in the Sacramentall signes of his death on which he appoints them to feed as so manifesting him unto them till he himself come in his owne personall appearance in spirit to shew them the same mystery in the substance it self or originall patern Of the above-mention'd sorts of beleevers partaking of the light and life of Christs first appearance from the voice and testimony of the scriptures together with the sacramentall signes of his death instituted by commandment from God in his written word does the visible Christian church consist that hold themselvs to the rule of the Scriptures for their guide and are faithfully obedient in putting into practice what is therein revealed Amongst these there alwayes is as we have shewed a select number of hidden and beloved ones kept through the power of faith unto salvation without whom the rest would be as Sodom and Gomorrah And for the sake of this small remnant that truly and properly are Gods heritage out of all the rest as the new wine in the cluster it is that the Lord sayes destroy it not for there is a blessing in it These are they that being in and under the law of the Scriptures the teaching of Gods outward and written word shal be judged by this law as to the things they are found failing in and as to their comming short of the end set before them in this ministry Now the end of it is to bring them by faith to the sight and fellowship of Christ himself speaking in spirit as he is the word of the beginning and gives forth the light of the glory of God in his owne face with which he shines in the hearts of his people This comes to passe when once it pleases the father to reveal his Son in us setting him as a living patern before the eyes of our faith that in unity and similitude of spirit with that wherein the works are done by him in himself we may fulfill the law of God after him and be brought to live and dwell together in the same love which hath its season of dawning in the heart as the true day-star to prepare the soule to meet with Christ in the glory of his secōd appearāce Concerning these is it said Rom 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit When they have begun in the spirit they do end there also and draw not back to be perfected in the flesh As they live in the spirit so their care and practice is to walk in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh Their praise is of God not of men They lose the prayse and honour of men because they seek both of them from God only They are strangers and pilgrims with him on the earth as all their fathers were They sojourne in tents in the outward land of Canaan the streets of the visible church and various self-chosen wayes of visible worship which Christians of different judgments walk in These invisible saints have their eye set upon the heavenly countrey and building that hath foundations which is the workmanship wrought in God the engraffed WORD and by him is held forth to the eye of that faith that is the evidence of things unseen and is able to espy for us this land of promise in the spirit whilst it is yet at a great distance and very far off There is evidently set before this eye of our faith the crucified spirit of Christ as he offered up himself in sacrifice to the will of the father learning obedience by the things that he suffered in denying his owne will that we may tread in the same steps dying with him that we may live with him and suffring with him that we may reign with him Through such fellowship with him in his suffrings and conformity with him in his death we shall be found still advancing and pressing forwards if by any means we may attein the resurrection of the dead or that redemption of the body which is atteinable in this life by those that diligently presse after the mark for the prize of their high calling which is in Christ Jesus This resurrection and redemption of the body will be experimented upon the rising of the witnesses and then better understood In the mean time the eagle-eyed beleever lives upon the dead carkasse of Christ crucified seen so in spirit And he is content as a mēber of his dead body to be made the scorne and off-scouring of the world a member of the forsaken Zion that dwells in the feild in a wildernes-state solitary and alone that no man regards because his dwelling is in the dust in expectation of rising together with Christs dead body Untill that season this sort of beleevers in stead of being found within the pale of the visible church do follow Gods invitation of them into the secret chambers of his presence and do dwell in his house a building not made with hands in the person and spirit of Christ where they behold his beauty shutting the doors about them as to any visible entercourse with the worldly Church Thus they hide thēselvs as it were for the little moment that his indignation is to last and be exercised on thē by the power and during the reigne of the Beast Blessed are those that thus die in the Lord though by the world called and accounted phanatick waiting for the brightnes of his second comming He that hath ears to hear let him hear To shut up thē and close the ministry of the day of Christs first appearance as after this manner the Redeemer hath bin lifted up in it and the work of common and temporary as well as of peculiar and eternall Redēption hath bin wrought by him and made manifest to all sorts of men and of beleevers in the world we shall now come in the next place to a distinct consideration of the fourth and last generall head of enquiry above mentioned in this discourse which is concerning the very being life and constitution of the new creature or that immutable state in righteousnes and glory that begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second 4. The fourth generall enquiry then is about the immutable state of life and righteousnes in the new creatures constitution or that change which is brought upon man by the new creation The new creatures life is founded as hath bin shewed in the birth of the fathers love in the soule Of this love are they born who are by Christ the immortall seed layd hold on cleaved unto and apprehended in that intimate and inseperable marriage-union in spirit which is never to be dissolved in the Covenant ordered in all things and sure that is contracted in his person between the father and the Son through the holy Ghost Where ever this union is there is Gods love there is Christ inseperably united to that soule
assuredly be found to be the beginning of the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ that is to say of the Gospel preached by that trumpet that gives the certain second and makes manifest the Sons of God in an immutable everlasting state of righteousnes and glory here upon earth in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken which is to succeed all other Kingdoms shewing itself to be the stone cut out of the mountains that will fill the whole earth This everlasting Gospel we are told Revel 14.6 7. is to be preached by an angel flying in the midst of heaven that must with a loud voice say unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation kindred tongue and people fear God and give glory to him for the houre of his judgment is come This is the houre or the day of that great judgment wherein God will judg the world by that man which he hath ordeined Jesus Christ This houre and day is to have continuance in the course of its execution on the earth for the space of a thousand years During this time the Kingdoms of this world shal become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ as holding of him their universall head and exercising all their authority under him Revel 11.15 So then in effect Christ alone shall reigne and be exalted in that day one Lord and his name one over all the earth This day is to begin as hath bin said with the second comming of Eliah and is described in the Scriptures of truth as to the severall particulars thereof The seventh angel sounds by reason whereof it comes to passe that there are great voices to be heard in heaven appointed by Christ as he is the bright morning star and head of all Principalities and powers the true Michael and Archangel to seize upon all scepters and governments of this world to take the Rule and visible power out of the hands of all the Potentates of the earth and reassume it in such a wonderfull manner into the hands of the holy and elect angels who under Christ are appointed the highest and cheif Rulers of the visible world that by the astonishing dispensations of Gods providence in that season it will appear and be acknowledged that Christ hath begun and entered upon the taking to himself his great power in order to exercise his visible Rule as the great only and universall King over all the earth This he will do to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the Kingdom of men giving it to whomsoever he will Yea it shal be acknowledged and seen that under the most high the heavens do rule Dan. 4.26 All matters shall at that time be carried on in the earth visibly by the decree of the watchers v. 17. the supream counsell and senate of judicature wherein the holy angels shall sit and exercise jurisdiction under Christ for the good of his church on earth They are ministring spirits in this very respect sent forth and authorized for this employment even to minister for them who shal be heirs of salvation as it is written all things are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods In that day saith Christ for brasse I will bring gold and for yron I will bring silver for wood brasse and for stones yron so glorious will then the restoration of al things be and I will also make thine officers peace and thine exactours righteousnes Violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting not destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls of defence salvation and thy gates of justice prayse Then the haughtines of man shal be layd low and his lofty lookes brought downe and the worshippers of idols shall goe into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and of the glory of his majesty when he shall thus arise most terribly to shake the earth Esay 2. The same thing is promised Haggai 2 6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come that is to say after the terrible forerunning dispensation ministred by Eliah that went up to heaven in a fiery chariot to take his seat amongst this heavenly colledge of angels and be in that glory with other the spirits of just men made perfect shall the desire of all nations Christ himself come to perfect and consummate what is left wanting in the operation of the former ministry and fill his owne house with glory in the sight of the whole world during the space of a thousand years 2. But 2dly although at the sounding of the seventh trumpet it do come to passe that there be great voices in heaven what is that to the inhabitants that are on earth those that are at home in the body absent from the Lord whose spirits are fast asleep in the earth to wit in the organicall life and exercise of bodily senses Will not they be out of the hearing of the sound of these heavenly voices At least will they be able to understand their meaning unlesse what is uttered by the angelicall tongues be in words easy to be understood by the spirit of their minds who live and dwell in mortall clay and that an easy understanding thereof also be communicable to the sensuall part of the soule which is as the door to take in and give out againe what shal be heard by the sound of such a heavenly Trumpet By what is recorded for our instruction we may be assured this is not impossible nor unpracticable It hapned thus to the Apostle John before his change by death even whilst he was a prisoner and a banished man in the I le of Patmos for the Word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ He looked and behold a door was opened in heaven By the opening of that door he came to be made able to hear the voices in heaven the first and second voice of the angel Revel 4.1 10 8. as it were of a trumpet talking with him which sayd come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter By the power of that voice calling him he was immediatly in the spirit that is as Paul absent from the body He had such an awakening of his inward senses wrought in him such an opening and making of them meet to heare and receave what by the tongue of the angel was to be delivered that he was in the spirit or in the exercise of the same kind of life and manner of conversing with spirits that they are in one with another or that the spirits of just men made perfect do use with the holy angels when in the state of soules seperate from the body made equall to angels and children of the resurrection in the first degree or step of it which is called Revel 20
of sons of a higher and lower dignity of this man and of that man that is borne there whether of noble or common degree all free heaven-born citizens and subjects of one and the same great and universall King They shall dwell in perfect unity together and be of one accord as brethren singing the song of Moses and of the lambe in sweet harmony and consort and the stranger and the uncleane shall no more passe through this glorious city For there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that does defile nor that worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they only which are written with the writing that is upon both those stickes before-mentioned in the lambs both of life This is the church and civill state which the ministry of Eliah is to prepare the way unto as the end to which all the work of restitution which thereby shal be wrought does and must tend This will be effected by the powerfull preaching of the everlasting gospel by a ministry that shall have the tongues not of men only but of angels filled with the inspiration of the holy Ghost as also yeilding vengeance and flames of fire as a day of great judgment and distinction that is to be brought and executed upon ungodly men and willfull opposers of that work by the pouring out upon them the seven vialls of Gods wrath like as Moses his ministry did upon Pharaoh King of Egypt so long as he hardned himself and refused to let Israel his son and his first born goe free and serve him according to his duty By Eliahs second comming then according to the particulars before declared together with the end itself in order to which this ministry of restoring all things is appointed we are to understand no other then the spirit and power wherein the slaine witnesses of Christ shal be quickned made to stand upon their feet and have withall an ascent given to them into heaven as visible associates and copartners with the holy angels in their power and great glory like bright morning starrs and signes of the comming of the son of man even whilst they are yet remaining in the body on this side death This second comming of Eliah therefore is not to be confounded with Christs owne personall comming which succeeds and comes to give us actually and compleatly a part in that which Rev. 20. is called the first resurrection The change effected by Eliah's comming will rather be a transfiguration then what properly can be called the first resurrection by which our bodies wil be made like unto that glorious body of Christ in which he lived on earth fourty dayes before his ascension and in which power and glory he is to shine forth like the sun in his strength as the brightnes of the day of his second comming encreases and rises up to its height For the ushering in hereof this signe in heaven of the son of mans comming is to go before which as hath bin said is no other then the spirit and power which the slain witnesses or the dried dispersed bones and members of Christs dead body his hidden invisible seed of beleevers his church at that time on the earth shal be quickned and raised up into as a heaven upon earth in the sight of the whole world The wise or teachers that then shal be among them shall shine as the brightnes of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnes as the stars for evermore By the power of that faith which brings life and immortality to light in the minds of those that are true Israelits indeed inhabitants of the new and heavenly Jerusalem that is above we have declared that Abraham in type and Christ in spirit and truth is the father unto two sorts of Sons that are both heirs and witnesses of what they se and heare from Christ They are both written among the living in Jerusalem with a writing that is never to be defaced or blotted out Some of them are made conquerours and others of them more then conquerours through Christ that hath loved them and caused them to abide and continue with him in his temptations and to beare a conformity in their minds to his death armed with the same mind as he was for suffering in the flesh as well as carrying about in their bodies the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus They have heard and receaved that language of faith in them and to them with which Paul acquaints us Tim. 2.2 11 12. If we be dead with him we shall live with him if we suffer we shall also reigne with him Unto this carkasse or dead body the eagles the fowles of heaven by a ministry of the spirit of life from God wil be gathered together And as a breath from the foure winds of heaven a wind of prophesy and divine inspiration in the spirit and power of Eliah shall come forth and shew itself in these slain witnesses where ever they shal be found throughout the whole world and bring them together into one sheepfold of visible government both in church and state In this posture it will be found most true that by fire from heaven and as the Lords owne sword they shall plead with all flesh and the slaine of the Lord shal be many that shall fall under them in attempting to rise up against them For in and by this ministry of Eliah the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirl-wind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire When you shal be awakened to se by the comming of this glorious ministry of God what in this day shal be wrought not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord the seven eyes which run to and fro through the whole earth rejoycing to se his work goe on and taking care that there be sutable dispensations of divine providences to further and advance it whereof the decision to be made in the valley of Iehosaphat will not be the least then your heart shall rejoyce and your bones flourish like an herbe and the hand of the Lord shal be knowne towards his Servants and his indignation towards his enemies Then shall the thoughts and words of the enemies of Gods people in designing against them however hidden and secret even in their very bedchambers be knowne and discovered by this ministry of Eliah and the Mountains full of horses and chariots of fire shal be like walls round about the city of God to defend them And not only the eyes of the Prophet the eyes of the inward man of the Saincts or of the spirit of their mind but the eyes of the Prophets servant also the beast on which he rides the sensual and outward man of the soule in the exercise of the very bodily senses shal be opened to se that there are more with the people of God then can be against them So shall all feare be removed far from them
heavenly aire or Spirit where they are to be ever with the Lord. In effect the day of Christs second appearance brings upon the stage of this world life from the dead working and declaring the first resurrection mentioned Revel 20. which is to continue visible to men on earth one thousand years The glorious chang which shal be made in the progresse of this day upon the soules and bodies of the Saincts shal be such as will no more leave them subject to corruption For over them the second death shall have no power This is another of the dayes of the Son of Man which succeeds the first is to continue a thousand years and then also have its end upon the sons making a voluntary and entire resignation of this his Kingdom unto his Father that God may be all in all For during this thousand years the son in his Kingdom shal be exalted as he to whom the father hath committed all judgmēt to be executed so that what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth shal be loosed in heaven Whom he will he shall slay and whom he will he shal keep alive as the most absolute Monarch and only Potentate that ever reigned on the earth to the end that during this season and space of time all mē may honour the son with the honor due to the father and in this appearance of the Son se the father as in his vicegerent and doe him homage in this his living Image the Lords Christ or anointed one the man that by God is ordeined to rule the world in righteousnes even all the nations upon the earth during this his day which immediatly praecedes the day of eternity and last judgment wherein God is to be all in all The son himself after that all things shall have bin subdued and subjected unto him shal be subject to the Father that put all things under him This second day of the Son of Man is that one day knowne to the Lord not day nor night but a kind of middle state between that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible It is neither absolutely one or the other but a mixture of both And it shall come to passe in the evening of this day it shal be light and the passage out of this into the day of eternity very pleasing and delightsome It shall distinguish itselfe as hath bin already intimated into the 3 usuall parts of a day MORNING MIDDAY NIGHT. 1. In its morning beauty and appearance the Eliah comes and restores all things as is foretold of him the BRIGHT MORNING STAR which is to shew to the kings of the east the neer approach of the only begotten Son himself and be to them and all other inhabitants on the earth the signe of the Son mans approaching and comming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory 2. In the noontide of this day of the Son of Man in his Kingdom shal be seen the height of the sunshine of that royall power and greatnes which shal be exercised by him in the capacity of universall King over all the earth the season wherein there shal be one LORD in his owne person visible and his name one throughout the whole world 3. There shall also be a declining and evening state of this glorious day which willingly and cheerfully gives place to the day of eternity wherein the father unveyled shall shine forth and be all in all How fitly does Ezekiel in the vision he had of the holy waters represent and describe this growing encreasing Kingdō of Christ revealed in the Gospel the light of Gods law that shines forth in the Son himself into the obedience and power whereof we are to be changed from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit The waters issued from under the threshold of the house eastward on the right or south side Ezek. 47. Their first comming forth was by measure the measure of a man and gradually from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loins from the loins to a river unpassable by man as meer man in his first constitution of being 2. 2dly then the same waters came forth in a communication above and beyond the measure of mans first nature into a river that man may swim in without drowning or being at all subject to die any more how much higher soever it rise above the head of the naturall man the first Adam And of this Noah by faith was aware who that he might obtein a state of safety from the overflowing flood by which al the world not made beleevers and taken into the arke were drown'd obeyed the counsel and command of God in building the arke and going into it after it was built and ready to receave him Herein have we a lively type of Christs humane nature offered up by the immortal Spirit and brought forth into the life that is from the dead never to die more but hath the keys of hel and death committed to him Unto the likenes of this heavenly building and temple of the living God in Christs person every true beleever is fashioned and conformed and is thereby made a fit vessel to swim in those waters of life safely and delightfully which by rising up above al the measures and proportions of the first world drowne them but are the proper element for those that are saved to live in They are fitted with enlarged hearts and mouths wide enough open'd to take in and receave those streams and rivers of the emanations of divine bounty and love how broad or deep soever they prove and how high soever they may rise and overflow For they have the man Christ Jesus their head the second Adam who as their forerunner is gone before to prepare the way for them and as the true arke in which are many mansions to receave them into himself that where he is they may be also Of what hath bin already said this then is the sum Christ is the eternall WORD and speaking power of God by whom are all things He is also as hath bin shewed the rock of ages the place of Gods rest throughout all generations the eternal Sabbath Heb. 4. wherein God finished his works so fully to his content that therein he took up his Rest even in the person and Spirit of the Mediatour the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath lain hid in God who created all things according to the eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Further This eternall WORD who is the creatour of all things visible and invisible being in the Mediatour the image of the invisible God does bear the name of the blessed Trinity and stamps the impression and character thereof upon all the works of his hands He is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending of the creation of God In the Psalms and Ecclesiastes God is called by the name of creatours as being three
as often as there shal be occasion to be absent from the body that you may be present with the Lord. For if herein you should appear vile in the eyes of wordly men as men beside yourselvs as David did in dancing naked before the arke yet is it to God And when you change againe from that inwardnes of life with God to be more in outward converse with men and more sober in their thoughts it is for their sakes and for their great benefit rather then yours that thereby you may be able to turn many of thē to righteousnes In this sence not excluding the literall it will be found true that the saincts shal be called to be and live in the spirit with Christ and to walk with God on earth before their translation as Enoch did Answerable to this it is said Dan. 12.2 compared with 1 Cor. 15.51 52. And many of thē that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt The spirit of our mind which sleepes in the dust of the earth wil be wrought off from that love and delight it is apt to take in making the body its home and exerting itself in such kind of operations as are in and by the use of our bodily organs and wil be gathered and carried up by the ministry of the holy angels forming a meetnes in the senses of the inward man of the heart into a converse with them and with Christ himself in spirit as a better home and city of habitation then that of the dust of the earth wherein it hath bin so long an inhabitant In order to this the soule will be endued or clothed upon with a hearing eare and a speaking tongue like to that of the angels in their immutable state And for this self same thing we are wrought by God who hath given us the earnest of his spirit already insome degree but will give it in the highest degree and measure it is atteinable before the change that comes upon us by death when this body is to be layd downe and brought into a state of actuall separation from the soule This change by death unto those that have partaken first of this awakening shal be very easy like unto the translation of Enoch who saw not death or had no sense of it in a way of pain or horrour His passage was sudden and in a moment very easy and desireable The Apostle Paul therefore speaking of this kind of change that should happen at the sounding of the seventh trumpet even in the beginning of it as we have opened does say behold I shew you a mystery that which as yet is a great secret but hereafter shal be very commonly experienced we shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shal be raysed incorruptible Those whose spirits were before as 't were asleepe in the dust of the earth and dead in respect of the spirituality and heavenlines they are now awaken'd into wil be acknowledged as in that kind and degree of resurrection which wil be made knowne at the rising of the witnesses They shall not die that is leave the body with any painfull sense of death but in a moment shal be changed and translated into glory This awakned risen state is not that which shal be peculiar only to the saincts but wicked men the children of perdition in way of everlasting contempt shall also partake of it with a like way of operation upon the spirit of their minds by wicked angels transforming themselvs into angels of light and hoping by this means to gaine credit to their ministers as ministers of righteousnes also which in a way of counterfeit resemblance the father of deceit wil be preparing during this ministry of Eliah till he be bound up by Christ from any more deceaving of the nations in this kind or any other This the Apostle Paul does very cleerly intimate 1 Cor 13.7 where he admits there may be those that may speake not only with tongues of men but also of angels who yet not having or living in the spirit of love there described will be found to be but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs vessels of great contempt compared with those that make the right and true musick Revel 14. those harpers that are taught how to sing the song of Moses and of the lamb in sweet harmony and consortship together and thereby turne many to righteousnes who shall shine like bright morning stars 3. The third particular then that shal be an eminent effect of Eliahs second comming is the raysing up in the world a more excellent way of preaching hearing and obeying the gospel then ever yet hath bin knowne upon the face of the earth even that which Rom. 11.15 is deservedly called life from the dead and is to be the means of bringing in the fullnes both of jew and gentile This is darkly pointed out by Dives in the parable Luk. 16.30 when in his answer to Abraham he sayes that if one went to his brethren from the dead they would repent hereby glancing as 't were at such a kind of excellent and powerfull ministry as was intended by God to be set up in the world whereby to bring men to repentence or as Luk. 14.23 to compel them to come in that Gods house may be filled with the fullnes both of jew and gentile This kind of ministry is that wherein both for cleernes and certainty of the matter preached and the power of that spirit in which it is ministred shal be beyond all that hath yet bin seen or experienced in the church For in this day the heavens shal be commanded to drop downe from above and the skies to poure downe righteousnes and the earth to open and bring forth salvation that righteousnes from heaven and in the earth may spring up together and this by the Lords owne most powerfull forming and creation Esay 45.8 So Psal 50.1 6. The Lord the mighty God hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the Son to the going downe thereof Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall keepe no longer silence A fire shall devoure before him and it shal be very tempestous round about him He shall call to the heavens from above or make use of the angelicall ministry in the judging of his peoples cause for them as those that he will first employ to go before him and declare his righteousnes and then afterwards will he come in his owne personall appearance and shew that he is judge himself Christ will give the angels a call nay a command and commission to prepare the hearts and mouthes of the saincts as trumpets through which they may give a certain sound to the making manifest the knowledg and vision of God and of
last and most glorious trump of God Christs humanity as head of the elect Angels all principalities and powers being subjected unto him who as he is the Son of man is made the cheif of the aÌ„gels and the prime minister of the WORD of life for food unto them This beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet is that which as hath bin said is the ministry of Eliah and goes before the ministry that shal be immediately exercised by the Son himself in his owne person By Christs revealing himself from heaven the head of angels he employes them as his reapers in the end of the world or in the last times to sever the wicked from among the just and gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend He will send a quickning Spirit of life from his presence that will breath the breath of prophecy into the holy angels those voices that are to be heard in heaveÌ„ saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ These voices wil be heard as it were the voice of a Trumpet talking with the Saincts on earth and calling them up into the same heavenly converse with themselvs causing them immediatly thereupon to be in the spirit beholding the throne that is in heaven and him that sits thereon as the head of those holy and blessed spirits who are all desirous to do him homage and worship refusing to take that to themselvs which is due only to their head and which the saints themselvs on earth would be but too forward to give them as was the case of John Revel 22.8 9. Under this ministry and dispensation the church and every particular member thereof do become the children that are all taught of God inwardly by this heavenly breath or angelical inspiration For this qualifies and enables them by the sight of the just one to know the mind and will of God and to do and fulfill it after Christ as they se he hath done it before them with a heart and spirit like unto his as he is the son of man And as so considered he is head of the holy angels by them speaking to and inspiring the church on earth He is also the head of that church in God the father that is above the angels so as unto principalities and powers the very elect angels by the church in this sence even the generall assembly of the first borne whose names are written in heaven the manifold wisdom of God shal be made knowne By these divine men who are the bride the lambs wife he will shew himself speaking and inspiring the good angels in heaven to all eternity and judging the evill and wicked ones into the flames of eternall fire The first of these attainments is that wherein the lower and common ranke of beleevers called in scripture the fulnes of the gentiles compared with the true Jews Gods first borne sons are gathered into society with the holy angels into a copartnership with them in an immutability of righteousnes and glory and so into Christ their head as into their proper element and sphere in which they are raysed up to live in his sight and to eat and drink with him at his table in his fathers Kingdom to all eternity Over these the second death never hath power And this is called the first resurrection which the other sort of beleevers those that are the fulnes of the Jews do enjoy in common with them during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth And after that they have a farther ascent into the life and glory of the second resurrection which is not to be revealed in the power of it untill Christ have resigned up the Kingdom unto his father that God may be all in all But during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth both these houses of Israel shal be gathered as sheep under one head and shepheard into one sheepfold and shine forth only in the life and glory of the first resurrection witnessing to the headship of Christ which he exerciseth over the angels and by them over the very church itself whilst the Kingdom of the son is unresigned by him into the hands of the father The life and glory of both these resurrections whether as they respect the mind or body of the true saincts and children of God or both is that immortality which is brought to light by Jesus Christ the life from the dead which will shew itself in the times appointed thereunto and translate us at length into eternity where time shal be no more And we are begotten even while here in our mortall bodies through fellowship with Christ in his resurrection unto a lively hope of this inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fades not away ready to be revealed in these last times Untill then it is in faith only and the seed of it does beget and produce the two sorts of beleevers so frequently mentioned who now by this ministry of Eliah are beginning to be made manifest and shal be distinguished as the true Israel of God from all strangers and deceitfull workers whatsoever that either love or make a lie The first of these are in their principles said to be of the common faith and to have â—â—teined the common salvation Thus Paul writes to Titus as his son after the common faith Tit. 1 4. And Jude v. 3. sayes I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation to the fulfilling of the scripture Rom. 4 17. Gen. 17.5 speaking of Abraham I have made thee the father of many nations as wel as of one nation peculiar above and besides all the rest For so Abrahams seed was to be a seed made up of many nations and a seed of one more peculiarly beloved nation also that were to be seperated to him to dwell by themselvs and not be reckon'd amongst the nations that are the fulnes of the Gentiles Abraham is but the typicall father Christ is the father in spirit and truth to this twofold seed In Gen. 13. and 15. chapters God promised Abraham to make of him a great people numberlesse as the dust of the earth or the stars of heaven which he makes good in the fulnes of the true Jews But chap. 17.5 he gives an additional seed also which he there promises him besides what he promised before saying behold my Covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a high father of a multitude of nations Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram that is high father but Abraham high father of multitudes Hence is it that in Gods everlasting Covenant there comes to be found salvation for a multitude of nations common as it were to all mankind if the fault be not in themselvs and not salvation only for one great nation the Israel that is Gods first borne God hath therefore an everlasting love and salvation which comparatively spoken of is that which is common and extensive to a numberlesse
the purity of his Ordinances amongst us a very small remnant a seed of hidden ones we had bin as Sodom in the height of sinning and bin made like unto Gomorrha in the extraordinarines of our punishment These are they that God accounts his jewels the people that are of price and value with him whatever reproach and disesteeme they are in from the world in all times These have that faith in the seed of it by which they are possest with an ability to do all things for the truth and nothing against it and this through Christ the power of God inwardly strengthening and bringing them forth into a likenes of ability with himself to do all things by his quickning of them as he himself hath done by the fathers quickning of him that they may live by him as he himself according to his manhood lives by the father who does in him all the works God hath now for neer these six thousand years kept these his jewels by him as a reserved hidden treasure that he resolvs in a fit season to bring to light and make a shew of openly in the sight of the whole world In the mean time he calls them into the secret chambers of his love and is encreasing their faith and patience under the great and various trialls wherein they are with God strangers and soiourners in and to the world and to the delights and comforts of it as all their fathers were This time of hardship and suffring from the world must not alwayes be their lot There is a day approaching wherein the time of their ill usage from the world shal be no longer God will have his season to shew kindnes and love to them and to do them honour in the sight of the whole creation a day in which his purpose and determined resolution is to make up his jewels and bring them all together from all parts where he hath kept them hid and concealed In this day he will spare them and shew favour to them as the father spares his owne son that serveth him and in serving pleaseth him And so visible a distinction in this day will God put in the way of the dispensations of his providences even to the eye of the world between them that serve him and them that serve him not between the righteous and the wicked that every eye shall take notice of it And it shall have such a powerfull effect upon the beholders that there shall come people the inhabitants of many cities yea the inhabitants of one city shall goe to another saying let us goe speedily and continually to pray before the Lord of hosts I will goe also Yea many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Ten man shall take hold out of all languages of the nations on the skirt of him that is a jew saying we will goe with you for we have heard that God is with you The jews that they will thus take hold of wil be such as are so indeed having the faith that failes not but makes them the receavers of that anointing which teacheth all things and is truth and no lie By this heavenly anointing they are in their very principles distinguished I. From those whose faith is so far from being of the same precious kind with theirs that it is sure to faile in the most needfull time in the day of temptation and triall when the winds blow and the rain deseends and the floods come and beat upon them Such faith is of little or no price Secondly The true Jew by his faith and anointing wil be likewise distinguish'd from those that have no faith but are unreasonable persecutours of those that have being void of all right discerning in matters of faith These true Jews and Israelits indeed are as we have shewed the two families in Jacobs house children of the same Jacob but not by the same Rachel of whom were only Joseph and Benjamin This distinction in Jacobs family seems to be taken notice of by the holy Ghost Ezek. 37.16 where the twelve Tribes are compared to two sticks or stems springing out of the same root as two houses nations or families of the same Israel Upon the one stick the Prophet was commanded to write for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions to whom as we know the Kingdom and scepter was assigned and out of whom Christ according to the flesh came Upon the other stick there was to be written for Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions For the seperated one from his brethren the exalted one above his brethren the dreamer to whose sheafe all the other sheaves yea the sun moon and stars were to do obeysance To him in a word was assigned the first birthright in the double portion of it the upper and the nether springs the blessings of heaven above of the deep that lieth under of the breasts and of the womb the blessings of the father that have prevailed above the blessings of his progenitours in an extent to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills that are appointed to be on the head of Ioseph and on the crowne of the head of him that was separate from his brethren These are the blessings written for Ioseph and for all the house of Israel his companiōs or of his faith spirit and principles Both these sticks the two houses or churches of beleevers and Israelits in deed are to be made up into one new Ierusalem in Christs hand Both flocks are to be gathered into one sheepfold and visible universall church-state of the revealed sons of God distinguished from all people on the face of the earth besides And they shal be gathered into one universall Kingdom and civil state that shall beare rule over the whole world For thus saith the Lord behold I will take the children of Israel the scattered sheep belonging to this fold from among the heathen whither they be gone and will gather them on every side and will bring them into their owne land even into the promised new Ierusalem state the new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousnes figured out by the land of Canaan And I will make them one nation or seed of my blessing in the land upon the mountains of Israel and one King shal be King to them all And though Iudah shall be there with his companions and Ioseph with his under distinct writings and enrollings assigning unto each their lot yet both shall make but one church and Kingdom one spirituall seed or nation of Abraham They shall no more be two so as to be divided into two Kingdoms either in church or state They shall neither envy nor vex one another any more They shall be fully agreed and live in peace as inhabitants of the same city the new Ierusalem uppet and lower as the hebrew word imports Ps 51. or heavenly and earthly consisting
To the word of this Eliahs ministry in the hearts of beleevers the whole creation shal be obedient The heavens at their prayers will shut or open They shall do greater things on earth then ever yet have bin done by the power that Christ hath with the father which in this day he will begin visibly to set on work and exercise for the good of his people But the great question is when shall these things be Answer The signe of Christs comming is already spoken to in this ministry of Eliah which does immediatly goe before it And when this ministry comes and reveales itself in power as it must in the hearts of all the true Israel of God it will untie all the knots and difficulties that do yet remaine to be resolved concerning Christs second appearance and things to come But when may this second comming of Eliah be expected 1. After that Christ in spirit hath as signally bin rejected by the generation of Jews under the gospel which were surrogated and engraffed in the room of Abrahams naturall seed as he was by that Jewish nation which crucified him at Jerusalem And when accordingly they shall have openly declared it by the like severe proceedings against the true spirit of prophecy manifesting itself in Christs witnesses who by humane laws and bodily punishments wil be suppressed kept under and put to death as much as lies in man to do 2dly When this persecution and rejection of Christ in his members hath had its progresse and course with the preaching of the gospel itself during the six trumpets from the one end of the earth to the other which hath shined as lightning from the east to the west and when the gospel and obeyers of it shall meet with the sharpest brunt of opposition so as that the dead bodies of the witnesses shall not be suffered to be put in their graves during the last three years and half of this houre and power of darknes that is to come upon the church of Gods hidden ones the remnant of the womans seed that keep the commandments of God and faith of Jesus But they are nevertheles helped and much saved from the flood of their enemies malice by the like mistake as was that of Herod who slew all the children from two years old and upwards hoping amongst them to find the promised seed but failed The earth helps the woman The earthly Ierusalem with her inhabitants shall prove a skreene to the heavenly Mount Zion 3dly When the wise virgins as wel as the foolish shal be found in a deep sleep of security and think the worst past looking for nothing more but the comming of the bridegroom before it be yet midnight The witnesses of Christ wil be ready to make account that their 1260 years of suffering under the reigne of the beast is either expired or upon the very point of expiring and therefore begin to put off their sackcloth or lay it quite aside as taking for graunted that the time is come that sorrow and sighing are flowne away never to returne more But they will afterwards find themselvs deceaved and that they are but falling into the times of the three last years and halfe it being Gods usuall and accustomed method from the beginning to usher in any great exaltation of his saincts with some desperate extreamity and calamity immediatly foregoing And therefore till after the wise virgins sun be turned into darknes and the foolish virgins moon be turned into blood the BRIGHT MORNING STAR of Eliahs ministry comes not But then it does immediatly follow 4thly and lastly when Antichrist and all enemies of the witnesses of Christ shal be in the grearest peace unity and joy imaginable amongst themselvs at the beholding the dead bodies of the two prophets that tormented them that dwell upon the earth and shall cry peace peace as esteeming their mountaine to be made so strong that it can never be moved In one word When the sunshine of their prosperity peace and power is at the height and to their thinking impossible ever to set againe Let this suffice without proceeding farther to speak concerning the two other parts of this great day of Christs second comming which wil be dignified with his owne personall reigne on earth the THOVSAND YEERS of the FIRST RESURRECTION Then will he put an end to this very day of his owne Kingdom by his free and voluntary resigning it up into the hands of the father that God may be all in all Let me only adde this word that the visible reigne of these saints of the first RESURRECTION here on earth for a thousand years wil be in the new Jerusalem state that is to come downe from God out of heaven in a state of beatitude and glory partaking of the divine presence and vision of Christ their King in an immutable righteous state both of body and Soule distinguished from the state of the nations that shall walke in her light all the world over and be happy and glorious also but changeable THE END Mistakes in the printing Page 9. lin 36. for teams read tearms p. 21. l. 30. this r. his p. 41. l. 32. themselv r. themselvs and l. 33. trues r. true p. 43. l. 26. to as r. as to p. 70. l. 21. 3d r. 2d p. 83. l. 31. hasband r. husband p. 84. l. 29. contracted r. contracted p. 91. l. 3. tempestous r. tempestuous and l. 14. eujoy r enjoy p. 95. l. 40. powers r. power