we live again or come to another life and the death of the Body doth bring no life to the Soul therefore the Soul is to die and as the eternal Soul cannot corrupt or decay it is not obnoxious to such dissolution or death as the Body is and so the death of the Soul can be no corruption or dissolution of it but a continual dying agony strugling with death or such an anguishing pain as we may conceive a Man feels when he is a dying And this Fight or Agony must be as I have said with Burning or with Fire For every battel of men is with a confused noise and garments rolled in blood but this shall be with burning and with fewel of fire Isa 9.5 To which he adds ver 6. to shew us that this precedes the Baptism or the New Birth of Water the Water-like Child is born the Son of Man is formed in the Virgin Soul of Man and grows there till he becomes the wonderful mighty God and the Prince of Peace to him Under the Law all those things that could abide the Fire were purified by Fire and those that could not bear it were purified with Water to shew us what was to be the true cleansing of the Soul whil'st as yet in this Body of Flesh under the Gospel And many of the Fathers to shew that this is no new Doctrine speak at the same rate Amongst whom Ambrosius and Origen on the first Chapter of Leviticus and Psal 36. have left us these Passages Christus faith Ambrosius baptizat in Spiritu sancto igne qui Spiritus sancti typus imago est qui ignis instar cor animam fidelium inflammat ut probet eos secundum Apostolum 1 Cor. 3. Nam necesse est at hoc examen perficiatur apud omnes qui redibunt in Paradisum Oportet nos omnes faith Origen at que Paulum Petrum who saith I Pet. 4.17 that the time was come since the Agony of Christ that the Saints were to be tried and that this firy Tryal which he calleth their judgment must begin first at them and at the whole house of God intrare in talem purgatorium ignem sed omnes non eodem modo ac illi transibunt nam non omnes purgantur per ignem qui exit de Altari qui est ignis Domini nam ignis qui est extra Altare Altare autem est Christus qui mittit nobis ignem Spiritus Sancti non est ignis Domini sed ignis peregrinus in peccatorum cruciatum destinatus qui nunquam extinguitur ut vermis qui rodit eos nunquam moritur Nam postquam anima per multitudinem malefactorum in se cumulavit abundantiam peccatorum ista congregatio malorum cum tempore fermentat à poena supplicio interno flammam concipit sicuti corpus febrem ab excessu gulae aut aliarum superfluitatum cum in memorian revocare malefactorum historiam retexere incipiet quae ipsi perpetuus stimulus erunt ad torquendum sui ipsius accusatrix erit testimonium dabit contra semet ipsam ut Apostolus inquit ad Rom 2. inter se invicem accusantibus aut etiam defendentibus cogitationibus in die quâ judicabit Dominus occulta hominum Sed Jeremias cap. 25. Loquitur depotione irae Dei quae effundetur quicunque de illa bibere non volet non purificabitur Vnde discimus inquit quod irae Dei effusio in corda quam amoris Dei effusio sequitur Rom. 5.5 facit ad purgationem animarum Haec ille Whence we learn that the Fire of God's wrath in the Soul is both the Death of the Soul or the Hell of the Wicked and the Purgatory of the Souls of the Faithful of which he that will not drink shall never be purified and so shall never enter into the Kingdom of God Hebr. 12 14-13.11 and that this Firy Tryal is not so violent in some to wit that have led a holy Life before it as in others that have led an ungodly sinful Life whose multitude of sins kindle a greater Fermentation Out of this the Church of Rome that knows but the dead Letter of the Christian Mysteries and hath depraved them to make a sordid gain of them hath drawn her Purgatory And these things suffice to prove that this dying by Fire and this new Birth of Water are the true and onely way or quomodo of Wisdom that is how to obtain the Spirit that gives Wisdom without which all the study for Knowledge is but in vain as they that see in seeing may find to be true in most of the learned at the Schools who never find any thing besides the Opinion they have at first received thô it be never so False whereas a true Learned man brings forth daily out of his ever-springing Well or Stock of Wisdom things new and old Matth. 13.52 and who not only know not that these things are the true and direct way to Wisdom but preferring their Darkness to Light will not justifie or own this truth when told them and will keep for all this sucking the dry empty Breasts of their old Alma Mater so they call Academies and filling thus more and more as Eliphaz saith in Job 15.2 their Bellies with the East wind But here I would not be understood as if I meant that there is no Knowledge at all of Natural Things without this Death and this Birth For surely there is a place for Gold a vein for Silver Iron and Brass by Knowledge got without such means as these are molten out of their Oar Job 28.1 2. That is an implicit Knowledge in part may be had from others in many things But where shall Wisdom be found It is not to be found in the Land of the Living ver 12 13. Now Wisdom as I said is not a Knowledge in part and of one part of the World Enthusiastically inspired in our minds For in the case of Knowledge which is a sight of all the true Causes concurring in the production of such Effect or Phoenomenon as is become the Object of a Man's Meditation there can be no such thing But it is a Light shining or breaking out in the Mind which like a slash of Lightning makes all those things manifest that we could not see before though we were just upon them by reason of our standing in the dark with them so that we can thereby see and perceive what things they are nay read in them and through them by their outward signature per quid quomodo that is in what manner and by what they become such provided we set upon the Contemplation of them For as the Flash makes not Men see what is out of their sight or what they look not upon thô it shines through and gives light over the whole Hemisphere So thô the light of Wisdom doth make all things manifest and expose to our View the hidden Causes of Things yet
34-29 1 of which you have a very fresh Instance in the late King. To return to the manner of the second Coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost observe that as the lightning comes at first out of the East and then shines even unto the West that is enlightneth the Hemisphere all over so his Coming which is not with any observation Luke 17.20 appears first like the Day-spring chap. 1.78 or the dawning of the day or is like the morning Star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 for there all our thoughts or first glimpses of Light rise then encreasing more and more to the perfect light or day Prov. 4.18 it comes to be like the Sun at Noon and at the Solstice in reference to both which distinct states Christ is called the Morning Star by St. John Rev. 22.16 20. and the Sun of Righteousness by the Prophet Malachy 4.2 because he both dissipates the Morning Clouds by his light and strengthneth by the power of it a Believer so that he brings him to ripeness or to his full perfection the flash at his appearance shining nothing near so bright and comfortable as the Sun and as itself would do if it lasted for ever or endured a great while without vanishing again For after the same manner Christ the Word or the Wisdom and Light and Power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 within us in our hearts Rom. 10 8. springing out of the centre out of a man 's own darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 first appears to the sad mind like glimmering sparks of light which are a great refreshing to the Soul light or knowledge bringing still along with it great joy as I have said Then encreasing and sending its sweet beams by little and little towards the Circumserence till it shines through the whole Sphere it enligthneth all over and at the same time comforts and strengthneth sick sainting Man in such sort that he may rise from the shadow of death wherein he lay as benumm'd and walk and run and not faint and mount up with wings as Eagles Isa 40.31 Joel 2.7 and going from strength to strength Psal 84.7 both take God's Kingdom by force and rise to the very top or crown or zenith thereof which is God's holy mountain or the highest state of bliss and of glory and of light which Mankind is capable of Dan 12.3 Mat. 13 43 -19.28 Rev. 3.21 continuing all the while springing shining enlightning and refreshing the firy dark Soul to eternal life with the water of that Well that is Wisdom and Knowledge flowing out of a Man's self whereof Christ spake in St. John 4 14-7.38 As an ever flowing spring of living water streaming through a hot and desart place would revive the weary Traveller dying for Thirst so this new Spring of Wisdom revives the dry sainting Soul of Samson and Ishmael that is of Christ's stout Champions Gen. 21.20 the Church Militant on Earth as soon as they begin to thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5.6 as it was typified by the water gushing out of the Asses dry Jaw-bone which Samson after a great Victory being ready to die met with in his thirst Judg. 15.18 19. and by the Wells of water which Israel found at last in the dry and desart Land Exod. 15.27 But before he I mean the said sick Man comes to this he must dye the second death according to God's threatning Gen. 2.17 which because God's Word is true shall not pass away from him before it be fulfilled Mat. 24.35 and this is not so easie a matter for him to do as our learned Divines who pass it over sicco pede teach in their Sermons For to speak of this dying which is the other thing needful for the obtaining the said birth of the Spirit it is really a dying and dying you will grant is a hard thing to Mankind Neither is it only such dying as is that of this body of the flesh which Men easily go through But such as is proper and peculiar to the Soul which is so intolerable that none but the Son of Man or at least the Soul of Man enabled by the virtue and strength of the Son of Man can sustain or bear with it Prov. 18.14 For no man he saith himself John. 3.13 doth ascend up to Heaven but he that comes down from thence to give us power and strength and thus by enabling us to die lifts us up thither and there go along with it the terrors of Hell it self Which thing because it seems new and very strange to the world is what I do here take upon me to demonstrate And first to shew what it is This dying is the same death as that Adam died of after he had transgressed which must be some other thing than the death of his Body for he was surely to die the day that he transgressed Gen. 2.17 whereas his Body did live 900 years after And that was a rising or an exasperation of the Fire of his Soul after he tasted the Apple for he had lost long before viz. before he fell asleep the Light of Life which his Soul enjoyed at his Creation to a very intense or high degree of sierceness raging in him till the time he catcht hold of the promise made to him of the Woman's Seed Christ the Light of the world For Life without Light is but a dark and obscure Fire kindled either here or there in some individual place and burning without shining as do all Acids the Frost and those Corrosives called Ignes Potentiales by Chymical Writers whereby the Life just subsists in a very anxious fretful state or condition as being always feeding upon the thing it is in that is upon the Body which it had formed itself till that Body be consum'd or till this hungry Fire be fully satiated And this Fire thus burning was represented to us by the firy Serpent of God's People in the Desart and by a Worm or Serpent which Christ saith doth never die because it is always renascens reproducing or kindling itself anew viz. in the eternal Souls for there it can as well do it always as for once by reason that its Body or Subject doth not decay and when exasperated it is the Death of the Soul or its Hell burning gnawing and making it for ever anxious and full of pain except it reacheth the Light that makes all things comfortable Here consider the grimness of a dark and frosty Night which chills benums and destroys and burns all things on the ground and what state things would lay in if the Light of the Sun were taken out of the world Would not all the living things lay still like Worms in Winter and be frozen up as hard and stiff as Ice in their place Sure the world itself would be nothing but Death all over And thence conceive if you can how sharp severe and bitter are to the despairing Soul whose dark Fire corroding and biting it like sharp Frost or a fretting Humor or some tart
do That he was created that he might know the Wonders of the great Wisdom of God which he cannot do without being fill'd with all Wisdom thereby to be ravished with Joy and Admiration like the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10.5 at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them there being nothing so sweet as the New Discoveries and the taste of true knowledge and thus become partakers of God's own Summum Bonum Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet All those that Christ hath made Kings and Priests to God his Father Revel 1.6 both partake of God's Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and share the Kingdom with God Revel 2.26 27. with 3.21 And Secondly Wisdom is the Nonplus ultra or rest or perfect state of Mankind for in that state of Wisdom God himself who cannot err pronounced him very Good Gen. 1.31 in Latine Summe Bonus which word as it excludes all defect and imperfection it implies his perfect State and that he had attained by thus being very good to his greatest Perfection or highest degree of Bliss he could ever pretend to And that Wisdom was the state in which he was pronounced and declared very Good I prove thus The state in which God declares him very Good is the very same state as God created him in but he was created after the Image of God v. 27. Which Image consists saith Paul in Knowledge Colos 3. 10. and Righteousness Ephes 4.24 both which make up together one thing which is true Wisdom Wisdom being not a bare Theory as shall be shewed Therefore he was created in Wisdom and so Wisdom is the state in which he was said very Good or Perfect or his state of Perfection But this was said of Adam and what is it to the rest of Mankind Some will argue It is full as much to them as to him I answer Because the purpose of God is still that Man should be such for God being for ever both all Wise and Almighty his Purpose stands saith St. Paul though Man did not stand himself and his Gifts and his Calling being without Repentance Rom. 11.29 his Will is that his Good Gift whereof see Matth. 7.4 Luke 11.13 or Donative which he made to Man should continue still that Mankind by being Wise or as Gods Gen. 3.5 should be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 or made again very good and perfect as Adam was and even as his Father which is in Heaven saith Christ Matth. 5.48 Therefore in the Ephesians 4.13 and in the Hebrews 11.40 St. Paul taking this thing for granted saith That the Saints he speaks of v. 12. who are to be perfected or saved will all of them come unto a Perfect Man and even to the measure of the full stature of Christ who is yet far more perfect than the first Man ever was Whence he became the Author of Eternal Salvation or Perfection in others Heb. 5.9 Having been substituted in the place of the first Man that he might mend and redress all that he had done amiss and restore all things again to that state of Perfection which both he the first Adam and the World with him fell from Rom. 8.20 21. and so be himself Adam that is the right man who is the true Father of Mankind begetting Mankind a new by his Spirit of Wisdom 1 Cor. 15.45 Therefore it is that he is called the second Adam and that St Paul saith that all the Saints shall bear his Image v. 49. and not that of the first man. Christ adds to this in Matthew 5.48 saying be therefore perfect even as your heavenly Father himself is perfect Hence seeing the Perfection or the full Stature of Christ is the same and greater to as the first man Adam was at first created in and consisteth in Wisdom and seeing that we must come to it in being saved it follows that we must come to Wisdom to be saved and that Wisdom is the rest or Perfection of Mankind beyond which he cannot go or be further exalted And by a consequence drawn a contrario from this it follows that Ignorance is the summum málum Hell oâ— the most imperfect sad and dismal State of Mankind Mâ—… people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge say the Prophets Isa 5.13 Hos 4.6 Of which Ignorance of his because puts him in mind of the Despicableness Nakedness and Misery his fall hath reduced him to Rev. 3.17 he cannot abide to hear without some shame and horror and therefore no Man can bear to be called ignorant or a Fool without Anger But of this Summum Malum we are cured or healed by Vnderstanding saith Christ Matth. 13.15 for he brings along with him such healing in his Wings Mal 4.2 as a good Vnderstanding 1 John 5.20 to cure us of our gross brutish Ignorance of God. Salvation being nothing but a Cure and a rising from the deadly Lethargy which Man is fallen into Gen. 2 21-5.3 1 Cor. 15.49 Rom. 3.23 Job 11.12 To the light of Life that is eternal Life proceeding from the Sun of Righteousness which Light is the Life of Man John 1.4 And by that Light or Knowledge which he brings we are saved or made Just Isai 53 11-11.9 That is to say Righteous and Good or Perfect Salvation or Perfection being Righteousness it self Rom. 14.17 And by Knowledge Grace and Peace or the Righteousness and Peace which the Kingdom of Heaven and Salvation consists in are multiplied within us 2 Pet. 1.2 Luke 17.11 Whence we have some Promises of being fed with Knowledge Jer. 3.15 And that Christ should be a Light who by giving that Knowledge which Luke 1.77 calls on this account The Knowledge Salvation or by opening the blind Eyes and bringing out of Prison them that sit there in darkness and in the shadow of of Death would save the Jews and Gentiles Isa 49 6-42.6 Acts 26.18 Luke 1.79 Wherefore St. Paul calls the Light the Inheritance of Saints Coloss 1.12 being what God promised Abraham's Seed should inherit Acts 1.4 5. Luke 24.49 And St. John 1.4 saith that their Life is the Light they have in them For which Reason the Scriptures call them the Children of Light and Eternal Death or Hell they entitle outward Darkness as being opposed to the Light of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man Luke 17.21 Though Hell be something besides Darkness to wit the gnashing of Teeth by reason of the gnawing and corroding of the Worm or of a sharp austere grim and dark Fire for ever O house of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the Light or True Knowledge of the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah 2.5.42.6 Note by the by All the Sects which have no more Knowledge of God than the Papists have are as like the Church of Christ as the Kingdom of Darkness is like the Kingdom of God. Wo be to thee Chorazin Wo be to thee Bethsaida For if the Papists could hear and were permitted to read what you may both read and hear to wit what
acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation