such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
any fresh Effusion of the Spirit upon you When the Activity of Grace when the Operations of the Divine Life are heightned in you by any peculiar Appearances and Outshinings of the Lord Jesus in you what do you Find Do you not find all things made New Do you not find the Invisible Image of things within the Image of all Visible things without Your self your Life Your Soul your Body Your Graces your Comforts Husband Wife Children all Objects of Life the whole World itself renewing its Light its Sweetness its Lustre All heightened Spiritualised Immortalized transfigured into Divine Forms Invisible to all other Eyes and this without any Darkening without any Eclipse or Cloudy moment interposing This is the Earnest of the Spirit given unto Thee for a Figure a Foretast and a Seal of Thy change in Death Thou shalt not be uncloathed of any Garment of Life or Light Spiritual or Natural which thou hast ever put on Thou shalt never be found naked of any Forms of Light Life or Love which have ever accompanyed and encompassed Thee Thy Faith-shall be swallowed up into Vision Clear Full Immediate Vision Eye to Eye Thy Hope into Entire Possession and Compleat Fruition thy Soul itself into a Simple Divinity and Eternity Thy Body thy Dear Relations the Delights of thine Eyes the Precious and Pleasant things of thy Senses shall All be cloathed upon from above with those Immortal Substances of which here they are the Shadows with their own Original Forms of which here they bear the Figure with their Flourishing Patterns upon the Mount of Glory in that First and Pure Spirit the Fountain of Life the shining Fountain of Good in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus in Eternity The Movable Tabernacle with its Tent both are Dissolv'd and fall into the Eternal Building of Glory in the Heavens where they become as Mysterious Figures of Divinity in that Temple or Rich Furniture Delightful Apartments of that Palace where every Part beareth the Figure possesseth the Life and Beauty of the Whole This is the Freedom the Sweetness the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ. Death itself is made at once A Consummation of the Marriage Love between the Heavenly Bridegroom his Bride A Bed of Loves the Divine Embraces of Eternal Love and the Divine Fruitfulness of these Embraces Jesus in his Invisible and Eternal Form descendeth overshadoweth embraceth his Bride transfigureth her into a Form of Eternal Beauties perfectly answering his own maketh her to spring with to bring forth in the moment of those embraces in the moment of her own Transfiguration all Forms of Things above and below in Immortal Divine Images and Essences of Pure Perfect Love The Dark aud Dreadful Appearances which surround Death are onely A Cloud which hide these Delightful these sacred Mysteries and changes from all Natural Eyes while the Saint himself in the Spirit seeth its own Beauties feeleth its own Joys in these Transfiguring and Impregnating Embraces So Christ himself was taken by a Cloud out of the sight of the Apostles while he ascended Death beginneth to the whole Saint in all parts that Coming down of the Lord Jesus in a Flame of Glory that Rapture of a Saint caught up into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus with the Sound of the Heavenly Trumpet The Universal Shout of Divine Lives Loves Glories thorow all things The Resurrection finisheth them O the Absoluteness of Finishing Love All work of Glory is made perfect in a Saint Jesus in all these Powers and Treasures of the God-Head resteth upon a Saint then when he is weakest when he seemeth nearest likest to Darkness Dust and Dung in the Agonies of Death 3. Comfort Against the last Day There are peculiar Terrours accompany the Day of Judgment It is indeed the most Dreadful of all Dreadful things The Last Day is twofold 1. Universal the Day of the Lord upon the whole Earth 2. Particular the day of the Lord upon a City or Nation Both these are spoken of mixtly The same dreadful things are attributed to both properly or figuratively We know not how near the Universal Day of the Great Judgment of the Lord upon the whole Earth may be The Lord Jesus may be now at the Door and ready to enter He shall come as a Thief in the Night in Clouds unperceived unexpected All things shall be in the moment of his Appearance as from the Beginning Some at the Mill some in the Field some in the Market some at Church to be married others in the Marriage bed others Eating and Drinking All the signs which are to fore-run that Great Day of the Lord's Last Appearance from Heaven may be come to pass in the midst of us in another manner and form differing from that which we figure to our selves and we not aware of it As Elijah the great fore-runner of our Lord Jesus in his first Appearance was come and gone in the Person of John the Baptist not understood either by the Jews in general or by the Disciples Watch and pray have your Loyns ever girt your Lamps burning go forth from the things of Sense into the Spirit to meet the Lord who cometh in that Air of Heaven and Eternity So shall you be caught up to meet him as he cometh and enter with him into the Bride-chamber I shall give you my Reasons which make me to believe that the Particular Day of the Lord upon this Land and City approacheth and cometh like a Traveller like an Armed Man upon us 1. Jerusalem and the Jews seem to be set up for a Type to every City and Land which beateth the Name of God St. Paul at large in the 11th to the Romans describeth the Succession of the Gentiles by Christianity into the place of the Jews the Progress and Way of God with the External Professors of the Gospel as with Israel He representeth this by Natural Branches cut off from and Olive Tree by wild Branches ingrafted in their place standing upon the same Terms in the same danger of being cut off 2. Are not we as Hierusalom ripe for the Harvest Have we not had the Ministry of the Law of the Gospel of the Letter of the Spirit in great power and glory Have not all varieties of chastisements and judgments inferiour to preparatory for the great and last Judgment already passed upon us Have not our Sins among all sorts of all kinds grown up to maturity to be ready for the Sickle 3. We have seen signs in Heaven above and on the Earth beneath and in the Waters which Jesus Christ foretelleth as Joel before and St. Peter afterwards from him to precede immediately the great and dreadful day of the Lord upon Hierusalem Hierusalem is in London But O what comforts flow from the finishing love of God in Jesus Christ to make this day of the Lord not only supportable but lovely to us and longed for by us Lift up your heads for your redemption is at
persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit In the First of these verses Jerusalem above is said to be the Mother of us all In the Second these All us are expounded to be the Children of Promise In the Third verse the same persons are described by being born after the Spirit This Phrase of being born after the Spirit is fully explained by that of Jesus Christ from whence it seemeth to be taken John 3. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit To be born after the Spirit and of the Spirit signifie both the same thing Is it not then evident that the Jerusalem above which is free which is the mother of all the Spiritual Seed is the Eternal Spirit after which a Saint is born that is of this Spirit and in the Image of this Spirit where there is Liberty 2 Corin. 4. Now lay the Third Scripture by these two Heb. 12. 22. We are come to Mount Sion the Heavenly Hierusalem the City of the living God to the Millions of Angels the general Assembly to the Church of the First-born written in Heaven to the Spirits of just men made perfect to God to Jesus Christ. Before we Saw Hierusalem above and the Spirit now we see Mount Sion and the Heavenly Hierusalem to be the same Is it not then an infallible demonstration that Sion and the Holy Spirit are One as the Type and the Truth Can any other be the living City of the living God where all the Holy Angels the First-born of the Father the Spirits of all Saints as well on Earth as in Heaven Jesus Christ in his Mediatory Kingdom the Father upon the Throne of Judicature meet and appear together in the full liberty of Eternal Light Love and Joy besides the Unity of the Spirit which is the Sweet and Sacred band between the two Glorious Persons in the Trinity between all pure Spiritual Divine Beings above and below This is the Spring and Immortal Seat of them all 2. We have in this place another Person set forth by this bright and lovely Character the Perfection of Beauty We may discover our own Beloved and Bridegroom the Lord Jesus under this Title if we bring to it the Lights of two other Scriptures shining like this by his Appearance in them In Heb. 1. 3. He is stiled the Brightness of Glory Is not this the same as to say The Perfection of Beauty 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined in our hearts unto the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ Can Face answer Face in a Glass more exactly than these Two Scriptures answer one another In both you have God God shining in one you have God shining from the Perfection of Beauty in the other God shining with a Light of Glory in the Face or Person of Christ. God in all the Creatures whether they be Visible or Invisible casts forth Shadows only of Himself Then he appeareth in the Perfection of Beauty when he appeareth in the Person of Christ as Light in the Body of the Sun 3. But why are these two so joyned as if they were the same Thing from Sion the perfection of Beauty I will not examine whether we may not disjoyn them in reading by putting in between them and or in Particles frequently understood from Sion and or in the Perfection of Beauty God shineth This needeth not There is plainly a difference between the English and the Hebrew The Hebrew runneth word for word thus From Sion from the Perfection of Beauty God hath shined So you have the Three Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity clearly distinguished and united in this shining of the God-Head The Father shineth from the Spirit his holy hill of Sion from the Person of Christ the Perfection of Beauty These Two Persons are placed here as One in Another a Globe of Light in a Globe of Light and the Father shining from them both to awaken in us this great and glorious Truth that the Persons of the Sacred Trinity have their Perfection in each other and are ever undivided when they appear nakedly in their proper Forms The whole Trinity is the Crown of Beauty upon every one of them In particular Jesus Christ never appears as the Perfection of Beauty but when he and the Spirit appear both in One 2 Cor. 3. from the 14th to the end you read of a vail upon the Face of Moses the Person of Christ in the Type then of a vail upon the Hearts of the Jews These are both the same vail For the vail is never upon the Person of Christ properly and simply but upon the Eye of our Spirits as the Cloud is never upon the Body of the Sun but upon our Corporeal Eyes For as that doth in the midst of its world so doth the Person of Christ in the midst of all things ever comprehend and contemplate himself and all things in the simple and pure Light of his own naked Beauties But then in the same place we read that the Vail is taken away in Christ and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty that is freedom from the Vail Christ is seen unvailed in his naked Glories It is added Now the Lord is that Spirit Then mention is made in the last verse of beholding the Glory of the Lord with open Face that is Eye to Eye the naked Eye of our Souls to the naked Eye of his Beauties every Spirit being all Eye The verse is closed thus as by the Spirit of the Lord or more agreeably to the Greek as of the Lord the Spirit I have alledged all this to make it plain to you and to seal it upon your understandings and memories that Jesus Christ is then only seen in his true Person and shape without a vail when he is seen in the Spirit when Christ and the Spirit are seen as two distinct Persons in One. Sion the Type of the Spirit signifieth Vision Hierusalem the Figure of the same Spirit the Heavenly Hierusalem is by interpretation the Heavenly Vision of Heavenly Perfection and Peace The Lord Jesus is the Perfection of Beauty the Heavenly Harmony of all things the Peace of all Hearts and Desires The Person of the Spirit is the Heavenly Vision of this Heavenly Perfection By the way observe that the Holy Ghost speaks in this 50 Psal. of the Day of Judgement the Second and last Coming and Appearance of our Lord and Saviour after which he shall go away and disappear no more See here what manner of Appearance this is in what State in what Form the King of Glory comes to the Marriage of his Bride and to reign upon the Earth He comes in a Spiritual and Divine Form in the Person of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit is an anointing of Beauty upon the whole Person of our Beloved He again is a Sun of Beauty looking forth in the Person of Spirit Nay the
Apple-Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons I sat down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet to my taste There are three distinct parts in the Hebrew 1. I desired and sweetly delighted in his Shadow 2. Then I sate down 3. And his Fruit was sweet to my taste The Apple in Holy Scriptures and in the writings of Learned Authors is famous for a pleasant Cordial nourishment of Life and for an Emblem of Love You may see this in this Chapter v. 5. Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of Love Apples are Emblems of Love for their pleasant looks to the Eye their fragrant smell their delightful tast their cordial vertue their round form which is a Figure of Unity the Root and Sap and Fruit of all Love In the midst of the Wood of this Life where all Forms of things are like blasted and barren Trees good neither for Shade nor Fruit Jesus Christ standeth as an Apple-Tree a Tree of Life and a Tree of Love Fair Flourishing and Fruitful When the poor Spouse of Christ thorow all this Life is wearied with scorching Heats sounding Tempests raging Storms then her Beloved when He seeth His Fit Time springeth up as a Paradisical and Heavenly Tree As He springeth up He overshadoweth His Spouse not as a cloud overshadoweth the Sun or as Darkness in the absence of the Sun overshadoweth the earth but as the approaching and rising Sun overshadoweth the Stars So the Lord as a Tree of Glory spreadeth His Shadow over all those Lights of the Night the Principles Powers Activities Appearances oâ— the Natural Man drinking them up into One Light of Glory and Immortality with Himself while He drowneth them with a Sea of Love breaking in upon them and overflowing them How sweet is this Approaching Shadow of her Lord's Blessed Person to the Love-sick Soul a Shadow perfumed with the Ointments of His Love shining with the purple Lustre of His Beauties quickened with the Life of His Glories a Divine Shadow With what Desire with what Delight doth the Holy Soul go under this Shadow How precious in the Eye of God of all the Angels of a Saint Himself is This Death This Death is no Evening to a pleasant Day but a Lovely Morning and glorious Sun putting out the Lights of the Moon with all the Sars because the Time of the Night is past and the Day is come Never did the softest and sweetest Sleep 〈◊〉 with more pleasure upon the Senses of any Person than this Shadow of Death cometh upon the Heavenly Bride Here a Saint sitteth down As Hee entreth into this Shadow he entreth into Rest into the Unâ—ty of God where He resteth for ever from his own Work and Spirit to lye down in the Eternal Spirit Now he catâ—h of his own Apple upon this Apple-Tree He meeteth with Himself in Glory in the Glorified Person of his Beloved as the ripe Fruit of Life and Love hanging ready upon its own Tree in Eternity In the same moment he seeth it he taketh it in he rellisheth it with unexpressible sweetness and delight as being Great Glorious His own by the nearest dearest Suitableness and propriety Himself in the Entirest Unity in the same Moment he seedeth upon it is Transubstantiated into it and becometh that Lovely Apple that full-ripe Fruit of â—ove upon the Tree As he thus seedeth upon his own Apple and is changed into it at once he seedeth upon is changed into all the Apples of the Tree and the whole Tree itself For this is the Divine Mystery of Spiritual Pâ—anâ—s in the Heaveâ—ly Paradise each Fruit each part of the Plâ—nt comprehendeth the whole Pâ—ant all the Plants stand live and grow together in each Plant. Every Person aâ—d Spirit in Glory hath its own Name all Names written upon it It is itself an Entire Heaven in which all the Heavenly Inhabitants shine and sing and dance together with their various Beauties Musicks and Motions cast into the most Divine Harmony by a most perfect Unity 3. Script Iohn 14. v. 2. 3. In my Father's hâ—use are many Mansions If it 〈…〉 I would have tâ—ld you I go to prepare a place for 〈◊〉 And if I goe and prepare a place for you I will come again â—nd receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Three Mysteries are opened to us in these words 1. The Place of Blessed Persons after this Life 2. The Preparation of this Place 3. Their Passage into this Place All are full of a Joy glorious and unspeakable 1. The Place of Blessed Spirits after this Life It is saith Christ my Father's House The House of the Father is the Glorified-Person of His Son This is the Temple of God in Heaven the Palace of the great King In Him the fulness of the God-Head dwelleth bodily All glorious Persons Angels Saints and Spirits as they are comprehended in the Person of Christ and make up His Body the Divine Body the Body of Glories and Eternity in Him as they are Beautiful Members in that Body so are they Mansions in that Temple Apartments in that Palace Every Apartement in this Divine Palace hath the whole Palace with all the Persons Prospects Furniture Entertainments of the whole within itself This is the Place 2. The Preparation of this Place I go to prepare a place for you While this Palace of Eternity with all its Apartments which are also its Inhabitants the Glorified and Immortal Persons of all Saints stood in the Father in the Divine Nature alone it was hid from the Eye of every Creature it was shut up that none could enter into it it was remote from every Creature at a very great distance The Lord Jesus by His Death and Resurrection entring with the Humane Nature into this Eternal Habitation hath set it up in the Nature of Man hath brought it near to us hath set it in our view hath set it open for us The Gates of this Temple of this Heavenly Hierusalem stand open day and night to all quarters of the Heaven and the Earth All the Apartements of it with our several Names written upon them our several Persons in Glory appearing in them stand ready The Lord Jesus Himself is the Beautiful Gate the Living Way the Ascent the rich Stair-case to this Temple The Angels are continually descending in Him as Chariots to bring down riding upon them our glorious Saviour and our glorious Selves into the Bosom of our Spirits here below The Bridegroom and the Bride ready trimm'd and already joyned in One come thus down out of Heaven come thus forth from the Temple The Angels are continually ascending by this Stair-case carrying up our Spirits beforehand on visits into this Palace into our own Apartments into the Bosom of our own Glorified and Immortal Substances there Every Grace every Providence every Motion of things to him whose Eyes are opened is such an Angel
hand your Redeemer cometh This is the day of finishing love Jesus Christ cometh in this day to thee O Believer to consummate the Marriage and so all thy joys thy graces thy gâ—ories in thy compleat Marriage to himself The day of the Lord is said to be The Revelation of the Lord from Heaven As the natural day chaseth away the shadows of the night but is the brightness of the Suns beautiful and glorious Body making all things new in the pleasantness of his light to those Eyes that watch for the morning so is this day of the Lord a day of Clouds and Darkness to the Children of the night But it is to thee who lovest and waitest for the appearance of our Lord Jesus the breathing forth of all finishing loves the breaking forth of all finished Beauties from the beloved Person of thy Jesus appearing nakedly in all the glories of the God-Head from Heaven in thy Person in all things round about thee as the Sun of Eternity at once shining in every point of things making a new day of immortality and glory every where The Lord Jesus cometh indeed in flames of Fire But these flames are the Almighty powers and Supream glories of the eternal spirit of eternal love in its purity in its simplicity These are of a truth flames of fire to the enmity to the enemies to all flesh but they are to thee who livest in the spirit flames of finishing love of finished beauties presenting themselves to thee in all forms of things feasting themselves upon thee feasting themselves with thee making themselves a feast to thee I will conclude with that History of Elijah 1 Kings 19. 11. There passed before him a Whirlewind rending the Rocks removing the Mountains a Fire and Earthquake After these came a still veice The learned Jews say That all this was acted before the Prophet in a divine vision that the Whirlwind the Mountains the Rocks torn in pieces the Fire the Earthquake were Angels presenting themselves in those Forms as so many Divine Scenes that the still voice were all the Angels in a Quire making a heavenly melody Thy Royal Bridegroom cometh in every day of Judgment to make more than this true to thee O thou Dove thou Bride of the Lamb. He cometh in the weakness of all flesh round about thee to rest upon thee upon all things round about thee in the power of his finishing loves This is the great day of love and of the spirit in which he will make perfect the strength of his love and spirit while thou art trembling while all things are falling with a great noise round about thee as dreadful ruines in a devouring flame Now lift up thy head into that living and glorious light of the eternal spirit now lift up thine Eyes and thine heart unto that living and glorious light of divine love which breaketh forth from the face of thy Jesus within thee without thee on every side of thee This is the day of the anointing of thine Eyes with the heavenly Eye-salve of changing thee and the whole world to thee into fine Gold Gold tryed in the fire All things now appear to thee as indeed they are a divine vision in a light of Glory The whirlewinds Earthquakes Fires Deaths Ruines are all Angelical Scenes in the Spirit In them all thou seest the Dances thou hearest the still voice the calm charming soft Musick of all the Angels all the Spirits all the loves of God as on his and thy Marriage-day Thus finishing love maketh perfect the light the life the strength of the spirit and of love in thee in thy personal weakness in the universal weakness decay and ruines of all flesh of the whole Creation round about thee A skilful Painter is most discerned in laying his shadows By these he maketh his work softer sweeter more full of life and more taking Thus comfort thy self in all thy weaknesses darknesses and deaths Say thou now is my Jesus exercising his divine wisdom and skill in laying and placing his shadows Now upon these sad grounds will he curiously lay his rich and pleasant colours Now will he form and finish the glorious face of his divine beauties of his divine loves upon me Finishing love then appears then displayeth itself with greatest freedom fulness and sweetness when it maketh perfect its strength its beauties its joys its eternal light in our weakness deâ—ormity despair darkness death These are the rellishes to the Musick the shadows to the beauty of finishing love These are the times for finishing love when it is most beautiful I hâ—ve now made an end of my discourse upon the first rich branch of this divine fulness of love in Christ the fulness of love in all States I come now to the second branch the fulness of love in all kinds 2. There is pâ—ured forth from the Father in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus a fulness of love of all kinds St. Paul saith that God the Father hath abounded in Grace towards us in all wisdom and prudence in Christ. Ephes 1. 6 7. There are three parts of wisdom where it is compleat 1. There is in wisdom a varâ—ety of things 2. A contrivance of this variety into one piece 3. A concurrence and meeting in one of all the several varieties in each part and point of the whole piece by the force of the Harmony The Father aboundeth in his Grace his love to us in all wisdom in Christ. here is fulness upon fulness He aboundeth He aboundeth in all wisdom Nay you have a threefold fulness an abundance an abundance in wisdom which itself expresseth a fulness a riches of variety but then there is superadded all wisdom all variety The Father is a plenitude of love â—of all kinds in all varieties pouring forth himself incessantly endlesly eternally in Christ. God is in Christ in his electing love in his creating love in his preserving love in his redeeming regenerating justifying adopting sanctifying comforting glorifying love God aboundeth with a fulness with a filling an overflowing fulness in all these in each of these several kinds of love in Jesus Christ. Enlightning enlivening softning sweetning healing cleansing defending delighting heightning crowning loves all are here and all are full here to infiniteness Come all ye Souls who want a sense of sin or mourn under a sense of sin for want of a sense of love come hither to Jesus Christ and have love love of every kind love suitable to your longings or wants and have it in abundance The glorified Person of Christ is a spiritual Garden Indeed it is a Garden invisible sealed up from the outward senses But by how much the more invisible it is it is so much the more real glorious and divine This Garden is ever present before thee It flourisheth in the midst of thee It is continually open to every humble believing Spirit In this Garden all kinds of divine love grow as so many flowers which are ever full-blown ever
to dye with you This is the true Church-fellowship a Fellowship in our Souls and in our Bodies by a Spiritual Principle and Life with the Church and Assembly of the first-born with all things in their first born State in one Spiritual and Heavenly Body in Christ. 3. How amiable and lovely doth this make death to the Saints This is the chief end I aim at in my discourse and the point to which I bring it With what a beautiful and smiling Face doth Death now look forth even in the Body of a Saint in which he hath been wont generally to appear so grim to the holiest Persons Thy Body O Believer so far as thou standest in a Spiritual Principle is a Fellow-member with thy Soul in the Body of Christ It is a Jewel the work of a faithful and curious workman the most holy Spirit as Solomon in the Canticles speaketh of the Spouse of Christ. But here the mixture of the fleshly and carnal Principle is as Dust and Dirt which covereth and fullyeth this costly Jewel With what a sweet pure lustre of Immortality and of Heavenly Glory doth it sparkle and shine forth ravishing thine own and all spiritual Eyes and Hearts in the moment of Death when the blessed hand of Death clean wipes off the dust and stain of the carnal Principle and brings it forth entirely into its Spiritual Principle that now it stands singly as a Spiritual Member in the Spiritual Body of Christ The Lord Jesus saith if thine Eye be single thine whole Body shall be light as when a Candle enlightens a Room In this life O Saints we have a double Eye and have a double sight The mixture of the Spiritual and Carnal Principle is the double and divided Eye O welcome Death receive it with open embraces Now is your Eye single Now is the carnal Principle cast out for ever Now you look forth with the open and single Eye of the single Principle of the Eternal Spirit Now is your whole Body nay now is the whole body of things filled to you with a Heavenly light of Immortality Glory This single Eye pours forth from the Unity of the Spirit as from the Fountain of blessed Light thorow your whole Souls and Bodies thorow all things round about them a Light of Glory as when a Candle enlightneth a Room A way of cleansing Pearls when they have any spot or cloud upon them is to thrust them down the throat of a Pigeon into its Crop where the heat of the Pigeon takes off the stain and makes them perfectly white This is the mystery of a Saints Death The Heavenly Dove the Holy Spirit in the same moment takes a Saint entirely in Soul and Body out of this Life out of the Carnal Principle into himself into his Bosom of Love by the Divine heat of that Love takes off every spot or cloud of the flesh by consuming it both in the Soul and in the Body and makes them both purely white and shining Pearls in the Heavenly Body of that one great and only Pearl the Lord Jesus 2. The second relation into which the Body of a Believer is taken at the new birth is that of a Temple to the Holy Ghost There are 4 things proper to a Temple 1. The Figure 2. The Glory 3. The Communion 4. The Defence 1. Every thing in the Tabernacle and so in the Temple to the least things and lowest actions were divine Types of Spiritual Truths and Heavenly Excellencies in the Person of the Lord Jesus So it is said that all things were made and ordered according to the pattern in the Mount which pattern in the Mount was Christ in Glory O Saints This Tabernacle and Temple were Types first of Christ then of you whose Souls and Bodies both are the true and living Temples of God The Body of a Saint is a more excellent Temple in as much as Solomons Temple was a shadow only of this It is a Living Divine and Immortal Temple It is therefore in the whole a far more excellent more rich more glorious and delightful Image of the God-Head in its entire form It is in every part and point of it a most lively a most beautiful a most pleasant figure of some particular Mystery and Glory in the God Head All the parts of your Bodies themselves the lowest and least even to a hair of your Heads every thing that befals you in every part of your Body in the meanest and slightest circumstance is formed exactly by the Divine Wisdom and Power according to the Divine Will to answer the Pattern in the Mount to be the holy figure of an eternal Glory in Christ. We read Psal. 29. 9. Every thing in his Temple speaks Glory Every thing in thy Body O Believer so far as thou art a Believer speaks Glory For this is his Temple O live alwaies in the Spirit that thou maist alwaies be in thy Body as in the Temple that there thou maist see understand and enjoy the Glory in every thing 2. The Temple of God is filled with the Glory of God There is a Prophesy in Malachy concerning the times of the Gospel that he shall come into his Temple You O Saints are the Temple which is here Prophefied of Jesus Christ as God in the Glory of the Father in the Third Person the Holy Ghost comes into you into your Bodies also and fills them with his Glory The same word in Hebrew signifieth a Temple and a Pallace The name of a Temple in Greek signifieth an Habitation or dwelling place It is a note of a learned Divine that the Temple had Tables and a Throne and a State in it which was the Golden Mercy Seat called in the Gospel the Throne of Grace to signifie that the Temple of God was his Pallace as he is the great King The Eternal Spirit is present in the Body of a Believer as in his Pallace He keeps his Court there There is his Throne with all the blessed Angels and all the Heavenly Company waiting round about it It is called his resting-place Arise saith David to God thou and the Ark of thy strength into thy resting-place God shineth forth in his Temple filleth it with his Glory within resting upon it and overshadowing it with his Glory without In the 50 Psal. at the beginning the Psalmist speaking of the Temple saith God shineth from Sion the perfection of Beauty What a perfection of Beauty then what a Divine Pallace how full of Glory within how encompassed with a clear shining Glory round about is that Body of a Saint which is the living eternal Temple of the Holy Ghost In what Majesty doth this Eternal Spirit appear here upon its Throne of Love In the midst of what Divine Pleasures and Delights doth it rest for ever here What a Court does it keep here with all its Train of Angels and heavenly Attendants waiting round about its Throne as in another Heaven O Believers honor your Bodies For
these so far as you stand in a Spiritual Principle are as another Heaven the Heaven of Heavens the Pallace of the great King which he fills with his Glory where he heeps his Court sits upon his Throne 3. The Saints have communion with God in his Temple In the Temple was the Golden Mercy-Seat There saith God will I commune with thee This was overspread with Cherubims of Glory as St. Paul calls them These Cherubims covered this Golden Mercy-Seat with their Wings and so made the State or Glory about the Throne This is therefore called the secret of the most high and the shadow of the Almighty where a Saint is said to dwell and to lodge Hear O ye Saints what glorious things are spoken of your Bodies be Spiritual and behold in these Temples the Golden Mercy-Seat which is the glorified Person of Christ and the Cherubims of Glory covering it with their Wings and God here upon this Golden Mercy-Seat the glorified Bosom of Christ from between the Wings of the Cherubims ready alwaies to commune with you yea taking you up upon this Golden Mercy-Seat within the Wings of the Cherubims to commune freely with him at all seasons in this secret of eternal safety rest love joy and glory This Temple is the Body of a Saint while he liveth below but now it is in too great a degree covered with a cloud of Flesh filled with the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Saint too rarely enters into this Temple of the holy Ghost in his own Body and more rarely seeth with any degree of clearness the Glory or heareth the voice of the blessed Spirit there What joy is it to think in what a purely sacred and Divine Temple in what a clear and shining Pallace of the eternal King in what open and unstained unvailed visions of Divine Glory in what a secret in what a presence of glorious Angels and Eternal Spirits in the midst of what sweet overshadowings dear encompassings naked outshinings of the Eternal Spirit in what most blessed most ravishing Communion of Eternal Light Life and Love with this Spirit in what sight and embraces with what kisses of incomprehensible Beauties in the sound of what words what salutations what wooings what expressions of the highest Loves and Joys from the Eternal Spirit a Saint finds himself even in his own proper Body in the very moment of his Death when departing out of this Life at once he departs for ever out of the Fleshly Image and the Spirit of this World 4. The Divine Presence and Glory was the defence of the Temple Esa. 4. 5. There is a Prophesy concerning the times of the Gospel expressed by figures taken from the state of things under the Law And the Lord will create upon every â—welling place of Mount Sion and upon her Assemblies a Cloud and smoak by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night For upon all the Glory shall be a defence or a covering When the first Temple was to be destroyed the Prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory removing off from it afterwards when the second Temple was near its end a voice was heard in it saying Let us be gone from hence which was understood to be the voice of God and of his holy Angels with all those invisible companies and Ministers which made up the Glory of the Divine Presence as Nobles Officers and Guards make up the Court of a King O Saints why do you fear for your Bodies hidden Conspiracies or open force diseases the fury of the Elements the malice of Men or Devils These Bodies of yours are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Here are the Holy Assemblies of all the Heavenly Company in the unity of the Spirit whose Temples your Bodies are Of these it is Prophesied to these it is promised that God will create upon them a cloud and a smoak by day the shining of a flaming fire by night Upon these the Glory is a defence or a covering God himself with all his holy Ones his Angels his Watchmen his ministring Spirits is this Cloud this Glory which is the defence and covering upon your whole Persons your Bodies as well as your Souls both have together with Christ a hidden Life a secure Life in this secret of God within this covering of this Divine Cloud Flame and Glory From off these Temples of your Bodies this Glory never removes From within these Temples of your Bodies this heavenly Company never departs for as much as the union in the Spirit of Grace under the Gospel is Eternal Thus the Bodies also of Believers in this Life are the Temples of the Holy Ghost All things in them here are divine Figures of a divine Glory They are filled and covered with the Glory itself They are the seats of the freest Communion with this Glory being the Temples of the God of Gods and so the Pallaces of the King of Kings All this is true of them here as they stand in a Spiritual Principle and in union with Christ by the new birth But this Life is a mixt State We stand partly in a Spiritual partly in a Fleshly Principle These Temples of our Bodies are covered with a corrupt Flesh that we can hardly discern their Spiritual Beauties They are too frequently in too great a part filled with a smoak of Hell the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Believer can rarely enter into this Temple of his Body to behold and converse with the Glory there This is the precious the blessed work of Death in a Believer It breaketh the union it maketh a separation not between Christ and a Believer not between the Soul and Body of a Believer as they are joyned together in Christ by the band and unity of the Eternal Spirit and make one Spiritual Man or Person in Christ but between the precious and the vile between the Carnal and Spiritual Principle of a Saint both in Soul and Body Now in the moment of Death the Soul and Body of a Saint come forth immediately clear and shining Temples of the Spirit the smoak and clouds of the Fleshly Principles and of this worldly Image being for ever driven away from within them and from without Thus you understand St. Pauls sweet and blessed sense of Death when he speaketh of the Body and saith 1 Corin. 5. 1. 2. That we shall not be found naked but be cloathed upon from above with a building of God Eternal in the Heavens which shall swallow up mortality in life Our Spiritual Body which we have in this life by our new Birth as we stand in our Spiritual Principle is this Divine Building sprung from a Divine Root of a Divine Nature or Substance of a Divine Form and Workmanship This is ever in Heaven being inseparably united to Christ and being ever in the Spirit This is Eternal when we die this casts off the Cloud of corrupt and cursed Flesh. This springs forth out of its Spiritual Principle
his spouse this Soul or this Body which he hath spoused as chast Virgins to himself to see Corruption No no my Bride-groom with all his Lights of Glory and the Father of lights in him will accompany this Darling-Soul and Darling-Body his pair of Doves which are to him as his two eyes through Death and the Grave There will he filling all things round about me with his shining Beauties make me to see the Path of Life Immortality all composed of innumerable Angels of Glory or the innumerable Glories of the Godhead as the Milky way in Heaven is said to be composed with innumerable Stars thick set Thorow all the shades of Death shall I behold all pleasantnesses in his Face shining forth upon me with a fresh Glory as a new Sun turning those Shades into a flowry and perfumed Arbour in the Heavenly Paradise I shall be continually at his right hand where pleasures are for evermore without mixture interruption or end Thus is his right hand which is the heighth and Fountain of Life and Pleasures the beginning of my Life my strength and guide in my way my end in Death We have finished the answers to the objection against the Immortality and Glory of the Body of a Saint together with the Soul in Death which was taken from the Body itself and strengthened by the particular consideration of the Body of Christ in Death and in the Grave We have finished the distinction between the two Bodâ—es the Body of Death in a Saint and the proper Body of a Saint which is an insâ—parable Member in the Spiritual and Heavenly Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost as the Soul is We come now to the last objection taken from the resurrection of the Body at the last day which seems to be without any sense if our Bodies become Glorious and Immortal at our Death This Objection is answered by the distinction of three eminent steps or degrees in the resurrection from the Dead I shall take my ground upon which I shall build this answer and distinction from St. John Chap. 11. v. 25. these are the words of our Lord Jesus in that place I am the Resurrection and the Life He that lives and believes in me shall never die He that beliâ—ves in me though he were dead yet shall he live The Lord Jesus is here comforting Martha mourning over her dead Brother He propounds to her the comfort and Joy of his Resurrection Thy Brother saith he shall rise again That which would have been a present and powerful Joy looked upon with a Spiritual eye in a Light of Glory becomes to Martha a faint and far distant Joy while she looks upon the Resurrection a great way off at the end of the World So she answereth the Lord Jesus Yea Lord I know that my Brother shall rise again at the last Day The Lord Jesus scattereth this Cloud of Flesh by shining out upon Martha in the Brightness and Glory of his Heavenly and Divine Person as that Invisible and Eternal Sun which is at once the Fountain and Treasury of all Lights Lives and Forms of things in a state of Perfection and unchangeableness The Lord as he shineth out upon her annointeth the eyes of her mind with his Spirit and the Light of his appearance to see him as he is in the fulness of Glory as the fulness of the Glory of God and of all things dwelleth in him as he is the same and all things in him are the same yesterday to day and for ever I saith he am the Resurreâ—tion and the Life The latter of these is the cause and demonstration of the former It will not seem strange to him who seeth the Lord Jesus to be the Life of all things all things in their most exact distinction to be living perfectly and Eteâ—nally in him in the vast and unbounded Circle of the Unity of his Person and Spirit as in a secret Paradise a Field of Light and bliss above the Heavens and yet invisibly present every where that he should at his Pleasure bring forth things which have disappeared here by Death into new appearances as Resurrections from the Dead and present them again to our eye in the same Forme in which they before conversed with them not as Pâ—antasms or as empty Apparitions but real and Substantial Thus to Martha inlightned by this Spiritual Vision of Christ it was easie to understand that Jesus Christ could give her Brother Lazarus again out of his Grave living into her Arms even at that present time Having thus cleared my ground for my ensuing discourse by the opening of the words I procced to my distinction of a threefold eminent degree in the Resurrection from the Dâ—ad 1. The first eminent step or degree in the Resurrection from the dead is Regeneration which signifieth a new birth a second birth to be born again of God after the Death of that Life which we receive from him by our first Generation as Sons of God by the Creation 2. The Second eminent step or degree in the Resurrection from the Dead is the Natural Death 3. The last eminent step and degree is the Resurrection of the Dead at the last day 1. I shall begin with the first of these that the difference between these thâ—â—e Resurrections may more clearly appear I shall lay it down in the form of a Doctrine Doct. Regeneration is a Resurrection from the Dead St Paul clearly so expresseth it Eph. 5. v. 14. wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light Behold three things here 1. A Sleep 2. The Awakening from this Sleep 3. The cause of Awakening 1. Here is a sleep Thou that sleepest Every man in his Natural state is a divine Spirit an Immortal Soul an Image of God a Son of God in a deep Sleep The Natural Sleep is defined to be a perfect ligation or binding up of all the senses outward or inward But this is an unnatural Sleep into which we are cast by the Enchantments and Power of the Devil It is the Sleep of Sin O man all thy senses and faculties outward and inward which were true pure and divine in the Similitude of God whilst they were awake and at liberty were continually feasted with divine Objects they possessed and enjoyed a Paradise in themselves But how are they now fallen asleep how are they bound up Thou now no more seest hearest tastest feelest understandest enjoyest any sweet beam of truth any thing of the Harmonious Musick of the delicate Relish of the soft Embraces of the immutable all-satisfying Reality and Substance of pure Love pure Light pure Beauty pure Joy pure Goodness Every thing pleasant every thing Real every thing Divine is to thee as if it were not at all Yet is not thy sleep quiet All this which thou seemest to thy self to hear to see to understand to converse with by any of thy senses or faculties
Darkness must be the Ground Division the Work upon it There are then two Powers as two Parts in this Image 1. Power of Darkness 2. Power of Division 1. Power of Darkness This is the Form and Division the Figure of this Black Spirit Darkness is made his Character The Power of Darkness his Princely Title Colos. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us out of the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of his Dear Son It is read thus in Greek out of the Principality of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of his Love The Devil as the Prince of Darkness which implies Division is opposed to Iesus Christ the King of Love which is unity and lives only in Light Again Ephes. 6. 12. We fight against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World You may thus translate it more to the words against the World-comprehending Powers of the Darkness of this State As God is One and Many by a grateful Distinction in the Unity so is the Devil One and Many by a grating Division without Unity many Powers of Darkness in one Power The Devil in this Darkness lies as a Stain upon the Beauties of the whole Creation defacing the Image dimming the Glory of God in them He lies as a Cloud upon all the Contents of the Creature spreading a melancholy Shade over them infusing a Poyson of Fears Falshoods Deceits Mistakes Dangers Death into them He is a Prison and a Chain Shutting up holding down the Spirits of men when they would break forth and raise themselves into that Light of Divinity which faintly glimmers in this Darkness Such is the First Part of the Image the Power of Darkness 2. Power of Division The Name Devil comes from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies most properly one that casts in Principles or Seeds of Division So he is described by our Saviour in the Parable The Envicus man the Enemy hath sown Tares Our Lord with a Divine depth defines this Spirit in those words A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Whatever stands must be founded upon a Unity The Devil is a divided Kingdom a Duality a Ruinous Thing This Power of Division divides itself into a Seven-fold Power which is known by these Names 1. Self-love 2. Lust. 3. Covetousness 4. Pride 5. Envy 6. Passion 7. Enmity or Despair 1. Power Self-love 1 John 4. 8. God is Love Love in the Abstract Love Absolute Unlimited Infinite a Universal Sweetness The Devil is Self-love a particular Being cutting off itself from the rest of things from Him who is the Great I am in whom all things have their Being These are the Circlings of the Serpent by which he folds and wraps up himself in himself This Serpent before he spake to the Woman tempted himself with this glittering language Es. 14. 14. I will be like the most High The first word in this aspiring speech is that which first made him a Devil of an Angel I The establishing of a Proper Interest divided from the general Interest of things in the God-head This Self-love is the Horned head into which he then sprouted forth the Cloven Foot in which he ended when he first with-drew himself from the all-comprehending Unity into a Circle and Center of his own 2. Power Lust. This is a praegnancy to multiply himself to bring forth himself in strange and diverse forms upon strange and diverse Images God is One Gal. 3. 20. God brings forth himself in One Image Jesus Christ is his Only-begotten Son Joh. 1. 14. God brings forth all things by this One Image and in it Coloss. 1. 16. In him were all things Created The Devil is contrary to God in all this He is that Son of God which broken and deform'd by his Fall from the First Unity goes full of monstrous Lust after the Daughters of Men dark divided fleshly Images of the Creature With these he mingles himself so he brings forth himself and them into Gyantly shapes and in a Brood of Gyants Gyants in Hebrew signifie Dead Distracted Prodigious Forms as appearing from the shades below or faln and sunk thither Our Saviour calls this Spirit of Lust Joh. 8. 45. The Father of Lyes because he begets himself upon all things in base spurious and various Shapes Solomon represents the Image of the Devil in Flesh and this World by a Whorish Woman because she lusts after and wanders thorow all the diversity of divided Forms in the Devil 3. Power Covetousness Pro. 30. 16. There are two things that never say enough the Grave and the Barren Womb. This Invisible Power is a Womb of Darkness which takes in all things but brings forth nothing So the Darkness is never enlightned but ever increas'd made deeper and more devouring This Spirit is the Invisible Grave which draws all things into it But then it crumbles them into Dust it divides them from themselves So the Principle of Division is sharpned not satisfied fretted to a greater wideness not fill'd This is the Serpent feeding upon Dust ever encompassing the Earth This is the Bottomless Pit 4. Power Pride The Devil under this property is call'd Is. 14. 12. Lucifer the Son of the Morning He saith v. 13. I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God His ambition is to shine alone and as he riseth to put out all other Lights by the Malignity of his appearance He goes on v. 13. I will sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. The appearance of our Lord Jesus in the double flame of Terror and Triumph Consuming and Crowning is from the North Ezek 1. 4. The Mount of the Congregation is Mount Sion where the General Assembly and Church or Congregagation of the First-born are Hebr 12. 22 23. This is the Mount lifted up above every Mountain The Spirit exalted above every Spirit The Devil would seat himself upon this Mount in the place of Jesus Christ to be as he is the Onely One. Yet he would have it with this difference to be the top of the Mount while the great Congregation sit as the Clouds under his Feet to be a consuming Fire to all others a Crowning Glory only to himself God is the Heavenly Hierusalem where all things are Fellow-citizens The Devil is that Babel which saith I sit alone as a Queen Revel 18. She thinks her self never Great till she have swallowed up all her Companions never Great enough till she be Great alone This is the difference between Pride and Plenty 5. Power Envy This Power is a Reflection of Darkness and Division upon it self from the Sense of Beauty and Unity else-where It is Mystically describ'd Revel 20. 1. An Angel came down from Heaven with a Chain in one hand a Key in the other v. 2. He took hold of the Dragon the old Serpent and bound him up in the Bottomless Pit Divine Wisdom is that Chain which reacheth from the Top of Heaven to the Center of the Earth where at
bears Whatever you meet with like a Devil any where that 's a Sin Wherever you see the Cloven Foot of Division or the Horned head of Darkness fly and cry an Apparition from Hell Take then Two Rules which measure out every Sin Rule 1. Every choice of an Act or Object that draws you down out of the Light of God is Sin In the Light of God we worship and love the Supream Beauty we possess the most perfect and purest Pleasures we grow up into the Divine Image which continually appears to us we have all our Faculties fill'd enlarg'd to a Freedom an Infiniteness When we leave this Light we fall down before Idols empty Shows of Beauty so we become Idolaters and Adulterers we mingle our selves with mixt Pleasures Dark Delights so we pollute our selves we are transform'd into every base inferiour Image with which we converse Our Souls are imprison'd in low and narrow Objects where they beat themselves against the walls of their Prison into perpetual vexations Such are the Loves Lusts Ambitions Entertainments of this World The Love of the World is Enmity with the Father Ja. 4. 4. He that casts his eye down upon the Earth must necessarily take it off from Heaven He that sets his Face as if he would go into the Embraces of Vanity must have his back upon the Eternal Glory Rule 2. The Divided enjoyment of any particular Image apart from the Image of God is Sin God is one The Image of God is that in which all things are United He that takes any Piece out of this Image he breaks the Unity he makes a Wound to let in Death and Ruine This makes Fleshly Lusts Sins Man and woman are each to other the Image of God which is One. When therefore they rest not in the bosom of One Another they commit the Sin of the Devil in a Type St. Jude makes the Lustful Sin of Sodom an exemplar Copy of the Sin of Angels Jude 6. 7. The Angels kept not their first state but left their own habitation c. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange divers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh c. The Sin of Devils was a Spiritual Whoredom in which they dissolv'd the Unity of the Divine Image and fell into a Diversity of divided Images as into a deep Pit Both are join'd together in Solomon At once he multiplyed Wives and Idols A Converse with the Creatures in Diverse Principles and Images is as the Familiarity of a Man with many Women Fleshly Lust is the proper Image and Fruitfulness of the Devil by which he brings forth himself into this Visible World most Naturally and therefore most Potently most Plentifully Obj. But you will say may we not enjoy the delights of the Creature which is an Inferiour Image Ans. Yes as a Man may have a Conversation with many Women so that he break not the Marriage-Union Thy Fâ—untain must be thine own All delights abroad must be as Streams of this Fountain not divided Springs All other Images must be onely Reflections of this One concentred in it Please thy self to the full with every Content Only let it be no Cloud to cut off but a Christal to take in the Divine Glory that this may shine and flame in them Use 2. Consolation Wretched Man What wilt thou do Hell is sown in thy Nature This is the Paradise which is planted in thee all manner of loathsom bitter venemous deadly Plants The Sap of these is the Life of thy Spirit the Fruit of these the Food of thy Life What shall deliver thee Shall Time No As Nature puts forth itself in thee so these Trees of baleful Woe grow up What shall reskue thee from them Shall Death No When thou puttest off this Natural Image thou must then be transform'd into these Invisible Plants to be everlastingly inclos'd in them to have one Root one Stock one Sap one Fruit for ever with them that is with Devils Is there then no Help There is behold God descends to be thy Saviour He comes by a Two-fold Step and brings Salvation into thy Bosom 1. Step. God comes into our Nature as the Root of each single Person Here he becomes our Jesus making himself a New Seed Out of this Seed he brings forth a New Image of Divinity by which he breaks thorow the Image of the Devil and Nature brings forth Man out of them brings them into subjection to this growing Beauty As the Fuel is dissolv'd into Smoak and the Smoak again breaks up into Flame So the Image of the Devil riseth up out of the Image of Nature shaking that to Dust as it riseth The Image of God again sprouts forth in the midst of the Devils Image First spoiling then Triumphing over and in both 2. Step. God thorow Nature as the Root grows up into single Persons as the Branches Then as the shades of Night flie away before the Ascending Day so as this Divine Seed our Jesus sends forth itself in an Image of Beauty thorow our Souls the Image of Darkness and Death sinks down into its own Place and Principle Love this Jesus then You will love Him when He shall do this And He that shall do it will do it He is the Root and Branch He is a Root which holds every other Root of Pollution and Perplexity c. He will grow up thorow them the Last of All. He is the Branch that is imprison'd in every other Branch of Death and Hell which will at last spread forth itself over All if thou wait for it As the Head of the Devil is Enmity and Despair so the Lord Jesus is an Eternal Root of Hope and Love 2. State That to which the Change is made in our Conversion This is Three-fold 1. The Inward State in Nature 2. The Spiritual State in Christ 3. The Divine State in God 1. The Inward State in Nature The Change is for the most part at first a Conversion or Introversion into this State This needs a Three-fold Explication 1. Explication The Inward State in Nature as it is in itself Man is naturally the Off-spring of God Act. 17. 28. We are all his Off-spring God hath an Inward Glory and Outward Cloathing The Scripture speaks of both these Hebr. 1. It saith of One v. 8. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever It saith of the Other v. 10. Thou hast laid the Foundations of the Earth the Heavens are the Work of thine hands v. 12. Thou foldest them up as a Garment and they are changed God over-spread his Outward Cloathing with his Inward Glory he possesseth both his Person and his Vesture in One Fountain of Life So both become to him One Life and Beauty Man is in Nature the Off-Spring and Resemblance of God So Man also in his Natural State is composed of a Twofold Image the one Inward the other Outward the one the Image of God in Man the
in us which makes Divine Love as our Pulse Faith our Breath Holiness our Constitution Galat. 3. 23. We were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith that should be revealed A Legal Christian having a perpetual Alarm of Fears within him entrencheth himself strongly in Promises and Threatnings Ordinances and Duties in the outward Letter as a Wall or Mount of Earth He plants a Guard about his Spirit of Resolutions Vows and such like Fleshly obligations He takes care for a constant supply of Provision from without from the Gifts and Parts of men for a maintenance of these Forces Angels saith Christ Marry not nor are given in Marriage Angels are ever strong ever feasted yet have no Meals They are always refresh't and at rest yet have no season for Sleep They marry not to any thing without themselves yet they multiply themselves their Images and Fruits to Eternity Earthly man must have his Meal and Sleeps in their appointed time or else he dies He must joyn himself in marriage to another without himself or else he remains barren Such is a Christian under the Law if he have not his Duties Ordinances Ruleâ— and Retirements to which he is true and constant he falls down into Dust and Deadness or runs out into Lust and Profaness Therefore saith St. Paul we were shut up A Saint is now like an Ivy which cannot bear itself up or bring forth fruit upon its own Root or Stock but must twine about some outward Prop else it liâ—s on the ground and withers I defer the other Two Signs that I may now divert my self to some Application of these 1. Use. Exhortation This is Double 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve him from the Freedom of a Natural Life 2. Exhorta Serve God by outward Rules till you know how to serve Him by the Regulation of an Inward Light 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve Him from the Freedom of a Natural Life We read 2 Pet. 1. 4. of a Divine Nature Nothing is so skilful sweet strong lasting as that which is Natural as the Sun shines God is kind a man truly Spiritual is holy and heavenly But where is that man among the whole race of men who loves God lives in God as his Element lives to God as his Joy and Glory and all this because it is his Nature Are â—ot these the times of which our Saviour spake when he said Shall the Son of Man find Faith upon the Earth In what heart can we find such a Faith such a Union between God and Man as that these Two shall have but one Life that the Man may say as Saint Paul did Now Christ liveth in me In this universal Dis-appearance of the Divine Nature it were happy if men would serve God from the Force of Fear when they cannot do it from a natural Freedom If men would be wrought by an awe to a Compliance with God while yet they have no Complacency in him O that men would fear if they cannot love that Omni-present Omni-potent God in whom we all live by whom we breath I shall urge this Exhortation by Four Persuasives 1 Persuasive Fear the Loss of the Divine Presence here on Earth Job expresseth a great sense of this Job 29 He sighs out his complaints v. 2. O that it were with me as in the days of old when God preserved me v. 3. When his Candle shined upon my Head when by his Light I walked thorow Darkness The Candle is the Image of God in Nature which burns in the Seven-fold Candlestick of the Angelical Nature This Glory rested upon the Spirit of Job's Natural Man as a Light upon his Head leading him thorow the Darkness of his Fleshly Being v. 4. As I was in the days of my Youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle The Secret of God is the Invisible Glory of the Divine Image among the Angels which before he express'd by the Candle The Angels seem to be the Secret For they are the Chambers the Paviliâ—ns of God God was in the midst of them in the Dark at Mount Sinai The Tabernacle is the Body or outward Man To this place agrees that in the Psalm Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about them that fear him The Angel of the Lord or the Angel the Lord is the Divine Image in Nature and the Law The Camp the Host or Armies of Angels In the Gospel instead of this Image is Jesus Christ instead of Angels in their Natural Glory are Angels in a Spiritual State residing upon the Head the Spirit the Tabernacle the visible Frame the Bodily Being of a Saint V. 5. When the Almighty was yet with me When my Children were yet about me Job in his first days was a Type of man in Innocency The Presence of the Almighty in the Angelical Nature on the top of his Spirit was as the Head of his Being The Angelical Lives putting themselves forth in the rest of bodily things as Souls to them were as the Children Images and Dependencies of the Soul of Man But at the Fall the Almighty withdrew from man These Lives were drawn in from the rest of the Creatures V. 6. When I washt my steps in Butter When the Rock poured me out Rivers of Oil. The steps of Job were his wayes below in the visible part of things which were wash'd with the Peace and Plenty of Inferiour Contents raised from these Inferiour Creatures as Butter Rivers of Oyl The Spirit of Angelical Divine Life among invisible Superiour Glories did flow forth abundantly upon him from that Rock which was the Almighty These Words of Job afford us a Twofold Principle of Policy for Natural things 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all Earthly Comforts 2. Principle The Removal of this Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all earthly Comforts Tell me O Man what hath kept thee thy Peace and Plenty all thy Dayes Months and Years Thy God hath preserved thee When thou hast been in a doubtful difficult dangerous State of things what then hath pointed out a clear and shining path to thee in that darkness When thou hast had trouble in thine Affairs calamities in thy Person confusion in thy Soul what then hath sent forth a Beam of Comfort and Council through thy Spirit to light thee out of all these The Candle of God hath been upon thy head God hath look'd sweetly forth from the top of thy Spirit through the Principles of Nature and this hath been thy Light When thou hast wash'd thy Feet as thou hast walk'd in smooth soft flowing streams of Peace and Plenty when thou hast seen thy Children playing about thee like lively Lambs in pleasant Pastures while thou hast been as their Sheepherd feeding thy Spirit from invisible Spirits
by two Illustrations and one Distinction 1. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth to its Idea that is to its First Principle and Pattern in God God himself in the Fulness of his Person is the Principle and Pattern of Man Righteousness is the Image of God in Man Coloss. 3. 10. The New man which is the Righteous man and the Righteousness of man is said to be Created in Knowledge after the Image of Him who hath created Him There is a Twofold Image of God one Earthly the other Heavenly The Earthly Image of God in Man is the Righteousness of Nature The Heavenly Image is the Righteousness of the Spirit or in the Spirit 2. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth its End in God God is the End of all things Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for Himself The End of Man is the Possession and Fruition of God as his only Portion of Being Beauty Blessedness Psal. 16. 5. The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul This then is the Righteousness of man his Union and Communion with God to live in Him by Him with Him to Him For this reason is Christ said to be made of God Righteousness and Sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. Because in the Person of Christ it is that God and Man are made One one Love one Life one Likeness Distinct. There are two sorts of Righteousness 1. Imputed 2. Inherent 1. Righteousness imputed You may read of this Philip. 3. 9. That I may be found in Him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of God by Jesus Christ. There is a Righteousness of the First and of the Second Adam That of the First Adam is our own the Righteousness of the Law It riseth out of the Earth it is but a Shadow at best the Gilding of an Earthen Vesâ—el a Reflection upon a Brick Wall That of the Second Adam comes down from Heaven is of God is the true Gold the sure substantial everlasting Righteousness As when a Cloud is placed in that part of the Sky on which the Sun shoots forth his Beams the Cloud is over-spread by those Beams and made Glorious in their Glories So are there four Things in this Imputed Righteousness 1. The Person of Christ as the Sky or Heaven 2. The God-head as the Sun shining in this Sky 3. The Cloud poor man drawn up from the Earth into the bosom of his Saviour by his Union with Him 4. The Glory of the God-Head falling upon him encompassing and clothing his whole Person in Jesus Christ. This is that Righteousness which is of God by Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 12. 26. St. Paul teacheth us that if one member be honoured all the members rejoyce together with it When a Crown is set upon the Head of a King it puts a Royalty and Majesty upon his whole Person The Head of Man is Christ the Head of Christ is God The Glory of the God-Head in Christ is the Crown upon the Head of the Heavenly man this puts a Royal Beauty of Holiness the Majesty of that Divine Righteousness upon every mystical member upon each Soul how mean soever that is united to Jesus Christ in one Spirit thorow believing The Beauty of the God-head shining thorow the Humane Nature of Christ thorow his active and passive Obedience thorow his Wounds and so falling upon that Soul which hath cast herself into the Arms of her Saviour this is the Imputed Righteousness of man Take this Caution concerning this Righteousness It is said to be imputed not because it is not truly Ours and in us but because it is not Primarily Ours but by our Union with another Person The Colours in the Rain-bow are said to be Apparent not Real because the Rain-bow is not their Spring though it be their Seat but they are reflected from the Sun shining on the watry Cloud So this Righteousness is said to be imputed to us because it is First seated in Jesus Christ and then reflected from Him on us Yet it is a true Righteousness it is truly immediately on our Persons in our Persons as Jesus Christ is It is therefore said to be imputed because it is not ours Primitively but Consequently because Christ is ours yet not as Absent from us but Present in us possess'd by us 2. Righteousness Inherent 2 Cor. 3. last We all as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are Translated into the likeness of the same Image from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit The Lord Jesus at once enters into a Two-fold Relation to man one of a Sun shining all over him the other of a Root growing up in him We see his Glory in our selves as in a Glass we bring the face of Glory with us We have the Glory in our selves and are our selves the Glass There is the Sun shining which beautifies and justifies a St. We grow up into that Image by the Lord the Spirit of that Glory planting itself in us There is the Root growing which purifies and sanctifies us Our Saviour when he discovers Himself appears at once without us and within us Without us he riseth upon us as a Light of Loveliness Es. 60. 1. Rise out of the Dust and shine for thy Light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Within us He riseth as a Light of Life Galat. 1. 16. When it pleased the Father to reveal his Son within me This is our Righteousness Imputed and Inherent This Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter of Royalty in the Kingdom of God 1. The Crown So St. Paul stiles it 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge shall give me in that day The Righteousness the Glory of God resting on Man is that Crown which both entitles him to and enstates him in the Kingdom of God As a King ever possesseth his Crown though he wear it only on high days at solemn meetings of the people so a Christian may have this Crown though laid up while he is on Earth But he doth not appear with it openly till that great day the Resurrection when the whole world shall meet 2. The Robe The Righteousness of God and Man is the Imperial Robe which both as Kings are cloth'd with Es. 61. 10 He hath covered me with a Robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom dâ—cketh himself with Ornaments Behold a Royal and a Bridal Robe It is Righteousness which puts upon the Spirit the beauty of a Bridegroom the Majesty of a King That Soul which shines forth in Righteousness makes itself a King not by Right only but Choice too by Love as well as Law Psal. 45. 4. 5. In thy Majesty ride prosperously because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness c. Thine Arrows stick in the hearts of thine Enemies the people fall under thee This was sung of the Lord Jesus Righteousness cloth'd him
thou hast Sorrow breaking thee by the Oppression of present Evils thou hast Fear pursuing thee with the expectation of more Evils yet to come thou hast thy Desires carried forth uncessantly and violently toward those Objects which cannot satisfy but divide disappoint and distract them making them to labour under a hard Bondage to work in the Fire and feed on the Wind. But when the Day of the Lord the Day of the Spirit comes then the Soul is in Covenant with all things she hath all Evils subdued to her so her Passionate part is Satisfied and calm she hath all good things freely to enjoy so her Desires are at rest in the bosom of their proper Objects thus the whole Soul hath Peace all her Faculties acquiesce in their several Perfections all her Powers move with a full Complacency in their several Operations Thus that is made good which is prophesied in another place Es. 32. 17. The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever When thou hast the Lord Jesus in the Spirit then thou hast Righteousness brought forth to victory in thee For all things are then gathered up into One Body or Fulness of Divine Glory in thy Soul Now thou hast Peace with Quietness and Assurance for ever This is the Satisfactory Rest when no Passion hath any thing to disturb it no Desire wants any thing to distract it But all is quiet in the Soul for present and assured to Eternity This God doth when he brings us into his Kingdom which is the Unity of the Spirit Thus much for the Second Property of the Kingdom of God which is Peace in the Two Parts of it Silence and Satisfaction Application Use. 1 Direction If you would have Peace understand and distinguish rightly the Grounds of your trouble As they are Three so you shall know them by their several ways of working 1 Ground The Spirit of Wrath from God hath its way of Working in the Soul peculiar to itself It makes present Impressions of Trouble and Terrour But it doth it with an Absoluteness an Arbitrariness laying no Premises drawing no Conclusions This was the great Dispute between Job and his Friends Job complained that God set a Watch over him a Spirit of trouble that should suffer him to take no Rest no way on no side that He scar'd him with Visions and frighted him with Dreams God appointed a Spirit over him which fill'd him sleeping and waking with dreadful Appearances Job 7. 12. 14. Jobs Friends charge him to have Iniquity in his Hand Job 11. 14. And Hypocrisy in his Heart Job 8. 13. otherwise say they Thou shouldst have prosper'd still thy hopes should not thus have perished So they laid Premises to the Wrath of God which fell upon Job On the other side Job maintains the Vanity of this Life where all things fall alike to all the Absoluteness of God who deals alike with all at Pleasure the Slightness and Shadowiness of Man in this Fleshly State where God alike sweeps away the Lives and Glories of all sorts of men as Shadows The Excellency of Afflictions in the Saints the Propriety of this State of things which is properly subject to the Principalities and Powers of Darkness Job 9. 22. 23. 24. He destroyeth the Perfect and the Wicked None therefore can say that any Sufferings are a Sign of a Reprobate Man or of Hatred in God If the Scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the Tryal of the Innocent God will laugh at the miseries of a Good man as being but a Melancholy Dream when the Man is asleep which wakes him and he finds himself well in Glory The Earth is given into the Hand of the Wicked and hath covered the face of the Judges of it It is improper to expect any thing right in this State which is the Season for Darkness and the time of the Reign of those Spirits which are the Powers of Darkness under whom the good Angels are vailed and imprisoned Thus Job shews his Friends how they plead deceitfully for God And Job hath this Testimony given him by God that his Friends had not spoken right things of God as he had done Job would grant that he had sinn'd But the Lord could forgive him all his Sins and he knew His Redeemer liv'd his Record was on High He would never grant that his Sufferings were any Argument of his Sinfulness or want of Sincerity in him Jeremy complains Lamen 3. 6. He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old The Spirit of Wrath from God can make itself a Prison of Darkness to thee depriving thee of all the Sweet Comfortable Lightsom Appearances of things leaving thee only Shady Frightful Empty Melancholy Shapes hovering about thee as they that are Dead This Spirit can keep thee in this Darkness that thou shalt find no way out of it by Friends Ordinances Prayers Endeavours of thy Spirit within thee This Spirit can bind thee fast up in itself sit heavy upon thee sink thee still lower as a Chain So he goes on complaining v. 7. He hath bedg'd me about he hath made my Chain heavy But the Spirit of Wrath from God never draws forth any uncomfortable Conclusions for Eternity No when such thoughts as these arise I am cast away for ever I shall be eternally damn'd in Hell These thoughts are not from the Spirit of God but from some other Spirit And so Jeremy brings them in v. 18. I said my Hope and my Strength is perished from the Lord. It is not He the Lord said though he were in His Wrath but I said Thus we see how we may know when the Spirit of Wrath from God is the Ground of our Inward Trouble There is a Four-fold Remedy against this Trouble 1. Remedy Resignation Say in the midst of this Darkness and Fear It is the Lord let him do whatsoever pleaseth him I am in His arms these are His ways with me Can the same Fountain bring forth Bitter and Sweet Waters Be not deceived be not disturbed O my Soul but leave thy self with God as a Faithful Creator let him make what He will of thee The Word of the Lord every Appearance in which God comes forth unto thee is good Fear not to receive him and to sit down though it be in Darkness for then thou sittest under his Shadow Only neither take from nor add to his Words or Appearances in thee by the Suggestions of any other Spirit 2. Remedy Retirement Withdraw from the Fleshly Man together with this Pillar of Clouds and Fire which sits upon that Draw thy Spirit up to the Unchangeable Spirit of Glory and the State of thy Spiritual Man in that Glory So did Job My Record is on High Appeal from that Testimony or Discovery which God gives of Himself below in thy Earthly Man to that Testimony or Discovery which God gives of thee above in the Simplicity and Nakedness of His Divine
The Spiritual Man at first lies hid under the Natural Man as Seed under the Ground So St. Paul speaks of it Gal. 3. 19. Wherefore then served the Law it was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator While a Man lives under the Law the Seed of Promise is not yet come that is the Spiritual Man which is One with Christ and so the Promised Seed is not come up or put forth in the Soul But it lies hid under the Ministry of Angels which restrain Sin by inward Impressions and outward Dispensations of the Good or Evil Things of this World and it lies hid under a Mediator which is the Earthly Image of God according to this Creation in which God stands as a Mediator between Man and Himself in the Spiritual Image which is the Heavenly Person of Jesus Christ. God in this Earthly Image Heightens and Suppresseth Sin by his Divided Appearances of Mercy and Wrath by his Divided Administrations of Allurement and Terror Reward and Punishment Thus God as a Mediator stands between Man and the Person of Christ hiding that Person together with the Spiritual Man which is in Christ from Man And so God converseth with Man at this Distance after this manner till the Seed come in which God and Man are no more Two but One Spirit in Jesus Christ. This is the First State of the Spiritual Man 2 Secondly the Spiritual Man breaks forth thorow the Natural Man appears in it and together with it Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I live is by the Faith of the Son of God c. Christ and the Spiritual Man are joyned together by an inseparable Union When these break forth in a Man yet clothed with Flesh they draw the Person of a Man to have his Life in themselves as in his proper Principle They shew forth themselves to him as that Appearance and Image of Things in which he is to dwell The Principles of Nature are now as a Death to a Man so far as he abides in them The Fleshly Image of Things is a Prison or an Inchantment or a Whorish Woman to him He loaths the Embraces of it though he cannot quite shake it off A Saint now labours to crucify and casts off both these Yet while he is shut up in them he comforts himself in he casts himself upon the Spiritual Man and the Life of Christ which dwell in These together with him and look forth thorow these as thorow the Lattices upon him 3. The Third State of the Spiritual Man is that in which he is Absolute free from the Bonds of the Flesh no more Comprehended by but Comprehending the Natural Man in himself St. Paul speaks of this State 2 Corin. 5. 2. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven As Jesus Christ is at the same time Blessed and Glorious in Heaven yet withal living in thy Flesh who art a Member of Him and suffering with thee So thy Spiritual Man even while it is streightned here below in thy Natural Life is at Liberty above in Heaven in Jesus Christ. This Man at once comes down from Above in its full Glory upon thee and breaks forth from Below from out of thy Fleshly Life to a full Liberty And this is the House which comes down from Heaven to cloath thee that thou mayst not be naked But this House from Heaven doth not cloath thee till thy Earthly Tabernacle be dissolved in Death as appears by the first verse of that Chapter cited next before 2 Corin. 5. 1. When our Earthly Tabernacle is dissolved we have a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens These are the Three States of the Spiritual Man The First of these is the Legal State of a Christian. The Second is the Evangelical State before Death The Third is the Angelical State that State to which we cannot come but by Death or a Change instead of Death when as Jesus Christ speaketh We shall be as the Angels in Heaven Thus much we have spoken of the First Distinction 2. Distinct. The Second Distinction is upon the Spiritual Man in the Evangelical State or upon an Evangelical Christian in this Life He also hath Three Distinct Growths St. Iohn speaks of all Three in One Place 1 John 2. 12. I write to you Little Children because your Sins are forgiven for his Names sake v. 13. I write unto you Fathers because you have known Him who is from the Beginning I write unto you Young Men because ye have overcome the Wicked One. I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father v. 14. I have written unto you Fathers because ye have known Him that is from the Beginning I have written unto you Young Men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the Wicked One The Apostle doubles his mention of all Three Growths for Certainty and Efficacy that we may take the more Clear and Distinct notice of it He placeth the Two Extreams the Children and Fathers First Then he puts the Middle-State in the Last Place because that is the more Remarkable and Active in the World The Children are not yet grown up to the Conflict The Fathers are past the Brunt and violence of it For the same Reason in his Repetition he adds something when he speaks of the Young Men to encourage them Now let us speak a word or two particularly of Each of these Growths 1. The First Growth of an Evangelical Christian is his Child-hood The spiritual Man when it first begins to put forth itself in us suits itself much to our Natural Capacities puts itself into Fleshly Forms and Appearances as into Swathing Bands Yet it submits and subordinates all these Appearances to the Spiritual Appearance itself in the highest and most grown State It Owns That It Depends upon That It Directs its Growth to That Thus it is a Little Child and Knows the Father 2. Secondly an Evangelical Christian comes to be a Young Man This is then when thou comest to distinguish between the Fleshly and the Spiritual Appearances of the Spiritual Man or of Jesus Christ in thee When a Saint grows strong in Spiritual Appearances when he begins to abide firm in them then he sets himself against the Fleshly Appearances because the Devil hath his Chiefest Strength and Seat in them And now thou hast overcome the Wicked One when once thou hast discovered and discerned the Fleshly Appearances from the Spiritual Life itself When thou labourest to crucify the One as fast as it Grows up that thou mayst live more abundantly in the Other thou hast now taken from the Devil his most Principal Power and Engine He is now falling apace like Lightning from Heaven in thy Soul This is
attaining to a state of Spiritual Joy 3. Mistake That Spiritual Grief and Joy are inconsistent and cannot stand together You shall perceive this as a Principle laid down in the hearts of many Christians by the Reply which they will make when they are pressed to Joy as a Grace and to continual Delight as a Duty Woe is me saith one how can I have any Joy who have so many corruptions and sins to mourn for continually Alas saith another should I rejoyce or take any delight who am still called to mourning and heaviness by private Afflictions or publick Calamities I answer all these that they err not understanding aright the Scriptures and the Power of the Spirit of God in the Soul They erre in supposing that Joy and Grief in the Spirit do hinder and not help forward one another I will endeavour the Removal of this Mistake by Two General Rules and then by Particular Application of these Rules The Two General Rules are these 1. Rule Take heed of separating those things which God hath ioyned 2. Rule Take not any mourning to be holy which hath not a holy mirth mingled with it 1 Rule Take heed of separating those things which God hath joyned Solomon saith That God hath set One thing over against another We may read it God hath set One thing By another or For another God often sets several things One By another to compleat each other and we set them One Against another to fight and destroy God is One Gal. 3. 20. But the name of the Devil is Lâ—gion For he is many God by Beholding all things in One Light by Possessing all things in One Life by Enjoying all things in One Love is One and Blessed for ever The Devil by Dividing becomes a Destroyer the Principle and Seat of Destruction Jesus Christ is the Mediator He makes things distant to meet in him He gathers up all things into One Ephes. 1. 10. Jesus Christ by Reconciling divers Appearances of God divers Administrations in Man makes his Church to be of many Members One Body and of all things makes One Beauty We by setting One Appearance or State of the same thing One Administration or Gift to sight with another make the Church a Babel and the Common-wealth a Field of Blood The Spirit is a Band of Unity Eph. 4. 3. Unity is in the Spirit Division is in the Flesh. The Spirit by binding up various Operations of the same Grace various Illuminations of the same Truth in One Band of Unity makes us Spiritual in Judging and Living We first breaking off the Parcels of Truth and Properties of Grace then oppose them So we become carnal apt to miscarriages in our selves and contentions with others Take heed then of separating those things which God hath joyned He is a growing Saint a God-like man among men who hath a Spirit Reconciling and Uniting Persons Things Duties Graces Factions Affections Parties Properties This is the First Rule 2. Rule Take not any mourning to be holy or spiritual which hath not a holy mirth mingled with it Be angry and sin not saith the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eph. 4. 26. So saith the spiritual man I will mourn and not sin The Sun shall not go down upon my Griefs The Sun of a Saint the Sun of the Soul 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ who hath the Light of Life The shining of his Face upon the Soul makes it cheerful fills it with beams of Joy glads it more than store of Corn and Wine can glad any carnal heart Spiritual Joy is the Sun-shine of Christ's face in the soul. The Bridegroom shall be taken from them and then they shall fast and mourn in those daies saith Christ of his Disciples Luk. 5. 35. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Soul as the Sun is of the Earth His Presence and Appearance in the Soul is the Joy of it Every thing is sinful in us which casts down the Light of our Saviour's countenance in our Spirits 'T is Sin to grieve the Spirit of Christ that is to straiten it and hinder it from rejoycing and putting forth its Joys in us If the Passion of Grief or Anger gather to a Thick Cloud so as to Darken the bright Face of the Lord Jesus in us it becomes a Corruption and Transgression We are commanded to Rejoyce evermore 1 Thes. 5. 16. Rejoyce in the Lord always Phil. 4. 4. Our Spirits are to be playing and sporting themselves uncessantly in the Light of our Saviours Presence It is from the Devil and the Flesh whatever interrupts this Joy these Sportings The Rain-bow was the Covenant of God in the Cloud that the Waters should no more cover the Earth Genes 9. 6 15. The Rain-bow is ever set in a Black Watery Cloud But it is begotten by the Reflection of the Sun-beams upon that Cloud mixing their chearful Beauties with its Melancholy Blackness Grief is then alone a Grace in thy soul when the Sun shines upon the watery Cloud When the Glory of Christ mingles its sweet Beams with thy Grief and makes a Spiritual Rain-bow in thy Soul Then is there the Covenant of God in the Cloud of thy Grief This Over-spreading of a Spiritual chearfulness upon thy Sorrows is a Sign from Heaven that the waters of Sin Despair and Wrath shall never quite cover the Image of God in thee I now come to the Particular Applications of these General Rules I will do this under Two Heads 1. Spiritual Mourning 2. The mixture of Mirth with it 1. Head Spiritual Mourning I will here set before you the Nature of a Holy Grief in these Four Particulars 1. The Matter 2. The Manner 3. The Measure 4. The Mystery 1. The Matter of Spiritual Mourning is Evil in all the Kinds and Degrees of it Eccles. 3. 3 4. Solomon couples Two Verses fitly together A Time to Kill and a Time to Heal a Time to break down and a Time to build up A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh a Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance These Times answer one another The Killing Time is the Weeping Time the Healing Time is the Laughing Time The Time of Breaking is the Time for Mourning and the time of Building is the time for Dancing Man is Gods Cymbal or Harp Our Affections and Passions are the Strings upon it It makes good Musick when it keeps Time with the Administration of God When the Lord brings forth Good Things for us then he toucheth our Sweet Affections and awakens them When he brings any Evil upon us then he strikes upon our sharp and sad Passions to make them sound There are Two Sorts of Evil The Evil of Sin and of Misery Moses expresseth both these Evils by a Contrariety Levit. 26. 23. 24. If ye will walk contrary unto me I also will walk contrary unto you The Evil of Sin is the Contrariety of Man to God The Evil of Misery is the Contrariety of God to Man Sin is
Mourning at the highest then say my Soul there is yet a Sight of God higher than this into which if thou couldst raise thy self thou shouldst find all their Love and Delight It is a Rule among Divines that there is no Supream Evil. Evil hath its Root in the Subordinate Manifestations of God in his Clothings and Disguises Travel on to the Naked Person to the open Face of God and thou Travellest beyond all the Fountains and Heads of Grief or Evil. 2. Rule Understand well that the Object of all Sorrow is the State of Things in flesh not in the Spirit The Law is the Ministry of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 7. Sin comes in by Occasion of the Law Rom. 7. 8. The Law is the Occasion of Sin and the ministry of Death by reason of the Flesh Rom. 8. 3. What the Law could not do that is to make us Holy or Happy thorow the weakness of the Flesh. The weakness of the Flesh is the Ground on which all wickedness and woe is wrought The Flesh is the Shadow the Vail Hebr. 10. 20. Whatever evil is the Object of thy Grief so grieve as knowing it to be in the Shadowy part in the Out-side of Things only 'T is but a Leprosie in the Skin Job calls the Fleshly State of Things in themselves and not in the Spirit but Skin Job 19. 26. So doth the Devil in the Proverb Skin for Skin The Inside the Substance the Spiritual and Life-part of those Things over which thou so sadly breakest thy heart is Peace The Altar for Sacrifices was without the vail all thy Evils are without the vail let thy griefs then abid without the vail like the Servants of Abraham at the Foot of the Mount But let thy Spirit enter within the vail and let Isaac only go thither with thee the Child of Mirth and Laughter The Sea and Storms are without the Vail only in the Shadow The Anchor and the Rock Rest is within the Vail in the Spirit and Truth of Things 3. Rule Grieve so as having thy Head still above the Clouds of Grief in a clear Light of Peace and Joy Thy Head is Christ thy Head is thy Heavenly Principle thy Life hid with Christ in God Colos. 3. 3. This is your Head hiding itself in a Divine Light and Glory above all Storms and Changes Divide your self then in your Sorrows Let your grief be upon your Inferiour parts but let your Head be in Joys And as your Inferiour Parts are subordinate to your Head So let the Joys of that be as the head of your Griefs They that are washt need to have their Feet only washt said our Saviour Let your Feet only be washt with Tears And then remember that the Anointing of Glory and the Oyl of gladness is upon your Heads So mourn as that you may be like the Description of Christ Revel 1. 14. 15. that your Face may shine like the Sun in its Strength while your Feet are in the Furnace Feel your God stroaking your Head with his right hand while his left hand is striking your Feet with an Iron Rod of Affliction See how Job in a Tempest of Miseries yet Glories in his Head lift up above the Storm Job 16. 18 19. O Earth cover not thou my Blood and let my Cry have no place Also now behold My Witnes is in Heaven and my Record is on High When thy Tears and Blood run down upon the ground when thy Cries fill the Earth then raise thy self like Job and say even now behold My Head is in Heaven now I have a Life in my Heavenly Principle which is an Eternal Record of my Glory and Blessedness This testifies of a Beauty and Joy to me in these very Sorrows 4. Rule Let the Heavenly Principle as it lives in the Earthly be the Spring of your Sorrows Let not thy Griefs be an Oppression to the Spiritual Man in thee but an Oblation from it Thy Griefs will be an oppression to it if they proceed not from itself Originally For then its Joys in the Flesh are taken away from it by another by the Fleshly Principle Thy Griefs are an Oblation by the Spirit when they flow Primarily from the Spirit For then itself layeth down its Joys as Christ speaketh of his Life The Blood which our Saviour shed is called in Scripture the Blood of God Though the Blood ran thorow the Humane Nature Yet the Person or Principle that bled in that Nature was God Our Divinity ordinarily teacheth us this that Christ was Man that he might Suffer God that he might Merit His Blood had been of no value with God if it had not been the Blood of God In like manner your Tears cannot be Heavenly and Divine if they be not the Tears of the Heavenly and Divine Principle in you Though the Earthly Principle be as the Earth in which these bitter Waters bubble up and run along yet the Heavenly Principle must be the Spring in this Earth out of which they arise Otherwise they will be of no use to you nor value with God 5. Rule Let the Mourning of your Earthly Principle be a Subordination and Submission to your Heavenly Principle This makes your Sorrow a Sacrifice when without this your Mourning is but Murmuring Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Jesus Christ is brought in speaking to God his Father Sacrifice and Burnt-Offering thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared mâ— Then said I lo I come to do thy Will O God Thus the Heavenly Principle speaks the same Language in every St. Thou wilt have no more Sacrifices of Beasts The Time is past in which thou hast taken pleasure to have the Inferiour Earthly Principle to be Sacrificed to and by the Superiour Heavenly Principle while thine Image was present only in the Type and Shadow But now thou hast prepared a Body for me thou hast brought me into the Earthly Principle that I should make a Burnt-Offering of my self to thee as of my own Body They were to bring no Strange Fire to the Sacrifice but to wait till Fire from Heaven fall down upon it and consume it In like manner is the Earthly man to lay itself on the Altar by the Power of the Heavenly Man and to wait till that bring forth a Flame of Sorrow upon it The Earthly man should say alwaies to the Heavenly I mourn that I may do thy Will and not mine own Est quaedam flere Libido There may be a Lust in weeping and so there is when the Outward Man fulfils his own will in weeping and not the Will of the Inward Man which is one with the Will of Christ and God 6. Rule Let the Earthly Principle as it is in itself be only a Slave to you in your Griefs If the Flesh have a Power of its own to make you Grieve to qualifie or measure your Griefs it will bring the Curse of the Serpent upon you it will make you to go upon your Belly
all the Natures of Love and Wrath the two Contrary heads of all distinct Natures are Originally in God according to their Eternal Ideas or First Forms If Jesus Christ had not come forth into all these Forms and taken upon himself these several Natures in their utmost varieties and contrarieties he had wanted some parts belonging to his Person and been imperfect in his Relation as a Son a Saviour in his Office as a Representer a Reconciler Therefore as St. Paul witnesseth He descended first to the lowermost Parts of the Earth then He ascended above all Heavens and that for this reason that He might fill All Ephâ—s 4. 10. Thus he was made perfect by Sufferings The descent of Christ was the drawing of the Picture of the God-Head upon him in its lowest and outermost Mysteries or wonders of Glory in its Back-parts or Feet The Ascent was the Uniting of the lowest to the highest the bringing of the outermost into the bosom of the Innermost the drawing up of the Feet into the Bed into the rest and Glory of the head The Scripture holds forth the accomplishment of the same Mystery in our Persons after the same manner Jesus Christ went thorow these Sufferings as our Captain that he might lead us the same way to the same end that he might bring us as Sons to inherit the same Glory to fulfil all Righteousness all the goings forth of the God-Head in our selves thorow Christ Heb. 2. 10. St. James c. 1. v. 2 4. exhorts the Saints to account it all Joy when they fall into all manner of Temptations and to let Patience have her perfect work which would make them Perfect entire wanting nothing We were brought forth upon the uppermost parts the Face of the Earth in Paradise Let us now with Jesus Christ go down into the Deep to the lowermost parts of the Earth by Sufferings and Sorrows Let us patiently endure till we are carried thorow all the Chambers of Death and the innermost corners of that Cave of Darkness till we be carried out of all up into Heaven So we shall be clothed with all the Wonders of God and have his manifold Wisdom his Fulness displaid in our Persons as his Sons also together with our Saviour Willingly then Travel thorow the valley of Baca of Mourning and Lamentation as the way of Perfection the Accomplishment of the Mystery of God in you Now I have performed the first part of my promise which was to speak of the Nature of Spiritual Mourning There remains behind the Second part of my promise which is to speak of the Mixture of Spiritual Mirth and Spiritual Mourning I will direct you to this Mixture by Five Rules 1. Rule So grieve as giving Glory to God in your Griefs 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God whether ye Mourn or be merry let both be to the Glory of God Mourn not as questioning the Sweetness in the Will of God the Wisdom in the Counsels of God the Strength in the Power of God the Beauty in the Face of God the Pleasures in the Person of God the Infiniteness in all Grieve not to the Clouding but the clearing of the Appearances of God in your Spirit Let not your Sorrows be as a troubled Sea but as a Sea of Christal thorow which you may see the glorious face of God As the Beams of the Sun shining thorow red Glass so will the glory of God be appearing thorow your Sorrows It will beget a Pleasantness in your bloodiest Pangs 2. Rule Let your Mourning raise not ruine the Life of the Spiritual Man in you Though the Outward Man perishes the Inward Man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 16. Let your Sorrows weigh down the Natural Man only as one of the Buckets that the Spiritual Man as the other of the Buckets may be lifted up If that Life which is Light in the Lord be lifted up by your Griefs It will draw up your Person and your Griefs themselves into the Pleasantness of its own Light 3. Rule Mourn in the Name of Christ Colos. 3. 17. Whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Iesus The Name of the Lord Iesus wraps up Four Things in it which I shall express by Four Rules in this present case 1. Mourn in the Power of Christ The Power of Christ is the Power of Eternal Life which carries an unexpressible sweetness along with it even then when it goes forth into the saddest operations Thy Tears will be a Spiritual Wine if they be the Fruit of this Vine 2. Mourn in the Image of Christ. Every thing is delightful to us which brings our well-beloved into our Thoughts though it be but as a Picture or Shadow of him Love delights in likeness especially to be itself made like that which it loves This will make thy Sorrows Comfortable to thy Heart and Glorious in thine Eye if thou Transferrest them upon thy self as in a Figure of Jesus Christ. 3. Meurn for Christ. Make him the end of thy Sorrows Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness sake Rom. 10. 4. Let Jesus Christ be the end of thy Griefs for thy Joys sake The End puts a Loveliness and Pleasantness upon the means and way to it If thy Sorrows be for Self and from Self-love they will be like Brine they will have a Gnawing Burning Saltness in them But if they be for thy Saviour and from his Love they will be Fresh and Sweet on thy Spirit as the Dew of Heaven on the tender Grass 4. Mourn as in Union with the Person of Christ. A Saiâ—t is a Name of Anointing which signifies Two in one the Ointment or Oyl and the Anointed the Sanctifier and the Sanctified He that Sanctifies and they that are Sanctified are of one Heb. 2. 11. They must also be in One. Our Griefs are never Saintlike or Holy if they be not in Consort and Fellowship with Iesus Christ. Rom. 8. 17. Joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him Our Sufferings are a Murther not a Sacrifice they are to Death not to Life if they be not in Union with Jesus Christ. If they be in Union with Christ that Union unites a Sweetness and Joy to them These are the Branches of the Third Rule 4. Rule Let your Grief be a Grace If your Grief be from Nature only it is carnal not spiritual it is such a Death as is a Sowing to the Flesh which will bring forth Corruption and Death Whatever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14. 23. If your Mourning be not a Grace in you one of the Daughters of Faith which is the mother of all Grace it is Sin and to be resisted by you as the Devil But if your Mourning be Gracious then it is a Sowing to the Spirit of which you shall reap Immortality Such Tears are Precious Seed Spiritual Seed which have the Sweet Rellish
always in pangs of Love to bring it forth and form it in us But to conclude this Reason This Holy Spirit this Spirit of Unity and Unity of the Spirit is the Spiritual heart of which we speak St. Paul Ephes. 3. expresseth it by being rooted in Love This is that Root which we have in the eternal Love of God in that Love which is God in God as he is Love This is the new Heart which is bred and cherished in the bosom of the Father These Heavens above us comprehend in their Circuits all things here below which as learned men teach us are figures images of their vertues sent forth from them But they have fixed in themselves innumerable Bodies of Light and Glory far exceeding all things here They say that these Heavens are Circular because that round Figure is most caâ—acious and beautiful as being an Image of the Unity of Angelical 〈◊〉 How great and glorious a Circle then vastly transcending the Heaven of Heavens is this Divine Unity this Spirit which is the new heart of a Saint All the Heavens and this earth lie within the compass of it as Light shadows which it casteth from it self But as for those Treasures which are proper to it which are fixt in it how infinitely more innumerable how infinitely richer are they The mind of Christ with all the Beauties and Brightnesses there the deep things of God with all those Lights and Joys unfathomable to every natural Eye and Heart lie within the Circuit of this Spiritual Principle A great Philosopher call'd the Angelical Spirit in man which is his Natural Heart the Flower of the Soul It is so indeed as the Blossoms upon Fruit-Trees but the Divine Spirit the Spiritual heart is the Fruit 1. Use. Seek this good heart which hath so good a Treasure in it That you may seek it with all affection and diligence take these Three directions Believe the Truth of this Principle Consider the Preciousness of it Understand your Propriety in it 1. Believe the Truth of this Principle When the Apostles asked the Christians in Samaria whether they had received the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not so much as heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. Is not this the temper of many amongst us of most of the sensitive and natural Spirit in us all We do not so much as believe that there is a Holy Ghost much less that this Holy Ghost is poured out upon any Soul as a Heavenly Anointing from above or dwells in any heart as the Principle of a supernatural and eternal Life He that comes to God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Fix in thine heart with an unshaken faith these two Radical Truths from which all the fatness and sweetness of the Tree of Life is derived into our Spirits 1. That God is 2. That there is a Union between God and Man in One Spirit Say frequently to thy self It is true It is the first Truth upon which all other Truths are built that there is a supream incomprehensible Being which shines through all and fills all the Fountain and Measure the End Perfection and Blessedness of all Beings It is as true that this ever-glorious God descends in Jesus Christ to sow himself by his own good Spirit as a Divine Seed in the heart of man below that by the unvailing of his original Excellencies he shines as a spiritual Sun from above into the Soul to quicken awake and call forth this Seed in the vertue of which the Soul springs into a new and heavenly Being comes to God by the fresh Participations of his life grows up into his Likeness pleaseth him is possess'd and enjoy'd by him possesseth and enjoyeth him with an unexpressible fulness of all mutual and Divine Pleasures When the Merchant in the Gospel found a Pearl in the Field he went and sold all to purchase this Field If you have discovered this rich Pearl of the Divine Nature as a Root at the bottom of yoâ—â— Spirits go exchange every Principle Power and excellency to give 〈◊〉 self up to the conduct activity fruitfulness enjoyment of this alone 2. Consider the preciousness of this Heavenly Principle Es. 6. 13. God compares his people in the greatest desolations to an Oak whose Substance is in it when it hath cast its leaves so saith he the Holy Seed shall be the Substance thereof Consider here three Precious Things in this good Heart which is the Seed and Principle of Grace in us 1. This Spiritual Principle is a Substance Solomon complains of all things under the Sun the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing He brings this as an Argument and effect of their vanity All things here are Shadows only and so empty unsatisfactory endlesly raising expectations and desire but never answering them When this Spirit which is far above the Sun is received by thee when this becomes the Principle of all thy faculties which sees in thine Eye hears in thine Ear understands and wills in thine heart when this is the Treasury from which all Objects come forth to act those faculties then thine Eye will be satisfied with seeing substantial Beauties thine Ear will be filled with substantial Melodies thine Understanding will sit down to a Heavenly Feast of substantial Lights and Truths thy Will shall lie down to a Sweet and Eternal rest in a bed of substantial Embraces and Joys in the midst of the Substance and Essence of Goodness itself 2. This is the Holy Seed The Heavens over our Heads are pure They are free from that gross and dark Matter with which all Forms of things are mixt here on Earth This Purity of theirs is their Transparency Light Lustre Harmony Vertue Incorruptibility Yet they are Corporeal and Bodily their bright Beauties shall be turned into Darkness and Blood The Angels are purer far than these Heavens They have no Cloud Clog or Dross of Bodies Yet are they mixtures of Light and Shade Their Glories are vails upon the true Glory They wax old as a Garment and are changed Their Nature is subject to stains and falls But this Principle which is the Seed and Heart of a Believer is purer than the Heavens or the Angels It is the Spirit of God the true Light in which there is no Darkness Simple incorruptible Unchangeable 3. This Principle is durable It is a Fountain springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life John 4. O precious Treasure Eternity is defined to be the full and unbounded Possession of all Good at once in One. Pearls have their price because they have their lustre in a lasting Substance This Holy Seed is the onely Pearl of price both for its Lustre and for its lastingness The Will of Man naturally moves to good The greater the good is and the more clearly it appears to us so much the more natural and powerful are the motions
Object which is the Person of Christ rising in us like the Sun in his proper Sphere This Earth which we tread upon This Heaven which we see shining round about us are not so manifest to our natural Senses as Jesus Christ that Power of God which bringeth forth beareth up us and all things that Wisdom of God which encompasseth us round about with its various brightnesses and beauties is present open and evident to the Spiritual Eye Doth not this move us to understand that there is an Heavenly Person ever wâ—â—h us in whom are set before us all the Delights of our Eyes all the Desires of our Hearts and that the only Bar between us and these Beauties these Blessednesses is either our want of Senses or the Dulness of our Senses that we discern them not Mat. 10. 51. Bartimeus the blind beggar hearing that Jesus passed by cryeth out Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me He ceased not to cry till the Lord maketh a stand and asketh him what he would have He answereth Lord that I may receive my sight Isa. 50. 4. The Prophet saith of God He waketh mine Ear morning by morning he wakeneth mine Ear to hear as the Learned You that are no Christians indeed who have no Spiritual Senses cease not crying Jesus thou Brightness of the Father's Glory have mercy on me that I may receive my sight You that are in truth Christians and have Spiritual Senses drowsie and dull whose heart is awake in you while you sleep cry to the Lord Jesus to awaken your Eye and your Ears morning by morning moment by moment that you may see his Shape and hear his voice This is the first Argument to press you to the study of the Person of Christ the Easiness of this knowledge 2. The Second Argument is the Excellency which consisteth of two Parts the Comprehensiveness the Efficacy of this knowledge 1. The Comprehensiveness of the knowledge of Christ is the Excellency of it Col. 2. 2. All treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are hid in him Several Propositions of great value and vertue lie wrapt up in this single Proposition 1. All Things that are to be known lie together in the Heavenly Form of Jesus Christ. All things are here in their first and proper Being in their Truth and Substance in their immutable essences as they are capable of being known Every thing as it is seen without this Circle of Divine Light the Person of Christ is a Shadow an Apparition a Mockshow of itself It may beget a Fancy or Opinion in our Souls but no Knowledge 2. That Light in which alone things are known is only in Christ. He is the true Supream and universal Light All things are naked and manifest before him Heb. 4. 13. This is that Divine Light in which every thing appeareth in its Divine Form in its naked Substance and Essence uncloathed of every Disguise and Vail as it lieth in the Divine Understanding which is the measure of all Truth Therefore our Lord Jesus in that place Heb. 4. 12. where all things are said to be naked and manifest before him is in the verse before called the Word of God the living Word the living Word of the Divine understanding in which it bringeth forth at once and eternally all knowledge to itself and beholdeth as in a Glass the eternal Truths and Essences of aâ—l things 3. The Eye which taketh in all Knowledge is in Christ As the Spirit of this world is both the Fountain and the Eye which sendeth forth and taketh in all nâ—tural Images then our Spirits by being comprehended in this Spirit become Springs in that Spring Eyes in that Eye bringing forth from themselves and contemplating in themseâ—ves the various Forms of being in this world so is a Saint Light in Christ a Child of Light in this great Father of Lights Jesus Christ in His Divine Form is the Light of Life that is 1. The First Light as the first Picture is called the Life 2. The True Light every other Light is a Picture of Light and no more 3. A living Light and so both a Fountain and an Eye In the Hebrew the same word for the substance signifieth both A Saint Springing up in his inward man out of this Spiritual Form of Christ and standing in it is made itself also a Fountain of living waters flowing from Lebanon of all living Glories flowing from the high and flourishing Mountain of the God-Head in the Person of Christ Can. 4. 15. He is made also an Eye set fully Can. 5. 12. Aben Ezra in his notes expounded that to be an Eye in which is set the full Image of the whole Nature of things in which according to the language of the Gospel is set the Person of its Beloved that entire Image of the God-Head and of both worlds where all Fulness dwelleth together in a Divine Form and Glory This is spoken of Christ first then is true of a Saint as a Saint is the Image of Christ. 4. All Things as they are known in Christ are a Treasure That which is born of the Spirit is spirit John 3. 6. That which is seen in this Spirit of Immortality and Glory is an Immortal and Glorious Spirit This is the true multiplying magnifying and glorifying Glass Each Dust is here known in the bright Form of a Beautiful Star each Star is discovered here to be an Heaven of Stars a new world of Glories Every thing as it appeareth in Christ is something of Christ. Christ altogether is Lovely Can. 5. 16. It is in the Original Every thing of him is desirablenesses The least Point that a Spiritual Eye can touch upon in the Person of Christ is a fresh spring a full Sea a great and bottomless deep of all Beauties Excellencies and Joys that may render any thing perfectly universally desirable 5. The Knowledge of things in Christ is a Treasure It is Wisdom as well as Knowledge It is a knowledge of things in their Head in their highest Beauty Life and Truth It is a Fulness of Things It is a Transforming Knowledge We are changed into the things themselves and they into us By knowing we possess and enjoy them we are possessed and enjoyed by them we stand both in one Image and Spirit mutually comprehending and comprehended mutually cloathing and cloathed All this Treasure is hid in Christ not as in a Cloud but as in the Sun by no darkness or obscurity there but by the Excess and Transcendency of the Glory by the Perfection and Purity of the Light as Christ is hid in God Col. 3. This hiding maketh the Object more a Treasure and more evident to a suitable Eye in as much at it is a Divine Form in a Divine Light a Form of Light dwelling in the Fountain of Light How worthy is this Knowledge of that Zeal to it and pursuit of it which the wise King stirreth us up to Prov. 2. 3 4 5. to cry for it to the
who hath only a Shadowy life in a Shadowy Body wherein is he to be accounted of Cease from every thing of Nature and the Creature It was at best a Shadow What Excellency then hath it to be esteemed of and reckoned upon What stability or Strength to be trusted to and relied upon Can you â—ill your Embraces with an empty Shadow Can you hold fast in your Arms a flying Shadow Will the Eye of your Spirit be satisfied with seeing Light your heart be filled with Life shall your Soul feed upon Substance in a Shadow This is the first voice from Heaven sounded in the very essence of a living Soul 2. O living Soul cast thy self into the Bosom of thy Saviour and cleave to him Dost thou not now perceive plainly that he is thy Root thy Substance thy Life thy Strength thy Fulness thy Light thy Righteousness thy Perfection thy Glory in a word thy true self when thou art in thy best state a Shadow only of him according to the first Creation Is not this the Beauty of Nature in thee and thy Moral Righteousness to bear the Figure of him and his Tabernacle in thy Person Is not this thy Spiritual Glory thine everlasting Righteousness to be taken up into him and to be cloathed with him to have thy Shadow drunk up into his Light Is not this the Life Strength and rest of both states to be united to him to be acted by him in that Union to be resigned again to him in and thorow all Actings or Sufferings Let us consider what wretched things we were in death if it were not for Jesus Christ. How would our poor Souls when they were thrust forth and cast out of these Bodies wander eternally naked empty in the dark and desolate driven up and down with the Storm without burnt upon within by the unseen Fire of Divine wrath But now Jesus Christ hath been to all his Saints from the Fall the Seed of a glorious Body into which they retreated passing from hence and were at rest as in a Bed of Love which was green and springing Since the Resurrection our breath of Life in Death and in the Fall of this frail Body drops into the Bosom of that Heavenly Body of our Beloved as the ground of Divine Life and Glory from thence to grow up into and flourish in an Immortal Body of its own like unto it and by a Divine Union joyned with it in Eternal Embraces Quest. 3. In what sense the Lord Jesus is here said to be a Quickning Spirit Ans. To this I answer three things 1. The Person of Christ as it comprehendeth both Natures Divine and Humane both parts of the Humane Nature Soul and Body is a Quickning Spirit 2. The Humane Nature is expresly spoken of to be a Quickning Spirit The last Adam was made a Quickning Spirit Again the Second Man is the Lord from Heaven v. 47. 3. The Body of our Lord is principally intended under this description of â— Quickning Spirit This appeareth by the whole Scope of the Apostle in this place which is to shew with what Bodies the dead Saints are raised and come again v. 35. This is manifested by the Context All the foregoing all the following verses treat of this Subject the Body in the Resurrection Mention is made of a Natural and a Spiritual Body in the verse immediately before v. 44. The same are again brought in immediately after v. 46. Then the force of the Comparison and Opposition maketh this plain It is a sure Rule Comparisons and Oppositions must speak of the same thing to the same point and in the same respect We have endeavoured to prove that the living Soul chiefly and emphatically marketh out the Body of Adam in Paradise when his Body had more of Life and was more a Soul more Angelical than our Souls are now Therefore the Quickning Spirit opposed to the living Soul must especially design the Body of our Jesus in Glory Lastly other Scriptures say the same thing John 3. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That which is born of the Spirit is not only Spiritualized heightned and adorned with Spiritual qualities like the Picture of a Man with Lines and Colours or the Statue of a Man richly gilded One is a Stone the other a piece of Canvas still But it is a Spirit substantially and essentially It is a Spirit not as a Soul or an Angel is a Spirit but as that Spirit is of which it is born after the same manner in which That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh substantially and Flesh of the same kind with that which bringeth it forth As the Father and the Son have both the same humane Nature in a humane Form The humane Nature is one in both But the humane Form is distinct in each and maketh them two Persens so the Divine Nature of the Eternal Spirit springeth up in a Divine Form in that which is born of it The Eternal Spirit bringeth its Birth forth in a Divine Form and at once together with that itself with its own Divine Nature and Divine Form dwelling in it as the Root the Life the Form the Fulness the Fruit the Perfection the Truth the Glory of it the Spiritual Temple the God in the Temple both Spirits in the same Form both mutually Temples to each other both one Spirit Thus it is made a Spirit in the same Form with its Mother-Spirit the Eternal Spirit itself It is made a distinct Spirit It is made one Spirit with the Fountain Spirit It is made a Quickning Spirit having the Fountain of Life and Spirits in itself Now the Body of our blessed Saviour in the Resurrection is new-born from above of the Spirit of Life It is therefore a Spirit of Life a Fountain-Spirit a Quickening Spirit The Resurrection doth not gild doth not spiritualize the Personal or Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. It maketh them Gold within as well as without It maketh them all throughout pure and fine Gold a Spirit of Glory In this Creation and in natural things all excellencies are Qualities Accidents all Beauties are no more than skin-deep In the new Creature in Spiritual Things every excellency is a substance every Beauty is the Essence and Person itself there a Spirit is not excellent or Beautiful or Immortal But each Excellency each Beauty Immortality is that Spirit The Person the Spirit is the Excellency the Beauty Immortality itself Each distinct excellency is a distinct Spirit and all Excellencies all Spirits are one in each one making that a full Assembly the whole Quire in itself They all dwell together and are made perfect in one This is the New-Creature the Spiritual Birth the Resurrection from the Dead How happy and blessed are they who have their part in this Birth in this Resurrection There is another Scripture to this purpose 1 Corin. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is
Job 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The true and Spiritual Body which is an Immortal Plant in the Heavenly Paradise according to the Almighty Power and Mysterâ—ous Will of the Eternal Word in which it standeth and Flourisheth maketh itself into a Body of Flesh. Again by the same Power in the sweet and glorious Mystery of the same Will it maketh this Flesh a Spirit If you ask now where it is it is Singing and Triumphing throughout all the Divâ—ne Powers throughout all the â—nnumerably various Forms of Eternal Life Beauty and Joy in the Heavenâ—y Body â—or that which was Flesh is now Spirit As the Tabernacle was removed into the Temple when the Temple was built up and set there as a part of the Sacred Mysteries in that Holy Place so the Spiritual Body when it is raised taketh up into itself and comprehendeth in itself the Vailing Form of Flesh as a Beautiful Form in that Divine Mystery which it finisheth in itself Qu. But you will say now perhaps How is this done by what Power and in what manner is the Body of our Lord in the Resurrection made a Quickning Spirit Ans. I answer that it is done by vertue of the Personal Union between the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ. The Person is the Word the Eternal Spirit This Word the Soul the Body of our beloved Jesus are all one Person so all one Eternal Spirit the Fountain of Life As the Soul is said to be all in the whole Body and All in every part of it so is the Person in Christ the Immmâ—rtal Word All in the whole Humane Nature and All in every part of it either Soul or Body The Union between the Divine Nature in our Bridegroom and his glorified Body is equally immediate and entire as between that and his Triumphant Soul The Humane Nature subsisteth and standeth in the Divine as a Tree in its Root But this Union in the days of his Flesh is as that between the Tree and its Root in Winter The Resurrection is our Saviours Spring-time and Summer Every living Root in Spring ceaseth not to send forth its Sap into the Tree until it have brought forth the Tree into that Form and laden it with those Fruits which are proper to the Root In the Resurrection the Divine Nature riseth up with all its Sweetness and Fatness all its Vertues and Powers into the Humane Nature till it have spread and fashioned it entirely into its own Form till it have laden it all over with the precious Fruits of its own excellencies Joys and Glories In every power part and point of Soul and Body though never so mean so small the Fountain of the God-Head openeth itself the Fulness of the God-Head poureth forth itself that as the Waters cover the Sea so every distinct Part or Point appeareth as a distinct Sea of the Divine Life Joys Loves and Glories without bottom or bound This O shadowy Man O faln lost Man is thy Jesus thy Life thy Saviour Look to this Jesus with an Eye of Faith with an Eye of Love live by Him live in Him live to Him Triumph thou because of this Jesus Look to Him as 1. Thy Principle 2. Thy Pattern 3. Thy Price 4. Thy Portion 1. Look to this Jesus who is All-Beautiful with the Beauty of the GodHead itself as thy Principle I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit Without me ye can do nothing saith Jesus Christ Job 15. 5. The Tree first comprehendeth the Branch in itself then sendeth it forth supplying it continually with its own Life and Sap. By the vertue of this Life Sap the Branch taketh hold of the Tree sucketh in continually fresh and vital nourishment by which it flourisheth and bringeth forth much fruit What shall I say for thee who yet partakest not of the sweetness and fatness of this Spiritual Tree of Life and love Thou canst bring forth no Fruit thou canst do nothing towards thine own fruitfulness Without this Jesus thou canst do nothing O that thou didst understand thine own Emptiness and the Fulness of Sap in this Vine How truly All things Angels Men All the Creatures can do nothing are nothing without this Jesus that Spirit which is the onely Truth the onely Lfe in and thorow All I will pray over thee with inward bleedings of Divine Love from my heart O that Jesus thy Root who comprehendeth even thee also in the Fulness of His Heavenly sap and vertue would bring thee forth by a new birth as a Heavenly branch in Himself O that He would continually milk forth from His Breast the streams of His Life into thee Thus He abideth in thee Now do thou now wilt thou by Him abiding in thee abide in Him Shoot forth thy self into Him as roots do their Sprigs and Branches into the Earth beneath by the actings of thy Faith upon him Draw his Spirit and Grace into thy self Be green be fair and flourishing in the Eye of Heaven Bring forth much Fruit for thy self thy Saviour thy Heavenly Father all Angels and blessed Spirits to feed upon in Eternity 2. Look to this Jesus as thy Pattern What thou hast seen done in his Soul and Body by the Union between these and the God-Head the same Glory shall be brought forth in thy Soul and Body also by the Union between him and thee if thou in thy Soul and Body adhere and stick to his glorified Soul and Body as they are full of the Eternal Word dwelling in them and resting upon them The Angels reproved the Disciples when Christ was taken up into Glory because they looked to a visible Heaven to see their glorified Lord still with Eyes of Flesh Why stand you here gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven I say to you in another sense stand and look upon your Jesus as he ascends This is your Pattern As you have seen him in his Humane Nature go up out of all Fleshly and Visible Images into an Invisible Glory as you have seen him taken out of the sight of every created Eye in the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty of the Father which is the Heaven of Heavens so shall the same Jesus in like manner come again in your Souls and Bodies descending into them upon those Spiritual Heavens and changing them by degrees from Glory to Glory till they also put off every thing of Flesh and disappearing to every natural Eye be made perfectiâ—n the same Spirit to be for ever together with him there where he is and like him 3. Look to Jesus as thy Price The Lord taketh notice of the low thoughts and disesteem which the Jews had of him by that which they gave for him thirty pieces of Silver This saith he by the Prophet is the Price at which they valued me
a Sight of that Heaven which is the Principle of the Lord Jesus in Glory This lyeth clear before us that the Heaven understood in this place cannot be any Visible or Common Heaven no not any of the Created Heavens This is an Heaven above All. For He who cometh forth from it is Lord of All. He is made Higher than All Heavens by ascending into this Heaven which is of another Make different from all things of the First Creation and hath a New Name above every Name that is named in this World or that which is to come the World of Sense or the World of Angels Heb. 7. 26. Eph. 4. v. 10. The Earth then of which we speak cannot be the Common Earth It must be as large as that mentioned Gen. 1. v. 2. out of which the Heavens themselves were made The Earth intended here by the Holy Ghost taketh in all things below the Heaven mentioned and meant by Him Angels with all the Invisible Glories of the First Creation are Gods arising up out of this Earth and comprehended within the Compass of it I will set up Three Lights before you by which I shall endeavour to give you a Prospect of this Earth and of the First Man arising out of it so as to be a Shadow and a Figure of the Heaven we aim at with our Bridegroom coming down out of it coming down in it as His Mother of Eternal Love His Garment and Crown of Divine Beauty His Chariot of Life and Light of Power and Pleasure 1. Light God as He is the Head of the First Creation cometh not forth Naked but in a Shadowy Image of Himself which He casteth as a Vail over the true and proper Beauties of His own Person which the Eye of no Creature ever saw or can see Psal. 104. The Psalmist singeth the praises and wonders of God in the Creation After the preface he beginneth thus Who coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment and stretchest out the Heavens as a Curtain v. 2. You have a manifest allusion here to the Works of the First and Second Day Gen 1. The Jews say from this Scripture in the books of their wise and learned men that God to make this World appeared not in His naked Beauties but cum Indumentis suis with a Garment for a Covering upon Him The Light in which God shineth forth at the Beginning to form a Mass of Darknes into a beautiful Creation was onely a Shadow of the Eternal Light of His own Nature and Substance and a Vail upon it The Glory itself the Divine Presence and Appearance at the Head of this Creation which was spread over the whole Compass of it as an Heaven was a Curtain drawn before the true Heaven the true Glory which stood behind this Curtain like the Oracle in the most Holy place while the First Tabernacle was not yet removed This is the First Light 2. Light God in this Shadowy Image of himself is that Earth the Divine Earth out of which the first Man is made with a Divinity resting upon him Gen. 1. 26. God said let us make man in our Image after our Likenâ—ss The word Image in Hebrew Tselem seemeth to be a contract of two words Tsd Maveth the Shadow of Death It is used Psal. 39. 6. Man walketh in a vain show they are disquieted in vain or in vanity That other word used Gen 1. 26. Our Likeness signisieth similitude silence an imagination a cutting off Both import thus much that the Divine Image the Mother of the first Adam in whose Womb he was formed out of whose Womb he sprung forth upon whose breasts he hung was a shadow a silent vanishing Shadow of the Eternal word in which that slept as in its Night or Death As Dreams are Imaginations in the Fancy which act their parts while the Man sleepeth such was this Image after which Man with the whole World was made This was the Mother-Earth which broughâ— him forth which beareth him which nurseth him in her Bosom and dandleth him on her Knees We read Gen. 2. 7. God formed Man of the dust of the ground The word Ground is the same with Adam It signifieth in its root a sparkling Lustre and Ruddiness like that of the best Rubies to express which it is also used A sweet and glorious Light shining thorow a dark shade like a rosie morning or the Sun setting red in a lovely evening because being low he shineth with his bright Beams thorow the rising mists and vapours of the Earth is properly intended by this word The Light of the God-Head sparkling in a Shadow of himself glowing under a Cloud like a living Ruby from the Rock of Eternity this was Adamah the Ground the Mother of Adam God formed Adam of the dust of this ground The learned Jews paraphrase after this manner upon the dust here As the skilful Apothecary beateth his Spices to a small and â—ine powder that by a more curious and exact mixture of them he may make them into a rich ointment or cordial so God in the smallest and least parts perfectly mingleth and uniteth all the Principles Powers Forms and Vertues of the several Creatures as they lay together in their first and fairest Image in their First-born state in himself Of these thus tempered he sormeth Man the Second Image of the whole Creation next to that in his own Person Thus Man is as a living Crystal in which the entire Form of all the world visible and invisible is seen transparently in the whole Glass and in every point of the Glass by a ravishing concurrence of all parts in each the mâ—nutest part with a most beautiful and divine Harmony arising from the accurate Mixture of that Precious Dust. Thus Man is an Universal musick where the well-measured Motions and sweet Sounds of all the Strings meet in every skilful Touch of every String as a New Circle of Heavenly Melody and Delights spread from a New Center of Life and Love Thus I pass from the Second to the Third Light 3. Light The First Adam was the Golden Head of the First Creation next to God in Jesus Christ. St. John in the 1. chapter of his Gospel describeth the order and manner in which the unfaln World came forth from God The Word which was Jesus Christ as He is God the Essential and Eternal Image of the God-Head was made by His own Almighty Power according to the Unsearchable Counsel of His own All-Gracious and All-Glorious Will a Shadowy Image of Himself As upon the Vail of the most Holy Place were wrought in pleasant Colours the Figures of those Cherubims which stood within the Vail shining in a rich Substance of Massy Gold So was it in the most Holy Person of our Saviour the true and living Temple of the Divine Nature The Glories of the Essential Image figured themselves upon this Mystical Vail of the Shadowy Image So the Beloved Apostle saith to us while he openeth the Mysteries
composed and equal motions are the Beauty and Musick of your Spirits 2. The Reason of this Precept followeth The Lord is at hand is near nothing will so quiet the Soul and bring it to rest in every Appearance of things here so as a right sence of the near and immediate presence of the Lord Jesus in Glory with all these things after the same manner in which the Body or Substance is present with its proper Shadow The Body is present with the Shadow four ways as sending it forth immediately from itself and keeping it hanging upon itself by an immediate touch and union every moment as governing all its motions by its own Acts and Operations in itself by its own Appearance there in its Figure and Similitude by its Approach and Readiness to break up the Shadow by its breakings forth thorow it Canst thou think that thy beloved in the sweet shinings of his Beauty in the wonderful actings of the Divine Life in the pleasant motions and mysterious operations of his Love is thus near to every Creature every Providence and not answer this Beauty with the Beautiful smile of a contented mind this Musick with the melody of a well-pleased and harmonious temper of Spirit many that were sick were healed by the shadow of St. Peter overspreading them as he passed by When thou art sick with discontent for any passage of things in this world submit thy self to it as the shadow of thy dearest Lord with which he overspreadeth thee from his own Blessed Person being himself ever at hand there where his shadow is figuring himself with his own Divine Motions and Operations upon it being even now ready to disclose himself thorow it as the Rose breaking out of the Bud. Lie down under every accident as such a Divine Shadow of this Divine Lover with his Love and thou wilt find thy self healed of thy sickness of Mind of every Grief and Melancholy 3. A third Thing in this Scripture alledged is a Prohibition of Care Be careful in nothing Care is a Sin universally in the greatest things as well as the least in the highest things as well as in the lowest Qu. But you will say what Care is that which is Sin Ans. I answer that Care is a Sin which breaketh the moderation of your Spirits which defaceth the Spiritual Beauty which disturbeth the Spiritual Musick of a well-pleased and contentedâ—mind in you which putteth your Spirits out of tune cloudeth the clearness disordereth the Harmony of your Spirits distempering them and making them to jar with discontent Again that care is sinful which is contrary to this Three-fold sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus with every Creature and Occurrence on the Earth as with his own Shadow his Powerful Presence giving it Being and Motion from himself fastning it immediately to himself his Beautifulâ— Presence imprinting the Likeness and Image of himself upon it his Love-Presence calling the Soul to himself by it coming down to meet and embrace the Soul there ready to set himself in the place of his Shadow making that the mark and forerunner of his Person and Loves in their full Light and Heat 4. In the last place the Holy Spirit that skilful Apothecary prescribeth a Cordial to preserve you from this trembling of the Heart from carefulness This Cordial is made up of six precious Ingredients 1. Ingred Prayer With Prayer The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It importeth thus much stand not at a distance tarry not without Come boldly up to the Throne of Grace to God in the purest and most raised heights of his Glory and Love to Love as it is seated upon its highest and most glorious Throne the Heart of God to love as it shineth with its sweetest smiles in the Divine Nature unvailed and naked Enter boldly within the Vail behold God Face to Face so talk familiarly with him as a Friend doth with his Friend Like the beloved Disciple lay thine head in his Bosom so speak to him as a Bride to her Bridegroom 2. Ingred Supplication By Prayer and Supplication v. 6. The word rendred Supplication signifieth in its root three things Want a Band Decency or Harmony Have a Divine sense of thine own Shadowiness and Vanity upon every want which thou feelest Go by a Divine Power and in the Divine Mystery empty thy self into God bind thy self up together with him in that Golden â—Band the unity of his Spirit So move be carried along thorow all things in the Order Decency and Harmâ—ny of the God-Head of the Divine Wisdom and Will As when Sugar is cast into Wine the Wine penetrating into all parts of the Sugar dissolveth and melteth it entirely into itself 〈◊〉 in every state in every streight cast thy self by the Blessed Spirit into that Spirit which is the Wine of the Kingdom of the Father let that Spirit wind and work itself into every part and power into every thought and affection until it have drawn thee quite down out of thy self into one Stream one flood of Desires and Delights of Sweetness Strength and Fulness with itself Moses ascending upon Mount Sinai passed thorow the clouds and fires so he came to the top of the Mount where he saw God face to face The Eternal Spirit is Mount Sion the Mount of Prayer Here are white Clouds of Glory which do much more overshadow the Creature and Love-fires which do much more melt down the Soul and devour it From the Valley of every low Condition betake thy self to this Mount of Prayer Wait for this Holy Mountain the Spirit of Prayer to spring up in every Valley and take thee up and carry thee along upon itself As thou ascendest pass thorow these Clouds lose the light of thine own Beauties and Being before this excelling brightness Pass thorow these Fires Lose thine own Fleshly Substance and Subsistence in the flame of the Spirit Lose thine own Life and Form in the Unity of Divine Love So shalt thou arrive at the top of this Mount where thou shalt see God Face to Face with Life answering Life Love answering Love Beauty answering Beauty being in the full view of his naked Glories transformed into the same Glory by the same Spirit 2 Cor. 3. l. 3. Ingred Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving What a powerful Antidote against Care in every Cross or Difficulty is this to give thanks To see a Divine Glory To tast Divine Love To behold God descending in that Darkness as in a Chariot of Clouds of Angels taking us up to ascend with Him thither into His Palace above where this Cloud shall become a Throne this Chariot a Bed of Love this Angel an Eternal Glory in the Form of God where our Beloved and our Souls shall reign together feast together ly down together in mutual Joys and embraces for ever O Believing Soul art thou in Darkness Open the Eye of Faith see thy Jesus and thy self from the supream Circle of the God-Head running forth with all Lines
of Life Light Love into this Darkness as the Center in the midst of this glorious Circle where all the Lines from every Point of it meet in One. Again O Believing Soul in this Sight in this Sense in the vertue of these Divine Descents return and spread thy self by all these Lines of Glory together with thy God into the Circle of Eternity There comprehend All thy self and All in the Incomprehensible Mystery of God There see hear tast enjoy Him as Beauty itself Sweetness itself Musick itself Joy itself in All. See Hear tast enjoy All as that Beauty that Musick that Sweetness that Joy in him Thus call him by every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Call every thing in him by a new name above every name which is named in this world or that which is to come When Jacob saw the Chariots which his Son Joseph sent to bring him down into Egypt his Soul revived and he said it is enough that my Son Joseph liveth I will go see him before I die When thou seest Clouds of Enemies or oppositions in thy Affairs which are apt to perplex thee and fill thee with care shut this Eye of Flesh which representeth all things false open the Eye of the Spirit Then look again and see the Chariots of fire and Horses of fire a Spiritual fire shining with Glory burning with Love refining and spiritualizing all things as they ascend with them Now let thy Spirit revive within thee from its care to a Heavenly calm and to praises Say it is enough my Jesus liveth and loveth me This is his Chariot The Flames of it are Flames of Love He is himself in the midst of it upon a seat of Gold I see him He cometh to carry me up above this world into his Heavenly Kingdom I will ascend with him 4. Ingred The making of our requests known to God What Hearts-â—ase is this to have the priviledge of expressing all our desires to God himself with freedom and familiarity at a banquet of Wine of Spiritual Loves better than Wine The Husbandman planteth his Vine against a South-wall and spreadeth all the Branches of it there where it may receive the Sun fullest and longest that by this means all the vertue of the plant may be drawn forth into a great plenty of fairer and sweeter Grapes Let thy Spirit be a Heavenly Vine planted by the Eternal Spirit in thee Let thy will be the Heavenly sap of the Divine Will and the Divine Love in thee Instead of cares spread all thy desires like the Branches of this Vine fasten them continually before thy Invisible Sun the Face of God where the Beams of his Love and Excellencies fall with greatest heat and constancy So shall all the sweet Sap of thy Vine all the Divine Will in thy Will that is all Seeds all desires of Good of Love of Loveliness of Joy of Blessedness be made to grow and be ripened in their proper season unto the most perfect and most pleasant Fruit. 5. Ingred Universality Be careful in nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving make your requests known to God There is nothing too great for us to be assured of the Ear and Heart and Hand of God in it There is nothing too little for us to trouble him with Every thing that can befal us in an opportunity a Scene for all manner of Communion with God for Faith and Love to act all their parts upon in all their several Habits and Dresses Prayer Supplication Thanksgiving Requests find a pâ—ace in every Providence Day unto Day declareth Knowledge Night unto Night uttereth Speech Psal. 19. 3. Every State every season of Light and Darkness in all senses bring down from Heaven to us in one lovely Love Appearance or another Jesus Christ with the Heart of the Father Let every day and every night as it returneth to Heaven again carry up Jesus Christ from our Hearts and our Hearts in him in some Spiritual dress to the Bosom of the Father In every thing thy God acteth all manner of Loves expresseth and conveyeth all his Glories to thee In every thing do thou meet him return to him the activity of all thy Loves and the exercise of all Graces 6. Ingred The Ground of all these Ingredients and their vertue in this Cordial The Lord being at hand v. 5. The Philosopher in a Mill seeing his Friends making a doubt of coming in to him there out of a disesteem of the place and of him for being found in that place invited them in with these words here also are the immortal Gods When thou feelest thine heart standing at a distance from any condition for the obscurity of it or disquieted with cares in any condition for the troubles of it say to thine heart after this manner here also is my Jesus with all his Train of Immortal Glories Loves Angels and Spirits Here he is in a Figure of himself Here is he in Person under this Figure Here he is ready to shine forth and appear gloriously This is his Shadow This Shadow is his Tabernacle in which he dwelleth with me Upon this Ground will I tune all my cares all the unquiet motions of my Spirit to Prayers and Praises to the Melody of Faith Love and Joy Thus much for the 2d Lesson of living without Care with content upon this First Principle in the knowledge of the Lord and his Beauties that he maketh this world a Shadow falling from his Beautiful Person 3. Lesson Live beautifully and purely as Priests to God in this present world For this world is the Temple of God in as much as it is Jesus Christ in a Shadow For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-Head Rom. 1. 20. Four things make a Temple 1. A Divine Authority for the building of it This World is the Creation of God 2. A Divine Pattern The Invisible things of the God-Head of the Lord Jesus the power of the God-Head of Eternity are figured upon this World 3. A Divine End The proper end of these Figures is to form notions of the Divine nature upon our minds to lead us to converse with it to bring us into the Participations of it that it may enjoy itself in the reflections of its own excellencies and Glories from us v. 21. When they knew God they glorified him not as God They emproved not these Figures and Notions to an entrance within the Vail into the Glory itself which was the Divine end of them 4. A Divine Presence Jesus is he who filleth All in All Ephes. 1. l. In what a Calm in what Serenity in what Purity with what Beauty should we appear in this world as Priests in the Temple and in the midst of the Mysteries of God Psal. 29. 9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his
Glory In the Hebrew you may read every Thing as well as every One. So the Margin hath it every whit of it that is of the Temple uttereth Glory Such should we ever be as those who see the essence of Beauty who hear the Soul and Spirit of Musick who tast take in and feel the pure the primitive Life of all Sweetness and Joy in the Glory the God-Head itself inhabiting every part and point every passage motion of Things in this whole Creation as in a Temple How would our Persons and lives shine with a spiritual Lustre how sweet would the Musick of our Spirits and Conversation be if we did thus take up and bear this Natural Image as the Tabernacle and the Star of our God our Beloved Jesus Figures made by the Eternal Spirit to worship and enjoy him as St. Stephen speaketh Acts 7. 43. Eccles. 3. We read that there is to every thing a Season and a time to every purpose under Heaven v. 1. To be born and to die to plant and to pull up v. 2. To kill and to heal v. 3. To weep and to laugh v. 4. To love and to hate for war and for peace v. 8. He hath made every thing beautiful in his Time or in its Time v. 11. And whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever v. 14. In the Tabernacle and Temple every part every pin answered to the Pattern on the Mount which were the Heavenly Things themselves in the Spirit in Eternity All objects all actions in the Temple the Beasts the cutting their throats the taking off their skins the taking out their Entrails the cutting them in pieces the boyling the burning them were sacred Figures of Divine and Immortal Glories to which the Musick of the Levites round about upon the walls with their Instruments and voices kept time Thou O Man art set in this world as a Priest in this Temple Behold Both the Intellâ—ctual and the Bestial part in it Love and hatred War and Peace Joy and Grief Light and Darkness Weeping with Howlings Laughter with Shouts Life and Death with all that is delightful or dismal belonging to them all these Heavenly and Divine Mysteries Every one answereth to a purpose in the Heart of God to a Pattern in the Eternal and Essential Form of God Every one answereth to the Musick of the Holy Angels which stand in Quires in the uppermost parts of this Creation as the Levites upon the walls of the Temple The basest the bloodiest Persons and Offices those that kill and those that are killed bear the Figure of Jesus Christ like the Beasts for Sacrifice or the Sacrificing Priests in their linnen Garments stained with Blood Every thing is beautiful in his Time The Time of every thing is Divinely set by a Divine Pattern in a Divine Proportion by a Divine Power Thus each thing is cloathed with a double Beauty 1. The Divine Harmony of the Universal Image in Nature resulting from and resting upon each particular fitly set with a sacred proportion and contrivance in its own Time and in his Time that is by a Divine Hand in a Divine Time 2. An exact and ravishing Harmony with the Eternal Image of the supream Glories in God As line for line feature for feature colour for colour motion for motion from a Face in a Glass answer to the Beautiful Face which beholdeth itself in the Glass so is God and this world the Face in the water and the living Face Beauty itself by looking upon the water at once Figuring itself upon it and beholding itself in it all being reflections of its own Glorieâ— Obj. But you will say we see not now this resemblance of the Divine Glory in the face of the Creature Ans. What God doâ—h he doth for ever v. 14. As Jesus said to Peter of the washing his Feet What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter that may be applied here The work of God in this World and Time is for Heaven and Eternity to be understood and enjoyed there When we shall come into the presence of the Life and the Original then shall we look again with another manner of Eye upon the Picture and have an unexpressâ—ble pleasure to behold one in the other As the Tabernacle when its season was past was taken into the Temple So when Time and this world are past away Time and this world from the Beginning to the End shall be taken up into their first Patterns into Eternity God shall call every thing to the least dust or moment by its name and no one shall be wanting There shalt thou see the Beauty of the whole and of every part in the light and life of its Glorious Original Then shalt thou know what God hath done from the Beginning of the world to the End Thou shalt now possess and enjoy all with unexpressible pleasures when thou shalt thus meet them again in a new Light to be for ever with thee In the mean time as Christ said to Martha Believe and thou shalt see the Glory of God Thy Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and that now and that within thee in thy Spirit John 1. 14. The Word was made Flâ—sh and dwelt tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth O Man O Christian open the Eye of thy understanding open the Eye of thy Faith see this world the Tabernacle the Temple of the Eternal Word behold all things full of the Grace and Glory of his Person in Shadows and Images formed by himself behold himself in the truth of all this Grace and Glory in that height of Glory which is proper to his own Person as he is the only begotten of the Father dwelling with thee in this Temple behind the Vail of every Shadow and Image Behave thy self as in the House of God Walk in the midst of all Creatures and Occurrences as in the midst of so many Divine Mysteries as a Priest in the Temple In purity in peace in wisdom in love bear in every state the Figure of thy Jesus and his Glories converse with it in every thing walk in it at all times See thy Glorified Jesus himself together with his shadow make him the mark of thine Eye and thine Heart terminate all the workings of thy Spirit upon him as the Truth and Substance So wait continually for the breakings forth of the glory as a Heavenly Flame thorow the Shadow upon thee to take thee up into itself And thou as thou ascendest carry up the Shadow with thee 4. Lesson Live abstracted from this world in the world Distinguish and separate thy self from the Natural Person Life and Image which are all the Shadow and no more that thou mayst stand in an Immortal Person a Life of Glory the Essential Image which is the Truth The Lord Jesus saith I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For
O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
already said in order to my present purpose to shew how the knowledge of Christ in Glory sanctifieth and sweetneth Death 1. Obser. Here are three distinct Frames 1. A Building v. 1. 2. A Tabernacle v. 1. v. 4. Where take notice that in both places it is translated this Tabernacle but is in Greek the Tabernacle 3. The Earthly House v. 1. This seemeth to allude to the Temple which was a standing stately Building set up by Solomon in the Kingdom of the Jews to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness which was less and moveable but rich and â—ine for the Workmanship and for the Materials to the Tent of course stuff a covering â—or the Tabernacle All these were Figures of Christ and his Church to which they are also applied 1. The Heavenly Person of Christ as it standeth in the high and holy place of Eternity as it springeth up out of the Bosom of the Father and abideth in his Bosom as it is one Spirit and one Glory with the Father is the Temple the Building For the Building hath this Three-fold Character 1. It is of God in Greek out of God as Gold is out of a Mine of Gold 2. It is Eternal 3. It is in the Heavens The Glorified Person of every Saint as it is comprehended in this Glorious Head of all Saints is a Temple a Building in Heaven in Eternity of the same manner and fashion 2. The Tabernacle made of Sky-colour of Scarlet of Purple of fine Linnen with Silver and Gold and all manner of precious stones wrought with Cherubims and all curious Workmanship is the Image of God in Christ and a Saint here below in the Wilderness of this World John 1. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in Greek Tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the onely Begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth Here you have the Temple which is higher greater in compass and more glorious than the Heavens contracting itself into a Tabernacle and residing in that Tabernacle filling it with its own Sweetnesses and Glories which are Grace opposed to Wrath Truth opposed to Shadows The Word was made Flesh. The Eternal and Substantial Image of God which is the Temple the true Heaven brought forth itself into a Temporary and Shadowy Image which is the Tabernacle and the Paradise of the whole Creation As it is in the Lord Jesus so is it in his Spouse who is the Fulness of him that silleth All in All. This vile Body in which a Saint is here this dark and course Form with which our Souls and Bodies are cloathed here is the Tent that covereth the Tabernacle the Earthly House of the Tabernacle 2. Obser. The Effect of Death is different in these Three 1. The Tent the Earthly House onely is dissolved It is dissolved and no more It is taken to pieces The Word belongeth to the taking down of a house or the taking of Horses out of the Coach and setting them up in a stable at an Inn when the day and the Journey are ended The Dark and Narrow Form which made it a Vile Body a Body of Death is lost The Materials are laid up in the Tabernacle 2. The Tabernacle is taken into the Temple This is that which shall be cloathed upon from Heaven v. 2. If so be that being cloathed or as it is in Greek if having been cloathed namely with the Tabernacle we shall not be found naked of the Tabernacle in Death v. 3. So it is explained in the words following For we that are in the Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we should be uncloathed of the Tabernacle but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life that the Form of Mortality might be lost for ever in Immortality and the Mortal Things continue being now become Immortal When thou puttest on Jesus Christ thou puttest on that Image of Grace and Nature in which Paraâ—ise is revived and heightned in which is contained all that is good fair and pleasant thorow the whole Creation quickned with a new Sun-shine from on high This thou puttest on in thy Natural Man This thou shalt never put off after that thou hast once been cloathed with it It is still cloathed upon with a higher and higher Glory from Heaven until in Death the Glorified Body of Christ come down entirely upon it in the fulness of all its Divine Beauties 3. The Eternal Building in Heaven thy Glorified Person which was hither to hid in God with and in the Glorified Person of thy Saviour now cometh down cloatheth thee entirely resteth openly upon thee never to go off from thy Tabernacle more 3. Observ. See the beautiful and sweet manner of Dying Death is expressed in Two Representations 1. A Dissolution 2. A Deluge a Swallowing up 4. Death is a Dissolution If our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved v. 1. A Troop of everblessed Spirits united by Eternal Love into one Form of Glory make the Heavenly Body of thy Beloved In the same Form and yet another they make thy Heavenly Body and Person in the Bosom of thy Bridegroom O Believer These descending are by the sacred knot of this dark and narrow Form in Nature tied together into One Mortal Person in which they are the Shadow of themselves and tied down to the Earth to stand their Tryal in the midst of all sorts of Temptations Thus they continue till they have finished the Mystery of God and compleated the Figure of Divine Things in their Persons here below Then when the set Time is come according to the Laws of that Eternal Harmony in the Nature of God which is the Supream Love Beauty and Wisdom all in One they dye after this manner That Troop of glorious Spirits which is Thy-Self above come down upon Themselves Thy Self imprisoned in their Shadow below As the Fire of God they touch with some Mysterious Stroak of Providence the knot of this Earthly Form Immediately it untieth and is dissolved Now all these Spirits thus set free retaining the Unchangeable Unity of thy Person return Each to Itself in the Liberty Beauty Joy and Glorious Majesty of its proper Substance and It s own Its First Heavenly State Yea they are already there in their Building Eternal in the Heavens This Eternal Building these Heavens come down upon them to cloath them from above that in no one moment they may be found naked At once they spring up out of the Earth they come down out of Heaven and meet and kiss each other and fall into One with a Wonderful Shout a Triumphant Concurrence of all Blessed Spirits in the Perfect Freedom of all their Joys and Glories They fall into One because they are One and this One is Thy self In an Instant the Twinkling of an Eye the Living Word cometh to them the knot of Nature is dissolved all fly this knot the Figure itself the Shadow like Doves to their Windows like a Court to their
Corruption These burthened Spirits groan for the Dissolution of this Tabernacle But how Not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house from Heaven not to be found naked but to have Mortality swallowed up of Life St. Paul expresseth the meaning of the Unutterable Groans with which the Spirit of Supplications maketh Intercession in the Saints They would not be uncloathed of the Spiritual Image which they put on at the New Birth They would not be uncloathed of the Natural Image which they put on at their First Birth They would never no not for a moment be found naked of any thing of that Life Light or Sweetness Heavenly or Earthly which belong to either of these No they groan to have these cloathed upon with that their Buiâ—ding from above to have not onely their Immortal and Inward but their Outward and Mortal Part itself swallowed up into Life Life itself in its Purity in its Perâ—ection in its Spring which is Eternity 3. The Workmanship of God in a Saint is wonderful and indeed Divine in this Now he that hath made us for this or he that hath wrought us unto this is God St Paul assureth every Saint that his Groans are heard and answered from the Workmanship and the Workman We read in the Canticles that the Thighs of the Princess and Bride are as Jewels the Work of the hands of a Curious and Faithful Workman So the Word in Hebrew signifieth The Spiritual and Natural Life the Whole Frame and Composure of a Saint Inward and Outward all are Mysterious Jewels wrought by the Divine hands of God himself as a most Curious and Faithful Workman as a most Skilful and Firm Piece of Work They are by an Unexpressible Wisdom and Love framed unto this that the Substance of these Jewels should never fail the Vertue never decay the Lustre never fade no not in Death itself but then most of all grow bigger and brighter more Pure more Perfect more Powerful by being drunk up into Eternity as the Waters of a fine Spring are drawn and drunk up by the Sun 4. The Earnest of the Spirit Who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit in the Immortal Soul and Mortal Body of a Saint The Eternal Spirit in which a Saint possesseth Soul Body things of Faith of Reason of Sense This Spirit is to a Saint an Earnest both a foretast and a seal of this truth that both the Soul and the Body of a Saint in Death are like the Spice in the Golden Censor or upon the Golden Altar in the Temple which is the Glorified Bosom of Christ. Both lose nothing of themselves but change into a more Spiritual and Divine Form in which they ascend and carry up all their Preciousness all their Pleasantness with them like the Pillar of Smoak from the Altar perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary in which those Spices themselves with all their Sweetness and Vertue go up refining and enlarging themelves till they rest and spread themselves in the Bosom of Heaven How Curious and Sure a Workman is Jesus Christ is the Love of the Father in the Death of a Saint O the Freedom O the Fulness O the Skill O the Faithfulness of Finishing Love in the Death of a Saint O Believers Preventing Love hath brought you out of Aegypt out of the Servitude to your Lusts and the God the Spirit of this World Assisting Love hath carried you along thorough this Weary Wilderness your Conformity and Fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Sufferings Be of good Courage Your Cloaths shall not wax old Nothing of you shall fall in this Wilderness You shall certainly come into the Good Land the Land of Promise the Land of Rest the Land flowing with Milk and Honey with Life and Peace Immortality and Immortal Pleasures Finishing Love in the Glorious and Immortal Person of your Beloved like the Ark before the Israelites shall lead you thorow this Jordan thorow Death on the Dry Firm and Pleasant Land of Life itself Not so much as any single Drops of any Dark Waters shall sprinkle themselves upon any Parts of your Garment The clear Streams of this Beloved River shall stand on heaps on each side of you as Christal or Diamond Rocks as Lights Prospects and Guards of Angels while you pass When You are weakest under the Pangs of Death the Finishing Love of Christ in Power your Glorified Jesus in the Power of his Finishing Love shall rest upon you shall spring up in you at once to comprehend you and enlarge you to Cloath you upon and to transform you within Nothing of the Graces and Joys of your Inward Man Nothing of the Beauties and Delights of your Outward Man shall be divorced from you or darkened in you Like a Heaven of Stars they may pass under many Clouds But under all Clouds they shall go on shining still and increasing their Lustre When they seem to be extinguished in Death they shall be only drunk up into that Pure Light of Life which is Invisible to all Mortal Eyes by its Fineness and Fulness of Glory They shall disappear onely by the Degree of heightning He who hath wrought us unto this is God The Sweet Colours of a fair Summer-Morning in the Sky are so made that they fade not but go on changing to fair and fresher Colours still until they all vanish into Pure Light For These Colours are all the Light of the Approaching Sun figuring itself in divers degrees into Different Forms of Beauty till at last It Break up into the Full Glory of unmixt Light by the immediate Presence of the Sun appearing with the unclouded Brightness of his heavenly Body In like manner all the Excellencies Entertainments and Joys of a Saint in his Immortal and Mortal Part The Immortal and Mortal Parts themselves of a Saint thorowout are so framed by the Father of Lights and Loves that they can never fade nor pass away but in the moment of Death itself are cloathed upon from above with a Brighter a Diviner Form and are swallowed up into the Abysses the Incomprehensiblenesses of Eternity For God is Love A Saint is a Birth of Love A Seed of Divine Love springing up in his Outward and Inward Man Forming itself into a Body and Spirit into all the Powers Pleasures Objects Relations of Both. Divine Love is the Substance and the Sap The Matter and the Form in all A Saint in his Essence and Operations all Entirely is a Plant of Divine Love Death is the Ripening of the whole Plant all over into the Perfect Fruit of Pure Love of Finishing Love In this Form It can be seen felt tasted no more but by the Pure Eyes Embraces and Mouth of Divine Love God hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit for this Tell me now you who have received the Spirit What do you see what do you feel when you are blessed from on high with any fresh Anointing
in their full beauty and sweetness ever fresh never fading never failing As fast as one is gathered another springeth up in its room These Immortal flowers of divine love grow here for thee They have thy name written upon them They bend and bow themselves towards thee They invite thy hand to gather them They are ripe in every season and gathered with the least touch of thy spirit Thou who hast a Spirit black and burning with the deepest guilt take the flower of justifying love stick it in thy bosom This will take out all the heat of pain and take away all the deformity and stain from thy spirit Thou who labourest under the disease of any corruption See here the flower of sanctifying love Carry this in thine hand in thine heart It is a powerful a pleasent remedy against every lust or passion Doth the Instability of thy spirit the uncertainty of thy spiritual condition afflict thee The flower of electing love hath a soveraign vertue in it to establish and â—ix thine heart in a triumphant peace and joy above all changes or fears Art thou melancholy is thine heart cast down within thee for some apparent reason or thou kno west not why look upon this pleasant flower of comforting love smell to it wear it in thy bosom It shineth with a heavenly lustre which recreateth the Eyes and infuseth strange joy into the heart It breatheth forth a sweetness from it which will make you think your self in Paradise or kissing those blessed Cheeks of your heavenly lover your Jesus which are Beds of Spices It hath a spirit in it which is the extract of all Cordials which hath all comforting vertues in it which is the soveraign Comforter of hearts and spirits the only causer of delight and pleasure on Earth or in Heaven If any one be dejected with a sense of shame let him make himself a Nose-gay of these three Flowers regenerating adopting glorifying love Every one of these casteth a wonderful light from it which will make thee to see thy self in the unity of the eternal Spirit in the form of the Son of God Thou wilt see the whole face of things as a glorious Heaven round about thee all full of bright and shining Angels encompassing thee guarding thee attending upon thee as the heir of God Jesus in glory walking with thee hand in hand as his Brother God himself beholding thee with an unmoved and full Eye of esteem wonder and complacency as his onely one the Object of all his love the Ground of all his joy The State of a Saints Soul and Body in Death THe peculiar consolations and joys of Death to a Saint pour forth themselves into ten distinct channels or streams 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Both descend no more but ascend in Death 3. Death hath in it no melancholy overcast or unpleasant darkning to the Soul or Body but a sweet unexpected surprising and ravishing increase of a pure divine and triumphant light circling in and shining through all 4. Death casts no deformity upon either part of a Saint but cloaths both with an heavenliness amiableness and beauty 5. Death is no streightning or imprisonment to Body or Soul but a blessed enlarging of both to a divine state and freedom 6. The Death of a Saint hath nothing bitter in it but is a spring of pure sweetnesses and pleasures dividing itself into every part and making all the garden of God 7. There is nothing of the Devil in the Death of a Saint but Christ risen and glorified is all fills all and shines thorow all 8. Death hath nothing of wrath in it but is all divine love unvailing itself 9. There is nothing of Death in the Death of a Saint but life and immortality unclouded and shining forth clearly 10. Death is no other thing to a Saint than a heightning of his spirituality making him all thorough-out spiritual purely spiritual without any mixture unchangeably spiritual without any interruptions inconstancies or darkintervals 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Corinth 5. 1. St. Paul expresseth this ground of confidence and joy in Death For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens It is the observation of learned Divines that the Greek word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to be dissolved signifieth to take up ourâ—Inn from that circumstance of unloosing the Horses and taking them out of the Waggon or Chariot to bring them into the Inn and Stable that there they may be at their liberty to rest and feed and lie down From this word upon this ground an Inn or House of reception refreshing for Travellers hath its name in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At our Birth which is the morning of this life and our entrance upon our Journy through this weary world our Souls and Bodies are joyned to this fleshly Image by the natural spirit the spirit of this world as Horses put into a Waggon to which they are fastned by their Harnes and Traces The Body is as the fore-horse but the Soul as the filler which draws most and bears the chief weight All the day long of this life we draw this Waggon heavy laden with all sorts of temptations and troubles thorow deep ways of mire and sand This only is our comfort that the divine will which is love itself in its perfection as a hand put forth from Heaven thorow a Cloud at our Birth put us into this Waggon and governs us all the day In the evening of our life at the end of our Journey Death is the same divine will as a naked hand of pure love shining forth from an open heaven of clear light and glory taking our Souls and both Bodies out of the Waggon and Traces of this â—leshly Image and Spirit and leading them immediately into their Inn into a place of freedom rest and refreshing into the unity of the eternal spirit into the Bosom of our Lord Jesus Obj. But before I proceed any farther I will indeavour to make my whole way more clear by answering an objection which perhaps already ariseth in most of your thoughts You may be ready to say Is this your meaning as you seem clearly to express it that the Bodies also of the Saints suffer no dissolution in Death but return immediately to a state of purity and perfection This seemeth to contradict the common sense of all the faith of the Saints and the plain letter of the Scriptures Do we not with our Eyes see every day the dead Bodies of the best Persons thrown into the Grave turning to Corruption and Putrefaction either before or in the Grave dissolved to Worms and
the Sons of God The word led is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted As the Soul acts the Body as the principle of reason the Soul of Man as the nature of the Sun acts the Sun in its shinings in its motions thou also art acted by the Divine Spirit to which the Sun the Soul of Man the principle of reason are empty and weak shadows so far as thou in truth art a Child of Light and a Son of God the Father of Lights Let me here by the way touch a three-fold string in your Souls 1. A mournful string 2. A string of desire 3. The string of praise 1. Is the Spâ—â—it the principle of a Saint how then should we mourn thâ—â— this Spirit of Grace this Comforter is grieved that this Spirit of Light and Life is quenched by unbelief sensuality unkindness and neglect how should we mourn that this Holy Spirit this Spirit of Truth is slighted and spoken evil of as a Spirit of licentiousness or as a fancy and delusion and all this among Saints at least in profession when as this Spirit is the only principle of Saintship St. Jude in his Epistle speaketh of this as the Sin of Devils for which they are cast down to Hell and bound in Chains of Darkness that they did forsake their first state and their own habitation It is in Greek not their first state but their first principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Saints is not this a Sin greater than that of Devils not only to forsake but to grieve and cast shame upon this first and most blessed Spirit which is your only principle a principle of Divinâ— Life Light and Purity your own habitation a habitation of Divine Rest and Glory 2. O all you who desire to be Saints or to grow in the new and Divine Nature of a Saint let your hearts burn by day and by night with continual longings for the Spirit This alone is that of which a Saint is bred by which he is nourished This alone is the Heavenly Root the Sap the sweet Dew Showers and Influences the warm and cherishing Sun-shine to every Spiritual Plant Cry therefore and wait for this Spirit wait upon it minister to it seek it suck it in by all means thorow all its own manifestations and ordinances of Nature or of Grace When this world was first made a beautiful frame out of a dark Deep the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters When Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and rested upon her In both places the expressions seem to allude to a Bird or a Dove spreading itself over its Nest to hatch its young Ones When the Lord Jesus was Baptized the Holy Ghost descended and rested upon him in the form of a Dove Dost thou indeed desire to have thy dark defiled dead heart made a new Creature to have Jesus Christ to be born or to grow within thee and to be Baptized yet more into Jesus Christ the Sea of all Heavenly Beauties Loves and Joys O then pray to the blessed Spirit to make thy Soul his Nest to move upon the face of thy Spirit to overshadow thee to descend and rest upon thee in his Dove like form 3. O all ye Saints sing the praises of the holy Spirits let the high praises of the holy Spirit be ever in your mouths Say to the Spirit this is the womb of Divine Life and Power which hath born us and brought us forth to be Children and Heirs to God these are the Breasts of Divine Life and sweetness which give us suck this is itself the Heavenly Milk of the Eternal word by which we live and grow Do you see any glympse of Evangelical Light and Truth do you feel any workings of Grace any sweet springings of Love and Joy Give Glory to the Spirit it is this blessed Spirit which now shines in you enlivens you and acts you The Children of Iracel in the Wilderness in a great want of water met with a Well then they sang to it in these words Spring O Well the Princes have digged it with their Sâ—aves When ever thou meetest with any fresh stream any sweet drop of the water of Life rising up within thee in thâ—s parched Land and weary Wilderness sing to thy Well sing to the blessed Spirit and say in thy Song my Well springeth my Jesus hath digged it in my heart with the Golden Scepter of his Gracâ— and Love Thus let every gracious thought gracious moving of thy mind will or affections put into thy mouth a new Song of joyful praises to the Spirit as the dear and inseparable principle of Life of Heaven of Eternity within thee thine ownâ— principle Thus much of the Principle 2. The two effects of this Principle are a Spiritual sense savour both comprehended in that expression to be heavenly minded How often doth my Spirit labour in the Bosom and power of the Eternal Spirit for these two things 1. That all Men were brought forth into this Spiritual Principle 2. That all who have the Spiritual Principle within them were continually acted by it How sweet would life be to them for the sight of their Eyes and rellish of their Spirit They that live in the Spirit see all things by a Spiritual Light It is indeed a pleasant thing to behold this Light Every glympse of it infuseth a heavenly joy into the Heart and scattereth all Clouds of grief or melancholy These see all things in a Spiritual Image that is in a Divine and Immortal Glory They tast the sweetness of a Heavenly and Divine Love in every thing Every thing presenteth itself to them in an Heavenly Appearance and every appearance of things entreth into their Souls with a heavenly taste and rellish far sweeter than Hony to the Palate All our converse with things of every kind of Nature or Grace of Sense or reason proceedeth from a union with those things in one Principle and is a communion with them in that Principle Such as the Principle is such are the Appearances and rellishes of things to us such is our converse with them All Appearances of things to Men or to Angels in every natural Principle to our senses or to our understandings are no more than shadows or dreams The Spirit alone is Truth When melancholy forms and Images of things in this world afflict our Spirits when the pleasant things here lift them up to vain joys and glories if the holy Spirit awaken himself and arise in us all these fly away all other appearances of things break up into an appearance of Eternal Beauty and Blessedness springing forth from this Spirit like the shadows of the night when the Sun is seen and a dream when a Man awaketh We are taught by natural Philosopy that the Images of things are seen thorow a Christalline humor in the Eye as a fine Glass If this Christal be dyed with any colour all things which we see appear
as out of Heaven and the Bosom of God This rests upon us takes us in cloaths us entirely universally with itself Thus we are never found naked not for any one the least moment All that life all those objects entertainments and joys which we possessed before in the Cloud in the Captivity of a mortal Image yea the very Image of mortality itself besides innumerable new and unconceivable Glories are all the very same things present with us in this Heavenly Building this Heavenly Body but after a new and more excellent manner We have our pleasant things a hundred-fold more pleasant We have our unpleasant things with an unmixed pure and perfect pleasantness as they stand within in the Divine Mystery and Love Thus desirable and delightful is death to a Saint which now indeed is no more Death but the flood the Fountain of pure Light Eternal Life the Divine Love breaking forth in his Soul and Body and swallowing up every thing of Mortality into itself Give me leave here to take occasion to shir you up to the love and pursuit of Spirituality in Religion by a short exhortation 1. Understand your loss How many precious and glorious truths of the Gospel What Heavenly and Divine growths in Grace How many sweet unexpressible consolations and joys in life and in death are we unacquainted with are we uncapable of for want of the Spirit and Spirituality I have many things to speak unto you saith our Lord Jesus to his Disciples before his Death but ye cannot bear them now Why Hitherto they knew Christ after the Flesh only The Spirit was not come which was to lead them into all truths and to be their eminent comforter I could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as to Carnal saith St. Paul to the Corinthtans who yet were pussed up with a conceit of their knowledge 2. Consider the danger from the want of Spirituality St. Paul saith in one place that what the Law speaketh it speaketh to those that are under the Law The Law in Scripture is called the Letter which is the Figure and Image only The Gospel the Spirit which is the Life and Truth This then is the dreadful curse which the Law pronounceth upon those who live and worship God in the oldness of the Letter not in the newness of the Spirit that their Eyes their Ears their Hearts shall be closed made fat and hardned that seeing they shall not see hearing they shall not understand that they shall be taught line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little that they may fall backward and perish and never rise more because when Christ was presented to them in the Spirit of Life and Glory to be their rest and refreshing for ever they would not obey the heavenly Call O dreadful danger O deadly curse Hear this O Professors O Believers who are Carnal and not Spiritual Tremble and fear to be eternally imprisoned in the dark Image and killing Letter being for ever excluded from the marvellous light of God from the Eternal Life and from the most glorious truth itself of all Heavenly and Divine Things to wander perpetually in a barren Wilderness of Graves and of fiery Serpents never to enter into the rest of God nor the refreshing of the Eternal Spirit O Silly Men and silly Women that are ever learning ever hearing Sermons ever praying ever reading the Scriptures ever sounding forth the name of Christ and God yet at the end of one ten or twenty years still laden with the same diversity of Lusts and Passions still moving forward and backward upon the same Carnal and literal sense of things never coming to the knowledge of the Truth as the Truth is in Jesus as the Spirit is Truth 3. See the advantages of Spirituality as they are laid together 2 Corin. 3. At the latter end 1. Liberty Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty a pure freedom from the servitude of hellish Lusts and passions a pleasant freedom from fears cares consinements from the Law Death and Wrath a Divine Freedom from the vale of the Flesh the Law the Letter of things from every Earthly Created Darkning Dividing Principle Life and Image the liberty of a free access into the purity power rest joys glories immortality infiniteness of the Spirit and of the Divine Nature 2. A clear discovery evidence and seal of the new Birth in you We with open Face behold the Glory of the Lord. The open face there as appears clearly by the context of the words is the Spiritual and Heavenly Man within us unvailed appearing evidently with the Seal of his own Spiritual Beauties and Glories upon it in the openness and freedom of a Spiritual and Divine Light Where are doubts where are fears now concerning our condition they are fled away and vanish as the shadows of the night before the Sun rising and shining forth with open face 3. A clear vision of the Lord Jesus in Glory within thy self We all with open face as in a glass beholding the Glory of the Lord saith St. Paul It is in Greek beholding as in a Looking-glass where the Face that is seen is the Face of him who fees reflected upon itself O blessed State of a Spiritual Saint The Spiritual Man in him is a Divine and living Looking-glass in which while he beholds the face of the Lord Jesus in Glory he sees his own Face and the glorious form of his own Heavenly Person reflected upon itself The Person which sees the Heavenly Person which is seen and the Glass are all one Spirit All these dwell together see possess and enjoy one another in the same Life and Image 4. Spirituality brings a lively and lovely growth in all Grace We are changed saith St. Paul into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory These words import three excellencies in the growth of a Spiritual Person 1. It is continual which is implied in that expression from Glory to Glory One degree of growth immediately follows another The Kingdom of Heaven which is the State of Spirituality and in the Holy Ghost is compared to Corn which grows by day and by night in Winter and in Summer It is growing every moment till it be ripe for the Harvest 2. Spirituality groweth by great increases Here the name of Glory is put upon the growths of Grace in a Spiritual State from Glory to Glory In another place St. Paul expresseth it by the increases of God that is swift great glorious divine increases as by the immediate springings of the Godhead and bearing the likeness of God in Glory 3. Spirituality makes the Glorified Person of Christ the Pattern the Measure the Mark and End of its growth So saith St. Paul Beholding the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the likeness of the same Image A Spiritual Person hath the Lord Jesus cloathed with a Spiritual Glory ever in his eye is continually taking him into
Principle he stood under the curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the curse to the utmost extremity 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a light of Divine Glory in a life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with Immortality 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus through his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death These are the five Propositions which set forth the trouble of Christ at his Death In the other two followeth his Triumph 6. Propos. This Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went entirely forth from the Natural or Temporary Principle and so from under the Curse 7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity and singleness of his Supernatural the Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall briefly open these Propositions in their order 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus John 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The second Person in the Trinity from which the other two Persons the Father and the Spirit are inseparable the eternal and essential Son of God which hath the fulness of the God-Head in himself in its most express Image and greatest Glory he in his own Person in this Eternal Person and Sonship was made Flesh. This Eternal Person this Essential Son of God was that Flesh. This Flesh was that Person that Son which had the Father and the Spirit inseparably with himself and was essentially one with them O Christians study this union of the two Natures Divine and Humane in one only Divine Unchangeable and Eternal Person which is the most glorious and Ever-blessed God This is the deep and rich ground of the Christian Religion out of which as the true ground of the Heavenly Paradise the God-Head itself makes to spring all the precious mysteries of the Gospel all Evangelical Truths Graces and Joys in their most Spiritual Beauty Sweetness and Life Understand this Pray for the understanding of this for a sight sense and feeling of it within your own Spirits that it is God God himself in his own only Divine unchangeable undivided Person in your own Form in your own Nature in your own Persons and Spirits which is your Jesus your Saviour Redeemer Husband and King your Ransom Atonement and Righteousness your Beauty your Life your Joy your Root Branch Flower and Fruit. This union between the Divine and Humane Nature in one Person in our Lord Jesus is the Original and Reason of the union between you and this Jesus which is God in Person to which Person thorow this union you also are immediately eternally united in one Spirit in one mystical Person which is Christ as St. Paul speaketh as there is one Body and many Members so is Christ. A Spiritual knowledge of this union of two Natures in one Person and that God himself is this Person will sweeten all sufferings of life to you and perfume the Grave Open the Eyes of your Spirits and behold with joy and wonder the going of your God and King in the Sanctuary of this Earthly Body It was the ever-glorious and immutable Person of God in the most high and holy Trinity which made itself Flesh in the Womb of the Virgin which was that Flesh which in that Flesh eat drank slept talked and walked upon the Face of this Earth which passed under all the clouds thorow all the storms of life here which hung upon the Cross dyed and lay down in the Grave O with what a Divine and delightful Glory hath this Divine presence and Person silled and cloathed this Flesh this Earth all the natural actions and passions of this Flesh on this Earth Clouds Storms the Cross Death and the Grave to the Spiritual Eyes of Believers What living Plants of Paradise how beautiful how laden with most pleasant and Immortal Fruits are all these springing up out of this Root this Divine and Eternal Person What Jewels are they of incomprehensible virtue sweetness and lustre hanging upon this Person See your selves O all ye Saints even the lowest and the least conformed to this Image It is the immortal Seed and Son of God in you it is your Jesus the most glorious Person of God himself in this Seed in you which is made partaker of Flesh and Blood which walks on Earth and acts all the parts of the natural Life here which passeth thorow all the Clouds and Storms of life which suffers dies and lies in the Grave The Spoase saith of Christ he is a bundle of Myrrh he shall lye all night between my Breasts Thus the Humane Nature of Christ saith to the Divine Nature Thus the Earthly Nature saith to the Heavenly Nature to the Divine Seed to the Lord Jesus to the Divine Nature in the Lord Jesus thou art my bundle of Myrrh thou liest all the night of this life and death between my naked Breasts What corruption can I see in the Grave itself What Divine Sweetness breaths forth itself in all States What Divine Treasures of Life and Immortality fill and overflow all while we thus lye most intimately united entirely wrapt up in each other in the most sweet and glorious Unity of one Divine and Eternal Spirit one Mystical Divine and Eternal Person 2. Propos. God in his own Person as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth stood at once in a twofold Principle the one Natural and Temporary the other Spiritual and Eternal The Lord Jesus was truly and really a man in every point like unto us sin only excepted as the Scripture speaketh in the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus he did bear in himself the Earthly and Natural Image he stood in an earthly and natural Principle He came forth from the Father into the World So was he made a Servant and made under the Law But the Lord Jesus was in Person the Eternal Son of God In this Person alone did the Humane Nature of Christ with its Natural Principle and Fleshly Form in this world subsist The second Person in the Trinity was the Glorious and Invisible Root which through the Divine Nature sent forth sustained lived and appeared in the spotless Flesh of the Lord Jesus Thus
the Manhood of Christ in its Earthly State stood in a natural Principle according to its proper essence and created Form but in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle according to its Personal subsistence in the Eternal Word How patient should we be of Life nay with what delight and wonder should we pass the time of our Pilgrimage hero if with a Spiritual Eye we beheld the Lord Jesus in Flesh and saw our life in flesh a conformity to his What a Divine Spectacle what a mystery of Divinity how full of Sweetness Beauty and Glory doth the Life of Christ in Flesh appear when it is rightly seen The Natural Spirit of this world with its natural Image in its full compass stood in the midst of the Lights Immortalities Glories of that Divine Person which is the Brightness of Glory the Sea of all Sweetnesses and Loves Eternity itself God himself This was the Eternal Principle which brought it forth from itself which bears it up in its own Bosom which acts it fills it comprehends it as itself one Person with itself itself Personally in a Divine and Mysterious Figure in the midst of all its Divine and Substantial Glories 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary Principle he stood under the Curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the Curse to the utmost extremity The Scripture saith he was made a Curse for us Although together with the Natural Principle he took not the Corruption yet he took the Curse You that read or hear this prepare your selves to receive a Relation of Divine Love which will at once break your hearts and make them whole again That God who is Blessedness itself the purest Light of Life Joy and Glory in Person cloaths himself with Flesh even with the Fleshly Spirit and Principle that he may make himself a Curse for your sakes in your stead Thus he receives immediately into his own Person into his own Breast and Heart all the stings of the Curse of Separation of Loss of Shame of Pain of Guilt of Grief of Horrour Amazement Death All these stings he receives into himself as they are dipt all over in the most unmixt and fiercest Poison of the Divine Wrath. All these stings he felt at once envenomed with Wrath in the tenderest and most sensible manner with the quickest and sharpest sense Never was never can there be such a sting such a sense of any sting in the Spirit of Man or Devil or any Creature Do we hear all this and that all this was from love to us and are we not by a sympathy of love wounded with a sense of those stings which thus stuck in our Saviours Heart Do we not feel our hearts wounded with a sense of those Sins of ours which fixed those stings there But doth not this sense also fall like drops of precious Balsom upon our Hearts to heal those wounds immediately or to turn them into Fountains of Love and Joy when we hear that it was Love and infinite Love in the Heart of God himself which took these stings out of our low and wretched Persons to fix them in that most High and Glorious Person which is Eternal Love and Life itself He was made Sin for us that is a Sacrifice for Sin in a flame of Wrath in our stead that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him to ascend in the Bosom of his glorified Person in a pure flame of Love Delight and Glory above all Heavens 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a supernatural and eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a Light of Divine Glory in a Life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with immortality Our Jesus at the same time in his natural Principle and in his Flesh was encompassed with a blackness of darkness and was filled with the bitterness of the Curse at the same time in his supernatural Principle the Eternal Spirit even in the natural Principle in the Flesh in the midst of the darknesses bitternesses he saw them all he conversed with them he tasted them feasted upon them enjoyed them and himself in them as the Light and Sweetness of Heavenly Love as Roses and Lillies the Hony and the hony-comb in the Paradise of God as the delicacies of Eternity and a banquet of Wine in the Kingdom of God For he received he saw he rellished them in the will of his Father and the will of his Father in them Thus he speaketh of them when he cometh first into the World I come to do thy Will O God All things which he met with in the World and in Flesh were to him the pure and entire Will of God alone presenting itself in so many various Forms where the Substance and the Forms both were the same Will like a Feast in several Dishes where the Meat and the Dishes too are alike delicate food So Christ himself expressed it John 4. It is my Meat and Drink a Divine Meat and a Divine Drink to do the Will of my Father All the sufferings and passions of Christ were an active accomplishment an active entertainment of the Will of the Father of that Will of that supream Will which is the pure Fountain Measure Essence perfection of all Good Loveliness Love Sweetness and Joy The sufferings of our Lord Jesus appeared to him in a Spiritual Light as Heavenly Beauties cloathing his Person making it so much the more lovely in the Eye of his Father the truest Judge of loveliness and Beauty My Father loves me saith Jesus Christ because I lay down my Life for my Sheep How sweet and dear a sense hath the Lord Jesus of the Curse and of Death when he had this sense of them that they made him lovely to his Father attracted his Fathers Heart to him and made him more in love with him The blackest Cloud that resteth upon Christ discovered itself to his Spiritual Eye to be in truth a Glory surrounding him All the griefs of his Heart appeared to be Jewels of Glory and Immortality hanging in his Bosom For saith Christ when he was now to suffer now is the Son of Man Glorified and again he saith the Father is Glorified in the Son O! how dâ—fferent is the truth of things in the Spirit from the outward appearance in the Flesh When Jesus Christ was spit upon Scourged Crucified as this World gives forms and names of things then in the sense and language of Heaven of Eternity of the Eternal and Spiritual Principle in himself he was glorified all these were as so many fresh Lights of Glory in which his Person shines forth to itself and to the Father in
which the Fathers Person shines forth in his Person as in a new Heaven with new and increasiâ—â— Beauties O you that are Followers of Christ what a mystery of Spiritual Joy and Heavenly Glory is there in the life of a Saint if this be to be a Saint to walk on Earth as Christ walked that is in a Spiritual Principle in the midst of the Natural Principle and Fleshly Image of things governing comprehending seeing handling rellishing all in the Divine Light Beauty and Sweetness of the Eternal Spirit When the blackest Cloud of melancholy rests upon thy Spirit when the sharpest Sword of Grief pierceth thy Heart retire into thy Spiritual Principle there thou shalt be as on Mount Tabor the Mount of Transfiguration where the Face of thy God shall be as a pleasant Sun of Joy and Glory shining forth in its strength within thee and the whole Image of things in thee and round about thee as a Garment of Light all weaved and wrought with the freshest and purest Beams of this Sun in all living and immortal Figures of the highest Joys and Glories 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus thorow his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death The Lord Jesus saith the Prince of this World cometh This is your hour and the power or principality of Darkness The Devil came now to make his two last and most furious assaults upon the Lord Jesus in the Garden and upon the Cross. He therefore comes with all the powers of Darkness and Legions of Devils with all the blackest and most dreadful Furniture and force of Wrath from Hell below from Earth and Heaven above as the Prince of this World and the Prince of Darkness The Battel was so sore against the Lord Jesus that he himself who was the Wisdom and Power of God was amazed He who was the eternal delights of his Father day by day cries out My Soul is very sorrowful even unto Death The word in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an excess of sorrow and a surrounding sorrow All things round about the Lord Jesus were hung with a blackness of Darkness and amazing horrours that he himself who bears up the weight of all things could hardly sustain the weight of his own fears and sorrows or sustain himself in Life under them He falls beneath them to the ground His whole Person is so prest and opprest with them that through the agony of his Spirits the boiling blood is strained forth through all the parts of his Body He cries to his Father thrice Angels are sent from Heaven to strengthen him and comfort him But after this the conflict upon the Cross was yet sharper Now the Prince of Darkness grows desperate knowing that this is his last effort and that now at once he fights for his Kingdom Liberty and Life that his whole Kingdom of Darkness and his Person too depend upon this one Fight The Earth-quake the rending of the Rocks the total Eclipse of the Sun and the Universal Darkness upon the face of the whole Earth were Types of what Christ the Prince of Glory and the Devil the Prince of Darkness suffered in this last Conflict the like to which never was before nor shall ever be The whole frame of things shook and trembled under the Feet of the Lord Jesus and round about him The Rocks all the supports of his Soul all the Foundations and Pillars of his strength and life were rent in pieces and dissolved The face of the Creature the face of Heaven the face of his Father were all covered with a thick a threatning and an amazing Darkness as in a dreadful Tempest above the course and force of nature The Lord of Life in whom all things subsist is now sinking and ready to give up all for lost How deeply was his Heart pierced how cruelly wounded how were every glympse of Light every drop of Comfort intercepted and with-held when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What potent inchantment from Hell was this what power of Darkness what infusion of Wrath what separation ten thousand times more bitter than Death which so wrought that he who is God himself seems divided from himself and totally deserted by all the power and sweet lights of the God-Head Thus you see in this 5th Proposition the trouble of Christ at its height In the two following Propositions you shall see that notwithstanding this dreadful storm in the evening and latest hour of his life this beautiful Sun in his dying moment as in the close itself of the day casts up its cloud comes forth Triumphantly and no night follows Before we pass to the other Propositions let us make a few short observations upon these 1. See how dreadful and hateful an evil Sin is by the effects of it in the Person of God himself our Lord Jesus Let not that be a light thing to us which lay with so great weight upon him neither let us be secure in our Lusts Vanities Covetousness Sloath playing with these which were so many Serpents in the Bosom of Christ and shot deadly stings into his Heart Can we stand under those things which had almost sunk the Son of God into despair and Eternal Darkness It is true God brings good out of the evil of Sin order out of its disorder and reconciles all into a beautiful Harmony of Divine Love and Joy But how by how dear a price by how precious an atonement by how costly how cruel how bloody a Sacrifice by how violent a conflict between all the powers of light and darkness at once by how dreadful a dissolution of the whole frame of things with the blackest Tempest of Divine Wrath from above by what horrours of Death in its ugliest shape with its most venemous stings and all this in the Person of God himself our Jesus 2. Be good Soldiers of the Lord Jesus Endure hardships Endure the fight of Sufferings Think not strange to have the Clouds blackest and the Storm greatest with Thunders and Lightnings round about you in your latest hour in old age and death Thus you bear the Cross of Christ. Thus you fight under the Banner of Love A Husband in Bloods art thou to me saith the Wife of Moses to him concerning the Circumcision Jesus Christ hath been a Husband in Blood to thee O suffering Saint Now art thou also indeed a Sister and a Spouse to him in Blood This Life is the Season of suffering Christ suffered here Can you not suffer with Christ one hour the short Season of this fleeting Life Think how glorious in the Eyes of all the Holy Angels and of the Blessed Saints of Christ and the Father you shall come into Heaven How dear to the Bosom and Embraces
these surrounding this Divine Light at the same time surrounded by it give a solemn sweetning and heightning to all like the Base string to the Musick of a Lute making Death it self another Heaven distinct from the Heaven after Death and contending with it for delightfulness Thus God the Father maketh Christ to see the Path of Light in Death 3. The third part in the manner of the Triumph the Pleasure In thy presence are all pleasantnesses and at thy right hand Pleasures for evermore Three pleasâ—n things are here presented in one 1. The Seat of Pleasure 2. The Perfection 3. The Perpetuity of Pleasures 1. The Seat of Pleasure is the Presence and right hand of God The Presence in Hebrew is the Face of God The Son of God The Eternal Word The Essential Form of God and the Brightness of his Glory is the Face of God Behold thou art fair my beloved yea thou art Pleasant our Bed is green saith the spouse in the Canâ—cles to Jesus Christ. He is that Eternal Form and naked face of the Godhead where all the Pleasantnesses of the purest Beauties Loves and Joys first spring flourish and seat themselves His Cheeks therefore in the same Book are said to be the Garden-beds of the most fragrant Spices and persumed Flowers where the highest Beauties and the highest sweetnesses are born and married one to another and bring forth an endless race of Loves and Delights This Face of God in which all Loveliness and Loves thus shine and flame together is also set with so many eyes which continually behold and rejoyce in their own Beauties and Pleasantnesses This Face this Form of God is the Person which subsists in the Human Nature of Christ both Soul Body which in itself gives a subsistance to the whole Humanity of Christ living and dying Thus is it in the Grave and in the dead Body of Christ the seat of all Pleasantnesses the Throne of divine Beauty of Love in Death It is also as a thousand never sleeping never sâ—umbring eyes in this blessed Body with which it uninterruptedly contemplates in it self this Eternal face and Form of God this seat of Pleasantnesses which is its own Person it s own self in its personal Unity and subsistence The right hand of God is the Godhead in the strength at the heighth of Love Power Majesty and Glory as it is above all heavens Here are Pleasures in their proper fear in their greatest force and fulness as they transcend the joys themselves of all created Heavens At this right hand of God is Jesus in the Grave By this right hand of God which hath all pleasures ever attending it was he pleasantly led thorough the Shadow of Death In the Bed of Death this right hand of the most High embraced him that he might sweetly rest there in the midst of all the Pleasures of this Right Hand of his 2. The Perfection of Pleasures is exprest by these two names of Pleasantnesses and Pleasures Pleasantnesses are the Objects of delight or Pleasures in the object Pleasures are the Delights themselves in the fruition and enjoyment of those objects or Pleasures in their Subject The Subject and the Object uniting and mingling and transforming themselves variously by their various mixtures in their union into one mutual life and Form of Beauty and Love make Pleasure and delight You have here all Pleasantnesses in the Face of God and so all Pleasures at the Right Hand of God The Lord Jesus dying and in death beholds the Face of God In this Face he at once beholds all pleasant forms and Forms of Pleasantness the pleasantness of all Forms among Men Angels in their first highest Patterns to which the most Glorious spectacles and spirits of Men or Angels are obscure Shadows and faint imitations In this face he beholdeth pleasant Forms incomprehensible for variety and Glory which never cast any the least shadow of themselves nor were capable of being in the least degree imitated in the highest of created excellencies Death itself is a divine Marriage-bed in which Jesus Châ—ist receives all these pleasant Forms into his Bosom as Lights of Glory shining thick thorow the Cristal Temple of his pure and sacred Body in this Night of his Divine Death He beâ—reth in his dead Body the impressions and Figures of them all with the Heavenly substances themselves in these Impressions and Figures like a seal of Gold fixed on Virgin-wax his dying and dead Body is transformed into one Life and Form with those Original Forms of Pleasantnesses being embraced by them as by a Divine flame which makes it one pure flame of Pleasantness and Pleasure with itself 3. The Perpetuity of the Pleasure At thy right hand are Pleasures for evermore Two things are here signified 1. The continuation of Pleasures in the Person of Christ without any interruption 2. The endlesness of those Pleasures Jesus Christ saith to his Father in one Place thou leadest me by thy right hand The Lord Jesus was ever led by the right hand of the Father out of Heaven into the Virgins Womb out of the Womb into the gloomy Light of this World thorow this World thorow Death and the Grave into Heaven again Thus was this blessed Person ever at the right hand of his Father that is at the right haâ—d aâ—d Fountain of Power Majesty Love Life and Pleasures in the Womb on the earth on the Cross in the Grave So was the Path of this righteous oâ—e a shining Light of divine Pleasures uniâ—terrupted thorow all these thick shades of the blackâ—â—â— darkness There is one thing more in the duration of Christs Pleasures signified in the last Verse of this Psalm above all this The Lord saith to his Father all Pleasaâ—â—â—â—sses are in thy Face Behold here in one undivided point the full circle of Eternity and that an Eternity of Pleasures The Face of God with all Pleasantâ—esses in it Eternity implyes three things 1. the Fulness of all Beiâ—g 2. the utmost heighth of being 3. the undividedness In this Time falls below Eternity that it is a contracted successive Shadow The Face of God which is his Essential Image and substantial Form the God Head itself in the second Person in the Trinity which is our Lord Jesus is this Eternity This is that Person which was Man was Flesh hung on the Cross and lay dead in the Grave No more could the Lord Jesus be separated from the Face of his Father in any part of his Soul or Body in any season either of Life or of Death than a person can be separated from itself or the Lord Jesus be divided from the Second Person in the Trinity Thorow every state thorow the most cloudy days and the most tempestuous Nights the Face of God the Son of Eternity went along with the 〈◊〉 Jesus shining upon every Cloud aâ—d Storm shining thorough all gâ—â—ding all with the Joys and Glories of Heaven itself In this Face as in the
undivided Circle of Eternity always at once in every moment and cast of his eye he saw possest and enjoyed all pleasantnesses In this Face of his Father which is the Light of Eternity he saw his own Face as he passed thorow all changes Even then when he cried out that he was forsaken by his Father he beheld this forsaking of him himself thus forsaken in this Glass the face of his Father in the midst of all Pleasantnesses one of the Pleasantnesses one with all the Pleasantnesses there The Aâ—gels that take care of Children here below in the midst of this their work on Earth ever behold the Face of the Father in Heaven How much more is it true of that Person who is the Face of the Father who is one Essence and Substance with the Father who unites the Humane Nature to the Divine Nature in the Unity of this Person Shall not he much more see the face of his Father in Heaven while he is on Earth or in the Grave serving the little Children of his Father his younger Brethren as their good Angel This Face in which all Pleasantnesses are at their fulness at their heighth was that Joy set before Jesus Christ upon the Cross for which he enâ—ured the Cross and despised the shame I shall now conclude this discourse of our dying and dead Saviour of his sacred Body living and immortal in Death with those four thiâ—gs which were too wonderful for Solomon the way of a Ship upon the Sea of an Eâ—gle in the Air of a Serpent upon a stoâ—e or a rock of a man with a maid or as it is in Hebrew in a maid The most learned Jews teach us to understand this as the Mystâ—ry of the Messiah The most learned of the Christian Divines give us such a Gloss as this upon it while they make this place from the authority oâ— the Jews themselves to prove against them that the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin 1. The Man in the Maid is the Heavenly Man in Womb of the Virgin 2. The Ship upon the Sea is the Humane Nature in its Union with the Divine Nature Sailing along in its course of time and life here below upon the Sea of Eternity 3. The serpent upon the Sâ—oâ—e or the Rock is the deep and Glorious wonder of Death in the Person of Christ who is the Rock oâ— Eternal Life and God himself who lives for ever 4. The Eagle in the Air is the Humane Nature risen and ascending in the Spirit to the right hand of the father above all Heaven to the utmost heighths of all Joys and Glories of the Divine Nature and Eternity Before I leave this Subject I will point out one Use and Application of it When a Voice came with Thunder to the Lord Jesus declaring Love and Glory from on high upon him Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples Tâ—is Voice came not for my sake but for yours In like manner these glorious things are spoken of Christ in his life and in his death not for himself only but for all his Saints Christ and all the Saints are one seed To that one seed to all the Saints in Christ to Christ in himself and in all his Saints are all the Promises made All those pleasant things which we have spoken of Jesus Christ and of his holy Body in Death are true of him as his Humane Nature is joyned to the Divine Nature in one Divine and Eternal Person which is the most High God The same things are true in us also who believe in him by that Mystical Union which joyneth us to the Lord Jesus in one mystical Person and in the Unity of that Spirit which is also the most high God one with the Father and the Son While we live as Saints by the Faith of the Lord Jesus we live not but Christ liveth in us we live and we are Spiritual only as we are Spirits the Birth of the Eternal Spirit and one Spirit with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection from the Dead All things in Heaven and on Earth of Soul and of Body of Life and of Death are Spirit and Life to us It is true that while we live on Earth a fleshly Spirit a fleshly Image in which Satan hath his Throne have a part in us not as our true selves but as our disguises our diseases our enemy as evil Dreams in our sleep These ofâ—â—n prevail over the Spiritual Man in us and captivate us to many sinful Lusts fears and Griefs But still the Spiritual man in itself which is our true self puts them under its feet and makes them Captives to the Light Love and Immortality of the Spirit The Spirit in us is like the Sua which when we think it under a Cloud or eclipsed by the Moon is so only to our Earthly Light but in truth and to itself it is upon its own Throne of Light triumphantly above the Clouds and the Moon comprehending them in the brightness of its own Glory But besides this in the moment of Death this fleshly Spirit and Image is for ever cast out of all power and rule in a Saint and is entirely subdued to that pure and Heavenly Spirit which is the true Saint which now withâ—â—t any interposing vail or interrupting interval perpetually sees the glorious Face of Jesus Christ in it self which is one Spirit with him and the Glorious Face of the Father in Jesus Christ. Yea one advantage of unexpressible Joy and Glory hath the death of a 〈…〉 of Christ. The Death of Christ had all the stings of 〈…〉 crâ—â—ture â—ver felt or can feel the guilt of Sin 〈…〉 Wrath of the Father all the Powers of Hell in 〈…〉 these stings are taken out of the death of a Saint Christ is risen all the Powers of evil subdued captivated and changed into mysteries of eternal Light and Love in the Glorified Person of Christ by the Virtue of his Resurrection A Believer living and dying stands in the Resurrection of Christ is risen with him in him A Believer is married to Christ as he is risen from the Dead His Life his Death thoroughout all things of them both are Divine Fruits of this marriage-bed brought forth in the Bosom of God to God Break forth then O ye Saints into singing both living and dying tune your last breath to this song of the Lamb and say like him I have set my glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him before me My glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him is at my right hand therefore shall I not be greatly moved Therefore doth my Soul rejoyce in Death my Body also sweetly rests in the Grave as in a Marriage-bed in the midst of all Divine delights as Flowers of Paradise strewed upon it It rests in the Bosom of my glorified Jesus my hope This sweet and sure hope is he that will never leave my Soul in the state of Death nor suffer his Holy One