unto it and that we have full and actuall possession of it and so saith the Apostle Our conversation is in Heaven which is nothing but the glorious appearance of God in our spirits when of naturall we are made spirituall we shall see the Scripture speaks of no other Heaven but what is spirituall and not consisting of any corporall or bodily felicity as men conceive God being all the glory and happiness of the creature and so he that believeth hath everlasting life within him and abiding in him because God there gloriously makes out himself to be the Life and happiness To look for a carnall and sensible enjoyment of God distinct from that pure and divine Being of God savours to me of a carnall spirit because it sets up something beside God when there is nothing that lives and is glorious to all eternity but God For as I said before there is nothing in the creature capable of God or to enjoy his glory nor nothing is of God but is God because God cannot be devided nor none can share with him in his Glory he having not given any glory to any creature out of himself but what ever the creature apprehends to be its own glory it is truly and spiritually no other but Gods one Being and glory But the truth is as men fancy a high God though yet very carnally so they fancy a high place for him above the Starrs I know not where herein indeed God condescends to the weaknesse of men in the Scripture to set himself and his glorious presence out to us as if they were properly in one place more then another when as we know a Spirit is not any where confined but the God of Spirits is in all and through you all And so Heaven is his Throne the Earth his Foot-stool That is God is in low and dark appearances as well as in the most glorious God is the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity and not any circumscribed place and so he is in low Spirits And the truth is where God is highest in the Spirit he is so low in that Spirit that they do not desire any glory out of himself but are willing to be nothing that he may be all It is very true that the Scripture saith We looke for new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwells Righteousnesse And truly I find that where God dwells and is come and hath taken men up and wrapt them up into the Spirit there is a new Heaven and a new Earth all the Heaven I look ever to enjoy is to have my earthly and dark apprehensions of God to cease and to live no other life then what Christ spiritually lives in me The Scripture speakes likewise of a Kingdom and a City and Mantions and that Christ went to prepare a place for the Saints all which are true in the Spirit For when God raigns in the Spirit he brings all into subjection under him and so he is King and Kingdom himself and Christ went to prepare and to make out himself in Spirit and so he left the flesh to live in the Spirit and his spirituall coming was much more glorious then his carnall and visible presence with them And the truth is the one was but a predarative and fore-runner of the other so it so it is spiritually true that he that was least in the kingdom of Heaven was greater then John the Baptist where note that those carnall and outward observations of Baptisme and other administrations that John was in they were but the preparatives fore-runners of a more spirituall condition the Kingdom of Heaven not consisting in them And therefore it was reasoned Why do the Disciples of John Fast and Pray Luke 9. and thy Disciples Fast not and Christ gives them the reason It was his presence which is not to be understood of his carnall presence with them but of his spirituall presence which he promised to appear in them and therefore the Baptisme of the Holy Ghost and fire was the substance of which the water Baptisme was but a shadow and so he that was least in the spiritual Kingdom and had a spiritual enjoyment of him was greater then he that was the greatest and most strictest in the Observation of the outward Duties and Ordinances that John was under so that it is plain to me that the spiritual presence of Christ or God in the spirit is the Kingdom of Heaven into which whomsoever is entered he ceases from the outward and formal use of outward Administrations and Ordinances and to sits down spiritually in the Kingdom of the Father and is as the Apostle saith allready set down in the heavenly places and when God thus spiritually appears in you then you will be content with me to sit down and enter with me into an eternall nothingness and be willing to let God advance himself glorifie himself unto all eternity and so cast down your Crownes at his feet in everlasting silence Into which condition when you are brought you shall not need to expect any other Heaven for then shall you enter into that rest wherein you shall cease from that labour and toile of outward and formall duties as seeing God to be that in you which you expected in self If any shall say these things are true but these conditions and this estate is reserved for another life We cannot expect to be perfect here while we are in the flesh I answer that it is true we shall not that is there is nothing of us that is capable of this spirituall enjoyment and therefore we must know that our perfection lies not in any thing that the Creature is but it lies in God and in that respect unless you will say God is not so perfect here as he will be we are as perfect as ever we shall be so that though this spirituall condition be not of us yet it is in us and what Heaven or Estate God will be in when he ceases to live in the flesh I think is as vain for us to imagine as impossible to apprehend Yet if any man can tell me how he was before there was a World I shall with as much ease tell him how he will be when the World ceases to be and however men are so carnal women like that they dream of a Heaven wherein they shall sit one at the Right hand of God and another at the left and hope to have much outward felicity and glory when they have glorified bodies as they imagine yet for my part I look for no such condition and I see nothing in the Scripture to strengthen me in such a conceit For however it speakes of a City that hath twelve gates and streetes paved with Gold and yet I suppose all do but point out the glorious condition that God will appear in upon Earth and therefore I mind that there was a Jerusalem that it is said came down from God out of Heaven In which there
was no Temple nor needed any Sun or Moon which as I apprehend was but that there should be such glorious and spiritual dispensations and discoveries of God in the Saints and that they should enjoy such a life as that they should not worship in any outward external way or forme And should not need to be taught by men or meanes or of any outward Administrations or Ordinances But that the Lord God and the Lamb should be their light and they should be immediatly taught by him and therefore it is said there was no Temple in it the Lord and the Lamb being the light glory Temple and all which condition is glorious and cannot but be Heaven to him that doth enjoy it and into which I know some are brought and have received the accomplishment of all those promises and Prophesies which are spoken of in Scripture and have received that new name which none know but they that have it And thus have I shewed you Heaven as it appeares in my spirit and for my part I see no otherwise of it however men judge I am willing to let fall any carnall apprehension of a visible or corporeal enjoyment of God or any expectation of a happy condition out of God after this life and dayes are ended being willing to resigne and give up to God what he is in me in flesh that so God may be all and advanced above all in the spirit And for my part I see the Lord so framing my spirit that I am content to be nothing that he may be all though I must confess when I think seriously of it there is nothing so grievous to flesh and blood in me as to think that all the glory and happiness that I expected to have had in a corporal and sensible enjoyment must be terminated in God onely This I am sure of that if there be any such thing I shall have my share among the rest which for the present I think ridiculous to looke for onely this I wait what the Lord will do in my spirit for the present And being sweetly refreshed in the spirituall Disovery of himself in me which is to me Heaven Concerning the Angels FOr the Angels I see the world as much mistaken in them as in the former for I really see that man lives in the Angelicall nature and that the Angels are also Spirituall and in man and herein man is honoured in that God tooke humane nature and not the Angelicall For had he confined his own glory in himself he had missed one of his opportunities of magnifying himself and therefore he took the humane nature and so was God manifest in flesh as well as seen of Angels and as the divine nature is in man so is the Angelicall and as the one acts so doth the other for may we not see the Angels of God ascending and discending in man Are not the motions of mans spirit here and there in a moment cannot man ascend into the hights and discend into the depths Are not the motions of a mans spirit at one end of the World at one time and at another end of it instantly again Doth not God make his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Is not every spirit of illumination and spirituall discovery of God an Angell of God to convey some light and influence to the Creature whence is it that all those sweet and spiritual assistances and consolations are flowing in the spirit but by the power and presence of these Angels It is said the Devill left Christ and Angels came and ministred to him and comforted him In which I really see every spirituall support and comfortable appearance of God is an Angel of God How do the Angels pitch their Tents about them that fear the Lord which is no other but that all providences and passages watch about them and administer comfort unto them I do not as I have conceived that they are created spirituall substances distinct from God and waiting upon God as serving men about their Lord to see what his pleasure is and yet this I know all accidents that are good or evill crosse or pleasing are of God and are his Angels and do his will These are the Angels on which God rides in triumph by which he plagues the World and doth great things in Heaven and Earth and therefore I looke upon every glorious manifestation of the power and wisdom of God to be an Angell when I read of Gods coming with thousands of his Angels It refreshes my spirit to think that there will be times of more pure and spirituall glory manifested Now there is here and there an Angel or spiritual discovery of God then will the world be full of his glory and all flesh shall see the salvation of God I cannot conceive they have any fleshly forme or shape though it is said Lot received two Angels which is spiritually true for there was something more then ordinary of Gods mind discovered to him And when I read of the Angel of the Lord smiting the Campe of the Assyrians that there fell so many thousands in one night I do not believe there was any visible appearance but that there was an extraordinary appearance of Gods power which is called an Angell And so whereever we read of Angels appearing to this or that Servant of God I cannot look upon them otherwise then some more glorious appearance or manifestation of God and his will and pleasure concerning things or persons And whereas the Scripture speaks of good and bad Angels I see onely this in them that the one is pure discovery of God the other the more impure dark for where as man had a glorious enjoyment of God and lived in Gods light when he left that went to live in a self-being out of God There were Angels Hell and his discoveries of God became dark and confused and so brought him into bondage so that the dark and carnall knowing of God is the evill Angel and the glorious and pure manifestation of God is the good Angel So likewise the providences that fall out in the world that tend to the comfort or well-being of Creatures they are the good Angels the crosse providences occurrences that do afflict and grieve a people or person they are the evill Angells or Angels of wrath and displeasure not that they are so indeed but because the Creature doth misapprehend the mind of God in them for all things whether Angels good or evill principalities powers life or death things present or to come are for good to them that are called of God When I read of Michael and his Angels and the Dragon and his Angels fighting against one another I see nothing there but the fleshly and dark apprehensions of God against the pure and spirituall and as Michael overcame the Dragon so the more pure and spiritual dispensations of God shall over-power the dark and carnall and so those Angels of darkness shall
place so they will be sure to make Hell the lowest and therefore being as carnall in the one as the other make it to be the lowest part of the Earth Others because they find a place speaking of the Devill calling him the Prince of the Aire they will make Hell in the Ayre I know not where But as the Devill rules onely in Aierie and light spirits so I look upon this to be a Aierie fancy For as the Devill is and hath his Throne and Seat in every man so is his Hell truly for my part I think they cannot be separated and therefore I conceive any man that is in bondage to his own lust nay further he that is under the Law or in any formal or outward duty is so possessed with a spirit of bondage that he must be so and so do so and so or else he must be damned and in the doing of such and such things he shall be saved this man is in Hell and Hell in him and needes no other Devill to torment him but his own false and carnall apprehension of God for as the spirituall appearance of God doth necessarily and formally make Heaven and cause joy and peace in the spirit So the dark and carnall conceit or knowledge of God must needes cause sorrow and lamentation and makes Hell I do not much wonder at the carnall Papist no more then at the carnall Protestant the one fancying a carnall purgatory the other a carnall Hell And I think the one gets as much money for frighting men with the one and making them believe they can show them the way to avoid it and bring them to Heaven as the other doth in frighting them with purgatory and making the poor people believe they can keep them from that But I let that passe And however the Scripture speaks of Hell and expresses it by fire and brimstone and the worme dying not and many other expressions It speakes as in other cases after the manner of men not that there is such visible and material formes of punishment But that as fire and brimstone are the most fearful things to the nature of man so doth the Scripture set out the miserable and fearfull Estate of a carnall condition and what miseries and torments do accompany such an Estate And what consequences have followed the outward man from being in such darkness and what the absence of God hath caused in the spirit the Scriptures and many daily examples do abundantly testifie whose terrors and distractions in their spirits have been such as have been easeless and remediless and made them willing to become their own Butchers and all this hath been from a misapprehension and confused knowledge of God The truth is I shall speak from my own experience so long as I was in bondage to dayes times and set times that I must pray so often and do so much frequent such Ordinances so long I was in trouble and sorrow for I really saw there was this and that failing and miscarriage in every duty that I suffered torment in my spirit for fear I should never attain my end which was a carnall and sensible enjoyment of some happiness which I called Heaven and when I was inlarged in this and that duty I thought then all was well and that I should go to Heaven And so I was continually suffering the torment of Hell and tossed up and down being condemned of my self And this is all the condemnation that I see is come into the World that men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evill That men live in love the dark and fleshly Being and not in the light in the divine being this is the condemnation not causally but formally And this is that I found til God appeared spiritually and shewed me that he was all the glory and happiness himself and that flesh was nothing and should enjoy nothing and then I could not but cease from my former fleshly actings which caused nothing but fear and trouble and saw God or rather God made out himself in me joy and peace and brought me into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereas I was before in bondage to sin law an accusing Conscience which is Hell And yet I cannot exclude God in all this for if we descend into Hell he is there He is in the dark though we see it not as well as in the light that we see He is in wrath and severity and we are wisht to behold him in both let there be never such confusions of spirit never such terrors and Hell let there be darkness and no light yet there God is there is some glimps of himself in as much as there is a secret going out of the spirit towards God and all the distractions the Creature lies under is because it cannot enjoy the presence love of God yet God is there amidst all that darkness and raignes in the midst of his enemies and so he descends into Hell and returnes with a glorious tryumph rising with abundance of joy and peace in the spirit So that though the Earth be moved and the great mountains which the Creature had made to it self be tumbled up and down and the Creature have no rest but is easeless and restless yet God is there as a Rock unshaken of any storme but is sweetly refreshing and delighting himself with himself and so enters into the strong mans house and disarmes him and bindes him hand and foote and casts him into utter darkness And to summe up all if there be any that think this is not Hell enough to be inwardly and spiritually tormented Let them but consult with those that have been under spirituall desertions as they are called and have cryed out as if their bones had been broken and would have chosen death rather then life and thought they could have indured many burnings to have been rid of such a condition And I think they will tell them there is no other or need be no other Hell and all this comes from a dark and carnall knowledg or rather ignorance of God for certain it is God condemns none But the condemnation is of a mans self and in a mans self If any shall say all this is nothing I care not if this be all the Hell and that it lasts no longer then this life But is there not a Hell hereafter that is the Hell to think of Eternity and that the Creat re shall be everlastingly tormented and indure the wrath of God to all Eternity For answer hereunto I must professe I do not know of any such thing nor do I conceive what should be thus tormented for that which men call a soule I had thought to have made it a particular of the present discourse but I shall referr it to further consideration onely to stay any mans appetite that desires my opinion of it I shall onely give him this morsell to chew upon and that is this I
take the most principall places of Scripture that men look upon which speak of the Resurrection and in the spiritual discoveries of them if there be any thing to strengthen them in their opinion I shall and must give way And we shall begin with that which is the prime piller of their Faith and that is in the 1. of the Corinths 15. from the beginning to the end of it It being the whole subject of the discourse therein to treat of the Resurrection The drift of the Apostle is to prove the spiritual Resurrection of Christ to be as sure and certain as his fleshly and by the same Argument that he proves the one by the same he also proves the other in a spiritual sense And the comparison lies not betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ and the fleshly rising of men as most men imagine but betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ in the humanity and his spiritual rising in the divinity and so all along you shall see the comparison holds betwixt the naturall and the spirituall and not betwixt the naturall and the naturall And that we may see plainly it appears in the 47. verse The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is from Heaven who is the Lord so that we see he compares the outward earthly man and the Lord from Heaven which is the spiritual and shewes evidently that it is not the earthly man that is raised but the spirituall and so Christ after the flesh was but of the earthly man and so must be destroyed and subdued as wel as other things and formes which did accompany that earthly being and as the one vanished out of sight before the Apostles so must the other and that this may not seeme strange to any man that the flesh of Christ must be destroyed as well as other things It is plain in the 28. verse So that it is apparent that the Sonne of man being of the first Adam after the flesh must as well be subdued and perish with the fleshly forms and administrations that did accompany him For certain I am that as he was God or the divine being in him he could not be subdued so that it is very clear that it was the fleshly appearance that must needes come to nothing as well as the fleshly forme in other Creatures and so Christ did cease to live in the flesh that he might more transcendently live in the spirit and so he laid down his humanity to live in the Divinity and so it is true what the Apostle saith in the 20. v. That as Christ is risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that sleep and are dead in him so such as are dead in him shall surely rise That is they shall as surely rise to a spirituall condition as they have been spiritually dead in him And so he goes on in the 22. verse As in Adam all dyed so in Christ shall all be made alive Here is still the comparison betwixt the natural and the spirituall that is as sure as the fleshly Adam and outward visible forme dies so it is as certain they that are in Christ or the spititual man shall be made alive and quickened and God shall rise and appear in more power and glory in that life of the spirit then ever he did in the fleshly forme or shape But to go on The first fruits is Christ and then they that are Christs at his coming which is thus that as Christ herein was the first fruits of them that did live in the spirit as he saith a little while and you shall see me and a little while and you shall not see me because I go to the Father that is he was to lay down the flesh to live in the divine and spiritual life in which he appeared after his ascension and so was as good as his word and did come in spirit so it should be as spiritually true that they should partake of the same spiritual life and live in the same spiritual Resurrection as he and live in the Father as he did and therefore he comforted them and told them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God But yet in the mean time till the Son of man and all fleshly formes were subdued to the Father till men were brought to live in the Father and to live in a spiritual life till then Christ must raigne till then there must be outward formes of Christs death and there must be manifestations of God in flesh and outward Ordinances But when these are subdued then men must rise or rather God will appear to be that spiritually which they before enjoyed onely in an outward manner as is argued by the Apostle in the 25. verse And the last enemy is death And certain it is this death must be destroyed and the dead must rise or else death cannot be destroyed Now this must needes be a little opened that so we may see what the Resurrection is for certainly the dead must arise or else Christ cannot be risen For the opening of which death we shall take the same method as the Apostle doth here to compare the natural with the spiritual Then we say a man is dead when a man is void of all visible sence and motion when he ceases to act or move when the life is departed when the life is departed when the being ceases to live in the flesh that he cannot move to any outward or naturall act And so a man is spiritually dead or dead in Christ when a man ceases to be or act any thing in the things of God but is moved and acted as God is in him when there is nothing of the self-being appearing in a word when to the world he appeares to act nothing do nothing in an outward and formall way so that men think there is no spiritual life in him Then doth he die in the Lord when he wholly resignes up all his grace abilities knowledge of God into God and knowes not what he doth or is or should know ceasing from his own reachings forth after God living and being to any self-enjoyment or expectation of any future felicity life or comfort out of God For it is certain so long as the Creature thinks that he must act or do something to attain salvation or be any thing distinct from God so long he is alive without Gods life and so must needes be miserable and therefore the Apostle saith if in this life our hope was we were most miserable which life is not to be understood of the fleshly Being But in this life that is if our happinesse comforts did depend upon our owne self-actings and on our own being any thing were we most miserable But our hope is that all our felicity and comfort is terminated and centred in God onely And so Christ spiritually in us is the hope of glory which is a mystery and so being dead in Christ
19. I know my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these eyes I do wonder what a God men fancy to be seen with a fleshly eye I alwayes took God to be a Spirit invisible and that no created fleshly things was able to see him I cannot imagine then how Jobs eyes which were and should be in a visible form and shape should be capable of such a Divine invisible vision But yet if Job was so carnall to conceive that his fleshly eyes should see a spirituall God yet I am not And if any man shall say that Christ hath a Body in heaven which he lived in when he was upon the earth and that may be seen being visible and corporall for that when any man shall prove heaven a locall place and that God the Fathour sits there and receives petitions from his Son Christ as men do visibly here on earth then I shall give him an answer neither have I so learned Christ to make him to consist of flesh and bloud or bodily shape in heaven as men call it for though it be said that Steven saw the heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God yet am I not so carnall to believe That Stevens fleshly eyes might see up above the stars and skies and that the house top might be open where he was and so he bodily saw Christ sitting in a bodily shape at the right hand of God in heaven As a Diuine of Leicestershire did affirm to me in a private conference that he thought it might be so But his divinity being as little as his person I leave him as knowing that the man Christ left his fleshly being to live in the divine which is void of all forme and shape or to be seen visibly by any outward or corporeall substance and that no light can see him but his own and when men live in this light then they will agree with me till then I must leave men to their dark and carnall apprehensions In the meane time I am content to be nothing that God may be all and to let fall my thoughts of any glory or excellency hereafter as a creature as knowing that the fleshly man dies that the spirituall may be raised and that all creature or sensible enjoyment of God shall cease in eternall silence and it is fruit and joy enough in my spirit that God hath so discovered himself in me that I can willingly resolve all my comforts joy and peace into God who is that endlesse and infinite Ocean and rather desire to be comprehended of it then to comprehend it so that by all that hath bin alleadged I cannot see that there is any thing in that called Scripture to prove any fleshly living of the body after this life but that all things and Creatures below God perish and die and God onely lives and rises in more power and glorious appearance then ever be was in when he lived in the flesh which is that resurrection which is spirituall and which we have endeavoured to make out and so I leave it and come to the last Subject of my discourse which is that we call Scriptures and because men are as carnall about that as any of the former and because the ground of all the mistakes in the former is onely the mis-apprehension of the Scripture we shal insist upon that a little the more larger and so conclude Concerning the Scripture IF you take Scripture as it was written by the Prophets and Apostles It is a forme of wholesome words a perfect rule for all outward actions a true Guide for a mans outward conversatition among men The liveliest expression of the mind of God of all other books setting forth all conditions estates and enjoyments of all men in the world it is the word in flesh The word was made flesh it is the highest discovery of God in flesh the truest testimony of God in the world I do verily believe that what pitch soever any man hath or can attain unto but it is able to speak to him in it thus it is in the letter and the out-side of it But if you ask me what I make Scripture I look upon it to be spiritual and so it is the Law written in the heart and so it is spirit and life as Christ saith The words that I speak are spirit and life so that what Christ speaks spiritually that is Scripture and so it is the power of God for take Scripture as it is in the History it hath no more power in the inward man then any other writings of good men nor is it in that sense a discerner of the secrets as it is in the History so it is to be believed above all other writings in the world but as it is a mystery and God being the substance of it so I must believe it as God makes it out in me I must not build my Faith upon it or any saying of it because such and such men writ or speak so and so But from that divine manifestation in my own spirit for the Scripture as it is written outwardly is but an outward witnesse of that which is within and the spirituality of it wherein the life and being of it doth consist is made out by a spiritual discovery I do not go to the letter of Scripture to know the mind of God but I having the mind of God within I am able to see it witnessed and made out in the Letter for if I do a thing lawfull from the Letter yet if I be perswaded in my own spirit I should not do it I sinne Yea further that power and authority which the Scripture hatâ—â— is not because such and such men writ it but from that divine manifestation in them And so indeed if I have the same discovery that they had then I can say it is the word of God otherwise I lie for it is one thing to believe the Scripture because such and such write it as most men do and it is another thing to believe it because God saith so in me and so it is the spirituall speaking of God that is the Scripture and so that is true They that are of God hear Gods Word Now no man can hear God but as God speaks And it is as true that as God speaks spiritually so no man hears him but in a spirituall manner and so we hear Gods word And therefore it is said often in the 1. Rev. He that hath an eare let him hear what the spirit saith to the Churches Which cannot be understood of a carnall eare because every man hath that but as the Spirit speaks spiritually so it is the spirituall eare that hears the Spirit For all the outward speaking or hearing of men or Scripture cannot reach the Spirit Further the Scripture I do apprehend as it is written outwardly is God clothed in fleshly tearmes and expressions and speaks in the language of men as when he speaks of
The Light and Dark sides of GOD Or a plain and brief DISCOURSE OF The light side God Heaven and Angels The dark side Devill Sin and Hell As also of the Resurrection and Scripture All which are set forth in their Severall Natures and Beings according to the spirituality of the Scripture Written by Jacob Bauthumley I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes even so it is thy pleasure The spirituall man judgeth all things and he himself is judged of none LONDON Printed for William Learner at the Black-more in Bishopsgate-streete 1650. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER I Have onely directed my discourse to thee though I know the most unto whose hand it may come cannot read it But that it will be a Barbarian to them and they to It. However if I be beside them yet I am not beside my selfe If I be it is to God The reason why I have not directed it to any particular man or sort of men what ever as is usuall in things of this nature is because I desire not any mans approbation of it as knowing I am not subject to mans judgement neither would I have any man to subject himself to mine neither shall I be ashamed to own what I have writ for the present or to cast it away for the future if God shall lead me thereunto I have cast up my accounts what all will amount unto upon either of the former considerations and so have sweet peace in my spirit in my present thoughts and apprehensions leaving the issue of all to the wise disposing providence All I desire is that those to whom these few lines may come would if they can be so charitable of me as to conceive and judge that I have not writ any thing with any spirit of opposition to any sort of men under what forme of godlinesse soever as knowing that there is a sweet appearance of God in them All. And however my person and parts be meane in the Worlds Eye and so may cast an odium upon the things that I hold forth yet I shall runne the hazard in that kinde and leave the Lord to gaine his own Honour and Glory in it as seeing by sweet experience it is one of his greatest designes in the World to confound the high and mighty things thereof by the most meanâ— and contemptible And so though men be not satisfied yet herein I shall receive sweet content in my own spirit that my worke shall either burne and consume or else abide the fiery tryall of mens indignation And as I shall wish no man to embrace it or condemne me So I shall neither thank them that do the one or condemne them that do the other For the subject matter of the Discourse I must confesse they are things of that nature that are not obvious to every capacity and so lye obnoxious unto their censure and when time was I should have been as ready to have sat in Judgement against the Maintainer of such Principles yet to me they are such as wherein the Mystery of godlynesse mainly consists and so are not to be slighted And however I do not looke that I or any man else shall receive much by this or any other Booke which had almost perswaded me to have been silent in this kind yet was I inwardly enforced thereunto to ease the burden that lay upon my spirit which was one great motive to me to act my part so publickly Besides having converst with men under severall formes and administrations not to speake of those of the inferiour sort as Papists Episcoparians and Presbyterians But those that are got to the highest as Independents an a Anabaptists commonly so called and seriously viewing the carnall apprehention of things in themselves and there mis-apprehenâ—ion of the minde of God held forth by others condemning them as Heriticall and Blasphemous in whom the Mysteryes of the Kingdome are most clearly revealed and they themselves placeing Religion and the Mystery of godlinesse in outward Ordinances and administrations of which they are all but Shaddowes Having a strong conceite of a Creature happynesse and selfe injoyment and so are acted to attaine to the End In all these respects I could not but gratifie them so farre as to set forth what is held out by a certaine Generation of Men and Woemen in the World That if it may be there may be such a favourable opinion of us from them that we neither deny there is a GOD Heaven or Hell Resurrection or Scripture as the World is made to believe we do And I thinke they are all as plainly and briefly made out as they themselves could desire And further I know by experience that there are some with whom my spirit sweetly closed in the Vnity thereof and that travell with me in the same birth yet are not able to bring forth their conceptions for so much as many times the Truth suffers by a weake delivery and for their sakes have I held this Glasse before them that so they may be the better able to describe themselves to others and to help them to bring forth that out of their mouths which perhaps may lye in the bottome of their hearts For these Reasons have I taken the boldnesse to set pen to Paper though otherwise I was unwilling desiring that and no more of others then what I would do to them which is to let every man stand and fall to his own Master One thing I thought fit to premise onely to satisfie any that shall be so weake as to make it a matter of offence to them In that I have not set downe the chapter and verse of many places of Scripture which I do hint upon all along the Discourse To answer them and so to salve up that pretended soare I found things of such a Mysterious nature as they are that while I was looking for them in the Letter of the Scripture I was at a great losse in the present delivery of my selfe of those things which I found spiritually and secretly conveyed to me in the Spirit and so rather then I would loose or let passe what was spiritually discovered in me I was willing to omit the outward viewing of them in a chapter or verse Besides there is nothing laide downe by me by way of Argument or formall dispute which might ingage me to an outward proofe of things as men usually do in matters of controversie and what is positively affirmed there is punctually Scripture for But my designe was mainly to deliver my private Meditations and apprehension of such things which are most carnally conceived of I thought it not therefore necessary to trouble my self or the Reader wiâ—h multiplicity of places of Scripture to prove those things of which I hed so reall and spirituall a Testimony of in my own spirit and which I am confident that the most spirituall man can set