a closer texture and Consistence than before and some of them were hardned and coagulated into Earth Stones c. by the strong astringency of his sharp austere Fire as you see that of Water which is an Air or rather a thin Vapor condensed is made an Ice and an Oil the Ice for want of a heat able to melt or thaw it is hardned into Chrystal the Oil by due concoction becomes a Salt and an Earth and this Earth by a strong heat is hardned into a Brick and that thus out of the Clouds by the Fire that breaks out of them and compacts the thin and most earthy parts of them into a hard Lump or Stone Thunderbolts are produced By which means Lucifer's Sphere which is this visible World for he is still Prince of it John 12.31 and with it all the Concretes became palpable or tangible Thus this world was created a third Principle produced thus the Principle of Fire came to be creaturely and thus Evil begun and subsists now in the world And ex invisibili this world was thus made visible that is after the Light was made to shine in it again For until it pleased God to reveal his Light therein Gal. 1.16 there was nothing but a sharp dark grim austere Face over and through the whole Deep or Sphere Vmbra horrenda mortis and an inflamed Devil burning very terribly and furiously storming and casting his firy darts or flames into all its parts and as far as God himself But then God whose Nature Will Power and Act is but one and the same thing at all times resisting by his Nature which is the Summum Bonum the opposite Will Nature and Power of Lucifer made the Light which is the end of Nature to overcome to thaw this stiff frozen World and to spring a second time even through this Death and Hell into a new Paradise and glorify'd it again by casting out the Prince of this world John 12. 28 31. into his darkness or dark Fire for ever 2 Pet. 2 4. because he was the Author of such Fire in Nature and had changed the Pulchrum and the Bonum of the Light the good and the delightsom into darkness and evil and by destroying the Light had killed God in himself For God is the Light that is the good and the bliss of Life who by living in Angels and Men makes them live happy and therefore when they kill him as do all those that put out their Light that is fall again when they have been enlightned Hebr. 6.6 he never more lives in them and they live no more but die laying in a continual horror darkness and anguish Thus as Lucifer had been by re-kindling his Fire the Originator or the occasional cause of this 3d Principle the World so God by opening again the Principle of Light therein created and perfected the same into a Principle which was mixt as it is now that is did partake of both Principles of good and evil whereof the Tree of Knowledge in the midst of the Garden was a Sacrament or Sign what no other Tree that grew in the same Garden could be because they sprung like Adam from the Principle of the Light which made the Garden to be Eden or a Paradise It would not be amiss to shew here 1 that Adam was created in that Principle and made a second Angel in the stead of Lucifer 2 That he fell from it by lusting and attracting filling darkning enflaming of himself like Lucifer till his own Light grew so weak and saint that he fell asleep 3 That it was this mixt World which he thus lusted after imagining into and looking back into that out of which he was taken Gen. 2.7 like Lot's Wife into Sodom instead of looking Eastward or forwards towards the light all the time he was tempted upon which he fell asleep 4 That upon the biting and swallowing of the Apple he was seized upon invaded and infected by the Four Elements which stampt per contactum their mark and badge upon him as doth the longing Mother upon the Fruit in her womb cloathing him over with this rough hairy beastly or elementary Body what they could not have done else having no power at all over him before eating whereby he became of Isoh the Divine Man in the Light Adam the dark cloudy Man from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mist or a Cloud not from Adamah the Earth as our Wisemen make it for Adamah itself is derived from Adam as being his Adamah or the thing Adam dwelt on And which elementary Body is cut off from him never to return or rise again as the Divines teach because the Elements themselves from whence it proceeds shall pass away for ever 2 Pet. 3.10 and as it is what kills him Rom. 7.24 and makes him a fallen Man a Man of Sorrows and Grief wretched dark and cloudy he must be delivered from it and from its bondage into the glorious Liberty of God's Children to be happy or saved 1 Cor. 6.13 5 That in the cool of the day that it after the fierceness of his burning was over Gen. 3.8 when he was come to the state or the new birth of water he heard God speak and promise to him and to his Children to the end God's Will might stand and prevail against the Gates of Hell and the Devil's Will the Light Christ the third Angel. Who should bring again to him Lise and Immortality 2 Tim. 1.10 and restore this corrupted hard bound World to its former liberty the clear brightness it enjoyed before the Fall or kindling of Lucifer What he might have some hopes of whereas Lucifer hath none because thô he had killed God in him like Lucifer that is put out his own Light yet he was not the Author of the Evil in Nature had not infected the world and brought corruption in it but on the contrary the world had insected him when he tasted of the Apple and received into him the Sacrament of the Tree or Fruit of Good and Evil as being a mixture of both these and out of which his Body was extracted Gen. 2.7 whereby he had that in him which drew him and made him apt to lust and long after it But these things are too prolix and therefore to make at once an end of this Digression and reassume the Discourse of our Application I say thus But if what I did speak of be true how many are mistaken who doubtless think otherwise And is it not the Duty of them that are in power both to believe it themselves and to use the means proper to make others believe it and to prepare themselves and become capable and fit for the Birth of the Spirit To which end Is not reading the Bible to be promoted and therefore learning to read to be by Law enjoined And so should not an Act be made to oblige all People both Men Women and Children in the Land to learn to read and to read the Bible
we live again or come to another life and the death of the Body doth bring no life to the Soul therefore the Soul is to die and as the eternal Soul cannot corrupt or decay it is not obnoxious to such dissolution or death as the Body is and so the death of the Soul can be no corruption or dissolution of it but a continual dying agony strugling with death or such an anguishing pain as we may conceive a Man feels when he is a dying And this Fight or Agony must be as I have said with Burning or with Fire For every battel of men is with a confused noise and garments rolled in blood but this shall be with burning and with fewel of fire Isa 9.5 To which he adds ver 6. to shew us that this precedes the Baptism or the New Birth of Water the Water-like Child is born the Son of Man is formed in the Virgin Soul of Man and grows there till he becomes the wonderful mighty God and the Prince of Peace to him Under the Law all those things that could abide the Fire were purified by Fire and those that could not bear it were purified with Water to shew us what was to be the true cleansing of the Soul whil'st as yet in this Body of Flesh under the Gospel And many of the Fathers to shew that this is no new Doctrine speak at the same rate Amongst whom Ambrosius and Origen on the first Chapter of Leviticus and Psal 36. have left us these Passages Christus faith Ambrosius baptizat in Spiritu sancto igne qui Spiritus sancti typus imago est qui ignis instar cor animam fidelium inflammat ut probet eos secundum Apostolum 1 Cor. 3. Nam necesse est at hoc examen perficiatur apud omnes qui redibunt in Paradisum Oportet nos omnes faith Origen at que Paulum Petrum who saith I Pet. 4.17 that the time was come since the Agony of Christ that the Saints were to be tried and that this firy Tryal which he calleth their judgment must begin first at them and at the whole house of God intrare in talem purgatorium ignem sed omnes non eodem modo ac illi transibunt nam non omnes purgantur per ignem qui exit de Altari qui est ignis Domini nam ignis qui est extra Altare Altare autem est Christus qui mittit nobis ignem Spiritus Sancti non est ignis Domini sed ignis peregrinus in peccatorum cruciatum destinatus qui nunquam extinguitur ut vermis qui rodit eos nunquam moritur Nam postquam anima per multitudinem malefactorum in se cumulavit abundantiam peccatorum ista congregatio malorum cum tempore fermentat à poena supplicio interno flammam concipit sicuti corpus febrem ab excessu gulae aut aliarum superfluitatum cum in memorian revocare malefactorum historiam retexere incipiet quae ipsi perpetuus stimulus erunt ad torquendum sui ipsius accusatrix erit testimonium dabit contra semet ipsam ut Apostolus inquit ad Rom 2. inter se invicem accusantibus aut etiam defendentibus cogitationibus in die quâ judicabit Dominus occulta hominum Sed Jeremias cap. 25. Loquitur depotione irae Dei quae effundetur quicunque de illa bibere non volet non purificabitur Vnde discimus inquit quod irae Dei effusio in corda quam amoris Dei effusio sequitur Rom. 5.5 facit ad purgationem animarum Haec ille Whence we learn that the Fire of God's wrath in the Soul is both the Death of the Soul or the Hell of the Wicked and the Purgatory of the Souls of the Faithful of which he that will not drink shall never be purified and so shall never enter into the Kingdom of God Hebr. 12 14-13.11 and that this Firy Tryal is not so violent in some to wit that have led a holy Life before it as in others that have led an ungodly sinful Life whose multitude of sins kindle a greater Fermentation Out of this the Church of Rome that knows but the dead Letter of the Christian Mysteries and hath depraved them to make a sordid gain of them hath drawn her Purgatory And these things suffice to prove that this dying by Fire and this new Birth of Water are the true and onely way or quomodo of Wisdom that is how to obtain the Spirit that gives Wisdom without which all the study for Knowledge is but in vain as they that see in seeing may find to be true in most of the learned at the Schools who never find any thing besides the Opinion they have at first received thô it be never so False whereas a true Learned man brings forth daily out of his ever-springing Well or Stock of Wisdom things new and old Matth. 13.52 and who not only know not that these things are the true and direct way to Wisdom but preferring their Darkness to Light will not justifie or own this truth when told them and will keep for all this sucking the dry empty Breasts of their old Alma Mater so they call Academies and filling thus more and more as Eliphaz saith in Job 15.2 their Bellies with the East wind But here I would not be understood as if I meant that there is no Knowledge at all of Natural Things without this Death and this Birth For surely there is a place for Gold a vein for Silver Iron and Brass by Knowledge got without such means as these are molten out of their Oar Job 28.1 2. That is an implicit Knowledge in part may be had from others in many things But where shall Wisdom be found It is not to be found in the Land of the Living ver 12 13. Now Wisdom as I said is not a Knowledge in part and of one part of the World Enthusiastically inspired in our minds For in the case of Knowledge which is a sight of all the true Causes concurring in the production of such Effect or Phoenomenon as is become the Object of a Man's Meditation there can be no such thing But it is a Light shining or breaking out in the Mind which like a slash of Lightning makes all those things manifest that we could not see before though we were just upon them by reason of our standing in the dark with them so that we can thereby see and perceive what things they are nay read in them and through them by their outward signature per quid quomodo that is in what manner and by what they become such provided we set upon the Contemplation of them For as the Flash makes not Men see what is out of their sight or what they look not upon thô it shines through and gives light over the whole Hemisphere So thô the light of Wisdom doth make all things manifest and expose to our View the hidden Causes of Things yet
purified and exalted by frequent Inhumations and Dippings in the water without perceptible heat which in the birth of Water cannot but be offensive For thô the Chymists calcine or burn their things with Fire yet the Wisemen ever did burn or calcine with Water and they cry tere tere imbibe imbibe But when this outward Principle the World shall be totally deliver'd from the Bondage and Curse of its Corruption the density compactness and hardness of its Body into the glorious liberty of God's Children a thin transparent Body and so shall pass from this kind of Being to a new one then it shall again go thrô the fierceness of the Fire then the Elements shall melt with fervent heat saith Peter 2.3 10. and the Earth shall be burnt up and shall be with the waters reduced again into a glorious Quintessence on which the ransomed of the Lord shall stand with songs and with joy upon their heads Rev. 15.2 Isa 35.10 Matth. 5.5 As there are three distinct kinds of Lives as I have said already in the Twelfth Page all created things live of and are as by so many Classes distinguished by and comprehended under as so many Species under their Genus or Kind so there be three several Principles according to some which give all created things their specisick Form of Life and determinate all those which are within their Classis after their own Property And they may well be called Principles so long as all things have their Life in and from them and so long as these three Lives are the Original Being or State things fell in or betook themselves unto from their first Original The first is the Fire Life or the Principle of Fire common to all living things for asmuch as they all take from them the Original and the first Rise of their Life but proper to the Devils and the damned Souls only The second is the Divine Life or Principle of the Light wherein the Angels and Men were perfected and made good Gen. 1.31 but from which both of them fell Jud. ver 6. and is proper only to the confirmed Angels and the Souls of the Faithful The third is this outward Life or the Principle of this World where all things live in the Air of the Spirit which comes down from the Heavens into it and is proper to the Beasts and to the present Body of Man and to all those things which live in it and from it but became accidental to Man by reason that he fell into it as was said And the first is ascribed to God the Father of Life as being but a burning sharp fierce and obscure Fire without the Light of the Son The second to God the Son as being the Light of Life that sweetneth and perfects it and the third and last of them to God the Holy Spirit as being the Conveyer and the Refresher of Life that brings Life and preserves it and that proceeds like the Air from the Fire and the Light of the Father and the Son. For to enlarge upon this when God created the world or to make the word Create somewhat more intelligible did make himself manifest he manifested himself such as he is in himself that is by a Trinity in Unity Fire Light and Spirit in one Being Therefore he make three Spring Heads or Prineiples of all Things three Throne-Angels with their Worlds Michael the mighty strong Prince after the fierce Nature and Property of Fire Lucifer the lovely the bright and most glorious Prince after the pleasant nature and property of the Light and Vriel the Well-doer or the Introducer and Conveyer of the Light or of all the pleasantness and good that comes from the Light after the beneficent Nature of the Holy Ghost each one a distinct Principle and all the three together making up one Unity or total Being like God to wit the invisible and intelligible World and comprehending in them the whole Creation of God and each of them consisting of Fire Light and Spirit For as the end of Nature alias of the Nasciture Manifestation of God was to communicate his Summum Bonum Himself to all created Beings his Will and Purpose was not that the Principle of Fire Evil should predominate and subsist in any thing by itself without the Light but that the Light should take place and the Angels with their Worlds should become such as God is a most joyful Being and a pleasant Paradise Therefore thô God created each in a distinct Principle yet he made each of them that is Michael as well as Vriel and Lucifer to consist of those three things and to pass immediately from the Fire to the Light and to send forth or exhale like the Sun out of himself a Spirit into his Sphere to vivify and to seed and sustent it all over Upon which saith Trismegist Omnia lux fuerunt vel in lumen conversa jucundum suave nimium Spectaculum For God is light and in him there is no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 And all things had for ever continued in this same state if Lucifer who being the most glorious of the three had not admired himself and instead of loving and admiring God for it and of seeking God's Kingdom and Glory more than his own fall'n in love with his own self whence he as a Man in love doth by his longing attract what he loves into himself and his Soul saith the Scripture 2 Sam. 13.39 doth as it were issue out or go forth to join with it drew himself into himself and by the astringency of his Lust or Desire for Lust or Desire is astringent and attractive filling or impregnating and offuscating himself as one that dotes upon that which he loves whether it be Man Woman Gold or Silver cannot receive in his mind any other thing but that his mind runs upon nothing but his beloved treasure and is wholly taken up with it Matth. 6.21 he becomes pensive and as it were overcast with a thick Cloud or dark Mist so he was offuscated and became cloudy and dark and as the more he lusted and drew the more and thicker the Clouds did gather and grow whereby a Heat and Burning was excitated in him and he was reinflamed as it doth happen to those who having kept their Lusts a good while under Hatches break out into the more violent heat and passion and to a wet heap of Hay Fruits Flowers and other things which are apt to ferment and to grow hot of themselves by reason that the Vapor or the Cloud that comes from them during their Fermentation being kept within the heap by the Contiguity and Coherence of its parts which affords no passage or way for Transpiration grows there thicker and thicker And withall he set his Sphere which being a thin Matter was as apt as any Smoke is to take Flame on Fire whereby the Matter thereof which was very thin and subtle was concocted and hardned its loose parts were compacted into
wit of the Life that saves and we must be born again to live and that of Water So that two things a dying and a new birth of Water are necessary to Life and the only way through which we must unavoidably pass to come to Happiness or to the perfect new Birth of the Spirit of Wisdom in which latter Birth chiefly consists our Salvation Which things See Dr. Wallâ—s his Sermons of Regeneration Printed for Mr. Rogers at the Sun near Temple Bar. because very few Divines do know what they are and therefore pass them over and teach with Dr. Wallis That we are not bound to know and to trouble our selves with such nice Enquiries as if we were not to be saved by coming saith Paul 1 Tim. 2.4 to the knowledge of the Truth I think fit to declare and for this end to begin by the new Birth of Water To be born of Water then is not to be Baptized as we are now with Water but to take the beginning of our Life from VVater To do which man must become Water be Water himself if not in his Flesh and Bones as Nicodemus took it however within the Heart that is in the inward Man by making his Heart tender 2 Chron. 34.27 and as humble as resigned and in a word as passive or unactive as Water That is to say as Water hath no motion of it self but stands still or if moved falls downwards continually or flows this way or that way as the Wind agitates it so our Hearts should no more have any will of their own but lay still as a dead thing or as being resolved even to die at God's Feet That as out of the shapeless passive unactive Water all the Concretes in the World are formed and produced 2 Pet. 3 5. by the only working of God's Spirit upon it Gen. 1.2 Psal 33.6 so we may out of that state wherein we have no more any motion desire lust or will of out own but only that to yield all and enter into God's Will receive a new form and shaper or be reformed or born again of the first Spirit that gave Adam a true Life Gen. 2.7 after the Image of God put off the earthly Image we have from Father Adam 1 Cor 15.49 And thus by Humility rise again to that state which he and Eve fell from by Pride And this is what is shewed us by the Water and the Way of using it in Baptism We are saith Paul Rom. 6.4 by Baptism buried with Christ into death that is as they which were Baptized in St. Paul's time being cover'd all over when they were dipt in Water were by this means as it were dead and buried to the World So we by this 〈◊〉 Baptism or birth or state of Water become as dead men buried to all the Lusts of the Flesh and to all Self-will as Pride Covetousness and Envy and to all the reliance and hope we have on this World that as Christ adds he rose up from grave through God's Spirit so we should out of this state rise into a new Creature that hath got a Divine Form which is rising from the Dead and the first Resurrection All is made out of Spirit or as Hippocrates saith in primo de Diaeta out of Fire and Water Spiritus est organum in manu summi Dei quo agitantur omnes in hoc mundo species saith Trismegistus of it Which Spirit coming down first from the Stars into the Air and thence into the Water works on it continually whence an Oil is produced and this Oil by a longer digestion becomes a Salt which Salt is the first Matter and true Body of Concretes This is demonstrable from the juices of Vegetables if they be distilled before their Fermentation but better by distilling some May dew or Rain-water because being thin and light and a transparent Liquor by reason of their being circulated in the Air they are not thought by many to have and contain an Oil yet in their distillation they yield an Oil and a Salt which must have been formed there by the Spirit from the Stars it was impregnated with working upon its Vehicle the said Dew or Rain-water So likewise Man being made of Water and of Spirit must be born again of them to become a new Creature and must first become water make his heart soft and tender break that Rock as Moses did Exod. 17.6 and melt the Ice or hardness of his heart into water or the tears of Repentance that by the Holy Spirit which is the Dew the Manna or the true Bread from Heaven that gives life unto the world John 6.32 33. an Oil first and then a Salt which is the true Flesh and Blood or the true Body of Christ ver 51. and also the new Body the blessed Souls shall rise with or our house from above may be formed produced and perfected within him Therefore Christ exhorts all Men to have some Salt in themselves Mark 9.50 that is to say as the Salt understand essential Salt is the first matter of things and results from the Spirit 's action upon the water so all Men should always have some of that same first substance which the Spirit of God forms in Souls bathed in tears and so should give leave to his Spirit to work it in them and produce by its working a Salt to salt them withal ver 49. or preserve both their Body and Soul to Eternal Life from all sort of Corruption such as Leprosy which makes the whole Body insensible and as that thorow hardness of heart which turns Man into such Salt as Lot's Wife was that is a Salt Alkali which is gone through the Fire and therefore can by no means be further wrought upon for thereby losing its Oyl or its Radical Moisture the Vehicle of the Spirit is no more susceptible as the moist essential Salt or Nitre of the Earth is of any sweet influence of Heaven working on it but becomes a meer dead Coal a Lime-stone an Alkali made by Incineration and that melts no more like Ice and other essential Salts by the warmth of the Spirit but by a strong fierce Fire into a hard stone like Glass which is past for evermore all hope of recovery or of regeneration and so makes Man incapable of such Vegetation as the dry Rod of Aaron by its budding forth again typified the Souls must have Therefore remember Lot's Wife flee from the Land of the North this hard frosty dark lowring dismal or Northerly state saith the Lord by Zachary 2.6 whoever will inhabit or live in Jerusalem ver 4. This birth of Water therefore is what makes Man susceptible of the sweet influence and working of God's Spirit on his Soul to renew it and make it grow green and bud and bear Fruits or be fruitful for thereby we do like John by his Baptism of water prepare the way of the Lord that is for the Lord 's coming by his comforting Spirit this birth of
acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the
40 days of Temptation are ended chap. 24.48 Therefore all Christians should be made acquainted with these things and their Watchmen saith Joel 2.1 should blow the Trumpet aloud and sound an Alarm to them for note this is to be done in the Lord 's holy Mountain the Church amongst the Faithful and not amongst the Heathen to warn them of that Fire and Sword which the Lord pleads with Ezek. 33. and which is the terrible and gloomy day of the Lord. But I doubt I am Vox clamantis in deserto that is where no body hears For O Lord who is the man that believes our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed John 12.38 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Isa 64.7 However God is over all things and when we water and plant he may give encrease and he hath not lighted my Candle for me to hide or keep it under my Bed but to make it shine as far as I can to others which is I hope warrant enough for me to write without any further Licence or Ordination See what Thomas à Kempis and many other wise Men have left us in writing of the way to Happiness and of the necessity of entring into the Life Death and Sufferings of Christ For because these things be true I mean what I said of the Baptism of Fire and of the Birth of Water all wise Men who always know and justifie Truth Luke 7.35 own them and have often declared and taught them But as there is a variety of Gifts and of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5. they have differently also expressed the same Jamblichus of Mysteries Haec utique sit tibi ad foelicitatem via Consider are decet quà praecipue ratione solvi possis à vinculis quibus anima circa formas at que species mundi contemperatur Est autem solutio nulla praeter ipsam Dei cognitionem Idea namque foelicitatis est ipsum cognoscere Bonum quemadmodum est Idea malorum ipsa quidem bonorum oblivio quae est deceptio inseparabilis à caduco à principiis enim cadens at que repulsa se ipsam projicit ad corporalem ideam dimetiendam à qua corporali Idea solvi debes ut contemplationi cognitioni Dei rursus jungaris Plato calls this I me an this state of Water whereby we become void of the Forms Idea's of outward things Conversio animae humanae in seipsam the Soul converting from things without it into itself Great Hermes with Solomon Cant. 5.2 Ob dormitio mentis à corporis sensibus A sleeping of the Body whil'st our Soul is waking I sleep but my heart is awake like Balaam's eyes that were open all the while his Body was in a trance Numb 24.4 and burning besides like that of the two Disciples of Christ in their way to Emmaus Luke 24.32 The Popish Saints call the same the internal way to God and inward Recollection of which Molina at Rome hath lately said enough to set the Priests against him who cannot abide to hear of dying and suffering but only of that which makes their heart glad Judg. 18.20 a Fat Living The whole Sum of Religion is for man to keep himself unspotted from worldly things or from the Love of the World Jam. 1.27 for in this consists the Love of God Matth. 6.24 and the Love of God with that of our Neighbour is the great Commandment and the Law and the Prophets A great Protestant Divine Famous both for Piety and Learning Bishop Vsher in answer to a Question about Sanctification which one made expresseth thus this Abstraction from the World and this dying by Fire I must tell you saith he we do not well understand what is Sanctification or the New Creature which God formeth by his own Spirit in every Soul which be regenerates of water For it is no less than for a Man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the Will of God and to live in the offering up of his Soul as a whole Burnt-offering like Christ to God the Father And how little are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this work in their Souls Nay and Notionally too I add the Protestants knowing little more of this I mean of the way to become a new Creature than what they call Repentance Which Word yet being taken in its right and genuine sense siguifies more than what they seem to understand by it that is more than any sorrow for Sin and setting upon mending amounts to For what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is it either Protestant or Catholick Repentance No surely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is neither lashing your backs nor grieving two or three hours But it is the amendment itself duly performed it is a Resipiscence which is no less in English than a Fool and a Knave becoming at the same time both a wise and a good Man and a change or conversion from one state or quality viz. the Nature of a Beast to the most opposite state to wit the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 or at least that of Angels Luke 20.36 Which Christians flatter themselves in vain to attain unto by their common Repentance for there needs a hard striving a man must be violent to take God's Kingdom by Force And it can never be done without passing the great Gulph of God's Vengeance and Wrath threatned Gen. 2.17 Luke 16.26 21.22 And thô Peter in the Acts 2 38-3.19 mentions only the Baptism of Water and Repentance as the things necessary to obtain the Holy Ghost that makes Man a New Creature yet in his First Epistle speaking of another thing not strange to the Believers to wit the Firy Tryal he shews thereby that they go through some other thing than that which he calls there Repentance or that the word Repentance with the word Be Converted added to it in that place includes the Firy Tryal which he would not mention there because he spake before a mixt Assembly of People and it being one of those many things Christ who forbids to cast Pearls before Swine would not yet say to the World John 16.12 that cannot favor the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 or more than Peter endure to hear of dying Matth. 16.22 23. he would not declare it them but left to the Holy Ghost the Revelation thereof to them that were not without God's Kingdom as the World is Mat. 4.11 But because it is God's Will that all men should be saved by opening of their blind eyes and by coming at the last to the knowledg of the Truth and the harvest is grown ripe as it appears from the French Prophets and their Prophesies I think it is high time for them that make mention of the Lord not to keep silence but to tell it publickly and found an Alarm of it But whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends this thing or no sure it is that we must dye before