found how curiously soever the cup be guilded yet it is but the cup of Fornication which bewitcheth the heart with its golden appearance and then leads it into adultery from the life And the Dragon doth not onely set up a false Church over the Nations in many parts whereof the truth had before appeared Rev. 17.15 but a false Ministry also There 's a false Prophet which deceiveth with Miracles and false appearances of truth advanced in this corrupt state which false Prophet continues and upholds his deceit over the Nations till the mighty appearance of Christ in Spirit and Power do judge him Rev. 19.20 2 Thess 2.8 There 's a Beast with Horns like a Lamb who doth great Wonders so that he maketh Fire come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men and deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth c. Rev. 13.13 14. Insomuch as he drawes the Kings and Inhabiters of the Earth in a Mysterie of deceit into the Bed of Whoredom and false Worship instead of the pure way of Life and pure Worship of the living God in his Spirit and in his truth Rev. 17.2 Is it not further manifest that this false Church and false Ministry set up in the World by the power of the Dragon persecute Gods Witnesses to the truth in all the ages of Antichrists reign So soon as ere the Church was fled into the Wilderness the Dragon forthwith went to make War with the remnant of her seed which kept the Commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 12.17 And it was given unto him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World If any man have an ear let him hear Rev. 13.7 8 9. And he had power to give life unto the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a Mark in their right hand or in their fore-heads And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the Mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his Name Rev. 13.15 16 17. Yea the Woman the false Church which the Dragon had set up by his power in the Nations instead of the true was drunken with the Blood of the Saints and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 O the misery and lamentable hard usage of the Witnesses of Jesus who have been true Lambs born of the Power faithful to the Power witnessing against every Form and appearance of Religion Doctrine and Worship which hath appeared without the Power even in the daies of greatest profession and highest devotion under the Apostacy from the Power how have these been hunted persecuted devoured by the Wolves in the Sheeps cloathing who had got the outside the garment the Name of Christ and Christianity the profession of Church Ministry and Ordinances but have wanted the life the virtue the thing it self and so have turned against it and kept it down that they might keep up their Form For let but the Power appear the Form without the Power is soon detected to be what it is And this is properly Antichrist and Antichristianisme to wit Not openly to appear in a direct denyal of Christ his Truths and Worship but to set up a way of knowledge and worship without his Spirit Another spirit creeping into the Form that 's Antichrist and the setting up observation and practice of the Form out of the Life and Power that 's Antichristianisme and this is the persecuter destroyer and devourer about Religion Now though the Lord hath suffered this false Church and false Prophet to reign long in the Dragons power and to revile and worry his poor Lambs in every age of Antichrists Reign yet the Lord hath appointed a season to judge this false Church Rev. 17.1 to cast the false Prophet into the Lake Rev. 19. v. 20. yea and to torment with fire and brimstone all the false Worshippers Rev. 14.9 10 11. O how deeply doth it concern England her Rulers her Teachers yea the whole People thereof to consider their Ways to consider their Worship to consider their Church-state to consider their Ministry that they be not overwhelmed at unawars in the bitter wrath of the Almighty before which there is no standing O that they could mourn and pray and wait for the eye of Gods Spirit for his pure Light which searcheth and discovereth all the deceits of Antichrist that they might not be bewitched with any of the wine of the fornication of the false Woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands to entangle her lovers in and keep them from the pure bed of Life where the Father of Life with the Son and Spirit are enjoyed and worshipped If men consult concerning these things in the wisdom of the flesh they will be entangled and erre for that eye cannot see the Mysteries of the Kingdom or the course either of Truth or Deceit The Gospel the Eternal Truth the true Church the true Ministry are all Spiritual not new shadowes as the things under the ministration of the Law were but Spirit and Substance and they can onely be seen by the spiritual eye of the children of Wisdom The wise Hunters and diligent Enquirers into the comprehending part cannot find the Womb or the way of Life or the way of the Worship of that which is begotten in the Life or Gods way of Ministry which he hath appointed for the feeding and preserving of the Life The Prophets of old could not be known discerned or owned by the fleshly eye of observation in Israel after the flesh but they still rejected them esteeming and magnifying the false Prophets above them how much less can the Prophets and Ministers of the New Testament be seen by mans eye Are they the Prophets and Ministers of Christ which a Nation cries up for such and which the eye of the wise men therein admires and pitches upon or are those they which the renewed eye in the Light of the Lord sees to be fitted sanctified and called forth by Christ unto that service Ah poor England must thou fall into the pit before thine eyes be opened The great Controversie of this Age is about Church and Ministry which must carry it the Form or the Power Whether the Church and Ministry shall take place which was before the Apostacy or that which hath sprung up in or since the Apostacy Whether mans wisdom shall determine which is the true Church and its true Ministry or whether the Spirit of God shall determine it Whether a Nation with the Ministers it sets up
and in this is the Discovery of him and the Redemption from him And happy is he vvho is not defiled with Women but abideth in the true Virginity expecting and preparing for the appearance of the Bridegroom The CONSIDERATION of a POSITION concerning the Book of COMMON-PRAYER As also of some Particulars held forth for Truths c. THere is a Position laid down in some Printed Letters concerning the use of the Common-Prayer-Book tendred by one Edm. Elis who professeth himself to be a Minister of Jesus Christ to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Ford as he stileth them against which Position he entreateth me if I find upon my Spirit any thing to be objected against it to discover it in exact and punctual expressions This desire of his is set down in Print after the Letters His Position or Assertion is this That a man may Worship God in Spirit and in Truth in the use of that form of Prayer for Morning and Evening which we call the Common-Prayer Now whoever would weigh this Assertion aright must have the Ballance of the Sanctuary and must put it into the Scale with an equal hand and then looking with that eye which is given to see the Misteries of the Kingdom of God to him who is born of God the Truth or Error of it is easily discerned True Prayer is the breathing of the Child to the Father which begat it from the sence of its wants for the supply of those wants The Winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit John 3.8 God by the Breath of his Spirit begets a man out of the Spirit and likeness of this World into his own image and likenesse He that is thus begotten wants Nourishment wants the Divine Warmth the Breasts of Consolation the Cloathing of the Spirit the Garment of Salvation wants the Bread of Life to feed on wants the Water of Life to drink wants strength against the enemies Assaults wisdom against his Snares and Temptations wants the arm of the Deliverer to preserve and carry on the work of Redemption daily wants Faith to deny the fleshly Wisdom that so he may Trust and Feel the Vertue of the Arm of the Deliverer wants Hope Patience Meeknesse a clear Guidance an upright Heart to follow after the Lord yea very many are the daily wants of that which is begotten by the Breath of God in its state of weaknesse until it be drawn up into the Unity of the Body where the full Communion with the Life is felt the Heart satisfied and the wants drowned Now the breathing of this Child to the Father from the sence of these wants for his Supply that 's Prayer nay though it be but a Groan or Sigh which cannot be uttered or expressed yet that 's Prayer true Prayer which hath an acceptance with the Lord and receiveth a Gracious Answer from him And he that begetteth the Child teacheth him to Pray even by the same Spirit which begat him In watching daily to the Spirit the Child is kept sensible of the Will of the Father and in his Light he sees the Way wherein he is to walk he sees also the Enemie when he is coming yea and the Snares he is privily laying and he feels his own weaknesse to withstand or escape And in this sence his Heart cries to the Father of Spirits for Preservation for him to stand by him for him to step in in the needful time even in the Season of Distress And thus watching to the Spirit the Life of a Christian is a continual course of Prayer He prayes continually This is the Living Prayer of the Living Child which consists not in a Form of Words either read out of a Book or conceived in the Mind but in feeling the Breath of its Nature issuing out from the Principle of Life in it to the Living Spring which is the Father of it who by causing his vertues to spring up in it nourisheth it to Everlasting Life But now man who is not born of the Spirit but by conceiving some of the Truths of God in the Wisdom from below hath attained to some change of Opinion and Conversation he pretends to be this Birth from above though indeed he is born but of Bloods or of the Will of the flesh or of the Will of Man John 1.13 and what God begets in and gives to his True Child he will be imitating though he be out of the Nature and Spirit where the True Child is begotten and where the True gift of the Father is received by him He will be believing though he hath not received any Proportion of the Living Faith from the Hand of the Father he will be forming Repentance and Sorrow for sin though his Heart be not turned from it he will be hoping in Gods Mercy although he be both from off the Foundation and from under the shadow of the Mercy-seat and he will be praying though he hath neither received the Spirit nor be taught by the Spirit to pray And so being from that which should guide him and teach him the truth and way of Worship as it is in Jesus he runs out into the inventions and imaginations and sets up a way of his own chusing which he having much considered of and beat out by reasonings and fenced about with Arguments he grows wise in his own eyes and now verily believes it to be the way of God and that he is able to maintain it against all opposers Thus one man he is for a Form another man he is against a Form and for conceived prayers and each think themselves able to maintain their own and to overthrow each other But Oh that that ear were open which can hear the truth that where there is any true honest upright desire after God from the simplicity of the heart it might not be thus betrayed through the subtilty of the fleshly wisdom which lies lurking in the wise reasoning knowing part to betray the poor weak Babe The natural man the reasoning man the understanding man the wise man according to the natural wisdom cannot understand the things of God Here 's no learning to pray aright to believe aright to hope aright to mourn aright to rejoyce aright c. But this wisdom must be brought to nothing 1 Cor. 1.19 and a man must become as a child to all knowledge as let in this way And he that so becomes a child is taught to pray to believe to wait to hope and all that is necessary to eternal life Now as the Father teacheth to pray so he giveth desires or words if he please according to the present need Sometimes he gives but ability to sigh or groan if he give no more he accepts that Sometimes he gives strong breathings and plenty of words to pour out the soul in before the Lord. But if a man should catch those words and lay
THE CONSIDERATION OF A POSITION Concerning the Book of Common-Prayer AS ALSO Of some Particulars held forth for Truths by one EDMUND ELIS stiled a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ With a Warning of Tender Bowels to the Rulers Teachers and People of this Nation concerning their Church and Ministry Likewise a few Words concerning the Kingdom Laws and Government of Christ in the Heart and Conscience it 's Inoffensivenesse to all Just Laws and Governments of the Kingdoms of men By Isaac Penington the Younger Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame Rev. 16.15 LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the Sign of the Black-Spread-Eagle Wind-Mill in Martins Le Grand 1660. THE PREFACE CHRIST the Eternal Son of God the substance of all the Types and Shadows of the Law was made a Priest to God not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the Power of an endless Life He came in the Power of the Father he received the Power he ministred the Power and in the Power Thus he gathered together living stones built them into a living Temple for the Father of life to dwell in that they might be filled with the Power dwell in the Power and be to the glory of the Power The Church of Israel the Church of the Old Testament the Church of Moses was gathered by the Letter was to be ordered by the Letter was to keep and observe the Law of the Letter was to have Priests and Sacrifices according to the Letter but the New Testament Church was to be of true Jews of Jews gathered in the Power Circumcised by the Power renewed in the Power c. So that he is not a Jew any longer who is one outward nor that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter We are the Circumcision saith the Apostle which Worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh The New-Testament state is a state of substance even of that spiritual substance which the Law held out in shadows The Jew is inward the Circumcision inward the Sacrifices inward the Church inward the Ministry inward the Worship inward all is in Spirit in Life in Power in Vertue the whole state is answerable to the High Priest of our Profession even after the Power of the endless life By the Eternal Spirit was he made a Minister by it he preached the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel c. Luke 4.18 through it he offered up himself a Sacrifice without spot to God Heb. 9.14 and in the same Power runs the vein of the whole dispensation of the Gospel for it is a ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Take away the Life take away the Spirit ye take away the stones of this Building ye take away the Church ye take away the Ministry ye take away all Now about this inward Building there was an outward Court which had its Being State and Honour from the presence of the inward life The vertue of the inward Building did cast a reflection and bring forth an outward state as it cannot but do where ever it appears in its riches and glory This state stood firm in the dayes of the Apostles till Gods measuring and removing of his Temple Altar and Worshippers and his giving up of the outward Court it having lost the life and vertue which flowed into it from the Temple while the Temple remained within it to the Gentiles who under the Gospel are such as are Uncircumcised in Spirit can Worship in the outward Court without the Spirit The enemy indeed fought hard against the Life and Power but he could not there prevail the Gates of Hell could not prevail against the true Church which brought forth the Man-child nor against the Man-child whom she brought forth but the Man-child was caught up to God and the Woman fled into the Wildernesse Then that Church State and Worship which depended upon their presence was dissolved For how could it be otherwise when both the Man-child which was the Head of the Church from whence the Vertue Life and Influence did flow into the whole Body and the Woman or Church her self also vvere both gone out of sight So that the Ministry of Eternal life the Temple vvherein the life vvas ministred being both removed they are neither of them henceforvvard to be found in that place vvhere they vvere beheld before and vvhere most eyes vvould be ready to look for them again but there vvhere the Spirit had hid them Novv mark diligently vvhat kind of esteem the true Church hath had in the World ever since her disrobing her self of her outvvard garments and flight into the Wilderness and hovv her true Seed have been handled The Dragon immediatly casts a flood after her her beautiful raiment being put off and she clothed in the habit of a Widovv the eye of the World could no longer see and acknovvledge her to be the Church but disdain reproach revile her This is her lot all the dayes of Antichrist she is misrepresented by the Dragons flood of reproaches and looked upon as a strumpet as one that pretends to Christ for her Lord and Husband to his Spirit to his Kingdom to his Truth vvithout a just right and the remnant of her Seed are still made War vvith by the Dragon Who have been the hunted ones the hated the persecuted in all Nations but the tender-conscienced vvho receive the Lavv of Christ into their hearts bovving to him in their Worship and Conversation and dare not bovv or Worship according to the Doctrines and Cammandments of men Novv the true Church or Temple being thus removed the outvvard Court becomes the Habitation and Place of Worship among the Gentiles all the time of the Churches abode in the Wilderness The Spirit of the Lord having left it the heathenish spirit man's earthly Nature and Wisdom the spirit of Antichrist enters into it and upholds the Form of the former Building so far as it judgeth necessary and here it is found Worshipping and making a great shevv of Holiness and devotion but in the mean time makes War vvith the true Worshippers vvho cannot Worship in the outvvard Court since the Spirit of the Lord hath left it and given it to the Gentiles but follovv the Church into the Wilderness and Worship in that Temple vvhich God hath removed thither O vvhere is the eye vvhich can read these things as they are vvritten either in the Letter or in the Spirit Antichrist is a Mystery of Iniquity vvhich vvorks and gets up and reigns under an appearance of Godliness and he that vvill discern him and his false vvayes of Worship must have that eye vvhich sees beyond the appearance of things into their nature
them up against another time and offer them up to God in his own will this would be but Will-worship and abomination This I have known experimentally and have selt the Wrath of God for it That is Prayer which comes fresh from the Spirit and that is a true desire which the Spirit begets but the affections and sparks of mans kindling please not the Lord nor do they conduce to the Souls rest but will end in the Bed of sorrow Isa 50.11 Now as touching the Book of Common-Prayer or Prayers conceived without the immediate breathings of the Spirit I shall speak mine own experience faithfully which is this I have felt both these wayes draw out the wrong part and keep that alive in me which the true Prayer kills And he that utters a word beyond the sence which God begets in his spirit takes God's Name in vain and provokes him to jealousie against his own soul God is in Heaven thou art on Earth therefore let thy words be few The few words which the Spirit speaks or the few still soft gentle breathings which the Spirit begets are pleasing to God and profitable to the Soul but the many words which mans wisdom affects hurt the precious life and thicken the vail of death over the Soul keeping that part alive which separates from God which part must dye e're the Soul can live The true Prayer is by that which God begets in the vertue of his Spirit praying alwayes in the Spirit Ephes 6.18 Jude 20. in the time he chuses for the Spirit breatheth as well when he listeth as where he listeth and man cannot limit him when he shall breath or when he shall not breath but is to wait the seasons of his breathing and so to watch unto Prayer Now if the Prayer be in words for there is a praying without words then it must be in those words which he pleaseth to give from the sence which he kindleth and not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth or would chuse to use And indeed in the true Religion and in every exercise of it mans wisdom is kept out and nail'd to the Cross by which means the immortal life is raised and grows in the true Disciple He believes he hopes he waits he prayes he mourns he rejoyces he obeyes c. in the Cross to the mortal part not as mans wisdom teacheth or would teach or can teach any of these things for his Sacrifice is still an abomination even to the wise Egyptian part in himself O wise man abase thy self before the Lord in his Spirit that thou mayest read this and live but as the life teacheth as the Wisdom from above teacheth which breaketh down shutteth up confoundeth and destroyeth mans wisdom while he is teaching his Babe Thus have I answered in the simplicity of my heart to the nature of the thing so far as the Lord hath pleased to draw forth my spirit and in sinking down to that which thus opened my spirit my Answer may easily be read and assented to but to that which is in the disputing wisdom out of the feeling of the hidden life and vertue it may prove a Mystery Afterwards he also intreateth me to peruse seriously and to lay deeply to heart in the real fear and dread of the great God some particulars which he teacheth for Truths I perceive he is offended at the questioning of his Ministry and that the main intent of his proposing these is to justifie his Ministry which if they were true yet the preaching of them would not prove him or any man else to be a Minister of Jesus Christ for it is not preaching things that are true which makes a true Minister but the receiving of his Ministry from the Lord. The Gospel is the Lords which is to be preached and it is to be preached in his Power and the Ministers which preach it are to be endued with his Power and to be sent by him The Apostles themselves though they had received instructions concerning the Kingdom from Christs own lips both in his life-time and after his Resurrection Act. 1.3 and had received a Commission from him to teach all Nations Matth. 28.18 19. Yet this was not sufficient to make them able Ministers of the New Testament but before they went abroad to Preach they were to wait for the Power Act. 1.4 8. And when they had received it they were to minister in it that men might be converted to the Power and by the Power that the Faith of persons might not stand in the wisdom of their words which Paul might have abounded in as well as others but in the Power of God 1 Cor. 2.5 And this was it made Paul minister in fear and trembling lest the wrong part in him should minister lest the earthly understanding part should be holding forth the Truths of God out of the Life out of the Power and so he should Convert men to the Wisâ—â—m of the words he spake and not to the Power v. 2 3. This was it he was sent for to turn men from darkness to light from the Power of Satan to God Acts 26.18 from the spirit of enmity and death to the Spirit of Love and Life and this he was careful of in his Ministry that men might not run away with his words and miss of the thing And this also was the way whereby he discovered true and false Ministers I will come and know saith he not the speech of them which are puffed up but the Power for the Kingdom of God is not in word but in Power 1 Cor. 4.19 20. Many men might catch their words and run away with them and Preach them but they could not Minister in the Power Now the Kingdome which the Gospel-Ministers are the Preachers of consists not in words but in Power God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 The Ministry of the New Testament is a Ministry of the Spirit and it cannot be without the Spirit It is a reaching to men's Consciences in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 1 Cor. 2.4 and 2 Cor. 4.1 2. which being felt in the heart and turned to this converts them to God The Ministry of the Gospel doth not consist in a bare opening of the Letter or raising of Doctrines and Uses from the Letter which the wisdom of man may easily perform as the Ministry of the Law did but in bringing men to the feeling of the Spirit even of the Eternal Power of God which redeems in turning men from the darkness to the Light in setting their faces towards the Power The Gospel is the substance of what was shadowed out in the Law and he that Ministers it must Minister substance He must have the heavenly Treasure that 's the substance in his earthen vessel 2 Cor. 4.7 and he must give out of this Treasure into the vessel which God prepares and that he may do this he must
shall be the Church and Ministry or whether Gods holy Nation which he calleth and sanctifieth by his Spirit and the Ministers which he chuseth and sendeth to gather and build up his in the holy Faith and pure power of Life shall be the Church and Ministry Our eyes wait on the Lord to see this Controversie determined and our hope of help is in his Arm nor are we at all affrighted at the rising of any strength against us our hearts being given up to Gods Truth and to suffer for its Testimony according to Gods will meekly and patiently in his strength but we pitty this poor land yea in the depth of bowels we pitty the Rulers the Teachers and People therein O that they might be humbled and in fear of the great God surrender to him his due before he appear in his strength to force it from them Of the Kingdom Laws and Government of Christ in the Heart and Conscience its Inoffensiveness to all just Laws and Governments of the Kingdoms of men CHrists Kingdom Gods Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven for they are all one and the same is that seed of Eternal Life which God hath hid in the hearts of the sons of men whereby he gathereth them back unto himself bringeth them under the Yoak of his Government ruleth over them and reigneth in them This Kingdom is likened to a grain of mustard seed for its smalness to a Pearl for its Riches Value and Worth to Leaven for its spreading nature and many other Parables did Christ make use of to discover it by as to a piece of Silver which the woman that lost it lighting the candle sweeping the house and searching it diligently at length found it even there where she had lost it Man fallen from God is become lost as to the Lord and as to his own happiness in the Lord being driven from his blessed presence and divine Image Life and Spirit into the earthly Spirit Image and Life which he chose Yet in this Earth in this Field of the World God hath hid somewhat even the everlasting Pearl which when man is awakened to seek and findeth in the living Breath in the Eternal Light of Life it is able to redeem him it is able to overspread he becoming subject to the Laws Leadings Teachings and Power of it and leaven him into the Likeness and Image of the pure Life and Spirit Or not men knew the Gift of God O that men knew the purchase of the blood of Christ O that men knew that Spiritual good thing which Christ who died for them hath given to Redeem them by that in that they might be united to Christ and so by him be Renewed and Restored to God For as the Father receiveth none but through the Son so the Son receiveth none but in that Gift which he bestoweth from the Father He owneth no Faith no Love no Hope no Repentance no Obedience but what springeth from that and standeth in that Now as man is Born of this is Leavened by this as he becomes a fool in his own earthly wisdom and excellency of the fallen Spirit and becomes a Babe a Child Simple Innocent c. so he enters into the Kingdome being ingrafted into the Root through the virtue of this which is given him from the Root and so grows up in this and this in him And here 's the new Nature the new Life the new Heart the new Spirit in which the Unity and Fellowship with God is again known and the Disunion with the World the Wisdom the Interests the Fashions the Customs the Fears the Hopes the Delights the Joys of this World and whatever else is of it For Christ as he is not of the World so he calleth men out of the World and they which follow him and become his Disciples go out of the World after him that is travel in Spirit and Conversation from what is of the Earth from what ever is not of the Father but of the World They are not of the World even as I am not of the World saith Christ concerning his Disciples John 17. therefore the world hateth them The Laws of this Kingdom are given forth in the Kingdom from the Covenant of life which is made there in Christ They are written in the heart in the mind as far as it is renewed There the fear is put there the eternal Wisdom is opened there is Sion known and the Jerusalem which is from above and the Laws of eternal life issue fresh from it and are revealed by the life in the heart which is turned towards the life There sin is reproved and everlasting Righteousness manifested in the Light which cannot deceive and as the heart is made subject under the yoke so sin is wrought out and Righteousness brought in and under the Cross or yoke of life the blood of the everlasting Covenant runs through the vessel to keep it pure sweet clean and fresh in the life This then is the Government of Christ to be subject to his Spirit which appears and opens his will in the gift of grace which comes from him to feel his living breath by which the heart is begotten to God out of the Region of darkness to know the movings the stirrings the leadings the steps of the Lamb who is the Captain of our Salvation and to follow him where ever he goes doing all things that he commands forbearing all things that he forbids without murmuring without disputing Who ever will be of the inward Israel the spiritual Israel which Christ redeems out of the spiritual Egypt and leads through the spiritual Wilderness into the Land of Rest must know his Leader must receive his Spirit and follow it faithfully If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his he is none of the spiritual Israel and if any man follow not the Spirit of Christ through all the travels in the Wilderness but either sits down by the way or lyes overcome by any kind of enemies and comes not to the end of his journey finishing the warfar and fight of Faith he falls short of the rest O that men were awakened to consider of things as indeed they are for Religion is not such an outward Form of Doctrine or Worship of any sort as men generally whose poor Souls are deceived through the subtilty of the powers of darkness are too apt and willing to apprehend but it consists in Spirit in Power in Vertue in Life not in the oldness of any Form which passeth away but in the newness of the Spirit which abideth for ever in being born of the Spirit in abiding in the Spirit in living walking and worshipping in the Spirit yea in becoming and growing into Spirit and into eternal Life for that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit O that the sons of men would hearken that they might tast of the sweetness and riches of the goodness which the Father in his free love hath opened in the