the Death and Loss thereof with all the things therein is indispensably neceessary to any Man 's receiving that Life which is eternal by a new Creation Man in the restor'd Life of the First Adam's living Soul and highest spiritual enlightning Gifts convincing him of the Life offer'd by a Second and of the Necessity of parting again with the restor'd earthly Life and things of the First Adam 's living Soul for the heavenly Life and Things of the Second Adam 's quickning Spirit under all this Mercy is Man liable through his own unspeakable Folly to be bewitch'd back from looking after Christ's heavenly Gospel-life shew'd and offer'd him and to set up for himself under and with Satan in his own earthly Law-life and Righteousness signified by Holy Flesh Gal. 3. 1 3. This may be call'd a Sinning after the Similitude of the evil Angels first Transgression under the clearest Discovery of the Life offer'd by a new Creation with the Terms of receiving it and their unspeakable Concern for submitting thereto as the only possible Means to find eternal Life or scape eternal Death That the Punishment of evil Angels for their first Sin by God's giving them up to their own self-chosen Life and their own Will and Way therein all along this World that this was a greater Punishment than Man 's for his first Sin which was the Death and Loss of his abus'd First-covenant Life and Things receiv'd by a First-creation may seem strange to Man's Wisdom who reckons Adam should have kept what he had in the primitive Purity of his First-creation the keeping of which in preference to the Life of the Creator offer'd by a Second was his Sin the Loss of it by God's taking it from him his Punishment At Man's rate of Judging the evil Angels were in the Right as keeping what they receiv'd in their First-creation all the Glories and Excellencies Wisdom and Power therein Quest. Could Mankind or human Nature at best in Adam chuse the heavenly creature-Creature-life of God shewn and offer'd them by a New Creation Answ. No. Neither Man nor Angel had Power in their own earthly Life and Wills to choose the heavenly creature-Creature-life of God offer'd by a New Creation for then they would have elected themselves The receiving from Christ as a Fruit of his meritorious Sufferings and Death in our Nature the renew'd Life and Righteousness of the First-creation is of him that willeth All may receive that if they will But the attaining and receiving of the Life God offers by a Second-creation this is not of him that willeth or runneth in his own Spirit and Will at best but of God who will shew this Mercy to whom he will only Rom. 9. 15 16. All that finally elect or chase for themselves their own earthly Life of the Creature reject the heavenly Creature-life of the Creator All that God has elected will be brought to hate and lose their own earthly Life at best from love to his heavenly as the only Way to receive it A third Part of Angels fell irrecoverably by their first Sin Revel 12. 4. The far greater part of Mankind the many in the broad Way will be found irrecoverably fallen for ever Yet will Christ's few in the narrow Way be an innumerable Multitude Revel 7. 9. CHAP. X. The second Sacrifice of Christ in our whole human Nature Spirit Soul and Body IN and by his first Sacrifice he became the immediately fitted Hand of God the living Word of God which is God Iohn 1. 1-3 for performing the whole Divine Will in both Creations of Angels and Men and in dealing with them all for ever in final Love or Wrath. This first Sacrifice related not to the Pardon of Sin in Angels or Men. They were none of them then extant in their own personal Beings A Preparation for preventing Sin in both and all was thereby made notwithstanding which many Angels sinn'd and fell irrecoverably All Mankind sinn'd and fell in and with Adam but recoverably both as to their Sin and Punishment and also to a being render'd capable of that true Salvation-life they at first refus'd This second Sacrifice of Christ therefore in our Nature related only to the Sins of Mankind The good Angels never sinn'd at all The evil were absolutely unpardonable In reference to Sin therefore Christ took on him the Nature of Man not of Angels Heb. 2. 16. and therein became a little lower than Angels even than evil Angels in the Glory of their First-creation chosen by them and granted them by God in his just Judgment on them with a ruling Power over Mankind therein all along this short-liv'd World and then to be stripp'd of all their worldly Power and Glory and laid down for ever in everlasting Burnings under his unquenchable Wrath in the lowest Hell-part of the eternal World to come In reference to this second Sacrifice of Christ we are to consider his Entrance into this World in our Nature The Virgin Mary was found with Child of the Holy Ghost Mat. 1. 18. An Angel appears to Joseph in a Dream telling him that what was conceiv'd in her was of the Holy Ghost and warn'd him that when born he should call his Name Iesus that would save his People from their Sins and Immanuel also was he to be call'd that is God with us ver 20-23 Isa. 7. 14. The like Account as to his wonderful Formation in the Womb of the Virgin we find Luke 1. 26-35 and his Birth Luke 2. 7. The good Angels rejoic'd thereat Luk. 2. 13 14. not in reference to a procuring their Pardon for Sin having never sinn'd but as knowing thereby the time drawing near for them with Old-Testament-Saints to receive the Holy Ghost which they waited for all along four thousand Years by a living spiritual Faith working by Love to God therein and amounting to an indissoluble Union with Christ therein But the Holy Ghost was not given to Angels or Saints till our Nature in Christ was ascended and glorified Iohn 7. 39. Both the said Angels and Saints obtain'd a good Report with God as well-pleasing to him by a living spiritual Faith therein though they had not receiv'd the promis'd Holy Ghost Heb. 11. 39. From the good Angels Concern herein did they with Old-Testament-Prophets desire to pry look into and diligently to search out what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify when it testified beforehand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1. 10-12 to our ascended glorified Nature in him and to them by the Holy Ghost's being sent down from Heaven into Angels with the Spirits of Old-Testament-Saints departed and New-Testament-Gospel Saints in the mortal Body Act. 2 1-4 This is the other better Comforter Christ told his Disciples the Father in pursuance and for accomplishing of his Free-Grace-Mercy to them would send than he had yet been to them as a fleshly Bridegroom in the but restor'd First-covenant Life and Righteousness of
cause them to be so accounted also against Heathen Cesars and others of his Party under him Christ himself was condemn'd and murder'd on this Pretence Iohn 19. 12 15. Saints can discover him when sitting in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Thess. 2. 4. to be the worst of all Creatures the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition ver 3. Will he quietly bear this Discovery will he not by his humane Instruments shew his utmost Rage against them and God permits But be it as it will the Sum of all true Gospel-teaching is a declaring the Mystery of Godliness for the Salvation of Men and preventing their Damnation and a discovering Satan's Mystery of Iniquity for the Damnation of Men and preventing their Salvation So only can Saints with Paul become free from the Blood of all Men Acts 20. 26. Ezek. 33. 7-9 as having no Share in that Guilt by which they bring that Blood upon their own Heads which will be found to amount unto no less than eternal Death to their whole Beings Spirit Soul and Body in a Resurrection of Damnation The experimental Knowers of the Mystery and Power of Godliness and faithful Discoverers of the Mystery of Iniquity will have a Resurrection of Life John 5. 29. above all Deaths temporal or eternal CHAP. IX The first Sin Fall and Punishment of many evil Angels and of all Mankind in Adam EVIL Mankind in Adam joyn'd with evil Angel-kind in Satan through a mutual Union of Love to themselves and one another electing or chusing for themselves their own earthly mortal First covenant Law-life of the Creature given by a First-creation in preference and opposition to the heavenly immortal Second-covenant Gospel-life of the Creator offer'd them by a second or new Creation The evil Angels herein did at first commit the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost under the immediate Beamings forth of Christ's heavenly Creature-Gospel spirit the Son of everlasting Righteousness upon their highest single intuitive natural Understandings Secondly They had no superiour Rank of Creatures in the First-creation already fallen above them in Subtlety and Power to tempt them Thirdly They were all actually created and set up in their compleated personal Beings and Life at first Mankind receive their personal Beings successively Generation after Generation Fourthly Mankind's first Sin in Adam was not against such clear Knowledg of their own unspeakable Concern as well as Duty to God though in the same kind of First-covenant Law-life with Angels The inferiour Ingredients into Man's personal Constitution bodily Sensual-life tho created pure and incorrupt rendred his intuitive Discerning inferiour to that of Angels where 't was single and alone Hence what was immediately and more convincingly made known to Angels was represented to Adam by a figurative Tree of Life and himself in distinction from that by the Tree of Good and Evil. The former represented Christ to him in that heavenly Creature-life offer'd by a new Creation the latter represented himself to himself as but a mystical Tree of Good and Evil in his own Life given in his first Creation corruptible and changeable mortal and perishable with all the earthly things therein Will Understanding Righteousness Wisdom c. with all Works or Fruits ever possible to be done or brought forth therein By and under the superiour Subtlety and Power of the Devil the mystical Old Serpent was Adam in the primitive Purity of his whole Being and Mankind in him as their Head and Representative induc'd perswaded and deceiv'd so as to prefer Satan's self-pleasing Lie to God's Spirit of Grace and Truth So under and with the Serpent he chose his own earthly Life of the Creature in preference to God's own heavenly Creature-life of the Creator Many of Mankind when restor'd out of the Darkness and Death of their own Spirits into the Light Life and Righteousness of Man do sin again in their own Persons after the Similitude of Adam's first Transgression who at best in Innocency was but a Figure of the Second Adam who was to come in the Fountain-purity of our Nature and also full of the Holy Ghost Luke 4. 1. Iohn 1. 14. his heavenly Creature-spirit of Grace and Truth Rom. 5. 14. This Sin again in their own Persons after all sad Experience of fallen Mankind thereby in Adam and all Warnings and Counsels of God since is unrepentable by them Heb. 6. 4 6. and unpardonable by God Heb. 10. 26 27. This is the Case of any that conclusively and absolutely prefer their own restor'd earthly Life of the Creature and Righteousness of Man to the heavenly Creature-life of the Creator and everlasting Righteousness of God therein All that will not receive and have the heavenly Creature-life of God by submitting to the Death of restor'd Nature at best the Loss of all their own Life and things therein God will take away the said Life from them again and lay them down for ever under his unquenchable Wrath in eternal Death Luke 8. 18. This is that Christ says Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will hate and lose his own Life for my Sake from Love to my heavenly Creature-life shall find it with unspeakable Gain as chang'd by Death and Resurrection into an eternal Life Satan was at it with Christ himself Matth. 4. 8 9. to stay and set up with and under him as a State of true Happiness in the mortal Life of our Nature and by his Apostle Peter was at the same Point to pity and spare himself there saying be the Death thereof far from thee this shall not be unto thee Christ discover'd and declar'd this Word of Peter to be Satan's Counsel in and by him Mat. 16. 21-23 As the first Sin of Angels was differing from Man's first Sin so was the Punishment The Punishment of evil Angels was the giving them their own evil Choice their own self-chosen earthly Life receiv'd in their First-creation with all the things thereof their own Wisdom Righteousness Subtlety and Power all natural Excellencies and Perfections therein as by them abus'd turn'd into and us'd in unchangeable Enmity to God and his heavenly Creature spirit of eternal Life God also permitted to them the Exercise of a ruling Power over sallen Mankind all along this World by which Satan carries on the same delusive Work as on Adam at first that the Life given in the First-creation is eternal no need of a second nor therefore of the Death of the first Ye shall not die Gen. 3. 3. This is Satan's uniform Lie all along this World that the Life given in the First-creation is eternal You must die or never live and reign with me in my heavenly Creature-life which is eternal This is Christ's Truth his faithful Saying 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. There 's nothing more pleasing to Man's Will in the restor'd earthly Life of the First Adam than Satan's Lie and nothing so universally contrary to it as God's Truth that
Man therein Iohn 14. 26. This better Comforter he told them would teach them all things divine and spiritual and so bring to their Remembrance all that he had hitherto spoken to them in Parables earthly Figures and Similitudes in which the mystical divine and spiritual Truths lay hid from them as well as others The good Angels also rejoic'd at the Birth of Jesus on the behalf of Mankind in general and of Saints in special as the means for recovering all out of the Darkness and Death into which brought by their first Sin and Punishment thereof Gen. 2. 17. Iohn 1. 9. The World was made by him yet when he came into the World none in their worldly Life of the Creature at best either knew receiv'd or own'd him Iohn 1.10 The righteous First-Covenant professing Jews in Union of mind with evil Angels were the most signally enrag'd Contradicters Blasphemers and Murderers of him for his Gospel-Doctrine of Salvation Acts 3 13-15 The exalted Son and Branch was the immediate Former of himself in the Womb of the Virgin the Son of God on Earth remaining still what he was in the Beginning the Son of Man in Heaven John 3. 13. Evil Angels and Men were God's permissive Hand under his infinite over-ruling Wisdom and Power to finish the Death-work on all that was mortal about him in our Nature and so oft on Saints to their greatest Good and Enemies greatest hurt Hereby do they compleat Saints Conformity to Christ's Death freeing them from all that 's mortal about them while in the Body Isa. 57. 1 2. The Iews would have made Christ a King if he would have own'd his Kingdom in that mortal First-covenant Law-life they saw him in Iohn 6. 15. But witnessing his Kingdom not to be in that worldly Law-life but in his Gospel-life of Grace and Truth Iohn 18. 36 37. they murder'd him and so compleated the Death of him as to that mortal Law-life wherein they would have made him their King They chose rather to be Subjects to a Heathen King than such a King as he own'd himself to be Iohn 19. 12 15. who would have made him such a King as would have render'd them Traitors and Enemies to Cesar. Here 's the confounded Doings of Man at best in his own worldly Spirit and Life Some Corinthians Laodiceans and other Professors in but the First-covenant-life and Righteousness of Man all along since are of the same mind with them 1 Cor. 4. 8. Rev. 3. 17. The God of this World offer'd Christ a far larger Bribe than the Jews did all the Kingdoms of this World visible and invisible under him all worldly Power Human and Angelical in Case he would own his Kingdom to be in this First-creation Worldly-life Mat. 4. 8 9. Whoever are finally taken with his worldly Bribes the literal or mystical Riches of this First-creation World do fall down and worship him as God And by such Loyal Subjects of him does he murder true Saints that refuse so to do as they did Christ himself True Heaven-born Sons of God have the whole self-confident legal-spirited Generation of Professsors on the same Account universally in all times against them They mortally and irreconcileably hate them for owning the Death-work of Christ's Gospel-spirit of Grace on that Law-spirit of Works they confidently trust in for entring into the Kingdom of God Such become the highest Rank of Satan's Subjects and most serviceable Instruments for maintaining the Credit of his worldly Kingdom as the only true Blessedness to any God's Thoughts and Ways for true Salvation are not as Man 's and when he has declar'd his Ways in his holy Oracles let Man's highest Wisdom undertake the interpreting them all shall run on Satan's Side God's Thoughts therein remaining fast seal'd and lock'd up from Man's best Understanding in but a restor'd First-covenant Life Isa. 29. 11. CHAP. XI The Difference of Christ's Death in our Nature as to the intent and Extent thereof from Saints Conformity to him by the Death of Nature in them CHRIST's condescending to take our Nature and therein by the Grace of God to taste Death for every Man Heb. 2. 9. was in reference to the pardonable Sins of Mankind in Adam and also in their own Persons This was God's appointed Way for the redeeming and recovering them out of their fallen State wherein born dead in Trespasses and Sins Ephes. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. into the Light and also Life receiv'd by them in their First-creation All may receive this general Redemption-Mercy the Common-Salvation-Work of Christ as a Fruit of his meritorious Sufferings and Death in our Nature if they will But as to the special eternal Salvation of the Elect in his new and everlasting Covenant Gospel-life this is not of him that willeth or runneth in the most fruitful Exercise of his own restor'd First-covenant Law-life but of God's Free-Grace Mercy which he will effectually and infallibly shew to whom he pleases only The ceasing from their own Life Will and Understanding is the only appointed Way for their receiving this special eternal Salvation-life of God Iude with others writ of both these distinct Salvations common and special temporal and eternal And when he had with all Diligence inform'd them of the former he found it needful to exhort them to contena earnestly in Prayer to God for a living spiritual Faith working by Love to him in the latter in which only true Saintship and Salvation ever could or will be found by any Man Iude v. 3. Thus is Christ the Saviour of all Men with a common or general Salvation but of them that believe in his Gospel-life and place all their Hopes of Salvation in that with a special 1 Tim. 4. 10. They trust in the living God that living Word of God which is God John 1.1 Those that wax confident in the common Salvation the restor'd Life and Righteousness of Man do trust in that Life for Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven which Christ crucified in the Fountain-purity of it in himself God will not only that all Men should be saved with the common Salvation but has rendred them capable also of receiving the Knowledg of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. his Gospel-spirit of Grace and Truth by the convincing Discoveries thereof to their natural Understandings But after all this are they liable to apostatize fall away and finally refuse so great Salvation as is thereby offer'd them and perish for ever Heb. 6. 4-6 The submitting in Passive Obedience to the Death and Loss of all receiv'd from Christ in the Common-Salvation-Benefit of his Death rendring them but holy Flesh is absolutely necessary to their finding the special eternal Salvation-life of his holy Gospel-spirit the Holy Ghost Otherwise after all receiv'd in the Common-Salvation they 'l find everlasting Destruction Conformity to Christ's Death by the Death of Nature at best in us is the appointed way to reign with him in the Life he is ascended into out of the Death thereof
all Gospel-Truths as the greatest Heresies and Blasphemies in the World Christ himself suffer'd himself to be so dealt with by them When Saints declare the Gospel-life and assert that therein only any can ever enter into Heaven or scape the Damnation of Hell they do not deny that any in the corrupt or righteous Life of their own Nature or Spirit can ever come to experience Christ's Gospel-life or enter into his Kingdom but endeavour to be instrumental under Christ for leading them thereinto 2 Tim. 2. 24-26 Quest. Does the Gospel-Doctrine of true Salvation discourage or condemn the Righteousness of Man in the honest moral Heathen walking in a Sutableness to the rational Light of Nature restor'd by Christ in all Mankind as a Light which lighteth every Man that comes into the World John 1. 9. Does it discourage the righteous First-covenant Iew or Christian walking in his higher kind of good Conscience in the restor'd First-covenant Law-life as his Principle owning the imputed Righteousness of Christ there for the compleating him in a First-covenant-Communion with and worshipping of God Consequently does it judg and condemn the moral Heathen or legally righteous First-covenant Iew or Christian for teaching and exhorting others to walk in such Obedience to God as is performable in the said Light of Nature or Life of the Law Answ. Nothing of all this is justly imputable to the right Teaching of the Gospel Moral and legal Righteousness of Man is good for himself and his Fellow-creatures in this World Iob 35. 8. and better in God's Sight than gross Wickedness Injustice vile Affections and brutish Lusts but as to entring into the Kingdom of God in the World to come not at all available Gal. 6. 15. God himself testified of Iob to the Devil that there was none like him in the Earth a perfect upright Man fearing God and eschewing Evil Job 1. 8. The Devil knowing Iob in all this to be rewarded of God as a Debtor to him Rom. 4. 4. for such Righteousness in a Plenty of this World 's temporary good Things replied v. 9 10. Hast thou not bless'd the Work of his Hands and encreas'd his Substance in the Land Take all this away again and see if he curse thee not to thy Face v. 11. God puts it into Satan's Power to be instrumental herein for the Trial of Iob's Patience and carrying on the Work of his Cross upon him in a Conducibleness to his greatest Good His ten Children are kill'd by a great Wind blowing down the House where they were Feasting all his Goods were taken away by wicked Men under the Influence of the Devil Thus far Iob did bear his Trial without sinning or charging God foolishly blessing the Lord that gave him and then took all the said Gifts away again from him Then Satan desires the Liberty of smiting his Body and God grants him a limited Power as to that Then Satan moves his Wife to counsel him to do what himself had said to God Iob 1. 11. Curse God and die Chap. 2. 9. Job rebukes her saying shall we receive Good from God and not Evil In all this did not Iob sin with his Lips Job 2. 5-10 But when he felt the Cross or Death-work of the Spirit of God on his very Spirit as to the Life Wisdom and Righteousness of Man and Satan's permitted working upon him in this Hour and Power of Darkness he was sorely put to his utmost Trial and utter'd many hard Words against God's strange and wonderful Dealings with him reflecting upon his faithful Walking Iob 29. 2. so as not in the least to deserve any such dealing of God with him Iob 3. 19. 1-11 31. 35. He desires that the Almighty would answer him Here 's the Case and Demeanour of the Mirror of Patience next the Lord himself under all Sufferings in our Nature Elihu charges him with multiplying his Words against God Job 34. 37. The Lord himself charges him with darkning Counsel by Words without Knowledg Chap. 38. 1 2. He saw not as yet or understood the unspeakable Advantage of all this strange Dealing of God with him So contended with the Almighty and therein reprov'd God himself Chap. 40. 1 2. He reflected upon his former Condition and flourish in all worldly Prosperity and such an Eminency in Wisdom and Righteousness that when he open'd his Mouth in Counsel Princes refrain'd talking and Nobles held their Peace now Children of Fools abhor'd him made him their Song and By-word not sparing to spit in his Face Iob 29. 9 10. 30. 8-10 He comes at length to abhor himself in such a Change of Life and Mind for the better as to rejoice in seeing all the fading Glory Wisdom and Righteousness of his own Spirit turn'd into Dust and Ashes as the Way of God for experiencing his heavenly creature-Creature-life above all Deaths and his eternal good Things therein the Righteousness and Wisdom of God and his living and working all his Works in God's Spirit of Grace and Truth But in the hundred and forty Years of his Life after all this we hear not a Word of such high Esteem with Men as when eminent in the Wisdom and Righteousness of Man Were the restor'd Life and Righteousness of Man all that God requires of him for entring into his Kingdom Godliness would be no Mystery The Light of Nature in all Men convinces judges and condemns all gross Sins vile Affections and brutish Lusts in all others and themselves also who are guilty thereof And then also Satan would have no Mystery of Iniquity to make use of in his destructive Practisings upon Mankind But for this he has not only all the Wisdom Righteousness and Glory of the First-creation in himself and Men to deceive them by but a permitted Power also to transform all that in himself and Men into the Appearance and Likeness of Christ's Gospel-life and Righteousness of God and by his Ministers amongst Men to dress it up with all Scripture Language and Titles of the very Gospel-Truths of God Regeneration New-Creature and the like So does Satan as the supream mystical Whore of Babylon with his whole Babylonish Party of evil Angels and Men furnish'd with all Glory of the First-creation and counterfeit Appearances also of the Second carry on his Work in the womanish Spirit of Nature against God's manly Spirit of Grace as deck'd and adorn'd with all worldly Glory Pomp and Beauty and having a gilded not golden Cup full of Abominations by which to deceive if possible the very Elect and infallibly all others into everlasting Destruction Even Iohn the peculiarly beloved Disciple an eminent Apostolical Saint marvel'd to see the Pomp and Glory of Satan and his whole Party herein and in all that call'd Mystery Babylon the Great Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth all amounting to a rebellious fixing in the earthly Life of the Creature in unchangeable Enmity to God and the heavenly Creature-life of the Creator offer'd by a
Counsel of God by him declar'd to them therein On this account he tells them they with their Fathers in the like Cainish Spirit of Enmity were guilty of the Blood of all God's true Prophets shed from the Foundation of the World from the Blood of Abel to that day Luke 11 49-51 And so will it be to the end of this World under Satan's permitted Reign and Man's Day under him of judging in Matters of Religion and Worship of God so as nothing must pass for Gospel but what Man pleases to give his Approbation to The Jews built the Sepulchres of the Prophets under pretence of paying Honour to them and owning their Counsel when with their Fathers Murderers of all such and in unchangeable Enmity to all their Words rightly understood If they had been in the days of their Fathers they say they would not have been Partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets Mat. 23. 29-31 Under all these Pretences and self-deceiving Imaginations Christ declares them fix'd in the self-same murdering Mind of Enmity with their Fathers against all true Prophets and himself also as soon appear'd and therefore ask'd them how they could think to escape the Damnation of Hell ver 33. Since all such dealings of the Jews with their own true Prophets and Christ himself with his Apostles in the foretold long Antichristian Day now near ending how have unchangeable idolatrous Haters of Christ and his Gospel-Truths and Saints been found under the Name Christian building stately Churches or Temples to the Honour of Paul Peter Iohn c. who would as certainly murder them for their Gospel-Doctrine were they now here as others did even in the Primitive Apostolical Gospel-day Let Men under Satan interpret their Gospel-Writings in a Sutableness to their own Wills and so in a universal Contrariety to the Words of God's VVisdom in them and all 's well and they with the Apostles in the way to eternal Life and true Salvation All void of a true living spiritual Faith in Christ's Gospel-life working by Love to him therein are the unreasonable and incorrigible Adversaries of true Gospel-Saints Paul shews the like Figurative Significancy in Iacob and Esau Rom. 9 10-13 Esau mortally hated Iacob and God hated Esau. Esau's murdering Mind of Enmity to Iacob is express'd by himself Gen. 27. 41 42. The like is notified in all his murdering-minded Followers against God Christ and his true spiritual Iacobs Obad. v. 8-10 Amos 1. 11. CHAP. XVI Concerning meer Creaturality in Angels and Men in their first and also in their highest spiritual second New-Creation Capacities with some account of all possible to be done by any in their first and the differing Ends of all at last HAving already spoken of the ready prepar'd Hand the exalted Creature-Son and Branch in the Mediator's Person the living Word of God as qualified and fitted for a first and second creating of Angels and Men come we now to consider what they both and all amount unto for ever as but meer Creatures not only in their natural Beings and Life of the Creature given them by a first but also spiritual Beings and Life of the Creator given by a second Creation of them Angels were all created at first in their compleat Personalities invisible immortal Beings without any innate Capacity of or connatural Tendency to the exercise of a threefold Souly or Animalish Life rational sensual and vegetable in and by a fitly Organiz'd Body As for Mankind they do gradually descend from one another in a continued Succession Generation after Generation for a compleating their Personal Beings from the beginning to the ending of this mortal World What became of Angels good and bad by the first well-pleasing Passive Obedience of the former and first unpardonable Sin of the latter has been above-spoken to Chap. 4. of this Treatise Man inferiour to Angels in their single intuitive natural Understandings tho in the same kind of Mortal Earthly First-Covenant Life is in his compleated Personality a much more comprehensive Being than an Angel He is the most compleat shadowy Image of God on all accounts in the whole Natural Mortal First-Creation World visible or invisible This is signified concerning him in distinction from Angels and all other Creatures therein created before him in a readiness for his Entertainment Of none thereof is it said by God as of him Let us make Man in our Image after our Likeness Gen. 1.26 as the Compend or Epitome of all other Creatures and something more peculiar to himself the rational Exercise of his Mind in and by a Body found in no Creatures above or below him So find we a peculiar Consultation of the three that are one to draw an earthly shadowy Image and Representation of themselves in every individual Man This Enlargement of Man's Personal Being beyond Angels expos'd and rendred him liable to vain sinful Desires and Thoughts so as to wallow in Mire among Satan's Swine feeding on Husks the lowest Dust of this World below any Palate in any evil Angels to savour any Belly Desire or Appetite in them to lust after delight in or feed upon being never link'd with mortal Bodies or sensual Life Pleasures in common with brute Beasts So the Enlargement of Man's Being beyond Angels was a Diminution to his intuitive Understanding in common with them and to the Exercise of his Natural Will as exposing him to a running out in his Desires after the lower sort of Desirables in the vast heap of vanishing Shadows in the visible Parts of this First-creation World And evil Angels tho they care not for such things themselves have Power through God's most wise Permission to shoot their fiery Darts into Mens Spirits and kindle in them evil Lustings after such visible things in which they keep the far greater part of Mankind wallowing in Mire as their Swine far from any looking after God at all The Soul or threefold animalish souly-Life of Man distinct from his Spirit ceases as to exercise at the Death of his Body The Spirit then retreats to the full Experience and Exercise of its supream intuitive Way of discerning and converse with Angels good or bad in a spiritual Intuitiveness with the good Gospel-Angels or natural with the evil Law-Angels Lawyers from the beginning on their First Sin and Fall setting up the Law-life of the Creature given in the First-creation against the Gospel-life of their Creator offer'd by a Second and so their Lie against God's Truth The Devil was a Murderer from the Beginning John 8. 44. and his fix'd Law-party of Mankind in the restor'd Law-life-Wisdom and Righteousness of Man have been under him the irreconcileable Haters and Murderers of Christ himself and his Gospel-Saints all along this World At the Death of the Body Man good or evil is dead His Spirit is for a time strip'd of the threefold Souly-life as to exercise that are essential Ingredients into his personal Constitution At last Saints will recover their Bodies in a