put themselves forth into the doing thereof they having eaten of the forbidden Tree they having done that which they knew God had commanded them not to do And the eyes of their understanding and knowledge being opened they see themselves naked that is that they have sinned against God and that there is judgment due to them from this God that they have offended and that makes them afraid and to passifie the apprehensions that they have in them of the anger of this God which by that understanding and knowledge that they have of him they know to be due to them for their sins And by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they know that he is good and that it is good to pray to him and to worship and serve him And the subtile Serpent that by his temptations drew them in to eat of the forbidden Tree the doing of what God had forbidden them to do he perswades them that their eyes being opened by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they of themselves know what is Gods declared will that they should do in praying to him in worshipping and serving of him and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done and they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in performing of their Prayers Worship and Service to God And thus the subtile Serpent perswades them that their eyes being opened they are as Gods to know will and to do all of themselves and so of themselves they pray worship and serve God as they call it and are not contented to be as Creatures to know nothing but as they wait upon God to reveal it in them by his Spirit and to will nothing but what God in his will willeth in them and to do nothing but what God by his Spirit led or draw them forth in the doing thereof Although few are so bold or ignorant of God as to confess with their tongues that they of themselves do know Gods declared will that it is good and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done in them and that they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in praying to him and in worshipping and serving of him yet by their actions they manifest the truth of what with their tongues they will not confess for by their actions it doth appear that they do all as Gods of themselves in that they do not wait upon God for him to do it in them by the leadings or drawings of his Spirit in them but they yield to the stirrings movings or drawings of their own wills and as their wills lead them out for to do so they go forth in their Prayer Worship and Service to God as they call it It were well if all those that are in the use of Set Forms of Prayers and those that pray in their Families at set times would consider what is the leading stirring moving or drawing Cause of their so praying and to see whether or no they do pray as the Apostle said of himself and the Saints That they knew not what they should pray for as they ought but as the Spirit it self made intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered and that their Prayers be performed in Gods Spirit and in truth or else they are not acceptable to God who is a Spirit I so well love all of them whose Lives and Conversations as to the outward are blameless and use those Prayers as a Sacrifice or Offerings to God as to beg of them to have a care that in the use of them the Serpent do not deceive them as he hath deceived me in praying worshipping and serving of God For by experience I do know that what is done in praying worshipping and serving of God that is not done wholly and alone by the Spirit of God in man and man in the doing thereof to be but an Instrument in Gods hand to do his work by And so indeed and in truth it is no other but God the Son in us praying worshipping and serving God the Father that hath begotten us in himself again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead And what Prayer Worship and Service is not thus done in God unto God is not acceptable to God and all other Prayers Worship and Service that hath been done in me and called by me Prayer Worship and Service done to God I do now know and have experienced it to be true that it hath onely been done by the subtilty of the Serpent in me in that understanding and knowledge that I had of God that caused me to have high thoughts of my self and that of my self in that understanding and knowledge I had of God I could pray worship and serve God and was as God to my self that is to will what I knew was Gods will and to do what I knew to be Gods will that I should do that is as to an outward obedience to God And now I do know that all that then I did in obedience to God was done in my own will and for my own self-ends And knowing the danger that I was then in being in the womans deceived state and so in the transgression and so in danger of perishing I cannot but out of love and pity to those that are in that state give them warning for them to have a care that they do not fall into that Quick-sand that lieth so hid in man and as an honest Traveller in the outward Land having fallen into a Quick-sand setteth a mark there that so others may have a care of falling into the same place This being the end of all my making known of what I know of the subtil Serpents self-will in me And further to make it more clearer that it is the work of the Tempter in man as man is in the fallen state to perswade man to have high thoughts that of himself in that understanding and knowledge that he hath of God he can know Gods will and can will Gods will and can do what God would have him to do And if this be not the true state of man in the fall to have the subtile Serpent to be thus in him tempting of him I desire then to know from whence it comes that many now see it to be so hard for man to become a very nothing in the Work of his Salvation that so God may be all in it and man nothing but onely as God makes him an Instrument in his hand But they who are not in some measure come to the knowledge of that in them as to know how hard a thing it is to become a nothing in the working out of their salvation that so God may be all in them in that great work of saving of them to them it is as hard to believe the truth of what I have said concerning the experience that some have seen of the Tempter how
God in true self-denial in being as a nothing in thy self until God send his spirit that quiet into all truth to guide to search to let thee understand something of the great mystery that is in these few words Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil thou wouldst then find that those few words have been much read without and very little understood by the outward Readers within they have read little of them within themselves The forbidden fruit as it was presented in the temptation it was pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make wise the knowing of Gods will and not to do Gods will is the forbidden fruit What God requires of man to obey him in and what man knows to be Gods will that he should obey him in is good but to know Gods will and not to do it is evil that is the knowing of good and evil in the action which is sin To know is very pleasant to the eye because it makes wise and how much is there a desire in man going forth after knowledge that they may be wise because Wisdom is one part of the Essence or Being of God and it is to be like God and so man in the temptation had a desire to be like God as being wise And thus man desired to know more of God than he desired in that knowledge to yield obedience to God in what he knew of God And this is the forbidden fruit to have a desire to be wise like God to know God or the mind and will of God and not to obey God according to what he knew to be Gods will this was Adams fall this was the forbidden fruit which man was not to eat of nor yet to touch it And now man is fallen who can say upon a true examination of himself in the inward parts that he is now judged or condemned for the doing of any thing but for the doing of those things that God hath made known to him that he ought not to do or else he is judged and condemned for the not doing of those things that God hath made known to him to be his will that he ought to do and should do the condemnation is either for doing what we know we ought not to do or for leaving undone what we know that we should do The woman mystically being the figure of mans being drawn by the spirit or the goings or leadings forth of man by the spirit of Jesus in man for as the Lord God took the woman out of Adam so is mans being drawn by the spirit or the goings or leadings forth of man by the spirit of Jesus in man is the work of the Lord God and they are given as Help-meets for the life of Jesus in man that is as Help-meets for that life of Jesus in man that is in him saving of him from sin And as the woman as she was taken out of Adam although she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh yet she had a distinct and separated body from Adam so in the mystery is to be understood mans being drawn by the spirit of Jesus or the goings or leadings forth of the spirit of Jesus in man although taken out of Jesus in man as the woman was taken out of man to be distinct and separated from Jesus in man and serve for the end the woman was created for to be as an Help-meet for man so man by these drawings of the spirit or the goings or leadings forth of man by the spirit of Jesus in man are as Help-meets for the life of Jesus in man How is the life of Jesus in man refreshed and comforted when there is in man a drawing going or leading forth of the spirit to meditate of Gods goodness or to meditate of some mystery that God is making known to the Soul either what God is or what he hath made man to be or what man was before the fall or what man made himself by the fall or what God hath made man by his redeeming of him or what man shall be in the resurrection or sometimes in praying or speaking or some sudden Vision or breakings out of the manifestations of Gods love in these or other of the drawings leadings or goings forth of man by the Spirit of Jesus in man How is the Life of Jesus in man helped and refreshed that is that Life of Jesus in man that is in him saving of him from sin So as the woman was created to be an Help-meet for Adam so hath God made man by these drawings leadings or goings forth of man by the Spirit of Jesus in man as Help-meets for the Life of Jesus in man as he is in man a saving him from sin Now as I said before as the woman although taken out of Adam and was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh yet she had a distinct and separate body of her self So in the mystery although man by these drawings of the Spirit or goings or leadings forth of man by the Spirit they come from Jesus and are taken out of Jesus in man yet in the mystery they are to be looked upon as a distinct and separate body from Jesus in man as the woman was a distinct and separate body from man Now the Serpents self or a mans own will as separated from God as it is in the fall and so is become a fallen Angel or Spirit and being in the garden of God that is in the heart or inward part of man this presents to the woman that is to man as being drawn of the Spirit or his goings or being led forth by the Spirit of Jesus in man a desire more to know the things of God than to come into the obedience of what God hath by those drawings leadings or goings forth of the Spirit made known to them to obey him in and this is the forbidden Fruit for man to desire to know more of God in those manifestations or enjoyments that he hath received from God by the drawings leadings or goings forth of his Spirit in them than to obey God in what he knew of God or that God doth make known to him of himself in those manifestations or enjoyments that he gives of himself unto man And this desire after knowledge this Serpents self or a mans own will in the fall presents to be very pleasant to the eye of the woman and to be desired to be made wise and by it to be as Gods But these presentations to the woman is to be taken as if man in these drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit were distinct and separate from Jesus as the woman was from the man And that is onely to be taken as to that sense or knowledge that the Soul wherein these drawings or goings forth of the Spirit are acted hath of them that is as the Soul or inward part of man does look upon the drawings
another seed of the Woman and not that seed which knew the will of Man and condescended and joyned with Mans will in the transgression but it is a seed in man that never knew man that is the will of man by joyning with it or condescending to mans will in his disobedience but it ever did and doth oppose the will of man in his disobedience it is a Virgins seed that knew no man And this is as great a mystery to the Wisdom of this World as it was that an outward Virgin that never knew an outward man should bring forth a Son The woman that this Virgins seed shall save is that in man that was lost by the transgression Take notice of this before man transgressed he was drawn and went forth in the doing what he did by the spirit of God in him I hope none will deny that God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living Soul man being thus made alive he was by the drawings of the spirit or the goings or leadings of the spirit of Jesus in him carried out by a principle of love to yield an obedience to God and in and by his transgression he died that is man as to his being drawn going or being led forth by the spirit of Jesus in him in obedience to God in that love that he had to God In the transgression that obedience that he had to God died which he was in before the transgression and drawn led or went forth in that obedience by the spirit of Jesus in him that obedience died that is it died as to mans part as to mans obeying of God and so man was lost as to his love and obedience to God and the woman being saved is the restoring of this love and obedience again in man to God which is done in the Virgins seed in the womans bearing the Child Jesus the Son of God God in us who came to seek and to save that which was lost What is now required of the woman to continue in to be saved in child-bearing that is she is to continue in faith charity holiness and sobriety these all were in Adam before the fall and so man may be said to die in the day that he eat of the forbidden fruit There was faith in Adam before he fell Adam before he fell he believed all that God had said to him to be true and he obeyed God in all that he had commanded him to do and he confessed the truth of what God had spoken to him and of his obedience to God in and by the woman It was the woman that said We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die and this was spoken by the man in the woman as being led or guided by the spirit of Jesus in him to give this answer to the Serpent I pray mark God did make known his Commandment to the man before the woman had a being that is before she had a body separated from mans body man makes no acknowledgement of what God had commanded him to do or of his faith in believing the truth of what God had commanded or of his obedience to God but as he did it in and by the woman it was the woman that acknowledged the Command and their believing of it and their obedience to the Command the acknowledgement of their faith and obedience it was in this that she declared what God had commanded them to do and what he had commanded them not to do and the penalty if they transgressed and then they had not broken Gods Command The Serpent never set upon man to tempt him before he had a woman given to him as an Help-meet but after he had a woman given to him to be an Help-meet for him then he set upon him to tempt him in and by the woman read it in the mystery who can I hope none will own themselves to be so ignorant as to say they believe the Serpent did not tempt the man because the Scripture speaketh of the Woman and the Serpent to have all the discourse in the temptations but yet the Scripture saith that she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat that is at the very same time and instant that the woman eat the husband eat also with her they eat together by which it is clear that the temptation was the same in the husband that it was in the woman but God is pleased to set it forth to be the woman that was tempted the more to make known the mystery of the creating of man and of mans fall and given it the name that the woman was deceived and in the transgression notwithstanding she shall be saved in Child-bearing And as Faith was in Adam before the fall so Charity was in Adam before the fall the height of love was in Adam before he fell there was no love in the heart of man to any creature before the fall mans heart was filled as I may so say with love to God the love of the Creation nor of any Creature was not entred into mans heart before the fall no not to Eve but onely as God had made her an Help-meet for man but he knew her not till after the fall and Holiness was in Adam before the fall as he was made in the Image of God and Sobriety was in man before the fall man had no high thoughts or esteem of himself While man stood stedfast in his faith believing the truth of what God had spoken and his love remained unchangeable and his holiness unblemished and his sobriety unmoved mans heart was like a pleasant and delightful Garden and while mans heart was thus as a garden and all that man did was done by mans being drawn or led or going forth thereunto by the spirit of Jesus in him for who dare say that man before his being tempted did any thing that was not the work of God in him and man in the garden and in his being led drawn or going forth by the spirit of Jesus in him subtilly gets into him and perswades him in the time of his being drawn led or going forth by the spirit of God or Jesus first to question the truth of what God had said and then to a desire to be as Gods Man was in the Image of God before the temptation as God made him and so in that Image he was led or drawn or went forth to do whatsoever he did by the spirit of God in him But subtilly the temptation caused a desire in him to be as Gods and not to be contented to be led drawn or guided by another as he was in that state that God had made him in but
Baptist and feared him knowing that he was a just and holy man and he heard him gladly and did many things yet because John reproved him for his beloved sin he put him into prison and afterwards cut off his head Mark 6. This is to be read within in the mystery Simon who by his Sorcery had bewitched the People being looked upon as the great power of God he believed Philip preaching and was baptized and continued with Philip wondring and beholding the miracles and signs that were done and offered to part with his money if for it he might have had the power of disposing the Holy Ghost yet his heart was not right in the sight of God but he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Acts 8. This also may be read within in the mystery These both were under Johns dispensations the one of Preaching and the other of Water-Baptism and both in an outward yielding obedience to God Hymenia and Alexander they went further they put away Faith and a good Conscience which they could not have done if they had not first had Faith and a good Conscience and were gone so far as to make shipwrack of Faith and yet there was a hope of recovery of these 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. But it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Heb. 6. 4 5 6. Here is a going a great way in the ways of God and a being in a high state and yet a possibility of falling when they are gone so far and are in that high state but if then they do fall it is impossible for them to be renewed again by Repentance and therefore what great need hath all to have a care and not to desire the forbidden Fruit that is to desire to know more of God than a desire to yield obedience to God in what they know of him and also to keep low and to have a low esteem of themselves in and under all the enjoyments of God and his manifestations or making known of himself in them and unto them and not to look upon any part of what they enjoy of Gods making known himself in them or unto them as their own but to look upon all their enjoyments as the Free Gift of God and given to them to be as an Help-meet for the life of the Son of God in them for the bringing them into the Image or likeness of the heavenly Adam I know no subtile Serpent no Satan no Tempter no Devil without me and therefore I can say nothing of a substile Serpent a Satan a Tempter or a Devil without me Those who do know a subtile Serpent a Satan a Tempter or a Devil without them they may declare their knowledge of that subtile Serpent of that Satan of that Tempter or of that Devil that they know without them and what works or actions they have known done by that subtile Serpent that Satan that Tempter oâ— Devil without them As I have declared my knowledge of the subtile Serpent the Satan the Tempter or the Devil within me their works or actions I would not be mistaken I do not say there is no more to be known of the Devil than what I have known of his works and actions within me that is as he is a subtile Serpent a Satan a Tempter or a Devil that is as much as to say he is all whatsoever it is in man that opposeth God and the work of God in man that is the Devil I know no more of him that is I have no experimental knowledge of him but onely as he opposeth God and the work of God in man But I read of other works actions or manifestations of the Devil in Scripture as that of Witches Wizzards familiar Spirits Divinations Inchantments which I know nothing of but onely as I read of them in the Scripture and of those possessed with Devils in the time that Jesus Christ lived in the Humane Nature upon the Earth as the man that came to him to have the Devil cast out of his child which did sometimes cast him into the fire and into the water and rent and tore him at the time of his casting out that he left him as if he had been dead And the man possessed with Devils that chains and fetters could not hold him cutting himself with stones and kept in tombs and had many Devils entred into him but of these I know nothing of experimentally but as something of the inward work of the Devil in man may be compared to these outward works or actions of the Devil but as to the outward works themselves I am altogether ignorant of them I onely know them as I read of them in the Scripture but having no experimental knowledge of them causes me to say I know no other subtile Serpent Satan Tempter or Devil but what I have found of his works and actions within me and I leave it to others that know the other works and actions of the Devil as without doubt some there be that now do know some of them to declare if they please what they know of them I know and do believe that evil men have evil Spirits or evil Angels that do attend upon them their works or actions I have seen of those evil Spirits or evil Angels within me but I never saw any of those evil Spirits or Angels without me and I also know and believe that good men as God hath again made them good by bringing forth his begotten Son Jesus in them they have good Spirits or good Angels attending upon them their works or actions I have seen of those good Spirits or Angels within me but I never saw any of those good Spirits or Angels without me I think that to be my duty that John said was his and others their practice in his time 1 John 1. 1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life was manifest and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ I have read what the subtile Serpent said to the woman and what answer she gave the Serpent and how she yielded to the Temptation and I have read how the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them
obedience in us so comes the feet to be defiled and made unclean Now as Jesus hath washed and made clean the feet of obedience in any and keeps them clean in the walking in obedience to God it is their duty and they are to follow the Example of Jesus That if they see in any that the Serpent hath bruised the heel of the seed of the woman in them that is in their walking upon the earthy part in them any part of the Earth hath cleaved to their feet whereby they are polluted or defiled then it is their duty as Instruments in Gods hand to wash and make clean the feet of those that they see so polluted or defiled And this is what God by the Apostle commanded If any man be overtaken in a fault yea which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burthens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6. 1 2. Which is as much as to say If any man by the temptation of the Serpent hath defiled his feet of obedience in being overtaken in a fault the earthy part on which he walked upon in his obedience hath cleaved to his feet of obedience and hath defiled them yea that are spiritual yea that stand in your obedience by the power of Jesus in you who hath washed your feet wash ye the feet of those that are polluted restore such a one again to the pure and clean walking in obedience to Jesus but do it in the spirit of meekness in a low and meek spirit not lording it over them but in meekness and lowliness of mind as if thou wert indeed a servant to them attending upon them to that very end considering thy self lest thou also be tempted lest thou also fall by the temptation of the Serpent self in thee lest thou pollute or defile thy feet of obedience in walking upon the earthy part in thee And so then thou mayst stand as much in need of another to be an Instrument in Gods hand to wash thy feet to make thee clean in thy obedience to God and so restore thee again by the spirit of meekness to God as thy Brother hath need of thee And in thus your seeking to restore one another in the spirit of meekness ye bear one anothers burthens and so fulfil the law of Christ the Command of Christ to wash one anothers feet as he washed your feet And when and where this shall be put in practice that Lordly power which some in their wills because they have known Jesus in the flesh and he hath sent them to preach and cast out Devils they have taken upon them to judge and condemn others wherein the Witness of God in their Consciences the Light of God hath acquitted and cleared them And when that Lordly power shall be thrown down and a Cross taken up to that Will and also when and where this duty of washing one anothers feet is known and practised then when there is indeed such a thing done whereby the feet of obedience is polluted or defiled and it be seen by those in whom the Lordly and Masterly spirit is cast down and a Cross taken up to that Lordly and Masterly Will in them that was ready to run out in judging and passing sentence upon others because their feet of obedience have been polluted and by the subtilty of the Serpents temptations they have been overtaken in a fault Instead of running upon them and passing sentence upon them there will be a Spirit of meekness gentleness forbearance love long suffering pity and compassion used to them and thereby to be as Instruments in Gods hand to wash the feet of such a one to recover to restore and bring such a one again into obedience to God as not knowing how soon you that now stand may fall by the like temptations And this I believe men will come more into the practice of as they come to know what it is to take up the Cross to their own Wills and to follow Jesus and not be like the Disciples of Christ that would have had fire to come down from Heaven upon those that would not retain them who knew not what spirits they themselves were of and yet had known Christ and had followed Jesus in the flesh and had preached and cast out Devils and yet knew not what it was for Jesus to wash their feet nor what it was to wash the feet of others and therefore had no patience to bear with them that would not retain them that would not take in and believe what they said although spoken in their wills as in their own Wills it was that they would have fire come from Heaven to consume them Some there hath been in this knowing Age that we live in that hath taken upon them to judge those true words spoken by one whose life they have had nothing to object against and yet for declaring what he hath known of the deceit that is wrought in the heart of man by the subtilty of the Serpents self in man and that under a form of Religion and thereby the Devil perswades man that he shall thereby come to be like God and declaring how he hath in Jesus's Name by the power of Jesus the true Light in him resisted and cast out the Devil in his temptations and desiring them to have a care that they be not deceived by the temptations of the subtilty of the Serpents self in them under an outward form of Religion and of being like God as Adam was and himself had experienced They have judged these words or words spoken to that purpose or tending to the same effect in discovering the subtilty of the Serpents self in man in an outward form of Worship and how the Serpent in those temptations might be resisted and overcome to be spoken from a wrong Spirit and so would make the Devil to be a dividing of his Kingdom and so if Christs words be true they would make the Devil to be a throwing down his Kingdom for he said to those zealous Professors that thought themselves better than others when they so judged of him that he cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils that a Kingdom divided cannot stand And if Satan cast out Devils he is divided against himself and how then can his Kingdom stand Mat. 12. 24 25 26. Jesus himself meets with the like dealing from the like sort of zealous Professors And he told his Disciples that the disciple is not to be above the master nor the servant above the lord It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the houshold Mat. 10. 24 25. But that which made them judge that the words were not spoken by a true Spirit was this as hath been several times expressed by them
given as Help-meets for the life of Jesus in man When I speak of the Life of Jesus in man I do not mean that eternal Life and Being that gave life and being to all things for that Life and Being the works or actions of man cannot reach unto to do it either good or harm but I mean the Life of Jesus as a Saviour in man as he is sent of the Father and is come into fallen man and is of that eternal Life and being that gave being to all that life of his that was slain in man by sin and is come again into man to be raised up to life and thereby to save man from sin and to bring man to God and into God again from whence man fell by his sin And so as man keeps in obedience to his being drawn or led forth by the Spirit of Jesus in him so he in his obedience being thereunto led or drawn forth by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in him is as an Help-meet for that life of Jesus in him to save him from sin which the woman given to Adam as an Help-meet I believe was a figure of And mans going out of his obedience in the time of the drawings or strivings of the Spirit of Jesus in him is a hurt or hindrance to that Life of Jesus in him that is to that Life that is a saving him from sin And so that which was as an Help-meet is deceived by the subtilty of the Serpents self that in man that yielded obedience to God is deceived in and by its disobedience God's Spirit striving in man to keep him from sin that is God's drawing of man and as man keeps in obedience to those strivings and drawings of the Spirit of God in him so he becomes an Help-meet to the Life of Jesus in him that is to that Life that saves from sin The end of Paul's preaching was to bring men to repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26. 20. And it was Gods Command by the Apostle to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Philip. 2. 12 13. Every one is to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling But how are they to work out their own salvation It must be according to the strivings or drawings of the Spirit of God in them to do it For it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure The work is God's but he doth not do it without man working with him and as God chose man to work with him so he makes man as an Help-meet for the Life of Jesus in man to save man from sin as man yields an obedience to the working of God in him but when man goes out of his obedience and yields not obedience to the working of God's Spirit in him then the woman is deceived and found in the transgression While the woman stood in obedience to the strivings or drawings of the Spirit of God in her which strove in her to keep her from yielding to the temptations of the Serpent and caused her to resist the temptations of the Serpent telling him that they might eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden But of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden God had said they should not eat of it nor touch it lest ye die While the woman stood thus in obedience to the working of the Spirit of God in her that strove in her to keep her from sinning she was as God wrought it in her an Help-meet for the preserving of the Life of Jesus in her that kept her from sin But while the Spirit of God thus wrought and strove in her she hearkened to the Serpents temptation and went out of her obedience into disobedience then she was deceived and found in the transgression as all men in the state of disobedience are How doth experience teach the truth of this at this very day the subtile Serpent presents to man his temptation The Light the Spirit which is Jesus although in several names yet but one Being God makes known to man that what the Serpent tempts to is a breaking of his Commands and the penalty that follows the breaking of the Command is death This is the striving or drawing of God by his Spirit in man to keep man from sin this was in the woman While man stands in obedience to these strivings or drawings of God in him he is kept from sin and so was the woman And as man is thus an Instrument in Gods hand for God doth not save man from sin without mans joyning condescending or being willing thereunto and although the work be wholly Gods who worketh both to will and to do yet God doth not do this his great work without his Instrument man And as man is an Instrument in Gods hand so God makes him a fit Instrument to do his work withal And so man may be said to be an Help-meet for the work of God in man as a man that hath a work to do makes an Instrument fit to do his work with and so his Instrument is an Help-meet or fit for him to do his work withal God strives or draws in man by his Light his Spirit his Son Jesus to keep man from yielding to the temptation of the Serpent The Serpent also then strives in man and draws in man to yield to his temptation this was the cause of the woman The Serpent in his temptation causeth man to behold a good and pleasantness to be had in the sin in the forbidden Fruit the woman saw that the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye When the understanding part in man the knowing part in man beheld a good for food and pleasantness to the eye in what was contrary to the Command of God and that there was so much good and pleasantness in it that he shall thereby have content and full satisfaction as being wise as Gods Then there is a desire in the mind stirred up after the enjoying of it this was the case of the woman when she saw the Tree to be good for food and pleasant to the eye then there was a desire stirred up in her to take thereof to be made wise thereby So when the understanding and knowing part in man looketh out and sees that there is a good a pleasantness a satisfaction and full content in what God hath forbidden man to do and that thereby he shall be made as Gods then a desire gets up in the mind to get the enjoyment thereof that he may be wise as Gods that is that he may know what good what pleasure what satisfaction what content there is to be had in the doing the thing that God hath forbidden to be done And so mans desire is to be wise in that God hath forbidden him to do and to know what
28. Ye have heard it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Mark here the eye first looks upon her which must imply that it so looks upon her as to be good to satisfie and please him and then lust the desire is stirred up after her and the will that condescends and then the adultery is already committed in the heart although no outward action ever be manifested tending thereunto And what Christ spake of an outward woman may be said of all outward Creatures When the eye of the understanding and knowing part in man doth look upon any Creature otherwise than it is Gods will that man should look upon them and the desire of the mind be let out after them contrary to the â—â—clared will of God which was given to man before his fall and the will joyns therewith that it will have its desire satisfied in the enjoyment of them although contrary to Gods command to man Here the inward adultery is committed with the Creatures although there come none of it forth into outward action And this is a kind of inward and spiritual whoredom committed in the heart or inward part in man And this understanding and knowing part in man which looks upon what God hath forbidden to be good food for it to be thereby made wise as Gods and so pleasing to it and the desire of the mind to be let out after it and the will condescending and takes it in and eats of it that is doth the things that God hath forbidden to be done These three thus joyned together in one as they are but one this is that which is the Antichrist in man it is that which opposeth God in his workings by his Son Jesus in man for the bringing man again to God And it is that man of sin in man the Son of Perdition that is to be revealed who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God and is the mystery of iniquity And this is he that letteth and will let until he be taken away and when he is taken away then his wickedness is revealed then is he made manifest what he was that is when Jesus is a consuming of him with the Spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming in the heart of man And then whereas before the coming of Jesus in man and is in man thus a consuming of this man of sin he that is the man of sin until Jesus is a consuming of him lieth hid in the heart or inward part of man and is not known to man what he is but sitteth in Gods Temple in man as God and man boweth down to him and worshippeth him as his God whom the Lord Jesus shall yea he does as experience teacheth us consume him with the Spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming Men have a long time been looking without them and enquiring without them who that man of sin should be and what he is that is to be revealed and so to be revealed whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiveableness and unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the Truth that they might be â—aved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all may be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrightness I say their so-much-looked-out for the man of sin to be revealed without them that is it that hath hindered that they have not seen the revelation of him within them For what is there spoken of the man of sin but the same may be found in that understanding and knowing part in man that saw and beheld a good for food and thereby to be made wise as Gods and a pleasantness to the eye in the Tree that God had forbidden to be eaten thereof and the desire of the mind after it and the will to take and eat of it Joyn these three together in one as indeed they are but one and make but one man sin for they all were joyned and united together in the sin and eating of the forbidden Fruit and so may properly be called the man of sin because they begot the first sin in man And see if you do not find in these as they are joyned and united together all that is spoken of the man of sin in 2 Thess 2. No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. The Garden in the mystery is the heart of man or the inward part of man that was Gods garden While Adam stood in his obedience to God the heart or inward part of Adam was pleasant and delightful to God and Adam's hearts delight was in God and his obedience to God was pleasant unto him and so the heart or inward part of man doth very fitly resemble a Garden which is a pleasant and delightful place In this Garden in the heart or inward part of man Adam after he had fallen in the cool of the day heard God's voice walking in the heart or inward part as man in the fallen state doth at this day and calling to Adam saying Where art thou And his eyes being opened he knew that he was naked which cannot be meant the outward eyes of his body for they were open before and he saw his outward body before but the eyes of his understanding were opened and he saw himself naked for want of that righteous Garment of obedience that God had clothed him with in the Creation which Garment remained upon him and he was clothed with it until he eat of the forbidden Fruit and when he had eaten of the forbidden Fruit then he saw himself naked stripped out of that righteous Garment of obedience that God had created him in And then when he heard God's voice walking in his heart or inward part which before he eat of the forbidden Fruit was pleasing to him but after he had eaten of the forbidden Fruit he was afraid of God's voice and hid himself from God fearing Gods justice that he saw he justly deserved for his sin as experience teacheth us in the fallen state and condition of man at this very day as man remains in that fallen state And thus when man had sinned the heart or inward part of man that which was before life a garden for delight and pleasantness is become like a Hell a place of fear dread and torment And indeed that fear that was then in mans heart or inward part when he heard God's voice walking in the garden was the beginning of Hell in man And here God may be said to send man or drive man out of
first would have brought man out of his obedience to God into disobedience to God was the same subtile Serpent the same will that in time did its will in bringing man out of obedience to God into the disobedience to God Now this serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made Man in the enjoyment of all the Creatures the Fish in the Sea the Fowl of the Air and the Cattel of all the Earth and the creeping things that creep upon the Earth all these did not tempt nor prevail with man to draw or take his will out of Gods will in doing the things that God had commanded to do and in leaving undone the things that God had commanded him not to do But man in the enjoying and having dominion over all these his will was kept in the doing of Gods will and in the enjoying of all these his will was wholly resigned up into Gods will and to do what God would have him to do with them he knew no will of his own in the enjoyment and having dominion over them all for when God in his will brought to Adam every Beast of the Field and every Fowl of the Air to see what Adam would call them whatsoever man called every living creature that was the name thereof Thus was man kept in the enjoyment and having dominion over all Creatures by Jesus the Light of God in him that none of them tempted him to draw his obedience from God into disobedience to God but his will continued firm in the being resigned up into Gods will and kept in the doing of what God would have him to do and he knew no other will but that will that did Gods will in him But the Serpent that was more subtile than any Beast of the Field he gets into Gods garden into the heart or inward part in man and then there was something in man that would have that done in man that God had forbidden man to do and this at length proved a will in man for that which began the temptation in man continued the temptation in him till there was a willingness in man to yield to the temptation Now the Serpent began his temptation very subtilly and said Yea hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden He puts it by way of question Whether it were so or no that God had said they should not eat of every Tree in the garden To eat is to take in content and satisfaction as the natural body is contented and satisfied with eating outward food so that was the Command of God that man should not eat should not content and satisfie himself with the Tree of knowledge of good and evil that is man should not be contented and satisfied in that he knew what was Gods declared will that he should do and what was Gods declared will that he should not do This man was not to eat of this man was not to content and satisfie himself in but he was to eat freely of the other trees of the garden Man was commanded to eat freely of the Tree of Life of Jesus by which he was by his Spirit in him led into obedience to the Commands of God of this man was to feed freely of that is man might freely content and satisfie himself in that he was drawn by the Spirit of God the Light of Jesus in him into the obedience of Gods Commands and in the doing thereof he knew nothing of any will of his own but was led and drawn thereunto by the will of God in him And on this Tree he was freely to eat freely to content and satisfie himself in But if man as to the outward doing of things does those things that God hath commanded him to do and does them from the leadings or drawings of his own will in him and feed upon this content and satisfie himself with what he does in obedience to God and done in his own will this is the eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil for although one part of it be good as it is the doing of what God hath commanded yet the other part of it is evil as it is a doing of what God hath forbidden for God is a jealous God and will not give his glory to another God will not have mans will to be the leading or moving case In the leading or drawing of man out to do God's will in the doing what God hath commanded to be done this God hath forbidden in man to be done that is God hath forbidden man to take his work out of his hands for it is Gods work onely to work in man an obedience to himself he must work both to will and to do The subtilty of the Serpent said in man Yea hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden Which is as much as to say Is there any Tree in the garden that God hath said Ye shall not eat of Is there any thing in the heart or inward part of man that God hath said Man shall not eat of man shall not content and satisfie himself in Oh how willing is man to eat of to content and satisfie himself with what he finds to be in his own heart or in the inward part of man and especially if he find any thing there that would be willing to be in the doing of any thing as to the outward things that he knew that God hath commanded him to do How little then does man question whether he may not eat of this Fruit content and satisfie himself in his doing of those things that he knew that God hath commanded to be done And so man in the doing the things that God hath commanded to be done in his own will to please content and satisfie himself in the doing of them and man not waiting for the strivings of the Spirit of God in him to draw him forth in Gods will in the doing of those things that God hath required of him to do but mans doing of them in his own will this is the eating of the forbidden Fruit which the Serpent subtilly tempteth to do in his doubtful Question Whether or no God had said Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden But man in the woman did not presently yield to this temptation of the subtile Serpent will in the woman had not gotten so much power over the man but when the subtile Serpent presented his doubtful Question in the woman Yea hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden Jesus the Word the true Light of God in man was then striving in man to draw and preserve him from being led into the temptation And so it was no sin in man to be tempted the sin was in being led into the temptation that is in yielding to the temptation which for a time man was kept from by the strivings of the Spirit of God in man the
in God to his will or to the knowledge of his will to be good or to will his will to be done and so the Tempter perswaded man that he should be as God and not as a Creature to have none to move stir or draw in him to the will of God or the knowledge of Gods will to be good or to will Gods will to be done God moved and stirred up himself to strive move or draw man to do his declared will and to bring mans will into his will and to cause mans will to be resigned up into Gods will and so the Tempter perswaded man that he should be as God and not as a Creature but of himself as a God to stir move and draw his will to do Gods declared will and to bring his will into Gods will and to cause it to be resigned up into Gods will And thus man was by the perswadings of the Tempter drawn into a belief to know good absolute in himself as God knew good in himself And man by the temptation was perswaded that he should know evil as God knew evil God knew that the doing of what he had forbidden was evil and so man knew evil God had made it known to man to be evil the doing of what he had forbidden him to do but in mans doing of what God had forbidden man to do man came to a greater measure of this knowledge for he came to know evil in the act in the not doing Gods will but in doing of his own will And so the Tempter perswaded man he should be as God and not as a creature to do the will of another but as God to do his own will as God did his will And God knew that it was evil because he had forbidden it and so man knew it to be evil God had made known to man that what he had forbidden him to do was an evil and the evil was in that it was forbidden of God And God had that knowledge of himself that what he had forbidden was evil and that which made it evil was because God had forbidden it And so the Tempter perswaded man that he should have that knowledge of himself as God had of himself to know that what God had forbidden was evil and the evil was because God had forbidden it And if man could be true to himself and to the Light of God in him he might by experience see the Tempter now to be in man in the fallen state acting all this in him and thereby he might come to see how the Tempter acted it in man to draw him at first into the fallen state where all men now in that fallen state are in some measure degree or other so tempted God had none to make known his declared will to him but he knew it of himself How does the Tempter now tempt man in that understanding and knowledge that he hath of God to have such high thoughts of himself that he need not depend upon another to be taught to know what is Gods will but he hath so much knowledge of himself as that he may know that of himself And as God willed his will of himself so the Tempter now perswades man that he may will Gods will of himself And as God of himself willed his will to be done so the Tempter now perswades man that he may of himself will Gods will to be done And as God had none but himself that moved him to his will or to the knowledge of his will to be good or to have his will done so the Tempter now perswades man that he need none but himself to move him to do Gods will and that of himself he can resigne up his will into Gods will And so as to the knowledge of evil which God by his Light in man makes known to him to be his doing of what God hath forbidden him to do and the evil is because God hath forbidden it to be done and the Tempter now perswades man that he may have this knowledge of himself that of himself he may know the evil that God hath forbidden to be done and that of himself he knows it to be evil because God hath forbidden it How is the truth of this manifested that many by the subtilty of the temptations of the Serpent have such high thoughts that of himself in that understanding and knowledge that he hath of God he knows Gods will and can will as God will and can do Gods will And this appeareth by the outward actions of many that take no notice of it how it is acted within them How do many when they have been a drinking until they are near drunk or a swearing and cursing very highly or in a great passion of anger threatning revenge upon those they are offended with or in deceiving wronging of their Neighbours or in uncleanness or in the doing of some other sins whatsoever and yet-presently laying by or leaving off but the outward action of sin and that while the delight and love to the sin is in their hearts and minds and they acting of the sin within them and yet in this condition they step out of the outward acting of sin and while it is still in the action within them and they go presently into what they call their Prayers to God and their Worship and Service of God I pray consider and see what it is that strive move or draw them thus to their Prayers Worship and Service of God as they call it is it not the subtile Serpent tempting in them and perswading them that the eyes of their understanding and knowledge being opened they are as Gods to themselves in the knowing good and evil Evil they know they know the sins they commit to be evil and that they are evil because God hath forbidden the doing of them And good they know they know that there is a God and that this God is good and that this God is to be prayed unto and to be worshipped and served and to pray to this God to worship and serve God they know to be good And their wills in this knowledge that sets them upon what they call Prayers Worship and Service to God And how do they pray They do not pray as the Apostle said of himself and the Saints We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. And Jesus said God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth John 4. 24. But they do not wait in the silence of all the earthy part in them to find in them the strivings movings or drawings of the Spirit of God in them to lead them forth to Prayer to the Worship and Service of God No they do not wait for Gods Spirit to stir move or draw in them to pray to God or to worship and serve God in spirit and in truth But they
goings or leadings forth of the Spirit of Jesus in them and take them in as their own drawings goings or leadings forth after God and do not look upon them as they are the work of God or Jesus in them And thus as at a distance or separate from Jesus that is the Soul first losing the being sensible of its being drawn going or being led forth by the Spirit of Jesus in them to be the work of Jesus in them and so not keeping in the low and meek Spirit but being lifted up with what they enjoy of God in those drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit in them self or mans will in the fall prevails through the pleasing part that it hath of those drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit as to look upon them as their own and they do not look upon them as the work of Jesus in them And from this a desire gets up in man to be wise And so that in man which is the woman that was drawn led or went forth by the Spirit takes and eats of them that is to take it down into them and satisfie themselves therewith as their own drawings leadings or goings forth after God which they were drawn led or went forth to by the Spirit of Jesus in them Not that the drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit of Jesus in man can eat of the forbidden Fruit they cannot eat of the forbidden Fruit but man in those drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit eats of the forbidden Fruit that is he takes down into himself as man does the food he eats a desire more to know of God than to obey God in what he knows And so as mans body is satisfied with taking in and eating of his food so man satisfies himself with taking and eating of knowledge and contents himself with knowledge as with food to live upon and his life is in it And the reason why man takes in eats and feeds himself upon knowledge in the drawings leadings or goings forth of Jesus's Spirit in him is because of mans not minding or having regard to the root from whence those drawings goings or leadings forth of the Spirit in him sprung which is from Jesus in them but they looking upon them as their own and as springing or coming from something of their own And here the subtile Serpents self or mans own will as it is separated from Gods will gets in his head and having got in his head he by degrees rigles in his whole body He at first began so with the woman he first said to her Yea hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden He puts it by way of question and causes her to question whether it were true or no that God had said that they should not eat of every tree of the garden And when Jesus the Light that lightneth every man that cometh into the world tells the woman what was Gods Command and the Will of God that they should do and the punishment if they transgressed Gods Command that is they should die it was Jesus in the woman that gave the Serpent this answer it was that in the woman that if she would have believed and obeyed would have kept her from sinning from eating the forbidden fruit But the Serpent he having got in his head into her in causing her to question the truth of Gods Command whether or no God had said they should not eat of every tree of the garden Now he rigleth in his whole body and by his lying would make God a lyar saying Ye shall not surely die For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Here the Serpent gets in his body rigling it in a little at once First he removes the penalty out of the womans thoughts perswading her she shall not die as God had said and so gives God the lye or makes God a lyar And when the Serpent had perswaded the woman that God had not said true then he easily wrought in her a good opinion of himself that he spake true when he told her the lye that God knew that in the day she eat of the forbidden Fruit their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil they should not onely be as Gods but their eyes should be opened so as that they should see themselves as Gods How doth experience at this day teach the truth of this That before the Devil doth prevail with them to yield to his temptations he first begets a doubt or question in the heart whether indeed God hath forbidden the doing of what the Devil tempteth to do that is as the Devil presents his false gloss upon it that there is a good to be gained by yielding to his temptations as he did the forbidden fruit to the woman that it was good for food and to be desired to make wise And if the Devil once prevail so far as to get the Creature to reason the case with him whether the doing of what he tempteth to be lawful or not lawful and so makes the person doubtful and questioning in what before he knew and believed to be the will of God and obeyed God in as was the case of the woman she knew and believed she was not to eat of the forbidden fruit and for a time obeyed God in it then he soon prevails with them as he did with the woman to hopes of escaping the penalty that Jesus the Light in them hath told them would follow upon their breaking Gods Command and then how easily is the Creature carried away to a belief of what the Devil said to be true as did the woman that by yielding to his temptations they shall be great gainers the woman was promised to have her eyes opened and to be as Gods knowing good and evil What greater gain can any have by yielding to the Devils temptations than to have their eyes opened and to be as Gods And who is it that can say if ever they did take any notice or regard how the Devil tempts them and how they have been carried away with his temptations if they have not in some degree or measure found it to be so That first there is a question or doubt in them whether what they are tempted to be a breaking of the Command of God or if it be a breaking of the Command of God yet not so great a breaking of the Command of God as that they shall surely die for it that is be surely damned for it but they may eat of the forbidden fruit and yet be as Gods that is break Gods Command and please themselves therein and have their own minds wills and desires satisfied in what they do And what can be greater gain than this to have their minds and wills This to them is a Kingdom and herein they think themselves
like Gods they are as Gods to themselves for as God made all things for himself to be glorified in them so as much as in them lieth they make all things their own to satisfie and please themselves in them and yet please themselves with a hope that God will forgive them all their sins and that they shall be like God at last And thus when the Serpent had prevailed in his temptations with the woman that they should not surely die but that their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and that the woman saw the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eye and a Tree to be desired to make one wise then she took of the fruit thereof and did eat The fruit of the Tree was wilful disobedience she eat she satisfied her self with a desire after the knowledge of good and willingly neglected her obedience to God she knew Gods mind and will what she should do but did not obey God in that she knew to be Gods will that she ought to obey him in but instead of yielding obedience to God in what she knew of God the Serpent telling her that their eyes should be opened that was to see more or better than they did see as much in difference as is between seeing with the eyes as if they were shut and the seeing with them wide open And this must be understood as to the understanding and knowing part in man for none can be so ignorant as to think that the eyes of their bodies were not open before the temptation but it is the eye of the understanding and knowledge that was to be opened by yielding to the temptation to know more of God than they did know of him And by this the woman was carried out to a desire of another knowledge of God and likewise to God than that knowledge of God that God had given to them in the Creation and another likeness of God than that Image of God that he had made them in And by this running out after a desire of a greater measure of the knowledge of God and likeness to God and not to obey God in what they knew to be his will to obey him in Here disobedience that got in the forbidden fruit that was eaten they eat that is they filled and satisfied themselves with a desire of knowledge as a man eats and satisfies himself with meat and did not yield obedience to God according to what they knew of God and so that knowledge of God and likeness to God that they were made in And as they were created so they for a time had obeyed God in that knowledge and in that likeness that they were created in until the time of their disobedience and then by their eating of the forbidden fruit their obedience died in them And so man died in the day he eat of the forbidden fruit he died in his obedience to God his obedience to God died in him he died as to that knowledge that he had of God as being in Gods Image the Image of God that he was made in was dead in him mans body did not die in the day he eat the forbidden fruit nor was mans body that Image of God that he made man in Before mans fall all that he did was done by his being drawn lead or going forth by the Spirit of Jesus in him he knew nothing but God and the doing Gods will and to that state man is again to be restored 1 Cor. 15. 45 47 49. The first Adam was made a living soul this was not the body of Adam that God made of the dust of the ground but it was that which after he had made that body then God breathed into that body the breath of life and man became a living soul which was this first Adam the last Adam was made a quickning spirit The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven As we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also have the Image of the heavenly Here the Apostle giveth the description of the two Adams and what they were made the first a living soul the second a quickning spirit And then what they were the first man is of the earth the second man is the Lord from heaven And then he describeth how he and the Saints were in likeness to the first Adam and shall be in likeness to the last Adam and to the first and second man And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly Not that we do now bear the Image of the heavenly but we shall in time to come also bear the Image of the heavenly that is as certainly as we have born the Image of the earthy so certainly shall we also when the time shall come bear the Image of the heavenly that is as the Apostle and Saints did then experimentally know what it was to bear the Image of the earthy so by faith they did as certainly believe that they should also bear the Image of the heavenly And to that Image that the Apostle spake of that he and the Saints then were in of the first Adam that was made a living soul which was not mans body that was made of the Earth but that of man which was made in the Image and likeness of God I pray take notice man in the creation was not made God he was but made in the Image and likeness of God God is unchangeable and cannot fall God in man did not change it was that in man that was made like God that changed his Image was changeable which is well worth our taking notice of which if we did our experience would tell us the truth of it how Gods Image changes in us And man in the creation was not so made in the Image and likeness of God but that he might change as he did in eating of the forbidden fruit not by the Command of God but contrary to Gods Command To that state of the Saints in this life which was made in the Image of God and so made as it may be changeable by eating of the forbidden fruit doth what I have here already writ for the most part tend unto that as they have born the Image of the earthy and so was the woman that was deceived and in the transgression for the same Apostle saith 1 Tim. 2. 13 14. Adam was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression Adam here cannot be taken for the first man Adam made of the Earth for so he eat of the forbidden fruit as did the woman and was deceived and in the transgression with the woman and for his offence judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5. 12 verse to the 20 verse But Adam here must be Jesus who was made a quickning Spirit and is Lord from Heaven
And he was first formed the Apostle does not here say made as a Creature but formed he was in the form and likeness of God before the World was and the World was made by him This Adam in man that is Jesus in man was not deceived neither doth this Jesus in man enter into the transgression But Eve so called because she was the Mother of all living she that had her beginning after Adam and was taken out of Adam mark that she was the woman that was deceived and found in the transgression that which was taken out of Adam and was bone of Adam's bone and flesh of Adam's flesh and given to Adam of God to be an Help-meet for Adam this was deceived and was in the transgression Read it within who can in the mystery Christ is compared to the man and the Church to the woman Ephesians the fifth Chapter and the Saints are compared to a woman bringing forth a man child Revelations the 12th Chapter All they that can read it in the mystery in some measure degree or other who knows what it is to have the woman in them saved in Child-bearing that is to know that in man which was deceived and found in the transgression to be again saved in bearing the Child Jesus in bearing and bringing forth in them that which saves from sin and that which saves from sin is that Adam in them that was not deceived that of God in man that never changed but was and is and ever shall be the same and is the quickning Spirit the Lord from Heaven and the heavenly Image that we shall in time bear if we continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety It was Gods promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head it was not the woman that was to bruise the Serpents head mark that but the seed of the woman Not mans being drawn forth by the Spirit or the goings or the leadings forth of man by the Spirit of Jesus in man that was in man before the fall that was not to bruise the Serpents head but the seed of the woman was to bruise the Serpents head A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son his name is Emmanuel God in us Mat. 1. 23. The Virgin that knew no man brought forth Jesus the Son of God Luke 1. 34 35. That is the seed that bruises the Serpents head that is that in man that knoweth nothing of man that wherein there is nothing of man joyned to it as is in mans being drawn lead or going out to act by the Spirit of Jesus in him there the Serpents self or a mans own will is ready to bruise the heel of it The feet is the walking or going part of man or upon that which man walks and the heel is the hindermost part of the foot and so it represents the walkings goings or drawings forth of man by the Spirit of Jesus in him which self or a mans own will is ready to bruise the heel of it that is to hurt or hinder the pure operations of the work of the Spirit of Jesus in man but the seed of the woman God in us the Son of God Jesus that saves from sin this bruises the head of the Serpent The head is that part of the body wherein the life and understanding is placed it is the seat of that which makes wise and it is the uppermost part of the Creature And this seed of the woman God in us the Son of God Jesus that saves from sin is that seed which bruises the head of the Serpent in us bruises the head of self or a mans own will in us bruises the life of self or a mans will bruises its wisdom or understanding bruises whatever is uppermost in man God did not promise that the seed of the woman should slay or kill the Serpent so as that there should be no life or motion in the Serpent mark that no there was to be an enmity between them between the woman and the Serpent and between the womans seed and the Serpents seed And although the Serpent had his head bruised by the seed of the woman yet the Serpent should bruise the heel of the womans seed mark that The Serpent was not to bruise the heel of the woman although God put enmity between the Serpent and the woman and between the womans seed and the Serpents seed and so great an enmity that the Serpent was to bruise the heel of the womans seed and the seed of that woman not the woman but the womans seed was to bruise the head of the Serpent Man in his goings forth by the leadings or drawings of the spirit of Jesus in him is not to bruise the Serpents head but it is Jesus in him by whom man is drawn forth to do what he doth in obedience to God it is he it is that seed of the woman that is to bruise the Serpents head so that man must be nothing in bruising the Serpents head but God must be all in the doing thereof And doth not experience teach us the truth thereof do we not find that although God in us Jesus that saves from sin doth bruise the head of the Serpent in us self or mans will wherein the life of the Serpent and its wisdom is placed and what is uppermost in Man is bruised by the seed of the Woman in us yet there remains a life or motion in this Serpents self or mans will that doth bruise the heel of the Womans seed in us that is it hurts or hinders the hindermost part of the pure operations or workings of the seed of the woman in us that is of Jesus in us and it must be this Jesus in us and he alone in us that can bruise the head of the Serpent in us and man must be but an instrument in his hand and not to move therein but as moved by Jesus in him that so God may be all in all to work both to will and to do of his own good pleasure And yet this woman that was deceived and in the transgression shall be saved in Child-bearing in bearing the Child whose name is God in us the Son of God Jesus that saves from sin which is conceived in the pure Virgins seed in man in that in man that knew no man that is that knew nothing of self or the will of man but knew onely the will of God it is that in man that knew nothing of man that is of mans self or will by joyning with it or condescending to it that is the Virgins seed in man which conceived God in us the Son of God Jesus that saves from sin and this Conception of the Virgins seed in us is wrought and brought to pass by the Holy Ghost the power of the highest coming upon us and over-shadowing of us it is the great power of God by the holy Spirit joyning with that seed of God in man that never condescended or
there was of all the Tribes of the Children of Israel a hundred forty and four thousand sealed of them to be the Servants of God because he heard it that there was so many sealed and why he might not question the truth of it it was because they were looked upon to be the people of God and had the Oracles of God and to them pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises and the Fathers were there and they were them of whom Christ came in the flesh and therefore there was no cause for him to question the truth of that although he did but hear of it But as to the great multitude which no man could number and they not of the Tribes of Israel but of all Nations and Kinâ—eds and People and Tongues if John should onely have heard of this great multitude of all sorts and Kinreds of the Gentiles that the Israelites called and counted Heathen such as knew not God such as the Apostles themselves after they had known the Resurrection of Jesus questioned whether they might preach Jesus to them to hear of such a great multitude of them that no man could number to stand before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their hands and crying with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb coming out of great tribulations and having washed their Robes and made them white with the Blood of the Lamb and heard of but so few of all the Tribes of Israel to be sealed as the servants of God If John had onely heard of this great multitude might he not have had cause to question the truth of it or would he not being one of the number of the Tribes of Israel have questioned the truth of it as the Tribes of the several outward forms of worshipping God do at this day but that John might certainly know the truth of it God was pleased to let him behold with his eyes John being in the spirit he saw and beheld this great multitude although with a kind of admiration that no man could number of all Nations Kinreds People and Tongues which were arayed in white Robes and made them white with the Bloud of the Lamb This cannot be meant outward Robes washed in outward Lambs blood for that will rather make them red than white but the Lamb is Jesus his Innocency is that which is compared to the Lamb and the Blood is the Life so that the washing in the Blood is the washing in the innocent Life of Jesus and in this they had made their Robes white White is that which betokeneth Innocency white is the sign or badge of Innocency and this was that they were clothen withal as with a Robe or Garment that is those great multitudes of all Nations and Kinreds and People and Tongues which stood before the Throne and before the Lamb in their white Robes of Innocency washed in the Bloud the Life of the Lambs Innocency with Palms in their hands holding forth Praises to God crying with a loud voice Salvation to our God They cryed aloud setting forth Gods praise That it was he and he onely that saved them and caused them to wash their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb that cloathed them with Innocency as with a Robe and that was by the innocent life of the Lamb in them the life of Jesus in them which had John onely heard of and not seen it may it not be questioned whether or no he would have believed it as those do now who onely hear of it as they hear it read in the Scriptures but they are not in the spirit as John was to see it Let them know that Jesus is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world and he is the tree of Life and in some measure degree or other as he is the true light and lighteth them so he gives unto them some knowledge of Gods will what they should do and what they should not do God does not reap where he did not sow nor gather where he hath not strewed as the slothful servant who had not improved his Talent but hid it in the Earth charge God falsely therein The sower sowes the word the word is the seed Mark 4. all men are comprehended to be in one or the other of the four parts of ground the seed which is the word is God John 1. In him was life and the life was the light of men that was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world God as his Word is in every man that cometh into the world they were all made by him made by his word and without him there was not any thing made in him was life and the life was the light of men the tree of life that was in Adam was the life of God in him that was Jesus that was the light in him that told him what was Gods will that he should do and what was Gods will that he should not do and this remains as a tree in all Adams Posterity although the appearance thereof is more in some than it is in other some yet there is something of the light in every man that convinceth him of an evil and makes known a good to him and this did remain in Adam after he had eaten of the forbidden fruit opening his eyes shewing him his nakedness that by his disobedience he had shipped himself out of that white Robe of Innocency that God had clothed him with as he had made him in his Image man seeing himself naked and without that clothing that God had made him in it made known to him the good that he had lost by his disobedience and it shews also to man the justice of God for his disobedience which made him afraid of God and by his being afraid of Gods justice it made known to him the evil that he had committed by eating of the forbidden fruit And this tree of life as the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world doth still continue in Adams Posterity see Rom. 2. 14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shew the works of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing them witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Mark when the Gentiles which have not the Law that is they have not the written Law of God written without them do by nature the things contained in the Law by what nature do they do the things contained in the Law it cannot be by the fallen Nature that is the Serpents Nature the Serpents Nature is that which breaketh the Law of God and therefore that Nature cannot do the
to worship him they and they onely are the acceptable Worshippers of God and God seeketh for those and onely those to worship him that worship him in spirit and truth It is not the outward places nor the outward form no not at Jerusalem nor the outward Worship commanded to be used there that God seeketh for it is the spiritual Worship done in the truth and in the sincerity of the heart that God seeketh for it is that and that onely that is well-pleasing to him which the outward forms of worshipping is not although never so exactly performed according to the Command of God yet if the Spirit of God which leads and guides into all truth be wanting the outward form is not acceptable to God nor sought for of God nor desired of God And where the Spirit of God is and is the Guide and Leader of them in his Worship although the outward form be wanting yet these are the true Worshippers of God and these are those that God seeketh for to worship him that is those that worship him in his Spirit and in his Truth that is in Jesus and all those that so worship him in the use of outward forms or without the use of outward forms Of all Nations and Kinreds and People and Tongues that worship him in his Spirit and in his Truth in Jesus which saves from sin by which Spirit they are guided and led thereunto to do it in the truth and sincerity of their hearts these are such as God seeketh for to worship him and are acceptable to God And of these John beheld the great multitude that no man could number standing before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and Palms in their hands crying with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God which came out of great tribulations having washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. And John did but hear of a hundred forty and four thousand of all the Tribes of Israel to be sealed for the servants of God And those were they that were in the outward form of Worship which had the Commandments writ in Tables of stone and had the Law and the Prophets written in Books without them and read among them without them every Sabbath-day And had the Oracles of God committed to them and to whom pertain the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came And yet of all the Tribes of the outward Israel there was but a hundred forty four thousand sealed for the servants of God I take notice and so I desire the Reader to take notice that the Tribe of Dan was left out there was none sealed of that Tribe that was a Serpent by the way to be the servants of God none of the subtile Serpents Tribe are sealed to be the servants of God And that was the reason why there was no more sealed of all the outward Tribes of outward Israel the Serpents Tribe was not sealed and the Serpents Tribe is those wherein the Serpent and his seed rule in the heart These being left out and not sealed for the servants of God of the Tribes of Israel was the reason there was no more sealed and it is the reason that there is no more sealed of all the Tribes that are in the several outward forms of outward Worship and that is that which makes their number so small that a man may easily number a hundred forty and four thousand And of the Gentiles all Nations and Kinreds and People and Tongues that have not known the subtilty of the Serpent tempting man in the outward forms of worshipping of God and also of those that have known the subtilty of the Serpent tempting them in outward forms of worshipping of God and have known a saving and being delivered out of those temptations of the Serpent by the life of Jesus in them and so are none of the Serpents by the life of Jesus in them and so are none of the Serpents Tribe nor are sufficing themselves nor can suffice themselves in that they are worshipping God in outward forms but are worshipping him in his Spirit and in his Truth that is in Jesus that saves them from sin Of all these that is of those that have not known the subtilty of the Serpent tempting them in outward forms and those that have known the subtilty of the Serpent tempting them in outward forms and have known a being saved and delivered out of his temptations There are a great multitude that no man can number standing before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands crying with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God having come out of great tribulations and washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. Thus Jesus is a Light and a Saviour to those that never hear of that Jesus born of the Virgin Mary And now to return again to those that have heard of that Jesus born of the Virgin Mary and profess themselves Christians and have known something of the working of Gods Spirit in them and have known something what it hath been to be drawn or led forth by the Spirit of Jesus in them how far they may go and yet not know the birth of the Child Jesus in them that saves from sin nor the woman that was deceived and in the transgression to be saved out of the transgression by bearing the Child Jesus Man may by Jesus the Light in him be convinced of sin that it is the breaking of Gods Command and of the Judgment of God that is due to man for sin and he may be so far convinced in himself of sin and of Gods judgment for sin as that he may be brought to a repentance and sorrow for his sins and a desire to be kept from sinning and he may pray earnestly that he may be kept from sin and may set upon a reformation and do many things in obedience to God that he knew to be the will of God And this may be done from some stirrings or movings of the Spirit of Jesus in him and yet the Serpent self his own will deceive him in all this as I have experienced And that thus man may from the knowledge that he hath of this or that thing that he does know that in the doing thereof he doth that which is a breaking of the Command of God and for his so breaking of the Command of God Jesus the Light in him that makes known to him the breaking of Gods Command doth likewise make known to him what is due to him for his transgressions that is Death Hell or Damnation which man being afraid of and willing to escape and to escape the punishment that he apprehends to be due to him for his sins this makes him to repent of his sins and
God hath made known the subtile Serpent to him and how he hath known God to cast out the subtile Serpent that ruled in him in an outward form and shew of godliness and such a one I have known forbidden to declare to others Gods goodness to him and forbidden by those that have professed that they have been sent of Jesus to cast out Devils as was the Twelve and why because he followed not them he gave not them the honour they desired and expected But he or they let them be who they will that does not take up his Cross and follow Jesus is not worthy of him Matth. 10. 38. Where the Cross to mans own will is not taken up where all that is of man is not denyed where mans will is not become a nothing and no will known but what is resigned and given up into the will of God where there is a love to any thing more than to Jesus a love to any thing more than to that which saves from sin let them have never so near never so much familiar acquaintance with an outward Jesus as the Twelve had with the outward man Jesus who met with one casting out Devils in Jesus Name in Jesus power or the power of Jesus in him and they forbade him because he did not follow them what are they the better for their familiar acquaintance with the outward man Jesus Did that make them worthy of the inward man Jesus and was he any thing at all the less a follower of Jesus the less a follower of that which saveth from sin the less worthy of the inward man Jesus because they forbade him to cast out Devils in Jesus Name in Jesus power and were not they the less the followers of Jesus for forbidding of him to cast out Devils in Jesus Name and that because he did not follow them When they forbade him to cast out Devils in Jesus Name and that because he did not follow them had they then taken up the Cross to their own wills and in the bearing thereof followed Jesus and learned that lesson of Jesus to be meek and lowly in themselves And if they had learned that lesson of Jesus to be meek and lowly in themselves could self their own wills have gotten to be so high in them as to forbid one to cast out Devili in Jesus Name and one that was for Jesus and could not lightly have spoken evil of Jesus and forbid him to cast out Devils in Jesus Name and that because he followed not them he gave not them the honour that they expected And if they had known the Death and Resurrection of Jesus within them could they in that knowledge have forbidden one to cast out Devils in Jesus Name because he gave not them the honour of following of them They the Twelve then had a knowledge of Jesus and had the most nearest and most familiar acquaintance with Jesus but was it any more than a knowing of Jesus after the flesh They did not know they did not believe in his Death and Resurrection as the Scriptures do plainly in many places testifie when Jesus spake of his going to Jerusalem and to suffer Peter rebuked him Mat. 16. 21 22. And when Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus had cast seven Devils told them that he was risen and she had seen him they did not believe her and after that he appeared to two more and they told the rest that he was risen and they believed them not and then he appeared to the Eleven and upbraided them for their unbelief Mark 16. And several other places of Scripture there is to the same purpose that although in the time of Jesus being with them in the flesh and of that familiar acquaintance they had with him and that power that he had given them of casting out of Devils yet they were then knowers of him in the flesh and followers of him in the flesh and they did not know him in his Death and Resurrection in themselves and so they had not denyed themselves denied their own wills and taken up their Cross to all that was of self their own wills in them and from thence it came that they seeing one casting out Devils in Jesus Name and because he follow'd not them that was the very ground and reason why they forbade him it was because he followed not them and they in forbidding of him did not follow Jesus because they had not taken up the Cross to their own wills Solomon said true in what he said that there is nothing new what it was and what it was is so that now it is from the same knowledge and familiar acquaintance that some now have of Jesus after the flesh and in the knowledge and acquaintance with him he hath sent them forth and given the power to cast out Devils and they as the Twelve did meeting one casting out Devils in Jesus Name they forbid him and that because he followed not them and those that do so they are in the state the Twelve were in they knew not the Death and Resurrection of Jesus But where the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is known and the Cross is taken up to their own wills to all that is of self in them they will be of Pauls mind Some indeed preach Christ even of envie and strife and some also of good will the one preacheth Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add afflictions to my bonds but the other of love knowing that I am set for the defence of the Gospel What then notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I therein do rejoyce yea and I mill rejoyce Phil. 1. 15 c. By this Scripure it is plain that Paul had learned that lesson of self-denial had taken up the Cross to his own will and did follow Jesus knowing the power of his Death and Resurrection in him and that made him rejoyce yea and he would rejoyce in that Christ was preached every way whether in pretence or in truth although the pretenders of preaching Christ preaching him out of envy and strife and not sincerely thinking thereby to add affliction to his bonds yet he rejoyced and would rejoyce in that Christ was preached This was a great way distant and differing from the Twelve forbidding one to cast out Devils in Jesus Name and that because he did not follow them When Jesus comes to be less known and followed in the flesh and more known and followed in the spirit then there will be a time that as every man hath received the gift even so to minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God if any man speak let him speak as the Oracle of God if any man minister let him do it as the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever Amen 1 Pet. 4. 10 11. Such a time
as this I believe will come although through my outward age I may not live in the body to see it yet now I do see it by the eye of faith and if I depart this life before that day come I shall die in the belief of it That there shall be a time when Jesus shall be less known and less followed in the flesh than he is now and more known and followed in the Spirit than now he is And that there shall not be so much Lordship and power used over one another as now there is amongst those that are the disciples of Christ and know him and follow him after the flesh which had its being when the Twelve met one casting out Devils in Jesus Name and forbade him because he followed not them but there shall be a true following of Jesus and obeying his command in those that are great among them in that they will not do as the Kings of the Gentiles did exercise Lordship one over another but he that is great among them shall be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve and that is to be like Jesus who was amongst his Disciples as he that serveth Luke 22. 25 26 27. When this day comes the high places will be taken down within and also without what high places were there either within or without for men to get up in when the Apostles and others first preached the Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the power of God went forth then wonderfully in reaching the witness of God in them that heard them although their words were not many And what high places were there either within or without for men to get up in when those called Quakers came first forth like poor silly men and here and there spake a few words as they met with people And how then went the power of God forth with them reaching the witness of God in many that went to see what manner of men they were as my self was one I believe there will come a time when the Disciples the followers of Jesus shall know what it was that Jesus did when he washed his Disciples feet which Peter when he did it did not know what he did and yet Peter saw him wash and wipe the outward feet of some before he came to him to wash his feet And Peter looking upon it but onely as an outward act and saw not then the spiritual meaning of it but looking upon it as an outward act he thought it was not a sitting thing for Jesus his Lord and Master to wash his feet but Jesus tells them that although he was their Lord and Master he had washed their feet and he did it to that very end to give them an Example that they should do to others as he had done to them and that it was a duty that they ought to wash one anothers feet John 13. When and where this duty is practised there all Lordly and Masterly power is cast down there is no exercising of authority over others there is a knowing what it is to take up the Cross to their own Wills and to follow the Example of Jesus Which washing of feet was another thing than the washing of the outward feet for although Peter then had so much outward familiar acquaintance with Jesus in the flesh yet he knew not the meaning of it although he had been sent forth by Jesus to preach and cast out Devils as others now may be but Peter should know afterwards the meaning of it And Peter did afterwards know the meaning of it when he knew the Death and Resurrection of Jesus which then he did not know nor believe the Death and Resurrection of Jesus when Jesus washed the outward feet of his Disciples But when Peter came to that knowledge that Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 5. 16. Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more When and where this knowledge is of knowing no man after the flesh not the knowing of Christ after the flesh there is the knowing what it is to wash one anothers feet which Peter did not know while he knew Christ after the flesh which knowledge cannot be meant the outward feet being washed for then Peter would have known what Jesus had done when he washed the Disciples outward feet but it was the washing of those feet which if Jesus did not do for them they had no part in him And then Peter who had before denied Jesus to wash his feet now rather than he would lose his part in him would have not onely his feet washed but his hands and his head but Jesus told him he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clear every whit that is the feet that is the duty of the Disciples the Followers of Jesus that they are to be as Instruments in Gods hand to wash one for another it is that or those feet that makes them clean every whit That part of the body that God had said the Serpent should bruise that part Jesus washt and left it as an Example and Command for his Disciples to follow read it in the Mystery who can The feet is that upon which the whole body is born up they are those upon which the body walks they are next the Earth these being washed and made clean the whole body is clean and so they represent or figure mans walking in obedience to God which as an Instrument in Gods hand the new Creature in us moves and walks upon the feet of obedience in us which if our obedience be not washed and made clean by Jesus we can have no part in Jesus that is if what we do in obedience to the outward Command of God be not the work of Jesus in us we have no part in Jesus And man being washed and made clean in that part of him that is in his walking in obedience to God by Jesus who is the life of the new Creature in man he need not have any more washed or made clean but is clean every whit Man in this his walking in obedience to God he treads upon the earthy part in him which is very ready to cleave to the feet of his walking in obedience to God and so to defile them the Serpent God hath said shall bruise the heel of the seed of the woman hurt or hinder Jesus in the pure operation or working of the Spirit of Jesus in man And so thereby the feet of mans walking in obedience to God that which the new Creature in man may be said as in a figure to walk and move upon in obedience to God as Jesus the Life moves in the new Creature and so as our obedience is from the movings and stirrings of the new Creature in us which moves and walks upon the earthy part in us and so as the earthy part in us cleaves to the feet of
that is because the words spoken they did not feel them to reach to the witness of God in them or theseed of God in them and therefore they judged them not to be spoken by the true spirit of Jesus in him that spake them and that because they found some thing burdened or troubled in them when those words were spoken and yet they could not deny but that he might speak what he knew to be the work of God in him and that his words were true and that his life was answerable to his words but because they did not feel his words to reach to the witness of God in them or the Seed of God in them but there was something troubled and burden'd in them when they heard those words spoken therefore it was that they judged him to speak these words by a wrong Spirit I pray mark the Argument because the Seed of God in them or the witness of God in them was not reach'd to by the words spoken therefore they must be spoken by a wrong Spirit and why must they be spoken by a wrong Spirit is because some thing was troubled or burdened within them by those words spoken and therefore that which was troubled or burdened in them by those words being spoken must be the seed of God in them or the witness of God in them that must be the thing troubled or burdened in them by those words Oh the mystery of deceit that lieth secretly hid in the heart of man by the subtilty of the Serpent self-will in man who will not bring their deeds to the light to be made manifest who will not bring their deeds to the truth that the true Light hath made known in the Scriptures to be thereby judged whether they be true or false but do talk of a Light in them and to walk by the Light and yet do things and judge of things contrary to what the Scripture makes known to be true which was given forth by the true Light For by the Scriptures there is nothing more plainer than that it is the duty of all to make known to others what God hath made known of himself to them in his great work of saving of man from the subtilty of the Serpent by whose temptation man was brought to sin brought to disobey God But this making known what God hath made known of himself in saving from sin this say they was spoken by a wrong Spirit and the reason why it must be so that it was spoken by a wrong Spirit is because they did not feel the words spoken to reach the seed of God or the witness of God in them and because there was something in them that was troubled or burdened by hearing those words spoken and that they say is the seed of God in them And if they had said it had been the seed of the Serpent in them that had been troubled they had spoken more truer and agreeable to the testimony of the Scripture Mat. 16. 21 22 23. Jesus tells his Disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and be raised again the third day What is this but a making known to them what God the Father had made known to him that he was to do for the saving of man from the subtilty of the Serpent who by his temptations had caused man to sin Dare any one be so wicked as to say that Christ did not speak this by the true Spirit but it was a wrong Spirit in Christ that spake it I say dare any be so wicked as to say so And yet these true words of his did not reach to the seed of God in Peter and yet Peter was troubled there was something in Peter that was oppressed and burdened with the hearing of Jesus speaking of these words And none can reasonably believe but that Peter thought and believed that that which was troubled and burdened by these words spoken by Jesus was something in him that was good something in him that loved Jesus which Peter might as some others have done think that it was the seed of God in him that was troubled and burdened at what Jesus spake And that made him take the boldness upon him as to take Jesus to him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee And I pray what was this in Peter that was so troubled and burdened in Peter at what Christ had said Was it not Peter's Will in him which was contrary to Gods Will This Will of Peter's that was thus troubled and burdened that lay uppermost in Peter and that was that which hindered in Peter Christs words that they did not reach the seed of God in Peter the subtilty of the Serpents self in Peter deceived him He having been a Disciple a follower of Jesus and having preached the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and had power to heal all manner of Diseases and to cast out Devils and had given that testimony of Jesus that he had the words of eternal life might not Peter who had done all this think that Jesus spake by a wrong Spirit because he found his words to be a trouble and burden to him Peter he did so think that he spake by a wrong Spirit and that is plain by the Scripture for he began to rebuke Jesus for what he had said and told him in his rebuking of him that that should not be done to Jesus that Jesus had said should be done to him And so he makes Jesus to speak a lye And what is that less than to tell Jesus that he did not speak those words by the true Spirit For if Peter had believed that they had been spoken by a true Spirit Peter would have believed the words would prove true and he would not have gone about to reprove him for speaking true words by the true Spirit but Peter did not believe the words to be true and going about to reprove him for speaking of them it is plain that Peter believed they were spoken by a wrong Spirit when it was the lying Spirit in Peter that reproved Jesus for speaking the truth And Peter's rebuke was made up of nothing but lyes and that made Jesus call him Satan and told him he was an offence to him for he favoured not of the things that be of God but those things that be of men that was he savoured not the things of God the doing Gods will which was to be done by Jesus going to Jerusalem and to suffer many things of the Elders Chief Priests and Scribes and to be killed and be raised again the third day See who they were that Jesus suffered under it was under those that were high in an outward form of worshipping God And as Peter savoured not the things of God the having of Gods will done so he did savour the things of men he favoured the having of his own will done for it was a will of Peter's
understood none of these things and the saying was hid from them neither understood they the things that were spoken Does any one believe that Jesus spake these true words and that he did not speak them by a true spirit but that it was a wrong spirit in Jesus that spake these words I say that if any one does believe that these true words spoken by Jesus were not spoken by the true spirit and if not spoken by the true spirit then they must be spoken by the false spirit They that do so believe I believe they will be ashamed to say that they believe that Jesus did not speak these true words by the true spirit and that he spake them by the wrong spirit And if Jesus did speak these words by the true spirit as that Jesus did speak them by the true spirit then see the falsity and deceit that is in the Argument that I have heard often and that by many used that because by the true words spoken they did not feel them to reach the witness of God the seed of God in them when they heard them spoken therefore it was that they believed the true words spoken were not spoken by the true spirit but by a wrong spirit By the same rule the Twelve might have judged that Jesus did not speak those true words and why because they understood none of these things and the saying of his was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken If they had felt these words of Jesus to have reached the witness of God the seed of God in them how then could it have been that they understood none of those things and his saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken if they had felt those true words spoken by Jesus by the true light and by him proved by Scriptures not onely by one Scripture but by many Scriptures by all things that are written by the Prophets concerning him if they had felt these words to have reached the seed of God the witness of God in them they would have understood something of those sayings they would not all have been hid from them they would have known something of what had been spoken but by this Scripture it is plainly proved that true words may be spoken by the true spirit and proved by many Scriptures and that too concerning Christs being put to death and by whom and the place where and of his rising again and when he rise And all these may be spoken of the inward work of God in the heart of men as the like I have known and yet the Witness of God the seed of God in the hearers have not been by them felt to be reached unto by the words so spoken none of the Twelve understood any of the things Jesus spake of I pray observe none of his hearers understood any of the saying he spake And so although they have understood the outward sound of the Words spoken as the Twelve did the outward Words spoken by Jesus yet the inward meaning of them the spiritual meaning of them as they are wrought asked and done in man may be hid from them and they may know nothing of those things spoken as to the Work of God in the heart and yet they may be spoken to such as the Twelve were or at least would be counted such as the Twelve were that is those that had the most familiar acquaintance with Christ who Jesus had sent forth to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand and had cast out Devils in his Name And yet these did not know what Christs Death and Resurrection was neither understood they any thing of it when he spake of it to them And may there not be such in this knowing Age we live in that may for some years have been Disciples and followers of Christ in the flesh and have had a familiar acquaintance with him and have been sent to preach the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and have cast out Devils in his Name and yet have not known Christs Death and Resurrection nor have understood any thing of it when it hath been spoken of to them by those that have known the inward work of it wrought within them Luke 9. 44 45 46. Jesus said to his Disciples Let these sayings sink down into your ears for the son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men But they understood not the saying and it was hid from them and they perceived it not and they feared to ask him of that saying Then there arose a â—easoning among them which should be the greatest Mark the Scripture were not these true words spoken by Jesus and were they not spoken by the true spirit in him and were they not spoken to his Disciples his followers And yet these true words were spoken by Jesus and spoken by the true spirit in that person that never had sinned and they by the true spirit were called upon that those sayings should sink down into their ears and yet true words thus spoken by the true spirit in him that they had no just cause to speak evil of although some when they could not deny the truth of what he had said were so bold as to say to him Say we not well that thou art a Samaritane and hast a devil John 8. There is that have met with words to the like purpose when they could not deny the truth of what hath been spoken and yet these true words spoken by one whom there hath not been the like man upon Earth And yet they that heard him speak them and to whom they were directly spoken unto and called upon that 〈◊〉 words should sink down into their ears and yet they did not feel in them that these true words spoken by a man in whom the fulness of the true spirit dwelt bodily these words they did not feel that they reached the witness of God the seed of God in them because they understood not thaâ— saying it was hid from them they perceived it not How fully how plainly does the Scripture make out the deceivableness of that Argument That because when they hear true words spoken and they do not feel the witness of God the seed of God in them to be reached by these words therefore they that speak them must speak them by a wrong spirit Oh! the subtilty that the subtile Serpents self useth to deceive people in a form of Godliness perswading them that in the disobeying God in the looking upon the tree of Knowledge they shall be as Gods and so have a liberty to judge according to the putting forward of their own wills in them These true words were spoken by Jesus a man in whom the fulness of the true spirit dwelt bodily and by him called upon that those sayings should sink down into their ears which is more than onely to give them the hearing of them and yet for all this they did not
feel these words thus spoken to reach the witness of God the seed of God in them And it appeareth that it did not reach the witness of God the seed of God in them by that they understood not the saying and it was hid from them and they perceived it not which if they by these words spoken by Jesus had felt that it had reached the witness of God in them the seed of God in them they would have understood seen and perceived something of the meaning of what Christ had said What think ye who dare say that they think or believe that the Disciples the followers of Jesus to whom these words were spoken had done well if they had gone to Jesus and told him although they could not deny but that those words that he had spoken were true yet they questioned whether or no he spake them by the true and right spirit and the reason why they questioned and did not believe he spake them by the right and true spirit is this Because when they heard him speak those words they did not feel that those words spoken by him did reach the witness of God the seed of God in them Who dare so say that they think or believe the Disciples had done well if they should have gone to Jesus and used such an Argument to have perswaded Jesus that the words he spake were not spoken by the true spirit because they 〈◊〉 they heard them did not fell the witness of God the seed of God reached in them by Jesus true words when he spake them If such a light Argument as this had been sufficient to have proved that Jesus true words had not been spoken by a true and right spirit because his words when spoken did not reach to the witness of God the seed of God in those that heard him how much then of his words would then have been proved to have been spoken by the wrong spirit How little and how seldom do we read in the Scripture that those that heard Christ speak true words and that by the true spirit that the hearers of Jesus did feel the witness of God the seed of God reached in them by Jesus true words when he spake them And yet yow many times have I heard that used as an Argument and the onely Argument to prove that the true words spoken have not been spoken by the true spirit but spoken by the wrong spirit And why because those when they heard them they did not feel the witness of God the seed of God in them reached by those true words spoken but they have found something in them troubled and burdened when they heard those words spoken Jesus Disciples they did not understand the words spoken by him they being hid from them and they perceived them not and they feared to ask him of that saying that is they feared to ask him the meaning of that saying I shall not say they were afraid to ask the meaning of those true words that they judged to be spoken by a wrong spirit but this I can say they did not ask the meaning of them And the Disciples when they feared to ask him of that saying then there arose a reasoning among them which of them should be greatest they were more minding to be great and which of them should be greatest amongst them than to ask and enquire into the meaning of what Christ had said when he spake something of his Death and yet these were the Disciples and followers of Jesus Would it not be well it were not so now in this knowing Age that we live in That there were not more reasoning and a greater care taken to know which shall be greatest than there is a care taken and an enquiry made to understand the words of Jesus spoken concerning his Death Balaam who used Inchantments and loved the wages of Unrighteousness I do not find in all the Scripture that ever he was reproved for the true words that he spake that God put into him to speak Nor do I find that they were a burden or a trouble to any that heard him speak them unless it were to Balak and those with him that would have had Israel cursed and to them indeed Balaam's words were a burden and a trouble unto The hearing of the prosperity of the outward Israel the outward seed of God which was a Type of the inward seed of God this was a trouble and a burden to Balak and those with him that would have had the seed of God cursed And for persons in this knowing Age to be troubled and burdened with the hearing words spoken by one that did declare his knowledge of the inward seed of God to prosper in him and how he had known it set at liberty from the bondage of the subtile Serpent who had deceived him in an outward form of Godliness perswading him that in his eating of the forbidden tree he should be as Gods in knowledge that this his declaring of his experience of the prosperity of the inward seed of God in him and perswading others to have a care that they were not deceived by the subtilty of the Serpent as he had been that these words or words spoken to this purpose or effect should be a trouble or a burden to any Must not that which was burdened and troubled in them be the same spirit that was burdened and troubled in Balak and those with him when he and they instead of hearing Balaam to curse the outward seed of God that he blessed them altogether As God the true spirit changeth not but his Works Actions and Doings do agree and do not contradict one another in all Ages and Generations so the Serpent the lying and deceitful spirit changeth not but his works actions and doings do agree and do not contradict one another in all Ages and Generations and therefore it was the same spirit in those that were offended at the hearing of the true words spoken in making known the prosperity of the inward seed being set at liberty from the bondage of the subtile Serpent and warning of others to have a care of being deceived by the subtile Serpent I say it was the same spirit that was offended in them that was offended in Balak and those with him that he heard the Words spoken by Balaam when he declared the prosperity of the outward seed of God But I know an Objection or Argument may be made or raised although I never heard it made or raised yet I know it may be made or raised and that to this purpose That true words may be spoken by a wrong or evil spirit and such true words as the Scripture speak yea the very words of the Scripture and brought in for Scripture and brought in as a proof for what this wrong or evil spirit have been spoken to before And ought this wrong spirit or evil spirit be suffered in going on to speak these true words although words of Scripture or ought
more to silence when he made use of the Scripture as an Argument 〈◊〉 perswade him to yield to his Temptation than he did rebuke him stop his mouth and put him to silence when he spake no Scripture in tempting of him no nor so much neither for you will find in the next Temptation when the Devil makes no use of Scripture he rebukes him more sharply and stops his mouth and puts him to silence And therefore there is no ground from this Scripture to build such an Objection or Argument upon that an evil or wrong spirit or the spirit of the Devil in man may speak true words the words of the Scripture and bring it in for a proof of what he had before said but such a spirit is not to be suffered to speak such words but to be rebuked and put to silence according to Jesus's Example when Jesus did no such thing nor gave no such Example But before I pass from this Temptation I desire the Objecter to follow Jesus's Example which is our duty so to do Doth the Devil get thee into the holy City the holy City of God in man and set thee upon a Pinacle of the Temple there within thee read it within and would have thee cast thy self down from thence where he hath exalted thee in the holy City upon a Pinacle of the Temple of God in thee thereby to manifest thy self to be the son of God thereby to make it known that thou art Gods son in another way than the way that God hath declared thee to be his son in read it within And does he bring Scripture to thee to prove that thou mayst safely do it thou mayst tempt God in making known thy self to be his son in a way he hath not commanded and it will be no danger to thee to do it read it within I could tell my experience herein but I know it will be with many in this knowing Age as it was with the Eleven when Jesus had many things to say to them but they could not bear them then John 16. 12. but the time is coming and at hand when men shall read them within and then it will be born when true words may by all be spoken and will be born without being a burden o◠trouble to any of the Hearers that obey the Light in them and make it their Guide to guide them into all Truth Then it will be known to be a duty to follow Jesus's Example to resist the Temptation how highly soever he hath exalted thee and lifted thee up in his Temptation as he did Jesus in bringing him into the holy City and setting him upon a Pinacle of the Temple and then and there would have him to manifest himself to be the son of God and brings Scripture to prove the lawfulness thereof Which I know are all Figures and are to be read and known within And if thou find the Devil thus to tempt thee as some have done follow Jesus's Example do not so much seek to stop the mouth of the temptation as to stand fast in thy obedience in keeping with Jesus in the low and meek Spirit and bring Scripture to contradict the Temptation as Jesus did He tells the Devil It is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Devil brought Scripture to prove that if he were the son of God that God had given his Angels charge to keep him from harm Jesus answered the Devil It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Which as no Scripture is of private interpretation so is not this And in these few words Jesus according to our Proverb Kill two Birds with one stone he tells the Devil that it is not his duty to tempt him as he is his Lord and God nor was it his duty as he was man and the son of God to tempt the Father in casting himself down from thence because the Father had so great a love for him as to give his Angels charge concerning him to keep him from harm And when this Example of Jesus is followed in resisting of the Devil in his Temptations the Cross will be taken up to that Will that would run out to judge to rebuke to stop the mouth and to make them keep silence that are speaking of true words for Jesus did not so rebuke the Devil for speaking true words as to stop his mouth or make him keep silence Because that again after this the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them And saith All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Then said Jesus unto him Get thee hence Satan for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Then the devil leaveth him I pray hear the Devil brings no Scripture nor speaks nothing to him whereby he would have him manifest himself to be the son of God in yielding to him in his Temptations In this Temptation he onely got him up into an exceeding high Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and promises to give him all them if he would fall down and worship him And for this setting of him upon an high Mountain which I know is to be read within and then shewing of him all the Kingdoms of the World which is to be read within and then telling him All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me which also may be read within All of them I know to be Figures And for this Temptation Jesus rebukes him more sharper than for the other two and if I may use such an expression he did more stop his mouth and put him to silence than he did in the other two Temptations First he bids him get him hence Satan he did not before command the Devil to depart from him nor did he call him Satan when in the other two Temptations he would have had him answered his Temptations by making himself known to be the son of God in ways that God had not required of him to manifest himself to be his son in and for the last of the two he brings Scripture to prove that he might do it with his own safety and yet in neither of those two Temptations he did not command him to depart from him nor call him Satan But now when he had taken him up into an exceeding high Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them now to tempt him to have such a love to the World to the enjoyments thereof and the glory of it as for the sake thereof to fall down and worship him This caused Jesus to command the Devil to depart from him and to call him Satan Tempter and bring Scripture for his denying to yield to the Temptation It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
the other and what was in the one was in the other as God was in them both worshipped as a spirit and the Worship that then was and now is performed as God then did and now doth look for and accept of is to worship him in spirit and in truth and so in that there was no contradiction There was not one thing that was Gods will for man to obey him in the days of the Prophets and another thing in the days of the Apostles that was to be done in man and that in obedience to God which was contrary to that which was Gods revealed will to be done in the days of the Prophets that they were to obey God in No there was no such contradiction And that now there is another thing wherein God is to be obeyed in in these days of Gods making the Light to shine more in the inward part of man than formerly and this other thing that God is now to be obeyed in as some would have it that are not willing to bring their works deeds or actions to the Scriptures to be tryed by them whether or no they be agreeable to the works deeds or actions of the holy men of old by whom God by the spirit by the true light gave forth the Scriptures and in them gave forth what was his will that man should do in obedience to him This other thing that some pretends by the light in them that they are now to obey God in is contrary and not agreeable to Gods declared will in the Scriptures and so they make the unchangeable God to be like changeable men to have one thing to be his will for man to obey him in at one time and another thing quite contrary to that to be his will for man to obey him in at another time Jesus the true light the Word of God by whose spirit the holy men of old spake as they were moved in giving forth the Scriptures both Prophets and Apostles it was the command of this Jesus this true light this spirit that gave forth the Scriptures in that outward body that he took in the nature of man to search the Scriptures John 5. 39. And he giveth the reason why it is that he commands them to search the Scriptures it was because they are they that testifie of him they are they that bear witness they are they that testifie that bear witness what he is they are they that testifie which witness what was the Fathers will that as man he was to do they are they that testifie that bear witness that as he was man he came not to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him They are they that testifie that bear witness what Jesus the true light the Word of God in man is And they are they that testifie that bear witness what this true light is in every man and what this true light Jesus doth in every man They are they that is the Scriptures are they that testifie that bear witness how this true light Jesus by his spirit it teacheth it guideth it leadeth man into the doing of all that is of the Truth by that spirit that is of his sending forth according to his promise that he would send the spirit of truth and when he is come he shall guide them into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak for he shall receive of mine and shew it to you John 16 13 14. How do they disobey Jesus Command that refuse to bring their works actions and doings to the Scriptures to be tryed by them whether or no they are the works actions and doings of Jesus the true light in them and that under a pretence because Jesus the true light is in them and therefore it is that they need not or ought not to do it And how willingly are they to be deceived in thinking what is done in them and by them is done in and by Jesus the true light in them And yet will not bring it to that which Jesus saith testifieth which bear witness to what is the works of Jesus in them And therefore there is great reason why the Scriptures are to be searched to be sought after searched and sought into to find out what it is that they testifie what it is that they bear witness of Jesus to be as he is the true Light the Word of God the Saviour of man As he sends his spirit of Truth into man to make known to man what that spirit receives from him and thereby to guide man into all Truth and whatever it is in man that pretends to be the work actions or doings of the Light of Jesus in them and is not agreeable to the testimony the witness that the Scripture bears of Jesus the true Light and of his works actions or doings in man And if that be true that Jesus said as I believe none dare deny the truth of it that the Scriptures testifie of him then those works actions or doings that they do not testifie to be the works of Jesus in man as he is the true Light and sends his spirit to guide them into all Truth may very well be looked upon and judged to be the work of Satan the subtile Serpent in man transforming himself into the likeness of an Angel of Light which Satan did in the Apostles time upon the like occasion read 2 Corinth 11. 13 14 15. For such are false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness but let them be so yet their end shall be according to their works The Apostle speaking of Christ and how it is our duty to follow Christ's Example he brings Scripture to prove the truth of what he said Rom. 15. 1 2 3 4. We therefore that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to his edification For even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope The Apostle here sets down the duty of those that are strong and may I not say of those that would be thought or do think themselves stronger than others and that is not to please themselves to satisfie and content themselves in that they are stronger than others and so exalt themselves over and above those that are weak but their duty is to bear the infirmities of the weak and thereby to please his neighbour for that is good to edification And it this their so doing that was to follow the example of Christ who
blameless as most had done for now I do know that it was the true Light Christ Jesus that was in me judging and condemning me for such outward sins from my being a very Child and I was kept from such sins as being afraid of Gods Justice that was made known to me to be due for such sins and yet not so kept but that the subtile Serpent sometimes prevailed over me And then when I had sinned how did I repent and mourn and humble my self and pray to God for forgiveness and set upon religious duties as I was then taught to gain the love and favour of God! until at last these Prayers these Mournings these Repentings these Fastings these Religious Perfâ—â—mances became the greatest sins in me and I apprehended Gods Justice and Judgments to be most due to me for these religious sins as I may so call them more than I did for any outward profane sins for God had made it known to me that it was the Serpent self in me that put me upon the gaining of understanding and knowledge to know what was Gods will that man should do thereby to be able to discourse of it amongst men and to be counted some body and also by that knowledge I thought to have eternal life And God made it known to me that my love was more to my self in those things that I did in obedience to him than it was from any true love that I had to God for if I could have escaped Gods Justice for sin I should have loved and delighted more in sinning than in obeying God And God made it known to me that it was my own will and that for ends that I had of my own that I did all that I did in gaining and desiring to gain knowledge of him and of his will And so much was I then grownd in pieces by the stone of the manifestations and making known of Gods Justice and Judgment dâ—e to me for my religious sins as I may so call them as that I was afraid to read and I dare not pray to God but sometimes would fall down upon my knees and sigh and grown but dare not speak a word nor dare not speak and discourse of things concerning God as formerly I had done nor keep no company with those that were thought to be godly persons as before I had done nor went to no outward form of Worship but sighed and mourned to my self but made no outward shew of it for fear I should play the Hypocrite And while I was in this state and condition what was it that I would not have given for one glympse or little beam of the making known of Gods love to me which when I was worshipping and serving God as I thought I was when in the Serpents subtilty in the understanding and knowledge that he had put me upon to gain and in the obedience that he had put me upon to do after my Prayers Mournings and Repentings and humbling of my self for my sins and my Promises and Vows made to God to do so no more then could I easily apprehend God to be a merciful God forgiving sins and trespasses and that God had a love to me But now when I saw that in all these religious duties as I then called them I found that to be true which often in words I had spoken That all our Righteousness was but as filthy ragâ— and as a monstruous Garment and that we sinned in the best of our duties and performances When I found this to be true indeed which I had so often in formality spoken then there remained in me nothing but a fear of Gods Justice and Judgments to follow me for my sin and especially for my religious sins for my mocking God in a seeming outward obedience to him in doing the outward things that I knew was his will for me to do but my heart was not upright to God my love was to my sin but for fear of his Justice I dare not commit the sin and so it was self-will self-love in me that carried me out in the doing all that I did in obedience to God And for these self-actions in me I most feared Gods Justice to fall upon me and that made me afraid to do or perform any of those religious duties and performances as I then called them And thus by the grinding-stone of Gods Justice was self in me in its three parts or properties that is in the understanding and knowing part in the desire love and affection and in the will which I in the Parable compare to the three measures of Meal being thus grownd and made fit for the Leaven of Gods love to be taken in by the woman in me The drawings or goings forth of the spirit of Jesus in me to save me from sin which now I know was all of his working and preparing although I did not then understand it to be the work of Jesus in me but now I know that it was the work of Jesus in me to cause me to deny my self to deny my self in that understanding and wisdom that the Serpent put me upon to learn to deny my self in my love and desire to the Creation and especially to that of self in me and to deny my self in my own will and especially in the doing of what then I called religious works or Worship done to God And while I lay thus grownd apieces I saw nothing in my self to recommend me to God nor saw nothing in my self why God should bestow any love upon me nor could I apprehend that there was any love in me to God as once I could and did apprehend that there was love in me to God when I was worshipping him in the Serpents wisdom in my own will Then I thought there was a love in me to God and would say so too and would have taken it very ill if any one should have told me that I did not love God And while I was in this sad and deplorable estate without apprehending any love in me to God or any love in God to me Now I do know that this was the work of Jesus the true Light in me working in me by his spirit to save me from sin and that not onely from the outward actions of sin but to save me from the love of sin And when he had thus prepared in me if I may so call them his three measures of Meal the Understanding and Knowing part in me the Desire and Love in me and the Will in me and made them fit for the woman the drawings the leadings and goings forth of the spirit of Jesus in me to take the Leaven to take the makings known of the Fathers love to me then he caused it to be so to me then he made known the Fathers love to me And the manner of it was thus It pleased him to bring into my mind the words of Manoah Sampson's Father and his Mother when they saw the Angel of the Lord to
ascend up in the flame of the Altar Manoah said to his wife We shall surely die because we have seen God But his wife said unto him If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13. Upon the thinking of these words God was pleased to put this into me That if God had been pleased to kill me to send me to Hell to damn me he would never have shewed me all these things He would never have shewed me the deceit of the subtile Serpent self in me in putting me upon it to get to understand and know Gods declared will made known in the Scriptures which as to the letter of them I knew in that day much more than now I do He would never have discovered to me the deceit of the Serpent in putting me upon an outward form of Religion and from one form to another which was in best esteem and that out of a self-love and not out of any true love that was in me to God And he would never have discovered to me that all this was done in my own will for self-ends of my own if God had a mind to kill me to send me to Hell to damn me He would never have made known these things to me but have let me go on in the understanding and knowledge that the Serpent had put me upon to get and to let me have contented my self in that understanding and knowledge and in that worship and service of God that the subtile Serpent had put me upon to do in my own will and so have let me gone to Hell in deceiving my self thinking I had been going to Heaven and should never have known that I had been going to Hell until I had been in what is called the flames thereof The consideration of this as God would have it caused me to have some thoughts that God had some love to me or else he would never have made known these things to me And this was but a little Leaven and a very little too for I considering the greatness of my sins and especially of my religious sins as I now call them how much I had therein mocked God and the Serpent when he saw he could no more deceive me in a form of godliness then he had almost got me to despair of Gods love until God dropped in a little hopes of it upon the aforementioned considerations but so little was this Leavâ—â—f the manifestations or making known of Gods love to me that I was a long time between hope and fear until at length I thought there was something stirring in me that I could love God or a willingness in me to love God and then I began to have some hope that God might love me but not for any desert of mine as while I was in the deceivable estate deceived by the Serpent I thought then that God might love me for what I did for God in my obedience to God but now I knew a death to all those thoughts that God should love me for the obedience that I had done to him all that was grownd to pieces in me and now if God loved me he must love me freely And thus as I apprehended the freeness of Gods love to me so I found a love to grow in me to God And that understanding and knowledge that the Serpent had perswaded me to and that love and desire to self that he had wrought in me and that will of my own which before I acted by and did all in I sound to be so broken and grownd apieces as not to oppose or hinder the working of the Leaven of Gods love in me but the Leaven of Gods love did so work in me as to work up my heart again unto a love to God And then if at any time any thing of the parts or properties of self did rise in me the Light of Jesus in me discovered it and made it known to me and by my obedience yielding to the Light in those discoverings of self in me self it was kept under and subdued And so as it is the property of the Meal not to oppose or hinder the working of the Leaven that it is hid in but it is passive it suffers the Leaven to do its own work so as I kept in obedience to the Light in me which although then I did not know it by that name but onely by the name of the spirit of God in me I say as I was kept by that power by the power of the Light or spirit of God in me in obedience to the Light or spirit of God in me which made a discovery of the attempts or endeavours of self to rise again in me and as I was kept in obedience to that which discovered self in me so self was kept down in me in all its three parts or properties and so as self was kept down in me so self opposed not the working of the Leaven the making known of Gods love to me that wrought in me a love to God again and so as my love increased to God so it decreased to self in all the three parts or properties of it And so I came to know how to deny my self and take up the Cross to that will in me that is not willing that Gods will should be done in me and to follow Jesus to follow that in me that was in me a saving me from sin As the Leaven being hid in the Meal doth not presently do its work in leavening the whole but doth it by degrees a little and a little and in length of time it is that it brings the whole to be like it self so did I then find as now I do the Leaven of the love of God made known and hid in 〈◊〉 It did not then at the first making known of the love of Gâ—◠〈◊〉 me presently work such a love of God in me as to work out the love of all self in me but by little and little as I now find my love increase to God so I find love to die and decrease to self in me in all its three parts or properties and thereby a greater strength to increase in me to take up the Cross in me to that will in me that is not willing that the will of God should be done in me Man in himself of his own will went out of his obedience to God and so in and by his disobedience he lost his love to God and so came under the manifestations or makings known of Gods Justice and Judgment for his sin So man must by Gods making known his love which is in God as God changed not to man by this unchangeable love man must be brought to love God again and in and by that unchangeable love man is restored to love God again and in and by
the obedience done in man to God by that love of God which worketh the love in man by the making known of Gods love to man which begets a love in man to God by which love to God it is that man denies himself all self all that is of self in all the parts or properties of it And so in that denial of self he takes up the Cross to his own will And so as he is in the denying of himself and taking up of the Cross to his will to that will in him that is contrary to Gods will and would not that Gods will should be done in him And so as this Cross is taken up so are the manifestations or makings known of Gods Justice or Judgments in man and to man for his sins they are taken away from man There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Mark there is no condemnation there is no manifestation or making known of Gods Justice or Judgments for sin to those that are in Christ Jesus to those who walk not after the flesh to those who walk not after the self-will that is in man but walk after the spirit of Jesus in man walk after that which saves man from sin from all sin and that not onely from the outward actions of sin but also the inward love and desire to sin I am by the assistance of the Light the spirit of Jesus in me endeavouring to be of Paul's mind Philip. 3. But what things were gain to me those things I count loss for Christ Yea and doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ And be found in him not having my own righteousness 〈◊〉 is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ Thâ—â— I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before I press forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal it even this unto you And thus have I as briefly as well as I could let you know my experience how man may deny himself and take up a Cross to self-will or mans own will and follow Jesus And I hope the reading of it will not burden the Witness or Seed of God in any although some have pretended that the hearing of me speak to this purpose hath burdened the Witness or Seed of God in them I shall speak something of the benefit that I know by experience that comes to man by yielding to Gods Will by having of our Wills resigned and given up into Gods Will as the Will of man was when God made him in his own Image by our having our Wills resigned and given up into Gods Will we do thereby make it appear that we be like Jesus which was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin Mary and so took the outward nature of man as God created man without sin in that nature of man or outward body of man the man Jesus the Divine Nature dwelt that is it took up its abode or being there it stayed it remained there and the dwelling or abiding of the Divine Nature in that outward body of the man Jesus was that which caused that outward body to do nothing but what was the Will of God for that body that it should do as in that body of Jesus he did declare and make known saying I do nothing of my self but as the Father hath taught me I speak these things Joh. 8. 28. He spake not of himself but the Father that sent him he gave him a Commandment what he should say and what he should speak and he knew his Commandment is life everlasting therefore whatsoever he spake it was even as the Father had said to him so he spake John 12. 49 50. And that the world may know that he loved the Father and as the Father gave him commandment even so he did John 14. 31. And when there was something that did rise or get up in that outward body of Jesus as the nature of man was in it that would not have had Gods will to have been done to that body which that body came to do which he called his Will Yet how did he pray to the Father that that will of his that was not willing to have that done to that body which that body came to do that that Will that he called his Will should not be done but that the Will that he called the Fathers Will should be done as you may read in Matthew Mark and Luke Now as we come to have our wills resigned and given up into Gods will so we make it appear that we be like Jesus that as he in that body that was of the nature of man had the Divine Nature to dwell in that body so we in the outward body that is in the Nature of man have the Divine Nature to dwell in us I do not say in that measure and fulness that the Divine Nature dwelt in that body for the fulness of the Divine Nature dwelt in that body and to say that the seme fulness dwells in our bodies I think to be Blasphemy But this I do say that as our wills come to be resigned and given up to the will of God so we make it appear that we be like Jesus that is as he was in that outward body in the nature of man and so had the Divine Nature to dwell in him so in these bodies of ours the Divine Nature dwells in us that is a measure of the Divine Nature to dwell in us as Christ is the Head and we the Members of that Body and so as every member of the outward body partakes in its measure of the same life that is in the head so it is in the spiritual or mistical Body of Jesus As we come to haue our wills resigned and given up into the will of God so we make it appear that we are members of that Body and that there is a measure of the same Divine Nature to dwell in us in these bodies of ours that dwelt in that outward Body of that outward Jesus and that according to the measure of the same Divine Nature dwelling in these bodies
love that God hath shewed to man in making of him in his likeness and Image yet man proved so unworthy and rebellious to this God that manifested and made known so much love to him as that he rebelled against this God and as I may say to speak after the manner of men proved a Traytor to this God that had manifested and made known so much love to him For whereas God in the Creation as man was made in his Image God ruled in man and over man and mans will was resigned and given up into the will of God But man like a Traytor set up his own will and preferred that above and before the will of God in him and put the government of himself under his own will to be ruled by his own will where all men in the fallen state now are and while this will bears the rule over them they will not come to Jesus the true Light in them that they may have life John 5. 40. And although man in his Treachery and Rebellion lost his love to God and became an enemy to God yet God as unchangeable he continued his love to man and his love was then so great to man when man was in his Rebellion against God and an enemy to God that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. And God commended his love towards us that while we were yet sinners and enemies to God Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. And God hath sent his Ambassadours to beseech and pray you to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 20. And what shall not the unchangeableness of Gods Love to us and the willingness that is in God that we should be reconciled to him and not to perish shall not this work upon us to be willing to resign and give up our wills into Gods will when there can be no reconciliation made between God and lost man but by mans being willing to resign and give up his will into the will of God That is the partition-wall that must be taken down that which at first made the separation between God and man It was man went out of the doing of Gods will into the doing of his own will and to reconcile man again to God there must be a going out of mans will into Gods will again And is not this very reasonable that man should resign and give up his will into the will of God being Gods love is so unchangeable to man As that when man had no true love in him to God but was Gods enemy yet then Gods love was such to man as to give his Son his beloved Son to keep man from perishing and that man by his love of God might have everlasting life and therefore can there be any thing more reasonable than this That man should resign and give up his will into the will of God And further if the consideration of Gods love to man in his Creation and the unchangeableness of his love to man when man was turned Gods enemy and Gods willingness to have man to be reconciled unto him if this will not prevail with man to be willing to have his will resigned and given up into the will of God let man consider the absolute necessity that there is as on mans part to have his will resigned and given up into Gods will for if mans will be not resigned and given up into Gods will man perishes for ever There can be no reconciling of God and man together without mans will being resigned and given up into the will of God for although indeed God is unchangeable in himself and so is a God of love and so there is love in God to man his Creature yet also God in himself is a God of Justice executing of his Justice to all and upon all that stand it out in Rebellion against him which all men do while in their wills they oppose Gods will And let men flatter themselves what they will with the unchangeableness of Gods love to man and so have thoughts that God loves them yet until there is a willingness in them to have their wills resigned and given up into the will of God I know by experience that these thoughts of theirs of Gods loving of them is changeable in them and sometimes they may have thoughts in them that God loves them and at other times they are afraid of Gods Justice and Judgments to fall upon them for their sins and transgressions And to be made free from the manifestations or making known of Gods Justice and Judgments for sin in us and to us is to have our wills resigned and given up into the will of God and then we may say with Paul Rom. 7. For that which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that I do If then I do that which I would not I consent unto the law that it is good now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And as the will comes to be resigned and given up into the will of God so there is a knowing that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus to them whose wills are resigned and given up into the will of God as their Father as was the will of Christ Jesus and there is no being in Christ Jesus unless in some measure degree or other the will be resigned and given up to God as a Father as was the will of Christ Jesus And as their wills are resigned and given up into the will of God so they walk not after the flesh they walk not after their fleshly wills they follow not their fleshly wills but they walk after the spirit they follow after the spirit of Christ Jesus the true light in them that teacheth them to resign and give up their wills into the will of God and those who are not thus in Christ Jesus who have not their wills resigned and given up into the will of God as Christ Jesus will was they are still in the state of condemnation because they walk after the flesh their own wills and although at sometimes they may have some hopes or apprehensions of Gods love towards them yet it is not lasting in them it fails them when they stand in most need of it that is it fails them when God is making known in them and to them his Justice and Judgments due to them for their sins Then they cannot apprehend any love in God to them but they are afraid of God for then they cannot say as Paul said that what I would I do not but what I hate that I do and then that it was no more I that did it but sin that dwelleth in me They cannot speak after that manner but instead thereof the
from the root of sin from the love to sin God caused me to cry out against this Altar of self-obedience to God and against the Sacrifices offered upon it to please satisfie and content themselves in a strict observing doing and performing of all and every the outward things required in the outward Worship that they did set up as Jeroboam did and neglected the true Worship of God and neglected the Worship of God in his Spirit and in his Truth and in that which doth not onely save from sin in the act but from sin in the love of it And in telling them the danger that would follow and befal such a Worship as I had experienced and if any of them had set up such a Worship not charging any particular person with so doing but declaring what I knew of the subtilty of the Serpent putting man upon so doing and the danger that they were in who were in such a Worship And where is there a Meeting that there is no such Worshippers in But that all and every person that belongs to the Meeting are such and onely such as are worshipping God in his Spirit and in his Truth in his Jesus that does not onely save them from the outward actions of sin but from the love and desire to sin And those that are not thus worshpping God in his Spirit and in his Truth in his Jesus in that which saves from sin and not onely saves from outward sins taken notice of by men to be sins but saves from the root of sin from the love to sin Let them be what they will be and think of themselves as highly as they will and be never so highly esteemed of by others yet I must once more tell them whatsoever outward Worship it is that they profess it is but a Worship that the subtile Serpent puts them upon and they are with Jeroboam making of Calves and saying in their hearts these be the gods that have saved thee from that bondage and slavery that once they were under by and for their outward sins and all that they are doing in that Worship is but an offering Sacrifice upon that Altar that they have set up of self-obedience to God I shall not say that upon my thus crying out against this Altar of self obedience to God and the Sacrifices offered thereon that King Jeroboam put out his hand and said Lay hold on him but this I can say that he that looked upon himself as the chief man in the Meeting and was so esteemed of by others he often when I was speaking to the purposes aforesaid would rise up and go out of the Meeting and the rest of the Meeting would follow him I shall not say that he had done as Jeroboam did make Calves for his own safety to preserve his life and was offering Sacrifice upon the Altar of Self-obedience and therefore with Jeroboam could not indure to hear his Altar to be cry'd out against but the Tree is known by its fruit Some others although they followed his example of going out of the Meeting yet they shew something more of the following of Christs Command than he did and they would come sometimes and speak to me about my speaking which I always gave them mild and very gentle answers as I know none of them dare say to the contrary and although they had nothing to say against what I spoke but that my words were true nor had they any thing against my Life and Conversation they could not deny but that I lived as blameless as any of them But the great thing they had to say against my speaking was because my words did not reach the witness of God in them or the seed of God in them as they called it but when I spake there was something in them that was troubled and burdened and therefore they put out their hands to lay hold on me dâ—siring me to speak no more And by what spirit it was that they spake thus to me I have here already declared in declaring in what spirit it was that Peter rebuked Jesus in for speaking what was true and how Jesus words were a trouble and a burden to a will that opposed Gods will in Peter and the rest of the Twelve and so shall say no more of it now From this great disturbance my speaking to the aforesaid purposes had made to that will in them that could not endure to hear true words spoken in declaring and making known the subtilty of the Serpent how he kept up his Kingdom in man in and under an outward form of godliness of being like God when he disobeys God in that he does not worship him in his spirit and in his truth in his Jesus as he perswaded man at first and thereby caused him to fall telling him by disobeying God he should be as Gods This did so disturb burden and trouble that will in them that when there came any to the Meeting that day that they were willing to hear them speak words that many times if I did while such were there when none was either speaking or praying yet if I began to speak a few words then one or other of them would either stand up and fall a speaking or fall down upon their knees and pray or else go out of the Meeting and so break up the Meeting and so they put out their hands against me saying Lay hold on him Yet amongst all these that did put forth their hands against me there was never any one of them that would begin a discourse with me concerning my speaking no not one of them and yet I constantly when the Meeting was ended followed them to the aforesaid chief mans house whither they constantly went and there stayed till they went from thence if they went from thence that night I saw their going away and if they stayed there all night then I stayed there until they were about going to supper And sometimes I would begin the discourse with them to know why they dealt so by me but I received very pitiful answers from them sometimes they would say they thought I had done speaking because I did not follow on to speak so fast as some do and sometimes I had this answer that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by the first was to hold his peace and therefore when they began to speak I was to hold my peace indeed I did so because I would beget no disturbance but that is not the meaning of the Scripture but the meaning of the Scripture is quite contrary for if any thing be revealed to one that sitteth by the first is to hold his peace before he that had any thing revealed to him was to begin to speak or else how could they all Prophecy one by one and it was the practice of the Apostles as you may read Acts 15. And it is the constant practice amongst them that the one leaves speaking before the other begins but so
much the subtilty of the Serpent had prevailed with them as to excuse themselves for what they had done as that they would wrong and abuse the Scripture and not onely the Scripture but their own practice Others of them wherein the subtilty of the Serpent did not so much appear in sewing fig-leaves together to make themselves Aprons to cover their nakedness with They dealt plainly with me and told me that indeed they had nothing against the words I spake nor against me but the reason why they did it was because they were informed that my speaking at other times was a burden and trouble to many in the Meeting These are truly in substance the very Answers that have been given me when I have begun any discourse with any of them to know why they dealt so disorderly by me And I shall leave it to the witness of God in every mans Conscience whether these in their thus dealing with me were not in the same state and condition and carryed out by the same spirit that the Twelve were in when they met with one casting out Devils in Jesus Name and they forbade him because he did not follow them When Jesus had cast out of the Gaderean the unclean spirits or devils he commanded him to go home to his house to his friends and tell them and shew unto them how great things the Lord had done for him and had compassion on him and he obeyed the Command of Jesus in publishing throughout the whole City how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel as you may see Mark 5. Luke 9. These Gaderenes although for the great loss that they had of their Swine they prayed and besought Jesus in that body of his to depart from them out of their Coast yet when the man out of whom Jesus had cast unclean spirits or devils prayed and besought him that he might be with that body of Jesus but Jesus would not suffer him but sent him home to tell and to shew to his friends what great things God had done for him in having compassion on him and according to the Command of Jesus he went his way and published throughout the whole City how great things Jesus had done for him And the Gaderenes when they heard him begin to publish what great things God had done for him they did not go away from him and would not hear him and desire him to hold his peace and not to publish any more what great things that God had done for him neither â—id they fall a speaking to prevent or hinder him from publishing what great things God had done for him no tâ—â—y did not deal so by him but on the contrary they staid and patiently heard him without interrupting or hindring of him from publishing the great things that God had done for him there was not one of them that shewed any dislike to what he published of the great things that God had done for him so far were they from shewing dislike at what he did that all men marvelled at it I shall leave it to the witness of God in every one to judge whether or no these Gaderenes shall not rise up in Judgment and condemn some that when Jesus had cast out the uoclean spirits or devils out of a man and commanded him to tell to shew what great things that God had done for him to his friends where he lived that when he began to tell and to shew what great things that God had done for him they would not stay to hear him but went away from him and desired him to declare no more amongst them what great things that God had done for him or else some of them to begin to speak to the end to prevent him from making known what great things God had by his onely begotten Son Jesus done in him and for him But all this did not in the least disturb disquiet or trouble me although I was looked upon by most of them as Ahab looked upon Elijah to be a Troubler of Israel for when I went after the Meetings were ended to the aforesaid chief mans house not one in five of them would take any notice of me not so much as to give me the hand the usual custom amongst them at their parting that so if I had wanted a hand to have been helped to Heaven thereby I must have stayed behind for any help I should have had of them And if they were going by me at their going away out of the house they would turn their backs to me and their faces another way because they would not see me and yet all this never in the least moved me but I was kept by the spirit of Jesus in me in quietness and peace in me knowing whose work it was that I did although by their dealings with me I understood I was not onely sleighted by them but made an hiss and by-word among those called of the World for what they did by me was not done in a corner but openly publickly sometimes in the presence of some hundreds that came to the Meeting out of several Parishes round about and the great man of the Meeting when one time I was at a monthly Meeting and there made a complaint of the Meeting that they did not deal by me as I had in a Book of theirs kept for the County at the place of the monthly Meeting read That it was an order made in general for all Meetings that they should do for me or any other and it was owned by the monthly Meeting that they ought to deal by me as I had desired of them and as it was writ in their Book they ought to do it yet this great man of esteem stood it out against the Meeting that it should not be done for me although it was owned by the Meeting in general to be my right and to excuse himself why it should not be done for me he openly fell upon me in words saying That I was the greatest trouble and burden to the Meeting that ever the Meeting met withal and why was it but for the words I spake in the Meeting he could not deny but that my life and Conversation was as blameless as his or any that did belong to their Meeting and so I was owned to live by the monthly Meeting and I refer my self to those that were at the monthly Meeting how patiently I did bear it and how little I spake in my own defence although I had truth on my side as in general the monthly Meeting owned and although as to all outward things they knew I was not any thing beneath any of them All this their dealings by me did not in the least abate or hinder me for crying out against the Altar of Self-obedience and against the Offerings offered thereupon in a very strict and devout observing doing and performing all and every the outward things that is desired and required in that outward form of Worship
in their Wills set by them and thereby and therein to please satisfie and content themselves as if they were worshipping God in his spirit and in his truth in his Jesus that saves from sin and also telling of them what would follow and fall upon them for such Worship and Service But at length it happened to me as it did to the man of God sent to cry against the Altar at Bethel who King Jeroboam by his threatning nor by his friendship could prevail with to disobey any part of the Command of God but he was prevailed with and brought into disobedience by an old Prophet that told him that an Angel spake to him by the Word of the Lord but he lyed unto him he had no Angel spake to him nor no Word from the Lord to say what he did to the man sent of God It was the old lying Serpents self in him that spake these words to him whereby he deceived the man sent of God and so it happened to me All the bad dealings that I had received did not in the least hinder me in my obedience to any part of the Command of God in speaking what I had in Command to speak but it so happened that I was in Company with three Women called Old Quakers of great esteem amongst them and although in plain words they did not give themselves the Name of Prophetess as the old Prophet did or say as he did that an Angel spake to him by the word of the Lord yet they spake words to the same purpose That they were moved by the spirit of God to speak to me and that it was in the Name of God and for Gods sake and many words to these purposes that they used to me and that although as they said they did not know one anothers minds nor had said nothing of it before yet they did speak to that purpose as if they all of them severally one by another had a Command from God and that they were all moved by the spirit of God in them at that time to speak to me and let me know from God that what I spake in the Meeting I did not speak by a true moving of the spirit of God in me but it was the wrong spirits self in me that put me forward to speak and very many words they spake to me to these purposes And I having had a large experience of the subtilty of the Serpents self in me and how he had in former times deceived me in a shew of godliness and then they all as the old Prophet did did affirm that they had a several Angel or as they called it a several moving of the spirit of God severally did move in each of them and put them upon it to speak to me by the word of the Lord in them although I now know they all lyed to me as the old Prophet did yet these their lying words then spoken in the Name of the Lord deceived me as the lying words of the old Prophet deceived the man sent of God and they caused me as the Serpent did Eve who at first resisted the Temptation but afterwards she yielded to question or doubt of the Command of God whether God had said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden and so at first I resisted them very strongly yet at length through their many words I question'd or doubted whether God had commanded me to speak as I had spoken although I did before know that God had Commanded me to speak as Eve knew that God had said they should not eat of every tree of the Garden there was one Tree that God had Commanded that they should not eat thereof And in this knowledge of what was Gods Command Eve had obeyed God in as I in that knowledge that it was the Command of God for me to speak had obeyed God in but it was with me as it was with Eve and the man sent of God who at first resisted and said Nay to the old Prophet after the Serpent by his deceit and lye had caused Eve to question or doubt whether God had Commanded what she in her self before knew to be the Command of God and from that knowledge that she had in her self that it was the Command of God she had yielded obedience unto it but soon after the Serpent had wrought in her to question or doubt whether it was the Command of God or no he soon by his lying brought her to disobey God in his Command and it cost her her life and so the man sent of God he knew that it was the Command of God in him that he should not eat bread or drink water in that place and he for a time obeyed the Command of God in him and did not yield to the desire of the old Prophet but when by the lying of the old Prophet and that in the word of the Lord as the old Serpent in him caused him to say he questioned the truth of the Command of God in him which before he had obeyed and would not for the fear or friendship of a King be prevailed with into the disobedience of any part of it yet by the lye of one that called himself a Prophet and sent of God as he was he went from obeying what he had known to be the true Command of God in him and believed the lye that the lying old Prophet had told him was the Command of God for him to obey God in and that cost him his life and so it was with me although at first I resisted them strongly and would give no way to them yet afterwards by the lyes that they told me in the word of the Lord as they pretended to me that it was by the motion of the spirit of God in them that they spake to me I giving some credit to them as Eve did to the Serpent and the man sent of God to the old lying Prophet I began to question the truth of the Command of God in me which before I knew to be the Command of God in me and had obeyed God therein and I did with Eve and the man of God who gave more credit to the lye the Serpent told and the old Prophet told than to the truth spoken in them and to them by the spirit of God and so did I give more credit to the lye that they spake to me in that they told me it was by the moving of self in me that I spake and not by the Command of God and by believing them in their lye I went out of the obedience to what I knew was the Command of God in me and to me and for a time I had obeyed God in which all the hard or bad dealings that I had met withal could not in the least prevail with me to disobey the Command of God in me and to me to speak what God had given me in Command to speak but I was prevailed with and prevailed over
me But so it hath pleased the infinite wise God to leave their failings weaknesses infirmities or miscarriages and not onely theirs but others of his faithful Servants in writing and now in print not to the end to be as Examples for us to follow but to be as Warnings for us to have a care that we by the subtilty of the Serpent do not fall as they did for they and we stand and are saved by all one and the same Faith in the same Jesus and what is written is written for our Instruction and Learning And I know that the same Spirit that will blame me for making so publick the dealings of Friends by me will also blame me for medling with the failings weaknesses infirmities or miscarriages of the Twelve as it did in some Friends for speaking of the failings of Job who although perfect and upright and how patiently he bore what God suffered Satan to afflict him with yet his patience did not always continue the same for if it had he would never have cursed the day of his birth c. I made but use of this in my speaking in the Meeting to shew what great need we all had to stand upon our watch lest at any time we be overcome by the subtilty of the Adversary and this gave such an offence that I was by two counted no small Friends at two several times rebuked for mentioning Job's failings And therefore I expect no other but by the same Spirit I shall be sentenced and judged for my making so publick the dealings of those called Friends or Quakers to me or rather to that which was of Jesus in me but if they do I know by what Spirit it is that they so judge and censure me That it is not by the spirit of God for the example of the spirit of God I follow it is the example of God by his spirit in Matthew and Luke to make publick in writing the dealings of the Twelve by Jesus It is the example of God by his spirit in Paul to make publick in writing Peter's not walking uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel but dissembled It is the example of God by his spirit in the holy men of old that gave forth the Scriptures to make publick in writing the failings of the best of his Servants as of Noah Abraham Lot Moses David Job and others And therefore I shall conclude with the words of Jesus Mat. 10. 24 25. The disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his lord It is enough for the disciple that he is as his master and the servant as his lord if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the houshold I have forborn the mentioning of any Name or Names and so I shall unless I hear what I have written be contradicted or the truth of it questioned and then I may not onely name the Names of the Persons but the Places where they either spake or did what I have herein mentioned READER WHosoever thou art that shall read what I have writ if upon the reading of what I have writ of the dealings of some of those called Quakers to me thou shalt therefore judge or think the worse of the Truth those called Quakers own and believe in that is of the true Light in them which Light is Jesus that came to save his People from their sins and that Jesus who is the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World it is onely he and there is none other that can save any one from their sins and the way that they own that God is to be worshipped in by this Jesus the true Light in them is to worship him in his Spirit and Truth That evil Spirit that would lead thee or cause thee upon the reading of what I have writ to judge or think the worse of the Truth owned and believed by those called Quakers and of the way owned and believed by them that God is to be worshipped in because of the dealings of some of them to me the same evil Spirit upon the same ground may lead thee or cause thee to judge or think the worse of Jesus and of the way that he declared that God the Father was to be worshipped in and that because of the dealings of the Twelve by him as I have in what I have writ mentioned of their dealings by Jesus as that they did not believe all that he said to be true nor did they always understand the truth spoken by him but by Peter he was rebuked for speaking the truth and all of them did contradict him in his speaking the truth saying to him That should not be done to him and that by them that he had said should be done to him and that by them as when he told them they should be all offended because of him that night and so offended as to be scattered and forsake him and as he said they should therein deal by him so they did deal by him although they had all said they would not deal so by him And moreover there was one of the Twelve that for the love he had to money betrayed him and sold him to them that he knew sought for him to take away his life Thus much you may read in the Scriptures of the dealings of the Twelve by Jesus And therefore I do say that the same evil Spirit that would have thee to judge or think the worse of the Truth that is owned and believed by those called Quakers of their worshipping God in Spirit and Truth because of what I have writ that some of them have done to me The same evil Spirit upon the same ground may cause thee to judge and think the worse of Jesus and of the truth that Jesus preached because of what the Twelve did to him that thou mayest read written in the Scriptures God knows and bears me witness that why I make mention of their dealings to me is to do what I believed I ought to do thereby to make known what knowledge and acquaintance man may have of Jesus in the flesh and yet not know Jesus in his Death and Resurrection as the Twelve who had the most knowledge of him and acquaintance with him in the flesh and were sent by him to preach and cast out Devils and yet knew him not in his Death and Resurrection And therefore man may go a great way in an outward form of Worship and in an outward following of Jesus and yet not come fully to know what it is to deny himself daily and take up his Cross to all self and be a Follower of Jesus in the Spirit As the Twelve although they followed him in the flesh and so had the most acquaintance with him yet they had not in that time of their knowing of him and following of him in the flesh so fully learned that Lesson of self-denial and taking up of the daily Cross to their own wills as they learned it when they knew his Death and Resurrection in themselves and followed him in the Spirit And as Paul said They knew no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Oh how subtilly the Serpent self in man can and does act in an outward form of worshipping God tempting man in that knowledge and understanding that he hath of God to eat of the forbidden Tree that he might thereby be as Gods I do therefore beseech the Readers to have a great care that they be not deceived by the Serpents subtilty therein as I do know he hath formerly deceived me And also I do beseech them not to answer the desires of the subtile Serpent or Tempter in them as to judge or think the worse of the Truth the true Light in man or of those called Quakers because of some ill dealings done by some of them to Henry Abbut FINIS