Apostles even al this time of the Apostacy since the man child hath been caught up to God and was not to be found in the earth which makes it seem such a strange thing for people to say Christ is in them and the woman hath been in the wilderness and not in the habitable part of the world Rev. 12. 5. 6. if al this time any one wil look for the true religon for the true Church for the true knowledg and worship of God he must not look on any Nation or any People or among the Tongues which are cried up in Nations and people for the original and as the chief interpreters of the original for they are al drunk with the whores cup they are under the power dominion authority and service of the whore who rides upon the beast to whom power was given over al kindreds tongues and nations But look among the Nations who was persecuted whose blood was drunk whom the powers of the Nations made war against ther alone the testimony of Jesus is to be found Rev. 12. 17. ther alone are the witnesses against the present idolatry and corruption and to some truths or other of Christs which God enlightned them with and wherto he stirred them up to give their testimony though with the loss of their estates liberties or lives Now by what hath been expressed is it not manifest to every ey that hath room but to let in the letter of the Scripture in simplicity and plainness that there hath been a great apostacy from the true knowledge of Christ and an universal corruption power of death sprung up instead of the power of his life and grace The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath disappeared and the abomination of desolation hath took up its place and filled it with deadly venome against the truth and against the life so that enmity against God under a pretense of love and zeal to him hath reigned generally in the hearts of men from the times of the Apostles to this present day And as the light breaks forth and their eys come to be opened they wil see that they have been and are haters of God and of his life and spirit but lovers of the world and of such a religion as suits the worldly Spirit Position II. THat in this great Apostacy the true state of Christianity hath been lost This must needs be for if ther was an Apostacy from the thing ther could not be a retaining of the thing about which the Apostacy was If they apostatised from the spirit from the light from the life then they wer gone from it they lost it Now it may be instanced in every particular how the state of Christianity was lost but that would be too vast and tedious it may suffice therfore to instance in some considerables ones which may lead into the discovery of the rest 1. The true rule of Christianity or the rule of a Christian which is to direct guid and order him in his whole course was apostatized from and lost What is a Christians rule whereby he is to steer and order his course A Christian is to be a follower of Christ and consequently must have the same rule to walk by as Christ had A Christian proceeds from Christ hath the same life in him and needs the same rule Christ had the fulnesse of life and of his fulnesse we al receive a measure of the same life We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30. yea we came out of the same spring of life from whence he came for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are al of one for which cause he is not ashamed to cal them brethren Ebr. 2. 11. Now what was his rule was it not the fulness of life which he received And what is their rule is it not the measure of life which they receive Was not Christs rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit wrote in his heart And is not their rule the law of the spirit the law which the spirit writes in their hearts How was Christ made a King and a Priest was it by the law of a carnal commandment or by the power of an endles life And how are they made Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 6. Is it by the law of a carnal commandment or is it by the power of the same endles life Lo I come to do thy will O God saith Christ when he cometh into the world Ebr. 10. ver 5. 7. but by what rule by what law thy law is within my heart Psal 40. 8. And the same spirit who wrote it ther is also to write the new Covenant with al the laws of it in the heart of every Christian from the least to the greatest Ebr. 8. 9. 10. yea the same spirit that dwelt in Christs heart is to dwel in their hearts according to the promise of the Covenant Ezek. 36. 27. This was Pauls rule after which he walked the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1 2. This made him free from the law of sinne and death Wher is the law of sin writ wher is the law of death writ is it not writ in the heart And must not the law of righteousness and life be writ ther also if it be able to deal with sin and death The spirit forms the heart anew forms Christ in the heart begets a new creature ther which cannot sin He that is born of God sins not and this is the rule unto righteousnes the new creature or the spirit of life in the new creature Gal 6. 15. 16. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them Mark ther 's the rule the new creature which is begotten in every one that 's born of God If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and this new creature is to be his rule And as any man walks according to this rule according to the new creature according to the law of light and life that the spirit continually breathes into the new creature he hath peace but as he transgresses that and walks not after the spirit but after the flesh he walks out of the light out of the life out of the peace into the sea into the death into the trouble into the condemnation Here then is the law of the converted man the new creature and the law of the new creature is the spirit of life which begat him which lives and breathes gives forth his law continually in him Here 's a Christian here 's his rule He that hath not the new creature formed in him is no Christian and he that hath the new creature hath the rule in himselfe Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know al things 1 Joh. 2. 20. How came they to know al things
be delivered up to it and do not despise the day of smal things waiting for some great appearance but know it in its lowest knock for its power of redemption is as truly there as in its greatest appearance He that hath an ear let him hear and his soul shal live Let those therefore whom this concerns consider their waies as the grace that appeared to me hath taught me to do and try their foundation upon what they stand and that they do not kill what is opened and live in the slain openings and so in the end become dark airy dry withered wheeling about and turning into the earth it becoming their rest and foundation again and so loosing the joyes which formerly the opener did open This with me many of you may witness for whom my desire is that they may also witness the return to that which then opened and live in the opener and be preserved by him from abusing his precious openings any more For though I had a true taste of life and power from God yet not knowing the foundation there could be no true building with it and so the spirit was quenched the life wasted the portion spent upon harlots the true bread lost and chaff and husks fed upon without the least satisfaction to the soul the sense whereof when the spirit of the Lord awakened me did almost over-whelm me Yea the bands of death were so strengthned upon me and the spirit of the word had taken such hold of me that I found my return very difficult yea when living words of hope were mentioned to me to draw me back to that principle of life from which I had gone out I could receive nothing but cry out impossible impossible impossible I felt my self like a tree twice dead plucked up by the roots without the capacity of life sence or motion in the eternal being any more But at length it pleased life to move in a low way in the midst of the powers of darkness in my heart and by sinking low out of the wisdom out of the reason out of all high imaginations and trusting my self to it though dreadful stroaks and oppositions were felt from the powers of darkness yet at length there was some appearance of the deliverer in such a poor low weak despicable way as could never have been welcomed had not the soul been first brought to distress and the loftiness of the imaginary part brought down And then coming out of that into the feeling in another part there was a seed sprung up into a child and as that child grows and feeds on the milk of the immortal word I live am strengthened in him and daily weakned in that part which lived before These are true words from an honest heart for the relief of those who may have been entangled in the same snare Here follows the Testimony Concerning the Estate of the True Church what she hath been and what she is and it was given forth as being the motion of the Spirit of the Father and left with me and is Judged sutable and servicable to be here inserted and it may be for the edification of many COncerning the True State of the Church what she hath been and what she is at this day and concerning her increase and decrease thorough ages and generations past and her present State is this returning again out of the Wilderness where she hath long been fed having a place prepared of God Now the Apostle saw her a woman clothed with the Sun covered with the light of Heaven and with the glory of God having the Moon under her feet the light which was ordained to rule the night Thus she was and this was her state in the dayes of the Apostles when many were converted out of darknesse and renewed to be members of this Church for her glory shone through the World and she flourished through Nations and this was her Estate in the Apostles dayes and she travelled to bring forth the man-child Christ Jesus which is the child and husband of this woman which was clothed with the brightness of the glory of God the elected spouse of Christ the Lambs wife and his body of his flesh and of his bones having power and dominion and treading under all contrary And thus was it with her in generations past whose seed spring forth as branches fruitful and glorious But in process of time it came to pass that this woman the spouse of Christ his body the wife and mother of thiâ— man-child she was bereaved of her beauty and her garments were taken away her seed was made war against and was smitten and overcome and she fled into the wilderness and there hath sat desolate as a widow lamenting the losse of her children and being deprived of her husband and the man child which should have ruled the Nations for she hath been fled into the Wilderness and her former beauty hath not appeared to be and her former glory hath seemed to be gone and she hath been driven away from her head from her husband and from her seed Behold all people the Estate of such a woman and read this parable who can a woman most glorious and fair having her husband ruler of the whole earth and having an heir born to rule over heaven and earth being covered with the light of heaven and of the everlasting day and having the light of the night under her feet yet hath this woman been deprived of her glory and sate desolate in the Wilderness a mournfull place seperated from her husband and made childless and without seed and what ey that sees this a right but must mourn and what heart that truly perceives it but must lament a woman so great and so glorious and so fruitful as to bring forth the heir of heaven and earth yet hath she been left as a mourner as without husband and without issue for many generations This hath been her estate and condition for ages since the dayes of the Apostle which John saw in a vision would shortly come to pass after him and we see it hath been come to pass within this sixteen hundred years and this hath been the estate of the true Church for many ages a woman childless whose heir hath been taken from her and whose seed hath been made war against and killed for many generations But her time was decreed and she should but be thus for so many dayes and now are the dayes expired and she again shall receive her heir that hath been caught up from her and her seed shall spring forth and her slain shall live and her beauty shall be given her and her first glory shall be increased and she shall feed no longer in the mourning Wilderness but she shall be fed upon the Mountain of Gods house which is to be established upon the top of all mountains and her seed shall spring forth numberless and her heir shall rule with an iron rod and her marriage day is
by this woman and her seed and this hath been the state of the Church for many ages since the dayes of the Apostles she hass been fled and her seed made war against and killed and her heir caught up to God and the Nations which should have been ruled by her heir the whore hass set upon them and the peoples and the multitudes which he should have governed hath been the seat of the Harlot the mother of all abominations and was it not like to be so and how should it be otherwise when the manchild the womans heir hass been caught up to God and he hass been as prevailed against and the remnant of the womans seed made war against and killed and this hath been since the dayes of the Apostles and so all you Churches and sects by what name soever you are known in the World you are the seed of the great whore and she hath brought you forth while the other woman hass lodged in the Wilderness and remains childless if any man have an ear to hear let him hear Now it may be objected to me and thus may it be said by this accompt the Church the Lambs wife hass been prevailed against by the whore because it is said she hath killed the Saints the members of Jesus and of the Church this seems to shew as if the Church of Christ had been prevailed against but Christ sayes the gates of hel shall not prevail against them but she should remain for ever and the gates of hel should not prevail against her and how doth these two things agree it seems doubtful to us may some say Answ To all this I do answer the true Church the spouse of Christ in her self was never prevailed against so as not to be in being or that she was not but in her self hass remained in being and not prevailed against so as not to have a place or being and Christs words are true she hass had a place and being to wit in the desert Wilderness which place was prepared her of God there to be fed for such a time So she hass a place and has a being though in the Wilderness a place desolate and of mourning So she hass not been prevailed against as that she hass not had a being but the Lambs wife the mother of the heir that which is perfectly so which was and is to be joyned to Christ which is of his flesh and bones taken out of him that cannot be prevailed against never was nor never shall be for the divel nor Satan hath nothing in him of whose flesh and bones she is which is taken out of him and it is as possible for to prevail against him as to prevail against her for she is of him as Eve was of Adam if any have an ear to hear they may hear But her off-spring hass been overcome her seed made war against and her heir taken away and caught up from her so she not prevailed against nor overcome though banished into the Wilderness fled thither and there hass she fed and had a place and hass been left childless as I have said So the mother and the Lambs wife hath had a being and in her selfe never prevailed against nor overcome and Christ's words are true yet hath her seed been killed and made war against and overcome as John said and both these are true and this is my answer and if any have an ear to hear they may hear though a parable to the world yet plain to the seed which now God hath raised and is raising for the woman again is returning and her seed again is springing and she is becoming as fruitful as ever and her glory shal be as great the light of heaven shal cloath her and the light of the night shal be under her feet as perfectly when she is restored as it was before the apostacy though people cannot believe this in the apostacy No revevelation nor immediate teaching nor miracles now to be expected cry the professors and these false sects and Churches it was extraordinary times and extraordinary manifestations were amongst the Apostles and Churches of old say they but the same now is not to be expected nor never to be looked for but thus they are in blindness and ignorance and unbelief But we believe the glory of this woman that hath been long fled into the wilderness and hath been long without issue while she hath been fled shal have the same fruit and issue and the same clothing that she had before she fled When the whore and her seed is removed from the face of the earth the glory of the Lambs wife shal be as great her beauty as fair her fruit as plenteous as before the whore was and they that believe it not believes not the Scriptures for that testifies of the glory of the Church to be the greatest in the last dayes as we are sure and certainly know it shal come to pass when the waters are dried up which hath been the seat of the great whore Now though all those Churches and sects of people are said to be and known to be the seed of the whore and not of the Virgin as I have declared and though Nations and Peoples and multitudes have been all running to sornication and been deceived and made drunk yet this I have to say in all sorts of people and amongst all those sects amongst Papists and Protestants and all sects risen out of them in thousands of people notwithstanding the darkness and all the Apostacy that has ruled in the general yet in some of all sorts and sects there hath been a sincerity and simplicity and a desire and zeal for God and of God in them and amongst them yet the sincerity simplicity and desire which hath stirred in some of all sects it hath no soonet appeared but it hath been smitten and betrayed by the wicked without and so by the error of judgement within for even amongst the worst of sects we know there is some in whom there is simplicity and sincerity and zeal and yet erre in judgment for this is possible and we know it is so with thousands and ten thousands at this day there may be a simplicity and zeal and sincerity of heart and yet err in judgement the judgment not truly guided by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit and a false thing even the spirit of whoredom it self ruling the judgment and be chief there and this destroyes murders and betrayes the zeal and simplicity and this is and hath been ever since the dayes of the Apostles great error in judgment and the judgement of all those sects have been mis-guided and misted and a false thing and not the spirit of the Lord has guided the judgment and thereby the true sincerity zeal and simplicity hath been enslaved and held under by reason of the erring in judgment and the state of such are truly to be lamented where simplicity is devoured and sincerity
come and the approach thereof nigh and life shall be revealed Thus she hath been and thus she shall be the Lord hath said it Now as for all those multitudes of sects and peoples that have professed Religion and as for all those Churches so called that hath gone under that name which hath professed Christ to be their head and made a shew of him in appearance the Papists Church the Protestants Church and all the sects that hath risen out of both of them they have not been the true spouse the lambs wife but children of fornication and not of the seed of that woman that was once clothed with the Sun and they are come up and their original begun while this true woman this spouse of Christ hath been childless none of these are clothed with the sun nor none of them have brought forth the heir of salvation Come let 's reason with you who was your mother who brought you forth and in what womb was you bred you that have appeared in the World and for many ages for the true spouse The mother of the heir hath been childless and as a widow banished from her husband and her heirs seperated from her and her seed killed and made war against She hath not born you nor brought you forth then of what womb did you spring all ye of the Papists and Protestants Church and all the sects that came out of you answer me this None of you hath been fled into the Wilderness for you have appeared in the World None of you have been as a widow mourning for you have been practising ordinances and rejoycing in the World None of you have been without issue nor your seed made war against for you have been fruitful in the World and one sect brought forth another and one Church brought forth another therefore none of you hath been that woman which John saw for never none of you from the least to the greatest of you was ever clothed with the sun nor had the moon under your feet nor ruled the Nations with the rod of iron therefore none of you are the true spouse the lambs wife he is not husband to any of you nor is he your child nor heir And this is the word of the Lord God to you all you Churches and sects your beginning and springing forth was from another womb while this woman lodged in the Wilderness and while she was childless and without seed and the mother of harlots brought you forth the great whore whose superscription is Mistery of Babylon and her character is Mother of all abominations For while this other woman hath been fled into the Wilderness which John saw was fled thither this woman the mother of harlots which brought you fotth hath been fruitful and flourishing and hath had an husband and many children for John speaks of two women of a whore and of a virgin of one the bloud of whose seed was drunk and the other drunk the bloud yea one that was made war with and against for the Saints were killed and their blood drunk and that other killed the Saints and was made drunk with their bloud the one was fled into the Wilderness he saw of which I have spoken and the other making all Nations drunk with her fornication and ruling over all the Nations of the earth as a Queen and while the one of those the virgin the Lambs wife hath been fled into the Wilderness and left childless without seed the other the whore hath been fruitful and brought forth many children taken great pleasure in the World and committed fornication with the Kings of the earth and these things John saw was to come to pass and we see that have John's spirit is come to pass already And come all ye Sects upon the earth and Churches so called that have been in the World for many ages which of those two women are you of and the seed of whether of them are ye who of these two was it that brought you forth answer me and make it appear But I have said already the virgin brought you not forth the Lambs wife did not bear you nor you are not of her for you were brought forth while she was banished and deprived of her heir and without her husband and you are of the seed of that whore the product of her fornications generated by the seed of adulterers and though you have been warring and fighting and striving one against another yet you were bred in one womb and are of one seed And though some of you in one appearance of the whores beauty brought forth have made war against them brought forth in another appearance of her and burned her flesh yet have ye given your power to the beast and John saw that also which we see is fulfilled some that should hate the whore and make war against her yet should they also give their power to the beast This have we seen fulfild amongst you sects and false Churches and your beginning we know and the first beginning of whordom and when the whore began with her fornications since which time all Nations have drunk her cup and her sent hass been upon Nations and multitudes and peoples Her first whoredom John speaks of in his Epistle and her beginning they went out from the body from the spouse and from the virgin they went out from the true Church being false members not as ever being of the body of Christ nor of the true Church but such as had been amongst the members of the true Church and were once convinced which had got the form and put on sheeps cloathing upon the Wolvish nature and here was the beginning of her whordom she went from the spouse and went into the World and the World heard her and received her and they drunk of her cup and committed fornication with her and she played the whore in the unbelieving World after she departed from the Saints She went out from them and they denied her and it was manifest she was not of them and this was the beginning of whoredoms and she was but young yet in her whordoms and little in the World and had not yet deceived many but in process of time it came to pass she increased so mightily that she made all Nations drunk and overcame them Kings and Rulers Bondmen and Freemen they all drunk of her cup and she became so great that Nations kindreds multitudes and peoples was her seat her place of goverment where she sate Ruler and Queen having dominion over all and all was bewitched by her and made drunk with her cup and of this woman came ye all ye sects upon earth and you are the multitudes kindreds and peoples upon which her seat hath been and over whom she hass had government And this is she that hass drunk the bloud of the Saints and overcome them and the heir and seed of the other woman the virgin hath long been made war against and killed and slain
betrayed and held captive by the whorish spirit that sits ruler in judgment I do not speak of all people of all sects that they have zeal and simplicity but of some people in all sects and through all these false Churches and so the spirit which has guided the judgment that has abased the zeal and abused the sincerity and betrayed it so people have been a running running after the form and blind in judgement and lost sincerity and simplicity that has been betrayed in them though sometime appearing and stirring and so the wrong part in people has fed upon the form and appearance and the seed starved and the sincerity eaten out and so one sect hath made this the rule of their judgment and another sect another thing the rule of their judgment one cries tradition another Scriptures another cries the practice of Saints before us none of all have been guided in judgment by the spirit of the Lord and where the spirit of the Lord is not the onely rule of judgment guiding the judgment in all things that people and that man are in error and the sincerity in them hath not its free course but bound under with a spirit which is bondage and leads into bondage and when people comes to be turned to the light of Christ in them and receive a measure of the Spirit of the Lord to guide the judgment then the sincerity and simplicity and zeal wil grow and thrive and be increased but til then the good is eaten out that lies under and is oppressed and ever and alwaies the desire quenched the sincerity lost the simplicity betrayed by the spirit of whoredom which rules the judgment and these things are manifest in our age therefore all people come out of your sects and false Churches for the woman is returned and returning out of the wilderness and the seed shal spring forth as in the dayes of old E. B. A Testimony of great concernment to all that call themselves Christians but have not known the true Church of which alone the true Christian can be born THere hath been a great War between the woman and her seed and the harlot and her seed from the beginning to this day and they have each had their prevailings in the war The woman and her seed have been made strong in God to conquer some of the territories of death and to set up their life in the world Thus in the Jewish state God prepared an heaven and an earth for the woman and her seed and when that heaven and earth was shaken he prepared a more glorious heaven and earth in the Christian state Now no sooner was the Church and her seed seated in either of these but the Dragon made made war against her and in the war had power given him to recover her seat from her Thus the Devil gat possession of the Jewish state so that there was no room for the true Church there but all was in idolatry and corruption and the Lord was not served by their ceremonies by their sacrifices by their Sabbaths by their new moons by their Temple-worship c. but the Devil And the Devil also got possession of the heaven and earth in the Christian state so that in their Ordinances in their worships in their duties in that which they call their Churches God hath not been worshipped in truth but the Devil for this many ages For mark who was it that got into the Temple of God was it not Antichrist was it not the Spirit of Satan 2 Thes 2. 4. And who was it that was worshipped in all the world that had power given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations and whom all that dwel upon the earth worship was it not the Dragon Rev. 13. 7 8. Did not all the world wonder after the beast and worship the Dragon which gave power unto the beast ver 3. 4. of that Chap. The woman was assaulted here her strong holds taken from her so that she could not stay safe in that heaven and earth which God had made for her therefore there was another place prepared for her by God in the wilderness and she had wings of an Eagle given her to fly thither but the Dragon got into and held possession of that heaven where she was before Rev. 12. So that none hath known the Church all this time but he that hath been born of her in the wilderness which was a place the world never dreamed of but looked for her in the heaven and the earth which the Devil had got possession of And here they cry up the Ordidinances the Ordinances duties the Church the Ministry c. as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord not knowing in whose hands these were and whom they worshipped hereby Now consider this O ye Christians I speak what I assuredly know that God could not be truly worshipped in any of these while they were in the Devils hands but the whorish Spirit and her seed worship here and the worship of the Church and her seed was a wildernessworship or a worship which she learned of God in the wilderness Mark now and consider my testimony O ye Christians I deny all the worship all the Ordinances which were taught the Christians of old now practised by the whorish spirit for the Devil had gained it and corrupted it and having corrupted it God could not be any more worshipped in it but the Antichristian spirit sate there giving forth those things as his Laws He sate in the Temple of God and there made use of the Vessels and Ordinances which he had carried captive into his Babylon and I deny it to be possible to have any true use of these til the time of the recovery And now the time of the recovery is come and the restitution begun people know it not but cry up the old heaven and the old earth which Satan had corrupted setting it up in opposition against the new which God hath new formed and is bringing forth in true beauty and glory Now in this war though the Devil though the harlot and her seed gat the womans seat from her and banished her seed as it were out of the earth yet they were not able to touch the woman nor to over-come the life of God in her seed but onely to kil their bodies but the life was stil conqueror over them and not subjected to them They could raise up Churches and Ordinances and Ministers and duties and cause all that dwel on the earth to worship in some part or other of this Babylon but they could never make the seed bow to any of their images nor could they hurt the woman hereby who was in the wilderness out of the reach of all these And there she did eat the bread of life with tears mourning over her desolate estate and her loss of children And here alone was the true bread of life which was not to be known or
of iniquity doth already work And look now into the estate of the Churches then according to what the Scripture records of them and the symptoms of its working will plainly appear The Church of Ephesus among whom some of the grievous wolves had encred Act. 20. 29. had left their first love Rev. 2. 4. The Churches of Galatia wer bewitched from the Gospel Gal 3. 1. The Church at Coloss was entangled and made subject to the rudiments of the world and ordinances which perish with the using after the commandements and doctrines of men Col 2. v. 20 22. Mark When once one comes to be subject to the commandments and doctrines of men to perishing ordinances and worldly rudiments which men teach and command the true state is lost and the apostacy is entred into Here the wrong Teacher is teaching and he teacheth the wrong thing the wrong doctrines the wrong Commandments and the wrong ear is hearing which hears the wrong voice and knoweth not the true and so the more it heareth and practiseth and the hotter its zeal groweth the deeper it stil runs into the apostacy The Church at Corinth also was haunted with false Apostles 2 Cor. 11. v. 12 13. insomuch as the Apostle was afraid lest that Church should be corrupted by them vers 3. The Church in Pergamus had them that held the doctrine of Balaam Rev. 2. 14. The Church in Thyatira suffered the woman Jezebel which called her selfe a Prophetess to seduce and bring forth children in the apostacy Rev. 2. v. 20. and 23. The Church in Sardis had a name to live but was dead Rev. 3. 1. having defiled her Garments vers 4. The Church in Laodicea looked upon her self as rich and increased with goods as having need of nothing but was wretched miserable poor blind so then the ey was put out and naked wanting the gold wanting the rayment wanting the eye-salve Rev. 3. 17. 18. And lastly all the Gentiles were warned by Paul in his Epistle to the Church at Rome whereby that Church might look upon her selfe as more particularly concerned therein to look to their standing lest they falling from the faith from the truth from the life into the apostacy as the Jewes had done might also feel the severity of God as the Jewes had Chap. 11. ver 20 21 22. Thus it is evident that the apostacy had got footing and began to spread in the Apostles dayes and the Apostle John in the spirit beholding the future state of things sees it overspread and over-run al al Nations drunk with the cup of fornication Rev. 18. 3. The way of truth had been evil spoken of long before 2 Pet. 2. 2 and the rock of ages which alone can establish in the truth had been forsaken and al became as a Sea and up gets the beast which could not rise while the power of truth stood and the woman upon the beast with the cup of deceit and of errour from the life in her hand and this she gives all the Nations to drink and they drink and are drunk with it so that al Nations have been intoxicated with the doctrines and practises of apostacy They have took that for truth which the Whore told them was truth and they have observed those things as the commands of God which the Whore told them were the commands of God And by this means they have never come to be married to Christ to be in union with him to receive the law of life from his spirit and to know the liberty from the bondage of corruption but have been in the bed of fornication with the Whore and have pleased glutted and satisfied the whorish principle in themselves with this fornication And thus corruption did over-spread al the earth for taking in a corrupt thing in stead of the truth it cannot purifie the heart but corrupt it more A corrupt profession corrupt doctrines may paint and make a man to himselfe seem changed but the corruption still lodges within which a spiritual ey can easily discern though he that is in the corruption cannot The Pharisees did seem glorious to themselves but Christ saw through them And every sort of people now in their several strains and forms of apostacy seem glorious to themselves but the spirit of Christ sees through them al to that which lies underneath in whom it raigns and ther it finds corruption increased and strengthned in its nature by the form though outwardly painted with it Doth not fornication defile corrupt so doth the fornication of the Whorish spirit the earth was corrupted with it Rev. 19. 2. So that this hath been the universal state of Christendom since the apostacy the errour the deceit the fornication of the Whore hath corrupted them and withheld their eys from the sight of that life and truth which hath power in it to purifie them Peoples Multitudes Nations Tongues have been al waters weak unstable without any foundation in religion but fit to be swayed and tossed up and down with every wind or breath of the Whore of whose cup they had al drunk and by whose spirit they were all guided for the whore sate upon them Rev. 17. 15. The whore which had whored from God and so was not the true Church sate upon Peoples Multitudes Nations and Tongues She sate upon them she had them under her she ruled and guided them by her cup of fornication and with her spirit of fornication as a man would guide the beast whereupon he rides So that al that the Nations do from henceforth in religion is under the Whore according to her guidance by virtue of the wine that they have drunk out of her cup. And though God reserved to himselfe a remnant to worship him and give so ne testimony to his truth al this time yet the beast which was managed by the Whore had power over them power to make war with them power to overcome them Rev. 13. 7. The beast had power over all kindreds tongues and nations every wher to overcome the Saints and suppresse the truth they at any time were moved to give testimony to and to set up the worship of the beast and make al the earth fal down before that Rev. 13. 7. 8. And the second beast had and exercised al the power of the first beast and set up his image and gave it life and caused men generally to worship it Rev. 13. 12. And he caused al both smal and great rich and poor free and bond to receive his mark some way or other either in their right hand or in their forehead vers 16. And such as would not receive his mark nor worship him he had power to persecute and kil and he did kil them vers 15. and the Whore drunk their blood Chap. 17. 6. and God required it at her hand Chap. 19. 2. though she made the hand of the beast execute it and would seem to wash her own hands of it So that now since the dayes of the