your loving Brother T. BUTLER TO THE READER JVdg not saith the Apostle that ye be not judged for with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again and what you would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets but Christ and the Apostles go further and would have us do far better to others then they do to us give them good for evil knowing this now J cannot but perswade my loving Reader to lay aside all malice wrath envy guil and hypocrisie and in love meekness patience and much goodness read and consider trying the spirits whether they be of God or not And thus J shall say with thee if there be any thing as questionless there is of flesh darkness or the spirit of this world that all of it may come into
Covenant he will write in us first what it is not then what it is ANd this Covenant shall not be according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord God No no that was in Letter outward dead in tables of stone read seen heard but fat from the heart and spirits SECT VIII §. 8 How this Covenant differs from all others it being in Spirit BUt this is the Covenant 1. That was with their Fathers This with the Children 2. That was for a day This for many days 3. That was to take them by the Hand This is to take them by the Heart 4. That was to lead them This to write in them 5. That was to lead them out of Egypt This is to lead them from Flesh to Spirit from Earth to Heaven from this world to that to come 6. That was to forsake them if they forsake me This is never to forsake them nor they me I will be their God and they shall be my people that I will be their God if they be my people 7. That was to be taught of Men This is to be taught of God they shall all know me 8. That was without Mercy to their Sins it was all for Sacrifice but now I will have mercy I will be merciful to their sins 9. That was to take notice of and remember sin to break the Covenant This remembers sin no more but to forgive and forget though we offend him seventy times seven in a moment 10. That made us faulty and guilty This makes us faultless and guiltless 11. That made us old Creatures This makes us new Creatures 12. That made us happy in the Flesh This makes us happy in the Spirit Thus Christ Jesus is become the sum of all things Gods true Ministry true Tabernacle Sacrifice Gods true and new Covenant made with Man All was compleat in him and so Christians SECT IX §. 9 Christ is in us Gods Dwelling and his Writing NOw if any man be in Christ or Christ be in him he is a new Creature in Christ or Christ a new Creature in him Then as Christ was and is so shall he be the true Tabernacle in whom God shall dwell the Priesthood the Sacrifice the Covenant of God written in him In the volume of his heart shall be written Lo I come to do thy will O God Yea thy Law is written within my heart So that whatsoever is applyed to Christ shall be also to the Christian What great things are spoken of the beloved City of God how are they called Gods Heaven and Earth Gods Throne and Footstool Gods Paradise His Rivers His Lands and Being his Inheritance Psal 2. His Husbandry His Building His City and Temple His Birds and Beasts His Sons and Heirs His Jewels and Treasures yea all that is or can be named But amongst all I would speak of two and shew you how the Saints are a houshold of Faith how they are Gods dwelling House which I must refer to some other providence to bring forth what God hath put into my heart concerning that House and the building thereof and now wholy address my self to the other which is this How the Saints may be called and how they are made the Bible or Book of God the Book of Life God living in them they are made the very Oracles of God speaking as moved by the holy Ghost whose hearts are Gods Closets and Study where he keeps his Library all his Writings Inditings Laws Decrees Purposes Counsels Precepts Promises Prophesies all this and their very lives preach their hearts and apply their texts their outward man the Commentary or Exposition a very Sermon of the inward grace and word of Life there What shall I say to speak nothing of the Temple Altar Shew-bread Candlestick Laver Incense Mercy-seat nor of the Ark but only of the Tables in the Ark nothing of the House Houshold-goods Treasures only a little of the Writing of God there in letters of gold For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord. SECT X. §. 10 What this new Covenant is further to us IT is not the old Covenant renewed but a new one made not out of us but in us not in letter but in Spirit not in word but in deed and in truth wherein God doth bind himself under hand and seal to make good what he promises and what he will perform to us the Oath sworn to our forefather Abraham that he would give us that he would deliver us from the hands of all our enemies within and without And secondly That he would make us a people fit to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in love all the days of our life and in him all we should be blessed SECT XI The high excellency and vertue of it in us §. 11 what it doth for us and is to us THis new Covenant makes men new Creatures that have it written in them It gives them a new Nature and new names accordingly 2. It is the very gate that enters into the City the new Jerusalem All that enter therein go through this gate which is the gate of Heaven 3. All things in this Covenant are of God nothing at all of Man God makes it keeps it and performs every thing in it that concerns us 4. This Covenant is our marriage with the Lamb our Union and our Communion with God and that in Spirit It is the very uniting in spirits and keeping the bond of peace 5. This Covenant is the life of all the old they were but the shadows of this were all fulfilled in it and this must be that the Scriptures may be fulfilled which prophesied long since of it and we are waiting for it having received the first fruits of it some Lines and Precepts 6. This Covenant is the Liberty of the Sons of God by this they are made free from Sin to do Righteousness and free being enlarged and released out of bondage by the spirit of truth in Christ Jesus Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ Jesus hath made you free and be not entangled with worldly rudiments any more 7. It is a free Covenant as well as a full or a new one freely made freely promised freely wrought of God 8. And it is a sure one being Gods and everlasting also It doth also agree in one and makes all one whether male or female bond or free high or low rich or poor we are all made one in this Covenant in the Spirit SECT XII §. 12 The Lord setting forth a book to the world I will put my Laws in their minds this is the heavenly resolution to set up his Press in our Hearts and print in us whole volumes and from thence it shall be published to
the world what God hath done in the secret printing-house of the heart and whatsoever comes out to the world that is not of his printing and licensing shall be suppressed by the Spirit as not having the hand-writing that makes free and none shall buy or sell but those that have his mark SECT XIII §. 13 What be the things God makes use of in writing this Book Man ANd when the Lord God doth thus he will make our hearts his table-books washing them clean and pure fit and prepared to receive any impression his letters shall be all Spirit and his words life his Precepts and Commandments perfect Liberty as for the Lords Pen it shall be the Finger of the Spirit of God the Inditer God himself the Ink it shall be the pure Christal waters of Life and Grace that proceeds from the Throne of God and of the Lamb the everlasting Fountains of Love the Writings and Printings shall never perish it shall be for a perpetual Memorial to all generations the Lords Hand and Seal shall be set to the Book he will not be ashamed of his workmanship nor his writing therein it shall be also dedicated to all the world Angels and men for all to read his Name shall be to it and the Title shall be this The Book of Life Printed in the year of our Lord the fulness of time SECT XIV Gods making mans heart plain and fair for it §. 14 as paper I Will put my Laws in their minds this is the mind of God to have them of one minde with himself minding the same things His mind in their minds God would fain put his new wine into the new vessels of their minds knowing full well how much vanity for the most part lodges there like the Inn that was full of guests that there was no room for Christ to lay his head so it is in most minds enough of every thing but little enough of this love of the Spirit of Life What said the Lord Now I will come into the temple of mans mind and cast out the buyers and sellers overthrow the tables of the money-changers drive out the beasts and birds and the house that was full of murderers aden of theeves I will make a house of prayer before I leave them SECT XV. §. 15 What God minds and loves it is to live with us and in us BY this we may see the mind of God what he minds most amongst men what he loves best where he desires to live it is the minds of men Again we see all those Sacrifices under the Law that were commanded to be offered to God must be of the best the male in the flock not the sick blind lean or lame all which was abominable to God so here this is the male in the flock God will have offered to him his Laws put into our minds and if this be not all is nothing Thus it was with David surely when he said Oh how do I love thy Law it is my meditation day and night and again Psal 1. 2. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Laws of the Lord surely it was because God had put his Laws in his mind As it was in the Temple of God which was a shaddow of good things to come there was we read in the most holy place the Ark of the Covenant surely this Ark was a kind of figure of what God would do in these last dayes in our Temples in the most holy place of our hearts even in the Ark of our minds he would place his Covenants and put his Laws in that Arke SECT XVI §. 16 What is shall be of the Lords Will and Law and nothing else ANd in that it is said my Laws it shall be a living Law a holy heavenly wise gracious good Law God himself shall be our Law and our Example in all things follow him the Governments shall be upon his shoulders he will Rule in us and over us and be our King Priest and Prophet Happy art thou O Israel a people governed by the Lord He is your Law-giver and it is given to the spirits and hearts of men where he rules and sits brings al things into subjection to himself I will break every other Law of man all your Laws either in Church or in State either in the inward man that convinces or in the outward that restrains that are not mine shall be rooted up those yokes and burdens you shall no longer bear but take my yoke it 's easie my burden and Laws are light and in them you shall find rest SECT XVII §. 17 His own Laws he keeps and them he will have us keep one Law for both ANd in that he saith my Laws see how good and gracious God is he will lay no other burden then what he bears himself live by one Law one Mind one Life one Spirit one Truth one Peace one Righteousness one Kingdom the Law God walks by lives in the way he goes that which is his own very heart and nature the same he would give us that we may be as God is holy as he is holy just as he is just that we may be the children of our Father which is in Heaven SECT XVIII §. 18 All Gods Laws a whole volum within us ANd it is observable he doth not say my Law though all his Laws agree in one and are as one but shews us further that how the Word of the Lord shall dwell in us richly and not sparingly we shall not abound in some grace but in every grace nor in some knowledg but in all wisdom knowledg not doing some of the Will of God but instructed in the whole Counsel of the Lord we shall have Laws in us of all sorts the Law of Faith the Law of Love the Law of Truth the Law of Life the Law of Righteousness the Law of Meekness the Law of Contentedness nay there is not a Law in Heaven nor a Law in the Heart of God but he will put it in our hearts for we shall be men after his own heart And this we must know God is the searcher of heart and mind it must be such an eye and such an arm as must be stretched out to reach the bottom and depth of our minds all that is in the world is too short we may speak to them present the forms and patterns of things given to us in the Mount to the eyes ears and outward view and hearing of men in the world and there we must leave it then comes God and gives the increase he puts it farther he doth the work powerfully We can but John the Baptist like say I indeed baptize with water but he that comes after me it is he that must do all without him all is nothing so here unless Christ come after as here he hath promised and put his Laws in our minds we shall heare pray and do all in vain SECT XIX §. 19 WHerefore my dearly beloved
Writing shal that be think you which God will write What a Book shall that be Every word a word of Life all the leafes leafes of Life the whole Book must needs be the Book of Life but the outward Cover and Binding shall be Man it shall be covered in a fleshly Cover As the Tabernacle of gold within stone without so this Book of the will of God written printed or dwelling in us shall be opened within yet sealed without as to the world they can neither see nor read nor understand nor beleeve it it being sealed up the back and outside being towards them and the opening inward they know nothing in it and all preaching praying hearing reading writing receiving meeting must be from this written Word there must be your text and ground-work to build upon and what is not read there or writ there is not thine to give but let every one speak as the Oracles of God and preach as he findes it written in him from the Word of the Lord there and so expound and read to us in the letter of Words or Life what God hath written within as an epistle read to all friends so is the teaching written to be read to the world CHAP. II. The first Book that God writes in Man §. 1. is called GENESIS NOw the beginning of this Book of God in Man bound up there and hid in this wall of Flesh as the Law was in the Temple and revealed found by the spirit of God it is called the book of Genesis or the book of the beginning of Gods Book in us This is the first book wherein God appears as their Genesis creating all things Heaven and Earth a new in them making a Firmament between Flesh and Spirit to separate and divide the one from the other the waters above from waters below creating light in them the Lord their light scattering and dispelling the darkness and the Spirit of the Lord living moving and dwelling there in this new world Man in his Genesis or beginning herein the Lord brings forth all things in their beginning progress perfection SECT II. §. 2. The six days works in Man brought forth first THe Light first to enlighten every thing that comes into this world for as darkness was upon the face of the deep in the old world first so here in the true world of mans happiness in God first Light is brought forth to be upon the face of all things this is the Candle of the Lord set up in his Candlestick Man This is the first days work or rather the first work in the day of the Lord. SECT III. §. 3. The second work in Gods day in Man THe second work of God in Man his new world he creates of himself to dwell in is a Firmament to divide between the old and new man or old and new world to distinguish between Heaven and Earth SECT IV. §. 4. The third work of God in his day THe third is the gathering of all things together into one the chaff to be burnt and the wheat to be layd in the garner when the Lord comes with his fan thus to purge his floor Man and by the breath of his Spirit dries up the waters that divide and makes all to be a fruitful land bringing forth herbs meet for the dresser receiving blessing from the Lord every plant in man of Gods planting bearing every year twelve manner of fruits and the leaves of the trees for the healing and saving of Nations SECT V. §. 5. The fourth work in the day of the LORD THe fourth Work is the Lords going on to perfection setting up greater lights in us where light was as a day breaking in us now he is come to be the rising of the Sun in us and Moon and Stars light swallowed up of this great light of the Sun the Lord God himself according as it is written The Lord himself shall be the light thereof and also shall be the rule thereof saying Come let us walk in the light of the Lord and the light shall make no difference in days times moneths or seasons SECT VI. §. 6. The fifth work in the Lords day THe fifth Work is the several Mansions the Lord hath prepared for his higher and lower middle stories and chambers according to the degrees of Grace and Light of the Lord in us a higher for the birds and fowls the Doves and Eagle-sighted a lower for the beasts that have only the light of the Moon a sensitive light and a middle for men which are between both but upper for Angels so that every one as he hath attained so let him walk and this is but for a while till we come all up to the unity of Spirit when all partition walls shall be broken down SECT VII The sixth work in the Lords day §. 7. THe sixth is the Lords creating us yet in greater perfection and that is when he brought forth himself compleatly in us which is not only his image or likeness which was in the first man earthly there is therefore an image of God in all such earthly things an image of God in this world and all that in them is But in this new state of things God himself comes in the room and supplies the place of all such things he being the heavenly Thing himself the Heaven and Earth the Day the Light the Sun the Firmament he is all this in us and to us So that all former things are put under us and we have dominion in the heavenly things and rule in Spirit and reign with God for ever SECT VIII §. 8. The end of the work of God THe last days work or rather the end of all his works is the Lord our Sabbath and Rest having perfected his will in us and brought forth his Rest there from all his works and travel now inheriting all things having entred us into his Rest where is all fulness and pleasures for evermore no hungring nor thirsting any more fully satisfied in him And now the Lord looks upon all his works rejoycing in all and over all having his praises perfected and himself sanctified by all SECT IX The Paradise of God in Man §. 9. NOw the next thing is Gods creating a new Paradise where he lives and dwells Christ is our Paradise inasmuch as he is called the Tree of Life therein and the Spirit of the holy God is the living Fountain in this Paradise watering and cherishing quickening and refreshing every plant and tree planted by the rivers of the water of Life bringing forth their fruits at all seasons whose leaves wither not much less their fruits Now this is the delight of the Lord saying I will come into my garden my Love my Spouse and blow upon it that the spices thereof may flow forth and there I will feed among the lillies and eat my hony comb with my hony and drink my wine with my love satisfying
my self abundantly in love This true Paradise which God planted in man Christ formed in us and the Spirit of God living like a fountain of water with us SECT X. The Adam and Eve there in Paradise §. 10 ANd further as from the Paradise and River of Life the whole world is refreshed for from hence come the streames of life and divide themselves into all parts of the world teaching in his Name wonderfull things so the Man and the Woman that lives in this Paradise with God the Adam and the Eve is Christ and the Christian Christ the Man and the Christian the Woman both living in one Paradise brought together by God marryed and given in marriage by the Spirit of God making Christ and the Christian one this is the Mystery of God manifested in the flesh or God dwelling in us becoming a second Adam to us feeding us with the tree of Life in us and refreshing us as with living water which he gives us and the tree shall not dye but live need no clothing or any Tabernacle or Shrine or Fig-leaves but the nakedness of God appearing in the Righteousness of Christ not having our garments which are hairy but the smooth and naked clothes of Christ and we shall not be ashamed SECT XII §. 12 The Tempter the Fall the Serpent NAy further the Tempter here in the New Creature thus written by God is the good Tempter the Spirit of the Lord tempting us and leading us into all Truth and Lord lead us into this temptation for ever and this Spirit is not like the beast of the field but like the Doves of Heaven it is as wise as Serpents but as innocent and harmless as a Dove Now the great Fall of this New Man is a total and final fall from sin Satan or a Being taken up in Clouds from the earth a receiving out of their sight to live with the Lord as also the curse there is nothing but blessing there is neither pain nor sorrow conceiving nor travelling there is neither Lord nor servant but all are made one in Christ Jesus SECT XII §. 12 How all things are made new in the beginning of this book LAstly to conclude the writing of God in short for the book of the beginning of the new Creation or Book of life in Man Here is no carnal generation no living after the Flesh no knowing one another after the Flesh but in Spirit and Truth a spiritual encrease and multiplying Here is no death at all but a long life even for ever and ever Here is no marrying nor giving in marriage but they are like the Angels of God no violence but all meekness and love Here is no wrath nor destruction but eternal love and consolation Here is no repenting the Lord he made Man but it rejoyces him at the heart to see him Here is no Deluge but the pouring out of the Spirit no Ark but the Lords presence in our Ark we are the house of God no perishing but Flesh no Sacrifice but the Spirit no Covenant but the new one in Man no Rain but that of the Word of Truth no Flesh but Spirit to feed upon no Milk nor Herbs but Grace no Vinyard but that of the Lords love no Altar but God no Call but that inward Call to forsake thy Fathers house No House nor Father nor Mother nor Land nor Portion but the Lord none to serve nor follow but him no Circumcision but in Spirit no bond woman nor her children but the free woman the spirit of liberty from sin and death no Well but the deep Rivers of Salvation no Vision but of God no Famine but of Flesh no Corn nor Wine nor Oyl but the Light of Gods countenance lifted up upon us CHAP. III. The second Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called EXODVS THe second book is the book of Exodus for where the Lord hath once begun a writing or a work a word or a line he will build up finish and make an end in his due time but now he is but beginning and going on from one strength to another appearing in us now he comes with an out-stretched arm to deliver before he came to pull down and to build up to lay the foundation now he comes to deliver from the enemies of our salvation SECT II. §. 2 God calling his Son out of Egypt THerefore saith he I have called my Son out of Egypt that is Christ is called out of the grave death darkness this is the Son called out of Egypt the Flesh to live in Spirit in his members and body Now in this Egypt of our flesh and filthiness dwells nothing but Thunder and Lightening Darkness Plagues and Crosses for all these lay upon the Son while he is and was in our Egypt or fleshly Nature but he must rise the third day the Son shall not always lie thus in the grave the Spirit shall not always strive with Flesh and be buffeted and betrayed by it as Israel after a certain time was called forth the Lord hears the groans of his Son on the Cross and Israel in Egypt and the groans of the Spirit in these Tabernacles of Flesh willing to be delivered waiting for the day of Redemption not out of a part of Egypt to live in the suburbs or as neer as may be but far off to get into another land and kingdom even the kingdom called the Lords And though Flesh and Blood Principalities and Powers spiritual wickedness in high places Pharoah and all his Taskmasters the Magicians and all the hoste of Egyptians rise up against this Call and power of God to withstand it as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and as the Scribes and Pharises placing the watch and ward laying the stone upon the grave of Christ sealing it withstood God and as Antichrist withstands the two witnesses but all in vain till the power of God entred into them all bringing them forth with a mighty hand saying Come up hither and fire came out of their mouths and the sea to consume and devour them They I mean all their carnal and spiritual enemies may come after them as far as the red sea but then no farther As soon as his Son the Lord Christ or the Christian hath passed through the red Sea of the sufferings of Christ Flesh and Blood dare follow them no further nay here dyes and perisheth all this carnal power and enmity SECT III. §. 3 God leading his Son through the Wilderness BUt though Gods Son Christ Jesus be called out of Egypt and is led from thence and Egypt destroyed in the Red Sea there the Flesh suffers yet there is another Call God leaves not his Son in the Wilderness whom he hath once called but then he calls them on and allures them there speaking comfortably to them This Son of God called out of Egypt thus and now all his children in the Wilderness is brought to straits and knows not whither to look
in bondage from serving the Lord in freedom of heart and this is his Call Let my people go that they may serve me To this purpose speaks Zacharias Oh that he would grant unto us that we being delivered from the hands of our enemies may serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life I know saith the Lord that Pharaoh that proud flesh wil not let my people go to serve me But they saith Christ shall go in spite of all to serve the Lord I will make all their enemies their footstool saith the Lord. CHAP. IV. The third Book that God writes in Man is §. 1 called LEVITICVS NOw the third Book is called Leviticus This also is made good in the Saints in the truth of it the spirit of that Letter dwells in them and the substance of what is written in that Book concerns them chiefly as this All the Sacrifices looked at them they are to offer up the Sacrifice of Righteousness of which all the legal were but Types Secondly the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart and then their souls and bodies to be offered up as living Sacrifices to the Lord holy and acceptable And what were all the Calves Lambs Doves but meerly figurative not only looking at Christ but Christians also they must be the Lambs of God Doves Turtles and Christ presents them thus to God therefore the Apostle saith We shall be presented harmless and blameless at his coming And again I beseech you present your selves a living Sacrifice to God And again Ye are a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifice to God so that the Apostle makes them and all that they do to be Sacrifices to God and the Lord smells a sweet savor in them nay he tells them they are the Lords Levites and Priests to make prayers and supplications to God yea to offer the Sacrifice of thanksgiving and to call upon the Name of the Lord these are they that are to stand before the Lord of the whole earth the anointing of the Lord is upon them to minister before the Lord God not only oyl but the oyl of Life and Grace the Spirit of the Lord falls on them and hath anointed them to preach the glad tydings Thy God cometh O Zion SECT II. §. 2 The Levites garments that minister to the Lord. NAy yet more all the fine linnen the Priests did wear what meant it but the white garments the walking with God in white the pure white linnen the Righteousness of Saints what was the Ephod and their Brest-plate their Urim and their Thummim their Bells and Pomegranates the names of the twelve Tribes on their Brestplates their Incense their ministring before the Lord their entring in with blood to the Temple all these are fulfilled spiritually in Saints the mind of God is with them that fear him they have a Brestplate of Righteousnes the Name of the Lord written in their hearts and they have the Names of the Tribes all the people of God are fellow Members and fellow Feelers one of another SECT III. §. 3 The spiritual Service in the House of the LORD THeir Incense they have is The sweet perfume of the Spirit of Grace in them that runs all along their garments their Bells and Pomegranates is the everlasting Gospel of God made known by them in truth and evidence of the Spirit every way these are they that minister before the Lord day and night they kindle the fire upon the Altar and do not offer up strange fire keep the Lamps in the House of the Lord that they go not out all these things and many more are proper to the Saints they have the Lamps of the Lord burning in them never decaying having the Olive trees always feeding them so that whensoever the Lord comes these wise Virgins are with their Lamps prepared and they receive this fire from Heaven to consume every Sacrifice and not false fire the fire of the Lords Love and Zeal the Zeal of his House eat them up they look to the doors of the Lords House see that no lame blind sick Sacrifice be offered but the best in the flock not the female but the male they think it not a weariness to serve the Lord neither do they make his table contemptible they have the Tythes of all all things in Heaven and Earth they have the first fruits all do homage and yeeld obedience to them all the sheaves bow to them the whole world shall bring their glory into them and they shall be the store-house of the Lord. CHAP. V. The fourth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called NVMBERS THe fourth Book is the Book of Numbers where you have the Lords people to be the Sum of all that is therein contained it is fulfilled in them and compleated spiritually by them they are Gods Numbers they are all numbered in his Books are all their names written nay their thoughts and actions numbered a Book of Remembrance writing down what they say of the Lord Mal. 3. Their very bones nay the very hairs of their heads numbered much less will he have any one of his number lost though the shepheard had ninety nine he would leave all to seek after the one because of all that is his he will lose none he keeps a perfect account of them and of every sort of them so many Tribes so many of every Tribe of all tongues languages kindred and people he hath his Numbers besides he hath the number how many lambs how many babes how many strong men how many fathers how many hired servants how many sick how many well how many strong how many weak how many fat and lean poor and rich male and female bond and free in all such things the Lord is instructed taking care of all and providing for all SECT II. How every thing is numbred by the Lord in them AGain numbering their gifts and graces their growth and age till they come to that perfect number and stature in Christ having their days and age filled being full of days and of the holy Ghost Besides this the Armies of the Saints their Banners Christ their Camp Righteousness their General the Lord of hosts their Pillar of Fire and Cloud by day and night the presence of the Lord even the Angel of his presence their matches from strength to strength going on to perfection forgetting the things behinde Their Trumpets sounding is the Voyce of the Lord heard amongst them calling and gathering them together their Sacrifices Praises their Meat Manna their Flesh Quails their Drink out of the everlasting Rock the Lord a Well of living water their spies viewing the holy Land and bringing the first fruits is the earnest of the Spirit giving us a view of Heaven and a taste of the Milk and the Wine therein with the clusters of Grapes brought from thence to refresh us withal SECT III. The true Serpent healing us §. 3. THe brazen
Serpent healing their stings is nothing but the power of the Lord breaking in peeces and slaying the head of the Serpent the Devil Christ Jesus the seed of the woman breaking the Serpent head Jesus saving us from our sins pouring out his wine and oyl into our wounds the Lord healing our Rebellion The Canaanites destroyed is the flesh crucified dead and buried The removing every unclean thing out of the Camp is the sanctifying of us in Soul Spirit and Body The false Prophet brought to curse us but cannot is the spirit of Antichrist dwelling too much in every one of us when Flesh glories in it self the Blessing of the Lord is the turning of every one from his iniquity The Inheritance is the Land of Peace the Kingdom of the Lord himself the dividing of it is the Mansions prepared of God for us all The Rest on this side the river is the living any where below God like the dove that stood upon the ark before she was taken in so here it s the outside only made clean which is but the hem of a Christians garment The murmuring and returning back again to Egypt is the beginning in the Spirit and the ending in the Flesh the dying and having their carcasses to fall in the Wilderness the running well who hindred them so run that ye may obtain so that for want of faith and patience they do not inherit the Promise Wherefore he saith let no man take thy crown he that is faithful to death shall have a crown of life and he that continueth to the end shall be saved SECT IV. §. 4. The Ark of Gods presence THeir Ark carried before them is the power of the Lord leading them forth The standing of the Ark is the Lords resting upon them Their arising with the Ark next day is the Lords making way and preparing it dayly for them through mountains hills plains drying up the waters destroying enemies all is to shew us how he wil bring forth judgment unto victory bringing down our haughtiness that the Lord alone may be exalted amongst us in that day CHAP. VI. The fifth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called JOSHVA THe book of Joshua or Jesus who is the Lord God the Commander and Leader of the people commanding all that is in them their mindes and spirits carrying them through Jordan or the midst of many afflictions in spirit giving them his grace which is strength enough and though his rod and staff be upon them yet it shall comfort them if the Lord be with them Moses could not bring them in their Rest but it must be Joshua that must do it not men but the Lord not the Ministry of Flesh but Spirit Moses dyed Joshua lived it is not the dying man but the quickened Spirit SECT II. §. 2 The true Joshua saving us in fighting to deliver us JOshua fought all their battels for them overthrew their enemies took their strong holds bound their Kings in chains and Nobles in fetters of iron This honor have all his Saints Praise ye the Lord. Joshua never left them till he had settled them in the good Land He followed the Lord he knew not whither but when he knew he did althings as the Lord commanded him So is it with our true Joshua Christ Jesus in us doth fulfil all things that are given him of the Father and never leaves nor forsakes us til he hath possessed us and desposed all things else for us Joshua overthrew the walls of Jericho with the blast of Rams horns went forth conquering and to conquer till he had made his enemies his footstool and the footstool of Israel and when they had overcome then he and his house would serve the Lord and so he dyed in the Lord So is our Joshua by the breath of his mouth all the foundations of the earth are shaken yea Heaven and Earth His Enemies are subdued yea the devil is made subject to him and his giving them power over Serpents and Scorpions and all manner of creeping things thâ—t nothing shall hurt them thus overcoming all things giving them the spoyl opening the Kingdom of Heaven to them that had been so long shut from it SECT III. The seven Blessings he delivers to us §. 3 ANd now having overcome all things through the spirit of the Lamb they shall inherit all things the oppressor shall pass through them no more the Lord shall encamp about them they shall now serve him 1. They shall eat of the tree of Life for Food 2. They shall not be hurt of the second death 3. They shall have the new name and white stone the Palms in their hands and Vials or Harps the hid Manna 4. They shall have power from God to rule over Nations yea they shall have the morning Star given them 5. They shall live in that Land they shall be clothed with white rayment and they shall not be blotted out of the book of Life for ever and they shall be confessed before God and Angels to be worthy 6. They shall be Pillars in the house of God they shall not go any more out they shall have the name of my God and the name of the City of my God written upon them 7. They shall sit upon my Throne as I am set on my Fathers Throne Thus Christ our Joshua and his house the Saints shall serve the Lord in one Spirit CHAP. VII The sixth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called JUDGES THe next book is called Judges in Scripture and this also is written in us by the finger of God We are his Judges to sit upon his Throne judging righteously We shall judg Angels saith the Apostle yea the world also how much more the smaller matters And again they shall sit upon twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel thus judgment is committed unto the Saints this honor have they Nay they can much more judg and condemn sin in themselves having their sences exercised to discern between good and evil judging every thought word and work SECT II. §. 2 The Spirit of the Lord the best and just Judg. WHen the Spirit of the Lord is our Judg then we are as Israel was here having good Iudges they were delivered from the cruelty of enemies and rejoyced But when the Flesh sits as judg and will rule the bramble wil have the command of all the trees then there is sorrow of heart then we are like Israel under the Philistins and other enemies till the Lord raise up his Iudges again the Spirit of life to break their yoke off our necks So that many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivers them from them all fightings within and fightings without but more then conquerors in all having such a Gideon and a Sampson as the Spirit of the Lord is the Barly cake that must overthrow every tent that stands against it and carry away all the gates that oppose though they be the gates
of Hell it prevails against all there is no standing before it no binding it with cords or chains they are like tow and flax before the fire all Delilahs cannot betray it the Flesh may lie in wait and the wiles of Satan to weaken and quench the Spirit but all in vain The Army of the Midianites like grashoppers that lay in our flesh as their camp a world of serpents and lusts are all afraid of the judgment of the Lord The spirit of this Gideon makes them melt away like wax before the Sun SECT III. §. 3 The Sampson and Gideon that is in us THus the upper and the neither springs Jabin and Sisera Deborah and Barak with their triumphant Song and Jael with her hammer and hand Gideon and the Midianites Sampson and the Philistins Israel against Benâ—amin in the Levites behalf are nothing else but the contentions of Flesh And as the Apostle saith well from whence come wars and fightings Come they not from hence even from our lusts that war against the spirit And again are ye not carnal when there are envyings and wrath and evil speaking amongst you when ye admire men and means but say little of the Lord this is a glorying in Flesh and not in the Lord. So here we see it is the Lord our Iudg that must sit upon the Throne and take to him his great power and assemble all the Nations of the earth all flesh together judging it like grass casting it into the oven destroying it by his two edged sword and cause the enemy and the avenger thus to cease by his might alone the Lord our Iudg in us CHAP. VIII The seventh Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is the two first books of KINGS THe book of the Kings is next the Lord goes on thus making us Priests Prophets Iudges and Kings here We are the true anointed ones of the Lord of which all Kings are but shadows having received the power of Kings to command all things subdue all things the great Leviathan himself and to tread them under our feet 2. The Crown of Kings a Crown not only of gold but of grace and glory Christ is our Crown a Crown of twelve Stars of the Lord himself our Crown and Glory 3. The Throne of Kings being exalted above all that are called gods above all Principalities and Powers to the right hand of God having Heaven for our throne and Earth for our footstool 4. The Robes of Kings and the attendants clothed with the Sun guarded with the heavenly Hoste Lastly The spirit of Kings a noble and royal spirit the Spirit of the holy God the King of Kings from whom we are descended So that we cannot but be strong and of a good courage having the unction and anointing upon us giving and making Laws to bring every thing in obedience to the Lord in us SECT II. §. 2 The Kingly Scepter ruling in us HAving also the Scepter of Kings to break the Nations in peeces with a rod of iron and to dash them in peeces like potters vessels but to defend and maintain the subject of the Lord the whole Land and Kingdom of the Lord in all their Laws Liberties Priviledges Charters Grants given under the Hand and Seal of the Almighty King himself That all that live under his Wings lodg in his Boughs or dwell in his Land or inherit his Kingdom may fear any thing for not a hair of their heads shall perish the Lord is their defence by day and night watching over them and caring for them in all things what they shall eat drink be clothed with how kept and preserved by his power unto salvation which is to be remembred in the last day and coming of the Lord which we wait for For his first was to make us Priests under the Law His second to make us Prophets under the Gospel But the third and last is the chiefest and that is to make us Kings to reign with him and to sit upon his Throne and as he is so we to be in him SECT III. §. 3 The outside of the Book opened SO Hannahs prayer and song Samuels call and prophesie Eli's falling backward and dying the Ark of the Lord taken by the Philistines Dagons fall the Ark sent back Israels false gods cast away Israel meet at Morpeth are humbled and subdue the Philistins they will have a King Saul is anointed and prophesieth Samuels integrity Saul spared the best Agag the King David is anointed and Saul rejected David slayeth Goliah that defied the Armies of Israel Jonathan and David love Sauls envy to him hunting him like a Partridg Saul sends for David to play and still his spirit David escapes his hand Nabals cruelty to David Abigals wisdom and marriage to David Saul going to the Witch of Endor shortly falls by his enemies and kills himself c. SECT IV. §. 4 The inside and the Spirit in it opened and revealed there ALL this is now verified in our spirits opened and explained there by the Spirit which pours that prayer signs that song making melody to the Lord in our hearts it is that which calls once twice thrice and ceases not till it be heard and obeyed making us prophesie it is that which keeps us from falling backwards and death leading us forward to life it is that which keeps the Ark of the Lord amongst us which is nothing else but the Lords presence it is the Spirit of the Lord that destroys the Antichristian Philistin in our flesh and his god Dagon dashing them in pieces Gods presence lifted up again upon his people in the Arks returning Israel broken by the Lords Spirit and made weak are then most strong to subdue flesh according as it is written My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength seen in the midst of thy weakness Thus God gives grace to the humble and exalts them above then enemies The fleshly man will have a King and a Kingdom he would fain raign that as sin abounds so grace might much more abound and yet would pretend loyalty to God and would give liberty to conscience and the Spirit but it 's only to murder and not worship like Herod so is this Saul in our flesh seeks Christ to kill him thus the persecuting Saul worships in lips but the heart is far from God sparing Agag the Amalekite offering only the poor and blind not the best keeps that and sacrifices it to its own lust This is the proud King the fleshly Saul that exalts itself and loves sacrifice better then obedience robbing God of all for it self But the Spirit of the Lord our David comes at last to be anointed and appointed to raign in us and over us and now Sauls Kingdom must cease though he may envy persecute hunt to death and crucifie the Lords David and Spirit yet it shall live and raign in the spite of all and all powers and principalities are nothing to it The uncircumcised Philistin the mighty
the region and shadow of death light might spring up this is the healing of the water and the making the Ax to swim to take away the heart of stone and to give them a heart of flesh as also to grow in grace and multiply and increase in knowledg and love as the oyl did and the meal the more she gave the more she had so it s truly in the Saints a little grace goes far doth many cures answers all things as it was with the few barly loaves and the little fishes how many thousand were fed and the twelve baskets full of fragments that was left this was wounderful so it is in us here a little grace overcomes a world of sin like a spark of fire to a deal of gun-powder and as a little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump and as a graine of mustard seed that grows to a tree suddenly so is the Righteousnesse of God revealed SECT II. §. 2 The opening of the Temple and the repairing it JOsias and Hezekias good raigne how they opened the Temple restored many things found the Law hid and caused it to be read and sanctified the people and to make the table of the Lord holy this is the Lords doing to finde the Law that hath been lost to restore it in us and all things else that we may see how we are purged from dead works to serve the living God and thus he is the good Hezekiah that opens that Temple of the Lord preparing a way for him making the everlasting doors to fly open at his voyce and knock that the King of Glory may enter in who is the Lord of Hosts CHAP. XI The tenth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is the two Books of CHRONICLES THe Book of Chronicles this also God writes in us he doth these two things according to this two-fold Book for there is two Books especially to be taken notice of wherein God writes his Will The first is called or may be the substance of the first Book of Chronicles and the other of the second Book of Chronicles answerable to these Books in Letter we find two Books in Spirit The first is called Gods Book of Life and that is when the Lord God writes his Name in our hearts his new Man and his new Nature and Life there then we are his Book of Life The second is called our Book of Life that is the Book wherein God writes our Names according as it is written Rejoyce not so much in any writing as in this that your names are written in Heaven Now this Heaven and in the Book of Life is all one that is when we are beloved of God or when the Lord seals us a seal upon his Heart or as a signet upon his Arm to be written in the everlasting Love of the Lord which is his Heart and Bowels and there to live by the Life of Love this is the writing in the Book of Life indeed and though we have our names written upon our towers walls houses histories and generations of the whole world yet it fals at last but this only endures the memorial of the other shall rot when the memory of these shall be blessed these be the two books of Chronicles indeed and yet both agree in one and are indeed one for where the one is there will be the other If we be written in Gods Book or Heart then be sure God will have his name written in our hearts and spirits SECT II. §. 2 How we are made Gods Chronicles THus the whole book of Chronicles We are the sum of them all Chronicles of his Love Chronicles of his Mercy the Chronicles of his Grace the Chronicles of his Power Goodness and Greatness and the Chronicles of his Wisdom We are his generation of off spring all our lives as well as lines descended from him He was and is the Father of us all He knows every Soul and Family apart Tribe by Tribe He knows our names and our fathers house he Chronicles and sets down the time of our birth and baptism who was our father and mother and in what Country whether a free-born or a stranger all our travels even our whole pilgrimage written our lives deaths resurrections and mansions Are not we his Chronicles then indeed CHAP. XII The eleventh Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is the books of EZRA NEHEMIAH THe books of Ezra and Nehemiah opened in Man The returning out of captivity the leading captivity captive and receiving gifts from above according as it is written when the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion we were like men in a dream till we were throughly awakened and then we sang the songs of Zion when we were in our own Land just like Peter when the Angel smote him and made way for him open the iron gates and did deliver he was in a trance he thought he had seen a vision at first till afterwards So is this deliverance from the whore of Babylon that hath bewitched us all with sorceries more or less Oh what a joyful thing it is And then can they tell what God hath done for their souls and magnifie the Lord saying By the rivers of Babylon we have sate This Sodom hath been a Paradise to us But now if I prefer not Jerusalem above all having seen it and now come tolive in it before we had nothing but sadness a laughter that was but madness there we howled but here we have our harps and songs full of joy SECT II. §. 2 The Restauration of all things THe number that are delivered the journey God was with them on their way the laying the foundation of the Temple the building it the Spirit of the Lord strengthening them in it the enemies that oppose the building of the Wall Sanballats rage against it the sword the trowel finish it The strange wives put away the Law read the Reformation made All which is most true if applied in the truth of it to the workings of God amongst us whom the world and flesh hath made a wilderness a desolation a place for Dragons there God intends to lay his foundation which is Christ Jesus in us the hope of Glory other foundations can no man lay else then the building is the Temple of the Lord which is his Spirit in us and the Walls are the arms of the Almighty stretched out these everlasting arms of love that are about thee O Israel the one arm under thy head the other upon thy heart these be thy walls thou needst not now fear any Sanballat Tobiah any Ashdonians whatsoever that like Foxes would spoil thy vines or else climbe thy walls to pull down thy glory but they shal not All that hate thee shall be ashamed And whereas ye say it is not time to build my house saith the Lord and ye to live in your seiled houses and to let my house lie waste ye shall not prosper For if any man hideth his sin he
shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy So the strangers and strange wives are removed there shall no unclean thing live there any more Whatsoever lives in that is a stranger or a strange wife any thing thou art wedded or married to that is not the Lord is a strange wife that steals away thy heart and the Lord will give thee a bill of divorcement to put her away CHAP. XIII The twelfth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called ESTHER THe book of Esther opened in Man is nothing else but the state of a poor earthly creature in whom there is nothing when once beloved of God the Lord hath a favor to it and sends forth his Spirit to prepare it all things according to his heart and minde and so is brought forth in great glory washed perfumed adorned justified sanctified and so glorified with the Lord to be betrothed to the Lord in truth in judgment and in righteousness And as it shews how the Lord exalts the lowly and meek the worm and nothing above all things so it also holds forth the pomp pride and glory of all flesh and the fall thereof is great and that in Haman a lively figure and representation of this how flesh and blood is exalted and what favor honor friends it may have yea what obeysance and homage how it may have a glorious footstool and as stately and magnificent a crown as the god and king of this world can give him And what shall not be done to the man whom the whole world jointly intends to honor Here all things below are theirs yet behold of a sudden he is cut down like the grass and cast into the oven Cry then All flesh is grass and the glory thereof like the flower of grass so soon it withers away and we are gone surely all flesh is grass but the Word of the Lord endures for ever His Grace and Truth throughout all generations his Garments do not change neither his feet weary nor his shoes wax old but all is more beautiful for the wearing This is true in Esther and Haman the one Grace advanced the other Flesh disgraced CHAP. XIV The thirteenth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called JOB THe book of Job opened in man And herein you have the life and state of a Christian held forth dying in the flesh and to the world and then living to God and rising in Spirit above this world entering into another world his life with God in Christ this Job shews us in this history the true pattern of the other as for example first The Christians dying in the flesh and to the world is clearly manifested in Jobs miseries how Satan set upon him his wife tempting him Satan accusing him God hiding himself for a moment from him Satan buffeting him his children destroyed his cattel consumed his houses burnt his lands and living impoverished his spirit troubled his health broken his body bruised even from the crown of the head to the feet all over afflicted his friends forsake him his comforters torment him all his Physitians of no value thus he lies in the bed of sicknesse death seising upon all he hath SECT II. §. 2 What is the Mystery of this History of Job in Man I Pray what is this but the Christian crucified to the world and the world crucified to him a Christians dying dayly mortifying his members here upon the earth For this is the Will of the Lord even the denying of our selves and the bearing of our cross and following him And is not all this taught and learnt here in the spiritual state But mark the conclusion It dyes in weaknesse but it doth rise in power it is sown a natural body but it rises a spiritual body it dyes in the flesh but rises in the Spirit So much is clear in the other part of the History All that God took away from Job in the Flesh he gave him again in the Spirit so is it in the Mystery what we lose one way we gain another way we lose according as it is written He that loseth his life shall save it and he that would save his life shall lose it And again He that loseth or forsaketh father or mother wife or children lands or livings for my sake shall have a hundred fold in this life and in the world to come life everlasting SECT III. §. 3 The latter end of a Saint better then the first the longer he lives the better THerfore saith the Text The latter end of Job was better then his beginning so is it indeed in the spiritual state the latter end is better then the beginning he goes on to perfection his last works are the best therefore Iob said again I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear but mine eyes never saw thee till now wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes The Lord had given him eye salve to see clearly the Glory and Beauty of the Lord God himself what he heard he sees true so is it in the pure spiritual state We see as well as hear the wonderful things of God what others eyes have not seen nor ears heard we can utter And lastly The more Job saw of God the lesse he saw in himself the more his flesh was dead and buried I abhor my self saith he so is it true in us also that know the Lord That the nearer the Lord appears to us the more we like wax melt away the more we enjoy of him the lesse we enjoy our selves CHAP. XV. The fourteenth Book that God writes in Man §. 1 is called PSALMS THe Book of Psalms opened in Man He is the Harp in the Lords hand the still and loud Instrument the Psaltery the Organ Sac but and Dulcimer tuned aright by the Lord and therein the Lord God makes melody with a loud Voyce their Sun and Moon Heaven and Earth Fire and Vapours all fulfilling his Word Fruitful Trees and all Cedars Gardens and Fountains Mountains and Hills Men and Angels yea every thing that hath breath praise the Lord as David saith Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name And again Bless the Lord O my soul and forget none of his benefits And again Yea while I have any breath will I praise the Lord. And again Lord let me live that I may praise thee This is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us in all things to give thanks Wherefore saith the Apostle Be not filled with wine wherein is excess but be filled with Spirit wherein there is no excess This is the wine indeed that he that drinks abundantly thereof it will make him merry and wise according to the Apostles rule If any man be merry let him sing Psalms if afflicted let him pray And indeed when we are full of the Holy Ghost we shal be like men full of new wine every one shall be
heard in that Spirit praising the Lord and speaking of the wonderful things of Heaven Wherefore saith the Apostle When ye are thus full of the Spirit then ye shall rejoyce in the Lord. And again Ye shall rejoyce singing to your selves Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs that is there shall be musick all sorts and tunes and melodies heard SECT II. Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs in §. 2 us all FIrst for Psalms In the beginning of the breathings and breakings forth of the Spirit the Psalms are for the weak ones the babes in joy The second Hymns are for the fathers in joy but the Songs are for the strong young men whose joy is full so that by these three I understand only the several degrees of joy and also the various operations of the Spirit The Psalms are doctrines mutually mixt with Praises the Hymns thanksgivings purely and the Songs the ravishments of love Psalms are the tastes we have of him the Hymns are longings after him but the Song is the full possession of him My beloved is mine and I am his he comes to his garden so that one Saint hath a Psalm another that is higher a Hymn and third a spiritual Song and that all from one and the same Spirit but the inspirations more or lesse SECT III. §. 3 The new Song in the new Jerusalem ANd as for Davids new Songs he speaks so often of in his Book we have the same written in our Books Psalm for Psalm Prayer for Prayer Hymn for Hymn Song for Song even a Song for every Season the new Song is like to the new Name the new Covenant the new Jerusalem the new Creature so is this new Song only to be sung by such therefore called the Song of Moses and of the Lamb and none can sing it nor knows the tune of it but the Virgins that follow the Lamb it is in Spirit full of Glory SECT IV. §. 4 The chiefest sinner shall rejoyce most ANd again As our sufferings have abounded so shall our consolations he that hath suffered a little shall have a Psalm or a Hymn but he that hath abounded in sorrow in affliction shall have this Spirit of Joy above his fellows he shall sing aloud and shout for joy of heart wherefore he saith Blessed are the meek and hungry and that mourn these shall all be comforted but when he speaks of this Blessed saith he are they that are persecuted for Righteousness sake for they shall be exceeding glad and rejoyce their joy shall exceed others and as sin also hath abounded so shall Grace and Glory and Honor and eternal Praise and Joy abound also Wherefore it s well said of Christ That as his sorrow was such as he saith Behold if ever sorrow were like unto my sorrow when he cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So behold his joy never joy was like it at the conversion of a sinner SECT V. §. 5 All Gods workings in us come to a Song at last THis Book of Psalms in Man it is all but one Psalm it is an eternal Song a praising God for ever and and ever without end this is not with our mouth but the Lords mouth and heart not with lips but the kisses of his mouth and the breath of his Spirit and indeed all the workings of God are in joy they all bring forth the first fruits of Righteousnesse in peace and joy all things working together for good all our sorrows travels crucifyings self-denials crosses losses miseries deaths and torments they all bring forth a Psalm a Hymn and a Song this is the man child that shall be born after all Now it may be God is only making or beginning this Psalm in us yet a little while and it shall be finished and the noise thereof heard from one end of the Heavens to another SECT VI. §. 6 And what this Song is in the Saints ANd the Song shall be this Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath Thou art worthy of all Honor Glory and Praise for thou hast redeemed us to thy self And again The Lord the Lord the Lord God omnipotent raigneth And again We give thee thanks Lord God Almighty that thou hast raigned and takest this great power to thy self and that thy time is come and that the Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Saints Rejoyâ—â— O ye Heavens and all that are in them for thy God raigneth SECT VII The Lord alone is the Psalm and the Hymn §. 7 and Song in us BUt yet further The Lord God is our Song our Blessednesse that David speaks of and the Law that we delight in and tree of Life that brings forth all good fruit and all flesh is the chaff and like the wind the Spirit of the Lord shall scatter and divide it all bringing it to Judgment and flesh is that which rages and imagines vain things against the Lord and it is the Lord alone that shall sit upon the holy hill of Zion and breaks all flesh in pieces with its scepter Our flesh is the enemy that increases and rises up against us and the Lord and it is the Lord that Spirit that smites this enemy in the cheek bone and breaks the teeth of the ungodly so all salvation is the Lords and his blessing is his people Again The Lord is their Sacrifice of Righteousnesse their Wealth and Health and all the light of his Countenance is that which is their Life indeed the Lord is their Life and Peace that makes them to dwell in safety alone their wine and corn and oyl it is all with the Lord alone and nothing else What singing was there at the birth of Christ Jesus after the flesh How did the Angel Shepherds Joseph Mary Zachary Elizabeth Simeon and all sing How did they all magnifie the Lord and bless the Lord God of Israel What is it but an example of the heavenly Thing that when Christ Jesus is born in us and framed there there is singing and will be where the Lord lives But all the minstrels in the flesh are turned out and it calls them all madness yea there is a singing though we be in prison outwardly and great misery yet our joy none can take from us nothing can break out peace nor interrupt our melody nor quench our joy no man nor devil can take it from us SECT VIII §. 8 There is no singing in the strange Land till we come to the Lord himself YEt a word more this glory and perfect joy is not for them that live in the flesh nor in darkness or in the Kingdoms of this world There is nothing but howlings sorrows gnashing of teeth weeping and lamentations here as Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness were weary in their lives and full of groanings strivings and fightings But the songs are heard neither in Egypt nor in Babylon nor in the Wilderness but in Canaan here we hang up our
hearts and mourn but in the strange Land are we more strangers While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord But when we shall absent from the body and be present with the Lord and not live by faith only but by sight when we shall not read of him nor hear of him only but when we shall see him face to face then shall our joy be full then we shall sing the song of Zion When we are entred into the joy of our Lord and Master when the day of the Lord is come the voyce of the Bride and of the Bridegroom is heard and the marriage of the Lamb is come then shall the Song be sung it is prepared for that day then shall the voyce of the Turtle be heard amongst us and the voyce of the Lord himself rejoycing over us And we rejoycing and singing in the Lord and in nothing else we shall sing O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the world Let the Heavens praise thee O Lord yea let all the world give thanks unto thee yea let all things arise O Lord and call thee blessed SECT IX To sing with the Spirit and with §. 9 Vnderstanding THis made the Apostle say I will pray with the Spirit and with Understanding also I will sing with the Spirit and sing with Understanding also He then that hath not this spirit cannot sing with understanding he is as he that speaks in an unknown tongue a Barbarian except the Spirit interpret it 's but howling and no singing but where it s filled and enlarged with love where the Spirit of the Lord is heaped up and running over it must break forth and overflow it will not be hid it is like a fire in the bones like the sea at full tide like a full winde at sea filling the sails such is the powerful presence of God overshadowing us A Psalm THe Lord the Lord th' eternal God who lives and reigns to make us glad Our Psalms our Hymns our spirits songs our melodies in him alone We are his Organs and his Harps he tunes and plays upon our hearts He sings and makes most pleasant noise filling us full of mirth and joys A Hymn O Glory glory to the Lord his Name be blessed all abroad Our life mirth love and joys lives and lies in his glories A spiritual Song O Holy holy God on high Eternally Our melody Above the sky Never to dye But thus to cry Glory Glory To God on high Eternally Happy happy CHAP. XVI The fifteenth Book that God writes in Man is called PROVERBS SECT I. The Spirit that interprets secrets and §. 1 proverbs where it is and dwells ALL dark sayings mysteries secrets wonderful things deep and high sealed and concealed old and new there is a Spirit even the Spirit of the holy God which dwells in them that are gods which can reveal secrets expound parables finde out the pearl hid in the field and interpret dreams and hard sayings He that plows with this heifer shall finde out all these riddles and parables made plain in us And for the most part all these Proverbs without came from Wisdom and Understanding which dwelt in Solomon and spake these things from within SECT II. §. 2 The sum of this history of Proverbs spiritually in us in five particulars The Father God the Mother Wisdom the Son the Saint HEre is five things spoken of First The Father and that is the Lord God himself Secondly The Mother and that is Wisdom so she is called Wisdom is justified of her children which is Christ God the Father of Judgment Christ the Mother of Wisdom here is Judgment and Wisdom together Thirdly The Son that is here spoken of in the history of the Proverbs and that is the Childe of God the Christian or Saint that begotten Son that came from the bowels of Wisdom travelling with it and from the spirit of Judgment this is the Son that is so much admonished and taught of God every way it must needs be a wise Son that hath such Parents and it cannot stand in need of any thing that hath such a Father it must needs be brought up in the nurture and fear of the Lord filled with all wisdom and understanding A wise son saith Solomon is a joy to his mother but a foolish one is the sorrow of her heart So here Wisdoms children are a joy to her She can say Lord here am I and the children thou hast given me I had from thee thine they were and thou gavest them to me and I give them to thee again and my self with them Fourthly The strange woman and her sons the woman that flattereth with her lips and speaketh lies what is this woman but the world and the children of this woman but the children of the world This flesh that dwells in us is the strange woman and the woman that flattereth with her lips and betrays us tempting us to come in unto her and see what she hath prepared This is the Antichrist that lives in flesh and would feign her self a Prophetess and would have all turn in to her and drink of her fornications and eat of her idolatrous sacrifices which she hath prepared And all her sons are the brats of Babel the concupiscence or lust of the flesh 2. The lust of the eye and heart 3. The pride of life These three be her darlings and Delilahs that are nourished and brought up by her dayly the strange woman and her children Fifthly The enemies of Wisdom and these be called fools and scorners sinners and strangers these hate knowledg and reject the fear of the Lord She hath called and they would not answer yea cryed but they would not hear She hath prepared her table and her banquets and cryed in the high ways and concourse of people to come in to be her guests but they have all turned aside yea they hate her dainties and despise her counsels preferring with Esau a mess of pottage before either blessing or birth-right CHAP. XVII The sixteenth Book that God writes in Man is called ECCLESIASTES SECT I. The vanity of all things in the outward §. 1 man or world THe book of Ecclesiastes opened in Man Wherein you have the vanity of all earthly things discovered how this world and the fashion thereof perisheth all the fulness thereof exhausted her treasures corrupted her glory stained her riches moth-eaten her dwellings rotten her friends consuming her life dying and all her attire fading This is the state of this life this old world this outward man of ours the tabernacle that is groaning and burthened ready to be dissolved yea heaven and earth and all the creatures are the Apostle saith expresly groaning for the redemption and the manifestation of the sons of God The whole generation of the first Adam his whole kingdom and dominion the world wherein he ruled is all melting with fervent heat yea his more excellent things are vain his righteousness
wisdom knowledg learning arts sciences laughter and joy yea his whole study and practise yea all his sobriety chastity charity fortitude temperance patience there is vanity in it all Besides the things that are outward as his buildings stately possessions pleasant gardens and orchards all his precious substance his royal attendants his faring deliciously every day there is a deeper vanity upon these SECT II. §. 2 The earthly man is the vanity of vanities and the vexation of spirit ANd all this comes from man which is a bundle of vanity yea less then nothing vanity and vexation of spirit The vainest thing that is saith the Prophet is man that is the natural man the earthly man the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are evil and that continually from his evil heart proceeds all evil for unto the defiled and unclean there is nothing pure or clean hut all he touches tastes or handles is defiled till he be cleansed within being like the lepers that infected all about them houses and walls So here O vain man the worst of all things in whom dwells no goodness nay he makes all other things vain but it is not so in the Kingdom of God nor in the World to come by Christ therein every soul that tasted and received of the Father sees nothing but excellency and everlasting comfort there is no vanity nor vexation of spitit there is nothing but holiness to the Lord there is durable riches and eternal mansions and no alteration or shadow of changing for all things are there of God c. CHAP. XVIII The seventeenth Book that God writes in Man is called The Song of SOLOMON SECT I. Christs Kisses and his Mouth what §. 1 they be CHrists Song and the Spouses Song The kisses are the Testimonies of the Spirit the manifestations of his presence His mouth are the divine oracles that breath into her the giving her the holy Spirit opening his mouth and breathing into her that spirit that may quicken her and teach her all things And kisses the more the better the running over of his spirit presence For thy loves His kisses are his love tokens Are better then wine The light of his countenance the least presence of him a kisse a look a touch a taste far beyond all the world SECT II. The oyntment poured out §. 2 THe savor of the good ointments poured forth This is Christs Fulnesse Grace Glory and Truth full of Grace and truth full of Spirit and Life this is then good ointment poured forth freely he hath received and freely he gives For of his fulness we all receive grace for grace Therefore do the Virgins love thee This is a pure undefiled love therefore called Virgins when it is begotten only by the pure ointments of Christ pouring forth and nothing else this is the fire that kindles it and the oyl that maintains it burns the purest flames admits of no mixture whatsoever but keeps it Virginity and chaste pure love for the Lord Christ and no other SECT III. What the Kings Chamber is to be brought §. there 3 DRaw me and we will run after thee They must needs run whom God draws and love will not only draw but constrain and it is the love shed abroad in us this anointing poured forth will ravish us and it s nothing but the inward anointing that draws the outward teaching is nothing without it The King hath brought me into his Chamber This is the place of Rest no where else no society else but the presence Chamber nay the bed Chamber of the King himself none of his Attendants will serve no other room but to live alone in him and in the same Chamber and glory with him and no other this anointing draws us thither We will be glad and rejoyce in thee This is the fulnesse of joy now she is in Heaven full of joy now and never till now can we be glad and rejoyce We will remember thy love more then wine the upright love thee We shall never part more I am brought to his Chamber but nothing can draw me hence again Come let us take our fill of love and forget all sorrow and enmity remember nothing but love alone and no love but thine that is the love that makes us forget all things else and love thee above all things to live with thee SECT IV. What the blackness and the comeliness is §. 4 4 I Am black but comely O ye daughters of Jerusalem It is not the outside the form the image or shadaw you are to look at that is black indeed but all my comelinesse is in Christ it is in the Lord he is my Beauty and Splendor my Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption but I am black my flesh and nothing but blackness and darkness from it this I was but the other I am now this I have put off the other is put on Nay I am black you may think and call it so it may be so to you black heresie blasphemy and yet it may be comely to me it may be judged black by men and yet be approved of God for that which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers SECT V. §. 5 What the brothers are angry at and what is the keeping of other Vineyards and not the true Vineyard 5 LOok not upon me because I am black because the Sun hath looked upon me That is you are my friends and have accounted me your brother you now look scornfully upon me casting me out of your Synagogue because the Sun hath looked upon me and the Lord hath anointed me and enlightened me above my fellows envy me not for that neither look at that which is outward but at that which is inward for all my glory and excellency is not in me but in the Lord God that lives with me My mothers children were angry with me We that were one and agreed in one when we lived both in the flesh are now angry at me since I have lived in the Spirit You my own mothers children that have one Mother Nature and Country go about to kill and crucifie me they would sell me away do any thing with me betray me into the hands of all my enemies they are set spitefully against me as they did Joseph and Christ and Abel at the beginning and all because their works are evil and mine good they see the Lord is with me and blesses me They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard have I not kept That is while I ruled others was set over us and had a glory and preheminence in the flesh above others teaching them and governing them I my self in the mean time became a cast-away and I received honor that came from men but not from God and I was sent of them and called by them and ruled as a man but I was not called by God I condemned that in others which I found in my self I lived according to
it was so Awake thou that sleepest and I will give thee life And how is this He is the resurrection and the life thus he that receives power to beleeve in him though he were dead yet shall he live SECT XII §. 12 This teaching will make us perfect THe best have need of his telling none knows so much but he can tell them more and when they think they know something are puffed up they know nothing yet as they ought to know for I may say in very many things we are yet ignorant but we shall not always know in part we shall know as we are known and when that which is perfect is come that which is imperfect is done away and indeed it is God alone can tell us best When none is nigh us he hath a sweet still secret way a voyce behind us telling This is the way this is right and truth That is not Hear him what the Spirit saith SECT XIII Nothing can quench kill or separate §. 13 this love O Thou whom my soul loveth This is a heavenly voyce breathed out by the Spirit a divine flame of love by which it appears how the Spouse was sick of love and nothing but death without his presence And also that all Gods teachings and workings towards his people are all in lone His very Rod and Staff is in love He loveth every Childe whom he correcteth And so the Soul that loves the Lord truly though the Lord kill him yet will he put his trust in the name of the Lord. Such a thing is love that though it wander a while in the wilderness and lose it self yet it will finde out the way nothing can quench it no waters nothing can kill it no death nothing can separate it no torment no defence nothing can diminish it or any way choke it but the thing it lives upon and where it loves there it lives What other argument could the Spouse bring to move God As his love constrains us so will our love to him constrain him draw him and he will run after us fall about our necks and kiss us I remember in the history of Lazarus that Mary and Martha sent to Christ this message Lord he whom thou lovest is sick They thought that was enough he knew well whom they meant and they knew well how much that would prevail upon him to which Christ returns This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God and so it was His love to Christ made him sick and Christs love to him made him well Therefore saith Mary Lord hadst thou been here my brother had not dyed Christs absence was his death and his presence brings him life SECT XIV §. 14 Christ loves where it is is in the heart and spirit with all our souls strength and might THe love we have to Christ must be with all the soul or else it is not love he will have the whole child or none of the child he is the right mother that bare us he cannot endure to have us divided between God and Mammon he will say to uâ— as he said to Peter Lovest thou me more then these that is more then gold silver lands livings wife children lusts sins gifts or graces men or mâ—ans then it s well if we can return the answer better I mean upon better grounds then he did not from a Confidence in the Flesh but in the Spirit saying Lord thou knowest that I love thee better then all things David could many times say so O how do I love thee Lord above my rest or appointed food O how do I thirst after thee and when shall I appear before the living God And again One thing have I desired of God and that is that I might always live in the house of the Lord. Such a love as is between man and wife they have but one life one love one soul so here is one spirit when it is so rooted in love and stablished in God that nothing can move or shake it it can do all things and endure all things deny it self take up its cross and follow him through fire and water life and death and rejoyce in him in the midst of all fearing nothing as long as he loves them and his love is with them SECT XV. §. 15 The five things that are excellent in this love of the Spouse called the soul love NOw there are five things that shews forth the excellency of this love of the Spouse to Christ that it will deserve the name of a soul love and a sound love The 1. is Where this love is it is a love above all loves whatsoever no other love comparable to it it endures to the end it will bear all things believe all things hope all things and endure all things though other loves fail but this doth not it is of a more excellent Nature from an excellent Principle from a divine Spirit there is no love in the world like it it being transcendent and supernatural Secondly It is a love before all other loves this the best the love that commands all the rest For where the soul is all else is there is mind will and affections it sits at uppermost room hath the highest place in our hearts all the rest bow down to this sheafe to this love here they all cover their faces and pull down their top sails Thirdly This soul love is a love beyond all loves whatsoever beyond the love of husband and wife parents or children beyond the love of other men women brethren or friends nay Angels themselves for all these loves may exceed their bounds and then prove hurtful but let them keep their bounds and then they fall very short of this infinite and exceeding weight of love For though the Lord hath set bounds to Seas and other Creatures nay to men women and children thus far you must love and no further but here are no bounds nor limits to this soul love Love him with all thy soul thy heart thy strength It is a love beyond all love whatsoever it is larger higher deeper longer broader then any love else that made the Apostle cry out and this will if rightly understood make us cry out O the heighth depth bredth length of the love of Saints to the Lord O thou whom my soul loveth Fourthly It is a love without all a naked free pure love not for ends gain or ought else not for any reward or wages as Satan would have accused Job to God to have done saying Doth Job serve God for nought No no Job knows what he doth and knows what he gets by it or else he would never be so serviceable as he is whereas indeed Job served God without all but simply and truly for the Lords sake alone and not his own sake at all this is called a love without all out of love and not of fear to him The fifth and last is To love the Lord in all which is indeed
his body is his wifes So here the Lords Spirit his Life Grace Righteousness and Kingdom is not his but theirs and to them their peace faith strength goodness is not theirs but the Lords for they are though two yet one in the Spirit SECT XXXIX §. 39 The day breaks and the shadows flee away UNtil the day break and the shadows flee away turn thou my beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether This is a sweet and gracious desire of the Spouse from her Lord to have a greater fellowship with him and know him better to have the vails taken away and the Lord turn in the room of them which are the flying away of the shadows and the breaking of the day When the day Star from on high hath visited us to give knowledg of salvation to his people by the remission of sins and then to guide our feet into the way of peace For the Lord is that Spirit that must do that and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and day breakings Now we all beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord are changed from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord till then the Lord will be nigh unto us not far from us upon the Mountains of Bether some Mountains like shadows hinder but when the day breaks they shall become a plain and then the Kingdom of God shall come amongst us and dwell within us as it is said The Kingdom of God with in you SECT XL. §. 40 The Soul loving seeking finding holding and never parting BY night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves I loved him and could not but seek him and am beloved of him and so cannot live without him My love continues seeking and waiting for him at all times places night and day street and City abroad and at home and amongst the watchmen but I found him not in any of these places or persons but when I had passed them all lived above them and beyond them then I found and was found of him whom my soul loveth I laid hands on him and would not let him go but brought him to my mothers house even to the chamber of her that conceived me this is to live in us where his Word and Spirit was before preparing away for him SECT XLI §. 41 The Lords high commendations of his Church and Spouse here in part described CHrist Jesus our Lord having adorned and beautified his Saints he so commends them that he makes it his delight to look upon them and rejoyce in all the works of his hands in them and over them First Behold thou art fair my love behold thou art fair thou hast Doves eyes a pure wisdom from above and peaceable Secondly Thy hair is like a flock of Goats as white as snow noting old age found in the way of Righteousness A Father in Christ and not a Disciple only and old Saint Thirdly Thy teeth like a flock of sheep clean wash'd and shorn and none barren amongst them notes soundness of Judgment Meditation doing nothing rashly noruttering ought rashly before God till it be well chew'd with the teeth It s the trying of all things the discerning whether things be of God or not Fourthly Thy lips like a threed of scarlet simple and honest unfeignedly spoken Fifthly Thy speech comely speaking with power and authority with the Spirit and with Understanding also Sixthly Thy temples like a piece of Pomegranate within thy locks stately and comely fresh and never unmindfull of the Lords Mercies Seventhly Thy neck like the Tower of David builded for an Armory wherein there hangs a thousand bucklers all shields of mighty men this is the strength of Faith prevailing with God and doing mighty things by which the Elders of old obtained such good reports as that their shields hang as a memorial Eighthly Thy two brests like two young Roes twins which feed among the Lillies These are the fruitfulness and abundance of Consolations in the Lord she hath and gives to others comforting them with that comfort wherewith she is comforted of God SECT XLII §. 42 There is no spot in her she is all fair yea altogether lovely THere is no spot in her that is she is all light and in her is no sin nor darkness at alll being all light in the Lord the chains of her neck ravishes the Soul of Christ being such a Pearl of heavenly Truth Thy love like wine and the smell of thy ointments like spices This is all sweet and gracious Spirit ministring Grace to the beholders Thy lips drop the hony the hony and milk are under thy tongue This shews a right dividing of the Word of Truth milk to babes hony to stronger and bread to the strongest And the smell of thy garments like the smell of Lebanon Such a sanctified and perfumed Conversation hath she A garden enclosed a spring shut up a fountain sealed that is indeed a garden planted by the Lord and watered and increased by him enclosed all by his goodness as a wall of fire about it a spring that shall spring up and shut from the Philistins to corrupt it and such a fountain of Grace therein sealed that it shall not tend unto wantonness not uncleanness yea what heavenly pleasant plants are in thee a well of living waters the Spirit flowing forth in them SECT XLIII §. 43 The sending forth of his Spirit into our hearts to make us to abide in the Lord. AWake O North wind and come O South wind and blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow forth and then let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits This is the Spirit the Lord pouring forth and causing his Winds which are in his Treasuries his Spirit the Wind of Heaven to blow in his Garden yea all his Winds for good the several operations and administrations of the Spirit for several Gifts and Graces the North wind for the Lilly and the South wind for the quickning and making this the North for convincing and renewing but the South for converting and comforting the one to wound and the other to heal and both good for the garden the one for the weeds the other for the herbs and both for to have the spices flow forth to abound in Grace and come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits For is it not good reason that he that plants a Vineyard should eat of the fruits of it So for the Lord that hath planted us for the self same end and blown upon to be glorified in us and by us seeing we are his husbandry SECT XLIV §. 44 The sum of the fifth Chapter of Solomons Song THis Song of Solomon is very excellent and almost all is opened in us to our hands by the Spirit of the Lord for the very Letter makes the Spouse and the Lord Christ the sum of it all wherefore to proceed in the various
Prophet saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem it was this The Prophet looked and behold he saw the earth full of hills and mountains and so full that they could hardly stand one by the other and the valleys were drowned by the mountains and the hills and he looked till he saw the mountains and the hills wage war one against another and he saw them that lived in these mountains and hills were Soothsayers Philistins strangers and the mountains and the hills were full of silver and gold no end of their treasures full also of horses and no end of their charets full of idols and no end of their bowing down to them and full of swords and spears and no end of their blood till at last in the end I saw a little hill arise out of the earth amongst the midst of the hills from the valleys it ascended like the little hill Hermon and this hill in the rising of it did terribly shake the earth and in time grew to a great mountain and neither by sword nor spear nor might nor any such thing but by my Spirit saith the Lord it waxed exceeding great and the hills and the mountains melted before it and would not stand when it appeared all that opposed it were broken in pieces and on whomsoever this mountain of the Lord fell it ground him to powder And this holy hill and high mountain came at last to get all other hills and mountains under its feet and it was established upon the top of the mountains and then there was no living or safety but only here even all the Nations of the earth came flocking hither to the Mountain of the Lord and cast all their idols away and forsook their own Country and fathers houses their own hills and mountains and fly to this Rock for there was darkness and death upon all the rest here was the light of the Lord and they said one to another Come let us walk in the light of the Lord. SECT IV. §. 4 The Spirit interpreting the Vision to be in us THis is the Vision and herein the Spirit of Truth will open and interpret it to you the mountains and hills are proud rebellious lofty looks and haughtiness of mens hearts the treasures charets horses and idols what are they but the pleasures vanities and lusts of the flesh the fighting what was it but the torment and disquiet that flesh hath there is no peace there saith God and what is the hill arising out of the valleys the Spirit of God arising a little in us shaking the foundations of flesh and earth in us and becomes powerful and mighty making all her enemies her footstool triumphing gloriously and destroying flesh with her Principalities and Powers leaving her dead and this is the Day of the Lord upon all things to bring to nought the things that are and establish what is not SECT V. The stay and the staff of the Creature §. 5 broken but the stay and the staff of the Lord himself remains for ever ANd this is not all but the stay and the staff shall be taken away the staff of bread and the stay of water This is the vanity of the Creature that shall be removed and broken in pieces whatsoever is a stay or staff besides the Lord be it meats or drinks you make so your Judges or Prophets you make so your mighty men of War or your honorable House of Commons I will then break them and turn them all to nothing your Princes then shall be children so your ancient men fools your strength rottenness your gods idols I will corrupt them all and these shall not rule over you Nay if you make any your stay or staff besides me saith the Lord I will take the life away and the comfort away I will take your clothing and glory so that none shall rule saying they have neither clothing bread nor water and they cannot rule over the ruines of the people but the Lord alone shall thus raign and rule over in glory they shall be ruined and fall and then I shall stand alone and be stay and staff thus woe shall be to the wicked the reward of their hands given them but well to the righteous that have me for stay and staff the fruits of their hands shall be given them and thus the Lord shall enter into Judgment with the oppressor and violent man the ancient and the honorable the proud and the base and stain all their glory smite it with a scab even the crown and head of it to the feet also and where the sweet smell was shall be a stink for a girdle a rent for hair dressed baldness for a stomacher a girding with sack-cloth and burning instead of beauty all these mighty things shall be and fall by my Sword the Spirit and lament and be left destitute this is the Decree of the Lord God SECT VI. §. 6 The beautiful Branch of the Spirit of the Lord and all the fruits thereof holy IN that day further we shall all that know the Lord whether weak or strong take hold of one man which is Christ the Lord and the seven women shall be married to him this is the male and female bond and free made one in Christ this is surely the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and then all reproach shall be taken away and we shall eat every one his own bread and wear his own apparel and this one bread shall be the bread of Life and this one apparel the Robes of Christ himself and now shall the Branch of the Lord the Spirit of Grace budding like Aarons Rod be glorious and beautiful and the fruits of the earth excellent and comely and that amongst them that are escaped of Israel the outcasts shall be received in and they that are dead shall live and every one that liveth then shall be called holy no other life but that written amongst the living and then the Lord shall wash away both filthiness of flesh and blood and spirit also by the Spirit of Judgment and burning the Lord wil create upon every dwelling place of his Tabernacles and Assemblies clouds by day and a pillar of fire by night for upon all their glory shall be a defence to keep from rain and storm and heat that nothing shall hurt SECT VII §. 7 The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts and the men of Judah AGain The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts declared in a parable and that in a Song of the Lords Beloved The Lord hath a Vineyard planted on a fruitful hill hedged fenced gathered from stones and planted with Vines dressed digged and a wine-press digged therein and a tower build thereon looking for fruits and it brought forth wilde fruits Judg now between me and my Vineyard I will tell you what I will do with it I will take away all from it leaving it naked and depart from it and then it shall be full of bryars and brambles What
to have him bruised smitten to have his grace love mercy patience goodness bowels wisdom power all employed for our good this is the pleasure of the Lord and it did and doth prosper in the hands of Christ and that is the next thing when it makes us like Christ and like God when the will of the Lord is done in us when God dwells in us of a truth when we are made one with the Lord when we reign with him when the Lord is all when we are his pleasure and will SECT LXI §. 61 The Lord shall see us as the travel of his Soul ANd the Lord Jesus shall beget us and conceive us in the womb of his tender mercies and travel in birth with us and in the Day of the Lord we shall though with sorrow be the travel of his Soul and we shall see it and the Lord shall look upon us and notwithstanding all former sorrow it shall not be remembred for joy that we are brought forth holy to the Lord and the Lords Will and Pleasure Wisdom and Power Love and Mercy shall be satisfied in us SECT LXII §. 62 We are the Lords spoil and portion ANd the Knowledg of the Lord shall be known and his Wisdom understood and the righteous God shall be justified and we justified by him and in him for his Righteousness shall be in us and upon us we shall be his spoil and portion the Lord shall take us for his lot and the Lord shall be our portion and great inheritance SECT LXIII The Lord makes the barren to sing and to §. 63 bring forth gloriously FEar not neither be ashamed of thy reproach poor heart that art left like a widow and childless barren and fruitless thou that hast not travelled though thou wast married but not to the Lord Thou hast had many lovers and husbands but not thy maker thine husband therefore thou art confounded and in bondage weeping and lamenting as being left desolate Hear now what the Lord God whose name is the Lord of hostes thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth what he saith Sing O barren and break forth into singing for the Lord thy God will overshadow thee and thou shalt conceive in righteousness travel in truth and bring forth faithfulness the Lord will marry thee to himself and thou shalt bear many sons and daughters to the Lord for Righteousness shall be the fruits of thy womb and Peace thy daughters and Truth thy off-spring SECT LXIV §. 64 The seed of the living God out of a barren womb wonderful THe Lord thy Husband will enlarge thee all over none shall surpass thee thou shalt have more children then the married ones or the concubines thou shalt excel them all in singing bearing and bringing forth a multitude of Glory to the Lord thy womb shall be opened thy heart enlarged thy spirit strengthened thy seed multiplied thy bed stretched out thy tents widened and the curtains of thy habitation thy cords and stakes lengthened for the Lord will make the fruits of thy soul like the stars of Heaven or the sands on earth for number all the Plants of the Lord all his own begotten Sons and Daughters and born by the Spirit in whom he is well pleased thou shalt break forth on the right hand on the left every way beautiful and thy seed and children shall inherit and inhabit the desolate places and where it was said Ye are not my people there shall it be said Ye are the sons of the living God SECT LXV §. 65 The Lord thy husband that comforts thee THus the Lord hath delt with thee when thou wast as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit nay refused and rejected by all I found thee desolate and I married thee and received thee to my self and lay thee in my arms and bosom made thee to bear children thus with great mercies have I gathered thee though for a small moment thou wast forsaken and in a little wrath I hid my face from thee but I am returned to thee now with everlasting kindness and I will have mercy on thee without end for I am thy Husband and thy Redeemer SECT LXVI §. 66 I will be thy God and Husband from everlasting unto everlasting NAy now I will do more for thee then ever I wil never depart more from thee I will swear to thee as I did to Noah and give thee a better signe then I did to him the Rainbow in the Heaven that I would no more drown the Earth so will I do to thee the waters of my wrath shall never be upon thee my light and countenance lifted on thee but never taken off thee and this shall be thy token I will give thee my self in marriage and be thy Husband and thou shalt be without rebuke nay though mountains and hills be removed all thy comforts and comforters depart from thee yet shall never my kindness nor the Covenant of my peace be removed but I will keep thee in perfect peace for in the world flesh and darkness there is nothing but trouble vanity anguish torment and vexation but in me my Love Heart Spirit Light Life Truth and Kingdom thou shalt have peace be therefore of good comfort for I have overcome all to thee SECT LXVII §. 67 The foundation windows and gates of the Saints the Lords house and building of what precious stones it is SEe further how fruitful the Lord will make her and how beautiful all over though tossed and afflicted discomforted and perplexed behold the Lord will be thy foundation the living Stone shall be thy corner stone the Rock thy root and bottom wherefore saith the Lord I will lay thy stones with fair colours and foundation with Saphirs thy windows of Agates thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stoâ—es And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children Thus will the Lord glorifie thee for in righteousness shalt thou be established that shall be thy fair colours and Saphirs and without either oppression oppressor fear or terror and all that gather against thee shall fall by thee for I am with thee and as whatsoever is in thine hand hath this blessing it shall prosper so this shall be a curse to thine enemies that no weapon formed against thee my Holiness shall prosper and every tongue that riseth up against thee by preaching praying counselling or threatening shall be condemned This is the heritage blessing promise and portion of the servants of the Lord and all their worth and righteousness is from thee thou art the Lord their God thou sanctifiest them SECT LXVIII §. 68 The Lord is that water that wine and that milk to them that thirst after him and that hunger in him THe Lord Jesus Christ is all true and saving comfort and all kind of food is in him He is water to the thirsty wine to the heavy hearted milk to the