is from the true knowledg of himself Man would fain be broken There is an apprehension upon him that the way to life is through death for this which he possesseth he may see he may feel and so may easily be convinced that it is not life and therefore he cannot but long and earnestly desire to pass through it that so he may come at life But this Baptism none can baptize himself with He alone can do it who baptized Christ. It is the Life alone which is capable of this breaking for the outward vessel belonging to the seed or in which the seed is sown hath its capacity in and from the Life and he alone can break it who formed it The Lord alone can build and the Lord alone can destroy this kind of fabrick This wise and accurate destruction requireth the same skill and vertue which issued out and built up the nature and Life of Christ and his seed The Prince of darkness can never attain so much as to administer any degree of this death further then he is inabled instructed and assisted thereunto from the root of all things whose wisdom skill and power goeth along perfectly in every thing though it be not comprehended in or apprehended by any thing Now as all death and brokenness hath affliction and misery in it so this beyond all And as man will aspire after this death so he will fancy that he hath this kind of misery upon him but yet in the midst of all his pangs he knoweth not what belongs to it There are three great scenes in the death of Christ in each of which there are many various strains steps and degrees all which man can imitate very accurately but cannot reach to the truth of any of them 1. There is the death of corruption The life and spirit of Christ cometh forth with power against the corruption of mans nature and with the sword of God slayeth it in so much as he in whom the life of Christ is truly sown and springeth up shall find himself dying unto his sinfull nature dayly This is one scene 2. There is the death of the excellency of mans nature Sin must dye and righteousness must live yea and then righteouseness must dye also When the life of Christ at first breaks forth in man O says he that this filthy nature might be destroyed and that I might be brought forth in holiness and righteousness but little doth he then think that all this holiness and righteousness must come to judgment and dye also The Spirit of the Lord can judge and find fault with the very nature and life of the Image of God not as it is now corrupted but as it was at first planted in the first Adam The same God which sindeth fault with the first Covenant can also find fault with the first creature as it was brought forth under that covenant and can so judge it unto death and destruction 3. There is the death of the Son even of all the excellency of his life and nature as it was brought forth in the flesh Eternal life in the life thus received dyeth Christ thus alive dyeth even to the nature of this his life and to the spirit from whom he received it The Spirit who gave him this life and who kept this life pure in him he slayeth it yea Christ himself offereth up this life without spot to God through the eternal Spirit These are the three parts or stages of death which God mentioned at the beginning upon mans fall namely The death of the Serpent the death of man and the death of the Son Now there are counterfeits of all these Many seem to be dead to their corruptions who are not and many seem to be dead to the excellency of nature when it is but by the skill life and excellency of nature that they attain this seeming death Many also seem to drink very deep into the death of the Son who never yet tasted of that life of his which is to dye This is the first thing whereof this condition consists viz. A throughly broken state in it self 2. To this there is added in the second place a through sense of it in themselves They are not only broken but they feel themselves broken They are not only stripped and left naked but they feel both their stripping and nakedness In other cases a man may be poor and miserable yea blind and naked and yet take himself to be rich and happy c. but it is not so here This kind of breaking is lively and of quick sense in the spirits of them that are broken This is such a death as he throughly feels who dyes Christ felt himself to be a worm and the seed of Christ feel their brutishness and want of understanding Adam was cast into a deep sleep while Eve was formed out of him but Christ is awake and by the quickness of his awakened spirit forms his Church and the vigor of that life in his Church suffers in its death 3. There is also a through sight and contempt of it by the world and of them because of it God carries on the death of Christ and his seed openly in the eye of the world As God kindleth and setteth up this lamp in the view of the world so he putteth it out also in their view The symptomes of this death the symptomes of this breaking are so visible and manifest that it cannot be hid That life that power that activity that stirring of God in their spirits words behavior whole course c. is put out and gone They as manifestly appear all this season in the world without it as formerly they did with it And the world now despiseth them That which gained esteem and glory from the world being gone they cannot but despise them and so much the more by how much they began to honour them There is such a lustre and glory in the life of Christ when at any time it discovers it self within mans center as man cannot but acknowledg and subject himself with all his life and excellency before but when man sees all this fallen and himself still standing where he was This which made such an appearance above him being fallen beneath him Christ being dead and he alive how can he now but despise this appearance of the life and lustre of Christ and so much the more because of its former glory The exceeding low fall of the highest glory is most contemptible Never man spake as Christ spake and never man did as Christ did even to the eye and in the sense of the world He hath done all things well c. What Power and Authority did he bear in the very spirits and consciences of his greatest adversaries How did he every where so take with the people that his malicious and unjust enemies durst never meddle with him But in his death in his broken state he lost all He was not only a worm and no man when he
or with that reward which belongs to the substance both in respect of its nature and of all the motions of it In every dispensation these things are profitable In the dispensation of the Law to the Jews In the dispensation of the Gospel by Christ In any dispensation now in this thick cloudy darkness which man feels not because he wants senses such kind of motions are of use here and shall have their reward hereafter for God will be just to the nature of man giving it what it deserves but it hath nothing to do with that reward which belongeth to the new life and the motions of it Great is the mystery of the nature of man exceedingly hidden from man are the workings of that wisdom and righteousness which is therein in waies of Religion or devotion towards God The great principle of the life of it was sown and broken in Adam yet among these broken reliques there is a continuall motion progress and regress especially where there comes forth any thing with life and power to quicken and stir them up I do not mean life and power in an extraordinary way though that also hath been and may again be but in such a way as is ordinary to and in the common state of man To make this the better evident even to the eye of man which may see the outward part of this as well as of other truths I shall instance in some few very eminent particulars all which he cannot but acknowledg if he know but himself or have but had experience of himself herein But he that is in the dark and knoweth not neither the life of Christ on the one hand nor of his own nature on the other may very easily mistake the one for the other and confidently bolster up himself in vanity 1. There is in man a strong desire after God fain would he know him fain would he enioy him fain would he worship and serve him If he knew which way to please God he would lay out himself to the utmost he would spare no cost Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God c. Micah 6.6 Man in his very frame was a vessel fitted for God fitted to be a living house for him and cannot but most naturally long for his proper inhabitant He was made to serve worship and honor God other creatures have neither such a capacity nor such an inclination and he can never be well till he come to the thorow use and exercise of this his nature 2. There is also in him a strong sense of his own weak state He knoweth that he cannot come neer God that he cannot converse with God that he cannot enjoy God in this state and capacity wherein now he is He knoweth that he cannot learn the knowledg of God unless God condescend to teach him in a way sutable to his present estate Man is such an intelligent vessel as that he hath a sense of his own broken condition Man after his many shaterings yet hath so much understanding left him as in part to espy out his own brutishness in the things of God He seeth he feeleth his darkness and that he cannot reach that light wherein his life lieth 3. There is a great breathing in his spirit after the teachings of God fain would he hear the true voice fain would he be led by God into light and into life O how he pants O how he breaths after God after the living God! A formal dead knowledg of God will not serve the living nature of man but as the life sown in him is true life in its kind so it must have true life to feed upon Yet all this kind of life is death the whole strength of the natural life is dead before that which is spiritual Those objects which are living objects those motions which are living motions that principle which is a living principle in the region of man are all dead in the light and Kingdom of God So that man lives and moves truly in his way but not in the truth that which is life that which is truth with him is not so before God nor before that eye which is lighted by God in the truth Man The flesh The wisdom of the creature will enter into any way either of life or death that the Lord shall prescribe he will come within the lists of the Law and all that the Lord commandeth him there will he do He will come within the lists of the Gospel and live upon and obey God through Christ. It is natural to man as to feel the want of Gods teachings and to desire them so to follow them Though this is also true that there is a corrupt principle or corruption hanging about his natural principle which maketh him juggle so that he doth not walk evenly with God in any path Yet this is also as true that there is a natural principle which inclineth him to seek God and to be subject to him in every way he shall please to prescribe though through its own weakness and the corruption that hangeth about it it can rise to no great height It doth rise indeed often very high in mans esteem insomuch as he accounteth his devotion very high pure and spiritual but it is not so in the true Light and judgment of God Yea 5 thly The spirit of man will sow all his life and his death so often as he finds any flaw in it If this or that present strain of Religion appear faulty he will throw it away and if the next prove faulty likewise he will throw away that again The flesh seeking that which is substance cannot but part with that which upon search it finds not to be substance This is little thought of how eagerly the spirit of man will into the fire again and again that he may be purified how industriously he will seek out the cross of Christ and pray to God to crucifie him upon it that so he may dye the Death of Christ and live the Life of Christ. So far as the path of Christ is visibly excellent to mans eye and necessary to the end he aims at the nature of man so far as it is it self cannot but pursue it Yet all this profiteth nothing All this desire after God all this sense of himself and his own condition all this breathing of his after the true teachings all this seeking of life and death and all this giving up both of life and death that it may become a new seed losing its old nature form shape and corruption All these motions of flesh all these motions of mans spirit profit nothing It is true All these are very excellent and very profitable in their own place and station but here in this place in reference to this end they profit nothing For first These are not of the right kind What ever of these come from man or grow up in the meer nature of man are not
the truth This is not the right seed nor is this the right earth wherein the right seed is sown This is but the nature but the wisdom but the righteousness of the first Adam nay although it were stirred up by the spirit of the Lord in man nay though breathed again from Heaven yet it would be no other This is not the nature not the life not the breath of the seed The son-like spirit and motions are only sown and grow up only in the son The true desire after God the true waiting for him the true repentance faith love c. grow only in him who is begotten from above in a new nature The Lord soweth the life of his own spirit only in the flesh of his holy Child Jesus and thence alone doth the true nature and motions spring up and there alone are they to be sound Secondly They are not true in their kind They are not in man so as man taketh them to be They are corrupted they are not pure Man doth not so truly love and desire God as he seemeth to himself to do He would not be so ready to hear his voice as he thinks he should be It is the son only that hath the spirit of obedience man is not pure is not upright no not in his own kind and way of obedience Neither is mans ear open to hear God It is the son alone whose ear God hath bored 't is his ear which he hath opened to hear as the learned Man hath but a bad ear at best and yet as bad as it is it is not opened Therefore all Gods charges against man will be very cleer when the nature and course of man is made manifest God chargeth him chiefly with two things with want of power and with want of will He cannot come to God though he would No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him He would not come to God though he could Ye will not come to me that ye might have life There are three great exceptions against man in all he is and does all which are comprized in this phrase flesh which he that is able to consider the nature and course of man may easily observe 1. There is commonly a corruption a core of rottenness in his spirit and in all his motions He doth not know himself he is not so honest or upright as he taketh himself to be nor his actions so just and honorable He is not truly religious or just I do not mean spiritually but in his own kind He doth not love God he doth not desire to obey God he would not be Good if he would That which is in kind of this nature is so corrupted that God cannot own it for the thing that man would have it go for and thinks it to be O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me c. Man deceiveth himself there is not such an honest obedient heart in him towards God as he thinks for Of all things man is apt to bless himself in the integrity of his heart though he is weak yet his heart is upright and though he cannot attain to be what he would yet he hath a true desire in him to walk with God but God will one day shew him that his heart was never right with him and that he cannot truly desire to walk with him And man if he could possibly observe and discern himself might at some times descry this naughtiness and corruption of his heart in these two particulars The one whereof is in that he doth not like to have it discovered but justifie himself against all the discoveries of God Man doth not like that light that searcheth too far into his hidden iniquity O how difficult it is to bring a conviction close to the heart of any man All will confess sin in general but their peculiar way of wickedness either in their worshipping of God or in their course and conversations they cannot endure to have touched There they stand upon their guard This is not Pride this is not Covetousness this is not Hypocrisie this is not the persecuting of Christ this is not Idolatry but the right way of worshiping God O read thine own heart and tremble in that 2 Chap. of Ieremy especially vers 23.25 34.35 Man purifieth his heart by his principles of light and knowledg he squares his worship life and conversation to his light and measure by the Word thus he painteth his Sepulcher not discerning the rottenness and corruption that is still within notwithstanding all this appearing truth and integrity The other is in that let God set him right in any dispensation he presently and most naturally turneth from it He is woond up by God against the hair but he sinketh down again of himself He is very difficultly brought to a state of rectitude in any kind but so far as he is he very suddenly apostacizeth from This also is abundantly set forth Ier. 2. vers 2.3 c. 2. There is always a weakness attending him If there be not a corruption yet certainly there is a weakness both in his spirit and motions If he be in any kind set right at any time yet his nature is frail If there be Religion if there be righteousness in him of any true stamp under any dispensation yet it is very poor weak and low This ye may see plainly in that people of God the Iews Look upon their Religion their Faith their Love there Obedience c. see what it was It was wrought in them with much difficulty They were hardly drawn to it What ado â—ad God to bring them to any thing He used many instructions many miracles many corrections much patience or else he had destroyed them many a time in the furnace and had never broght them forth And yet what were they when they were brought forth Alas a poor frail vessel a vessel long in making and yet when made very brittle How soon after every right constitution and reformation did they backslide and corrupt themselves which plainly evidences the frailty of their state They sung his praise they soon forgot his work so weak is man that though he be raised and set up upon his leggs yet he is not able to stand so 3. There is in man a continuall progress towards destruction That which is corrupt God destroyeth and that which is frail and weak dyeth of it self yea it s own frail nature inclineth it to that corruption which hasteneth its death Nothing can act above its nature Adam when he fell shewed the weakness of his nature The Prince of this World came and found somewhat in him to fasten upon Frailty is a property of the flesh Weakness is as proper to the earthly image as strength to the heavenly The seed of strength groweth up through weakness unto perfection and the seed of weakness groweth down from strength from all the strength wherein it is set
womb of death sutable to the nature of it O vain man never wast thou more deceived Thou seemest to have the foundations of thy life secured while Christ is dying but discernest not how the foundations of thy death and of his Life and Glory are hereby laid Use. Observe the difference between Christ and the people of God in the time of their life and in the time of their death Christ dyed and the People of God must dye too They that have life from Christ must dye with Christ. As Christ laid down that life which he received from the Father in his flesh so must the People of God also lay down or sacrifice that life which they receive from Christ. Every Disciple of Christs must taste of his cup drink of his baptism They that have lived with him and tasted the strength and glory of his life must also drink of the bitterness of his death for that is their way to enter into glory as well as his The same life in them as it tends to the same end so it requires the same passage And how lovely soever they were in their life how great soever the majesty wisdom and strength of their life how sweet and familiar soever their converse with God c. yet all these will run low enough in the time of their death They will be weak enough and foolish enough and blind enough not being able either to chuse the good or refuse the evil O how glorious is a Christian in the time of his life how he flourisheth with leaves and with fruits of several kinds But he is bare enough of all in his death Then he can be nothing then he can appear nothing Then he can do nothing Then he can bear nothing He knoweth not how to subsist nor which way to turn him But of this more under the next Head XII Of the low Estate which the Seed of Christ are reduced unto by their Death and Sufferings PROV 30.2 Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man THis is the voyce of them in whom the life of God is sown in their broken state When that life springeth up growing and flourishing in them then they are exalted far beyond man then they have a deeper understanding and fuller enjoyment then man is capable of That life that glory which then shineth in them man cannot but vail unto But according to their exaltation is their humiliation for when that life is shattered they fall far beneath man They have not that wisdom that strength that righteousness that excellency which is in man Surely I more brutish then man and have not the understanding of man Man is very brutish man is very shallow He is brutish in his desires and affections shallow in his comprehension Very little knowledg very little understanding hath man so little it is that it can hardly distinguish him from the brutes yea he is so brutish or rather worse that he doth not follow the guidance of that little he hath Man that excellent Image of the Almighty is become like the perishing beasts His knowledg his affections his motions his course his end are just like theirs as is observed by the wise Searcher into the nature of things Eccles. 3.18 19. Man is not at all like God or like himself he hath not a quick understanding or sense in the ways or things of God but in his springing up growth progress and behavior in the world as also in his passage again out of the world is just like a brute But the child the heir in his broken state falls beneath this brutish state of man Man falls below the creature man loseth that sense and knowledg in his kind which the very creatures retain in their kind The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters crib c. and the life in the seed falls below man Great is the death of the common creature Greater is the death of man but O how deep how deadly is the death of the seed How deep in their grave How low do they sink into the bowels of the great Abyss All things which the Lord hath as yet brought forth he causeth to pass through the jaws of death And their death is proportionable to the condition and degree of their life None tasted of such a life as Christ None also of such a death save his seed who drink of his Cup and are baptized with his Baptism O how low was Christ brought in his broken state when he was forsaken of his God! He was not inapprehensive himself of it what ever we now judg it when he cryed out I am a worm and no man I am not a man I have not the knowledg of a man the life of a man the excellency of a man the defence of a man I can find nothing fit to compare my meanness and misery unto but the most contemptible of the creatures a worm which hath no understanding no excellency no ability no manner of loveliness in it Now the servant is no better then his Master The members have the same nature course and condition with the head The life in them must be broken They must be brought low They must also be stripped of God and then the vessel which was exalted hereby will feel pain shame and misery Then they will become more brutish then man and want that common understanding of man the greatest tincture and excellency whereof they now so much despise Well may they now flourish and be brisk over man but seasons of death will overtake them and then their spirits will be flat and low enough This condition of theirs is made up of these three things A throughly broken state in it self A through sense of it in themselves and a through sight and contempt of it by the world 1. A throughly broken state in it self As the life and nature of Christ and his seed is true and through so is also their breaking There is a double breaking of them A breaking of the liquor and a breaking of the vessel There is a breaking of the seed or inward life or of the heavenly part and there is a breaking of the outward nature or earthly part wherein it was sown and which was transformed and made happy by it There is nothing of the new life no nor yet any thing of the old nature left whole when this death is perfected This quick spirit This quickened nature each are become nothing in themselves but only like a lump of dead clay fit to be made any thing by any thing which hath skill and vertue to form This poor Land which was once the pleasant habitation of God is made empty desolate and ruined This is the true state of Christ and his seed in their death And though man seem to himself both to desire and in some measure to attain this condition yet he is as far off from the true nature of either as he
life perisheth and man returneth to his Earth to his very corruption again yea and taketh unto himself seven Devils worse then the former For the higher that man is raised by this breath from the Lord the lower he falls when this breath is withdrawn It is the spirit of corrupt man getting or advanced by the Lord into the purest ways and forms of Religion which bringeth forth the filthiest abominations 4. In the result of this corruption and evil will befall you in the latter days Sin most naturally brings forth death Corruption or putrefaction is a degree of and a direct passage unto death And it will break forth and appear in the latter days Man must have a time to corrupt in which he is to be let alone but in the latter days when his end draws nigh death hastens apace his corruption then begins to open it self and to discover the death which lay hid in it Then that evil which man hoped all this while to secure himself from will begin to manifest it self to be in the nature of his own spirit or in the nature of that sin and corruption which he hid within the nature of his spirit He hath hid his destruction in his own bowels he hath hugged it in his bosom in the midst of all his designs to escape it and in the latter days when it is grown ripe and strong thence it will start seize upon him and devour him When the Lord hath throughly tryed the spirit of man and when man hath throughly corrupted himself then will he lay the ax to the root of this tree and cut it down that it may cumber the ground no longer He hath cut down the Iews already Their latter days wherein evil did befall them have overtaken them and he will also cut down the Gentiles The Iews were not the seed for after the death of Moses they did corrupt themselves and discover that they like the rest of the world were but flesh Neither are the Gentiles the seed for they also after the death of that life which did flow from the Spirit into Christ and his Apostles did also corrupt themselves The uncircumcised and unclean spirit of man did enter into this Temple and Worship as well as into the former Therefore the Lord will both cut down the spirit of man and will also down with all that into which the spirit of man can enter and then will he bring forth his own Truth his true Temple his true Worship his true Worshippers 5. In the ground of this death and destruction to man because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands All the motions of man anger God All the works of his hands are filthy and corrupt in themselves and provocative to the eye of his nature and spirit All mans knowledg all his life all his ways of Worship Faith and Obedience in every kind every thing that suits the eye and judgment of his spirit and wherewith he thinks to please God is lothsom to God This lothsomness stirreth up in God his indignation which causeth him in the proper season thereof to bring death upon man and to bring him to Judgment after which cometh the second death Then it shall be known who have been led by the Lord and who have truly followed him though the spirit of man now laughs at all who walk not with him in his way of understanding Then shall all see and know who are righteous and be forced to confess from their very hearts saying Verily there is a reward for the righteous a competent reward a full reward unto them for all the sufferings and misery which have attended them in their way and passage hither Blessed is he whom the Lord leadeth by the proper cross attending every dispensation through trouble and death into life But excessively miserable is that man whose fleshly spirit remaineth in any dispensation or who passeth from dispensation to dispensation with his life unslain therewith feeding upon the Ordinances duties enjoyments or any other holy or spiritual things of God and thereby fattening and fitting himself for death and destruction against the great and terrible day of the Lord God Almighty according as the spirit of Christ in David speaketh Psal. 94.12 13. with a gloss whereupon I shall draw towards a conclusion Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked There is a pit digging for the wicked into which when it is finished when it is every way made large and deep and piercing enough the whole wicked spirit of man shall either fall or be cast or partly fall and partly be cast into it Till this pit be digged it is a troublesome time to the seed but a quiet time with man The spirit of man is now at ease He can serve he can please he can enjoy himself in his whole course both of nature and religion yea and he can also secure himself from future danger from danger at the last He hath made a covenant with death and with Hell is he at agreement When the overflowing scourge passeth it shall not come near him It is for unbeleevers for sinners for persons who know not God or obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ to fear death and Hell or eternal destruction But when this pit is digged the Spirit of the Lord with his light will search out the spirit of man under all his disguises and what ever hath not the true breath of life in it shall be cast into and dye in this pit There are persons also to whom God will give rest from the days of adversity Those who have all along been persecuted by all sorts of enemies and afflicted with all sorts of miseries that spirit which hath been hunted wounded grieved distressed all the day long by the cruel spirit of man and Satan shall be rescued from the jaws of each and be refreshed Those who are leavened with the life of Gods most holy Spirit who are so new-changed by it that they have none of that life none of that spirit left remaining in them which the Lord cometh to destroy the Lord will give them rest When the Lord cometh forth to hunt take and devour the spirit of man those in whom that spirit is already dissolved shall not be in fear or danger of his severity but shall find the abundance of love sweetness peace and rest administred to them by the same hand which will then so eagerly and fiercely prosecute the spirit of man Then they who have hitherto been at ease shall be troubled and they who have hitherto been troubled shall have ease And to you who are troubled rest with us When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed c. 2 Thes. 1. The ways whereby God leadeth his to this rest are
chiefly dispenced under the one and the spirit under the other The letter was appointed for the litteral people and the spirit for the spiritual and so they are managed The litteral people receive their impression from the letter of the Word are brought forth by the letter and fed and maintained by the letter and the spiritual people receive their impression from the spirit of the Word are brought forth by the spirit and fed and maintained by the spirit So long as the letter of the Word lived in the fleshly people the fleshly people lived so long as the spirit of the Word liveth in the spiritual people the spiritual people live for these can live no more then the former any longer then they are fed from the root This dispensation and people may dye as well as the other Hence that ministration is called the ministration of the letter this of the spirit So that mark now There is letter and spirit life and death justification and condemnation in the Word both in the Copy and in the Original in Christ which is the Word of God and in the Scriptures which are the words of Christ in the heart of Christ which is Gods Book where he hath writ his Word and in the heart of man which is Christs Book where he hath writ his Word And both these dispensations are equally from God and from Christ from first to last both in their causes and in their effects 2. Of the Spirit The Spirit is that Substance which comprehends the Word and is comprehended in the Word It is the Lord and Servant of Christ who is the Word of God It is that which lives dwells and reigns both in the flesh and spirit of Christ and in which they likewise reign It is the liquor in Christ which Christ as a Vessel containeth and also the Vessel which containeth Christ. It is both the root and the fruit The root from whence Christ groweth and the fruit which Christ beareth both in his life and death from whence they both sprang and wherein they both meet The ministration of this is not yet made manifest It was only pointed at in the ministration of the Gospel which did shadow out it as the Law did shadow out that ministration or if you will both the Law and the Gospel did shadow this out in different respects and degrees the one more grosly the other more refinedly the one more darkly and remotely the other more nearly and clearly The Law stood aloof at a great distance from it yet spake of it and referred unto it the Gospel did as it were touch it speaking the very name and manifesting the very nature of it Yet the very ministration of the Spirit in that dispensation of the Gospel if it be well looked into will appear rather a shadow then the thing it self and every way more like a shadow then like the thing it self Now who knoweth whether those things which have been so contrary in all dispensations hitherto shall not here meet Life and Death Heaven and Hell which every where else are at such a distance may here touch one another and agree very sweetly together even so fully that both those names and natures whereby they did appear and were so various in all dispensations may here be drowned and vanish Yet it is not by eithers real loss of any thing whereby and wherein they differed that they become thus harmoniously united but by both their entering into a more perfect fulness And he to whom this seemeth so strange and who is so much offended at it let him fairly answer me this following question Were not Hell and Heaven at union in their root before they were brought forth Were they not at rest and peace in the Power and Nature of God from whence they were produced Without controversie what ever lay there lay in rest and whatsoever is brought back thither returneth to rest Now did the Lord bring forth any thing which he cannot bring back again and who can say he will not Surely every thing most naturally breatheth after that condition of rest and fulness which it can alone enjoy in his bosom Most certain it is that the vast Spirit of the Lord taketh in all things howsoever it dispose of them Thence they came thither they return there they are and doubtless there they may be found in union and agreement by him whose Spirit is quick and piercing enough Happy is he who can read this truth in the Spirit of the Lord but wretchedly miserable is he who frameth false imaginations in his own mind by the vanity of his own reason concerning it 3. Of Faith Faith is a shadowy or substantial life flowing from the Spirit through the Word into the seed seeking after fastening upon and resting in the Spirit This is Faith First I say it is Life It is a touch of life it is a spring of life it is the choyce of life which God bringeth forth in his own in his own seasons We may mistake in ascribing names to other things whose nature and principle we know not but this we are taught by God who knoweth things very well to name Faith The life of the Law was obedience a spirit of obedience by this a man was enabled to live in and according to the Law but this life is faith a spirit of faith He who beleeveth is only able to enter into this life and to walk in it I call it shadowy or substantial because it is either as it is looked upon Look upon it backward and it is substantial Look upon it forward and it is but shadowy As the ministration of the Gospel was a ministration of the spirit of that which was in the Law so the life ministred under the Gospel is a substantial life in compare with that But look forward into the substance of that which is yet behind and here faith it self is but a shadow This life also is but a shadow Alas the life of Faith must vanish Notwithstanding all its glory it must dye and lie in its grave like the Law Flowing from the Spirit through the Word into the seed The seed is the vessel the only vessel which containeth this life It is not man that this life is sown in but the seed and the seed is sown in man Immortal life eternal life is wrapped up in immortal seed in eternal seed that is the immediate vessel and this is sown in the mortal spirit of man which by putting on mortality there it changeth into its own nature Hence they in whom the seed is sown and who are changed by it are called by that name they are called the seed This life floweth from the Spirit into this seed The Spirit which formeth this seed breatheth into it this breath of life This seed is the spirits own vessel and this life is his own liquor wherewith he filleth it The Spirit lyeth in the vessel and is continually breathing in it and that
exactly formed As Christ is exactly formed to be the beloved of God so Man is exactly formed to be the beloved of Christ. And as the Godhead pleaseth it self in the beauty and loveliness of Christ so Christ and in him the Godhead pleaseth himself in the loveliness of man God saith to Christ and Christ saith to man Thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee Long before this world was both the delight of God and of Christ was in and about man Before the mountains were settled c. While as yet he had not made the Earth nor the fields c. Then was I by him Rejoycing in the habitable parts of his Earth and my delights were with the sons of men Prov. 8.25 26. 30 31. 2. There is a Majesty in man God who appointed man to be his Vicegerent set a stamp of his own Majesty upon him And this is yet to be seen in man there are the reliques of it yet in his nature and a sense thereof in the nature of the Creatures There is a stamp of subjection upon all the creatures and a stamp of dominion and Majesty in man 3. There is Wisdom in man Man is as it were the head of the wisdom of the Creation Man hath a light in him beyond the Creature whereby he can comprehend it mannage it and make it to serve him He hath a great root and principle of wisdom in him whereby he knoweth both God himself and the creature and can effect strange things He can foresee and provide for good and against evil He can search out what he wants yea and make use of what he finds Look upon the wisdom which man yet hath and ye shall find that he is as it were a God and liveth like a God in compare with the rest of the Creation 4. Man hath Strength too Strength sutable to his estate Take him with that addition which his wisdom adds to his strength and he can doe great things Take him with his engines and he is stronger then any other part of the Creation nay then all the rest of the Creation put together What can he not do what can he not suffer The Spirit of a man will beare his infirmities All the infirmities which ordinarily befall man nay all the infirmities proper to man there is strength in the spirit of man to graple with Indeed when God doth break man when God doth wound him then he groweth weak but otherwise man hath a great deal of strength yet remaining The Egyptians are men and not God and their Horses flesh and not spirit when the Lord shall stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall down and they all shall fail together O what a weak thing is man in the midst of all his strength when God comes to deal with him But set God aside and who knoweth his strength What buildings would man raise what defences would he make for himself what would he be what would he do what would he suffer did not the Lord provide a worm to gnaw at the Root of his spirit 5. Man hath a kind of intercourse with God He is yet neerer to God and hath yet more converse with him then the residue of the Creation His relation is of it self closer and his Communion more intimate God speaketh more directly to him provideth more directly for him Gods voice to and care over things is in a great degree in reference to him and for his sake And he knoweth God loveth God trusteth in God calleth upon God in another way and after another manner then the rest of the Creatures can There is yet a touch left there yet remains a wilde portraict of the glorious work of God upon man This is in part a taste of the excellency of man this is his nature this is his life this is his estate still in some degree though fallen exceedingly short of its own glory truth and fulness But now The life of Christ is far beyond the life of man He exceeds man further then man doth the creatures The Beauty of Christ wonderfully exceeds the beauty of man Christs beauty is of a deeper a purer a more inward nature The very rayes and lustre of the inward spirit of the divinity dwell in him and shine from his face There is wonderful beauty in the nature visage and in all the motions of the life and spirit of Christ His faith his love his sweetness meekness patience c. O how resplendent All that is beautifull in man he hath in him after a much more lovely manner and a peculiar beauty of his own besides And so his Majesty is also far greater Man in all his Majesty cannot but admire at and bow before the Majesty of Christ in his person words and gestures He appeared like one of another region He spake with another manner of spirit and in such a way as was sutable to the Majesty of his own spirit He taught as one having authority And though he was exceeding full of love and tenderness yet his Majesty kept his disciples so in awe that they durst not ask him any question but very humbly and with great fear and reverence The Wisdom also of Christ did far transcend the wisdom of Man The root thereof was of a better kind planted in better earth deeper rooted more carefully attended and of a better growth Christ was able by the skill and vertue of his nature to contrive spiritual designs to manage spirituall affairs to provide for spirituall good and against spirituall evil yea far more skilfull was he in his spiritual estate then man in his naturall A very wise and understanding shepheard able to walk himself and guide all his sheep through all danger distractions oppositions intricacies and deaths into the full truth and substance of life And the Strength of Christ is great too What cannot Christ do what cannot Christ suffer The Life of Christ can better dye its death then man can his It can goe through weakness better It can endure to be far more weak and in that weakness dye a far more bitter death It can run through all conditions all duties all afflictions all dispensations with ease and delight I know how to want saith Paul and how to abound yea I can do all things through Christ strengthening me And in another place he instanceth in the worst and hardest things expressing at what an height he felt his life able to maintain it self in the very midst of them Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12.10 Lastly Christs intercourse with God how sweet how full is it He is ever conversing with God God is ever conversing with him He eyeth God in every thing in all spiritual motions in all natural motions In spiritual motions he hath to do with nothing
but him in natural motions he hath to do with him chiefly He is the chief thing which God eyeth and God is the chief thing which he eyeth in every thing I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal. 16.8 Mark There is a mutual conjunction a natural union between God and Christ for this posture of each here floweth from it and pointeth at it they place themselves by one another they mind one another they stand by and to one another Christ seteth God before him and God placeth himself by Christ standeth at his right hand and this is their mutual content delight and safety They are well secure and perfectly at hearts-ease while they are together All misery from the begining to the end ariseth from their separation and distance and will soon vanish when the whole course of that is perfectly over Thus Christ is in his life But now in the death of Christ it is far otherwise Christ in his death falls not only beneath this Glory but also beneath the glory of man God when he breaketh Christ breaketh him more terribly then he hath yet broken man leaveth not so much excellency in him as he hath yet left in man but he beholdeth himself and who ever can look upon him shall find him more in the condition of a worm then a man There is no more beauty in him then in a worm no more majesty in him then in a worm no more wisdom or strength in him then in a worm He hath lost all his light and all his strength in the things of God He knoweth not how to beleeve hope pray or do any thing which requireth life and assistance from God and yet his nature cannot but do these things in a very vehement manner though not after the same rate of understanding and life which he possessed before nor with the aid of so powerful an influence But in what ever he is or does or what ever befals him God regards him not God takes no more notice of him then of a worm Christ who served God with the strength of his life all the days of his life what a stranger is God unto him in the time of his death Call he may again and again in his extremity for relief for support for somewhat to stay his fainting spirit but no news no return no regard from God no more then the worm has that crauls upon the ground My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night and there is no silence to me Psal. 22.1 2. I am a worm and no man A reproach of men That is somewhat more Man is pitied by man in his broken estate but Christ is reproached To have been high and then to fall low is a matter of reproach especially where a further ascent was spoken of and asserted Christ and the people of God talk of neerness to God and further advancement by God yea of perfection in God therefore when they are thus forsaken as they are really and perfectly forsaken in that fleshly dispensation wherein they are at first brought forth and for a season assisted and owned and their life broken and slain they become a grievous reproach Man cannot forbear upbraiding Christ when he beholdeth him dying When man feels his own life which Christ so disdained and still testified against I say when man feels this so far above the Life of Christ as it appears to be and indeed is when Christ is dying he cannot but reproach Christ. Christ is such a proper object of scorn to the spirit of man in the time of his death as cannot but draw forth scorn from him For man to see and feel himself alive and free from that death wherewith he was threatened and the death to fall upon Christ who threatened it even such a death as concludes his death for ever to mans eye and secures man from all that danger which might accrue to him from the Power of Christs Life and which man might stand in some feare of this cannot but stir in man the spirit of derision and cause him in his very heart to reproach Christ. A reproach of men And despised of the people Christ in his death is not only a reproach to man but to the very people of God also The fleshly people of God cannot but then despise this life As they cannot but in some degree honour it when they see the sweet and powerful shining forth of it Never man spake like this man He hath done all things well c. So they cannot but despise it when they see it declining Such is the temper of fleshly Israel and such the way of Christs appearing that the truth and glory of his life is more hidden from them then from the world and their despite of him in his death is greater O how they please themselves in their fleshly zeal and devotion when they find the spirit and life of Christ dying in and passing through his flesh All they that see me laugh me to scorn There is nothing feels greater contempt nor more universal then Christ in his death The eye of man universally contemneth him yea the whole heart of man laughs at him with the greatest derision and disdain that can be High low rich poor Jew Gentile and every sort and sect among each loath Christ in this state He is now become the abhoring of all flesh They jeer at him they trample upon him with the greatest laughter and scorn and without the least regret They spit in his face they buffet him they shoot out the lip they shake the head He is a worm and no man with them too He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him This is one expression of the great contumely in their spirits This is the man that trusted on God for deliverance This is that great and glorious life which came from God which so depended upon God which was so sure to be secured by God The wisdom of man should fall the strength of man should fall but he should be preserved and delivered by God He would not walk in the way of man nor he should not come to the end of man God loatheth man in the midst of all his wisdom righteousness and excellency but this is the beloved of God the delight of God Behold now what he is Behold now where he is Now let God arise and save his choyce one his beloved one He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him O foolish man Ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his Glory If Christ will reap the great Glory and riches of the increase of his life ought he not to reduce it into a seed and to sow that seed in a
was forsaken of his God in the truth of his estate and condition but he also felt it and he did not only feel it himself but his enemies saw it too yea it was palpable to the common eye of the people and to all that beheld him All that see me laugh me to scorn they shooâ— the lip they shake the head saying He trusted in God th the would deliver him c. Is this the man that had so much interest in God Is this the man in whom the Power of God did so appear and who could do such mighty things by the Power and Vertue of God Is his Doctrine and Miracles his great Union and Communion come to this They shake their heads as at a deceit as at a delusion as at a piece of vanity they mock they spit upon him they buffet him c. They crown him in derision They reproach yea they abhor in their spirits the very power of his life in the day of his death Use. Behold O Christians the death of the life of Christ behold the Baptism of Christ the miserable passage to the Crown If ye will become Christs ye must dye not only to the corruption and shame but also to all the glory and excellency of this world and yet not stop there neither The life of Christ will put out the life of all other things and when it hath done so there is a death for it too The Spirit of Christ in the seed must pass through its own blood into the holy of holies Alas Sirs If there were nothing to pass through but a death to this world what an easie matter were it comparatively to be a Christian What an easie matter were it to despise and trample upon this world by vertue of such an excellent life in the Spirit To have that spirit in the seed broken which delights or may delight in the world it is bitter indeed to man but alas that bitterness is nothing in compare with that bitterness which ariseth from the breaking of the new life in the new spirit Would ye know what this is Why measure it by this by the sweetness of this life Do ye know how sweet it is to taste the true nature of the Life of God! to enjoy and live upon the breath of his Spirit to walk in the light and love of the Lord If ye truly know these things the true sweetness of them then ye may be able to give a guess at what it is to have them broken But as there have been counterfeit Images all along of the Life of Christ so are there also of his Death O what pains do several sorts of men take to find out this Death yea and to meet with the anguish of it but all to no purpose for the Lord alone can light and the Lord alone can extinguish this Lamp I kill and I make alive This holdeth true every where but here most especially The Lord alone can bring forth the next strain of life and the Lord alone can bring into this narrow passage of death XIII The Course and End of Man DEUT. 31.29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands THis people who were the choyce of God among whom the seed of life was sown was a type of the spirit of man truly representing his nature and state more especially in these five particulars following 1. In his difficulty to be woond up to the mind and will of God in any dispensation There was a great deal of work with this people to bring them to any pass Continual Instructions continual Corrections a mighty current of Power and Providence did God both put forth and maintain to cause them to beleeve and obey both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and yet it proved a very difficult task to winde them up to either Thus it is with the spirit of man God is at a very great expence to bring him to any thing He is fain to let forth of his own Spirit of his own Light of his own Power and batter him out of all his fleshly holds before he can bring him to submit to him and walk with him in any of his dispensations 2. In his sudden backsliding This people did naturally fall from God They were hardly drawn up but did slide down of themselves What a work had God with them to make them beleeve and wait upon him what a many wonderful Works did he shew to draw them up to trust him to follow him to love him c. but alas how soon did they forget his Works and retire back into the fleshly principle and course of the Heathen and this both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and also in Canaan Thus it is also with the spirit of man Let God never so powerfully convince and engage him in the light and life of his spirit yet he naturally slinks back from it He corrupts himself in every dispensation of the Lord seting up his own lusts there serving them and forgetting the Lord his Maker and Redeemer He makes every path and truth either of the Law or Gospel serve his own carnal spirit in so much as though he walk in all the ways of the Lord as he accounts them yet he serves himself in all and not the Lord in any Mans flesh mans reason nay mans vanity and corruption gets into every way of the Lord polluting it self there and prophaning all the holy things of God It turns out of that which is indeed the way and walks in that which though it still calls it the way yet is not but only a way of its own for the very Ordinances and Institutions of God after the spirit of man hath entered into them and molded them to his own bent God will no longer own them but terms them his ways and inventions 3. In the season of mans corrupting himself which is after Moses his death after the death of the Witnesses after the departure or death of that life in him which seized upon him overcame him and as it were forced him into the ways of God When the light of God cometh down upon man and overbeareth his spirit he cannot but follow it but when that light is gone he returneth to himself again He turneth from the life from the purity of that into which he was led retaining only so much as will serve the ease quiet content and satisfaction of his own corrupt spirit There are gales of the Spirit of God which descend upon this earth the spirit of man Where these blow strongly man is hugely changed He hath as it were a new spirit in him whereby he is after a sort naturally led to follow the Lord. But when the Lord withdraweth this breath his