but him in natural motions he hath to do with him chiefly He is the chief thing which God eyeth and God is the chief thing which he eyeth in every thing I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal. 16.8 Mark There is a mutual conjunction a natural union between God and Christ for this posture of each here floweth from it and pointeth at it they place themselves by one another they mind one another they stand by and to one another Christ seteth God before him and God placeth himself by Christ standeth at his right hand and this is their mutual content delight and safety They are well secure and perfectly at hearts-ease while they are together All misery from the begining to the end ariseth from their separation and distance and will soon vanish when the whole course of that is perfectly over Thus Christ is in his life But now in the death of Christ it is far otherwise Christ in his death falls not only beneath this Glory but also beneath the glory of man God when he breaketh Christ breaketh him more terribly then he hath yet broken man leaveth not so much excellency in him as he hath yet left in man but he beholdeth himself and who ever can look upon him shall find him more in the condition of a worm then a man There is no more beauty in him then in a worm no more majesty in him then in a worm no more wisdom or strength in him then in a worm He hath lost all his light and all his strength in the things of God He knoweth not how to beleeve hope pray or do any thing which requireth life and assistance from God and yet his nature cannot but do these things in a very vehement manner though not after the same rate of understanding and life which he possessed before nor with the aid of so powerful an influence But in what ever he is or does or what ever befals him God regards him not God takes no more notice of him then of a worm Christ who served God with the strength of his life all the days of his life what a stranger is God unto him in the time of his death Call he may again and again in his extremity for relief for support for somewhat to stay his fainting spirit but no news no return no regard from God no more then the worm has that crauls upon the ground My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night and there is no silence to me Psal. 22.1 2. I am a worm and no man A reproach of men That is somewhat more Man is pitied by man in his broken estate but Christ is reproached To have been high and then to fall low is a matter of reproach especially where a further ascent was spoken of and asserted Christ and the people of God talk of neerness to God and further advancement by God yea of perfection in God therefore when they are thus forsaken as they are really and perfectly forsaken in that fleshly dispensation wherein they are at first brought forth and for a season assisted and owned and their life broken and slain they become a grievous reproach Man cannot forbear upbraiding Christ when he beholdeth him dying When man feels his own life which Christ so disdained and still testified against I say when man feels this so far above the Life of Christ as it appears to be and indeed is when Christ is dying he cannot but reproach Christ. Christ is such a proper object of scorn to the spirit of man in the time of his death as cannot but draw forth scorn from him For man to see and feel himself alive and free from that death wherewith he was threatened and the death to fall upon Christ who threatened it even such a death as concludes his death for ever to mans eye and secures man from all that danger which might accrue to him from the Power of Christs Life and which man might stand in some feare of this cannot but stir in man the spirit of derision and cause him in his very heart to reproach Christ. A reproach of men And despised of the people Christ in his death is not only a reproach to man but to the very people of God also The fleshly people of God cannot but then despise this life As they cannot but in some degree honour it when they see the sweet and powerful shining forth of it Never man spake like this man He hath done all things well c. So they cannot but despise it when they see it declining Such is the temper of fleshly Israel and such the way of Christs appearing that the truth and glory of his life is more hidden from them then from the world and their despite of him in his death is greater O how they please themselves in their fleshly zeal and devotion when they find the spirit and life of Christ dying in and passing through his flesh All they that see me laugh me to scorn There is nothing feels greater contempt nor more universal then Christ in his death The eye of man universally contemneth him yea the whole heart of man laughs at him with the greatest derision and disdain that can be High low rich poor Jew Gentile and every sort and sect among each loath Christ in this state He is now become the abhoring of all flesh They jeer at him they trample upon him with the greatest laughter and scorn and without the least regret They spit in his face they buffet him they shoot out the lip they shake the head He is a worm and no man with them too He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him This is one expression of the great contumely in their spirits This is the man that trusted on God for deliverance This is that great and glorious life which came from God which so depended upon God which was so sure to be secured by God The wisdom of man should fall the strength of man should fall but he should be preserved and delivered by God He would not walk in the way of man nor he should not come to the end of man God loatheth man in the midst of all his wisdom righteousness and excellency but this is the beloved of God the delight of God Behold now what he is Behold now where he is Now let God arise and save his choyce one his beloved one He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him O foolish man Ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his Glory If Christ will reap the great Glory and riches of the increase of his life ought he not to reduce it into a seed and to sow that seed in a
wisdom of it appear folly All the Imaginations of man hitherto have fallen and can these stand My Soul in the inmost judgment of it upon the deepest observation search trial sense and experience saith they cannot but that there must needs be a future estate of things wherein all shall be set to rights wherein righteousness which hath here been always oppressed shall be rewarded and iniquity which hath as yet flourished shall pine in pain and misery as also That the present life and happyness of man consists in union and communion with light in the several kinds and degrees of it proportionable to his estate and in a separation from darkness in the several kinds and degrees of it My advice therefore to all persons for their own good and safety is not to run away with notions and apprehensions of things but first to measure them And he that is not able to measure them let him not receive them but let a man only receive what he is able to measure What the eye of the senses can truly judg of they may acknowledg and thus may the eye of reason do also and as for the eye of the spirit though it be cleerer and stronger then either of the other yet it is not safe for it to proceed further then so It will be as dangerous for it to receive beyond what it can understandingly judge as it is for the eye either of sense or reason Now tell me He that in sensible things shall conclude all one and not understanding himself shall venture to eat or drink poyson in stead of good and proper nourishment or He that in things of reason shall do the like in their kind what palpable and irrecoverable dangers doth he incur hereby Nor is the hazard or damage less in things of a spiritual nature and concernment Let him therefore that is in this present state of weakness in danger of miscariage in his apprehensions and motions and liable to misery thereby I say in pity love and tenderness to him Let him take heed and not make his eye useless by entertaining such a beam as will exclude or such a mote as will interrupt the truth and cleerness of his sight VI. Of the Various false New-births and the true one which are distinguished by their root and nature IOHN 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit THere are two ways of distinguishing the things of God The one by the root from which they spring The other is by the nature which they receive into themselves from their root All the Religion of man all the life that man is capable of cometh from a fleshly root and when it is sprung in him it is still but fleshly in it self or in its own nature The truth of God the true nature of God springeth only from the spirit of the Lord and remaineth spirit wheresoever it springs transforming and making that also spiritual which is truly united to it More fully thus There are two seeds which spring up in this world The natural and the spiritual the earthly and the heavenly the seed of this outward world or nature which seed is Adam the seed of another world of a more inward world or nature which seed is Christ. Proportionably there are two Mothers Wombs or Roots in whom these seeds are begotten wherein these seeds are conceived and from which they spring which are Hagar and Sarah the Ierusalem below and the Ierusalem above Nature and Grace or the spirit of this world and the Spirit which is of God In these the seeds are hid and out of these they arise the one from the one the other from the other The fleshly seed comes from the fleshly mother out of the fleshly womb from the root of flesh The spiritual seed cometh from the womb and out of the root of the spirit Nor do they only proceed from the root but they also partake of the nature of the root each do of that root from which they spring so that that which springs from the Earth from the flesh from the root of this common nature is of the Earth is of the flesh is of this common nature and that which springs from the root of the Spirit of God is spirit with that spirit Yet more largely Every thing is and acts according to its root The whole nature course and end of every thing is answerable to the nature of its root According as the root is from which the seed of the tree springs for the tree grows up from a seed and that seed comes from a root such is the nature of the tree such is the estate and condition of the tree such is the fruit of the tree and such will be the end of the tree This is a general truth but particularly in this place applied to Religion All things in Religion are according to the root from which they spring All things in Religion may grow upon any treâ— whether natural artificial or spiritual but that which distinguisheth them in their root Now there are two great roots as there are two great conditions two great courses two kinds of fruit and two great ends of things so there are two great Originals of things Nature and Grace Flesh and Spirit God and Man There is the earthly and the heavenly root the sinful and the holy root the humane and the divine root These roots as they are in us have each of them their own rise their own nature their own properties their own fruit their own course their own end The fleshly root in us hath a fleshly rise a fleshly nature fleshly properties is in a fleshly estate and condition runs a fleshly course brings forth fleshly fruit and tends to a fleshly end viz. to corruption The spiritual root in us hath a spiritual rise a spiritual nature spiritual properties is in a spiritual estate and condition brings forth spiritual fruit and tends to a spiritual end He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting This is that which putteth the great difference between things making the one happy in their misery and the other miserable in their happiness namely the difference of their roots The high the flourishing estate of some in all manner of knowledg in all manner of enjoyments comes to nothing the low barren desolate estate of others is very precious because of their different roots Babel is unlovely in her greatest lustre and glory even when she is built very high and adorned with the greatest spiritual riches magnificence and beauty but Sion is lovely in her greatest ruines desolations even in her very dust and all upon this ground because of their several natures which they have from and which are fed by their several roots in all their changes It is the root of the flesh from which Babel springs and
of flesh and is flesh so that which he receiveth of the things of God is but fleshly He himself under all his spiritual changes as he accounteth them and with all his spiritual notions is but flesh But now he which is spirit all the knowledg which he hath is spiritual the least degree of his light is spiritual He that is born of the spirit is brought forth into the true light into the light of the spirit where he seeth and discerneth the things of God in their own true nature He knoweth the true God and his very Son Iesus Christ He knoweth the true Death the true Life the true Resurrection and Glory of the Son yea he learneth and knoweth in his own order and place all the truths of God not as they are held forth by each man but as they are in Iesus Let knowledg come never so fleshlily clothed to him he thrusts off all that is flesh of it and receives in nothing but spirit whereas the other let knowledg come never so spiritually to him receiveth in and can receive in only the flesh of it 3. For Repentance which is a dying unto sin which is natural unto him that is new-born and brought into the light This the spirit of man can do too and cannot but do Every change in him from every kind and degree of corruption whereof there is dayly occasion ministered unto him causeth repentance Mans natural spirit opened to see it self cannot but repent it cannot but make him loath himself his own nature his own state his own course his own end What man had he the view of himself of his spirit could forbeare abhorring the nature and state of it There is that in the nature of man which cannot but turne from that corruption which he hath contracted with all the concomitants and effects of it so that were but the nature of man awakened though there were neither Heaven to reward nor Hell to punish he could not but loath sin though this is also true that now by the power of his corruption it is become a new nature to him and so he loveth it and would not be rid of it yet there is the relique of somewhat at the bottom of it which is his first and truest nature which hath a contrariety in it hereunto and which upon occasion of being stirred at any time discovereth that contrariety But for all that the spirit of man doth only repent fleshlily I say this Repentance let it arise never so high and be heightened by never so many fresh discoveries of God and spiritual considerations yet still it is but fleshly for that which the light of God discovers and stirs in the nature of man is but of the nature of man But now That Repentance which ariseth from a true root from a renewed spirit from a spirit changed into the nature of the seed which is sown in it this repentance be it never so low let it be never so thickly deeply and darkly covered with a seeming approbation and justification of sin yet the thing it selfe the repentance it self is spiritual It coming from a spiritual root must needs be spiritual notwithstanding its contrary black appearance as the other notwithstanding all its light brightness and glory is but carnal 4. For Faith which is the new life Mans spirit doth naturally beleeve though his Faith is but occasionlly drawn forth Seeing his danger his misery he cannot but lean upon that which is held out to him as his proper rescue releif and support Let God in Christ be discovered to be the only fortress man cannot but run thither And yet his Faith and all his motions in this kind having but flesh having but self having but his own nature viz. the nature of the first Adam for their root what can they be but fleshly but of his own nature but of the nature of the first Adam Nicodemus here could not but run to Christ acknowledg Christ beleeve on Christ but what saith Christ to him Ah poor Nicodemus that which is born of the flesh is flesh To open this a little further because it is the main thing whereupon all dependeth If either the nature or object of faith be mistaken the miscarriage is most certain therefore there is need of great wariness here Now to make this truth asserted here appear the more evident I shall add this consideration following The nature of man came from the nature of God If you should stumble at this expression and say it came from his Will yet sure you will not deny his will to be his nature And as there was at first so there is still a naturalness between God and man though not so open and manifest God doth naturally take care of man and man doth naturally depend upon his God Were the heart of God but opened we should see there that from which the nature of man did flow and his love unto man and care of him even in his broken estate and were the heart of man but opened we should read there dependance and confidence upon his God It is his very nature though at present he be exceedingly turned out of it by an heap of corruption but let the light and discoveries of God break in upon him they stir up this again in him presently only indeed his corruption is so strong that he cannot come off cleverly in any motion of this kind but his heart and nature stands towards it Now is not this evident That whatever is in the nature of man may be drawn forth and that what is thus drawn forth from the Nature of man is but natural or fleshly It is natural to man to look out for help and as natural to him to trust that which is discovered to him as proper and willing to help him And this faith though it be awakened and stirred nay as it were begotten in him by divine means yet that doth not argue it to be divine That which the spirit of the Lord by his warmth and quickening vertue awakeneth in and draweth out of the fleshly root notwithstanding his divine breathings and influences upon it doth not thereupon become Divine though it is easie for weak man who is not acquainted with such kind of things without much questioning to account it so But now That faith which proceeds from a new nature from a new birth from God John 1.12.13 from a spiritual root that must needs be spiritual I shall not need to insist upon the rest I shall therefore only mention them 5. For Love There is a love in the nature of man which doth naturally flow forth towards that which is lovely to the eye of his nature Now God and his Christ having all the excellency in them that is taking to the eye and heart of man and much more upon the discovery of this unto man how can man chuse but love them yet this arising frō the nature of man upon such a discovery as his nature is capable