till it put us into the hands of a better and surer guide which is the Son himself who by the voice of his Servant or messenger that he sends before him gives notice of his comming But when he comes himself he teaches the way of God more perfectly the way of knowing and loving God of fearing him and keeping his commandements which is the whole duty of man According to this gradual discovery and revelation of the mind and will of God in his law there are several degrees of growth and age that man is or may be acquainted with in the conformity and obedience that he is to yeild to Gods holy law and commandement 1. First that of childhood signifying the state of mans mutability and unstable righteousnes wherein he is wavering liable to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine apt to be deceaved 2. The state of youth or years of discerning and settled judgment in those that by faith are strong and have overcom the wicked one in whom the Word of God is abiding and hath taken fast hold and root importing the life of the first resurrection in them at least in the principles thereof over whom the second death is never to have power 3. The state of fatherhood and most ripe years in those that have known him that is from the beginning and are one with him one with the father as Christ and the father are one the church that are in God the father the Bride the Lambs wife by whom is made known the manifold wisdom of God and unsearchable riches of Christ unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places the very holy and Elect Angels This importeth the life of the second resurrection in them and the highest ascent into union and communion with God To all these several kinds of growth ages or statures of humane perfection the word and law of God is a Rule suiting itself and commanding the same Duties to be performed as to the knowledg and love which we are to have and bear towards God and towards our neighbour accordingly as the heart is principled and qualified for the performance thereof with a first second or third measure and degree of light and power from God enabling thereunto For that which God requires of man in the obedience he is to yeild unto him is according to what he first gives and causes him to have and not according to what he hath not The commandement therefore of God or the law of his mouth which conteins in it and requires from man his whole duty both towards his God and towards his neighbour is as to the matter of it the same for the rule of mans walking in communion with God either in the first or second Covenant being that which in Scripture is called the law as wel as that which is called the Gospel 1. It is called the law as it is the divine oracle and righteous command of the supreme lawgiver strictly enjoyning exact and compleat obedience and severely punishing the least tittle of disobedience being dispensed in such manner as leaves it to mans liberty and fredom of wil to hear and obey or to refuse and disobey at his owne peril upon the penalties and curse declared in it 2. T is called the Gospel or good tydings as it is the free and gracious condescention or good wil of God appearing towards man which God the Mediatour exercises upon the foresight of what man would doe as left to his owne freewil in and under the law For this in pursuance of his fathers decree does he cleave unto and lay hold of mans nature or the seed of David according to the flesh resolving to bring upon the natural frame of mans Spirit as left to his owne arbitrary choice and freewil a most beneficial and necessary change through which man is prevailed with to give up and resigne back againe that first liberty of his into the hands of his faithful creatour who first gave it and to trust him for the restoring it in such manner and measure back againe as may be best for him and may most certainly and infallibly attein the end for which it was first given which was to fulfil the righteousnes of Gods law Accordingly does he receave it in a new a more excellent and certain manner of hold and exercise wherein it is made impossible for him to transgresse the law of God by sinning and most possible and free for him to run the race of Gods commandements Through this new enlargment and fredom of heart given him by the influencing power of that love which is stronger then death man is so bound up in the wil of God so absolutly subjected to what the law requires as makes him sure to inherit eternal life The living and primitive patern of this obedience is wrought out in mans owne nature in the person of the Mediatour and set before his eyes with an attractive and transforming power to draw man after him and transform him into the same image from glory to glory from the glory of his first creation in conformity to the law in Christs first appearance to the glory of the new creation in conformity to the Gospel in his second And thus Christ enables his beleeving followers to fulfil the law after him who came not to destroy but fulfil it in the Gospel And as some are thus changed by the attractive influence of Christs constreining love others with whom also his Spirit for a season strives by the same Gospel manifestation of him are upon their wilful refusal hardned and fixed in their disobedience To such he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to those who after this gracious offer made knowne unto them doe obstinately despise and reject it preferring their first and natural fredom of the Sons of men to this more excellent fredom and glorious liberty of the Sons of God In order to make triall of them herein since the fal Christ hath obteined of the father on their behalf the restoration of that lesser glory and inferiour liberty of nature that ought to be resigned for the greater that excels and is to remain by the price and ransome of his owne blood from whence flowes a conditional remission of al sinners as to sins past and a free and general restoration of them to the priviledg and benefit of their first natural fredom and primitive righteousnes in kind and in such degrees and measure as is requisit and sufficient for the making of such a trial and rendring them without all excuse nothing having bin wanting in him to bring them to repentance and to receave the truth in the love of it He hath given that former sort of gifts to the rebellious also that prove enemies and haters of him in the more excellent gifts and priviledges that he offers them also in a superiour dispensation which cannot be receaved by them without an obedient surrender and losse
perfect or he is the rock that is Gods perfect work the wisedome which God possessed in the beginning of his way in which he was pleased to condescend and set forward toward the creation of the world Prov 8. and 9. chapters which compared with John 1.1 2 doe evidently shew him to be the WORD that was by God as one brought up with him who was with God and was God Gods love and delight in whom he was ever rejoycing He also had his love delight or choice in conformity to the eternal will and purpose of God among the sons of men that he makes the habitable part of his earth of whom David was the type and figure Psal 89. where God says v. 20. c. I have found David my Servant with my holy oyle have Ianointed him With him shall my hand be established mine arme also shall strengthen him I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him I will set his hand also in the sea his right hand in the rivers He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God and the rock of my salvation Also I will make him my first borne higher then the kings of the earth I have sworn by my holines that I will not lie unto him His seed shall endure for ever his throne as the sun before me Againe Psal 78 70 c. He chose David also his Servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the ews great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulnes of his hands Most of this is accomplished in Christ the antitype and Truth as he is the Son of Man of the seed of David according to the flesh called Gods Servant the BRANCH and the Lord our righteousnes the WORD of life that is the rock of ages whence all things are hewen He is the platform and exemplary patern of both worlds in idea as wel as execution which the divine wisedom contrived and wrought in God from all eternity as its great masterpeice by which the worlds were made Heb. 1.2 Eph. 3.9 God made all things by Jesus Christ whether visible or invisible He was the first patern of all his works Consequently according to this first and perfect patern was man made and to it in some degree and measure restored since his deformation by the fall In uprightnes was he made according to Gods image God is righteous originally in his owne nature and both originally and communicatively righteous in Christ who made man upright Eccl 7.29 The house which wisdom first builds for her self with seven pillars is in the person of Christ Gods only begotten son For he that built all things is God and this as the Son over his owne house a house not made with hands that eternal house of the Father wherein are many mansions The same WISEDOME after she had built her house killed her killing slew her sacrifice the lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world mingled her wine and also furnished her table All things being thus made ready for her guests whom she purposed to invite she sends forth her servants She crieth upon the highest places of the city who so is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mingled Jt shal be to your soules as a tree of life a wel springing up into everlasting life in every one of you But as we shal shew more fully afterwards man in his perfect innocent state professing himself wise when he should have seen himself simple or at most wise only in part wanting yet that which should make him fully and immutably so became a fool And because when he knew God he glorified him not as God neither was thankful he became vain in his imagination changing the glory or likenes of the incorruptible God manifested in Christ into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds four-footed beasts and creeping things to the darkning his foolish heart that changed the TRUTH of God into a lie the original and first sin worshipping and serving the creature more then the Creatour God blessed for ever Conformity to Christ the first and most perfect patern and Rule of all obedience unto Gods word and declared will is the TRUTH of God which the first Adam changed into a lie endeavouring as much as in him lay to make it void and set up some other thing even himself in the place thereof as the law and Rule of his action which he was forbidden In departing from and disobeying of Christ who was the law of Gods mouth from the beginning the word that was commanded to a thousand generations he tasted the bitter fruit of his own doings and was ensnared by the work of his owne hands He was enticed by his owne lust sin conceaved which being perfected brought forth death And if it be objected 't was impossible the first Adam should sin against Christ or the TRUTH of God as it is in Jesus because where there is no law there can be no transgression when as yet nothing was declared of Christ there could be no offence against him The Answer is easy and plain There was both knowledge and need of Christ before the fall as well to prevent and keep out sin from entring into the world as to expiate and deliver from it by his death after it was entered and secure against its return againe This the Apostle Paul asserts with great cleernes in his Epistle to the Romans shewing that Adam was but the Image and figure of him that was to come Christ made from the beginning the power of God unto Salvation and the righteousnes of God that was to be revealed from faith to faith This man at his creation and before his fall could not be ignorant of For that which might be known of God in Christ by the book of the creature was shewed to him and made manifest in him For the invisible things of him even of Christ who is the invisible image of God and hidden mystery ordeined for our glory before the world and kept secret in God were cleerly seen and to be known by the things that are made the creatures he produced to the making manifest his eternal power and Godhead thereby rendring them without excuse that would otherwise be apt to make the forementioned objection and on that presumption thinke themselvs at liberty to change Gods truth into a lie But hereby every mouth comes to be stopped and al the guilty world are subjected to the righteous judgment of God Christ who is the law of Gods mouth required of man obedience as soon as he was created He called upon him to be a hearer of the will of God which he was intrusted to reveale and teach the most acceptable manner of
or a threefold cause of the being that is givē unto the creature 1. Of the creatures hidden and secret Being as it subsists and lives in the mind of God by way of his purpose and decree and in his fore knowledg 2. As this seed of creature-being that lives in God is brought into its naturall and proper form of life made a part and member of the first creation in a mutable state 3. As it is changed and translated out of its mutable state and corruptible fashion into a form of being and state of life that is immutable wherein the first creation is not destroyed or annihilated but consummated and brought to its final perfection so as to answer rhe holy end and design of the Creatour who as the potter hath absolute power over his owne clay to make vessels of honour or dishonor as pleases him and in such manner as is exactly consistent with the wisdom and justice of a most holy God The nature of men and angels is formed in Gods likenes wherein they are made with hearing eares seing eyes and working hearts to attend unto and observe the divine oracles delivered to them from the mouth of God as the law under which they are created the rule of their life and actiō to guide them in the passage out of their mutable state into that which is immutable Gods words therefore doe come forth in the threefold dispensation before described visible and intelligible words to their minds or creature-understandings answerable to the state they are found in and to the degree and measure of their growth whereunto they have atteined For there can be no communion or intercourse between God and man but by such divine words as are visible and intelligible to creature understanding signifying such things as their eyes may se their ears heare and that are in themselvs possible and rationall to be obeyed which all Gods laws to man most certainly are Hence is it thar John testifies of the WORD of life itself that it is visible and hath bin heard and seen from the beginning being no new commandement but the old made visible and intelligible first by the book of the creature then by the book of the Scriptures and lastly by the living mouth and heart of Christs manhood assumed into personall union with the eternall WORD and thereby made the brightnes of Gods glory the expresse image of his essentiall mind where the vision at last becomes so plaine to all beleevers that he that runs may read it The humanity or flesh of Christ singly considered is no where in Scripture called the WORD but at most the engraffed WORD For the WORD is that which is made flesh and dwells in us which though after it was born of a woman and found in fashion as a man actually partaking of flesh and blood with the rest of the children it was seen heard and handled as the glory or manifestation of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth in the form of a man was actually in Being and life from the beginning which the flesh of Christ was not and was Davids Root the BRIGHT MORNING STAR the Lord the WORD which David in Spirit saw Psal 110.1 when he sayd the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool These things premised our way wil be much more open and cleer to proceed in what we have propounded as to a serious search and pursuite after life eternall We are hereby naturally lead into the ensuing method and have our matter pointed out to us for our discussion and enquiry in these following particulars 1. What are the things that are the subject matter of the command delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God that are the law of his mouth visible and intelligible to man by the light and law of nature the light and law of the Scriptures the light and law of faith or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus And if the matter be one and the same that is declared and made knowne in and under these three dispensations wherein is it that they differ from each other 2. What is that state of mutability which by nature man is brought into Is his mutability lost or no by the fall as wel as his natural righteousnes and purity may he not yet be changed back againe at least to a gradual recovery of his natural righteousnes yea and yet fatther into a more excellent state of life and righteousnes then at first he receaved Is his primitive uprightnes in kind recoverable or no Is it actually and universally restored to all mankind by the blood and ransom of the Redeemer as the means to lead men to repentance and bring them all to the practical knowledg of the truth by inwardly cleansing and purging them from their old sins and setting them in the way of that amendment and newnes of life which God by his law calls for and commands from all men every where 3. Is it possible for man is his mutable state considered as either before or after the fall according to the degree of restoration he does arrive unto to hear and obey the things of Gods law and so to keep the commandements and demean himself in his actings conformable thereunto as not to turn from them or let them depart from his heart all the days of his life untill his translation into his immutable state 4. And lastly What is that immutable state in righteousnes and glory which begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second unto which man is fore-ordeined and through effectuall calling and plantation with Christ in his death and resurrection is prepared and made heir of in his mutable state in order at last actually to inherit and possesse it at Christs seconds comming that other day wherein the Son of Man is to be revealed from heaven which hath its MORNING MIDDAY and EVENing also that immediatly precedes the last day of eternity which hath no division or parts 1. First as for the things of Gods law or matter commanded unto man which God wills that he should heare understand and obey as that on which his life and death depends and does therefore with all plaines and certainty set before him that ignorance or other excuse of any kind may not be pretended by him all is reduced by our Saviour who best knows it into a very narrow compasse Luk 10 28. in his answer to the lawyer that came to tempt him saying Master what shall I doe to inherit eternall life The question does plainly intimate first that some things were to be done by man and that by Gods command and instruction in order to obtein or be made heir of eternall life 2. That so doing or working the work of God the inheritance is sure Christ in his answer denies nothing of this but thinks fit to try the knowledg of
its persecuting power and war on the saincts who prophesy all the same time in sackcloth as a despised rejected remnant of outcasts are according to the true meaning of the holy Ghost to take their date and beginning from that conspiracy or combination of the ten hornes uniting in one preistly head as to spiritualls Concerning the Rise then of this little horne we may safely assert 1. That there was a time certaine when the papal power did begin and that time was after the dissolution of the Roman empire as it was meerly heathenish And this power was as the corner stone to cement and build up the ruins of the Roman empire into ten Kingdoms bearing the name of Christian and acknowledging the supremacy of the pope Secondly That so soon as this power was first in being the power which hath made war with the saincts ever since did begin For these ten Kingdoms with their Ghostly father the Pope have ever since bin treading down and keeping under the holy city or true citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem necessitating the two witnesses if they will prophesy at all to do it in sackcloth that is under great persecution and tribulation Thirdly It is evident that from the time of such beginning of the power of Daniels little horne or last branch of the fourth Kingdom upon the earth the sackcloth Testimony of the witnesses did also begin And after the continuance of the one and the other for the space of 42 months or 1260 years the day of the Kingdom of Christs patience is to expire and the time of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth is to be no longer But in stead hereof the time of the lambs wrath is to come and be revealed from heaven against all this bestiall domination over his saints and he will openly take to himself his great power and reigne He will set up his Kingdom over the heads or on the top of all the other Kingdoms and Rule with his saints or the earth one thousand yeaves Rev. 20. In order and by way of preparation to this Christ comes in the latter rain of his spirit upon the earth to gather the harvest of the world and keep the last and great feast of Tabernacles to which the true spirituall Israelits amongst jews and Gentiles are invited Zech 14 16 21. These then are the two distinct commings of Christ wherein he comes to his people as the former and the latter raine in this third day that is the day of his Kingdom in spirit the day wherein first he shews his royall patience and forbearance towards his worst enemies and the day wherein secondly he shews forth his royall power and universall irresistible command in earth as well as in heaven The one as well as the other of these dayes or parts of the third day above mentioned do belong to this great Kings making himself knowne even as he is the Son of man ordeined by God to judg the world in righteousnes But it may be demanded since both these make but the one day of Christs Kingdom in spirit called in Hosea the third day wherein he hath promised to raise up the children of this his Kingdom and cause them to live in his sight how comes it to passe that during the long time of Christs first appearance in the Kingdom of his patience the true saincts are in an outwardly suppressed and afflicted condition as inhabitants of the dust trampled under foot by the powers of the world The answer is easy by this short and cleer distinction The raising up or resurrection of them to live in his sight which Christ promises is twofold 1. Such a raysing up as is wrought inwardly in their minds directing them to the sight of things above and fastning their affections and desires accordingly binding them up in the life which is hid with Christ in God This first kind of resurrection is knowne and experienced in themselvs by the renewings of their inward man day by day under the perishings and decayes of their outward when they are looked upon as in the grave in a very sad and low condition by the eye of the world 2. But secondly there is a raising them up to live in Christs sight discernably to the very eye of the world At that season glory and honour shal be put upon their very outward man and they shal be called to sit downe at Christs right and left hand in the Kingdom of his power to the visible treading all their enemies under their feet like mire in the streets They shall also administer healing and refreshing to the whole creation of God For in this seed all nations of the earth shal be blessed and the very creature freed from the bondage of corruption The promise then of raising up the true children of the Kingdom shal be made good both these wayes and that successively the one after the other as will appear in its proper place when the day of Christs second appearance in spirit shal be particularly spokē to But in this the scripture is very positive and expresse that untill we be children of the resurrection in the first of these respects during the season of suffering with Christ we shall never be children of it in the second If we die not or suffer with him now we shall not live and reign with him thē It therefore highly concerns us even as much as to make our calling and election sure to have the certain and cleer discovery yea and practicall experience of what it is that makes the children of the resurrection in the first sence For over those only that are such the second death will have no power And they also are of two sorts being found in a first or second degree of life from the dead which is wrought out in Christ as he is the Son of man In the first of these they are made sharers with the holy angels in their atteinment and fruition of God and goe no higher But in the second they are sharers with Christ in that higher atteinment and fruition of God which he hath as he is the engraffed WORD and is admitted accesse to the very similitude and shape of God in his owne proper forme Man by his owne voluntary sinfull act hath concluded himself and God by his judiciall act hath concluded all men under the death of sin and unbeleif In these chains might man justly have bin left by God for ever bound up in an alienation of mind from all good But by the tender mercies of God in the redeemer he is visited by the power of that voice of the son of God which raises him out of the grave awakens him out of this deadly sleep into which he is not at first so deeply plunged as to be irrecoverable and without remedy This death is properly of the mind as become the servant of sin and it is not only that by which the spirit of the mind is gone out from its subjection to
last and most glorious trump of God Christs humanity as head of the elect Angels all principalities and powers being subjected unto him who as he is the Son of man is made the cheif of the aÌ„gels and the prime minister of the WORD of life for food unto them This beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet is that which as hath bin said is the ministry of Eliah and goes before the ministry that shal be immediately exercised by the Son himself in his owne person By Christs revealing himself from heaven the head of angels he employes them as his reapers in the end of the world or in the last times to sever the wicked from among the just and gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend He will send a quickning Spirit of life from his presence that will breath the breath of prophecy into the holy angels those voices that are to be heard in heaveÌ„ saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ These voices wil be heard as it were the voice of a Trumpet talking with the Saincts on earth and calling them up into the same heavenly converse with themselvs causing them immediatly thereupon to be in the spirit beholding the throne that is in heaven and him that sits thereon as the head of those holy and blessed spirits who are all desirous to do him homage and worship refusing to take that to themselvs which is due only to their head and which the saints themselvs on earth would be but too forward to give them as was the case of John Revel 22.8 9. Under this ministry and dispensation the church and every particular member thereof do become the children that are all taught of God inwardly by this heavenly breath or angelical inspiration For this qualifies and enables them by the sight of the just one to know the mind and will of God and to do and fulfill it after Christ as they se he hath done it before them with a heart and spirit like unto his as he is the son of man And as so considered he is head of the holy angels by them speaking to and inspiring the church on earth He is also the head of that church in God the father that is above the angels so as unto principalities and powers the very elect angels by the church in this sence even the generall assembly of the first borne whose names are written in heaven the manifold wisdom of God shal be made knowne By these divine men who are the bride the lambs wife he will shew himself speaking and inspiring the good angels in heaven to all eternity and judging the evill and wicked ones into the flames of eternall fire The first of these attainments is that wherein the lower and common ranke of beleevers called in scripture the fulnes of the gentiles compared with the true Jews Gods first borne sons are gathered into society with the holy angels into a copartnership with them in an immutability of righteousnes and glory and so into Christ their head as into their proper element and sphere in which they are raysed up to live in his sight and to eat and drink with him at his table in his fathers Kingdom to all eternity Over these the second death never hath power And this is called the first resurrection which the other sort of beleevers those that are the fulnes of the Jews do enjoy in common with them during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth And after that they have a farther ascent into the life and glory of the second resurrection which is not to be revealed in the power of it untill Christ have resigned up the Kingdom unto his father that God may be all in all But during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth both these houses of Israel shal be gathered as sheep under one head and shepheard into one sheepfold and shine forth only in the life and glory of the first resurrection witnessing to the headship of Christ which he exerciseth over the angels and by them over the very church itself whilst the Kingdom of the son is unresigned by him into the hands of the father The life and glory of both these resurrections whether as they respect the mind or body of the true saincts and children of God or both is that immortality which is brought to light by Jesus Christ the life from the dead which will shew itself in the times appointed thereunto and translate us at length into eternity where time shal be no more And we are begotten even while here in our mortall bodies through fellowship with Christ in his resurrection unto a lively hope of this inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fades not away ready to be revealed in these last times Untill then it is in faith only and the seed of it does beget and produce the two sorts of beleevers so frequently mentioned who now by this ministry of Eliah are beginning to be made manifest and shal be distinguished as the true Israel of God from all strangers and deceitfull workers whatsoever that either love or make a lie The first of these are in their principles said to be of the common faith and to have â—â—teined the common salvation Thus Paul writes to Titus as his son after the common faith Tit. 1 4. And Jude v. 3. sayes I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation to the fulfilling of the scripture Rom. 4 17. Gen. 17.5 speaking of Abraham I have made thee the father of many nations as wel as of one nation peculiar above and besides all the rest For so Abrahams seed was to be a seed made up of many nations and a seed of one more peculiarly beloved nation also that were to be seperated to him to dwell by themselvs and not be reckon'd amongst the nations that are the fulnes of the Gentiles Abraham is but the typicall father Christ is the father in spirit and truth to this twofold seed In Gen. 13. and 15. chapters God promised Abraham to make of him a great people numberlesse as the dust of the earth or the stars of heaven which he makes good in the fulnes of the true Jews But chap. 17.5 he gives an additional seed also which he there promises him besides what he promised before saying behold my Covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a high father of a multitude of nations Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram that is high father but Abraham high father of multitudes Hence is it that in Gods everlasting Covenant there comes to be found salvation for a multitude of nations common as it were to all mankind if the fault be not in themselvs and not salvation only for one great nation the Israel that is Gods first borne God hath therefore an everlasting love and salvation which comparatively spoken of is that which is common and extensive to a numberlesse
multitude that he saves out of all people and nations kindreds and tongues that are upon the face of the earth who yet are not brought so neer to him as that peculiar nation of his which he makes a Kingdom of Preists But they have a portion that is full and sufficient comming from the hand of their everlasting father who like to Jacob in the type hath his specially beloved Josephs and Benjamins by Rachel the choice delight of his eyes and hath his ten sons besides that are also children of his blessing sons and not bastards or cast-awayes but such as he ownes for legitimate and makes heirs of his Kingdom They are provided with inheritances in the land of promise And as there is such an everlasting love and salvation spoken of in the scripture which is called common in the respect above mentioned so is there also a common faith and salvation that is but temporary begets but such a repentance unto life as the effect of it upon the minde from whence there is a turning away againe and a drawing back unto perdition This kind of beleevers in stead of holding fast faith and a good conscience do put away their good conscience and concerning faith do make shipwrack being not able to ride it out in the stormy weather of temptations They do therefore declare by the event that they never had faith of the right kind but that the chang of mind brought upon them by the preaching of the gospel and knowledg of the Lord Jesus Christ amounted but to such a repentance as might againe be repented of or turned from and but to such a faith as might faile though both were the fruits of the gospel or good tydings of the worke of redemption and reconciliation wrought in the person of the mediator as ministred but by the first and conditionall Covenant which obliges the children of it in a debt to the whole law upon the terms of renewing to them their primitive naturall activity and use of their freewill for the performance thereof Thus Christ gives himself to be the life and reconciliation of the whole world commanding all men every where to repent excluding none from this benefit of his death the atonement of sins past and after this manner to have faith and repentance wrought in them if the fault lie not in themselvs The same gospel then and blessed knowledg of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ is in the ministry and preaching of it the everlasting gospel as accompanied with fruits that end in salvation and are permanent and abiding and is also the gospel whose candle may be put out and candlestick removed out of its place as Christ not only threatned to the seven churches of Asia but actually executed upon their apostasy and unworthy walking under the light thereof And if the scope and intent of the Epistle of Jude be well weighed together with his expressions wherein he makes mention of the common salvation and faith once delivered unto the saints we shall find that he does very evidently set forth the division and contention which did arise in his time between these two ministries of the gospel and those that had these differing effects and operations produced thereby upon their hearts For the same common salvation and change wrought by the preaching of it upon the minds of the hearers which begot in them repentance from dead works and faith towards God if it were accompanied with the faith of the right kind once delivered to the saincts through the power of which we are kept unto salvation he shewes plainly v. 20 21. that being built up in this our most holy faith and praying in the holy Ghost we shal be kept from falling and shall keep ourselvs in the love of God waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternall life But if this faith be wanting whatever other effects enlightnings or quicknings the knowledg of Christ and preaching of the gospel may have upon us in the judgment of the Apostle Jude such are to be looked upon as having no more certainty of salvation nor probability of a good end then those of the children of Israel that the Lord saved out of Egypt and the house of bondage but destroyed before they entered into Canaan or then those angels that fell and kept not their first habitation or then Sodom and Gomorrah Yea or then the rejected nation of the jews by whose wicked hands our saviour was crucified They stumbled at the stumbling stone and though they sought after righteousnes yet was it as it were by the works of the law children they were in whom as it is written Deut. 32.20 there was no faith Upon this very ground the church of the gentiles that were taken into the place of the jews and had Gods name called upon them doe run the same hazard with the Jewish church that is of being cut off from the good olive tree when they shal be found to be but such as have not their standing by the faith that is triall proof They therefore shall in like manner be swallowed up into a universall and most signall apostasy from the truth and power of the gospel a little before Christs second comming It is no marvell then that the Apostle Jude is so earnest in exhorting to contend earnestly for the faith as it is of the right kind and primitive purity wherein it was once delivered to the saincts bringing forth those fruits in them that accompanied salvation and were not to be fallen from This contention warfare or battel was in heaven in the very church itself between those that had a stronger and firmer birth of grace and those of a weaker that was wavering uncertaine and capable to prove abortive as not comming of Sarah the free woman that is the mother of us all Nevertheles in this contest and warfare the woman that brings forth the manchild is necessitated to fly for it into the wildernes though a conquerour whilst the battel was fought out by spirituall weapons only in a church way For when once the secular powers came to exercise a ruling stroke and decisive jurisdiction in the Christian religion then she betook herself to the wildernes became solitary and neglected by men In that wildernes state the remnant of the womans seed that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus continue for a season trod under foot and oppressed by their opposite brethren that are countenanc'd and upheld against them by the power and strength of the Kingdom of the beast For having got possession of the outward court of the temple which is left out as no longer regarded by God they become a fit seat for Antichrists throne a great bulwarke and strong hold for the man of sin and Son of perdition whereby to maintein his war against those worshippers that are so in spirit and truth and not in word or forme only and whose place it is to officiate either in
had its use and service in subordination and as a Schoolmaster pointing to him that was to follow the seed that was to come It was as the baptism of repentance preached by John which in respect of transgressions was to cleanse and prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of the Sons of men dead by nature in trespasses and sins The Lord that afterward was to be revealed through faith would have their soules purged and kept as wel fenced as might be in the mean time against all impurity of evill doing by this law of written words which was also a witnes afterwards of Christs birth death and resurrection This is a second law that after the fall was given to man as a light or lamp to his feet and lanthorn to his paths a light but under a cover and in a dark place sealed and bound up as amongst Christs owne disciples who are taught and learned in the wisdom that is from above Otherwise as it may be used receaving a sense and meaning from the wisdom of the earthly and sensual man or from the subtil skill of the Serpent it does become the fortresse and strong hold of sin a ministry of the letter and of death a most dark and uncertain guide to any that pretend and profess them selvs to be the followers of it and of the commands in it For the vision of all is unto them as of a book or letter that is sealed which when delivered to one that is learned after the manner of men and not illuminated with the Spirit of TRUTH saying read this I pray thee he sayes or at least should say I cannot for it is sealed and I need one to open it And when it is delivered to him that is not learned in any kind he answers if he deale ingennously I am not learned I have not that skill which is required for the reading of it nor can I se any more into the true meaning of it them one that cannot read at all or tell how to spell words and put letters together The voice and sound of this law is not of that extent as the first which is published by the tongue and speech of angels and other peeces of the creation but is more peculiar to one sort of men who formerly were they of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh unto whom God more especially committed these his oracles expecting answerable fruit from all those that having sinned under this law were reserved by God to be judged and at last to stand or fall by it The rest of mankind amongst the gentiles that lived without this law were not to be judged by it but by their owne law the law of nature unto which they are perpetually still obliged This generation of the fleshly seed of Abraham is neither literally nor figuratively as yet passed away For there are too many that since the light of the Gospel hath sinned forth upon them doe yet desire to be under the law preferring their station and lot in the earthly Jerusalem Mount Sinai that is stil in bondage with her children and choose so to remaine rather then to ascend into the Jerusalem that is above and is free These are the branches Spoken of Rom. 11. taken out from among the Gentiles upon the rejection of Abrahams natural seed who contrary to nature are graffed into the good olive tree surrogated and taken by God as a nation or people to himself in stead of the other in the same relation under the same Covenant and law being made to partake of the root and fatnes of the same olive tree These are notwithstanding all their priviledges in this estate to take heed of boasting or taking up their rest under the dominion and in the inward principles of that law which excludes not boasting If they doe they are fairly warned that their standing and aboad in and with the root is not so sure nor their righteous principles and operations in conformiry to the law so fixed but that they may fall and be rejected as their predecessours the Iews were before them to wit all such of them whose standing was but by that Covenant and not by the law of faith for want whereof God complains against them Heb. 3. as children of his wrath and provocation a perverse crooked and froward generation that alwayes erre in their hearts and have not known his wayes At last they come to nothing never enter into Gods rest though they thinke themselves and in some sort are a nation that works righteousnes in strict observance of the letter of all Gods Ordinances and commands This is the same law that was by God written in the heart of Adam at the creation being renewed and published after the fall first by the ministry of angels in the hand of a Mediatour on Mount Sinai which word spoken by angels remained stedfast in its revenging property against all that contemned and disobeyed it Hence is it said in another place the law works wrath and is sure in inflicting the penalties and curse threatned It was committed to writing by Moses the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles Even in the Gospel the law is fulfilled and made honorable By the doctrine of it man is taught what he ought to doe and what not to doe He is bound up to perfect and exact obedience to it and by reward and punishment is either encouraged to obedience or restrained from disobedience being left to his owne dispose and choise as to any thing of prevailing influence which this law dispenses Yet is there that in the doctrin of it which sends all under it to Christ as the only way and means of their salvation shewing who this Christ is and that they must beleeve in him or perish in their sins and that by beleeving in him they may attein the remission of their sins and life eternal This distinct knowledg of Christ the Redemer Adam had not nor properly could have before the fall Neverthelesse by the things rhat were made and from the voices and significations of Gods mind ministred by the tongue of Angels which Adam in Paradise was capable of hearing and vnderstanding and out of the book of the creature more especially the tree of life he was and might have bin more then he was instructed in the maine point as to who and what Christ was and how the comming to him and feeding upon him was the only way and means to make man immutable in righteousnes by obtaining an inseperable union with the cheif good without ever falling into sin yea as the only sure means to have prevented the fall In the third and last place there is the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus the immediate writing and engraving of Gods owne mind true in it self and true in the receaver of it the heart of Jesus the Son of man the living tables upon which the living WORD by way of self-impression and personal union does
heavenly aire or Spirit where they are to be ever with the Lord. In effect the day of Christs second appearance brings upon the stage of this world life from the dead working and declaring the first resurrection mentioned Revel 20. which is to continue visible to men on earth one thousand years The glorious chang which shal be made in the progresse of this day upon the soules and bodies of the Saincts shal be such as will no more leave them subject to corruption For over them the second death shall have no power This is another of the dayes of the Son of Man which succeeds the first is to continue a thousand years and then also have its end upon the sons making a voluntary and entire resignation of this his Kingdom unto his Father that God may be all in all For during this thousand years the son in his Kingdom shal be exalted as he to whom the father hath committed all judgmēt to be executed so that what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth shal be loosed in heaven Whom he will he shall slay and whom he will he shal keep alive as the most absolute Monarch and only Potentate that ever reigned on the earth to the end that during this season and space of time all mē may honour the son with the honor due to the father and in this appearance of the Son se the father as in his vicegerent and doe him homage in this his living Image the Lords Christ or anointed one the man that by God is ordeined to rule the world in righteousnes even all the nations upon the earth during this his day which immediatly praecedes the day of eternity and last judgment wherein God is to be all in all The son himself after that all things shall have bin subdued and subjected unto him shal be subject to the Father that put all things under him This second day of the Son of Man is that one day knowne to the Lord not day nor night but a kind of middle state between that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible It is neither absolutely one or the other but a mixture of both And it shall come to passe in the evening of this day it shal be light and the passage out of this into the day of eternity very pleasing and delightsome It shall distinguish itselfe as hath bin already intimated into the 3 usuall parts of a day MORNING MIDDAY NIGHT. 1. In its morning beauty and appearance the Eliah comes and restores all things as is foretold of him the BRIGHT MORNING STAR which is to shew to the kings of the east the neer approach of the only begotten Son himself and be to them and all other inhabitants on the earth the signe of the Son mans approaching and comming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory 2. In the noontide of this day of the Son of Man in his Kingdom shal be seen the height of the sunshine of that royall power and greatnes which shal be exercised by him in the capacity of universall King over all the earth the season wherein there shal be one LORD in his owne person visible and his name one throughout the whole world 3. There shall also be a declining and evening state of this glorious day which willingly and cheerfully gives place to the day of eternity wherein the father unveyled shall shine forth and be all in all How fitly does Ezekiel in the vision he had of the holy waters represent and describe this growing encreasing Kingdō of Christ revealed in the Gospel the light of Gods law that shines forth in the Son himself into the obedience and power whereof we are to be changed from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit The waters issued from under the threshold of the house eastward on the right or south side Ezek. 47. Their first comming forth was by measure the measure of a man and gradually from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loins from the loins to a river unpassable by man as meer man in his first constitution of being 2. 2dly then the same waters came forth in a communication above and beyond the measure of mans first nature into a river that man may swim in without drowning or being at all subject to die any more how much higher soever it rise above the head of the naturall man the first Adam And of this Noah by faith was aware who that he might obtein a state of safety from the overflowing flood by which al the world not made beleevers and taken into the arke were drown'd obeyed the counsel and command of God in building the arke and going into it after it was built and ready to receave him Herein have we a lively type of Christs humane nature offered up by the immortal Spirit and brought forth into the life that is from the dead never to die more but hath the keys of hel and death committed to him Unto the likenes of this heavenly building and temple of the living God in Christs person every true beleever is fashioned and conformed and is thereby made a fit vessel to swim in those waters of life safely and delightfully which by rising up above al the measures and proportions of the first world drowne them but are the proper element for those that are saved to live in They are fitted with enlarged hearts and mouths wide enough open'd to take in and receave those streams and rivers of the emanations of divine bounty and love how broad or deep soever they prove and how high soever they may rise and overflow For they have the man Christ Jesus their head the second Adam who as their forerunner is gone before to prepare the way for them and as the true arke in which are many mansions to receave them into himself that where he is they may be also Of what hath bin already said this then is the sum Christ is the eternall WORD and speaking power of God by whom are all things He is also as hath bin shewed the rock of ages the place of Gods rest throughout all generations the eternal Sabbath Heb. 4. wherein God finished his works so fully to his content that therein he took up his Rest even in the person and Spirit of the Mediatour the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath lain hid in God who created all things according to the eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Further This eternall WORD who is the creatour of all things visible and invisible being in the Mediatour the image of the invisible God does bear the name of the blessed Trinity and stamps the impression and character thereof upon all the works of his hands He is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending of the creation of God In the Psalms and Ecclesiastes God is called by the name of creatours as being three
of what already they have receaved from him at his command He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Both these divine oracles and manifestations of Gods will law and Gospel were made knowne to Adam in Paradise the one typed out in the tree of the knowledg of good and evil fitly resembling the first created liberty and fredom of will man was left to the exercise of under the law the other by the tree of life placed in the midst of the Paradise of God lively figuring out the better fredom and lasting holines which the Son himself makes us partakers of in the Gospel as he is the end of the law to al that beleeve and can be perswaded to trust him as the Gospel requires In both these respects it is that John sayes I write no new Commandement to you but an old commandement which was from the beginning As it first came forth in law and Gospel before the fal it was the law written in Adams heart and the Gospel set before the eyes of his mind by the ministry of angels in lively types and figures This we are to understand by the law of nature by which all natural men shal be judged who never have atteined or lived under the hearing of the written law or word of God given afterwards in the holy Scriptures 2dly The self-same old commandement of God that is both law and Gospel came forth since the fall by divine inspiration in the bookes of the old and new Testament The law was under this dispensation engraven on tables of stone conteining the ten commandements The Gospel was represented in the ceremonial law of Moses ministry under the old Testament Then againe the law is written in the fleshly tables of Christs heart as he was born of a woman and made under the law and the Gospel was represented in the two Sacraments of baptism and the Lords supper instituted during the dayes of Christs flesh the witnesse whereof is left us upon record in the New Testament as that manifestation of Gods wil which the Son himself in and by his first appearance hath brought to light This we are to understand by the law of the Scriptures which are not of private interpretation nor a prophesy that is come to us by the will of man but that which holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost for a sure ground of truth to be relied upon 3dly and lastly the same commandement or word of God which hath bin from the beginning is to come forth once more in and by the son's second and personal appearance in Spirit a fiery and living law call'd in Scripture the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus which by faith is espied and seen as the Land of promise into which all true beleevers must enter and where they must inherit the immutability and eternal life promised a life from the dead which those that possesse whether in the glory of the first or second Resurrection though as yet but in the seed shal never die more The second death shal not have power over them but all tears shal be wiped away from their eyes and all cause of sorrow or fear This is the Son's Kingdom in Spirit which he receaves and enters upon by the appointement of the father He is pleased to begin it in weaknes and subject it a while to great sufferings but will shortly enter upon and continue the exercise of it in power during the space of a thousand years wherein he is to judg the world in righteousnes effectually causing his wil to be done on earth as it is in heaven The law under this dispensation is found as the tables of the Testimony laid up in the heavenly tabernacle of Christ the Son of Man a fiery law of indignation and vengeance in severity without mercy upon all wilful disobedient sinners The Gospel under this dispensation is as the throne or heaven itself together with the earth that is made Gods footstool or the natural man subjected and brought through faith to Gods foot in a way exclusive to al boasting This is the new heavens and new earth of which the new Jerusalem consists that comes downe from God written in and upon the heart of Christs manhood glorified and made immutably holy shining forth as the living Image of God in a twofold forme to wit in the form of a servant not only made a Son which is the first but exalted to a name above every name and anointed with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows that 's the second Thus Christ is the WORD as is above sayd that is commanded to a thousand generations He that was he that is and he that is to come the Almighty He was both law and Gospel in the day or under the dispensation of the law of nature is the same in the day and under the dispensation of the law of the Scriptures and is to come and wil shew himself to be the same also in the day and under the proper and immediate dispensation of the law of the Spirit of life that is in him This is the spiritual day of the Lord the thousand years Jubilee and Sabbath This third dispensation hastens apace draw's very neer and the faithfull and upright in heart beleeve expect and wait for the comming of the Lord therein both as an Eliah in and by his messengers and Servants elect angels and beleeving men that shal restore all things root up every thing that offends by a swift execution of vengeance on evil doers in the morning of this day and after that in his owne person wherein the man Christ by whom God hath ordeined to judg the world in righteousnes wil shew himself as the great King and bridegroom that hath the bride whose mariage he wil gloriously solemnize on earth in order to cary her up with him into heaven upon the expiration of his thousand years reigne and the Resigning up of his Kingdom into the hands of this father that God may be all in all That the matter of Gods command and mans duty is the same as wel under the law as under the Gospel and in them both under all the three dispensations before mentioned is sufficiently cleered and demonstrated nor is the difference lesse perspicuous wherein each of them vary one from another 1. The law of nature writes the matter of the law and duty commanded upon the nature and in the very heart of man teaching and instructing him also in the nature of the Gospel the new nature by the ministry of angels in most apt significant types and figures suited to his natural understanding 2dly The law of the Scripture first writes the law in tables of stone and teaches the Gospel by the types conteined in the ceremonial law or a sort of ordinances that are worldly rudiments being but the shadow of the good things to come whereof the body is Christ Afterwards therefore Christ coming
in the flesh abolishes and abrogates that dispensation of the mosaical ministry and in stead thereof makes the heart and conscience of man in himself and followers the fleshly tables whereon the law is written by the Spirit of the living God Hereby a conformity of holy flesh is wrought in man like unto the flesh of Christ through the hearing of the word This is the washing of our body or natural man with the pure water of the living WORD and Spirit of Christ through the ministry of the outward preaching thereof to the purging and clensing us from all filthines of flesh And this is obteined through the vertue and price of Christs blood together with the atonement and remission of sins past Under this dispensation it is that by the doctrin of the cross signified in the Sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper and thereby lively represented to the eyes of the very natural man he is taught the Gospel a second time under the Scripture dispensation of law and Gospel Neverthelesse this teaching yet is short of the glory of God to be revealed in and by Christs personal appearance in Spirit which as it is the 3. Third and last dispensation of law and Gospel so does it differ in excellency and glory very much from the other two For it is the fruit of the vine which Christ reservs to drink with his owne brethren and faithful Servants in the Kingdom of his father or which his father hath given unto him that those that have continued with the Son in his temptations and followed him fully in the regeneration may eat and drink at his table in this his Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel or the natural and fleshly holy seed jew or gentile who at that day shal be found to be but in their mutable state of righteousnes and life This is the best wine far exceeding any before receaved in types figures and Sacraments being that which Christ keeps till the last as that fruit of himself the heavenly and true vine which will refresh the heart of God and of man or of the divine and heavenly man as wel as of the earthly and natural man brought forth in the exercise of an immutable righteousnes and made after the power of an endlesse life The former of these is to sit at Christs right hand the latter at his left in this his Kingdom and glory unto which both of them are fitted and prepared by the father through the lively conformity they are taken into and made to beare with Christ in his death and resurrection So much be spoken in way of resolution to the first general query of the 4 above propounded to insist on in this Treatise to wit concerning the subject matter of the law or command of God delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God under the threefold dispensation thereof together with the difference of these dispensations under the law of nature Scripture Spirit The time of the latter branch of the 2d dispensation beginning with John the Baptists and Christs owne personal ministry in the flesh is now far spent and the yet more glorious day of Christs 2d appearance and dispensation in Spirit is at hand The second General query to be insisted on is concerning the mutable state man was created in at first and remains in even after the fall out of which he is again capable to be changed and either restored and regenerated by the knowledg of Christ in the Gospel or else cast down for ever into eternal perdition The WORD that hath bin the old Commandement from the beginning that it may evidently appear to all understandings to be the word of Truth doth branch itself forth as hath bin declared into two Testimonies or witnesses which are both of them the law of Gods mouth The one conteins in it the doctrine of the law of works the rule of mans first communion with God in the first Covenant the other the doctrin of the law and righteousnes of faith the rule of that 2d communion which God thinkes fit to take man into in the spirit of his Son which can never be lost as the first may but endures to everlasting life Now two Testimonies according to the law are sufficient for the discovery and confirmation of all truth Answerable hereunto does he that is Truth itself shine and give forth the light of his glory whose two Testimonies may either be joyned in consortship harmony and subserviency with and to one another in the ministry and dispensing of them and so become a law of life to all that heare and obey them that new song mention'd Rev. 14.3 sung before the throne called chap. 15.3 the song of Moses and of the lamb sung together in perfect harmony and agremēt which no man can learne but the 144000 Virgins that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth being redeemed from among men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. But now these two laws or Testimonies of works and of faith as they may be taught and dispensed in difference disagreement inconsistency and opposition one unto the other may become a ministry of death either by setting up and exalting the letter above and against the spirit or disjoyning the spirit from the letter as that which may be without it and needs no consortship with it This is the work of the false deceitful Spirit the father of lies and is not of the Truth Now these being the Testimonies which from the beginning are commanded by God to be heard and obeyed no sooner was man created in Gods image and endued with an immortal intellectual rational and sensual soule made a free agent but God set them before him as a meet and capable subject to be made wise and happy in the practice of them The work of the one of them was immediatly written in his heart by the finger of God at his creation and the word of the other of them as soon as he was put into Paradise was sounding every wherein his eares and was exposed to the sight of his mind in the visible types and signes of the Sabbath the institution of marriage the tree of life and by the ministry of the holy angels Two things are recorded by Moses concerning the first make and constitution of being given unto man by God at his creation The first we find Gen. 1.26 27. where the counsel is taken by the blessed Trinity his creatours within themselvs saying Let us make man in our image after our likenes and let him have dominion over the visible creation and be fruitfull multiply and replenish the earth ruling over every living thing that moveth upon the earth So God created man in his owne image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them God is in his being the highest reason and the operation or work of his mind is discovered and made knowne by the word of his
is under from God as he is made in Gods image he hath an aptitude a strong bent lively inclination and disposition of mind to the right and just which is conteined in the law of God and wherein mans whole duty doth consist But because as hath bin said man is by nature not withstanding all this left at such a liberty as that he is not by any certain prevailing and overcomming power over and against whatsoever shall make resistance with held and restrained kept and bound fast to his duty at this door through the weakenes of the flesh sin entered and death by sin passed upon all men because in Adam the common parent all men had sinned This door unto sin is kept open so long as mans naturall freedom continues with him either as receaved at first before the fall or by way of restoration through the redeemers blood since which we shall speake unto in its proper place That which opens this door is mans owne lust as it is written Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his owne lust and enticed Thē when lust hath conceaved it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death The mind of God is above all temptatiō to evil The mind of man is not so though formed in Gods image whilst he is yet under the law and its dominion and hath not atteined unto nor bin brought under grace So long then as man lives in and will not part with his primitive natural fredom nor resign it through faith in exchang for a second gift of it from God in a better kind and way he is stil under the dominion of the law and not only accountable for the breaches of it and transgressions against it but under the inevitable condemning and revenging power thereof that wil first or last execute the curse threatned upon all evil doers But he that is under grace is become dead to the law being crucified with Christ or fastned and bound by the power of the death and cross of Christ with such a bent of mind and hatred against sin as nothing can alter or chang and is so quickned and made free and a live unto righteousnes as nothing can hinder the course and duration of it By this means the door of the mind is so fixed and fast shut against all sin as it is not in the power of the gates of hel ever to set or break it open more In the mind of man we are to acknowledg as hath bin already intimated two parts 1. the spirit of the mind the superiour and intellectual part equalizing man with angels 2dly the sensitive and inferiour part which abases man into the likenes and into a kind of equality with the Beasts and is indeed capable to make him a beast yea actually and that too generally does make men so This inferiour part of mans spirit is as the door of his mind the mouth or instrumēt of its cōverse inward or outward and in distinction from the first and superiour power the spirit of the mind is called in scripture flesh or the sensuall and living soule Hēce that of the Apostle Rom. 7.25 So then I myself with my mind do serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin So also our blessed saviour observing the fleshly drowsines of his disciples that they could not watch one hour with him at such a pinch of straits as he then was in the spirit says he is willing but the flesh is weak This was the lusting flesh in mā evē in paradise whilst in his innocēcy and through its weaknes was the door of the mind set open to let in temptation and sin For it is soon taken and deceaved and is weak in resisting evil And it is as soon weary of wel-doing if the way to persevere in weldoing be through the crosse and all kinds of streights hardships and disappointments unto the flesh even to this fleshly and sensual part of mans mind For no sooner does this come into activity and liberty by the conjunction and fellowship it is taken into with the intellectual and superiour part the spirit of the mind but it is apt to run wild fly out and grow untamed and extravagant as that which loves not to be accustomed to the yoke and held in subjection to the spirit of the mind as that is subjected to the law of God It is apt to judg itself wise enough to make its owne choice and to trust to its owne single judgment in all its actings And in case it be cross'd and not complied with by the dictates of right reason in its superiour part 't is apt to murmure and be sullenly rebellious so as to forbeare to do its office and duty to its head and Lord the spirit of the mind In order to bribe off and gain the consent and approbation of the superiour and ruling power of the mind to the way and course it desires to take it will invent many fair specious and plausible pretences make false representations of things fascinating appearances and mists to delude and blind the superiour discerning of the mind It will turne every stone to obteine its end spreading before the spirit of the mind flattering speeches as nets and bands to take and ensnare it as the strong man Samson was serv'd by his Dalilah This demeanour and practice of the woman the female and inferiour power of the mind towards its Lord and husband the superiour is most lively described by Solomon Eccles 7.26 I find sayes he more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands bands who so pleaseth God which without faith is impossible shall escape from her but the sinner shal be takē by her he that is a sinner through unbeleife The spirit of mans mind by refusing and resisting that offer and work of the spirit of God whereby it should be brought into a most free subjection and captivity to the law of faith becomes a sinner and so comes to be taken by the nets and snares the enticing words and pretences of its inferiour power and in downright tearmes at length to be wholly captivated and subjected under the usurped commanding influence of that sensuall life it ought to rule over This was the lusting flesh in Adam as also in Eve before the fall which the Serpent knew how to tempt and gratify And such did the weaknes of this flesh prove that it was not able to withstand or resist the temptation All that the serpent aim'd at was but to prevaile with this flesh to think itself so wise and sufficiently able to move and act by the strength and excellency of its owne single judgment as that it might safely undertake to doe what should be found most liking and agreable to its owne sense and refuse the
owne understanding as the best and surest way to keep their soules safe This understanding how subject it was to be wrought upon and to turn from the truth though fully convinc'd of it by the inticing power of the flesh or the sensual and inferiour faculties of mans mind hath bin already shewed Adams sin then was not only and meerly the transgression of the law but was mixed with somewhat an ignorant rejecting and contemning of the offer of the Gospel which was the only sure means to have translated him without sin at all intervening out of his righteous mutable state into an immutability in righteousnes But such is and was from the beginning the tender mercy and long-suffering of God our mediatour and Redeemer to Adam's posterity even in their fallen state that he not only renews and repeats to man his former gracious offer of Salvation through faith and the knowledg of himself in the Gospel but reveales over and besides this the means and way how through faith in his blood all mankind may be againe restored and obteine remission of sins All that will may returne againe by vertue of Christs death into that mutable state of righteousnes and holines lost in Adam as the common salvation and a forerunning dispensation to the gift of the son himself according to the promise And may it not reasonably be expected that from the experience of the general love and good will which Christ hath thus shewed in common towards all men that they should be easily prevailed with to give up their soules absolutely into his hands through that faith that is more precious then gold unchangable and never failing through the power whereof we are made more then conquerours over all enemies even through him that hath thus loved us with an unchangable and everlasting love For surely in this God hath greatly commended his love unto all mankind that when they were without strength Christ died for the ungodly or for all sinners whilst yet in their sins Much more then will the current of his love run towards us being once justified by his blood that through him we may be saved to the uttermost from the wrath to come For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life This was in effect the voice and doctrine of the Gospel which God himself preached to our first parents immediatly after their disobedience and at the very same time that he passed his righteous sentence against them for their sin Gen. 3.15 In this Scripture God promises the sending of his owne Son in the likenes of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh and make atonement by the sacrifice of it that the righteousnes of the law might be fulfilled in all those who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And most expressly and particularly is the Gospel as wel as the law preached by God to Cain Gen. 4.7 and in him to all mankind whether ever they reap the saving benefit by it or no as to life everlasting any more then he did To him it is that God sayes If thou doest wel shalt thou not be accepted Is there not a meanes sufficient and able to bring thee even thee back againe into reconciliation and acceptance with God through the ransom that is paid in Christs blood But if thou doest not wel sin lieth at the door that is to say the wages and punishment of sin And this yet is not all For if thou objectest what will it advantage me to have sins past remitted and the breach made up if there be yet no effectual remedy provided and afforded to prevent a relapse into sin more fatal and irrecoverable then the first fal and a provoking of God afresh by reason of the unsubjectednes that the flesh or sensual part of the soule is apt to fly out into and that prevailingly and finally against the restored and anew enlightned spirit of the mind as it fell out with man at first To this God answers it shall be subject to thee and thou shalt rule over it It shal be given againe into thy hand and power to subdue and bring under if the fault be not in thy self Why therefore art thou wrath and why is thy countenance fallen as if I were partiall in my dealing and that my wayes were not equall Q. But what is it does or can enable cain or any other man since the fall to doe the good God speaks to him of and avoid the evil he forbids as also to suffer according to the will of God and that patiently though for doing wel Answ Surely there are means provided in and by the Redeemer and the work of redemption given to him the promised seed to finish which hath a vertue and sufficiency to free and save all men from the evil danger and curse that is come upon them by Adams transgression and to restore them againe to their primitive state of purity and freedom if the fault be not in themselvs And when they are brought so far on their way againe towards the end for which they were at first created and since redeemed that is to say the inheritance of life eternal then is renewed unto them by Christ the offer of saving them to the uttermost past all danger of a relapse and of giving them that better fredom wherewith the son is willing to make them free indeed unchangably subjecting them to the leading and Rule of his spirit cohabiting in and with the heart that is regenerated making it thereby fit to receave and entertein him and bringing into it that state of life over which the second death hath no power Hence is it Christ is said to be the saviour of all men but especially of those that beleeve And his will is that prayer and giving of thanks be made for all men of all sorts and degrees from the highest to the lowest This is good and acceptable in his sight who is the God and saviour that gave himself a ransom for all men and who therefore will have all men to be saved as least so far as to come to the knowledg of the truth and have the offer of it in a state of free exercise of their will and arbitrary choice that according as they are prevailed with either to receave it in the love thereof or to reject it as a stone of stumbling and rock of offence hateful to them they may obtein eternal salvation or incur the pains of eternal damnation And yet those that are saved are to acknowledg and experience that it is of meer grace and not of themselvs nor of works least any man should boast But it is wrought by the faith that excludes boasting setting up such a workmanship or building in the heart of every true beleever whereby he is created in Christ Jesus unto good works that are before prepared and ordeined of God that they should
nor ever be sure of keeping the condition of that Covenant upon which God promises to be his God and to be and abide in loue and communion with him for ever And it is most unquestionable that the Lord will faithfully performe his promise and his oath the two immutable things wherein he cannot lie The only doubt is whether man in this first make and frame of mind be able to performe the duty required of him Every benefit requires answerable duty Gods bounty then to man in giving him his being creating him in his owne image and likenes must needs lay a strong obligation upon him to loue God with the love that he requires And if this love be made by God a necessary condition of mans obteining eternall life it is certainly possible for man to performe this condition even to loue the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength either in the power of what he hath or of what by the same gracious and liberall hand of God he may be made to have For an impossible condition is all one with a negative as if God should say that eternall life and blessednes is utterly impossible and altogether vnatteinable for man The nature of man is most drawne and commanded by love This is that which swayes and carries it in its motions after the object which it pursues Now the appearance which God gives of himself in his Son the image of the invisible God the brightnes of his glory and expresse character of his person is the most beautifull and desireable object that can come into the mind of man for his fruition and inheritance And he is not only lovely in himself but full of love to man He hath such love in him to mans nature as he hath not to any besides no not to the angels For he took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham which thereby came to be knit in personall union with the only begotten Son of God And yet farther the love of God in Christ towards men is most largly and liberally diffusive to the filling all those that doe become willing receavers and enterteiners of it with its owne fulnes and unsearchable riches of divine treasure shewing itself not in word only but in deed and in truth to all those that are taken into cohabitation with it as the habitable part of its earth The cords of this love are the cords of a man attracting by arguments exceedingly adaequate and suited to the reason and understanding of man Where lies then this great mystery that it should be impossible for man to continue in the love which God commands and declares as the law he is to observe and performe upon the severest penalties of his displeasure Is it not rather indeed a grosse mistake for any to thinke or say so And are we not rather to conclude and affirme that it was not only possible for man to have performed this great and comprehensive duty of continuing in the love of God which is the fulfilling of all law before his fall but is so still by such restoration of strength and ability as men doe receave by the vertue of Christs death and resurrection Man in his first creation was furnished with an ability to be his owne keeper in that righteous and good frame wherein he came fresh and lively out of Gods hands with which he girds himself and goes whithersoever he will He was created unto good workes that he should walke in them he had the enlightning and quickning influence of Gods spirit to assist and direct him therein Yea he was so intimately ioyn'd with the Lord the spirit in love likenes and agreement that it may truly be sayd his soule was as it were a part of his joyned and continued to him as the habitable part of his earth the temple which he built for himselfe to dwell in And must it not needs be very irksome and painfull to depart be cut of disioynted and separated by our iniquity from him that is our life But as man hath thus a righteous and reasonable soule which ought to be guided by the mind and law of his God so hath he also a power of girding and turning himself according to the free motion of his owne will He hath in his soule a changable principle which can move and conclude either way to good or evil according to the differing report and representation that is made to him by the one or other part of his mind that is his intellectuall or sensuall nature of both which he is composed as hath bin shewed So then according to the arguments given by these different parts of his composition on the one hand or on the other being furnished with a competent measure of divine light to discerne and conclude aright as to the way he should goe God leavs him so far forth in the hand of his owne counsell as to be at liberty to chuse and determine within himself as it shall seem best to him In this vnconstant and moveable estate of man this dividednes and wavering of mind inclinable to good and also to evill under the shew of good man being left free and without constraint what is it possible for him to doe can he love the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength and his neighbour as himself and can he continue so to doe unchangably and perpetually The answer very breifly may be 1. That it is possible for man to be perpetually moved in and by that love to God which is required by the law 2. It is possible for man considered either as before or since the fall to move himselfe in the performance of this his duty for a much longer continuance then he shews himself willing and inclinable to do it in his mutable state 3. It must reasonably be supposed that while man reteins such a changable principle and fountaine of action in him as the freedom of his owne will and to be in his owne keeping and at his owne dispose his obedience to Gods law and his walking with him must needs be as God him self complains at an all-adventures and without any stedfastnes in his Covenant But he that as single and at his owne dispose in the freedom of his owne will cannot keep himself firme and stedfast in the performance of his duty may so yeild himselfe to be bound up in the will and motion of another who is unchangable that he may be kept in the power thereof unmoveable and free from all danger of departing or turning aside to the right hand or to the left from the holy and streight way of Gods Commandements And this seeming bondage to the will of another is the truest greatest and most absolute freedome being that which falls to mans share as he comes to be actually united with Christ in the band of the choicest and most excellent marriage union We may then safely conclude that it was possible
law and Gospel still or rather the two Testaments that are in force with mankind by the death of the Testatour the Lord Jesus Christ By the first of these man is renewed and restored out of the fall and brought in some degree to the fruition and exercise of his first righteousnes and freedome of will in order to the making proof and triall of him once more And by the second of them he is regenerated and begotten of the immortall seed into an immutability in righteousnes and glory in a life that is from the dead uncapable ever to be lost or faile more These two Testimonies and Testaments of God are visible words inward spirituall words and lively oracles that create their owne suitable organs and vessells in the minds of men for their reception And there is an inward sight of them to be had by man as well as an outward hearing to which purpose it is sayd 1 Joh. 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you That which John saw heard and handled was from the beginning and was seen heard and handled from the foundation of the world at sundry times and in divers manners under former dispensations till at last the dark shadows of him vanished and the true light itself began to shine and dawne in his owne personal appearance first in the flesh and then afterwards in the Spirit There are therefore inward and spirituall senses whereby the man of God sees heares tasts savours and handles the word of God Such senses there must be because there is an inward as well as an outward man of the heart which must not want his due powers and faculties any more then the other For since the words themselvs are divine even words of spirit and life how can they be otherwise perceaved then by senses suited to their nature spirituall senses distinguished from those of the animalish outward man of the soule which is not at all skilled in that manner of knowing and discerning From the exercise of spirituall life and the senses thereof proceeds the spirituall tast savour and approbation of those divine words that are the significations of Gods will and law to us Unto such experienced men skilled in the words of truth we may appeale as to the true and full significancy of divine oracles which the disputer of this world in the perverse and presumptuous use of his naturall senses and understanding contradicts and blasphemes doe you not see this truth doe you not handle with your hands this Word of life do you not tast that the Lord is gracious This is the much more excellent way of understanding the Scriptures when after such a spirituall manner we relish handle se tast and have a share in what we know of the word of God as the Apostle prayes Phil. 1.9 For this I pray sayes he that your love may abound in knowledge and in all judgment or in every spirituall sense He that was from the beginning is Christ the living WORD of God the WORD wherein was life and that life the light of men even of every man that comes into the world He is the light of men in and under a threefold dispensation or manner of ministry He is the word of God God to men that makes with them either a conditionall and dissoluble Covenant or an absolute and everlasting Covenant that can never be dissolved The first of these is the word of the beginning by which God begins to make himself knowne and declare his will in his law to all men that law by which they must one day be judged The second is the word of the oath conteining a free promise to some and a gracious receaving of them into his love therein to abide for ever but a finall and judiciall rejection of others concerning whom he therein swears that they shall never enter into his Rest but be given up to the wayes that they have chosen and fixed in their owne delusions in the everlasting chains whereof he binds them up and reservs them with the fallen angels to the judgment of the great day This is that which is the end and consummation-work both wayes to all that have passed under the first Testament or conditionall Covenant Christ considered as he is the word of the beginning the author and minister of the conditional Covenant and of the life and quickning proper thereunto hath a comming forth in light and life unto men which is called his first appearance which he dispenses in the capacity of the promised seed pursuant to the manifestation of Gods will unto man in paradise immediatly after his fall He is therein declared the saviour and redeemer of man he by whom alone is remission of sins and all those that beleeve not on him shall perish in their sins For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernes so hath the father provided that the WORD made flesh be lifted up in the sight of all men and preached to them that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And God would have men know that he so loved the world as that he gave his only begotten Son to take and beare away their sins and lead them into the way of salvation in stead of condemning them upon the fall of our first parents as he might justly have done He then that beleevs in the Son of God is not or shall not be condemned But he that beleeveth not that is receavs not his word in the love thereof is condemned already because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Son of God The justice of such condemnation will shew itself in this that when this light is come into the world men have chosen and loved darknes better then light yea to discover the evill of their mind they hate the light and as neer as they can shun all appearance of it least they should be reproved thereby and convinced of their evill deeds and be converted and God should heale them But how is Christ the saviour and redeemer lifted up before the eyes of all men and how comes he with light into the world or into the mind of the naturall man who receavs not the things of the spirit of God but accounts them foolishnes Yea he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned and are therefore too deep for him to fathom too high and heavenly for him to reach being destitute of spirituall senses and discerning suitable thereunto By way of answer to this we must be carefull rightly to distinguish and divide the word of truth which as hath bin said hath a first voyce and the light of its first appearance as also a second voice and the brightnes of a second comming It is by means of the first voice and the light and life ministred in
and by the first Testament and conditionall Covenant that the spirit of the naturall man is enlightned quickned and wrought upon which is the very same that at first gave him his make and primitive being in Gods image and now by renewing it self and comming with healing and restoration in its wings mans flesh is made fresher then a childs and he returns to the dayes of his youth that is his first dayes of primitive purity This the naturall man receaves as the gift and effect of his bounty that is his Redeemer and Saviour who is so gracious as to say and that effectually deliver him from going downe to the pit I have found a ransome Job 33.24.25 But all this quickning and enlightning is but conditionall and may be lost againe though abundantly sufficient to make a full and compleat triall of him that receavs it in order to his finall salvation or damnation But for a second and fuller answer we are to know that this word of the beginning and voyce of Christs first appearance may and does come forth in a threefold light and workmanship upon the heart and spirit of the naturall man 1. In that which is a lampe and light in the mind a worke of the law or a conformity to Gods commandement conteined in his conditionall Covenant wrought in the heart and manifesting itself to the inward senses of the naturall mind by the ministry of angels with which Christ does enlighten more or lesse every one that comes into the world and in a more particular manner those that are without law or the knowledg of the Scriptures and written word of God This means of knowledge being by the providence of God with held from them so as that they are ignorant of what it speaks to other men that live under the sound thereof he is pleased to winke at and passe by the day of this ignorance neither will he proceed with them in judgment according to the things they know not but according to the things they know and have the tast and experience of within themselvs And these are the invisible things of God even his eternall power and Godhead the WORD by which all things were created and whose off-spring and likenes we are according to what we may feel in the inward man of our heart which was his workmanship created by him with a strong bent and living conformity unto righteousnes and true holines To this sort of men the WORD hath an inward voyce and way of teaching which speaks in them and makes them a rule unto themselvs in their hearing and obeying this inward operation of the word Their inward sight and hearing is truly and properly obeying which afterwards is perfected in outward action and practice Such hearers and doers of the law of God fulfilling the condition shal be justified and God will make good that word of his Covenant to them if thou doest well thou shalt be accepted and rewarded Concerning these though as to the outward man they be as yet in uncircumcision yet keeping the righteousnes of the law according to what they know it is said that their uncircumcision shal be counted for circumcision and the want of what they are ignorant of not imputed to them Rom. 2. These who by nature renewed by the Redeemer though yet unknowne to them according to the witnesse given of him in the written word approve themselvs faithfull to their light in exercising all good conscience to the fulfilling of the law shall condemne them who by the letter and forme of knowledg in the law are found transgressours of it when tried and judged by the rule they professe to live under The cheif thing that by way of caution and warning is to be sayd to this first sort of righteous men is this that they take heed to themselvs in this their slippery standing so as to continue under the hearing and teaching of this voyce of the Lord in that soft pliable and tender frame of heart in that humble meek and yeilding temper of spirit that does become the vessell of clay in the hand of the potter and the creature under the instructing word of the creatour the turning away and settled departure from which is eternall death For the Lord leaves it to the power will and choice of the naturall man when he comes to be thus renewed and enlightned by Christ whether he will hearken to what he has yet farther to say unto him or not according to those frequent expressions in the Scripture if ye be willing and obedient if ye refuse and rebell and againe whether they will hear or whether they will fobear So likewise John 7.17 If any man do his will he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God or he shall know more and more till at last he attein that knowledg wherein eternall life consists according to that of our saviour John 12. yet a little while is the light with you the light of his then personall appearance in the flesh walk while ye have the light lest darknes come upon you and you be as he that knows not whither he goes While ye have the light beleeve in the light that is be faithfull to it hear and obey it in the present voyce and teaching you are under and it will never leave leading you forward till it hath brought you to him or to that last and highest manifestation of the truth whereby ye shal be made children of the light or of the day even of that wisedome which is from above This sort of obedience is that of mans restored freewill by light from the inward word which is good and pleasing unto God till man be taught the way of hearing and obeying him more perfectly and after a more excellent manner in the way everlasting The disobedience also of man in this state is a free and voluntary act whereby he hardens his heart against the voice and calling of God and resists the holy Ghost in the worke of life and immortality which his office is to set up in every truly regenerate soule It is the whole duty of the naturall man to fear God and keep his commandements who will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill Unto this all promises and threatnings of God all temporall and Spirituall blessings do tend even to render man obedient to his God in hearing his voyce walking in his wayes and keeping his commandements This in effect is the maine scope both of the law and of the gospell And whatever we doe in way of obedience that falls short of walking unmoveably and universally in all the commandements of God with our whole heart how good or pleasing soever it may seeme to us it is not acceptable nor pleasing unto God Let no man therefore deceave his owne Soule or dissemble with God who searcheth and knoweth the hearts and the reins nor let any pretend inability or infirmity since he
is neer to every one of us upon whose name if we call he will save us from our sins and make our reconciliation once more with God if the fault be not in ourselvs Yea he will save us to the uttermost if we continue in our obedience and in a pliablenes of spirit to the voyce and words of his mouth that will be a sure guide to us till it have brought us into that kingdome of his that cannot be shaken These are the first sort of servants and subjects that may be found faithfull and obedient unto the word and command of God which was from the beginning These are they that feare God and work righteousnes by an inward teaching suited to the spirituall senses of the naturall mind which is the same with the light and law of pure nature Now of these some and those the greatest part by far being wholly left to their owne choice and in the hand of their owne counsell continue not in their obedience but perish through a hardnes and impenitency of heart in which they rebell against the encreasing measure of light with which the holy Ghost would enlighten them in order to the enlarging of their hearts to an entire and stedfast walking with God in that Covenant of his that cannot be dissolved But others of them through Gods free and peculiar preventing grace are withheld from so sinning against God and are layd hold on and apprehended by the son's comming into their soules and contracting a most intimate and inseperable marriage union with them fastning them to himself the rock af ages and cheif corner stone by whom their bow is made to abide in strength and their arms are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Thus of servants they do with the eunuch and centurion who were converted by Philips and Peters ministry of the outward word become Sons that are heirs according to the promise or else they are admitted immediatly to the fight of Christ in spirit as Paul was in his conversion unto which heavenly vision they prove not disobedient being taught not only to live in the Spirit but to walke after the Spirit This then that we have bin speaking of is the first light and workmanship that Christ in his first appearance may and does visit the sons and daughters of men with even those that are not yet brought to the knowledg of his voice in and by the holy Scriptures There is then a second degree of light and glory wherein Christ breakes forth in the workmanship of his Spirit upon the hearts and minds of men which compared with the first is a more excellent and neer approach to the sight of the Son himself testifying most particularly in what manner and at what time the WORD was to be made flesh and in that flesh to be crucified and die for our sins and to rise againe into a life wherein he was never to die more Now the voice of this word is from divine inspiration moving in the hearts and speaking by the mouth of Moses and other the Servants the Prophets of the Lord in the old Testament to John the Baptist and afterwards by the holy Evangelists and Apostles conteining the doctrine of both Covenants that of works and that of faith the law and the Gospell These divine words and oracles were committed to writing and preserved for the use of the Church from Moses his time downwards to this present day by Gods especiall and admirable providence called the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus They are not of any private interpretation but attended with the ministry of the holy Ghost in his various distributions and gifts dividing unto every one severally as himself pleases to the making the doctrine flowing from this word pure and converting the soule that also which is an enlightning of the eyes and a washing of the heart with clean water from its old sins it is profitable also for reproof correction and instruction in righteousnes to the making the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good word and work even such hearers of the word and doers of the work as prove blessed in their deed if the fault be not in themselvs in failing to performe the condition of the Covenant through that faith which excludes boasting and failes not This second sort of hearers and doers of the word are they that are alive unto God through Jesus Christ by hearing the voice of the living word in and through the ministry of the outward letter of the Scriptures testifying of Christ and of the work of redemption given to him by the father to finish and of his comming not by water only but by water and blood to the paying a ransome for our sins and for the planting of us into a likenes with him both in his death and resurrection Under this second dispensation which is the ministry of the outward and written word accompanied with the presence and power of the holy Ghost and his gifts there is a workmanship of Christ formed in and upon the heart consisting of severall degrees and growths up into him who is our head the good olive tree that is willing ready and able to receave us into himself as our spirituall root which bears us and fills us with the oile and fatnes that springs up from the same into every branch and member of his body considered either as his body is his living flesh ot as it is his flesh crucified 1. As it is the mannah and living bread that is the life of the world or of the worldly Church and enlightned naturall man that may eat and drinke in his presence at this his table and eat and drinke his flesh and blood to their owne damnation 2. There be those that feed upon the crucified flesh the carkasse or dead body of Christ out of whose weaknes comes strength and from whose crucifying comes that meat which perishes not but is bread that nourishes to eternall life Thus it is written Rom. 14. None of us that live liveth unto himself and none of us that die doe or ought to die unto our selvs But whether our faith be weake and low and our naturall ability to hear and obey active and strong in us or whether the work of our faith be strong and powerfull and our natural activity weak and low yea brought into the very grave with Christ the life or the death is not to be to ourselvs but to Christ In and with him must we live and in and with him must we die Whether then we live with Christ by faith as it is weak or whether we die with Christ by faith as the work of it in us is powerfull and strong we should live to the Lord and die to the Lord that so living and dying we may be found amongst the number of those that are the Lords For this end and to
primitive purity and the remission of sins past and this by a repentance from dead workes and a returning by faith unto the living God Moses began this ministry John Baptist continued or rather renewed it as the immediate fore-runner unto Christs comming in the flesh and Elias in spirit and power or the spirit and power of Elias that is yet to come as the latter raine of Christs first appearance shall cary on this work of restoration to its perfection and immutability in the hearts of Christs slaine witnesses and be as the fore-runner and bright morning-star that is to usher in the sun-shine of Christs second comming Then will Christ come forth in his owne person to celebrate publickly before the eyes of the whole creation the marriage of the lamb with his bride This latter Elias is he that must destroy that painted Jezebel which puts Naboth to death by the authority of Ahab Revel 2 20 22 the earthly lying spirit of the false righteousnes in the mouth of the false Prophets which by the secular power in all ages puts to death Naboth the spirit of true Prophesy in the mouths of Christs faithfull Servants by false witnesses to the treading downe and keeping under the true Prophets of God during the time times and half a time foretold by Daniel and the Apostle John And as this Elias must rectify the worship of God so must he set in order the man towards his neighbour He must turn the heart of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers putting an end to all differences betweene the spirituall fathers and their children and the spirits of the later Prophets shal be subject to the former Prophets For when this Elias comes he will untie all knots answer all objections and resolve all doubts In a word he wil bring back againe the whole man unto his God He will restore the naturall man to his right He will also prepare and point out the way unto the heavenly man for the obteining of his right He will recover all Edom to the house of Israel and the kingdom shal be the Lords Obadiah v. 21. And why should we doubt or despair but such a time there wil be when things which now are have long bin and will yet be more turn'd upside downe all out of order all confounded shal be restored and brought to right againe Have not all the Beasts had their reigne and shall not Christ have his Shall not his kingdom come and will be done in earth as it is in heaven unlesse we pray so without faith and hope Have we not a promise that there shal be times of refreshing from this heavenly presence and appearance of the Lord shall not a generall restitution of all things be the effect of such his appearance in the very dawnings thereof Were this to be mans work no doubt would be made of it O we of little faith shall we then doubt of it when God himself undertakes it the mighty God the Lord the Redeemer that is yet to come out of Zion to turn away iniquity from Jacob in a spirit and power that all must bow under and fall before Let us then upon whom the ends of the world are come lift up our heads in the sight of the neernesse of this redemption which is hastning apace upon us in despite of all the opposition that is can or shal be made against it This then is that which we are to understand by the restoration-work which God begets carries on and perfects by the ministry of the outward and written word as the handmaid and servant to the sons appearance himself in spirit It is that whereby man is first brought back againe to God and to himself in the exercise of his right judgment and freewill Then is he also ledd out of that into the love which he that hath dwells in God takes up his rest in the divine nature becomming the habitable part of the earth wherein the divine nature inthrones itself and dwells as in his temple and resting place This is the land of Emmanuel the true Israell's land the land of promise in the spirit the city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Christ himself being the cheif corner-stone thereof It is therefore the kingdom that cannot be shaken at the comming on thereof all that is moveable must be taken out of the way and give place He that is least in this kingdom is greater then John Baptist though he were greater then all the other prophets that went before him the meaning is in reference to this restoration-work which is the proper effect of John Baptists ministry through which Gods Covenant is repeated and renewed with man in the blood of the redeemer after which a breach between God and man is still in possibility and danger to happen and the spirit of man may be broken off from him with whom it had bin made one as a member of the same body For by the power of this restoring healing ministry of the first Covenant taking force by the death of Christ the Lord does create or make man againe of one mind one will and heart with him according to the law of the first creation which is throughout conditionall and may be made void through mans default as appears by what Paul and Barnabas speake to the contradicting and blaspheming jews Actor 13.46 It was necessary that the word of God should first have bin spoken to you but seing ye thrust it from you and judg yourselvs unworthy or shew yourselvs not desirous of eternal life lo we turn to the gentiles Oh how liable is the heart of man under this conditional Covenant though never so far advanc'd to be suddenly broken off againe from God by its hope and trust in the creature or in the uncertain riches that are either within us or without This the Apostle Paul well knew and therefore charg'd them that are rich in this world not to trust in the uncertainty of riches no not in the very inward riches of the heart as enriched with the restored mutable principles of righteousnes but in the living God the WORD that is in our heart and in our mouth in the person of Christ the enduring substance that never failes nor fades away Christ says wo be to the rich to wit that trust and put confidence in any the above-mentioned fading riches within man or without Againe he says Blessed are the poor in spirit who doe resigne the activity life and way of working righteousnes and worshipping God in the fading restored mutable principles of the first creation growing weak feeble and low in all such wayes even of doing well wherein man hath whereof to boast in order to a growing rich and strong in the Lord or in the new-creature life activity and way of worshipping God and working righteousnes in spirit and truth in the steady and unchangable principles of everlasting righteousnes We cannot serve two
for good And although this kind of life and union do lie hid and concealed as it may for a long time asleep in the vessell of the mind as Christ was in the ship when it was in danger to sink with the waves yet by it is the soule Kept and seperated to the Lord as Paul was from the womb notwithstanding which he walked as a Pharise nay as a persecutour of the true church till this seed of Gods love revealed itself in him This is the first degree of the new creatures hidden and concealed state and this foundation of God is sure for he knows who are sealed with this his living seal from the womb though neither as yet themselvs know it or any other but only the Father and the Son The second degree of new creature life arising from the immortall seed of Gods love sealed as yet and concealed in the heart of the beleever is as it yet lies undermost and at botome suffring Esau the elder brother to come out first into view It gives way to the restoration-work which puffs up the flesh in making the spirit of the naturall man full and rich in his first abilities of pure nature and exercise of his freewill Such a saint girds himself as peter had done when he went whithersoever he would He wil be a very active couragious follower of Christ whilst he works miracles and all the world runs after him yea he will promise faire also to goe even to prison and death with him but in the hour and power of darknes the faith he acts upon this bottome and all his other graces faile and abide not the triall unlesse the seed which lies undermost appear and shew forth its preserving overcomming and never failing power In this 3d state or degree of new creature life we are with the Corinthiaus such as are carnall and babes in Christ but cannot properly be addressed unto as spirituall Christians We are ready in this state with good Samuel to say of Eliab the elder brother surely the Lords anointed is before us in the restoration-work wrought by the spirit of Christ in our soules We are little aware that the true David the man after goes owne heart the inward man which feeds upon that which is not corruptible lies hid and is not yet seen as he is but under a veyle only and as through the lattesse In these true saving faith is but weak and low not knowne rightly to themselvs but upon grounds that may and will fail them A third state or degree of this new birth and new creature life is when upon being found triall-proof the love of God comes to spread itself abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost when the seed which is at the bottome and lies undermost works and removes out of the way him that lets every impediment and weight that presses downe It comes now to circumcise the foreskin of the flesh which is the cover and veile under which it hath layn so long hid bringing under and laying low the fleshly man in us teaching him subjection and shewing him that law by which the elder is to serve the yonger and come behind but no longer to lead the way or be preferred before him For the naturall man to come under this discipline is the great crosse which is so fiery and dreadfull to flesh and blood the cup which if it were possible every one would avoyd But 't is by this means that the naturall man is made subject and becomes a meet vessell for the use of his Lord. And now when we are thus in weaknes according to the flesh most low broken and crucified then are we strongest after the spirit and the work of faith springing up with vigour is fulfilled in us with power so comes it to be cleerly seen to ourselvs though yet very much hid as to others When it hath once rooted and grounded the inward man in this love it will diffuse the good ointment to the very shirts of the garment and cloath the beleever with change of raiment that as the soule is made all glorious within the outward man may be glorified also and Christ not only admired in the heart but glorified in and by the mouth of the same beleever which is the fourth degree of new creature life This fourth and last degree of the perfecting of the love of God in us is reserved to the day of Christs second appearance called also the day of the manifestation of the sons of God which we shall now in the next place enquire into and apply ourselvs to search after according to such discovery thereof as God hath bin pleased to make knowne By way of preparation to this enquiry let us take notice of what we find described and foretold of it by the Prophet Hosea chap. 6. v. 2 3. After two dayes he will revive us that is in the end of the second day In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Life from the dead and immortality shall be brought to light in us The day of Christs Kingdom in the spirit considered as the going forth of it is prepared as the morning which encreases more and more to a perfect day distinguishes itself into two distinct seasons It comes upon us and to us as the raine as the former and the latter rain upon the earth In the former it is a Kingdom of patience in the latter a kingdom of power The Kingdom of Christ in spirit is that stone which whosoever falls upon shal be broken to peices or they shall split and break themselvs in peeces that fal upon it whilst it is yet but the Kingdom of his patience in himself or his suffering servants who amidst all their sufferings in the flesh do remain in spirit true members of the Kingdom of the stone lively stones of Christs spirituall building abiding firme and unmoveable under all trialls of persecutiō and opposition But on whomsoever this stone or Kingdom of Christ shall fall in the day of its power when it becoms a mountain filling the whole earth it shall grind them to powder It will make them as the chaffe of the summer threshing floore which the wind of Gods just anger will so carry away that no place wil be found for them The beginning of the third day mention'd Hos 6. seems cleerly to be about the time of Christs ascension and day of Pentecost when the former rain of the spirit came downe or some few years after at the final ruin of Jerusalem and the jewish Kingdom To know the certain period of the second day and beginning of the third will much conduce to the better forming of our judgments as to the seasons of this Kingdom that are yet to come We may hereby also gain some sight into the two dayes that are past and the distinguished parts of time that the holy Ghost does intend and signify to us by those two former dayes By the
To the word of this Eliahs ministry in the hearts of beleevers the whole creation shal be obedient The heavens at their prayers will shut or open They shall do greater things on earth then ever yet have bin done by the power that Christ hath with the father which in this day he will begin visibly to set on work and exercise for the good of his people But the great question is when shall these things be Answer The signe of Christs comming is already spoken to in this ministry of Eliah which does immediatly goe before it And when this ministry comes and reveales itself in power as it must in the hearts of all the true Israel of God it will untie all the knots and difficulties that do yet remaine to be resolved concerning Christs second appearance and things to come But when may this second comming of Eliah be expected 1. After that Christ in spirit hath as signally bin rejected by the generation of Jews under the gospel which were surrogated and engraffed in the room of Abrahams naturall seed as he was by that Jewish nation which crucified him at Jerusalem And when accordingly they shall have openly declared it by the like severe proceedings against the true spirit of prophecy manifesting itself in Christs witnesses who by humane laws and bodily punishments wil be suppressed kept under and put to death as much as lies in man to do 2dly When this persecution and rejection of Christ in his members hath had its progresse and course with the preaching of the gospel itself during the six trumpets from the one end of the earth to the other which hath shined as lightning from the east to the west and when the gospel and obeyers of it shall meet with the sharpest brunt of opposition so as that the dead bodies of the witnesses shall not be suffered to be put in their graves during the last three years and half of this houre and power of darknes that is to come upon the church of Gods hidden ones the remnant of the womans seed that keep the commandments of God and faith of Jesus But they are nevertheles helped and much saved from the flood of their enemies malice by the like mistake as was that of Herod who slew all the children from two years old and upwards hoping amongst them to find the promised seed but failed The earth helps the woman The earthly Ierusalem with her inhabitants shall prove a skreene to the heavenly Mount Zion 3dly When the wise virgins as wel as the foolish shal be found in a deep sleep of security and think the worst past looking for nothing more but the comming of the bridegroom before it be yet midnight The witnesses of Christ wil be ready to make account that their 1260 years of suffering under the reigne of the beast is either expired or upon the very point of expiring and therefore begin to put off their sackcloth or lay it quite aside as taking for graunted that the time is come that sorrow and sighing are flowne away never to returne more But they will afterwards find themselvs deceaved and that they are but falling into the times of the three last years and halfe it being Gods usuall and accustomed method from the beginning to usher in any great exaltation of his saincts with some desperate extreamity and calamity immediatly foregoing And therefore till after the wise virgins sun be turned into darknes and the foolish virgins moon be turned into blood the BRIGHT MORNING STAR of Eliahs ministry comes not But then it does immediatly follow 4thly and lastly when Antichrist and all enemies of the witnesses of Christ shal be in the grearest peace unity and joy imaginable amongst themselvs at the beholding the dead bodies of the two prophets that tormented them that dwell upon the earth and shall cry peace peace as esteeming their mountaine to be made so strong that it can never be moved In one word When the sunshine of their prosperity peace and power is at the height and to their thinking impossible ever to set againe Let this suffice without proceeding farther to speak concerning the two other parts of this great day of Christs second comming which wil be dignified with his owne personall reigne on earth the THOVSAND YEERS of the FIRST RESURRECTION Then will he put an end to this very day of his owne Kingdom by his free and voluntary resigning it up into the hands of the father that God may be all in all Let me only adde this word that the visible reigne of these saints of the first RESURRECTION here on earth for a thousand years wil be in the new Jerusalem state that is to come downe from God out of heaven in a state of beatitude and glory partaking of the divine presence and vision of Christ their King in an immutable righteous state both of body and Soule distinguished from the state of the nations that shall walke in her light all the world over and be happy and glorious also but changeable THE END Mistakes in the printing Page 9. lin 36. for teams read tearms p. 21. l. 30. this r. his p. 41. l. 32. themselv r. themselvs and l. 33. trues r. true p. 43. l. 26. to as r. as to p. 70. l. 21. 3d r. 2d p. 83. l. 31. hasband r. husband p. 84. l. 29. contracted r. contracted p. 91. l. 3. tempestous r. tempestuous and l. 14. eujoy r enjoy p. 95. l. 40. powers r. power