and three nights in hell under the earthly man of sinne and in the heart of his earthly being and the first day he sheweth and discovereth unto man his sins and the night of the day doth terrifie and wound the conscience and doth feare the man which is the law of sin or the wrath of God upon the man that sinneth And the second day is the grace and power of God which giveth the true sorrow and repentance for thy sins and the night of that day is that bloudy fight in which is the sweat and agony of death in thee that crucifies and kills thee for thy sins And the third day is the power of Christ that gives thee victory over death devill hell and sins so that thou art dead unto sin and the night of this day is the patience and long sufferance of Christ in thee till thou hast overcome the evill one for in this day and night is the whole mystery of Christ finished and the Son of God is darkned in thee and thou becommest dead and buried in him and he in thee so the last day is comming on to thee which is the resurrection of Christ in thee and with thee which is the new creature or man of God Jesus Christ which was dead in thee and with thee and when you have suffered together you shall reigne together in perpetuall joyes with him in God for ever and for ever I beleeve that this Jesus or our Saviour is ascended up to his Father and doth carry them up that have suffered with him and hath cleansed them and prepared them a Kingdome for his Father that God may be all in all in us for he Christ after the flesh which is death and mortification must reigne in us till all sin be subdued and then he delivers us up to his Father for he saith except we eat his flesh and drinke his bloud there is no life in us therefore let us eat this flesh and drinke this blood of mortification and killing and crucifying our sins This was the flesh of Christ that St. Paul spake of saying though he knew Christ after the flesh yet now he knew him so no more O that we had all eaten this supper of Christ then were we happy but till then most unhappy for we must drinke this cup or passion and shew the Lords death till he come in his life and glory 7. I beleeve that Iesus shall come from the strength or right hand of God with all his Saints or Angels or the good motions which are thousands of them and they with Christ shall judge the quick and dead in us which quick is himselfe and all his Saints and holy Angells to live reigne and dwell in us and judge the dead sins never to live any more in us but be damned and lost for ever out of us so this is the last day or light or day of righteous judgement that shall last for ever in us O that it were so come to passe in all and that they might see this last and everlasting day or new day which shall last for ever and for ever 8. I beleeve in the Holy Ghost and that he is the ancient of dayes and is the love of the Father and of the Son which is the reciprocall love of singing one to one and this holy love or Holy Ghost hath joyned God and man together and hath pulled downe all partition walls that hindered their comming together and hath baptized or dipt or dyed the man in this his most holy life or holy spirit and hath made him a holy house Church or Temple for God to live and dwell in and Christ is the head stone or foundation of this most holy house O that all men were become this Temple or house of God to dwell in 9. I beleeve that there is one holy Church and this Church are all holy men that are without sinne spot or wrinckle for all holy men are the body of our Lord Iesus Christ that is cleansed by him and made pure for hee is the head of a pure body and there is no sin in his body or Church nor is he head of a sinfull body therefore looke to it you that are sinfull men for you are not the members of Christs body or Church of Christ as you may see in the fifth of the Ephesians where it is evident that he saith that his body or Church is without sin 10. I beleeve that all sinnes are forgiven in this Church for Christ hath forgiven them the sinnes that are past and hath covered them with his holy life so that those evills shall never rise against us more but wee shall live and reigne over devill death and hell with Christ for evermore and sit with him at Gods right hand for ever and for ever 11. I beleeve the resurrection of the flesh of Christ that is joyned to the humanity and this flesh or death of Christ with the humane nature shall arise into immortality and for this mortality of theirs shall put on immortality and all death shall be swallowed in victoriousnesse so happy art thou O man that hast put on the flesh or mortality of Christ for this flesh or mortality shall carry thee into everlasting immortality and into everlasting life and joy of holy minds 12. I beleeve that there is but this one holy and everlasting life and this life is the holy life of God and he hath chosen the man to live in it and to her one with him for ever Take it to heart for this is the reall truth and surely thou shalt finde it so if thou seekest for it thou shalt finde it and it shall bee so unto thee CHAP. II. A description of one spirit acting in all which some affirme is God NOw what a spirit is is to be considered for all things appearing to the man he gave them severall names according to their natures and as they appeared unto him for in Gen. it is said that Adam the man gave every thing and creature his name according as his nature was to the man and it was so and could bee no otherwayes for the genius and wisdome of God in man gave these severall names by his inspirations and lights which hee discovered to the man how the natures and qualities of things were and they are really so for they be named by the Spirit of God in man but there are many cavellers that dispute about it and would destroy all order and bring all into confusion for they say they cannot tell what a spirit is nor what man or beast is nor what fire water earth or aire is yet they themselves see all these severall things and their severall natures and operations in them and to them so that if these things had no name they must of necessity give them some name or else all the world would be dumbe and have no discourse for they could not discourse of these severall things and their natures unlesse they
deludest thy selfe when thou makest anothers griefe thy joy or his joy thy griefe and so thy faith or beleefe is that that is not but is a lie for joy is not griefe nor griefe joy but thou dost deceive thy selfe in saying anothers griefe is thy joy or his joy thy griefe for anothers joy or griefe can be nothing to thee in reallity but by participation and so it is thy joy or griefe and no otherwayes so that by participation we rejoyce with them that rejoyce and grieve with them that grieve and when wee doe the contrary as to grieve at anothers joy or joy at his griefe it is a delusion of the Devill that maketh joy seem griefe and griefe seem joy by his deceitfull fallacies and when thou shalt looke with a righteous and just eye then thou shalt see all these fallacies and deceits wherein thou hast so willingly coseâ—ed thy selfe to lose thy owne soule but thou thinkest thou canst not lose it for thou thinkest thou art something and nothing and it is no matter let every thing run which way it will all things will be well at last but thou art as greatly mistaken in this as thou art in the rest as thou shalt find by wofull experience when it falls upon thee and it is as true as thou art and that there is a God that thou must answer for all that thou hast done whether good or evill to him that is the cause of thy appearance think what thou wilt to deceive thy selfe So thou thinkest also that all things else is something and nothing when something is something still for there is no such thing as nothing neither is there any demonstration or words to expresse the same therefore in saying thou knowest nothing it is true so farre and in this manner thou canst not possibly know that that is not but canst know something and possibly all things if thou hast to doe with all or some for that that thou usest and hast to doe with all thou knowest its qualities for all things hath quallities and quantities and are to be knowne by the same and as their quallities be so are they called and named for every thing hath its severall quallity and so a severall name and thy owne eyes sees these severall things and their quallities for thou seest the quallity of fire that it will consume or burne any thing that is put in it and some things it will melt and harden others so thou seest really what fire is by these quallities and it is verily so and very true and is no other thing then it shews it selfe to be and the quallity of water is to moysten and cleanse or to quench thirst or fires and many other things that I need not expresse which is really so as it manifesteth it selfe to all the world and can be no other thing then as it is manifested And the aires quallity is manifested by many severall operations for it makes the fire burne and set forth his quallity and it deadneth and taketh away the life of many thing and reviveth and refresheth many things that walke in it and many other operations of life and death it hath which I cannot expresse And the earth hath divers setting forth of its quallities as to make all seeds set forth themselves in their shapes and formes making them appeare to all the world and all these seeds and herbes have their severall quallities and setting forthof themselves which those who study nature can set forth and shew the reall truth of by their effects for the least herbe tree or mettall or any other living creature hath his severall quallities as the Galenist Herbalist or those who study mineralls finde out and those Doctors and Physitians see the severall quallities of things with the antipathies and simpathies of their severall quallities and it is really so and they be the very same thing as they set themselves forth to be for their nature is really declared by these their quallities Now every man and woman hath severall quallities and is proper selfe and their quallities are either antipathies or simpathies one with another for the natures of some are so opposite and there is such antipathy that they cannot agree nor abide to live one with the other but in continuall opposition and there are others whose natures and quallities doe sympathize and those doe agree and live most happily together in sweet society now every mans nature is as his complexion is and is composed of the spirituall elements of earth water aire and fire which is the intellectuall and internall man I doe not meane the earth water aire and fire that is materiall and those lower elements which is a dead matter but the intellectuall internall and spirituall elements which are all spirit and life for some men and women are compounded most of the spirituall element of fire and they are more full of fury and wrath and another is more compounded of aire and hee is more amorous sweet and pleasantly disposed and given more to the act of generation then any other for his minde is full of spirits that would appeare by him for the spirits of men and women doe more animate the aire all man then any other to make them appeare in this lower elementary world the reason is because he is most flexible and more easie to be moved by their instigation to bring them forth and the flegmaticke man that is more compounded of the spirituall waters is more dull and his capacity cannot very soone reach or conceive any thing but when he receives he will hardly lose it againe whether good or bad therefore it is good for him to have his mind set upon the best object and the man that is more compounded of the spirituall earth he is of the most deep reaching minde of all for he hath all the elements more powerfully contracted together in him and he containes more of them then all the rest being more capatious and if his minde be set upon the evill object the Devill hee is the most wicked that is upon the earth and the Devill can worke more mischiefe by him then by all the rest for his capatious minde can sooner conceive mischiefe when it is shewed him then all the rest besides and the Devill by him doth most prodigious and horrid cruelties although hee doth enough and too much by all for this wicked spirit through and by them all sets Kingdomes together by the eares making one to kill another perswading them to take pleasure in doing such mischiefe but it is a mad pleasure and wickednesse so to doe and so it will be found in the end let them thinke as well as they will of it for the present sometimes they set Countries on fire consuming all their victualls and corne and this they take pleasure in but if rightly considered it is miserable paine and madnesse for they themselves come afterward to suffer such misery and want for their wastefull spoyling
Godhead that is one is of a more pure and excellent nature then these lower changeable elements of earth water ayre and fire of which this lower world is composed off for this lower world bringeth forth nothing but his owne nature as earth water aire and its spirit of fire from which all spirits have borrowed a body which they cannot keep for ever because its nature is changeable and runneth or whirling round never standing at one certaine stay for the Sunne which is soule fire or life of this world never standeth still but every yeare runneth his race round and in his running he melts hardens congeales withers and makes grow green so that there is a continuall death and resurrection every yeare of things under the Sunne for nothing stands at one stay but is in continuall motion and change and in this change is was and shall be one and the same for ever for no man can consume diminish or annihilate the least atom or dust or bring any thing that is to nothing neither can any man finde the beginning or end of things but thou hast borrowed a garment or body which did lye potentially in that matter and when thou makest it appeare it is said to be a beginning to thee and when thou leavest it as it was it is called an ending to thee As for the world whereof Moses speaketh that the most holy God made certaine it is some more excellent better or purer world for man to live in then this for hee hath no true content here in this world or body of clay for this world is the visible God or good that is in continuall change but in the invisible world or invisible God is no change nor shadow of turning but is one and the same for ever if thou borrow a body or garment of this internall and invisible world he never looketh for it again for he is the righteous that lendeth never looking for it againe O that all soules did keep this body or garment that was given them out of this internall world that they might see with those eyes the Sun Moon and all the glorious orders of Starres which glorious world is for thee O man therefore look for thy internall garment that is given thee for ever for the eyes or lights of this body shall never wax dimne but in those lights or eyes we shall see and behold the eternall eye or light from whence those our eyes or lights came which shall be our everlasting body that wee need not feare losing or changing for it continues one and the same for ever being the free gift of the internall God There is a time wherein it seemeth to us that we had a beginning to this internall and invisible body although indeed and in truth this body hath neither beginning nor ending because it lay potentially hid in God and in his essence for its beginning to us is its ending because the beginning reacheth unto eternity and we shall for ever have this body if we doe not lose and disregard it as I feare we all have done for wee have not remembred our Creator in these dayes of our youth before our evill dayes came wherein we have had no pleasure for our evill dayes is this when we disregrad this holy body and then those eyes begin to wax dim in us though in themselves they are one and the same for ever and those grinders cease from eating the internall life the food of our soules and the mourners shall carry this dead body about the streets and walks of our hearts mourning and grieving for us and for our great losse and this is the grieving of the holy Spirit by whom we are sealed made sonnes of God for we have quenched crucified and killed this holy body of the Lord which he gave us for a garment for ever to cover our nakednesse and so he returnes to that holy divine earth from whence he came and the soule spirit or life of that body returnes to him that gave it And now O man what shall we doe for our great losse for we see nothing but death on every side for this externall world is but a living death to us for wee are in continuall expectation to be called out of it and besides there is one that is worse then death that followes us to cloath us with his mortall garments or body of wickednesse for he prepareth a body which is a lie or delusion and shews us a body which is a lie or vanity to cloath us with so that this body is worse then death for it is a living death and dying life and we were better to bee dead and and if possible to be annihilated quite then to live in such a wicked body of sinne and death and it had beene better we had never beene borne or brought forth in it as Job saith cursing the houre of his birth and the day wherein he was borne and wisheth that he had dyed in the birth and that he had never been seen in this wicked world therefore we see many worlds yet cannot see what reason man hath to believe that this externall world was ever made as he imagineth seeing there will follow so many absurdities on it for what reason can be given that there was but one man and one woman at first seeing there is blackmores or men and white and it is contrary to nature and impossible for a man naturally black or blackmore to bring forth a white or a white to bring forth a blacke and we see it so by experience and when Cain killed Abel the Lord being angry with him said that he should be a vagabond and runnagate Cain answered that his punishment was greater then he could beare and if any man should meet him he should kill him when there was none to kill him for if there was but one man and woman created at first there was but his father and he in the world and afterward it is said that hee went into the land of Nod and tooke him a wife who did inhabit that land and what man was the father of his wife how can all these things bee made good by the letter of the Scripture or doe you thinke that there was a materiall garden or a tree whereon did grow the fruit of good and evill or that a Serpent did goe up in the same to speake to the woman sure it cannot stand with reason that it could be so for it is said that all the creatures did come to Adam and he gave them names according to their natures now it is contrary to the Serpents nature to speake after the manner of men unlesse you will alleadge that she understood the language of the beasts and thought them wiser then God and resolved to be ruled by them which to me seems altogether against reason that the woman should be so ignorant and irrationall who was created rationall after the image of God to be ruler of all creatures
stones are joyned to him and made a spirituall house and an holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices to God by this holy Iesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour that hath called us from death to life and hath made us sit with him in his holy place that is in the most holy Father therefore O man seeke after this holy building and let it be built in thee for all the hystories of the Scripture is concerning thy selfe thy falling rising or something that concerns thee or the holy Godhead therefore thou oughtest to looke into the scripture with a vigilant eye and with due respect for it is the true looking glasse which showes thee in what condition thou art and therefore read it not as thou dost other hystories but read it and take it to heart and esteeme it as it is the most holy and sacred mysteries concerning the great and most powerfull Godhead and thy selfe O man And as for the Hystory of Iesus Christ that he was borne in an Inn and in a stable betwixt an Oxe and an Asse and laid in a Crach and that the Inn was full and no roome in it but the stable is a great mystery for this Inn is thy selfe O man and the chambers of thy heart is full of thy sinnes the great Kings of thy earthly being which is pride vaine glory hypocrisie lust vanitie wrath and selfe will so that the chambers and roomes of thy heart are full of such guests as these and there was nor is no roome for the most holy life but in the worst place of thy house and thy Herod or bloody mind will not let him ly there but seeketh to destroy and kill him and so hee is carried away and hid in thee till those be dead that seeke his life Now when Christ the holy divine nature comes into our earthly Man of sinne hee hath not a place to lay or rest his head on but is sought for by our sinnes to bee destroyed for he sayeth the foxes that are our worldly Passions have holes and the birds that are our vain Phantasies have nests but bee hath not whereon to lay his head Doest thou not see O vain man that the most holy and divine world or divine life is neglected of thee and kept under thy earthly being and he is in the most lowest parts of thy earth and under thy sinfull manhood hee is that most glorious and holy light that commeth into thy wicked world of sinne but thou art ashamed of him because hee discovers thy deeds of darkenesse so thou putst out this light and quenchest this spirit for thou lovest the deeds of darknesse more then the works of light therefore this light or holy life is carryed away by Ioseph and Marie the perfection and fountaine of Love to the holy light from whence he came till all thy sinne and iniquity which sought his life is dead in thee for the holy life cannot live in thee till sinne be dead and rooted out of thee Now to looke upon Christ comming into this externall world in such a mean manner his birth so low and his condition so poore and dispised and sought out by the Kings of the earth to bee destroyed was because they thought scorne that one of so poore and mean birth should bee King of all the earth And thou mayest see the mystery of his comming into this world in so poore and dispised manner which is to shew thee how hee is in thy selfe and in thy internall world dispised and sought for to bee destroyed by thy finnes the great Kings of thy earthly being therefore O man if thou readst the history of the birth of Christ and not look into the mystery how much it concerns thee thou art never the better for his comming for his externall comming to the sight of the world shall vanish away like a tale that is told or a dreame that is seene no more therefore O man looke into the Scripture and into the holy writ with a diligent and circumspect eye and into thy selfe where is written the holy word to thy condemnation or to thy salvation compare thy selfe and the scripture together and thou shalt see thy selfe there for it is the true reall lookeing glasse wherein thou mayest behold thy selfe and thy owne soule or spirit is a witnesse to thee that it relates to thee thy selfe and it speaks the reall truth to thee in condemning or justifying thee wherefore O man take it to heart for thou needst not no other witnesse of the truth thereof but thy selfe As for Christs being led aside by the spirit into the Wildernesse to bee tempted of the Devill and that he fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights and that he was set upon a Pinacle of the Temple shewing him from thence all the Kingdoms of the earth in the twinckling of an eye and that hee told him all the Kingdoms of the earth were his for they were given him and if hee would fall down and worship him they should bee his certainly this cannot be meant of the externall for no mortall creature taking on this elementary body of clay can subsist without foode so long nor could it be that all the Kingdomes of the world were the Devills for who did give them to him nor can there bee any reason given why or how hee could possible see all the Kingdomes of this world with his externall eyes at one time for this world being imagined round high and low it is impossible that any externall eye should see it at once therefore O man looke to the mystery thereof for when this holy Jesus is borne into us this wicked spirit commeth to him and seeing him cloathed with our fraile and weake nature thinking to overcome him shewing him our barren and wildernessed nature wherein is no good thing for foode for him so that hee must bee starved if hee lived in it therefore hee would have him obedient unto him and hee should have all his honour kingdome and riches but he did forsake them all as abhominable and brought his owne foode or kingdome with him for he liveth by the power and life of the Godhead from whence he came and by this mighty power he makes this stony and barren ground of mans nature food for him to live of and with for hee participates and liveth of both natures the Godhead and the manhoode and this Godhead and manhood being joyned together by a conjunction or reciprocall union have betwixt them both brought forth Jesus Christ the Sonne of God and Sonne of man who is both God and man and being in the wombe of the humanity is nourished and fed by the same as of his mother for all children live of the mothers life and nature and are fed by it so this Iesus Christ comes into our barren ground and by his mighty power maketh it fertill and fruitfull bringing forth himselfe in us to live of us and we by him for our barren ground is plowed
us and we are the man intended for when Nathan the Prophet came to David he seemed to speake to him of another when as hee meant himselfe and David did conclude what the action represented to him in the person of another by Nathan was unjust not thinking that the Prophet intended himself but another and so judged him to death but when the Prophet said it was himself and that he was the man hee was sorry and loth to dye himselfe although he did judge the other to death and thought he deserved death justly but in condemning the other he judged himselfe Therefore wee are the men that are to be condemned or saved according as our deservings are and the Scripture is the reall truth and is our true Nathan the Prophet that tells us what we have done but he tells us our selves in histories and in the person of others to try how farre we condemne others and justifie our selves but when wee condemne others we condemne our selves for wee are the guiltie and that wicked man therefore looke into the scripture as if it were thy owne soule for all that is written there is written in thy selfe and there is the two tables the table of stone thy stony heart that is ingraven with a rough penne and with a thundering voice which is the whole worke and curse of the law for thy sinnes and the other table is the heart of flesh which is soft and melteth at the word that is written in thee and is ready to obey all the words of the commandements that speaketh in thee but the table of stone thy disobedient and stony heart must be broken for thy sinne and disobedience cause and for thy Idolatries and all thy sinnes riseing up against thee crying vengeance so that thy God or goodnesse in his great zeale throweth downe thy stony heart breaking it to peeces and burneth up all thy Idoll Gods to powder makeing thee drinke up their ashes which is to make thee taste of the death and losse of them and still his zeale is so great towards thee that hee maketh thee sheath thy sword into thy brothers belly which brother is thy nearest selfe will or thy darling sinnes so when thou hast fulfilled the will of thy Jelous God he returneth to his place where hee was before and the tables of stone or stony heart is turned to flesh and is obedient to the will of God and keepeth his commandements the which I wish all Soules may do for their soules health and safety There be many at this time that looke externally for an infallible spirit when as the infallible spirit is internall in the soule of every man for the same spirit is Jesus Christ the word of life that is neare thee even in thy heart and mouth to do it and to be obedient unto the same and he is that pearle hid in the field of thy heart for which thou must sell all that thou hast to purchase this field that thou mayest injoy that pearle And there are others that thinke that the externall body is the soule and that it must dye and must answer for sinne by that death and that it must rise againe at the last day by Christ therefore God cannot be their God whilst their body is dead for he is not the God of the dead but of the living then whilst they live here they may live as they list and commit what sinnes they will for their body dying which they take for the soul doth make satisfaction for their sinne which of necessity must draw this consequence that if one man kill another he doth but the will of God for he saith the soul that sinneth must dye I wonder much what those people that hold such opinions can say or think of little children that dye in the wombe or as soon as they are borne certainly no man in reason can say that their soule hath sinned but you will alleadge their parents have sinned for them as others have said if it be so the sinne of one condemneth a great many that of themselves hath not sinned the which to me appeareth to be altogether against reason and justice and is against the nature of God to condemne the children for the sinne of the parents for Ezkiel saith 18. that this proverb should be no more in israel that the fathers had eaten four grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge at he saith that every soule standeth upon his owne bottome or its owne selfe and the fourâ— that sinneth shall dye also there are many creatures or bodies which they call soules that are drowned in the sea and divers fishes have fed upon that body or that which they call the soul and these fishes have concocted or digested the soule of this man and it is turned into the flesh of a fish and afterwards this fish is taken and another man or soule eats this fish which is the concocted soule of the other man so that his soule is made fat and increased thereby the one soule by eating the other and Caniballs which are men eat other men and are fed thereby now when the soules of all these men are dead and concocted in those that have eat them how shall every one have his own proper soule at the last day when all the soules shall arise I would willingly hear it proved by good reason how every one can have his owne soule againe seeing they are all concocted and digested one in another but perhaps you will say we must believe against reason which is consequently that we must believe an absurdity and the Apostle St. Paul desireth to be delivered from unreasonable men which were absurd and did believe against reason for all men have not faith whose foundation is grounded upon reason this body which they call the soule is dead without the spirit as St. James witnesseth in the second Chap. where he saith that as the body without the spirit is dead even so is faith without workes by which Scripture it is manifest that the body without the soul or spirit is dead and as is said before God cannot be their God because their body which they tearm the soul is dead so as he ceaseth to be their God while they are dead all which is contrary to sense reason and Scripture where it is said that he is the living God and the God of the living and not of the dead also it is contrary to sense and reason in this that that which is the God good felicity or chiefe happinesse of those that live and are rationall and sensible of the same cannot in sense reason or Scripture be said to be the joy happinesse or God of the dead because he is not sensible or capable of any joy felicity or happinesse at all THe summe of all and the whole discourse of this Book is that we should feare to disobey the holy God but keep all his Commandements which is the whole duty of man and to live a pure exact just and holy life not doing to any man what we would not have done to us but doing all the good to another that we would have done to us and this is the infallible Spirit Jesus Christ the power of God in us which directs corrects instructs perswades and makes us wise unto salvation for he is the holy word of life unto us and he is the Father Elder true Bishop and high Priest of our soules so that we need no other Father Elder Bishop nor high Priest but this holy Iesus Christ in us for he is the holy unction that we have from above and the holy One that teacheth us all things and discovers all mysteries unto us leading us into all truth if so be that we are obedient unto him but if we are not obedient unto this infallible Spirit Iesus Christ in us then wee shall know nothing of God or of the Scripture but it shall be a sealed book a dead letter and seeming contradiction unto us but I hope we shall all learne and bee taught of him and declare every one to his friend and neighbour what the Lord the infallible Spirit hath done for his poore soule saying What we have learned heard felt and tasted of the good word of life that will we declare unto you FINIS
eyes for that Christ that seemed to have a body to be nailed on a cosse was a spirit and shewed to thee how he is nailed with thy sins to patience and long sufferance in thee which is death to him for he grieveth and mourneth for thee for we grieve the holy Spirit by whom we are sealed and made the sons of God and we quench and put out the Spirit of God from us and this is death or griefe and paine to God for us for there is no death to any but grief and pain and no life but joy and pleasure and sweet content for the soule is an eye and is composed of joy and harmony and desires to flye into harmony which is God and sorrow and paine is a living death and dying life nor know I any other life and death but these though there is some other things that is called life as stirring and motion and the leaving the body is called death and in forsaking any thing I am said to be dead to that and that dead to me The Sonne of God Jesus Christ was and is a Spirit God and man which now doth live and walke amongst us and we doe really kill and crucifie him every day to ourselves and the flesh and bloud of Christ which he would have us eat and drinke was not such flesh and bloud as ours is but there were then some that followed Christ as foolish as we are now that when Christ spoke these words they did leave him for they thought he meant they should eat this sigure or organ that he seemed to be in when he was a Spirit The flesh of Christ which he would have us eat is his bloud and passion which is the death and mortifying of our sinfull flesh which St. Paul saith so long as he lived in he could not please God so Christ would have us eat his flesh and drinke his bloud and joyne our sinfull flesh to his flesh so his death or flesh doth destroy our death or sinfull flesh and so that death of Christ doth save us and reconcile us to God again Now I know no other flesh of Christ but this flesh which is the new and living way is the curtaine and vaile before the most holy place and all that will be saved must enter through this vaile and when this vaile or flesh or death hath done the worke he came for hee must be taken out of the way for no flesh and bloud that is death can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven therefore when we enter into the most holy place the vaile or flesh of Christ is rent in twaine from the top to the bottome and so the death and flesh of Christ is finished and ceaseth and he is taken out of the way for there is no mourning nor wayling in the most holy place for all teares are wiped from our eyes Now he saith that he Christ after the flesh must be taken out of the way or else the comforter will not come which is the life and ravishing joy of Christ And Paul saith though he knew Christ after the flesh now hee knew him so no more as I shall speake of all these things more at large in this booke Now when Melchisedeck appeared on the earth hee was without father and mother and he seemed to Abraham to be a man a Priest and King and blessed him when he came from the slaughter of the Kings which are the seven deadly sinnes This Melchisedeck is that Christ that was before Abraham as it is said Before Abraham was I am and this Christ that appeared in the end of time is that Melchisedeck that was before Abraham and that Elias that was carried up into Heaven in a fiery chariot with fiery horses which was a Spirit and the power of God though he seemed to be a man of flesh and bloud for Elias is said to be the power of God in man and I beleeve that all mankinde when they have put off this lower elementary body that is dead clay without Spirit shall be like Christ Melchisedeck and Elias which are spirits and may assume any bodily likenesse as they were and did appeare in these lower elements my reason is this because Samuell assumed the likenesse of his owne body and came to the witch at Endor and Moses and Elias appeared to Peter and Christ on the Mount so I beleeve any one may appear to their friends as many have for there have many appeared that have beene killed in secret to discover their murthers and many of the Saints appeared when Christ was crucified certainly it was not their lower elementary bodies of clay that appeared but some aireall and spirituall body they assumed which was the likenesse of their former and lower elementary bodies and like unto Christs spirituall body that appeared like flesh and was not flesh but to our appearance and that it might discover to us and tell us what we do internally and in our intellectuall mau and Christ called Lazarus his spirit and made him appeare as if he had been in his former flesh and blood sure these things must be so or what did become of Lazarus and where did hee recide before Christ opened Heaven gates for it is said that he is the first that riseth from the dead and openeth heaven gates to all beleevers we read that Elias raised a childe from death and another when the Prophets dead body did touch his dead body the dead body of the Prophet did raise the dead so the dead did raise the dead which is a miracle therefore there is some greater and further consideration in it for certainly they could not be dead but this elementary body seemed to be dead which was dead before never being alive although it seemed to be alive whilst the spirit of man lived in it as I have spoken more at large in this booke therefore let us consider well how all these things can stand together with reason or else wee shall make a confusion of the holy written word of God that is given to lead us into all truth for there must be a reason given where Lazarus and all the Saints were that appeared whether they did dye againe or where they now be for wee never read of any thing they did on earth since for it seemes they have seen the last day before it comes to us and before it came to Christ as the childe that was raised by Elias and the dead man raised by the dead Prophet and Lazarus that was raised by Christ as also a maid where did they recide with their corporeall body of clay and elements till Christ did open heaven gates â— sure therefore the man must be a spirit and hath assumed and taken this body out of the foure elements and casting it off againe as a borrowed garment and may assume a more rarified and aircall body to appeare in as Christ Melchisedeck Samuell and Moses for nothing is impossible only that may appeare
to our darke eyes to be flesh which is not as the three Angells to Abraham and to Lot for we beleeve appearances to be that which they are not in deed and in truth which we finde by wofull experience the which makes such contention and cutting of throats about Religion the cause of this distraction is that we doe not see things with a righteous eye I desire all friends and readers who doe read this booke and all to whose hands it shall come that you will looke into it rightly and not construe it amisse but as it is really intended for the good of all and where I speak of the death of God and Christ in man I doe not meane that the Almighty and powerfull Godhead can dye or be lost but as he is dead and lost to the man that despises truth and treads it under foot and so I meane that God is dead and lost and the truth lyeth in the streets of his heart which is God who is that truth and the two witnesses lye dead in the street of his heart unregarded which is mercy and righteous judgement and is God which we should have shewed forth to all the world even mercy and righteous judgement but we have hid these witnesses So I desire that the most holy and righteous God may be your guide and director to lead you into all truth The true Articles of the Christian Faith 1. I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of the holy Heaven and earth in the man I confesse and acknowledge that the same is a true holy living God or good and that he is a mighty Spirit and a perfect clear light that discovers to the man the reall truth of things and how all things are in their places and in or to the Man and he is the reall beeing the truth light life and love to the Man and this is his name light life and love for he is all this to the man for the love of God to the man was such that he brought him under the law of discipline and correction instructing him what to doe for his good and convincing his conscience for what hee hath done to himselfe and against God or goodnesse so he raiseth up all our sinnes as judges to condemne us for what we have done and they correct or punish us for God or goodnesse hath put it in them to doe it and God hath opened our eyes with his power to see it which makes us hate and condemne our selves for what we have done his holy power or light hath perswaded our hearts to have true sorrow and reall repentance for our sins with a broken and a contrite heart and sorrowfull spirit and so we begin to hate our selves and our sins and doe really forsake them and doe confesse that we doe deserve to bee for ever lost and damned and be deprived of God and goodnesse for ever because we have chosen hell death and devill and joyned our selves unto it but Gods mercy and goodnesse hath inlightned our hearts with his law and hath really corrected 〈◊〉 for our sin and hath brought us to the beleefe of Jesus Christ by his law or fatherly correction for he receiveth no sonne but whom he correcteth and none comes to Jesus Christ but whom the Father drawea to him and this drawing to Jesus Christ is by the law of discipline and this law is the river Jordan or judgement and Iohn the Baptist or the light of Gods grace that doth dip or dye us in the river Iordan or Iudgement of Gods glacious goodnesse and this his judgement doth cleanse us from all our sinnes that were as red as searled and we come out as white as snow and this is the first Baptisme in the Fathers Name 2. I beleeve in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God or good and that he is the reall substance of God and that he is the goodnesse that proceedeth from God or good And I beleeve that all good things are made in the man by him and through him and that all goodnesse doth consist in him and proceedeth forth of him into the man for his goodnesse in us beareth in us our sinnes by his mighty power of patience and long sufferance with grievous sufferings and agonies which hee hath for our sinnes and there hee lyes or reignes in us till our sinnes bee vanquished or rooted out by this mighty power of patience and long sufferance and when all our evill is overcome by this power of his goodnesse then he delivers us which is the Kingdome of God to his Father that God may be all in all 3. I beleeve the Son of God or Righteousnesse is borne of the holy virgin Mary which virgine is the pure humanity and this pure humanity is overshadowed by the Angell Gabriell or the power of the most highest God and this Son or righteousnesse of God is begotten upon the humanity and is the promised seed to the man which is borne for a blessing to all generations of man as was promised 4. I beleeve that this holy seed of blessing the Sonne of God Jesus Christ the Saviour of us hath suffered death under Pontius Pilate the law of sinne in us and that he dyeth for and to sinne in us and is dead and buried and in hell under our earthly beeing and man of sin and he suffers for our sin in this hell for they be all upon him and he is nailed to the crosse of patience to endure all the reproaches and blasphemies contempts and false defamations or accusations for our sinnes cause on him and for the love of God and to us hath taken us upon him that we should suffer with him all our own reproaches contempts and sinnes to condemne us for doing them and that wee should condemne and forsake them and be dead to them and they to us by the power of Iesus Christ that saveth us in us and this is the baptisme of the Sonne and is the fiery tryalls or the baptisme of fire with which he saveth his owne body or us which is the humane nature that he hath taken on him to suffer for and with and that it might be saved through him and by his power in us and whosoever doth not suffer this death with Christ for their sinnes that is to suffer under the law of sinne death for sinne and to sinne the death of the crosse which is the patience and long sufferance of Christ to the killing of sinne in us he is no Christian let him brag how much he will of his Christianity till he hath tasted the death and life of Christ and that all this is come to passe in him for they must all taste of this cup or passion and be baptised with his baptisme for if we doe not suffer and dye with him we shall never rise and reigne with him 5. I beleeve that the holy God hath raised up his Sonne Jesus from the dead and that he was three dayes
and consuming of things that they starve and dye for hunger and are forced many times to eat one another as may be seen and heard of where these practises are If this be God or good that acteth those things and tells me that it is pleasure I will abandon such a god as the most abominable and hatefull thing that is and desire to have nothing to doe with such and abominable and wicked god that blindes my eye and makes me thinke good to be evill and evill good for the Scripture faith Woe to him that calleth evill good and good evill and light darknesse and darknesse light for wee are all ready to mistake but our nature and quallities cannot be altered for we use our quallities and natures upon what object we light on whether good or evill For the cholericke man whieh is most composed of fire if he light upon the evill instrument he hath so many severall temptations to wrath and anger that his soule or himselfe is never at quiet for one disturbance or other and many times in his wrath the Devill tempts him to kill a man and he is in continuall vexations so that he is in a living death and dying life although he see it not but loves this living death more then the everlasting life which hath no bitternesse therein but is full of all sweet content and all the workes that this life or spirit animates thee to doe breeds thee no sting discontent or any thing to be repented off but this evill instrument animates thee unto horrid and cruell things full of mischiefe which cruelties riseth up in thy conscience and flyeth in thy face making thee condemne thy selfe saying what a wicked man and beastlike wretched creature am I that doth such wicked actions I would not have such things done to me why would I doe thus to another sure there shall some heavy judgement fall upon mee and I shall have the same measure met to me againe and so still the law of sinne flyeth in the wicked mans face and is called the law of God or the wrath of God that moveth man to repent for the wickednesse he hath committed and to condemne and arraigne himself at this barre of Gods judgement within himselfe which shews him all his sins and wicked life and so hee kills and crucifies himselfe with these horrible wounds of conscience in him and is never at quiet nor never shall till the cause is taken out of the way which cause is the Devill and sinne and there must a greater power take away this death with another death that is by the death of Christ being a death unto Devill and sinne which death is called the death of Christ in us that sighteth against our sinnes and all our lusts and affections and crucifieth all our sin and sinfull life so that there is no more sin death and devill in us for it is this death of Christ that destroyes the death for sin and the cause of sin which death of sin was done by the law for sin executed upon sinne so taking away the cause and the effect which cause was the devill and sin and the effect was the law of sinne so that when the cause is taken away of necessity the effect must cease and this death or mortality of Christ shall raise us up into immortality so that we may say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory for the strength of our sins was the law of sinne which law or wounds of conscience was our grave wherein we were dead and buried so this death of Christ hath freed us from all deaths and mortallities and his death and mortallity will bring us into the true sweet and everlasting life which I desire all soules may come into and injoy Now he whose spirit is most composed of spirituall fire as was said before when he was ruled by the evill instrument doing such wrathfull and cruell things when he is turned to God and goodnesse his quallity and nature of fire is turned into burning zeale so that he is on fire of love to doe all goodnesse and is never well but when he can doe some deeds of charity and love to others so that his minde is swallowed up in God and this his nature and quallity of fire is turned to all God or goodnesse for the Divine Nature is wholly incorporated in him the which I desire all fiery and choloricke men may attain unto As for the spirituall ayreall or sanguine man if he sets his nature or quallity upon the evill instrument hee is very lascivious and given to leachery gluttony and drunkennesse and to all vaine pleasure which doth besot the minde for nothing doth besot the minde so much as leachery and drunkennesse and all these his follies doe flye in his face calling him foole and sot and it doth so besot them to all good that it makes them careles of wife children and all other friends and makes them apt only to devise a thousand plots and mischiefes to maintaine their beastly brutiall and sensuall life so that they spend all their owne estates and other mens and in the end goe a begging or live upon others and they defile and spoyle their owne bodies with the pox and other diseases so spoyling both body and minde with their sensuall living for they are in an extasio below themselves and ravished with a brutiall and sensuall life and this their evill instrument the Devill or unreasonablenesse hath brought them to and when they have lost their organicall man then commeth in their greater griefe or hell because they cannot execute their beastly and sensuall life so they are tormented in that they cannot doe as they formerly did when they had a body here for their minoe is upon nothing else but on their beastly brutiall and sensuall life which perisheth with the using leaving them in great discontents and the Devill sets alwaies this joy and pleasure before their eyes and the want of their bodies to execute their former fooleries which want torments them to the death so that they are in a living death and dying life and the law of sinne still rising out of their conscience condemneth them for what they have done and for what they desire and so they are with death and hell except they could returne but the Scripture speaketh of time and of a day and whilst time doth last and he saith there is an appointed time and after that time there is no time more for in that time the death of Christ should have taken away death and the cause of death which is the Devill and sinne who hath brought them into this miserable condition under the law of sinne and condemnation which is the second death for he saith in dying thou shalt dye the death so then all men of all quallities and complexions shall be in this condition for ever except they bee amended by the death of Christ for he is that innocent Lambe
that godly sorrow for their good And in the Thessa it is said that God did send them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie because they would not receive the love of the truth Now all the delusions that God sends to the man is for his good and the delusion is that he worketh such a beliefe and perswasion in the mans heart for the sinnes cause that he seemeth to the man to bee nothing else to him but wrath fury and destruction and thus hee terrifieth man to make him forsake sinne for his good and to make him returne from his evill life for whatsoever God doth too or for the man it is for his reall good whatsoever the man thinketh to the contrary and it is just so as if a father should correct his childe for his good and future profit although for the present it seem contrary to him even so is man deluded by Gods fatherly discipline and law till sinne cease in him and then this rod discipline or delusion which kept him in a we or fear to offend God shall be taken away that is to say when sinne wholly ceaseth in him and when he ceaseth to offend God his Father any more and this is the evill which is spoken of by the Prophet saying Is there any evill in the city and I the Lord have not done it that is the evill of punishment And that lying spirit spoken of in the Kings that the Lord did send to be a deluder in the mouth of the false Prophess was sent for a punishment to them because they would not believe the truth and this is done to reclaime the man and to let him see his errors and that he may returne home againe to the reall truth And againe it is said hee created the destroyer to destroy and hath sent forth the evill Angells with flaming fire rendring vengeance to those that will not know God And it is said in the Psalmes by Davld and in Job That the arrows of the Almighty stucke fast in him all which evills wraths furies or delusions is the law of sinne which was added because of the mans transgression and they shall continue with him as I have formerly said till sin cease in him but God in himselfe is none of all these for he is a most pure and holy Spirit and is subject to no passions but is a reall essence full of goodnesse neither is there any thing can change or disturbe him but the evill one transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light to delude and deceive the man with his seeming goodnesse for his hurt losse and damnation So the most holy God by his ministering spirits assumes an Angell of darknesse or taketh upon him the body of sinne to destroy sinne and in the Scripture the Divinity is sometimes said to be Sathan in the destroying of sinne being evill with the evill and he is said to be Lucifer the sonne of the morning or that morning starre that is fallen in our hearts for hee could fall no where else and it must be hee that is that day or morning starre that shall arise in our hearts againe so wee must looke into the Scripture with a righteous eye and consider it rightly in its order and place how all things hang and depend one upon another or else we shall lose our selves and confound the Scriptures or forsake and neglost them as many doe because they see many seeming contradictions not having the spirit of unity to reconcile or unite them together for it speaketh sometimes and in some cases that man is passive and God active and that God is passive in some case and man the active and in some case it is said that the Divinity suffers for sinne and doth all in all and sometimes it is understood that the humanity suffers for sinne therefore if wee have not the spirit of the most holy Godhead we cannot finde out the intricacies and secret mysteries of the spirit and minde of the holy written word and how all things stand in their orders and places for some things seeme strange as that God which is all goodnes should destroy so many for Davids numbring the peoples and in one place of the Scripture it is said that God moved him to number the people and in another place it is said that Sathan moved him to number them and in the fifteenth of Jeremy it is said that he would destroy so many with severall deaths for the sinnes of Manasses so that the Prophet Jer. was troubled and said that the Lord seemed to him to be a liar because hee thought these things seemed strange to him to come forth of goodnesse but all these things are secret mysteries bidden from all sinfull flesh and bloud and none shall see them aright but those which have ceased from sinne for God and man have been for ever together and they both have appeared in time to each other and in this time there hath beene a partition wall let in by the man which hath parted their union of love so that the man seemeth to fight against God and goodnesse and God fighteth against man and his evilnesse and nothing can be discerned rightly by the man till the partition wall of sin be pulled downe so in the end of time that holy Jesus the Sonne of God pulleth down all partition walls that have made the divisions betwixt God and man and he uniteth them againe in all lovely unity CHAP. III. A description of the Scripture according to the history and mystery thereof MOSES hath spoken of the Creation of the World and certainly it cannot bee that he meaneth this externall world for I could never heare any true reasons that can bee given to prove the same for it stands at one stay and the Sunne Moone and Starres keepe one course and the Sea runs her race up and down and they still are one and the same in their orders and places neither doe they increase or decrease to or from what they first seemed to be unto man nor doe they wax old as a garment nor as the creatures which we see appeare that have a beginning and ending for we see every spirit that appeares here hath a created body which increaseth and is diminished and is gone againe and is seene no more but this externall world is one and the same for ever for any thing I could see or heare to the contrary The greatest multitude of men beleeve it to bee created of nothing but I cannot see nor heare any reason for the same because that of nothing can come nothing then what must it be made off for sure it cannot be made of the most holy God as some do imagine and say that there was nothing before but God and therefore of necessity if it be as they alleadge he must make all things of himselfe but it cannot stand with reason that out of one should come so many antipathies therefore without all question the most holy
perfection with the crowne of glory which is holinesse to God and be cloathed in white linnen which is a most pure and innocent life and now you see that Priest people and sacrifice must be pure and unspotted without sinne having all perfection As for the holy Arke which was builded by the free will offering of the people and Moses going up into the mountaine to the Lord for a paterne to shew the people that it might be builded with all their pretious stones and fine silks for curtaines and the drinking pots of gold with the candlesticks snuffers and snuffing dishes and the mercy seat with the Cherubins that holdeth up the mercy seat and the holy and most holy place with the curtaine betwixt the holy and most holy and the Altar and hookes the table and shew-bread with Arons rod that budded and the pot of manna which to understand as a history that such a glorious building was made to look upon is nothing to me for to looke or judge of it so is to looke according to the outward appearance which is not righteous judgement for in this is to be seene the whole mystery of the Godhead and the humanity for in the holy place is the whole worke of the law with the death and sacrifices for sinne for a reconciliation which death and sacrifices is the Godhead and manhoed which lyeth upon the holy Alter fire wrath crosse or patience till the man of sinne be destroyed and rooted out of us And the golden candlesticks with the lights in the holy place is the law or grace that shineth from the morning till the evening or till sinne is extinguished and done away in us and is the lights of Gods grace which is true repentance for sinne with a broken and contrite heart and sorrowfull spirit which shineth till all things are finished and then giveth up the ghost unto the Father from whence he came and then the vaile or curtaine which standeth in the most holy place is rent in twaine from the top to the bottome which vaile is the flesh and death of Christ and is the new and living way through which all must enter or else they cannot be saved nor enter into the most holy or Sanctum Sanctorum where the mercy seat is held up by the Angells and Cherubins Now when the Priesthood which is the holy humanity hath fulfilled the whole worke of the Law the sacrifice for sinne in the holy place then they put on all their holy garments and attires and so enter into the most holy place with their bells or hymns that soundeth forth the praise of God internally to God and externally all good to men for in this holy attire must he enter in the most holy place with odours and sweet perfumes of a holy life and the smoke of these odours and perfumes of a holy life ascendeth to the mercies seat and ravisheth the most holy Godhead and then he imbraceth him in his armes saying Thou art my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased and this is he that maketh us Kings and Priests to God and giveth us himselfe to be offered up for a sacrifice to God his Father for us O man how great is the love of God to thee that hee becommeth thee to save thee and makes thee himselfe for the great love he hath to thee for in thy first appearance he created himselfe in thee and then there appeared unto thee foure worlds first this externall world whereof thou hast borrowed a body or garment and knowest not how foone it shall be called for againe for the world whitleth about and calleth for her owne againe and there can be no certainty of any thing here because here is nothing but change and mortality for this world of it selfe is death but that the spirits that are in it is its life so that this world is not worthy so much as to bee thought off for it perisheth with the using as doth a garment only it is good in this respect because wee could not know light but by darknesse nor life but by death nor immortallity but by mortallity and the reason we were in obscurity or in silence before wee could come here is this that there is one eternall increase of the seed of man and they can but appeare in time here for this externall world is time and time is a running round and there is no new thing here but as it is to me for this materiall world doth neither increase nor decrease but is one and the same for ever in its turning round only it seemeth to me to increase and diminish and so it is finite and because the seed of man is an eternall increase and this world being one and the same may be called finite in this respect because there is not matter enough for all spirits to have bodies or garments of at one time and therefore some must goe before others can come for the spirits to come are infinite and this world is finite because of its materiall confine not increasing but running round so that which is called the body of one to day may be called the body of another to morrow for there is no certainty here and all soules must stay their time till they can come here and in their comming and being here is the time to see distinctions and all worlds and if thou doe not looke about thee and see them here in this world of time but be neglective of the time thou hadst better never have been born or brought forth in time for this time vanisheth away to thee and thou shalt bee seen no more for when man is in honour and knows it not he is like the brute beast that perisheth being without God in the world therefore whilst time doth last to us let us looke about us and redeeme our mispent time and seek the everlasting good or reall true world that is beyond all time or change and this is the divine world which God hath placed in thy heart as is said in Ecclesiastes the 3. and the world whereof Moses speaketh Gen. 1. and is the Angelicall world or paradise out of which the man had an Angelicall body which is but a part of Gods house for God shewed himselfe but in part and this part he lost and in that part he was that great Lucifer or Angell that was the Sunne of the morning or starre that fell and in falling fought against his Maker or him that gave him that Angelicall body or world in which the most holy world stood as a tree of life unseen or untouched by the man for he had more minde of the diabolicall world for all worlds being opened to the man he desires the evill and worst of worlds desiring to be free before his time because he could not abide the servanthood to till and dresse the garden of the Lord which servanthood is the angelicall body or world which is the servant of the Lord but desired to
be as great as God himselfe before his time and so his pride threw him downe into the most lowest world which is the diabolicall so that his body is now the body of sinne death and all wickednesse and besides he hath pulled downe the divine and most holy world upon him as a judge with wrath and violent fire and so hee standeth still over him till the man desire to come forth againe out of the diabolicall world and returne with humility true repentance and reall sorrow for his sin and then the divine and most holy world doth worke this true reall death in mans heart and descendeth into the hell of his heart that is into the lowest parts of his earth where the wrath of God is and there pacifieth this wrathfull Iudge or God with his humility and true sorrow for sinne by which sorrow and humility he crucifies and destroyes all sinne out of the man and then he raiseth him out of the lowest world into the divinest and most holy world and this world is the second creation that God maketh in man and is himselfe which he createth in him for in his comming he first humbleth and then exalteth the man for the divine and most holy world in his comming downe into hell or the most lowest world to the man to save him doth appeare in humility and lowlinesse of spirit very meeke and gentle enduring patiently all that the law would have him suffer and so teacheth and incorporateth this humility and lowlinesse of spirit into the man that hath learned God so that they twain are made one spirit and this is the new creation of which David speaketh saying Create in me a cleane heart O God and renue a right spirit in mee this is that poore humble meek soule that lyeth in the dust and seeth no help which shall be â—â—ised up from thence to dignity and shall sit with Princes which is to sit with the most highest God and he is the barren that shall beare and bring forth the holy Godhead or divine life out of him Now O man mayest thou see how great the love of God is to thee therefore forsake all worlds for his sake because he loveth thee so deerly and look upon all things through his spirituall and holy eyes and then shalt thou see things cleerly and as they are and not esteem of any thing above it selfe nor above its owne deserving Wherefore wee must looke into the Scripture with those holy eyes or else we shall see nothing aright or as it is Now to looke upon all the histories of the Prophets Judges and Kings without those divine and holy eyes where through we see the holy mystery of the same it will appeare very strange to us and contrary to nature and reason as for example that of Bilaams Asse speaking to him and Nebuchadnezzar being turned to a Beast to eat grasse with the Oxen till the dew of heaven had wet him seven times and the fiery furnace spoken of in Daniell in which the three children were cast wherein they had no hurt nor so much as their cloaths burned and the great Image of brasse iron and clay which is also spoken of in Daniell with many other mysteries which setteth forth the creation fall and restauration of man by the whole worke of the law together with his new creation so that the whole history of the Scripture rightly understood tendeth to those things but are illustrated and set forth many and divers wayes therefore this worke of man is wonderfull and would make an eternall discourse in the minde of man to expresse himselfe And the history of David that he did kill a Lion and a Beare and did kill Goliah is the whole worke of the law to destroy the Devill and sin out of the man also he complaineth sometimes that he is in the lowest hell and in a deepe pit and that he is a worme and no man and that he is in the deep waters and the raging seas run over him so that in all this he carries a double death which is to kill and be killed for the whole worke of the law is to kill and bee killed therefore the law or David cannot build a house for God to dwell in for he saith that David or the law is a man of blood and that he should pull down all buildings of sin and destroy the enemies of the Lord and prepare timber and stones hewed and cut for the house of the Lord that there might bee no noise of the hammer or of the worke mans tools for the law of the Lord hews cuts and prepares us for the house of the Lord before we are or can be set in that there should be no noise of hammer or worke mans tooles hewing or cutting which hewing or cutting is the wounds of conscience making a true sorrow and mourning for sinne and when we are prepared and made living stones and a spirituall house Christ being the head and corner stone that upholdeth this house and holy building and this whole house is covered within and without with pure gold that is with a most pure holy and glorious life then the most holy and wise Solomon the wisdome of the Godhead the sonne of David or the law enters in this most glorious house that shineth with his most bright and glorious rayes and there he worships and adores this great and most holy Godhead and there was and is continuall songs of Hallelujah praise and thanksgiving to him that liveth for evermore and without this house is the middle court where the peace offerings that was and is offered up to this most holy God and was and is the fulfilling of the law by obedience in killing the man of sinne the which doth pacifie and reconcile us to God againe that we may enter the Temple with this holy and wise Solomon to worship and sing praises to the most glorious and most holy God O that it were so well with all the soules of men and that it were so come to passe in them then were they happy but till then most unhappy Now to understand these buildings of the Temple and house of the Lord as a history with all these glorious externall things how that there were galleries and chambers and in those roomes pictures of Angels and Cherubins and that they did uphold the Arke and Alter and that the same should bee covered within and without with pure gold and that the stones must be hewed and prepared before they were set in that there should be no noise of the hammer or workmans toole what is that to thee O man to read the history of these things for all externall buildings must perish with the using and thou never the better for it but looke thou into the mystery thereof because it concernes thy selfe for this building is thee and God joyned together and is the rocke Christ Jesus that living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and yee as living
theefe that cannot repent and thou art the other theefe that art repentant for what thou hast done and so findest mercy and in that day or light of mercy thou shalt enter into Paradise thy Masters joy for now you have suffered together you shall also rise and relgne together and enter into the joy together which joy lyes into thy inmost self in the cave of thy earth even there lyeth the most still and soft voice which was not in the great windes that did blow downe the rocks of sinne nor in that carthquake for sinne nor in that fire that consumeth sinne in which God is lost to the man for in that the man casteth the holy God from him is the very thing that doth condemne him and rise against him so that he can never be at rest nor quiet till he hath found God againe and even thus doth God appeare to the man that which he is not in himselfe even a consuming fire as he saith in Thessalon God sendeth them strong delusions that they should believe lies because they will not receive the love of the truth for man thinketh that God is angry with him and he neither can nor shall believe otherwise untill sinne be destroyed out of him for God doth seem to appeare in thy sinnes as an angry judge condemning thee till thou hast suffered under them and for them and so worketh feare in thy heart and all these angers that he seemeth to have against thee and those feares that he worketh in thy heart is for thy future good and for the great love he hath to thee recalling thee from thy sinfull life and when thou hast forsaken sinne then he doth appeare to thee in his glorious amiable and bright rayes full of sweet ravishing contents and then thy Judas Devill or sinnes hath condemned themselves in thee and with thee and hath arraigned themselves at the barre of Gods justice and then they hang themselves in thee and breake their owne necks and brust their bowells asunder and so there is an end of them to thee and an end of thee to them and then thou cryest to thy Father or God It is finished and so yeeldest up thy ghost or spirit into him and the vaile that is the flesh of Christ that divided betwixt the holy and most holy place is rent in twaine from the top to the bottome which vaile death or flesh is the long-sufferance and patience of Christ that rasteth in us till our sinnes are extinguished and blotted out and this standeth betwixt the holy place and the Sanctum Sanctorum and all that will be saved must taste of this flesh death patience long-sufferance bitter cup agony or bloudy sweat which stands before the holy of holies and when wee have tasted this bitter death or cup wee enter through this vaile flesh or death of Christ which is the new and living way into the holy of holies or Sanctum Sanctorum which is the Kingdome of Heaven that is within you and is peace righteousnesse and joy in the Holy Ghost Now when the flesh of Christ hath finished his course then is he taken out of the way and then cometh hee againe to thee the second time and is thy holy Ghost or Spirit which leadeth thee into all truth which truth is meekenesse lowsinesse of Spirit gentlenesse lovingnesse rejoycing in mind ravishing thoughts sweet contemplations singing Hymnes and Halelujahs praise and thanksgiving to the Holy Ghost for their victoriousnesse and this is thy ravishing joy and comfort eternally so that all the externall losses in this present world doth not trouble thee for thy mind is not below on these perishable things for thou art dead to them and livest here as if thou livedst not and useth all things here as if thou used them not and if thou had all the honours and riches of this world thou wouldest dispise them and think them but dung and drosse for thou hast farre more excellent honour and riches then this world can affoorde but if by chance the Godly have the riches of this world as it is but a chance seeing the Godly and ungodly oftentimes injoy them alike here he accounteth not the same his but distributeth as he seeth need or necessity as a faithfull steward but the ungodly thinketh all that hee getteth here is his and will suffer another to starve and perish by him and in this thou may perceive a difference betwixt the Godly and ungodly let them brag of their Christianity as much as they will their workes show what they bee but wee see what a Christian is and what a difficult thing it is to be one and how many difficulties he must runne through before he attain to the perfection to be a Christian Now to understand and read the history of the crucifying of Christ of his condemnation death and buriall what is this to thee or me if we feele not the mystery of his condemnation death and buriall his resurrection ascention and comming to judgement in me and with me for if we doe not suffer with him we shall not reigne with him therefore let us dye and bee buried with him that we may arise and ascend into the heaven with him and from thence come to judge the quick and the dead which dead is the sinnes that is dead and lost for ever out of us and the quicke is the living righteousnesse to raign in us for ever therefore unlesse I see the mystery of these things wrought in me the history thereof can do me no good for in the history of the death of Christ is shewed a great deale of weakenesse for it is said that hee was so mightily afraid of death that he did sweat drops of blood and all the wrath of his Father did but extend to the death of the externall manhood upon the Crosse but it seemeth strange to me that hee that had the power of heaven and earth should be so much afraid of an externall and bodily death when there hath beene many since that have dyed for their religion and for his sake more terrible deaths being drawn to peeces with wild horses fleyed burned alive broyled roasted boyled in lead and all the terrible deaths that could be devised by wicked and devillish men to put them to as is made mention of in the booke of Martyrs yet there was seene no such weaknesse in them but they went to their deaths cheerfully thinking themselves happy to suffer for his sake Wherefore you may easily perceive that there is a greater mystery in the same which few doe see or discerne For my part I do not deny the history of the Scripture but doe beleeve that those things were acted upon the Theater of this externall world to shew to us what is acted upon the Theater of our internall world but if we looke upon the hystory of Scripture as things acted by other men and take no more notice of it we deceive our selves for all the hystories points upon