the originally unchangeable never-sinning Creature-life of God in the Mediator the only Life or Principle of everlasting Active Obedience to God and Blessedness to Man All true thorow-Followers of the Lamb slain in the narrow unpleasing Way to Nature at best will find all their own Life and Things with unspeakable Gain in an infallible all-discerning spiritual Understanding and incorruptible Will by personal Union with Christ in his heavenly Creature-spirit of true Holiness and eternal Life And so will they find themselves in unchangeable Harmony with and Obedience to the infinite Divine Will This is the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God in which they that are born of God by the new-creating Workmanship of Christ passing upon them to the Death of their natural Spirit and Resurrection into his spiritual Life come to be Heirs and Coheirs under and with Christ of God Rom. 8. 17. 2. Thus became the exalted Creature-Son and Branch in the Mediator of the First-born of every Creature in the Fountain-purity of a mortal earthly Life the First-born from the Dead Col. 1. 15 18. in the originally immortal Creature-life of his Root and Father So became he the living Word of God the Book of Life of the Lamb slain and exalted in which were written by the super-wonderful mysterious Way of Divine Writing or Engraving the Names of all God's Elect predestinated to be conform'd to Christ their Head in a like Passive Obedience to the Divine Will by the Death of their natural Spirit or living Soul of the First Adam and Resurrection into the quickning Spirit of the Second the Life of their Creator Rom. 8. 29. 6. 3-6 Whoever do finally refuse to die with him and lose all their own mortal earthly Life and Things receiv'd in their first Creation or restor'd since with all Works or Fruits done or brought forth by them therein will never attain that heavenly eternal Creature-life of their Creator in which to live and reign with him 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. True Followers of the slain Lamb of God will be enabled to say with him I was dead in my own mortal earthly Law-spirit of Works and am alive in his Gospel-spirit of Grace and Truth for evermore Rev. 1. 18. All that establish themselves in their own Law-spirit of Works and Righteousness of Man will be found unchangeable Enemies of God's Righteousness in his heavenly Gospel-spirit and so in unchangeable Union with the God of this World the Devil Such mystical Sodomites in Filth of Spirit Enmity to God and his Gospel-spirit of Grace will have worse of it for ever under the Wrath of God than common Sinners in Filth of Flesh wallowing in the miry Filths and Brutalities of literal Sodom Mat. 11. 23 24. 3. Thus became the exalted Branch in the Mediator the ready prepar'd immediate Hand and living Word of God for performing his whole Divine Mind and twofold Purposes thereof in the twofold Creation of Angels and Men and for the dealing with them both and all as hating their own Life given them in their first Creation in love to his own offer'd them by a Second or as from love to their own in the first unchangeably hating his own offer'd by a second in Union with the Devil The said exalted Son and Branch did bring forth Angels and Men out of their radical Existencies in himself into their personal Subsistencies and Individuations in themselves This was their first Creation in the same kind of mortal earthly First-Covenant Law-life himself had first taken in the supream Fountain-purity thereof as First-born of every Creature therein and rightly us'd in order to the second in which he became the First-born from the Dead in a Life above all Deaths temporal or eternal Thus was it true in the immediate Creator as well as in meer Creatures Angels and Men First that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 46. Unchangeable Love to our selves in our own Life receiv'd in our first Creation is the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost or heavenly Creature-spirit of Christ and Life thereof offer'd by a second 4. The exalted Creature-Son or living Word of God his prepar'd and fitted immediate Hand for the twofold Creation of Angels and Men was also his ready prepar'd infallible Mouth Wisdom and Word to declare to them as soon as made his whole Counsel Will and Command for the right Use of their natural Beings and Life given them in their first Creation in order to a second and that as their unspeakable Concern as well as Duty for finding the Salvation of Heaven or scaping the Damnation of Hell Final refusing the Loss of all their own in the first for his own by a second will be everlasting Destruction to all that so do 5. Christ as exalted Creature-Son and Branch became the ready prepar'd immediate sacrificing High-Priest of God after the Order and in the Power of the Original Melchisedec Heb. 5.6,10 6.20 7. 17. his Creature-root and Father who first perform'd the sacrificing Death-work upon himself when in the Fountain-purity of all mortal First-creation Life Thus is the immediate Creator of Angels and Men by a first Creation the immediate High-Priest of God to perform the like sacrificing Death-work on them therein as his Creature-Father had before perform'd upon himself This exalted Son and Branch was the Melchisedec Priest of the most high God that met Abram returning from the Slaughter of the four Kings and bless'd him Gen. 14. 18 19. Heb. 7. 1. He was also one of the three Men Abram pray'd to and worshipp'd as God Gen. 18. which no good Angels would ever own Rev. 19.10 22.9 The Devil and his proud self-exalting evil Angels own themselves as Gods in the uncontroll'd Soveraignty of their own Wills above and against all that is truly called God and to be worshipp'd requiring Divine Worship to be paid them Isa. 14 12-14 2 Thess. 2. 3 4. Yea Satan most presumptuously attempted to bring the Lord himself to own fall down and worship him as the true God whom he knew to be the true Lord and God Mark 1. 24. he and all Angels and Men ought to worship Mat. 4. 8-10 Christ own'd the wise Mens worshipping him when born in our Nature Mat. 2. 1 11. and after others worshipping him Mat. 8.2 9.18 with eight other Scriptures in the four Evangelists 6. And lastly Christ as exalted Branch was in the fully partaken of Life of his Creature-root the ready prepar'd infallible Example and unerrable Pattern for Angels and Men to follow by the like Death of Nature in them at best in order to a happy Resurrection into the spiritual everlasting righteous Life of their Creator All that finally refuse a Submission in Passive Obedience to this Change will perish for ever For this Change as their Duty and unspeakable Concern did he represent himself in such Transactions as had pass'd in the Creature-part of his Person to all the Angels
cause them to be so accounted also against Heathen Cesars and others of his Party under him Christ himself was condemn'd and murder'd on this Pretence Iohn 19. 12 15. Saints can discover him when sitting in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Thess. 2. 4. to be the worst of all Creatures the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition ver 3. Will he quietly bear this Discovery will he not by his humane Instruments shew his utmost Rage against them and God permits But be it as it will the Sum of all true Gospel-teaching is a declaring the Mystery of Godliness for the Salvation of Men and preventing their Damnation and a discovering Satan's Mystery of Iniquity for the Damnation of Men and preventing their Salvation So only can Saints with Paul become free from the Blood of all Men Acts 20. 26. Ezek. 33. 7-9 as having no Share in that Guilt by which they bring that Blood upon their own Heads which will be found to amount unto no less than eternal Death to their whole Beings Spirit Soul and Body in a Resurrection of Damnation The experimental Knowers of the Mystery and Power of Godliness and faithful Discoverers of the Mystery of Iniquity will have a Resurrection of Life John 5. 29. above all Deaths temporal or eternal CHAP. IX The first Sin Fall and Punishment of many evil Angels and of all Mankind in Adam EVIL Mankind in Adam joyn'd with evil Angel-kind in Satan through a mutual Union of Love to themselves and one another electing or chusing for themselves their own earthly mortal First covenant Law-life of the Creature given by a First-creation in preference and opposition to the heavenly immortal Second-covenant Gospel-life of the Creator offer'd them by a second or new Creation The evil Angels herein did at first commit the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost under the immediate Beamings forth of Christ's heavenly Creature-Gospel spirit the Son of everlasting Righteousness upon their highest single intuitive natural Understandings Secondly They had no superiour Rank of Creatures in the First-creation already fallen above them in Subtlety and Power to tempt them Thirdly They were all actually created and set up in their compleated personal Beings and Life at first Mankind receive their personal Beings successively Generation after Generation Fourthly Mankind's first Sin in Adam was not against such clear Knowledg of their own unspeakable Concern as well as Duty to God though in the same kind of First-covenant Law-life with Angels The inferiour Ingredients into Man's personal Constitution bodily Sensual-life tho created pure and incorrupt rendred his intuitive Discerning inferiour to that of Angels where 't was single and alone Hence what was immediately and more convincingly made known to Angels was represented to Adam by a figurative Tree of Life and himself in distinction from that by the Tree of Good and Evil. The former represented Christ to him in that heavenly Creature-life offer'd by a new Creation the latter represented himself to himself as but a mystical Tree of Good and Evil in his own Life given in his first Creation corruptible and changeable mortal and perishable with all the earthly things therein Will Understanding Righteousness Wisdom c. with all Works or Fruits ever possible to be done or brought forth therein By and under the superiour Subtlety and Power of the Devil the mystical Old Serpent was Adam in the primitive Purity of his whole Being and Mankind in him as their Head and Representative induc'd perswaded and deceiv'd so as to prefer Satan's self-pleasing Lie to God's Spirit of Grace and Truth So under and with the Serpent he chose his own earthly Life of the Creature in preference to God's own heavenly Creature-life of the Creator Many of Mankind when restor'd out of the Darkness and Death of their own Spirits into the Light Life and Righteousness of Man do sin again in their own Persons after the Similitude of Adam's first Transgression who at best in Innocency was but a Figure of the Second Adam who was to come in the Fountain-purity of our Nature and also full of the Holy Ghost Luke 4. 1. Iohn 1. 14. his heavenly Creature-spirit of Grace and Truth Rom. 5. 14. This Sin again in their own Persons after all sad Experience of fallen Mankind thereby in Adam and all Warnings and Counsels of God since is unrepentable by them Heb. 6. 4 6. and unpardonable by God Heb. 10. 26 27. This is the Case of any that conclusively and absolutely prefer their own restor'd earthly Life of the Creature and Righteousness of Man to the heavenly Creature-life of the Creator and everlasting Righteousness of God therein All that will not receive and have the heavenly Creature-life of God by submitting to the Death of restor'd Nature at best the Loss of all their own Life and things therein God will take away the said Life from them again and lay them down for ever under his unquenchable Wrath in eternal Death Luke 8. 18. This is that Christ says Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will hate and lose his own Life for my Sake from Love to my heavenly Creature-life shall find it with unspeakable Gain as chang'd by Death and Resurrection into an eternal Life Satan was at it with Christ himself Matth. 4. 8 9. to stay and set up with and under him as a State of true Happiness in the mortal Life of our Nature and by his Apostle Peter was at the same Point to pity and spare himself there saying be the Death thereof far from thee this shall not be unto thee Christ discover'd and declar'd this Word of Peter to be Satan's Counsel in and by him Mat. 16. 21-23 As the first Sin of Angels was differing from Man's first Sin so was the Punishment The Punishment of evil Angels was the giving them their own evil Choice their own self-chosen earthly Life receiv'd in their First-creation with all the things thereof their own Wisdom Righteousness Subtlety and Power all natural Excellencies and Perfections therein as by them abus'd turn'd into and us'd in unchangeable Enmity to God and his heavenly Creature spirit of eternal Life God also permitted to them the Exercise of a ruling Power over sallen Mankind all along this World by which Satan carries on the same delusive Work as on Adam at first that the Life given in the First-creation is eternal no need of a second nor therefore of the Death of the first Ye shall not die Gen. 3. 3. This is Satan's uniform Lie all along this World that the Life given in the First-creation is eternal You must die or never live and reign with me in my heavenly creature-Creature-life which is eternal This is Christ's Truth his faithful Saying 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. There 's nothing more pleasing to Man's Will in the restor'd earthly Life of the First Adam than Satan's Lie and nothing so universally contrary to it as God's Truth that
Man therein Iohn 14. 26. This better Comforter he told them would teach them all things divine and spiritual and so bring to their Remembrance all that he had hitherto spoken to them in Parables earthly Figures and Similitudes in which the mystical divine and spiritual Truths lay hid from them as well as others The good Angels also rejoic'd at the Birth of Jesus on the behalf of Mankind in general and of Saints in special as the means for recovering all out of the Darkness and Death into which brought by their first Sin and Punishment thereof Gen. 2. 17. Iohn 1. 9. The World was made by him yet when he came into the World none in their worldly Life of the Creature at best either knew receiv'd or own'd him Iohn 1.10 The righteous First-Covenant professing Jews in Union of mind with evil Angels were the most signally enrag'd Contradicters Blasphemers and Murderers of him for his Gospel-Doctrine of Salvation Acts 3 13-15 The exalted Son and Branch was the immediate Former of himself in the Womb of the Virgin the Son of God on Earth remaining still what he was in the Beginning the Son of Man in Heaven John 3. 13. Evil Angels and Men were God's permissive Hand under his infinite over-ruling Wisdom and Power to finish the Death-work on all that was mortal about him in our Nature and so oft on Saints to their greatest Good and Enemies greatest hurt Hereby do they compleat Saints Conformity to Christ's Death freeing them from all that 's mortal about them while in the Body Isa. 57. 1 2. The Iews would have made Christ a King if he would have own'd his Kingdom in that mortal First-covenant Law-life they saw him in Iohn 6. 15. But witnessing his Kingdom not to be in that worldly Law-life but in his Gospel-life of Grace and Truth Iohn 18. 36 37. they murder'd him and so compleated the Death of him as to that mortal Law-life wherein they would have made him their King They chose rather to be Subjects to a Heathen King than such a King as he own'd himself to be Iohn 19. 12 15. who would have made him such a King as would have render'd them Traitors and Enemies to Cesar. Here 's the confounded Doings of Man at best in his own worldly Spirit and Life Some Corinthians Laodiceans and other Professors in but the First-covenant-life and Righteousness of Man all along since are of the same mind with them 1 Cor. 4. 8. Rev. 3. 17. The God of this World offer'd Christ a far larger Bribe than the Jews did all the Kingdoms of this World visible and invisible under him all worldly Power Human and Angelical in Case he would own his Kingdom to be in this First-creation Worldly-life Mat. 4. 8 9. Whoever are finally taken with his worldly Bribes the literal or mystical Riches of this First-creation World do fall down and worship him as God And by such Loyal Subjects of him does he murder true Saints that refuse so to do as they did Christ himself True Heaven-born Sons of God have the whole self-confident legal-spirited Generation of Professsors on the same Account universally in all times against them They mortally and irreconcileably hate them for owning the Death-work of Christ's Gospel-spirit of Grace on that Law-spirit of Works they confidently trust in for entring into the Kingdom of God Such become the highest Rank of Satan's Subjects and most serviceable Instruments for maintaining the Credit of his worldly Kingdom as the only true Blessedness to any God's Thoughts and Ways for true Salvation are not as Man 's and when he has declar'd his Ways in his holy Oracles let Man's highest Wisdom undertake the interpreting them all shall run on Satan's Side God's Thoughts therein remaining fast seal'd and lock'd up from Man's best Understanding in but a restor'd First-covenant Life Isa. 29. 11. CHAP. XI The Difference of Christ's Death in our Nature as to the intent and Extent thereof from Saints Conformity to him by the Death of Nature in them CHRIST's condescending to take our Nature and therein by the Grace of God to taste Death for every Man Heb. 2. 9. was in reference to the pardonable Sins of Mankind in Adam and also in their own Persons This was God's appointed Way for the redeeming and recovering them out of their fallen State wherein born dead in Trespasses and Sins Ephes. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. into the Light and also Life receiv'd by them in their First-creation All may receive this general Redemption-Mercy the Common-Salvation-Work of Christ as a Fruit of his meritorious Sufferings and Death in our Nature if they will But as to the special eternal Salvation of the Elect in his new and everlasting Covenant gospel-Gospel-life this is not of him that willeth or runneth in the most fruitful Exercise of his own restor'd First-covenant Law-life but of God's Free-Grace Mercy which he will effectually and infallibly shew to whom he pleases only The ceasing from their own Life Will and Understanding is the only appointed Way for their receiving this special eternal Salvation-life of God Iude with others writ of both these distinct Salvations common and special temporal and eternal And when he had with all Diligence inform'd them of the former he found it needful to exhort them to contena earnestly in Prayer to God for a living spiritual Faith working by Love to him in the latter in which only true Saintship and Salvation ever could or will be found by any Man Iude v. 3. Thus is Christ the Saviour of all Men with a common or general Salvation but of them that believe in his Gospel-life and place all their Hopes of Salvation in that with a special 1 Tim. 4. 10. They trust in the living God that living Word of God which is God John 1.1 Those that wax confident in the common Salvation the restor'd Life and Righteousness of Man do trust in that Life for Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven which Christ crucified in the Fountain-purity of it in himself God will not only that all Men should be saved with the common Salvation but has rendred them capable also of receiving the Knowledg of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. his Gospel-spirit of Grace and Truth by the convincing Discoveries thereof to their natural Understandings But after all this are they liable to apostatize fall away and finally refuse so great Salvation as is thereby offer'd them and perish for ever Heb. 6. 4-6 The submitting in Passive Obedience to the Death and Loss of all receiv'd from Christ in the Common-Salvation-Benefit of his Death rendring them but holy Flesh is absolutely necessary to their finding the special eternal Salvation-life of his holy Gospel-spirit the Holy Ghost Otherwise after all receiv'd in the Common-Salvation they 'l find everlasting Destruction Conformity to Christ's Death by the Death of Nature at best in us is the appointed way to reign with him in the Life he is ascended into out of the Death thereof