THE AXE LAID TO THE ROOT OF THE OLD CORRVPT-TREE AND The Spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life among both Papists and Protestants hath arisen and by which it is nourished and fed at this Day In a Distinction between the Faith which is of man and the Faith which is of GOD And in some Assertions concerning true Faith its nature rise c. It s receiving of Christ its abiding and growing in his living Vertue With a warning concerning adding and diminishing from the Scripture in generall and the Prophesies of the Revelation in particular Discovering what it is and the great danger of it with the only way of preservation from it where is added a Short touch about the Use of Means As also a brief History concerning the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles With an Exhortation to the present Age By the movings of the Life in a friend to the Living truth of the most High God but an utter enemy to the spirit of error and blasphemy where ever it is found as well in the strictest of the Protestants as among the grossest of the Papists Isaac Penington the younger LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Lodowick Lloyd at his shop next the Castle in Cornhill 1659. THE PREFACE THere was a glorious day and bright appearance of truth in the times of the Apostles They had the true Comforter who led them into all truth and kept them alive in truly and truth alive in them By this Spirit they as living stones were built up a spirituall house founded upon Sion the holy mount into Jerusalem the holy City which is the church of the living God the pillar and gâ—ound of truth And here they had their conversation in heaven with God the Judge of all with Christ the Mediatour and with the Spirits of â—ust men and the holy Angels which alwayes behold the face of God They lived in the Spirit they walked in the Spirit they prayed in the Spirit they sung in the Spirit they worshipped in the Spirit and in that understanding which the truth had made free and had God dwelling with them and Christ walking in the midst of them and by the presence and power of his life in them were truly dead unto sin and alive unto God they being not strivers against sin with mans legall spirit but by the power of grace which made them more then conquerours through him that loved them This was part of the glory of that state in that day of the Sunshine of the Gospel But behold a thick night of darknesse overspread the beauty of this Some false brethren went out from the true Church into the world getting the Sheeps cloathing making a great outward appearance and drew the world after them yea and some from the very Churches themselves how hard was the Apostle Paul fain to plead with the Corinthians about his own Apostleship and Doctrine that he might preserve that Church from the false Apostles And when they had gathered a sufficient party in the world they made head against the true sheep lambs of Christ fought with them and overcame them And when they had overcome them that had the living testimony of Jesus and the true power and presence of the Spirit among them they set up their own dead form making a cry all over the nations of the earth Revelation is ceased there is no looking now for such an infallible spirit and such immediate teachings as the christians had in the Apostles dayes who had the anointing to teach them all things but they point men to traditions to the church as they call it which title the whore hath engrossed since the dayes of the Apostles or to searchings of the Scriptures and reading expositions upon it and bodies of divinity formed by the understanding part in man to instruct the understading part Thus the whole course of religion and of the knowledge of God came to be out of that Spirit and life wherein it first came forth and wherein it first stood and consisted in doctrines of men and a form of worship and knowledge which the wisdome of man had framed in an imitation of that which formerly stood in the life And now men being gone from the life from the Spirit and his immediate teachings into an outward form of knowledge and worship of God in the wrong nature now Antichrist is got up and the Dragon sits in the Temple appearing there as if he were God giving out laws and ordinances of worship in publique and putting men upon duties and exercises of devotion in private and he is obeyed and bowed down to in the observation of these but the true living God is not known nor his secret still voyce which calls out of these heard because of the great noise which the Dragon makes in his Temple for so it is now he having gained it though it was once Gods about his laws and ordinances of worship which he would have all compelled to and none suffered to testifie against them that they are his and not the Lords Yet it pleased the Lord all the night of this darknesse to raise up some witnesses against the Dragon and all his invented forms of worship though they were still hunted persecuted knocked down and their testimony cryed out against as error heresie schism and blasphemy and the wayes worships and ordinances of the whore the beast and the dragon still cryed up as the truth Thus the Papists they cryed out against the Protestanus as heretiques and schismatiques who were witnesses against them and the Protestants they cryed out against the non-conformists seperatists and brownists who were witnesses against them and every sect cries out most against them who are led further from the apostacy and raised up by the Lord as witnesses against them against their setting down in their forme and not pursuing the guidance of that spirit which would lead them quite out of the darknesse and not have them sit down by the way Now the Lord God in these latter dayes hath not only raised up witnesses against the Whore the Dragon the Beast the false Prophets with all their inventions which they have set up instead of the truth but hath assayed and begun to deliver his people out of this Egyptian darknesse and to bring them back to the light of the land of Canaan And now great enemies have appeared the sons of the night exceedingly strengthening themselves to keep out the day light every one crying up his own form and all joyning hand in hand against the power yea that spirit which first tempted from God is exceeding busie to cause those whom the Spirit the Lord hath been drawing out of the land of darknesse to make a Captain to return to Egypt or at least to sit down in some form or some pleasant notion of things by the way not to follow the Lord through all his intricate
and incourage men to hearken after and waite for the voyce but it is the immediate voyce of Christ in the soul which alone can quicken the soule to God and till the light of life shine immediatly from Christ in the heart the true knowledge is never given 2 Cor. 4. 6. Therefore they that never yet heard the immediate voice of Christ are still dead in their sins and have not yet received the true living knowledge but a dead litterall knowledge which gives a false shining of things in the dead part but kills the life Indeed the proper use of all means is to bring to the immediate voice life and power and till this be done till the soule come to that to hear that to feele that to be rooted there there is nothing done that will stand but men stick by the way crying up the means the means and never knowing tasting or enjoying the thing which the means point to But he that knows God comes into the immediate presence and he that dayly lives in God lives in the immediate life and the true faith leads to this giving the soul such a touch and tast of it at first as makes it unsatisfiable without it By this Christ cuts off the Jewes with all their zeale and knowledge Joh. 5. 37 38. Ye have not heard his voyce at any time nor seen his shape and ye have not his word abiding in you There 's the hearing of the voyce the sight of the shape and the having of the word of God abiding in the heart which gives both the hearing of the voyce and the sight of the shape and keeps the soule quick and living in the life The voyce gives life the sight of the shape daily conforms into the image which is beheld by the eye of life and the word abiding in the heart nourishes and feeds the living soul with the pure bread of life But the Jews knew not this but were crying up their Sabbaths the Law of Moses the ordinances of Moses the Temple of God the instituted worship of God and so were shut out of the thing it selfe which those things ended in and out of a capacity of receiving it And thus many zealous ones at this day not having come to this no more then the Jews did but sticking in the letter of the Gospel as the Jews did in the letter of the Law stumble at the present dispensation of life and cannot do otherwise IV. That Christs immediate revelation of the nature of his Father is to his babes Not to the wise not to the zealous not to the studious not to the devout not to the rich in the knowledge of the Scriptures without but to the weak the foolish the poor the lowly in the heart And man receives not these revelations by study by reading by willing by running c. but by being formed in the will of life by being begotten of the will of the Father by coming forth in the will and lying still in the will and growing up in the will here the childe receives the wisdome which is from above and daily learns that crosse which crucifies the other wisdome which joyns with and pleases the other will which loves to be feeding on the shadowy and husky part of knowledge without life Therefore if ever thou desire to receive this knowledge from Christ know that eye in thy self that is to be blinded which Christ will never reveal the Father to read at home know the wise and prudent there whom Christ excludes from the living knowledge And if thou canst bear it that eye that can read the Scriptures with the light of its own understanding that can consider and debate and take up sences and meanings of it without the immediate life and power that 's the eye that may gather what it can from the letter but shall never see into the life nor â—ast of the true knowledge for Christ who alone opens and gives the knowledge hides the pearl from that eye The true knowledge is only powred into the new vessell It is the living soul alone that receives the living knowledge of the living God from Christ the life The old nature the old understanding is for death and destruction The wisdom of flesh though painted never so like to the spirituall wisdome is not to be spared anywhere but that wisdome with all its zeal and growth and progresse in religion must perish All mens knowledge of the Scriptures which they have gathered into that part will profit them nothing but hinder them Every building which the leprosie of sin hath overspread is to be pulled down therefore he that hath had only the old house swept and garnished never received the true knowledge from whence the true faith spring but his life lies in the oldnesse of the letter in the conformity of the dead part to that and he knows not the vertue of the knowledge of God in the newnes of the spirit the vailt being over his heart which is only given to the new understanding V. That this faith which springs from the true knowledge is Gods gift and is not that power of beleeving which is to be found in mans nature but of another nature even of the nature of the giver And when man is called to beleeve he is not called to put forth that faith wherewith he beleeveth other things but to receive and exercise the gift of faith which is from above That which is to be believed in is spirituall and that must be spirituall which believes in it Man with all the powers of his nature is shut out it is another thing distinct from man which is let into life and which lets man in For man receiving the faith entering into the faith and becoming new-formed in the faith then he also may enter but till then he is shut out and knoweth not the life let him beleeve and read and pray and hear and exercise himself in that which he cals duties and ordinances never so much for all these set up in the wrong part in man they onely feed the wrong part and that withall its food and nourishment falls short of the life Therefore the true entrance into religion is to feele that power which slayes mans naturall ability and propensity to beleeve that so the gift of the true faith may be received for there is no rising up and living of the second without the death of the first with all his naturall faculties and powers VI That by this faith alone which is the gift which is from above and not that faith which grows either in the wilderness or garden of the old nature and is fed by the oldness of the letter and not by the newnesse of the Spirit is Christ received For Christ can be received by the faith alone that comes from him and that faith which comes from him cannot but receive him Mans faith refuseth him it receiveth a litterall knowledge of him from what it heareth from
men or from what it readeth related in the Scripture concerning him but refuseth the nature of the thing and it cannot be otherwise for mans faith not being of the nature of it cannot but refuse it But this faith which is given of God which is from above being of the same life and nature with Christ cannot refuse the spring of its own life but receiveth him immediately There is no distance of time but so soon as faith is received Christ is received and the soul united to him in the faith As unbeliefe immediately shuts him out so faith lets him in immediately and centers the soul in him and the immortall soule feeles the immortall vertue and rejoyces in the proper spring of its own immortall nature But the faith of man never reaches this never receives Christ but only a relation of things concerning him and with that faith which stands in the letter opposes that faith which stands in the life And here 's the spirit of Antichrist here 's the mistery of iniquity working out of one forme into another for Antichrist does not directly deny Christ or deny the letter but cryes up Christ cryes up the letter cryes up ordinances but so as they may feed the faith of his own nature and maintain an hope there And thus the spirit of man is at unity with what will feed his own with what interpretations his own understanding can gather out of the Scriptures And thus can he cry up Christ and say he hopes to be saved by him while the spirit of enmity against the nature of Christ lodgeth in his heart This is Antichrist where ever he is found and this is his faith and great is his knowledg and many are his coverings but the Lord is searching him out who will strip him and make his nakednesse appear VII That Christ is received as a grain of mustard seed Christ is such a thing as every eye but the eye of this faith despiseth He is the stone which the wisdome of the builders in all ages hath rejected They look for a glorious Messiah but they know him not in his humiliation in the little seed out of which he is to grow up into his glory and so they missing of the thing build up only with high imaginations in the airy mind concerning the thing As when God sent Christ in the flesh there was no form nor beauty in him The Jews whose hope and expectation lay there yet saw no manner of comelinesse no desireablenesse in him Even so is it now When God comes to offer him to those that think they place all their hopes in him they see no lovelinesse in him but refuse him daily What this little thing small like a grain of mustard-seed can this be the glorious Christ which the Scriptures have spoke so much of why we know the descent of this its father mother and kindred are with us we find this in our own nature Thus like the Jews of old they make a great noise about Christ but refuse the thing it selfe And this is for want of the true eye of faith for if they had that eye they would see the vertue in the little seed and receive him in his humiliation in their hearts where he knocks daily for entrance and be content to wait till this grain of mustard-seed grow up into a great and glorious tree But for want of this eye they keep him out and let in the painted murtherer who dwells in them and covers himselfe with a knowledg a zeal a faith an hope c. in the old nature in the old vessel in the old understanding thus they give God and Christ good words while the evill spirit has their hearts and dwells there bringing forth his own old evill fruit under an appearance of devotion and holinesse Hear now ye wise in the letter but strangers to the life There is a twofold appearance of Christ in the heart There is an appearance of him as a servant to obey the law to fulfill the will of the Father in that body which the father prepares there for him and there is an appearance of him in glory to reign in the life and power of the Father And he that knows not the first of these in his heart shall never know the second there And he that knows not these inwardly shall never know any outward visible coming to their comfort For if Christ should come outwardly to reign as many expect yet to be sure he would not reign in thee whose heart he hath not first entred into and subdued to himself which is only to be done by his appearance there first as a servant and then as a King But what estate are Christians so called now in who know not him in them who is able to serve the Lord but are striving and fighting in that nature where sin hath the power and which can never overcome being not in union with but strangers to that life and power which is the conquerour Therefore let all consider in the depth of their heart for this is infallibly true They that never received the seed of life in their hearts never received Christ and such shall never and such shall never be free from sin while they live for having not received the son who makes free how can they be free indeed nor be free from wrath when they are dead For that faith concerning Christ will not save them hereafter which did not bring them to receive Christ here VIII That this seed being received groweth up into its own form or is formed in that creature into which it is received It there groweth up into the body in which it is to serve the Lord and which body is to be glorified when it hath finished its service As a seed cast into fitted earth or the seed of man or beast sowed in a fitting womb receiveth form and growth into a plant or living creature so is it with this seed in its earth Open the true eye O ye Christians and begin to read the mistery of godlinesse IX That this creature or the spirit of life this creature which it is in union with and which is never seperated from it is the Christians rule Gal. 6. 15 16. 1 John 2. 27. Heb. 8. 10 11. The Son is never without the Spirit of the Father no not in the seed and the Spirit of the Father is the sons rule Outward rules were given to a state without to men who were not brought to the life but were exercised under shadows and representations of the life but the Son who is within who is the substance of all who is the life who is one with the Father whose proper right the Spirit is he is not tyed to any outward rule but is to live and walk in the immediate light of the Spirit of his own life And he that hath the Son hath this rule and he that hath not this rule hath not the Son And he that
hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall
wrath without mixture torment day and night in the presence of the Lamb c. As the growth and fulness of the mistery of iniquity is spoken of in this book so the measuring out of the fulnesse of wrath to it is spoken of also And great is the life and blessedness that is here promised to those that fight with and overcome the mistery of iniquity and receive not any of the marks or names of the beast nor are subject to any of his hornes though â—e push never so hard with them Now to meet with all the plagues here threatned and to miss of all the blessednesse here promised is it not a sad state Why he that addeth to these things here spoken or diminisheth from the words of this prophecy the Lord hath said this shall befall him Therefore in the fear of that God who hath spoken this and will make it good let every one search who is the adder who is the diminisher Now mark see if this be not a clear thing He that giveth any other meaning of any Scripture then what is the true proper meaning thereof he both addeth and diminisheth he taketh away the true sence he addeth a sence that is not true The Spirit of the Lord is the true Expositor of Scriptures he never addeth nor diminisheth but man being without that Spirit doth but guess doth but imagine doth but study or invent a meaning and so he is ever adding or diminishing This is the sence saith one this is the sence saith another this is the sence saith a third this saith a fourth another that is witty and large in his comprehension he sayes they will all stand another perhaps more witty then he sayes none of them will stand and he invents a meaning different from theÌ„ all And then when they are thus expounding them they will say take the sence thus it will yeeld this observation or take it thus and it will afford this observation Doth not this plainly shew that he who thus saith hath not the Spirit of the Lord to open the Scripture to him and manifest which is the true sence but is working in the misery of darknesse And yet this very person who is thus working with his own dark spirit in the dark will in words confesse that there is no true understanding or opening of Scripture but by the Spirit of God If it be so how darest thou set thy imagination thy fancy thy reason thy understanding on work and so be guessing at that which the Spirit doth not open to thee and so art found adding and diminishing Now he that is adder he that is the diminisher he cryeth out against the Spirit of the Lord and chargeth him with adding and diminishing for man being judge he will judge his own way to be true and Gods to be false That which is the adding and diminishing he calls the true expounding of the place but if the Spirit of the Lord immediately open any thing to any son or daughter he cries this is an adding to the word The Scripture is written there are no more revelations to be expected now the curse saith he is to them that adde Thus he removes the curse from his own Spirit and way of study and invention to which it appertains and casts it upon the Spirit of the Lord And man cannot possibly avoid this in the way that he is in for having first judged his own darknesse to be light then in the next place he must needs judge the true light to be darknesse He that hath aforehand set up his own invented meaning of any Scripture to be the true meaning he must needs oppose the true meaning and call it false and so apply himselfe to forme all the arguments he can out of other Scriptures to make it appear false Thus man having begun wrong in his knowledge of the Scriptures stands engaged to make use of them against the Lord and against his own soul and yet really in himself thinks that he makes a right use of them and that he serves the Lord and that he is not opposing his truth but opposing error and heresie while he himselfe is in the error and in the heresie and against the truth being a stranger to that Spirit in whose immediate life and presence the truth grows Did the Lord in these words of forbidding to adde or diminish upon so great a penalty lay a restraint and limit upon his owne spirit that it should no more hereafter speak in his sons daughters or did he intend to lay bounds upon the unruly spirit of man Did God leave mans spirit at liberty to invent and form meanings of his words and bind up his owne spirit from speaking further words afterwards When Moses said thou shalt not adde nor diminish was this to be any stop to the Prophets in whom God should speake afterwards Is not this one of the subtle Serpents inventions to keep up the esteem of mans invented meanings as the true sence and to make a fortification against the entrance of that spirit which can discover all his false interpretations of the true words of God and to make him see that he is the adder and the diminisher and that his name will not be found in the book of life when the true light is held forth to read by But this is generall extending to all Scriptures my drift is more particular concerning adding to the things or diminishing from the words of the book of this prophecy There are two things chiefely spoken of in this book Mistery-Sion Mistery-Babilon the true Church the false Church the Lambs wise the whore the hiding of Mistery-Sion the appearing of Mistery-Babilon in her place the flying of the Church out of her heaven into the wilderness leaving all behind her which she could not carry along with her even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ wherein once she appeared worshipping and serving God and the starting of the false Church into her place taking up all that she had left even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ in the letter thus covering her selfe with the form of godlinesse with the sheeps cloathing that she might passe the better for the true Church And the Dragon who mannaged the war against the woman and her seed raiseth up first one beast and then another and sets this whore on the top of them who with the cup of fornication makes all the earth drunk all nations peoples kindreds tongues languages And the beast he has his horns every where his marks every where his names every where and also his image in every part of Babilon And who will not worship him he fights with yea such as are led by God to rent from the whore he calls schismaticks hereticks blasphemers and persecutes them as persons not worthy to live Thus the state of things is quite changed the power of truth lost the form set up without it those that seek after the power hated persecuted
answerable to that and where it speaks contrary he invents a way to make it comply and so wrests Scriptures forward backward to make them speak agreable to what he has already received and beleeved Thus every sort of persons papists and protestants bend the Scriptures to make them speak conformable to their opinions and practises not having the true learning which gives to read them in the true Originall where the knowledge of what they speak and meane is certaine and so they are also unstable and subject to be shaken by a wind of reason which is stronger then their own And this wresting of Scripture is to their own destruction for that part which is so much as desirous to bend a Scripture is to be destroyed and that part cannot receive the true knowledge but stumbles in its own wisdome and way of seeking at the wisdome of Cod and at the true way of finding But the foregoing councill faithfully hearkened unto will preserve out of this and also bring to the true means and to the true use of the means which all nations who have drunk of the whores cup have erred concerning and taken the false for the true The strength of this wine hath made all nations peoples tongues and languages to mistake who in the heat of their drinke have cryed up the means the means the ordinances the ordinances c. not perceiving how this heat came from the spirits of the whores wine and not from the sober meek calm gentle leadings of the Spirit of Christ and so in a fleshly zeale have set up the whores means instead of the lambs means and contend for them with the whores spirit and weapons Now it is impossible for any man so much as to know the true means till the whores wine be purged out of him for that will make him erre in judgment and take the false for the true And which way shall he ever come to the Kingdome which has lighted upon the wrong means or how shall he ever come to the true means who never yet saw the witchery of the whorish spirit from the life and how he himselfe has been bewitcht and cosened with the false instead of the true as for instance Prayer that is generally taken for a means Aske and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you If Parents which are evill know how to give good gifts to their children how much more shall the heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that aske him This therefore is an undoubted thing that prayer is a means Answ. True there is a prayer which is a means and there is a prayer which is not a means There is a prayer which is an ordinance and there is a prayer which is an invention There is a prayer which is the breath of the true child and there is a prayer which is the breath of the fleshly part a breath of the whorish spirit There is a prayer of the first birth and there is a prayer of the second birth both which cry and weep to God for the same-thing Now the one of these is the true means the other not one of them is Christs ordinance the other is antichrists ordinance Now the question is which of these thy prayer is whether it be thine own breath or Gods breath whether it come from the renewings of the Spirit of life or from thine own naturall part painted for accordingly it is either the true means or the false means If it be the true means it shall have the thing the Spirit the life the kingdome it prayes for if it be the false means it can never obtain it Papists they pray Protestants they pray some in forms some without forms some meditating before hand some not meditating are all these the true means or are any of them the true means The breath of the true child is the only true prayer and he prayes only in the moving and in the leading of that Spirit that begat him and this is a prayer according to the will in the life and from the power But all mens prayers according to times they set the themselves or according to formings of desires in their own minds which they offer up to God with the nature and heart that sinneth against him these are false means and may satisfie the drunken spirit erred from the liâ—e but are no means to the truth Canst thou pray how camest thou to learn to pray wast thou taught from above or didst thou gain the skill and abillity by the exercise and improvement of thine own naturall part Didst thou begin with sighs and groans staying there till the same spirit that taught thee to groan taught thee also to speak Wast thou ever able to distinguish the sighs and groans of the Spirits begetting from the sighs and groans of thy own naturall and affectionate part and hath that part with all its sighingâ— groaning desires endeavours c been thrust aside and the seed immortall raised by the Spirit of eternall life which teacheth to cry and mourn and at length to speak to the Father for the preservation and nourishment of its life If it hath been thus with thee then thou hast known that prayer which is the true means But if otherwise though thou pray never so long and with never so great affections and strong desires this is all but the fals means with its fals warmth from the fall fire this is but the means which the whorish Spirit which is not in union with the life and power but keeps the seed in bandage has set up instead of the true means And this can never lead to truth but keeps alive Gods enemy under this pleasant covering neither is this the worship of the living God but as it is from another spirit so it is to another spirit O learn to be sober come out of this drunken fury and consider things mildly and seriously Do not make a great outcry of ordinances ordinances the means the means This is the voyce of the clamorous woman who with her loud noise would fain keep you from listning after the still voyce of true wisdome which cannot be heard in the midst of this great noise and hurry in your spirits but consider which are the true ordinances which are the true means which are the likenesses man has framed and which is the true thing it self And if ye could once be mild gentle and calm turn from your own wisdome and fleshly knowledge of things it might please God to remove your stumbling blocks and to open that eye in you which can see the antichristian nature and discern between the coverings which it hath formed to hide its deceitfull spirit under and the true garment and cloathing of life But the seed of the Kingdome is little and ye are great how can ye enter into it the pearl lies hid in the field and ye are gazing up to Heaven how
shall have what they will if they will but be faithsull to him in the main Call for what likenesse what invention what appearance of truth they will they shall have it so they will but be content without life No notion about the Spirit wil be deny them so they will be content with the notion without the presence of the living Spirit They shall have light in their understandings warmth in their affections joy peace hope comfort out of the Scriptures They shall apply as many promises to themselves as they will have what they will do what they will so they keep out of the feeling of the living principle but if once that stir and there be any hearkning after that then he begins to shew his tyranny on the one hand to force them back and his stratagems on the other hand to tempt them aside from it The devil having thus gained the form and enriched himself with the Churches spoils and slain them which had the living testimony then he falls to corrupting the form For that filthy spirit though he can cloath himself with the form to deceive from the life abid there to keep down the life yet he does not much love it he loves his own form better and when he is out of feare of assaults from the life then he returns to his own form againe or patches up a garment more suitable to his own nature taking iâ— somewhat of the other with it to make his own passe the better for if he should have returned to the direct heathenish forms of idolatry and false worship he could not so well have â—ayn hid therefore he makes a mix uâ—e of somewhat which was prescribed the Jews with some things sound practised among the Christians Thus he brought in inventions of crosses and images and beads and pictures and reliques and ceremonies beyond number insomuch as not only the life and power was lost but the true likeness also even so lost that it is impossible for all the wisdome of man to recover the knowledge of the likenesse againe Men have striven much but they never could form a true likenesse of the Primitive Church and the way thereof Now though it is the desire of the Devill to keep men in the grossnesse of darkness yet rather then loose them he will let them have some part of the form again nay he will tempt them with a gaudy appearance of the form to keep them from meeting with the power and life when he perceives true secret inward stirrings in them which will not be quieted without somwhat Thus when there was a stirring against Popery he tempted aâ—iâ—e into Episcopacy when that would hold no longer then to Presbitery when that will not serve into Independancy when that will not keep quiet but still there are searchings further into Anabaptism if that will not doe into a way of seeking and waiting if this will not satisfie they shall have high notions yea most pleasant notions concerning the Spirit and concerning the life if they will be but satisfied without the life yea they shall have all the liberty in the creatures they can desire the best painted liberty if they will but be satisfied without that liberty which stands not in the creatures out of the life but over the creatures in the life And he that turns aside to any of these he is still under the dominion of that spirit and there he holds his knowledge and there he performes his worship and there he has his unity his liberty his life his rest his peace his joy his hope Now no man can worship God till he comes out of every part of this Babilon and his feet touch Sion though there may be a secret panting and an unknown safety and an acceptation of the poor mourning soul in the passage Yea all sorts of people here ye were accepted in your stirrings after life in hearkning to the leadings of life from out of the Babilonish Spirit but your turning aside to the Babilonish wisdome in a new dresse and sitting down in a new form of her inventing hath brought you to a losse of life and hath made you hatefull to the living God who hath drawn his sword against you and hath prepared his vialls his thunders his plagues his woes and ye must drink of his cup with sorrow as ye have drunk of the whores cup with pleasure Ye that have found a bed of pleasure in any of your forms or in any of your notions and so have found ease in the Sion of the whores painting ye must be cast into the bed of sorrow and know the fire the Gods Sion and the furnace in his Jerusalem if ever ye become an habitation for God or expect to feed on his holy mountaine The condition of the Church all this while all this time of Satans reigne in forms of knowledg and worship hath been very lamentable and is expressed in Scripture by parables and resemblances of a sad state She hath been as a City pulled down like a ruined City which needs rebuilding before she can come to be a City again when the Lord shall build up Sion She hath been like a wildernesse barren undressed unregarded She hath been like a mournfull widow whose husband hath been rent from her and her children slain She hath lost all her ornaments all her garments all her ordinances all her appearances and wayes of life in somuch as the wayes of Sion mourn But Babilon the mother of harlots she has got all the beauty all the glory all the Churches attire all the Churches ordinances and all the trade and traffiqe runs thither and she is cryed up for the true Church and if any dare speak a word against her for the true Church indeed they are exclaimed against for schismaticks and hereticks and war prepared against them and some or other of the beasts horns presently pushing at them Thus it has gone all the time of the Apostacy the whore has flourished with the name of the Church making great merchandize of souls selling their formall stuff for mony and abundance of children hath the whore brought forth and nourished with her milk of deceit but the true woman the Lambs wife with her seed and the living food from her living breasts have had no place on the earth But this state of things is ended in part and ending apace The Lord God of life is arisen out of his holy habitation to assault the Dragon to discover and strip the whore to recover a possession for his life in the earth to make roome in the world for his Church which he is bringing out of the wildernesse The battel is begun the territories of Antichrist are assaulted the Lamb hath appeared on his white horse and hath gathered many of his called faithfull and chosen about him the Ensign is liâ—ted up the light which searcheth the inwards of the enemies dominions hath appeared and his inmost power and wisdome is not feared
hath been an heavy dull time for many ages There have only been witnesses hitherto raised against Antichrist and he hath sound it an easie matter to knock them down and keepe up his wayes of prophanenesse and of formall superstitious kinds of devotion up and down all the nations But now it is a quick time the Spirit of the Lord God hath arisen the searching eye is opened the pursuit after the very Spirit of Antichrist is begun yea very quick and fresh is the scent of that Spirit which hunteth the whore and now she goes forward and backward traverses her ground changes her paint and colours often shifts her garments continually and uses all the art she can to save her life Now the king of Babilon opens his treasury brings forth all his likenesses all his images all his appearances with some or other of them if it be possible to tempt the simple soul and keep it satisfied therewith in some of his chambers of darknesse and imagery out of the life and power Therefore now be warned and look about you and be not cosened with any of the wares of Babilon where the marchandize and traffique is for souls and where all the wares of deceit are which are proper to cosen souls but seeke for the nature of that thing which the inward pantings of your heart at any time have been after and waif for the opening of that eye which can see through all manner of paint to that nature and keep low in the life simple and honest-hearted and then gawdy appearances will not take with you for they are only temptations to the aspiring part which is lifted up above the pure low humble principle and if that part were brought down ye would be safe but while that stands ye will not be out of the danger of temptations Now this know There is nothing whereof Sion is built but the likenesse of it is in Babilon and the likenesse is very taking even more taking to that eye which is open in men then the truth it selfe The truth is a plain simple thing it is not gawdy in appearance its excellency lies in its nature but the appearances of truth which Satan paints are very gawdy very glorious seemingly very spirituall very pure very precious very sweet they many times even ravish that understainding and those affections that are out of the life Oh what shall I say shall I speake a little of the wares of Babilon where is there an ear which can hear me yet he that opens my mouth can open thine ear Therefore set me speak a little plainly 1. There are many glorious fals births in Babilon There is no inheriting the Kingdome but by being born againe This doctrine the king of Babilon preacheth he is fain to do so else the letter of the Scripture would overthrow his kingdome Now therefore to keep from the true new birth he hath his images of the new birth his severall false births A great while outward baptisme and a formall knowledge was enough to make a man a christian but now since that is discovered and will not do he brings forth better births he hath inward changes of the minde multitudes of them fit for every one who is seeking after the life to be tempted from the life with and he tempts every one with a proper bait with that which is taking to him in his present estate What changes any kind of knowledge by vertue of the notion with the devills quickning power added to it can produce in any man the Devill can transform man into Yea many are these changes and he that doth not know the nature of the true birth may easily be deceived with that which is just like the thing he looks for A man looks for a new birth for an inward change he looks for a knowledge to change him he shall have just the very likenesse of that which his heart desires the lively likenese the devill is ready at hand to furnish him with it which way can the man who never saw the true thing espy the cheat 2. There are many glorious desires in Babilon many pantings many breathings after that which this birth of Babilon takes to be life The devil hath these wares these images in his shop too As he hath a false birth in imitation of the true so he hath false breathings for his false birth If his child could not seemingly breath towards God as if he were a naturall child of God he would soon be detected therefore he inflames him with desires of growth with desires of enjoyment of that which he calls life with seeming desires of serving and glorifying God and here come in the prayers of the fleshly birth which are many times carryed on with exceeding great earnestnesse of the flâ—shly part to which also the father of this birth given answers And now which way can deceit be so much as suspected here And yet here also the deceiver lodgeth and herein he worketh raising strong desires in that part wherein he dwels that he may allaâ— those pure desires which otherwise would be arising from the life underneath and which notwithstanding all this sometimes doe arise especially when the soul is in anguish 3. There 's false food in Babilon false knowledge to feed this wrong nature with There 's knowledge falsely so called There 's severall appearances of all the truths in Sion There 's outward knowledge of the letter and there 's inward misticall knowledges and each of these have their warmth and their freshnesse and do nourish up this child and cause it to grow Yea what knowledge and experience which at first sprang from the true life this spirit makes a prey of and daily brings into his Babilon therewith to feed and fatten that which is born of him and to cover the old deceitfull nature under which is not slain thereby but daily lives and moves and puts forth it selfe this is certainly felt by that which is made sensible in the life but hard to be spoken because the deceived heart is so grosse and the ear so heavy Now here the painted whore which hath dealt treacherously with the life fits as a Queen and saves she shall see no sorrow This knowledge is certain to her these experiences she hath had the feeling of and knows they can never be shaken But O thou Princesse of Babilon the Lord will strip the the Lord will unbare thy inwards thine own eyes shall see they nakednesse which shall be for a perpetuall reproach among all the inhabitants of Sion and then thy dark deceitfull spirit shall have no more to say against those who now see through thy covering to thy nature in the light and judge thee not of themselves nor in their own wills and understandings but from the true power and in the true guidance of the life whose work it is to pursue overtake and judge deaâ—h even to death For all this knowledge and all these experiences in thee