houshold of Faith a Religionist a Christian an heir and child of God but he that hath not such a Faith nor suffereth the fruits of love to grow and blossome in a right godly and not seeming-holy way or nature he knoweth neither of Faith Religion nor Christianitie yea of no God in truth though he understood all the Scriptures all mysteries and Articles of beleef and could thereof talk and dispute eloquently and rationally even as an Angel of Light yet is he in Gods sight an unbeleever a miserable and contemnable man for he hath not in him the living power of the living Faith which alwayes is fruitfull in love therefore he talketh and prateth much of Faith and its righteousnesse yet he knoweth not what either Faith or Faiths works are whiles he doth not find and feel them experimentally inwardly in spirit and truth nor outwardly sheweth his talking and knowledge in deeds and works which God and good men may approve With such unprofitable Bablers is alas at this day all the world replenished namely with such as with open mouth cry Lord Lord prophesie and do signes and wonders but fulfill and accomplish not the will of God in power all these are but external plaisterers external cryers and seekers of Christ and the Faith despisers of the inward power of God or of the living Word of Faith and the whole kingdom of God in men in whom and by whom is the fulfilling of the Commandements and also the true Christian freedome in holinesse and righteousnesse Therefore thou Faith-conceited Man beseech God that he would work this living Faith in thee and free thee from this damnable and wrath producing imaginarie faith since that thou by this faith prated into thee hast imagined to thy self a freedome to sinne to transgresse Gods Commandments relying upon Absolution according to thy accustomed manner whereby alas thou art verily free but not from sinne as Christs kingdom requireth but from God and the fulfilling of his will and the observation of his Commandements in perfect obedience and so art become truly a slave of Satan 1 Joh. 3. v. 7 8 9 10. Every one therefore that will be a master of Faith let him behave himself as a pattern unblameable inwardly by the office of the holy Spirit in doctrine and outwardly in life as a follower of Jesus Christ He that boasteth of faith let him shew the new obedience of faith by a new righteous holy and to Christ-conformable life and conversation in the Love of God and his neighbour He that vaunteth of the Articles of Faith let him shew them forth in deed and truth for God is served neither with knowledge babling nor disputation nor yet the Church of the Saints which overcometh all things with Love in Patience and consequently not with words but with power Therefore O beloved Man that sayest that thou beleevest in God or but that there is a God make thy faith appear with true fruit in the strict observation of his commandements otherwise is thy saying vain and thou in truth beleevest on no God nor that there is a God for otherwise thou wouldest tremble and shake at the breach of his Commandements Thou that sayest I beleeve that Christ is dead for me shew then by thy self in deed the death of Christ namely that thine old Adam is buried with him thy lust and desire is crucified with him and thou risen again with Christ in a new nature or life of the Spirit otherwise is thy faith of Christ an historicall knowledge without all power and propertie of Faith Thou that sayest I beleeve a Church of Saints which the holy Spirit enlightneth sanctifieth and purifieth examine thy self whether the holy Spirit doth inwardly enlighten teach chastise admonish anoint guide govern lead and direct thee and thou also hast by the power of the holy Spirit the kingdom of God revealed in thee so that thou resistest all that exalteth it self against Gods will his knowledge and confession through the office or power of the holy Spirit and that the tentation from the world flesh and blood and wicked enemie is a right hellish torment to thee so then art thou a true member of the true Church of Christ Sayest thou O Man so I am for I am a baptized Christian O beloved Man shew forth the drowning of the old Adam the mortification of his lusts and desires and the renuntiation which thou hast made to the Devill the World and the Flesh in truth so that they rule no more in thee nor move thee to sin though they entice stirre and egge thee on to it Doest thou not or findest thou not this so then art thou an unbaptized and unchristened man for thou livest in the old and not in the new birth therefore art thou a violator of the Covenant of God Sayest thou yet I partake of the flesh and blood of Christ If thou partake thereof then shew the living-making power of the flesh of Christ and that the blood of Christ hath cleansed thee from all sins in words and works so hast thou truly partaken of the flesh and blood of Christ otherwise goest thou to the Lords Supper to thy double condemnation In summe all the Articles must live sensibly in thee and outwardly demonstrate the living power of love otherwise is thy Christianitie meer hypocrisie seeming holinesse self chosen godlinesse and imaginarie faith which do but further the destruction both of body and soul as alas appeareth before our eyes and yet no man taketh it to heart or will duely examine himself Two Questions verie necessarie concerning these present and continuing Warres viz. 1. From whence Warre doth spring 2. By what meanes it ends AS the inward exterpation or rooting out of Jesus Christ with his holy and threefold office in mans soul which when she is obedient unto and receives him he then as the true and onely high-Priest perfectly reconciles sanctifies cleanses and presents her as a new creature to his heavenly Father in holy attire of Love and as the onely Master and Teacher in her sent from the heavenly Father makes her remember her miserie in penitencie chastises her instructeth teacheth guideth and preserves her from the spirit of errour and thus in her powerfully exerciseth his royall office as her Head and LORD to the utter ruine and demolishing of the Devils Sin pallace bruising the head of the subtle and holy-seeming Serpent quenching and suppressing of all that shall exalt it self against his inward kingdom of grace as also to the overcoming of all outward enemies through the Spirit of Prayer and his iron Rod or Scepter and thus killeth and crucifieth sin Death the Devill Hell the Flesh and Blood and break asunder the whole kingdom of sin so that it can no more bring under subjection or into darknesse the soul which he hath redeemed is the onely cause of unbelief and from thence springing unrighteousnesse wickednesse malice hypocrisie self-chosen godlinesse outward false worship of God or Sectarie
and distressed worme therefore I have no reason at all to exalt my self for what my Head and Husband CHRIST bestoweth on me are of meere Grace which ought to work in me Humility and acknowledgement of mine unworthinesse that I am not worthie of them and in no wise work in me Pride nor any Proprietie or puffing-up Therefore avaunt Satan with thy subtiltie and deceit for thou art a Theef and a Robber of the due honour of my LORD JESUS CHRIST to whom onely is due all honour and not to me and for that reason whosoever will honour me is and shall be mine enemie O beloved Man in this manner thy repentant enlightned soul considered thou art as yet in an evill Inne or Lodging where no good dayes do shine but strife upon strife battell upon battell storme upon storme of which state the Scripture cleerly testifies that no man should be secure but continually examining and proving of himself and encountring with and couragiously resisting his enemies lest he be sifted deceived foyled and overthrown by the Devill stirred up to unprofitable words and works by his flesh and blood and ensnared by the Love of the World for if any of these Images possesse thy soul then Christ is expelled and hath in thee no form Perform O Man what actions soever thou wilt outwardly yet it is but as the Scripture termeth it untempered morter Let every man after this manner trie and search himself now whether his hitherto practised Repentance hath been divine and true namely so that the old Adam is thereby truly disturbed crucified mortified and Christ really conceived formed born grown and become perfect in his soul all which O Man thou must in power feel and find in thee and not know it according to thy Reason out of the holy Scriptures or mouth preaching for that is but a knowledge without feeling a Historie without experience and a word without power 3. Therefore in the third place I earnestly exhort every man in particular in the name of God to examine duely and to look narrowly to himself in these times of the righteous and burning wrath of God whether he be a sincere Christian such a one as in the Love of God is powerfull and active or else a meere verball or mouth-Christian a knower talker and no doer as alas alas the generall custome of most men is For O babling Babel thou art according to thy imaginarie Faith not spiritually rich though thou knowest the holy Scriptures and its naturall or rationall exposition and art able to speak thereof eloquently and after a Philosophicall manner wittily to argue and dispute Thou art not thereby spiritually fed nor refreshed although thou usest the outward Sacraments after thy accustomed manner Truly thou perswadest thy self in vain as if nothing else were requisite to accomplish thy Christianitie then an imputation of the merits of Jesus Christ and that in thine open transgressions sinfull courses Adulterie Sorcerie and Idolatrie For it is evident that thou in this thy worship or Religion art very wretched blinde poore and wholly bare or naked of the Righteousnesse which God approveth yea it is evident to thee by the Plagues of Gods righteous wrath and the consuming punishments which never have missed but alwayes have followed upon a false and before God frivelous Religion which punishments also even for that cause now adayes bear full sway For the true Religion hath never from the beginning of the world stirred up Rods of wrath but worketh Patience in the fatherly chastisements and outward persecutions for Christs holy Names sake and hearty Thanksgiving for the Conformity with Christs Crosse therefore if the world suffered in a good conscience for the confession of Jesus then were her case and condition good Therefore O thou Babell rise up from thy false foundation leave thy spirituall Pride wherein thou imaginest as if thou wert a true pure and sin free unspotted Spouse of Christ and stoodst in the power of the New birth and Regeneration of the holy Spirit in holinesse and righteousnesse in an obedient faithfull service with due fear and trembling as unalterablie or of necessitie becometh the Spouse of Christ before God the heavenly Fathers presence Ah thou sinfull stinking and loathsome Whore lay down and submit thy self with Nineveh before God in humilitie of Heart with acknowledgement of all thy committed whoredomes and pollutions with the Creatures and thy strange Lovers lye down in the sackcloth and ashes of deepest and lowest unworthy that God may no further uncover thy shame and ignominie in the Judgement of his wrath but out of his grace may work in thee true Repentance And then thereupon shall follow a right and true worship of God proceeding from the living Faith divine Love and Righteousnesse a holy Christian-like and blamelesse Life for these two are so linked together that that cannot severally consist and confequently the inward Peace and outward quietnesse even grace goodnesse mercie happinesse life and blessing as upon unbelief unrighteousnesse voidnesse of Love feigned Repentance and outward false worship of God whilest the true internall foundation whereout the externall worship ought and must issue is rejected and forsaken as John Arnt in his third Book of true Christianitie plainly layes open and thereby are practised the Heathenish yea worse then Devillish life and conversation c. Warre Plague Famine and other punishments and afflictions threatned by God are sprung up in all places among that people which call themselves the people of GOD and carrie themselves also outwardly as if they were such indeed boasting themselves highly to be Christians by their imaginarie Faith which they themselves have learned by their own power and also by the outward Religion which flows from the former and all this in a fiery Zeal or Heat yet altogether without the moving or driving Power of GOD to it in their Churches Prayers Singings Sermons Communions or Almes-givings c. and yet are altogether estranged from the Life of Christ according to the Power and Truth of it both inwardly and outwardly as by comparison will evidently appear to every one when he will make it without the flatterie and adulation of the old man in a right due and Christian-like triall and examination of himself Therefore this conceited world might well begin betimes duely and otherwise then hitherto hath been done to examine its customarie Religion it s pretended Christian faith communion in the Spirit especially by this burning wrath of GOD and yeerly encreasing terrible Destruction from their heart even from their very heart stirring up themselves to turn to God in the right way and manner of Nineveh not imaginary as if those Villages Cities and Countreys in Germany and elsewhere that have perished alreadie in Gods wrath were more wicked then those which are yet in a tolerable state and condition in respect of their outward prosperitie No verily no For if the remaining Towns Cities Countreys and Dominions do not soon even very soon
thee the everlasting true and living God O thou most clear and shining splendour enlighten throughly our hearts that the holy seeming Devill and the deceitfull selfnesse and arrogancie may be truly expelled O thou sole inward Teacher and outward True witnesse of the Divine Truth teach all men inwardly aright to know Christ Jesus and in thy power to call him Father in truth O thou Director to the true path and onely Way to salvation which is Christ Jesus the Son of the All-praised God in his Body namely the Church of the Saints Ah lead us we beseech thee in the right union to him forasmuch as we are alas by the instigation of the spirit of error so far seperated and so miserably disjoynted from one another that out of the scattered multitude that true and promised One may in right unitie and sincere brotherly love again arise O thou onely Apprehender lay hold upon us to day with the hand of thy grace and bring us again into the essentiall heavenly paternall countrey of Grace that we may there altogether spend the remainder of our earthly life with fear and trembling and serve thee the eternall God unblameably in holinesse and righteousnesse from our whole heart Ah thou onely Looser loose and untie to day poore mankinde from the hideous snares bonds and chains of the holy-seeming Devill and all his instruments which change themselves into Angels of Light and thereby violently ruine and destroy poore Mankind O thou the true Destroyer destroy the kingdom of sin in us wholly quench the lust rising in the flesh conquer the world with its deceitfull Treasures kill and crucifie the flesh refrain and stay all that which exalteth it self against the inward essentiall knowledge and from thence-springing open confession O open the eyes of our soul that she may lift up her self to the Mountain from whence the quickning and for ever refreshing delight joy and comfort doth spring and flow that she alwayes may long after the same O loose the inward spirituall eare that it may truly hear Christs word and voice that it may stand open to all the works wonders and deeds of God and alwayes stopt and close to all vain talk unprofitable words and jests unmeet for Christians to hear Untie the tongue that she may be thy holy pen and no instrument of the seducing and with the old Adam flattering devil any more O untie our hands that they may in right true and unfained love give to the right and truly poore and needie of the right blessing of God and not of that Mammon which by covetousnesse exaction extortion and under the colour of righteousnesse is hoorded up which doth at this present time tye fast the hearts and hands of men in all states with such a powerfull dominion that they are not able truly to lift up themselves to God being they are full of the blood of Lazarus O thou onely Renewer amend thou and renew in us all in all that we may even at this day while there yet remaineth time for Repentance which will quickly even very quickly be past run out that we so may become new living creatures and children of God brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and a living Church and dwelling of thine O God thou holy blessed Spirit and not any more deceive our selves with our outward accustomed assembling in the stony Churches in which the stony hearts and so one stone goeth to another as though that were the Comminalty of the Saints and but gather our selves in the true and living fellowship of thee O Spirit of God in truth and the sincere bond of Divine Love and out of one Spirit soul and heart truly honour praise and magnifie thee O onely God Ah thou holy and for ever blessed Trinitie one onely eternall God for ever be again mercifull unto us and spare us according to thy righteousnesse for the dear Merits sake of Jesus Christ Ah out of thy meer grace renew in us the Covenant of Grace that we may again become thy people and thou our God and gracious Father O manifest such a Covenant out of grace in all Teachers Princes and Rulers and in the souls of all the people and shew unto them thy wonderfull goodnesse O thou Saviour of such as hope in thee O God let thy countenance shine again in us that we may be revived and enlivened in right living power O God encline thine eare unto us and heat us for we are become very small O open the eyes of thy mercie upon poore Germanie and Ireland and behold how lamentably it is destroyed wasted overflowne made desolate and even wholly ruinated O look upon this thou great God how through the instigation of the three unclean prophetical spirits men afflict torment marter kill slay and devoure one another insomuch that the wilde beasts in their nature and race abhor such inhumain outrages O thou Archshepherd of Israel awake behold how thy poore sheep are scattered and torn and they that fear thee are also scattred and rushed away Ah God and Lord let the blood of the poore and innocent sheep and lambs which do not know wherefore they thus are torn by the spirituall and bodily woolves move thine angrie heart and once stir thee up to a mercifull deliverance O let we beseech thee the promised help come out of Zion Ah shorten the dayes of the inward and outward desolation O let we beseech thee the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah roare in power against the bloodthirstie and treacherous whom thou O righteous God hast in abomination that they may be inwardly and outwardly terrified and astonied and may so with horrour perish according to thy Judgement O thou righteous God crucifie the Crucifiers of thy dearly beloved Son Ah recompense to them that afflict and torment him Anguish and Torment and give to the Refractary-ones the thunder and lightning the brimstone and fire of Hell for their reward O God stand up in thy power Ah Lord lift up thy self we beseech thee in thy strength Wherefore shall the ungodly exercise their worse then diabolicall malitiousnesse and insolence upon the poore and afflicted any further and say in their hearts and confirm and shew it with their deeds as though there were no God no deliverer no more any Helper of the poore and afflicted Oh appear thou righteous Judge of the earth unsheath thy sword of Vengeance and let it fully reach the blasphemers and extortioners that the abominable scorners may once perceive that thou art yet the righteous Judge upon earth and hast not yeelded thy judgements to mortall men to exercise them according to their own revenge fulnesse but hast in thy wrath by reason of our unbelief unrighteousnesse and wickednesse wherewith we have offended Thee suffered them to passe over us as a flood of water to mollifie us to Repentance untill thine anger be fulfilled Therefore O God convert us to day and turn thy self against the vessels of thy wrath repay
AN EARNEST EXHORTATION TO A TRVE NINIVITISH REPENTANCE VVherein is briefly declared 1. What true Repentance is 2. How a man should perceive it wrought in him 3. Exhortation to a due examination of everie ones self 4. A right penitentiall Prayer 5. The Barres which hinder Christs working in the soul 6. What true and living Faith is Also two Questions resolved 1. From whence WARRE doth spring 2. By what means it ends Together with other considerable matter fit for the times PER CHRISTVM TESTOR ANTI-CHRISTVM ASPERNOR LONDON Printed by T. P. and M. S. and are to be sold by Ben. Allen in Popes Head Alley 1643. TO ALL MEN DEDICATED And published by a Lover of TRUTH THat they might heartily try and examine themselves in this troublesome and miserable time so that each one might begin to enter into himself and there make a narrow search whether he be in CHRIST and CHRIST in him or whether he be united to the World the Devill and his own Flesh and Blood Whether Light or Darknes have dominion in him and over him for his servant he is and shal be whom he obeyes whether of Sin unto Death or Righteousnesse unto Life everlasting REPENT ACCORDING to the Repentance of Niniveh O Beloved Man who so ere thou art consider seriously in thy heart and mind thy present externall and internall estate and condition hast thou ever had any cause to Repent didst thou ever do or leave undone any thing unadvisedly didst thou ever repent thereof seriously examine thy self and help thy self thus Quest. What is Repentance Ans Repentance is a divine work in Man whereby GOD makes known to him that he hath forsaken GOD and his holy will in the inward ground of his soul and hath turned himself from the All-in-all enlightning Light of Grace CHRIST JESUS and through his own mind and fleshly-Will rejected the government of the Holy Ghost and yet imagined himself by his accustomed outward worship and assumed name of Religion to be a right true Christian although he evidently lived in the love of the world in fleshly lust and in spirituall and corporall pride For which subtiltie and all other deceits of the craftie Serpent GOD works in Man an heartie sorrow and repentance for complying with GODs enemie So that a man by divine Grace begins openly to acknowledge such heavie and inward fall and departure from GOD and his holy will bitterly to lament the same and in very earnest to hate his accustomed internall Idolatrie committed with the world flesh and blood and with the proud and holy-seeming Devill and so to forsake relinquish and abandon the same That when he is tempted either inwardly or outwardly he then by the living power of CHRIST within him resisteth fighteth subdues conquers and overcomes and thus he lets the new penitentiall Light appear without selfnesse or arrogancie and shine forth to the Glory of the most holy name of God and the edifying and amendment of his neighbour in a right divine Love according to the example of CHRIST without any selfnesse for by the divine Repentance which is true godly sorrow all selfnesse will at last be totally mortified and swallowed up From hence ariseth another Question 2. Quest How may a man know that such Repentance wrought by GOD is in him Answ By the inward and outward Combate which he hath daily and continually with the enemies of Christ who is his Head and overcomes their assaults Also when he is outwardly tempted by the world by its deceitfull Riches transitorie treasures and by getting of the reputed necessarie provision of silver and gold wherupon the Heart would relie if need should be or else leave it to his Children that then in faith he makes void and quencheth such darts of the world and saies Ah thou deceitfull world with thy seeming Riches and vain glorie I thank God through Jesus Christ who hath redeemed me from thy love and stirred up in me a Love to the heavenly Treasure which neither temporally nor eternally will forsake me Which when I have and keep I shall then truly possesse that which can and will keep maintain and preserve me for ever If the World with its Honour Reputation Greatnesse or else with Contempt Despight and Reproach begins to exalt it self against holy conformitie to the Crosse of CHRIST JESUS which follows upon this Repentance when a man will not conform himself to the world any more nor joyn with it in fleshly sports and sinfull works then the penitent soul is readie in Faith and saith Avoid away I know not of any honour greatnesse delight sport or pleasure but what I have in and by Christ and the Conformity with his Crosse whereby the world with all its honour c. is crucified to me and I to the world against all inward spirituall and bodily Temptations and assaults namely 1. against the bodily as cares for food and maintenance grief for losse of temporall things covetousnesse lusts desires and briefly in all and with all things wherewith the old Adam will delight content and cherish himself or be lustie wanton and alive for all these things are in the eyes of God an abomination whatsoever the sons of Babel will prate and fable to the contrarie it being so that God will have the old Adam killed through Christ in his lusts words and actions and by no means cherished Thus speaks the repentant Soul I am buried with Christ after the old nature of the flesh so that I neither may nor can shall nor will live any longer therein but in the New Life which is Jesus my Saviour I will serve God with fear and trembling in holinesse and righteousnesse which is such a delight as remains for ever and thus I will be a crosse to my fleshly Tabernacle as it in its Lusts is a Torment to me wherefore I bear also a longing desire for its laying aside and to be rid of it 2. Against the spirituall Temptations as when the Devill perswades the soul that she is a farre gloriouser beautifuller and better endued Spouse then others and that now all is so well with her that there is neither need nor occasion of Fear she may also now judge despise and condemne those that speak any thing dissonant from her or else are not as it were subject to her nor will not suffer themselves to be moulded in her frame to brand all those with Heresie anathematize curse and condemne them that God would easily connive and wink at her she being the Spouse of Christ although perhaps she failed now and then or went beyond the bounds c. Here we must observe that it is impossible for a man to understand and perceive all the Devils subtilties and craftie stratagems unlesse God reveal them to him and in Christ defend him from them so that they may not hurt the soul Against these craftie assaults of the Devill thus speaks the repentant and beleeving Soul I am Nothing a poore wretched miserable