speak of was Christ Secondly we see the place where it centers before it is made manifest and that is laid open to be in the Father Thirdly the way whereby they knew it and also to be theirs was twofold First by the manifestation of it Secondly by opening the eyes of a souls understanâ—â—ng whereby they come to see that life which now to them is made manifest further he is the life of Saints spiritually considered Coloss 3. 3. 4. here he saith when Christ our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory So that he is here Saints life called and more fuller experienced in every heart who hath found him fully made manifest within their spirits againe he is life of Saints as he becomes the spirituall resurrection of Saints for before ever God bring any Creature into the enjoyment of himself he brings the Creature into a spirituall death not in the body but in the spirit and being layd in the grave aloâ—â— Christ as he is the spirituall life of Saints must be their resurrection I meane the resurrection of their spirits from this spiritual death as he is a dispensation of life and therefore it is written Joh. 11. 25. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live So that Christ as he is to become the spirituall life of Saints proves an inward resurrection to them in the manifestation of this their life which indeed Paul did experience when he spake these words Gal 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that though Paul had been buried into Christs death yet notwithstanding when Christ came to be manifested to him then he proved a resurrection of life in him and by this life was Paul madâ—â—◠〈◊〉 for untill Christ our life comes to be manifest we lye dead voyd of any spiritual life or motion in us and this was figured out in the matter of Lazarus death when Christ came he found him dead and buried voyd of life or motion wherein at last the very breath of Christ breathed out in way of voice Lazarus come forth raised him up and gave life unto him Ioh. 11. 43 44. Two things are here spiritually holden forth First a spirituall death of Creatures when Christ comes to breath upon them the breath of life Secondly by his thus comming speaking and breathing occasions life because his words are spirit and life thus spoken So that it is said The hour is comming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Now in all this is held forth unto us The spirituall resurrection of all Saints by Iesus Christ coming in the spirit into them so that though this particular be the least looked after yet it is of the highest concernment and not that which most men doat of so much after death So that if we look upon our spirituall resurrection we shall see that the coming of Christ in the Spirit is a manifestation of Spirituall life which proves a spirituall life which proves a spirituall resurrection in such Creatures and in time their Rest and Center Now he being the life of Saints Then first we may observe That Saints life is Iesus Christ Though before they are making out of their own actings according to the law of works do this and live yet now they see that life is destroyed and the cause of all actions to God flowes from this life principled in them and though they are making a life out of enlargement or holinesse in conversation yet this is a life above it unbottoming the creature off from it and centring the Creature in a stable and solid life Secondly the Saints live because Christ lives in them for though before their livâ—â—â—re hid with God yet they were not to live in 〈◊〉 â—o themselves with joy and peace untill it 〈◊〉 manifest from God in them so that they are made to live from the manifestation of life in them whereby they come to know it and so to be made to live by it for ever Cast a Saint into any condition he lives very sweetly because he lives by the life of Christ in him yea he lives sweetly with contenâ—ednesse because Christ lives in him So now to summe up this Christ as he is a spirituall dispensation of God in the Spirit is a Spiritual life by vertue of which life in Saints are Saints swallowed up with it and so centred up in it So that the center or rest of a Saint is eternall and everlasting which is Christ the spirituall life of God in us by which life the Creature doth not only live to but live to do This life is the motion of his spirit so as by this life he doth not onely live but lives to it so that the creatures spirits are wholly set apart to live to God This life is the living in the Spirit and not in the flesh hereby comes the life of Saints to be a life of love and a life of God because they are not at Rest from all their own labors and now all things are acted in them by that Spirit of life which is Christ dwelling in them now Saints wholly live to God by the life of God in them and thus are Saints centred up in God or Christ because their spirits are carried up above the creature into life which is Christ in them becoming spirituall and eternall life to them Fifthly This spirituall Christ as he comes from God and is manifested by God and so known by us and become Rest to us he is spirituall redemption and deliverance Now to looke upon Christ in the Spirit he cannot be manifested but he becomes a spirituall Jesus that is a Saviour of spirits for he was not a Jesus as he was in the flesh but he was a Jesus as he was to come in the Spirit for the flesh could not doe it Yet it was a figure of that spiritual salvation and liberty which Christ is in the hearts of Saints For indeed Jesus Christ is salvation it self and where he in power and glory there is salvation that is he is a Saviour or a deliverer of the creature out of that spiritual slavery and bondage in which he lives So as he is become freedome and redemption to the heart and therefore he is said to be made unto us Wisdom and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that is he is manifest in us and so is become a spirituall redemption to us freeing us spiritually from our inward bondage and slavery both that bondage of self and Sathan whereby we are made to live in spiritual freedome and all this freedome and deliverance is Christ in the spirit as he is a spirituall dispensation designed of God for the same purpose though many souls do work out their own salvation by their doing whose salvation is false others having
beware of as great an evill on the right hand as on the left and that is That they be not living upon an imaginary God and not the true for it is the way of the Creature to give so much way to his fancy and imagination that whatever it proposeth to be God it lives upon and rejoyceth in and brings the Soul into deep and carnall security with high imaginations of himself being able to apprehend and discourse of deepe and high things and yet want the life and power of any one of them 3. Beware of Judging if thou be broke off from formes those that thou hast left behinde thee in the use there of Confidering that God is in all formes of his own appoinment and that their dispensations may be of God and that they shall there abide but their appointed reason And therefore let thy carriage to them and thy judgement of them be as much as possible may be without offence unto them and for the winning of them and that when God sees a higher dispensation fit for them he will leade them into it only my soule desires they may not be so glued to them as to live in them and not to waite for a higher dispensation from God only in the want thereof they are in the use thereof God owning and appearing unto them in them so that I could wish the wisdome of God may appear so in the hearts of those who doe pretend thus high to live in God that it may truly appear to themselves and to others God led them into the same not themselves I have experienced both the contrary evils and therefore I speake so that if God be love as in his dispensation God is so to him that knowes it not then it must break forth from us if it be living in us to look upon children and babes with a tender eye and respect so as judgement may passe away and the spirit of burning which is Love may appear amongst us Thirdly As others are under mens Teachings so looke thou be under the Teachings of the Vision of God Heb. 2. 3. and that thou speake or pretend to enjoy no more then is taught within thee by the Vision of God for in the want thereof sad experiences testifies we Peecing and patching Religion and high notions together and make it their delight and joy Oh the teachings of God doe open the very heart and the secrets of the sealed Booke and beleeve it to live wholly above all in God It is to live such a transcendent life as is better and sooner spoken then enjoyed and known in truth for there must be such a death within men and a passing from death to lise by man that indeed men may hear of the thing and get it into their imaginations but to enjoy it in the true and reall manifestations thereof many in this shall in their conceits be brought to losse for to have the Scales of the Eternall brightnesse and glory of God opened in the appearance of the Vision in a mans heart to have the very splendor and glory of the divine Being Revealed within man and to be wholly caught up in the whole out of all things so as the soule is wholly swallowed up with God in all things so that now neither eye hath seen nor care hath heard neither by mans heart can be imagined the depths of the life glory and enjoyment of such a heart yet it is his common meate and teaching of the Spirit within him so that no manâ— teaching can reveal the life and center of such a heart but it is better experienced then can be declared it is so transcendent a life and being Yea further for any man to live so in God as he enjoyes God in all and seeth God the life and being of all yea it is not his judgement but hee findes all these things effectually within him For a man may be of the judgement concerning living wholly in God to be the onely Life and yet not to know this from the experience of the visions teaching within himselfe Now it is no benefit for any to be of this and that judgement unlesse he live in the clear enjoyment of the truth he is convinced of in his judgement and understanding here is the glory of a Saint indeed not to know a truth because it is the judgement of any neither because it is his own judgement but that he have within him the truth teaching of it to him from the life and power of it in him So he knowes the Sun to be the Sun not from hear-saies but he seeth the life and glory of it having his eyes opened to behold it and findes by experience the heat and powerfull operation of the same upon him as well as upon the earth So with Saints they doe not receive their Life Light or experience of God living in a Saint from hearing of it but God breakes forth in their spirit and so gives them the fight of the glory light and splendor of God within themselves So soule beware thou be not overcome so with hear-saies as to rest satisfied with the meer notion of God and truths and yet be at this time but a blazing starre who shall fall and cease to be what thou at present both to thy selfe and others seems to be onely for a time thou may by this notionary light in thy understanding and judgement be a blazing star to discover what thou hast for the deceit of thy self and others and yet it is not the light of the being of truth in thee but a borrowed light got from others or in thy imagination or conception which shall suddenly perish and then thou shalt be left in the dark as a man in the Clouds reserved for the great day Oh to be Taught of God is a Jewel it will teach Truth and not lye Therefore in the last place It is worth waiting for though thou waite in silence and in death untill thou do enjoy it lest thou pretend to have that thou hast not and to enjoy that thou enjoyest not for in so doing thou shalt go with a lye in thy Right hand and shelter thy self under vanity and lyes Yet I would not be mistaken that either I am against formes in their time and place and manner neither that I deny that a soul may attaine to such a glorious enjoyment of God as must yea all formes and shadowes may flye away and be dissolved though not destroyed and the person forme and use thereof shall be swallowed up with glory But I defire to compose the great difference that lyes in mens attainments when they all cannot speake one thing or enjoy God in one dispensation then they fall one condemning another â—o as they cannot make out for good of each other that which they enjoy of God in their present dispensations Secondly To unbottom the one of Resting in and living upon or making his everlasting Tabernacle in those Shadowes and the
is Jesus Christ made so by God to us whereby he becomes our Righteousnesse a Righteousnesse which destroyes all ours in the flesh and makes us-live in the righteousnesse of the Spirit So that now beleevers in this kind shall not be found naked but cloathed with Christ their righteousnesse they shall not be condemned for they shall be made stand in the righteousnes of another And to be covered with the roabes of the Lamb made beautifully by Christs beauty and comely by his comelinesse so that the same shall dwell in the spirits of Saints that dwels in the Spirit of God and that shall be made a beleevers to be imployed for God and to God now beleevers who are made to Rest in Christ are incompassed about with truth and righteousnesse in which their spirits shall live with freedome and unexpressible joy for ever And now as this Christ dwels in them as a dispensation of God so he carries them up in their spirits to live and Rest compleatly in God so as now they live where Christ lives which is in the bosome of God so that the great designe of God in this Christ spiritually comming is wholly to gather up the spirits of creatures into the Spirit to live dwell or rest therein and to this purpose he is called the Power of God and indeed he is so a divine a Power come forth from God to accomplish the great designe of God in the Spirits of Saints and therefore Saints finde sometimes that this Power works in them mightily and never ceases till it gathers up the creature wholly into God to Rest compleatly in him So that to conclude all when Saints are truly at rest in God then in the first place the will of the creature shall be centred up in the will of God and so â—he will of God shall become the will of the creature so as the will shall cease to act any thing but what is acted by the Will of God so that the Will of of Saints shall be gathered up into the will of God and their Will being centred up in his Will Here shall it be said The creature hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. 10. and now his Will Rests in God though before the Will was bent against God and would not be limited but all things must be carried on according to the Will of flesh but now it acts so no more but now with Christ not my will but thy will be performed so as now his will is at Rest he wils nothing of himselfe it is carried on by the Will of God Secondly The mind of the creature is centred in the mind of God so that creatures mindes one thing with God and the same Principall of truth is possessed in the mind of God So that now the mind is wholly made spirituall and none but God doth possesse it So as now the mind doth solace it self takes sweet contentment in God whereas it may be a small time before God did not dwell in the mind but corruption or sin at that time there was not such solace in God but rather in lust and sin neither did the mind delight in God or rest upon him whereas now being spiritually possessed with it is sweetly made to live above all in God who is now become the ease and rest of the mind Thirdly The affections of men are centred up in God and wholly swallowed up with him So as now the creature lives in heaven That is with his affections in the presence of God with great delight and so he comes really to dwell with God nothing can come and take up this creatures affections being they are placed upon God being made spirituall by God So they act as God acts in them yea the affections of the creature and Gods are made both one so as they wheel both from one principle and by one and the same power Love moves Gods affection if it can be so said so it moves the creatures affection to God God is ravished with the creature and the affections are ravished with God he delighteth on the one hand and the creature on the other So that Christs and Saints delight and joy are both one Fourthly The Spirits of Saints are at Rest because they are eased of all heavy loades and burdens Christ hath given them Rest who are eased and unloadened of every yoak and burthen so as now his wearinesse is at an end and no more in his spirits but all taken away and his spirit lives in compleat liberty and freedome Fifthly He is set free and is at Rest whom God hath made to cease from his own works and now God works all in and by his Spirit That though he hath bin a long time travelling towards Canaan yet now he is got within the land That now God flowes in npon his spirits with immediate feedings and refreshments and so now fully satisfies the heart with all things desirable and desired so as the Spirit lives in compleat satisfaction in all things as he is sweetly possessed with him who is become all things to him and by this acts no more in himself nor by himself but now it is that he is dead thereunto and is so quickned in the Spirit as that now the worke of Gods Kingdome is made exceeding glorious and is carried on exceeding gloriously So that â—ot by arm or strength of the creature but by the Spirit The creature being ceased from all self-actings this soul truly that Rest in God Further he is at Rest in God who hath truly passed through the state of inward resurrection and now is Ascended into God for as Christ in his fleshly form was not at Rest because he was not ascended so no more is the spirits of any spirituall man at Rest in God untill after his spirituall resurrection he be ascended into God to dwell compleatly in God for Christ coming in the manifestation of the Spirit begets a resurrection in us and the powerfull effects of that life begets an ascension of our spirits into God So that now the soul having ascended can no more descend into these low things which keepes below and short of his Glory but when he appeares in the Spirit within us and discovers his glory to us it doth so overcome the spirit as indeed it is caught up with it for ever to live in it for impossible it is that the spirits can live below God which occasioneth trouble and wearinesse who hath before truly lived in God by the vertue of God made manifest to live in them Secondly It is impossible that any soul can live and Rest in God and so ascend into God before there be a manifestation of the life of God in the creature for it is God descending in his appearance or manifestation in us That both begets a resurrection and ascension of us so that we ascend by descending and live Rest in him by his being manifested to live and Rest
that is all that is required of them to salvation and indeed so it is and something more But Thirdly To Rest upon Christ come in the flesh is to beleeve from the Letter of the Scripture without any powerful manifestation of the spirit that this Christ who did according to Scripture dye at Jerusalem dyed for them And here many satisfie themselves with very high conceits of their condition and here alone men Rest upon the bare Figure As if men under the Law should have made Circumcision and the enjoying of Sacrifices in that common manner they were performed to be a ground of Rest and so contented themselves in the use thereof as conceiving themselves to be made happy by the Type and Figure and not by that which was Typified out in the same So concerning Christs dying at Jerusalem it was a Figure of the spirituall death of the creature with Christ and also of his resurrection Now when we come to be buried with him into his death Rom. 6. 4 5. and also come to be with him raised up from death that is into the clear enjoyments of God where we are made to live in the God-head from it living in us John 14. 17. then doe we fully understand and know this Christ and this eternall Life and not meerly for a man to conceive because the Sriptures doe declare that this Christ is come and the Creature assenting to the whole history and believing of it that this is the knowledge of Christ which is eternall life for unlesse the Creature know him so to be to him that is eternall life to him Col. 3. 3 4. that as the Scriptures do declare him so to be in the knowledge of him so the Creature findes it true within himselfe from the experience of him in his own soule his knowledge is but carnall not living spirituall knowledg for that man that Rests upon him as he is declared in Scripture before he be revealed within his soul both that mans Rest and knowledge is but carnall and fleshly for we see that all men almost in England or in any place where the Gospel is but published doe believe that he is crucified and is risen and this they know from the testimony of Scripture but doth every man know the minde and mystery of truth Doth God reveale it to every one Can any know the minde of God in these particulars either by the History or any other way but by the Spirit of God then it must he that before this Christ come to be spiritually known hee must be spiritually revealed within mans heart 1 Cor. 2. 10. Gal. 1. 16. So that to hear of a Christ and not to enjoy him from being revealed within is but very unfafe and unsound knowledge to Rest upon and that which brings not along with it eternall Life as witnesse 1 John 1. 1 2. He clearly expresses that this Christ which is eternall life was made manifest unto them and was their knowledge of from which knowledge they had fellowship and communion with him 1 John 1. 3. This knowledge is spirituall and according to Scripture spiritually revealed before it be truly and experimentally known now the Sriptures doe not reveale Christ within any man neither doe say the yto any particular soule thou such a one Christ died for thee but it is the same spirit which did declare the Scriptures which must reveal what this Christ is Secondly What the mystery of God in his so coming or what mystery God did hold out in the figure which was his fleshly coming too and for thee in particular And lastly Thou must doe as he did passe from death to life and after being buried with him before thou live in the Kingdome of heaven with him or indeed know what that Kingdome or place is which men carnally conceive to be above the Skyes though the spirituall knower of him knowes it in â—nother place Now what is it for a man to fill his head full of the history concerning the birth and death of Christ unlesse this Jesus a Saviour or this Christ which is the light and glory of God be discovered and revealed within him sutable to that precious Testimony of Pauls knowledge of this Christ Gal. 1. 16. where he speakes of this Christ to be revealed within him for Christ as he was in the flesh cannot be revealed but Christ as he is in the Spirit or Christ as he is the great design of God typified out in the flesh and revealed in the Spirit either as a light or as life or as he is the breath of God or as he is the clear manifestation of God wherein man comes to know him to be his Jesus that is his Saviour or inward deliverer or wherein man clearly beholds The Father in him and he in the Father John 24. 11. which cannot be discerned as he was in the flesh but as he is in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 8. that being a figure thereof wee see this knowledge the Apostles wanted when they said Lord shew us the Father John 14. 8. they having no more knowledge of Christ but as he was in the flesh they knew not that the Father was in him and he in the Father Iohn 14. 11. upon this knowledge were they Resting when they said Lord it is good for us to be here Mat. 17. 4. when they would have been making Tabernacles of Rest before Christ did transfigure himselfe within but Christ bids them Arise let us goe hence as if he should say This is not a proper Rest for you John 14. 31. It is a very low dispensation goe I will discover my glory to you by transfiguring my selfe within you then shall you see partly the mystery of my selfe then shall you more spiritually understand and know me And also sometimes the carnall and fleshly knowledge the Apostles had then put them upon carnall conceptions as in these phrases expressed When wilt thou restore the Kingdome to Israel And many more expressions as desiring fire might come from above where Christ tels them they knew not of what spirit they were the one place tels them they looked upon him as to be one who was to have a great power in the World namely To be an earthly King to live in outward pomp and glory the other doth signifie they understood not the great designe of God in his coming so as they in this dispensation were very low as many are in our daies and would gladly have been Resting in the knowledge they had which was Christ in the flesh that was known by them and declared and preached by them also but still they remaining under the clouds and ignorant of the mystery of Christ in reverence to his coming in the Spirit yet God was daily leading them to behold their ignorance and more into the Mystery of Jesus So that though men pretend to escape the common pollutions of the World by such a knowledge of Christ in the flesh yet it is not a