The Light and Dark sides of GOD Or a plain and brief DISCOURSE OF The light side God Heaven and Angels The dark side Devill Sin and Hell As also of the Resurrection and Scripture All which are set forth in their Severall Natures and Beings according to the spirituality of the Scripture Written by Jacob Bauthumley I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes even so it is thy pleasure The spirituall man judgeth all things and he himself is judged of none LONDON Printed for William Learner at the Black-more in Bishopsgate-streete 1650. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER I Have onely directed my discourse to thee though I know the most unto whose hand it may come cannot read it But that it will be a Barbarian to them and they to It. However if I be beside them yet I am not beside my selfe If I be it is to God The reason why I have not directed it to any particular man or sort of men what ever as is usuall in things of this nature is because I desire not any mans approbation of it as knowing I am not subject to mans judgement neither would I have any man to subject himself to mine neither shall I be ashamed to own what I have writ for the present or to cast it away for the future if God shall lead me thereunto I have cast up my accounts what all will amount unto upon either of the former considerations and so have sweet peace in my spirit in my present thoughts and apprehensions leaving the issue of all to the wise disposing providence All I desire is that those to whom these few lines may come would if they can be so charitable of me as to conceive and judge that I have not writ any thing with any spirit of opposition to any sort of men under what forme of godlinesse soever as knowing that there is a sweet appearance of God in them All. And however my person and parts be meane in the Worlds Eye and so may cast an odium upon the things that I hold forth yet I shall runne the hazard in that kinde and leave the Lord to gaine his own Honour and Glory in it as seeing by sweet experience it is one of his greatest designes in the World to confound the high and mighty things thereof by the most meanâ— and contemptible And so though men be not satisfied yet herein I shall receive sweet content in my own spirit that my worke shall either burne and consume or else abide the fiery tryall of mens indignation And as I shall wish no man to embrace it or condemne me So I shall neither thank them that do the one or condemne them that do the other For the subject matter of the Discourse I must confesse they are things of that nature that are not obvious to every capacity and so lye obnoxious unto their censure and when time was I should have been as ready to have sat in Judgement against the Maintainer of such Principles yet to me they are such as wherein the Mystery of godlynesse mainly consists and so are not to be slighted And however I do not looke that I or any man else shall receive much by this or any other Booke which had almost perswaded me to have been silent in this kind yet was I inwardly enforced thereunto to ease the burden that lay upon my spirit which was one great motive to me to act my part so publickly Besides having converst with men under severall formes and administrations not to speake of those of the inferiour sort as Papists Episcoparians and Presbyterians But those that are got to the highest as Independents an a Anabaptists commonly so called and seriously viewing the carnall apprehention of things in themselves and there mis-apprehenâ—ion of the minde of God held forth by others condemning them as Heriticall and Blasphemous in whom the Mysteryes of the Kingdome are most clearly revealed and they themselves placeing Religion and the Mystery of godlinesse in outward Ordinances and administrations of which they are all but Shaddowes Having a strong conceite of a Creature happynesse and selfe injoyment and so are acted to attaine to the End In all these respects I could not but gratifie them so farre as to set forth what is held out by a certaine Generation of Men and Woemen in the World That if it may be there may be such a favourable opinion of us from them that we neither deny there is a GOD Heaven or Hell Resurrection or Scripture as the World is made to believe we do And I thinke they are all as plainly and briefly made out as they themselves could desire And further I know by experience that there are some with whom my spirit sweetly closed in the Vnity thereof and that travell with me in the same birth yet are not able to bring forth their conceptions for so much as many times the Truth suffers by a weake delivery and for their sakes have I held this Glasse before them that so they may be the better able to describe themselves to others and to help them to bring forth that out of their mouths which perhaps may lye in the bottome of their hearts For these Reasons have I taken the boldnesse to set pen to Paper though otherwise I was unwilling desiring that and no more of others then what I would do to them which is to let every man stand and fall to his own Master One thing I thought fit to premise onely to satisfie any that shall be so weake as to make it a matter of offence to them In that I have not set downe the chapter and verse of many places of Scripture which I do hint upon all along the Discourse To answer them and so to salve up that pretended soare I found things of such a Mysterious nature as they are that while I was looking for them in the Letter of the Scripture I was at a great losse in the present delivery of my selfe of those things which I found spiritually and secretly conveyed to me in the Spirit and so rather then I would loose or let passe what was spiritually discovered in me I was willing to omit the outward viewing of them in a chapter or verse Besides there is nothing laide downe by me by way of Argument or formall dispute which might ingage me to an outward proofe of things as men usually do in matters of controversie and what is positively affirmed there is punctually Scripture for But my designe was mainly to deliver my private Meditations and apprehension of such things which are most carnally conceived of I thought it not therefore necessary to trouble my self or the Reader wiâ—h multiplicity of places of Scripture to prove those things of which I hed so reall and spirituall a Testimony of in my own spirit and which I am confident that the most spirituall man can set
his seale unto And yet I dare affirme to the most rigid spirit that workes in any man at this day against the things asserted That there is not any thing positively affirmed but I could with more ease prove the truth of them by divers Testimonies of Scripture and reason then he could with any truth or Scripture oppose them and any man that shall impartially weigh things may see that there is nothing in the Treatise then the very Language and correspondency of Scripture in the Letter of it will easily speake and sweetly comply with in a spirituall sence So much I thought good to premise by way of Preface to the Discourse All that GOD aimes at in such things as are of this nature is but to make out his owne Honour and Glory before men and to gaine esteeme from them And all I aime at is that we might resolve all the Comforts Glory and future felicity into GOD againe and so to make GOD All and the Creature nothing and if in the Discourse I shall detract or prevaricate from either of the Ends I am much mistaken and shall willingly confesse with that Prophet O Lord thou hast deceived me and I was deceived And so I leave the Discourse and thee together and if you happyly agree it is all the fruire of my labour that I expect to Reape If not I shall willingly waite an opportunity to make you both Friends As I am to every man J. B. THE Light and dark sides OF GOD. Concerning God O God what shall I say thou art when thou canst not be named what shall I speak of thee when in speaking of thee I speak nothing but contradiction For if I say I see thee it is nothing but thy seeing of thy selfe for there is nothing in me capable of seeing thee but thy self If I say I know thee that is no other but the know 〈…〉 thy self for I am rather known of thee then know thee If I say I love thee it is nothing so for there is nothing in me can love thee but thy self and therefore thou dost but love thy self My seeking of thee is no other but thy seeking of thy selfe My delighting enjoying thee is no other but thy delighting in thy selfe and enjoying of thy selfe after a most unconceivable manner If I say I prayse thee blesse or magnifie thee it is no other but thy praysing blessing and magnifying of thy self I say thou art infinite but what that is I cannot tell because I am finite And therefore I am led to believe that whatsoever thy Scripture or any man else speaks of thee it is but thy meer condescention to speak to us in the language of men and so we speak of thee to one another For this I know that whatsoever the Scripture or any man else speakes what thou art I know thou art not that because no man can say what thou art And therefore when the Scripture saith thou art a spirit It is because a spirit is the highest thing or tearme that men can give or apprehend For thou art beyond any expression and therefore thou art pleased to cloathe thy self with such Titles and Expressions of spirit love mercy power strength or whatsoever is amiable or high in esteeme among men to honour thy self and beget an high esteeme and lawfull respect of thy self from men And therefore whatsoever I speak or write of thee it is from thy writing and speaking in me for I really see that thou dost not speek to men but in men because there is nothing in man capable of thy speaking or hearing but thy self onely this man declares outwardly what he hath heard and seen inwardly and yet that outward Declaration is of God also for thou being the life and substance of all Creatures they speak and move yea live in thee and whatever any Creature is it is that as it is in thee And therefore thou art pleased to give thy self that Title I Am. This therefore I can say of thee That thou onely art and there is none beside thee But what thou art I cannot tell Onely this I see that there is nothing hath a Being but thy Being is in it and it is thy Being in it that gives it a Being and so I am ready to say with thy Servant Lord whither shall I go from thy presence for it is thy presence and Being that is the subsistance and Being of all Creatures and things and fills Heaven and Earth and all other places And therefore I cannot as I have carnally conceived and as men generally do that God hath his personall being and presence in one place more then another or that he hath a simple pure glorious and intire being circumscribed or confined in a place above the Starres and Firmament which the men of the World call Heaven And that all Creatures here below are the products of that Being and had their Being of him and yet distinct from him But the spirit in me speakes otherwise and saith I must not ascend up to Heaven to fetch Christ thence nor descend into the depth to fetch him from thence for the Word is even in you which Word is God and God is the Word Nay I see that God is in all Creatures Man and Beast Fish and Fowle and every green thing from the highest Cedar to the Ivey on the wall and that God is the life and being of them all and that God doth really dwell and if you will personally if he may admit so low an expression in them all and hath his Being no where else out of the Creatures Further I see that all the Beings in the World are but that our Being and so he may well be said to be every where as he is and so I cannot exclude him from Man or Beast or any other Creature Every Creature and thing having that Being living in it and there is no difference betwixt Man and Beast but as Man carries a more lively Image of the divine Being then any other Creature For I see the Power Wisdom and Glory of God in one as well as another onely in that Creature called Man God appeares more gloriously in then the rest And truly I find by experience the grand reason why I have and many others do now use set times of prayer and run to formall duties and other outward and low services of God the reason hath been and is because men look upon a God as being without them and remote from them at a great distance as if he were locally in Heaven and sitting there onely and would not let down any blessing or good things but by such and such a way and meanes But Lord how carnall was I thus to fancie thee Nay I am confident that there is never a man under the Sun that lookes upon God in such a forme but must be a grosse Idolator and fancie some corporall shape of him though they may call it spiritual Did men see that that God was in
unto it and that we have full and actuall possession of it and so saith the Apostle Our conversation is in Heaven which is nothing but the glorious appearance of God in our spirits when of naturall we are made spirituall we shall see the Scripture speaks of no other Heaven but what is spirituall and not consisting of any corporall or bodily felicity as men conceive God being all the glory and happiness of the creature and so he that believeth hath everlasting life within him and abiding in him because God there gloriously makes out himself to be the Life and happiness To look for a carnall and sensible enjoyment of God distinct from that pure and divine Being of God savours to me of a carnall spirit because it sets up something beside God when there is nothing that lives and is glorious to all eternity but God For as I said before there is nothing in the creature capable of God or to enjoy his glory nor nothing is of God but is God because God cannot be devided nor none can share with him in his Glory he having not given any glory to any creature out of himself but what ever the creature apprehends to be its own glory it is truly and spiritually no other but Gods one Being and glory But the truth is as men fancy a high God though yet very carnally so they fancy a high place for him above the Starrs I know not where herein indeed God condescends to the weaknesse of men in the Scripture to set himself and his glorious presence out to us as if they were properly in one place more then another when as we know a Spirit is not any where confined but the God of Spirits is in all and through you all And so Heaven is his Throne the Earth his Foot-stool That is God is in low and dark appearances as well as in the most glorious God is the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity and not any circumscribed place and so he is in low Spirits And the truth is where God is highest in the Spirit he is so low in that Spirit that they do not desire any glory out of himself but are willing to be nothing that he may be all It is very true that the Scripture saith We looke for new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwells Righteousnesse And truly I find that where God dwells and is come and hath taken men up and wrapt them up into the Spirit there is a new Heaven and a new Earth all the Heaven I look ever to enjoy is to have my earthly and dark apprehensions of God to cease and to live no other life then what Christ spiritually lives in me The Scripture speakes likewise of a Kingdom and a City and Mantions and that Christ went to prepare a place for the Saints all which are true in the Spirit For when God raigns in the Spirit he brings all into subjection under him and so he is King and Kingdom himself and Christ went to prepare and to make out himself in Spirit and so he left the flesh to live in the Spirit and his spirituall coming was much more glorious then his carnall and visible presence with them And the truth is the one was but a predarative and fore-runner of the other so it so it is spiritually true that he that was least in the kingdom of Heaven was greater then John the Baptist where note that those carnall and outward observations of Baptisme and other administrations that John was in they were but the preparatives fore-runners of a more spirituall condition the Kingdom of Heaven not consisting in them And therefore it was reasoned Why do the Disciples of John Fast and Pray Luke 9. and thy Disciples Fast not and Christ gives them the reason It was his presence which is not to be understood of his carnall presence with them but of his spirituall presence which he promised to appear in them and therefore the Baptisme of the Holy Ghost and fire was the substance of which the water Baptisme was but a shadow and so he that was least in the spiritual Kingdom and had a spiritual enjoyment of him was greater then he that was the greatest and most strictest in the Observation of the outward Duties and Ordinances that John was under so that it is plain to me that the spiritual presence of Christ or God in the spirit is the Kingdom of Heaven into which whomsoever is entered he ceases from the outward and formal use of outward Administrations and Ordinances and to sits down spiritually in the Kingdom of the Father and is as the Apostle saith allready set down in the heavenly places and when God thus spiritually appears in you then you will be content with me to sit down and enter with me into an eternall nothingness and be willing to let God advance himself glorifie himself unto all eternity and so cast down your Crownes at his feet in everlasting silence Into which condition when you are brought you shall not need to expect any other Heaven for then shall you enter into that rest wherein you shall cease from that labour and toile of outward and formall duties as seeing God to be that in you which you expected in self If any shall say these things are true but these conditions and this estate is reserved for another life We cannot expect to be perfect here while we are in the flesh I answer that it is true we shall not that is there is nothing of us that is capable of this spirituall enjoyment and therefore we must know that our perfection lies not in any thing that the Creature is but it lies in God and in that respect unless you will say God is not so perfect here as he will be we are as perfect as ever we shall be so that though this spirituall condition be not of us yet it is in us and what Heaven or Estate God will be in when he ceases to live in the flesh I think is as vain for us to imagine as impossible to apprehend Yet if any man can tell me how he was before there was a World I shall with as much ease tell him how he will be when the World ceases to be and however men are so carnal women like that they dream of a Heaven wherein they shall sit one at the Right hand of God and another at the left and hope to have much outward felicity and glory when they have glorified bodies as they imagine yet for my part I look for no such condition and I see nothing in the Scripture to strengthen me in such a conceit For however it speakes of a City that hath twelve gates and streetes paved with Gold and yet I suppose all do but point out the glorious condition that God will appear in upon Earth and therefore I mind that there was a Jerusalem that it is said came down from God out of Heaven In which there
place so they will be sure to make Hell the lowest and therefore being as carnall in the one as the other make it to be the lowest part of the Earth Others because they find a place speaking of the Devill calling him the Prince of the Aire they will make Hell in the Ayre I know not where But as the Devill rules onely in Aierie and light spirits so I look upon this to be a Aierie fancy For as the Devill is and hath his Throne and Seat in every man so is his Hell truly for my part I think they cannot be separated and therefore I conceive any man that is in bondage to his own lust nay further he that is under the Law or in any formal or outward duty is so possessed with a spirit of bondage that he must be so and so do so and so or else he must be damned and in the doing of such and such things he shall be saved this man is in Hell and Hell in him and needes no other Devill to torment him but his own false and carnall apprehension of God for as the spirituall appearance of God doth necessarily and formally make Heaven and cause joy and peace in the spirit So the dark and carnall conceit or knowledge of God must needes cause sorrow and lamentation and makes Hell I do not much wonder at the carnall Papist no more then at the carnall Protestant the one fancying a carnall purgatory the other a carnall Hell And I think the one gets as much money for frighting men with the one and making them believe they can show them the way to avoid it and bring them to Heaven as the other doth in frighting them with purgatory and making the poor people believe they can keep them from that But I let that passe And however the Scripture speaks of Hell and expresses it by fire and brimstone and the worme dying not and many other expressions It speakes as in other cases after the manner of men not that there is such visible and material formes of punishment But that as fire and brimstone are the most fearful things to the nature of man so doth the Scripture set out the miserable and fearfull Estate of a carnall condition and what miseries and torments do accompany such an Estate And what consequences have followed the outward man from being in such darkness and what the absence of God hath caused in the spirit the Scriptures and many daily examples do abundantly testifie whose terrors and distractions in their spirits have been such as have been easeless and remediless and made them willing to become their own Butchers and all this hath been from a misapprehension and confused knowledge of God The truth is I shall speak from my own experience so long as I was in bondage to dayes times and set times that I must pray so often and do so much frequent such Ordinances so long I was in trouble and sorrow for I really saw there was this and that failing and miscarriage in every duty that I suffered torment in my spirit for fear I should never attain my end which was a carnall and sensible enjoyment of some happiness which I called Heaven and when I was inlarged in this and that duty I thought then all was well and that I should go to Heaven And so I was continually suffering the torment of Hell and tossed up and down being condemned of my self And this is all the condemnation that I see is come into the World that men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evill That men live in love the dark and fleshly Being and not in the light in the divine being this is the condemnation not causally but formally And this is that I found til God appeared spiritually and shewed me that he was all the glory and happiness himself and that flesh was nothing and should enjoy nothing and then I could not but cease from my former fleshly actings which caused nothing but fear and trouble and saw God or rather God made out himself in me joy and peace and brought me into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereas I was before in bondage to sin law an accusing Conscience which is Hell And yet I cannot exclude God in all this for if we descend into Hell he is there He is in the dark though we see it not as well as in the light that we see He is in wrath and severity and we are wisht to behold him in both let there be never such confusions of spirit never such terrors and Hell let there be darkness and no light yet there God is there is some glimps of himself in as much as there is a secret going out of the spirit towards God and all the distractions the Creature lies under is because it cannot enjoy the presence love of God yet God is there amidst all that darkness and raignes in the midst of his enemies and so he descends into Hell and returnes with a glorious tryumph rising with abundance of joy and peace in the spirit So that though the Earth be moved and the great mountains which the Creature had made to it self be tumbled up and down and the Creature have no rest but is easeless and restless yet God is there as a Rock unshaken of any storme but is sweetly refreshing and delighting himself with himself and so enters into the strong mans house and disarmes him and bindes him hand and foote and casts him into utter darkness And to summe up all if there be any that think this is not Hell enough to be inwardly and spiritually tormented Let them but consult with those that have been under spirituall desertions as they are called and have cryed out as if their bones had been broken and would have chosen death rather then life and thought they could have indured many burnings to have been rid of such a condition And I think they will tell them there is no other or need be no other Hell and all this comes from a dark and carnall knowledg or rather ignorance of God for certain it is God condemns none But the condemnation is of a mans self and in a mans self If any shall say all this is nothing I care not if this be all the Hell and that it lasts no longer then this life But is there not a Hell hereafter that is the Hell to think of Eternity and that the Creat re shall be everlastingly tormented and indure the wrath of God to all Eternity For answer hereunto I must professe I do not know of any such thing nor do I conceive what should be thus tormented for that which men call a soule I had thought to have made it a particular of the present discourse but I shall referr it to further consideration onely to stay any mans appetite that desires my opinion of it I shall onely give him this morsell to chew upon and that is this I
himself and he uses such expressions as are highest in mens esteem and his commands threatnings and promises admonitions exhortations they are all as men speak to one another for I dare not believe God is this or that or can be named by any title or that he ever threatned any people or Nation or promised any that upon such and such terms they should have this or that or upon neglect of him they should suffer this or that for to me it plainly appears that there is neither wrath or anger love or hatred in God or that God was any thing more or lesse to a people upon their sinning or doing any good For then a thousand absurdities would follow But the truth is because men apprehend anger when they sin and God pleased when they do well therefore men speak as one to another and God so far condescends as to speak to men in their own language But that he is so in himselfe I should think blasphemy to affirme for I am confident there is never an error or tenent in the world as men maintaine but if men take that for Scripture which they call the Bible it doth fully and literally countenance and uphold and I know no other way in the world to uphold the authority of Scripture than to make it spirituall And whereas men speak that we deny Scripture I must confesse for my part tha◠I know no greater door opened to the denying it then for men to presse and urge men to do such and such things because the outward word saith so and so indeed so far I shall deny it as the Letter is inferiour to the Spirit so far I conceive the letter doth vaile and shadow the spirituality of it And if men have the Law in their hearts and be taught of God they need not run so often to a great Bible to relieve themselves in straights and doubts as men generally do never reflecting upon their spirits to see what God speaks there I do not speak it to condemn the practise neither is the fault in the Book but in mens carnall conceits of it and seeing men make an Idoll of it and think the reading and perusing the outward word is enough to cure all their wounds and to resolve their doubts so that as men look upon God outwardly and carnally so do they have recourse to an outward word to strengthen their carnall apprehensions Truly I must confesse ingeniously that as to my own spiritual enjoyment I see nothing of any concernment in it or in looking upon it but onely this I see and so it is some comfort to me to read that God hath discovered himself in others as well as in me and that the spirit speaks the same in me as it did in them But for any thing of God that I look to attaine unto by reading or looking upon it I do not care whether ever I look upon one again or no And yet this is no detracting from the glory or authority of Scripture because the Scripture is within and spirituall and the Law being writ in my spirit I care not much for beholding it in the Letter but as to the ends aforesaid And the truth is it is the Law in the spirit that is the true Bible the other is but a shadow or counterpart of it and therefore I do not expect to be taught by Bibles or Books but by God nay further I do not do any thing or abstain from any thing because the outward letter commands or forbids it but by reason of that commanding power which is God in me and his speaking is the power of God to salvation and it is in that by which I live and by which I act and so the Apostle speaks of the law outward that it was not made for the righteous but for whoremongers and such and such And so I see that if men were acted guided by that inward law of righteousnesse within there need be no laws of men to compel or restrain men and I could wish that such a spirit of righteousnesse would appear that men did not act or do things from externall rules but from an internall law within Again to speak a little further concerning the Scripture men generally speak that we must do nothing but what we have a rule for and are asking what warrant have you to do such a thing shew a rule from Scripture and then we will believe you or else it is but a whimsey and I know not what Truly it is true and I would those that talk most of a rule did see that rule for the safest and prime rule that I know for any man is that pure spirituall law and rule of righteousnesse which is within and so far as any man doth any thing beneath or beyond that so far he doth that which he hath no warrant for but who must judge of this rule whether this or that be according to the mind of God or no To this I answer in the words of Scripture because men will soonest believe me That it is the spirit which searches all things even the deep things of God and there is no knowing the spirit but in its own light which is spiritual therefore I think it not so safe to go to the Bible to see what others 〈◊〉 spoken and writ of the mind of God as to see what God speaks within me and to follow the ducture and leading of it in me I shall sooner and so others shall sooner mis-apprehend the mind of God in other men then in my self and the same law and rule being in me which was in those that writ the Bible and to which internall and spiritual rule within I must take a measure and scantling of all my actions I had rather measure them from or by a rule within then by any outward rule or word whatsoever for the one that is to say the Bible without is but a shadow of that Bible which is within which is the Law spiritual the safest and onely rule If any man shall say that I may be deceived and take that for a discovery of God which is but a fancie of my own Brain I answer I may mis-interpret the outward Scripture and so run as great a hazard that way and as soon fall into errour because it speakes of and to men in variety of Estates and conditions and so if I take that part of it which doth not speak to my condition I shall then make a false construction of it so that I conceive the farest and surest rule to walk by is that law of the spirit and as many as walk according to that spirituall rule peace shall be upon them and on the Israel which is of God but as many as walk according to a rule without them and so look for a God and Scripture without they shall be but at a losse and live in continuall trouble and disquietment and if I may speak my own experience without offence
was no Temple nor needed any Sun or Moon which as I apprehend was but that there should be such glorious and spiritual dispensations and discoveries of God in the Saints and that they should enjoy such a life as that they should not worship in any outward external way or forme And should not need to be taught by men or meanes or of any outward Administrations or Ordinances But that the Lord God and the Lamb should be their light and they should be immediatly taught by him and therefore it is said there was no Temple in it the Lord and the Lamb being the light glory Temple and all which condition is glorious and cannot but be Heaven to him that doth enjoy it and into which I know some are brought and have received the accomplishment of all those promises and Prophesies which are spoken of in Scripture and have received that new name which none know but they that have it And thus have I shewed you Heaven as it appeares in my spirit and for my part I see no otherwise of it however men judge I am willing to let fall any carnall apprehension of a visible or corporeal enjoyment of God or any expectation of a happy condition out of God after this life and dayes are ended being willing to resigne and give up to God what he is in me in flesh that so God may be all and advanced above all in the spirit And for my part I see the Lord so framing my spirit that I am content to be nothing that he may be all though I must confess when I think seriously of it there is nothing so grievous to flesh and blood in me as to think that all the glory and happiness that I expected to have had in a corporal and sensible enjoyment must be terminated in God onely This I am sure of that if there be any such thing I shall have my share among the rest which for the present I think ridiculous to looke for onely this I wait what the Lord will do in my spirit for the present And being sweetly refreshed in the spirituall Disovery of himself in me which is to me Heaven Concerning the Angels FOr the Angels I see the world as much mistaken in them as in the former for I really see that man lives in the Angelicall nature and that the Angels are also Spirituall and in man and herein man is honoured in that God tooke humane nature and not the Angelicall For had he confined his own glory in himself he had missed one of his opportunities of magnifying himself and therefore he took the humane nature and so was God manifest in flesh as well as seen of Angels and as the divine nature is in man so is the Angelicall and as the one acts so doth the other for may we not see the Angels of God ascending and discending in man Are not the motions of mans spirit here and there in a moment cannot man ascend into the hights and discend into the depths Are not the motions of a mans spirit at one end of the World at one time and at another end of it instantly again Doth not God make his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Is not every spirit of illumination and spirituall discovery of God an Angell of God to convey some light and influence to the Creature whence is it that all those sweet and spiritual assistances and consolations are flowing in the spirit but by the power and presence of these Angels It is said the Devill left Christ and Angels came and ministred to him and comforted him In which I really see every spirituall support and comfortable appearance of God is an Angel of God How do the Angels pitch their Tents about them that fear the Lord which is no other but that all providences and passages watch about them and administer comfort unto them I do not as I have conceived that they are created spirituall substances distinct from God and waiting upon God as serving men about their Lord to see what his pleasure is and yet this I know all accidents that are good or evill crosse or pleasing are of God and are his Angels and do his will These are the Angels on which God rides in triumph by which he plagues the World and doth great things in Heaven and Earth and therefore I looke upon every glorious manifestation of the power and wisdom of God to be an Angell when I read of Gods coming with thousands of his Angels It refreshes my spirit to think that there will be times of more pure and spirituall glory manifested Now there is here and there an Angel or spiritual discovery of God then will the world be full of his glory and all flesh shall see the salvation of God I cannot conceive they have any fleshly forme or shape though it is said Lot received two Angels which is spiritually true for there was something more then ordinary of Gods mind discovered to him And when I read of the Angel of the Lord smiting the Campe of the Assyrians that there fell so many thousands in one night I do not believe there was any visible appearance but that there was an extraordinary appearance of Gods power which is called an Angell And so whereever we read of Angels appearing to this or that Servant of God I cannot look upon them otherwise then some more glorious appearance or manifestation of God and his will and pleasure concerning things or persons And whereas the Scripture speaks of good and bad Angels I see onely this in them that the one is pure discovery of God the other the more impure dark for where as man had a glorious enjoyment of God and lived in Gods light when he left that went to live in a self-being out of God There were Angels Hell and his discoveries of God became dark and confused and so brought him into bondage so that the dark and carnall knowing of God is the evill Angel and the glorious and pure manifestation of God is the good Angel So likewise the providences that fall out in the world that tend to the comfort or well-being of Creatures they are the good Angels the crosse providences occurrences that do afflict and grieve a people or person they are the evill Angells or Angels of wrath and displeasure not that they are so indeed but because the Creature doth misapprehend the mind of God in them for all things whether Angels good or evill principalities powers life or death things present or to come are for good to them that are called of God When I read of Michael and his Angels and the Dragon and his Angels fighting against one another I see nothing there but the fleshly and dark apprehensions of God against the pure and spirituall and as Michael overcame the Dragon so the more pure and spiritual dispensations of God shall over-power the dark and carnall and so those Angels of darkness shall
kind of power to restraine a man from evill and so men confound the power and will of God when as indeed they are not distinct in God for Gods power and will are all one his will is his power and his power is his will and by the self same act that he wills things by the selfe same act he doth things and it is our weakenesse otherwise to apprehend for God being one and intire admitting of no distinction or division in himself he admits of no variations but all things are as that supreme will acts and brings them forth And I see according to the Councell of his will they did no more that crucified Christ then they that did imbrace him These things I write not to countenance any unseemly act or evill in any man And I know God being purity it self cannot behold uncleannesse and his Spirit in me doth condemn it wherever I see it and I cannot but reprove it where ever it is found Neither can I so close in society or fellowship with those that are in darkness or walk unbeseemingly not becoming the Gospel and yet I know that if the grace of God appeared in them it would as well teach them to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts as to live righteously and soberly in the World Onely I desire to open the nature of that which we call sin and to make it as spiritually vile as I can For I see my self to have been mistaken and I see others are in sin as well as in that we call grace goodnes For as I have made the formall and outward performance of a Duty the onely thing wherein grace and godliness did consist so have I made the outward doing or not doing of an act to be the sin But I really see that neither the one or the other as an act is either good or evill But as godliness is a mystery and inward and is within us so is sin likewise a mystery and also within us and therefore it is called a mystery of iniquity from whence proceeds murders adulteries and are they not from the lust within The inward lust and acting is the sin which is contrary or below God the outward acting or putting forth of that inward lust is the sin against man and is below a man and whether the thing or sinne be acted outwardly or no there is sin And therefore the spirituality of the Gospel is above the Letter the Letter onely forbiding the outward act of adultery but the spirituality forbids the very lust within and therefore he that looks on a woman with a secret and inward lust hath committed the sin in the Spirit and heart as if he had done the outward act and is in Gods account an adulterer And all the use I can make of the premisses duely considered it rather aggravates the nature of sin then extinuates or lessens it for I can seriously reflect upon my own spirit and see more sin within then all the world can do without I see that I have framed and fancied a God without me and have given him an outward Worship while I have seem'd to be very spirituall and so have been very far from that spirituall worship of him which is like himself and consists onely in Spirit and Truth for what a vaine thing is it to me for a man to put off his Hat or kneele and show an outward reverence to an invisible God and how carnall have I been and men are in setting dayes and times a part to expresse an outward humiliation for an inward and spirituall sacrifice whereas there is no humility but in the Spirit and there is no spirituall exaltation of God but when the Creature ceases from being or doing any thing and makes God All whereas men think to get pardon and peace from God by a self-humiliation prayers and duties and I know not what and so give that to a duty and a prayer which is the onely proper worke of God who subdues our sinnes and pardons them for his own Names sake And so I have done with that which we call sinne which we call a privation of God or the living below God you see we have made it something and nothing in respect of God it is nothing for he knowes no defect neither is he in darknesse but is all glory and light Again it is something in respect of the creature because it is in darknesse and lives not in the light and glory of that God and there is that in the Creature which as a vaile covers and hides the glory of God and so it is sinfull and yet here is God in all this for should the Creature share in the Deity God would not be so glorious and should the Deity partake of the Humanity and be one with it there would be no sin and therefore is God manifest in flesh but not to flesh and therefore doth the Divine Nature and Being live in the Humane but is not the Humane nor is the Humane capable of any conjunction or union with the Divine and therefore the Divine lives in it self and the Humane or fleshly Being lives in it self and as the fleshly Being is below the Divine so men living in it are sinfull and as that acts so they act sin which is all at present I see of that we call Sinne. Concerning Hell HAving spoken of the Devill and Sin Hell must needes follow for no sooner did Man leave to live in the Divine Being and so lived in himself but he was turned out of Paradise to digg for his living and to worke labour and toyle to maintaine a self-Being and to procure a self-happinesse and so presently he came to shame and misery he eating of the forbidden fruite which was his own holinesse righteousnesse all is cursed to him and so the man is in Hell so that our ceasing to live in God and living in the self-Being is the Hell For that Angelicall life in us being vailed and covered we live in the Diabolicall whence it is we are in Hell As soone as man ceast to live in the light but he would be knowing something and doing something so soone did he fall into a Chaos and all was darknesse and so that develish and self nature is in man and he is reserved in chaines of darknesse till the judgement of the great day of Gods appearing in his Spirit and till then he is in Hell untill God Judge and burne up that flesh and carnall knowing of him and reduce him to his first Being to live in God till then he suffers the fire of Hel in himself so that the Hell in a mans selfe and the condemnation is that a man is condemned of himself What adoe there is in the world to find Hell where it is how many have puzled and beat their braines to find it out as if it were a locall place and therefore some because they would make it contrary to Heaven and as they fancie that the highest
proper and peculiar to God for I really see that after God is manifest in flesh and seen of Angels preached in the world and believed in that then he shall after all this be received up into glory and that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God and that nothing lives to all eternity but pure Divine glory I cannot conceive any other resurrection then of carnall to be made spirituall and that is no other then the spirituall appearance of God so that when I would find out what the resurrection is I reflect upon my own spirit and trace the goings of God there and there I can find God rising from one degree of glory to another and changing me into his image by his spirit and so I see how he hath led me from one dispensation to another and from one ordinance to another till at last he appears so spiritually that he over-powers all flesh and formes which I admired in my carnall condition and appears to be that temple glory and light himselfe which I had thought to have had in a sensible and carnall enjoyment hereafter so that I am led to believe that there is no such outward felicity to be enjoyed in this resurrection but that it is God arising in the spirit and shining brighter and brighter till the perfect day making all the creature-apprehensions and knowledge of God to cease and this resurrection I clearly finde in my owne spirit that the most glorious and inlarged parts and abilities in prayer speaking or otherwise in which I have delighted and no question but I did enjoy God in them though in a darke and low estate these I say the glory and beauty of them are all withered and vanished before the bright and glorious appearances of God in the spirit for the Son in me having delivered up his Kingdome and those fleshly and formall manifestations and outward bodily worships ceasing God is all in all so that I can neither in Jerusalem or in the Mount or in any outward form or duty worship God knowing that he is only to be worshipped in spirit truth and that though God was with me in my former carnall and dark condition and did lead me in it gently yet all was but to raise up himselfe and to be that spiritually in me in another way then that which I expected and so of naturall he hath made me spirituall which is the spirituall resurrection that we are speaking of And further I really see that the flesh of man and of all other creatures differ not any thing in the nature of them indeed in respect of the kind and manner some flesh is of men some of Beasts and some of fishes but as flesh none of them are capable of any more glory then one another all being of the same mould and comming to the same end and though the spirit in them or whatsoever is God in them return to their originall which is God and so lives in him again yet the fleshly part returns to dust from whence it came and as the man dies so dies the beast as dies the wise man so dies the foole one end is to them all as Solomon speaks and whereas men imagine that there is a fleshly resurrection and that the same body flesh and bones shall rise and remain a corporall and visible substance how this should be I am sure they do not know themselves for however men speak that the corporall body shall be made a spirituall to me it is ridiculous because the Scripture saith That which is borne of flesh is flesh and can remaine in no other capacity And besides I hope no man will deny that a spirituall thing can be seen of a fleshly or that an externall organ of the body can see an internall and invisible thing the Apostle makes it plaine that the things which are seen are temporall and the things that are not seen are eternall Now how it can stand or consist with reason or Scripture Logick or Rhetorick that men should hold and maintaine that men should visibly see one another in heaven as they call it and know one another and see their visible shape as they lived in on the earth yet they maintaine on the other side this is a spirituall body I cannot see if this be divinity then I am not in the humanity but indeed I am willing to give way to their weaknesse because I have been as childish my selfe only I cannot but take notice of the Babell and confusion that men are in and yet thinke themselves the only Embassadours of peace and as if all knowledge and spirituall learning were confined to them but laying my hand gently on their sore I let them passe and go on to that in hand And whereas the Scripture speaks of a spirituall body I conceived that there is a spirituall body and that this body must be raised which spirituall body I apprehend to be nothing but the divine Being or God in spirit termed a Body for these two reasons as I conceive First because God is the body and substance of all things and so it is said that this God dwelt bodily or substantially in the man Christ he being that person in whose flesh God did more gloriously appear then in any other so he was the most expresse Image oâ— his Fathers person and in this respect God may be termed a spirituall Body though for my part I dare not imagine him to have either person or body Secondly God may be stiled a spirituall body because this body or divine Being is and hath its Being in many Members And so God is stiled the head of the body and Christ is the head of the Church which is his body wherein Ireally apprehend that all the apperances of God in the Saints as they are called all the manifestation of God in flesh or in any fleshly or outward dispensation or form they are but the Carkes and shadow of God who is the body or substance of them all and all these dying and vanishing as they shall God shall onely live and raise himself a spiritual body and therein live to all eternity so that it is spiritually true that the body which is fleshly shall perish and the spirituall body shall be raised as we shall have occasion in the sequel of the discourse to make out but because men are still poring upon a Scripture without them to prove a carnall Resurrection and will believe nothing but what they think the Scripture speaks in the letter though indeed they erre not knowing it or the power of God I shall a little condescend to their weakness in this kind though for my part if there were not a letter in all the Bible to strengthen me in my opinion of the Resurrection I should not much care nor need I the testimony of it as to my self for I have a surer word within to which I take heed yet I say for other mens sakes I shall
when Christ rises we shall be sure to rise with him so that there is a sweet truth in that Scripture where it is said That the day of a mans death is better then the day that a man is borne For better it is for a man to die spiritually then to live naturally And so none of us liveth to himself or dyes to himself but whether we live or dye all is in the Lord and he is glorified in the death as well as in the life for our life is hid with God in Christ as the Apostle saith to the Collossians though we be dead as he saith and nothing appeares of life to our selves or others yet we need not fear for the life is hid with God in Christ And when Christ our life shall appear and so appear as to be our life and happinesse then shall we appear glorious but it is in him when Christ rises so spiritually and gloriously to subdue and destroy the fleshly being which is the death and causes death for no sooner did sin enter but death entered with it then doth Christ the spirituall being and life triumph And then is death swallowed up of life and mortality of immortality That is flesh is swallowed up of spirit and death the fleshly being is swallowed up of life the spirituall being And then shall be brought to passe that saying O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory But thanks to God for it is he that gets the victory again as it is in the naturall so it is in the spirituall This Resurrection is set forth by the resemblance of the graine of Corne and it holds out a lively resemblance of the spirituall life and death and of the spirituall Resurrection of the naturall for as the graine of Corn dyes before it lives and in this death there is life hid so in this spirituall death there is spirituall life though it be hid and lye buried in the grave of earthly and carnall apprehensions as God gives the one a Body and is himself the substance and Body and the life so doth the spirituall Body the inward and spirituall life which is God rise to more glory then ever he did appear in in the earthly and outward forme and as the fleshly appearance dyes and ceases and as in the death there is life so God when he ceases to live in flesh he lives and rises with much more glory in the Spirit And yet it is true till the fleshly and outward form or formall Being suffers the Divine cannot reigne and therefore in the midst of death there is life and God doth but dye in weaknesse to rise in power Not that God is weak but he is buried and hid in the carnall sense and life to rise with more strong and glorious appearances of himself which is the spirituall Resurrection which is further illustrated by the terrestriall Bodies and the heavenly Bodies which doth but further confirm the spirituall rising of Christ For though there be a glory in the terestriall and outward dispensations and manifestations of God in them so when God is pleased to uncloath himself and to let out himself in pure and heavenly dispensations when these come and appear and that God puts on the heavenly clothing then is the corruptible swalled up of the incorruptible For it is true that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God nor corruption put on incorruption but when there shall be a change and of naturall we become spirituall and when the last Trump shall blow that is when God shall gloriously sound forth his one praise nothing but spirituall power appears Then shall the dead hear the voice of the Sonne of God and live and the dark and carnall appearances of God shall give way to the more pure and spirituall and then shall God gloriously triumph over Sin Death and Hell and live without any vaile in his own pure and divine glory The consideration of which is sufficient to perswade me to be stedfast and to abound in the work of the Lord knowing that though my labour be in vaine as to self or flesh yet it is not in vaine in the Lord he being the end and summe of all Thus have I as briefly and plainly as I could gone over the substance of the whole Chapter though much more might be spoken being conscious to my own spirit that I have not hid or concealed any clause which might serve to speak for a carnall Resurrection or for a rising of the body after its dissolution here in any visible form or shape But that as the light is in me so have I manifested it out to others and do onely referre my self for tryall to that light which manifests all things leaving other men to their own darke and carnall apprehensions of a carnall Resurrection and conclude that the Resurrection is from the carnall to the fleshly Christ from Christ living in the flesh to his living in the Spirit which is that I call the Resurrection and if time and mens patience would suffer I could easily prove that whatsoever Christ as man was or did from his Birth to his ascension in his life and death in the flesh they were but all Types and shadowes of what he would be and work in his glorious coming in the Spirit and so they are applyed all along if men wil let the Scripture speak in the very Letter but I let it passe at present And further to gratifie mens weakness I shall proceed to another Scripture which is as carnally urged as the former to prove a carnall Resurrection and that is in Matthew concerning Christs reasoning with the Sadduces they denying the Resurrection And Christ proving it to them by saying That he was the God of the living and not of the dead and so that though Abraham Isaack and Jacob were dead long agoe yet they lived But to open this Scripture we must know what Resurrection the Sadduces denyed and what Resurrection Christ proved I affirm that it was the spiritual Resurrection which they denyed and that appeares plainly by that in the 23 of Acts 8. where it is said that the Sadduces deny the Resurrection or Angell or Spirit but there is no mention of the Resurrection of the Body And so it is clear that Christs argument to them was to prove a spirituall Resurrection and so it holds a full proof of what we affirme and a fâ—ll answer to the Sadduces For God is not the God of the dead but of the living not of flesh but of Spirit And so Abraham Isaack and Jacob. they did really and spiritually live in God though they were dead in the flesh So that I conceive and it is clear to me that a spirituall and Angelical appearance of God is that Resurrection which is held forth and which should be and they are the Sadduces that deny this spirituall Resurrection Another Scripture which is alledged to as little purpose is that in Iob
19. I know my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these eyes I do wonder what a God men fancy to be seen with a fleshly eye I alwayes took God to be a Spirit invisible and that no created fleshly things was able to see him I cannot imagine then how Jobs eyes which were and should be in a visible form and shape should be capable of such a Divine invisible vision But yet if Job was so carnall to conceive that his fleshly eyes should see a spirituall God yet I am not And if any man shall say that Christ hath a Body in heaven which he lived in when he was upon the earth and that may be seen being visible and corporall for that when any man shall prove heaven a locall place and that God the Fathour sits there and receives petitions from his Son Christ as men do visibly here on earth then I shall give him an answer neither have I so learned Christ to make him to consist of flesh and bloud or bodily shape in heaven as men call it for though it be said that Steven saw the heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God yet am I not so carnall to believe That Stevens fleshly eyes might see up above the stars and skies and that the house top might be open where he was and so he bodily saw Christ sitting in a bodily shape at the right hand of God in heaven As a Diuine of Leicestershire did affirm to me in a private conference that he thought it might be so But his divinity being as little as his person I leave him as knowing that the man Christ left his fleshly being to live in the divine which is void of all forme and shape or to be seen visibly by any outward or corporeall substance and that no light can see him but his own and when men live in this light then they will agree with me till then I must leave men to their dark and carnall apprehensions In the meane time I am content to be nothing that God may be all and to let fall my thoughts of any glory or excellency hereafter as a creature as knowing that the fleshly man dies that the spirituall may be raised and that all creature or sensible enjoyment of God shall cease in eternall silence and it is fruit and joy enough in my spirit that God hath so discovered himself in me that I can willingly resolve all my comforts joy and peace into God who is that endlesse and infinite Ocean and rather desire to be comprehended of it then to comprehend it so that by all that hath bin alleadged I cannot see that there is any thing in that called Scripture to prove any fleshly living of the body after this life but that all things and Creatures below God perish and die and God onely lives and rises in more power and glorious appearance then ever be was in when he lived in the flesh which is that resurrection which is spirituall and which we have endeavoured to make out and so I leave it and come to the last Subject of my discourse which is that we call Scriptures and because men are as carnall about that as any of the former and because the ground of all the mistakes in the former is onely the mis-apprehension of the Scripture we shal insist upon that a little the more larger and so conclude Concerning the Scripture IF you take Scripture as it was written by the Prophets and Apostles It is a forme of wholesome words a perfect rule for all outward actions a true Guide for a mans outward conversatition among men The liveliest expression of the mind of God of all other books setting forth all conditions estates and enjoyments of all men in the world it is the word in flesh The word was made flesh it is the highest discovery of God in flesh the truest testimony of God in the world I do verily believe that what pitch soever any man hath or can attain unto but it is able to speak to him in it thus it is in the letter and the out-side of it But if you ask me what I make Scripture I look upon it to be spiritual and so it is the Law written in the heart and so it is spirit and life as Christ saith The words that I speak are spirit and life so that what Christ speaks spiritually that is Scripture and so it is the power of God for take Scripture as it is in the History it hath no more power in the inward man then any other writings of good men nor is it in that sense a discerner of the secrets as it is in the History so it is to be believed above all other writings in the world but as it is a mystery and God being the substance of it so I must believe it as God makes it out in me I must not build my Faith upon it or any saying of it because such and such men writ or speak so and so But from that divine manifestation in my own spirit for the Scripture as it is written outwardly is but an outward witnesse of that which is within and the spirituality of it wherein the life and being of it doth consist is made out by a spiritual discovery I do not go to the letter of Scripture to know the mind of God but I having the mind of God within I am able to see it witnessed and made out in the Letter for if I do a thing lawfull from the Letter yet if I be perswaded in my own spirit I should not do it I sinne Yea further that power and authority which the Scripture hatâ—â— is not because such and such men writ it but from that divine manifestation in them And so indeed if I have the same discovery that they had then I can say it is the word of God otherwise I lie for it is one thing to believe the Scripture because such and such write it as most men do and it is another thing to believe it because God saith so in me and so it is the spirituall speaking of God that is the Scripture and so that is true They that are of God hear Gods Word Now no man can hear God but as God speaks And it is as true that as God speaks spiritually so no man hears him but in a spirituall manner and so we hear Gods word And therefore it is said often in the 1. Rev. He that hath an eare let him hear what the spirit saith to the Churches Which cannot be understood of a carnall eare because every man hath that but as the Spirit speaks spiritually so it is the spirituall eare that hears the Spirit For all the outward speaking or hearing of men or Scripture cannot reach the Spirit Further the Scripture I do apprehend as it is written outwardly is God clothed in fleshly tearmes and expressions and speaks in the language of men as when he speaks of
so long as I lived and looked upon the outward scripture outward commands and duties set times of humiliation prayer I know not what I was always tost to and fro like the waves of the sea But when God appeared and shewed me that there was no scripure God commands worships but what were spirituall like himselfe and within men and what he was the authour and end of and that all things else were but shadowes what sweer peace and comfort I then did and do now enjoy I might tell you if I could for the truth is they are unspeakable and so it is the spirituall discovery of God that is the Scripture I look upon and if so then I must needs inferre that those in whom Christ is spiritually discovered and that live in a spirituall enjoyment of him they must needs be best able to speak the language of the Scripture and to give the sense and meaning of it and are best acquainted with the originall for God being the Authour of it they in whom he is most spiritually discovered must needs know the mind of it and what Scripture is which may exclude all outward parts of learning arts and other qualifications which men boast of for though they may serve to speak scripture outwardly and help to expresse men to one another and to read it in the severall translations of it from one Nation to another yet they all come short of the spirituall discovery of God and so are not essential to the knowledge of him he being onely known and seen in his own light And which may likewise condemne the Romane Clergy I think the English Divines may take their part herein That having attain'd a little skil in the several languages of several countrys and received ordination as they call it they think themselves so invested with power above their brethren that none must be infallible or authentick in the interpretation of Scripture but themselves and men of their order and unlesse they will say themselves that private men as they call them cannot have the same or more spirituall discovery of God then themselves I do wonder that they should so advance themselves and undervalue or despise others But we shall let them passe and return to what we have in hand and we shall see both the Authority and end of Scripture laid down by the Apostle in the 2 of Tim. 3.16 where he saith all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and iâ— profitable to teach c. that the man of God may be made perfect where we see plainly what I have spoken all along That the inspiration which is spiritual and of God is the true proper ground why men are taught and no man can be taught but it must be by a spiritual inspiration or else it is not of God and so the Scripture is not of any private interpretation but holy men speak as they were inspired so that that which gives the rise ground of Scripture is Gods speaking in men or inspiring men and they best know what is Scripture in whom God most powerfully speaks And it is as true that God speaks spiritually in man and not in any audible voice or forme of words for I do not conceive he ever spoke so to any he being void of all shape and form or bodily Organs And when God so speakes that from naturall they are made spiritual then is it indeed they are spiritually taught And to this sweetly falls in that of David thou hast taught me truth in the secret parts then indeed men come to be convinced of their former weak and carnall condition when God spiritually discovers himself in them So that it is not the reading or perusing of the Scripture in the letter of it for so a man may read all his life-time and be never the better that teaches men spiritually But when the Scripture is spiritually made out and interpreted in them then they are taught And then it is that the man of God is made perfect then doth the inward fleshly Being or carnall man appeare dark and carnall and the spirituall or the man of God comes to be perfect and this spirituall man is able to judge all things as the Apostle saith then can he spiritually discern the Scripture in him and so can read it true in the outward letter For I really see that all the knowledge of the Scripture in the letter of it reaches no further but to a historicall and fleshly knowledge of God and indeed to this kind of knowledge which many do boast of the Scripture is very helpfull But he that knows no further then the outward letter knowes but Christ after the flesh And though so I have known Christ Scripture and God yet henceforth know I them so no more they being spirituall Again this I conceive that all the whole story and letter of the Scripture doth but set out and speak but of two estates and conditions of men or in men that is the fleshly Being and the Divine the naturall and the spirituall man And all these are presented to us in their several degrees and actings in each state and personated in severall persons from the beginning to the end of the Bible And so Gain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Jacob and Esau David and Saul and so the good Kings and the bad the good Prophets and the wicked the true Apostles and the false they do but all expresse both Estates and are not so much to be lookt upon in their severall persons but are really fulfilled and appliable to every man in each Estate Degree and Condition whatsoever As to instance it tels us of the Man Christ who lived and died at Jerusalem and that he rose from the dead and ascended and past through all conditions But alas how farre is this from reaching the spirit a man may read it and believe it and yet be never the better do him no more good then any other History which we call prophane But the spirituality and Comfort and that which is spirit and life lies in this to see him found in the spirit to die in him and to rise with him to ascend and sit down with him in the heavenly places being made conformable to him in the spirit to have the everlasting Gospel preacht in the spirit All which the History and Person of Christ and the outward Gospel are but shadows the other is the sealed Book which none can read till God open himself to be the Scripture Then indeed can we understand what Scripture is and then are we guided by that inward life and spirit of truth more then by the outward letter and teachings in the World So that it is not the History of Scripture that is the Scripture or that is the word of God but it is the spiritual speaking of God which is the word of God and is spirit life But some may say doth not the word say Hear and your souls shall live and
grosse and carnall conceit of God But I shall not enter upon any thing controvertall onely I shall give you what is made out in me and I conceive no other what the Scripture holds out in the letter and so it is true that there are three that bear record in Heaven and yet these three but one He doth not speak three persons but three and that thus as farre as I conceive The Father is God from all eternity who 's Being was in himself having all Beings wrapt up in himself This God letting himself and his Being in severall formes of flesh is God the Son For I do not apprehend that God was onely manifest in the flesh of Christ or the man called Christ but that he as really and substantially dwells in the flesh of other men and Creatures as well as in the man Christ though as the Scripture speaks he was the most express Image and that the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt bodily in him that is in respect of manifestation but otherwise I conceive that God who cannot admit of degrees can be said to dwell in him more then another and I might shew that his Being in spirit is much more glorious then his Being in flesh the one being but a shadow and Type of the other But I forbear because it may afford another discourse of it self and returne to what we have in hand and that is that God the Sonne is God manifest in flesh Now that we call Holy Ghost is God living in Spirit and all these are not three distinct Beings onely one Being made out in three severall tearmes To make it a little plainer the Scripture saith God is Love and yet it tells us of a threefold Love The first is Gods Love to us the second is our Love to God the third is our Love to one another Now it is plaine these are not three but one For by the same Love that God loves us by the same Love we love him we love him because he loves us and it is the same Love by which we love one another and therefore the Apostle saith He that loves not his brother loves not God And so we have communion with God when we have communion with one another So that Gods Love to us and our Love to him and to one another are not three loves but one so in like manner Love is the Father this Love manifested in Flesh is the Sonne this Love loving the loved is the Holy Ghost and these three are one The Father is God forming all things the Son is God who is formed and manifested in Flesh the Holy Ghost is God manifesting or revealing the manifested thus the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not three persons but one intire Being made out in severall expressions And thus I have done with this subject concerning God being willing to loose my self in the thoughts of him as knowing that he cannot be known and that all words or expressions of Scripture or man come short of Him and do but confound and darken the glory of that great Creator who hath done all things according to reason and is himself the reason and ground of all things for in him they live and move and have their Being and therefore to Him be the Glory for evermore Concerning Heaven NOw for that which we call Heaven I cannot conceive it any locall place because God is not confined or hath his Being 〈◊〉 station in our setled compasse and therefore I see that true which the Letter speakes The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and so I see Heaven to be there where God displaies his own glory and excellency For Heaven is nothing but God at large or God making out himself in Spirit and Glory And so I really see that then men are in Heaven or Heaven in men when God appeares in his glorious and pure manifestations of himself in Love and Grace in Peace and rest in the Spirit when God shewes himself to be all the happiness comfort and reward and so this Heaven is not outward or a place of any outward or carnall bodily happines as men dream of but it consists in righteousness joy peace in the Holy Ghost all which are spirituall and terminated in God alone I do not as I have carnally conceived that when Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven and heard and saw things unutterable that he was bodily taken up or heard God with an audible voice No but I rather conceive it some extraordinary appearance of God filling the Spirit with glorious amazements and admirations of its own excellency So that when God doth gloriously appeare to the silencing of flesh and over-powering the selfish Being in man and fils the spirit with its own glory then is God and his Heaven come in the spirit and such an estate some may be have bin sensible of that they have so felt the over-powering of God in their spirits that they could not tell whether they were in the body or out of the body as was Pauls condition And this Heaven the Land of Canaan was a lively Type of wherein God after he had by a strong hand brought the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt and through many dangers of the Wildernesse and red Sea God at last brought them to a Land of rest in which this is really made out to me that it is the over-ruling power of God in us that takes us from the Egyptian bondage of self and flesh and through the Wildernesse and Sea much toyling and tossing up and downe in selfe-Workes and hard duties outward and carnall services the Law still beating us to Workes of prayer humiliation making us to make Brick without Straw and setting hard and cruell Task-masters over us so that we may say through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but when Gods power is destroying these enemies of our Peace and brings us into that Land of rest that spirituall Canaan which we speak of then do we cease from these labours But truly this I speake from experience so long as men are under Moses they cannot enjoy neither must they come into this Land And therefore I do not wonder that the Scripture speaks Many shall seek to enter and not be able and straight and rarrow is the gate and few there be that finde it I would not speak to discourage any but I really apprehend the greatest pretenders to Heaven scarce know what it is or will ever enjoy it but shall with Moses onely see it a farre off God not being willing to do any great workes in their spirits because of their unbelief but what happyness and comfort they do enjoy to whom God appeares thus spiritually in none know but themselves This is that heavenly Jerusalem spoken of in the Hebrewes into which the souls of just men made perfect are come into The text doth not say we shall come to it hereafter but that we are come
do wonder how any man can make it to be capable of any torment when as it is well known it came immediately from God and is no other but of God and if I may say further without offence it is God for that which is of God is God because God cannot be divided All men grant it is immortall and came from God pure and undefiled And how then it should be impure I know not for this I really see that though it was infused into the body yet I am sure it was not of the body nor could the flesh be capable of such a thing as we call union with the spirit and so the soule is in the body but is not of the body or the body but really distinct and so it is in flesh but not flesh and so it is God manifest in flesh But not in union or conjunction with flesh but hath a distinct and formall difference both here and hereafter the one returning to nothing the other living to all Eternity And further how this soule as men speak of should be impure and sinfull I know not for how flesh should defile a spirit I cannot Imagine being that I am sure and as every man will grant That no effect can be produced beyond its cause but every effect hath its rise and originall from its proper cause And so hath God laid in nature the body proper to the seed and to every seed it s own body And a man may as well gather Grapes of Thornes and Figs of Thistles as to conceive it can be that a visible or fleshly substance can corrupt a spirituall and invisible substance But then you will say where is the sin all this while you will say then sin is nothing or that there is no sin To which I have partly answered in the foregoing Subject spoken of which because it is so faln in my way I shall speak a little further in answer to you First I shall grant and I think it is no lesse then blasphemy to affirm otherwise that God is not the Authour of sin or that any sin can be in him he being light and in him is no darkness at all and so the soule being of him it must needes be pure and holy not admitting any mixture of flesh or that which we call corrupted nature And yet againe Secondly I cannot conceive there should be sin untill God was pleased to let out himself in flesh But for before he lived in himself and so there could be no sin there being nothing but God Thirdly Inasmuch as this flesh is a vaile or covering wherein this soule or divine Being lives this God soule or divine nature call it what you will the glory and beauty the purity and excellency thereof being darkened and obscured there is the sin For whatever men conceive of things this I really apprehend That that which we call the soule that is as men generally make it The understanding reason judgement will and affections are not positively or actually infected with sin but onely are obscured and cannot be so gloriously manifested by reason of the flesh or fleshly Being and so God tooke flesh upon him and through the vaile that is the flesh did destroy and doth condemn sin in the flesh So that whosoever prays or prophesies with a vaile or covering upon his head Christ which is God in the Spirit such a one dishonoureth his head which is Christ because he suffers something to come betwixt God and him So that by this time I suppose you see what I conceive of sin and where it lies and what I conceive of that we call soul and of the body or fleshly part of man wherein I have been forced to make a little digression because things are mysterious And to come to the point in hand concerning a Hell hereafter what it should be or what should be tormented in it I do not as yet apprehend for the soul came pure and is of the essence of God could not be corrupted and the body not capable of any impressions of God and returns to its first principle of earth so that unlesse you will imagine a Hell in God which you would account Blasphemy to speak I cannot fancy or imagine any such Hell hereafter as men dreame off The truth is there is nothing lives to all eternity but God every thing below God perisheth and comes to nothing and as all things had their subsistance and Being in God before they were ever manifested in the world or Creatures so in the end whatsoever is of God or God in the world at the end of it they shall all be rapt up into God againe And so as God from all eternity lived in himself and all things in him so when he shall cease to live in flesh and creatures he will then live in himself unto all eternity and will gloriously triumph over Sin Hell and death and all Creatures shall give up their Power and Glory unto God backe againe from whence it Originally came and so God shall be All. However if any man can imagine that there will be any dark appearance of God hereafter or unto all eternity then may he conclude a Hell for as sin is the dark appearance of God so is Hell an inseperable companion of it but to imagine the one or the other hereafter or to all eternity would render me in my owne apprehension one of those whose property it is to believe every thing but I know whom I have believed Thus have I done with that part of my discourse which I call the dark side of God which I divide into three parts which we call Devill Sin and Hell In all which I have indeavoured to clear God and to make the Devill and sin as vile as I can but am far short of the one or the other wanting words to express my self in either onely what was upon my spirit thou hast in the Letter Concerning the Resurrection NOw let us come to deliver our selves about that which we call Resurrection and to express it as it is in me I see it also to be spirituall and inward and is also of that which is the inward man For though I know the inward man which is God or the divine Being admits of no degrees either is more or lesse but yet in as much as this God is more gloriously manifested at one time more then another in man Hence it is that we give this Title of resurrection of the Creature after this life is ended But truly for my part I am fully satisfied in my own spirit with those words of Christ where he saith I am the Resurrection and the life and I see it fully made out in me that Christ spiritually is that resurrection which I thought should be of the creature And I cannot tell what in the creature should rise or be capable of such glory and happinesse beside God and so I see that which I did expect to enjoy hereafter onely
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Is not the Scripture and outward letter a meanes to convey the knowledge of God and meanes to ger Faith To which I answer it is true but what living is it to which hearing is annexed If an outward and carnall living and knowing of God then the outward Scripture contributes to it but if it be a spiritual living which is a living in God then that life must be enjoyed by a spirituall hearing for all the outward hearing in the world cannot reach to that so that to me it is plain that then men spiritually live when God spiritually speakes and so this spiritual life is attained by a spirituall speaking of God and when men heare that spiritual speaking then their soules live spiritually in that and so the word of Christ is verefied That 〈◊〉 an lives not by bread onely but by every word which proceedes out of the mouth of God that is it is not any outward or external way or meanes that supports the Spirit but 〈◊〉 is the divine and spiritual food that the divine and spiritual man lives upon and on that he feedes spiritually with 〈…〉 and satisfaction it being sutable to him and 〈…〉 onely blessed that eat bread in the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 for they never hunger or thirst after any externall or outward teaching or speaking of men and so it is true that faith comes by hearing But what do you make of Faith If it be a spiritual thing as it is then it must needes come by a spiritual meanes which is a spiritual hearing and so the following words explain it That hearing comes 〈◊〉 the word of God Now it is apparent that God speakes spiritually and so he is heard and believed spiritually and men cannot heare God speak but it must be by a spiritual hearing sutable to the speaking But men are still objecting and say did not Christ and the Apostles convince men of the truth of things by the Scripture shewing things must needs be so I answer it is true but the reasons plain which was that because men were not able to bear Christs spiritual speaking it being mysticall therefore he speaks to them in parables and in such a way as they could apprehend and so did condescend to their weaknesse and so Christ speakes of himself that he needed not Iohns Testimony he had 〈◊〉 sufficient proofe with himself and needed not any mans Testimony of him And besides as men did hasten their lief of things upon an outward letter therefore Christ the Apostle brought Scripture to prove things that he miâ—â— bear them with their own weapons And so alleadged Scâ—â—ture to the Devill to answer him in his own way Anâ—â— the Apostles brought Scripture to prove a Christ in the fâ—â— which some went about to deny And whereas sâ—â— alleadge that to the Law and the Testimony if any 〈◊〉 speak not according to that it is because there is no 〈◊〉 in him It is also true if any man speak not from that 〈◊〉 tuall Law in himself and hath not the inward Testimonâ—â— the spirit within in such a man there is no truth let speak what he will and this is the grand cause why meâ—â— dispute and jangle about things because men speak not 〈◊〉 the inward experience and spiritual teaching but from 〈◊〉 dition and the outward letter Nay I verily believe moâ—â— the Religion in the world is borne up because others 〈◊〉 held and done so before them and they think it â—â—ffâ—â—â— to walk in an outward conformity in duties and Ordâ—â—ces and never eye the goings of God in their own Spiâ—â—â— But this by the way and all I drive at in this and Iâ—â—â— no body will be offended that I would make Scripture 〈◊〉 is to be spiritual and not subject to the gross and carnaâ—â—â— prehensions and interpretations of any sort of men 〈◊〉 ever neither dô I lessen the Authority of it in so doing 〈◊〉 the reason of all the mistakes in and about the Scripture 〈◊〉 not in the Scripture but in mens carnall apprehensions 〈◊〉 For if men were spiritual they might judge it also 〈◊〉 spiritual as God himself iâ— And I would have men set 〈◊〉 upon a sure foundation which is God and that Divine 〈◊〉 within us which is pure and Divine Scripture FINIS