They that are the church do in God's light see light but they that
are not, do in their own way see. And let a man and a beast look out
at the same window, the same door, the same casement, yet the one
will see like a man, and the other but like a beast.
No marvel then if there is here a disagreement; the beast can but
see as a beast, but the church is resolved not to be guided by the
eye of a beast, though he pretends to have his light by that very
window by which the church has hers. The beast is moon-eyed, and
puts darkness for light, yea, and hates the light that is so indeed;
but the saints will not hear him, for they know the voice of their
Lord.
On both sides they are resolved to stand by their way: the church is
confident, the man of sin is confident; they both have the same
windows--that is, "the word"--to see by, and so they manage their
matters; yet not so simply by the windows as by the diverse judgment
they make of that which shineth in at them. Each one therefore that
hath the true or false profession will be confident of his own way:
he that was right, knew he was right; and he that was wrong, thought
he was right; and so the battle began: "There is a way that seemeth
right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
Nor is it in man to help it: there has been reasoning, there has
been disputing, there has blood also been spilt on both sides,
through the confidence that each had of the goodness of his own way:
but no reconciliation is made; the enmity is set here of God; iron
and clay cannot mix; God will have things go on thus in the world
till his word shall be fulfilled; the deceived and the deceiver are
his. Things therefore must have their course in the church in the
wilderness till the mystery of God shall be fulfilled. God will get
to himself great glory by permitting the hoar, the man of sin and
the dragon, to revel in the church of God; for they by setting up
and contending for their darkness, and calling it the light, and by
setting it against that light which is light in very deed, do not
only prove the power of truth where it is, but illustrate it so much
the more; for as black sets off white, and darkness light, so error
sets off truth. He that calls a man a horse, doth but fix the belief
of his humanity so much the more in the apprehension of all rational
creatures.
It is not therefore to be wondered at that we hear both parties
plead so much for their authority, crying out against each other as
those that destroy religion. So doth the church, so doth the man of
sin. The living child is mine, saith one. Nay, but the dead child is
thine, and the living child is mine, says the other. And thus they
spake before the king.
The church will not give place, for she knows she has the truth; the
dragon and his angels, they will not give place, but as beaten back
by the power of truth. Therefore there will, there must, there
cannot but be a spiritual warfare here, and that until one of the
two is destroyed, and its body given to the burning flame.