yet it was so real and influencing that the BRANCH may truly be said to have lived in this his root the Father of Spirits as properly as the seed of the first Adam may be said to have lived in the loyns of him their common parent who was the Father of the flesh Christ the BRANCH considered as thus living in his root is said and accounted in Scripture phrase to act live and perform all that which was the action life and performance of the WORD For by Jesus God is said to create all things and to make both worlds who is said also to be before all things and in all things to have the preheminence And in this heavenly place of residence and abode which Christ the BRANCH hath in his root the whole spiritual seed Eph. 1. 3. are blessed with all spiritual blessings from the foundation of the world and received grace before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. forasmuch as Christ had the same union then contracted between his humane nature and the WORD of life vertually and radically which afterwards by the incarnation flowed forth actually to the making of him not only a living soul after the pure image of the first Adam but a quickning spirit as the original pattern unto the heavenly and spiritual seed of himself the second Adam This praeexistent union between Jesus and the WORD before the WORD actually was made flesh Christ asserts upon several occasions as John 3. 13. where he saies No man ascended up into heaven but he that descended even the Son of man which is in heaven that is in his head and root where as a mysterie he lay hid in God before the world began interpreted thus by himself in effect John 6. 62. when he saies What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before likewise Phil. 2. it is said that he that was found in the form or WORD of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and was found in fashion and habit as a man as if to come forth as the servant the BRANCH were rather a diminution then advance to him simply considered who was before in that exalted state where he though it no robbery to be equal with God And John 8. 58. he asserts this ancientness of his daies unto the Jews saying unto them before Abraham was I am and Mat. 22. 42 43 44 45. he unriddles this mysterie to them where he affirms that he was as well Davids root and Lord as Davids son and off-spring saying that so he was acknowledged by David himself when he was seen unto him in spirit as the Mediator called Lord unto whom God the Father spake Psal 110. 1. where t is said The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stool which expression can no way suite or agree with the second person in the Trinity simply considered but must necessarily be understood of the Lord the Mediator the WORD of life as he is the first born of every creature and first begotten from the dead the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom as risen from the dead the right hand of God is most fitly to be assigned This witness is also given by John Baptist John 1. 30. when he saith After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world both as he is the root and the BRANCH in the former capacity as the root he became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. In the other capacity as the BRANCH he was carried as the Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the Shearers Isa 53. 7. in the dayes of his flesh For though what is said Heb. 9. 27 28. As it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many may seem strongly to confine the death of Christ to his offering up in the dayes of his flesh so as to exclude the other yet if this be compared with v. 26. it will appear to be so far from excluding that it rather asserts it by shewing how both these do well stand and consist together For saith the text he must then often have suffered since the foundation of the world taking that for granted which was performed before or from the foundation of the world in his mystical and heavenly state as he was Davids root But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which he did after an invisible manner in his heavenly and mystical state wherein he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the same thing in the end of the world he doth in a visible manner in mans nature when he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself which sacrifice in his humane nature was but once offered nor could be forasmuch as it is appointed for man but once to die therefore Christ also in offering up this sacrifice as man could offer it up but once as Heb. 10. 12. It is said But this man Christ considered as the BRANCH or off-spring of David after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God In which action he that is the BRANCH and off-spring ascends up into the glory wherein he was before as the ROOT the first born of every creature and first begotten or beginning from the dead Indeed Christ by being the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world did but lay the needful foundation and preparation to the one sacrifice to be once made by him as man in the end of the world for the putting away of sin So as in effect both are but one and the same sacrifice in its compleat consideration and full extent and the obedience also to the will of the Father but one performed now in earth as from the beginning it had been done in heaven Without such a glorious and blessed counsel and contrivance of God preceding the very creation it self and the entrance of sin upon it how can God be said to have finished his works in the person of the Mediator from the foundation of the world and to be entred into his Rest Heb. 4. 3 4. if sin by entring in upon the creation or works of God after they were made should be able to disturb them and bring a desolation upon the whole Fabrick as it ought to have been dealt with in way of Justice if this Lamb slain had not born up the pillars of it who by standing up in the office of Mediator and High-Priest by whose sacrifice the atonement was actually made and remedy provided before the evil and danger did happen did immediately set all things straight again between God
Jesus our Lord. But the justification and sanctification received upon the terms of the first covenant which are conditional and depending upon the creatures continuance are subject in a time of tryal to fail the persons concerned therein unto whom through the common relation which all mankind is taken into with Christ as he is flesh of our flesh bone of our bone like unto us in all things sin only excepted there is given as in a way of common grace and salvation first a relative holiness and righteousness in ballance to the relative unholiness and unrighteousness derived to the first Adams posterity as they stood related to him their common parent in his fallen state which is freely conferred upon them with offer and promise to bring them out of the bondage of corruption they are in by nature if they will hear and obey Secondly there is an actual exercise of long-suffering and patience put forth towards them freely on Gods part by vertue of the satisfaction he hath received on their behalf in the sacrifice of Christ by reason whereof he declares himself willing not to impute unto them sins past or present if through obeying Christs voice they shall render themselves capable of such benefit and shall not by their wilful personal sinning against the grace offered them and persisting therein so far abuse the benefit of Christs sacrifice as wholly to render themselves unworthy thereof Thirdly there is an actual imputation of Christs legal righteousness to all such as obeying his call in the first-covenant are thereby made the seed which is of the Law born after the flesh and become actual members of his natural body From what then hath been said concerning Christs active and passive obedience we may discern how far Christ therein wrought out mans redemption as he stood in the relation of a common person and parent to both seeds and as their surety undertook on their behalf to fulfill the righteousness of both Covenants in himself and this after such a manner as to be able to derive and communicate the benefit thereof unto them in a way of the Justification and Sanctification required by either of the two covenants respectively and this either singly and apart each from other or joyntly and together to the rendring those righteous in him that were helpless sinners and wretched ones in themselves Christs obedience then hitherto treated of in the two forementioned branches of his active and the first branch of his passive though it doth procure all that which is needful to make man righteous and holy according to what is required by both covenants yet it is not that properly which expiates the guilt of sin already committed nor frees from the curse of the Law in order to which Christ was made a Curse for us and did bear the punishment due to our sins which without blood could not receive remission at the hands of Gods Justice Heb. 9. There is then yet remaining a second part of Christs passive obedience to be opened wherein this did consist and in respect of which it behoved Christ to suffer as a Malefactor without the Gate a reproachful accursed bodily death with all the heightning circumstances accompanying the same from God Angels and men to the bruising of his heel in which also the Scriptures are very plain and express saying that upon him God laid the iniquity of us all Isa 53. who were as sheep gone astray and 1 Pet. 2. 24. he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree and chap. 3. 18. it is said that he being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust and 1 Tim. 2. 4 6. Who gave himself a ransom for all as willing to have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Christ by being made thus a curse for us redeemed us from the curse of the Law or did that in way of satisfaction to Gods Justice by reason whereof God thinks fit and finds it just to acquit and discharge sinners from the curse and wrath of God due unto them by the Law Which benefit is either renewed to us conditionally and in reference to the first Covenant-obedience by us engaged in to live and be tryed by or is given unto us absolutely and in reference to the second Covenant-obedience as living by faith and interested in the sure mercies of David that never fail Those that partake of this benefit in the first sense are spoken of Heb. 10. unto whom having been once enlightned and then sinning willfully after the knowledge of the truth to the treadding underfoot the Son of God accounting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin but they fall again not only under the first curse but the second death or final ministry of Gods fiery vengeance which no sacrifice of Christ will be admitted to atone on their behalf for ever Psal 49. 8. but like sheep they are laid in the grave for death to feed on they go to the Generation of their Fathers and never see light But those that partake of this benefit of Christs sacrifice in the latter sense have at once a perfect and absolute remission of all sins vouchsafed to them never to be recalled more as it is written Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more This being laid down we shall now proceed to shew first the particulars wherein Christ did undergo Gods wrath and was made a curse on our behalf by way of satisfaction and ransome for the sins of all mankind which properly was our due to have undergone in our own persons and secondly to open the nature of that wrath from God which Christ was capable of undergoing and that was thought meet and required by God to be executed upon him and undergone by him in the work of our Redemption For the particulars wherein Christ underwent the wrath of God and did bear the punishment which was due only unto sinners the Scriptures declare them to be these First Christ was exposed as a mark which was aimed and shot at all the daies of his flesh by the rage and malice of wicked Angels and men and as a spectacle of open scorn and reproach to be trampled upon by his insulting adversaries as if he had been a worm and no man unto all which God was thus far contributing as to suffer it and sit silent as a Spectator yea by his providences and outward dispensations rather furthering then hindring it and this in persuance of his declared mind herein even unto the Serpent himself Gen. 3. 15. when he told him speaking of Christ the seed of the woman he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel For the exercise of all this rage of Devils and men against him did bring to pass no other thing but
abundantly confirm and make good the justification which is not of works but of grace according to Gods purpose The very nature and kinde of this faith may suffice to all unbyassed judgements to shew that those that are justified by it are not justified by works since in its principles and seed it is quite differing from that which is by the Law or born after the flesh which is of works so as the one is differenced from the other in the very kind of perfection and life both as to principles and works the seed and the fruit of each yea and this faith of the right kind considered as abiding in Christ not in us is that that properly justifies the believer For if it be by grace it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work And besides the Spiritual Seed are beloved as they are chosen in Christ before the world began and are distinguished as so accepted in him from the fleshly seed before they have done either good or evil This chusing in Christ is not the justification by faith inasmuch as that act of God never passes upon us till we be actually believers For though we have being in our head who is blessed and beloved before the world began Ephes 1. Yet we are not made to be in our own persons of that Spiritual Seed untill we have the righteousness of our head actually imputed to us and so are made to stand without guile or spot before the throne of God whilst as yet we are ungodly and bear about with us a body of sin and death unsubdued and unabolished which nevertheless in the end by faith is overcome and wholly done away The working power then which is put forth by faith in the heart and conscience of him that is the true Believer is to be distinguished from faith in the first act singly considered as the new birth and reception of Christ to inhabite and dwell there as the root and author of all spiritual life and perfection which indeed is rather itself the work or workmanship of Christ as the suitable reception that he makes for his indwelling presence in the heart then any effect of the power of faith working patience and experience there in pursuance of the end for which it is given which is to work the spirit of man either under the first or second dispensation to a compleat and full resignation of its understanding will and desire unto the teachings light and life of this faith evidencing him that is invisible and giving entrance into the glory that is within the veil shewing what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe Which glory is not seen all that while to the natural senses and discerning but the life and workings of faith wherein the spiritual part of the believer does exceedingly rejoyce the fleshly or natural man in the Saint unsubdued cannot bear but hath its reluctancy against lusting to envy ready to oppose resist and contradict the same to the utmost and is all the season of the trial of faith in great heaviness grief and despondency through manifold temptations whilst the believing part is exercising love on him whom the natural senses cannot reach nor come to the sight of In whom though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious girding up the loyns of our minds in sobriety and hope For the power of faith is such in its operation that it overcomes the world and all the powers of flesh and blood in us at the best which serve but to be made conquest of and triumphed over by faith in order to be nailed to the cross of Christ for the slaying of the enmity which thereby would be springing up to the choaking of the spirtual seed the crucifying afresh the Son of God and trampling under foot the blood of the everlasting Covenant as an unholy thing This power of flesh and blood that ends and expires at last under the conquering and triumphing power of faith causes for a long time a sore and fiery trial in the soul through the sharp contest and dispute that arises between the heavenly powers and spiritual senses on the one hand and the fleshly and natural powers in the same Saint on the other by reason of which the soul is often inclining and falling back into the life of the flesh and workings of the natural will instead of being strengthned in the inward man and fixed there in love and true Rest against all contradicting whatsoever made by flesh and blood whether pure and holy flesh or sinful and corrupt So that oft the party which faith by its power makes for it self in the heart and conscience of the believer is deserted and in a manner given off through the prevalent reasonings and desires of flesh and blood which make resistance in this warfare to their last breath or activity that remains in them And first when faith cals the heart to leave its natural state its kindred and relations in the heathenish world the morality and civility whereof seems to have much to say for it self after the corrupt part in it is cast off the natural powers and faculties of the mind in that state rebel and resist a long season not knowing how to submit though upon hopes of a land of promise specially when they must not know or cannot be made acquainted whither the soul is going and are therefore constantly representing all discouragements imaginable to hinder its obedience to this call of faith till at last they be over-ruled and brought under But secondly when through faiths workings by the power of the Law or Ministry of Christs first appearance the soul is brought out of the corrupt degenerate state of nature hath turned its back upon the land of its nativity and is come to the earthly Canaan to the circumcision of the flesh not in the letter only but in the spirit for the righteousness of works by the first Covenant then hath faith another Call or second voice to the soul causing it to sojourn as a stranger even in the land of promise and to look upon this earthly Jerusalem as no abiding City but that out of which it must also pass into a heavenly Country the Jerusalem that is above forgetting the things that are behind or unto which it hath already attained and pressing forwards to the mark for the price of its high calling to be clothed upon as with its house from heaven Through the call of this last voice of faith all flesh and the glory thereof is blown upon and made as nothing Isa 40. 6. the voice said cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field perishing and fading in a moment
8. This was that which Christ told the young man was yet wanting to him that had kept the commandments from his youth and is the strait gate that all must enter at that come into the true Rest This is effected only by believing and partaking with Christ in conformity with him in his death and is a making of us weak with Christ amounting in the end to a perfect disenabling of the mind wherein this spiritual and blessed change is wrought to exercise that arbitrary independent free and proper motion of its own before mentioned in the single light and life of the creature-excellency and perfection communicated and enjoyed by the ministry of Gods first appearance under the first covenant which is apt to puff up and lead the creature to an unwarrantable boasting and glorying in the first light and voice of God Isai 40. 3. the word of the BEGINNING Heb. 6. 1. without staying for the glory of the word that comes in the end and is to follow by the ministry of his second appearance which second voice cries Isa 40. 6 7 8. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand for ever Through this puffing up and heightning property that is incident to the natural frame of mind in Angels and men so soon as they come to the use of this shadow of divine soveraignty set up in them by the exercise of their own free-will their lust presently finds something to work upon and is ready to conceive and bring forth sin whereas the contrary poor and needy frame of spirit is set up by God in Christ for the cure and remedy hereunto by reason whereof as we may find John 14. 30. when the Prince of this world came he found nothing in him The effects then of Christs second appearance caused by the dawning light of that day upon the natural beings of Angels are First the hiding and covering of their faces as those with whom God might justly find fault if they should by any thing they had received glory in his sight and Secondly the sense of the weakness and fickleness of their first estate and thereupon a waxing weary of the burthen they were under whilst they were left by God to such an arbitrary independent exercise of mind as they were intrusted with in their operations under the first Covenant and therefore Thirdly it did cause them to sing and shout for joy to see the remedy and cure which was brought hereunto by God through the power of the Cross of Christ when they came to discern that upon this corner stone the foundations of the first creation were fastned and the instability thereof healed and helped This they found to be the Lords doing and it was marvellous in their eyes the sight whereof they obtained on the seventh day the day which the Lord made in which they did rejoyce and were glad Psal 118. 22 23 24. Here was the joy of the good Angels when by the manifestation of the true Rest revealed in the face of the Mediator the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world they came with a holy curiosity to pry into the sufferings of Christ and glory that was to follow who though he were not yet exhibited but in promise seen by them as subsisting in his head the word of life yet by a discerning agreeable to that of faith in man they had a sight of him as the seed of the woman that was to come and knew him to be the Son by whom God made the worlds and who was the brightness of Gods glory and express image of his substance who upheld all things by the word of his power and through the sacrifice of himself was to sit down on the right hand of the majestie on high and thereby obtain a more excellent inheritance then they concerning whom as the first-begotten they had received this charge from God Let all the Angels of God worship him So then through faith in the death and Resurrection of Christ as the Mediator set up from everlasting the Angels by the power of Christs second appearance came to the sight of the heavenly Image and perfection of the last Adam unto which they were in their places to bear a conformity in the true Mount Sion and heavenly Jerusalem where the Elect and holy Angels are to have their residence howbeit in station inferiour to the Church or general assembly of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and who are the Lambs Bride and wife whilst the Angels are but friends of the Bridegroom and admitted into the secrets of the Bride-chamber whose conformity to Christ in this his spiritual body or heavenly Image changes their natural frame of minde into the like spiritual heavenly-mindedness with their head whereby there is consumed taken away wholly removed and abolished the power and exercise of their first arbitrary and self-disposing property of mind which now being quitted through voluntary resignation they have in the room and place thereof by a translation and engrafture into the spiritual life will and mind of their head the life and motion of all their natural powers more excellently then before in a state of life incorruptible and unchangeable being now throughout partaking and co-operating in a joynt way of life with their head who before stood single and alone in their natural motions and operations Through the refusal and want of this change to have been wrought out in them the wicked angels fell and set up for themselves in a fixed enmity and opposition of spirit hereunto And this shall suffice to have been spoken in reference to the change that is wrought out in the good and Elect Angels In the next place we are to consider the change that is hereby wrought upon the natural being of man considered as a living soul which Adam should have experienced without falling this being appointed by God as the only effectual means to bring him into a fixed and durable state which stability is said Rom. 11. 20. to come by faith through the operation whereof man ceases from the power of standing on his own bottom for the ordering and directing of his steps by the motions of his natural mind which he is enabled to by the first Covenant considered either as it was first given at his creation or as since renewed by the blood of Christ and is made the subject in his understanding and will now crucified and resigned wherein God himself joyns in the exercise of this power with him working in him both to will and to do of his own good pleasure in stead of leaving it to the good pleasure of man who nevertheless is a free and willing co-worker with God in this day of Gods power whence it appears that
and well pleasing unto him doth fore-determine within himself those Angels and men by name that shall taste of his free mercy and love notwithstanding all they do to make themselves unworthy thereof resolving not to suffer them to destroy themselves by their own will but to apply an effectual remedy to them whereby they shall be saved to the utmost And for the others known also to him by name he doth determine not to shew them the mercy and kindness which he is pleased of his bounty to afford his Elect but upon condition leaving them to the righteous rule set up in the first Covenant to be proceeded with according to their works Wherein notwithstanding he is pleased of his own free accord and good will to give them all the helps and means incident to that dispensation that are requisite to enable them to the discharge of such a condition shewing thereby that he takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner but would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth So that God having thus given a righteous rule to all which nevertheless would be fulfilled by none through their own voluntary default if he left all to stand or fall by that he did none any wrong And who is there now that can reply against God for freely doing with his own what he himself pleaseth and for distributing that which is matter of his love and free bounty upon whomsoever his own good pleasure leads him to In pursuance of these eternal decrees was the righteous judgement of God revealed from heaven against the Serpent and upon fallen Adam and Eve exactly answering unto what was contained in the books or law of the first and second Covenant set up in the person of Christ declaring wrath and severity against those that were found despisers of the riches of his goodness and after the hardness and impenitency of their hearts had been treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath but shewing mercy to those that sinned ignorantly and were beguiled setting before them the sight of the son of man that was to be lifted up upon the Cross and have his heel bruised by the Serpent that whosoever believeth upon him should not perish but have ever lasting life This Christ did First by revealing himself to them as he that was to descend out of that state of glory wherein he now lived in and with the Word of life and was to be made flesh or the seed of the woman by being born of a woman and made uuder the law in which state he was to be subjected to the death of the Cross and to the enduring all that could be brought upon him from the power of the devil or his instruments for the bruising of his heel the putting of him to death in the flesh Secondly by declaring the woman as he was to be her seed the mother of all living or rather by manifesting himself to be him that was to spring up out of her womb to be the new root seed and head to all living or of all natural and spiritual life that was to be derived to the whole creation of God upon a new account and tenure the first having failed and being through sin and disobedience lost so as the whole fabrick thereof might have been dissolved and sunk down into ruine and desolation if Christ now made this seed of the woman had not born up the pillars of it by vertue of his becoming the first born from the dead and had not sent forth his spirit upon the face of the first world to renew it again upon the terms of the first Covenant into fellowship and communion with God as well as from his spiritual headship derived life and being unto his Church the spiritual seed in and through whom he was to make warr with the devil his seed perfectly to overcome them Christ therefore as the head and root unto both these seeds as well that by the law and renewal of the first covenant through the blood of his Cross as that by promise and the making or constituting the new covenant in the vertue and power of the same blood is preached and held forth unto man in the work of the seventh day as the free and voluntary workmanship of Gods hands wherein Adam had cause to rejoyce when the works of his own hands miscarried and failed Psal 82. 5. For this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes this is the day the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Psal 118. 23 24. even to see the stone which the builders refused to be made the head-stone of the corner ver 22. both Lord and Christ Lord of the first creation and Gods anointed one made higher then the Kings of the earth in his spiritual head-ship This day is the day-spring from on high that may seem to have visited our first parents to make them Children of the day and of the light of Gods new creation on the seventh day who else were like to have sunk irrecoverably into the lowermost hell by their works of sin and disobedience in a manner as soon as they were created And as a type or figure of these two seeds the natural and spiritual springing both of them up in the beginning from the same womb Cain and Abel are recorded for us to take notice of who for a while were both worshippers and servants of the true and living God approaching unto him by sacrifice in testimony of their owning and relying upon the blood of Christ but the one doing it without faith though he were a man gotten from the Lord acting only upon the account of a life derived from Christ as head of the natural man and restoring him to the exercise of the same life in kind upon the tenure of the first covenant which was conditional Gen. 4. 7. which Adam had before his fall the other doing it through the obedience of faith Heb. 11. 3. or participation of that higher and better union with God in the new and everlasting covenant for which he was envied and hated by his brother who by taking in a bitterness and enmity from the devil against Abel the seed of the promise became thereby the seed of the serpent whose latter end was worse then his beginning and who proved the subject wherein the first enmity was managed by the natural and fleshly worshipper and servant of God against the true spiritual worshipper and son and heir of eternal life and who in that state of fleshly life was permitted to rule over his brother and bring him into subjection unto him as to the exercise of worldly power as it is written unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Gen. 4. 7. Unto both these seeds Christ as the Redeemer and Saviour prophesyed of to come into the world and be born of a woman is in his own person the begetter and
them to be Abrahams fleshly seed but saith he ye seek to kill me and therefore ver 39. he denies them in effect to be Abrahams spiritual seed or of the faith of Abraham for if ye were thus the children of Abraham saith he ye would do the works of Abraham and this did not he he did not become an enemy and seek to kill men for speaking the truth which they have heard of God ver 40. If therefore you desire to know what Father youbelong to I tell you plainly you are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it ver 44. So then although God gave to Angels and men at first the goodness and perfection of natural beings and doth freely offer a renewal of the same to men in the blood of Christ by the first covenant made again in force by vertue of his death as the first Testament Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. yet this image and likeness of God wherein they were made and whereunto they are again renewed as it stands single and alone without the other is a mutable and corruptible seed the children whereof are therefore capable to turn again into degenerate plants and into the wild olive tree For God comes down in the ministry hereof as under a veil to the creatures sight and enjoyment in which man fixing and taking up his abode waiting for no further discovery nor expecting or listning after that second voice of him that speaketh from heaven may for ever stand excluded from entrance into or converse with the glory that is within the veil where God is to be seen and enjoyed by the creature face to face By the blood of Christ then man is first made capable to be taken out of the wild degenerate state of nature and to be planted into the good Olive tree the flesh or natural man in the person of Christ and when he comes to partake of the fatness thereof as it singly gives forth Christ in his first appearance or a knowledge of him only according to the flesh which Paul grew a stranger to as he came to be more acquainted with the Cross he is still but in a capacity to stand or fall again as upon his second proof and trial in the renewed exercise of his free will and rectified natural abilities of mind he demeans himself according to which he proves the womb whereinto is received either a divine seed and birth whereof the mediator in his death and resurrection is the author and parent or else a devilish seed and birth whereof the Serpent and old Dragon is the Father growing up into a wilful and fixed enmity against the Cross of Christ One or other of these two seeds all sorts of men do become by the evil and unworthy or the good and worthy use of Christs blood and the benefits of his death and so are either the seed of the woman and of promise or the seed of the Serpent lying children born from beneath of the father of lyes in comparison of the divine birth of the true seed that in the other sense are born of God and from above This latter is attained unto through Gods bounty and free love the Mediator adopting them into oneness of seed with himself as he is the only begotten Son in whom God is well-pleased The other through Gods just permission and Satans prevailing power and influence upon their lust and natural will at its best are changed and corrupted into likeness and oneness of seed with the old Serpent By reason of which different dispensations the innocent good righteous and perfect state of mans nature communicated to him by vertue of the first covenant comes either to grow up into that which is much better even into the power of an endless life or else to degenerate and sink down into that which is much worse even eternal enmity and opposition of mind unto God which is the second death That then which fixeth man in his unchangeable and permanent state of everlasting blessedness or misery is the bringing him forth out of his first wavering and changeable state into oneness of seed with Christ the Mediator in his second appearance wherein he is made to bear the likeness of his death and resurrection or the leaving him to be transformed into oneness of seed with the destroyer and thereby to become a child of perdition The first of these changes mans natural will at its very best lusteth against as the greatest cross that can be brought upon it until by regeneration and the baptism of fire it be prepared broken and subdued into a meet subjection thereunto And the latter change cannot be obtruded by the devil or forced upon mans will but is brought upon him by and with his own free consent which was not found difficult to be gained in the state of mans innocency and purity in Paradise and is not more since Here then we see the seat and original of this enmity between the two seeds springing up in the manner before expressed in their respective heads and roots who are thus to be found as they are in their heads and first principles before they flow forth in the off-spring and are discerned in their distinct operations in the particular beings of men here in this world as deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil for which all men are rendred accountable when they come to stand before the judgement seat of Christ In order therefore to their own voluntary actings herein they are endued with the exercise of a freedome of will which by creation was perfect absolute and uninterrupted and which by the ballance that God since the fall keeps up by the ministry of the holy Angels with their influence and impressions upon the natural enlightned conscience as also by the work of the spirit himself upon those farther illuminated minds under the first covenant against the power and influence of the devil upon mans corrupted and depraved state is so far and truly exercised by man in the several measures and degrees thereof as will render him inexcusable for not hearkning to the light and means tendred and afforded to him through the blood of Christ revealed by the Gospel in one or other of the three forementioned branches of his kingdome So that now upon Gods making man on the sixth day of the creation forming the first Adam of the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life he became a living soul was set up in the first image of God brought forth in the same kind of mutable perfection with the Angels and in all the glory and accomplishments of this first state was a fit subject brought upon the stage capable to be attempted by both these great
Captains and competitors Michael in the person of the blessed Mediator and the old Dragon in the person of the devil And this last seems to get the start of the other at first on set forasmuch as by means of the womans weakness who was first in the transgression he makes a great advance towards his design supposing he had neer attained his end for he had prevailed so far as to bring Adam and Eve into the transgression and forfeiture of all the natural good they were by creation made possessours of And then further in prosecution of the same design upon this breach made between God and them he endeavours to cast in the seed of alienation and fixed enmity between them and God in order to set up his abiding Throne and seat in the fallen nature of man whereof the first Adam was the earthly head in whom the door was set open whereby sin entred into the world and death by sin Thus things were brought into a most hopeful way in the eye of the devil to disappoint and defeat the design of the Mediator as to the safe conducting the promised seed through all this disadvantage and opposition into the desired place of the true Rest Whence it is that the Mediator and Lamb slain from the beginning did hereupon think it high time to make discovery of himself and of the means for the accomplishing and bringing of his designs to pass in despite of the Serpents subtilty and in downright opposition to the very gates of hell By way of promise therefore he declares and engages himself to set up another man a second Adam Jesus the Son of Mary to be born of the seed of the woman who by being bruised in his heel and undergoing all the rage and enmity that the devil and his instruments could exercise upon him should arrive at such a neerness and intimacy of converse with God in the glory within the veil as that by the joy thereof set before him and the power thereof conveyed into him in the seed of it when he was laid hold on by the WORD in the womb of the Virgin he should be enabled to offer up himself in sacrifice to the Fathers will without spot to God through the eternal spirit enduring the Cross and despising the shame and so through his sufferings entring into the glory that was to follow he is for ever set down upon his Throne at Gods right hand expecting till his foes be made his foot-stool Hence it is that as through man came death so also by man comes the resurrection of the dead and the same man or first Adam who was of the earth earthy becomes the subject matter for both these seeds to work upon the seed of the promise and seed of the Serpent both being to be sown in this earth influenced and managed by these two grand competitors Michael and the Dragon in order to engage and fix the particular men and women of Adams posterity either in their true Rest or in an everlasting enmity thereunto and exclusion from it as they are either begotten of God and born of the spirit whereby they become children of the promise and heirs of salvation or left in the state of their natural beings voluntarily to drink in the seed of the Serpent and thereby to become hardned and prove finally children of wrath and sons of perdition as born after the flesh and as by a fair shew in the flesh they do exercise and manage the fiercest persecution against the true spiritual seed So then according to the birth which they are of they are either measured out with a line of life unto life or a line of death unto death answering the two great ends whereunto we shall find all things serve in this world and in the kingdom thereof This is that being of this world or from beneath spoken of by Christ in the Gospel which though in its rise and beginning as hath been shewed it be of God yet in its progress and end through the unlawful use thereof it comes to be of the devil who is the head and father unto that state spirit and interest which stands in direct contradiction and enmity to that of Christ and the promisedseed as they are the Jerusalem that is from above and are not of this world For in this Serpentine seed there is comprehended an irreconcileable enmity and opposition to the power and excellency of the Cross of Christ In which contrariety and opposition to the Cross all natural perfection and goodness is looked upon by God as considered only in its single seed and as the enjoyers and possessors thereof are left by God to their own natural senses capacities and powers of mind assisted with all needful helps and means proper and suitable to that state without the addition of a higher and more excellent birth reserved by God as a fruit of his bounty and free grace unto his chosen and beloved ones By what hath been said we may plainly see that although Gods own chosen vessels are determined from all eternity and fixed in such a neerness of union with God in their head that they can never be moved but are preserved by the power and influence thereof from all possibility of miscarying so as to fall short of true blessedness yet those that are in the number of the non-elect are not necessarily determined so much as in the means leading them to their destruction but have the free use of their own natural abilities to prevent the same assisted with all suitable requisite helps and means from God to keep them from it who omitteth nothing that is to be done on his part conducible hereunto which is consistent with the freedome of mans will and doth not offer violence to the principles which himself chooseth to joyn issue with God upon besides all which he that is faithful and cannot deny himself is pleased to be in the posture of one that is not yet risen up to shut the door finally upon them but leaves open a possibility of graffing them into an oneness of seed with the right heirs if at his coming he shall find them making a right and lawful use of the blood of Christ required by that first covenant renewed thereby upon them since the fall and not voluntarily rendring themselves uncapable of such favour by their needless provocations in hardning their hearts against the voice and teachings of the Cross and rejecting that counsel of God against their own souls God then is so far from looking upon the fall of man in the first Adam and the act of disobedience by him committed as the fixing of him and his posterity in an incapacity of returning unto God and of being made the true and right heirs of salvation that he is pleased through the blood of Christ to declare himself reconciled to the whole race of mankind as beholding them in a new head in the seed of the woman or second Adam a truth at
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
things sin only excepted which as the Law or holy commandment ministred by him is given them to keep without spot and unrebukeable unto his second appearance 1 Tim 6. 14. and as was typed out by the Manna is then no longer to be fed upon as singly ministred nor is to be gathered when this true Rest or Sabbath appears but melts away before the heat of this more glorious Sun and brighter day of Christs second appearance to them as having attained its end calling with the Angel Gen. 32. 26. to be let go and ceased from because of the day-break of Christs second coming and the sounding forth of the voice of God from that most excellent glory in which even this first ministry is also comprehended and fufilled This is Israel after the flesh whether considered as they were shadowed and typed forth by the fleshly seed of the Jews in general or as they were in truth the circumcision of Christ made without hands in time of the law or of the Gospel among Jews or Gentiles who as such are called Jer. 2. 21. wholly aright seed and Isa 5. a vineyard of Christs in a very fruitful hill fenced cleansed and planted with the choisest vine in expectation of their bearing good fruit and bringing forth right grapes but many of them in the end do bring forth sowr and wild grapes From these then thus considered are distinguished those under the Law that were only such outwardly their circumcision being only that which was outward in the flesh who having singly the form of knowledge according to the law contained in ordinances and outward observations knew not what it was to be a lew in spirit so much as in a conformity of inward perfection and life to Christ in his headship to the natural man These are described Ier. 32. 23. as those that walked not in Gods Law nor did any thing of all that God commanded them to do in the spirit and power of the commandment parallel unto whom are those in these daies under the Gospel who seem exceeding zealous of outward Ordinances and observations consisting in worldly rudiments as touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using whilst they remain strangers and enemies in their minds by wicked works even to that life of natural righteousness that is required by the Law not being renewed in and by Christ as his seed and off-spring so much as after the flesh nor made true members of his living body as planted into a likeness and conformity with him in his natural perfection of fleshly life And as the inward fleshly Israelite differs thus from the outward so is he in eminency far above all that rectified and reformed state of nature effected by the ministry of Angels in and upon those who are not yet actually taken out of their first corrupt natural root the old Adam but stand yet related as members to that head notwithstanding all the change brought upon them by the first dispensation For such are not as yet truly feeding with Christ at his fleshly table nor eating and drinking in his personal presence whilst they go forth singly in the acting of what is natural right and just and have no other foundation for their peace with God or means of maintaining fellowship and communion with him but the righteous and good works which they do according to the light dispensed in that first ministry and government whereas the Israel that is after the flesh as renewed in the flesh of Christ and becoming children of the first covenant are receivers of Christ himself in his first appearance for the foundation of their converse with God and the means of maintaining their fellowship and communion with him In this respect they are said to have faith accompanied with a good conscience but such as may be lost and shipwracked 1 Tim. 1. 19. and 5. 12. such a faith as in comparison with the faith that works by love and springs from the root of the Heavenly Adam is accounted as no faith at all Deut. 32. 20. but is rather to be esteemed the knowledge with which men are in danger of being puffed up 1 Cor. 8. 1. and such a receiving of the truth which as it may consist with so also may be without the love of it in the spirit and power thereof in which manner they receive it who afterward sin wilfully and so come to be denied any longer continuance of the benefit of Christs sacrifice for the expiation of their sins Heb. 10. 26. These with the stony ground receive the word with joy and are believers but when their faith comes to its trial Iam. 1. 2 3. they prove waverers and unstable such whose faith fails in the time of need wanting the incorruptible seed of the heavenly Adam to bear them up and make them durable Through this temporary faith they are admitted into Christs presence to eat and drink with him at his table and are enabled to do many wonderful works in his name and to make a very fair shew in the flesh and yet have no abiding city nor ever enter into the true Rest but only from the top of this Mount Pisga they may have a view and prospect into the true Land of promise the kingdom that cannot be moved that is in spirit and power appearing to them as a Land of distances very far off and may see its Lineaments and proportions though never be able to enter into the life and power of it as in like manner from the top-perfection of the first dispensation a survey may be taken of the earthly Jerusalem and of the glory of Christ according to the flesh without ever being actually translated into it or knowing of Christ in the life and power of his first appearance unto which many of those that go under the name of Quakers do seem to arrive CHAP. XVII Shewing the nature of that kingdom and Rule of Christ in the Saints which consists not in word and in the form of godliness only but in power and in the life of saving faith the first fruits whereof appear in those hearts that are made conformable to Christ in his death BY what we have laid down in the two foregoing chapters it plainly appears that Christ hath subjects and faithful walkers with him under both the former dispensations wherein he suffers the tares and the wheat the children of this world and the heaven-born sons of Zion to grow up together for a while without any discrimination being not yet come to the harvest that finishing work of his wherein he makes up his jewels Mal. 3. 17. setting apart his choise treasure unto himself and causing a manifest distinction and difference to shew it-self between the wicked and the righteous between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between those that draw back whose soul God takes no pleasure in and those that go on to the saving of the soul Heb. 10. 38 39. We are
reserved in heaven for them ready to be revealed in the last time They that are born of this seed are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God and through the power of faith and the abiding of this seed in them are kept unto salvation without any possibility of sinning unto death or any danger of final falling away having by vertue of their reception of this seed in the heart through the gift of God the nature of true believers communicated unto them even the unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God which makes them members of the new Jerusalem children of the promise who are born after the spirit and have that anointing whereby they know all things immediately from the head and fountain itself and need not that any man should teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. which was given to their head the true Aaron without measure running down upon all those that dwell together with him in the unity of the faith of the son of God even to the skirts of his garments upon the lowest members of this NEW JERUSALEM consecrating them a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD with himself to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God This new nature in the seed of it whilst it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen is called faith even the faith that justifies spreading over us the propitiatory covering of Christs spiritual headship and EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS in which we are made to stand for ever spotless and without guile before the Throne of God Those that are of this faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and are of that one seed that are heirs according to the promise The work of this faith and new birth when once wrought out by Christ in the heart and conscience is to breed patience and that patience experience and that experience hope even that hope which maketh not ashamed The patience which is wrought out in every regenerate one by this faith is called the obedience of faith that when it hath had its perfect work maketh us perfect so as to want nothing arming us with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to suffer in the flesh in order to put an end to sin and to work off the soul from the will desire of the flesh into an absolute subjection and conformity to the heavenly will of Christ wherein he is one with the Father and so enabling us to keep the word of Christs patience which is indeed the Law and Rule under which the true believer is subjected until Christs second coming being to rest in the grave with Christ untill the remainder of his sufferings be fulfilled in his whole body the Church under the certainty and with the comfort of his promise that those that thus suffer with him shall also raign with him and those that thus die with him shall also live with him And that all true believers are thus observers of this Rule according to the patern left by Christ in his own sufferings purifying themselves as he is pure keeping the word of his patience and performing the obedience of faith which is required by the law of the new covenant we shall endeavour to make known as in the experience thereof and Testimony from the Scripture it is held forth For through the comprehending power of Christ as he is the head and root of this spiritual seed and precious faith which is obtained by Gods chosen ones they are separated from the very womb yea they have grace given unto them in Christ Iesus before the world began and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in him being accepted in the beloved In this respect Jacob was loved and Esau was hated or the one was accepted and the other was refused in their mothers wombe the children being not yet born neither of them having as yet done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Howbeit we are not in Scripture sense nor in truth as some unwarrantably affirm actual believers until by effectual calling we are made receivers of whole Christ in the seed as before described And therefore the Apostle Paul who is a remarkable example herein though he had received grace in Christ Iesus as in his head before the world began and as thus comprehended in his head was separated and distinguished from the womb in whom the purpose of God according to the election was to stand yet it pleased not God to call him and by revealing his son in him to make him actually a believer and new creature until he had spent many years even a great part of his life in a sowerness and rigidness of spirit under the dispensation of the Law flaming out at last into cruel and fierce persecution of the Church of God though in all still preserved by his head from wilfull enmity For saith he I did it ignorantly In like manner all the children given to Christ by the Father whereof he is to lose none are thus separated and distinguished from the rest of the world as the beloved seed according to Gods purpose from the womb and so according to Gods purpose are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began Yet until it pleaseth God by his grace to call them whether they be in the state of circumcision or uncircumcision they live and walk according to the principles and Rule of that dispensation they are under For so we see in the great instance of Abraham the father of the faithful as by Stephen he is described to us Acts 7. in the manner of the calling with which he was called and whereby he was made actually a Believer and a new creature which was by Gods appearing to him and by the power of his WORD working in him calling and bringing him out of his own Country the land of his Nativity and from his natural relations into the land which he should shew him causing him herein to resign up his natural judgement and will entirely to his disposal and through faith to obey for he went out not knowing whither he went which first remove of his was out of the state of degenerate nature and his heathenish life into the earthly land of Canaan as that was a type and figure of the heavenly and into circumcision or experience of that communion with God which is by the first Covenant whereby the filth of the flesh in his heathenish state was cut off and cleansed and he in minde as well as in body brought into the figurative land of promise even to a conformity in mind and spirit to the Law the perfection of Christs flesh or natural man In this promised land perceiving by faith that it was but the type and shadow of the good things themselves the heavenly Country which was
way of natural good works and well-doing pretending to keep up his natural lust and desire in the life exercise and power thereof as Saul did the best of the goods of the Amalekites and their King for Sacrifice to God And therefore the natural man in the Saint in all the powers and faculties thereof stands it out long against the workings of faith in him and fights hard upon this principle of self-preservation deriding with the brothers of Joseph that dreamer which the New-Covenant-Faith in the life language and obedience thereof appears to be to the judgement of flesh and blood when it perswades us to become weak with Christ to suffer our selves to be disarmed and despoyled of this first power and the free exercise thereof upon its single natural root as keeping up a covetousnesse in us that is Idolatry and the root of all evill and does assure us that Gods strength shall be made perfect in us through this weaknesse so as we may rejoyce and glory in such infirmities through which the strength of Christ shall come to be ever resting on us whereby at last we shall be made to take pleasure in these infirmities reproaches necessities persecutions and distresses for Christs sake which at first are grievous but in conclusion we find by experience that when we in our selves are thus most weak then are we in the Spirit of Christ made most strong In this weaknesse then which is brought upon the naturall man of the Saint in which he is made to bear about in his body the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus consisting in infirmities reproaches necessities persecutions and distresses inward and outward doth the death of Christ work in the flesh of every Saint untill it be fully crucified brought downe into the grave and formed into one dead body with Christs natural man for ever disenabled and weakened from acting this selfish power or exercising this natural lust or desire though in a way of natural or legal good workings singly considered but to have them brought to their lawful rest in the grave of Christ as a Sabbath-keeping there their reasonable service and sacrifice acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ Whence it comes to passe that we no longer live but Christ lives in us and in and through this weaknesse brought upon us by the Crosse quickens us to a more excellent way of working with God and for God then ever we were acquainted with before to the fulfilling and establishing the righteousnesse required by the Law to the highest so that against these weakened Saints and poor broken-spirited children of God there is no Law but the death of Christ that thus works in them doth condemne sinne in the flesh and never leave till it quite abolish it there and bring in the everlasting righteousnesse of God in the roome of that righteousnesse of man which was but as a morning dew Thus we come to bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal or crucified flesh which work of mortification is unto the old Adam most bitter and grievous it being that which bruises him and puts him to grief beyond all that can be imagined and which therefore he fights against and resists to the last drop of blood till he can no longer stand upon his feet but doth fall down amongst the slaine in the blood of Christ whose rest is blessed thus dying with or in the Lord and his works follow him This is the third particular wherein our conformity to Christs death doth consist The fourth and last does respect the workings of faith as they maintaine the good part of this fight in the Saints and gaine the victory over the world and the fleshly seed and principles in them In the managing of which faith doth at first whilest the spiritual senses are not come into use nor strength undergo many a sore brunt and is hard put to it by the workings of unsubdued flesh and blood in them as in the renewed principles thereof they abide in their vigour and flourishing of youth under the first Covenant having through the power of the Law and life of Christs fleshly perfection brought forth in them overcome the wicked one and by the knowledge of Jesus Christ after the flesh cleane escaped the pollutions of the world respecting the filth of the flesh in the confidence and strength whereof these young ones in the experiences of the Gospel think nothing too hard for them to break through and get the mastery of and therefore despise the workings of faith and seed of the promise as a barren desolate widowhood in comparison of their flourishing youth and would be putting in for the inheritance as obteined by the perfection of the Law and Christs first appearance esteeming that to be the Kingdome that is to abide and continue the holy City whose Tabernacle must never be taken down But against all these fierce encounters from pure flesh and blood in the Saint armed with conquests over the wicked one and many fruitful evidences of Christs presence and communion as a Bridegroome and Husband according to the flesh faith armes the soul putting on it the whole armour of light and evidencing to it things unseene the hidden Manna the new name the Jerusalem that is above that which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard nor hath entred into the natural mans heart and conception with which it puts forward and advances bringing in that which is enduring substance an inheritance undefiled and which fades not away in opposition to a failing decaying corruptible Crowne and Rest which flesh and blood glories in And in this more excellent way of worshipping and serving God it comes forth and gains ground in the heart to the stopping the high careere that flesh and blood was in before to the utter silencing it at last and casting down its lofty imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Through this powerful operation of faith the youth of flesh and blood in the Saint is weakened and grey heirs now begin to appear here and there upon him in this his captivity to the obedience of faith which state is very honourable and is the qualification that renders Saints the true Elders in the Church of God who being old men in Christian experiences ought to be in great esteeme for the use and advantage they are of and the great benefit they may bring to true Church-fellowship and Christian Societie how despicable soever this frame of spirit be in the eyes of the worldly Church and of the youthful visible Churches of Saints flourishing with their fair shewes in the flesh whereby they are puffed up and have life working in them whilest death works in Paul the aged and such Elders in spiritual growth that walk as he walked yea these are full and rich and would