Christ's new and heavenly his natural for Christ's spiritual creature-life and possessions A conclusive refusal to part with all we have is a final parting-blow between God and Man Paul found Corinthian Professors bewitch'd Galatians and belly-God Philippians dangerously engag'd towards a sixure in this most presumptuous Sin and Error 1 Cor. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. Gal. 3. 1 -4. Phil. 3. 18 19. And Christ found a first-Covenant party in enmity to the second in most or all the seven Churches Rev. 2. 3. In Laodicea scarce any other and all this under the outward dispensation and ministry of the Gospel owning themselves as Gospel-Professors And what or who else in a manner at this day can we find but such anti-Gospel-Gospellers in all variety of opinion form and way All the highly pretending and conceited Children of the Kingdom in the most sublimated Church-forms or purest Churches in but restor'd first-covenant Law-principles without advance by exchange and Gospel-conversion will be found at a loss and cast or kept out of the Kingdom of Christ as not at all of his new-Covenant Gospel-spirit of Grace and Truth 'T is in the heavenly Wisdom of this only Men can attain the sight and inheritance of the most glorious divine Sun and of the new-creation Sun of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mal. 4. 2. in the Mediator's person which is the greatest gain the highest prosit and advantage Man or Angel can receive or enjoy to all eternity This 〈◊〉 proves ver 12. Vers. 12. For Wisdom is a defence Heb. shadow and mony is a desence but the excellency of knowledg is that Wisdom giveth life to them that have it Here 's a distinguishing character of the first and second covenant spirits Lives Wisdoms with or by the effects riches and priviledges of each The Wisdom and mystical mony or riches of the first are a defence against the rude assaults the unruly brutish motions of the corrupt state of nature and do make up to Man all he thinks he needs for eternal life 1 Cor. 4. 8. Rev. 3. 17. But through the fading nature of all that life and riches and evil use of it in preference and opposition to the durable life and true riches in the Gospel-spirit of God all 's spoil'd Man's inordinate love to the former is that love of mony that 's the root of all evil against God and to himself evil of sin and punishment It renders all the mammon of unrighteousness as preferr'd to the 〈◊〉 riches of Christ in his infinite divine and everlasting righteous new-creation Life First-creation Life with the riches thereof is to be allow'd its due as good in its kind and lawful use for suppressing the unruly desires thoughts and motions of the corrupt state of Nature Man so using it is faithful to the Light afforded him by Christ in the first Covenant as a fleshly Bridegroom But then farther is he to follow this Bridegroom in the death and loss of all this fading life and riches Wisdom and Mony for what in spiritual conviction-Light is shew'd and offer'd him by Christ as a better Bridegroom and Comforter in the second This second and principal thing done as the passive part of obedience requir'd in the right and lawful use of all in the first Covenant law-state God is well-pleased and Man saved But be Man never so faithful in the active obedience performable in his law-life if he refuse to perform or yield to the requir'd passive obedience all his active turns in conclusion to no account at all Himself is turn'd out of God's house for ever as but that servant in his own law-spirit of bondage that refus'd to become a Son of God in his Gospel-spirit of glorious liberty that makes free indeed Jo. 8. 35 36. The truth the Gospel-spirit of Truth makes Man truly free ver 32. Where or in whomsoever that Spirit is is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Gospel-law of the Spirit of life is the perfect law of liberty It renders Man free not to but from all sin and death at last Rom. 8. 2. Jam. 1. 25. Man's spirit of bondage chosen before and against God's spirit of true freedom becom's a house a prison a state of eternal death to him If Man use his law-life aright as to the first end for which restor'd and miss the appointed and declared second all comes to worse then nothing for ever He misses that true Wisdom that gives and is eternal life to them that have it This the Law-life and best Wisdom of Man can never give or be to him Gal. 3. 21. Vers. 13. Consider the work of God for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked Consider well the life and state of Men and Angels as the first-creation Workmanship of God's hand and you 'l find it crooked first comparatively To the second make of them by his new-creating Workmanship all the fading goodness Life Wisdom Glory and Righteousness of the first are as nothing no Glory 2 Cor. 3. 10. If the Glory and other things of Man in the first be not only presumptuously compared with but preferr'd and exalted into a jusling competition with and opposition to the Life Glory Wisdom Righteousness Works Fruits and things of God offer'd them by a new and second Creation this renders all such things worse then nothing Yea if this be finally wilfully and conclusively done the Glory Wisdom Light Life Righteousness all things of Man are turn'd into unspeakable shame utmost folly and highest wickedness to which belong utter Darkness and eternal Death The corruptible seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. of God's left-hand planting in Man's or Angel's natural first-creation-make and state at its utmost growth flourish and fruitfulness amounts but to a fading flower Man in all at best is altogether Vanity This fleshly state of Life was figur'd by the tree of good and evil before the fall Since the fall 't is always evil root and branch tree and fruit silth of 〈◊〉 or spirit are found in all its operations fruits products or performances root and branch When Paul was eminent in the restor'd righteous law-life of Man how fiercely did he persecute the Gospel or new-Creature life of Christ in himself and Saints That was filth of Spirit enmity and despite to the very Gospel spirit of Grace in which any can be saved 't was a sinning against the holy Ghost but ignorantly When done knowingly and so wilfully t is the presumptuous unpardonable Sin unto Death God made Man upright set up in him a first-Covenant-life perfect in its kind but fallible corruptible changeable loseable as all mankind have sadly experienc'd by the first error of humane nature at best in the first Man Now what is corruptible God calls corruption The natural seed of a first-Covenant life cast into Man in his natural first-creation make and fashion of being was sown in corruption dishonour weakness By the obedient death of Man therein 't is rais'd in Incorruption Glory Power a spiritual
in a scripture sense God's judgment that make the visible or invisible glories and excellencies of this world 's perishing vanities the only objects of all their desire delight labour and love All inward mystical riches heaped up in the fruitful exercise of a restored first-covenant life under the fructifying influencings of Christ as a sleshly Bride-groom are passant vanities as mortal and perishable as the life and outward concerns of the body that all men know to be so and will make themselves Wings and slee away or depart from all the possessours thereof This then leaves the title wise only to the spritual saint that 's counted the veriest fool of all by all but such as himself that is by all fools as not fit to live any longer upon the Earth amongst them Thus thought and said Holy Wise Righteous first-covenant professours concerning Paul Act. 22. 22. And of Christ himself they said he hath a Devil and is mad why hear ye him Jo. 10. 20. All below the truly wise Spiritual Man both wise and fools within the compass of their natural state in all the fore-mentioned senses will be alike brought to the greatest loss disappointment and misery imaginable as to any thing of hapines in eternal Darkness Torment and Vexation of spirit under unquenchable Wrath. They 'l all lie down in Sorrow for ever This being so Solomon sayes Why was I then more Wise to wit in my renewed Life Wisdom and Righteousness of Man To what purpose do I labour in this that 's but folly and darkness it self as to all Divine Spiritual Heavenly most concerning things and Truths Moreover from the changableness and Mortality of it alway's exposed to death and loss All therefore that trust therein must needs meet with eternall vexation of spirit This is yet more fully witnessed Vers. XVI For there is no remembrance of the wise more then of the fool for ever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten and how dieth the Wise Man as the Fool. Man in the corrupt and man in the Righteous Life of nature are brought to an equality in the grave of both Death level's their spirits as well as bodies All the fading inward or outward riches and glory of the Princes of this World litteral or mystical such professing first-covenant Saints as crucified Christ for the life and doctrine of the second that come to nought 1 Cor. 2. 8. will vanish and come to nothing However good in their kind and for a season the highest excellencies beauties and glories of humane or angelical nature be all that is now so in the dayes to come shall be forgotten It has the praise of man but 's of small or no account with God while it last's Spiritual Seer's God's watchmen warn both the righteous and wicked of this Scribe and Pharisee as well as Publican and Harlot that in the life of nature corrupt or righteous they will all likewise perish and the established 〈◊〉 found the highest and most criminal sinners Ezek. 3. 16-21 and ch 18. 20. 28. ch 33. 11-19 The same Cross or slaming Gospel-Sword they refuse to submit to in love will be upon them in sinal wrath Js. 1. 19 20. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it What need of farther testimony Let the righteous turn from his righteousness to his old sins in corrupt nature or turn it into the highest wickedness by seting it up against the righteousness of God let him turn from his righteousness either of these two wayes he lies down in sorrow with the fool or fixed common sinner of the Gentiles for ever Ezek. 33. 13. This dismal end come both to Such righteous men exalted to Heaven in the restored Life of the first and light of the second instead of admission into the kingdom will be layd under greater final wrath then litteral Sodom as their most dreadful doom and amazing disappointment They have rejected confidence in God and he their confidences in themselvs Jer. 2. 37. By establishing their own righteousness in the first against God's in the second-covenant they become of a Changable People of God an unchangable Synagogue of Satan in unchangable enmity to God and union with the Devil All fixed in nature corrupt or righteous fools or wise therein will go to the same Tophet prepared for both under unquenchable wrath and the said righteous have the worst on 't there for ever Vers. XVII Therefore I hated life because the Work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit Solomon in the wisdom of God sees all he had bin long doing in his own vanity and vexation of spirit all his 〈◊〉 and labour therein grievous to him Rightly considering and reviewing all in the infallible light of true wisdom he argues himself into a most concerning duty without which Christ sayes none can be his disciples the hating his own life with all the desires designs thoughts wayes righteousness wisdom and best things thereof as vanishing shadows for the durable Riches Wisdom Life Righteousness and things of God All pleasures and delusive joy in the former all love of this World the delights of the Sons of Men he finds in the spirit of the next enmity to God Jam. 4. 4. and so destructive to man In nature corrupt or righteous since the fall are men found hating and hatefull to God and one another as scrambling for a hapines to them all out of things that can never make any one of them happy but leave every one in the eternall losse of their own Souls 'T is a just Judgment of God on all obstinate seekers for hapines where God has abundantly convinced and warned them 't is never to be found it should be so Solomon's reason for hating this life and man's whole course and race therein is because it and all done in it under the sun is grievous unto him not only unprofitable to the worker towards hapines but directly destructive to his whole being When this is discover'd by the spirit of God in and to men all the former delusive Mirth Joy and Laughter is spoiled Then nature growes sullen and angry at the discoverer fighting continually against it in the very Saint Flesh is offended at offend's and grieves opposes and fights against the said spirit as Paul found even holy flesh righteous nature in all its workings desires and thoughts to do Rom. 7. Vers. XVIII Yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the Sun because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me In the former Verse he hated his own vain Life in this all his vain labour therein as both and all vanity and vexation of spirit not only unprofitable but grievous to him Life and Works Principles and Operations Here he gives another reason for hating them because he should leave the Product and Result of all such his labours to the man that shall be after him
their Eye and Heart upon him with Paul in that Spiritual Life into which 〈◊〉 out of the Death of the former and be Married to him there as their Everlasting Spiritual Lord and Bride-groom Ro. 7. 1-4 While Christ Pipes to Men in First-Covenant Communications as he did by John Baptist's Ministery they are to Dance and Rejoyce When he with-draw's and call's them into the death of that State they are to Mourn else are they Immorigerous and Undutiful Mat. 11. 17. Their Natural Hearts will be filled with Sorrow as the Disciples when as a Fleshly Bride-groom and Comforter he departed from them Mat. 9. 15. Jo. 16. 20-22 Right Obedient Mourners in this case are Blessed and sure to hear of Christ as a better Comforter and Bridegroom in his Spiritual Life The Death of Man as to a Mortal First-Covenant Life is as sure as the Birth of it as the case is with the Birth and Death of the Body And indeed the House of Mourning and Death is better to Man in the tendency of it then the Birth and utmost Flourish of a First-Covenant Life in him For though after Rebuilt in the Restor'd Righteous Life of his own Nature and then pull'd down again he be seemingly in a worse condition and more hopeless then before ever Christ medled with him at all 〈◊〉 yet is this the only way to Christ's House of Everlasting Feasting and Rejoycing Those that refuse this way and Laugh now their 〈◊〉 Joy will end in Everlasting Mourning and Saints Transient Sorrow in everlasting Joy Mat. 5. 4. Luk. 6. 25. Jo. 16. 20. Christ came not to speak Peace but War and Death by his Spiritual Fire and Sword to the earthly Life of Nature at best in himself and followers Luk. 12. 49-51 We must follow the Suffering-Steps of this great Captain of our Salvation or never come where he is True Saints with Paul Glory in the Cross of Christ Conformity to his death and in bearing about them the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus So the Spiritual Life of risen Jesus comes to be more and more manifested in their Mortal flesh 2 Cor. 4. 10 11. Vers. 6. A time to Get and a time to Lose A time to Keep and a time to cast Away A time to seek after and recover the exercise of our nature in the first-covenant righteous life thereof and to heap up Riches by a fruitfulness therein And then comes a time to lose and cast all away again as dung and loss with Paul for the more excellent Life Christ's unspeakable gift Phil. 3. 6-9 And so is there a time to keep up the exercise of our nature in the restor'd first-covenant righteous Life thereof so long as Christ own 's that to be his Dispensation to us by continuing as a fleshly Bride-groom with us and a time to part with and cast it away again for the second in the same sense with what is meant in the former clause of this Verse Vers. 7. A time to Rent and a time to Sew A time to keep Silence and a time to Speak That which has been Sew'd Heal'd and made up again after the sore breach by the first Sin and so fitted or fitting us in its kind to speak to and instruct the dark ignorant corrupt Spirit of nature in others as a Teacher and Guide of such blind ones all this healed speaking State in the Wisdom of Man made Wise in Christ must in its season be rent broken down and torn in pieces again silenc'd and wholly laid aside to make way for another better Dictatour Ruler and Guide the Infallible Spirit of Truth The final refusal to submit to this chang of Ruler and Guide lodges up first-covenant Saints in unchangable Enmity to God and the spirit of the second under the guilt of the most Criminal Adultery Theft and Sacriledg Ro. 2. 17-22 God speak's once and he speak's twice yet Man perceiveth it not Job 33. 14. God call's Man out of his Death in Sin into the righteous Life of a Man or of the first-covenant Law again Then by the voice of his second-Covenant spirit into the death of the first as his only pass into the Life and Righteousness of God in the second Under pretence of continuing in obedience to his first voice does man Rebell against his second and is found an Enemy to the Spiritual Cross of Christ. He prefer's the oldness of Letter in his Living Soul to Gods newness of Life in his quickning Spirit Man's Laughing Dancing Speaking time is over in his own Wisdom and Righteousness when shew'd the unprofitableness as to true Blessedness of all done or said by him therein The right understanding and obedient Submitting to Christs Various Voices and observing the several seasons of Speaking and Silence is Mans safety and he therein wel-pleasing to God 'T is a high point of true Wisdom for Man to be more ready to hear the voice of the Spirit of Christ in himself or Saints then to speak and so Offer the Sacrifice of Fools in his own Ec. 5. 1. Man in his highest Wisdom is a Fool as to all spiritual things his greatest concerns the unreasonable Man Paul desir'd to be delivered from the Impertinent Trouble and Babbling Loquacity of about Gospel things that he has no discerning in The restor'd Law-principle of Life and Action in Man is but a ceremony to be abolish'd and becomes an antiquated thing with all the Fading Glory of it when to be done away to give room for a spiritual Principle of everlasting Righteonsness as a new Root and Spring of his Desire Thought and Action This refused all Duties perform'd in the Law-spirit are thenceforth but Sacrifices of Fools that do evil What in its appointed Season and day was Obedience in that Law-State becomes then direct Rebellion As Man has Lived therein to God so the Season come is he to die therein to him that both living and dying he may be the Lords Rom. 14. 8. Passive Obedience is the utmost requir'd of Man in his own nature to make way for the true spiritual principle of active Obedience to God's wel-pleasing Vers. VIII A time to Love and a time to Hate a time of War and a time of Peace There 's a time of Love and Peace such as it is to be found in a first-covenant Union with Christ and such obedience as is performable therein But at length Christ speaks War and Death to this state comes to break down demolish and cast away all the stones of this old 〈◊〉 creation building And thus have we seen in these eight Verses God's twofold dispensation to Man's Body and fleshly or natural Spirit in all the fading first-creation Life and Glory thereof The Birth and Death of the Body and so of the natural Understanding as exercised there in and by all this is Typical to the like twofold dispensation of mystical Life and Death to his Spirit as to its first-covenant righteous state under the temporary wrath
of God executed by the Cross on obedient Saints or eternal wrath of God by the same Cross on incorrigible sinners And so are we brought by Solomon to consider the Result from all this which he declares by way of Question Vers. IX What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth A like Question to that Chap. 1. 3. already spoken to Who is this he that worketh Man in the twofold perishing life of his Body and Spirit both inevitably falling under a twofold Dispensation of Birth and Death from God A vicissitude of building up and breaking down are unavoidable to both For Man in the utmost flourish of both is but a fading flower altogether Vanity lighter then vanity less than nothing Isa. 40. 7. 17. Psal. 39. 5. and 62. 9. The Life of both is mortal So was that of Angels in their innocency So is this Question of great weight What profit can Man have of all his Labours in a Life that 's Vanity All his best Labours therein do but encrease his heap of Vanities And what is he the better Eccl. 6. 11. Both lives in conclusion vanish and all the works fruits riches litteral and mystical all the things thereof things of man come to nothing Man then struggles under an impossibility to keep up the said lives or things thereof in rebellion against God's declared order and Command for surrender of all to him in obedient sacrifice by death If he refuse to give up all as demanded in love God will take away all In final Wrath. 'T is utterly impossible to avoid one of these two way 's of losing all No remedy All striving against these unalterable Appointments of God and fading nature of the things themselvs renders the inevitable parting with all and all Death-blow's of a tendency there-towards more Heavy Painful Bitter and Uneasy to Man's sore disadvantage and at last totall amazing disappointment If he has no other ground to stand on when all that is gone where is he What was his duty and beautiful in its season righteous performances in the activity of first-Covenant principles when call'd to Passive Obedience by the death and loss of all in order to active Obedience in the new-covenant Spirit and Principle of Everlasting Righteousness is Rebellion as the Sin of Witch-craft and Idolatry 1 Sam. 15. 23. T is a keeping that Amalekite Law spirit of Bondage alive as Ruler that God requires the death of Under such Witch-craft Paul found the Galatians Gal. 3. 1. No saving natures head from the irresistible Sword of the spirit of Grace No scaping in this War for Fighters against God Should the whole Creation Angels and Men lend their helping hand set their Shoulders to Boulster up and Support any one Man in this case he is gone They are all less then nothing to him we have to deal with All proud helpers and helped all final Resisters must stoop and fall under his Victorious Flaming Two-edged Spiritual Sword Wherein any deal proudly presumptuously keeping up the Life it ' larum's them in and summon's them to surrender it will be above them All that submit not to it in order to be made by it new Vessels of Honour and Fternal Life it will make their old ones Vessels of Dishonour and everlasting Contempt in Eternal Death To one of these two final Periods will the Versatile changable Spirit of Man Infallibly come The Obedient Saint when he awakes out of the Marred Visage and Death of the Earthy will be satisfied with the Image of the Heavenly Ps. 17. 15. And when Christ shall awake or come forth in the Visibility of the Heavenly he will despise or destroy all self-exalters against him with their Image of the Earthy Ps. 73. 20. In the Morning of Christ's day of Appearance with all his Saints in their Spiritual Resurrection-life after the long Night of this World under the Powers of Darkness will they have Dominion over all their Enemies in the Earthy and Consume all their Fading Beauty or Comliness Ps. 49 14. And what profit then will they find of all their Labours in a Law-Spirit of Bondage Death and Enmity to the Gospel Vers. X. I have seen the travel which God hath given to the Sons of Men to be exercised in it Heb. To afflict or humble them thereby Here 's Solomon's experience and Conviction of the unprofitableness of all Man's Labour and Travel for the gratifying and keeping up the Life of his Body or Spirit in the fading glory of a first-covenant state God gives or permits this Travel to Men in answer to and pursuit of their own vain Desire and Thought to humble or afflict them even by that very self-exalting Labour and State they chuse delight in and please themselves with They must with Job Solomon and others sit down at last in dust and ashes acknowledging the vanity of both the said Lives and of all done by them in the activity of both Happy they only that are timely humbled by the due consideration hereof so as to be willing to cease from the same quitting the folly of all their unprofitable Labours and false Confidences to walk with God in the more excellent Life and Way Vers. XI He hath made every thing beautiful in his time also he hath set the World in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end Man by Creation was made beautiful in the glory of a first-covenant Law-life for God's appointed season to him there So again when restor'd by Christ while he continues a fleshly Bride-groom to them there as his present dispensation But when by the convincing light of his new-covenant Gospel-spirit he discovers all this beauty to be but a fading Flower a Glory to be done away and that there 's Enmity to God under all then does Man's unlawful use of the Law or Rebellious keeping up his Law against Christ's Gospel-Life render that which was Beautiful most Filthy and Abominable to God Spiritual Sodomy worse then Litteral Man's hardning himself in his Law-Life against Christ's graciously shew'd and offered Gospel-Life provokes him to depart and Swear he shall never enter his Rest Heb. 3. 7. 11. Thus does Man bring his matters to a desperate pass by wilfully refusing so great Salvation as is offered and so is excluded for ever from it shall never be offer'd it more Christ and his true Saints and Seers will meddle no more with him in their Gospel-ministry nor intercede for but against him Act. 13. 46. 51. 1 Jo. 5. 16. They 'l shake the Dust off their Feet against him and away If Men say to Christ's Seers see not Prophecy not unto us right things They'l'a done Their Commission is out In Judgment on them they shall be Dumb Ezek. 3. 25 26. I know God has determin'd to destroy thee said the Prophet to King Amaziah because thou hast not 〈◊〉 to my Counsel and so on his threatning forbare 2 Chro. 25.
Rebellion in this matter The aggravated madness of Man lies herein He chuses rather to lay his Ruling rational Powers under the sensual in his own person then Submit to God's terms and way for the bringing them by way of Death and Resurrection into eternal Subjection to the ruling Powers of Spiritual Life and so unchangable Obedience to God most high Man chuses rather to be like a Beast then God He is offered an advance into a kind of Equality with the new-Creature-spirit in Christ by personal Union with it And this in Christ is in a kind of equality with the infinite Divine Spirit by personal Union with that the Man God's fellow Zee 13. 7. True Saints are personally one with this Man as he and the Father are one Jo. 17. 21 22. What Words what Tongue of Men or Angels can express this Folly Man 's chusing the Life of a Beast to his eternal Damnation before all this that would be his eternal Salvation God has made Man Lord of the visible Creation Ps. 8. 5-8 and he alone of all visible Creatur's walks unsutably to his principle in Rebellion against his Creatour Man's Wisdom is capable of receiving Conviction by the right-Gospel-opening of the Word 's of God's But his will may not be trusted for Gospel-Conversion That 's to die by the way It likes not that Every thing would live His understanding can tell his will it must die cease from all its own Activity Life Desire and Motion as the only possible way for the final Salvation of his whole person Man abusing his rational Powers to fetch in gratifying Provisions for his sensual only turn's his earthly nature upside down perverts the whole course and order of it serves what he ought to rule over So makes himself a Beast by the very Verdict of his own Conscience and all mankind When he suffer's the Bestial Powers within him to rule over him 't is Just with God to give the litteral Beast without him Power over him so as to kill him for Rebelling thus against God Deut. 32. 24. Ezek. 14. 15. Man by yielding Obedience to the Law but much more when to Gospel shall be freed from Beasts destructive Dominion over him They shall not devour nor make him afraid Ezek. 34. 28. Solomon had sadly experienc'd the boundless Ramblings of his Bestial Powers after whatever was gratifying to the inordinate Lusts and vile affections thereof But as the Face of Man's Body so of his Spirit is fitted to look upward to a Life a Glory that excell's and so to God most high Man and Angel by Creation had abundantly the ascendant over the Beast But the best things corrupted become the worst The Devil with all the Glory Wisdom Power and Righteousness of the First-Creation turn'd into and us'd in unchangable Enmity to God is in God's sight and thought the most contemptible varlet in the World Solomon in this interrogatory bewail's the wilfull ignorance folly and inadvertency of Man his Brutish unwillingness to take any right notice of his prerogative-difference from the spirit of the beast He is ready even to deny the Immortality of his Spirit They would gladly die like Beasts that live like them If they own their 〈◊〉 they suspect a sad reckoning behind for the abuse of it Man in his natural Creation had and is since the fall capable of recovering the intellectual intuitive inorganical exercise of his mind after the manner of Angels by which immediately to see what organical reason call's hidden essences qualities and properties of things all which still are Vanities and that of the lower order Organical reason discourses or run's from one thing to another from what is seen to prove gather and guessingly conclude something not seen or known before This way of getting the knowledg of things by sensible species taken in by the outward and presented or convey'd by inward natural senses to the understanding was Aristotles low conjectural way of gaining knowledg far short of the Soaring Intuitive Platonist But no Spiritual Eternal things are the Objects of either of these ways of natural understanding in Men. These are wholly out of all their reach Now what a wretched wicked self-denial are they guilty of that neglect all these advantages of their nature to level themselves with Beasts To throw up all rational and Intellectual pleasures and betake themselvs wholly to Bestial Their Practice Inclines them to Judg or at least declare they have no other principles of Life but Bestial Their Immortality is a tormenting consideration to them For this renders them by their own madness fit Subjects and fewel of God's unquenchable Wrath. Man's great fault of all is the wilful refusal of God's convincingly discovered and offered new-Creation Life When this Gospel-Life of Immortality is brought to light in his Immortal being all 's his own For then he is Christ's and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. one with Christ as he with the Father So comes Man to be an Infallible seer and doer of the whole Will of God for ever Man in his whole natural being Body Soul and Spirit all his essential parts and Powers of natural Operation is to be considered as distinct from a first or second Covenant Spirit or Life by Christ as Creator or Redeemer put into him by which he is found in a shadowy changable righteous State and Earthy Image of God or unchangable Heavenly Creature-Life and Image of him The former is but a fading slower and Man therein at best altogether 〈◊〉 Principles and Operations By Christ's second new-Creating Workman-ship attains he a State of Everlasting Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4. 24. So has he the Kingdom of Heaven within him and 〈◊〉 Life abiding in him He lives and walk's in that Spirit Christ with his Saints will Reign in and Judg the World Vers. XXII Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better then that a Man should rejoyce in his own works for that is his Portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him What works deeds or works of the Law wrought in his own Law-Spirit of nature such as Paul excludes from Rom. 4. 2-6 or such as are wrought in Christ's Gospel-Spirit of Grace which James in the same Spirit with Paul own 's as Ingredients into Abraham's Justification before God Jam. 2. 21-24 Own works here which the Holy Ghost by Solomon commands and commends Man's rejoycing in as his Portion from God can't be any thing done in his own nature that since the fall in its highest renewals is found in direct Enmity to God This State of Man with all possible Labours therein is so far from being his happy Portion from God that he lies directly under the Curse and Wrath of God in and with all this which is altogether Vanity But can right Gospel-works which God work 's in Men be called their own works Yes as own'd by God co-workers with him in his spirit living and walking therein He
Madness and Folly and Eat their Flesh as Fire Jam. 5. 1-3 They refuse the kindly kindlings of the Fire of the Spirit or Cross of Christ upon them to eat up their Flesh as Fire eat 's Wood by Consuming it in Sacrifice to God He therefore kindles it in as well as upon them in Final Wrath as a never dying Worm in their Conscience a Fire that never shall be quenched Mark 9. 44. 46. 48. Thus shall Incorrigible Sinners or Fools find that in and about them in which they 'l become Eaters of their own Flesh or fleshly nature without ever such a Consuming it as Annihilation would amount unto the only death they 'l ever seek but never find Vers. VI. Better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travel and Vexation of spirit Here 's the opposite state to the mystical Fool. In effect of the same significancy are these words of spiritual counsel from or by Solomon as those of Christ himself Mat. 5. 29 30. 18. 8 9. Mar. 9. 43. 47. The right 〈◊〉 Hand and Foot of Man offend themselves oppose their own true intorest in being offended at the Cross that comes to cut them off and cast them away as dung and loss for a more excellent life and way The best light wisdom or understanding the most righteous practice or walking signified by the right Eye Hand and Foot of Man in his own nature restored by Law-conversion to the first-covenant or first-creation sort of righteous Life Discerning Action and Walking are to be cut off and cast away by the kindly death-work of the Cross or the demolishing crucifying mortifying operation of Christ's heavenly Gospel-spirit upon Man's righteous natural spirit in the said Law-life as Paul found and yielded to Phil. 3. 6 -- 11. He counted and parted with all as loss and dung to win Christ in his spiritual Resurrection-Life So only can any be truly acceptable to God or bring forth fruits unto him in a newness of Life All the former state to be quitted is called in Scripture but oldness of Letter In the best Life thereof Man brings forth fruit but to himself for the enriching and adorning his own deceitful nature not unto God in his Gospel-spirit of Grace and Truth in which only he can be rightly worshipped to his wel-pleasing acceptation and man's true advantage All others worship they know not what Joh. 4. 22 -- 24. They know not what they do or whither they go The divine spirit of the Father can be rightly worshipped in the Gospel-spirit of his Son only All that finally refuse to part with their natural Law-spirit and Life by a holy death under the spiritual Cross never receive or partake of Christ's Gospel-spirit of Life in which only 't is possible to worship God aright or do any thing well in his sight The natural man by Legal conversion made wise strong and honourable in Christ by his first-covenant communications of Life and Light to him hates Christ's Gospel-spirit with all the crucifying work and Cross-doctrine of death upon nature corrupt or righteous as Paul once did Man hates that which he undispensably needs must submit to and pass thorow or never be saved His restor'd natural right Eye Hand Foot must off and be cast away This Man stumbles and is highly offended at He is ready to reckon such doctrin the damnablest 〈◊〉 heresy madness and blasphemy that ever was broach'd or utter'd by man The enlightned professing Jews reckon'd it so when Christ himself preach'd it Yea his very Disciples stumbled sorely at it and took it heavily Mat. 16. 21 22. Mar. 10. 23 -- 26. John 16. 6. 20. Though he Preached his Resurrection in the same breath with his Death Mat. 17. 23. still they were exceeding sorry This would not do no not so much as allay their grief They knew not clearly what he said or meant by Death or by Resurrection Mar. 9. 31 32. and were afraid to ask him What he Preach'd the Death and loss of in himself and them even of a first-covenant Life they somewhat perceived to their sorrow But as to the more excellent Life and Glory he declar'd was to follow to him and them by way of Resurrection out of the Death of their fading this they understood not and so got little or no relief yet by the bare tydings of it But enough when they came to experience it Act. 2. The Cross is a stumbling block to the righteous first-covenant Law-Jew or Gentile under the outward dispensation of Law and Gospel and before either were written by the Pen-men thereof in the Bible and foolishness to the wise Greek with all his moral Righteousness and obedience to the common Light or Law of rational Nature in Mankind 1 Cor. 1. 23. Both these sorts of Wise and Righteous Men bidding at and fondly pleasing themselves with a hope of true Salvation in their several way 's do stand as with Drawn Swords in the Armour of Man on Satan's side to bid defiance to this seemingly Bug-bear Doctrin of the Cross upon all they are Possess'd of and trust in They decry it as the highest Blasphemy and Folly Imaginable They warn others by no means to regard a word of it in Preaching or Books As for the Brutified Immorral Heathens the far greater party of Mankind walking and allowing themselvs in the Abominations of Litteral Sodom Egypt and Babylon hating all Righteousness God's and Man's too Man 's in Moral Heathenism or legal Christianity they little regard the Doctrin of the Cross on one or ' tother The hopeful Party of Mankind in Moral or Legal first-Covenant Righteousness that have something considerable as they reckon to lose by the Cross these are ready to fight against it as Paul found and told the Philippians even Weeping Phil. 3. 18. But Jews or Gentiles that answer Christ's Heavenly call into the death of their fading earthly State however good in its kind in Obedience to the Cross as the only pass into the Everlasting Life of the Crucifying High-Priest of their Gospel-Profession Heb. 3. 1. they find the said Cross the Power and Wisdom of God to and in them 1. Cor. 1. 24. This they receive in lieu of the form of Godliness and Wisdom of Man as made Wise Strong and Honourable in Christ by First-Covenant Artainments in him and Union with him 1 Cor. 4. 10. Others chuse rather to keep their first-Covenant-State Whole Unmaim'd Unbroken or Uncrucified and so to go with their whole Body or 〈◊〉 their own two Eyes Hands and Feet to Hell then 〈◊〉 and Crucisied in Conformity to the Lamb Slain and his true Saints that suffer with him to Heaven What if one Man had all the single first-Creation Glories Excellencies Riches Wisdom and Power of all Men and Angels and lose his own Soul what 's he the better Where 's his gain Mat. 16. 26. All Man gets by pitying and sparing himself in this case is the loss of all his own fading goodness
Job 9. 21. What else did Christ Crucify in himself but this Living Soul He had nothing of the vile affection of corrupt nature about him And as for the Cross so they are for and they Preach Regeneration new Birth new Creature Grace c. Who but they But what call they so Reform'd enliven'd righteous nature Thus while we all talk of and apply Christ's Gospel-Words to our several Saintships natural and spiritual in first and second Covenant our Holy Flesh and God's Holy Spirit all seem's in a Confused Buzz and Jumble of words to simple undiscerning People Ro. 16. 18. yea to Man's Wisdom at best to be one and the same thing Christ's and Satan's Gospel all one All manner of good Words fair Speeches Scripture-Language in one as well as t'other While this in a manner universally carries it with Professors all 's their own Their teachers find little need of any troubling themselvs to defend Satan's and their Mercenary False other Gospel against Christ's true But if the point and edge of Christ's Spiritual Gospel-Sword the Living WORD of God come forth in such a sharp distinguishing sound and way that this first shuffle won't serve their turn then go Satan's Apostles and their followers another way to work Blasphemers Mad-Men the Prophet's a Fool the Spiritual Man is Mad This is their Language So said the Holy Professing Jews of Christ himself Jo. 10. 20. for his new-Covenant Gospel-Doctrin I but yet while few hear or regard Christ's Gospel and almost all the few that do hear the outward sound of its words take nothing right though they conceit they do and so Halt between God and Baal Christ's true Gospel and Satan's lie all 's well No need think they of any 〈◊〉 against this new light While things go at this rate that the God of this World the Devil can cast his Mist before Professours eyes or blind their minds by a sound or noise of all the words of Christ's Gospel from the letter of Scripture to carry on his contrary Gospel as all in all that 's nothing at all what need his Ministers trouble themselvs to encounter Christ's While Christ's 〈◊〉 next to 〈◊〉 hearers and yet fewer understanders e'ne let it alone 〈◊〉 Satan say his Apostles No need of taking notice of it or souling our singers about it in wilful Contradicting and Blaspheming it Thus is it yet But if an awak'ned Multitude under the latter Rain of the Spirit as under the former in Primitive Gospel-times should listen to and look after the very Christ the very Gospel with a seeing eye a right hearing and distinguishing car so as to know cleerly the voice of the true Shepherd in himself and Saints in its distinction from and direct Opposition to the Voice or Doctrin of Strangers Satan and his Apostles or Gospel-Ministers this when it happen's will cause some Tumultuous out-ragious doings you 'l find Some valuable number of Followers and Receivers of Christ's Blessed Gospel will give such disturbance to their cursed one as will nettle the Teachers and Hearers thereof and put them into the temper Paul once was of so as to be continually Breathing out ' l 〈◊〉 and Slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord Act. 9. 1 the Asserters and Followers of his Gospel Will ye hear a comfortable word yet While any do this as ignorantly and innocently as Paul did in Zeal for his Law-Life or first-Covenant principle of action why may we not hope that they as Paul may through greater Mercy then they are yet aware of be turn'd by Christ into signal Preachers and owners of Christ's Gospel But then with Paul they must look presently for Persecution even from those they were joynt-Persecuters with Sure this is an encouragement worth noting and may serve to wipe off the Injurious Imputations of Censoriousness Satan's self-confident Gospellers do so brand Christ's with Multitudes of Professors enamout'd wholly with Satan's will most carefully take heed of coming neer the sound of one word of Christ's Gospel lest they should be Perverted to their own Salvation and delivered from the Wrath to come But there are a second sort a far smaller number yet of Christ-haters that can afford sometimes to hear the sound of true Gospel-words but take no heed how they hear them So do they little or nothing perceive or regard any distinction between the Voice of the true Shepherd and that of Strangers Christ's and Satan's Gospel May we not reckon these shuffling Halters between God and Baal in a more dangerous condition then the former They 'l boast of their Wisdom and Charitable Opinion they have of almost every body any teachers that take and own the letter of Christ's Gospel and talk against Profanes or the like These glory in their shame Oh thank God say they we have a liberty to hear any body What 's all this A Liberty to be Mad and Rebell against God that has convincingly evidenc'd to them the true Shepherd's Voice Words or Doctrin in and from himself and Saints from all variety of Strangers Voices or Doctrin They 'l please themselvs to talk much of bottom that they hope at bottom and as to the main all may be well though at top ouvert Action Practice Choice and their whole course be of a dangerous Complexion and that against acknowledg'd Conviction of Christ's Gospel-truths a kind of general owning and worded-kindness for them and the Assertors thereof in a Corner But they follow after and sit under such Teachers and Doctrin's as are in all extreamity contrary thereunto as Hell to Heaven sure Doctrins of Devils are so to Christ's and this when the Doctrin of Christ's Gospel lies before them and is fairly offered to them in the Words of God's Wisdom which the Holy Ghost teaches A most dangerous boasted Libertinism God defend me from such embondaging destructive Liberty For 't is sorely doubtfull whoever halt thus between God and Baal as to own God's Words with their Mouth only and Baal's in their Heart that at bottom they down right hate God's and love Baal's Gospel like that not only best but only What less can be feared when their halting brings them at length wholly to avoid God's offered Gospel and positively own so far as wholly chusing to sit under Satan's is an owning a directly contrary Gospel Yea contrary in all extreamity that Devils themselvs shall be saved at long-run Might this generally take place all other Doctrin's of Devils might be spared If they can get Men to swallow down this what need any other or any care or troubling our selvs about Religion or Salvation at all We shall all be saved say Devils and you shall all be saved Wee 'l warrant you ye shall fare as well as we do I believe that This Perswasion is the largest inlet to Rantism that ever was devised be Practice what it will from a little present self-interest How powerful and prevalent is felf-destroying self-love The general and uniform Doctrin of
comes to worse than nothing unspeakable misery and confusion without the least relief for ever under unquenchable wrath Man is born in a naked condition of Body and dead in Sin as to his Soul When reviv'd and Cloath'd again by Christ as to some measure of his restor'd lost Life and Righteousness in the first-covenant by keeping up that in enmity to an everlasting Life and Righteousness offer'd him by Christ in the second and so sinning after the similitude of Adam's first transgression he is worse than ever his latter end worse than his beginning a state of unchangable incurable evil sorrow nakedness poverty and death His whole man after all possible revival comsort flourish or fruitfulness in the mortal first-covenant Life of his Spirit or sensual Life of his Body goes destitute of all good or comfort naked out of the World as he came into 't He takes nothing of the fading Glory of his reviv'd Spirit any more than outward riches and comforts relating to his Body away with him at the death of the Body All goes In all points on all accounts he goes as he came stark naked strip'd of all comfort or goodness All fruits and labours of his Spirit and Body go together all vanish They that obediently part with all such fading Life and but things of man in their Spirit before the death of their Body find their own again with usury for ever in the everlasting Life Wisdom Righteousness and things of God in the Gospel-Spirit or Principle of the new and everlasting Covenant This is the unspeakable Gift of God offer'd all on obedient surrender of their fading Life and things in the first-covenant for his everlasting in the second They that refuse this surrender as most do lose all good in both Covenants for ever and fall under the positive inflictions of wrath for ever This for the evill use of all their things and labours in the first against God and the second When charg'd for all before the Judgment-seat of Christ they 'l be found in a silencing self-condemning consciousness as to all charg'd with will have nothing to say When their evil consciences are open'd all their mouths of iniquity will be stopp'd No disputing pleading apologizing but e'ne take their charge and sentence and so lie down for ever in sorrow shame and confusion under the wrath of their most righteous all-seeing Judg. Then will they find nothing of all their evil travel left in their hand The wrath of God will be upon them and the awak'ned spiritual convictions afforded them in mercy on earth will be set up in them for ever in hel as a never-dying ever-gnawing worm Mark 9. 44. 46. 48 to torment them within by the perpetually forc'd sight of their madness and folly on earth against the universal experience of all mankind and all faithfull warnings from God All their fading beauty will be consum'd in that Grave from their dwelling Psal. 49. 14. or that earthly state of their whole persons which they have chosen for their final habitation They have rendred themselvs fit fewel for the wrath of God eternally to flame forth upon When Christ awak's or comes forth in his heavenly he will despise or destroy their earthly Image Psal. 73. 20. or state burn up all the fading Glory perishing Life Riches Fruits and meats thereof or works therein 2 Pet. 3. 10. Their fleshly principle or root with the branch tree with the fruit as Grass at best a fading flower will wither and perish for ever Isai. 40. 6. These things and life then chosen by them when known to be so and Christ's everlasting Life and Things as knowingly and wilfully rejected when convincingly shew'd and fairly offer'd them will cause their unutterable confusion for ever in eternal darkness and death They 'l have nothing but wrath to feed on for ever in a resurrection of damnation Much sorrow and wrath will they have in and with their sickness unexpressible wrath rage and madness within them as the Septuagint render in their languishing incurable sickness or unchangable enmity to God under the final wrath of God This will befall them after all patience of God and favourable offers while 't was called to day with them in this world all which they abus'd and refus'd to their sorer condemnation and punishment So become they most desolate for ever O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. Mat. 23. 37 38. As vessels of dishonour will they be forc'd to eat the fruit of their own way 〈◊〉 be filled with the fruit of their own devices the wrath of God Prov. 1. 31. 'T will be sorely ill with them when that just reward of their hands shall be given them Isai. 3. 11. Had they 〈◊〉 to his Counsel they might have dwelt safely for ever and have been quiet from fear of evil Prov. 1. 33. Their simple turning from his offers and their prosperous flourish in their own nature will and way destroy'd these incorrigible Fools V. 32. Vers. XVIII Behold that which I have seen it is good and comly for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh vnder the Sun all the days of his Life which God giveth him for it is his portion Having in some former Verses finish'd the Character of the incorrigibly wicked as to their dreadfull condition Solomon proceed's here to declare the blessed condition of all that are of a perfectly contrary temper of Spirit to that of unchangable enmity above-said of another Spirit with Caleb and Joshuah who wholly followed the Lord Numb 32. 12. 'T is the Spirit of Faith only the law of the Spirit of Life and true Liberty the Gospel-Spirit of Truth in which the Lord can be rightly own'd fully follow'd and acceptably worship'd in Spirit and Truth Sure none of these things can ever be done in man's own spirit will and way that at best is enmity to God True Saints bring forth all the fruits of their labours unto God the Father in this Spirit of the Son which makes them free indeed in this newness of Life and Law of true Liberty the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God And they reap the benefit or fruit of all their such labours in the Lord which never are in vain 1 Cor. 15. 58. All labours in our own Spirit of nature uncircumcis'd or circumcis'd that is corrupt or righteous are in vain as to eternal Life Gal. 6. 15. Nothing but the new creature and its actions are conducible or of any tendency towards that There God work 's all our works for us and we all our works in him as co-workers with God in his own Spirit Isai. 26. 12. Joh. 3. 21. Without me or my Gospel-Spirit 〈◊〉 can do nothing in the way towards true Life say's Christ to all Joh. 15. 5. These Gospel-works of the Spirit of Faith in Abraham justified him Jam. 22. 21 not law-works in his own Spirit of nature or principle of the covenant of
and Torment Else how comes self-exalting Capernaum any first-Covenant People exalted or lifted up to Heaven in second-Covenant Light so as to taste and see how good the Lord is in his new-Covenant life 1 Pet. 2. 3. and Heb 6. 4 -- 6. to be tumbled down to the lowest hottest Hell under the most fierce and fiery indignation of God for ever Their greater punishment carries with and in it a character that 's clap'd upon their backs as greater sinners by the abuse of such utmost advantages for their good then those of literal Sodom and Gomorrha Mat. 11. 23. figuring the general rout of all common Sinners of the Gentiles in the corrupt spirit of Nature under what ever outward nominal distinction by the title Mahumetan Pagan or Christian. Names vary not the case one jot where there 's nothing of Christianity in a first or second Covenant a Law or Gospel-life righteousness of Man or God They are enemies of all righteousness with Elymas the Sorcerer Act. 13. 8 -10. Vers. 6. Yea though he live a thousand years twice told yet hath he seen no good do not all go to one place Nothing but Vanity in the largest measures highest degrees and most fruitful exercise of a single first-Covenant or natural first-Creation life with the longest continuance therein is to be found by Man Let him live a thousand years twice told in the largest possessions thereof he sees not or enjoys any true unchangeable good therein from first to last All the goodness thereof comes to the same end and pass with his bodily life and the concerns or good things of that The death of both and all is the same end of all to the longest liv'd Methuselah and to an Infant that dies at an hour old The same period is put to the mortal first-Covenant life of the Spirit as to that of the body If therefore a Man have no other life to trust to beyond both these he will be cover'd with unchangeable darkness in eternal Death the mystical Tophet state or place of Torment for ever prepar'd for all self-confident first-Covenant Kings Princes of this World in the but fading glory of a first-Covenant life Such Princes crucified Christ for his Doctrine of the second They despise and wonder at it and so perish or come to nought with all they chuse and please themselves with 1 Cor. 2. 6. 8. Acts 13. 41. Do not all go to one place All these eminent long-liv'd vanity-mongers go to the same place or state of unchangeable enmity to God and darkness to themselves with those that had shorter continuance in and smaller enjoyments of the said righteous life of vanity in holy flesh or with them that never had any thing at all of it polluted Heathen's fix'd in the vile affections and lusts of literal Sodom All comes to one at last wise first-Covenant Saints and foolish common sinners of the Gentiles Yea their greater and higher advantages wilfully abus'd gain them only a deeper cup or measure of Wrath for ever than those of less attainments and standing therein or of none at all After all their enjoyment of and flourish in a but changable good rejecting God's everlasting as recompence of their most foolish choice to walk in the light of their own fire the warmth light zeal of and for their own enliven'd enlighten'd nature and compassing themselves about with sparks of their own kindling duties fruits works producible or performable therein must they lie down in sorrow darkness and death for ever This will they have from God's hand Isa. 50. 11. Vers. 7. All the labour of Man is for his mouth and yet the appetite Heb. Soul is not fill'd No satisfying answer to all the needs of Man's Immortal spirit in all first-Creation Vanities is ever to be found No literal or mystical riches that are all but perishing Vanities can do 't Let Man lay about him while he will do what he can in the activity of bodily or but first-Covenant righteous life he never finds or gets any such thing as will stop the craving mouth or fill the appetite of either so as to give any thing of true rest or satisfaction to him All Man 's trading in a vain life where Belly and Meats desires and desirables are perishing vanities and to be destroy'd 1 Cor. 6. 13. is with himself altogether vanity Psal. 39. 5. fleshly tree and fruit root and branch mouth appetite and meat Unprofitable is all man's labour then for fetching in Provisions for his flesh even holy flesh righteous cleans'd nature to gratify or fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. The very meats of Christ's first-Covenant earthly Table afforded man for a season in that state will with that renew'd holy life and appetite come to nought A Plea therefrom will stand Man in no stead at the last day as having eaten and drunk thereat for entrance into his Kingdom Luk. 13. 24 -- 30. Mat. 7. 21 -- 23. He will not know or own them but hid them depart from him as incorrigible workers of mystical iniquity the highest and most criminal rank of unpardonable sinners Out of Heathen Countries from East West North and South the four winds of Heaven shall an Elect Seed be wakened up signally by the preparatory dispensation of Angels in association with the risen Witnesses from among Men to preach the 〈◊〉 Gospel into the spiritual Kingdom-life of the 〈◊〉 and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and such high but hypocritical pretenders to it be thrust out Luke 13. 28 29. Mat. 24. 14 31. All this will be preparatory to Christ's second coming Abundance of Christ's Spouses and Children in the 〈◊〉 Covenant become incorrigible Rebels against him and his Spirit of the second and consequently the siercest Persecutors and haters of all his Gospel-Saints and Truths Then he most justly turns from being a Saviour to them as for a season he was in the 〈◊〉 to be their unchangeable enemy and 〈◊〉 against them Isa. 63. 8 10. or pour upon them his unchangeable wrath in and by that very spirit of the second they 〈◊〉 with a perfect 〈◊〉 and it them Zec. 11. 8. Sure the unchangeable wrath of God must needs light and rest for ever on the guilty heads of the unchangeable enemies of God The stated Case for Salvation from the beginning is the surrender of and passing out of all first-creation life and vanities into the second The rebellious keeping up the first against the second loses all and excludes from the second that 's God's and the Saint's true Rest for 〈◊〉 Solomon lamenting the folly of Man in his own vain self-chosen life will and way puts these two following Questions to him Ver. 8. For what hath the Wise more than the Fool What hath the Poor that knoweth to walk before the Living What or who is the Wise the Fool the Poor and his knowledg to walk before the Living what Living who
with a whiff 'T is deceitful above all things and desperatly wicked who can know or discover it The wisdom of God in himself and Saints this only can search it out and cause it to know it self teach it or bring it to the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 17. 9 10. Nothing in Nature nothing below the all-searching Gospel-Spirit in Christ and Saints can discover all its Meanders and Wiles anatomize and unriddle it to the full The holy Ghost in and by Peter found out the falshood of Ananias and Saphira and slew them Act. 5. 1 -- 10. The first-Covenant wise Jew or Christian Gentile boasts himself as a fit Teacher and Guide to the common sinner in corrupt Nature little dreaming that himself in 〈◊〉 Nature is guilty of a more criminal sort of mystical 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 against God and his Spirit of Grace Rom. 2. 17 -27. He sits in his majesterial Chair as an instructor of fools insulting over the gross sinner with a touch me not stand by keep off for I am 〈◊〉 than thou This renders the proud Pharisee an abomination to God Isa. 65. 5. To such self-confidents Paul puts divers searching questions which discover him more deeply guilty of mystical sins against the Gospel bearing the same title with the literal Adulteries Thefts Idolatries and Sacriledg he justly reproves in the common sinner against the Law The death and loss of all such boast in is absolutely necessary in the methods of God's Wisdom to Salvation the receiving that Gospel-Spirit of life in which any can be saved Miss this and miss all Come short of the Grace and ye fall short of the Glory of God never enjoy the beatisical vision thereof An exact observer of the letter of the Law may be a most criminal breaker of its spiritual mind or meaning as Paul once The Law-Saint or legal-spirited Christian Believer finds the corrupt Heathen a no-body to him and he is a no-body to the true Gospel-Saint a meer blind Ignoramus as to all-Gospel-truths yea worse a mortal hater of and enemy to all Gospel-Saints as no-bodies to him the worst of Men the 〈◊〉 of the World The circumcis'd cleans'd first-covenant wise Man by opposing the second becomes a greater sinner and worse Man than the uncircumcis'd polluted Heathen If he and the Heathen fix themselves in righteous and corrupt Nature the 〈◊〉 righteous Man will have the worst on 't for ever T will be easier for the literal than mystical Sodomite in Hell Mat. 11. 23 24. But what then hath the wise Man or first-Covenant holy Man more than the fool in corrupt Nature What advantage has he Much every way says Paul in answer to his own question Rom. 3. 1 2. The Law or restor'd life of it rightly us'd is of great benefit to Man in suppressing and keeping under the vile affections of corrupt Nature but if abused against spiritual conviction in a 〈◊〉 enmity to the Gospel 't is render'd by Man worse than nothing and he is thereby rendered worse than the fool or common sinner 〈◊〉 in polluted Nature For he is absolutely excluded God's Rest on his wilfully contracted incurable Leprosy or disease of unchangeable enmity to God the other not so But leaving both their cases what hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living What has the poor broken-spirited Saint beyond both and all the the said wise and fools that are levell'd at the death of the body and come all to the same sad end a being cover'd with darkness for ever This truly poor in spirit is a blessed Heir of the Kingdom of God The natural Man of the true Saint impoverish'd and run down by the cross as to that wisdom life riches and fading glory the self-exalting first-Covenant Princes of this World keep up in rebellion against God and enmity to the cross is the poor and needy the Scripture so ring's of specially the Psalms And occasionally has this mystical poor bin plentifully spoken of and charactered in this and the like discourses on Job Timothy c. Christ pronounces such poor blessed Mat. 5. 3. the opposit rich or wise cursed Wo to the rich Luk 6. 24. Such mystical rich go merrily without regarding this wo they are under with their whole Soul or unbroken natural spirit to Hell while the true Saint in the broken crucified impoverish'd mourning state thereof is following the slain Lamb to Heaven Blessed are such mourners Mat. 5. 4. Both the wise and fool in the restor'd or corrupt spirit of nature set by and laid aside Solomon ask's in reference to this third Man distinct from both What hath or is the poor c. What has he got in the room of all the lost life wisdom and riches of his own Nature spiritual everlasting Gospel-life and riches This is the case of such as with Paul are content to become fools weak and despicable as to all the first-Covenant rich and wise boast and glory in What this mystical fool and poor has is plain durable riches and life in God What has the opposit wise then no more to speak on than the fool in polluted nature All are fools one and 'tother as to their eternal concerns mind no such things Spiritual and Heavenly These go for nothing with them but are all in all The Spirit of God asks and resolv's his own question negatively and 〈◊〉 Isa. 66. 1 2. God delights not in any thing of the first creation where all is corruptible and altogether vanity even all the life goodness and top-excellencies thereof in Man and Angel But in the second where all the goodness materials and ingredients are incorruptible and unperishable Hence delights he in one poor broken-spirited man in the first in order to his being quicken'd up into the second incomparably beyond all the unbroken glory and excellency of all natural Men or Angels though not found in enmity changeable or unchangeable to that Gospel-Spirit or cross that will break down all fading good in all Angels and Men in Love or 〈◊〉 Wrath. What God delights not in he requires our obedient submitting to his destroying in order to be brought forth in what he does delight in and will delight in for evermore So of the work of his hands by a first-creation come we to be the Sheep of his Pasture in and by a second All first-creation or Covenant-Life Wisdom Righteousness c. are but Law-Ceremonies not Grace or Gospel-Truths meer transient vanities perishing next to nothings When they have serv'd their season away they are to go as dung for Gospel-life Phil. 3. 8. The Poor here as to all Law-life and riches are the only true wise Men that know how to walk before the living even before the living God unto all-pleasing in the living Word Wisdom New-creature Gospel-Spirit of the Son of God They are taught principled or spirited so as infallibly to know the whole mind and do the whole will of the Father They have obediently quitted and
body or man His whole Body Soul and Spirit is fill'd and clothed with a Spiritual Life Glory and everlasting Righteousness Flesh and blood the comprehensive character of all Man or Angel were possess'd of by the first creation cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption or attain the incorruptible Inheritance 1 Pet. 1. 4. Nor Man nor Angel in innocency had any such thing as eternal Life or everlasting Righteousness actually about them or in them that qualifies any for entrance into the Kingdom of God Man and Angel then set up by God's left-hand as we may say in a first-Creation-state if they knowingly and wilfully set up for themselves there in enmity to God and the second they will be found those lustful Goats that through inordinate love to evil covetousness and lust after their own fading life and things thereof so as to hate and reject God's by a new and second Creation at Christ's left hand sever'd from his obedient spiritual Sheep on his right and forc'd to receive the meet recompence of their error the vengeance of eternal fire Mat. 25. 33 -46. Jude 7. By chusing their corruption or natural state before God's Incorruption or incorruptible spiritual Life will they utterly perish in their own Corruption 2 Pet. 2. 12. The question here then amounts unto this Who can make the natural or first-Creation state of Man straight or unsubjected to change and miscarriage that God in the above-said sence has made crooked liable or subject to both This question imports an utter impossibility of making it straight Eccle. 1. 15. T is therefore peerless folly and madness in Man or Angel to attempt it or to establish themselves in it for happiness There 's no way possible for either to be happy but by the death and loss of all their own there for God's own which they can only arrive at and attain by the death of their spirit of nature and so a resurrection into the life of his spirit of Grace God positively requires both and all of them to part with their crooked changeable first-creation thing or things for his unchangeably straight and incorruptibly perfect new-creation life and things However straight the former appear in Mans day or discerning in the Light and Judgment of his Wisdom in God's t is crooked and so declar'd for Man to take notice of Man ought to consider the whole work of God from first to last beginning to the end his beginning with him in a first creation and ending or finishing Workmanship upon him in and by a second Men ought also to listen to his whole counsel and instruction to his convincing discoveries and revelations of the second and more excellent state they are offer'd by a new Creation and the way of attaining it The death of their crooked state is the undispensable means and way of being exalted into God's straight Their crooked set up in unchangeable enmity to his straight is certain damnation to them They ought to believe God's own report and declaration of their crooked natural state and look after his straight spiritual Life and State in a Spirit that can never sin 1 Joh. 3. 9. They ought not to stick at any cost or loss they can be at for Truth Prov. 23. 23. Luk. 14. 28. or for the life of God's new-creature-spirit of Truth and everlasting Righteousness Vers. 14. In the day of Prosperity be joyful but in the day of Adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that Man should find nothing after him The good and evil day in the original are here translated the day of Prosperity and Adversity Here 's a two-fold day for Man in God's wise method and appointment set one over against the other which 't is man's duty and concern to take notice of and comply with recoycing in the former and duly considering the yet greater advantages to him in the latter To follow the Lord's counsel in both is his best course The spiritual mystery of these Words is the principal intendment But first in the litteral sence the greatest content joy and satisfaction man can find in the greatest outward Prosperity when surrounded with a confluence of all visible desireables in this World he must come to experience the loss of all first or last which he ought to consider In the perishable nature of all such enjoyments is discernably writ out a day of adversity over against his utmost prosperity therein The perishing nature also of that life and desire in him that 's gratified by such things the belly that 's for such meats does farther preach the same doctrine to him cautioning against the placing his happiness in such slippery uncertain things Death puts a full period to all such desires as are answer'd by such desireables Vanity on all hands proclaims a day of Adversity and darkness set over against the day of such Prosperity Unwarrantable over-value for love to and delight in such worldly things will cause a destructive worldly sorrow to man if he out-live them When run down into a despicable state of misery and want he knows not how to bear it or what to do with himself Life grows a burden Sometimes he makes away himself as weary of it But now as to the mystical principal sense of these words Here 's a most concerning caution to man in the utmost flourish fruitfulness and inward mystical riches of his nature in a first-covenant righteous life where belly and meats desires and desireables root and branch tree and fruits principles and operations are all but a higher sort of perishing vanities sigur'd out by the former All this yet is but a vain shew a dream a fools Paradise a shadow an image only of true durable life and substantial riches in the heavenly creature-image of the second Adam Man at best in all this fading glory and honour of his own nature is altogether vanity Ps. 39. 5 6. The first Adam was made in but the earthly shadowy Image of God the heavenly substantial creature-image of the infinite Divinity is found only in the second Adam and his spiritual descendents by a new birth or second creation A day of adversity then is written out in the perishing nature of all such inward as well as outward prosperity over against the highest prosperity therein All such mystical soul-riches life food clothing glory honour wisdom righteousness all will be gone again most certainly make themselves wings and flee away Prov. 23. 5. While then Man sets his eye or heart on such things which God says are not he is sure to meet with an amazing disappointment By new-creature things things of God which God's Wisdom reckon's the only creature-things that are man's wisdom things that are not will God bring to nought all those things of man which his foolish wisdom reckon's the only creature-things that are 1 Cor. 1. 28. In the day of man's prosperity in the restor'd first-Covenant