by its Heavenly entire Unity maks the heavenly the earthly Image both one Spirit one Life one Glory one Divine Person one new man in Christ Jesus in whose bosom they lie mutually infolding each other in most beautiful and most delightful Embraces Thus now is the Earthly man and the Earthly Paradise risen again in the Regeneration not single but as a glorious Bride to the Heavenly Image the Heavenly Paradise having her Bridegroom in her arms and being clasped fast in his This is the second difference between the Soul in its Earthly Paradise and in the first Resurrection when it is new born to a life of Grace in the place of that Life of pure nature 3. You have seen two differences between the Life in the state of pure nature in Paradise and the Resurrection of this Life unto a state of Grace in the Regeneration or new birth In these two differences this Life as it is risen again excelleth itself as it was in its pure and primitive state for the kind and nature of it after a wonderful manner by an accession of the most Heavenly and highest Glory together with Immortality But this third difference will shew us this Life in the Resurrection as it is a Life of Grace for its present state and degrees on Earth far inferiour unto itself as it was puâ—ely natural in the first Paradise 1. The Life of Grace in the Regeneration or Resurrection is imperfect in degree while it is on Earth it is in its Infancy in its Childhood under age under Guardians under the Tutorship of Angels as St. Paul speaks It is a Life of Faith not of clear and compleat Fruition It is a dying Life a Life bearing the Image of Christ's Death and not yet brought forth entirely into the Resurrection from the Dead It is a Life subject to many weaknesses by reason of its Infant-state and Childhood It is a Life in Growth and so not arrived to its perfect Stature 2. The Life of Grace in this first Resurrection is imperfect for its state The Spiritual or Heavenly Man in a Believer is joyned in the same Person with the Old Man which is cursed and corrupt with the Child of the Curse and Corruption The Heavenly Image and the Earthly Image new-born Heaven itself and the first Paradise risen again are truly in a Saint on Earth do compose the true Nature Essence and Person of a Saint But there are joyned together with these in the same outward Person the Earthly Image as it is corrupt and the Hellish Image the Earthly or fleshly Image as it is fallen and the Hellish Image in which inseparably do reside the universal Corruption and Curse all the powers of Darkness Death and Hell Thus are all the Purities Sweetnesses Glories of Paradise or Heaven in a Saint mixed and Vailed that they can never appear intire or in their own proper Form but imperfectly darkly and Enigmatically as St Paul speaks or as those men that were seen walking in the forms of Trees by him whose eyes Jesus Christ had touched the first time only Thus the Spiritual Man in a Saint though it have Heaven and Paradise united in itself yet in this first step of its resurrection it hath within the same outward person a continual interchangeable War and Fight with the Earth and with Hell the Flesh and the Devil Sometimes it is made a Captive cast into Chains of darkness laid low with all its Glories in a deep and miery dungeon where no spark of Divine Light appears when it is a Conquerour it is in the field still where its sweetness and Glory are vailed and stained as with the dust of the Earth as with the smoke of the Fight and of Hell as with the Blood of its Wounds In the midst of these it is ever alarmed to new Fights This is the state of a Saint in the first step of the Resurrection which is the new Birth or the Life of Grace on Earth Objection Some that are truly Saints may now say to us Alas how are we excluded from the new birth if they who are new born have Heaven and Paradise in an Heavenly Form brought forth within them and they themselves are after an Heavenly manner brought forth into these as by a Resurrection from the dead How far are we from discerning any thing so sweet so great so Glorious in our selves Ans. I shall give five answers to this Objection to comfort the lowest of the Saints who least of all seem to themselves to be such 1. The Lord Jesus lay in the Womb was laid an Infant in the Manger slept as a man had all the Light of Heaven Visible or invisible withdrawn from him being deserted by the God-head itself in respect to any sensible presence assistance or enjoyment of it died on the Cross was shut up a dead Corps in the Grave Yet in the Womb in the Manger in his sleep in his Desertion on the Cross in the Grave had he Heaven and Paradise with their divinest sweetnesses and fulnesses in himself he himself was after the sweetest fullest and Divinest manner in Paradise and Heaven For he himself in his own Person is the Light the Life and Truth of both All this was unchangeably true of him even in his Flesh and in his natural man when to him in his Flesh and in his natural man nothing of this appeared or seemed to be at all Thus may it be with thee O doubting and mourning Christian who weepest for that life of the Spirit which hath Heaven and Paradise in it by having Jesus Christ risen from the dead in it Thou refusest to be comforted because these are not or rather appear not in thee But consider this and be comforted Cast thy eye upon thy Pattern the Lord Jesus and then say Christ with Heaven and Paradise may be in me I may be in Heaven and in Paradise by being in Christ though this appear not to me Christ may be in me I may be in Christ in the Womb or in the Manger in a deep sleep or a desertion upon the Cross or in the Grave But in Truth by all these Heaven and Paradise with all their Divine store and furniture rise up in me so much the more Gloriously by how much the more Christ is formed in me and I am conformed to Christ. 2. Ans. Jesus Christ in the Gospel compareth the Kingdom of Heaven or of God to a seed of wheat sown in the field which cometh up first in the Blade then in the Stalk then in the Ear and lastly in the Ripe Corn in the Ear. Why dost thou sigh O Believer and say that thou hast nothing of Christ of Heaven of Paradise risen from the dead and new-born in thee because they shine not forth in thee and they take not thee in to see them to be seen by them to converse with them in their Spiritual proper eternal Forms and Glories It may be true that they
Confirmation I will open it in three Parts 1. The Change 2. The Circumstances 3. The Cause of this Change Part 1. The Change There are two States to be considered in this Part. 1. The State of Man before this Change 2. The State to which this Change is made 1. State That of Man before this Change Man before his Conversion walks in a threefold Image 1. The Image of Nature 2. The Image of the Devil 3. The Image of Divine Wrath. 1. Image of Nature St. Paul tell us 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Man Earth and Heaven are here opposed not as Men and Angels Visible and Invisible things but as the State of things in the Creature and in Christ. So it appears manifestly by the Context of that place that the first Adam the Earthly Man the first Creation Nature in the Visible and Invisible things of it are all the same thing and One Image Into this Image Man is born of his Natural Parents In this he lives Naturally This Image hath three things in it 1. 'T is a Representation 2. 'T is a Meer Representation 3. 'T is a Mixt One 1. The Image of Nature is a Representation The Earthly Man is an Image of God as well as the Heavenly St. Paul teacheth us Rom. 5. 14. in the latter part of it that the first Adam is a figure of him who is to come that is Jesus Christ. Whatever Rich workings and various forms are in him who is the Wisdom of God Whatever Depth of Life Heighth of Activity Store of Virtues are in him who is the Power of God Whatever ravishing Beauties are in him who is the Brightness of the Father's Glory Whatever endless Sweetnesses of Love Loveliness mutual Relations are in him who is the first the Only begotten of the Father All these are figured out and represented to us in the Earthly Image This is the first thing 2. The Image of Nature is a Meer Representation It hath a show of things but not the very things themselves We read Psal. 39. 5. Man at his best Estate is altogether vanity Take the first Man at his Best as he was crown'd with the whole Quire of Angels when they were the first and freshest Rayes of Divinity among the Creatures as he was cloath'd with the heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars while yet they were the near and transparent Images of Angels living in them as he hath spread about his Feet all the Delicacies of Air Earth and Sea when they were Pure and Chrystalline Reflections of the heavenly Bodies The first Man in this State was a meer Phantome a fleeting Fancy a Bubble Vanity quite thorow and so he vanisht in his Fall Gen. 1. 27. God made Man in his own Image Psal. 39. 6. Surely Man walketh in a vain show Those two expressions Image vain Show are both the same in Hebrew TSelem If you translate the same word in Genesis as it is translated in the Psalm you will then read thus God made Man in a vain show of himself Obj. But you may object thus against this If God be Omnipresent and fill All how can any thing be a Representation of him without him He is at the bottom of the Sea in the shades of Death and Hell Psal. 139. 8 9 10. Can any thing be a meer Show when he who is All is every where and fills each Show of things Ans. 'T is true as Euthydemus the Heathen taught of old All things are in each thing Or as St. Paul since him hath Preacht upon clearer grounds God is a Fulness filling all in All Eph. 1. 23. But this also is true that All things are in each thing according to the Manner of that in which they are God is as truly in the Froward as in the Gentle Spirit But we learn the Differences of his Presence from David Psal. 18. 26. With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward God is not only on Mount Sion but on Mount Sinai yet so that on Mount Sinai he is a flame of fire on Mount Sion a calm and clear Light So God is in Himself and in the Creature In Himself he is Himself the Eternal Rock and Substance of things He is in the Creature only as his own Shadow This is the Infiniteness and Unsearchableness of God He comprehends the thinnest Shadows in Himself and makes them there Substantial Again he casts Himself into every Shadow or Show and Himself there becomes but shadowy Thus he is All in All. Thus much for the second thing in the Natural Image 3. The Image of Nature is a Mixt Representation The Making of the World was divided into so many Parts as Days each Day had its Night a Morning and an Evening made the Day This was to signifie that the Fundamental Constitution of this frame of things was laid in a commixture of Light and Darkness These two mutually catch and enfold one another The Light discovers God The Darkness obscures that Discovery so that seeing we do not see The Light pleaseth us the Darkness perplexeth those pleasures so that this Life is as a Shady Valley as a Shadow of Life and Death Heaven and Hell both in one The Light invites and allures us to those Immortal Seats above pointing out a shining Path to them The Darkness affrights us and drives us back casting a mist of Doubt upon those beautiful Beings presenting it self between them and us as a Dreadful Gulf to be pass'd Nature is by this means an Image of the Perfections which are beyond Nature but an Imperfect one God speaks it Isa. 55. 9. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my waies higher than your waies and my thoughts than your thoughts The waies of God are the unchang'd workings of Glory perpetually casting it self into all Changes in the Divine Nature The Thoughts of God are the deepest Roots the most spatious Expansion and Putting forth the fixt and glorious Platforms or Figures of things in the Godhead The Waies and Thoughts of Man are the figurings of things in Nature or according to the Forms of Nature This is a certain Rule The first thing in every kind is the Original and Substance all second things are Images of that The first thoughts and waies are those in God The Waies of Nature the Thoughts in Man are second to those and so Images of them but with as vast a Difference as the Distance is between Heaven and Earth Thus Imperfect and Mixt is Nature yet an Image of Divine Perfections and Purity We have now taken a view of the first Image in which Man walks before his Change Use 1. Excitation The first Use is to awaken in us a Sense of our State as we are Men. This would very advantagiously direct sweeten assist our Conversion Let us then to this end consider these four Questions 1.
Content Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah but she meets an Angel that sweetly sends her back thither where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit Hagar this Fleshly Being the Bond-woman This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress she flies from her Face her Appearances which oppress the Flesh with their Glory But the bright Images of this Beauty as Angels meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight in the Principles of Nature By the flashes and breakings forth of these Man is persuaded to return and submit himself to the supreme Beauty his Mistress and Parent so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father Happy is that Soul that after all her weary steps thorow the world to seek Content now tyred thinks of Returning to her Father her first Husband and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb out of which I was brought forth into this world Thy Sweetness is the Bosom in which I must eternally rest How long shall I linger here O when shall I once leave this world and come again to thee Q. 4. How come we hither Thorow a Darkness You shall in the first of Genesis see that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature thorow which all things pass out of one into the other This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World or any Creature When we come into this life we come well drencht drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness There is no more any Remembrance of former things We know not where we were when God laid the Foundations of the Earth or what we were before that when all our Bones were first written by God in his Book when first those Eternal Forms which were to frame and sustain every shape or state into which we should pass were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom We are of Yesterday and know nothing We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us and swallows up this into it self as it passeth along Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wild Asses Coâ—t Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt as void as that of all Eternal Images Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World all which you must put off so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness into which you must return Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life Those waters of Forgetfulness into which we must all descend will wash them all away Imagine this Life as an Island surrounded with a Sea of Darkness beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity Blessed is he that can raise himself to such a Pitch as to look off this Island beyond that Darkness to the utmost bound of things He sees his way before and behind him What shall trouble him on this Twig of Life on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight Thou cam'st through a darkness hither but Yesterday when thou wer 't born Why then shouldst thou not more readily and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills Let us then ever be in Tune to sing that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing and so much-suffering Job Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb Naked shall I return thither again The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Blessed be the name of the Loâ—d Naked camest thou my Soul thorough a Darkness into this World strip't of all the Glories above Naked must thou return again out of this World quite strip't of all the Glories and Griefs here The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God while thou art in that Darkness Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories Eye to Eye Heart in Heart They and Thou being made One Life One Spirit and without Partition or Vail Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us If this Face of Nature which now presents it self to us have such Beauties Greatnesses Varieties as ravish us from all sense of our selves our present safety our souls our God from the Love and Delight which from them flow into our Spirits what Sights what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ what Ravishments would surprize us and snatch us out of Flâ—sh if we saw Him For Nature and this World is but the Earthly Inferiour Imperfect Image of God and of the Person of Christ which is the Heavenly and Supream Image Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes But if we saw Him we should much more despise Ten thousand Worlds ten thousand times heightned in Glory as a heap of Dunghills in Comparison of Him Our Blindness our Blindness clips the wings of Desire clogs the Spirit of Delight in us O Jesus cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls and we shall run from all things after thee fly beyond all things towards Thee How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces Shew thy self to me and set many Worlds many Death 's more between me and thy self my Spirit shall shoot it self like an Arrow thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine can Translate me as Enoch or Eliah of old I have thus Finish'd the First Image in which man lives before his Conversion The Image of Nature 2. Image of the Devil The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image The First was that of Nature the Second this of the Devil which we now are to take a view of But what can we see or say of this Who can draw a Picture of or describe Darkness and Confusion The Power of Darkness and Division prevailing over the Powers of Light and Love in the Creature This is the Devil If you will pourtray a Devil
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
which the Fathers Person shines forth in his Person as in a new Heaven with new and increasiâ—â— Beauties O you that are Followers of Christ what a mystery of Spiritual Joy and Heavenly Glory is there in the life of a Saint if this be to be a Saint to walk on Earth as Christ walked that is in a Spiritual Principle in the midst of the Natural Principle and Fleshly Image of things governing comprehending seeing handling rellishing all in the Divine Light Beauty and Sweetness of the Eternal Spirit When the blackest Cloud of melancholy rests upon thy Spirit when the sharpest Sword of Grief pierceth thy Heart retire into thy Spiritual Principle there thou shalt be as on Mount Tabor the Mount of Transfiguration where the Face of thy God shall be as a pleasant Sun of Joy and Glory shining forth in its strength within thee and the whole Image of things in thee and round about thee as a Garment of Light all weaved and wrought with the freshest and purest Beams of this Sun in all living and immortal Figures of the highest Joys and Glories 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus thorow his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death The Lord Jesus saith the Prince of this World cometh This is your hour and the power or principality of Darkness The Devil came now to make his two last and most furious assaults upon the Lord Jesus in the Garden and upon the Cross. He therefore comes with all the powers of Darkness and Legions of Devils with all the blackest and most dreadful Furniture and force of Wrath from Hell below from Earth and Heaven above as the Prince of this World and the Prince of Darkness The Battel was so sore against the Lord Jesus that he himself who was the Wisdom and Power of God was amazed He who was the eternal delights of his Father day by day cries out My Soul is very sorrowful even unto Death The word in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an excess of sorrow and a surrounding sorrow All things round about the Lord Jesus were hung with a blackness of Darkness and amazing horrours that he himself who bears up the weight of all things could hardly sustain the weight of his own fears and sorrows or sustain himself in Life under them He falls beneath them to the ground His whole Person is so prest and opprest with them that through the agony of his Spirits the boiling blood is strained forth through all the parts of his Body He cries to his Father thrice Angels are sent from Heaven to strengthen him and comfort him But after this the conflict upon the Cross was yet sharper Now the Prince of Darkness grows desperate knowing that this is his last effort and that now at once he fights for his Kingdom Liberty and Life that his whole Kingdom of Darkness and his Person too depend upon this one Fight The Earth-quake the rending of the Rocks the total Eclipse of the Sun and the Universal Darkness upon the face of the whole Earth were Types of what Christ the Prince of Glory and the Devil the Prince of Darkness suffered in this last Conflict the like to which never was before nor shall ever be The whole frame of things shook and trembled under the Feet of the Lord Jesus and round about him The Rocks all the supports of his Soul all the Foundations and Pillars of his strength and life were rent in pieces and dissolved The face of the Creature the face of Heaven the face of his Father were all covered with a thick a threatning and an amazing Darkness as in a dreadful Tempest above the course and force of nature The Lord of Life in whom all things subsist is now sinking and ready to give up all for lost How deeply was his Heart pierced how cruelly wounded how were every glympse of Light every drop of Comfort intercepted and with-held when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What potent inchantment from Hell was this what power of Darkness what infusion of Wrath what separation ten thousand times more bitter than Death which so wrought that he who is God himself seems divided from himself and totally deserted by all the power and sweet lights of the God-Head Thus you see in this 5th Proposition the trouble of Christ at its height In the two following Propositions you shall see that notwithstanding this dreadful storm in the evening and latest hour of his life this beautiful Sun in his dying moment as in the close itself of the day casts up its cloud comes forth Triumphantly and no night follows Before we pass to the other Propositions let us make a few short observations upon these 1. See how dreadful and hateful an evil Sin is by the effects of it in the Person of God himself our Lord Jesus Let not that be a light thing to us which lay with so great weight upon him neither let us be secure in our Lusts Vanities Covetousness Sloath playing with these which were so many Serpents in the Bosom of Christ and shot deadly stings into his Heart Can we stand under those things which had almost sunk the Son of God into despair and Eternal Darkness It is true God brings good out of the evil of Sin order out of its disorder and reconciles all into a beautiful Harmony of Divine Love and Joy But how by how dear a price by how precious an atonement by how costly how cruel how bloody a Sacrifice by how violent a conflict between all the powers of light and darkness at once by how dreadful a dissolution of the whole frame of things with the blackest Tempest of Divine Wrath from above by what horrours of Death in its ugliest shape with its most venemous stings and all this in the Person of God himself our Jesus 2. Be good Soldiers of the Lord Jesus Endure hardships Endure the fight of Sufferings Think not strange to have the Clouds blackest and the Storm greatest with Thunders and Lightnings round about you in your latest hour in old age and death Thus you bear the Cross of Christ. Thus you fight under the Banner of Love A Husband in Bloods art thou to me saith the Wife of Moses to him concerning the Circumcision Jesus Christ hath been a Husband in Blood to thee O suffering Saint Now art thou also indeed a Sister and a Spouse to him in Blood This Life is the Season of suffering Christ suffered here Can you not suffer with Christ one hour the short Season of this fleeting Life Think how glorious in the Eyes of all the Holy Angels and of the Blessed Saints of Christ and the Father you shall come into Heaven How dear to the Bosom and Embraces
Rest. In this confidence doth the Flesh of the Lord Jesus rest in Death It hath no more for ever any Conflicts or Allarms It is overspread with a sweet and clear Heaven It breaths in a gentle and delicious air where there is no storm no rain nor cloud It is in a State of immutable joys where there is no Death no Shadow of Death no trouble no fear no shadow of fear or any such thing All things sing an eternal requiem and rest to it As the Flesh of the Lord Jesus resteth in Confidence so it resteth also in Hope Hope is good in prospect or in progress At our first conversion the Eternal day breaketh upon us While we live on Earth in a State of Grace we have sweet and clear streaks of the Light of Life appearing thorow our Spirits which still grow clearer and brighter unto a perfect day But all this while there are dark and black shades of the Night Sins and Sufferings every where mingled with the pure Light of this blessed Day At Death it is perfect Day The shadows of the Night are perfectly drunk up into the rising Light that now they appear no more in dark Forms but are seen only as by a lovely temperature with the Light they make beautiful and pleasant colours of Saffron and of Roses In the Resurrection the body of the Sun the Eternal Sun the Lord Jesus in the Glory of his God-Head ariseth upon Soul and Body both and is nakedly seen nakedly enjoyed without the Vail of any dark and nightly shade or any Floury Spicy or morning shade From the Resurrection to the utmost point of the ascention this Divine Sun is rising higher and higher in Glory upon us till he comes to that Noon-sted of Eternity and of the God-Head where there is no more any ascent or descent where the Unity is entire where god is one and that one God is all in all In the Confidence and full assurance of this Hope doth the Flesh of our dying Saviour and of every dying Saint rest Object But you may say we have formerly seemed to affirm according to the Language of the Scripture that the days of Christ on Earth before his Death were alone the days of his Flesh that the Flesh of Christ was a Vail upon his Body which was rent in Death that it was not the substance of his Body nor its true proper and natural Form but a darkning and dividing Form in which the Body of Christ appeared and with which it was cloathed in the State of fallen Nature in the State of his Humiliation in his Earthly State This State ended this Form was put off in Death How then had the Flesh of Christ a part in his Triumph How did the Flesh of Christ rest in Hope Ans. In a Garden of Flowers by night the Flowers are seen in dusky and dark Forms while the shades of the night lie upon them as Vails upon their Beauties When the bright day riseth upon this Garden the Flowers appear in their naked and shining Beauties in their proper and lovely Figures their dark appearances together with their darkning vails the shades of the night are drunk up and transformed into the brightness of the Rosy morning The Body of the Lord Jesus and of all his holy Ones are the immortal Flowers Flowers of the Heavenly Paradise Their Fleshly Form is the shadow of the night upon them their dim and dusky appearance thorow this Shadow Death is the lovely and rosy Morning of the Eternal Day rising upon them The Spirit of Glory and of God is the brightness of this Day The Flesh is now changed into Spirit the dusky appearance thorow the Vail of Flesh into a Spiritual and Heavenly brightness In this brightness these bodies of which we spake shine forth in their naked native shapes and Beauties from all parts they shed a Divine Lustre they breath a pure sweetness of Divine Joys like the Flowers of the Spring in a fair morning Thus the Flesh of Christ resteth in Death 3. The ground of this Triumph is the inseparable union between the God-Head and the whole Humanity of Christ living or dying These are the words of the Lord Jesus by his Spirit in the mouth of David Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Expositors agree that the word Hell signifieth not a place of torments according to the common acception but the State of Soul and Body in Death The Greek word by which it is rendered in the New Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by its notation signifieth the State of things Invisible or the Invisible State of things It is also well known that the Soul in the language of the Old Testament is not used to express only one part of a Man but the whole Person It is a Maxim in Divinity laid down by all learned and holy Men that when the Natural Union between the Soul and Body of our Lord Jesus ceased in Death the Supernatural and Hypostatical or Personal Union between the Divine or Humane Nature in both parts of it remained inviolable and entire Thus it is frequently said that although the Soul of Christ was separated from his Body in the Grave yet the God-Head was never separated from either O sweet and sure truth A Spring of Holy Heavenly and Immortal Joys in Life and in Death This Truth rightly understood is a blessed Light which discovereth to us a Divinity in our Life here Immortality in Death and Heaven in the Grave This Divine Truth is the rich ground of our dear Saviours Glorious Triumph over Death in Death There was a twofold band of Union between the Soul and Body of Christ while he lived in Flesh one Natural the other Supernatural 1. The Natural Union was that composition of soul and Body by which he became a Natural Man and had the true Forms Substance and Essence of a Man sprung from the first Adam This band of union was broken in Death by which means the Natural Man now was no more for ever according to its Natural State and Principle but vanished like a shadow breaking up into the Light of a Spiritual Glory 2. The Supernatural Union is that of the second Person in the Trinity which is the Eternal God who at the Incarnation of Christ made himself Flesh that is a compleat Man himself subsisting as the single and undivided Person in this Man in both parts of this Man in Soul and in Body giving in like manner a personal subsistence to them in himself that the Divinity and the Humanity in its Soul and in its Body both were all one simple individual indivisible Person This is that which Divines call the Hypostatical or Personal Union in Christ which remained firm and altogether unimpaired in Death itself See now the beautiful and delightful consequences of this Union The Soul and Body of Christ continued immediately intimately sweetly triumphantly united upon the Cross in the Grave were both one Immortal