wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit and therefore as Christ saith we may be bold to say after him The flesh profits nothing if you only know Christ as dying and rising without you it wil profit you nothing unles you know him as dying rising within you Error in this is the root of the dead faith wherof the world is full This is the root of that formall profession of that form of godliness which men doe advance soe far in and glory so much of and shroud themselves under unto the persecuting of the power of godliness to the persecuting of the Spirit This setting up of the History of Christ being ignorant of the Mystery Any man is capable of remembring the story of Christ and telling and rehearsing it if he hath but common reason and can say as wel as another that Christ dyed for him and can throw himself upon Christ and hang upon Christ This is not Faith this is not Salvation We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile We know not how to shake off the pretenders and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternall life Through the ignorance of this truth we have counted it enough if a man hath had the knowledg of the Story of Christ and hath said he casts himselfe upon Christ for salvation But harken what James saith Faith without works is dead Harken what Paul saith Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death He doth not say that such a proposition of the Gospell did set him free He doth not say that the hearing that Christ dyed for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as there was the Law or Letter the outward Covenant is it that entailes life upon Jesus Christand his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed This is the Covenant that God made with Christ that he made with Abraham of old I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed Now then they that are of the seed of Christ are in this Covenant as al that were Abrahams seed were in that outward Covenant but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ and to be of the generation of Christ And do not thousands profess themselves so to be Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord and press to enter into Heaven We cannot put a difference between one or other except we know this truth for they say they are in the Covenant they say they are of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this They hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he dyed for their sins and rose for their Justification and this they beleeve and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veryest Hypocrite do so as wel as the truest Saint But here is that which puts a difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poore creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep This distinguishes them from the other So that if you lay your salvation upon an historicall Christ you wil be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him you must have the same eternall Spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice yea your selves and your own Righteousness This is true salvation Here is salvation manifested unto life But you wil say to me Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ Is it not a giving away from Christ And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us Solu To this I answer that it is no giving away from Christ at all for we make Christ to be all in all in this only we distinguish of Christ There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the witness the Covenant the common Person in whom our salvation is transacted as in a figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the reall salvation within us For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit but the Manifestation of God the coming forth of God and unto this must we attribute and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation this is the Savour of life unto life Of his own wil begat he us Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father This same Will of God brought forth is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit Christ Iesus is the outgoing of the Fathers Wil the Manifestation of the Fathers good Pleasure Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Beleever If you confine Christs dwelling to a locall Heaven you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be Christ dwels in thy heart if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit Christ is in thee for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Fathers Will and the Manifestation tion of the Fathers good pleasure this is Christ So that if we give to Sanctification we give to Christ For this is the Will of God even our Sanctification Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification But I desire a little further to examine that same before I let it pass it is said it is a giving to Sanctification and not to the blood of Christ I say no. For 1. I do not here take Sanctification as it is commonly taken as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit I know that our life lyes not in this or the other act or in any particular act Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit 2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit but to the Revelation of the Spirit There is the Revelation of the Spirit as wel as the Sanctification of the Spirit as the Apostle speaks Ephes 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation c. 3. There is the Spirit of grace as well as the grace of the Spirit and to this I give all and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus and so to him I give al and what do I give to the Spirit I give the Manifestation of salvation to life and that 's all 4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend
unto you That we are not justified we are not sanctified by Christs dving by Christs suffering in the flesh only that is not the compleat Ministration of our salvation There indeed we see our salvation as in a glass and it is transacted as in a figure as in the history but then are we actually sanctified when as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our hearts revealing unto us the Love of the Father and revealing unto us our Reconciliation that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross but which is dispensed unto us by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was For the Apostle Rom. 8. doth in two places speak so expresly to this purpose that no man can wave it or put it by verse 10. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness Here is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ If Christ be in you and there is no salvation without it then the body is dead the body of your own Righteousness and your own Strength and wisdom is crucified in conformity to the death of Christ Christs death was but the figure of the death that must pass upon the flesh of every Beleever and therefore though we may say I am crucified with Christ c. We cannot take any comfort till the body be dead in us And the other place is the 4. verse of Rom. 8. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us c. Pray mark it You dream of a Righteousness of the Law fulfilled for you that is true too Christ fulfilled it for you perfectly but there is a fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in you And the Apostle shews what that is when you are crucified to the fleshly principle and walk in the spiritual principle though you walk not in perfect obedience yet spiritually it is done in you The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit So then look after this that you be sanctified through the Truth that is that you in very deed be sanctified according to the pattern of Sanctification in Christ Jesus Let me minde you again of that Scripture Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus that ye put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man c. Look that this be done Object But you will say unto me is not this to bring us again into Bondage To charge this upon us when as we are bid look that it should be so and so with us Solution I answer it is your great interest that these things should be done in you but it is not expected that they should be done by you According to the working saith the Apostle of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and set him c. It is Gods mighty power that works in you it is God that crucifies you it is God that quickens you Christ offered up himself by the eternall Spirit it was not by the resolution of his flesh that he gave himself to dye as many a Valiant Roman hath done for his Country but it was through the eternal Spirit and therefore that which you are to do is to wait upon God And herein comes the use of the doing of these things in the man Christ Jesus before your eyes It is to strengthen your faith and expectation of having these things done in you by the same power and spirit And therefore if you ask me what use you should make of Christs Death and Resurrection and these things I say look upon them as the earnest of your salvation look upon them as the very sealing of the Covenant between God and you God reads over as it were all the Covenant before us and seals it in our presence and this is the scope of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ It is but to manifest the life to us to shew what God will do upon your flesh So what God did to Christ Jesus and so how he carryed him to glory so how he was tempted and be not you discouraged though it be so with you See how the Disciples were dismayed when Christ wrapt up himself for a Moment in the grave as in a cloud of darkness They said we thought this bad bin he that should have redeemed Israel See what an end the Lord made with him the same end will the Lord make with you also THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS JOHN 17. Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy word is Truth Verse 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth THis same Portion of Scripture that is read to you is an Enforcement or part of an Enforcement of one of those savory Petitions which Jesus Christ put up at his departure out of this world for his Disciples and in them for all his elect The Petition is this Sanctifie them through thy Truth This Petition he doth in part explain and he doth enforce and urge it with Arguments 1. He explains it in part that part thy Truth he explains it thus thy word is Truth Now before I go any further By the word here we are not to understand this same Letter for we know this same Letter of the word is taken up by every one to defend his opinion and therefore this is not the meaning of thy word is Truth But the meaning is this That that word that was with God and that was God that word is Truth I conceive this same truth being a relative notion is here to be taken in opposition to form Thy word is Truth The meaning is this That thy word it is not only a form and an appearance in which thou dost make out thy self unto the world but thy word indeed is the very Truth that is it is thy self and so Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified not by planting the knowledg of the literal word in their minds but by ingraffing the nature of the Divine word in their hearts that is by ingraffing God himself by God himself becoming one with them This is the only means of Sanctification This is the true Sanctification by the word The ingraffed word which is able to save our souls Now having explained his request he enforces it and the first Enforcement of it is this from the title and the reason that may be pleaded why they should be sanctified why the Members of Christ should be sanctified Why saith he There is as much reason why they should be sanctified as there is why I should be sanctifyed For as thou-hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Mark it I pray and you will see that it is not such a wringing of the nose
them all in the Unity of the Spirit and of the appearance and breaking forth of God But so much shall serve for that Use and that Point Now I come to the next Point and that 's the difference between men in their forms or rather the amount of their difference what it amounts to We have it in these words Whether we live or whether we dye Who is he that dyes It is he that is in bondage to outward observances that depends upon fleshly forms Who is he that lives Why it is he that is free You know ye often meet with these distinctions in Scripture Circumcision and uncircumcision Jew and Gentile bond and free quick and dead Liberty is the next thing to life What good doth a mans life do him if he be not a free man I mean spirituall Liberty or Liberty in the Spirit and Bondage it is next to death But upon other Considerations is it here called living and dying But it may be said is not the Text abused to interpret it thus allegorically or to make a Metaphor of it should it not be taken literally Whether we live that is in the body we live to the Lord or whether we dye that is go out of this body we dye to the Lord I answer besides that such an interpretation is to make the Apostle here speak impertinently as being quite from the business he hath in hand You shall find also it is cross to the Letter of the Scripture for that is not death that men call death and that is not life that men call life For God is the God of the living and not of the dead in that sense Abraham is alive though dead The Scripture calls not them dead nor God the God of the dead in that sense but the living and all things live to God Again he saith not they dye in the Lord though that be to be taken spiritually but they dye to the Lord. And if you ask why should they be called dying Christians dying Saints The Apostle will tell you when he saith To be carnally minded is death Rom. 8. 6. That which is translated carnally minded signifies to savour carnally to savour God and our life carnally this is death but he that is in bondage to forms savours God and life carnally ergo it is death and he is a dying man That he savours carnally appears from hence That he doth relish better and savour more the weakness of God in an Ordinance then the strength and excellency and glory of God in the Spirit and in his own proper appearance He is more taken his heart goes out more after a sight of God in flesh then to see him in Spirit is not this to savour life carnally For to think that a mans life is bound up in any form or in flesh is it not a carnall savour And yet do not many Christians do so Do not they think that God and an Ordinance do nourish and feed and administer strength to you but not God without an Ordinance The Apostle saith We have this treasure in earthen vessels Now if a man counts not this to be treasure except it be in an earthen vessell is not this carnall It is true while we do receive God in any form it is mercy but to say God cannot be meat or nourishment without a form this is to savour our life carnally How many Christians are troubled and assaulted with doubts concerning their good estate that have a load lying upon them and Clouds of darkness before them that hanker after an Ordinance to come dispell these Clouds O if I could receive such an Ordinance a Sacrament in such a manner This would solve all objections and give them full assurance when as they have God they have his Promises The word is nigh thee saith the Apostle in this Epistle Chap. 10. even in thy heart But behold except this God will come to them in flesh they can make no use of him they cannot see how God should do it in Spirit without a form this is to savour life carnally therefore they linger in their desertions and temptations and are not help't out of them because they stay for God to come to them in such a way and see no salvation for them in himself for then they would depend upon him Agreeable to this Scripture is another viz. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh we shall dye Now there are many sorts of flesh saith the Apostle There is one kind of flesh of men another of beasts another of birds another of fishes There is flesh of fishes that will carry a man swimmingly like the Spirit and there is flesh of birds that wil soar aloft like the Spirit there is high-raised flesh but if we live after the motion or principle of any thing below God we live after the flesh Even if we live after the motion of Graces themselves not resolving our graces into God If the sparkling and turning of our graces themselves be the wine that doth chear and refresh us yea the flesh of Christ if we stick in that vail and stand not in the naked Spirit of Christ before God passing through Christs flesh both in him and in our selves as he hath past through it we are not yet past out of the flesh I say not that they that have the use of forms are dying Christians but they that depend upon them they that cannot have life from God unless he present himself to them in the flesh Reas 2 The second Reason They that fall short of God are in a dying condition but those whose life is bound up in any form they fall short of God He that attains not God loses the Race He that attains not the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus loses the Race and he dyes He that is in bondage to outward observanâ—es and depends upon them fals short of God that is of the glory of God He hath God under a vail in his form but not God in his glory He sees God vailed not his open face not as he is He hears of God in a Parable he sees him not plainly even the flesh of Christ is a vail and till we are past through that through the Mediatorship and through the fleshly state in our selves we appear not in the open presence of God Reas 2 The end of forms is death The end of Christs fleshly state and appearance was death either we must lye and dye in form I mean not eternally or we must dye to form There 's no coming to a higher state but by dying to the former state Christ was Crucified in flesh before Justified in Spirit He that endures to the end shall be saved He that passes through all things forgets and dyes to imperfect discoveries to fleshly appearances let them be never such spirituall flesh he only is in the way of this salvation here meant The fleshly form as it is in Saints hath in it the
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
You have heard that forms cannot dispense to us the spirituall Discoveries of God but by their going away in themselves then God hath sent out the Spirit of Elijah among us and God is contending with flesh and God is come into his Temple to sit there as a Refiners fire and he is bringing down all our forms But how He is destroying them in the flesh that he may give us them again in the Spirit This is that account upon which we may converse together and speak together informs as yet not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit not accounting the form any thing Ministers not reckoning themselves to be anointed above their fellows and so making themselves Lords over Gods Heritage No it was only Christ Jesus was anointed above his fellows in that Administration wherein he was to be of publique use to the body but the anointing runs down from the head to the skirts of his garment c. The anointing is upon you all Christians it is the divine appearance within us anoints us above the world The Lord hath a quarrell with all flesh and we shall hear God speaking in one another more purely and he will turn to us a pure language when he hath made us a poor people Poverty and Pureness shall go together And then we will go no more forth to Malcham and when God hath silenced and stopt the mouth of all flesh and he alone is exalted then he will give you Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning and we shall all know the Lord and be able to speak to one another as at the beginning Think not your Religion will not be if the flesh of it be destroyed we shall know it more in the Spirit and see the anointing discovering it self upon the Body of Christ THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN ROM 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. SUch is the Nature of Man such our darkness and blindness such our unacquaintedness with spirituall things that we are even shie and startle at that that is our great interest The Disciples when Jesus Christ came walking unto them on the Sea after he had bin a while absent from them took him for a Spirit and cryed out for fear Jesus Christ the Lord that Spirit that quickning Spirit He hath bin absent from us a while namely during the Apostacy during the raign of Antichrist and he is now visiting us and is comming to us in his own appearance When Christ who is our life shall appear When he shall break forth from under the Vail Now we know him not and are exceedingly afraid yea we cry out for fear we cry out of destroying Religion pulling down Ordinances This is the very case in the Text here There were some in the Apostles days that were still in the flesh I mean that were in that gross flesh that were under that same thick Vail of the Jewish Paedagogy and they were offended at others from whom God had taken that Vail and that did not walk in those Observances they did judg them very like they judged them to be irreligious men What not observe a day that God himself hath instituted Not observe distinction of meats that God himself hath founded What audaciousness is this to throw down the Ordinances of God On the other hand those that did see ground perhaps in the Letter for what they did for the casting off the yoke of these outward Observances yet not walking spiritually in this liberty despised them that were still under these When any thing of a form is received by our nature by our flesh there is a miscarriage in it If God appear in our forms we judg those that are above them If God lead us above them we are ready to despise those that are under them remaining all this while in deed and in truth under a form our selves though we appeare in this distinction from others for uncircumcision is a form as well as Circumcision and it shews it self so to be by this uncircumcised despising of others for forms sake in whom there may be as much or more power then in our selves In this Chapter the Apostle states the Controversie and gives us a Rule to administer towards the one and the other Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judg him that eateth for the Lord hath received him Peradventure the one of them is in a better state then the other yet they are both of them in the Lord they are the Lords The one is a Living Christian the other a Dying Christian yet they are both the Lords For saith he Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. And so we come to the words whence we have observed That God is not only in different forms but in opposite forms such as are regarding a day and not regarding it We have observed likewise what the difference of Christians doth amount unto those that are in bondage to Forms and those that are set free from those forms the one is a living and the other a dying man For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. I spake of the dying Christian the last day and shewed you in what respect he is a dying Christian that is under Ordinances or that depends upon them for every conversing in Ordinances is not a depending upon Ordinances First It is a dying condition for he savours life Carnally they savour their life according to the weakness of the flesh and not according to the power of the spirit according to the carnality of the forme and not according to the spirituality of God Therefore 't is that men do put the Ordinances with God as those that swore by the Lord and Malcham they left not out the Lord but would joyn Malcham with him too they savour life carnally and secondly they fall short of God they fal short of the glory of God ergo they are dying Christians They see God in his weakness but they see him not in his strength and thirdly they must passe through death for every form is raised up that it may dye and not that it should live for ever it is raised up for a Ministration to Minister to some other thing and therefore must have its period Every form is but a way yea the body of Christ is but a way Through the new and living way that is his flesh And I might have added another Reason and that is this That Jesus Christ the end of his appearance in the flesh was death He was manifested in the flesh and brought down the love of God and the glory of God in his flesh he spake the things of God to us in fleshly signs and parables and the end of that State was death and so