death which was the tree of life till thou be killed by it as thou hast killed as it is said I have been dead but now am alive for evermore for this tree of life is the Lambe of God that is slaine in the beginning of our first world and so hee lyeth dead to us till our wicked world is at an end and this our wicked world shall bring forth nothing but thornes and thistles which is sins that shall prick thee to the heart and thou shalt eat of thy owne fruits with the sweat of thy browes that is the labour of thy sinnes that toyleth thee with their laboriousnesse and this toyle shalt thou have with thy sinnes till thou returnest to thy dust againe or to thy old silence wherein thou wert before and thy serpent or sleshly wisdome shall goe creeping on thy earthly beeing of sin and shall live on their dust or first originall which is lies and is thy subtle serpents food and thy husband which is thy lie or unreasonablenesse that thou hast united thy self to shall rule and domineere over thee and thou shalt be subject to his will and all thy children or sinnes that he begetteth of thee thou shalt bring forth in sorrow and they shall be a pain unto thee for what is said to Adam is said to both for she or he is one and is the female of God for man or woman signifies both and this sword of justice which standeth in the death of Christ is the enmity the seed of the woman or humaine nature that shall breake the serpents head and destroy his seed and this enmity shall bruise the humanities heele or foot that he shall never walke any more in false wayes so this enmity or sword standeth in the death of Christ crying vengeance and saith that this world or Adam Edom or Esau is the childe of wrath and he hath prepared or ordained himself to destruction and so this whole world of Man is destroyed damned and utterly lost and Man shall never bee happy in his first birth because of his fall for he must be dead buried and borne againe or else hee shall never enter into the Kingdome of heaven for his owne nature is wrath but God did not make him so but his nature was so for ever for according to Scripture we are the children of wrath by nature and at the first wee appeare so and God did make him appeare to himselfe what he was and gave himselfe and all things into his power that he might not complaine and that the Man might see how he would use God himselfe and all things in him and so he destroyes himselfe God and all things within him and hath ordained himselfe and all to be lost so the first creation in Man is lost and God shewes Man his miserable condition in this death and losse of God and goodnesse and the power of God that lyeth in this death is called the death of Christ or the two edged sword that standeth to divide the soule asunder or that flesh of Christ that is the curtaine that stands before the most holy place or Sanctum Sanctorum and this power of Christ is in hell under our earthly beeing and Man of sinne till we and all ours is turned to dust againe and this power or death stayes with patience and long sufferance under us in hell till we are weary of our selves and sins for we grieve the Spirit of God by whom we are sealed and he daily shews us our owne misery and toyle and sorrow sinne doth make in us and this toyl we shall have for ever till we are weary of our selves and desire to be ended with all our hearts and to forsake our selves and our owne wicked world and all that is within us that is wicked then doth this holy power Man himselfe in us and destroyes us and all within us and turns us to our dust againe and when we are in silence with God againe then doth he create us anew and make us a new world and prepares us a bride for himselfe a heavenly Jerusalem a City and house for God and he is our Lord and husband and he is a holy and righteous ruler and doth governe all the faculties of our soule in peace and love with all orderlinesse and union for then the Lion our strongest passions is in peace with the lambe or innocencie and all our other beasts birds and fishes which is our phantasies is orderly and in peace then shall the childe or innocencie lay his hand on the Cockatrice hole and the Wolves Beares and Lions shall be together and one shall not sting or hurt the other for God is King and ruler in man which orders all things well and in peace in him and the Son of glory or God shines seven times more brighter then hee did in the former world and this glorious world or Man of God shall last for ever and ever in his glorious transcendent brightnesse and there is no sorrow or paine in this world but everlasting ravishing joyes and sweet content of minde for this holy God doth ravish the soule continually with his delectable pleasures so the soule is ever satisfied for God when he is our Lord and we have given our selves to him hee uses us thus sweetly and doth give us all pleasure and content but when he gave himselfe to us in our first creation and first world we were ashamed of him and hid and destroyed him from us but he is not ashamed of us but uses us with all love for nature appeared first and in that Adam all dyed for God and Christ was Sonne and borne there and he became mortall in this nature for God appeared there in weaknesse which weaknesse is humility and lowlines of spirit with all gentlenesse and love and when the wisdome of the flesh the serpents subtilty had opened natures eyes to pride and high mindednesse and to wrath covetousnesse and envie which eyes is the serpents eyes which is the evill eyes or the Devils which the nature or man lookt through which made him thinke that this high mindednesse and pride with selfe-will was a glorious tree and that there was glorious fruit on it and that it would elevate him highly and that he should be his owne God and ruler and that he should know good and evill which he did by wofull experience taste of its good which had the evill in it for it was full of confusion as was said before and was the mans toyle but he thought it was a glorious fruit and much to be desired and so doe all men that are in the first creation and first world so when Man had tasted of pride high mindednesse and selfe-will the forbidden fruit he despised God which is humility and lowlinesse of spirit and meeknesse and was a shamed of this and thought it foolishnesse to bee humble meeke and lowly for hee thought this to bee poore beggarly nakednesse and was ashamed of such a lowly
Godhead that is one is of a more pure and excellent nature then these lower changeable elements of earth water ayre and fire of which this lower world is composed off for this lower world bringeth forth nothing but his owne nature as earth water aire and its spirit of fire from which all spirits have borrowed a body which they cannot keep for ever because its nature is changeable and runneth or whirling round never standing at one certaine stay for the Sunne which is soule fire or life of this world never standeth still but every yeare runneth his race round and in his running he melts hardens congeales withers and makes grow green so that there is a continuall death and resurrection every yeare of things under the Sunne for nothing stands at one stay but is in continuall motion and change and in this change is was and shall be one and the same for ever for no man can consume diminish or annihilate the least atom or dust or bring any thing that is to nothing neither can any man finde the beginning or end of things but thou hast borrowed a garment or body which did lye potentially in that matter and when thou makest it appeare it is said to be a beginning to thee and when thou leavest it as it was it is called an ending to thee As for the world whereof Moses speaketh that the most holy God made certaine it is some more excellent better or purer world for man to live in then this for hee hath no true content here in this world or body of clay for this world is the visible God or good that is in continuall change but in the invisible world or invisible God is no change nor shadow of turning but is one and the same for ever if thou borrow a body or garment of this internall and invisible world he never looketh for it again for he is the righteous that lendeth never looking for it againe O that all soules did keep this body or garment that was given them out of this internall world that they might see with those eyes the Sun Moon and all the glorious orders of Starres which glorious world is for thee O man therefore look for thy internall garment that is given thee for ever for the eyes or lights of this body shall never wax dimne but in those lights or eyes we shall see and behold the eternall eye or light from whence those our eyes or lights came which shall be our everlasting body that wee need not feare losing or changing for it continues one and the same for ever being the free gift of the internall God There is a time wherein it seemeth to us that we had a beginning to this internall and invisible body although indeed and in truth this body hath neither beginning nor ending because it lay potentially hid in God and in his essence for its beginning to us is its ending because the beginning reacheth unto eternity and we shall for ever have this body if we doe not lose and disregard it as I feare we all have done for wee have not remembred our Creator in these dayes of our youth before our evill dayes came wherein we have had no pleasure for our evill dayes is this when we disregrad this holy body and then those eyes begin to wax dim in us though in themselves they are one and the same for ever and those grinders cease from eating the internall life the food of our soules and the mourners shall carry this dead body about the streets and walks of our hearts mourning and grieving for us and for our great losse and this is the grieving of the holy Spirit by whom we are sealed made sonnes of God for we have quenched crucified and killed this holy body of the Lord which he gave us for a garment for ever to cover our nakednesse and so he returnes to that holy divine earth from whence he came and the soule spirit or life of that body returnes to him that gave it And now O man what shall we doe for our great losse for we see nothing but death on every side for this externall world is but a living death to us for wee are in continuall expectation to be called out of it and besides there is one that is worse then death that followes us to cloath us with his mortall garments or body of wickednesse for he prepareth a body which is a lie or delusion and shews us a body which is a lie or vanity to cloath us with so that this body is worse then death for it is a living death and dying life and we were better to bee dead and and if possible to be annihilated quite then to live in such a wicked body of sinne and death and it had beene better we had never beene borne or brought forth in it as Job saith cursing the houre of his birth and the day wherein he was borne and wisheth that he had dyed in the birth and that he had never been seen in this wicked world therefore we see many worlds yet cannot see what reason man hath to believe that this externall world was ever made as he imagineth seeing there will follow so many absurdities on it for what reason can be given that there was but one man and one woman at first seeing there is blackmores or men and white and it is contrary to nature and impossible for a man naturally black or blackmore to bring forth a white or a white to bring forth a blacke and we see it so by experience and when Cain killed Abel the Lord being angry with him said that he should be a vagabond and runnagate Cain answered that his punishment was greater then he could beare and if any man should meet him he should kill him when there was none to kill him for if there was but one man and woman created at first there was but his father and he in the world and afterward it is said that hee went into the land of Nod and tooke him a wife who did inhabit that land and what man was the father of his wife how can all these things bee made good by the letter of the Scripture or doe you thinke that there was a materiall garden or a tree whereon did grow the fruit of good and evill or that a Serpent did goe up in the same to speake to the woman sure it cannot stand with reason that it could be so for it is said that all the creatures did come to Adam and he gave them names according to their natures now it is contrary to the Serpents nature to speake after the manner of men unlesse you will alleadge that she understood the language of the beasts and thought them wiser then God and resolved to be ruled by them which to me seems altogether against reason that the woman should be so ignorant and irrationall who was created rationall after the image of God to be ruler of all creatures
for at this day if a Serpent went up into a tree and did speake from thence to men and women it would make them afraid in so much that they would not doe what he bid them or dost thou thinke that in Mesopotamia a great way off beyond the seas that there is a materiall garden wherein standeth the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and ill both in one place and an Angell standing with a slickering sword to keep the tree of life from the man and that Adam and Hevah were cast out of this garden for harkening to the Serpent to till the earth and that it should bring forth nothing but thorns and thistles all which in my judgement cannot stand with reason or truth for the Scripture saith that none shall be saved but those who shall eat of the tree that is in the paradise of God why then doe not all soules or men goe to looke for this paradise and garden of Eden to eat of this tree of life whereby they must be saved for none can be saved without it And why doe not all men and women goe to fight with this Angell that holdeth this sword which keepeth them from the tree of life and consequently from salvation I see none nor heard I ever any that went to seek out this garden Angell nor tree of life and so if the Scripture be to be understood according to the litterall sense or this a materiall garden none can be saved because the same hath never been found out by any since the fall of Adam and that earth which is said to bring forth nothing but thornes and thistles cannot be the externall earth for we see it bringeth forth very good herbes fruit and corne fit for the use of the externall manhood and but few thornes and thistles Therefore O man looke not thou on the history of the Scripture but upon the mystery which is hidden since thy wicked world began for these are all holy and sacred mysteries which are hid from all fleshly and sinfull hearts whose foreskin of sin is before them as a partition wall therefore O man let thy partition wall be pulled downe by the mighty power of God in thee and let the foreskin of thy sinfull flesh bee cut off and be thou plunged dipped dyed or baptised in the most holy and divine nature or in the most holy Godhead for if thou goest into this river of Jordan or judgement as red as bloud with thy sinnes thou shalt come forth as white as snow and then thou shalt see all these secret and holy mysteries which are revealed to perfect and just men and to no other for to the wicked and sinfull men it is a closed booke and a dead letter for S. Paul saith in the second chap. of the second to the Corinths that he speaketh the wisdome of God to them that are perfect for none can understand it but such as are perfect and without sinne for to the wise of this world the wisdome is foolishnes and they laugh it to scorne and thinke it meer madnesse as Felix did of Paul saying That too much learning had made him mad O that all soules had this foolishnesse and madnesse it would be more pretious to them then all the wisdomes and riches of this world for the wisdome of this world is earthly sensuall and divillish all which perish with the using and the foolishnesse and madnesse of God as men esteem is to us our right and perfect minde O that all men were baptised into the Father Son and Holy Ghost then should they see things cleerly and never have more trouble in soule then should they know all good things and all teares should be wiped from their eyes and be in everlasting ravishing joyes and sweet content of minde As for the seven Nations that the Scripture maketh mention of which should be destroyed when their sins were full as the Amorites Jebusites Hittites c. it cannot be meant the destruction and killing of men because it is contrary to the nature of God and goodnesse to be the cause of destruction for he is the author and cause of all goodnesse and preservation therefore wee should be like God to pray for them and doe them all the good we can and not destroy and kill them in their sins for we should deale with them by the spirit of meeknesse and not send them to hell headlong for wee know not how soon they may return to God goodnesse wherefore those seven are the seven deadly sinnes which have set themselves forth as Nations in us which when they are at the full in us the Israel of God Jesus Christ must come and destroy them out of us that the whole society of God with Saints and Angells may dwell in us and that our soule may be a land that floweth with milke and hony and till all those good things come to passe in us we are not saved And whereas it is said of Abrahams beeing commanded to kill his sonne Isaac which is contrary to the law of nature and to God and goodnesse to command him to kill his naturall son there is some secret sacred mystery in it for in this is set forth the whole passion of Christ or Isaac or Jesus Christ is the promised seed which is brought forth in the Ancient of dayes or in the end of time and is the sole and only joy of the man and God to trye the man would have this sole joy and life of the man to be brought to the sacrifice but the Divinity or holy life cannot dye but as it may seeme to the man but the ramme or humanity which was caught in the bush of sin he must dye and bee sacrificed for sin for all sacrifices are for sin and the soule that sinneth he must dye wherefore we should not looke on the Scripture as a history but as a holy and secret mystery for in Gal. 4.24 it is said that by Hagar and Sarah is signified the two Testaments and that their children are two seeds the one fleshly and the other spirituall and Jacob and Esau that wrestled in the womb are said to be two Nations the one spirituall the other carnall and the Scripture testifieth them to bee two worlds which is meant the first and second birth in man and not as most imagine that God ordained the one to damnation and the other to salvation and the Scripture witnesseth plainly that those are allegories and to be understood as mysteries or else we shall altogether disorder and confound the Scripture and this is the reason of so many Religions one fighting against the other for the Scripture in the letter seemeth to contradict it selfe so that if we have not the Spirit of God which is above the Scripture wee cannot understand one word or tittle thereof aright and none can have that Spirit but he that hath ceased from sin As for the drowning of the world and building