mixture in Christ I shall give 3 Answers to this Objection 1. A Concession 2. A Distinction 3. An Application 1. Answ. A Concession It is true Contrary things are spoken of Jesus Christ in this point We read I judge no man Moses in whom you trust he judgeth you The Son of Man came not to dâ—stroy Men's Lives but to save them The Work for which Christ came is a Work of Love of Light of Life not a Work of Wrath and Death Jesus Christ came to destroy the Works of the Devil The Devil Is a Lyar and a Murtherer from the Beginning He is the Serpent the Seed of Enmity The Deceit of Sin Death Wrath are the Devil's Work Jesus cometh full of Grace and Truth like the Sun full of sweet Light and influences of Life to destroy the Deceits to scatter into Nothing the Clouds and black Shades of Sin of Death of Wrath to make all a clear and Lovely Sky over our heads a Green and Flowry Earth under out Feet O the Delightfulness of Christ's Person and of his Appearance We read again I came not to send Peace but a Sword I came to Kindle a Fire The Lord Iesus shall come in a Flame of Fire to render vengeance to all those who know not God and who have not believed our Gospel 2 Thessal v. 8. O the Dreadfulness of the Lord Jesus and of his Appearance 2. Answ. A Distinction 2 Corin. 3. 13. You have Moses brought in with a Vail upon his Face You have the Effect of this Vail There is a Blindness upon the Minds upon the Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Jews The Children of Israel cannot see to the End of that which is to be done away They cannot see thorow beyond the Shadowy Glory of the Vail to be taken off to the Naked Glory of the Heavenly Face which liveth and is the same for ever v. 13. 14. There is the Interpetation of the Vail The Vail upon the Face of Moses is a Vail upon the Hearts of the Israelites v. 15. The Vail is removed by the Turning of the heart to the Person of Christ v. 16. The Person of Christ and the Removal of the Vail are Both described v. 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty The Lord Jesusâ— in Glory is a Spirit the Eternal Spirit The Person of Christ was ever a Spirit the Spirit the same Yesterday to Day and for ever even in that Day when he was made Flesh in his humane Nature this Spirit carrieth Liberty along with It as the Sun doth the Light of the Day This Liberty of the Spirit answereth to that Removal of the Vail in the verse before The Vail shall be taken away It is significant Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be taken away quite all round about on every side from off the Whole Image of things from off the Whole Person of Christ from off the Whole Heart the Compleat Person of the Lord Jesus in his Supream Glory as the Supreme Spirit shall shine entirely in the whole Image of things in the whole heart in every Part in every Point of Both. The Close of all is the Blessed Effect of the Removal of the Vail of the Free and full Appearance of this Spirit the Lord Jesus A Liberty of Sight A Liberty of Growth a Liberty of Union and Divine Communion A Saint looketh forth with Opâ—n Face with an Open Eye in the Naked Glory of the Spiritual Man having cast the Vail entirely off He seeth the Glory of the Lord in the Naked Beauties of the Spirit himself compleatly unvailed He seeth this Glory in the Unity of the same Spirit as in a Looking-Glass where Face answereth Face where one is seen as the Dear Image and Reflection of the other A Saint in the same moment seeth and is changed into the Image which he seeth as by one Spirit at once working Both. The Lord the same Spirit in its Unity is the Root the Eye the Life the Light the Looking-Glass the Glorious Face in the Looking-Glass to a Saint Where this Spirit is there is Liberty in that Heart The Vail is taken off from it when the Spirit existeth and appeareth in it There the Lord Jesus and a Saint see each other grow up together in one Glory We all with open face as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or by the Lord the Spirit By this time I believe you see the Distinction which I aim at Jesus Christ with the Vail upon his Face is Mâ—ses Mâ—ses unvailed is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ to the Vailed heart is Moses still Moses to the Naked heart is the same Jesus from the Beginning The Appearance of Jesus Christ according to the Letter after the Flesh is Christ with a Vail upon his Face casting a Vail upon the heart The Appearance of Jesus Christ as the Spirit the Lord of Glory is Christ with his Vail cast off taking the Vail off from the Heart that Both may meet see embrace each other Nakedly Immediately at Liberty in the Open Light of their Eternal Loves and Beauties 3. Answ. Applications 1. Application Fear the Wrath of the Lamb. There is a Day in which the Kings of the Earth Great Men Captains of Thousands shall cry to the Rocks and to the Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the Wrath of the Lamb. When the Great Day of his Wrath cometh who is able to stand Rev. 6. v. 16 17 18. Revel 5. 6. 8. You read of a Lamb who had bin slain standing in the midst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the 24. Elders having seven Eyes and seven Horns which were the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth Behold the Lord Jesus risen from the Dead He standeth in the mâ—dst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the four and Twenty Elders He is the Center of All Glories He filleth All He uniteth All and Compleateth All in his own Person the Uncreated Glories of the God-Head the Four-fold Fountain Glories of the Uncreated and Created Natures in Union The Manifold and Multiplyed Glories of Those Fountains in the Person of every Saint from the Beginning to the End of things having his Crown upon his Head the Universal Kingdom of all Glories in himself with which Kingdom he standeth out of the Person and in the Person of the Lord Jesus which Mysteriously and Divinely involveth and unfoldeth all in itself For this reason they cast down their Crowns at his Feâ—t This Jesus uniteth all States in himself from the highest the Sweetest Light of Life to the Darkest most Dismal Deep of Death For he standeth in the midst of these Glories as having bin slain shewing all the Bloody Baleful Forms of Death in the Triumph of Eternal Life This
3. 11. St. Paul tell us that Iesus Christ is the Foundation and v. 12. If any Man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver Precious Stones Hay Stubble then saith He. v. 13. Every Mans work shall be made manifest it shall be revealed by Fire Let thy God be laid in thy Heart as the Foundation of thy Joy He is a Living Rock a Living Corner-Stone If thou resign thy self to Him and rest on Him He will grow up unto a Building of Pleasure and Glory in thee Living Precious Stones of all Joys and Beauties will spring up out of Him But take thou heed of laying on any Thing thy self upon this Rock For whatever it be though it be not Hay and Stubble only but Gold and Precious Stones though it should be the Immortal Excellencies of Angels the Glory of the First Image in Nature the Beauties of the Earthly Paradise This Rock of the God-Head will be as an Irresistible Fire at the Bottom of them breaking forth upon them and Devouring them Then thine own Person may be saved because it is Rooted in the Rock and hath the Foundation of the Lord in it which abides Sure But this will be as by Fire Thou must pass thorow the Fire in which thou shalt leave all thy Joys behind thee which have been thy Super-structures and Additionals upon the Foundation Thy Person alone shall escape naked out of the Fire having nothing left but the naked Foundation or the Rock for a Clothing to it St. John saith He that dwells in love dwells in God So far as you dwell in anything of the Creature you dwell under the Vail in the Fire under the Law under an Administration of Wrath and Death you cannot be free from Trouble and Torment Death will feed upon you Dwell Nakedly in God and you dwell Entirely in Love Let a Naked God dwell in you and as you take in a Naked God you take in Naked Love into your Souls Thus much for the Second Motive 3. Motive Close with God in the Abstractedness of his own Being as he is unclothed of all the Creatures and you close with Eternal Life itself where there is no more any Death See how David Rejoyceth Psal. 18. 46. The Lord lives and Blessed be my Râ—â—k David look'd off from all other Things and turned his Eyes upon the Lord alone In the Lord he sees Life and this is his Life He considers nothing Transitory or Moveable His Rock is alone in all his Thoughts He Blesseth his Rock He triumpheth in the Blessedness of his Rock And this is his Blessedness Follow Davids Example and thy Heart shall live while there is Life in God Say my Friends and my Body may die my Graces and my Comforts may wither but the Lord lives I may be miserable the whole World may be miserable round about me but Blessed be my Rock There I see and find a Life in the midst of Death and Blessedness in a Heap of Miseries The Lord lives Truly all other Things below Him are Dead and have only a Shadow of life The Lord lives Eternally He hath no End of Days no Change of Life or Shadow of Change The Lord lives Universally He lives in all Things He comprehends all Lives in Himself He gives a Life to all Things in Himself All Things live to God Luk. 20. 38. If thou look to or for an thing below or besides God thou shalt certainly find it in the Region of the Shadow of Death and Death feeding upon it with his Iron Teeth of Divisions Distractions Cares Changes and Griefs Look into the Book of this World and thou shalt find it a Book of Death where thou shalt see every thing Dead or Dying Betraying thee to Death and Amazing thee with the Fear of Death Look into thine own Heart and thou shalt find that a Book of Death and Hell fill'd with Darkness Guilt Fear Torment The best things there thy Graces are written with Black and Bloody Letters in much Obscurity hard to be discerned in much Impurity having little Life of Comfort in them But if thou wilt look into the Person and Nature of God thou shalt see the Book of Life opened to thee God is that Book of Life in which thou shalt see thy Self and all Things Written with the Beams of the Light of Life Here thou shalt neither read nor hear no more sad Stories of Death Thou shalt see Death itself Shining in the Light of Life God is a Bright and the Last Darkness The Darkness of Death itself is swallowed up into Life and Immortality in Him O Death I will be thy Death Live only to God and upon God Consider nothing but Him only So shall thy Joy alwaies be as Life from the Dead as the Joy of Harvest I mean that Heavenly Harvest the Resurrection 4. Motive Pitch thy Spirit upon the Single Person of God so thou shalt fall into an Infiniteness of Satisfaction This is the Advice of David Psalm 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Hearts Desire The Desires of man are Infiniteness budding forth from its Seed in the Soul These Desires are ever in Motion and Restless till they put forth into Infiniteness itself All the Creatures are too Strait and Narrow for them They are Unquiet while they are contained within the Compass of any Creature because every Creature is Finite They beat against the sides of it till they break thorow it into the Innfiniteness of God Make God thy Delight and there is nothing which thou canst think of or wish for but thou shalt have it in him In God thou shalt meet with thy Self in any State or Form in all States or Forms which thou canst desire at once In God thou shalt meet with whatever thou hast Enjoyed and wouldst fain Enjoy again with whatever Enjoyment thou hast fallen short of and longest for If there be Loss Shame Grief or Evil which thou wouldst fain have abolished and to be as if it never had been If thou wouldst have any Time past brought back again any Good or Content which hath been defac'd or stained renew'd thou shalt have this Abolishment of what thou wilt this Restitution of what thou wilt in God For He will give thee thy Hearts Desires God is All if he be Alone As He is in Himself He is Infinite If you add any Thing to Him or take Him cloath'd with any thing of the Creature you make Him Finite and so loose Him quite It is a Joy from the Creature which is a Confined Joy If thy Joy be purely from God if it be from an Un-compounded Cause it will be an Un-confined Joy Search then if thy Griefs encrease as thou appliest Spiritual Comforts to them thou then dost but take something of God as a New piece of Cloth and sowest that to the Old Garment of the Flesh and Creature in thee so the Rent becomes worse For if thou think to patch up that which is Thine
not the Darkness of Death itself The Grave shines to them as Heaven and shews the same Spirit Life and Glory to their eyes This is the work of the Power of God which makes Light from above and darkness from below to meet and kiss and like the Man and the Woman to bear One Image to become One Light Jesus Christ Mark 14. 35. prayed to his Father That if it were possible that hour might pass from him At the 36th verse he tells his Father that All things were possible to him Then it was possible to the Father that That hour should pass away from him And so his Prayer was absolutely for it Other Scriptures tell us that God alwaies heard his Son and denyed him no thing and that he was heard in that which he feared Then it follows that That Dreadful Hour did pass away from Jesus Christ though it did not pass away Thâ—s was the Comfort of Christ that Power of God which could reconcile two which were contradictions that the sad Hour should pass away in not passing away 2. Secondly The Power of God can call back Time that is past and make it to be present again Heb. 13. 8. You read of Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever The Lord Jesus is the Fulness the Image and the shining out of the God-Head They are the Puttings forth and Discoveries of Jesus Christ which make all Times Ages and States Jesus Christ hath to day the same Powers and Appearances in himself which being sent forth made yesterday They are only drawn in If then he please to day to put forth the same Appearances to thee or pull thee into them he can make yesterday present to day When he shall open himself fully to thee from the Beginning to the End then he will make the Sun to stand still over thy head he will make all Times past to stand forth as at the first and to stand still before thee eternally For he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Rev. 20. 12. We read that at the Resurrection the Books were opened Time is as a Book which Life opens and Death shuts Daies and years passing are as the turning over of the Leaves of this Book Whatever God doth he doth it for ever saith Solomon in Ecclesiastes Whatever is written in this Book is never to be blotted out but remains there to be read to eternity If any Leaf or Line were pleasant to thee and thou mournest because it is turn'd over and past God can at his pleasure turn that leaf or line back to thee again 3. The Power of God can make things which have been and which have ceased to be to be again It is a sweet spiritual and deep discourse that which is between the Lord and Martha concerning Lazarus Ioh. 11. 23. Jesus saith unto her Thy Brother shall risâ— again V. 24. Martha saith unto him I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day V. 25. Iesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life Jesus Christ is the Power the Treasury of God from which all things are brought forth in which they are laid up again and ever to be found The Person of Christ is the Life and the Resurrection while things are they are in him as in their Root When they are no more in themselves they are still in him as in a Repository They return into him as the beauty of dying Flowers into their Root to come forth again at Spring in a better manner The Person of the Lord Jesus is the Life This world is but as the shadowy Image in the Glass or Water All things have their truest and standing Life in him The Lord Jesus is the Resurrection For when he discovers himself to us then we see all things again in a full high immortal manner Hast thou lost any comfort by Death or any other change in this world do but look with a Spiritual Eye upon the Spiritual Person of thy Dear Saviour there thou shalt see thy comforts still living For he is the Life Nay thou shalt see them living immortally never to dye more For he is the Resurrection Thou shalt see them and enjoy them substantially satisfactorily without fear of losing them For that which thou seest in him is not a Shadowy Image but the Life it self 4. Spring Wisdom The Wisdom of God rightly understood is a Fountain of Peace and Pleasures which will flow perpetually into the heart of man Two Scriptures testifie of this Wisdom 1 Scripture Eph. 1. 11. This Scripture speaketh of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will These words hold forth four things 1. A Workman 2. The Latitude of his Workings 3. The Pattern 4. The Original of that Pattern 1. The Workman This is God who worketh The chief Agent the Master-wheel in all Motions is the God-Head Learned Men say that if the Heavens should stand still all Things here below would be immediately at a stand as in the Aegyptian Darkness It is most true of the Trinity which moves and makes and works all things by the Movings of that Life which it hath in itself If the Trinity should stop in the course of its mutual Communion and Enjoyments This stop would be a Spoke set in the Wheel of the Creation nothing could stir any more 2. The Latitude of his Workings God worketh all Things God worketh all Things Collectively in the General and whole Sum. God worketh all things Distributively in Particulars The Earth is the Lords Work and the Fulness thereof Psal. 24. 1. There is no time nor any minute or moment of Time which is not fashioned and carried on by God My times are in thine Hand Saith the Psalmist Psal. 31. 15. There is no Affair nor the the least Circumstance of any Affair be it good or evil which is not the Work and the gift of God Shall we receive Good and not Evil from the Hand of God saith Job Job 2. 10. God rides upon the Circuit of the Heavens Psal. 68. 4. So he is the Universal Cause of Things God also fills All in All Ephes. 1. 23. So He descends into the Lowest Relations the narrowest Compass and becomes every where the most Particular Cause of every Thing God saith of the Tree in the Prophet for the Clusters sake Spare it there is a Blessing in it So mayst thou say of any Thing whatever it be great or small for which thou mournest or frettest Spare thy self There is a Blessing for there is a God in this Thing God is not only a Concurrent cause working his Part and leaving to other Causes their Parts apart But he is a Comprehensive Cause uniting all in himself and spreading himself thorow all 1 Corin. 8. 6. There is One God who worketh all in all Wherever there is any Agent that works God works all in that Agent Wherever there is any Form of working God works all in that Form
Weights in the Ballance of our Judgment 1. Observation Nothing comes to pass but that which is best David saith It was good for me that I was afflicted Psal. 119. 71. Goodness is made up of all Perfections Evil by any one Defect Affliction had not been good for David if it had not been Best If it had kept out any thing that might have been better for him it had been an Evil to him Rom. 8. All things work together for the good of those that love God Where all things work together for good there all things are like Stones in an Arch in which every Stone is absolutely necessary If you pull any one out of its place the whole Arch falls Where many things fall into Conspiracy or Harmony for good there the Stops and Shakes make the Musick as well as the Stroaks and Sounds there every thing is Best For the Alteration of any thing alters the Harmony If all things work together for good than each Particular thing with all the Circumstances and Defects of it 2. Observation Nothing falls out but in the best time Eccles. 3. 11. We learn that God hath made every thing Beautiful in its Season Every thing is brought forth by God in the Season of its beauty so that you may say This Time and this Thing were fitted one for another from Eternity The Jews say that Souls were match't and pair'd in Heaven and that Marriages prove happy on Earth when they were first made in Heaven when a Soul meets with its first Mate God hath from Eternity match't every Thing to its Time And every Thing meets fully with the same Time on Earth So it proves a Lovely and Glorious Marriage Psal. 1. 3. A good man is compared to a Tree that brings forth his Fruit in its Season The good God doth so much more He brings forth all the Fruits of his Providence whether they be Bitter or Sweet in their proper Season in that Season in which they have a true and full Beauty Good and Evil never befal us but in their own Season when they are Natural kindly and Beautiful If a good should happen to thee in the Time of an Evil or an Evil in the Time of a Good it were like the Stars seen at Noon and the Sun at midnight which would be a matter of Terrour and astonishment to Mankind arguing Disorder in Nature and presaging Confusions to the world 3. Observation Nothing is brought about but in the best manner The Jews witnessed of Christ that he had done all things well not only good for the Matter but also well for the Manner There are Three Things which commend a Diamond 1. The Goodness of the Stone 2. The well-setting 3. The well-cutting of it Every Providence of God towards thee is such a Diamond It is Best in itself It is well-set in the best Season and State of Things It is well-cut all the Circumstances are ordered and polish't with the best skill like Points of the Diamond to sparkle forth most Sweetness and Beauty All His ways are Judgment Every way of God in each Circumstance of every work is scan'd and judg'd and so disposed in the most Judicious manner Not a Mote or a Hair in any business falls casually or lies neglected but is weighed in Judgment and ordered with the highest skill and care Never then repine more or say if it had not been This or Then or Thus I could have born it For now thou sinnest against the Wisdom of God which hath ordered and appointed all these Three This Then and Thus So that This was Best Then it was most Beautiful and Thus it was the greatest Blessing I will conclude this Particular with that of Solomon in the Proverbs Prov. 3. 17. All the ways of wisdom are Peace and all her Paths are Pleasantness This is true Two ways First all the goings forth of Wisdom in thy Spirit are Peaceful and Pleasant If Wisdom enlighten thy way and lead thee forth into all things by the Beams of her Discoveries as the Path of thy Spirit then all the Out-goings of thy soul into Things and all the Appearances of Things to thy Soul will be like a Sweet Tune or Pleasant Dance Secondly all the goings forth of God in his Wisdom are Paths of Peace and Pleasantness No providences would be a Labyrinth or Wilderness to a man to bring him to a loss if he travelled thorow them with that Thread of Light with which God went forth into them Do but go by the Foot-steps of God and track his Wisdom in the world and you shall walk continually in a Smooth and quiet Path in a Path of Rest and Joy even thorow the Darkest Thickets I have spoken of the Fourth Spring of Joy in God His Wisdom Now let us pass to the next 5. Spring The Glory of God Psal. 8. 1. David breaks forth into Admiration O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth Who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Divines distinguish the Glory of God into Essential and Manifestative The Essential Glory of God is that which shines Eternally in the Person and Nature of God This Beauty is the God-Head's Self in the Image which is Jesus Christ. But I am not now to speak of this For I spake of this Glory before in the Second Spring the Beauty of God The Manifestative Glory of God is that which he holds forth to us in the Creature David speaks of the Essential Glory of God when he saith that God hath set his Glory above the Heavens No creature can bring forth or bear the Essential Glory of God It is above the highest the most heavenly creature in respect to its Excellency or Capacity David speaks of the Manifestative Glory of God in those words How excellent is thy Name in all the Earth The Name is the Image of God the Appearance or Manifestation of his Glory This Name of God is in All the Earth in the lowest part or state of the creature and every thing of it The Name of God is Excellent to Admiration in all the Earth What a Foundation is this to build Joy upon in every condition Thou canst not be so low in the Earth but thou mayest read the Name of God and see his Glory in thy lowest state Look then upon thy greatest Loss or Cross and say My God how excellent is thy Name in This also The Death of my friend mine own grief shall be precious in mine eyes because they are the manifestations of thy Glory I will call nothing dark bitter or base in which thou writest thy Name and hast thy Beauty shining forth with an excellency I have now finished my Answer to the second Mistake which contains Directions how to look upon the single Person of God and Christ what to look upon in That Person which will fill us with Joy in every condition Now I am arrived at the Third Mistake which hinders the Soul from
Jesus Christ. We sprung up in Eternity in the Heart of God out of the Person of the Lord Jesus there as Images of him who as he rose up in the Divine Nature the essential Image of it was Fruitful from the Root of that Nature according to the Power of Life and Store of Spirit in it So he multiplied himself by the strength of the Father into many such Images in the heart and thoughts of God Thus we were chosen in and by him Thus also we were chosen to be Conformed to the Image of this Son as you shall read Rom. 8. 29. Whom he did foreknow he did also predestinate to be conform'd to the Image of his Son The Fathers fore-knowledge of us in his Son was the ground of our predestination by him and conformity to him A chief part in Christ is the dark part his Sufferings a chief part of our Conformity to him lies in our Sufferings and Sorrows Rom. 8. 17. Joynt-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Our whole inheritance is our conformity to the Lord Jesus This Inheritance lies as well in Suffering as in being glorified We have a double interest in Christ One in the Unity of his Spirit Another in the variety of his Body According to our First interest we are one with Christ that is by the Unity of the Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. So we are to have the fulness of Christs Sufferings form'd over again upon our Persons in the Spirit 2 Cor. 4. 10. According to our Second interest in the Body of Christ we are only particular members 1 Cor. 6. 15. In this particular membership a particular 〈◊〉 of Sufferings pertains to us according to our place in the Body The portion of sorrow allotted to every Saint in this capacity is as much inferiour to the miseries of our Blessed Saviour as that Member is inferiour to the Head But for this reason the Providence of God leads us to occasions of sorrow and then opens in us a spring of Sorrow that we may fulfil our measure in the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 21. This is the first Mystery of our Griefs our Conformity to Christ that we may be Brethren Spouses and Members of Christ. 2 Mystery Our Complyance with the Will of God We mourn that we may be like Christ Brethren grown up from one Root with him Spouses drawn forth from his side Bone of his Bone Flesh of his Flesh Principle of his Principle Image of his Image Strength of his Strength Weakness of his Weakness But now you may ask what the mystery of all sufferings and griefs are as they are Christ's first and so ours Answ. I answer to that by a place of Scripture Heb. 5. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered There are Two Waies of Learning one Speculative in the Contemplations of the Spirit the other Practical in the Conformity of the Person There are Two Waies of Obedience one in the Will being prepared and ready to all things the other in the Work of Doing or Suffering being actually undertaken and thorowly undergone Our Lord Jesus was ever in all things obedient to his Father so far as that State in which he was would permit While he liv'd in Heaven he was obedient to the Death in the Contemplations of his Mind and the Conformity of his Will so far as these two Wings could carry him But all this while the Devil might say of Jesus as he did of Job He dyes for his Father in his Speculations and Purposes at a distance while his Father maintains a hedge of Life and Joys round about him while he sees not Death but as Death it self is a living and beautiful Image in a Prospect of Glory Therefore Jesus Christ is brought down into Flesh that he may try and so experimentally learn another way of suffering by an Actual Descent into the Power of Darkness and Misery as it is in its own Principle Our Father could have prevented the Rising up of the Spring or Principle of Sin in the Heart of the creature So he could have cut off all occasions of sorrow or suffering He could have taken away Sin by a change and not by a Death Transfiguring instead of Crucifying us and this too by the heavenly Person resting upon us in a White Cloud and taking us up in it self without its Descent into the Dark Cloud of this earthly Body Thy Father could restrain the Issues of Lust in thee which send forth so much Filth upon which we pour forth so many Tears So our Tears might have been spared But if all this had been where had been the Testimony of our Obedience to the Father There are Two Waies of Obeying God One in the concurrency of his Will and ours the other in a contradiction between his Will and ours A holy Spirit obeys God the first way in Heaven and Joys For there it takes up its Joys and tasts a Sweetness in them much more out of Obedience than Appetite because they are the Will of God rather than because they agree with its own will But we obey God the Second way on Earth in Afflictions In Heaven we give up our will to be swallowed up in the Will of God as a River in the Sea In our Sorrows we Sacrifice our wills to the Will of God as the Beasts were Sacrificed by their Death and by Fire So Jesus Christ when his will was at the height of contrariety to the Will of God according to its own proper inclination If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Yet then he cut the Throat of his will and laid it panting upon the Altar to be wholly consumed in the dreadfullest way in the Fire of divine wrath and vengeance Thou in all thy Griefs accomplishest the same Mystery after the same manner Thou Feastest the will of the Father by the Fast of thine own will Thou obeyest thy God and servest his Pleasure by the binding and Offering up of thy Isaac all thy Pleasures 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons This is yet a Further and the utmost depth in the Mystery of our Sorrows The Scripture holds it forth in the Person of Christ as the Pattern in our Persons as the Copies of that Pattern We read of Jesus Christ Heb 2. 10. that he was made Perfect through Sufferings That is Perfect which hath all parts belonging to it It belonged to the Person of Jesus Christ to act all parts to appear in all shapes For he was to be the dwelling place of all Fulness 1 Colos. 19. He was to unfold the manifold wisdom of God in his own Person Ephes. 3. 10. He came forth as the Word to make a full and distinct expression of God The Nature of God is the Glass in which all Natures are first formed and seen The Natures of Light and Darkness Shame and Glory Joy and Misery to say
at its Height is strong as Death cruel as the Grave the flame of it is as the Flame of the Lord. Love and Death both agree in this that they are a separation I protest by my Rejoycing in Iesus Christ I dye dayly saith St. Paul The Love of a Saint to Jesus Christ is a Daily Death a Separation from all created Objects a Retirement out of this whole World visible or invisible into the World of the Blessed that World of Eternal Light and Beauty to be alone with Him and in Him to be inseparably united in One Love in One Loveliness in One Spring and One Stream of Beauties with Him as a Seal upon His Heart as a Seal upon His Arm. Where we read Cant. 8. 6. Love is strong as Death cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame which hath is put in by the Translatours a most vehement Flame is in Hebrew the Flame of Jah of the Lord of Jesus Learn here the Divine Mystery of Love in Death The Death of a Believer a Lover of Christ is Love itself which is the Fire of God burning from the Center of our Spirits from beneath the Foundations of our Natural Being till it have consumed the whole frame of this Creation in us and transformed us into one everlasting Flame with itself till it have separated us from every Form of things into his own Shining and Flourishing Form which is the Person of our Beloved the Temple Palace Paradise of Love of the God-Head which is that Primitive the purest Love 3. Enjoyment This is the Third Step in the Love of Complacency The Intermedling with all Wisdom or all Substance Our Jesus is the only Wisdom Substance and Truth The Fulness of things in Harmony as they make all Beauties and Pleasures in their Substances and Truths as they have the first freshest Glory upon them and are incorrupâ—â—â—e lie in the Person of Christ. The Hebrew word to intermeddle signifieth to mingle with or roul our selves in the midst of all Wisdom and Substance that is in the Bosom of Jesus O believing loving Soul Thy Beloved when He cometh into thy Spirit saith Can. 1. I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Spice I have eaten my Hony with my Hony-Comb I have drunk my Wine and my Milk When thou comest into his Bosom and Spirit say thou to him Now am I come into my Garden my Brother my Bridegroom I gather all pleasant precious and incorruptible Fruits in thy Person together with their Root thy Person So I transplant them into my Spirit and Person I eat of the excellencies of Wisdom which are sweeter to my Soul than Honey is to the Palate I eat them in and with thy Person the essence of Wisdom itself as live Honey with the Honey-comb I drink in my Wine and my Milk the Spirit and Sweetness of thy Divine and Humane Nature of the New Heaven the naked Appearance of the God-Head and the new Earth the Divine Appearance of the whole Creation in thy Spiritual Form Thus I stretch my self at large I roul my self at liberty in the midst of all Beauties and Delights Here I rest in Eternal Ioy with the perfect Complacency of all my Faculties of my whole Spirit Soul and Body in thine Heavenly Person 3. Make the single Person of Christ the Fountain of all thy Comforts 1. Consider that there is indeed such a Jesus so Beautiful Eccl. 11. 7. Solomon telleth us the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun If the light of this Heaven be sweet and the sight of this Sun infuse a pleasure into us when we look upon it what is the Light that shineth in the Person of Christ What doth once glance of this Sun of the Divine World How doth it make the heart in our bosom leap to him and dance about him as the Needle to the Loadstone To go forth in a fair Summers day to look upon the green Fields and clear Skie is a refreshing to our Natural Spirits and begetteth a lightsome Joy in us come forth ye dark and melancholy Souls see this Jesus in his unvailed Person as he rideth forth upon the Circuit of the whole Heaven and Earth in his name Jah in his Divine Form in which he comprehendeth and filleth all see that New Heaven and New Earth which he maketh in himself As Snow at the shining forth of the Sun so will the heaps of Snow the Mists and Clouds about your Heart dissolve into an unexpressible Sweetness and Light of a secret Joy and hope at this Sight By the Light of the Beauties of this Person cometh the Sight of him by this Sight cometh Faith then cometh all Peace and Joy in Believing Could Davids Harp chase away Sauls evil Spirit which vexed him Is there any evil Spirit which will not be chased away any vexation or melancholy which will not be charmed by this Harp of God by the Harmony of all Heavenly Beauty and Musick in the Person of Christ. 2. Consider that this Jesus is Beautiful to make thee Beautiful Ephes. 1. 6. God is said in his Grace that is in his sweetest and richest Love to have made us acceptable that is to have made us lovely in the Eye of his Love to have set us in the Embraces of his Love in the Beloved One in the Person of Christ. When thou liest on the ground covered with Sack-cloath and ashes in thine own Spirit then think thus with thy self When the Lord Jesus appeareth in all his Glories before the Father then doth he represent me then doth he present my Face and Person to the Eye and heart of his Father in the Glass of his own Beauties Will not thâ—s revive thy Soul within thee to understand that the Father taketh that Beautiful Image and sweet Impression of thee upon his heart which he receiveth from the most lovely sight of Jâ—sus Christ in his fullest lustre that all the thoughts and works of the Father concerning thee pass thorow this Medium the Beautiful and Blessed Person of Christ Thou sittest on the dunghil of this Body of Sin this Flesh covered from Head to Foot with the Sores of thy Corruptions Thâ—u liest in the Grave of this Body of Death where all cares and fears like Worms feed upon thee But see Jesus boweth the Heavens and cometh down He descendeth in that Form of Glory which is the Heaven of Heavens encon passâ—ng thee on every side transfiguring thee into a shining Glory as the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty transfigured him when it rested upon him 3. Consider that this Jesus is Bautiful for thee to make thee happy in the enjoyment of Him David in a pang of grâ—â—f comforteth himself after this manner Why dâ—est thou cast down thy self O my Soul why art thou so troubled within me Hope in the Lord I shall yet praise Him the Health
O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
hath quickened us together in Christ v. 5. He hath raised us together made us to sit together in Heavenly Places in him v. 6. Thus you see the Absoluteness the Compleatness of Finishing Love as well as of Preventing and Assisting Love You see the Finishing Love of the Father poured forth with all Fulness in our Blessed Saviour You see Divine Love in the Bosom of your Beloved Alone Beginning Alone Continuing the Work of Grace Alone in the Purity Power Simplicity of Free Grace Finishing Perfecting All in Glory I will make this clear to you by One Scripture more 2 Tim. 1. 9. he hath saved us not according to works which we have done but according to his own Purpose and Grace given to us in Christ before the World was Who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light by his Appearance in the Gospel Behold this Heavenly Sight Believe rejoyce and wonder A Saint is a Spiritual Building of all Heavenly Graces and Glories It is entirely composed thorowout of Free Grace of Pure Love The Foundation of it is laid in the Fair Colours of Divine Love all the Rooms the several Stories the Furniture the Riches the Entertainment is of Pure Love The Roof is laid with the Precious stones of Pure Love The whole Work of a Saint's Salvation the Materials the Form the Proportions the Measures of the Whole and of every Part are Free Grace Pure Love He hath saved us according to his Purpose and Grace given us in Christ before the World was That Word Purpose signifieth properly the Fore-laying of a thing This Divine Bâ—ilding of Love this Heavenly Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Form of a Saint was set up in the Glorious Person of our Jesus from Eternity All that is done in time is the unvailing and Discovery of this Heavenly and Eternal Building by Degrees according to the Measure of the Appearance of the Lord Jesus in us in whose Person and Spirit this Frame standeth as a Living Precious Corner-stone out of which it is grown up as a most pleasant Situation which encompasseth it on every paâ—t This Palace this Temple of Divine Love of Light of Life of Immortality is Eternal in the Heavens in Christ. Time Flesh Sin the whole Work of this Creation are a Vail of Darkness and Death cast upon It. As Jesus Christ shineth forth upon the Soul in the Gospel he casteth off this Vail he abolisheth this Death he discovereth and bringeth forth into the Clearness and Sweetness of Its own Divine Light this Divine Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Saint the New Jerusalem the Bride the Lamb's wife coming down out of Heaven with her Beloved ready trim'd How manifest how full is the Finishing Love of God in Christ The whole Being of a Saint is a Building where all the Materials the Work the Finishing is Pure Love Pure Love finished all its Works in this Building before it began the World from Eternity and set it up in the Person of Christ. Pure Love cleanseth it from the Dust of Time the Filth of Flesh and bringeth it forth into the clear Lights of Grace of Glory which are the Brightness of its own Spiritual Beauties in the Evangelical Appearances and Out-Shinings of Jesus Christ. Use 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. 2. Resign your selves to the Love of God in Christ. 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. It is a sweet and easy work For this Love giveth reception to itself in the Soul When the Sugar taketh in the Wine In truth the Wine into which the Sugar is cast or which is poured upon it worketh itself into the Sugar then melteth and dissolveth it into One Body with itself until you can no more distinguish between the Sugar and the Wine So the Soul lieth in the midst of Divine Love Love in its own way by its own force worketh and melteth itself into the Soul until it have melted and wrought the Soul into One Spirit One Love with itself Divine Love is received into thy Soul as thy Soul is received into thy Body by Bringing it forth New out of its own Bosom by Comprehending it in itself by Forming it unto a Divine Image of Itself by Inhabiting Filling Acting it by Delighting in it as its Daughter Sister Spouse as its self multiplyed Receive this Love which thus receiveth you giveth reception to itself in you 2. Resign your selves to Divine Love This Love worketh all your works all its own works in you and for you all Works of Love and of Loveliness Philosophy teacheth us that all Colours are Light mingled with Shade in various degrees and manners until it break up thorow the Shades and drink up the Shades into One Pure Brightness The Gospel teacheth us that all Graces are Divine Love shining variously and gradually forth thorow the Darknesses of our Spirits until by a sweet and Heavenly Force as the Fire of the Divine Life kindled from the Throne of God it burn out and burn up all those Darknesses Distances Deâ—ilements Enmities into One Eternal Flame of Pure Love of Perfect Joy St. James teachâ—th us c. 1. 4. If Patience have its perfect work it shall make us perfect wanting nothing This is the same thing as if he had said Let Divine Love Preventing Assisting Finishing Love have their Perfect work These will make you Perfect wanting nothing This is the Grace of Patience the Love of God in Christ by its own force insinuating itself into our Souls by its own Charms alluring our Souls tempering them to a harmonious Repose in it a sweet entire Resignation to it until it have wrought out and finished its own Glories upon it Patience hath its Perfect Work when Love hath its Perfect work Love hath its Perfect Work in us when we oppose nothing of the Devil to it when we mingle nothing of our own with it O that I were indeed a Minister of the Gospel Then I should minister the Spirit to you which is Love The Fountain and the Sea of Love Then while I speak of Love you would feel the Holy Ghost in his own proper Form in the Form and Fulness of Divine Love coming down upon you entering into you forming himself in you unto a Free Reception of himself a Full Resignation to himself until he had Finished his own most Lovely Form of Heavenly Love in you Use 3. Be aware that you must receive the Love of God in Christ thorow Death St Paul admonisheth us that as many as are baptised into Christ are baptised into the Similitude of his Death Rom. 6. 3. If we will be baptised into the Love we must be baptised into the Death of the Lord Jesus When Moses son was circumcised Zipporah his wife said to him A bloody husband hast thou been to me Some interpret the Words as they run in the Hebrew Thou hast been to me a Husband in Blood So they are the Solemn words
Corruption These burthened Spirits groan for the Dissolution of this Tabernacle But how Not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house from Heaven not to be found naked but to have Mortality swallowed up of Life St. Paul expresseth the meaning of the Unutterable Groans with which the Spirit of Supplications maketh Intercession in the Saints They would not be uncloathed of the Spiritual Image which they put on at the New Birth They would not be uncloathed of the Natural Image which they put on at their First Birth They would never no not for a moment be found naked of any thing of that Life Light or Sweetness Heavenly or Earthly which belong to either of these No they groan to have these cloathed upon with that their Buiâ—ding from above to have not onely their Immortal and Inward but their Outward and Mortal Part itself swallowed up into Life Life itself in its Purity in its Perâ—ection in its Spring which is Eternity 3. The Workmanship of God in a Saint is wonderful and indeed Divine in this Now he that hath made us for this or he that hath wrought us unto this is God St Paul assureth every Saint that his Groans are heard and answered from the Workmanship and the Workman We read in the Canticles that the Thighs of the Princess and Bride are as Jewels the Work of the hands of a Curious and Faithful Workman So the Word in Hebrew signifieth The Spiritual and Natural Life the Whole Frame and Composure of a Saint Inward and Outward all are Mysterious Jewels wrought by the Divine hands of God himself as a most Curious and Faithful Workman as a most Skilful and Firm Piece of Work They are by an Unexpressible Wisdom and Love framed unto this that the Substance of these Jewels should never fail the Vertue never decay the Lustre never fade no not in Death itself but then most of all grow bigger and brighter more Pure more Perfect more Powerful by being drunk up into Eternity as the Waters of a fine Spring are drawn and drunk up by the Sun 4. The Earnest of the Spirit Who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit in the Immortal Soul and Mortal Body of a Saint The Eternal Spirit in which a Saint possesseth Soul Body things of Faith of Reason of Sense This Spirit is to a Saint an Earnest both a foretast and a seal of this truth that both the Soul and the Body of a Saint in Death are like the Spice in the Golden Censor or upon the Golden Altar in the Temple which is the Glorified Bosom of Christ. Both lose nothing of themselves but change into a more Spiritual and Divine Form in which they ascend and carry up all their Preciousness all their Pleasantness with them like the Pillar of Smoak from the Altar perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary in which those Spices themselves with all their Sweetness and Vertue go up refining and enlarging themelves till they rest and spread themselves in the Bosom of Heaven How Curious and Sure a Workman is Jesus Christ is the Love of the Father in the Death of a Saint O the Freedom O the Fulness O the Skill O the Faithfulness of Finishing Love in the Death of a Saint O Believers Preventing Love hath brought you out of Aegypt out of the Servitude to your Lusts and the God the Spirit of this World Assisting Love hath carried you along thorough this Weary Wilderness your Conformity and Fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Sufferings Be of good Courage Your Cloaths shall not wax old Nothing of you shall fall in this Wilderness You shall certainly come into the Good Land the Land of Promise the Land of Rest the Land flowing with Milk and Honey with Life and Peace Immortality and Immortal Pleasures Finishing Love in the Glorious and Immortal Person of your Beloved like the Ark before the Israelites shall lead you thorow this Jordan thorow Death on the Dry Firm and Pleasant Land of Life itself Not so much as any single Drops of any Dark Waters shall sprinkle themselves upon any Parts of your Garment The clear Streams of this Beloved River shall stand on heaps on each side of you as Christal or Diamond Rocks as Lights Prospects and Guards of Angels while you pass When You are weakest under the Pangs of Death the Finishing Love of Christ in Power your Glorified Jesus in the Power of his Finishing Love shall rest upon you shall spring up in you at once to comprehend you and enlarge you to Cloath you upon and to transform you within Nothing of the Graces and Joys of your Inward Man Nothing of the Beauties and Delights of your Outward Man shall be divorced from you or darkened in you Like a Heaven of Stars they may pass under many Clouds But under all Clouds they shall go on shining still and increasing their Lustre When they seem to be extinguished in Death they shall be only drunk up into that Pure Light of Life which is Invisible to all Mortal Eyes by its Fineness and Fulness of Glory They shall disappear onely by the Degree of heightning He who hath wrought us unto this is God The Sweet Colours of a fair Summer-Morning in the Sky are so made that they fade not but go on changing to fair and fresher Colours still until they all vanish into Pure Light For These Colours are all the Light of the Approaching Sun figuring itself in divers degrees into Different Forms of Beauty till at last It Break up into the Full Glory of unmixt Light by the immediate Presence of the Sun appearing with the unclouded Brightness of his heavenly Body In like manner all the Excellencies Entertainments and Joys of a Saint in his Immortal and Mortal Part The Immortal and Mortal Parts themselves of a Saint thorowout are so framed by the Father of Lights and Loves that they can never fade nor pass away but in the moment of Death itself are cloathed upon from above with a Brighter a Diviner Form and are swallowed up into the Abysses the Incomprehensiblenesses of Eternity For God is Love A Saint is a Birth of Love A Seed of Divine Love springing up in his Outward and Inward Man Forming itself into a Body and Spirit into all the Powers Pleasures Objects Relations of Both. Divine Love is the Substance and the Sap The Matter and the Form in all A Saint in his Essence and Operations all Entirely is a Plant of Divine Love Death is the Ripening of the whole Plant all over into the Perfect Fruit of Pure Love of Finishing Love In this Form It can be seen felt tasted no more but by the Pure Eyes Embraces and Mouth of Divine Love God hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit for this Tell me now you who have received the Spirit What do you see what do you feel when you are blessed from on high with any fresh Anointing
any fresh Effusion of the Spirit upon you When the Activity of Grace when the Operations of the Divine Life are heightned in you by any peculiar Appearances and Outshinings of the Lord Jesus in you what do you Find Do you not find all things made New Do you not find the Invisible Image of things within the Image of all Visible things without Your self your Life Your Soul your Body Your Graces your Comforts Husband Wife Children all Objects of Life the whole World itself renewing its Light its Sweetness its Lustre All heightened Spiritualised Immortalized transfigured into Divine Forms Invisible to all other Eyes and this without any Darkening without any Eclipse or Cloudy moment interposing This is the Earnest of the Spirit given unto Thee for a Figure a Foretast and a Seal of Thy change in Death Thou shalt not be uncloathed of any Garment of Life or Light Spiritual or Natural which thou hast ever put on Thou shalt never be found naked of any Forms of Light Life or Love which have ever accompanyed and encompassed Thee Thy Faith-shall be swallowed up into Vision Clear Full Immediate Vision Eye to Eye Thy Hope into Entire Possession and Compleat Fruition thy Soul itself into a Simple Divinity and Eternity Thy Body thy Dear Relations the Delights of thine Eyes the Precious and Pleasant things of thy Senses shall All be cloathed upon from above with those Immortal Substances of which here they are the Shadows with their own Original Forms of which here they bear the Figure with their Flourishing Patterns upon the Mount of Glory in that First and Pure Spirit the Fountain of Life the shining Fountain of Good in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus in Eternity The Movable Tabernacle with its Tent both are Dissolv'd and fall into the Eternal Building of Glory in the Heavens where they become as Mysterious Figures of Divinity in that Temple or Rich Furniture Delightful Apartments of that Palace where every Part beareth the Figure possesseth the Life and Beauty of the Whole This is the Freedom the Sweetness the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ. Death itself is made at once A Consummation of the Marriage Love between the Heavenly Bridegroom his Bride A Bed of Loves the Divine Embraces of Eternal Love and the Divine Fruitfulness of these Embraces Jesus in his Invisible and Eternal Form descendeth overshadoweth embraceth his Bride transfigureth her into a Form of Eternal Beauties perfectly answering his own maketh her to spring with to bring forth in the moment of those embraces in the moment of her own Transfiguration all Forms of Things above and below in Immortal Divine Images and Essences of Pure Perfect Love The Dark aud Dreadful Appearances which surround Death are onely A Cloud which hide these Delightful these sacred Mysteries and changes from all Natural Eyes while the Saint himself in the Spirit seeth its own Beauties feeleth its own Joys in these Transfiguring and Impregnating Embraces So Christ himself was taken by a Cloud out of the sight of the Apostles while he ascended Death beginneth to the whole Saint in all parts that Coming down of the Lord Jesus in a Flame of Glory that Rapture of a Saint caught up into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus with the Sound of the Heavenly Trumpet The Universal Shout of Divine Lives Loves Glories thorow all things The Resurrection finisheth them O the Absoluteness of Finishing Love All work of Glory is made perfect in a Saint Jesus in all these Powers and Treasures of the God-Head resteth upon a Saint then when he is weakest when he seemeth nearest likest to Darkness Dust and Dung in the Agonies of Death 3. Comfort Against the last Day There are peculiar Terrours accompany the Day of Judgment It is indeed the most Dreadful of all Dreadful things The Last Day is twofold 1. Universal the Day of the Lord upon the whole Earth 2. Particular the day of the Lord upon a City or Nation Both these are spoken of mixtly The same dreadful things are attributed to both properly or figuratively We know not how near the Universal Day of the Great Judgment of the Lord upon the whole Earth may be The Lord Jesus may be now at the Door and ready to enter He shall come as a Thief in the Night in Clouds unperceived unexpected All things shall be in the moment of his Appearance as from the Beginning Some at the Mill some in the Field some in the Market some at Church to be married others in the Marriage bed others Eating and Drinking All the signs which are to fore-run that Great Day of the Lord's Last Appearance from Heaven may be come to pass in the midst of us in another manner and form differing from that which we figure to our selves and we not aware of it As Elijah the great fore-runner of our Lord Jesus in his first Appearance was come and gone in the Person of John the Baptist not understood either by the Jews in general or by the Disciples Watch and pray have your Loyns ever girt your Lamps burning go forth from the things of Sense into the Spirit to meet the Lord who cometh in that Air of Heaven and Eternity So shall you be caught up to meet him as he cometh and enter with him into the Bride-chamber I shall give you my Reasons which make me to believe that the Particular Day of the Lord upon this Land and City approacheth and cometh like a Traveller like an Armed Man upon us 1. Jerusalem and the Jews seem to be set up for a Type to every City and Land which beateth the Name of God St. Paul at large in the 11th to the Romans describeth the Succession of the Gentiles by Christianity into the place of the Jews the Progress and Way of God with the External Professors of the Gospel as with Israel He representeth this by Natural Branches cut off from and Olive Tree by wild Branches ingrafted in their place standing upon the same Terms in the same danger of being cut off 2. Are not we as Hierusalom ripe for the Harvest Have we not had the Ministry of the Law of the Gospel of the Letter of the Spirit in great power and glory Have not all varieties of chastisements and judgments inferiour to preparatory for the great and last Judgment already passed upon us Have not our Sins among all sorts of all kinds grown up to maturity to be ready for the Sickle 3. We have seen signs in Heaven above and on the Earth beneath and in the Waters which Jesus Christ foretelleth as Joel before and St. Peter afterwards from him to precede immediately the great and dreadful day of the Lord upon Hierusalem Hierusalem is in London But O what comforts flow from the finishing love of God in Jesus Christ to make this day of the Lord not only supportable but lovely to us and longed for by us Lift up your heads for your redemption is at
hand your Redeemer cometh This is the day of finishing love Jesus Christ cometh in this day to thee O Believer to consummate the Marriage and so all thy joys thy graces thy gâ—ories in thy compleat Marriage to himself The day of the Lord is said to be The Revelation of the Lord from Heaven As the natural day chaseth away the shadows of the night but is the brightness of the Suns beautiful and glorious Body making all things new in the pleasantness of his light to those Eyes that watch for the morning so is this day of the Lord a day of Clouds and Darkness to the Children of the night But it is to thee who lovest and waitest for the appearance of our Lord Jesus the breathing forth of all finishing loves the breaking forth of all finished Beauties from the beloved Person of thy Jesus appearing nakedly in all the glories of the God-Head from Heaven in thy Person in all things round about thee as the Sun of Eternity at once shining in every point of things making a new day of immortality and glory every where The Lord Jesus cometh indeed in flames of Fire But these flames are the Almighty powers and Supream glories of the eternal spirit of eternal love in its purity in its simplicity These are of a truth flames of fire to the enmity to the enemies to all flesh but they are to thee who livest in the spirit flames of finishing love of finished beauties presenting themselves to thee in all forms of things feasting themselves upon thee feasting themselves with thee making themselves a feast to thee I will conclude with that History of Elijah 1 Kings 19. 11. There passed before him a Whirlewind rending the Rocks removing the Mountains a Fire and Earthquake After these came a still veice The learned Jews say That all this was acted before the Prophet in a divine vision that the Whirlwind the Mountains the Rocks torn in pieces the Fire the Earthquake were Angels presenting themselves in those Forms as so many Divine Scenes that the still voice were all the Angels in a Quire making a heavenly melody Thy Royal Bridegroom cometh in every day of Judgment to make more than this true to thee O thou Dove thou Bride of the Lamb. He cometh in the weakness of all flesh round about thee to rest upon thee upon all things round about thee in the power of his finishing loves This is the great day of love and of the spirit in which he will make perfect the strength of his love and spirit while thou art trembling while all things are falling with a great noise round about thee as dreadful ruines in a devouring flame Now lift up thy head into that living and glorious light of the eternal spirit now lift up thine Eyes and thine heart unto that living and glorious light of divine love which breaketh forth from the face of thy Jesus within thee without thee on every side of thee This is the day of the anointing of thine Eyes with the heavenly Eye-salve of changing thee and the whole world to thee into fine Gold Gold tryed in the fire All things now appear to thee as indeed they are a divine vision in a light of Glory The whirlewinds Earthquakes Fires Deaths Ruines are all Angelical Scenes in the Spirit In them all thou seest the Dances thou hearest the still voice the calm charming soft Musick of all the Angels all the Spirits all the loves of God as on his and thy Marriage-day Thus finishing love maketh perfect the light the life the strength of the spirit and of love in thee in thy personal weakness in the universal weakness decay and ruines of all flesh of the whole Creation round about thee A skilful Painter is most discerned in laying his shadows By these he maketh his work softer sweeter more full of life and more taking Thus comfort thy self in all thy weaknesses darknesses and deaths Say thou now is my Jesus exercising his divine wisdom and skill in laying and placing his shadows Now upon these sad grounds will he curiously lay his rich and pleasant colours Now will he form and finish the glorious face of his divine beauties of his divine loves upon me Finishing love then appears then displayeth itself with greatest freedom fulness and sweetness when it maketh perfect its strength its beauties its joys its eternal light in our weakness deâ—ormity despair darkness death These are the rellishes to the Musick the shadows to the beauty of finishing love These are the times for finishing love when it is most beautiful I hâ—ve now made an end of my discourse upon the first rich branch of this divine fulness of love in Christ the fulness of love in all States I come now to the second branch the fulness of love in all kinds 2. There is pâ—ured forth from the Father in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus a fulness of love of all kinds St. Paul saith that God the Father hath abounded in Grace towards us in all wisdom and prudence in Christ. Ephes 1. 6 7. There are three parts of wisdom where it is compleat 1. There is in wisdom a varâ—ety of things 2. A contrivance of this variety into one piece 3. A concurrence and meeting in one of all the several varieties in each part and point of the whole piece by the force of the Harmony The Father aboundeth in his Grace his love to us in all wisdom in Christ. here is fulness upon fulness He aboundeth He aboundeth in all wisdom Nay you have a threefold fulness an abundance an abundance in wisdom which itself expresseth a fulness a riches of variety but then there is superadded all wisdom all variety The Father is a plenitude of love â—of all kinds in all varieties pouring forth himself incessantly endlesly eternally in Christ. God is in Christ in his electing love in his creating love in his preserving love in his redeeming regenerating justifying adopting sanctifying comforting glorifying love God aboundeth with a fulness with a filling an overflowing fulness in all these in each of these several kinds of love in Jesus Christ. Enlightning enlivening softning sweetning healing cleansing defending delighting heightning crowning loves all are here and all are full here to infiniteness Come all ye Souls who want a sense of sin or mourn under a sense of sin for want of a sense of love come hither to Jesus Christ and have love love of every kind love suitable to your longings or wants and have it in abundance The glorified Person of Christ is a spiritual Garden Indeed it is a Garden invisible sealed up from the outward senses But by how much the more invisible it is it is so much the more real glorious and divine This Garden is ever present before thee It flourisheth in the midst of thee It is continually open to every humble believing Spirit In this Garden all kinds of divine love grow as so many flowers which are ever full-blown ever
Dust their bones scattered and cast up and down Church-yards The blessed Body of our Lord Jesus was taken off from the Cross a bloody liveless mangled Corps a sad and ruthful spectacle So he was laid in the Grave the same Body which after three days rose again and was taken up into Glory The Scripture plainly testisieth that in Death as the Spirit returns to God who gave it so the dust returns to the Earth as it was God passeth this sentence of death upon Adam for his transgression Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Do not we by faith grounded upon the clear letter of the Scripture expect the Resurrection of our Bodies at the sound of the last Trumpet Ans. I answer to these objections first in general I fully assent to all these testimonies of sense of the letter of the Scriptures of the common faith of all the Saints concerning the Resurrection of the Body Yet is it true that I mean this I believe this in this meaning and belief my Soul and Body rejoice and triumph together that not the Soul alone but also the Body of a Saint in the very first moment of Death meeteth with no dissolution but a restitution and most delightful return to liberty peace and perfection This is that sweet and comfortable sense of Death which the holy Spirit seemeth to have sealed upon my Soul from all principles of reason of Faith and from the letter of the Scriptures In this sense I wish that all were as I am to behold with the same spiritual Eye in the same light of the Spirit the beauty and loveliness of Death in the Body of a Saint the beauty loveliness and pleasant life of the Body of a Saint in Death I come now to give a more particular answer fitted to the several objections by four distinctions The four distinctions are these 1. Of a two-fold body in a Saint 2. Of a two fold Dust. 3. Of a two-fold Sense 4. Of a two-fold Resurrection 1 Dist. There is a twofold Body which the Scripture in its language attributes to a Saint There is a Body from which a Saint is to be delivered You read of this Rom. 7. l. Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death There is a body in a Saint which is to be delivered St. Paul speaks of this in the name of all the Saints Rom. 8. We also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit wait for the adoption the redemption of the Body There is a Body which is the seat of Death a Body of Death as in the forementioned place who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death In all the members of this Body sin reigneth as a King establishing his Law For so in the same place a little before it is written With my Members I serve the Law of Sin This is the Body of Flesh in which there dwelleth no good as St. Paul speaks in the same Chapter There is again in a Saint a holy living immortal Body the seat of a holy heavenly and immortal Life in as much as it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost For so St. Paul testifieth as to an unquestionable and known truth granted of all the Saints in the primitive times 1 Corin. 6. 19. What know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Again a Saint carryeth about with him thorow his life a Body which is a partition-wall between him and his Beloved which divides between Christ and him which he must break forth from and cast off before he can be taken into the Bosom of Jesus Christ and be with him 1 Corin. 5 6. 8. St. Paul complains that while he is present in the Body he is absent from the Lord and breaths forth passionate longings to be absent from the Body that he may be present with the Lord. But a Saint hath a Body which is so far from dividing him and Jesus Christ that these two divine lovers are entirely united and both one in it It is Christs own Body as well as a Saints All the Members of it are the Members of Christ as they are of a Saint 1 Corin 6. 15. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Harlet God forbid Yea he carryeth this union so high that he maketh the Lord Jesus and a Saint in this Body of his of which alone he speaketh to be one Spirit and makes that the principal ground upon which he builds his arguments against Fornication v. 16. 17 18. What know ye not that he which is joyned to a Harlâ—t is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh but he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit Flee Fornication he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body How manifestly here are a fleshly Body and a spiritual Body distinguished one from another A Body in which Fornâ—cation makes the Man one flesh with the Harlot a Body in which a Saint is one Spirit with Jesus Christ These two are one Body which standeth in two mixed Principles and Images The Body of a Saint while this life lasteth standeth partly in a carnal or fleshly principle and Image This is the Body of Death in which no good dwels which is subject to the Law of Sin While a Saint is present in this Body he is absent from Christ. This is that from which a Saint groaneth to be delivered The Body of a Saint standeth in part and imperfectly while we live here in a Spiritual Principle and Image Thus the Body of a Saint is the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Body and Member of Christ one Spirit with Christ by which one Spirit it is Baptized into his Spiritual and heavenly body This is that body of a Saint which groaneth to be redeemed and delivered from the Body of Death as from its Captivity Prison and Grave The Death of a Saint finisheth this Captivity breaketh open the Prison and the Grave and setteth free the Body of a Saint into the liberty of its Adoption or Sonship that is into its Spiritual and divine form of a Son of God As fire is said to separate things of different kind and to gather into one things of the same nature so is the Death of a Saint the flame of God the fire of Divine Love Jesus Christ coming in the invisible flame of this Heavenly fire to separate the fleshly Principle and Image from the spiritual Principle and Image both in the Soul and Body of a Believer The fleshly Principle and Image which is in the Body of a Saint as a foreign and strange thing as rust upon Gold is entirely cast off to the Spirit and Image of this world and of the Devil to which it belongeth The Body of the Saints in its Spiritual Principle and Image which are truly and properly its own in which it is
to us in that colour In like manner there is a native moisture upon our Palates and Tongues by which we tast things If this moisture have any tast of its own every thing tasteth of it Blessed art thou who livest the life of a Saint Thou livest the life of Heaven upon Earth The Spirit is the Christal in the Eye of thy Soul thorow which thou seest all things This Christal hath a heavenly colour of Glory ever upon it Thou then feest all things in this ravishing colour in a Heavenly Glory The Spirit is the Divine moisture and water of life upon the pallate of thy Soul by which thou tastest all things This water of the Spirit hath ever the heavenly rellish the unexpressible sweetness of the Divine Nature of the Divine Love of the pleasures of the God-Head Thus thou savourest all things This Love and Sweetness thou rellishest in every thing 3. The two companions of these two effects of a Spiritual Principle are 〈◊〉 and Peace To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace 1. Life The Spirit and Life are inseparable one from another The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life saith Jesus Christ Joh. 6. The Spirit is the Fountain of Life For he is called the Spirit of Life Rom. 8. The Quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15. The Power of an Endless Life Heb. Let us ever pray that we may ever live in the Spirit For now we live if we stand fast in our spiritual Principle The Life which we now live is first pure It hath nothing of any Mixture of any Defilement or of any shadow of Death Secondly It is perfect It hath all the Sweetnesses Virtues Joys and Beauties of Life in it Thirdly It is perpetual It never ceaseth It never endeth but springeth to Eternity Fourthly It is a powerful Life It maintains itself against all the Powers of Darkness and Death It maintains itself in the midst of them as a sweet Light of Glory shining in a dark place and triumphing over the darkness In a word this Life is the purest sweetest and most lasting Liâ—e For it flows immediately and springs up continually from the Fountain of Life itself Nay which is far sweeter and more glorious it is Life as it lies in the Fountain of Life It is Life not only from the Spirit but in the Spirit So St. Paul speaks in this Chapter They that are in the Spirit and to the Galatians if ye live in the Spirit 2. The other Companion of a Spiritual Sense is Peace Peace in the Language of the Scripture signifieth a perfection of Happiness It is distinguished into 1. Peace above with God 2. Peace within in your own Consciences and Spirits 3. Peace with all Creatures round about you O how true is it that they keep the Feast continually a Royal and Divine Feast in white Garments who live in a spiritual sense of things Every day to them is a Holy Day a Festival Day All things are festival round about them All things are in a Covenant of Peace with them in a Covenant of Grace and Divine Peace All appearances of things in every State shine upon them from the glorified Person of Christ as heavenly Beauties smiling upon them All Providences Changings and Motions of things are a Heavenly Musick springing up to them and sounding round about them in the Unity of the Spirit All Impressions made upon their Souls from every passage of Providence or Change is a most delicious sweetness upon their Spirits an unexpressible Taste of Heaven and Eternity But the manner of St. Paul's Expression is very observable and hath a great force in it To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The sense and favour of the Spirit is itself Life and Peace universally absolutely in the abstract in perfection without any Confinement or Allay The spiritual sense of a Saint is the pure and compleat Essence of Life and Peace in its highest Activity How true is it that a good man is satisfied from himself How Holy how High how Happy how Heavenly a thing is it to be a Saint to be spiritual to live as a Saint to live spiritually Thou now comprehendest all things in an uncorruptible Beauty Love and Joy in thy self as in Heaven For all things are to thee thine own spiritual Principle thine own spiritual Sence springing up and diffusing itself into all blessed Forms of Glory Delight and Immortality within thee Jesus Christ tells his Spouse in the Canticles That she is a Fountain of Living Waters flowing from Lebanon That she is a Fountain of Gardens That all her Plants are Plants of Paradise O blessed Spirit who livest in the Eternal Spirit as thy Principle by which thou art inwardly acted The Principle of thine is the Fountain the ground of Paradise within thee All forms of things are Paradisical Plants at once pleasant to the Eye good for Food desirable to fill thee with all the most glorious Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Thy Spiritual Principle is the Divine Ground out of which all these Plants of Paradise grow up within thee as thine own Plants Thy spiritual Sense and Savour is a perpetual Feeding and Feasting upon the Fruits of Paradise which these Plants continually bring forth 2. The Fleshly or Carnal Sense is also illustrated by three Circumstances 1. The Principle 2. The Effect of that Principle 3. The Companion of that Effect 1. The Principle of a Carnal Sense is the Flesh. It is expresly called the Mind or Sense of the Flesh. The Flesh the Natural Man the Earthly Man the Spirit of man the natural Soul in the Language of the Gospel and most of them in this present Chapter signifie the same Principle of a carnal Sense of Sin and of Death Happy is he that is not here deceived Every Earthly Heavenly Humane Angelical Spirit or Principle however enlightened sanctified heightened by the work of the Spirit below that Spirit which 〈◊〉 immediately born of the eternal Spirit which is one Spirit with it and liveâ—â— in it is Flesh and this Principle of a fleshly Mind or Sense or of Death 2. The Effect of this Fleshly Principle is Twofold 1. A Carnal 〈◊〉 Fleshly Sense 2. A Fleshly or Carnal Savour How unpleasant is thy Life who livest in this Principle for the sight of thine Eyes The Light of 〈◊〉 World which alone thou seest is Darkness and the shadow of Death Foâ— the Prince of this World is the Prince of Darkness Thou measurest Heavenly and Spiritual things by Earthly and Carnal When Jesus Christ in the Gospel was reproved by Peter for the mentioâ— of his Sufferings and Death the Lord replies to Peter Get thee behind 〈◊〉 Satan For thâ—u savourest not the things of God but the things of man Theâ—â— are Three things remarkable in these words 1. There is a Humane 〈◊〉 there is a Divine Sense of the same things and these two are contraâ—â—â— one to another 2. Those things that are the things
these so far as you stand in a Spiritual Principle are as another Heaven the Heaven of Heavens the Pallace of the great King which he fills with his Glory where he heeps his Court sits upon his Throne 3. The Saints have communion with God in his Temple In the Temple was the Golden Mercy-Seat There saith God will I commune with thee This was overspread with Cherubims of Glory as St. Paul calls them These Cherubims covered this Golden Mercy-Seat with their Wings and so made the State or Glory about the Throne This is therefore called the secret of the most high and the shadow of the Almighty where a Saint is said to dwell and to lodge Hear O ye Saints what glorious things are spoken of your Bodies be Spiritual and behold in these Temples the Golden Mercy-Seat which is the glorified Person of Christ and the Cherubims of Glory covering it with their Wings and God here upon this Golden Mercy-Seat the glorified Bosom of Christ from between the Wings of the Cherubims ready alwaies to commune with you yea taking you up upon this Golden Mercy-Seat within the Wings of the Cherubims to commune freely with him at all seasons in this secret of eternal safety rest love joy and glory This Temple is the Body of a Saint while he liveth below but now it is in too great a degree covered with a cloud of Flesh filled with the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Saint too rarely enters into this Temple of the holy Ghost in his own Body and more rarely seeth with any degree of clearness the Glory or heareth the voice of the blessed Spirit there What joy is it to think in what a purely sacred and Divine Temple in what a clear and shining Pallace of the eternal King in what open and unstained unvailed visions of Divine Glory in what a secret in what a presence of glorious Angels and Eternal Spirits in the midst of what sweet overshadowings dear encompassings naked outshinings of the Eternal Spirit in what most blessed most ravishing Communion of Eternal Light Life and Love with this Spirit in what sight and embraces with what kisses of incomprehensible Beauties in the sound of what words what salutations what wooings what expressions of the highest Loves and Joys from the Eternal Spirit a Saint finds himself even in his own proper Body in the very moment of his Death when departing out of this Life at once he departs for ever out of the Fleshly Image and the Spirit of this World 4. The Divine Presence and Glory was the defence of the Temple Esa. 4. 5. There is a Prophesy concerning the times of the Gospel expressed by figures taken from the state of things under the Law And the Lord will create upon every â—welling place of Mount Sion and upon her Assemblies a Cloud and smoak by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night For upon all the Glory shall be a defence or a covering When the first Temple was to be destroyed the Prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory removing off from it afterwards when the second Temple was near its end a voice was heard in it saying Let us be gone from hence which was understood to be the voice of God and of his holy Angels with all those invisible companies and Ministers which made up the Glory of the Divine Presence as Nobles Officers and Guards make up the Court of a King O Saints why do you fear for your Bodies hidden Conspiracies or open force diseases the fury of the Elements the malice of Men or Devils These Bodies of yours are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Here are the Holy Assemblies of all the Heavenly Company in the unity of the Spirit whose Temples your Bodies are Of these it is Prophesied to these it is promised that God will create upon them a cloud and a smoak by day the shining of a flaming fire by night Upon these the Glory is a defence or a covering God himself with all his holy Ones his Angels his Watchmen his ministring Spirits is this Cloud this Glory which is the defence and covering upon your whole Persons your Bodies as well as your Souls both have together with Christ a hidden Life a secure Life in this secret of God within this covering of this Divine Cloud Flame and Glory From off these Temples of your Bodies this Glory never removes From within these Temples of your Bodies this heavenly Company never departs for as much as the union in the Spirit of Grace under the Gospel is Eternal Thus the Bodies also of Believers in this Life are the Temples of the Holy Ghost All things in them here are divine Figures of a divine Glory They are filled and covered with the Glory itself They are the seats of the freest Communion with this Glory being the Temples of the God of Gods and so the Pallaces of the King of Kings All this is true of them here as they stand in a Spiritual Principle and in union with Christ by the new birth But this Life is a mixt State We stand partly in a Spiritual partly in a Fleshly Principle These Temples of our Bodies are covered with a corrupt Flesh that we can hardly discern their Spiritual Beauties They are too frequently in too great a part filled with a smoak of Hell the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Believer can rarely enter into this Temple of his Body to behold and converse with the Glory there This is the precious the blessed work of Death in a Believer It breaketh the union it maketh a separation not between Christ and a Believer not between the Soul and Body of a Believer as they are joyned together in Christ by the band and unity of the Eternal Spirit and make one Spiritual Man or Person in Christ but between the precious and the vile between the Carnal and Spiritual Principle of a Saint both in Soul and Body Now in the moment of Death the Soul and Body of a Saint come forth immediately clear and shining Temples of the Spirit the smoak and clouds of the Fleshly Principles and of this worldly Image being for ever driven away from within them and from without Thus you understand St. Pauls sweet and blessed sense of Death when he speaketh of the Body and saith 1 Corin. 5. 1. 2. That we shall not be found naked but be cloathed upon from above with a building of God Eternal in the Heavens which shall swallow up mortality in life Our Spiritual Body which we have in this life by our new Birth as we stand in our Spiritual Principle is this Divine Building sprung from a Divine Root of a Divine Nature or Substance of a Divine Form and Workmanship This is ever in Heaven being inseparably united to Christ and being ever in the Spirit This is Eternal when we die this casts off the Cloud of corrupt and cursed Flesh. This springs forth out of its Spiritual Principle
at an end as the life of Christ ended O you who are followers of Christ and predestinated to be conformed to him in your Lives and in your Deaths meet Death with Joy with the shout of those who cry out for victory Now is your Warfare accomplished now is your Captivity in the Fleshly Spirit and Image at an end You shall dwell now no more in Meshek at a distance from the Divine Glory nor sojourn in the Tents of Kedar in the Land of Darkness The Vail of the Flesh is now rent from the top to the bottom thorow your whole Soul and Body In both as you seem to fleshly senses to enter into the shade of Death you in that moment enter into the Kingdom of Light the Glorious Pallace of your Father the Divine Beauties and Joys of the Heavenly Image You have now fought the good Fight and finished it Henceforth from this moment it is that the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Life and Immortality hath been laid up for you to be set upon your Heads and worn by you which God shall now give you from his own presence from his own hand in this day of Glory which now breaketh and riseth upon you 3. Scrip. Colos. 2. 15. The Apostle speaking of Christ saith thus and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in it that is his Cross which was mentioned in the latter end of the foregoing verse There are three parts in this Scripture which is a glorious description of the Victory of our Lord Jesus 1. The Subject of his Victory 2. The Victory itself 3. The Seat of his Victory 1. The Subject of Christs Victory are Principalities and Powers The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Principles The second word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Dominions Principalities and a power of ruling By these names the Angels are expressed as they are the Invisible Springs out of which all visible things continually flow as they are the Supream Glories Virtues Powers among things created to which this present world is subjected by which it is enlivened enlightned formed acted and ruled Thus the Victory of Christ extendeth itself over the whole Creation the whole frame of Nature in its Heavenly Angelical and unseen part in that which is Earthly and visible in the Fountain-Glories and flowing Streams in the Princes on high and their Principalities beneath 2. The Victory itself is exprest in three steps 1. The Spoil 2. The Show 3. The Triumph 1. The Spoil He spoiled Principalities and Powers The word signifieth to uncloath The Lord Jesus as a conquering Prince uncloathed the Invisible Princes of this World of all Power Principality and Appearance by which means the whole Creation and the frame of Nature which stood by these Powers in these Appearances according to their first and natural State were dissolved fell into the depths of Darkness and confusion disappearing for ever 2. The Show Our Victorious Saviour brought forth all the Principles Powers and Appearances of Nature into the open light of the Eternal Spirit There he led them as Captives through the Streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem showing them as the subjects and marks of his Victory to all the Innumerable and Glorious Inhabitants of that Blessed City of the great King 3. The Triumph He Triumphed over them All natural Powers Glories Lives and Images lay beneath the Feet of the Lord Jesus as his Footstool while he sat down upon a Throne of Glory cloathed all over with Garments of Glory and wearing a Crown of Glory upon his Head These are the three Parts of Christs Victory 3. The Seat of Christs Victory was his Cross. He Triumphed on it Heaâ— this all ye that are one Seed one Spirit with the Lord Jesus that are made conformable to his Death in your Lives and Deaths Hear this let it be written upon your Hearts in Characters of Glory with a living Beam from that bright Sun the Face of our Lord Jesus as he shines in the Eternal Glory of his most Blessed Victory and Triumph It was upon his Cross it was upon his Cross that the Lord Jesus spoiled made a Show of Triumphed over the Principalities and Powers of this World Our Blessed Saviour in dying by dying in that very moment by that very act dissolves and defaceth at once the whole frame of Nature and of the first Creation He taketh away from it all Power of being subsisting acting or appearing He blotteth out every natural Image and form of Light or Darkness Life or Death Beauty or Deformity Shame or Glory Grief or Joy for ever You have this excellently painted out in a clear Prophesy Psalm 73. 20. As a Dream when one awaketh O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their Image The word Image signifieth a Shadow The Eternal Word the Heavenly Image our Lord Jesus was in this Creation as under the Vail of Darkness and Night as in a sleep He bringeth forth and beareth up all the Powers and Forms of Nature as a Dâ—eam in this sleep and as shadowy Images in this Dream By dying he awakes out of this sleep he sets an end to this Dream The whole frame of Nature with all Forms and Images of things within the vast compass of it either Visible or Invisible break up fly away and vanish as a Dream as the shadowy Images in a Dream when a Man awaketh But neither are they quite lost They only change their Principle and Appearance In the same dying moment doth the Lord Jesus who is that Eternal and Essential Image in whom they all subsist appear and pass thorow their several changes carry them with himself into the Divine Light and Life of the Eternal Spirit There are they seen again as the Fruits of his Conquest spoiled of all their own Life Light and Form having put on a new Life Light and Form according to the Will of the Conqueror to show forth his Power and Glory to make them pleasant and Eternal Spectacles of his Divine Triumph to all the Inhabitants of Heaven and Eternity Now before he is taken down from the Cross even upon the Cross itself the Lord Jesus as he gives up his Spirit with his last breath Triumphs in his Soul and Body too whose proper Seat the Cross was In both cloathed with Triumphal Robes of an immortal Beauty and Blessedness he rides forth in the Glorious Chariot of the Heavenly Image and of the Eternal Spirit All the Powers and Forms of Nature of Life and Death the Cross itself and the Crucifiers as Captive follow his Chariot bound in the Golden Chains of Divine Light and Love making up the delight and Glory of his Triumph This also doth the Psalmist clearly Prophesy of Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led Captivity Captive The descent of our Lord Jesus was finished with his Life He begins his ascent upon his Cross the first moment of his
is a Dream in thy sleep a â—delusive a defiling a melancholy Dream where false and filthy showes of Pleasures are mingled with tumultuous disquiets confusions torments fears and Horrours This Sleep is the Sleep of Death not a Natural and momentany Death which is a meer cessation of Life with a rest from all its troubles but a living Death the second Death a Hellish Death the Death of damned Spâ—rits Thus are Sleep and Death joyned here Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead This Sleep is a true Death and this Death is truely a Sleep a living Death or an unquiet Sleep full of evil Dreams 2. The second thing is the Awakening The Awakening out of this Sleep is also a Resurrection from the Dead Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead This is the Regeneration or new Birth by which the soul is raised up from the Sleep and Death of Sin into the Light of Life and Immortality 3. The third thing is the cause of this Awakening And Christ shall give thee Light And here signifies as much as For by a common Hebraism Thus you are to read it Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead for Christ shall give thee Light This will be plain if you look to that Scripture from which this is taken Isaia 60. 1. v. Arise shâ—ne for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee St. Paul applies this to the Lord Jesus and a Sinner in the work of Conversion or Regeneration Poor Sinner thou sleepest in a dark and miry Dungeon of Sensuality Lust Passion Ignorance Unbelief Despair like Peter sleeping in Prison bound with two Souldiers on each side him so thou sleepest in the dark Prison of the flesh and this World in the midst of Devils with whom thou art chained and bound Thou liest dead in this dead Image of things as in a Grave of Corruption and Rottenness Behold the Lord Jesus full of the Beauties of Holiness full of the unsearchable Riches of Divine Love shineth upon thee with a Light of Glory He who is the Light and Glory of God of Heaven of Eternity as he shineth upon thee giveth thee Light infuseth this Light of Glory into thee by giving himself to thee by infusing himself into thee by springing up himself within thee as he shineth from without upon thee Thus he awakens thee Thus awakened stand up from the Dead For Christ giveth thee Light The work of Regeneration which is a true Resurrection from Death to Life will be more clearly understood by considering it in these four Circumstances 1. The Life which is raised again 2. The Death out of which this Life is raised 3. The Resurrection itself 4. The way of this Resurrection 1. The life which is raised again is twofold 1. One Life is that of Paradise at the beginning of Time We had an earthly head in Paradise in whom we all stood and subsisted together in the Garden of Eden or of Divine Pleasures There we were clothed with a Divine Image and enjoyed a Divine Life We were made in the similitude of God and lived a life like to that of God himself St. Paul speaks of this Life Rom. 7. 9. v. For I was alive without the Law once I know that this Scripture is generally applied to the convincing and the condemning Power of the Law So St. Paul is understood here to speak of that Life of Pleasure and satisfaction to his own deceived mind and senses which he enjoyed in sin before he felt the work of the Law upon his Heart convincing him of the Evil of Sin But whoever well considers this Scripture will very plainly see that it cannot bear this sense For 1. The scope of this place is to shew that which is expressed at the 5th Verse That the Motions of Sin are by the Law which work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death 2. The objection which is made at the 7th verse what shall we say then is the Law sin can have no ground in any other sense than this that Sin itself takes life from the Law 3. St. Paul expresly proceeds in his reasoning by these steps verse 8th 9th Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence He proves that by this Argument for without the Law sin was dead The force of the connection makes it clear that the death of sin here meant is not the death in Sin with stupidity and security but a Life free from the power and pollution of Sin This is explained and illustrated by another Argument For I was alive without the Law once While all things stood in the sâ—â—plicity and unity of the Divine Image undivided the Light and the Darkness no where appearing as two but as one in one Divine Spirit in one Divine Harmony There was nothing from which sin could take life Now St. Paul lived now as he so we lived and all Mankind according to our several properties and distinct Persons in Paradise together with Adam in Adam who was the Earthly Head and collective Body of us all like Christ in Heaven 2. The other Life which is raised again in the Regeneration is the Life of Heaven in Eternity Before and above our Earthly Head we had a Head in Heaven in Eternity the Lord Jesus in whose Image and Similitude Adam was Created to be a Figure of him In this heavenly and eternal Head had we a Heavenly and Eternal Life Our Heavenly Life in Eternity is as the Light Our Earthly Life in Paradise as the Shadow to this Light O thou who art now as a Dunghil covered with and composed of the most loathsom pollutions and defilements of Sin who art withered in all thy Beauties Hopes and Comforts who art sunk deepest into despair who art now no more a Man but a Worm the worst of Worms the seed of the Serpent See from whence thou art fallen what once thou wert what Lives what Joys what Glories lie buried in thee Thou wert once a beautiful Prince like the Morning Star Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty and Pleasantness in the Figure in Paradise in Adam Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty in the Life itself in Heaven in Eternity in the Lord Jesus Whither are these Beauties now fled How do these Beautiful Lives now lie as in the Grave covered with the Darkness of Death The Psalmist saith to the Lord That the Saints pity the Dust of Sion and take Pleasure in the Stones thereof O all you who hear and read this In your selves in each other see pity take Pleasure in the Ruins of the Divine Life of the Divine Image of Paradise of Heaven with all their Beauties Joys and Glories See the Lord Jesus from Heaven looking upon them with an eye of pity and delight Let this be a Beam of hope to you shining from his face into the midst of the Darkness of your Guilt Defilements