persecuted in the foregoing age and under the profession of those words and practises have hid their spirit of persecution There is a remnant only among Professors to be saved the generallity of them have still been persecuters creeping into the form getting that for a cover upon their backs and then fighting against the life and power O wait on the Lord in his fear that ye may be found worthy to know the persecuted truth on the one hand and the persecuting spirit on the other hand in this day of large profession and also of bitter persecution Now what might be the cause or how could it come to pass that the zealous Worshippers of that age should thus err in their zeal and be thus heady and rash against him whom they looked for to be their Saviour How came they thus to err in vision and stumble in judgment in so weighty a matter Shew unto us the cause that we may see whether the same cause be not in us for undoubtedly if it be it will produce the same effect and so we may ignorantly draw upon our heads the same heavy wrath in our day that they did in their day Answ. The causes were very many I may mention some few of the principal ones which if they be seen into and removed by that power which is able to do it such as are of a more inferiour influence will not be able to stand 1. One cause of their blind zeal and bitterness against Christ was Their ignorance of the Scriptures and of the power of God If they had known the Scriptures in the true light they could not but have known Christ from whom the Scriptures were given forth And if they had known the power of God they could not but have known him who came in the power yea who was the power They had knowledge enough of both these one way that is in the Letter They knew the words of Scripture they could make large expositions of them they knew what was said in Scripture concerning the power of God but they knew not the thing it self and so turned against it and made use of the words which came from it and testified of it against it 2. A second cause of this their sad miscarriage in their zeal was Their putting the Law and Ordinancee and Writings of the Prophets out of their proper place They exceedingly magnified and cryed them up in that carnal way wherein they apprehended and practised them but understood not the right end and use of them And by these means practising the shadows in the carnal mind they lost the substance which the proper use of the shadows was to have pointed them unto 3. Their high conceits of the goodness of their state in relation to God and of the certainty of their knowledge of the truths of God from Moses and the Prophets They were confident that they knew God aright and that he was their father and that they were his children and people And so Christ appearing in a seeming contrariety to these notwithstanding all his powerful preaching and miracles they made no question but they might boldly conclude him not to be of God 4. Christs coming in a way that they looked not for him They had concluded from the Scriptures how Christ must appear and he coming in a far different manner they could not own him but looked upon him as a Deceiver one that pretended to be Christ but was not like to what the Scripture said of Christ So what the Scripture saith of Christs second coming is hid as much from the carnal eye of professors in this age as what was said concerning his first coming was hid from them in their age and he will steal upon them as a Thief at a time and in a way and after a manner that they expect not 5. Which is the main one and the cause of all the former Because they were from the light within from the true light in their own hearts and consciences The light within is the great Ordinance of God and the proper means to give the knowledge of him 2. Cor. 4.6 without which it was never received under any dispensation for the light that shines abroad or from without can alone be known and received by the light that shines within Christ himself opens this in a Parable The light of the body saith he is the eye if therefore thine eye be single clear without beams or moats thy whole body shall be full of light Mat. 6.22 But if that be evil if that be dark if that be closed by the God of the world all Moses words all the Prophets words yea all Christs and his Apostles words cannot give thee light Can I see the light of the Sun Moon or Stars or of any fire or candle if I have not a natural eye and if that natural eye be not open So neither can I see the light of any dispensation of life if I have not an eye within me open wherewith to see it So that that which gives me the sight of the things of God is the eye which God hath given me By that may be read the eternal power and God-head in the creatures in the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as the spirit leads and opens Yea the same spirit that opened to these without Books may again open to any of us without Books at his pleasure and will not be limited to Books and we then may read also as they did even within in the spirit and in the immediate life but without this can none of the things of God be read aright Now the God of this world had blinded this eye in the Jews yea they themselves had stopped their ears and closed their eyes c. they would not see this way they would not be converted and healed this way They would keep up the knowledge which they had gathered from Moses and the Prophets without this eye and with that they would see or not at all Thus being from the light within they could not see the place of life within where life is to be received they could not see the wombe of wisdom which is within and so could not enter into it and be born again And being not born of the wisdome how could they justifie the wisdome being not born of the light how could they know or own Christ whose coming and appearance was in the light For that appearance of Christ the life in that body of flesh could not be discerned by all mens wisdome in the letter the Disciples themselves came not so to know it but my Father which is in Heaven hath revealed it to you And mark it the Disciples who were illiterate and not so knowing of the Scriptures that were written of Christ yet they knew Christ and the Scribes and Pharisees which were very skilful in the letter could not know him What was the reason The reason lay in the difference
THE JEVV OUTWARD BEING A GLASSE FOR THE Professors of this Age Wherein if they read with meekness and in the true light such of them as have not overslipt the day of their visitation may see their own spirits to their own everlasting advantage and comfort by learning subjection to that which hath power in it to destroy this evil spirit in them CONTAINING Some EXCEPTIONS and ARGUMENTS of the Jews against Christs Appearance in that fleshly form of his in their dayes which the present Professors may view and compare with their Exceptions and Arguments against his Appearance in Spirit in this Age that they may see and consider which of them are the more and the more weighty By Isaac Penington the Younger LONDON Printed by G. D. for Lodowick Lloyd and are to be sold at the Sign of the Castle in Cornhill 1659. The PREFACE THE Lord God of infinite goodness who hath ever dearly loved Mankind yet could never so appear to them since the transgression as to be owned by them till the vail was taken from before their hearts Israel in Egypt hearkened not to Moses because of their anguish and bondage When they were led out they were ever and anon murmuring and picking quarrels against him Samuel they rejected as the Lord laies to their charge though they might excuse themselves and say they had just exceptions against his sons Elijah that mighty man of God the great restorer of Israel and pleader against Baal by fire his life was sought for And though there be not a particular record of their usage of the Prophets about those dayes yet in general he complains that they were all slain but himself 1 King 19.10 Micaiah was smote on the cheek and jeered by the false Prophet which smote him and said which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee And he was commanded to be put in prison and fed with bread of affliction and water of affliction Jeremiah was put in the dungeon even to the danger of his life and by those few that were left that seemed singly to enquire by him concerning the will of the Lord Jer. 42.2 3. disdainfully rejected chap. 43.2 What should I spend time in particular instances What Prophet can I except for though all their bad dealings with them are not related in Scripture yet Christ testifies that they did deal badly with them all some of them they stoned some of them they scourged in their Synagogues some of them they killed and crucified and others they persecuted from City to City Yea saith Stephen which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have stain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just one Ye make it such a strange thing that if Christ had been a Prophet ye should not own him why which of the Prophets was owned ye have still some exception or other against us that we are not the Prophets of God and against our message that it is not the mind of God Ye take arguments from one Prophets words to oppose another Prophet with and from one Prophets manner of coming to oppose another Prophets manner of coming If John come neither eating nor drinking ye reject him for his austereness if Christ come both eating and drinking ye reject him for his liberty and freedome in the life Now what is the reason of this Christ himself gives the reason Mat. 11.19 Wisdome is justified of her children Ye are not the children of wisdom ye are not begotten of the life of the spirit of the Prophets and so cannot justifie that spirit Ye have got the Letter of the Prophets â—e are born of that but ye are not born of the life ye are not born of the wisdome And so whoever comes forth in the same birth from the Letter with you him ye can own but if any Prophet come forth with that same spirit him ye cannot own He that is born after the flesh cannot but persecute him that is born after the spirit Jerusalem was all along the persecuter of the Prophets from the beginning to the end And is this nothing to you O ye Professors of this age Search and see who have been the persecuters among you but they who have had the name of the Church and her Prophets Who hath slain the Witnesses The Church of Rome hath slain the Witnesses against her and the Protestants have slain the Witnesses against them About the beginning of these troubles if a man were never so truly zealous yet if he could not conform to the Common-prayer-book and Ceremonies how was he persecuted A Non-conformist a Separatist a Brownist an Anabaptist though owning the same Christ in his very heart and soul yet because his practise was a testimony against the false Church-worship of the common Protestant must be hunted up and down to Courts imprisoned fixed banished And to this day the Lord can bring forth no birth of his Spirit but the zealous Professor hates reviles and seeks to destroy If the Lord lay any Law upon the Conscience if it be not suitable to their apprehensions from the Letter how do they reproach disdain revile and endeavour to render such odious to the Magistrates and to the People But why should we wonder at these things There is no new thing under the Sun The state of the world is just as it alwaies was The power of Truth in every age hath been still opposed by those who cryed up the Form It were a wonder if it should be otherwise I should much more wonder if the Teachers and Professors of this age should own Truth than that they fight against it and persecute it Well friends and brethren be strong in the Lord and faithful to his Truth in the power of his might bear the reproach the afflictions of this age the persecutions of this your day Verily your eyes shall see that there is a reward for the righteous and your hearts shall be satisfied with it when the children of the Kingdome of this age as well as of Christs and all former ages shall be shut out in utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Some Exceptions and Arguments of the Jews against Christ's Appearance c. THE Jews were once the only outward visible People of God who were chosen by God for a peculiar People who had the Promise of and expected the Messiah whose faith and hope of Salvation was in him yea and at that very time they were looking for him yet when he came he was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them and they could by no means receive him They were full of reasonings and doubts and contendings about it but could never with all their wisdom from the Letter determine that that was he Though he lived as never man lived though he spake as never man spake though he did what never man did yet still some exception or other they had from the
another He shewed not respect to Herod the King but spake contemptuously of him as men would account it Go saith he and tell that Fox He did not shew respect to the reverend and grave Doctors of the Law nay nor to the High Priest himself Nay he did not shew respect to his own Disciples but said to Peter when he mildly and affectionately desired his death might be avoided Get thee behind me Satan How harsh and rough a reply might this seem If Peter had erred through his affection and tenderness to his Master a meek spirit would gently have informed him but to call him Devil and say get thee behind me what kind of spirit doth this favour of would that professing Jew say who knoweth not the true meekness but seeks after a fleshly meekness which is a servant to the fleshly wisdome and prudence but not true born Nay he did not speak respectively to his own Mother as mans spirit by its rule of respect would judge and condemn him but said Woman what have I to do with thee John 2.4 and in a manner denied all his relations Mat. 12.48 Lastly to instance no more at his harsh censures of all the Professors of that age which observed the Law of Moses and Israels Statutes with all their laborious and godly Teachers justifying none but himself and what he taught and a few of his followers He told them that they had not the love of God in them John 5.42 Did not this think ye seem to them a very harsh charge And why not the love of God because they did not follow him and his new Doctrine yea would they be ready to say they did love God and kept his Commandements Sabbaths and Ordinances which he transgressed He laid this also to their charge that they did not believe Moses John 5.46 What an unjust charge might this seem when they were so zealous for Moses and their very dislike of him and controversie against him was for the sake of the Law and Ordinances of Moses Another charge he laid to them was that they were not the children of Abraham or of God but of the Devil John 8. ver. 39 42 44. What a rash censorious man might they account him thus to speak of them who were the human seed of Abraham who were such strict observers of Gods Laws and Ordinances which is the property of his children and such enemies to the Devil that they would not be drawn from the truths and way of worship taught by Moses and the Prophets no not by all the Miracles he could work He called them a faithless and perverse Generation Ma 1 t. 17.17 He told them that they did not know God though they said with confidence that he was their God John 12.54 55. How could they bear this They had been studying the law and Prophets and had a great stock of knowledge from thence and were strict and exact in worship some of them as well as Paul might be according to the Law blameless and now to be told they did not know God Nay he that aboundeth in knowledge devotion and worship yet being not in the life and pure Power of the Spirit hath not one dram of the true knowledge He told them that they should dye in their sins John 8.21 O hard word and severe judgement And yet he had told them a little before that he judged no man ver. 15. yea they did think themselves exceedingly wronged by him and thought that no man that had any thing of God in him could speak such things but only one that was an enemy to the people of God and led by the spirit of Satan To this effect they expresse themselves verse 48. of that Chap. Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hath a Devil Yea when Christ charged them with going about to kill him they seemed to themselves so clear in their own consciences that they answered thou hast a Devil who goes about to kill thee John 7.29 how easily might they closeup the controversie and by this very thing conclude him to be a false Prophet He sayes we went about to till him when God knows there was not such a thing in our hearts Can this man be a true Prophet yet Christ knew the prefessing Jews to be the Murtherer and in and for his Religion sake still seeking to slay him And there is no such murtherer of Christ the life upon the earth as the zealous Professor and worshipper out of the life He that is in the life cannot persecute any man he that is out of the life cannot but persecute him that is in the life Hereby the true and false christian may be discrened by the weakest simple and single eye And then for their teachers and expounders of the law how exceeding bitter did be seem against them and how heavy things was he continually laying to their charge He called them blind Guids Hypocrites painted Sepulchres Graves which appears not and pronounced woe upon woe against them Read that one place Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell What speak thus of our zealous Teachers who study the Law are strict in practising of the Ordinances and take such pains to ininstruct us in the mind of God from Moses and the Prophets was such a man as this fit to live Nay and he does not shew a Gospel spirit mark how sharp and bitter his words came from him for indeed a sharper speech with greater vehemency and indignation of spirit can hardly be spoken and they might seem to aggravate this sharp condemnation of his from his own confession he himself had confessed that they sate in Moses chair now he might have shewn some honour to Moses chair and to their office which was of God and doubtless good and not have gone about to make them thus odious in the eyes of the people Nay he himself had bid men do as they said but in ver. 3. of that Chap. Now was it likely that ever men should mind what they said or observe their doctrine when he had thus represented them as oppressors of the conscience ver. 4. as devourers of widdows houses and making long prayers in Hypocrisie ver. 15. as making their proselytes more the children of hell then themselves ver. 15. as neglecters of the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy and Faith ver. 2.3 as appearing righteous to men but full of Hypocrisie and iniquity ver. 28. as of the same generation that killed the Prophets ver. 31.32 as dâ—ceivers as such as led into the ditch and bid men beware of their leaven were not these good kind of incouragements for People to hear them Yea he charged them with shutting up the Kingdome of heaven against men and not going in themselves nor suffering men to enter that were going in ver. 13. How could they observe what they taught without hearing them and would Christ wish any to hear such men as
these Yet for all this without doubt they were not without their justifications against Christ in these respects and also had their charges on the other hand ready against him Now how did they shut up the Kingdome of Heaven against men Did not they teach the Law and direct men to the Ordinances of God and open the Prophets words to them was this shutting up the Kindome of heaven And would not they suffer men to enter Why their work was to win people to their profession they would compass Sea and Land to make a proselyte How stifly might the Jews have pleaded against Christ that he did slander their godly Ministers who were very painful and zealous in opening the Scriptures and teaching the way of God nay he himself could not deny but they taught well for he himself saith whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Mat. 23.3 But mark now that ye may understand the thing it is thus Any teaching or expounding of Scriptures out of the life shuts up the Kingdome for the Life is the Kingdome and words from the life yeild the savour of the Kingdome but words out of it though never so good and true reach not to the life in another but only build up a knowledge in the contrary wisdome and teach to hold the truth in the unrighteousness where Satans Kingdome stands and where he hath the dominion over all that is brought thither And so this kind of teaching and knowledg shuts up the door and way of life and must be lost before the Kingdome can be found They shut up the true Kingdome but they opened another Kingdome they opened the Kingdome another way which was in truth shutting of it and they had Disciples and Children of the Kingdome whom they tickled with the hope of life and fed with promises and comforts but these the Lord would shut out Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out into utter darkness Mat. 8.11 12. This is as true at this day in this present dispensation as it was then in that dispensation though men make it a great accusation against us charging us that we say none are the people of God but our selves and as if all were damned but we These are mens harsh and unsavory expressions we use not to speak after this manner but soberly open the state of the thing as it stands in the truth and as it hath been revealed unto us by him who is true and cannot lie which is thus That through which men are saved is the dispensation of truth in their age The measure of light which God gives forth in every age that is the means and proper way of Salvation in that age and what ever men get or profess of the knowledg of truth declared in former ages yet making use of that to withstand the present dispensation of truth in their age they cannot thereby be saved but may thereby be hardened against that which should save them And this we are assured of from the Lord that as the Jews could not be saved by the Law of Moses making use of it in opposition to the shining of the light of God in the Prophets in their present ages nor afterwards could be saved by magnifiing and observing both the words of Moses and the Prophets and their belief from thence of a Messiah to come making use of these things to oppose that appearance of Christ in the flesh which was the dispensation of their day then No more can any Professors be saved now by belief of a Christ come or any thing which they can learn or practise from the Scriptures making use thereof to oppose the dispensation of this day which dispensation is the immediate and powerful breaking forth of the light of the Spitit in the hearts of Gods people who have earnestly sought and in much sorrow and perplexity of Spirit longed and waited for him after this long dark night of the Antichristian apostacy There remain yet some other exceptions against him about the time of his suffering death with his hard usage which would not wholly be passed over As first his disrespective or irreverend answering of the high Priest as it seemed to them when he asked him of his Doctrine John 18. vers. 19. His answer was that he spake openly in the World not in secret why askest thou me ask them that heard me whereupon one of the Officers struck him saying Answerest thou the high Priest so vers. 22. The plainness and simplicity of the life which bows to God and cannot regard man in the transgression seems rude and unmannerly to the lofty Spirit of the world 2. His silence at the Testimonies brought against him and to the high Priest when he questioned him Mark 14.60 61. Indeed either the speaking or silence in the life is offensive to the carnal professor who knoweth not the Law of the life in this particular but can either speak or be silent according to his own will This is the difference between the true and the false Christian The false Christian his knowledg and Religion stands in his own will in his own understanding he speaks in his own time both which are crucified in him that is born of the Spirit 3. When he did speak the truth of himself the high Priest rent his cloaths and charged him with blasphemy Mat. 26.64 And those that were by fell in with the high Priest and said he was guilty of death vers. 66. Then they spet on his face and buffetted him and smote him and mocked him and blindfolded him and struck him on the face bidding him prophesie who smote him Mat. 26.67 68. and Luke 22.63 64. When they brought him to Pilate they would have Pilate take it for granted that he was an evil doer and worthy of death for when Pilate asked for their accusation against him they answer if he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him up unto thee John 18.29 30. Pilate refusing so to proceed in judgment vers. 31. they begin to bring in their charges we found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King Luke 23.2 Pilate examines him herein but professes he can find no fault in him at all John 18.38 Then the chief Priests accused him of many other things Mark 15.3 and were more fierce saying he stirreth up the people teaching throughout all Jury beginning from Galilee to this place This indeed was his great offence he taught with the authority of the Spirit and not as the Scribes Then Pilate sent him to Herod where the chief Priests and Scribes stood vehemently accusing him who questioned him much but he answered him nothing And Herod with his men of War set him at naught and mocked him and arayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent
him knew the father also So we now witness that the way to know Christ is to know the Spirit and that he that knoweth the Spirit knoweth Christ also with whom Christ is one and from whom he cannot be seperated And as for imputed righteousness it is too pretious a thing to us for to be denyed by us That which we deny is mens putting of it out of its place applying it to them who are not in the true faith and walk not in the true light for in the true light where the fellowship is with the Father and the Son there alone the bloud cleanseth 1 John 1.7 and there alone the righteousness is imputed to him who is cleansed by the bloud in the light and not to him who knows it not And as for inherent righteousness we meddle not with that word but this we say That our life exceedingly lies in feeling the righteousness of Christ wrought and revealed in us and we wish men could come out of the reasoning about it into the feeling of the same thing with us for then we are sure they would not so sharply nor so long contend 3. That we deny the Ordinances and means of Salvation Answ. We deny nothing that the Apostles or Christians formerly practised nor do we deny any thing that any now practise in the light and in the faith but the setting up of such things in the will that we deny or the imitating these without the command of the Spirit that we deny also And this we testifie that Antichrist crept in here and that they are his great cover to keep men from the life and therefore warn men to mind the life and to take heed they be not kept from the substance by the shadows where Antichrist lies lurcking to bewitch from the substance And we are sure that these in Antichrists hands are not the means of Salvation but keep from the sight of the holy City where the life and Salvation is And we read that the outward Court was given to the Gentiles who trod under foot the holy City Revel. 11.2 And we have found by experience that while we our selves were crying up the outward Court we did trample under foot the holy City though we then knew it not Their exceptions against our Persons are that we are ignorant illiterate and also unsetled Persons who have still been seeking up and down c. Answ. What Persons are fittest for God to make use of towards the recovery of his People out of the Apostacy Doth not God chuse that which is weak and mean and contemptible that his glory might the more appear Is not this a more likely way for him to steal upon the World then if he appeared in the wise and learned ones And among whom is his appearing to be expected among those who are setled upon their lees in the Apostacy or among those who have mourned panted and sought to come out of it and could not be setled without his appearing to them and fixing of their feet upon the Rock But have we been unsetled since God hath fastned us on the living Foundation Nay here is no more going out but he that abides faithful remains a pillar in the house of God Men except likewise against our practises as that we shew not respect to persons and that we are not strict after their manner in duties c. Answ. We have heard that voice Fear God and give Glory to him Revel. 14.7 not only as it is written there but in Spirit and where the Lord is exalted the glory of the creature falls read Isa. 2. how all falls in that day that God alone might be exalted And we cannot in this mighty day of the Lord any longer give to man that honour which he hath gathered in the fall and which pleaseth the fallen nature and not that which is borne of God And for duties we have bewailed in the sight of the Lord our former running into duties without his Spirit and we must confess we can only pray in the Spirit sing in the Spirit wait in the Spirit speak in the Spirit as that gives utterance and not of our selves or when we will but as we feel life strength and power from on high leading and assisting us And our religion consists neither in willing nor running but in waiting on the Spirit and power of the Lord to work all in us and for us All these things we look upon to be our duty and practise them It is likewise excepted against us that we do not work Miracles Answ. We point to that which wrought all the outward Miracles formerly and which now worketh great inward Miracles in spirit and we are sure the same power which we have received the Gospel in is of the same healing virtue But that power worketh according to the purpose of its own will and not according to the will of man yea though Paul had the gift of healing yet he left Trophimus at Miletum sick 2 Tim. 4.20 neither was the will or wisdome of man satisfied in all those Miracles which Christ and the Apostles wrought It is enough for us to feel and live in the moving of the power in which we rejoyce and are more satisfied that by it our names are written in the Book of Life then we could by any such outward and visible appearance and manifestation of it But if we did work outward Miracles yet if thou hadst not an inward eye to see them with thou wouldst not be able to distinguish by what power they were wrought To what purpose should I mention any more particulars Is it not enough O fear before the Lord and do not lose the present dispensation of life through mistake or because ye cannot have things suited to your corrupt wills but know the Gospel which is an inward dispensation and doth not consist in outward shadows but in inward virtue life and power for the Kingdome of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit Come to wait for that to feel that to unite there and then we shall not differ about that which is outward But it is Antichrists way by the Magistrates power to force an agreement about the outward which destroyes that tenderness of conscience which prefer vs the inward And now let me put one Question to you Where is the deceit of the ages after Christ to be expected Did the Jews deny Moses and the Prophets Writings or Ordinances nay were they not very zealous for these and were not these their cover under which they persecuted Christ and vented all their malice against him So can it be expected now that the Deceivers of this age should deny the Apostles writings or the practises therein mentioned Or is it not rather to be expected that under their crying up of these they should hide their enmity against the life Search and see hath not every after-age of Professors took up the words and practises of them who were
your former faith ye have some kind of love gentleness and meekness yea but it is but a thing formed by the fleshly wisdome and reasoning but not natural from the living spring not such as ye once felt c. for the true and living eye being shut that which is then best or afterwards attained is held but in the dead part and serves but to feed death 4. The great work and design of the enemy of your Souls is not to steal away the bulk of your knowledg or to draw you from ordinances or duties but to steal the life out of your Spirits This I have experimented from my child-hood I might still have knowledg enough of any kind but that which I wanted was life and I was still sick under all the sorts of knowledge that ever I met with and under all ordinances and duties for want of life The Lord had given my soul a taste of true life whereby I became unsatisfied without it and no manner of knowledge or enjoyment could take me up by the way yea when through extremity I seemed willing to be content with any thing yet still my heart was sick after that one thing which alone could truly ease and satisfie it Now if the enemy can but prevail herein to blind the inward eye and steal away the life within he hath enough Then abound as much as thou wilt in knowledg in zeal in duties in ordinances in reading Scriptures praying meditating c. thou art the surer his hereby and so much the better servant to him for how much the richer thou art in knowledge experiences hopes and assurance without the life and power so much the more acceptable and honourable and useful art thou in his kingdome Therefore see where ye are Is the inward eye open in you do ye know the light within surely he that sees by a light within can hardly speak evil of it or hath the enemy by some of his artifices drawn a vail over that eye wherewith ye once saw in some measure O be not slight in a matter of so great weight O please not your selves with the eye of the perishing wisdome with deaths eye and with deaths knowledge of Scriptures and of the Son of God which speaks great words of the fame of true wisdome but is a stranger and enemy to the thing O life is pretious eternal life is pretious To have the word of God abiding in the heart and to feel the true light giving the true life who can set a value on this Ah do not loose your Souls for a trifle for a little such knowledge of Scriptures as the earthly part can gather This I cannot but exceedingly despise although the Scriptures I truly honour for their testimony of that whereby I live if ye see not the way of life by the inward light which alone can shew it ye loose your Souls If the God of the World hath blinded that eye in you what are all your treasures of wisdome and knowledg What are all your hopes and what will become of you All these sparks of your own kindling from Scripture will not secure you from the bed of sorrow O several sorts of professors why will ye dye with the uncircumcised why will ye go down into the pit among them that know not the Lord But what shall I say to this generation The spiritually-wise foreseeth the storm and hideth himself but the spiritually-foollish run on headily and are punished The cloudes have long been gathering but the sick eye cannot discern the signs and seasons of the times and so because judgment comes not as men expected they grow hard and wear off the the sense wherewith they were somewhat affected at the first threatning of it But assuredly both judgment and mercy hasten and they will come and will not tarry For the same Lord God Almighty which confounded the heathens Babel when their sins and vain confidence was ripe which they built to prevent any future floud For though they once had the true knowledg of God from an inward light Rom. 1.21 yet they soon left that not liking to retain God in their knowledge vers. 28. but running out into imaginations and so building a Babel whereby their foolish hearts became darkned to the light which God had made to shine in them which shewed what might be known of God unto them vers. 19. Yea the Lord God which overthrew the Jews Babel which they had built from their knowledg of the Laws and ordinances of Moses and the Scriptures written to them they running out into imaginations also whereby they likewise thought to prevent the overflowing scourge from coming near them Isa. 28.15 The same God will overthrow the Christians Babel which they have built from the Prophets and Apostles words by their own imaginations and conceivings in the high mindedness out of the fear whereby they think to escape the deluge of eternal wrath for their City also shall be thrown down with violence and shall be found no more at all Revel. 18.21 And the great work oâ— this day is to discover the rottenness of their wall and the untemperedness of the morter wherewith they have dawbed it He that readeth let him understand but the uncircumcised in heart and ears cannot THE END