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
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
wit of the Life that saves and we must be born again to live and that of Water So that two things a dying and a new birth of Water are necessary to Life and the only way through which we must unavoidably pass to come to Happiness or to the perfect new Birth of the Spirit of Wisdom in which latter Birth chiefly consists our Salvation Which things See Dr. Wallâ—s his Sermons of Regeneration Printed for Mr. Rogers at the Sun near Temple Bar. because very few Divines do know what they are and therefore pass them over and teach with Dr. Wallis That we are not bound to know and to trouble our selves with such nice Enquiries as if we were not to be saved by coming saith Paul 1 Tim. 2.4 to the knowledge of the Truth I think fit to declare and for this end to begin by the new Birth of Water To be born of Water then is not to be Baptized as we are now with Water but to take the beginning of our Life from VVater To do which man must become Water be Water himself if not in his Flesh and Bones as Nicodemus took it however within the Heart that is in the inward Man by making his Heart tender 2 Chron. 34.27 and as humble as resigned and in a word as passive or unactive as Water That is to say as Water hath no motion of it self but stands still or if moved falls downwards continually or flows this way or that way as the Wind agitates it so our Hearts should no more have any will of their own but lay still as a dead thing or as being resolved even to die at God's Feet That as out of the shapeless passive unactive Water all the Concretes in the World are formed and produced 2 Pet. 3 5. by the only working of God's Spirit upon it Gen. 1.2 Psal 33.6 so we may out of that state wherein we have no more any motion desire lust or will of out own but only that to yield all and enter into God's Will receive a new form and shaper or be reformed or born again of the first Spirit that gave Adam a true Life Gen. 2.7 after the Image of God put off the earthly Image we have from Father Adam 1 Cor 15.49 And thus by Humility rise again to that state which he and Eve fell from by Pride And this is what is shewed us by the Water and the Way of using it in Baptism We are saith Paul Rom. 6.4 by Baptism buried with Christ into death that is as they which were Baptized in St. Paul's time being cover'd all over when they were dipt in Water were by this means as it were dead and buried to the World So we by this 〈◊〉 Baptism or birth or state of Water become as dead men buried to all the Lusts of the Flesh and to all Self-will as Pride Covetousness and Envy and to all the reliance and hope we have on this World that as Christ adds he rose up from grave through God's Spirit so we should out of this state rise into a new Creature that hath got a Divine Form which is rising from the Dead and the first Resurrection All is made out of Spirit or as Hippocrates saith in primo de Diaeta out of Fire and Water Spiritus est organum in manu summi Dei quo agitantur omnes in hoc mundo species saith Trismegistus of it Which Spirit coming down first from the Stars into the Air and thence into the Water works on it continually whence an Oil is produced and this Oil by a longer digestion becomes a Salt which Salt is the first Matter and true Body of Concretes This is demonstrable from the juices of Vegetables if they be distilled before their Fermentation but better by distilling some May dew or Rain-water because being thin and light and a transparent Liquor by reason of their being circulated in the Air they are not thought by many to have and contain an Oil yet in their distillation they yield an Oil and a Salt which must have been formed there by the Spirit from the Stars it was impregnated with working upon its Vehicle the said Dew or Rain-water So likewise Man being made of Water and of Spirit must be born again of them to become a new Creature and must first become water make his heart soft and tender break that Rock as Moses did Exod. 17.6 and melt the Ice or hardness of his heart into water or the tears of Repentance that by the Holy Spirit which is the Dew the Manna or the true Bread from Heaven that gives life unto the world John 6.32 33. an Oil first and then a Salt which is the true Flesh and Blood or the true Body of Christ ver 51. and also the new Body the blessed Souls shall rise with or our house from above may be formed produced and perfected within him Therefore Christ exhorts all Men to have some Salt in themselves Mark 9.50 that is to say as the Salt understand essential Salt is the first matter of things and results from the Spirit 's action upon the water so all Men should always have some of that same first substance which the Spirit of God forms in Souls bathed in tears and so should give leave to his Spirit to work it in them and produce by its working a Salt to salt them withal ver 49. or preserve both their Body and Soul to Eternal Life from all sort of Corruption such as Leprosy which makes the whole Body insensible and as that thorow hardness of heart which turns Man into such Salt as Lot's Wife was that is a Salt Alkali which is gone through the Fire and therefore can by no means be further wrought upon for thereby losing its Oyl or its Radical Moisture the Vehicle of the Spirit is no more susceptible as the moist essential Salt or Nitre of the Earth is of any sweet influence of Heaven working on it but becomes a meer dead Coal a Lime-stone an Alkali made by Incineration and that melts no more like Ice and other essential Salts by the warmth of the Spirit but by a strong fierce Fire into a hard stone like Glass which is past for evermore all hope of recovery or of regeneration and so makes Man incapable of such Vegetation as the dry Rod of Aaron by its budding forth again typified the Souls must have Therefore remember Lot's Wife flee from the Land of the North this hard frosty dark lowring dismal or Northerly state saith the Lord by Zachary 2.6 whoever will inhabit or live in Jerusalem ver 4. This birth of Water therefore is what makes Man susceptible of the sweet influence and working of God's Spirit on his Soul to renew it and make it grow green and bud and bear Fruits or be fruitful for thereby we do like John by his Baptism of water prepare the way of the Lord that is for the Lord 's coming by his comforting Spirit this birth of
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
40 days of Temptation are ended chap. 24.48 Therefore all Christians should be made acquainted with these things and their Watchmen saith Joel 2.1 should blow the Trumpet aloud and sound an Alarm to them for note this is to be done in the Lord 's holy Mountain the Church amongst the Faithful and not amongst the Heathen to warn them of that Fire and Sword which the Lord pleads with Ezek. 33. and which is the terrible and gloomy day of the Lord. But I doubt I am Vox clamantis in deserto that is where no body hears For O Lord who is the man that believes our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed John 12.38 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Isa 64.7 However God is over all things and when we water and plant he may give encrease and he hath not lighted my Candle for me to hide or keep it under my Bed but to make it shine as far as I can to others which is I hope warrant enough for me to write without any further Licence or Ordination See what Thomas à Kempis and many other wise Men have left us in writing of the way to Happiness and of the necessity of entring into the Life Death and Sufferings of Christ For because these things be true I mean what I said of the Baptism of Fire and of the Birth of Water all wise Men who always know and justifie Truth Luke 7.35 own them and have often declared and taught them But as there is a variety of Gifts and of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5. they have differently also expressed the same Jamblichus of Mysteries Haec utique sit tibi ad foelicitatem via Consider are decet quà praecipue ratione solvi possis à vinculis quibus anima circa formas at que species mundi contemperatur Est autem solutio nulla praeter ipsam Dei cognitionem Idea namque foelicitatis est ipsum cognoscere Bonum quemadmodum est Idea malorum ipsa quidem bonorum oblivio quae est deceptio inseparabilis à caduco à principiis enim cadens at que repulsa se ipsam projicit ad corporalem ideam dimetiendam à qua corporali Idea solvi debes ut contemplationi cognitioni Dei rursus jungaris Plato calls this I me an this state of Water whereby we become void of the Forms Idea's of outward things Conversio animae humanae in seipsam the Soul converting from things without it into itself Great Hermes with Solomon Cant. 5.2 Ob dormitio mentis à corporis sensibus A sleeping of the Body whil'st our Soul is waking I sleep but my heart is awake like Balaam's eyes that were open all the while his Body was in a trance Numb 24.4 and burning besides like that of the two Disciples of Christ in their way to Emmaus Luke 24.32 The Popish Saints call the same the internal way to God and inward Recollection of which Molina at Rome hath lately said enough to set the Priests against him who cannot abide to hear of dying and suffering but only of that which makes their heart glad Judg. 18.20 a Fat Living The whole Sum of Religion is for man to keep himself unspotted from worldly things or from the Love of the World Jam. 1.27 for in this consists the Love of God Matth. 6.24 and the Love of God with that of our Neighbour is the great Commandment and the Law and the Prophets A great Protestant Divine Famous both for Piety and Learning Bishop Vsher in answer to a Question about Sanctification which one made expresseth thus this Abstraction from the World and this dying by Fire I must tell you saith he we do not well understand what is Sanctification or the New Creature which God formeth by his own Spirit in every Soul which be regenerates of water For it is no less than for a Man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the Will of God and to live in the offering up of his Soul as a whole Burnt-offering like Christ to God the Father And how little are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this work in their Souls Nay and Notionally too I add the Protestants knowing little more of this I mean of the way to become a new Creature than what they call Repentance Which Word yet being taken in its right and genuine sense siguifies more than what they seem to understand by it that is more than any sorrow for Sin and setting upon mending amounts to For what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is it either Protestant or Catholick Repentance No surely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is neither lashing your backs nor grieving two or three hours But it is the amendment itself duly performed it is a Resipiscence which is no less in English than a Fool and a Knave becoming at the same time both a wise and a good Man and a change or conversion from one state or quality viz. the Nature of a Beast to the most opposite state to wit the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 or at least that of Angels Luke 20.36 Which Christians flatter themselves in vain to attain unto by their common Repentance for there needs a hard striving a man must be violent to take God's Kingdom by Force And it can never be done without passing the great Gulph of God's Vengeance and Wrath threatned Gen. 2.17 Luke 16.26 21.22 And thô Peter in the Acts 2 38-3.19 mentions only the Baptism of Water and Repentance as the things necessary to obtain the Holy Ghost that makes Man a New Creature yet in his First Epistle speaking of another thing not strange to the Believers to wit the Firy Tryal he shews thereby that they go through some other thing than that which he calls there Repentance or that the word Repentance with the word Be Converted added to it in that place includes the Firy Tryal which he would not mention there because he spake before a mixt Assembly of People and it being one of those many things Christ who forbids to cast Pearls before Swine would not yet say to the World John 16.12 that cannot favor the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 or more than Peter endure to hear of dying Matth. 16.22 23. he would not declare it them but left to the Holy Ghost the Revelation thereof to them that were not without God's Kingdom as the World is Mat. 4.11 But because it is God's Will that all men should be saved by opening of their blind eyes and by coming at the last to the knowledg of the Truth and the harvest is grown ripe as it appears from the French Prophets and their Prophesies I think it is high time for them that make mention of the Lord not to keep silence but to tell it publickly and found an Alarm of it But whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends this thing or no sure it is that we must dye before
it will not in this Life make us understand a Thing which we do not think upon and prompt us on a sudden with the full Knowledge of that which perhaps we never heard and consider'd of before without we take it into serious consideration and meditate upon it like Isaac by our selves Gen. 24.63 Albeit after this Life when Things shall be deliver'd from their Opacous Body the Bondage of Corruption which by the Fall of Adam they have been subjected to Rom. 8.20 into the glorious liberty of God's Children ver 21. a through shining transparent Body which Men may see through and that stops the sight no more we shall see all at one sight and know every thing at first sight as we know one whom we are acquainted with when we meet him Face to Face 1 Cor. 13.12 So that a brown study searching and examining rising early and watching at the Posts of Wisdom's doors Prov. 8.17 34. is also necessary in this Life to get Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It will lead you in the way John 16.13 implies that a Man must walk to come to his Journies end to wit the Knowledge of Truth But thô he should walk never so long and hit the right way and light upon Truth by Chance yet so long as he is blind and besides stands in the dark he can by no means see it and discern when he sees it that it is what he looks for and as he found it by chance he goes from it loseth it as easie as he found it and keeps still seeking after and yet never coming to any knowledge of it 2 Tim. 3.7 For until it pleaseth God to reveal his light in man Gal. 1.15 16. or to give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 5.20 a discerning Faculty no Body can justify or discern Truth from Error and Falsehood and Opinion Witness Paul who though he was brought up in all the Learning of the Jews with Gamaliel and was doubtless acquainted with that which the Christians taught at least wherein they differ'd from the Doctrine of the Jews yet he understood it not for he persecuted them and that out of Ignorance 1 Tim. 1.13 till he received the Truth by the Revelation of Christ as he owns himself Gal. 1.12 And no more do the Christians of this Age understand it whence every Sect of them sticks no less than the Turks and the Jews to their own way thô all but one must be false and have a strong prejudice against all other Parties Or if their Eye is so single as to listen to others they are tossed to and fro by every wind of Doctrine which some cunning Sophister who is reputed Learned amongst those of his Party maketh seemingly plausible being as much uncertain what to believe of either this new or their old Doctrine as the Samaritan Woman was when she said Sir Our Fathers worshipped in this place but you say that Jerusalem is the place Joh 4.19 that is as much as to say Which must I now believe yours or our Opinion For Believing depends upon the Understanding Intelligere saith one being Ipsum credere the understanding of Things being the Belief itself and the Belief or the Faith being an Understanding enlightned an evidence of things to the Intellect which are not seen by the Eye Hebr. 11.1 And this believing of Things without any sight of them because we understand them as it constitutes a Man's blessed state or happiness For blessed is he that hath not seen and yet believeth John 20.29 So it makes up the first part of Wisdom or Salvation as is seen in the 10th Page by Wisdom's Definition Nay such Faith as this is is called Wisdom itself For this shall be your Wisdom in the sight of the Nations Deut. 4.6 meaning to do and perform those Precepts we understand to be good for us to keep Faith like Wisdom being not perfected but in the Act. Therefore a Man must be made seeing and understanding his Eyes must be enlightned and the Light must shine into the thick Darkness he stands in before he can discern Truth from Opinion and believe And to come to the Thing I here chiefly aim at as the Further he goes on when he is in the right way the Nearer also he draws towards his said Journies end so the more a Man goes on in the right way to Wisdom that is in the said dying and Regeneration the more he is made seeing and the nearer he comes to the bright Crown of Wisdom And if he can go thorow the whole course of this dying and Regeneration he may obtain the whole Prize even the closed Crown of Wisdom laid up for such 2 Tim. 4.8 For as there be several Mansions in the Father's house Joh. 14.2 that is several degrees of Wisdom and of that which gives Wisdom the Holy Ghost in the state of Salvation So there be several steps and degrees of the said Death and Regeneration all which if a Man go through and overcomes to the last of them or the seventh time he shall even sit on Thrones Matth. 19.28 Rev. 3.2 and shine forth as the Sun doth Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 or be sill'd like St. Stephen Acts 6 15-7.55 with the full Light of Wisdom But if he stops any where at any of those degrees he shall reach to no higher proportion of Light than what doth answer to that degree or step which he did stop at and shall have but a degree of Knowledge accordingly nay and no new Light at all if he go up none of them And in case he overcome but the first step and stop there he shall get but such glimpse of Light as will prove to him but an Ignis Fatuus to lead him out of the way For it will only make him capable to try others Rev. 2.2 And therefore to despise them when he finds their Ignorance And thereby make him the Man meant by the proud Pharisee who falls upon the Shoulders and Vices of other People or else upon nothing but Disputes about Opinions instead of weeping over himself like the Publican Which is the Case of our Half-Enlightned Reformed Whom Princes cannot suffer because as they see clearer than down-right ignorant People such as the Church of Rome is they are more apt than She is to find Fault with the Conduct and Government of their Prince and being never a whit the better or the meeker for this new encrease of Light they become his Censurers and so very uneasie if not dangerous to him that he is always striving to remove and suppress them or to bring them again to their former Ignorance which occasions Disquiet and Discontent on both sides But against this great Evil there is a sure Remedy which because it is the best and the chiefest in its kind none of the State Physicians know more of it than our ordinary Physicians do of the Great Elixir or Arcanum in Physick Therefore learn of me Princes the best Rule of