desires not the death of a sinner having sent his only begotten Son into the World that all should live through him and none perish or die in their sins for want of a possible and sufficient Remedy even him whom God hath fore-ordained and set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood for the remission of sins that are past And this is so far from making void the Law or first Covenant between God and man that it doth establish it and much clear up the Justice of God in exacting the Debt of Obedience and Allegiance due to him from Man according to the Law when so much Clemency and Forbearance hath preceded and an Act of Oblivion freely and of Grace hath been passed the benefit whereof is conditionally extended unto all Hence it is that the Office of giving and putting in execution the Law of God as it is a Ministry that works wrath is committed by the Father unto Christ as he is the Son of Man First to dispence Judgment with Mercy great patience and long-suffering and afterwards without Mercy as that fiery Indignation which is reserved for wilful and hardned sinners This Christ doth plainly intimate Luke 12. 10. where he saith Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven For what else can be the meaning of these words but that Christ would have his Disciples know that Judgment was first committed to him as he is the Son of Man made the chief Officer and Dispenser of God's Justice whether distributive or revenging the exact Rule whereof is given and contained in the Law of Nature or Covenant of Works The Transgressions against this Law are capable of remission and forgiveness through his Blood the Intercession whereof speaks better things than that of Abel and prevails for gifts even to the Rebellious so that they receive not God's grace nor take his Name in vain if they do he will not hold them guiltless nor continue any longer to extend to them the benefit of his Sacrifice Secondly Therefore Judgment was committed to him without Mercy in reference to such sins by which the doers of them blasphemed and resisted the Ministry he was intrusted with of giving the Holy Ghost or inspiring the hearts of the Regenerate with the new Name and that saving knowledge of God which is communicated according to the Law of Faith and of the new and everlasting Covenant This is the Royal Office and Dignity which Jesus as the Son of Man is exalted unto by the personal union which he hath with the Word being made a meet Minister in all respects through his Death and Resurrection to dispence God's sovereign Justice and to execute Judgment and Equity according to the Law of Nature renewed and confirmed in his own Blood Herein he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the great and Universal Monarch that is appointed Law-giver and chief Judge in Heaven and Earth to and over all Natural Beings whether Angels or men and is the rewarder of every man according to his works with the same measure that any man metes unto another he measures out unto him again and strictly doth insist upon and require that which is just and due to be paid unto God or man by the Law and Principles of the first Covenant He therefore hath the Gifts and Abilities incident to that Communion with God committed to him to dispence being the Head of God's distributive as well as his revenging Justice and will make it appear that he desires not to reap where he hath not sown nor to gather where he hath not first strewed and dispersed abroad in his bounty and liberality none being a more chearful giver and lender of his Goods than He looking for nothing again where there is no ability to pay not happening through our own default This is the Ministry which worketh Wrath that is to say contracts a debt of Punishment and of the Curse to every one that joyns issue with God upon the terms of this Covenant and continues not in all things written in it to do them And although by this Ministry and that from Christ himself as he is the Son of man there be a life and communication of God's Image given which in it self considered is pure holy righteous spiritual and good yet it is but upon such terms that it may be again withdrawn and revoked by the Giver if he please or may be corrupted or forfeited by the Receiver and so end in death and wrath The proof of this was seen at first in the Fall of our first Parents and is since in all the Children of Perdition who after all their great and high enlightnings and clensing from all their old sins fall into a relapse that is irrecoverable so as to become trees twice dead finally to be pluckt up by the roots and burned It is Christ in the exercise of this his first Ministry that we intend when we say that he is the Lord of Nature and Fountain of all Justice upholding a powerful and lasting Witness of himself in the very Natural Conscience where he begets and sets up that knowledge which declares God Just and the Justifier of him that either is perfectly righteous in his own person with the righteousness that his Law requires or that in default thereof is righteous in another that God hath given to be made a Sacrifice for them that they thereby might be made the Righteousness of God in him such as he is willing to accept on their behalf and to reward not of Debt but of Grace In one of these two wayes it is for all men to seek to be justified to answer the end of the Law and to receive the reward of it But as to those that neither in the one nor the other of these wayes desire to approve themselves and be found righteous they are justly convinced of all and shall be judged of all as meet objects for God's revenging Justice to be shewed upon them as the Judgement that is final after which no place is left for Mercy So then in and by this Ministry that begins in Justice distributive which is founded in God's bounty and liberality by which he giveth to all their being life and motion and filleth the desire of every living thing and which endeth in avenging and punishing Justice upon mercy and bounty abused as the known natural Principles of all Law and righteous Magistratical Government God manifests himself the Fountain thereof in the Person of Christ the Mediator And in this kind of knowledge of God and obedience to his Law all mankind are and must be conversant whether they will or no and are to shew themselves either his obedient Subjects whom he countenanceth protecteth and rewardeth in their well-doing or his rebellious and disloyal Subjects over whom he will glorifie himself in his avenging Justice and dispensation
Evangelists or Pastors and Teachers So there are of these inferiour Ranks to the Apostles which hear and receive the knowledge of the Gospel and the holy Ghost either from the mouths of the Apostles and by the laying on of their hands as did the Evangelists or by other subordinate instituted means that is to say either inwardly onely by the inspiration of Angels thereunto sent and authorized by Christ as to Philip in the case of the Eunuch's Conversion and to Abraham and the Patriarchs after him four hundred years together before the written Word was given and who before the Incarnation were made use of to give the Law which is there called the Word spoken by Angels Heb. 2. 1. Or secondly by the communication of such Gifts for interpreting and opening of the written Word as we find in the Church of Corinth and this by such Prophetical Gifts as not only the Officers did partake of to fit them for the Ministry but secondly the very Members of the Church also shared in for the common edification of the Body So that either by inward Inspiration from Angels under Christ or by the witnessing Spirit of Christ immediately which is the Spirit of Prophecy or by Gifts of Abilities in a more ordinary way for the interpreting and opening the Scriptures Christ hath alwayes had his Labourers in his Harvest And all these several Degrees in the Ministry as they are found in subordination subserviency and agreement one with another in their place and differing measures do make sweet harmony and redound to great profit in the Church But if they break their Ranks and the inferiour exalt and lift up themselves in preference above and opposition to the superiour and greater measures these then corrupt and set up for themselves or are made use of by him that knows how to transform his ministers into Ministers of Righteousness to advance his Kingdom and turn bitter and implacable Enemies and Persecutors of the Womans Seed and true Spiritual Worshippers Let it not then be said that to be against the Ministry in this last sense is to be against all Ministry especially such who acknowledge Christ the Chief Minister and great Ordainer of God's Worship and all those to be his Ministers that have Unction and Mission from him in all the Orders and Degrees of them wherein they are acknowledged by the Scriptures whom God hath pleased to make use of to bear the Witness committed to them during Antichrist's Reign in a suffering sackcloth prophesying state which will not lose its fruit but become a sweet savour of life unto life in them that are saved and a favour of death unto death in them that perish We now shall proceed to the next Enquiry which is Who they are that in Principles are opposit to these two Anointings and the Effects of them and declare their Enmity by their continued War in the posture of our Enemies or dissembled Friends both making up but the same Kingdom of Darkness which since Christs coming is called Antichrists Righteousness and Truth are the two supporters of Christ's Throne with the frist God enlightens and quickens the natural beings of Angels and men who in their mutable and uncertain state are possessors of Righteousness in purity and perfection whilst they are and may be strangers to Truth that is firmness and certainty which is as the Crown and Top-stone to the first Building And therefore the Light of Truth which is a clearness in the Judgment that had a right discerning before that doth fix it and ascertain it beyond all possible doubt and contradiction and the activity of Truth which is a stedfastness and pressing forward in the Will wherein may be found righteous operation before to run in that race and never fail nor faint is most necessary to follow and succeed where the first goes before as that which is its consummation and final perfection In the breast where these two Lights meet imbrace and kiss each other there is the true Vrim and Thummim the Divine enlightned mind which makes all those wherein it is found free Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and beloved Children and Subjects of Christs Kingdom As it is written Joh. 3 19 20 21. Light is come into the world Light in both these respects is come to dwell with us in our own nature when the Word was made flesh and to be amongst us in our mouth and in our heart to hear it and obey it Whence it is that this is said to be the Condemnation of the World that Light is thus come in the person of our Redeemer the second Adam and men have notwithstanding loved Darkness better than Light because of the contrariety that is in the evil deeds of men unto the very nature of Light which makes manifest and reproves them and from thence contracts hatred from evil men very unjustly who love not to be discovered in their wickedness nor to be under censure and reproof for it but perfectly hate thus to be discovered and judged and that is at bottom the quarrel and rise of the enmity between the Subjects of these two Kingdoms of Darkness and of Light Hatred and enmity against the Light of Righteousness and Truth which shine forth in Jesus Christ as in the head and in his Witnesses and Children as the members in what hearts soever they are found are in general the opposit Principles we are now speaking of and the Root or Cause whence those spring is from the love that such hearts at bottom do bear unto evil that is to say to unrighteousness and falshood which they prefer and adhere unto before the Light of the Image of God which is wrought out in Christ and in his members Of these lovers of Darkness more than Light we are to consider Either first such as are born blind and are already darkned in their understandings and alienated in their wills by evil works dead in trespasses and sins Or secondly such as have their Light freely restored to them again for asking and however so much of it as may make them sensible of the need of more and to discern the means of their perfect cure Or thirdly Such as after their first Light restored are offered the gift of a better sight than ever they had at first which shall not only enlarge what they had at first in their primitive purity but preserve it in an endless life without any possible danger ever to lose it more For the first It is the condition of all Mankind in general and was the effect that followed upon the sin of our first Parents by which door Death entred and passed upon all men because in them all had sinned Nor did this befall the Children meerly or principally because of sin as if that were the end that God had in it but that the works of God's Grace should be manifested thereby For no sooner did the disease and wound appear but God had provided a Physician and healing
or Priests with Christ or both that is joynt or co-heirs with Christ in the dignity and perfection of his Manhead in one or both of these Considerations of it This is intimated Isa 43. 10. Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant Christ whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me or be one in Judgment and Will with me and understand that I am he Before me there was no God formed nor shall be after me And they are called Witnesses not only because they know and believe him and are one in Spirit with him as he is a glorified earthly man and a man also that is Michael God's fellow but as they Prophesie in Sack-cloth or in a suffering state not loving their lives unto the death rather then cease to be Witnesses and to bear their testimony to the Truth when called thereunto under the greatest contradiction of sinners 9. By the Woman chap. 12. clothed with the Sun c. who being with Child cried travelling in birth with a Man-child and pained to be delivered is meant the true Sarah or spiritual Womb of Christ's dead body Rom. 7. 4. which lawfully discharges us from the Covenant of the Law or obligation to act singly by the activity it gives that we should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we may bring forth fruit unto God as quicken'd into a life and activity much more excellent There is therefore set before the eyes of our Faith the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in-Christ Jesus risen from the dead for us hence-forward to be conformed and live unto as that birth of manly perfection which shines forth in him who was crucified indeed in weakness but was raised in power or a man of Power in whose hands all Power in Heaven and Earth is intrusted And those who become one in conjunction of Spirit with him by the new and everlasting Covenant are with him caught up to the Throne of God in the one or other capacity before intimated of the two sorts of Citizens that by the new birth are members of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of the remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The great Contest and Battel which happened between the Witnesses on the one part comprehended under the name of Michael and his Angels and the Serpent and his brood on the other was as the one were Friends and the other Enemies to the Cross and Death of Christ and as the Judgment Opinions and Practises of the one or other made void or else established and advanced the Mystery and Efficacy of the Cross and the Law of it which those that observe and follow peace will be upon them as on all the Israel of God In this Quarrel the Witnesses do fight under the protection and blessing of Michael their Head as the other do under the support and encouragement of the Old Dragon their Head 10. By the Old Dragon we are to understand the Spirit that rules in the Children of disobedience who is for the present Head and chief Ruler over the World as managing the universal Scepter thereof by Christ's permission The Ensigns and Characters of this Empire according to Scripture phrase is seven heads and ten horns intimating the nature as well as perfection and universality of that worldly Power which is exercised by the Old Dragon in waging war against the Woman and her Seed This War he is capable to manage either as an Angel of Light and a false Prophet in the Church or as an universal Monarch and Governor in the World In the first Capacity as this Dragon transforms himself into an Angel of Light and Minister of Righteousness he works with all Power Signs and lying Wonders As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and Aaron in their Commission so do the Serpent's Seed in Sheep's clothing and Christ's own likeness resist the Witnesses in their Testimony and oppose the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem by pretending a greater Friendship to Christ and conformity to his written Law in all their words and actions than the true Seed of the Woman having indeed the form of Godliness but denying the Power and Spirit thereof After this manner did the Dragon and his Angels in the Primitive Church fight with Michael and his Angels to prevent the birth of the Man-child and to keep up the Credit and Authority of the Law and their following after Righteousness in the Principles and upon the terms of the first Covenant in opposition to the Ministry of the Spirit according to the Promise and Tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant This battel continued in the Primitive Church about four hundred years and came at last to this issue Satan was cast down out of Heaven upon an evident discovery of his deceitful workings and lying wonders in the Teachings and Inspirations which came out of his mouth as a false Spirit and Prophet so that he was not able singly this way to bear up any longer against the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit of Truth in the mouth of the Saints but found himself necessitated to resort to his earthly and worldly Weapons the Power of the Civil Sword that so joyning both his Interests together that of the Magistrate and false Prophet he might grow up into such a formidible posture as is mentioned Chap. 13. 4. where it is said Who is like unto the BEAST or able to make War with him This posture the Apostle John beheld the Dragon putting himself into when the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arose out of the Sea and the two-horned Beast out of the Earth Both of these together do become the Seat or Throne to which the Dragon gave up his Power and Authority The first of these two Beasts receives him as the old unclean prophane heathenish Spirit they that are meant by that Beast are still the same in Principles as before only outwardly baptized into the name of the Christian Profession or Religion when Christian Religion became the Religion of the Roman Empire Thus was that Beast healed of its former Wound when Paganism was destroyed and pull'd down And because the bare name of Christian Religion or out-side Profession thereof without something of real Reformation and Power of inward Principles was not of credit or authority enough to advance Antichrist's Kingdom therefore the Ministry of the Law or first Covenant even the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh as it is capable to serve the Serpents Seed for a cover and vail of their enmity against the Cross of Christ and Power of his Resurrection doth spring up over the head as it were of the first Beast This second Beast or branch of Antichrist's Subjects and Kingdom with two horns like the Lamb but speaking as the Dragon chuses rather to joyn Interest with the first Beast than to suffer the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem to come out
TWO TREATISES VIZ. 1. An Epistle General TO THE Mystical Body of Christ on Earth the Church Universal in BABYLON II. THE Face of the Times Wherein is discovered The RICE PROGRESSE and ISSUE of the ENMITY and CONTEST between the SEED of the WOMAN and the SEED of the SERPENT c. The Design of it being To awaken up the present Generation of God's People to a more diligent and curious Observation of the present Signs of the near Approach of the Day of the Lord. Both written By Sir HENRY VANE Knight in the time of his Imprisonment Printed in the Year 1662. AN Epistle General TO THE MYSTICAL BODY OF Christ on Earth THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL IN BABYLON Who are Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth desiring and seeking after the Heavenly Country Written by Sir HENRY VANE Knight in the time of his Imprisonment Printed in the Year 1662. THE Epistle to the Reader READER IT might be thought justly due to this Worthy Piece especially being Posthumous that by the Care of some or other it should not come into the World without the attendance of some Preface or Epistle to the Reader But there being so apposit a Letter written on the sight of it by a Person that well knew the Author all labour is spared the Publisher save only the transcribing thereof and commending it to thee which follows in these words My choice Friend THe view I had of that General Epistle written by that Worthy Faithful Dearly Beloved and Honoured Friend of ours I cannot passe without some acknowledgment to his Memory whose Name lives like a Box of precious Oyntment in the House of God Who in and through the rich Mercies of the Lord offered up himself a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable in the day of Power from the Lord and that willingly and chearfully like a Lamb whose great love and burning desires were after the Flock the Sheep and Lambs of the Lord. Who that they might be fed and taught spared not himself in life and death by water and blood to minister unto them yea how did the care of all the Churches fall on him the whole Flock the scattered and wandring Sheep on the Mountains and Hills solitary in the Fields dispersed in the Woods driven into the Wilderness How did his heart in this Epistle long and look after them and call them together under the wing of that one Shepherd What a blessed Example of Patience Faith and Courage hath he left them And though many Brethren knew not him yet he knew them and owned them If he was rejected by many till now by his Death many of those Vails are rent And they mourn over him whom they pierced before Now they see he was a Son and Heir of the Kingdom of whom this Nation was no longer worthy How had God filled him with the Spirit of Wisdom Vnderstanding and Knowledg in all the Works Workmanship of Gods house through the spiritual view God had given him of the heavenly and eternal things themselves having taken him up into the Holy Mount with Himself where he saw what he is made to testifie that which was from the beginning the Word of Life which he had seen and looked on his hands handled his heart possessed of that Eternal Love Truth and Righteousness with the Father which was made manifest unto him So he believed and bears his Record in Truth having received Power and Wisdom to understand all Mysteries Bezaleel-like made able to know and search out the heights and depths and all the several growths in God's House to shew forth and to discover the cunning Works of all sorts the curious workings in Gold and Silver and in Brasse As appears in his Natural Legal and Evangelical Conscience Very skilful also are his Carvings and Cuttings of Stones to set them in Gold knowing the value of every of the Precious Stones of Zion their Qualities and rare Vertues each most costly and to set them every one in their Order in their Ranks Rows and Places fitted for each Tribe and People the right Stone for each Tribe how to fix them in the Breastplate of Judgment each in his socket of Gold with their true and right Engravings like a Signet how to call and write upon each its true Name and Work according to its Nature each Work of the Spirit after its kind For the Gifts the Operations the Administrations of the Spirit are various and manifold to set forth the manifold Wisdom of God As in the Natural Creation there are bodies Celestial and Terrestial The Glory of the Celestial is one and the Terrestial another Nay in the Terrestial there are varieties When all the Creatures were made they were all brought to Adam he gave them Names according as they were to every Creature his own Name to the Fishes in the Sea to the Creeping-things and Beasts in the Earth and to the Fowls in the open Firmament of Heaven each in their proper places and Elements The Earth brought forth her variety of Herbs Plants Fruits and Trees every one after his kind all which are but the shadows of the Kingdom above the things of higher and better natures As in the Paradise and Garden of the Lord there were varieties of Fruits and Trees both for delight and shade with the River to refresh them yea the very River divided it self into four heads to water every quarter unbowelling it self to them in equal shares to feed and make them fruitful Such is the Universal Love the Spring and Fountain of Life in whom all live move and have their being to gather together all things in one whether visible or invisible as into their head That as all Mankind are made of one Blood so all Souls of one Spirit who breathed at first the Breath of Life into them that he that was the first may be the last the beginning and the ending He that was and is and is to come What distance and difference soever there may seem to be here yet all the same to day yesterday and for ever the same God the same Father of all the same Jesus and Saviour the same Spirit and Comforter yet the Appearances Manifestations Workings and Revelations manifold and various And all to shew forth the Glory yea the Riches of the Glory of Him that hath called us and worketh all these in us and for us Yea were not the works of the Tabernacle so and yet each beautiful in its place each work and workmanship some works of Wood some of Stone others of Brass some of Silver and over-laid with Gold the choicest of beaten Gold and the more holy and inward the purer the inmost the purest of all each room and place as it came nearest to the living Oracle the Mercy-Seat the narrower the finer the holier and the more and the farther any thing or place was distant from thence the larger and courser the more outward the less holy So were the Offerings of the Lord all pleasant
that came willingly the skins the Badgers skins the red dyed Rams skins for the Covering of the Tabernacle on the out-side good enough yet very course the Boards of Shittem wood the Curtains the Pillars of Wood of Brasse of Wood over-laid with Gold each according to its place and service in the Tabernacle more or lesse excellent as more or lesse inward or spiritual So was the Linnen the Purple the Blue the Scarlet and curious Works the most curious and pure for the Vail next the Mercy-Seat So was it in the Composition of the Perfume and anointing Oyl after the curious and choice Art of the Apothecary that no Composition or Mixture must be made like it of the choicest Spices So for the Lamps of the Canalesticks to give light and for the Altar of Incense evening and morning Oh! great is the Mystery of Godliness in all these things no Lights but what was made of this pure holy Oyl must burn before the Lord if the Priests or Levites did burn any other they must be cut off And so for the Incense of sweet Spices the Lord that Spirit is very curious and can soon spy and smell out the Mixtures of Flesh or any false Compositions and abhor them So in the Priests Garments for Aaron and his Sons to minister in the nearer the Ministration was to the Lord the Purer and Holier and the Garments the more curious The imbroydered fine Linnen Coat holy and pure the Robe of the Ephod of blue the curious Ephod with the two pretious Onix Stones and the engraving therein set on the shoulder plates the curious Girdle of the Ephod with the wreathes of Gold and the holy Brest-plate of Judgement with the twelve pretious Stones coupled to the Ephod and of the same curious workmanship with the curious Girdle the Miter the Plate of Holiness and the Crown for his head For the other Priests not so curious nor such works in regard their Institutions was less glorious In all these things how excellent how skilful and what a cunning searching Spirit of discerning and Judgement had this wise-hearted Soul in the Mysteries unfolding the Riddles and hard Sayings still opening them in Spirit faithful in all God's House and keeping nothing of the Counsel of the Lord back nor hiding his Light under a Bushel but setting it up in the Candlestick so that it gave light to many of the Lord's House I was one of the number of those that constantly attending on his Discourses as oft as I was in Town knew him more in his Family Exercises and Discourses for many years than most from whom I received more help and light in the knowledge of God than from all the men in the World besides and found his Ministry most searching and trying What others took for Gold he proved it to be but Brass and some Doctrines that others preferred for Spiritual he tryed and found them Carnal He had such a Brest-plate of Judgement and Discerning that he did constantly bear the remembrance of all the Tribes of Israel on his heart before the Lord and distinguished every Tribe after his condition yea he had this singular and peculiar gift of Judgement to discern the two Natures the two Seeds the two Covenants to admiration Many a Soul he hath put upon the search that thought he had attained and ran well whom he found to be but in Egypt or at least but departing thence Shall we say he was a Scholler Nay but a Rabbi a Doctor in the knowledge of Christ in whom a greater Fulness of the riches of Wisdom and Knowledge were treasured up than in most like that Disciple that lay in Christ's bosom He obtained so long a share of his life and growth having the true sight and measure of every man's state and growth yet himself sate on a Rock higher than all and was such a blessing in his Witness and Testimony to the Lord in his threefold state of Life Death and Resurrection and so of our conformity and likeness to Him therein that no Book extant but the Striptures did ever clear so much Truth as his Retired Man's Meditations and this blessed Epistle now of his is as a Key that further opens that to the Sons of men and they are to be understood better in spirit and in operation than in words How did he seeing Truth lay scattered maimed and mangled in parts and parcels gather it all up yea and all the Professions and Professors of it and made one whole Garment of Truth amongst them all and that without any seam or rent reconciling and healing all the Wounds and Divisions that have been amongst good People from the crown of the Head to the soale of the Foot in the Spirit of Love Righteousness and true Judgement assigning every Profession and Principle his true and proper place and state in the Body whether Natural or Spiritual VALE To the scattered Seed and Sheep of CHRIST in all Nations the true Israel by Faith unknown for the most part to themselves but more to the World and Worldly Christian Yet in this their unknown or dispersed Estate owned of the Lord as the Church that are in God the Father truly pure Catholick and Christian of which Christ Jesus is the alone and immediate Head BRethren and Fathers c. that in Jesus Christ are dearly beloved and with God of great price Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ To you that are unknown and yet well known it is in my heart to be representing the knowledge of Him that is invisible and the view of your selves in your invisible state together with those that are your known or unknown enemies as that which may prove neither unseasonable nor unprofitable to you in this day of Israel's Captivity but approaching Redemption which hastens fast at which time the Sons of God shall be made manifest If Paul Acts 17. when he passed by and beheld the Athenians Devotions with an Altar having this Inscription To the unknown God took occasion from thence to make him known whom they ignorantly Worshipped Surely it ought not to be accounted blame-worthy in any that seeth the Worship and Devotions now in practise in the visible Christian Church to endeavour the distinguishing the right Catholick Church in its Purity and way of Worship in Spirit and Truth from them and from their wayes of Worship ignorantly however zealously performed that pass under the name of Christ's Mystical Body and his Divine Institutions But you Beloved are of God Elected known as by name having this Seal and Mark from the Lord upon you which is your Stability and sure Foundation the Lord knows who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity No matter therefore if these come to you and find you as to your outward estate in Babylon where according to what is foretold by the Apostle John in the Revelation your abode is to be
could take in by its first make and constitution of being upon natural Principles he proceeds to declare his purpose to speak again and form a hearing ear and seeing eye proportion'd to his second voice adding this kind of hearing and sight to the samâ— Creature-being whose first Principles of Knowledge and Will aâ— too short and weak to bear this Voice called in Scripture the sight and hearing of Faith that must be mixed with our natural Principles as their stability and consummation and have the place of guide to them and Lord over them that the Scripture in this sense may be made good that the elder shall serve the younger The Root of this Second sight of God is wrought out in Christ as he is the only begotten that lies in God's bosom and from thence is made the Minister and Giver of what himself first receives and enjoys So that now supposing the Spirit of the Mediator that is the only begotten and first-born of every creature to be the Root of all natural Principles and Perfection as he is the Messiah and the hearer and obeyer of God's first Voice of which we have already spoken we are now to know that God proceeds to make the same only Begotten to have being and abode in him as his peculiar possession and choicest object of his Love in the relation of his Spouse and Consort He is formed and prepared hereunto by becoming him that is made able to hear receive and obey God's Second Voice his highest most excellent and fullest manner of manifestation of himself to Creature-understanding with power in the dispensation of the fulness of time to become Man made of a Woman under the Law and afterwards raised up from the dead and made to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high working out the same work in Jesus his Servant the chief and principal Branch which is first wrought out in himself as in the root and head of all natural and supernatural perfection It is then a kind of working over the Creature again out of its first frame and constitution of being into a frame and constitution much more excellent and capacious a state incorruptible never needing nor being subjected to change of any kind afterward which the first building upon natural principles doth and did need This working over or re-building the Creature again called in Scripture Regeneration is not simply restoration or confirmation conveying immutableness to the first Principles and no more but it is quite a new Creation that takes down of the first building as much as the Builder pleaseth and leaves no more of it standing than what is consistent with and grows up into perfect harmony use and serviceableness to and with the new addition and enlargement that is made not destroying the first Image of God in man This rebuilding work then produceth not a total anihilation of the natural being but brings upon the life and manner of operation that flows from natural principles such a cessâ—â—ion as amounts to a kind of death at least to a bitterness more than dâ—ath it self rendring it impossible for the Creature to live or move any longer unto sin and evil and quickning it and raising it out of this dead state into the greatest freedom to and stedfast perseverance in all kinds of good that is imaginable as that which becomes most natural and delightful the contrary thereunto most grievous and disquietful to it This Second Life which accompanies Salvation and brings Immortality to light is a kind of life from the dead that the natural beings of Angels and Men are begotten into by being made meet Temples and Subjects for the Holy Ghost in a state of life eternal by a union with God that can never be dissolved Angels therefore as well as Men are called Children of the Resurrection Luke 20. 35 36. as they are brought into a state never to change more Hence it is even amongst these Children of the Resurrection that the immortal life wherewith they are quickned by Christ as he is the giver of the Holy Ghost is of two sorts as to the degree and measure of the glory thereof First Such wherein Men and Angels are equal And the Second Such wherein some Men are made in such manner Christ's Equals the Lamb's or Bridegroom's Wife that lies in his bosom that they are the Angels superiours and are made joynt-heirs with Christ of that Name which he hath obtained better than that which is the Angels food that Word of God's mouth that they live upon So that now when we speak of Christ as the Author of life Eternal in this second sort of Ministry wherein the natural beings of the creature are as it were wrought over again and rebuilt we would be understood that there is a birth of this Immortality which amounts to the giving of the Holy Ghost in the single portion of it and also in the double portion of it as we shall distinctly open in its place both being distinct from that pure holy righteous life of Nature that was at first given by Creation or afterwards renewed by a Restoration and kind of new Creation of qualities but falls short of true and saving Regeneration properly and rightly explicated and made known by which the natural frame and make of the natural soul and spirit of man is in a manner wholly altered and changed and much for the better because it is raised out of its frail mutable wavering as well as sinful natural state into a strong stable immutable posture of mind in Righteousness and true Holiness as a Rock and Stone that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against This further Gift and Grace of God though it be the end of Man's Creation and that which God as the reward to those that are obedient under the first Ministry doth promise and hold forth in a way of Promise yet is conditional and so that which in Justice God need not confer upon any that perform not the Condition but by their sin do forfeit it And therefore it so happens that all who inherit this Blessing are made receivers of it by Promise and by a second and new Agreement with God which he enters into with them in regenerating them and makes them new Creatures thenceforward to serve him and live to him in newness of Spirit and Life 3. We now come to shew according to the Third Particular proposed who those be that are Christ's Anointed Ones and Witnesses under both his fore-mentioned Administrations and the Anointing it self which is given by the one and by the other Christ is as we have shewed the Original and primitive Pattern of all Perfections the Works that were finished from the beginning known to God from all Eternity and actually wrought and set up from Everlasting in the Mediator through that Eternal Wisdom which was by God as one brought up with him Prov. 8. and whom he possessed in the beginning of his way before his Works of
with it Heb. 2. 1. So there is a second sort of Witnesses unto the same Principles in substance that is to say to the life of the Image of God in pure Nature wherein man was at first created as it comes again to be renewed and restored with power in the soul by the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Redemption that is by his Blood through the Ministry of the written Word and the operation of the Spirit of Christ in the use of those Ordinances and Institutions of Worship which he hath appointed and revealed in the Scriptures according to the several measures of their growth up into this knowledge of Christ and faithfull walking with him therein under the variety of Profession and Forms of visible Worships that are extant in that which is acknowledged or witnessed to be the visible Christian Church which by the preaching of the Gospel upon the Ascention of Christ and the Ministry of his Spirit poured forth in the primitive state of it came to be raised up by God's visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a People of his Name that he might substitute unto himself as another Israel and holy People and Church of visible Professors of his Name in the room and place of the Jews and the old Law and Form of Worship that had been in practice among them Rom 11. which made James in Act. 15. 16 17. apply the words of the Prophets unto this new Christian Gentile Church which sayes After this I will return and will build up the Tabernacle of David which is fallen down and will build again the ruines thereof and I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my Name is called saith the Lord who doth all these things Now amongst the visible Members of the Christian Church as evidently appears Gal. 4. there were a Generation that under the Name of Christians and hearers of the Gospel and Ministry of the Spirit according to the New Testament chose still to retain the Principles of the Law and first Covenant as the ballance of all their Faith Obedience and Worship desiring to be under the Law and Dominion of it and to cleave to the upholding and doing those things which according to the Judgment of the Apostle Paul made them debtors to the whole Law and struck them clear off from the true Principles of Grace that are by the Law of Faith and of the new and everlasting Covenant and of this they gave but too clear a proof in that they gloried in something that was on this side the Spiritual mind which is set upon things that are above and which ought to be died unto by the Doctrine of the Cross unto which they shew themselves the declared and zealous opposers Not but that in words and profession these pretended as much to own the Principles of Free-Grace and of the New-Testament as any and have their approach to it at least when they please themselves some more and some less but when they are brought to the Tryal they quickly shew that they are not able to endure the bridling and restraint which the New-Testament puts upon them by the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ to the crucifying that wherein they desire and affect to glory from which they are excluded by the Law of Faith and the New-Creature as we shall shew in its place So that in Truth that which these second sort of Witnesses have in their eye is not the being and life of the New Creature but the restoration of the old Adam in his primitive righteous and holy state into which they grow up and are found for the life of their holiness and upon that bottom as a qualification to entitle them to all the Promises and their abode and continuance in Fellowship and Communion with Christ and Interest in his Death for the Remission of sins They do experience such acceptance from Christ and are in themselves so certain of their good Estates to their Eternal Salvation that they will not endure to hear wherein they are in a mistake nor that it is possible for them to be better These do indeed excel the first Witnesses in the doctrinal part of the knowledge of Christ confessing him in that great part of his Priestly Office which the others see not as he bare our Transgressions and made Atonement for the sin of mankind by the Sacrifice of himself in the benefit of which Sacrifice they find their outward peace and joy more than in their righteous works nay when as to the light and evidence of their Sanctification they are at a loss and in the dark they have an adherence to the blood of Christ as the propitiation for their sins and his intercession on their behalfs to the Father for the obtaining new strength against Corruption and the renewal of their former peace and comfort which experience the first sort of Witnesses are strangers to or see no need of but account themselves Justified as well as Sanctified by the inward purity and perfection which they have attained with power over the brutish and sensual Nature that they are more careful and able to keep under than this second sort are Nevertheless The Oyl which is given from Christ under this first Ministry in either of these respects before-mentioned is that Annointing that through the frailty and weakness of the Vessel that receives it is not abiding but at the best is but as a sojourner that finds not in these hearts the new man that is the place of its rest Isa 66. and though it be used by Christ to trim the Lamp of the spirit of man with when renewed and restored to the obedience and subjection that is required by the Law of God in any degree and measure of sincerity or chastity of the pure Lamb-like and virgin Spirit yet being only in the Lamp where it spends and consumes and must be duly renewed and by a frame of heart meet to receive it and cheerish it or else being grieved and quenched it suddenly departs Hence it is that amongst these two Witnesses under this Anointing which is from Christ and the operation good righteous holy and spiritual and the change made by it true and real there are such a number of visible Professors that prove Hypocrites Apostates and fall away from the Grace and enlightening they have felt and experienced deceiving both themselves and others being not able to hold it out in the day of Tryal nor to persevere and endure to the end without on the other hand stumbling on the stumbling stone and becoming prejudiced against any higher and further growths up into Christ or on the other hand through fear of loss by Persecution are terrified from well-doing with amazement or are bought off from it with the reward of unrighteousness as Balaam was and as Demas who embraced this present World And the Reason of this as to the one as well as
this 17th Chapter but by this Key deserves our very serious consideration according to the usual understanding of the Papacy to be meant by this Whore which is not denied to be a part of Babylon and a chief part and to be also a Whore and Mother of Fornications but she is so openly and avowedly not secretly and under the shew of Reformation and there is not any mystery or secret in it to find her out as there is in the other case We come then in the last place as the Conclusion of the whole to shew what Word and part of his Counsels contained in the Promises and Prophecies not yet accomplished the Lord is now fulfilling in these present dispensations of our day and this by the comparing Scriptures with Scriptures and observing what gradually hath been fulfilled since the time of Christ's Ascention to this day and what signs he hath before given of the times wherein we now are There is nothing more positive and express in the Scripture as may appear by what hath been already mentioned and for which many particular Texts might further be alledged than this That there is a Kingdom of the Everlasting Gospel which neither can nor shall be shaken that must be brought upon the stage here in this World which shall stand firm as a Rock against all opposition and come forth as a stone cut out of the Mountain without hands that must break down the visible heads which the Serpent hath kept up in and over the whole Earth for these many thousand years together by the means whereof the true Children and Heirs have been kept out of their Possession and have been necessitated to a Witnessing and Prophesying condition in a way of Sufferings and of utmost cruel dealings and oppressions from their implacable Enemies to whom it hath been given to make and continue War with them till the course of Sufferings be finished Of this bitter Cup the Captain of our Salvation drank the deepest draught and had the greatest share And lest we should think he had put an end to the Sufferings of his Members by one Death on the Cross he dealt plainly with his Disciples in this point both before his Death and also during the forty dayes he spent upon Earth after his Resurrection for when the two sons of Zebedee had hopes to have seen him in his own Person speedily in his Kingdom before his Sufferings and were desirous the one to sit at his right hand and the other at his left in that day of his Glory and Power he intimates to them immediately that there is a Preparation requisit to be wrought in all that shall be thought worthy of that dignity which is to drink of the same Cup and to be baptized with the same Baptism that he was baptized with according to that true and faithful saying If we die with him we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall reign with him And so when all the Disciples together a little before his Ascention Act. 1. 6 8. asked him saying Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel his Answer is in effect this to them That until Israel's witnessing-work be over and finished that must prepare them to Rule and ripen their Enemies for the Judgment and Destruction appointed unto all ungodly men that must first precede the reigning-work which they too much looked for and thirsted after would not come nor the dayes of it begin Now this witnessing-work which is to be finished by the true Israel of God as the needful and requifit Preparation of you to Reign is What is to be wrought in them upon their own hearts and what is to be wrought by you as a Testimony born and given to the World on God's behalf And the latter of these is usually made use of by God to accomplish the former since all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shewing forth the Vertues of Him that hath called them in a holy and good Conversation shining as Lights in the World must suffer Persecution and are sure to be hated and oppressed by the World and Powers of it by all wayes and means that may prove their Faith and Patience And these Tryals which thus give proof of their Faith do cause Patience to have its perfect work in them till which they are not those meet vessels fitted for their Master's use as that he will dignifie them to appear seated as on his Throne in their hearts and thereby qualifie them with a Power of Rule so as at their word and by their prayers all things shall become possible to them What they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and what they loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven For greater works than Christ himself did when he was in the flesh they shall do because he is gone to his Father Secondly The witnessing-work is not only to be wrought in them to prepare them in mind and body to be meet vessels for the use of their Head by them to shew forth his Wisdom and Power to the glorifying of God in their spirits and in their bodies which are his but the Light of it must be given out and born in the sight and for the profit and good of others if the fault be not in themselves that should benefit by it unto whom the savour of the knowledge of Christ ministred by his faithful Witnesses in their several places and callings will prove in the issue either a savour of life unto life or of death unto death according as either it is received and valued or rejected and expelled No man saith Christ when he hath lighted a Candle putteth it in a secret place neither under a Bushel but on a Candlestick that they that come in may see the light which Scripture is interpreted 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. where the instance is given in meeting of the whole Church together in one place that is as many visible Saints and Believers as could well hear one another in the place they assembled in for their common Edification In which Church-meeting they were as a Golden Candlestick that did in such manner hold forth the shining Light of Christ's Truth and Holiness to those that came in and were lookers on and were not of the Society that by the Spirit of Prophecy which in and among them of that particular Church was exercised it so fell out that whoever came in desirous to learn and be instructed he was convinced of all he was judged of all and the secrets of his heart were so manifest that falling down on his face he worshipped God and went out and reported that God was in them of a truth This is then the second sort of Witnessing-work which by Christ was intrusted to his Disciples and Followers to be exercised and imployed in according to their several places and callings till his return in the day wherein he is to come and judge the World in Righteousness that is
unto the death the seed of the Woman shall at last certainly and fully overcome the seed of the Serpent tread Satan and his kingdom under foot for ever and ever The principal means they shall rely upon for the bringing of this war to a good issue is the way of overcoming by the blood of the Lamb or force of Christs intercession whose blood cries for vengeance against his enemies as also by the word of their Testimony freely and boldly given forth by them in their very sufferings whilst worldly Power stands on the enemies side which shall have its effect upon friends and foes as a savour of Life to the one death to the other a sweet savour to God both ways prospering in the thing whereto he sends it and performing all his pleasure 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. Esay 55. 11. Pursuant to this counsel and decree of God declared Gen. 3. 15. he hath wonderfully and fignally preserved the seed of the Woman unto this very day He hath given them being preservation and protection in the midst of all enemies and in despite of all their rage and opposition He hath carried on his CAUSE and upheld righteousness on the side of his People whatever disguises reproaches or blemishes have been endeavoured to be put upon it by the Devil and his adherents The miraculous preservation of the Womans Seed the Scriptures distribute into three principal Branches which distinguish the whole tract of time allotted to them for their sufferings into three great Periods and seasons wherein the seed of the Woman hath received variation as to the outward form and dispensation of things though in mind principles and spirit they continue still the same in and under all these Changes The first appearance of the seed of the Woman in order to enter the list with the Seed of the Serpent we find in the line of Adam which he begat of Eve the Mother of all living Abel the first Martyr died before he had any issue or means to propagate it God supplied that defect in the line of Seth. In this new line is carried on the decreed enmity between the two seeds till the Flood came and swept away in a manner all mankind from off the face of the earth At that time the first war ended But the foundation and matter of a new war in this kind is contracted into and found even in the family of Noah The first war begun in Adams line and continued in Seths was in a way of God's just judgement upon the whole world brought to an end by the Flood The seed of the Woman was now narrowed and diminished into Noahs person and two of his sons The seed of the Serpent was contracted into a less room yet the other son This Epocha of 1656 years from the Creation to the Flood is in Scripture distinguished as one great period of time and revolution of things in the world relating to this war between the two seeds and the event of it It began in and with the Patriarchs in the person of Abel whom Cain that was of that wicked one flew It continued all along with the Patriarchs and their day on earth who lived every one of them hundreds of years And it had its period in that universal ministry of God's wrath and vengeance upon the whole world which in Scripture is called THE DAY OF THE LORD The second appearance then of the seed of the Woman and seed of the Serpent also we find in Noahs family From the matter and fuel contracted into this narrow compass does the fire of the war between the two seeds break forth a-fresh and another world as it were and state of things diverse from the forme runder the government of the Patriarchs is brought upon the Stage This new and differently stated war arises and is occasioned from the differing minds and principles found in Noah's three sons Sem Ham and Japhet The flood having destroyed all the families of the earth save Noahs onely the Government of the World came hereby to receive a considerable change because the Right of the Empire of the whole world was now by Gods Providence devolved upon the family of Noah and in particular upon himself in person as the right heir of it After him it came to Sem and his line by God's special designation though Japhet were the eldest In Noahs three sons as in type the three sorts of principles and mindes which influence this second world of mankind are described and as I may say personated to the life These three principles distinguish all persons descended of Noah's family throughout the whole world into three sorts of Inhabitants The same method does John by way of allegory hold Rev. 12. 12. calling one sort of them Inhabitants of Heaven or those that dwell and have their conversation in Heaven corresponding in their Principle and way of Life with the Jerusalem that is above Another sort he tearms Inhabitants of the Earth or those that dwell on Earth the tribes of the Earth or citizens of the earthly Jerusalem The third are those that dwell in the Sea or are found in a state of deep darkness and alienation from the Life of God casting up mire and dirt as raging waves of the troubled Sea Esay 57. 20. living in that open heathenisme and prophaness that the greatest part of the world chuse to abide in notwithstanding the offer of Liberty made to them by the ransom paid on their behalf in the blood of the Redeemer 1. The mind that shews it self in the first sort of these Inhabitants is that which was in Sem a holy spiritual mind set upon things above or in heaven at Christs right hand This when it comes to operate is that active living Faith of the new creature which works by love By this Faith or in this spiritual mind and principle of Life and operation Abel offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11. 4. 2. The mind that discovers it self in the second sort of inhabitants those that dwell on Earth citizens of the earthly Jerusalem is that which was in Japhet as a middle wavering state perswadeable either to good or evil either to leave the earth and love of seen things and to ascend and dwell in the tents of Sem in order to be fixed and set on things above or else to cleave unto things seen in affection and desire and thence to descend and draw back to perdition apostatize and lodge in the heathenish principles of Cham and so partake of his curse as well as sin Those that thus decline from the wavering spirit and principles of Japhet to the prophane state of Cham are noted in Scripture to be such as having known the way of righteousness do turn aside from the holy command and so come to have their lot amongst those that are twice dead and pluck'd up by the roots whose latter end is worse than their beginning For upon such a fatal backsliding such
of Christ Jerusalem is destroyed by Titus Vespasian and there ended the second great Period and Revolution of this War that was managed between the two seeds All along this second War the seed of the Serpent was possessed of the Universal Monarchy of this World had all the countenance and assistance which that could afford The main visible Protection vouchsafed by God on the other hand to his Church and People was continued in the line of Abraham accounting from Sem downward unto God's judicial rejection of that seed of Abraham according to the flesh upon their crucifying the Lord of Glory In this second War we find the seed of the Woman bruised still in the heel and coming off with loss Yea upon the winding up of this second great Day or Period of time wherein the Prince of Life was by wicked hands put to death and the whole Nation of the visible Church of God on Earth rejected and their Worship prophaned and destroyed the Devil might seem to himself and others to have come off compleat conqueror But the War is again renewed by the Serpent and his seed against the seed of the Woman who are repeated and brought forth again by the Regeneration from amongst the very heathenish Nations of the World that were not before accounted by God as a People of his but given up as it were to the dominion of Sin and Satan This third War had its foundation laid in the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ who though a Son was taught obedience by suffering and in the condition of a sufferer obtained the victory Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil And by tasting death for every man as became the Captain of our Salvation he was made perfect through sufferings This way of fighting and overcoming the Devil and Sin was a great mystery till then and the most unlikely of all other ever to break the Serpents head and dispossess him and his Instruments of their worldly Thrones and Powers Yet in this way of the Cross by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony do the true Witnesses of Christ manage and carry on this third War One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes that is yeares have bin alotted them for prophesying in sackcloth in a persecuted wilderness condition Then they are to rise out of their graves stand again upon their feet and prophecy with power 'T is past all dispute that the conquest must fall on the side of the Lamb and his followers at the ending of this third great season and revolution of time wherein the seed of the Woman hath still been on the suffering hand The end of their suffering season will be when the seventh Trumpet begins to sound immediately after the effect which the pouring forth of the Vials shall have upon the Beast and his kingdom This is the Rise Progress and Issue that is given unto things in the third Age of the World called Christian that was made to spring up and have its being out of the destruction of the Jewish World Rom. 11. 11. The cleer view and prospect of things in this Christian World both as to the Civil and Church-government as also the War between the two Seeds brought on again and continued was given by Christ unto the Apostle John and revealed to him by his Angel in the Book of the Revelation For there we find the period that must happen also to this third World and to the Heavens and Earth or the Civil and Church-state appertaining to it and carried on under this dispensation in order to give place to a world to come which is yet to succeed This World to come will be of a more heavenly and spiritual Constitution as to the general state and frame of things which is to be brought forth by Christ's second appearance upon the spirits and bodies of men on this side their compleat and utmost glorification The final ascending up to the Father to sit down at his right hand is after this world that is yet to come or the thousand years Reign of Christ withall his Saints on earth shall have had its course Unto the risen state of Saints when they shall begin to come forth in their victorious posture and unresistable power of Faith and Prayer doth the Prophet Hosea seem to refer chap. 6. vers 2 3. After two dayes sayes he or great seasons of Affliction and Suffering already described he will revive us by the WORD 's being made Flesh and the day-spring from on high therein visiting us This Hab. 3. 2. is called a reviving the work or preserving it alive in the midst of the years of Wrath and Oppression from the Serpent and his seed that was yet to be under-gone for the space of 1666 years after Christ's birth as will appear in its proper place In the third day sayes Hosea that is at the end of it when the Witnesses are to arise we shall live in his sight By following on to know the Lord we shall perceive that his going forth in this his third great revolution of time hath been as the morning shining more and more unto a perfect day and that his coming to us according as hath been by him purposed in his first and in his second Appearance will be as the former and latter rain unto the Earth The former rain of Christ's Spirit in the season of his first Appearance began at the day of Pentecost in visible gifts and distributions of the holy Ghost dividing to every man severally as himself pleased By this means he raised up a Ministry that formed and laid the Foundation of the Primitive Church That Church was upheld in its original purity more or less as long as they kept the Word of God's Patience and withstood the opposition made against it after a right manner by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony in the giving whereof they loved not their lives unto death This appeared all along those hard and cruel Persecutions they under-went until such time almost as Constantine came to the Empire But to avoid Persecution Christians then began to mingle Interest with worldly Powers and to please Governours took their rest in the outward Court some out-side form of godliness so as that which we call Christian Religion became the Religion of the Empire or of the body of the Nation unto which it was received as commanded and compelled by the Laws of the State and power of the Sword This practice commenced and bears date about four hundred years after Christ from which time little of the former rain hath fallen upon such visible or state Christianity in their Publick and National Meeting-places of Worship That rain became then hidden Manna the peculiar food and refreshing of the Woman and her seed in the Wilderness where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time From about the time that Christian
Faith as the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus This is that perfection which by conformity with Christ in his Death and fellowship with him in his Resurrection is in a most eminent degree attainable before our dissolution and the putting off our earthly Tabernacle It shall be so far attained by the Power and Glory of Christ that is to be revealed in us that it shall not much fall short of a very Transfiguration And the state of the then glorious Church will be no less than an Heaven upon Earth in the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness This glorious state of things we look for and therefore are or ought to be hasting a-pace unto the coming of that Day of God Yet when I say until we experience this kind of perfection in Power in us that which is perfect is not yet come my meaning is not that the incorruptible Seed and Principles of this very perfection are not already seated and rooted in the inward man and in the Spirit of the Mind so soon as we are regenerated and that Christ is formed in us dwelling in our hearts by Faith Thus it is that we are all glorious within Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is within us liken'd to the hidden Treasure which when a man hath found in the field he keeps it concealed till he hath sold all that he hath and bought that field Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of that Glory which doth not yet appear is not unfitly expressed when it is called a light shining in a dark place that is in our bodily and sensual part which continues so for a long time after our new birth But those that are all glorious within must have their time of manifestation and be made all glorious without also The outward-man of the heart and the outward Court of the Temple must come to be measured and be of account and estimation in the sight of the World Then the whole body shall be full of light having no part dark as when the bright shining of a Candle doth give thee light This is the Perfection which is near us even at the very door ready to be testified and witnessed unto after another manner than those do pretend to who are for the subjecting and keeping under the body but by those mutable and wavering Principles of Perfection which amounts but to that visibility of Saintship which is the subject of Apostacy yet hath hitherto passed for currant Coin Nor would I have it thought that I have already attained the powerful practice of this holy Duty and Perfection but it is much in my desire aim and hope The difficult Circumstances I am in and that I am still more and more every day cast into by God's wise-disposing Providence to the sequestring me from the World and with-holding all sensible Comforts from me so much as he doth make me in some sort confident it is for a good end and that out of love and faithfulness I am made to drink of this bitter Cup the better to help forward this necessary work in me and upon me wherein consists the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God If I may have and enjoy this it would seem a very little matter to me to be in outward bonds banishment want or any other afflictions Help me then in all your solicitudes and cares about me to what will further and advance this Work in me The Lord grant me and mine to be content if he deny us to live of our own and will bring us to the daily bread of his finding which he will have us wait for fresh and fresh from his own Table without knowing any thing of it before-hand Peradventure there is a greater sweetness and blessing in such a condition than we can imagine till we have tryed it This may add to my help even our making little haste to get out of our Troubles patiently waiting till God's time come wherein he will open the Prison doors either by Death or some other way as he please for the magnifying his own great Name not suffering us to be our own chusers in any thing as hitherto hath been his way with us And why should such a taking up Sanctuary in God and desiring to continue a Pilgrim and solitary in this World whilst I am in it afford still matter of jealousie distrust and rage as I see it doth to those who are unwilling that I should be buried and lie quiet in my grave where I now am They that press so earnestly to carry on my Tryal do little know what presence of God may be afforded me in it and issue out of it to the magnifying of Christ in my body by Life or by Death Nor can they I am sure imagine how much I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which of all things that can befal me I account best of all And till then I desire to be made faithful in my place and station to make confession of him before men and not deny his Name if called forth to give a publick Testimony and Witness concerning him and to be herein nothing terrified What then will the hurt be that I can or shall receive by the worst that man can do unto me who can but kill the body and thereby open my Prison door that I may ascend into the pleasures that are at Christ's right hand prepared for those that testifie and openly discover their love to him by not loving their lives unto the death Surely this will prove better than to prefer sin or evil so much as in appearance unto Affliction and the Cross which Christ would have me take up daily and follow him in If the Storm against us grow still higher and higher so as to strip us of all we have the Earth is still the Lords and the fulness thereof he hath a good store-house for us to live upon There is nothing more destructive to us every way then the uncertainty we are in God can and if he think fit will chalk out some way wherein he may appear by his Providence to choose for us and not leave us to our own choice And being contracted into that small compass which he shall think fit to reduce us unto we may perhaps meet with as true inward contentement and see as great a mercy in such a sequestration from the World as if we were in the greatest outward prosperity I know nothing that remains unto us but like a tossed Ship in a storm to let our selves be tossed and driven with the Winds till he that can make these storms to cease and bring us into a safe Haven do work out our deliverance for us I doubt not but you will accordingly endeavour to prepare for the worst March 7. 1661 -62 FINIS ERRATA In the Epistle to the Reader Page 1. line 30. leave out if and now In the Epistle General Pag. 6. l. 9. f. well r. dwell P. 7. l. 30. f. manhead r. manhood the same word is so misprinted all along and to be so corrected P. 8. l. 23. f. their r. your P. 10. l. 39. leave out or would not P. 15. l. 17. f. or r. nor l. 37. r. see him not P. 21. l. 30 31. leave out the fountain of these outward senses his inferiour part to be in his Soul or Spirit l. 37. f. his r. it s P. 23. l. 17. r. much as hearers P. 24. l. 22. f. and r. which l. 23. leave out in P. 25. l. 9. f. of his r. for his P. 26. l. 10. f. are r. seem l. 40. f. duly r. daily f. by r. find P. 27. l. 9. f. other r. one l. 40. leave out not P. 28. l. 6. f. by r. amongst P. 29. l. 7. f. first r. last l. 25. f. perfection r. perfective l. 29. r. to the. P. 30. l. 22. f. his r. Christs l. 28. leave out which P. 33. l. 1â— f. nor r. or l. 23. f. by r. thereby P. 34. l. 8. f. his r. it s l. 28. f. into r. unto P. 35. l. 7. r. witnessing in every respect l. 39. f. their r. the. P. 37. l. 3. f. a r. as P. 38. l. 27. f. our r. open P. 43. l. 14. f. so r. to l. 37. f. Monarchs r. Monarchies so p. 44. l. 8. P. 45. l. 14. f. whereby r. whereby P. 48. l. 25. f. heads r. headship l. 35. f. one r. his own P. 52. l. 23. f. directed r. discerned P. 53. l. 21. f. duty r. duties Many other obscurities through the mistake of words and misplacing of Points have happened in the Printing of this General Epistle by reason of the several difficulties that attended its Publication It being twice taken in the Press and two Presses well furnished with Materials taken away in the doing of it Errata in The Face of the Times Page 64. line 26. for forme runder read former under P. 70. l. 33. f. unto r. into l. 37. leave out or P. 78. l. 36. f. o r. or P. 95. l. 10. f. doubtess r. doubtless
Life from the dead before these promises shall be accomplished In Answer to which I shall only say There will indeed upon the rising of the Witnesses that seed of Abraham appear and be made manifest that are the true and proper Jews a Nation advanced in love and glory from God above all other Nations and People of which an account hath been given before and then it will be found no other Jewish Nation are to be eyed but as they fall within and are comprehended amongst the Gentile fulness of those Nations that are to be saved FINIS THE Face of the Times WHEREIN Is briefly discovered by several Prophetical Scriptures from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation the RISE PROGRESSE and ISSUE of the ENMITY and CONTEST between the SEED of the WOMAN and SEED of the SERPENT to the final breaking of the Serpent's head in the total and irrecoverable Ruin of the MONARCHIES of this World which have been spirited influenced and headed all along by him for the bruising of the Saints Heel or killing of their Bodies for the Testimony of Jesus which by them hath been given forth in the true Spirit of Prophesie The Design of this Writing is To ALARM the World and awaken up the present Generation of God's People in it to a more diligent and curious observation of the present Signs of the near approaching day of the Lord that they may be more carefully minding and â—oing what most concerns them by way of preparation thereunto Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of that day of God which will come as a thief in the night wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. Printed in the Year 1662. THE Face of the Times IT was the saying of Christ to the Generation he conversed with while in the flesh Ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the skies but can ye not or how is it that ye cannot discern the signs of the times Why do you not set your selves to observe and spel out the meaning of God's providential voice given forth in harmony with his written Oracles by the Judgements which he is now executing in the earth as to that most pertinent and concerning Truth The near approach of the day of the Lord It will surprize and overtake the wicked that are in darkness as a thief and exceeding dreadful will it be to them But the Children of Light and of that day are required to lift up their heads when they see the signes thereof however dismal to their fleshly part for their Redemption draweth nigh Luk 21. 25 28. God is still working and carrying on his designes in the world on the behalf of his People as also over-ruling all the contrary actings of his and their enemies in pursuance of his decree published at passing that sentence upon the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel In the latter branch of this sentence which was first put in execution God declares himself as to sundry particulars which do summarily and fully contain his design and work throughout all ages of the World till it be accomplished and the Mystery of it finished as he hath declared unto his servants the Prophets Rev. 10. 7. Then the Saints Turne will come to act his part in pursuance of the former branch of the Decree for bruising of the Serpents head and giving an incurable wound to all his adherents There is indeed a great mystery in the managing of this war which God declares he hath founded in the enmity set by him between the seed of the Woman and seed of the Serpent Matters are so contrived in the most wise designe of God that the seed of the Woman must suffer first and be on the losing hand as to any outward quietness and fair dealing that they are to expect in this world for a long tract of time wherein the headship of this world the Empire and Government of the whole earth shall be as it were in the hands of the evil one who shall be very much permitted to dispose of the powers of it to his own instruments and creatures But at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet this time is to end and be no longer Then the seed of the woman must break this headship which Satan for so long time hath exercised over the whole world and destroy all those worldly Kingdoms that have been managed under his influence to their prejudice Then Judgement will be given to the Saints of the most High They shall take and possesse the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. Then the Kingdomes of this world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ holding of him as their visible head who is and was and is to come and will take unto himself his great power for that purpose The particulars which are summed up Gen. 3. 15. concerning the nature of this war and the manner of managing it explained since by time and the history of things in the Scriptures are these 1. Let Satan do his worst and make all the Power and parties he can amongst the Sons of Adam yet God will have a Seed in the World called there the seed of the woman that shall be in a state of fixed enmity and war against him and his seed 2. For a long tract of time Satan shal not be chained up nor restrained from using all his skill and power by himself and his instruments for the doing of his utmost in a way of war to ruine destroy and prevail against the Seed of the Woman For this end he shall be permitted to have the subordinate exercise of the Empire and visible Government of the whole world to be given and bestowed as himself will for the strengthening his interest and encouraging of those that will be his creatures and fall down and worship him 3. The contrariety of mind and principles between these two seeds will be so fixed and unchangeable that they will never give over contesting and fighting one with or against another whatever it cost them till the heel of the one be fully bruised that is till the sufferings of Christ yet behind in his body mystical and every member thereof be accomplished by sustaining loss in the flesh even to death it self and the head of the other fully broken that is till the headship and visible Government of the World be wholly taken out of the hands of Satan and his instruments and reassumed by Christ into his own hands and the hands of fit and meet Ministers and Officers under him 4. After a long time of patience under bodily sufferings not loving their Lives