begin There are many rovings in mans minde many immaginations driving up and down this way and that way where must a man stop Where must he begin For he that never begins can never come to the end that 's certain And he that goes wrong the longer he so goes and the faster the further he is from his journeys end and the more is his sorrow So that a beginning a man must have and to that he must come and it must be in the Truth too or it will not be well with him and there he must begin and there he must stop But where must he begin At what must he stop Friends these things are fundamental do they not say that when ye come to Objectum quo sistendum est when ye are come to the Principle of Seeing and knowing ye must stop there or there ye must begin wheâ—â— ye have found out that when ye are come to that And is or can this be any other then the Light of Christ The beginning of the Creation of God the measure of Truth the Divine Principle the Eternal Eye in man which onely can perceive the Things of God for they are Spiritually discerned which leads to God to Christ the Saviour of the Soul who is Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End the First and the Last who is and who was and who is to come thâ— Lord God Almighty which is the Door and administers the entrance into the Kingdom of God which is the Principle of seeing and knowing the things of God And the reason is plain For till a man comes to this he is lost and blind and cannot see â—far off nor understand the things that appertain to his Eternal Peace the things of God the things that are of the Divine nature And this Spiritual man judgeth all things but he himself is judged of no man Lastly Look ye Readers of Phylosophy into the Ethicks and tell me whether their answer to this great Question Sc. What is Truth Be not this viz. Quod sistit intellectum veritas est that is that which stayes stops limmits bounds the understanding or mind of man is Truth which Principle Paul spake to in the Phylosophers at Athens when he said that God had made of one blood all Nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and had determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us for in him we live move and have our being c. of which I have spoken And the reason of this is manifest for man being driven from God in the fall lost and wandering up and down on the face of the Earth that which brings him back again which puts him to consider which stayes which stops him and bounds his habitation that he may return to him from whom he is gone and feel after God whom he hath lost and find him whose off-spring he is who is not very far from him though he be very far from God and alienated by reason of wicked works for in him he lives moves and hath his being must needs be truth So then unlesse ye will offer violence to the very principles of your own professions to the Scriptures of Truth and to the witnesse of God in you all ye cannot any longer oppose the Truth of God in you now made manifest for no new thing have I held forth to you but that which was in the beginning and which as ye see is the very bottom and foundation of your Principles though it be newly manifested even the Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but is now made manifest to his Saints to whom God would make known what is the riches of the Glory of this Mysterie among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of Glory Therefore my dear friends be cool and considerate let Wisdom weigh you and discretion hold the ballance in your hearts Be not rash to judge that which ye know not and cast not presently away that which ye do not understand and which may seem crosse to the current of what ye professe but come to the Principle of God in you Christ Jesus the Light of the World the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World the measure of him in you which ye have received And in and with that try all things and as ye find what I say answering to that Principle in you so do And the God of Peace who brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant shew you mercy Bristol the 27th 2d Moneth 1660. Geo. Bishop THE END ERRATA Page 4. line 11. read hath for having p. 5. l. 31. blot out of p. 6. l. 30. blot out in before one p. 8. l. 19. read Christopherus for Christopher l. 33. r. good for God
consentaneum possidet Divina nobis admirabillia Lex Law a Name consentaneous or agreeable to the minde that is to God faith Finch whom the Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mens the Minde which is Truth Wisdom and Justice it self possesseth in us Divine and things most admirable â—â—so that the Name it self saith he doth shew the Author from whence it came And as he saith that is Plato Qui tanti talem genuere parentes How great are those parents which have brought forth such a Child Now who is he that carries with him and hath as it were inclosed in his Name and nature those three Lawes and Golden Chain of all good learning to wit the law of Truth the law of Justice the law of Wisdom who therefore is not onely Science but Scientificissimous whose Name is agreeable to God to the minde from whence he came who is Truth Wisdom and Justice it-self and possesseth in us Divine and things most Admirable whose Name shews the Author from whence he came of whose Father it may be said How great is he that hath begetten such a Son But the Son to whom the Father saith thy Throne O God is for Ever and Ever a Scepter of Righteousnesse is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Thou hast loved Righteousnesse and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of gladnesse above thy fellows And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thy Hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a Garment and as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thine years shall not faile The Son on whose shoulders the Government lies the word of God which abideth for Ever The LAW of the Lord which is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord which is sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord which are right rejoycing the Heart The Commandement of the Lord which is pure enlightning the eyes The Fear of the Lord which is clean enduring for ever The Judgements of the Lord which are true and Righteous altogether more to be desred than Gold yea than fine Gold sweeter also than the Hony or the Hony-comb And who is the Doctrine of Truth but he who is the Teacher of his People in whose mouth was the LAW of Truth and Iniqvity was not found in his lips And who puts Laws as of Right for the Teaching of men but he of whom Moses â—ruly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto You And it shall come to pass that every Soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the People The Man Christ Jesus Again saith Finch in the same Chapter and Page Laws are Native or Positive Tully in his Oration pro Mitone taketh us out this Lesson Est enim haec non scripta sed nata lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verum e natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed nati non instituti sed imbuti sumus For this LAW is not written but born which we have not learned received read but out of Nature it self have drawn suck't and expressed unto which we are not taught but born not instituted but endued In his first Book de Legibus he that is Tully doth again repeat it Constituendi verò juris ab illa Summa Lege Capiamus Exordium quae secuâ—is omnibus ante nata est quam Scripta lex ulla That is But let us take the Rise of constituting Law from that Soveraign Law which is born before all Ages before any Law was written where this Native Law he that is Tully calleth the Soveraign Law as that from which all other Laws do stream And lastly saith Finch Native are those Laws which are in Vs of themselves and therefore unchangeable and perpetual Now what is that LAW that is not Written but Born which we have not learned received read unto which we are not taught but born not instituted but endued but the law put into the Mind and writ in the Heart not with Ink and Paper but the Spirit of the living God the New Covenant which the Lord said he would make with the house of Israel after those dayes even that he would put his Laws into their Mind and write them in their Hearts and that He would be unto them a God and that they should be to him a People and that they should not Teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all should know him from the least unto the greatest for that he would be Merciful to their Vnrighteousnesse and their Iniquities he would remember no more And what is that Nature it self out of which we draw suck and expresse it but the Nature by which the Gentiles which had not the Law did the things contained in the Law these having not the Law were a Law unto themselves which shewed the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing Witnesse The Nature Divine the uncircumcision which is by Nature which keeps the Righteousnesse of the Law which fulfills the Law by which is judged he who by the Letter and Circumcision transgresses the Law even hee who is called a Jew and resteth in the Law and maketh his boast of God and knoweth his Will and approveth the Things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law and is confident that he himself is a guide to the blind a light to them who sit in darknesse an Instructer of the foolish a Teacher of Babes which hath the form of Knowledge and Truth in the Law and yet through breaking the Law dishonors God whose Circumcision is made uncircumcision but the uncircumcision of the other is counted for Circumcision For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is 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 whose praise is not of Men but of God The Divine Nature of which they are made partakers who have escaped the Corruption that is in the World through lust And who is the Soveraign Law from whom all other Laws do stream which is born before all ages before any Law was Written but he who is without beginning of dayes or end of life who cannot be written And whose Laws are Native or in Vs of themselves and therefore Vnchangeable and Perpetual but his who changeth not in whom is no variablenesse or shadow of changing who is a Priest for e-ever after the order of Melchisedeck whose Laws are like him And indeed were not some such
him that filleth all in all which is in God the Pillar and ground of Truth Christ Jesus the Power of God And the Wisdom of God The way of Life the Way the Truth and the Life The one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Th◠man Christ Jesus the Son to whom the Father hath committed all Judgement the Judge of all the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God The blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords who only hath Immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen Who is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him For there is that in every one of you which never consents to sin nor was nor can be overcome by it which the gates of Hell can never prevail against else it should never speak it should never move against that which is evil which gives the Law the Rule to sin reproves checks Judges and condemns it be it never so high and flowing over and this is the Kingdom of God And this Kingdom of God is within you it comes not by observation said Christ even to the Pharisees whom he called Serpents there was that even in them which never was so overcome by sin as to consent to sin but reproved it and this was the Kingdom of God in them And this Nebuchadnezar came to acknowledge after that he was driven out from among men And had eaten grasse with the Oxen and his body had been wet with the dew of Heaven till his hair was grown like Eagles feathers and his nailes like Birds claws and seven times had passed over him Sc. That the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men And there is that in every one of you that limits that stops that sets the bounds to the rovings of your mindes and the out-goings of your thoughts to the ends of the Earth and to the wickednesse of man that it passe not all bounds and that brings to consideration to coolnesse to a consistencie of things in your selves and to minde God in whom ye live move and have your being and this is truth God that made the World and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing that he giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things and hath made of one Blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the Earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happilie they might feel after him though he be not far from any of us for in him we live move and have our being for we are his off-spring And there 's that in every 〈◊〉 one of you which seeks to gather you from your vaine and wilde immaginations of God Christ the Spirit the holy men of God The Scriptures The things of God to the beginning to the Light the beginning of the Creation of God which shewes darknesse and the state of man in the transgression wherein his foolish heart is darkened and his minde alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in him because of the blindnesse of his heart in that State the same is it in which only ye can know God and Christ and the Spirit And the Holy men of God and the Scriptures and the things of God for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned And Where is the wise man Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this World Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World For in the wisdom of God it is that the World by wisdom knows not God which he is come to confound even the wisdom of the wise and to bring to nought the understanding of the Prudent Whom none of the Princes of this World knew for if they knew it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory And this is the principle of God in you all the measure of him which every one of you have received wherein to know God and wherewithal to profit Of which he will require an account which is as a grain of mustard seed unto which ye all must come and be guided by and grow up into it if ever ye know the Lord or the things of his Kingdom which consists in Righteousnesse and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost or see his face or be made partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And this unto you all is is the word of the Lord for he that came to give the knowledge of Salvation unto his people by the Remission of their sins through the tender mercies of God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us Came to give light to them that sit in darknesse and in the shaddow of Death and to guide our feet in the way of peace Unto this therefore the measure of God in you all the Principle of God the Light which comes from Christ the Saviour of the Soul which witnesses for God and against all evil which it shews yea the very appearance of it and reproves judges and condemns it the same is it which shews you what ye should do which is in you and ye know that it is so which leads out of transgression to that which was before transgression the Ordinance of God to Salvation Apply your mindes whilst ye have time a little time heed it believe in it and obey it whilst the door is yet open whilst the Lord calls on you And his Spirit strives with you Whose Spirit will not alwayes strive with man whilst his Armes are stretched out to gather you That so ye may come to know the things that do belong to your Eternal Peace and that it may be well with you as to that in every one of you which must abide for ever For verily Friends the time is short yea very short and the Lord is at hand and he is drawing near to judgment he hath long waited to be Gracious he hath born long and suffered His Soul hath long been pressed under you as a cart is pressed with sheaves he is even weary with forbearing Yet loath he is that any of you should dy but rather that you should return and live And for this purpose hath he now visited you with his tender compassion Therefore hear that your Souls may live For this I testifie to you in the name of the Lord and as being moved of him whose word it is that to those of you unto whom his tender visitations have come and are still rejected after this your hour there is no more but ye will Eternally be concluded with