of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of
that came willingly the skins the Badgers skins the red dyed Rams skins for the Covering of the Tabernacle on the out-side good enough yet very course the Boards of Shittem wood the Curtains the Pillars of Wood of Brasse of Wood over-laid with Gold each according to its place and service in the Tabernacle more or lesse excellent as more or lesse inward or spiritual So was the Linnen the Purple the Blue the Scarlet and curious Works the most curious and pure for the Vail next the Mercy-Seat So was it in the Composition of the Perfume and anointing Oyl after the curious and choice Art of the Apothecary that no Composition or Mixture must be made like it of the choicest Spices So for the Lamps of the Canalesticks to give light and for the Altar of Incense evening and morning Oh! great is the Mystery of Godliness in all these things no Lights but what was made of this pure holy Oyl must burn before the Lord if the Priests or Levites did burn any other they must be cut off And so for the Incense of sweet Spices the Lord that Spirit is very curious and can soon spy and smell out the Mixtures of Flesh or any false Compositions and abhor them So in the Priests Garments for Aaron and his Sons to minister in the nearer the Ministration was to the Lord the Purer and Holier and the Garments the more curious The imbroydered fine Linnen Coat holy and pure the Robe of the Ephod of blue the curious Ephod with the two pretious Onix Stones and the engraving therein set on the shoulder plates the curious Girdle of the Ephod with the wreathes of Gold and the holy Brest-plate of Judgement with the twelve pretious Stones coupled to the Ephod and of the same curious workmanship with the curious Girdle the Miter the Plate of Holiness and the Crown for his head For the other Priests not so curious nor such works in regard their Institutions was less glorious In all these things how excellent how skilful and what a cunning searching Spirit of discerning and Judgement had this wise-hearted Soul in the Mysteries unfolding the Riddles and hard Sayings still opening them in Spirit faithful in all God's House and keeping nothing of the Counsel of the Lord back nor hiding his Light under a Bushel but setting it up in the Candlestick so that it gave light to many of the Lord's House I was one of the number of those that constantly attending on his Discourses as oft as I was in Town knew him more in his Family Exercises and Discourses for many years than most from whom I received more help and light in the knowledge of God than from all the men in the World besides and found his Ministry most searching and trying What others took for Gold he proved it to be but Brass and some Doctrines that others preferred for Spiritual he tryed and found them Carnal He had such a Brest-plate of Judgement and Discerning that he did constantly bear the remembrance of all the Tribes of Israel on his heart before the Lord and distinguished every Tribe after his condition yea he had this singular and peculiar gift of Judgement to discern the two Natures the two Seeds the two Covenants to admiration Many a Soul he hath put upon the search that thought he had attained and ran well whom he found to be but in Egypt or at least but departing thence Shall we say he was a Scholler Nay but a Rabbi a Doctor in the knowledge of Christ in whom a greater Fulness of the riches of Wisdom and Knowledge were treasured up than in most like that Disciple that lay in Christ's bosom He obtained so long a share of his life and growth having the true sight and measure of every man's state and growth yet himself sate on a Rock higher than all and was such a blessing in his Witness and Testimony to the Lord in his threefold state of Life Death and Resurrection and so of our conformity and likeness to Him therein that no Book extant but the Striptures did ever clear so much Truth as his Retired Man's Meditations and this blessed Epistle now of his is as a Key that further opens that to the Sons of men and they are to be understood better in spirit and in operation than in words How did he seeing Truth lay scattered maimed and mangled in parts and parcels gather it all up yea and all the Professions and Professors of it and made one whole Garment of Truth amongst them all and that without any seam or rent reconciling and healing all the Wounds and Divisions that have been amongst good People from the crown of the Head to the soale of the Foot in the Spirit of Love Righteousness and true Judgement assigning every Profession and Principle his true and proper place and state in the Body whether Natural or Spiritual VALE To the scattered Seed and Sheep of CHRIST in all Nations the true Israel by Faith unknown for the most part to themselves but more to the World and Worldly Christian Yet in this their unknown or dispersed Estate owned of the Lord as the Church that are in God the Father truly pure Catholick and Christian of which Christ Jesus is the alone and immediate Head BRethren and Fathers c. that in Jesus Christ are dearly beloved and with God of great price Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ To you that are unknown and yet well known it is in my heart to be representing the knowledge of Him that is invisible and the view of your selves in your invisible state together with those that are your known or unknown enemies as that which may prove neither unseasonable nor unprofitable to you in this day of Israel's Captivity but approaching Redemption which hastens fast at which time the Sons of God shall be made manifest If Paul Acts 17. when he passed by and beheld the Athenians Devotions with an Altar having this Inscription To the unknown God took occasion from thence to make him known whom they ignorantly Worshipped Surely it ought not to be accounted blame-worthy in any that seeth the Worship and Devotions now in practise in the visible Christian Church to endeavour the distinguishing the right Catholick Church in its Purity and way of Worship in Spirit and Truth from them and from their wayes of Worship ignorantly however zealously performed that pass under the name of Christ's Mystical Body and his Divine Institutions But you Beloved are of God Elected known as by name having this Seal and Mark from the Lord upon you which is your Stability and sure Foundation the Lord knows who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity No matter therefore if these come to you and find you as to your outward estate in Babylon where according to what is foretold by the Apostle John in the Revelation your abode is to be
old ere ever the Earth was And what is true in Christ who is not only the Root but the chief and principal Branch hath its Witness and is declared in the Work which he begets and shines forth in amongst his Members knit to him by an abiding or indissoluable union all that are Branches in this true Vine whose Fruit is such as is cheering both to the heart of God and of Man that is to say of Man considered in his higher or lower attainments and growths up into the knowledge and love of God as he is Man and no more partaking of the Spirit of God by measure And secondly of Man made the only Begotten of God that lyes in the bosom of the Father and is anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows which Christ's exalted Manhead is and that after such sort as not to have and inherit the dignity of it to himself single and alone but as the Head and Husband to that General Assembly of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and have right to the double portion The right opening of this is the great Key to all our practical and experimental Knowledge of God which is found amongst the dispersed Seed of God that are either of the one or other birth Children of the first or second Covenant in every Nation Tongue Language or Form truly searing God and working Righteousness and therein accepted of God either through Faith or with that common acceptance declared Gen. 4. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted whilst in the mean time they may be great strangers unto if not much prejudiced against one another for not walking together in one and the same way of Profession and external Communion Give me leave then to distinguish this Seed of God into Four sorts Two that are Witnesses unto Christ's first Ministry as he is the Author and Restorer of the Law and Principles of pure Nature and is the dispenser of God's Image and the manifestation of his Will upon the terms of the first Covenant And other two that are Witnesses unto the truth of Christ's second Ministry as he is the new Creator that regenerates and makes over again his first work anew is the Author of Life from the dead and bringer of Immortality to light which is not done by the first Covenant nor can be but by this second knowledge and Image of God begotten and wrought by and according to the tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant The first sort of Witnesses we shall speak unto and rightly to have the knowledge of them we must yet further consider Man in his first make and in the primitive constitution of being that was given to him in his state of Innocency before sin entred So as to enquire upon what terms Man then stood with God and in what respect he was pronounced good in God's eyes and might be said to be accepted of him Man then had the perfect knowledge of God and of Christ as his Creator and Law-giver for God created all things by Jesus Christ by the Word of God's mouth in the Mediator did all things live move and had their being so that what might be known of God even of his Eternal Power and Godhead by the things that were made that is by the means of any created beings visible or invisible it was manifested in man and was shewed to man by that mixt com pound being which was given him of an intellectual and sensual or animal Soul which furnished him with inward and outward senses proportioned for such a knowledge and which were retained in due subjection and subordination the one unto the other From such a prospect and survey of things as Man at first was fitted to receive both from within and without him the invisible things of the Godhead were clearly seen by him rendring him without all excuse being thereby instructed in the duty of his obedience and subjection to the Law of God under which he was made to the glorifying him as God which as God expected and required from man so he owned a liking and acceptance of from man with whom he treated and agreed upon the terms of his personal obedience and entire observance of all his Commands and continuance therein Three things man in this state might and did experimentally find in himself First The light and manifestation of God's Mind and Will as a Law within him called in Scripture The Candle of the Lord the Oyl with which God furnished the Lamp of man's spirit which he was to take care that through his default he did not let it go out nor diminish but quicken and renew it as it should need by such means God instituted The second thing which man experienced was the life of a rational and intellectual Soul that is to say a superior part in the same Soul affording the use of inward senses that by keeping open and awake he had as it were an intercourse with the spiritual and invisible beings of Angels and saw the intrinsick natures of the Creatures And thirdly He found also a brutish nature of which he was compouuded and made which furnished him with the use and operation of outward senses by which he might go abroad and walk up and down in converse with earthly things and inhabitants The fountain of these outward senses his inferior part to be in his soul or spirit With these he came to perform and put in execution that which the superior and directive part of him judged right and fit to be done This was the inward and outward order of actings that Man at first was created in with a freedom to make use of this Light within himself which God as a Talent had committed to him to imploy according to his will and rely upon his guidance and the sufficiency of it to attain the end God set before him in the way of his perfect obedience and keeping out the entrance of sin or else upon the sense of the instability he might discern in these Principles of Freedom that leave him alone and to himself and the Insufficiency to continue by the power of the Grace received in well-doing against all resisting and deceiving temptations to chuse rather to make resignation up of this his Freedom wherein he was at his own guidance and dispose in exchange for a better and more perfect Freedom that is to say in order to be intirely at the will of another and the leading influence thereof in all things even of such another whose service is perfect Freedom and who should be as Surety for the performance of the duty to God's Law and secure us from the penalty of the Curse therein threatned against the Transgression thereof which was pointed out to Adam in the Tree of Life as John interprets by the Promise mentioned Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcometh which is done through Faith will I give to eat of the Tree of Life or Immortality which is fed on
by Faith through the power of which the entire resignation of our will into the leading and rule of the Spirit and Will of Christ is onely wrought and of which we shall treat particularly in its proper place though this small touch of it is needful here But the choice which Man made was to lean to his own understanding for his guide and to trust to the use of his Freedom which gave him to be at his own dispose as sufficient to encounter with and resist all Temptations and upon the first encounter failed and miscarried and let in Sin Death and Wrath upon himself and all his Posterity as the sad Consequence of that Fact of his To be then upon these terms as Adam was before his fall personally righteous and finding acceptance with God whilst we stand in such Obedience and Righteousness is an Effect which Christ in his first Ministry doth produce in the hearts of men making them in this respect the first sort of the four Witnesses we have before-mentioned and which though we have been considering of them in the Person of the first Adam before the Fall yet by the same Rule and Proportion the Witness is still the same whether it be communicated originally at mans Creation or else by renewal or restauration again after the fall by the same hand and Ministry which first gave it which Christ may do if he please and that he hath done is most obvious and undeniable from the experience we have had of late years within these Nations in a sort of Professors and Witnesses of Christ that do exactly go upon this bottom of Personal Righteousness wrought by the Principles of pure Nature renewed and restored within them which they assert may be held in perfection whilst we are here in the body and by which we may as by the Light within us perfectly subdue our brutish nature and keep under the body though all this be accompanied with mutability and the acceptance which they find with God is according to their works whilst they do well otherwise sin is at the door and the punishment according to the same This sort of Professors of the Name of Christ rise so high in their Testimony concerning him as to call him The glorious Sun of the soul the Searcher through of all darkness the Wonderful Power the Incomprehensible Wisdom and Immutable Holiness a thing that is invisible to every fleshly thing the one individual Spirit of Brightness that created all souls and are so dazeled with the Beams of this Glory all which he truly is that they overlook him too much according to his Humanity and see him not as he is the Son of man in whom Redemption is wrought for us and the Atonement for sin made by the price of his Blood the benefit whereof they have whether they confess it or not These are they that by the Candle of the Lord that is lighted within them the work whereof is written in their inward parts though they be not so much hearers of the Law by the Ministry of the outward Word yet do they shew themselves doors of the Law by the power of the Light that is within them doing as it were by Nature the things contained in the Law and so not having the Law outwardly considered are a Law to themselves shewing the work of it written in their hearts and by keeping the Righteousness of the Law do judge them who by the Letter transgresse the Law and do feel Peace and Comfort in their works In this manner did the Centurian fear God and work Righteousness Act. 10. before he heard those words from Peter that instructed him in the knowledge of Christ's Death and Resurrection and the Peace that comes to the Soul by his Blood unto the Remission of sins by whom all that believe are justified from all things which they could not be justified from by the Law of Nature or Works These ought not to be denied place in this rank of Christ's Witnesses whereof we have been speaking since they own and declare themselves to be fearers of God and workers of Righteousness upon these first principles of it which pure Nature teaches and plants where ever it is renewed and restored from the hand of Christ's liberality and bounty to put the Receivers of it to the tryal how far they will shew their faithfulness in the measure committed to them and in what readiness they are to put these Talents out in the way of exchange to get more and not to rest untill they obtain that state which is immutable It therefore greatly concerns such to look to their standing which is very slippery and uncertain and take heed lest they fall and to think soberly of themselves as they ought to think and not affirm as they are apt to do that their Witness contains in it all that Christ is lest otherwise when they come to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary they be found at last to deny more of Christ than they confess of him Nor are they to exalt this part of the Ministry of Christ which is but the beginning against that fuller sight and knowledge of him that is still to be revealed but this one thing they should do Forget that which is behind and press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling which is in Christ And although it be a commendable thing in them even upon their Principles to spread the knowledge of Christ in all the dark corners of the world where the Scriptures and written Word of Truth are not heard or received the effect of which labours with God's blessing may be the heightning and refining man's nature and purging it from filthy lusts and prophaness teaching them to fly from the Wrath and Vengeance which awaits evil-doers Yet this is to be done in subserviency unto not in opposition against the right knowledge and powerful Preaching of the Scriptures those Divine Oracles which God hath preserved for the great benefit and use of his Church in all times since the first writing of them By these are witnessed the righteous Principles and Actings according to the Law of pure Nature wherein Man was at first created and may so often as Christ pleases be again received in by that Light with which he enlightens every man that comes into the world whereof Christ as we have shewed is the Author and Dispenser and under this first Witness all these are to be comprehended who approve themselves doers of the Law men that fear God and work Righteousness in every Nation in such manner as God accepts though as yet they have not attained to the knowledge of Christ by the outward Ministry and hearing of the written Word But as these are such who pretend to be doers of the Law by a Light within them without dependance upon the Ministry of the written Word by a Teaching of the Word as it is spoken inwardly to the mind by Angels who are entrusted
Medicine which declared the Case as yet which Man was in not so desperate but he might be restored and not only so but have an additional sight given to him that should make him see better than ever he did before For the second It is also that state which is common to all that have sinned and upon whom Death hath passed as to the alienation of their minds from the Life of God whose teeth are set on edge by the sowr grapes that were eaten by our first Parents and therefore by way of free gift are restored by the benefit of the Ransom paid by the Redeemer on their behalf to such a degree of enlightning and renewed Righteous Life as is a Lamp or Candle lighted in the soul of every one that comes into the World in which little they are put to the proof of their faithfulness how far they care or desire to hearken to it or not that which is the work of the Law written in their hearts by Christ as a Record and Witness against them if it be slighted and abused whereby there is a Witness set up in the very natural Conscience as a light in a dark place that is ever accusing or excusing as the action done doth deserve To this Light in the Conscience which is the Law within us must every one stand or fall as to matter of information or proof how that soul hath shewed it self in this state whether a lover of Darkness more than of Light for this will either shew it self our Friend or our Enemy as we behave our selves in receiving of its instruction and following its guide and submitting to its reproof For he that is faithfull in the least is to be presumed he will be faithfull in much and he that is unjust in the least will be also unjust in much So that Christ may truly and justly say to such If they have not shewed themselves faithful in the unrighteous Mammon or uncertain Riches who will commit to their trust the true Treasure And thence it is that all those who in this state of proof and tryal under this first dispensation of Light declare themselves Enemies in a fixed Rebellion and hardning against the Teaching and Dictates thereof they plainly shew that they love the Disease better than the Remedy and had rather continue blind than have their sight and limbs restored to use them as they ought and by the Law they are obliged to do for running with delight and continuance in the race of God's Commandements and had rather perish in their sins than believe in Christ and by believing be freed and saved from the wrath that is to come The Natural Conscience in this sense corrupted heardned and become unreclaimable by refusing Reproof and perfectly hating all those that set about their recovery and restitution out of this their bondage under what ever Name or outward Profession of Religion and Divine Worship it be found in doth afford the first sort of Subjects whereof the kingdom of Darkness doth consist a Region like to that where Abraham coming in his Travels did pronounce The fear of God is not in this place nothing of Conscience was there owned or practised but the Contrary of open Prophanenesse or Idolatry The Third state is that which is not of such general extent but a more peculiar condescention and effect of God's bounty and good will to some sinners beyond others in admitting them to a farther and higher proof than the former and therefore doth vouchsafe them a greater measure and gift of the Spirit and work of Restauration out of their natural blindness and death for with a mighty hand and a stretched out Arm and with many Signs and Wonders he brings them as he did Israel of old out of the house of Bondage and by the Angel of his Presence saved them from the hands of their Enemies and offered to lead them into the state of rest and immutability which he had prepared for them and therein did propound to give them a better sight and fuller fruition of himself than in the way of meer Restauration they could attain unto For as to the Restauration and Freedom out of Egypt God's Work was perfect and a just and right God he had shewed himself to them nevertheless they that were new come to have the use of their sight and their feet again to be washed with Water and anointed with Oyl and when they were in their blood God bid them Live and made them again living Souls yet like an unwise and foolish People they very evilly requited this bounty and goodness of the Lord and of the Rock that begat them and of the God that formed them they were very unmindful and proved themselves a very froward and provoking Generation Children in whom was no stedfastness nor that cared to use the means to be made so when it was offered but they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit that is as Steven interprets it They blasphemed and resisted the Holy Ghost and refused the Teachings of that Miristry by which the Truth is conveyed in the love of it which would for ever free them from the power and dominion of sin and for ever fix them in the Kingdom of Christ and make them Pillars in God's Temple never to be removed These are they that because they say they see or have sight enough already and neither need nor desire better therefore their sin remains and is a sin unto death for which God swears in his wrath thèy shall never enter into his rest The light of their eye upon this becomes evil and hates those that see cleerer and better than themselves and cannot endure to hear of new lights that go beyond theirs or that is upon the encreasing more and more unto the perfect day In this evil mind there is a lusting to Envy against the true heirs and a saying in the heart Come let us kill them and the Inheritance shall be ours which so far doth many times transport them that they become the bitterest Enemies to God's choicest Saints and dearest Children and when they kill them they think they do God service and when they cast them out and make them as the scum and off-scouring of the World they say Let God be glorified these are they that are neither hot nor cold but under whatever forms of Godliness and different perswasions they may be in matters of God's Worship do give their strength to the common Enemy of the true Saints and though they can no more cleave the one to the other than the Iron to the Clay yet they both can sit at one Table devising the destruction of the true Israelites and take up their places in the Feet and Toes of the great Image that figured out the universal Kingdom of Antichrist These are the Two opposite Principles unto the Two Anointings and the effects of them in and upon the truly Regenerate ones In these Principles Satan lodges and dwells as in his
continuance is measured out by the time of the six Trumpets that is to say in the exercise of these three distinct Powers under the Name Christian the one Imperial and Magistratical the other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical in the two Horns and branches of it pretended unto of Divine Right and Institution or whether it be more diffusive in a Collective Body of Church-Rulers and as more particularly it is expressed to last twelve hundred and sixty Prophetical dayes that is to say years in the 11 12 and 13 Chap. of the Revelations and by comparing what is spoken and described in the foresaid Chapters with Chapter 17 concerning this Constitution and Face of the Christian Church and State that was fore-seen to rise up out of the dissolution of the Heathenish Roman Empire and the driving into the Wilderness the Spiritual part of the Church made up of those who are said for the heavenliness of their Principles and Converse to be those that dwell in Heaven chap. 12. vers 12. and chap. 13. 6. It seems very plain that upon the Disputes that was likely to arise in the Christian Ecclesiastical State and Government upon the bottom of the Papacy and Rule in the Church by one universal visible Head under Christ here upon Earth as one of the Horns belonging to the second Beast by Daniel called the Little Horn mentioned single because he was most Potent and for a long time was able to uphold his Authority without any considerable cruelty and division that was visible But in process of time the separation and division happened as John in mentioning of the two-horned Beast did fore-tell there would alwayes be within the bowels of the visible Church of the outward Court-worshippers a more and a less corrupted and backsliden part the one of which compared with the other would or might be likened to the earthly Jerusalem in the temper it was in when Christ was upon Earth for persecuting the Prophets and killing the Heir himself when he came amongst them As the other might be to Samaria and the worshippers of Jeroboams Calves after that he had headed the ten Tribes in their defection not only in the Civil State but from the Purity of God's visible Worship kept up according to God's Ordinances This latter being the lively resemblance of the Papacy and all that acknowledge the Papal Authority as the chief Ruler and Head of the visible Church throughout the several States and Dominions of the Christian Empire the other figuring out the Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her Children distinguishing her self from Popery on the one hand and from them that dwell in Heaven as the true Citizens of the Jerusalem that is above the Mother of all those that are Heirs according to the Promise on the other hand accounting the one Babylonish Antichristian and Heretical and the other Schismatical and Erroneous Fanatical and Blasphemous And because the Woman as the Apostle calls the earthly Jerusalem which was amongst the Galatians in his dayes as being in bondage with her Children to the Law and worldly Rudiments that perish in the using Touch not taste not handle not as Objects of Divine Worship which feed most the outward senses doth make a very fair shew in the flesh having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it and withdrawing from and disowning the Children of the Promise that are of a more heavenly birth and of the free Woman Therefore we shall find this sort of Professors described by John in his 1 Epist 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us and not have made a manifest distinction of themselves from us that is to say from being followers 1 Thess 2. 14 15. of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus that are the Circumcision in Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh For which cause sake the Thessalonians in adhering to the primitive pattern which shewed it self in those Churches did suffer the like things from their own Country-men the Jews among whom they lived as those Churches of God in Judea did from the Jews there who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and chased out the chiefest of the Apostles from amongst them and they pleased not God and are contrary to all men forbidding under pretence of too much familiarity with the Heathen and prophane World that the Gospel should be preached unto the Gentiles whereby they might be saved every way filling up their sins and bringing wrath upon themselves to the uttermost This is the Woman which John saw in Rev. 1. that was drunk with the blood of the Saints ver 6. and with the blood of the choicest Martyrs of Jesus at which he wondred with great admiration as little expecting to find what he saw or to reade that name written upon her forehead which he did of Mystery Babylon the great the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth with whom the Kings and Inhabitants of the Earth commit Fornication and have been made drunk with it For at last her false unchaste whorish spirit to her Lord and Husband is discovered and made manifest by the open rejection of him in his Members and by the Combination and Conjunction which she is found in with the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast and his Adherents under the Papacy thereby to make War with his Witnesses and slay them and expose their dead bodies to shame and reproach in the streets of this earthly Jerusalem who for her exceeding Apostacy and fierce Enmity against the true Temple-worshippers is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified and though she have strengthened her self as one that sits upon many Waters and who is the City that reigns over the Kings or chief eminent Persons men of Name of the Earth which the Children of the earthly Jerusalem are yet sayes he God determines to bring her to Judgment and in order thereunto the Instruments he will employ therein are the several Potentates and Kingdoms that have given their Power to the Papacy who at the time appointed shall find it their Interest to agree and become of one mind in hatred of this Whore or unchaste Spouse of Christ that sitteth upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues and shall therefore combine together to make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil his Will in this Judgment which they are to execute as Nebuchadnezzar formerly did upon the earthly material Jerusalem in his days until which be fulfilled they shall agree and hold together giving joyntly their Counsel Authority and Strength in support and maintenance of the Beast that is the first and chief Horn of the two-horned Beast which is the Papacy And how to give a right interpretation of the things in
times are brought all the concurring and fore-running Symptoms and Characters thereof Secondly That the time of the End that is to say the fore-toldof day in which Christ is to judge the World in Righteousness so as to make up his Jewels on the one hand and gather them as his precious Fruits into his Granary and to kindle an Oven of his fiery Vengeance to burn up the VVicked root and branch and gather together the Tares to be burnt in unquenchable fire is at the very doors and ready to open it self upon us as the day of Redemption to the Good and Terror and Amazement to the Wicked Thirdly That this Day shall begin with the Rising of the VVitnesses clothing those that then shall be in the World with such a Ministry of Power and Glory as shall qualifie them to discharge their several Witness-bearing Duty before specified with great applause and good reception from the World God permitting none to stand before them that make resistance or opposition which shall be as a necessary fore-running dispensation for Christ's Personal Manifestation and Rule on Earth a thousand years but by these Savioxrs that thus shall be brought up upon Mount Zion as a Stone cut out without hands New Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness shall be constituted and the four Monarchies utterly broken to pieces and destroyed and the Kingdom of Antichrist and the Beast brought to final ruine and destruction The very mentioning of these three Particulars without alledging particular places of Scripture will bring them to your mind which teach and speak expresly concerning the truth of them and the matter of fact it self as to what progress and course this witnessing-work hath made from Judea where first it was lighted step by step into all Nations and Kingdoms all the World over who have been acquainted with these VVitnesses and have seen their Light shining in these Golden Candlesticks and can give an account how from time to time they have been put out and removed from one place to another till atlast the bodies of these two Prophets are found dead in the streets of the earthly Jerusalem and spiritual Egypt and Sodom if they might be suffered to be put into their Graves and surely it is not without great wisdom that these Witnesses are called Two considering the two distinct Ministries of Christ which they bear witness unto and how each Ministry hath two out of whose mouth it receives its Justification But further That this Testimony is upon its finishing point let us enquire whether the last slaying of the Witnesses declared by the sight of their dead bodies Rev. 11. fit to be put into their Graves be not already before out eyes The right opening and understanding whereof is of great use as a key to many other most considerable and difficult Scriptures These two Witnesses as they justifie Christ's second Ministry the knowledg of him in spirit are the Saints in their invisible Church-state fled into the Wilderness from the violence and rage of Persecution which Satan stirred up against them by the visible Church and Powers of the Civil Rule Government called in for assistance How these Witnesses are two we have shewed being the two Orders of Believers which Christ's Mystical Body hath been ever consisting of though rather mystically figured out than appearing as they are in the truth and brightness of their proper Glory as Heirs of the Spirit of Promise in the single and double portion thereof These in their Spirit Nature and Principles have been disowned persecuted and slain by the visible Church as much as in them lies by exposing of them to the utmost of bodily sufferings and harms and this from the time that the visible Church hath degenerated grown Papal and been defended by the ten horns of her Civil Government in the Western Empire of the World and the sharpest and most bitter Enemies to these two Witnesses are the Reformed part of the visible Church who declare their ripeness to be rejected by Christ and have the flood of the Papal Power and Tyranny let in upon them as they hate and reject the heavenly Seed and spiritual part of the Church and can find opportunity to go back again into Conjunction with the Corrupt part of the visible Church to hinder the growth of that which is Spiritual rather than to go forward and become one with it So that it might be made appear in the whole progress the Gospel hath made from East to West the Reformed part of the Church never lost ground nor was swallowed up again by the Papal till it self first took up its stand as to going on forward and refused to be more Spiritual and Heavenly being fiercer enemies hereunto than any other whatsoever And the greatest demonstration of this is given in the last act of this Enmity that hath been acted and is yet in acting to the last slaughter which is to be made of the Witnesses in order to expose their dead bodies in the open streets of this Earthly Jerusalem where they are as spectacles to be seen three dayes that is years and an half by them of Peoples and Tongues and Kindreds and Nations headed by the Papacy who shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves by the Inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem who were willing enough to do it as exceedingly joyed at the sight of their dead bodies but shall rather chuse to quit those dead Carkases in way of contempt from any further prosecution of them and instead thereof apply themselves with the strength of their whole Party to strengthen and besiege the earthly Jerusalem in whose streets the dead Carkases of the Witnesses are to lye in a way of open reproach to be gazed upon and shall make a gathering against it as Zach. 14. 2. as to battel so as the event of it shall be the taking of the City and the utter ruine of that part of the visible Church distinguished from the other by the Name of Reformed which when it happens will be a Fourth sign and by conjecture this work is already begun and materials for this Siege are not only in readiness and the Design laid and the Parties agreed that are to undertake it but the open Defiance to the Battel is given and both sides fixed in their resolutions to abide the issue which will not exceed the term of three years and an half before it be fully decided Upon which decision that according to Dan. 2. 43. is to happen between these two parts of the visible Church immediately after they find they cannot pitch upon the way of piecing up together against those that dwell in Heaven though it be both their interests and that they earnestly desire and labour it Nay this Mount of Olives on which this second pair of Witnesses or visible part of the Church Reformed are that shall Zach. 14. 4. cleave also in the middest as not being able to hold longer together
unto the death the seed of the Woman shall at last certainly and fully overcome the seed of the Serpent tread Satan and his kingdom under foot for ever and ever The principal means they shall rely upon for the bringing of this war to a good issue is the way of overcoming by the blood of the Lamb or force of Christs intercession whose blood cries for vengeance against his enemies as also by the word of their Testimony freely and boldly given forth by them in their very sufferings whilst worldly Power stands on the enemies side which shall have its effect upon friends and foes as a savour of Life to the one death to the other a sweet savour to God both ways prospering in the thing whereto he sends it and performing all his pleasure 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. Esay 55. 11. Pursuant to this counsel and decree of God declared Gen. 3. 15. he hath wonderfully and fignally preserved the seed of the Woman unto this very day He hath given them being preservation and protection in the midst of all enemies and in despite of all their rage and opposition He hath carried on his CAUSE and upheld righteousness on the side of his People whatever disguises reproaches or blemishes have been endeavoured to be put upon it by the Devil and his adherents The miraculous preservation of the Womans Seed the Scriptures distribute into three principal Branches which distinguish the whole tract of time allotted to them for their sufferings into three great Periods and seasons wherein the seed of the Woman hath received variation as to the outward form and dispensation of things though in mind principles and spirit they continue still the same in and under all these Changes The first appearance of the seed of the Woman in order to enter the list with the Seed of the Serpent we find in the line of Adam which he begat of Eve the Mother of all living Abel the first Martyr died before he had any issue or means to propagate it God supplied that defect in the line of Seth. In this new line is carried on the decreed enmity between the two seeds till the Flood came and swept away in a manner all mankind from off the face of the earth At that time the first war ended But the foundation and matter of a new war in this kind is contracted into and found even in the family of Noah The first war begun in Adams line and continued in Seths was in a way of God's just judgement upon the whole world brought to an end by the Flood The seed of the Woman was now narrowed and diminished into Noahs person and two of his sons The seed of the Serpent was contracted into a less room yet the other son This Epocha of 1656 years from the Creation to the Flood is in Scripture distinguished as one great period of time and revolution of things in the world relating to this war between the two seeds and the event of it It began in and with the Patriarchs in the person of Abel whom Cain that was of that wicked one flew It continued all along with the Patriarchs and their day on earth who lived every one of them hundreds of years And it had its period in that universal ministry of God's wrath and vengeance upon the whole world which in Scripture is called THE DAY OF THE LORD The second appearance then of the seed of the Woman and seed of the Serpent also we find in Noahs family From the matter and fuel contracted into this narrow compass does the fire of the war between the two seeds break forth a-fresh and another world as it were and state of things diverse from the forme runder the government of the Patriarchs is brought upon the Stage This new and differently stated war arises and is occasioned from the differing minds and principles found in Noah's three sons Sem Ham and Japhet The flood having destroyed all the families of the earth save Noahs onely the Government of the World came hereby to receive a considerable change because the Right of the Empire of the whole world was now by Gods Providence devolved upon the family of Noah and in particular upon himself in person as the right heir of it After him it came to Sem and his line by God's special designation though Japhet were the eldest In Noahs three sons as in type the three sorts of principles and mindes which influence this second world of mankind are described and as I may say personated to the life These three principles distinguish all persons descended of Noah's family throughout the whole world into three sorts of Inhabitants The same method does John by way of allegory hold Rev. 12. 12. calling one sort of them Inhabitants of Heaven or those that dwell and have their conversation in Heaven corresponding in their Principle and way of Life with the Jerusalem that is above Another sort he tearms Inhabitants of the Earth or those that dwell on Earth the tribes of the Earth or citizens of the earthly Jerusalem The third are those that dwell in the Sea or are found in a state of deep darkness and alienation from the Life of God casting up mire and dirt as raging waves of the troubled Sea Esay 57. 20. living in that open heathenisme and prophaness that the greatest part of the world chuse to abide in notwithstanding the offer of Liberty made to them by the ransom paid on their behalf in the blood of the Redeemer 1. The mind that shews it self in the first sort of these Inhabitants is that which was in Sem a holy spiritual mind set upon things above or in heaven at Christs right hand This when it comes to operate is that active living Faith of the new creature which works by love By this Faith or in this spiritual mind and principle of Life and operation Abel offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11. 4. 2. The mind that discovers it self in the second sort of inhabitants those that dwell on Earth citizens of the earthly Jerusalem is that which was in Japhet as a middle wavering state perswadeable either to good or evil either to leave the earth and love of seen things and to ascend and dwell in the tents of Sem in order to be fixed and set on things above or else to cleave unto things seen in affection and desire and thence to descend and draw back to perdition apostatize and lodge in the heathenish principles of Cham and so partake of his curse as well as sin Those that thus decline from the wavering spirit and principles of Japhet to the prophane state of Cham are noted in Scripture to be such as having known the way of righteousness do turn aside from the holy command and so come to have their lot amongst those that are twice dead and pluck'd up by the roots whose latter end is worse than their beginning For upon such a fatal backsliding such
an irrecoverable fall in their own persons they come to be fixed in evil and bound up with the fallen Angels in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day â— Pet. 2. 20. Jude vers 12. and vers 6. This wavering spirit of Japhet considered singly in its own sphear and activity as neither advancing towards the tents of Sem and things above nor declining to the heathenish and prophane state of Cham is that spirit which properly constitutes the Israel after the flesh in distinction from the true Israel of God or Circumcision of the Spirit on the one hand and the heathenish uncircumcised Nations on the other whilst God kept up the war in the line of Abraham or seed of Israel according to the flesh till Christ's incarnation For in Abraham's line deriving from Heber and Shem did God renew and maintain the war with the Seed of the Serpent and continued it till his signal rejection of that line and utter cutting them off from being any more a Nation and People of themselves at the last sacking and destruction of Jerusalem after the death of Christ by the hand of Titus Vespasian 3. The mind that declares it self in the third sort of Inhabitants who dwell in the Sea or in the depth of alienation from the life of God without any sense or feeling of that which is morally and naturally good according to the Law hating and despising God's image in any kind where-ever it shines forth is that which was in Cham. For this was he cursed and judicially fixed in his bondage as a servant of sin resembled by that servant under the Mosaical dispensation who for refusing his freedom when offered was bored thorow his ear in token of his perpetual servitude Exod. 21. 6. 1. The first sort of these Inhabitants are heavenly having a mind and principles fix'd in that obedience of Faith which is acceptable and by entring into God's Rest through Faith do become unmovable in the right way of working Righteousness wherein they attain the end of their hope that is the salvation of their souls 2. The second are earthly unfixed either in good or evil wavering between both having a mind sometimes serving the Law of God and sometimes the law of sin These however they may draw near to God with their words and tongue their heart is alienated and at a distance from him at least may be for ought they know notwithstanding the form of godliness they live in For they are not able to make a true and certain judgment of themselves till they partake of that Anointing from above that can teach them all things This is that only that will enable them to keep the word of Christ's patience in the day of their tryal Without this Grace extended to them and possessed by them they will become Apostates forget they have been washed from their old sins and will shew themselves at last the most hardned and bitter resisters of the holy Ghost and Power of Godliness 3. The third are like the Sea foaming out their own filth and they are constant and fixed therein having minds and consciences seard and made harder than the nether milstone in works of darkness Being past feeling they have sold themselves to work wickedness Peradventure sometime they may be made a little sensible of the sting and penalties of the Law so as to make some slender acknowledgments and feigned professions of obedience and subjection thereunto the Devils also believe and tremble but no hearty or sincere repentance from dead works or pure obedience of love springing from the spirit of Adoption and appearing in a steady amendment of life is to be found in them Yea they are by God himself judicially hardned and unchangeably fastned in their own chosen wayes of darkness They give themselves up to work all uncleanness with greediness and God gives them up to vile affections to take their course and fill up the measure of their abominations till he see time to strike them once for all The first and last of the above-named minds or principles are the two extreams in the one or other of which the middle or second sort of Inhabitants that are in the wavering changeable contending state with whom God is striving by his Spirit will come at last to be unchangeably fixed The perfect and righteous state which Man was at first created in was this middle wavering and unfixed state of perfection which was at first and upon renewal thereof is again capable to be guided by the Spirit of God through Faith into a higher and better or to be tempted and seduced by Satan into a lower and far worse The sinful state likewise into which mankind was plunged by the first transgression and fall of Man is not fixed or made immutable and desperate until a new proof and tryal be made of all men In order to this by vertue of the Blood of the Redeemer and through observation of the Rules appointed by God for recovery out of the Fall a restitution to the rectified Principles and Righteousness of our first Creation is in Christ most certainly attainable by every sinner without exception For by Christ's Blood there is remission to be had for all sins past and a new tryal is propounded and set before every one for time to come upon the terms and according to the tenor of God's conditional or absolute Covenant Hence it is the War arises and the Enmity is set or comes to be fixed between the two seeds each serving as it were for the proof and tryal of the unmovableness of one another either in good or evil Through this was occasioned the quarrel between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent growing up out of Noah's family The usurpation of the universal Government of the World in favour and assistance of the Serpent's seed was attempted and pursued by Nimrod and his successors Afterwards it came into Nebuchadnezzar's hands and by Daniel's interpretation of that prophetical Image of worldly Monarchy that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream the continuance thereof in his line and three other successive branches of Universal Monarchy in the lines of the Medes and Persians Grecians and then Romans was foretold All these have been the inheritors of Cham's spirit upholding a heathenish state of Idolatry Ignorance and Prophaness against the Kingdom and Obedience of Christ kept up and witnessed unto all along in and by the line and seed of Abraham from Sem downward to the last sack and utter ruine of the Temple and City of Jerusalem under the Romans The chief memorables in this space of time that concern the opposit interest to these worldly Monarchies were the eminent Call of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the Faith the giving of the Law the building and rebuilding of the Temple the long continuing of the Prophetical Office in the Jewish Church Christ's Incarnation Ministry Death and Resurrection About forty years after the Resurrection
and way answer but to the outward Court thereof and the Worship appertaining thereunto The former have the true inward Circumcision of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God The latter are those who at best have but the Circumcision of the heart in the letter which labours to shew it self in such outward Circumcision of language and practice as may serve to keep up a shew or form of Godliness in the sight and to the well-pleasing of man whilst they are at an utter distance even in their hearts from the very life and power of Godliness that springs up from the new nature that is found in the true Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and answer to the inward Court Paul takes notice of this in his time Gal. 4. where he distinguishes between an earthly Jerusalem that is in bondage with her Children under the Covenant of Works or Dominion of the Law and a Jerusalem above which is free and is the Mother of all that Seed of Abraham who are Heirs according to the Promise These are described Rev. 12. by the Woman clothed with the Sun that hath the Moon under her feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars This figurative description shewes the Glory of the City Jerusalem as it is above inward and in spirit who with her Children is in freedom under the Covenant and Dominion of Grace The same is also signified by the inward Court appointed to be measured by the Reed of God in distinction from the outward Court which is not measured but abandoned and given up as it were to the power of the Gentiles to be by them troden under foot and defiled 2. In this same space of time falls out the impregnating of the Woman or her growing Great ready to be delivered of a Man-child The principal care of the Apostles and other Teachers who succeeded in their Spirit in the Primitive Church described under the representation of the seven Churches of Asia and the Angels or Officers appertaining to them was to be doing what had the most conducible tendency to the hastening and forwarding this birth of the Man-child which the Dragon opposed diligently watch'd to hinder resist and if possible to devour as soon as born 3. The seven-headed Dragon's lying in wait and managing the battel against Michael and his Angels about the aforesaid birth must needs contemporize with the two fore-mentioned Particulars All the three do therefore fill up the first space of time or age succeeding the Apostles measured out by what is contained in the six first Seals and was fore told to John as that which should happen both to the Church and World until the Womans flight from the Dragon after this great battel in Heaven and retiring into the Wilderness there to be nourished of God her appointed time These three are the immediate Antecedents of those things which have been shewed to contemporize under the seventh Seal and six Trumpets that is to say the distinguishing between the inward and outward Court with the Worship and Service appertaining unto each Secondly The impregnating of the Woman And then Thirdly The battel hereupon arising in Heaven or within the Primitive Church and continuing a long time till at length the Man-child comes to be born Then the Dragon loses his credit and authority in the Church His subtilty in accusing and laying false imputation on the Brethren the truly pure and spiritual part of the Church is detected Hereupon he is cast out into the Earth confined as it were to the outward Court and the Worshippers and Service belonging to it as the only matter for him to work upon for the increase of his Kingdom by the number of Hypocrites and Apostates drawn by him out of the true Church They were in truth never of it though for a while they were in it At length they find it their interest to make a Separation from it being sensual and not having the Spirit they can no longer endure those that have it and that shine forth daily more and more in the Life and Testimony thereof The old Dragon became hereby necessitated to manage and prosecute the War with the earthly Weapons only of worldly Power and Government in a way of outward force and compulsion exercised by the power of humane Laws and of the civil Sword This Power and Sword the corrupt sensual and malignant Church founded and consisting in the worshippers and service of the outward Court getting into their hands or engaging it on their side by mingling Interest with worldly Governours committed Whoredom like Tyre with all the Kingdoms of the VVorld upon the face of the Earth Isa 23. 17. Yea this Beast with two horns so influenced encouraged and back'd the ten horn'd Beast that he became thereby fixed and engaged in his Mind as well as Power to continue and carry on the War forty and two months longer against the Woman and her Seed and to blaspheme God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Thus in brief Heads have we seen how the two first great Sections or Divisions of time in the third Age are filled up to wit the space from John's receiving the Prophecy of them in the Isle of Patmos to the end of the first battel or war made in Heaven and as the issue of that the catching up of the Man-child unto God and to his Throne and the Womans actual flight into the VVilderness and from thence to the rising of the VVitnesses which puts a period to the suffering season alloted to their Prophesying in Sack-cloth And as to the third and last Section of time it is that which is measured out by the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and the pouring out of the seven Vials which begins with the beginning of that Trumpet and continues till the Whore be judged Babylon sunk and the whole Kingdom of the Beast for ever ruined and destroyed This makes way for the marriage of the Lamb to be celebrated here on Earth and so for the coming on of the Kingdom of Christ into the actual exercise of a visible ruling Power and universal Empire over the whole VVorld for a thousand years Having thus had a view of the distinct periods of time together with the matter of the Prophesies which were to be fulfilled in and under each of these distinct Revolutions it will yet much prepare and help our understandings rightly to discern and look into the Mysteries of this most excellent Book if once we can but arrive at a satisfactory opening and interpreting at least in some chief particulars the things which are signified under many of the Figures and Allegorical Expressions made use of throughout the whole Prophecy For Example Let us consider these The seven Churches and the Angels of them The Throne in Heaven The sealed Book The Woman The Dragon and his Angels Michael and his Angels The Man-child The throne and seat of the Dragon's
or Priests with Christ or both that is joynt or co-heirs with Christ in the dignity and perfection of his Manhead in one or both of these Considerations of it This is intimated Isa 43. 10. Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant Christ whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me or be one in Judgment and Will with me and understand that I am he Before me there was no God formed nor shall be after me And they are called Witnesses not only because they know and believe him and are one in Spirit with him as he is a glorified earthly man and a man also that is Michael God's fellow but as they Prophesie in Sack-cloth or in a suffering state not loving their lives unto the death rather then cease to be Witnesses and to bear their testimony to the Truth when called thereunto under the greatest contradiction of sinners 9. By the Woman chap. 12. clothed with the Sun c. who being with Child cried travelling in birth with a Man-child and pained to be delivered is meant the true Sarah or spiritual Womb of Christ's dead body Rom. 7. 4. which lawfully discharges us from the Covenant of the Law or obligation to act singly by the activity it gives that we should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we may bring forth fruit unto God as quicken'd into a life and activity much more excellent There is therefore set before the eyes of our Faith the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in-Christ Jesus risen from the dead for us hence-forward to be conformed and live unto as that birth of manly perfection which shines forth in him who was crucified indeed in weakness but was raised in power or a man of Power in whose hands all Power in Heaven and Earth is intrusted And those who become one in conjunction of Spirit with him by the new and everlasting Covenant are with him caught up to the Throne of God in the one or other capacity before intimated of the two sorts of Citizens that by the new birth are members of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of the remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The great Contest and Battel which happened between the Witnesses on the one part comprehended under the name of Michael and his Angels and the Serpent and his brood on the other was as the one were Friends and the other Enemies to the Cross and Death of Christ and as the Judgment Opinions and Practises of the one or other made void or else established and advanced the Mystery and Efficacy of the Cross and the Law of it which those that observe and follow peace will be upon them as on all the Israel of God In this Quarrel the Witnesses do fight under the protection and blessing of Michael their Head as the other do under the support and encouragement of the Old Dragon their Head 10. By the Old Dragon we are to understand the Spirit that rules in the Children of disobedience who is for the present Head and chief Ruler over the World as managing the universal Scepter thereof by Christ's permission The Ensigns and Characters of this Empire according to Scripture phrase is seven heads and ten horns intimating the nature as well as perfection and universality of that worldly Power which is exercised by the Old Dragon in waging war against the Woman and her Seed This War he is capable to manage either as an Angel of Light and a false Prophet in the Church or as an universal Monarch and Governor in the World In the first Capacity as this Dragon transforms himself into an Angel of Light and Minister of Righteousness he works with all Power Signs and lying Wonders As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and Aaron in their Commission so do the Serpent's Seed in Sheep's clothing and Christ's own likeness resist the Witnesses in their Testimony and oppose the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem by pretending a greater Friendship to Christ and conformity to his written Law in all their words and actions than the true Seed of the Woman having indeed the form of Godliness but denying the Power and Spirit thereof After this manner did the Dragon and his Angels in the Primitive Church fight with Michael and his Angels to prevent the birth of the Man-child and to keep up the Credit and Authority of the Law and their following after Righteousness in the Principles and upon the terms of the first Covenant in opposition to the Ministry of the Spirit according to the Promise and Tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant This battel continued in the Primitive Church about four hundred years and came at last to this issue Satan was cast down out of Heaven upon an evident discovery of his deceitful workings and lying wonders in the Teachings and Inspirations which came out of his mouth as a false Spirit and Prophet so that he was not able singly this way to bear up any longer against the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit of Truth in the mouth of the Saints but found himself necessitated to resort to his earthly and worldly Weapons the Power of the Civil Sword that so joyning both his Interests together that of the Magistrate and false Prophet he might grow up into such a formidible posture as is mentioned Chap. 13. 4. where it is said Who is like unto the BEAST or able to make War with him This posture the Apostle John beheld the Dragon putting himself into when the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arose out of the Sea and the two-horned Beast out of the Earth Both of these together do become the Seat or Throne to which the Dragon gave up his Power and Authority The first of these two Beasts receives him as the old unclean prophane heathenish Spirit they that are meant by that Beast are still the same in Principles as before only outwardly baptized into the name of the Christian Profession or Religion when Christian Religion became the Religion of the Roman Empire Thus was that Beast healed of its former Wound when Paganism was destroyed and pull'd down And because the bare name of Christian Religion or out-side Profession thereof without something of real Reformation and Power of inward Principles was not of credit or authority enough to advance Antichrist's Kingdom therefore the Ministry of the Law or first Covenant even the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh as it is capable to serve the Serpents Seed for a cover and vail of their enmity against the Cross of Christ and Power of his Resurrection doth spring up over the head as it were of the first Beast This second Beast or branch of Antichrist's Subjects and Kingdom with two horns like the Lamb but speaking as the Dragon chuses rather to joyn Interest with the first Beast than to suffer the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem to come out
of their Wilderness-condition Yet this earth or miry clay cannot when all 's done cleave heartily and thorowly to the heathenish prophane Spirit of the first Beast but at last is preyed upon by it This Earthly Jerusalem is unexpectedly surprized and overflowed as with a flood by that prophane Interest it ventured to call to its assistance against the true Seed of the Woman in which respect it is said that the Earth helps the Woman the wrath of the prophane party of Antichrist's Kingdom or of the ten-horned Beast being chiefly spent and poured out upon that Professing Party that make up the second or two-horned Beast 11. By the Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea chap. 12. 12. are meant First The Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem who are under Grace Secondly The Citizens of the earthly Jerusalem who are under the dominion and curse of the Law And Thirdly The prophane Party who live under sin moving therein as in their Element past feeling by reason of the blindness and hardness of their hearts This state of Sin is nevertheless not unchangeable nor those that are Captives under it in a condition irrecoverable for Christ died to redeem men out of it 12. By the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arising out of the Sea is to be understood the Empire or Governing Power of the World in whose hands soever it be found as it is made the Seat and Throne of Satan and promotes the Interest of the Devils Kingdom in corruption of manners and prophaness even by the countenance of humane Laws or at least in the execution of them 13. By the two-horned Beast arising out of the Earth we are to understand the Usurpation of the Prophetical Office of Christ by a false Spirit or the said Office as deceitfully executed in a private Spirit of self-byassed Reason in disjunction from the Spirit of the true Head undertaking to counsel and lead men in the interpretation of the written Word or other evident signification of God's Will This once joyned with worldly Government and Power made its vassal and ridden by it is that Spirit and Principle for promoting of worldly Religion which is founded in and supported by humane Laws under the Name and Form of Christianity The two-horned Beast and the false Prophet are therefore the same as by comparing chap. 13. vers 14. with vers 20. of chap. 19. is most clear And the ten-horned Beast is wont also to be called the Image of the Beast where ever therefore the Beast and the false Prophet are mentioned together as they are three times there by the name of the Beast is meant no other but the ten-horned Beast as by the false Prophet the two-horn'd Contrarily where with the Beast we find coupled the Image of the Beast as chap. 14. vers 9 11. chap. 15. vers 2. chap. 16. vers 2. chap. 19. vers 20. chap. 20. vers 4. there by Beast is to be understood the false Prophet and by his Image the seven-headed and ten-horn'd Beast as restored For this Beast seeing he acknowledgeth the false Prophet as his Restorer and suffereth himself to be guided by him as his supream Lord chap. 13. vers 12 14 15. he is not without cause called his Image not as representing or bearing the similitude of the two-horn'd Beast but he is the Image which the two-horn'd Beast speaking like the Dragon did restore and which he challengeth for his own To justifie this that very Image of the Beast which the false Prophet did give life unto did cause that whosoever would not worship the Image of the Beast should be slain To conclude of the self-same is the Image of the Beast and the Name or Number said to be chap. 15. 2. The Name and Number seem not to be called the Name and Number of any other Beast than of the two-horn'd as of the principal Founder and Lord. 14. The Number of the Name of the Beast being said to be the Number of a man signifies that it is the sensual part of man's Wisdom or Reason become devilish by joyning in combination with Satan in his revolt from his true Head and in exercising enmity against all Righteousness upon one account or other This sensual part of man's Wisdom savours and minds Earthly or seen things and delights in corporeal fleshly objects whether actually corrupt or only corruptible This is the Wisdom that is prevalent with the generality of men in the World according to the Principles of which the Empire and Government of the World is managed and the judgment and interpretation of the very Law and Word of God is made for the Rule in matters of Faith and Worship This Wisdom is in its best estate unstable and unfixed so as from the top and height of its honour there is suddenly a being made like the Beast that perishes and so a falling short of the true Rest This was the case of the first Adam who was created on the sixt day and whose unstable perfection is therefore numbered by six thrice repeated This sensual part of man's Wisdom is the executing or performing Power of the Soul in reference to the dictates and enlightnings that declare themselves in the intellectual and angelical part of the mind which many times serves and approves the Law of God whilst the sensual part serves and obeyes sin and as with a Law of common consent from the Members opposes and resists the good and right Rule which shines forth in man's intellect and which we call sound or right Reason But as this sensual part in its movings and actings holds agreement and is in conjunction with the intellectual part as its Ruler and Guide following the dictates thereof so far the actings thereof are sound and right holding conformity to the Law of God Thus even the sensual part as subject to the right dictates of the intellectual is it self a Rule unto humane action and is the principle and foundation of righteous Magistratical Government amongst men Now when this Principle in Magistrates ceases to be any longer found in a state of down-right Paganism and comes to be healed and restored out of darkness and prophaness by receiving of the Scriptures or written Word of God opened and interpreted by such as pretend to be commissioned and gifted for that purpose unto which it owes its healing and restoration it doth by way of acknowledgement receive and set up that prophetical Office in an administration countenanced by humane Laws and the Magistrates Power Where-ever this kind of Magistracy is in both the branches of it both Civil and Ecclesiastical setting up for themselves and their own Interests in their own wills in disjunction from Christ and his Spirit the true Head and in opposition to the Remnant of the Womans Seed and their testimony in word and action there is the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast and Antichrist leading the People over whom it is exercised into servitude both of Soul
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us
Whether we be able to drink of the Cup he drank of and be baptized with the Baptism he was baptized with Was it not to intimate That if we die with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him and have it granted to us to sit down with him on the Throne of his Glory our very Enemies beholding What would it be less even in this world if he should but please to cause upon this occasion of our Suffering that the Spirit of God and of Glory should rest upon us and bring forth his Kingdom within us in Power giving us that Mouth and Wisdom that will make us mighty in word and deed that Faith to which all things are possible that Spirit of Supplication and Prayer that he will alwayes hear and immediately answer God's Arm is not shortned doubtess great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ to be admired in them If we come not to live here in the actual fruition and full accomplishment of them as they will be experienced by Believers even on this side the death or full change of their mortal body yet if we die in the certain fore-sight and embracing of them by Faith this will be no small blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his Work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is exposing to the Light His Sons must be manifested and evidently distinguished from those who say they are such and are not There is a glory to be revealed in them unto which their Suffering is made the needful Preparation and this is called the Redemption of the body In that day the tabernacling of God in men shall be visible Their very bodies shall be the Temple of the Holy Ghost In them as his Sanctuary will God dwell for evermore whence shall be given forth such visible signs of his extraordinary Presence as shall render it past dispute to the sight of every man that God is in them and with them of a Truth This state of entire resignedness and subjection of our bodies to our Spirits and of our Spirits unto Christ the Father of them shall certainly be brought to the view of the whole World The eyes of those that see them shall acknowledge them and the ears that hear them shall bear witness to them that they are the Seed and Off-spring which the Lord hath blessed Our body thus considered as capable of such advance and honour is not meerly the outward case or shell that must return to dust but includes also the bodily organical state of Life or that souly animal Life which the Spirit of man exercises in conjunction with his mortal body In this kind of Life it is we see hear and speak have the exercise of our Senses after a distinct manner from Angels and intellectual Substances in a way of operation inferiour to theirs proper and peculiar to the rational Soul as needing and using the earthly Organs or Instruments of the mortal body There is also in man that which is peculiarly called Mind or Spirit in distinction from his Soul or from the souly Life and activity of the same Spirit in and by its earthly body 1 Thess 5. 23. The Spirit or Mind of man as distinguished from that life and operation it performs in the mortal body is capable even while in the body to be awakened by the Father of Spirits and come forth in a superiour way even of natural life received by man in his first creation to act as out of the body or without the use of bodily organs as an equal or associate to the very Angels Now because the bodily and inferiour powers of our mind are the instruments of that converse we are subjected to in these dayes of our vanity so that if we will be sociable it must be by the use thereof the Apostle James comprehends all the action of these inferiour powers by the sensible organs we make use of in the exercise thereof under the name of the tongue when he saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body To bridle and regulate the tongue order all the language action and expression of the animal powers aright is to bridle the whole body under the government or ruling authority of the Mind or Spirit considered in its superiour and angelical kind of life and acting as out of the body or above and without the use of bodily organs The Mind or Spirit of man thus considered is as the Pilot that turns the Ship about whithersoever he listeth If it well and truly exercise its governing power it causes the animal life in all the operations and affections thereof to obey its dictates and commands however fiercely driven by contrary Winds false Doctrine any corrupting violent influences of Devils or men upon it and fetches it off from whatever tumultuous disorder it s own sensual lusts and passions are ready to run it into Jam. 3. 2 5. To be partaker of the Redemption of the body is to be made this perfect man which is taught so to live and act from right spiritual Principles as not to offend in word through the Power actually conferred on him and exercised by him for the bridling of the whole body in the sence above declared and for the keeping it in subjection to the Spirit or angelical part in him in righteousness and true holiness This taming of the tongue or subduing of the bodily part in us to the spiritual and intellectual is a work of no small difficulty a thing that is not to be purchased but at a dear rate It may cost us all that we have and no ill bargain neither since by our words it is that we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned For until we have brought under our body and reduced it into a fixed subjection and entire resignation to our Spirits let us boast never so much that which is perfect is not yet come even that perfection which in a very eminent degree shall be experienced by the Saints here on Earth on this side the grave and during their continuance in the mortal body This for ought I can discern will be the product of the present sharp and fiery Tryals that God hath brought upon his People all the World over After they have suffered a while and the same Afflictions have been accomplished in the rest of their Brethren that are in the World they may so far have the work of Patience perfected in them as in this sense to become perfect and entire wanting nothing and to shine forth as so many bright morning stars and fore-running signs of the near approach of the brightness of the Day of Christ's second coming This God hath set before the eye of my