when Christ rises we shall be sure to rise with him so that there is a sweet truth in that Scripture where it is said That the day of a mans death is better then the day that a man is borne For better it is for a man to die spiritually then to live naturally And so none of us liveth to himself or dyes to himself but whether we live or dye all is in the Lord and he is glorified in the death as well as in the life for our life is hid with God in Christ as the Apostle saith to the Collossians though we be dead as he saith and nothing appeares of life to our selves or others yet we need not fear for the life is hid with God in Christ And when Christ our life shall appear and so appear as to be our life and happinesse then shall we appear glorious but it is in him when Christ rises so spiritually and gloriously to subdue and destroy the fleshly being which is the death and causes death for no sooner did sin enter but death entered with it then doth Christ the spirituall being and life triumph And then is death swallowed up of life and mortality of immortality That is flesh is swallowed up of spirit and death the fleshly being is swallowed up of life the spirituall being And then shall be brought to passe that saying O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory But thanks to God for it is he that gets the victory again as it is in the naturall so it is in the spirituall This Resurrection is set forth by the resemblance of the graine of Corne and it holds out a lively resemblance of the spirituall life and death and of the spirituall Resurrection of the naturall for as the graine of Corn dyes before it lives and in this death there is life hid so in this spirituall death there is spirituall life though it be hid and lye buried in the grave of earthly and carnall apprehensions as God gives the one a Body and is himself the substance and Body and the life so doth the spirituall Body the inward and spirituall life which is God rise to more glory then ever he did appear in in the earthly and outward forme and as the fleshly appearance dyes and ceases and as in the death there is life so God when he ceases to live in flesh he lives and rises with much more glory in the Spirit And yet it is true till the fleshly and outward form or formall Being suffers the Divine cannot reigne and therefore in the midst of death there is life and God doth but dye in weaknesse to rise in power Not that God is weak but he is buried and hid in the carnall sense and life to rise with more strong and glorious appearances of himself which is the spirituall Resurrection which is further illustrated by the terrestriall Bodies and the heavenly Bodies which doth but further confirm the spirituall rising of Christ For though there be a glory in the terestriall and outward dispensations and manifestations of God in them so when God is pleased to uncloath himself and to let out himself in pure and heavenly dispensations when these come and appear and that God puts on the heavenly clothing then is the corruptible swalled up of the incorruptible For it is true that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God nor corruption put on incorruption but when there shall be a change and of naturall we become spirituall and when the last Trump shall blow that is when God shall gloriously sound forth his one praise nothing but spirituall power appears Then shall the dead hear the voice of the Sonne of God and live and the dark and carnall appearances of God shall give way to the more pure and spirituall and then shall God gloriously triumph over Sin Death and Hell and live without any vaile in his own pure and divine glory The consideration of which is sufficient to perswade me to be stedfast and to abound in the work of the Lord knowing that though my labour be in vaine as to self or flesh yet it is not in vaine in the Lord he being the end and summe of all Thus have I as briefly and plainly as I could gone over the substance of the whole Chapter though much more might be spoken being conscious to my own spirit that I have not hid or concealed any clause which might serve to speak for a carnall Resurrection or for a rising of the body after its dissolution here in any visible form or shape But that as the light is in me so have I manifested it out to others and do onely referre my self for tryall to that light which manifests all things leaving other men to their own darke and carnall apprehensions of a carnall Resurrection and conclude that the Resurrection is from the carnall to the fleshly Christ from Christ living in the flesh to his living in the Spirit which is that I call the Resurrection and if time and mens patience would suffer I could easily prove that whatsoever Christ as man was or did from his Birth to his ascension in his life and death in the flesh they were but all Types and shadowes of what he would be and work in his glorious coming in the Spirit and so they are applyed all along if men wil let the Scripture speak in the very Letter but I let it passe at present And further to gratifie mens weakness I shall proceed to another Scripture which is as carnally urged as the former to prove a carnall Resurrection and that is in Matthew concerning Christs reasoning with the Sadduces they denying the Resurrection And Christ proving it to them by saying That he was the God of the living and not of the dead and so that though Abraham Isaack and Jacob were dead long agoe yet they lived But to open this Scripture we must know what Resurrection the Sadduces denyed and what Resurrection Christ proved I affirm that it was the spiritual Resurrection which they denyed and that appeares plainly by that in the 23 of Acts 8. where it is said that the Sadduces deny the Resurrection or Angell or Spirit but there is no mention of the Resurrection of the Body And so it is clear that Christs argument to them was to prove a spirituall Resurrection and so it holds a full proof of what we affirme and a fâ—ll answer to the Sadduces For God is not the God of the dead but of the living not of flesh but of Spirit And so Abraham Isaack and Jacob. they did really and spiritually live in God though they were dead in the flesh So that I conceive and it is clear to me that a spirituall and Angelical appearance of God is that Resurrection which is held forth and which should be and they are the Sadduces that deny this spirituall Resurrection Another Scripture which is alledged to as little purpose is that in Iob
place so they will be sure to make Hell the lowest and therefore being as carnall in the one as the other make it to be the lowest part of the Earth Others because they find a place speaking of the Devill calling him the Prince of the Aire they will make Hell in the Ayre I know not where But as the Devill rules onely in Aierie and light spirits so I look upon this to be a Aierie fancy For as the Devill is and hath his Throne and Seat in every man so is his Hell truly for my part I think they cannot be separated and therefore I conceive any man that is in bondage to his own lust nay further he that is under the Law or in any formal or outward duty is so possessed with a spirit of bondage that he must be so and so do so and so or else he must be damned and in the doing of such and such things he shall be saved this man is in Hell and Hell in him and needes no other Devill to torment him but his own false and carnall apprehension of God for as the spirituall appearance of God doth necessarily and formally make Heaven and cause joy and peace in the spirit So the dark and carnall conceit or knowledge of God must needes cause sorrow and lamentation and makes Hell I do not much wonder at the carnall Papist no more then at the carnall Protestant the one fancying a carnall purgatory the other a carnall Hell And I think the one gets as much money for frighting men with the one and making them believe they can show them the way to avoid it and bring them to Heaven as the other doth in frighting them with purgatory and making the poor people believe they can keep them from that But I let that passe And however the Scripture speaks of Hell and expresses it by fire and brimstone and the worme dying not and many other expressions It speakes as in other cases after the manner of men not that there is such visible and material formes of punishment But that as fire and brimstone are the most fearful things to the nature of man so doth the Scripture set out the miserable and fearfull Estate of a carnall condition and what miseries and torments do accompany such an Estate And what consequences have followed the outward man from being in such darkness and what the absence of God hath caused in the spirit the Scriptures and many daily examples do abundantly testifie whose terrors and distractions in their spirits have been such as have been easeless and remediless and made them willing to become their own Butchers and all this hath been from a misapprehension and confused knowledge of God The truth is I shall speak from my own experience so long as I was in bondage to dayes times and set times that I must pray so often and do so much frequent such Ordinances so long I was in trouble and sorrow for I really saw there was this and that failing and miscarriage in every duty that I suffered torment in my spirit for fear I should never attain my end which was a carnall and sensible enjoyment of some happiness which I called Heaven and when I was inlarged in this and that duty I thought then all was well and that I should go to Heaven And so I was continually suffering the torment of Hell and tossed up and down being condemned of my self And this is all the condemnation that I see is come into the World that men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evill That men live in love the dark and fleshly Being and not in the light in the divine being this is the condemnation not causally but formally And this is that I found til God appeared spiritually and shewed me that he was all the glory and happiness himself and that flesh was nothing and should enjoy nothing and then I could not but cease from my former fleshly actings which caused nothing but fear and trouble and saw God or rather God made out himself in me joy and peace and brought me into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereas I was before in bondage to sin law an accusing Conscience which is Hell And yet I cannot exclude God in all this for if we descend into Hell he is there He is in the dark though we see it not as well as in the light that we see He is in wrath and severity and we are wisht to behold him in both let there be never such confusions of spirit never such terrors and Hell let there be darkness and no light yet there God is there is some glimps of himself in as much as there is a secret going out of the spirit towards God and all the distractions the Creature lies under is because it cannot enjoy the presence love of God yet God is there amidst all that darkness and raignes in the midst of his enemies and so he descends into Hell and returnes with a glorious tryumph rising with abundance of joy and peace in the spirit So that though the Earth be moved and the great mountains which the Creature had made to it self be tumbled up and down and the Creature have no rest but is easeless and restless yet God is there as a Rock unshaken of any storme but is sweetly refreshing and delighting himself with himself and so enters into the strong mans house and disarmes him and bindes him hand and foote and casts him into utter darkness And to summe up all if there be any that think this is not Hell enough to be inwardly and spiritually tormented Let them but consult with those that have been under spirituall desertions as they are called and have cryed out as if their bones had been broken and would have chosen death rather then life and thought they could have indured many burnings to have been rid of such a condition And I think they will tell them there is no other or need be no other Hell and all this comes from a dark and carnall knowledg or rather ignorance of God for certain it is God condemns none But the condemnation is of a mans self and in a mans self If any shall say all this is nothing I care not if this be all the Hell and that it lasts no longer then this life But is there not a Hell hereafter that is the Hell to think of Eternity and that the Creat re shall be everlastingly tormented and indure the wrath of God to all Eternity For answer hereunto I must professe I do not know of any such thing nor do I conceive what should be thus tormented for that which men call a soule I had thought to have made it a particular of the present discourse but I shall referr it to further consideration onely to stay any mans appetite that desires my opinion of it I shall onely give him this morsell to chew upon and that is this I
take the most principall places of Scripture that men look upon which speak of the Resurrection and in the spiritual discoveries of them if there be any thing to strengthen them in their opinion I shall and must give way And we shall begin with that which is the prime piller of their Faith and that is in the 1. of the Corinths 15. from the beginning to the end of it It being the whole subject of the discourse therein to treat of the Resurrection The drift of the Apostle is to prove the spiritual Resurrection of Christ to be as sure and certain as his fleshly and by the same Argument that he proves the one by the same he also proves the other in a spiritual sense And the comparison lies not betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ and the fleshly rising of men as most men imagine but betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ in the humanity and his spiritual rising in the divinity and so all along you shall see the comparison holds betwixt the naturall and the spirituall and not betwixt the naturall and the naturall And that we may see plainly it appears in the 47. verse The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is from Heaven who is the Lord so that we see he compares the outward earthly man and the Lord from Heaven which is the spiritual and shewes evidently that it is not the earthly man that is raised but the spirituall and so Christ after the flesh was but of the earthly man and so must be destroyed and subdued as wel as other things and formes which did accompany that earthly being and as the one vanished out of sight before the Apostles so must the other and that this may not seeme strange to any man that the flesh of Christ must be destroyed as well as other things It is plain in the 28. verse So that it is apparent that the Sonne of man being of the first Adam after the flesh must as well be subdued and perish with the fleshly forms and administrations that did accompany him For certain I am that as he was God or the divine being in him he could not be subdued so that it is very clear that it was the fleshly appearance that must needes come to nothing as well as the fleshly forme in other Creatures and so Christ did cease to live in the flesh that he might more transcendently live in the spirit and so he laid down his humanity to live in the Divinity and so it is true what the Apostle saith in the 20. v. That as Christ is risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that sleep and are dead in him so such as are dead in him shall surely rise That is they shall as surely rise to a spirituall condition as they have been spiritually dead in him And so he goes on in the 22. verse As in Adam all dyed so in Christ shall all be made alive Here is still the comparison betwixt the natural and the spirituall that is as sure as the fleshly Adam and outward visible forme dies so it is as certain they that are in Christ or the spititual man shall be made alive and quickened and God shall rise and appear in more power and glory in that life of the spirit then ever he did in the fleshly forme or shape But to go on The first fruits is Christ and then they that are Christs at his coming which is thus that as Christ herein was the first fruits of them that did live in the spirit as he saith a little while and you shall see me and a little while and you shall not see me because I go to the Father that is he was to lay down the flesh to live in the divine and spiritual life in which he appeared after his ascension and so was as good as his word and did come in spirit so it should be as spiritually true that they should partake of the same spiritual life and live in the same spiritual Resurrection as he and live in the Father as he did and therefore he comforted them and told them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God But yet in the mean time till the Son of man and all fleshly formes were subdued to the Father till men were brought to live in the Father and to live in a spiritual life till then Christ must raigne till then there must be outward formes of Christs death and there must be manifestations of God in flesh and outward Ordinances But when these are subdued then men must rise or rather God will appear to be that spiritually which they before enjoyed onely in an outward manner as is argued by the Apostle in the 25. verse And the last enemy is death And certain it is this death must be destroyed and the dead must rise or else death cannot be destroyed Now this must needes be a little opened that so we may see what the Resurrection is for certainly the dead must arise or else Christ cannot be risen For the opening of which death we shall take the same method as the Apostle doth here to compare the natural with the spiritual Then we say a man is dead when a man is void of all visible sence and motion when he ceases to act or move when the life is departed when the life is departed when the being ceases to live in the flesh that he cannot move to any outward or naturall act And so a man is spiritually dead or dead in Christ when a man ceases to be or act any thing in the things of God but is moved and acted as God is in him when there is nothing of the self-being appearing in a word when to the world he appeares to act nothing do nothing in an outward and formall way so that men think there is no spiritual life in him Then doth he die in the Lord when he wholly resignes up all his grace abilities knowledge of God into God and knowes not what he doth or is or should know ceasing from his own reachings forth after God living and being to any self-enjoyment or expectation of any future felicity life or comfort out of God For it is certain so long as the Creature thinks that he must act or do something to attain salvation or be any thing distinct from God so long he is alive without Gods life and so must needes be miserable and therefore the Apostle saith if in this life our hope was we were most miserable which life is not to be understood of the fleshly Being But in this life that is if our happinesse comforts did depend upon our owne self-actings and on our own being any thing were we most miserable But our hope is that all our felicity and comfort is terminated and centred in God onely And so Christ spiritually in us is the hope of glory which is a mystery and so being dead in Christ