of Judgment at last without Mercy A remarkable example of this we may see in the Case of Jacob and Laban Gen. 31. 44. Laban a Righteous man at least pretending to it in his appeal to the God of Justice conversing with God in and under the Law of Nature and what of God is to be known under that Ministry saith to Jacob Come now after all our difference and unkindness thou shalt see I will deal righteously with thee and put thee to the proof who shall be found more righteous thou in thy way of serving God or I in mine Let us strike a Covenant I and thou and let it be for a Witness between me and thee Let Him whom I know and serve by the Light and Law of Nature and whom thou servest by a higher Law and Light that of Faith which doth not destroy but establish the Righteousness of the Law let him whose eye only seeth and before whom we cannot be hid either from his knowledge or his vengeance watch and mark our carriages in pursuance of our Covenant and Agreement and accordingly be a Witness for or against us upon the breach thereof Unto this Jacob chearfully agreed upon his Principles and Laban upon his In which it is evident that the same God and Christ may be conversed and walked with upon differing Principles and that righteous Agreements may be upheld and maintained by those that own and call Christ to witness as he is the Sovereign Minister of God's Justice whether their knowledge of him be according to the first or second Covenant in both which Christ comes forth as to his Communications and enlivening Presence in the hearts of the sons of men which is the point that we are now upon and have cleared in the first branch of it The Second being that which consists in a knowledge and manifestation of God that is beyond and above Nature that which man in his natural make at best reacheth not or hath a mind or will to receive is more difficult to be expressed and when expressed to be understood For after this manner God is not seen or communicated unto any but in a secret and hidden way which he makes not common but reserves for peculiar kindness to those that find grace in his sight upon their coming as Esther did into the inner Court to have this golden Scepter held out to them by promise or else they die God's first Voice and Manifestation of himself unto the Creature speaks and declares him as we have shewed to be just in a way of Law and righteous Government which he exerciseth over his Creatures He is their Soveriegn they are his Subjects in order to receive the reward of Love or of Wrath That which this Second Voice ministers and speaks is that Love and the knowledge of God in it which he spreads abroad in the hearts of his good and loyal Subjects after the proof made of the Loyalty and stedfastness of their Love to him Not that they love him first but of his own Will they are begotten by the Word of Truth into this Love of his which comprehends them long before they apprehend it and God in it But he that shall come will come and will not tarry if by Faith we are taught to wait for him Whom having not seen yet we love or have secret cleaving to and earnest longing after In whom even whilst we see not but find our selves altogether in the dark and at a loss as to what may be seen and known of him by natural Light and Reason yet believing and having thereby given us the evidence of things unseen by the natural eye they become so real and are made so certain to us as we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory We could do no more were we at the end of our Faith and did see as we are seen as we shall at the compleat Salvation of our Souls From him then that is thus the Love and Joy of the believing Soul that is to say Christ the Minister of the Spirit and giver of the holy Ghost and that new Name which none know but they that have it is this Second kind of Knowledge of God and Communication of Life from him that we desire to open and lay before you You have already heard that Christ is the only begotten of God as he is the Building and Sanctuary which he that is the builder of all things sets up in himself for his own use as his Temple and speaking-place where to give and whence to deliver his lively Oracles and Inspirations of both sorts with which he fills all things In this Heavenly Habitation God records his Name and hath the place of his Throne and of his Footstool with which he will dwell and tabernacle among his People for ever Again By this workmanship and heavenly building Christ the Mediator hath a Creature-being given unto him in spirit before the World was and is he who was before all things and by whom all things consist is the Angel of God's Face and Presence that is by God and with him First As his chief Messenger and Servant his Messiah and then as his Spouse and Equal that lies in his bosom knows all his secrets and is retained in the most intimate bond of spiritual marriage-union that is possible for Creature-nature to be taken into with God even by personal union as the body is with the soul And thus Christ is found even as a Creature in the form of God and is called Michael God's Fellow and Equal after such a manner as the body is to the soul both making but one person Now Christ as he lies in the Father's bosom and is the Spouse to the blessed Trinity is a higher manifestation of God than he hath sent out from God as the Messiah that bears God's Name only by figure and representation as his single Image which yet speaks truly what God is and as fully as the Creatures first vessel of Receipt and Measure knows how to bear and receive but doth not speak out all God's fulness nor shew the Original it self whereof it is the figure and character which in its single standing and appearing out of God as a thing distinct from God and not at the same time known to have any abode in him after that intimate manner of union and conjunction before-mentioned the finite and short-sighted understanding of the Creature is ready to imagine that manifestation and sight of God's Glory to be all that is to be known and inherited of God And to desire as the Israelites did Exod. 20. in the Person of Moses as the Type that God would not add to speak more or shew forth his naked and unvail'd glory to them but they would content themselves to hear God speak under the Vail which Moses had put upon his face and not look out after any higher attainment When God had spoken once and shewed the Creature as much of himself as it
Whether we be able to drink of the Cup he drank of and be baptized with the Baptism he was baptized with Was it not to intimate That if we die with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him and have it granted to us to sit down with him on the Throne of his Glory our very Enemies beholding What would it be less even in this world if he should but please to cause upon this occasion of our Suffering that the Spirit of God and of Glory should rest upon us and bring forth his Kingdom within us in Power giving us that Mouth and Wisdom that will make us mighty in word and deed that Faith to which all things are possible that Spirit of Supplication and Prayer that he will alwayes hear and immediately answer God's Arm is not shortned doubtess great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ to be admired in them If we come not to live here in the actual fruition and full accomplishment of them as they will be experienced by Believers even on this side the death or full change of their mortal body yet if we die in the certain fore-sight and embracing of them by Faith this will be no small blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his Work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is exposing to the Light His Sons must be manifested and evidently distinguished from those who say they are such and are not There is a glory to be revealed in them unto which their Suffering is made the needful Preparation and this is called the Redemption of the body In that day the tabernacling of God in men shall be visible Their very bodies shall be the Temple of the Holy Ghost In them as his Sanctuary will God dwell for evermore whence shall be given forth such visible signs of his extraordinary Presence as shall render it past dispute to the sight of every man that God is in them and with them of a Truth This state of entire resignedness and subjection of our bodies to our Spirits and of our Spirits unto Christ the Father of them shall certainly be brought to the view of the whole World The eyes of those that see them shall acknowledge them and the ears that hear them shall bear witness to them that they are the Seed and Off-spring which the Lord hath blessed Our body thus considered as capable of such advance and honour is not meerly the outward case or shell that must return to dust but includes also the bodily organical state of Life or that souly animal Life which the Spirit of man exercises in conjunction with his mortal body In this kind of Life it is we see hear and speak have the exercise of our Senses after a distinct manner from Angels and intellectual Substances in a way of operation inferiour to theirs proper and peculiar to the rational Soul as needing and using the earthly Organs or Instruments of the mortal body There is also in man that which is peculiarly called Mind or Spirit in distinction from his Soul or from the souly Life and activity of the same Spirit in and by its earthly body 1 Thess 5. 23. The Spirit or Mind of man as distinguished from that life and operation it performs in the mortal body is capable even while in the body to be awakened by the Father of Spirits and come forth in a superiour way even of natural life received by man in his first creation to act as out of the body or without the use of bodily organs as an equal or associate to the very Angels Now because the bodily and inferiour powers of our mind are the instruments of that converse we are subjected to in these dayes of our vanity so that if we will be sociable it must be by the use thereof the Apostle James comprehends all the action of these inferiour powers by the sensible organs we make use of in the exercise thereof under the name of the tongue when he saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body To bridle and regulate the tongue order all the language action and expression of the animal powers aright is to bridle the whole body under the government or ruling authority of the Mind or Spirit considered in its superiour and angelical kind of life and acting as out of the body or above and without the use of bodily organs The Mind or Spirit of man thus considered is as the Pilot that turns the Ship about whithersoever he listeth If it well and truly exercise its governing power it causes the animal life in all the operations and affections thereof to obey its dictates and commands however fiercely driven by contrary Winds false Doctrine any corrupting violent influences of Devils or men upon it and fetches it off from whatever tumultuous disorder it s own sensual lusts and passions are ready to run it into Jam. 3. 2 5. To be partaker of the Redemption of the body is to be made this perfect man which is taught so to live and act from right spiritual Principles as not to offend in word through the Power actually conferred on him and exercised by him for the bridling of the whole body in the sence above declared and for the keeping it in subjection to the Spirit or angelical part in him in righteousness and true holiness This taming of the tongue or subduing of the bodily part in us to the spiritual and intellectual is a work of no small difficulty a thing that is not to be purchased but at a dear rate It may cost us all that we have and no ill bargain neither since by our words it is that we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned For until we have brought under our body and reduced it into a fixed subjection and entire resignation to our Spirits let us boast never so much that which is perfect is not yet come even that perfection which in a very eminent degree shall be experienced by the Saints here on Earth on this side the grave and during their continuance in the mortal body This for ought I can discern will be the product of the present sharp and fiery Tryals that God hath brought upon his People all the World over After they have suffered a while and the same Afflictions have been accomplished in the rest of their Brethren that are in the World they may so far have the work of Patience perfected in them as in this sense to become perfect and entire wanting nothing and to shine forth as so many bright morning stars and fore-running signs of the near approach of the brightness of the Day of Christ's second coming This God hath set before the eye of my
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
old ere ever the Earth was And what is true in Christ who is not only the Root but the chief and principal Branch hath its Witness and is declared in the Work which he begets and shines forth in amongst his Members knit to him by an abiding or indissoluable union all that are Branches in this true Vine whose Fruit is such as is cheering both to the heart of God and of Man that is to say of Man considered in his higher or lower attainments and growths up into the knowledge and love of God as he is Man and no more partaking of the Spirit of God by measure And secondly of Man made the only Begotten of God that lyes in the bosom of the Father and is anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows which Christ's exalted Manhead is and that after such sort as not to have and inherit the dignity of it to himself single and alone but as the Head and Husband to that General Assembly of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and have right to the double portion The right opening of this is the great Key to all our practical and experimental Knowledge of God which is found amongst the dispersed Seed of God that are either of the one or other birth Children of the first or second Covenant in every Nation Tongue Language or Form truly searing God and working Righteousness and therein accepted of God either through Faith or with that common acceptance declared Gen. 4. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted whilst in the mean time they may be great strangers unto if not much prejudiced against one another for not walking together in one and the same way of Profession and external Communion Give me leave then to distinguish this Seed of God into Four sorts Two that are Witnesses unto Christ's first Ministry as he is the Author and Restorer of the Law and Principles of pure Nature and is the dispenser of God's Image and the manifestation of his Will upon the terms of the first Covenant And other two that are Witnesses unto the truth of Christ's second Ministry as he is the new Creator that regenerates and makes over again his first work anew is the Author of Life from the dead and bringer of Immortality to light which is not done by the first Covenant nor can be but by this second knowledge and Image of God begotten and wrought by and according to the tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant The first sort of Witnesses we shall speak unto and rightly to have the knowledge of them we must yet further consider Man in his first make and in the primitive constitution of being that was given to him in his state of Innocency before sin entred So as to enquire upon what terms Man then stood with God and in what respect he was pronounced good in God's eyes and might be said to be accepted of him Man then had the perfect knowledge of God and of Christ as his Creator and Law-giver for God created all things by Jesus Christ by the Word of God's mouth in the Mediator did all things live move and had their being so that what might be known of God even of his Eternal Power and Godhead by the things that were made that is by the means of any created beings visible or invisible it was manifested in man and was shewed to man by that mixt com pound being which was given him of an intellectual and sensual or animal Soul which furnished him with inward and outward senses proportioned for such a knowledge and which were retained in due subjection and subordination the one unto the other From such a prospect and survey of things as Man at first was fitted to receive both from within and without him the invisible things of the Godhead were clearly seen by him rendring him without all excuse being thereby instructed in the duty of his obedience and subjection to the Law of God under which he was made to the glorifying him as God which as God expected and required from man so he owned a liking and acceptance of from man with whom he treated and agreed upon the terms of his personal obedience and entire observance of all his Commands and continuance therein Three things man in this state might and did experimentally find in himself First The light and manifestation of God's Mind and Will as a Law within him called in Scripture The Candle of the Lord the Oyl with which God furnished the Lamp of man's spirit which he was to take care that through his default he did not let it go out nor diminish but quicken and renew it as it should need by such means God instituted The second thing which man experienced was the life of a rational and intellectual Soul that is to say a superior part in the same Soul affording the use of inward senses that by keeping open and awake he had as it were an intercourse with the spiritual and invisible beings of Angels and saw the intrinsick natures of the Creatures And thirdly He found also a brutish nature of which he was compouuded and made which furnished him with the use and operation of outward senses by which he might go abroad and walk up and down in converse with earthly things and inhabitants The fountain of these outward senses his inferior part to be in his soul or spirit With these he came to perform and put in execution that which the superior and directive part of him judged right and fit to be done This was the inward and outward order of actings that Man at first was created in with a freedom to make use of this Light within himself which God as a Talent had committed to him to imploy according to his will and rely upon his guidance and the sufficiency of it to attain the end God set before him in the way of his perfect obedience and keeping out the entrance of sin or else upon the sense of the instability he might discern in these Principles of Freedom that leave him alone and to himself and the Insufficiency to continue by the power of the Grace received in well-doing against all resisting and deceiving temptations to chuse rather to make resignation up of this his Freedom wherein he was at his own guidance and dispose in exchange for a better and more perfect Freedom that is to say in order to be intirely at the will of another and the leading influence thereof in all things even of such another whose service is perfect Freedom and who should be as Surety for the performance of the duty to God's Law and secure us from the penalty of the Curse therein threatned against the Transgression thereof which was pointed out to Adam in the Tree of Life as John interprets by the Promise mentioned Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcometh which is done through Faith will I give to eat of the Tree of Life or Immortality which is fed on
by Faith through the power of which the entire resignation of our will into the leading and rule of the Spirit and Will of Christ is onely wrought and of which we shall treat particularly in its proper place though this small touch of it is needful here But the choice which Man made was to lean to his own understanding for his guide and to trust to the use of his Freedom which gave him to be at his own dispose as sufficient to encounter with and resist all Temptations and upon the first encounter failed and miscarried and let in Sin Death and Wrath upon himself and all his Posterity as the sad Consequence of that Fact of his To be then upon these terms as Adam was before his fall personally righteous and finding acceptance with God whilst we stand in such Obedience and Righteousness is an Effect which Christ in his first Ministry doth produce in the hearts of men making them in this respect the first sort of the four Witnesses we have before-mentioned and which though we have been considering of them in the Person of the first Adam before the Fall yet by the same Rule and Proportion the Witness is still the same whether it be communicated originally at mans Creation or else by renewal or restauration again after the fall by the same hand and Ministry which first gave it which Christ may do if he please and that he hath done is most obvious and undeniable from the experience we have had of late years within these Nations in a sort of Professors and Witnesses of Christ that do exactly go upon this bottom of Personal Righteousness wrought by the Principles of pure Nature renewed and restored within them which they assert may be held in perfection whilst we are here in the body and by which we may as by the Light within us perfectly subdue our brutish nature and keep under the body though all this be accompanied with mutability and the acceptance which they find with God is according to their works whilst they do well otherwise sin is at the door and the punishment according to the same This sort of Professors of the Name of Christ rise so high in their Testimony concerning him as to call him The glorious Sun of the soul the Searcher through of all darkness the Wonderful Power the Incomprehensible Wisdom and Immutable Holiness a thing that is invisible to every fleshly thing the one individual Spirit of Brightness that created all souls and are so dazeled with the Beams of this Glory all which he truly is that they overlook him too much according to his Humanity and see him not as he is the Son of man in whom Redemption is wrought for us and the Atonement for sin made by the price of his Blood the benefit whereof they have whether they confess it or not These are they that by the Candle of the Lord that is lighted within them the work whereof is written in their inward parts though they be not so much hearers of the Law by the Ministry of the outward Word yet do they shew themselves doors of the Law by the power of the Light that is within them doing as it were by Nature the things contained in the Law and so not having the Law outwardly considered are a Law to themselves shewing the work of it written in their hearts and by keeping the Righteousness of the Law do judge them who by the Letter transgresse the Law and do feel Peace and Comfort in their works In this manner did the Centurian fear God and work Righteousness Act. 10. before he heard those words from Peter that instructed him in the knowledge of Christ's Death and Resurrection and the Peace that comes to the Soul by his Blood unto the Remission of sins by whom all that believe are justified from all things which they could not be justified from by the Law of Nature or Works These ought not to be denied place in this rank of Christ's Witnesses whereof we have been speaking since they own and declare themselves to be fearers of God and workers of Righteousness upon these first principles of it which pure Nature teaches and plants where ever it is renewed and restored from the hand of Christ's liberality and bounty to put the Receivers of it to the tryal how far they will shew their faithfulness in the measure committed to them and in what readiness they are to put these Talents out in the way of exchange to get more and not to rest untill they obtain that state which is immutable It therefore greatly concerns such to look to their standing which is very slippery and uncertain and take heed lest they fall and to think soberly of themselves as they ought to think and not affirm as they are apt to do that their Witness contains in it all that Christ is lest otherwise when they come to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary they be found at last to deny more of Christ than they confess of him Nor are they to exalt this part of the Ministry of Christ which is but the beginning against that fuller sight and knowledge of him that is still to be revealed but this one thing they should do Forget that which is behind and press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling which is in Christ And although it be a commendable thing in them even upon their Principles to spread the knowledge of Christ in all the dark corners of the world where the Scriptures and written Word of Truth are not heard or received the effect of which labours with God's blessing may be the heightning and refining man's nature and purging it from filthy lusts and prophaness teaching them to fly from the Wrath and Vengeance which awaits evil-doers Yet this is to be done in subserviency unto not in opposition against the right knowledge and powerful Preaching of the Scriptures those Divine Oracles which God hath preserved for the great benefit and use of his Church in all times since the first writing of them By these are witnessed the righteous Principles and Actings according to the Law of pure Nature wherein Man was at first created and may so often as Christ pleases be again received in by that Light with which he enlightens every man that comes into the world whereof Christ as we have shewed is the Author and Dispenser and under this first Witness all these are to be comprehended who approve themselves doers of the Law men that fear God and work Righteousness in every Nation in such manner as God accepts though as yet they have not attained to the knowledge of Christ by the outward Ministry and hearing of the written Word But as these are such who pretend to be doers of the Law by a Light within them without dependance upon the Ministry of the written Word by a Teaching of the Word as it is spoken inwardly to the mind by Angels who are entrusted
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
Freedom than that wherein man was at first Created in that mutable and Primitive state of purity And what this Freedom is we shall shew that is so worthy to be obtained and fought after in exchange for the other This Freedom consists in the witnessing every respect which is wrought in the Understanding and Will of man by Regeneration and Divine birth of the one or other sort to render them of entire use and service unto that higher and superiour Will in the second Adam the Lord from Heaven that is made and given of the Father to be a quickning Spirit unto them in a twofold capacity First of their natural Head and Sovereign whom they are to serve as in relation of Subjects to their King and Law-giver and therein fulfil and answer the very end of the Law of Nature and actually become those righteous persons against whom there is no Law that can take hold of them to punish them or take the least exception to their perfect Righteousness that have given to them a constant and perpetual Will to do right to every one and love the Lord their God most intirely by influence from their Head who in this respect is the common Parent to both the sorts of Children whom he makes free Citizens and Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem his own glorified man-head which is the Mother of us all But secondly Christ the second Adam comes forth also in another Headship to the second sort of these Children which is that of Husband and Bridegroom gathering them up into a state of higher Love and Duty than that of Servants and Subjects and receiving them unto more honorable use in familiarity intimacy and a kind of equality comprehending the Love and Duty of righteous and faithful Servants but in respect of the nearness of relation and union becoming much the more excellent and transcendant The Inspiration and holy Anointing which flows from Christ in this twofold Headship of his into the hearts of these his Members hath that effect upon them as joyns them to him in unity and agreement of spirit or of judgment and will and so entirely possesses them engrosses them in the service and to the use of their Lord that it leaves them at no liberty to 〈◊〉 the use or service of any other but in subordination to his will which excludes sin and all evil esteeming it their greatest happiâ—… thus to be bound up in a way of love delight and entire obâ—…nce in the Will of their Head their second Adam and Lord frâ—… Heaven Hence they experience that they are not their own in â—…ny thing for it is not they that live but Christ liveth in them and with his Princely prevailing Influence as their Head is their infallible Guide and firm Security in all their operations giving them such an abiding and growth up in all things into him in an entire resignation and obedience to his Will as co-workers together in every thought word and work that they cannot miscarry nor shall ever be hurt by the second death but shall be rewarded with those pleasures that are at his right-hand and at his left in his Kingdom for evermore And although this most perfect Freedom which is obtained by this binding and conjunction in unity and agreement of spirit with Christ be esteemed by the Possessors of it of price inestimable yet it is the greatest bondage and cross that can befall a wicked heart and is that which is reserved by Christ to be their torment for ever in the end which will be given by him to his first Ministry in the hearts where he is finally rejected from whom after he is departed and withdrawn for a season as if they should never hear of him as indeed they shall not to their comfort yet they shall to their terrour and sorrow be made sensible of him by the fastning which he will make of his Darts of enlightnings into the minds of the wicked as sharp Arrows and a gnawing Worm that shall never dye when by the breath of his mouth he shall kindle a fire of Conviction and self-judging in their Conscience together with the just sence of his Divine Vengeance they can no longer flee nor escape from But on the contrary the truly regenerated souls are made willing and exceedingly pleased to draw in this yoke with their Head to see with his eyes and act by his quickning in all they do and to put on with him this lowliness meekness and purity of spirit which feeds on that which is incorruptible and is with God of great price so great as no righteous workers have his praise and blessing but these who are properly Christ's Mystical Body the Branches that abide in him and whose Fruit is permanent unto Life Eternal and this Body or Church of invisible Saints and spiritual Worshippers of the true God even whilst they are in their Wilderness and suppressed state Christ the great Overseer of their souls doth feed with Teachers afâ—â—â— his own heart and is not wanting by an outward Ministry under him â—o feed and refresh with Oyl the Lamps of all sorts that he makes use of as his Witnesses and bear his Name whether according to the knowledge his Will that is revealed in the first or in the second Covenant that so hâ— may by upholding such an Office under him edifie all that are under his Charge as he sees occasion and is agreeable to the condition the Church is in whether of restraint or freedom from the Powers of the World By those which Christ puts in to the Ministry of his Spirit under him we are to understand such ahe gives his Vnction and Mission unto as he is the Head of Nature or of Grace and from their own Experience are made able to minister the knowledge of Christ in his healing and restoring work or in his regenerating and New-creation-building before described giving their Witness according to what they themselves have received of the Spirit in the three distinct Dispensations of it before expressed in the first of which because of the mutable state of the operation thereof both in themselves as well as in their hearers they that are eminent Preachers unto others by the excellency of Gifts with which they are anointed and that from Christ may nevertheless themselves be found at last Cast-awayes But in the other two they which experience the Anointing thereof become Pillars in the House of God that never go out more and may obtain the highest Order and Rank of Ministry in the Church even that of Apostles in the same way as Paul himself did by such a Spiritual Light of Christ as he sayes 1 Cor. 9. 1. Am not I an Apostle have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord And as thus the Apostolical Order came to have being in the Church by the immediate sight of Christ in Spirit as we see in Paul's Case which comprehends in it all other the inferiour Ranks of Ministers whether Prophets
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us
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
of their Wilderness-condition Yet this earth or miry clay cannot when all 's done cleave heartily and thorowly to the heathenish prophane Spirit of the first Beast but at last is preyed upon by it This Earthly Jerusalem is unexpectedly surprized and overflowed as with a flood by that prophane Interest it ventured to call to its assistance against the true Seed of the Woman in which respect it is said that the Earth helps the Woman the wrath of the prophane party of Antichrist's Kingdom or of the ten-horned Beast being chiefly spent and poured out upon that Professing Party that make up the second or two-horned Beast 11. By the Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea chap. 12. 12. are meant First The Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem who are under Grace Secondly The Citizens of the earthly Jerusalem who are under the dominion and curse of the Law And Thirdly The prophane Party who live under sin moving therein as in their Element past feeling by reason of the blindness and hardness of their hearts This state of Sin is nevertheless not unchangeable nor those that are Captives under it in a condition irrecoverable for Christ died to redeem men out of it 12. By the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arising out of the Sea is to be understood the Empire or Governing Power of the World in whose hands soever it be found as it is made the Seat and Throne of Satan and promotes the Interest of the Devils Kingdom in corruption of manners and prophaness even by the countenance of humane Laws or at least in the execution of them 13. By the two-horned Beast arising out of the Earth we are to understand the Usurpation of the Prophetical Office of Christ by a false Spirit or the said Office as deceitfully executed in a private Spirit of self-byassed Reason in disjunction from the Spirit of the true Head undertaking to counsel and lead men in the interpretation of the written Word or other evident signification of God's Will This once joyned with worldly Government and Power made its vassal and ridden by it is that Spirit and Principle for promoting of worldly Religion which is founded in and supported by humane Laws under the Name and Form of Christianity The two-horned Beast and the false Prophet are therefore the same as by comparing chap. 13. vers 14. with vers 20. of chap. 19. is most clear And the ten-horned Beast is wont also to be called the Image of the Beast where ever therefore the Beast and the false Prophet are mentioned together as they are three times there by the name of the Beast is meant no other but the ten-horned Beast as by the false Prophet the two-horn'd Contrarily where with the Beast we find coupled the Image of the Beast as chap. 14. vers 9 11. chap. 15. vers 2. chap. 16. vers 2. chap. 19. vers 20. chap. 20. vers 4. there by Beast is to be understood the false Prophet and by his Image the seven-headed and ten-horn'd Beast as restored For this Beast seeing he acknowledgeth the false Prophet as his Restorer and suffereth himself to be guided by him as his supream Lord chap. 13. vers 12 14 15. he is not without cause called his Image not as representing or bearing the similitude of the two-horn'd Beast but he is the Image which the two-horn'd Beast speaking like the Dragon did restore and which he challengeth for his own To justifie this that very Image of the Beast which the false Prophet did give life unto did cause that whosoever would not worship the Image of the Beast should be slain To conclude of the self-same is the Image of the Beast and the Name or Number said to be chap. 15. 2. The Name and Number seem not to be called the Name and Number of any other Beast than of the two-horn'd as of the principal Founder and Lord. 14. The Number of the Name of the Beast being said to be the Number of a man signifies that it is the sensual part of man's Wisdom or Reason become devilish by joyning in combination with Satan in his revolt from his true Head and in exercising enmity against all Righteousness upon one account or other This sensual part of man's Wisdom savours and minds Earthly or seen things and delights in corporeal fleshly objects whether actually corrupt or only corruptible This is the Wisdom that is prevalent with the generality of men in the World according to the Principles of which the Empire and Government of the World is managed and the judgment and interpretation of the very Law and Word of God is made for the Rule in matters of Faith and Worship This Wisdom is in its best estate unstable and unfixed so as from the top and height of its honour there is suddenly a being made like the Beast that perishes and so a falling short of the true Rest This was the case of the first Adam who was created on the sixt day and whose unstable perfection is therefore numbered by six thrice repeated This sensual part of man's Wisdom is the executing or performing Power of the Soul in reference to the dictates and enlightnings that declare themselves in the intellectual and angelical part of the mind which many times serves and approves the Law of God whilst the sensual part serves and obeyes sin and as with a Law of common consent from the Members opposes and resists the good and right Rule which shines forth in man's intellect and which we call sound or right Reason But as this sensual part in its movings and actings holds agreement and is in conjunction with the intellectual part as its Ruler and Guide following the dictates thereof so far the actings thereof are sound and right holding conformity to the Law of God Thus even the sensual part as subject to the right dictates of the intellectual is it self a Rule unto humane action and is the principle and foundation of righteous Magistratical Government amongst men Now when this Principle in Magistrates ceases to be any longer found in a state of down-right Paganism and comes to be healed and restored out of darkness and prophaness by receiving of the Scriptures or written Word of God opened and interpreted by such as pretend to be commissioned and gifted for that purpose unto which it owes its healing and restoration it doth by way of acknowledgement receive and set up that prophetical Office in an administration countenanced by humane Laws and the Magistrates Power Where-ever this kind of Magistracy is in both the branches of it both Civil and Ecclesiastical setting up for themselves and their own Interests in their own wills in disjunction from Christ and his Spirit the true Head and in opposition to the Remnant of the Womans Seed and their testimony in word and action there is the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast and Antichrist leading the People over whom it is exercised into servitude both of Soul