in a mystery what Eternall life is And because the Scriptures say that weary soules are to come to Christ for ease and Rest therefore every soul who in his own fancy and imaginations doth judge himself to be weary may come to Christ and so by his being weary there is way opened for his coming to him For First It may be the heart may be weary of sin because it brings judgement or condemnation Or Secondly It may be weary because of his long travel to and waiting for Christ Thirdly It may be weary because it can no longer abide in these dispensations of Gods leading Fourthly It may be wearâ— because God comes not in his time and rewards it for its breathing after and working to attaine God or Christ Now the soul being falsly led out by his own heart he instead of coming to Christ onely Rests upon his bare apprehension of this in the letter from his sutability to it in his own spirit and here he feeds and remaines with ease comfort and peace in his own spirit and this he makes his Tabernacle Though it be true that Scriptures were given to be a visible testimony or declaration of God or Christ according to which God workes in man yet they were never given to be an inward Testimony or a Rest unto man but the Truth of the letter must be both revealed known and Judged of by the Spirit and not the Spirit especially in Internalls by the Externall letter neither qualifications in man sutable to the letter in mans apprehension is a ground of faith or rest without an inward Testimony and Manifestation by the Spirit of the Truth of these qualifications The eleventh false Rest. THE Next Rest in order to this upon which men Center their spirits and make their Tabernacles is the use and application of the conceived and imagined extent of Christs death which being so fully declared in the letter without any more they believe it upon this Testimony and here is the ground of their joy peace assurance and rest Now I shall not go about to speake evil of any point of judgement in reference to any particular sactions but to come to lay open my own experience and false Rests which in so doing I may come to lay open a way whereby more that are led by the same deceite may come to see it in themselves and so may from sad experience seale to the Truth of what we are saying for many who have gone through this dispensation and have beleeved this to be a Truth when now alas they see that they were both ignorant of what this Christ was or what was meant by his death wanting the knowledge of it in themselves now the terrors of death have or do seise upon them and instead of being joy and peace unto them it hath produced death and sorrow in them But first of all This soul who is thus resting upon Christs dying for all he sees the Scripture saith He gave himself a ransome for all The conclusion is this of such a spirit if for all then for me and this he beleeves and this saith he is the ground of true faith when he is altogether deceived For the ground of faith is something out of the Creature in God before time revealed and made manifest from God to the soule in time upon which the soule builds his faith rests upon it and is kept unto all time in the glory and splendor of it but the soul wanting this in a particular way of discovery he makes the other the ground of his confidence for refreshment peace safety and happinesse and he concludes First That no true faith can be but this Secondly that none have any gtound to believe but upon this ground When the poor heart is altogether ignorant in his own breast of the manner of Gods coming to reveal truth yea himself in his Son by his Spirit whereas now mans ground of his happinesse lyes not in a misunderstood Scripture without him but in a right discerned revealed and known God within him Thirdly This soul daily encreaseth in the assurance of this his rest by his daily study pains and diligence wherein he fils his head with so much of the Scriptures as indeed he makes it so glorious as it Conquers his spirits and many more into a solacing himself in this very particular when indeed he is missing the chiefest good which is the life of him who puts an end of all controversie to all such disputes when he comes to appear in the Spirit But alas before no marvell though the poore Soule be running from mountaine to hill though he forgets him who is the Resting place of Zion Therefore soul thou that makest thy habitation amongst the briers and thorns and barren mountains Arise these are not thy Rest they are from a corrupted judgement and therefore are corrupted and if thou stay here they shall destroy thee with an utter destruction all are not proper Rests which are dispensations and manners of Gods leadings but the pure promise of rest is neither in any thing before in Death and Resurrection but in the ascendings of the heart and spirit of a Creature into God by the descendings of God into the Creature which did raise him from death and the grave and now have opened the heavens to him by receiving of him into glory for as Christ did not make his rest and abode in any carnall or fleshly dispensation though in the same he did enjoy the Father so no heart is to make that his rest which Christ did not make Every heart so long as it lives below the glory of God so as it is not glorified with God is a heart centring himself in a dispensation which shall be dissolved For both man in he dispensation of Christ in the flesh or in a crucified buried or raised Soule is not to abide but in a glorified ascended Soule into God where the life is the unchangeable glory and splendor of God dwelling in man glorifying of man in which is the life and center of man truly and unchangeably centred The Twelfth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is a closing with and drawing comfort from the promises expressed in the letter of the Scriptures This closing thus with and applying the benefit of promises the whole life center comfort cause of joy peace duties diligence what not to many a soul and from hence when many come to declare their manifestation of God all they have to say is at such a time a promise was made forth unto them or cast into their thoughts by which they apprehended God and closed with it and from thence did draw comfort and peace from it and this is all the experience of God that is manifested to them or that they have This causes abundance of rest and security to many a heart and luls them a sleep which is most commonly Satans way to apply himselfe to such a cuâ—e for to cause a soul
pleased to appear in to us is to be no Rest or habitation of us but to be led into higher enjoyments or after higher enjoyments of God by the sight and appearance of him though in a low or very meane manner in the forme discovered For the end partly why Christ appeared in divers formes to his Apostles and so to many now is because he would not have any â—est in or upon his forme or appearance but that they might be as he was dying to all these and waiting for his ascending into God where be might be for ever swallowed up with the light and glory of God and there to make his and all Saints habitation and Rest The fifteenth false Rest THe next Rest which I shall speak of iâ— The Gospel Faith of Jesus Christ as men call it which indeed hath some ground of Rest both from Scripture and reason as they think Men in our daies have given distinctions of Faith as namely Historicall Temporall and Saving But leaving the two former I come to the latter and shall un-bosome my sad experience of deceit in the same 1. Concerning this Saving Gospell-Faith I owne there is a Faith which in Scriptures is termed Saving yet that which men call both beleeving and saving I find not to be so And first of all man cals true Faith A dependence upon Christ or beleeving Christ dyed for them according to the Scripture Now Faith is neither a dependancy upon Christ or beleeving according to our common exposition that Christ dyed for us these if they be so in the heart as a Creature doth conceive yet they are but the effects and fruits of Faith in its spirituall act upon or towards God but this many make their Rest and shelter that if they can but beleeve Christ dyed for them at Jerusalem and that thus beleeving they can go out of themselves that is onely deny their own righteousnesse and beleeve that Christ is theirs and that he dyed for them this is a Rest sufficient when indeed the poor heart is both ignorant what Faith is and what going out of himselfe is For never can a Creature go out of himself to Christ or God before there be a cleere â—aâ—ifestation of God in the heart Now the Creature who is thus Resting upon his beleeving in Christ is altogether ignorant of any manifestation of God to him or â—n him For Faith is a supernaturall and divine light of God communicated to the soul by the Spirit of God which after this manifestation of light the creature comes to see and behold the glory of God by which Faith he is made to beleeve yea which beleeving is an effect or act of the said Faith upon or towards the same God which is revealed Now in the first place Beleeving is not Faith but an effect thereof Secondly Beleeving is an act of God in us to himselfe and so no Rest Thirdly Nothing which flowes forth from man to God is to be a Rest No act whatsoever is to be a Rest as it is purely exercised in man though of God but mans Rest is to be one who acts all in man who is God Many men are thinking highly of themselves because the Scriptures declare a Christ crucified for man and they are made to beleeve he was so for them and so are made to deny their own works or doings and to depend onely upon this Christ which indeed the poor hearts be ignorant of and know him not neither have any manifestation of Jesus Christ in them in any particular way but only from their own imaginations and fancies they stil confidently beleeve that this Christ is theirs and he dyed for them and here they Rest and make their habitation concluding this to be Faith and the knowledge of Christ which indeed if such a Spirit knew what Faith were or the knowledge of Christ were this would be dissolved if not destroyed and it would finde it's faith and knowledge to be an un sound and un safe Rest to be centred upon So that I say that that is not Faith or beleeving which men so call and if so it were no ground to Rest upon For in the first place A man must truly know within himselfe what is Faith is before aman can truely beleeve Secondly He must also know what this Christ is he beleeves in before he can depend upon him and beleeve truly in him Thirdly There must be a clear manifestation of God or Christ in man before there can be any true knowledge particularly of him by man Fourthly Christs dying at Jerusalem shall then be known to the heart in a more spirituall manner then ever And the workings of that death shall be found in that heart to be such as formerly it did not conceive of Fiftly He shall know that dependency upon Christ and his former beleeving in Christ the truth of which he hath formerly tryed by visible signes and marks is now made to be a fancy not Faith and an effect of darknesse not of light And now he findes another dependency and beleeving in him flowing from another ground then before he knew and that the matter he Rested upon in hes own imagination which he before called a Christ dying for him is now changed being it was but his carnall conceptions and fleshly teachings and actings and now he is made to see the spirituall sense and so to judge of the truth of an ever-dying yet ever living transfigured glorified Christ so as now he is making his habitation not amongst the beasts of the field in his former fancies and fleshly teachings but in the spirituall heavens where live all Just men made perfect and all perfect men made to live by or in the life of God or Christ so as he is changed into glory and his Rest is made glorious Sixtly When this is come to passe men shall know really the Mystery of Faith and why it is called a Mystery and that same spirit shall know a difference betwixt the Mystery of Faith discovered to the Conscience coming as it were from God and the keeping and exercising of the Mystery of that Faith in a pure Conscience to God and that beleeving is not Faith as it purely comes from God discovering it self and the Mystery thereof to the Conscience but it is the exercise of that said Mystery of Faith by God in Conscience to God So that the Mystery of faith in it self is one thing and beleeving and dependency upon Christ if true is another thing But the effect or exercise of the Mysteriousnesse of faith in a conscience which is pure to or upon a God that is pure Seventhly Men may beleeve Christ died for them and from this beleeving may practise such things as are required by him yea may have such peace joy in the same And in this his own works he may abhorre and detest not setting them up with Christ and this he may do from a Scripture notionary knowledge onely got in the
and action he seemes to be and that he do not pretend to live in God above all formes when indeed he neither live in God nor knowes what it â—s to be led by God out of the same into that which is truly sweet if the soul were led into that he pretends to enjoy The tenth false Rest. THe next Rest which in order we shall speake of is a Sutability to the externall letter or some qualified frame wherein this Creature takes his joyfull Rest in the view thereof Indeed when a man is wounded yea deadly unlesse there be speedy helpe in this condition the Creature will be willing to enjoy any Chiruâ—geon for the Cure thereof yea him that but pretends faire and by his skill doth give some ease therein at present and hopes for the future though this party do it but to serve his owne ends not from any principle of good to the party who is the patient yet he being ignorant of his faire pretences he heals up his wounds though falsly and afâ—erward the wound breaks forth again to the greater damage to the party Thus it is with a poor distressed wounded helplesse heart whom it may be God is a preparing for mercy he lying in such a desperate condition would gladly have his wound cuâ—ed by God but there coming a pretended Physitian into the heart speaks like God appearing to the Creature to be God and to heal in the same way God heales Soules yet the soul being ignorant accepts of it and freely entertaines it whereby it comes to have a time of peace and Rest onely because he apprehends his despeâ—ate wound to be cured And thus souls do in a time of straights accept of those proffers when in another condition he would not but at present necessity putting the soul upon it Now soules that live under the sight of the want of God would in the sight thereof be in a way to attaine God seeks and presses to know in this case what to do at last it looks upon the Scriptures in this case to be the only Teacher whereupon he gives himselâ—e to a diligent searching of the same where he meets withall some places how the Saints were formerly qualified and these preparations they â—ad within them whereupon he sets a labouring with his own heart to bring it into such an estate of mourning humiliation or repentance with hungring after God as also loathing sin and having a wearinesse and burthen under it and when he hath thus done he runs to Scriptures and seeing his condition sutable to that he makes Scriptures the ground of his faith and so cures his wounds by it and so drawes peace and comfort from it Now the creature being ignorant of any other work he wrests from this Scripture influence as is pretended and from thence concludes his enjoyment of God and that now from some perswasions of spirit concludes it to be the witnesse of the Spirit when indeed the creatures heart in this case is not upright and he being in darknesse is not able otherwise to judge of himselfe or his condition neither of his heart which doth tell him that this his sutability is upright but the foul wanting the manifestation of light he is not able to passe true sentence upon the same but Rests and man makes his habitation here and though he pretends to make Scripture the ground of his thus beleeving yet it is his qualifications and sutability to Scriptures which is the ground of his thus Rest and beleeving Or Secondly That which in this case the soul is most establisht in is when it may be a Creature is in some sad condition a Scripture is cast in immediately upon the soul un-sought-out or laboured for and this sutable to the soules condition from which there is joy and peace yea sometimes the heart is so ravisht with it and so overcome by it as indeed it 's hardly able to expresse its joy and peace yea sometimes the heart is so overcome as it cannot expresse it or hardly knows for the present where it is But here lies the Angel-like designe sometimes of Satan to come in the same manner and with the same effect to deceive that God comes in with to save and so transformes himself into Gods shape And one of the cheefest waies he hath is to apply himselfe in such a way of working like God as he may the most prevail with the soul and resemble God and so keep the soul much below God Now Scripture-way Satan thinking is most like Gods way of any other especially when he brings in Scriptures sutable to the condition of the party and so that he may cause the soul to beleeve that at such a time God was pleased to manifest himself by casting in such a Scripture so sutable so as now his transformed work is the more surer seeing it hath such a â—oundation as this yet this he doth of purpose to deceive Thirdly Man 's own Memory or fancy being upon some serious meditation may in the same manner and way bring and represent before the soul such a Scripture and here lies most of the deceit of the fancy and imagination thus to work this way there coming in a Scripture into the thoughts of such a soules fancy and imagination to drive on his own Designe makes it as it were a nose of wax to apply it to what use or way he please yet he will make it the ground of his imagination and fancy and so man this way comes to Rest upon a deceit and fiction and not upon any ground in the glorious manifestation of God Now Scriptures it is true do display in a Mystery most Precious things which if a soul did enjoy them their thus enjoying of the Truth there displayed would be a Rest unto them but so long as a man reads Truth in the letter without him untill he can read it in the Spirit within him there is little cause of rest to such a heart Aâ— Instance for a man to be overwhelmed in grosse darknesse and in this darknesse the soul not able to behold the glory of God Now from his reading in Scriptures he sees God there expressed to be a Light and to be full of Glory yet notwithstanding from the sight of this in Scripture though he want this light within him and his darknesse to be expelled out of him yet he rests with the sight of this in the Scriptures satisfied as though God were become light and glory in him and had expelled all darknes out of him and he carried up to behold it truly and live in it so that that I drive at is to unbottom any Soule of making a nose of wax upon the letter and because Christ saith in an upbraiding way Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to have Eternal life so many now think to have this Eternal life in the Scriptures or in searching of them when indeed they are but a Testimony or a Record to set forth
head where he is swallowed up with his conception of his enjoyment of Christ and God by beleeving and so may live in a way of Dependency upon Christ as he is declared and set forth to dye for man at Jerusalem from which knowledge beleeving and dependency there is begotten much deadnesse and security in which he may suffer and rejoyce he may dye and live in it exalting God much in word and seeming actions and yet all this time ignorant of the ground and Mystery of faith yea ignorant of the knowledge of Christ which begets the true exercise and living by faith Yet if this which I now say were true yet it were too low an Element for any spirituall heart to make his habition or Rest but in this same they are to be as men of hope 2 Thes 3. 5. waiting for and hasting unto the Coming of Christ in the Clouds 1 Thes 4. 17. where they shall enjoy and have a Dispensation of Glory and so shall be for ever with the Lord for the Mystery of faith is the pure fight of an un-known un-seen God Isa 33. 17. and the pure sight of God in this great Mystery is from the pure enjoyment of God is the Kingdome of heaven and glory and this must be within and enjoyed by every spirituall heart This is the place of safety where Saints Treasure lyeth and where they are to make their Rest habitation and abode Col. 3. 1. This safe Rest is not procured by neither is it a dependency upon one a heard of Christ but it is a carrying up a spiritual crucified Spirit into a glorious God who was and now is made manifest to live with to Rest upon and to have a habitation in for Ever and for Ever And here the spirit remaines in safety and in glory triumphing in him and being swallowed up with him is carried up into the light and life of God knowing him in all things enjoying him in all things seeing him to be the light and life of all things being now gathered up into his will is wholly disposed by him and therein with God is satisfied and so Rests whereas mens beleeving is very unsound and if it were not yet it s very unsafe being given to change And being it is but some exercise of something in man yet it being but an effect it is not to be a Rest but man is rather to be carried above it after the pessession of him who can give Rest and ease all heavy loades and burthens of the creature Mat. 11 28. 29. The sixteenth false Rest THe next Rest we in order shall speak of Is the great Experiences many have of deliverances given them by God from inward and outward straits making them evidences of his love and matter enough to conclude safety Rest and happinesse and in this particular there is some glosse and seeming cause as afterwards shall be produced And first of all we will come to spirituall deliverances as First Inward conflicts of spirit occasioned either by a discovery of the want of God or of a souls misery without God which occasioneth condemnation and apprehensions of wrath and so sorrow mourning and griefe of spirit in which condition the soul lyeth as in hell being filled with horror and fear and looking upon God as nothing but a revenging and tormenting God in which torments of spirit he lies groaning and mourning before God being swallowed up in darkness and bondage attempting all means to get freedome and liberty from this his sad wofull and miserable estate wherein soules sometimes get deliverance one of there three waies 1. Eiâ—her from extraordinary paines and diligence wherein he thinks if he could but do this or that or attain so much humiliation or mourning or repentance then he should be happy and in freedome whereupon in conclusion he attaines in his own apprehensiâ—n that which before he desired which stopping of the mouth of conscience and breaking prison before God deliver together with a conceite of a Cure applyed by God when indeed it is a curing the wound of such a soul falsly which in time will break forth to the greater damage of the party Or secondly It is freed by some cunning Sophister of Satan either immediately by himselfe wherein he lobours to apply a false remedy thinking to put the soul thereby into a state of security or else mediately by his instruments in the Ministery wherein they come to daub with untempered morter and so speak â—eace to man before God speak peace within man and so do as the Lord saith Heal up the wound of the Daughter of his people fasly and from this have many poor hearts been mistaken when at any time they have been in and under such torments of spirit they have not rested untill they have run unto Ministers to see what they will say some of them putting them upon doing some of them applying cures to them and here a poore heart thinks to be satisfied where he never Rests but runnes from one to another from creature to creature seeing if he can get any thing from them sometimes coming away with much peace other times coming away with a Lesson of doing and by these means come souls sometimes to have their deliverances and for a space Rests untill it break forth again The third way wherein many others attaâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—erances is from God As the Children of Israel from their land of bondage tyranny and task-masters which though God himself did free them yet notwithstanding was not to be their Rest but to be their first step toward their Rest So though God do sweetly deliver a Soul from and out of this trouble and perplexity of spirit yet it is not to be a Rest unto him or to be a habitation for him to dwell in but to be as it were the first step to his Rest Now some mens deliverances are of God and some of themselves and some of Satan but none of these are to be rested upon as they are deliverances seeing they may be true or false which untill a higher dispensation of God cannot infallibly be discerned Secondly A Soul may be delivered from a resolved self-Murther or Destruction when temptation doth violently attend that way yet notwithstanding though he be abundantly preserved by God in his inward straight wherein Satan would have him become his own executioner but it is not any sufficient Center for any spirit Or thirdly If it be a deliverance of the creature from the wrath to come presently lying in the apprehension of the creature yet not to be a Rest or any cause thereof Fourthly If it be a deliverance of the creature from some violent corruption or lust within him so as now God hath as it were freed his spirit from that Lordly power of inward corruption so as now he is freed from sin which formerly hath both dishonoured God dishonoured Truth and taken away his peace Now sometimes when this comes to be subdued and the soul delivered from