it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
freehold of sin and when a man is once gone out of the flesh he is gone out of sins Territories out of sins Dominions and he loseth his sin by this means and that in a two-fold sense First sin cannot be charged upon him as you shall see the Apostle for it in the 7. Rom. So then it is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me Pray marke it Why not I But because I am gone out of the flesh I am gone out of the fleshly principle I do not own my self I have a being out of my self I have a being in the spirit and there can no guilt or sin follow me the avenger of blood cannot pursue him further then flesh for being in the spirit he hath got hold of the Horns of the Altar Wil you condemn the Son of God The heir of Glory Is Christ a Sinner Can the Son of God be under the wrath of God Why he is ceased to be in himself he is in Christ And then secondly Sin it cannot rule over him he loseth his sin that way He that is born of God keeps himself that the evil one toucheth him not he that abideth in him sinneth not and divers such places in the 1. Epistle of John for it is only the flesh that the Divill hath a title unto and that sinne hath a title unto sin hath title indeed to the Old Adam and to all the Sons of Old Adam as they are natural and as they are flesh and blood they are the slaves and vassals of Sin and Satan but the new creature he hath nothing to do withall It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God You may understand it this way also when the Devill comes to tempt a Saint that lives in the Spirit he doth as good as come and bid the Son of God to fall down and Worship him 2. As he loseth his sin by this means so he is set free from death by this means set free from condemnation the wrath of God cannot seize upon him This is my well beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased God cannot be displeased with his wel beloved Son When a man is once in Christ there is nothing issues out from God but love nothing but smiles and good words and good wishes this is the benefit of a man being in Christ of a man not being in himself of a man ceasing to be in the flesh he loseth his sin and doth escape death and judgment And therefore it is that this same Enoch here as a pledg to all other that walk in his steps he was translated that he should not see death it self because death is as it were an Emblem of the punishment of sin an Emblem I say for if the damned had no worse punishment then the death of the body it were no punishment but death hath a form of punishment therefore Enoch was translated that he should not see death because he was not that is he was not himself he was in Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life Yea a 3. benefit whatsoever tribulation a Christian is in he may rejoyce in it if he be not this is indeed the very sum of his comfort the summe of his happiness that whatsoever estate and condition he seems to be in outwardly yet he hath a retreating place in which he can look upon all these things that befall his flesh and can rejoyce in them and be above them when a man shal see that these afflictions that are upon him are for physick not for punishment he can withdraw from them all and he can be a Spectator of them and not suffer at all he is active in all he doth withdraw himself from under all it is true saith he this is upon my flesh but yet he doth possess and enjoy an other state and another life and another personallity in the Spirit he is in Christ and as I am in Christ there is no condemnation towards me I am sure there is nothing but love towards me this is the highest comfort that can be for a man to be able to withdraw himself from all sin and misery as if he had no part in it though it be upon him this is that the Holy Ghost speaks in the 91. Psalm 1. 2. it is spoken expresly there He that dwelleth in the secret place of the mosthigh shal abide under the shadow of the Almighty and that is he that dwells in the spirit this is fulfilled many times in the literall understanding of it that the Saints do escape when Common Calamities are in the world but there is a fulfilling this in the Spirit when the spiritual Being of a Beleever can stand and look upon his fleshly Being as if the sufferings thereof were not upon him but upon another person and this is the Experience of the Saints I am perswaded I speake to the Experience of some Saints And thus a Christian evades all shifts all charge sin upon him he shakes it off it doth not belong to him Lay afflictions upon him he escapes them all is indempnified not that a beleever doth therfore take boldness to sin because of this No there is none doth more abhorre Sin then this person I now speak of the discovery that God makes to such persons is directly contrary destructive to Sin Now the next thing is to shew The Meant you by what means God makes a Christian not to be himself and in himself and that is by God revealing another self within a Christian by this doth God put a Christian out of himself by substituting and revealing another self in that Christian What is that A Spiritual self that is God himself in Jesus Christ he becomes a new Principle in that same soul a Principle of life and of action a Principle of righteousness and of strength It may be thought to be done otherwise but we shall find though God carry the worke under another form and appearance yet this is indeed the vertue and power that doth the deed turns a man out of himself it is Gods discovery of himself to the soul we may think that God doth it by the Terrors of the Law as there when the Commandment came I died I through the Law am dead unto the Law c. Rom. 7. 9. we may think God doth it by discovering the vanity of our hearts and the weakness of our Principles for that they cannot make their party good with Sin but notwithstanding we are overcome all this is true but the soul is not carryed forth powerfully and effectually to part with it owne self till God doe pawn himself to the soul to be instead of himself till God say to the soul forsake thy self and I will be unto thee instead of thy self I will be thy Righteousness and thy strength I will be instead of the Law til then it is impossible that the soul should part with self and should not be So that it is
wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit and therefore as Christ saith we may be bold to say after him The flesh profits nothing if you only know Christ as dying and rising without you it wil profit you nothing unles you know him as dying rising within you Error in this is the root of the dead faith wherof the world is full This is the root of that formall profession of that form of godliness which men doe advance soe far in and glory so much of and shroud themselves under unto the persecuting of the power of godliness to the persecuting of the Spirit This setting up of the History of Christ being ignorant of the Mystery Any man is capable of remembring the story of Christ and telling and rehearsing it if he hath but common reason and can say as wel as another that Christ dyed for him and can throw himself upon Christ and hang upon Christ This is not Faith this is not Salvation We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile We know not how to shake off the pretenders and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternall life Through the ignorance of this truth we have counted it enough if a man hath had the knowledg of the Story of Christ and hath said he casts himselfe upon Christ for salvation But harken what James saith Faith without works is dead Harken what Paul saith Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death He doth not say that such a proposition of the Gospell did set him free He doth not say that the hearing that Christ dyed for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as there was the Law or Letter the outward Covenant is it that entailes life upon Jesus Christand his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed This is the Covenant that God made with Christ that he made with Abraham of old I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed Now then they that are of the seed of Christ are in this Covenant as al that were Abrahams seed were in that outward Covenant but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ and to be of the generation of Christ And do not thousands profess themselves so to be Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord and press to enter into Heaven We cannot put a difference between one or other except we know this truth for they say they are in the Covenant they say they are of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this They hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he dyed for their sins and rose for their Justification and this they beleeve and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veryest Hypocrite do so as wel as the truest Saint But here is that which puts a difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poore creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep This distinguishes them from the other So that if you lay your salvation upon an historicall Christ you wil be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him you must have the same eternall Spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice yea your selves and your own Righteousness This is true salvation Here is salvation manifested unto life But you wil say to me Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ Is it not a giving away from Christ And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us Solu To this I answer that it is no giving away from Christ at all for we make Christ to be all in all in this only we distinguish of Christ There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the witness the Covenant the common Person in whom our salvation is transacted as in a figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the reall salvation within us For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit but the Manifestation of God the coming forth of God and unto this must we attribute and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation this is the Savour of life unto life Of his own wil begat he us Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father This same Will of God brought forth is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit Christ Iesus is the outgoing of the Fathers Wil the Manifestation of the Fathers good Pleasure Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Beleever If you confine Christs dwelling to a locall Heaven you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be Christ dwels in thy heart if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit Christ is in thee for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Fathers Will and the Manifestation tion of the Fathers good pleasure this is Christ So that if we give to Sanctification we give to Christ For this is the Will of God even our Sanctification Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification But I desire a little further to examine that same before I let it pass it is said it is a giving to Sanctification and not to the blood of Christ I say no. For 1. I do not here take Sanctification as it is commonly taken as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit I know that our life lyes not in this or the other act or in any particular act Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit 2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit but to the Revelation of the Spirit There is the Revelation of the Spirit as wel as the Sanctification of the Spirit as the Apostle speaks Ephes 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation c. 3. There is the Spirit of grace as well as the grace of the Spirit and to this I give all and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus and so to him I give al and what do I give to the Spirit I give the Manifestation of salvation to life and that 's all 4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend
and person For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the truth So then you may observe these things out of the words 1. That Sanctification is a large notion in Scripture it s a large notion for the meaning of our Saviour speaking of his sanctifying himself and of his members being sanctified is not to defix the thoughts and apprehensions of the hearers unto that same grace that we commonly call Sanctification in distinction from Iustification but Sanctification is that in this place that comprehends the whole Mystery of God in a Saint which is called here by the name of Sanctification even as it is said By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified It were far from pure Divinity to understand them that are sanctified there to be meant of inherent Sanctification only or properly that is of the Grace of the Spirit working in us holiness but he hath perfected them that are sanctified that is them that are separated by the Fathers Love them that are called in time them that are led by the Spirit and so it may comprehend the whole Election and Vocation and Iustification and Sanctification and all and so we are said to be chosen through Sanctification of the Spirit But I shall not open these places any further 2. Next observe here are two Sanctifications here is a typicall Sanctification as I may so say and here is a real Sanctification Here is the Sanctification of Christ and here is the Sanctification of his members For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified I should be too long if I should observe all the particulars that the words wil afford and insist upon them therefore I shall pick out these two things only and the first I shal speak of but briefly and the second is that I do chiefly intend The First is this Doctr. That Jesus Christ's Sanctification or those Transactions of Christ in the flesh have not their ends in themselves but they have their end and fulfilling in us For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth That which is for anothers sake mark it or for the sake of another thing to be don that is not to be rested in it self but Jesus Christs Sanctification his dying and his rising it was for another things sake and therefore it is not to be rested in nor to be gloried in in it self For their sakes I sanctifie my self Jesus Christ is unto his seed as the First Adam was unto his seed He is a common Root and our salvation is transacted in him as in a Figure As our destruction was wrought in Adam as in a Figure As destruction and death did seize upon us all in a Figure in Adam so doth life and salvation await us all all the elect in Christ Jesus It doth descend upon them all as in a Figure for so the Apostle doth parralell the First Adam and the Second Adam together Rom. 5. where you may read it at large Now that I say these things were done in a Figure I wil give you my meaning of it thus and the proof of it also Adam lost all his by a Covenant and so Christ restores all his by a Covenant but we know that a Covenant although it doth give me a title in Law unto such or such an estate or commodity yet this same Covenant is not the very possession it self So this same Covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Coppy as it were and is the common person with whom it is made This Covenant gives our Faith the First Hold and First Title but it is not the very possession it self In possession the salvation it self is wrought or rather revealed in us As we do not inherit sin and death from the first Adam meerly by Covenant in which we were involved but we participate of the nature of Adam and we so come to have an evil conscience we have the very same Nature that Adam had and the same trembling conscience that Adam had so in this case we have the very Death and Life of the Lord Jesus working in us So that you see the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are not to be gloried in in themselves or as they rest in the man Christ Jesus but we are to wait for the like things to be translated in us and upon us and that is the next thing I come unto Doct. 2 For their sakes I sanctify my self that they might be sanctifyed through the Truth This is that the Apostle saith Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes c Where he shews what the Truth is in Iesus even the putting off the old man and the putting on the new man which is created c. This is the Truth this is the work in the Spirit done in every Beleever conforme to that work wrought in Christ in the flesh This is our sanctifying through the Truth and so you have the Apostle holding forth the Saints suffering from Christs example as the Ministration or Token of their salvation 1 Pet. 2. 21. Even hereunto were ye called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. Mark ye Iesus Christ is our example Christ in the flesh and what was done in him in a visible way in the flesh that is wrought in us in an invisible way in the spirit and t is said 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arme our selves with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Mark it here The Apostle doth not say we have ceased from sin by Christs suffering in the flesh for us but be doth admonish us here of a personal suffering if we would cease from sin What this same suffering in the flesh is I shall tell you in a few words It is to have our life in the flesh extinguisht that as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me It is to know nothing by our selves This is to suffer in the flesh as the Apostle says I know nothing by myself He did not act at all to be dead unto the Law and to be dead in our first relation unto God this is the suffering in the flesh We are first in the relation of Mercenaries by the Covenant of Works and have a kind of stock of our own to trade withall Now to suffer in the flesh is to cast awaythi same confidence of our own to to despair of our abillities and to see our selvs able to do nothing For while we are in the flesh the motions of sin which are by the law do work in our
mēbers to bring forthfruit unto death Rom. 7. I will give you one more Scripture to prove this and that is Eph. 1. 17. where the Apostle prays thus for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understandings being inlightened that ye may see what is the hope of his calling And at the 19. verse That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead Pray mark it The Apostle doth directly and expresly assert that there is the working of the same mighty power in Beleevers that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead And the Apostle Rom. 8. saith in general That as many as God did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son That is God did predestinate them to be carryed on the same way that Christ was and so the same things to be done in them that were done in him Object There is only one Objection that I shal answer before I come to the Application of the point and that is in Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ Here lyes the Objection if so be we are circumcised in Christ If all Beleevers are circumcised in him at once as this Scripture seems to hold forth by the putting off of that same body of his by that very circumcision of his Why then you will say our Sanctification tarries not for the appearance of the like things in us I confess this Objection lies plain in appearance against what hath been spoken But I shall answer to you thus and shew you how we are circumcised in Christ by his circumcision and how it is that notwithstanding we are actually and personally circumcised by the circumcision of the Spirit and by reall circumcision 1. First then we are circumcised in Christ foederally as in our root and common person we are unto God circumcised in Christ as in a Figure Pray mark it it is I say as in a Figure for thus we are to look upon Jesus Christ not as one that came to excuse the Old man from dying or to set us up in a state of salvation without working any thing within us Nay he came to reveal the Kingdom of God within us and to set it up within us but he first gave us a pattern of the Kingdom and first transacted all our salvation in a Figure before he transacted it within us by the Spirit and this transacting our salvation without us in a Figure bears its use and proportion towards the effecting of the work of Sanctification within us by the Spirit For thus God hath hereby caught us by guil as I may so speak even as when we stood in Adam Adam falling cast us all down So now God he comes and reveals a second Adam and this same second Adam God sets up as our common root representing us all and this is that Covenant that God proclaims from heaven Look what is the fat◠of the second Adam that shal be the fate of all the seed if he stand al shal stand if he fal they shal al fal Now Iesus Christ comes stands in our stead and was made under the Law and he dyes and suffers goes away in the flesh suffers in the flesh and is not overcome of death or Hell or the pains of death but rises again Here 's our salvation transacted in a Figure and set before us As it did fare with Christ so it shall fare with us we shall as certainly come to glory as he did Here is the Type here is the Original Pattern here is the fore-runner here is the draught or copy of the Covenant written in broad Characters upon the person of Iesus Christ This is the use of Christs dying and suffering and sanctifying himself and so we are said to be sanctifyed in him as our root representing us What proportion this bears to the transacting of our salvation within us is this Hereby we are brought to God hereby our weak hands are lifted up and our feeble knees are strengthned Hereby we are caught as it were with guil and God doth hold forth our salvation as in a Parable to us But if so be the work rest here let us suppose an impossibility we are but in an ill condition if we be not circumcised also together with Christ really by the spirit as well as circumcised in Christ foederally and typically and representatively it wil go but ill with us We may see what is to be done by looking upon the History of Christ but til we find the same things done in us in the mystery in some measure we can have little comfort We may see the end of the Lord with us even the same end he made with Christ Jesus but we must follow his steps also as the Apostle Peter saith He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1. Now the use I shall make of this is to confirm that Doctrine I have formerly delivered to you that Doctrine that needs confirming again and that need be whetted upon us because we are exceeeding dull of hearing spirituall truths the Doctrine is this namely That the whole History of Christ wil profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find experimentally the same things done in you by the Spirit I desire to commend this Doctrine to you again and again That the History of the Gospell is but a Parable as it were that holds forth to us the story of things done and not only so but holds forth a glass of things to be done by the spirit within us I beseech you therefore be not offended when as we say that Christ according to the History of him only and according to his Ministration in the flesh is but a form in which God doth appear to us and in which God doth give us a Map of our salvation Thou knowest it not to be thy reall salvation except it be revealed within thee in the Spirit Jesus Christ is called the Image of the Invisible God God comes forth to be seen in the flesh of Christ as in an Image as in a Representation it is not the naked appearance of God but it is an Image of God Now we know the Image serves in the absence of the lively face of the living Person and so do all these same transactions of Jesus Christ they serve untill the Kingdome of God be come to us in the Spirit A Map serves untill a man knows the Country and so do these same Transactions of Iesus Christ they serve as constant Monuments unto us Monuments I say and Pillars and Memorials and Types of that same salvation that is to be