threatens and is ready to introduce upon man in his mutable righteous and holy state And in this way of exercise it will be upheld by Christ during his Reigne on earth the thousand years when with the whole creature it shall be restored from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and be made subservient to the interest of the right heirs of salvation whereby Kings shall become nursing Fathers and Rulers Nursing Mothers unto the Church bringing the glory and power of all Nations unto it so as all Nations shall walk in the light of the new Jerusalem before which all the Kings of the earth shall stoop and be made to yeeld homage and subjection as not able to resist the wisdome and power of God there shining forth but from the conviction and demonstration flowing thence shall conforme whether they will or no to the righteous Rule of this Government of Christ who thereby binds their Kings in chaines and their Nobles in fetters of yron causing them to fall downe and yeeld themselves up in submission thereunto or else to be burnt up like thornes in the fire as they shew themselves resisters thereof this being the honour which all the Saints shall have in this manner to prevaile over and subdue all their enemies and opposers Psal 149. From what hath beene said we have had some general insight into the true nature of Magistracy or Rule over men and how righteous an administration it is respecting the outward man as well in the Principles as the Rules of righteousnesse that are enabling thereunto on Gods part whose ordinance and institution it is so that considered such as God requires it to be it is mans Ruling over men in righteousnesse and in the true feare of the Lord. And this Christ in his own person as the Sonne of man is perfectly qualified to do whose right also it is having all power in heaven and in earth put into his hands And his Saints when fitted by him to sit upon the Throne of the same glory with him shall likewise be found prepared to bring forth even Magistracy it self in its right exercise exactly answering the end for which it was set up by God and so shall be acknowledged by all the Nations of the world during the thousand years Reigne of Christ on earth Which pure state of Magistracy in the practice of it answerable to the righteousnesse of its Primitive institution is part of Christs Kingdome which he exerciseth in the world Which therefore we are to eye and be farre from discountenancing or grieving the witnesses thereof who through humane frailty may be at first very raw in the particulars unto which they give witnesse herein when their hearts may be sincere to Christ in longing after his coming to set up even Magistracy it self in the purity of its use and exercise And if it be here demanded whether the Saints of God are to content themselves with having this in their eye only and with the contemplation of it by faith as the thing which Christ will bring about in his due time in despight of all opposition who as the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands Dan. 245. shall become a great mountaine that shall fill the whole earth It is answered Though the Saints should sit down in faith and patience waiting to see this promise accomplished by the immediate power and hand of Christ without entertaining any solicitude in reference to other meanes they should not be disappointed nor fall short of their expectations at the last But secondly there is a duty of the day a generation-work respecting the time and circumstances of action in which the lot of our life is cast which calls upon us to use all lawful and righteous meanes that are afforded by the good hand of God through the inward light and knowledge he vouchsafes and outward providences and helps which he casts in whereby to make way for and to be hasting unto the coming of that day of God wherein the old heavens and earth shall be rolled away as garments yea with the works that are therein be burnt up and the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse shall be brought forth in their roome Our part is the same therefore in this as in the practice of other righteous duties appertaining to us the perfection whereof we cannot expect untill the redemption of the body and yet we are to be using all lawful meanes and endeavours to come as near the Primitive patterne and Rule as we can in our whole practice throughout So that when once we have well considered what Rule Christ himself if he were on earth would exercise over men in protecting those that do well and being a terrour to evil works as also in distributing righteousnesse equally and impartially unto all upon the grounds of right and just which everyone in the measure of light they have attained are acquainted with and do acknowledge for the Rule which they are willing to be concluded under as to all their outward concernes we ought in the way of Christ and in the use of all lawful meanes to be as near this in our practice as possibly we may in the Rule over men which we shall be either as principals or accessories in setting up holding our selves obliged in heartinesse and freedome of mind to maintaine In this lesson the Lord Jesus hath given cause to many of these Nations in these late years to be great proficients by the experiences which he hath afforded them step by step for the learning of his will and mind therein who hath not emptied us from vessel to vessel without some teachings thereby what was bad and fit to be left behind nor without some dawnings and intimations of what is good and is yet before us to be prosecuted and followed after Which whoever shall impartially and sincerely weight the cause and interest which the good people of this Nation have all along engaged in as well in reference to their Civil liberties or interests of men as men as to their Christian liberties as Saints cannot but acknowledge nor therefore can yet remove the perswasion throughly out of their minds that God who hath brought on the work thus farre should leave it here when it is come as it were unto the birth and is upon the very anvil to be formed into what may answer the true ends of Magistracy and common good of men unto which if there were yet applications made in a way of righteousnesse and in the fear of the Lord good men and Gods own people might not despaire of being taught by God and enabled through his power to grow up to that wherein like faithful servants unto Christ they might receive encouragement from their Lord at his coming and finding of them so doing with their loynes girt and lamps burning ready to receive him at his second appearance For if once the Lord be pleased so
four and twenty Elders who both stand thus represented in Christ their head in his being Minister of Gods second appearance or the beginning and first-born from the dead the High-Priest presenting himself within the veil in the immediate presence of God bearing on his brest the names of the Children that God hath given to him from all eternity And for as much as Revel 5. 6. there is mention made of a Lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth that John beheld in the midst of the throne and of the four Beasts and of the Elders which argues them to be distinct from them let me therefore as a further witness to the life and glory had and enjoyed by this true Messiah the Ministring WORD of Gods first and second appearance from the foundation of the world endeavour to open to you the analogie that is between him in the exercise of this twofold Ministry of his and this description of a Lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seveneyes which is the power and light put forth by him as he is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and ending of the whole Creation of God which the number denotes being in himself the perfect measure line and original exemplar of both Creations the spirit sent forth by God as the light life and influencing power unto them both respectively and so having that in a far greater eminency in himself as Head and Mediator then what they have in themselves As first he is King of righteousness in the Ministry of Gods first appearance and then King of peace in the Ministry of his second and in both Melchisedec a High-Priest that implies a sacrifice a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Thus the eternal life and blessedness prepared by God according to the free and good pleasure of his will to be communicated and imparted unto his chosen vessels whether men or Angels being too big and full to be received by them in their first make and fashion of building there is a means prepared for a new make and fashion of Creation for them whereby that which is in part is done away as it stands single and alone and yet is found again in the whole when that which is perfect is come and made to be their portion and inheritance whereby Gods peculiar ones are made to have that which other natural beings at their best have in common with them and yet have over and above that height and bredth and depth and length of the enjoyment of Gods love and peace which all the wisdom and discerning of the most capacious natural understanding whatsoever remaining upon the foundation of the first building can not reach nor attain Christ thus considered as Mediator is described Dan. 7. 9 10. by the antient of daies who is brought in fitting upon the same Throne as Rev. 4. whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wool his Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten Thousand times ten Thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the Books were opened even the Books of the Lamb that was slain from the foumdation of the world And behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the antient of daies verse 13. Here the offspring and root of David meet in marriage-union and the man Christ Jesus returns and ascends into the glory where he was before or in the beginning and they brought him neer before him so neer as both do make but one blessed Person of the Mediator who laies hold on the seed of David his own off-spring thus to bring him neer to him and gives him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him whose Dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall never be destroyed That this Antient of daies is the Son of God considered in the fulness and riches of his Mediatorship as hath been before opened is plain by comparing this with Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. where the same description is made in most particulars of him as in this seventh of Daniel adding this that out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword which is the proper character of the Living WORD of God Heb. 4. 12. and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength This compared again with Ioh. 5. 22 23. where Christ saith the Father judgeth no man but htah committed all judgement unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father doth import that by this Antient of daies is meant that antient state of things and works of old which was set up in the Mediator from everlasting Prov. 8. 23. and was made manifest in the beginning when he became the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead assuming in the dispensation of the fulness of time into neerness of union with himself the man Christ Jesus as the branch his servant the polished shaft hid in the shadow of his hand to accomplish his designs and be in his use and service the means of perfecting all that entercourse into which God thinks fit to admit the particular beings of men and Angels with himself in which state he is prefigured by the two Cherubims made at the end of the mercy-seat for the shadowing of it and by the two Olive-trees that stand by the Lord of the whole earth CHAP. III. Concerning the Creation of all things by Jesus Christ who is the Mysterie that lay hid in God from the beginning and makes himself manifest as well by the works of Creation as of Redemption IT can never be sufficiently observed how the WISDOM of God in the most difficult and knotty points to the reason of man doth without gratifying at all the curiosity of flesh and blood assert the truth of his own operations Thus Heb. 11. the Holy Ghost as taking for granted what he speaks of doth in short down-right terms declare ver 3. That the worlds were framed by the WORD of God and that by faith this is known to be so In which light it is also discovered that those things which are seen by our natural eye had a prae-existence in their proper head and cause and so had also those things that are not seen but to our spiritual discerning relating also to their proper root The method of which relative and radical being of things in their head in gradations one above another so as the inferiour subordinations of workmanship are the typical significations of them that are above is shortly and mystically yet fully and admirably laid down by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11. 3. where he saith that the
so ignorant of and such enemies to as most prophanely to call it a fiction and make little lesse of it then blasphemy We say that the flesh or natural man in the Saint whether considered in the workings of his morall nature or of his renewed enlightned nature under the first Covenant is crucified and rendred a copartner with Christ in his dead body whereby the powers and faculties of the mind in the natural man are neither annihilated nor deprived of their lawful use as lawful refers to the obedience of faith and the rule of the Gospel but only have death passe upon them or a disability and privation as to all unlawful use of them or possibility of acting in rebellion resistance or contradiction to the Law of the heavenly nature and mind set up by faith In this crucified posture of the flesh and broken-spiritednesse into which the powers and faculties of the natural mind are brought by faith the Prophet Isa 54. 1. calleth out to the Saint to sing as intimating that though the natural man be hereby disenabled to bear or bring forth fruit to its first husband Christ himself as made under the Law and head of natural perfection single yet it ought neverthelesse to break forth into singing in regard that by her being become dead to the Law she is married to another even to him that is raised from the dead to bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and life and that this its barrennesse is no just cause of reproach to it seeing it came to be lawfully disengaged from all obligation to its first Husband by the dead body of Christ through which her first Husband is become dead unto her so that she is no adulteresse though she be married to another man Rom. 7. 3 4. And therefore Cry aloud for joy saith the Prophet for more are the children of the desolate then of the married wife or she that keeps to her first Husband under the Law Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowheod any more for thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called In these two particulars therefore conformity to the death of Christ is made to consist by the Prophet Isaiah in this Chapter First in Christs own refusal to be any longer a Husband unto the natural man in the Saint through his own voluntary departure and withdrawing of himself out of his own fleshly life to go to his Father and be and remaine for ever in the glory of the Father in order to returne againe to the Saint as he that is risen from the dead to marry and espouse the soul that he hath thus grieved by his withdrawing For saith he The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused by thy God for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee Secondly the Saints conformity unto the death of Christ consists in the desolate forsaken barren state wherein the flesh and natural man is left by Christ as in a dry and barren wildernesse exposed to all temptations and trials from God Angels and Men within and without ready to sink and faile in spirit every moment partly under the appearance of Gods displeasure whose withdrawing and forsaking the soul understands not any more then Job did who was privy and conscious to the faithfulnesse and integrity of his heart to his first Husband whilest he abode with him and partly from the cold dead disconsolate frame of spirit wherein it now finds it self as it measures it self by the life of sense and not by the life of faith under both which pressures the Word of Christs patience is set before the soul by faith to be kept and observed Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame patiently suffering the bruising of his heele according as he had received commandment from the Father In this posture as a Widow indeed the poor broken-spirited Saint remains mourning and weeping left for a season as an Orphan by Christ brought into that condition which Christ foretold unto his Disciples whom at the present he acknowledged children of the Bridechamber whilest they had no higher knowledge of him then in his fleshly glory and perfection Of whom therefore he said As long as the Bridegroome was with them they could not fast but the dayes would come when the bridegroome should be taken away from them then they should fast intimating thereby the dayes of fasting and mourning and being clad in sackcloth which the true Saints witnesses of Christ were to be exercised with during the time of the trial of their faith upon the Bridegroomes being taken from them and changing that living fruitful frame of spirit which they were fed and nourished up in by him as they were his married wife under the Law into a fasting broken mournful desolate state of Widowhood which they are brought into as they are made one with Christ in his dead crucified body and are planted with him into the similitude of his death Christ then after he hath become a Bridegroome and married Husband unto true beleevers in and by his first appearance shining forth upon them in the life and glory of his natural and fleshly perfection wherein he hath nourished them up and made them fruitful children of that his Bride-chamber is pleased and hath power to take himself away from them and continue no longer with them as a Bridegroome under the first Covenant or in the ministery of his first appearance but wholly dissolve that marriage-band betweene them as refusing any longer to come forth in the exercise of life toward them upon the single root of his natural perfection in order upon the trial of their faith and their dutiful keeping the word of his patience during the time of this his separation from them to return again after a little moment and with everlasting mercies to embrace them and be married unto them in the light and life of his second appearance not only supplying to them again that wherein he was withdrawn from them but adding over and above a fuller and more abundant communication of life and glory which untill this death or withdrawing of his be perfected in them they are not capable subjects perfectly to receive and inherit but according to the steps and degrees of this death doth the approa hand increase of this higher life let it self in upon them and fill them This separation and withdrawing of Christ as a Bridegroome is the more bitter and grievous because this his absence carrieth in it the appearance of his wrath and sore displeasure to the eye of flesh
farre to enlighten the minds of men in these Nations Governours and people as to shew them the good of Magistracy as it is in its Primitive institution and is held forth in promise for to be restored in the last dayes It will then be their desire and delight to enquire and consider in a way of free debate and common consent on behalfe of the good people of these Nations who in all these great trials have stood faithful and unshaken as to the knowne cause they have beene engaged in how the Rule over them may be brought nearest to its first institution and original patterne in the exercise and practice thereof amongst them founded as we have seene upon the principles of natural right and just and so exclusive to all private interest and personal concerne of any singulars that shall be found to stand in competition with or preference to the good of the whole and how that which is the Ordinance and Institution of God may become also the ordinance and statute of man established in a free and natural way of common consent to the reuniting of all good men as one man in a happy union of their spirits prayers and counsels to resist all common danger and opposition which by Devils or Men may be raised against them And in this posture being taught how to escape the defilements and corruptions of the world together with the wrath and vengeance attending the same they may be accounted worthy to stand before the Sonne of man at his appearance and be acknowledged by him as those faithful servants of his Luke 12. 42 c. whom the Lord having made Rulers of all his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season shall find at his coming to be so doing in distinction from those wicked servants who say in their hearts and by their actions whatever contrary profession may be in their mouths that their Lord delayeth his coming and thereupon apply themselves to beat their fellow-servants and to eate and drink and be drunken upon whom the Lord will come in a day when they look not for him and at an hour when they are not aware and will cut them in sunder and appoint them their portion with hypocrites and unbeleevers where will be weeping and gnashing of teeth CHAP. XXV Treating of the power which shall be given unto the two Witnesses to Prophecie and finish their testimony when the suffering Saints of Christ must expect the visible protection of Magistracy to faile them as exercised in a worldly way WHat these two Witnesses are considered as well in a general acceptation as in the more restrained sense relating to Revel 11. where the power of prophesying to be given to them is mentioned we have already spoken in the thirteenth Chapter unto whom the Scripture sayes power shall be given to prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes in sackcloth being the two Olive-trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth whom if any man will hurt fire proceedeth out of their mouths and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie and have power over waters to turne them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will Rev. 11. 3 4 5 6. comprehending in this power of theirs all that was incident unto Moses and Elias in the dayes of their Ministery to fit them to the work that was by God allotted unto them In the exercise of this power the Saints of God shall be enabled to go forth before the great and notable day of the Lord come even then when to the eye of flesh and blood their state and condition shall be at the lowest and they shall seeme to be surrounded with the power of the world in the fiercest opposition and enmity against them At which time it is said Dan. 12. 1. that MICHAEL shall stand up the GREAT PRINCE which standeth for the children that are the true Israel of God in a troublesome season such as never was since there was a Nation to that time and the Saints shall be delivered even every one that shall be found written in the Book This standing up of Christ seemes to be by the power which he gives to his TWO WITNESSES that in this troublesome season are to prophesie in sackcloth shewing plainly thereby that they are but fore-runners to the coming of Christ himself before the brightnesse of whose appearance all opposition shall be consumed and vanish away Whence it is that during these two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth their enemies bear up in as much confidence as ever consisting not only of the generation of Hypocrites and Apostates embodying themselves as a holy City and earthly Jerusalem but of all the rest of the Gentiles who notwithstanding the differences betweene themselves do make a shift to peece up together that they may both attaine their ends upon the true spiritual seed and right heirs of salvation essaying to mingle themselves and joyne counsels and forces in a combination against the approaching glory of Christs Kingdome as he shall come to be admired in all those that do beleeve When it shall thus come to passe that this yron and clay shall mixe together it shall be but for a season for at length the corrupt world finding its owne strength will besiege this Jerusalem spiritually called Sodome and burne this whore in the fire of their rage and hatred against her Then shall the visible worship and formes of Christian Religion that are in being and practice amongst any people in their fleshly reformation come to be destroyed taken away swallowed up into impurity and corruption and mens hearts will be greatly failing them for feare by reason of what God is bringing upon the earth And at this very season when all outward protection visible defence and power through the treachery of Hypocrites and Apostates shall be withdrawne from the suffering Saints of God and in a just recompence of Divine vengeance the siege of the earthly Jerusalem shall draw nigh upon those that have made themselves accessory to the betraying of the spiritual seed as it did on the literal Jerusalem upon the betraying and crucifying of Christ then shall the TWO WITNESSES receive their Commission and stand up in a destitute naked and poor condition as to worldly assistance but armed with the mighty power of God and the fiery indignation that shall accompany their witnesse against their adversaries whereof Elias in his dayes was the figure who for the same number of dayes prophesied and said there should be no raine and afterwards brought raine againe by his prayer and fire also from heaven yet a man of like passions and affections with us which also these two Witnesses shall be found to be in the dayes of their prophecie as a proof whereof their dead