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
but the Lord God is feared and the Dragons arm withers and the head of his pollicy whereby he ensnared intangled from the life is crushing glory to the endlesse power of life for ever and for ever Be wise now therefore loose not your share in the immortal Crown Take heed how ye be found fighters against the Lamb in the wisdom power of Babilon which is to fall Painting will not passe now That bloud of the Lamb is felt which washes off the whores paint even all her painted notions of the blood of christ of sanctification and redemption c. the whorish nature being discovered underneath all these Ye have got the name of Church the name of Christians the name of ordinances c. by the whores help but the nature of life ye want and the living power is come to recover the name from you and we his living witnesses testifie to your faces that ye shall not enjoy it but the name and the thing shall go together and he that hath not the thing shall also loose the name Yea your eyes shall see that ye have been the sacrilegious ones who have stoln holy names and tirles which ye never received from the hand of God but the whorish spirit which out of the life and an enemy to the life hath handed them to you And this is told you in dear and tender love that ye might not perish but have eternall life abiding in your hearts and the new name written by the Spirit of life on your foreheads which all that know the writing of the life may be able to read and acknowledge There are severall touches of these things in diverse of of the Epistles of the Apostles but the full relation is given forth in that book of the Revelation which was penned by the Spirit of God to be read in the light of the Spirit and so to be a preservative against the overspreading contagion of Antichristianism Adn it is said at the entrance into it Blessed is he that readeth they that hear the words of this prophests keâ—p those things wch are written therein But men having lost the Spirit have not been able to read it and having lost the right ear they have not been able to heare the words it speaks and how then could they keepe the things written therein He that doth â—ot understand what he is warned against how is it likely he should be preserved by the warning The Spirit of God judged this warning necessary but the spirit of deceit cryes it is a deep thing not to be medled with Now this is a plain demonstration that men generally are overtaken with the whoredom and drink of the whores cup submit themselves to the beast and exalt his horns and receive his mark and some or other of his names because they have not the knowledge of that which discovers these things and was given by the Spirit of God to forewarn and so to preserve out of them He that knoweth not the mistery of iniquity working under a form of godlines may not he easily be deceived with the mistery of iniquity He that knoweth not what is become of the true Church ministry and where to look for them may not he easily own a fall Church and ministry He that knoweth not the Spirit of the Scriptures which the Church carried with her when she left the letter behind her may not he easily set up the letter for his rule He that knoweth not the living mark and name of a Christian with which the Spirit of life seals all the Lambs of Christ in the life may not he easily give this name to himself and to others who have not this mark but the beasts mark He that knoweth not the true faith the true love the true hope the true joy the true peace the true rest the true consolation in Christ the life the true meeknes and patience of the Sâ—ints c. may not he easily set up shadows or liknesses of these which he gathers from the letter of the Scriptures and the promises thereof receiving the knowledge of them into the wrong part applying them to the wrong thing instead of these Ah poor hearts The book of the Revelation is easie to that Spirit that wrote it and it was not given forth to be laid by as uselesse but to be serviceable in the hand of the Spirit for the ages after the dayes of the Apostles and in the true light it is easily read and they that can read it can see that in it which they that cannot read it cannot beleeve And this is plainly seen That theâ—e is but the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of deceit but the Lambs wife and the whore which hath whored from the Spirit which hath made use of the lotter to run a whoring from that Spirit that wrote it that there is but the true Church and the false Church but life and death but form and power but Christ the mistery of godlinesse and Antichrist the mistary of iniquity but God and the dragon God in the Church or Temple in the Wildernesse and the dragon in the worlds churches and temples appearing there as if he were God giving sorth lawes and ordinances like God and all the world falls down before him and worships him as if he were God and hopes by this worship which they perform to him and by their faith and hope which they receive from him to be saved at last I say there are but these two and he that is joyned to the one of these is not joyned to the other Let him that readeth understand which he may easily doe by the wisdome of the Spirit but never can by the wisdome of the letter For though we know how to join these two in the life yet there is a necessity of seperating them at present till the letter be gained out of the hands of the whorish spirit which hath built up severall forms of knowledge religion and worship in mistery-Babilon by the letter without the life all which must fall with Babilon AN Exhortation relating to the workings of the mistery of Iniquity and the mistery of godlinesse in this present age ALL people upon earth who love your souls and have any true secret pantings after God look to the nature of your Spirits and look to the nature of those things ye let into your minds least ye take in death for life error for truth and so sow to your selves corruption and rear up a fabricke in mistery Babilon which will be turned into desolation and utter ruins by the power of life from Sion Strong is the Spirit of deceit that is entred into the world and glorious and very taking are his images and likenesses of truth which will deceive all but the very elect who were chosen from the foundation of the world and whose eyes are opened to see the foundation of life which was before the foundation of the world It
can ye see it Christ is descended into the lower parts of the earth and ye are using means to ascend upwards in the wrong nature how can ye meet with him the Gospel hath been hid the Sun hath not shined it hath been night and ye have got many fals candles which way can ye acknowledge the little glimmering of the day star who have such satisfaction in the warmth of your false fires ye are far from the true light who have not yet received so much of it as to discover the darknesse of the night Ye are too high too wise too knowing for Christ or for the sight and acknowledgment of the true means which lead to life And if ye could once come to see this there might be some hope but in that wisdome wherein your life and knowledge stands ye are shut out and ye are reasoning and stumbling at the stone while others who are broken in spirit and in meeknesse and humility led to try find it a sure foundation even a foundation of eternall life for the true seed of life and are built into the living City which is made without hands and without any of the tools of mans wisdome A Brief History of the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles with the living seal to it which he that hath eternall life abiding in him can read and witnes but that wisdom zeal and devotion which is in the death cannot AFter the universal degeneration and corruption of the Jewish state and the putting an end to the shadows thereof by the appearance and succession of the substance it pleased God to dissolve that people state and pollicy and by the power of his life without either the wisdome or strength of man to set upon the heathenish world which he subdued and brought under the power of his life By his Apostles and messengers who preached the everlasting Gospel the word of eternall life he gathered assemblies up and down the nations whom the nations by all their persecutions could not subject but they reigned over them in the power authority and dominion of God For they were Kings and Priests to God in the sight of all the Nations and they did reign upon the earth in somuch as the heathenish spirit of man observing their order in the Spirit and the wisdom and power of the Spirit among them who by his living light was able to search the hearts of those that came to observe them could not but acknowledge that God was in them of a truth Now the next thing to be expected is Satans opposition against this power of life his stratagems to undermine it He withstood the growth and settlement of the Church all that he could by open force making use both of the heathenish devout worshippers who fought for their Jupiter their Diana and other gods and goddesses and of the Jewish devout worshippers who fought for their Temple-worship with the Laws and ordinances of Moses which were now expired But neither of these would doe but the Church in the power of life gained ground upon him and did rather thrive and increase then diminish by this opposition Therefore now he falls to this stratagems he gets some false brethren out of the Church they went out from us these he cloaths as Angels of light puts the sheeps cloathing on their wolvish nature makes them appear as like the Apostles as may be endues them with an excellent taking knowledge of life and spirituallity in appearance forms in them an image of the truth and inspires this image with the spirit of his own life and with these he goes forth into the world and gathers the world about him Now the world was presently taken with this the world went after him for this is that the world would have an appearance of religion an image of truth but their own spirit in it The worldly spirit that flies off from the life from the power can readily close with this because it is its own Bring forth never so high notions of religion and spirituall wisdome the world will hug them the world will feed on them the world will cloath it selfe with them The world can swallow and digest any thing but life Any pleasant picture of things in heaven will down with the world but the nature the life the truth the Spirit Christ in his true arid living crosse this will not down with the world Now the Devil having thus set up his false image in the world and gathered a party after him then he sets upon the Church and the battel goeth very hard life striving to defend and death to overcome How hard did the Apostles strive in their day to keep their converts to the simplicity of truth to the way therof which even then began to be evill spoken of writing Epistles to the Churches warning them of the false Apostles and wishing them to stand their ground yea Christ himselfe writes severall Epistles from heaven to some of them cheking their backslidings and encouraging them to renew their zeal and strength putting them in mind of the Crown which attended the victory But at length the Divill with his stratagems prevails gets the possession of the Churches territories and the Church is faine to fly for her preservation and such of her seed as are left behind her the enemy makes war against slayes drinks their bloud Now here 's an end of all the glory of that state now the Divil hath gained the world again The same spirit that lost it under the heathenish power for there he was conquered recovers it under an Antichristian appearance setting up the same wickednes and the same course and current of death under forms of Antichristian religion as he had done before under forms of Heathenish devotion Thus the Devil being conquerour having gained the field he divides the spoils among his army he takâ—s whatever was the Churches and make his own and ranks them in his way of Antichristian religion and devotion so that now hence forward those things which were once Christs and the Churches they are noâ— all his and distributed by him among his followers He gives the name Church to the whore which he sets up he gives the name Christian to his Disciples he prescribes baptisme and the Supper which he calls Sacraments and praying and preaching and singing which he calls publique ordinances and be prescribes private duties and exercises of devotion and he gets the letter of the Scriptures and forms multitudes of meanings and expositions and has lying signs and wonders for such as need them that he might keep all the severall Brigades of his army quiet under his pay and might have some pleasing wares of traffick for every sort of his Merchants in his Babilon For this is the City of that King which he built after his conquest over the life and which he hath enriched with the spoils from the life And here all his subjects shall have content they
leadings in the vast howling Wildernes til he bring them into the possession of the true rest What a work there was to quench that spirit wch stired in the Protestants against Popery to fix the in Episcopacy in the use of the Common prayer book When that was detected turned from then Presbittery endeavoured to take its place to bring it its directory but the pursuit of the Lord was so hot against that that it stunk presently his mighty hand would not suffer that so much as to arise Much about the same time Independency and Anabaptism appeared and contended and there was a more simple and honest thing stirring there then in the other and accordingly the blessing of the Lord which was not to the form but to the life that was stirring within did appear more among them But they fixing there lost the life and simplicity to which the blessing was and met with the death and the curse which is the proper reward of the form for any form out of the life kils the life and its reward is death to it selfe The form kils the life which stirred underneath and made it appear with some freshness and when the life from which it had its seeming beauty and lustre dyes then it soon withers and dyes also so that the living principle being once slain there remains nothing but the dead spirit feeding on the dead form There was one more pure appearance and neerer to the Kingdom then all these which was of seeking and waiting but death overcame this also making a form of it and stealing in some observations from the letter of the Scriptures concerning the Kingdom whereby their eyes were with held from beholdingthe inward principle and seed of life within to look for some great appearance of power without such as was among the Apostles to set things to rights and so they were held captive by the same spirit in their seeking and waiting whereby the others are held in their forms Thus have persons generally missed the following of that good Spirit which began to lead them out Aegypt the dark Land and loosing their guid have fixed somewhere or other by the way resting in some form or in some notion or expectation of things according as in their wisdome they have imagined from their skill in the letter short of the life it selfe Thus have their carkasses fallen in the Wildernesse Now this I have to say to you all All you who rest in any form whatsoever or rest in any notion or apprehension of things short of the life it selfe ye had een as good have stayed in Egypt as to fix by the way and to take up a rest in the Wildernesse short of Canaan In plain terms ye had as good have abided in Popery or in Episcopacy ye had been as acceptable to God there as here Not that I say your forms of Indepedency Anabaptism or seeking are as bad as Popery Episcopacy or Presbittery nay they are all somewhat neerer and the last of them very much neerer but your fixing there and the dead spirit feeding there on the dead thing is as remote from life as if it had gone quite backe again And this dead spirit is as hatefull to God here as it is among the Papists yes and in one sence more because it makes a pretence beyond them And the truth is ye have gone back againe though not in the direct form yet into that very spirit wherein Poperey's strength and kingdom lies so are becom one of the beasts names your strength defence lies in the beasts horns either in the outward powers of the earth or in that inward knowledge of things and wisdome from the letter which is out of the life and so are not yet come out of the City Babilon For mark The spiâ—it that fixeth in a form short of the life is the same that whored from the life and the same spirit is the whore still in what form soever she be The spirit that rose up in the life against the death and corruption whereof Popery wholly corsisted was a good spirit and this spirit would passe through all forms till it meet with the life it is the other spirit that sayes to thee thou host gone far enough and so tempts to stay by the way And he who hearkens to this spirit and staies anywhere by the way he is caught with the old whore in a new dresse and is drinking the cup of fornication afresh And then like the Papists he runs to the powers of the earth to defend his form against the witnesses of God and that 's his cover under which he persecutes and there he lyes hid or at least to his own wisdom and reason to strengthen himself with arguments for fixing here and against going any further And then he grows wise in the flesh and cryes out against them who are stil led by the same spirit to presse on further as weak silly giddy Unsetled seduced people that can never know when they are well Thus the wise Episcopalians revlied the simple-he-arted non-conformists who pursued further then they and the non conformists when they lost their simplicity and begun to stick reviled those that pursued beyond them and thus at this day those who are pressing on in the spirit are disdained by those who have took up their station in the flesh and with their two great horns of earthly power and earthly wisdome are they pushing at them Look about you look about you all sorts of devout professors see where ye are are you not dead in your forms is not the good old puritan principle wherein once was true life in its measure dead and buried there Consider with your selves hath that grown in your forms or hath it been slain there Speak the truth in your own hearts Can ye truly say from a sercible feeling in the life that that principle is still alive in you If it were so ye could never be drawn to persecute no nor to suffer persecution ye that have power to hinder it but if that seed be choked then ye may well connive at if not further the enemy and plead for him and joyn iâ—terests with him While Abel lived in you Cain could not rise up in his dominion but now the righteous seed is ' slain the murthering nature appears O hasten out of this spirit hasten out of Babilon cast off the spirit of popery return to the old puritan principle Do not cry it up in deceit to oppose the present appearance of truth which is grown up further in it but subject that dead formall earthly spirit to it which is fallen beneath it and when ye are come to a true touch f life there ye may be able to own the same truth in its growth to a further measure But while thou art in the dead undeâ—standing and from the power and life of truth in thine own particular dost thou think to be able to measure
truth aright in others Nay thou measurest by a false appearance of things in the fallen understanding and in the wisdome which thou hast gathered there since thou thy selfe fellest from the living principle and this must needs commend that most which is neerest to it and not that which is neerest to truth And this is the great error of this age men with a gathered knowledge from Scripture-words without the true faith and life go about to measure that life and knowledge which comes from the faith and because it suites not with the apprehensions which they have taken into their minds they condemn it And thus being in the stumbling wiâ—dome and way of observation to which truth was never revealed but was ever an offence they stumb'e at it and thus men generally dish and split themselves against the same rock now as the Pharisees did of old Now this understanding must perish and this wisdome in men be brought to nought before that can be raised up which can judge aright Hearken therefore to my exhortation as ye love your souls Come out of popery indeed and in truth come out of the spirit of popery burn the whore in her new forms as well as in her old Cast off all these new names of the Beast under which the old spirit has made a prey of the life in your own particulars and lies lurking to make a prey of the life in others and to force it into its own deceitfull forms of death and slay it Leave defending your faith and church by the Beasts horns and come to that faith and church which is received gathered and defended by Christ the one horn of salvation Leave your reasonings and disputings in that wisdome which has slain the life and come to that wisdome which comes from the life and springs up in the life and ye will find more certainty and satisfaction in one touch of true life then in all the reasonings and disputes of wise men to the worlds end The ground wherein mens religion grows even of the most zealous is bad even the same ground wherein the Pharisees religion stood and grew and it hath brought forth such kind of fruit namely such a kind of conformity to the letter as theirs was which stands in the understanding and will of man rearing up a pleasant building there but keeps from the life and from building in it But the true religion stands in receiving a principle of life which by its growth forms a vessell for it selfe s and all the former part wherein sin on the one hand or selfe righteousnesse on the other hand stood and grew passeth away These things following strike at the King of Babilon himselfe yea even at the very root of the Antichristian spirit in every man which he that can mild y receive the stroake of may feel the true Spirit of life which lies slain underneath spring up in him and give life to his soul which when it is delivered will be able truly to know and rejoyce in the Lord its Saviour And when the root of that spirit is cut downe which never brought forth sweet pleasant fruit unto life but only sowre fruit finely pâ—inted and dressed for the eye and palate of death its body branches leaves and fruit will wither and dye dayly and truth come to grow safely A Distinction between the faith which is of man and the faith which is of GOD One whereof is the Faith of Sion the other the Faith of Babilon the one laying hold on Christ as he is revealed the King of life in Sion the other layes hold on an Historicall relation of Christ the fame whereof hath sounded in Babilon THere is a faith which is of a mans selfe and a faith which is the gift of God or a power of beleeving which is found in the nature of fallen man and a power of believing which is given from above As there are two births the first and the second so they have each their faith and each beleeve with their faith and seem to lay hâ—ld on the same thing for life and the contention about the inheritance will not be ended till God determine it Cain will sacrifice with his faith and he beleeves he shall be accepted if he had not beleeved so he would not have been so angry when he found it otherwise And the Cainish spirit in man the vagabond from the life of God which hath not an habitation in God nor the eternall life of God abiding in him he is busie with the same faith at this day and hath the same expectation from it as Cain had This is the root of the false religion of the false hope of the false peace of the false joy of the false rest of the false comfort of the false assurance as the other is the root of the true In this faith which is of man and in the improvement of it stands all the knowledge zeal devotion and worship of the world in generall and of the worldly part in every man in particular but the true knowledge the true zeale the true devotion the true worship stands in the faith which is given of God to them which are born of the immortall seed which liâ—es in God and in which God lives for ever Now it deeply concerns every man to consider from which of these his knowledg religion and worship proceed and in which of them they stand for if they proceed from and stand in the faith which is of man they cannot please God nor conduce to the salvation of the soule but though they may tast very pleasantly to mans pallate now and administer much hope and satisfaction to him at present yet they will faile at the time of need For as Christ said concerning the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees so may I say concerning this faith Except your faith with the works of it exceed that faith and all the works of it even to the utmost improvement thereof which is to be found in mans nature it will never lead you to the kingdom of God nor be able to give you any right to the inheritance of life For he that will inherit must be the right heir must have the faith of Abraham the faith of Isaacâ— which springs up from the root of life in the seed and this leads the seed into that spring of life out of which it shot forth as a branch which is the inheritance promised to the seed And here is Christ Alpha and Omega in every particular soul where life is begun and perfected â—unning its course through time back to that which was before the beginning Therefore observe and consider well what this faith which is of a mans selfe can doe and how far it may goe in the changing of man and in producing a conformity of him to the letter of the Scriptures And then consider where it is shut out what it cannot do what change it cannot make what it cannot conform to
that so the true distinction may be let into the mind and not a foundation layed of so great a mistake in a matter of so great concernment 1. A man may beleeve the history of the Scriptures yea and all the doctrines of them so far as he can reach them with his understanding with this faith which is of man As by this faith a man can believe an history probably related to him so by this faith may he beleeve the historyes of the Scriptures which are more then probably related As by this faith a man can receive doctrines of instruction out of Philosophers books so by the same faith he may receive doctrins of instruction out of the Scriptures Reading a relation of the fall of man of the recovery by Christ that there is no other way to life c. This faith can beleeve the relation of these things as well as it can beleeve the relation of other things 2. This being believed from the relation of the history of these things this naturally sets all the powers of man on work kindling the understanding will and affections towards the avoiding of misery and the attaining of happinesse What would not a man doe to avoid perpetuall extremity of misery on soul and body for ever and to obtain a crowne of everlasting blessednesse This boils the affections to an height and sets the understanding on work to the utmost to gather all the rules of Scripture and to practise all the duties and ordinances therein mentioned What can the Scripture propose to be believed that he will not believe What can it propose to be done that he will not do Must he pray he will pray Must be heat he will hear Must he read he will read Must he meditate he will meditate Must he deny himselfe and all his own righteousnesse and duties and hope only for salvation in the merits of Christ he will seeme to do that to and say when he has done all he can he is but an unprofitable servant Does the Scripture say he can doe nothing without the Spirit he will acknowledge that too and he hopes he has the Spirit God hath promised the Spirit to them that aske it and he has asked long and asks still and therefore he hopes he has it Thus man by a naturall faith grows up and spreads into a great tree and is very confident and much pleased not perceiving the defect in his root and what all his growth here will come to 3. This being done with much seriousnes and industry there must needs follow a great change in man his understanding will be more and more enlightened his will more and more conformed to that to which he thus gives himselfe up and to which he thus bends himselfe with all his strength his affections more and more warmed he will find a kind of life and growth in this according to its kind Let a mans heart be in any kind of study or knowledg applying himselfe strictly to it he gathers understanding in his mind and warmth in his affections so it is also here Yea this being more excellent in it selfe must needs produce a more excellent understanding and a more excellent warmth and have a greater power and influence upon the will 4. Now how easie is it for a man to mistake here and call this the truth First he mistakes this for the true faith and then he mistakes in applying to this all that which belongs to the true faith and thus entring into the spirit of error at first he errs in the whole course of his religion from the beginning to the end He sees a change made by this in him and this he accounts the true conversion and regeneration This leads him to ask and seek and pray and this he counts the true praying the true seeking the true asking This cleanseth after its kind his understanding will and affections and this he takes for the true sanctification The justification which is to the true beleever he also aplyes to this faith so he has a peace â— satisfaction a rest here and an hope of happinesse hereafter Thus he receives what is already revealed he waits for what may be further revealed which he can embrace and conform to turning still upon this center and growing up from this root And he that does not come hither in religion falls short of the improvement of mans nature and of the faith that grows there which naturally leads all the powers of nature hither and fixes them here which is but dead And now this man is safe he is a beleever he is a worshipper of God he is a Christian he is an observer of the commands of Christ when the overflowing scourge comes it shall not touch him all the judgements plagues threatnings in the Scripture belong not to him but to the unbelievers to them that know not God to them that worship not God to them that observe not the commands of Christ thus by his untempered morter from his false faith he has built up a wall against the deluge of wrath which wall will tumble down upon him when the wrath comes The growth of this faith and great spreading of it into all this knowledg zeal and devotion hath not changed the nature of it all this while but it is the same that it was at the beginning even a power of nature in the first birth and all these fruits are but the fruits of the first nature which is still alive under all this All this can never kill the principle out of which it grows but feeds it more and fattens it for the slaughter Thus far this faith can go But then there is somewhat it is shut out of at the very first There is somewhat this faith cannot receive beleeve or enter into What is that It is the life the power the inward part of this Though it may seem to have unity with all the Scriptures in the letter yet it cannot have unity with one Scripture in the life for its nature is shut out of the nature of the things there witnessed As for instance it may have a litterall knowledge of Christ according as the Scripture relates of his birth preaching miracles death resurrection ascention intercession c. Yea but the thing spoken of it knoweth not The nature of Christ which is the Christ is hid from that eye So it may have a litterall knowledg of the blood of Christ and of justification but the life of the blood which livingly justifieth that birth cannot feele but can only talk of it according to the relation it reads in the Scripture So it may have a litterall knowledge of sanctification but the thing that sanctifieth it cannot receive into it selfe So for redemption peace joy hope love c. it may get into the outward part of all these but the inward part the life the spirit of them it is shut out of and cannot touch or come neer nor can it witnesse
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
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
though thou seest it not nor canst see it with that eye wherewith thou lookest to see are held captive by that which transgressed and hath erred from the life and are made use of to keep thy soul in bands and as they are thus held death and the curse must overtake them or that life in thee from which they first sprang can possibly arise Grasp not after the knowledge of this in the understanding part but wait for the sence of it from that life which lyes slain underneath these and by that part which exaltâ— these 4. There are false keys to open the several chambers of imagery in Babilon This food man cannot gather of himselfe it must be given to him this knowledge man cannot get into by himself but as this spirit leads him and opens to him for he hath the keys of death and opens into the treasures of death Now this hugely confirms a man in the deceit without the least suspition of it Why saith he I had not this knowledge from my selfe I came not to it by mine own skill or understanding but it was given me it was opened to me and it came in fresh and warmed my heart begetting sweet and pure disires in me and hath made me eye the glory of God and not my selfe Yeâ— it might come thus in the likenesse and work the likenesse of this in thee and yet it self not be truth nor be able to work the truth of this to thee and this is proper to deceive thy very heart and make thee a pleasant inhabitant of Babilon and a joyfull worshiper of the Kingt thereof whom through this deep deceit and most subtle false appearances in thy heart thou mistakest for the King of Sion 5. This false spirit hath his false crosses his selfe combats and fightings The very Papists have not only their wooden and stone crosses but they have also then wayes of self-deniall their wayes of crossing the naturall part of resignation to the divine will as they call it of fighting against corruption c. It is manifest that a man must deny himselfe or else he cannot be a Christiâ—n his own will must not cannot live if he truly give himselfe up to Christ therefore that spirit which lyeth lurking to deceive both severall wayes of self denyall to teach all which must have some hardnesse in them to the naturall part or else they would not passe and these may produce great and constant conflicting in the flesh and yet the fleshly nature be still kept alive under all these conflicts and exercises of selfe deniall He hath a circumcising knife which cuts off a great deale but alwayes spares the nature and as long as the nature is speard the Devil still hath that wherein he can dwell 6. He hath his false love to God and man and his false zeale for God Love and zeale are two distinguishing things All men conclude that love determines a man to be a Christian and so they take up some appearance or other of love somewhat that satisfies themselves that their love is right both to God and man The very Papists who are full of blood and cruelty yet pretend to love they have an image of love which contents them But there are far higher images even images of universall love and sweetnesse which no eye can perceive but that which knows the truth And take one word from me ye to whom it belongs all ye that cry up universall love from the sweet sense of its image ye shall one day know that one act of particular love from the true nature exceeds this in its utmost extent 7. He hath his false life The devil hath not only a dead formall religion but he hath a resemblance and imitation of the quicknings of the Spirit The devill puts his life into this image where need requires He hath not only a dead litterall knowledge but he hath paintings of the life he draws a thing to the life he makes his dead image of truth as like the living substance of truth as possibly he can insomuch as his images of life at a distance without being beheld in the true life cannot but be taken for living Now here is the depth of deceit when the devils images of life in the heart are taken for the living thin for the life it selfe 8. He hath his false liberty There is a glorious liberty in the Gospell there is perfect freedome in the service of the life there is liberty in the power of the life over all the creatures God made all things for man and he denies him nothing he being in subjection to him in the life and using all in the dominion of the life Now the devil paints a liberty like this yea a liberty that seems greater then this even a liberty wherein the fleshly part whose very nature is eternally shut out of the nature of true liberty hath scope which liberty is not surrounded nor cannot be surrounded by the power of life as this is and in this painted liberty that spirit which painted it lives which paint the true liberty takes off slaying that which calls it liberty and gathering in the name of liberty from this false appearance to that which is liberty indeed And by the way he that can read this let him The perfection of the true liberty lies in the perfection of bonds in the perfect binding down of that which is out of the life for the true liberty is the liberty of the life and of nothing else and when all that is contrary to the life is perfectly bound down then the life hath its ful scope without the least controul of the fleshly paâ—t and when the life lives then that which is joyned to the life lives also Now here 's the mistery of iniquity here 's the inward Kingdom of darknesse here 's the glory of Babilon Here 's he that contends for the Kingdome for the inheritance Here the son of the bond-woman thus dressed thus furnished thus filled within and without will have it go for granted that he is the right heir and yet all this while wants the nature of that which is to inherit and cannot possibly receive that nature into himselfe but only such images afore mentioned And if in tender love to his soule from a clear sight of this thing we warn him and bid him look about he cries doe not judge He really thinks he is right in the main and he seemes willing to refer it to the day of tryal Ah poor hearts the eye is opened which can see That which hath judged the deceit in us can also judge the deceit in thee Cannot the spirituall eye see things in its kind to what end hath God given it Canst 〈◊〉 see and judge naturall things in the naturall part So can they see and judge spirituall things who are in the light and who live in the life yea we shall continue judging thee in the â—eâ—â— and in the humility till God open that in thee which can sâ—â—l to our judgement Object How difficult doe you make the way to life if not utterly impossible If all this be true who can be saved Answ. The way to life is very difficult yea and impossible to that part in man which is so busie in willing and running towards life but it is as easie on the other hand to that which the father begetteth raiseth up leadeth The wayfairing man though a fool shall not erre The wisest and richest Merchant in Babilon connot set one step in it the least child in Sion cannot erre there Therefore know that in thy selfe to which it is so hard and know that which God hath given to thee which will make it easie Thou hast a living talent given thee by God let not thine eye be drawn from that but joyn to that keep there and thou art safe and that will open thine eye to see all deceits just in the very season and hour of temptation For thou must expect to meet with all these temptations as thy growth makes thee capable of receiving them And as they come the true eye being kept open they will be seen and being seen they will easily be avoided in the power of life for in vain the net is spread in sight of the bird Therefore that thou mayst be safe 1. Know the light the eternall light of life the little glimmerings and shinings of it in thy soul This comes from the rock to lead thee to the rock and if thou follow it it will fix thee upon the rock where thou canst not be shaken 2. Keep in the light keep within the the hedge step not out of thine own keep out of the circumference of the spirit of deceit the power of whose witchery and sorcery extends all over the regions of darknesse 3. Love simplicity love the nakednesse of life stand single in the honesty of the heart out of the intricate subtle reasonings and wise consultings about things for by these means the serpent comes to twine about and deceive thy soul but in the simplicity of the movings of life in the light lies the power the strength the safety 4. Lye very low continually even at the foot of the lowest breathing and appearances of the light Take heed of being above that wherein thy life lyes for the wisdome the power the strength yea the great glory lyes in the humility and thou must never be exalted thou must never come out of the humility but find and enjoy the honour and glory of the life in the humility 5. Mind the reproofs of the light for that will still be setting thee to rights That will still be bringing down that which would get up above and there lyes the preservation Oh the chastnings of the light the sweet chastenings of the love by the light These are healing stripes This brings down the exalter and that in thee which loves to be exalted and to be seeking the honour of the spirituall riches before the humility is perfected Thus in love to souls have I powred out my soul before the Lord and held forth gentle leadings even to the most stubborn and stiffe-necked THE END