THE Retired Mans Meditations OR THE Mysterie and Power OF GODLINES Shining forth in the Living WORD to the unmasking the Mysterie of Iniquity in the most Refined and Purest Forms And withall presenting to view I. The Riches and fulness of Christs Person as Mediator II. The Natural and Spiritual Man in their proper Distinction III. The Reign and Kingdom of Christ in the Nature Limits and extent thereof as well in his Saints as over his Enemies IN WHICH Old Light is restored and New Light Justified Being the Witness which is given to this Age BY Henry Vane Knight London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold at the three Bibles neer the West end of Pauls 1655. TO THE READER THere is not any thing which lies more cross to the busie and boundless Spirit of Man then that which takes him off the wing of his Natural desire and is as a bar unto that activity in him which if permitted to run its course makes his feet swift to his own destruction For when such a power is assumed and delighted in by man to direct his own steps the more he is gratified by God with a scope and freedom herein the more is he left alone and singled out in a self-sufficiency of wisdom and strength to be at his own dispose and reap the fruit of his many inventions The springing up of this spirit in man at first aspiring herein to be as God was that that cast him down from his excellency and gave him his Fall setting up in him that great Idol SELF-INTEREST which hath ever since so skilfully insinuated into the desire and heart of every natural man that by its influence the whole world seems to be governed as well in Religion as Civil policy being able to bring that gain and advantage to the observers thereof which as a powerful bait the Devil makes use of to bribe the conscience and by degrees to draw off the heart from God and from sincere love to all righteous and good principles as in the exercise thereof they lie thwart to its designs Self thus considered is no other then the Spirit of man lusting after the doing of his own will and procuring his own glory more then Gods a frame of spirit in direct contrariety to Christs Iob. 5. 30. c. 6. 38. which inordinate affection is the covetousness the Apostle calls idolatry Col. 3. 5. as wel-knowing that the cherishing and upholding of this lust in its credit strength and authority is dearer to man then all other things yea then God himself So as whilst Communion with God and the fruits of his presence are found gainfull and supporting hereunto man is content to part with the filthiness of flesh and be washed from his old darling sins putting on the form of godliness but when the cross of Christ shews it self and comes forth as an enemy against it then God must be dethroned the son of God and the true riches troden under foot so that nothing must stand up or be allowed competition herewith but all must bow and do homage or become the objects of its fierce wrath and displeasure If ever this spirit creep into the purest Forms of Religion in conjunction with worldly Government to back it as the case may be t is then got into its last strong hold and chief place of defence where sitting as on a throne of iniquity it frames mischief by a Law and in casting the truth down to the ground it practises and prospers for a season against the Saints of the most High and against the Prince himself of this heavenly Host magnifying it self and bidding defiance to all adversaries whatsoever Nevertheless the power and wisdom of the cross of Christ is able to grapple with it and in due time will visibly undertake it and triumph over it But forasmuch as this selfish spirit is prophesied of as that which shall be eminently in view in the last dayes 2 Tim. 3. 2. as an immediate forerunner of Christs second coming called Mark 13. 14. The abomination that maketh desolate described as being gotten into the holy place and standing where it ought not even in the very Temple of God clothed with a visibility of Saintship it does therefore behove us to stand upon our watch armed with the whole armour of God against it this being indeed the foundation of all that hypocrisie and apostacy which the last days shall be filled with For this purpose these Meditations on the WORD of Life are presented to thee setting forth evidently before thine eyes Iesus Christ and him crucified in whose grave this self-exalting spirit is found among the dead as conquered and slain either through the power of Faith in the true Saint or by the rod of iron dashing and breaking in pieces all wilful resisters as a potters vessel Christ as he is this WORD of Life is Alpha and Omega the first and the last In which dignity and preheminence he is not only him that is true but hath the property and way of being known by himself as the first and original patern of all true knowledge and discerning So as they that have been with this Iesus trained up at his feet under his immediate teachings are able through him strengthening them to give a reason of their hope whereof they need not be ashamed Being on this account encouraged and having an opportunity ministred through the retiredness of my condition I judged it my duty amongst that variety of witness in the things of God which is at this day given forth to bear also my part and stand up in my lot taking this age to record that I am herein free from the blood of all men as not having shunned to declare unto them the Counsels and truths of God that have obtained a large entrance and reception in my heart as a seed there sowen which is springing up to a perfect day The Warrant and Rule for this practice is so express and undeniable that it needs only the mentioning Rom. 10. 10. where it is said with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And Christ says of himself For this cause was I born and came into the world that I might bear witness to the Truth And to this Paul exhorts Timothy saying Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses And this in imitation of Christ himself who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good Confession Yet how ungrateful a thing is it to flesh and blood in the best of us to be bearing that witness which seems to carry contention in it with the whole earth Jer. 15. 10. sending forth a fire upon all that is earthly to consume the false Rests wherein Professors themselves are apt to take up even in that wherein we are allowed only to be as Sojourners Yea what streights are we in as streightned
the Trinity in the first and abstract consideration of God their opinion were in that not to be faulted by their opponents any more then the applying of divine personality unto them in the second consideration of God as he is God the Mediator is to be blamed in them that acknowledge three individual persons in the same Godhead Having thus occasionally opened in what sense the Trinity are three persons coming forth in distinct similitudes in which they are to be known as it were by name we also affirm that thus for them personally to appear and minister a distinct three-fold similitude of God is absolutely necessary in God the Mediator in order to the sitting him for that his Office and to render him the sutable object of converse with the creature either in the life that now is or in that which is to come If therefore the intent of the Antitrinitarians be to assert that God comes forth but in one manner of operation and personality ministring but one single image of himself they do thereby either exclude the creature from any converse with him at all as leaving no other way of converse but such as is improper and impossible for any in the capacity of a creature to obtain and which to enjoy is the only incommunicable priviledge of the Mediator and that only as he is God or else they do so far debase the Majesty of God as to rank him in an equality with the creature confining his similitude to what bears proportion only to the creatures understanding and converse as upon its first natural root thus changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man Hence then we conclude the necessity of three persons in unity of essence The first ministring that similitude and operation which is commensurate to Gods own infinite comprehension The second that which is proportioned to the creatures finite natural discerning springing up in the Mediator as he is the first-born of every creature the root and measure to all inferiour natural beings The third that which is adaequate to the new creatures capacity formed also in the Mediator through the offering up of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in which he is the beginning and first-begotten from the dead the root and measure unto the whole spiritual seed or general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven In all these three similitudes of God or personal appearances of the Trinity considered in themselves the Mediator is truly and perfectly God able to give them forth in himself who therein is the image of the invisible God in which sense he is frequently called in the Scriptures the WORD the WORD of Life the WORD of God Now since the effects of this three-fold operation at least in what concerns the Mediators being made thereby a meet object of converse unto the Creature in its creature-capacity in any sort must needs he owned by the Antitrinitarians themselves why should they be unwilling to be led by these to the acknowledgement of the springs whence they flow which are the three essential properties in God that in the sense we have shewed do very well agree and consist with the unity and simplicity of his essence But as these are short-sighted in this great mysterie so is it but too evident that their opposers also are in other respects overseen who by confounding these two together which ought to be kept distinct do little less then deny Gods essential image under pretence of asserting the three persons or at least entertain very mistaken notions thereof wholly praetermitting the proper witness which the second and third persons bear in the essential image in order to cause their own reception in Christ as he is the first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead And having thus singled out the Fathers witness from the other two they rank it under the notion of a person between the first and the third looking upon the second person only as Gods essential image making it his proper distinguishing character from the Father and the Holy Ghost excluding him thereby out of the number of the three that bear witness and confining the essential image to the Fathers operation only as that which is peculiar unto him They may be supposed to have been led into this mistake by that common description of the Trinity in these expressions the Father begets the Son is begotten the Holy Ghost proceeds understood by them in an improper and differing sense from what the Scrpiture holds forth 1 Joh. 5. 7. where it is said that there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one So that here we find the three that are their own self-evidencers or the head cause of their own manifestation or witness each of whom in this sense do beget are begotten each hidden property producing its own image so come forth in their distinct personal appearances peculiarity of witness w ch all three bear in the face of the Mediator which argues that those who deny the Trinity in these their distinct operations similitudes wherein only they are to be beheld as in a glass by the creature and yet pretend to own their persons hidden vertues and properties do seem rather to please themselves in an implicit faith and formal confession of this high mysterie then to have a due regard to the teachings and witness which the Trinity themselves give as laying open the inward reason and nature of their three-fold operation The first of which bears the name of Father because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him unto the increated and unbegotten understanding of God alone is the first and the original glory The second bears the name of Son because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is proportioned to the natutural mind of the creature and as such is begotten as a secondary and figurative representation of the first The third bears the name of the Holy Ghost because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is the union and proceed of the other two retaining themselves in perfect harmony and love as the sutable object to the new creatures understanding In this sense we say the witness of the Father is unbegotten The witness of the Son is begotten The witness of the Holy Ghost is proceeding as the record which the three in heaven are said to bear which three are one and their witness one as well as three CHAP. II. Concerning the Holy Scriptures their Authority and Vse with the Harmony and Analogie which they hold with the Living WORD WEE have already shewed how by the WORD is not only meant the second person in the Trinity in his distinction from the Father and the Holy Ghost who bears witness as well as they but that the witness it self which is given by them all
the natural will or judgement in all the power and light thereof at best whilst unregenerate have no skil in nor know how to set about but as fools and little châ—ldren men must be found at the feet of Christ that he may give them a new birth and so teach and enable them thereunto But now these that thus have a right litteral knowledge of the Gospel are necessitated as to the life and power of their inward principles to fall in with and agree upon the same natural righteousness holiness and perfection in kind with their opposers and make use of their weapons to fix the truth of their witness taken up by them from theletter of the Scripture in such expressions as belong to the new-covenant-life in the second Adam upon those principles of the first Adams purity and perfection or the life of the covenant of Works as restored in and by the blood of Christ which the Scripture never intends if rightly understood but indeed on this account doth undeniably cast the cause upon those that are for the common and general Redemption who are not to be blamed for what they assert as to the extent of the benefit of Christs death to all men but for denying the truth of that witness held forth by the other which ought to have its due place and to be owned by them as consistent with theirs if they understood it yea as that which alone can give perfection and stability thereunto which therefore if rightly stated and acknowledged by them would return shame sufficient upon their adversaries discovering them to be self-condemners as opposing that very thing in the spirit and truth of it the grace faith and principles of the second-covenant-life which they do so zealously contend for in the Letter as to the peculiarity and durableness of the benefit which the true Saint receives by the death of Christ and as agreeing with that in spirit and truth the single activity and life of first-covenant-principles which they implacably oppose in the letter These are the contradictions that with great confidence and censoriousness are maintained on both sides in this our age whilst truth it self suffers every way and is unacceptable to either none being more ready then these to lay Heresie Blasphemy and high Notions at the wrong door of others in hopes to make themselves appear the sound and good Physitians Thus we see under the shadow and letter of the covenant of Grace the truth and spirit of it opposed and kept out and those that do it miserably tearing out their own bowels and pleasing themselves with names for things Whence it is that none are more confident of their being within the covenant of Grace freed from any danger of the covenant of Works then this latter sort of men who do that honour and right to the covenant of Grace as to be for it in their mouths but remove their heart far from it and hug in their bosoms the principles and life of the covenant of Works as that which they will not part with by any means but in such case will rather as with weeping may be said of them become enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. And herein they are hardned also two waies First by considering those that are behind them who maintain the doctrine of works against the litteral witness which they give unto the covenant of grace whence they conclude themselves free from any danger of being comprehended under a covenant of works Secondly by the consideration of their witness that pretend to be above them and to hold forth a Kingdom that consists not in word only but in power who under pretence of spirit and power do either with those called Ranters set up the doctrine and inspiration of devils in opposition to the truth of their witness that is but in the letter introducing again the filthiness of the flesh whereby to destroy the righteousness and holiness of the natural man which is not done away as some falsly and scandalously affirm we say by conformity with Christ in his death but is thereby fulfilled for that garment is made yet more pure and white by the blood of the Lamb and is kept spotless by this means to the second appearance of Christ or else they do annihilate the creature-being and assert perfection to consist in a swallowing up thereof into the pure being of God even in that glory wherein he is in communicable and saith I am and there is none besides me as the Familist and such who gather up all at last into a state of eternal salvation or rather into no state of creature-being at all and so in effect making neither heaven nor hell The contrary unto both these opinions is freely and fully asserted in this treatise in the believers conformity to Christs death and resurrection a doctrine which nevertheless in the true and full extent of it is accounted very offensive and scandalous in these daies of ours even amongst those that are most zealous for it in the letter who possibly may oppose it ignorantly for a season but when it comes to wilful sinning in this case it carries its own fire about with it whereby to devour the adversaries This little excursion I judged not unuseful for the cleerer and fuller asserting of the doctrine of the cross and death of Christ as it operates upon and is mis-judged by those that are yet under the first covenant considered as dispensed by the Son himself in his first appearance wherein he is a minister of the circumcision in the truth of it the righteousness and holiness of his flesh or natural man being the law or covenant of works in its highest and most glorious administration In this respect Christ is said himself to be made under the Law who also doth effectually teach those that follow him in the power of his death and resurrection how the Law may be used lawfully and according to the true intent of the giving of it So that Christ by coming in the flesh and considered as giving himself singly in and by the means of his first appearance doth beget unto himself children of the law or first covenant whose knowledge of him is only after the flesh and who though they be taken by him in to his house and built up with him in his flesh as one Tabernacle and habitation unto God yet attain no higher thereby then to be in the holy place and to minister and serve before the Lord there in a state figured out by the charge of the Levites under the Law who notwithstanding their officiating and performing service unto God in the Temple are capable of being for ever excluded from coming into the holiest of all there to do the office of a Priest or to come neer to any of those holy things which are within the veil in the most holy place and to be made
do become degenerate plants that bring forth sowr and wild grapes whose grape is the grape of Sodom their wine the wine of Gomorrah and so are turned out of the house cut off from the vine as branches sit for the fire being trees twice dead and so plucked up by the roots once dead in trespasses and sins as children of wrath in the first Adam and dead again after their renewal to natural righteousness and holy flesh in the second Adam by sinning again after the similitude of the first Adams transgression Under this general head of Christs subjects in this second dispensation we may take notice of two sorts of professors very numerous and famous in their generations who as well teachers as disciples do content themselves with these principles and operations of conscience and spirit and bless themselves in them saying we shall have peace here as not enough aware of the frailty and slipperiness of this state or of that root of bitterness that in and with all these is or may be springing up in them to the defiling of many and causing them at last to draw back unto perdition if they be and continue strangers to that saving faith through the power of which only men are preserved to eternal life The first sort are those that hold general Redemption or that Christ died for all men the other are those that under the name of Orthodox are their fierce and implacable Antagonists herein each bearing both a true witness and a false one against another and both of them excluding and opposing upon divers grounds the true righteous seed that live by faith which faith the Scripture describes to be a heavenly power and operation of mind whereby Christ as he is the very image itself and substantial brightness of Gods glory works himself into the soul and causeth himself to subsist dwell and be evidenced there He that believeth on the Son of God hath this witness in himself and by it is taught to see that whoever they be that live but singly in the natural powers and operations of mind before described as perfect holy and righteous as they are and there rest will be in danger of miscarrying before they come to the end of their Race and so will fall short of the true mark of their high calling There is not any thing which Christian experience may more convince us of if we will be ingenuous then of the fallacy and mistake which most men run into by laying hold on some shadow and figure for the good thing it self which if they knew their own minds they themselves would have and therefore it is so much in their eye and desire in the shadow But the subtilty of the devil is such that when he cannot work the mind to a downright opposition of the truth he engages the understanding by the means of a right figure and shadow of TRUTH to oppose and keep out the very image itself that is the substance and the glory that is to follow In this stratagem the devil may be traced from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end imposing upon and deluding men whose short-sightedness at their best is such that their thoughts and Gods thoughts differ as far as heaven and earth which faith reconciles and makes co-workers together in due subordination and perfect harmony By reason of this distance between man in his most holy and righteous natural operations and the heavenly mind of Christ men yea good men are with Samuel running to Eli as thinking he cals them when they should go to God and are taking Eliab the first-born for David the youngest son Christ in his first appearance for Christ in his second and so with John in the Revelation are worshipping the Angel and fellow-servant for Christ the Lord of all and to bring this neerer to our purpose now in hand they take the covenant of nature for the covenant of grace making those inconsistent and to fight one against another that are brethren and dwell together in unity if they were rightly explicated and understood Thus with the letter of truth men endeavour to bear down the spirit of it Upon these grounds those that are for the general extent of Christs death finding the truth of their belief expressed in the letter of the Gospel as indeed it is satisfie themselves in that and rest there thinking it sufficient to try and judge all men as they reject or own and fall in with this litteral knowledge of the Gospel which they profess and give a good and faithful witness in becoming herein the more established first because they see that to be behind them which they take for the first covenant from whence they conceive themselves well escaped that is the personal righteous actings and holy operations which the natural conscience exercises itself in as looked upon to be that wherein our life consists which they wholly renounce and disclaim witnessing their life in another even in the righteous one through the propitiatory vertue of his blood and sacrifice which they indeed may yea ought as children of the first covenant the Jews being obliged to as much as we have shewed by the Law and as they were inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem But secondly they are yet the more confirmed in their perswasion because those that pretend to be before them and above them in light do evidently contradict and deny unto them most cleer certain and undeniable truths undeniable I say admitting that which ought to be admitted to wit that the witness which is given by this sort of professors amounts no higher in its significancy and right application then to exhibit to us the state and terms of the covenant of works as it consists in the knowledge of Christ after the flesh And so all that which they say concerning conditional reprobation free-will falling away and the like as relating to the children of the first covenant will find that from the Scriptures which will justifie it Their Antagonists therefore would lose no ground by granting what they say as thus stated and considered But that which keeps those that call themselves Orthodox from doing this is that they judge it would be a giving up of their cause when indeed it would but drive them to the surest and most unresistable grounds upon which to maintain it as is most evident if you will be at the pains to take a short view of their principles and witness also For these great and lofty opposers of the general point do in like manner as the others did find that in the letter of Scripture which renders undoubtedly true what in their witness they hold forth asserting a certain number of Elect by name chosen from all eternity given unto Christ of whom he is to lose none As the fruit of this love we find also the gift of peculiar grace to some not to others which cannot fail nor be fallen from and commandments given them to do which
integrity of Jobs spirit herein the Devil hath leave granted from God to bruise Jobs heele or to be the executioner of Gods wrath upon Job in all manner of appearances and evidences thereof as could render it real and credible to flesh and blood either in Job himself or in the minds and apprehensions of his three friends having for this purpose a permissive Commssion from God to spolle and deprive Job of all gainfull things to him as to this world his life onely excepted Secondly this being obtained and also put into execution he doth his utmost to disquiet Jobs spirit outwardly from the sense of this hard usage and dealing thus received from the Lord to see if he could move him to an impatient murmuring mutining heart against God as a severe Master at best to a faithful servant or else as an unjust dealer according to Covenant who promiseth good dayes to them that do eschew evil and do good which Job having been most diligent and sincere in is neverthelesse thus rewarded as to be numbred amongst the vilest transgressors and malefactors in Gods outward dispensation towards him and yet put upon it to bear it patiently as becoming a broken contrite spirit before the Lord who as he gives freely the good things he bestowes so may also take them away againe without giving account why Thirdly when this takes not he incenses his nearest relations against him imputing the cause of all this wrath to his sincere walking and stedfast cleaving unto God in a singular way from all the rest of the world representing the sad and suffering state hereby brought upon himself and them which he might remedy by letting go his integrity and falling into a fawning compliance with the corrupt interest of the times helived in Fourthly as a backing and seconding of this he moves his three friends against him that probably were all the comfortable society he had in the middest of a heathenish and wicked world round about him and they being professors of the fear and worship of the true and living God and exceeding strict and exact in their walkings as appears by all their arguments and endeavours to perswade Job against the faithful witnesse of his own conscience within that all this is befallen him as a just reward from God of some secret hypocrisie of heart that is in him and unfaithfulnesse to God in his walkings which God hath now found out and punished and which they urge him to acknowledge and give glory to God by repenting and returning from it that so the rod may be removed hereby discovering their great ignorance of Gods designe in this manner of chastening and afflicting his Saints which is done by God for a farre other and higher end then they were aware of that is to say to traine them up unto the obedience of faith consisting in that which God accounts thankworthy in servants to their masters when a man for conscience towards God endures grief suffering wrongfully or without giving cause for it For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even hereunto were ye called because Christ also thus suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sinne neither was guile found in his month who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously This kind of obedience was God intending to teach Job who in and with all his former wel-doings is taught by God not only to want the reward of them for the present but to have the contrary reward executed upon him as the bruising of his heele for the triall of his patience under it and for the practising another kind of obedience and sort of good works then any worldly professour or bastard that is not the true son would ever bear or endure Heb. 12. and which all that are sons must be trained up in as the singular thing which is to be done by them in obeying Gods will in a way of patience which shall not be found in any that are enemies to the Crosse of Christ Fifthly and lastly Satan improves the result of all these appearances of wrath from God perswasions and mistakes of friends and relations together with the inward sense which by all this is ministred to the workings of unsubdued flesh and blood in him to make Job faile and despond in his minde towards God and to conclude himself amongst those that are free amongst the dead to whom the Lord hath forgotten to be gracious ready to cry out My God my God why hast thou for saken me This is the second maine particular of the fulfilling in us a conformity to Christ in his death by Satans bruising of the heele in this manner represented in the example of Job The third is in respect of the workings of unsubdued flesh and blood abiding and remaining in a Saint as the body of sin and death he carries about with him whether from the corrupt or pure old Adam set up in him both which are equally to feele the weight of the crosse of Christ unto which they are to be nailed to the causing of all enmity and sin to cease out of them and be for ever abolished and taken away For which purpose that is to be taken from them and offered up in sacrifice without spot unto God which the natural man in whatever capacity he is whether at his best or at his worst hath no minde to part with upon any termes and therefore doth resist and oppose as long as his ability serves or until a perfect disability and weaknesse be brought upon him rendering it impossible for him to hold out or keep any longer the selfish power to do his own will to speak his own words to think his own thoughts to finde his own desire or exercise his own lust either unto good or evil as living upon his natural root which exercise of free will is essential unto mans natural constitution or first make as hath been shewed in an arbitrary and independant course of motion and action conferred upon him by his participation of Gods first image or the Ministery to him of Gods first appearance single And which so long as that Ministery lasts as its husband or object of converse is kept up in man as a principle of acting by his own free choice and disposal of himself in the use of fit means allowed him by God to induce and perswade him to the good God requires of him This power in the natural man thus to act and live is his joy and delight the desire and lust of his soul and this is revived and strengthened by the Law or the Ministery of Christ in the perfection of the first Covenant which man makes use of to the emboldening and hardening of himself in a