The axe laid to the root of the old corrupt-tree, and the spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life, among both papists and Protestants hath arisen, and by which it is nourished and fed at this day, in a distinction between the faith which is of man, and the faith which is of God ... / by ... Isaac Penington the younger.

A Brief History of the state of the Church since the dayes of the Apostles, with the living seal to it, which he that hath eternall life abiding, in him, can read and witnes; but that wisdom zeal and devotion which is in the death, cannot.

AFter the universal degeneration and corruption of the Jew∣ish state, and the putting an end to the shadows thereof, by the appearance and succession of the substance, it pleased God to dissolve that people, state and pollicy, and by the power of his life (without either the wisdome or strength of man) to set upon the heathenish world, which he subdued and brought under the power of his life. By his Apostles and messengers, who preached the everlasting Gospel, the word of eternall life, he gathered as∣semblies up and down the nations, whom the nations by all their persecutions could not subject; but they reigned over them in the power, authority, and dominion of God: For they were Kings and Priests to God in the sight of all the Nations, and they did reign upon the earth; in somuch as the heathenish spirit of man, observing their order in the Spirit, and the wisdom and power of the Spirit among them, who by his living light was able to search the hearts of those that came to observe them, could not but ac∣knowledge, that God was in them of a truth.

Now the next thing to be expected, is Satans opposition against this power of life, & his stratagems to undermine it. He withstood the growth and settlement of the Church, all that he could by o∣pen force, making use both of the heathenish devout worshippers, who fought for their Jupiter, their Diana, and other gods and goddesses, and of the Jewish devout worshippers, who fought for their Temple-worship, with the Laws and ordinances of Moses, which were now expired. But neither of these would doe, but the Church in the power of life gained ground upon him, and did ra∣ther thrive and increase, then diminish by this opposition. There∣fore

now he falls to this stratagems, he gets some false brethren out of the Church (they went out from us) these he cloaths as Angels of light, puts the sheeps cloathing on their wolvish nature, makes them appear as like the Apostles as may be, endues them with an excellent taking knowledge of life and spirituallity in appearance, forms in them an image of the truth, and inspires this image with the spirit of his own life, and with these he goes forth into the world, and gathers the world about him. Now the world was presently taken with this (the world went after him) for this is that the world would have, an appearance of religion, an image of truth, but their own spirit in it. The worldly spirit, that flies off from the life, from the power, can readily close with this, because it is its own. Bring forth never so high notions of religion and spi∣rituall wisdome, the world will hug them, the world will feed on them, the world will cloath it selfe with them. The world can swallow, and digest any thing but life. Any pleasant picture of things in heaven will down with the world: but the nature, the life, the truth, the Spirit, Christ in his true arid living crosse, this will not down with the world.

Now the Devil having thus set up his false image in the world, and gathered a party after him, then he sets upon the Church: and the battel goeth very hard, life striving to defend, and death to overcome, How hard did the Apostles strive in their day, to keep their converts to the simplicity of truth, & to the way ther∣of (which even then began to be evill spoken of) writing Epistles to the Churches, warning them of the false Apostles, and wishing them to stand their ground! yea Christ himselfe writes severall Epistles from heaven to some of them, cheking their backslidings and encouraging them to renew their zeal and strength, putting them in mind of the Crown which attended the victory. But at length the Divill with his stratagems prevails, gets the possession of the Churches territories, and the Church is faine to fly for her preservation: and such of her seed as are left behind her, the ene∣my makes war against, slayes, drinks their bloud.

Now here's an end of all the glory of that state: now the Di∣vil hath gained the world again: The same spirit, that lost it under the heathenish power (for there he was conquered) recovers it under an Antichristian appearance; setting up the same wickednes, and the same course and current of death under forms of Antichri∣stian

religion, as he had done before under forms of Heathenish devotion.

Thus the Devil being conquerour, having gained the field, he divides the spoils among his army: he tak••s whatever was the Churches, and make, his own, and ranks them in his way of Anti∣christian religion and devotion: so that now hence forward, those things which were once Christs and the Churches, they are no•• all his, and distributed by him among his followers. He gives the name Church to the whore which he sets up, he gives the name Christian to his Disciples, he prescribes baptisme, and the Supper (which he calls Sacraments) and praying, and preaching, and sing∣ing, which he calls publique ordinances, and be prescribes private duties and exercises of devotion; and he gets the letter of the Scriptures, and forms multitudes of meanings and expositions, and has lying signs and wonders for such as need them, that he might keep all the severall Brigades of his army quiet under his pay, and might have some pleasing wares of traffick for every sort of his Merchants in his Babilon. For this is the City of that King which he built aster his conquest over the life, and which he hath enrich∣ed with the spoils from the life. And here all his subjects shall have content, they shall have what they will, if they will but be faithsull to him in the main. Call for what likenesse, what inven∣tion, what appearance of truth they will, they shall have it, so they will but be content without life. No notion about the Spirit wil be deny them, so they will be content with the notion without the presence of the living Spirit. They shall have light in their understandings, warmth in their affections, joy, peace, hope, com∣fort out of the Scriptures. They shall apply as many promises to themselves as they will, have what they will, do what they will, so they keep out of the feeling of the living principle: but if once that stir, and there be any hearkning after that, then he begins to shew his tyranny on the one hand to force them back, and his stratagems on the other hand to tempt them aside from it.

The devil having thus gained the form, and enriched himself with the Churches spoils, and slain them which had the living testimo∣ny, then he falls to corrupting the form: For that filthy spirit, though he can cloath himself with the form to deceive from the life, & abid there, to keep down the life; yet he does not much love it, he loves his own form better: and when he is out of feare of

assaults from the life, then he returns to his own form againe, or patches up a garment more suitable to his own nature, taking i•• somewhat of the other with it, to make his own passe the better (for if he should have returned to the direct heathenish forms of idolatry and false worship he could not so well have ••ayn hid: therefore he makes a mix u••e of somewhat which was prescribed the Jews, with some things sound practised among the Christians.) Thus he brought in inventions of crosses, and images, and beads, and pictures, and reliques, and ceremonies beyond number, inso∣much as not only the life and power was lost, but the true likeness also, even so lost, that it is impossible for all the wisdome of man, to recover the knowledge of the likenesse againe. Men have stri∣ven much, but they never could form a true likenesse of the Primi∣tive Church, and the way thereof.

Now, though it is the desire of the Devill to keep men in the grossnesse of darkness, yet rather then loose them, he will let them have some part of the form again: nay he will tempt them with a gaudy appearance of the form, to keep them from meeting with the power and life, when he perceives true secret inward stirrings in them, which will not be quieted without somwhat. Thus, when there was a stirring against Popery, he tempted a••i••e into Episco∣pacy: when that would hold no longer, then to Presbitery: when that will not serve, into Independancy: when that will not keep quiet, but still there are searchings further, into Anabaptism: if that will not doe, into a way of seeking and waiting: if this will not satisfie, they shall have high notions, yea most pleasant noti∣ons concerning the Spirit, and concerning the life, if they will be but satisfied without the life: yea they shall have all the liberty in the creatures they can desire (the best painted liberty) if they will but be satisfied without that liberty, which stands not in the crea∣tures out of the life, but over the creatures in the life. And he that turns aside to any of these, he is still under the dominion of that spirit, and there he holds his knowledge, and there he performes his worship, and there he has his unity, his liberty, his life, his rest, his peace, his joy, his hope. Now no man can worship God, till he comes out of every part of this Babilon, and his feet touch Sion, though there may be a secret panting, and an unknown safety, and an acceptation of the poor mourning soul in the passage Yea, all sorts of people, here ye were accepted, in your stirrings after life,

in hearkning to the leadings of life from out of the Babilonish Spirit: but your turning aside to the Babilonish wisdome in a new dresse, and sitting down in a new form of her inventing, hath brought you to a losse of life, and hath made you hatefull to the living God, who hath drawn his sword against you, and hath pre∣pared his vialls, his thunders, his plagues, his woes: and ye must drink of his cup with sorrow, as ye have drunk of the whores cup with pleasure. Ye that have found a bed of pleasure in any of your forms, or in any of your notions, and so have found ease in the Sion of the whores painting; ye must be cast into the bed of sor∣row, and know the fire the Gods Sion, and the furnace in his Jeru∣salem, if ever ye become an habitation for God, or expect to feed on his holy mountaine.

The condition of the Church all this while (all this time of Sa∣tans reigne in forms of knowledg and worship) hath been very lamentable, and is expressed in Scripture by parables and resem∣blances of a sad state. She hath been as a City pulled down, like a ruined City, which needs rebuilding, before she can come to be a City again, (when the Lord shall build up Sion.) She hath been like a wildernesse, barren, undressed, unregarded. She hath been like a mournfull widow, whose husband hath been rent from her, and her children slain. She hath lost all her ornaments, all her gar∣ments, all her ordinances, all her appearances and wayes of life, in somuch as the wayes of Sion mourn. But Babilon, the mother of harlots, she has got all the beauty, all the glory, all the Chur∣ches attire, all the Churches ordinances, and all the trade and tras∣fique runs thither, and she is cryed up for the true Church; and if any dare speak a word against her, & for the true Church indeed, they are exclaimed against for schismaticks, and hereticks, and war prepared against them, and some or other of the beasts horns pre∣sently pushing at them. Thus it has gone all the time of the Apo∣stacy, the whore has flourished with the name of the Church ma∣king great merchandize of souls, selling their formall stuff for mo∣ny; and abundance of children hath the whore brought forth, and nourished with her milk of deceit: but the true woman, the Lambs wife with her seed, and the living food from her living breasts, have had no place on the earth.

But this state of things is ended in part, and ending apace. The Lord God of life is arisen out of his holy habitation to assault the

Dragon, to discover and strip the whore, to recover a possession for his life in the earth, to make roome in the world for his Church, which he is bringing out of the wildernesse. The bat∣tel is begun, the territories of Antichrist are assaulted, the Lamb hath appeared on his white horse, and hath gathered many of his called, faithfull and chosen about him, the Ensign is li••ted up: the light (which searcheth the inwards of the enemies dominions) hath appeared, and his inmost power and wisdome is not feared, but the Lord God is feared, and the Dragons arm withers, and the head of his pollicy (whereby he ensnared & intangled from the life) is crushing, glory to the endlesse power of life for ever and for ever.

Be wise now therefore, & loose not your share in the immortal Crown. Take heed how ye be found fighters against the Lamb, in the wisdom & power of Babilon which is to fall, Painting will not passe now: That bloud of the Lamb is felt, which washes off the whores paint, even all her painted notions of the blood of christ, & of sanctification and redemption, &c. the whorish nature being discovered underneath all these. Ye have got the name of Church, the name of Christians, the name of ordinances, &c. by the whores help, but the nature of life ye want: and the living power is come to recover the name from you, and we, his living witnesses, testi∣fie to your faces, that ye shall not enjoy it, but the name and the thing shall go together; and he that hath not the thing, shall also loose the name. Yea, your eyes shall see that ye have been the sacrilegious ones, who have stoln holy names and tirles, which ye never received from the hand of God; but the whorish spirit (which out of the life, and an enemy to the life) hath handed them to you. And this is told you in dear and tender love, that ye might not perish, but have eternall life abiding in your hearts, and the new name written by the Spirit of life on your foreheads, which all that know the writing of the life, may be able to read and acknowledge.

There are severall touches of these things, in diverse of of the Epistles of the Apostles: but the full relation is given forth in that book of the Revelation, which was penned by the Spirit of God, to be read in the light of the Spirit, and so to be a preservative against the overspreading contagion of Antichristianism. Adn it is said, at the entrance into it, Blessed is he that readeth, & they that

hear the words of this prophests, & ke••p those things w^ch are written therein. But men having lost the Spirit, have not been able to read it, and having lost the right ear, they have not been able to heare the words it speaks: and how then could they keepe the things written therein? He that doth ••ot understand what he is warned against, how is it likely he should be preserved by the warning? The Spirit of God judged this warning necessary but the spirit of deceit cryes it is a deep thing, not to be medled with. Now this is a plain demonstration, that men generally are overtaken with the whoredom, and drink of the whores cup, & submit themselves to the beast, and exalt his horns, and receive his mark, and some or other of his names; because they have not the knowledge of that which discovers these things, and was given by the Spirit of God to forewarn, and so to preserve out of them. He that know∣eth not the mistery of iniquity working under a form of godlines, may not he easily be deceived with the mistery of iniquity? He that knoweth not what is become of the true Church & ministry, and where to look for them, may not he easily own a fall Church and ministry? He that knoweth not the Spirit of the Scriptures, which the Church carried with her, when she left the letter behind her, may not he easily set up the letter for his rule? He that knoweth not the living mark and name of a Christian, with which the Spirit of life seals all the Lambs, of Christ in the life, may not he easily give this name to himself, and to others who have not this mark, but the beasts mark? He that knoweth not the true faith, the true love, the true hope, the true joy, the true peace, the true rest, the true consolation in Christ the life (the true meeknes and patience of the S••ints, &c.) may not he easily set up shadows, or liknesses of these (which he gathers from the letter of the Scriptures, and the promises thereof, receiving the knowledge of them into the wrong part, & applying them to the wrong thing) instead of these? Ah poor hearts! The book of the Revelation is easie to that Spirit that wrote it: and it was not given forth to be laid by as uselesse; but to be serviceable in the hand of the Spirit, for the ages after the dayes of the Apostles; and in the true light it is easily read: and they that can read it, can see that in it, which they that cannot read it, cannot beleeve. And this is plainly seen, That the••e is but the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of deceit: but the Lambs wife, and the whore (which hath whored from the

Spirit, which hath made use of the lotter, to run a whoring from that Spirit that wrote it:) that there is but the true Church, and the false Church: but life, and death: but form, and power: but Christ the mistery of godlinesse, and Antichrist the mistary of ini∣quity: but God, and the dragon: God in the Church or Tem∣ple in the Wildernesse, and the dragon in the worlds, churches and temples, appearing there as if he were God, giving sorth lawes and ordinances like God: and all the world falls down before him, and worships him as if he were God; and hopes by this wor∣ship which they perform to him, and by their faith and hope which they receive from him, to be saved at last. I say there are but these two: and he that is joyned to the one of these, is not joyned to the other. Let him that readeth, understand: which he may easily doe by the wisdome of the Spirit, but never can by the wisdome of the letter. For though we know how to join these two in the life, yet there is a necessity of seperating them at pre∣sent, till the letter be gained out of the hands of the whorish spi∣rit, which hath built up severall forms of knowledge, religion, and worship in mistery-Babilon, by the letter without the life, all which must fall with Babilon.