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Show ~~0 No. XX. ~ •John2,20o ]ohn6.38. 3·11· 1 John t . 3• An A 'P , E N '!> I X to VoL. I. Preachers except that Teftimony which is gi\'en ' from the Holy f.nDion, in and rhro~gh them ; becaufe Men, without Chrift, can do not mgJ.. as he has faid. for Men cannot Preach, Men cannot Pray, Men cannpt ~}"g a: it ou ht ·to be \ yea, Men, without Him, can do no thi~g to the rat e an , Glor~ of God , For it is only the Son of God that glonfies rhe Father thro hisA~~ilt~;,~·fore let him kindle the Fire with the Pur~ Coals from his. Holy A\rar. and do you not offer to him in your Self~wtll: No, Jefus dtd nor do his ~wn WiD, but the Will of his F11tlm·.. So let us not do our own, but HiS fV1U; he has done nothing but what ~1s Father h:td made known unto Him ; and we muft all Witnefs what Cbnfi has decla_red unto us, and wh~t he has wrought in us, or elfe we {hould be falfe Wnneifes. ~oman,_ fat.d Chrift to big Mother, mine Hour is n~r yet come: s\,) that he did walt h.is Fat he's Time in whofe Hands the Ttmes and Seafons are: We muit Wmt, but God Ord;rs, aRd Happy are thofe who do his_ wm. My Sb. eep,. faid John to. 27' Chritt bcllr my Voice 11nd [oflow me; but they wtll nor bear the Voue of Str11nlers. Now thofe that Speak, _if their ~o.ices and. Converfations are not with the Lite, the Power, and With th~ Sputt of C~nft, they are ftrange Voices. (l pray you ob!crve well) and Chn!\'s Sheep wdlnot fit underJ•<b Jer. 23• 3o. Voices,' nor under fucb Shepherds; who do but Sua/ the Words of t~e Pro bets and Apofiles, but do not expe~ie,nce them, n?r Succeed them m thefr Spirits and Converfations; for Chnfts Shetp .do dtfc~rn thofe that Jo Teacb, from HH, for He has given them that Sp~ntual Gtft to fee theJ?; which is not to be had, nor found in the.Crafty Wifdom of ~he Wo:ld, wtth all its Humane Learnings Arts and Sctences; but fiands tn the tnnocent Nature of the Tr11e Sheep~ and for them it is like Natur~l, viz. So~ls that are become Harmlefs, and are arriv'd at the State of a Lzule Chtld; fo~ to fuch doth God Reveal·his Secrets; becaufe, by the Work of R~eneranon, they arc become his own Begotten ; and to fuch belongs the Kmgdom of God, and the Knowledge of theM yfieri.es ~her~of. . Wherefore, Pray take Notice, how tt _ts wtth J:OUJ.. Is. Sm. Reyealed! Yes , Through whar ? By the Ligbt of Cbrijl. But " ~'" hkew1fe Jhdged.? Have you fubmitted your felves to Hn Lzgbt ? And arc you therewuh Umted > Is your Old Self·Righteoufnefs thereby jud&ed? And ~re thereby oll John 10' 4- vour f:ilfe J udgmenrs judged ? Is the Prmc~ of thts \"' orld JU~ged m yo.u ? boes Chrift go before you? And does He gtve you Eternal Life? Exam me and fearch your felves, for thus he deals with his Sheep: I go before them, they follow me, and, behold, I give them I:ife E~ernal. Does Chrift go be· fore you, and lead you in a11 your .Worflu_p, whtc~ you do a~ your boun~en Duty to God? Do you wait for hts Leadmgs? Is n the Rellgton of Chnft, wherein you Walk? Read His ~oly Sermon on 1hc Mount. qr ~lfe, do J . 8• you go before him, and do you C!unb up another W4y, before he Snrs m you, onn to. 1' • before he Moves you, before he gives you Power and Ability to approach · his Throne) Ah! True Silence before the Lord, is better abundantly than forward Prayers, and Self·wiOcd Offers, or any Traditional and Formal Per· formanccs: For confider, that it is Life Eternal to .know God. Now, no lb.t7· 3· Man can know him, who has not heard his Voice: And no Man can hear his Voice, who is not Silent in himfelf, and waits not Pntitntly for him, Pr. s1. s. that he may btar wbat God wiU jpeak to his So11l, through Chrift Jefus, the Great, Holy, and Heavenly Jiigh Priefl of God, to Mankind, who is the Heavenly Prophet alfo, unto all them that Belie\'f in His Name. But, my Phit. 3,1o,tt. Friends, Do you know the FtUowjhip of his Holy Life, of his Blell'ed Crofs, Dutb, and RrfurnOion? Do you confefs him inwardly in your felves, as well as outwardly before Men? If fo, then has he given you Life Eternal. 2 Tim. 1. to. Again, if you feel not in you, Life and Immortality, brought to Light, then John lo 29: arc you yet in your Sins, and know not the Limb of God, who t11lutb afiMJ the Sin of the World. Form 1nany at Received him, to them gave be Pouer and '· 12• to become the Childrtn of God. And they know by the Wirnefs of God in • John 1. •9· themfelves, that they are of God, as faid the beloved Difciple John, Jlnd 1l1e wbole Wur!d lieth in Widtdnefs. Beloved Vo~oo I. The AuTHoR's LIFE, Beloved Friends1 Be!Yare therefore of JJ~I,u~y, and worjhippint of Image<, No. XX. 1 mean the Worfhtp of Inward lm11gts, whtch ts an Inward ldohury; for it ~ you (hew a great Av~tfi~n againft all outward Idolatry, ~et if you W?tfhip · God after the Imagmattons you have of GOO, and whtch you concetve in your own Minds, without the Infpiration of the Almighty, you worfhip Images of your own Framing, and fo come to commit Idolatry. And there-fore take Heed that your Wodhip does not conlifi: in your own lmagina· tions, and Self-Conceits of God; and do not bow down to fuch, (which is indeed to your felves) and then think, or prefume that you are bowing down to God and Chrifi \ when, on the contrary, it is nothing elfe but a meer Piaure of your own making. And this is the great Abomination and Dan. n. 11•· Lofs of poor Cbriflendom, viz. That the Spirit which deceives Man, fits in 'l Th.eff. 2. 4-' the Place of God, and is W1.1rfhipped as God, by thofe that know not the True and Living God, who is as a Con fuming Fire, and as Everlafting Burn-ings in the Soul againft Sin, Righteoufnefs, and Judgment of the W/orld. John 16· s. Now he that revealeth the Father, is the Son, the True Light ; For he has faid, No .Man Jmowttb the Father, bur tbe Son, tmd be ro wbom rhe Son will Mat.1 1 ,27~ ,.eveal him. How, has Chrift revealed the Father unto you? Are you come to Jefus? If fo, then you have known the Godly Sorrow, the True Moum~ ing, and that Repentance which Men need never to repent of: But if you have nOt known this Day of Judgment and Contrition, then are you not come to Chrift. Wherefore come you to Jefus, viz. To his Appearance in you, by his Divine Light and Spirit, which every Way difCorei"s, and iudges the World•s Nature, Spirit and Image in you : For to Him ir all judgment committed, and he will reveal the Father:; yea, he that has feen the Son, has likewife feen the Father; for He is in the Father, and the ]ohn t4• ro~ Father is in Him. If now theManifeftationof Jefus in you, as well of the 11. Father, as of the Son, is the Foundation of your Knowledge, fo that God and Chrift, whom ro. know is Lift Erern11l, are become the Holy Object of your Worfhip; then are you real Worrhippers in his Spirit and Truth\ then Joim 4· 241 are you come our from the Workmanfhip, from the WiH aod I magi lations · of your own Spirits, and from all Human Worlhip, and are come ro the Worrhip of the Spirit of the Living God, and to live in him, be led :1nd moved by him in all Godly Performances, for the Spirit of .Man onlv knows the Things of .Man, but the Spirit of God knows and reveals the ThtngJ· of t Cor. 2. ttJ God. And this Worfhip of his Kingdom and Church, has Chrift raifed up John 4· 2J't again in thefe our Days, which was fet up by Chrift Sixteen Hundred Years ago. And in this Worlhip have the True Followers worfhipped the Ftttber, before the great Apoftacy, from the Spirit and ,Pewer of the Lord, broke in upon the Primitive Ages of the Church: And after fuch a Glorious Man-ner fhall it he reftored ; yea, fo it is already with many Thoufands, whom 9-od, through the Appe:uance of Chtift in the Heart, has gathered, both tn our, and other Countries, whereby he has judged them as Men in the . Flelh (in their Fle}hly L•JI•, in their Flt}bly Worjhip1) that they might live ~nt? God and Chrift, who quickned them by the Death of the CroiS, and ]ufhfied them as Men in the Spirit rilf:n from the Dead. Glory be therefor~ to God, who Lives and Reigns on High, that That Dark and Sortowful ]fight is vanilhing, and that the Sun-riling of the Erer-n. alDay, has already appeared, and is arifing more and more over the Na- · ttons in the World ; in which Day, Babylon, the .hloth(r of Harlot.s, f Fa/fe Rev; t6. i9l l~orfoipptrs] (hall come in Remtmbranu, before the God of the whole harrh, Vt.t. That Babylon, which has followed Merchandizing with the Scriptuu, t8. t1• and with the So11ls of Men, and has Ptrftc111td the Spirirual Seed, the Chi l- Oren of God, and faithful Witndfes of Jefus; (although Cloarhed in S.1ck· ti. 3~ cloth) becaufe they would not receive her Mark, and her Fin( Linn(n toot ll• 161 nor f~bmit to her F!tjhfy Birth, Invention, Prof(j]ion, Worfoij and Dominion. Th1s Babylon, lives but too much yet in every one, of a] Sorts of People, or Profeffors, by whom the Truth is held in Unrigbteollfitt[s; 'vhen they fee not through the Light of the Spirit of Chrift, and when their Know· ledge and Worfhip of God, is not received and performed, by that f::tme' ble!fed |
