mēbers to bring forthfruit unto death Rom. 7. I will give you one more Scripture to prove this and that is Eph. 1. 17. where the Apostle prays thus for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understandings being inlightened that ye may see what is the hope of his calling And at the 19. verse That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead Pray mark it The Apostle doth directly and expresly assert that there is the working of the same mighty power in Beleevers that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead And the Apostle Rom. 8. saith in general That as many as God did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son That is God did predestinate them to be carryed on the same way that Christ was and so the same things to be done in them that were done in him Object There is only one Objection that I shal answer before I come to the Application of the point and that is in Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ Here lyes the Objection if so be we are circumcised in Christ If all Beleevers are circumcised in him at once as this Scripture seems to hold forth by the putting off of that same body of his by that very circumcision of his Why then you will say our Sanctification tarries not for the appearance of the like things in us I confess this Objection lies plain in appearance against what hath been spoken But I shall answer to you thus and shew you how we are circumcised in Christ by his circumcision and how it is that notwithstanding we are actually and personally circumcised by the circumcision of the Spirit and by reall circumcision 1. First then we are circumcised in Christ foederally as in our root and common person we are unto God circumcised in Christ as in a Figure Pray mark it it is I say as in a Figure for thus we are to look upon Jesus Christ not as one that came to excuse the Old man from dying or to set us up in a state of salvation without working any thing within us Nay he came to reveal the Kingdom of God within us and to set it up within us but he first gave us a pattern of the Kingdom and first transacted all our salvation in a Figure before he transacted it within us by the Spirit and this transacting our salvation without us in a Figure bears its use and proportion towards the effecting of the work of Sanctification within us by the Spirit For thus God hath hereby caught us by guil as I may so speak even as when we stood in Adam Adam falling cast us all down So now God he comes and reveals a second Adam and this same second Adam God sets up as our common root representing us all and this is that Covenant that God proclaims from heaven Look what is the fat◠of the second Adam that shal be the fate of all the seed if he stand al shal stand if he fal they shal al fal Now Iesus Christ comes stands in our stead and was made under the Law and he dyes and suffers goes away in the flesh suffers in the flesh and is not overcome of death or Hell or the pains of death but rises again Here 's our salvation transacted in a Figure and set before us As it did fare with Christ so it shall fare with us we shall as certainly come to glory as he did Here is the Type here is the Original Pattern here is the fore-runner here is the draught or copy of the Covenant written in broad Characters upon the person of Iesus Christ This is the use of Christs dying and suffering and sanctifying himself and so we are said to be sanctifyed in him as our root representing us What proportion this bears to the transacting of our salvation within us is this Hereby we are brought to God hereby our weak hands are lifted up and our feeble knees are strengthned Hereby we are caught as it were with guil and God doth hold forth our salvation as in a Parable to us But if so be the work rest here let us suppose an impossibility we are but in an ill condition if we be not circumcised also together with Christ really by the spirit as well as circumcised in Christ foederally and typically and representatively it wil go but ill with us We may see what is to be done by looking upon the History of Christ but til we find the same things done in us in the mystery in some measure we can have little comfort We may see the end of the Lord with us even the same end he made with Christ Jesus but we must follow his steps also as the Apostle Peter saith He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1. Now the use I shall make of this is to confirm that Doctrine I have formerly delivered to you that Doctrine that needs confirming again and that need be whetted upon us because we are exceeeding dull of hearing spirituall truths the Doctrine is this namely That the whole History of Christ wil profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find experimentally the same things done in you by the Spirit I desire to commend this Doctrine to you again and again That the History of the Gospell is but a Parable as it were that holds forth to us the story of things done and not only so but holds forth a glass of things to be done by the spirit within us I beseech you therefore be not offended when as we say that Christ according to the History of him only and according to his Ministration in the flesh is but a form in which God doth appear to us and in which God doth give us a Map of our salvation Thou knowest it not to be thy reall salvation except it be revealed within thee in the Spirit Jesus Christ is called the Image of the Invisible God God comes forth to be seen in the flesh of Christ as in an Image as in a Representation it is not the naked appearance of God but it is an Image of God Now we know the Image serves in the absence of the lively face of the living Person and so do all these same transactions of Jesus Christ they serve untill the Kingdome of God be come to us in the Spirit A Map serves untill a man knows the Country and so do these same Transactions of Iesus Christ they serve as constant Monuments unto us Monuments I say and Pillars and Memorials and Types of that same salvation that is to be
wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit and therefore as Christ saith we may be bold to say after him The flesh profits nothing if you only know Christ as dying and rising without you it wil profit you nothing unles you know him as dying rising within you Error in this is the root of the dead faith wherof the world is full This is the root of that formall profession of that form of godliness which men doe advance soe far in and glory so much of and shroud themselves under unto the persecuting of the power of godliness to the persecuting of the Spirit This setting up of the History of Christ being ignorant of the Mystery Any man is capable of remembring the story of Christ and telling and rehearsing it if he hath but common reason and can say as wel as another that Christ dyed for him and can throw himself upon Christ and hang upon Christ This is not Faith this is not Salvation We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile We know not how to shake off the pretenders and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternall life Through the ignorance of this truth we have counted it enough if a man hath had the knowledg of the Story of Christ and hath said he casts himselfe upon Christ for salvation But harken what James saith Faith without works is dead Harken what Paul saith Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death He doth not say that such a proposition of the Gospell did set him free He doth not say that the hearing that Christ dyed for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as there was the Law or Letter the outward Covenant is it that entailes life upon Jesus Christand his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed This is the Covenant that God made with Christ that he made with Abraham of old I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed Now then they that are of the seed of Christ are in this Covenant as al that were Abrahams seed were in that outward Covenant but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ and to be of the generation of Christ And do not thousands profess themselves so to be Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord and press to enter into Heaven We cannot put a difference between one or other except we know this truth for they say they are in the Covenant they say they are of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this They hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he dyed for their sins and rose for their Justification and this they beleeve and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veryest Hypocrite do so as wel as the truest Saint But here is that which puts a difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poore creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep This distinguishes them from the other So that if you lay your salvation upon an historicall Christ you wil be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him you must have the same eternall Spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice yea your selves and your own Righteousness This is true salvation Here is salvation manifested unto life But you wil say to me Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ Is it not a giving away from Christ And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us Solu To this I answer that it is no giving away from Christ at all for we make Christ to be all in all in this only we distinguish of Christ There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the witness the Covenant the common Person in whom our salvation is transacted as in a figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the reall salvation within us For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit but the Manifestation of God the coming forth of God and unto this must we attribute and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation this is the Savour of life unto life Of his own wil begat he us Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father This same Will of God brought forth is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit Christ Iesus is the outgoing of the Fathers Wil the Manifestation of the Fathers good Pleasure Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Beleever If you confine Christs dwelling to a locall Heaven you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be Christ dwels in thy heart if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit Christ is in thee for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Fathers Will and the Manifestation tion of the Fathers good pleasure this is Christ So that if we give to Sanctification we give to Christ For this is the Will of God even our Sanctification Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification But I desire a little further to examine that same before I let it pass it is said it is a giving to Sanctification and not to the blood of Christ I say no. For 1. I do not here take Sanctification as it is commonly taken as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit I know that our life lyes not in this or the other act or in any particular act Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit 2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit but to the Revelation of the Spirit There is the Revelation of the Spirit as wel as the Sanctification of the Spirit as the Apostle speaks Ephes 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation c. 3. There is the Spirit of grace as well as the grace of the Spirit and to this I give all and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus and so to him I give al and what do I give to the Spirit I give the Manifestation of salvation to life and that 's all 4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend
by the glory of God appearing in the soul that the soul is crucified and turned out of it self even as it was with Christ he knew if he dyed and went away in the flesh he should come again in the spirit and that he saith himself and discourseth of it in the Gospel according to St. John 12. 24. If the seed fall into the ground c. He that loveth this life shal lose it but he that hateth this life shal have life eternal Upon this accompt did Christ yield up himself cheerfully to death Therefore it is said that Jesus Christ by the eternal spirit offered up himself it was by the eternal spirit that reveals the glorious design of the Father in his death that Christ was brought to yield himself unto death Now the degrees by which this death of self is accomplished are these three First God doth make a discovery to the soul of the rotteness of old self and of the bitterness of that self that is tendered to us of Gods self this discovery is made to us and God doth together therewith reveal himself in us he reveals himself in us and shews himself to be our Righteousness and our Strength The soul sees it self possessed of God and sees God dwelling in him now the soul knows it cannot be found naked Now saith the soul I may part with my self when I will for I have a better self And secondly Hereupon the soul hath all its life in God and his heart is set upon God he sees God within him and now his eyes are turned to this Emanuell God dwelling in his flesh and now he admires not the things he did before he did admire other men and their enlargements and abilities he admired their affections and expressions in prayer he admired such and such acts of piety and charity which a man may do and seek himself all this while he admired the flesh but now he hath no confidence or delight in the flesh he looks wholly upon God and admires him and admires that ever God should dwel with man that God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain that he should take up such an heart that he should become the righteousness of such a creature 3. Hereupon follows passion action 1. The soul hereupon hath all its comforts from God and directs all his courses to God and he saith now Ashur shal not save us we will not ride upon Horses we have made mention of other names and other Lords but now by thee only we will make mention of thy name even thine so he hath sweet delight and acquiescence in God 2. The soul doth all to the glory of God if a man live in the flesh he will be acting in the flesh but if a man live in God and live in the spirit and live in that unseen righteousness and upon that invisible strength then all his application of himself is unto God and so he walks not after the flesh but after the spirit and all his waiting will be for this God if at any time he is insensible of his presence he waits upon God he saith not if it werethus withme I should behappy as Martha said if thou hadst â—â—n here my Brother had not dyed she considered not that Christ in the spirit had power now to recover from death as well as keep from death but the soule saith if God wil shine upon me I shal be comforted if he hide his face I am troubled it is not I will do this and I will do that but God wil do this and that and it is not if I had such means I should have power and get ground over my corruptions but if God arise his enemies shall be scattered And such a soul is dead to the Law and the Righteousness of the Law and dead to the workings of it and sees that the Law cannot give strength it is God that of his grace is strength to the poor soul and thus the soul hath entertained God as his guest and let the Sodomites come and compass about Lots House he minds them not the soul sees nothing in comparison but his soule pants as the Hart after the water brook and this is the condition of a soule that is not Now if you ask me the reason of this why a true Christian is one that is not I answer this is the reason of it because God is all and he will be known to be all he will have his people to know so and will have it held forth that he is all and therefore there must be a dying thus and a withering and decaying and a going out of a mans self I know no other reason but this why God did ordaine that same state of nature before the state of grace why he revealed Adam before Christ but only this that so God might make it knwon to us that he is all in all For howsoever God was all in all and would have been all in all and could not be otherwise for was there any thing before God or is there any thing whereof it may be said it is besides God But yet God had not been manifested to be all in all so as he is by causing the Creature to dye to its self as if God had created light and never created darkness light had been light but light is known by darkness So God would have been all howsoever but he is known to be all by this same forme of the creature dying in himself dying in those abilities which are Gods for we have nothing but what is Gods and what he gives us and is to us but God hereby holds forth himself to be all to us after lower and darker forms when removed and corrupted we see still another and higher blessedness in God and it is likewise for to give us our taste he that hath tasted the sower is fit to taste the sweet he that hath seen the fading of the flower is better prepared to see a living activity so we have known God in nature we are hereby prepared to admire Gods discovery in the Gospel Now before the Use of this point there is only one thing more I will mention and that is this That the death of a Beleever is into God as I may so say even as the seed that dyes as a seed but it dyes into a flower that is better then the seed so doth a Beleever do that is the tearm of his death So now I have explained all that I think of to you now the Use is this 1. It serves to discover and disgrace the Religion of most men that are not acquainted with this same dying to themselves you have many especially in these times that do come under this search and tryall and will be found too light and there are two sorts some who have advanced a Reformation from that same knowledg which is come abroad in these times they have set up a form of Religion in their Families and
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
mark it in the 5. of John The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that men might honor the Son as they honor the Father He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that hath sent him God is he that must inherit all honor and glory to eternity but he hath for the present set up Christ Jesus to make himself known unto the world It was not that Christ should make himself known or that we should lye down in the Discovery of Christ but that by Christ the Father might be known and discovered to us and his love and therefore it is said That this is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The meaning is not as if it were not enough to know the Father but that there is no knowing of the Father but by Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for that end So that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled his Ministration when he hath made known the Father and then is the Kingdom delivered up by the Son yea by all the Sons of God when once they come to know God by Christ they deliver up the Kingdom from Christ unto God even unto the Father This is the first thing that is hid under this same Parable Christ bears the name but God doth the thing Christ saith I came to do the work of him that sent me God saith unto Christ thou shalt make me known unto the world But the second thing that is hid under this Parable is the doing of the like works in the Saints as were done in Christ Jesus This is that which they onely see and receive that are delivered from the delusions of Antichrist Antichrist cryes up Christ in the flesh cries up that same man Christ Jesus that dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification but he knows not Christ in the Spirit he knows not Christ and him crucified in the Saints He knows not the power of his Resurrection in Beleevers He knows not the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead working in us in both these respects is Christs Ministration in the flesh a speaking in Parables First because the Gospell seems to run thus as that Christ hath done this and that for us whereas indeed it was God in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. before end And whereas the Gospell seems to deliver to us a History only of what Christ Jesus hath done for us in the flesh It doth indeed hold forth the Model and Platform of that salvation that is carryed on in the spirit and is revealed in the breasts of the Saints I say that is wrought and revealed there sutably and agreably to all those steps and stages to all those points and periods you shal find in the Letter The same things are done in the Saints in the Spirit that were done in and upon Christ in the flesh And now I have opened this point unto you if you require any reason for it why God did speak to us in a Parable and why he shews us things as in a glasse why he shews us rather the Image of things then the things themselves Reason it is because of our weaknesse it is because of our childishnesse It was the manner of the Heathen to put wisdom into Parables to put their wise Observations into fables into pleasant tales and stories for these two reasons First that they might hide wisdom from the Vulgar 2. That they might the better insinuate it into their Children and those that were ingenuous And these two Reasons may be given why God teaches the world by Parables It is for their weaknesse sake It is to take them and lead them by the hand to speak to them in childish things in things within their own sphere and understanding So God hath done to us in the flesh of Christ You will beleeve a man loves you if he wil dye for you you wil beleeve a Creditor wil be reconciled to you if he pay the debt himself Why behold thus doth God satisfie man 2. Rea. God doth this to hide these things from the prophane of the world I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and hast revealed them unto babes c. And therefore if you observe it Christ did commonly speak to the Multitude in Parables they had Parable upon Parable they had rind upon rind one shel upon another that they could not easily come to the kernell And the Reason is this that wicked and prophane men may scoff and jeer at the Letter and Parable but God doth keep the truth from that contempt and obloquie The outward Court is given to the Gentiles to be trodden down God makes it not much matter men may tread down outward forms and God may let them prophane them but there is a place where none come that defile and that is the Spirit the truth as it is in Jesus Gods Truth is Himself We know that precious things have covering upon covering they have lappings one upon anotherâ— Iewels have Caskets to put them in though the Casket fall into the dirt yet the Iewells will be kept clean So prophane and wicked men may preach and receive the Gospell in a Parable in the outward Letter But what hast thou to do to take my word in thy mouth the word in the Spirit for it is that hidden wisdome that is prepared for our glory as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2. Vse Now all the Use of this point I shal make to you is this to desire you to look into your selves whether you know any more then Parables whether you can doe any more then say over Parables Examine your selves by those two things spoken of before Do you discerne God under the forme of the man Christ Jesus Do you see God coming forth unto you in Christ And then do you find the Gospel to be realized in your hearts and spirits Do you find these transactions to be transacted over again in you The death of Christ in you The life of Christ in you The Resurrection of Christ in you Now a further thing I aime at is this and this specially The plain shewing of the Father by the Spirit Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I will speak no mâ—re to you in parables but will shew you plainly of the Father I shal only speak at this time of the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father The time cometh that I will shew you plainly of the Father So that the point is this Doctr. That the adequate Object or the whole and intire Object of the Discovery of Christ and the Gospel is the Discovery of the Father unto us This our Saviour plainly intimates here in saying The time comes that I wil shew you plainly of the
likewise must the end of every State of Christians in the flesh and in Forms and Ordinances be The Comforter could not come except Christ did go away An higher appearance of God cannot come but it removes a lower appearance of God as a grain of corn doth not rise up but by dying and rorting in its first body as the Apostle speaks But it shal suffice to have spoken thus much concerning the dying Christian But now what is this same living Christian Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Who is it that lives why the Lord lives and onely the Lord they shall swear The Lord liveth and As I live saith the Lord There is none lives but God so that whosoever lives it is by the Lord living in him The Apostle saith so much when he saith not I but Christ liveth in me This same living thâ—â— of the Lord in us doth relate unto the dying and buriall of the Lord in us The Lord he is buried or obscured in us and then he riseth as it is said I am he that was dead and am alive and behold I live forevenmore and as it is Ephes 4. He that ascended is the same also that first descended into the lower parts of the earth And this is the great Mystery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh and justified in the Spirit first manifest in the flesh The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us c. And so the Word comes and at length carries up flesh with it into spirit Indeed we are but the grave as it were of the Lord Jesus This whole Creation as it is known after the flesh and as it is injoyed by us and as we converse with it carnally and as it is carnally received by us it is but the Tombe as it were where the Lord is interred it is but the grave the sepulchre wherein the Lord is buried Why then what is the living of the Lord the Lords Resurrection the Lords sprouting forth out of this same grave this same sepulchre Answ It is this it is the Lords appearing and the Lords discovering himself and the Lords comming forth and putting off his Vaile and covering putting off his grave-cloaths as I may say this is the Lords living For the more profitable handling of this take these things 1. That the Lords death is the creatures life The burying or obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of man and the life of formes and the life of flesh 2. And in the second place the resurrection appearance of the Lord is the death of man and the death of forms and the death of flesh While the Lord Jesus hides himself while he breaks not forth in his glory the creature is something and Forms are something and they grow up and flourish as the grasse doth by the showrs But when the Lord Jesus comes forth in his Spirit and appears then the grasse withereth and the flower fadeth so we finde it in Esay 40. 6 7. The voyce said Cry And he said What shal I cry All Flesh iâ— grosse and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grosse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grosse What is the meaning of the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon it The meaning is this when the Lord comes forth in his Spirit and reveals himself in his glory then the glory of flesh passeth away as when the Sun appears in the firmament the stars take their leave we know that as flesh is enmitie unto spirit so spirit is enmitie unto flesh and therefore it is said that they lust the one against the other In the third place take this proposition That as the obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of the creature and the life of that flesh and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the extinguishing of the Creatures life So thirdly this is and hath been the design of God and his glory from the beginning to come forth out of this same grave and from under this same Vail under which he hath lain hid and been covered by severall steps and therefore every step of Christs appearance is comparatively with the former darkness a state of life and a gradual Resurrection When Christ did come forth from under the Jewish Ceremonies when the body was come then was Christ raised in some sense and then did Christ begin to live and flourish and those that saw this they lived in the Apostles sense here Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Here was a graduall Resurrection in this though not a compleat Resurrection There was a thicker Vail taken off of Christ and a thinner vail put on so that Christ then coming forth under a thinner Vail is called by the name of the highest and last appearance of all It is called a Living not but that Christ did still lie under a vail as the Apostle saith Through the vail that is his flesh And the New Testament Ordinances though they are finer vails yet they are vails to the Lord yea I may say that the very graces of the Saints as we look upon them in a kind of fleshly form as we look upon them in their particular names and circumstances so they are a vail to the Lord Jesus yea Christ is said to rise when he comes into the world I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly that is more abundantly then they had under the Jewish Ordinances because that was a grosser vail In this sense you may understand That I am the way the truth and the life c. If you understand it in the flesh it is in comparison of the former a lively appearance of God Not that this is the highest appearance of God for to you that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation So that I say Christ is coming out of the grave and every step is a step to life a step of the Resurrection a degree of life Now then from these things if you ask me who is this same living Christian I shall answer you first in a Subordinate sense secondly in an Ultimate sense In a Subordinate sense he is a living Christian in whom the Lord Jesus hath passed through many forms and vails He that is not in bondage to those same gross and thick and dark appearances of God But now in the Ultimate sense the Truth is that while we are on this side that same highest and brightest appearance of God till he comes to be all in all in us we cannot be said to be living Christians though in respect of former and darker appearances the present appearance of God to us may set us up in a higher degree of life yet in comparison of that which is to come the very best and highest of this state is but a death while God administers to us under any form under
till we come to him What went yee out for to see A reed shaken with the winde This is all that we see in Ordinances and our owne performances till we see Christ and Christ in the flesh r Joh. 14. 2. beares witnesse to himselfe in the Spirit What goe yee out for to see Christ crucified at Jerusalem ſ Psal 68. 12. She that tarried at home divided the spoile It is power over that that is evill and unto that that is good that is in the desires of us all and without which religion is but a Bawble and as the Apostle Paul sayes t 1 Cor. 15. 32. what advantageth it me to have fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not So may I assume If the principles of the Gospel are not to rise in our hearts they are not worth the contending for Who would goe against the streame and expose himselfe to lose his friends and all to vindicate or to get a Notion onely Men and their Opinions shall perish but the word of the Lord endures for ever and he that doth the will of God abides for ever Behold I shew you a mystery the death of Christ is but one and the resurrection of Christ is but one the death of Christ is in us and the resurrection of Christ is within us It is without us and Objectively propoūded to us that it may awaken and work within us That blood of Iesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sinne is shedding in us day by day For so as that place given in to me u 1 Joh. 1. If we walke in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of his Sonne Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin i. What is not this light we die to it we judge it and so are cleansed from it And who is he that thus dyes to evill and darknesse Surely none but he in whom the Son of God is come And he in whom the Sonne of God is come his death is the death of the Son and so pretious as it is written vv Psalm 116. 15. Preticious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints This is that Sacrifice of God even a x Psa 51. 17. broken heart which is by no other than the appearance of the sonne of God in us For if it be not upon this Altar and by this y Heb. 9. 14. eternall Spirit it is but as the z Isa 66. 3 cutting off a dog's neck We are ignorant of one of the main points of the Gospel while we know not that Christ is in us as wel as we in him We were in him in his flesh upō the Crosse he is in us in the Spirit and so is the Scripture verified a Joh. 15. I am in you and you in me This mighty One was shut up in us long before we knew him and b Gal. 3 23. we are shut up in weaknesse and bondage unto the revelation of him and when we know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made comformable to his death then are we c Eph 1. 13. sealed by the holy Spirit of promise then doe we beare in our bodies the Markes and the dying of the Lord Jesus and his life is manifest in our mortall flesh This sealing of the Spirit hath been the longing expectation of Christians of old though we have had a wrong conception of it as the Disciples had of Christ's Kingdom thinking the sealing of the Spirit to consist onely in a ravishment of heart and extasie of joy but rising we know not whence nor how When as this joy in the holy Ghost full of glory and this riches of assurance is no other than the pleasant d Heb. 12. 11. fruits of righteousnesse springing from the death of the Lord Jesus and the perfect work thereof in us or from our suffering in the flesh For e 1 Pet. 4. 1. he that hath suffered in the flesh a text that I open in this book hath ceased from sin saith the Apostle Peter And f Rom. 6. 5. if we hvae been planted in the likenesse of his death saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans wee shall be in the likenesse of his resurrection And g Heb. 9. 28. Christ was once offered to beare the sins of many sayes the Authour to the Hebrewes and to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second time without sin unto salvation To conclude this poynt what God hath joyned we have severed and pul'd asunder the links of that glorious Chain Rom. 8. 29. 30. God multiplies not acts vainly and superfluously In every act of God as it is in him is all but not as it comes forth from him and is apprehended by us All is done in Christ to God and it appeares in Christ first to faith but not fully to enjoyment though in order to it till Christ be revealed in us All was done to God from the foundations of the world And in all those acts the Scriptures attribute to God the higher we goe into the greater infinitenesse and comprehensivenesse doe we ravell Election contains h 1 Pet. 1. 2. sanctification of the Spirit faith in it but in the manifestation and bringing down of things to us the latter act still gathers up and comprehends the former yea swallowes it up as the Rationall life containes the Sensitive in it selfe eminently so the Spirit comprehends the Letter and the Mystery comprehends the History Those that know Christ in them onely immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so full and glorious a proportion in him to their ende It is and must be confest that God is and subsists otherwise in Himselfe or in the blessed Trinity than in men But this hinders not the immediatenesse of his presence and dwelling in men But this shall suffice to be spoken to the first point to cōvince that many desire the end in terms but in deed deny it and to hold forth some light that they may doe otherwise As God hath not left himselfe without witnesse to his glorious Truths in all Ages so neither in the present Age as in the assertions before instanced may appeare though by quarrelling Truths that stand upon the same foundation the Assertors themselves make it manifest that either they know not what they hold in the premises as it may fall out with Disciples for Christs Disciples l John 14. 4 5. knew whether he went and knew the way as the Lord himselfe tells them though they knew not that they knew so much or else they let it slip again which is that the Apostle warns the Hebrewes of Chap. 2. 1. saying Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time wee should let them slip Both which proceed from the receiving these
and person For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the truth So then you may observe these things out of the words 1. That Sanctification is a large notion in Scripture it s a large notion for the meaning of our Saviour speaking of his sanctifying himself and of his members being sanctified is not to defix the thoughts and apprehensions of the hearers unto that same grace that we commonly call Sanctification in distinction from Iustification but Sanctification is that in this place that comprehends the whole Mystery of God in a Saint which is called here by the name of Sanctification even as it is said By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified It were far from pure Divinity to understand them that are sanctified there to be meant of inherent Sanctification only or properly that is of the Grace of the Spirit working in us holiness but he hath perfected them that are sanctified that is them that are separated by the Fathers Love them that are called in time them that are led by the Spirit and so it may comprehend the whole Election and Vocation and Iustification and Sanctification and all and so we are said to be chosen through Sanctification of the Spirit But I shall not open these places any further 2. Next observe here are two Sanctifications here is a typicall Sanctification as I may so say and here is a real Sanctification Here is the Sanctification of Christ and here is the Sanctification of his members For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified I should be too long if I should observe all the particulars that the words wil afford and insist upon them therefore I shall pick out these two things only and the first I shal speak of but briefly and the second is that I do chiefly intend The First is this Doctr. That Jesus Christ's Sanctification or those Transactions of Christ in the flesh have not their ends in themselves but they have their end and fulfilling in us For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth That which is for anothers sake mark it or for the sake of another thing to be don that is not to be rested in it self but Jesus Christs Sanctification his dying and his rising it was for another things sake and therefore it is not to be rested in nor to be gloried in in it self For their sakes I sanctifie my self Jesus Christ is unto his seed as the First Adam was unto his seed He is a common Root and our salvation is transacted in him as in a Figure As our destruction was wrought in Adam as in a Figure As destruction and death did seize upon us all in a Figure in Adam so doth life and salvation await us all all the elect in Christ Jesus It doth descend upon them all as in a Figure for so the Apostle doth parralell the First Adam and the Second Adam together Rom. 5. where you may read it at large Now that I say these things were done in a Figure I wil give you my meaning of it thus and the proof of it also Adam lost all his by a Covenant and so Christ restores all his by a Covenant but we know that a Covenant although it doth give me a title in Law unto such or such an estate or commodity yet this same Covenant is not the very possession it self So this same Covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Coppy as it were and is the common person with whom it is made This Covenant gives our Faith the First Hold and First Title but it is not the very possession it self In possession the salvation it self is wrought or rather revealed in us As we do not inherit sin and death from the first Adam meerly by Covenant in which we were involved but we participate of the nature of Adam and we so come to have an evil conscience we have the very same Nature that Adam had and the same trembling conscience that Adam had so in this case we have the very Death and Life of the Lord Jesus working in us So that you see the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are not to be gloried in in themselves or as they rest in the man Christ Jesus but we are to wait for the like things to be translated in us and upon us and that is the next thing I come unto Doct. 2 For their sakes I sanctify my self that they might be sanctifyed through the Truth This is that the Apostle saith Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes c Where he shews what the Truth is in Iesus even the putting off the old man and the putting on the new man which is created c. This is the Truth this is the work in the Spirit done in every Beleever conforme to that work wrought in Christ in the flesh This is our sanctifying through the Truth and so you have the Apostle holding forth the Saints suffering from Christs example as the Ministration or Token of their salvation 1 Pet. 2. 21. Even hereunto were ye called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. Mark ye Iesus Christ is our example Christ in the flesh and what was done in him in a visible way in the flesh that is wrought in us in an invisible way in the spirit and t is said 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arme our selves with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Mark it here The Apostle doth not say we have ceased from sin by Christs suffering in the flesh for us but be doth admonish us here of a personal suffering if we would cease from sin What this same suffering in the flesh is I shall tell you in a few words It is to have our life in the flesh extinguisht that as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me It is to know nothing by our selves This is to suffer in the flesh as the Apostle says I know nothing by myself He did not act at all to be dead unto the Law and to be dead in our first relation unto God this is the suffering in the flesh We are first in the relation of Mercenaries by the Covenant of Works and have a kind of stock of our own to trade withall Now to suffer in the flesh is to cast awaythi same confidence of our own to to despair of our abillities and to see our selvs able to do nothing For while we are in the flesh the motions of sin which are by the law do work in our
unto you That we are not justified we are not sanctified by Christs dving by Christs suffering in the flesh only that is not the compleat Ministration of our salvation There indeed we see our salvation as in a glass and it is transacted as in a figure as in the history but then are we actually sanctified when as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our hearts revealing unto us the Love of the Father and revealing unto us our Reconciliation that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross but which is dispensed unto us by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was For the Apostle Rom. 8. doth in two places speak so expresly to this purpose that no man can wave it or put it by verse 10. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness Here is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ If Christ be in you and there is no salvation without it then the body is dead the body of your own Righteousness and your own Strength and wisdom is crucified in conformity to the death of Christ Christs death was but the figure of the death that must pass upon the flesh of every Beleever and therefore though we may say I am crucified with Christ c. We cannot take any comfort till the body be dead in us And the other place is the 4. verse of Rom. 8. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us c. Pray mark it You dream of a Righteousness of the Law fulfilled for you that is true too Christ fulfilled it for you perfectly but there is a fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in you And the Apostle shews what that is when you are crucified to the fleshly principle and walk in the spiritual principle though you walk not in perfect obedience yet spiritually it is done in you The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit So then look after this that you be sanctified through the Truth that is that you in very deed be sanctified according to the pattern of Sanctification in Christ Jesus Let me minde you again of that Scripture Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus that ye put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man c. Look that this be done Object But you will say unto me is not this to bring us again into Bondage To charge this upon us when as we are bid look that it should be so and so with us Solution I answer it is your great interest that these things should be done in you but it is not expected that they should be done by you According to the working saith the Apostle of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and set him c. It is Gods mighty power that works in you it is God that crucifies you it is God that quickens you Christ offered up himself by the eternall Spirit it was not by the resolution of his flesh that he gave himself to dye as many a Valiant Roman hath done for his Country but it was through the eternal Spirit and therefore that which you are to do is to wait upon God And herein comes the use of the doing of these things in the man Christ Jesus before your eyes It is to strengthen your faith and expectation of having these things done in you by the same power and spirit And therefore if you ask me what use you should make of Christs Death and Resurrection and these things I say look upon them as the earnest of your salvation look upon them as the very sealing of the Covenant between God and you God reads over as it were all the Covenant before us and seals it in our presence and this is the scope of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ It is but to manifest the life to us to shew what God will do upon your flesh So what God did to Christ Jesus and so how he carryed him to glory so how he was tempted and be not you discouraged though it be so with you See how the Disciples were dismayed when Christ wrapt up himself for a Moment in the grave as in a cloud of darkness They said we thought this bad bin he that should have redeemed Israel See what an end the Lord made with him the same end will the Lord make with you also THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS JOHN 17. Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy word is Truth Verse 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth THis same Portion of Scripture that is read to you is an Enforcement or part of an Enforcement of one of those savory Petitions which Jesus Christ put up at his departure out of this world for his Disciples and in them for all his elect The Petition is this Sanctifie them through thy Truth This Petition he doth in part explain and he doth enforce and urge it with Arguments 1. He explains it in part that part thy Truth he explains it thus thy word is Truth Now before I go any further By the word here we are not to understand this same Letter for we know this same Letter of the word is taken up by every one to defend his opinion and therefore this is not the meaning of thy word is Truth But the meaning is this That that word that was with God and that was God that word is Truth I conceive this same truth being a relative notion is here to be taken in opposition to form Thy word is Truth The meaning is this That thy word it is not only a form and an appearance in which thou dost make out thy self unto the world but thy word indeed is the very Truth that is it is thy self and so Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified not by planting the knowledg of the literal word in their minds but by ingraffing the nature of the Divine word in their hearts that is by ingraffing God himself by God himself becoming one with them This is the only means of Sanctification This is the true Sanctification by the word The ingraffed word which is able to save our souls Now having explained his request he enforces it and the first Enforcement of it is this from the title and the reason that may be pleaded why they should be sanctified why the Members of Christ should be sanctified Why saith he There is as much reason why they should be sanctified as there is why I should be sanctifyed For as thou-hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Mark it I pray and you will see that it is not such a wringing of the nose
them all in the Unity of the Spirit and of the appearance and breaking forth of God But so much shall serve for that Use and that Point Now I come to the next Point and that 's the difference between men in their forms or rather the amount of their difference what it amounts to We have it in these words Whether we live or whether we dye Who is he that dyes It is he that is in bondage to outward observances that depends upon fleshly forms Who is he that lives Why it is he that is free You know ye often meet with these distinctions in Scripture Circumcision and uncircumcision Jew and Gentile bond and free quick and dead Liberty is the next thing to life What good doth a mans life do him if he be not a free man I mean spirituall Liberty or Liberty in the Spirit and Bondage it is next to death But upon other Considerations is it here called living and dying But it may be said is not the Text abused to interpret it thus allegorically or to make a Metaphor of it should it not be taken literally Whether we live that is in the body we live to the Lord or whether we dye that is go out of this body we dye to the Lord I answer besides that such an interpretation is to make the Apostle here speak impertinently as being quite from the business he hath in hand You shall find also it is cross to the Letter of the Scripture for that is not death that men call death and that is not life that men call life For God is the God of the living and not of the dead in that sense Abraham is alive though dead The Scripture calls not them dead nor God the God of the dead in that sense but the living and all things live to God Again he saith not they dye in the Lord though that be to be taken spiritually but they dye to the Lord. And if you ask why should they be called dying Christians dying Saints The Apostle will tell you when he saith To be carnally minded is death Rom. 8. 6. That which is translated carnally minded signifies to savour carnally to savour God and our life carnally this is death but he that is in bondage to forms savours God and life carnally ergo it is death and he is a dying man That he savours carnally appears from hence That he doth relish better and savour more the weakness of God in an Ordinance then the strength and excellency and glory of God in the Spirit and in his own proper appearance He is more taken his heart goes out more after a sight of God in flesh then to see him in Spirit is not this to savour life carnally For to think that a mans life is bound up in any form or in flesh is it not a carnall savour And yet do not many Christians do so Do not they think that God and an Ordinance do nourish and feed and administer strength to you but not God without an Ordinance The Apostle saith We have this treasure in earthen vessels Now if a man counts not this to be treasure except it be in an earthen vessell is not this carnall It is true while we do receive God in any form it is mercy but to say God cannot be meat or nourishment without a form this is to savour our life carnally How many Christians are troubled and assaulted with doubts concerning their good estate that have a load lying upon them and Clouds of darkness before them that hanker after an Ordinance to come dispell these Clouds O if I could receive such an Ordinance a Sacrament in such a manner This would solve all objections and give them full assurance when as they have God they have his Promises The word is nigh thee saith the Apostle in this Epistle Chap. 10. even in thy heart But behold except this God will come to them in flesh they can make no use of him they cannot see how God should do it in Spirit without a form this is to savour life carnally therefore they linger in their desertions and temptations and are not help't out of them because they stay for God to come to them in such a way and see no salvation for them in himself for then they would depend upon him Agreeable to this Scripture is another viz. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh we shall dye Now there are many sorts of flesh saith the Apostle There is one kind of flesh of men another of beasts another of birds another of fishes There is flesh of fishes that will carry a man swimmingly like the Spirit and there is flesh of birds that wil soar aloft like the Spirit there is high-raised flesh but if we live after the motion or principle of any thing below God we live after the flesh Even if we live after the motion of Graces themselves not resolving our graces into God If the sparkling and turning of our graces themselves be the wine that doth chear and refresh us yea the flesh of Christ if we stick in that vail and stand not in the naked Spirit of Christ before God passing through Christs flesh both in him and in our selves as he hath past through it we are not yet past out of the flesh I say not that they that have the use of forms are dying Christians but they that depend upon them they that cannot have life from God unless he present himself to them in the flesh Reas 2 The second Reason They that fall short of God are in a dying condition but those whose life is bound up in any form they fall short of God He that attains not God loses the Race He that attains not the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus loses the Race and he dyes He that is in bondage to outward observanâ—es and depends upon them fals short of God that is of the glory of God He hath God under a vail in his form but not God in his glory He sees God vailed not his open face not as he is He hears of God in a Parable he sees him not plainly even the flesh of Christ is a vail and till we are past through that through the Mediatorship and through the fleshly state in our selves we appear not in the open presence of God Reas 2 The end of forms is death The end of Christs fleshly state and appearance was death either we must lye and dye in form I mean not eternally or we must dye to form There 's no coming to a higher state but by dying to the former state Christ was Crucified in flesh before Justified in Spirit He that endures to the end shall be saved He that passes through all things forgets and dyes to imperfect discoveries to fleshly appearances let them be never such spirituall flesh he only is in the way of this salvation here meant The fleshly form as it is in Saints hath in it the
seed and principle of the spirituall appearance and genders it by dying God that commanded light to shine out of darkness God brings forth glory to his people by affliction tribulation and dying Their comforts go away in the flesh ere they come in the Spirit While the flesh lasts upon them the Spirit is not broken forth While the form or fleshly appearance is any thing to us and we promise our selves any thing from it God is not all in all while God is not all in all our comforts are not brought forth in the Spirit and so are not made perfect In all fleshly appearances there is Enmity to God therefore God is Enmity to them and is the death of them This Enmity is discovered in the disputes that we have about faith Whether it justify as a Condition or as an Instrument only and about the Spirit whether the Spirit be in us by presence or by influence only which are mists that arise out of the bottomless pit and argue God is not all in all there and so that soul is not perfected The Scripture in 1 Zeph. 2. c. paralels the dispensation Christians are under I wil utterly consume all things from off the Land saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast I will consume the fowls of the Heaven and the fishes of the Sea and the stumbling blocks with the wicked and I will cut off man c. and v. 4. I will stretch my hand upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem c. upon Professors And I will cut off ver 5. them that worship and swear by the Lord and Malcham This is the condition of our times light is broken in upon us and we see that Ordinances are nothing without the Lord every one will confess that that the Letter is a dead Letter without the Spirit and the Ordinances are meer forms without Gods Appearance in them and therefore our design is to couple the Lord and Ordinances together and we cannot endure to hear of the parting of them Swear by the Lord and by Malcham even as you see men now adays do so we may have but Ordinances we are well This is that which I was speaking of before that we do promise our selves something from the fleshly form and appearance and so like the Israelites we are hankering after the flesh-pots of Aegypt though they had as good meat in the Wilderness yet the flesh-pots ran in their minds So though God offer himself and though Christians tell you for what they tell you God tells you they tell you they cannot find God in such and such forms but find him abundantly good in the Spirit and they find that he recompences the want of all forms in the Spirit though he be gone out of the Temple yet they find him in their hearts they press you to wait till God appear to you in the Spirit Oh say you I can never beleeve it that God should do it without an Ordinance or that God should strengthen you without an Ordinance God think you with an Ordinance can strengthen me and deliver me and save me out of a temptation not otherwise this is to say that the Ordinance or fleshly form doth add something to God If you will confess God to be all in an Ordinance you must confess him to be all without an Ordinance to be sufficient of himself I desire not to be mistaken I do not judg those that find God in Ordinances and outward forms Let them wait upon God and let them receive and partake of the benefit of the Ordinance and let them bless God for it and be faithfull to their own principles and let them be sweet to others but when we do find God in a form and in an Ordinance to say he is not to be found and enjoyed any other way this is not a right Spirit Nay when we find not God in an Ordinance yet we will keep to it as if God were not to be enjoyed any other way This is the greatest unreasonableness that can be to put no worse a name upon it Now I have done with the Reason of the point I should shew now who are the living Christians and how they are in a more living condition that are free from the bondage of outward observances that do not depend upon any fleshly appearance or administration but see a fulness and sufficiency of God in the Spirit and enjoy the same for else for men to have a notion and principle of it and not to enjoy God in the Spirit they may come from a sad outward Religion and forms to no Religion nay to Atheism and God will judg the free as well as the bond They may be free from Ordinances and yet may be as fleshly to God as if they were under the Jewish observances But the Use that I would make of what hath bin delivered is first a Use of Admonition unto those that are still in forms and secondly a word of Instruction to us all 1. It is for Admonition to those that are in forms We say not that the Lord is not within you nor that which you do you do not to the Lord but the holy Ghost saith of you you are dying Christians While thou canst only see God in a fleshy Image and Representation thou art in a dying condition For it is a sign thou seest not God in his glorious and Spirituall Appearance for if thou didst thou wouldst say as they in the Mount at Christs transfiâ—uration Oh it is good for us to be here Let us look no more for God in forms and fleshly administrations at least you would desire to have your portion in fleshly Representations not but that that man who hath God broken forth in him in spirit and power may suffer others in those forms and not lose his own enjoyments You are Christs and you are Christians but you are in a fleshly and dying estate and you may be put shrewdly to it that do depend upon a form and fleshly administration When it cannot be had what wilt thou do Thy case is much as a mans that is kept up by Cordials and by means that the Physitian uses to him and not to be compared with him that is in a way of recovery that is past the danger of his disease in whom nature is growing strong and is overcoming the malignity of the disease by little and little When the other wants the Physitian it is as much as his life is worth and the Cordiall if it be long a fetching the man begins to faint he hath not his strength within him but without in Cordials So is the cases between him that lives upon Ordinances and him that lives upon Christ in the Spirit Christ is never in a journey or to fetch a great way off therefore I say you are in a dying condition that depend upon forms 2. Use is of Instruction to give us light in what the Lord is now doing and in the consequence thereof
You have heard that forms cannot dispense to us the spirituall Discoveries of God but by their going away in themselves then God hath sent out the Spirit of Elijah among us and God is contending with flesh and God is come into his Temple to sit there as a Refiners fire and he is bringing down all our forms But how He is destroying them in the flesh that he may give us them again in the Spirit This is that account upon which we may converse together and speak together informs as yet not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit not accounting the form any thing Ministers not reckoning themselves to be anointed above their fellows and so making themselves Lords over Gods Heritage No it was only Christ Jesus was anointed above his fellows in that Administration wherein he was to be of publique use to the body but the anointing runs down from the head to the skirts of his garment c. The anointing is upon you all Christians it is the divine appearance within us anoints us above the world The Lord hath a quarrell with all flesh and we shall hear God speaking in one another more purely and he will turn to us a pure language when he hath made us a poor people Poverty and Pureness shall go together And then we will go no more forth to Malcham and when God hath silenced and stopt the mouth of all flesh and he alone is exalted then he will give you Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning and we shall all know the Lord and be able to speak to one another as at the beginning Think not your Religion will not be if the flesh of it be destroyed we shall know it more in the Spirit and see the anointing discovering it self upon the Body of Christ THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN ROM 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. SUch is the Nature of Man such our darkness and blindness such our unacquaintedness with spirituall things that we are even shie and startle at that that is our great interest The Disciples when Jesus Christ came walking unto them on the Sea after he had bin a while absent from them took him for a Spirit and cryed out for fear Jesus Christ the Lord that Spirit that quickning Spirit He hath bin absent from us a while namely during the Apostacy during the raign of Antichrist and he is now visiting us and is comming to us in his own appearance When Christ who is our life shall appear When he shall break forth from under the Vail Now we know him not and are exceedingly afraid yea we cry out for fear we cry out of destroying Religion pulling down Ordinances This is the very case in the Text here There were some in the Apostles days that were still in the flesh I mean that were in that gross flesh that were under that same thick Vail of the Jewish Paedagogy and they were offended at others from whom God had taken that Vail and that did not walk in those Observances they did judg them very like they judged them to be irreligious men What not observe a day that God himself hath instituted Not observe distinction of meats that God himself hath founded What audaciousness is this to throw down the Ordinances of God On the other hand those that did see ground perhaps in the Letter for what they did for the casting off the yoke of these outward Observances yet not walking spiritually in this liberty despised them that were still under these When any thing of a form is received by our nature by our flesh there is a miscarriage in it If God appear in our forms we judg those that are above them If God lead us above them we are ready to despise those that are under them remaining all this while in deed and in truth under a form our selves though we appeare in this distinction from others for uncircumcision is a form as well as Circumcision and it shews it self so to be by this uncircumcised despising of others for forms sake in whom there may be as much or more power then in our selves In this Chapter the Apostle states the Controversie and gives us a Rule to administer towards the one and the other Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judg him that eateth for the Lord hath received him Peradventure the one of them is in a better state then the other yet they are both of them in the Lord they are the Lords The one is a Living Christian the other a Dying Christian yet they are both the Lords For saith he Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. And so we come to the words whence we have observed That God is not only in different forms but in opposite forms such as are regarding a day and not regarding it We have observed likewise what the difference of Christians doth amount unto those that are in bondage to Forms and those that are set free from those forms the one is a living and the other a dying man For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. I spake of the dying Christian the last day and shewed you in what respect he is a dying Christian that is under Ordinances or that depends upon them for every conversing in Ordinances is not a depending upon Ordinances First It is a dying condition for he savours life Carnally they savour their life according to the weakness of the flesh and not according to the power of the spirit according to the carnality of the forme and not according to the spirituality of God Therefore 't is that men do put the Ordinances with God as those that swore by the Lord and Malcham they left not out the Lord but would joyn Malcham with him too they savour life carnally and secondly they fall short of God they fal short of the glory of God ergo they are dying Christians They see God in his weakness but they see him not in his strength and thirdly they must passe through death for every form is raised up that it may dye and not that it should live for ever it is raised up for a Ministration to Minister to some other thing and therefore must have its period Every form is but a way yea the body of Christ is but a way Through the new and living way that is his flesh And I might have added another Reason and that is this That Jesus Christ the end of his appearance in the flesh was death He was manifested in the flesh and brought down the love of God and the glory of God in his flesh he spake the things of God to us in fleshly signs and parables and the end of that State was death and so
leading them into Canaan Did not they fall back in the wilderness Was it not so in Abraham when Isaac was born and growing up to his Fathers hope Then Isaac must be sacrificed So I conceive it is here the Spirit began to be sprinkled in the primitive times in gifts and since that what an Apostacy hath there bin So that the Spirit is yet to be poured out and now after the Apostacy is to be the harvest And so I am perswaded many Christians enter into Ordinances in the Spirit and fall back into the flesh there remains therefore a Restitution a latter day a latter rain as Job speaks at the latter day I shall see God in my flesh and is not the Lord putting up his head in our Horizon Therefore think not the promises of life and salvation have given down all they have travailed with FINIS A Postscript LEast my meaning in any thing be lockt up from the Readers understanding I thought good to add the key of this distinction 1 There is a two-fold Administration of the Kingdom of God viz. outward and inward the outward in signs the inward in truth 2. As the outward and the inward Administration are contradistinguished the one to the other so they are distinguished and differ gradually in themselves i. e. The outward Aministration or Letter of the Gospel excells that of the Law So likewise in the inward Administration or Revelation in us The first Appearance of Christ in us is swallowed up of his second Appearance in us The Kingdom of the Father excels the Kingdom of the Son and the state of the Resurrection of Christ in us the state or likeness of his death And therefore when it is said that Christ in Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts reveals the Father plainly whom we saw but as in a Parable in his flesh or without us I desire ye should understand also that the first Appearance of Christ within us doth not give a full and perfect testimony and witness of the Father for then the Apostle would not have said of such that they see darkly and there would be no expectation of a second Appearance and upon this account it is that in that discourse on John 16. 25. I speak of Righteousness and Sanctification and Faith and Love being forms or glasses which must all be resolved into God at length that he may be all in all And the same thing I desire may be carryed in mind for the understanding of those discourses on John 17. 19. That as the inward Appearance and Working of Christ is the truth of the Outward and the outward is but a Form serving thereto so the second appearance of Christ in us is the truth of the first appearance and the first appearance is but the way unto the latter And when as in those discourses on Rom. 14. they are held forth as dying Christians that stick in Forms and things outward in the flesh of Christ I desire Saints may be aware that there is the flesh of Christ within them or a fleshly manifestation or appearance of Christ in flesh in them which is that that they are not to satisfie themselves withall but are to waite till they be brought forth with Christ in the glory of the Father till faith and Righteousness and al those Forms Vails be broken up into one single view of the Father or God al in all till childish things thoughts and language be put away and we see God face to face as he is till God himself be a place of broad Rivers and Streams in his own Name and not under another name till he make all things new and bring forth all our injoyments of him in a new light and a new glory So much as we are short of this so much are we under death though we may be past from outward forms and have the life dwelling in us And they that shall deny this to be possible in this life must deny the new Jerusalem to come down from God out of heaven and the expresse letter of Revelations Chapter 22 verses 3 4 5. where it is written And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shal be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads And there shall be no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall raign for ever and ever And they that say this body of ours hinders err not knowing the power of God and what that flesh is that cannot inherit which is not this body which is in its self neither good nor evil but the subject of two Inhabitants two Men and so is good or evil as it is ruled by the one or by the other the old or the new man Self or Christ the old man may be and is destroying in Saints dayly while the body remains These things are hinted in the precedent discourses more generally and obscurely I add this only for explanation FINIS