yet in their subjected places under him are they joyned with him in a headship over the whole natural first-creation state which is the Woman that in the saints as well as in Christ must own the new-creation spirit or man in both for head Yet the saint thus joyned in a state of spiritual headship with his head is in a state of subjection to the Prerogative headship belonging to every part of the mediatours being divine or creaturely The highest Saint in his most heavenly exaltation into new-creation glory remains for ever in a single creaturality as his distinguishing make from the glorious person of the mediatour But as the saint must not assume the peculiar twofold divine and creature-name of Christ so must he not be denied a new-creation name through participation of and union with the new-creature spirit of Christ in which highly exalted above his own first-creation life name or nature as far as heaven is above the earth For the spirit of man at highest in first-covenant life is but earth or of the earth earthy Though it be in dignity and power placed over all things below it self Psal 8. 6. yet is it inferiour to what is spiritual and heavenly He cannot so much as discern things spiritual 'T is as impossible for it to go beyond the sphere and bounds of its natural activity as for the brute Beast to exceed his bounds and Judge of things rational Nothing below the spirit of man wanting his intellectual and rational faculties can discern the proper things of man So nor can man's intellectual or rationall powers exercised only in a natural or first-covenant light judg of or comprehend the things of that spiritual new-creation state which is superiour to it This is the peculiar essential priviledg of the true saint in new-creation life This capacitates him not onely to know all things below it self and all its own spiritual heavenly things but to search out find and see the most deep and hidden things of the very infinite divinity 1 Cor. 2. 9-15 This great priviledge coms saints to by partaking of the new-creature spirit of Christ which God has promised in his new and everlasting covenant made on their behalf with their mistical father Abraham Christ himself to set up in them This new-covenant spirit is perfectly distinct in the nature of it from the first This is spiritual that natural This heavenly that earthly In the pure natural earthly first-covenant spirit Christ was a husband to Angels and man in innocency before the fall of either But in this mystical Land of pure nature did all men in and with the first and many Angels fall off from Christ and so lost their first-covenant spousal relation to him No such apostacy or chang is incident to the second covenant gift The relation of God and creatures founded in that can never be forfeited or lost When God by way of distinction from the first-creation spirit in which first-covenant communion with and relation to him is founded sayes he vvill vvrite or put his nevv-covenant Lavv or spirit in his Peoples hearts they shall never depart from him nor vvill he from them Then are they his People for ever and can never again become no People as his first-covenant People do after all communications from him and communion with him therein Jer. 31. 31-33 and 32 40. By the fresh gift of his first-covenant spirit he brought them out of the house of bondage the corrupt spirit or state of nature Typed by Egypt But this his covenant they brake though he vvas a Husband to them therein This evidenced the changable nature and life of that spirit in which this covenant was founded and undertaken to be managed on mans part But the new-creature or second covenant spirit in the true saint is a principle of everlasting righteousness and infallible truth This fit 's man for personal union with the fountain thereof in the man Christ and so for everlasting obedience with the same spirit in him to the divinity it self The whole divine will or law is written out in this spirit the true saint is of and in unchangable union with The life of this spirit then in saints enables them to read know and do the divine Law and will as the said spirit in Christ himself In this spirit as a mystical table is the divine Law so powerfully written out as to cause immutable obedience thereto in all the partakers thereof It never sins nor can sin in Christ or saint any born thereof that live and vvalk therein 1 Jo. 3. 9. The saint in this spirit that is of a spiritual heavenly nature is no more a servant as in the former natural changable earthly first-covenant or first-creation state life spirit in which it is impossible to know his Lords spiritual mind things and secrets but with Abraham a friend of God enabled to know not only the secret things of his heavenly spiritual creature-mind but divine also the deep things the vvhole counsel of God about the salvation of men Christ promises to reveal to such friends all that the father has made knovvn to him Jo. 15. 15. The new creature-spirit partaken of from Christ becomes in the quickened up seed thereof a new spiritual life light nature name wisdom righteousness in saints By it are they fitted to take in the visions of the divine glory For this spirit in Christ is in personal union with the divine In him it receives the whole divine glory which from him descends and is let down to all his spiritual members By this blessed medium his new-creature-spirit by which they are made lively Stones in his new-creature City and Temple must they for ever receive the vision of the divine glory A portion of this spirit in them is the nevv Ear or intellect by which they are enabled to hear and understand that voice of their spiritual King that gives forth the divine and new-creature will of their Lord in one sound and to feed on that vision of the divine glory which is the Manna hid from all natural understanding the most excellent thing any creature can receive So though the saints name be not the result of divine and creature-creature-nature in one person Christs peculiar prerogative yet is it a partaking of that new-creature name or nature of Christ which even in him is preserved in a distinction from his divine though in personal union with it Though highest saints may not pretend to the priviledg of the lowest part of the mediatours creature-creature-nature or name to wit personal union with the divinity yet are they partakers of the higher part of his creature-nature as well as lower yea all spiritual saints do partake of the twofold or single new-creature spirit of their head as their peculiar names of saint-ship received and derived from him to and in vvhich chosen and blessed before the foundation of the vvorld Eph. 1. 3 4. By virtue of the fathers choice and the sons peculiar work-manship
upon them are they brought into a living union with his new-creature-spirit and so safely returned into their prepared places to enjoy according to the fathers distinct choice of them their respective visions of the divine glory in the relation of Spouse Friends or Servants So have every of them their joy full and compleat But none of them exceed the nature or name of a pure new-creature spiritual man What ever their portion of his new-creature-spirit be single or double capacitating them to receive and enjoy a single or double portion in the vision of the divine glory yet are they all but new-creature spiritual men filled with the vision of God according to their distinct capacites This new creature-spirit of saintship through the personal union of it with God in Christ is called the spirit of God Hence is it an infallible mark of a true saint to have this spirit dvvelling in him This spirit of God Ro 8 9. is in the same verse called the spirit of Christ distinct from the divine spirit of Father or Son divine essence or form The Seed of this new creature-spirit in saints is called also the seed of God 1 Jo. 3. 9. Which preserves the saint from such wilful sin and enmity in his natural spirit or carnal mind as would be eternal death to him Rom. 8 6 7. The desires and appetites of the fleshly or carnal natural mind and spirit in the saint himself till subjected to his spiritual are after that natural state which is death But at same time the mind of the new-creature spirit though hid from his own heart in which sown God and Christ do see to be after that life which gives everlasting peace with God The spiritual seed quickened up in the saint is in all its life and motion purely obedient to Christ and by its powerful influences upon the natural spirit will not cease to teach and beget in that the like unchangable subjection to it self and so of the whole saint to Christ and God most high And as subjection and love to God is natural to the new-creation-spirit disobedience and enmity to God is grown natural to the old or first since the fall Hence is it impossible therein to please God Ro. 8. 8. Paul therefore rejoyced in that work of the Cross by which his natural mind was brought into a like subjection to his spiritual as that to Christ Through this subjection of the natural to the spiritual and so of the whole man to Christ have saints the certain witness of Christ's spirit dwelling in them His spirit beares vvitness not only in but to them that they are the Children of God Members of and Coheirs with Christ therein of God Ro. 8. 17. The new-creature-spirit from its universal obedience to God in head and members is called love 1 Cor. 13. It is that in which only God becomes the object of his creatures unchangable love and they of his The natural spirit is described by fear 1 John 4. 18. Perfect love casteth out fear The spiritual life of love perfected in the saint the life of his natural spirit with all its things thoughts lusts carnal reasonings doubtings and feares is extinguished abolished and cast out They that dwell live and walk in the spirit of Christ which in him is in personal union with the divine are said to dwell in God He that dvvelleth in love dvvelleth in God and God in him vers 16. God has declared the height of his love and greatnes of his condescention in this marveilous contriving a marriage union of divine and creature-nature by which to preserve his divinity from being touched or immediatly beheld by saints and to come forth in such a safe and sutable discovery thereof to his creatures through the man Christ as to be a food of everlasting blessedness to them The saint is made one vvith the new-creature spirit of Christ as that vvith God Jo. 17. 21. That spirit of Christ is the blessed shelter and fitted medium by which the divine vision is given to saints so as not to be a consuming fire to them Saints by partaking of this spirit become parts and Pillars of that nevv-creation sanctuary Gods place of meeting vvith the vvhole congregation of his true Israelites Angels and Saints amongst vvhom he vvill dvvell and vvalk for evermore In this spirit have they all an accesse unto and vision of the divine glory yet partake not of the divinity as an ingredient into the constitution of their persons But by partaking of that spirit that from personal union with the divine in Christ is called God Jo. 1. 1. they are said to partake of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. The creature-spirit of Christ is the holy unction in and upon saints by vvhich they knovv all things The holy Oil or Ointment of his heavenly and glorified earthly spirit runs dovvn from their high-priest to the lovvest Skirts of his new-creation Garments or meanest spiritual Members This spirit in Christ and saints is Truth and no Lie an infallible spirit in head and members distinct from the divine spirit in Christ and natural spirit of man or Angel at best The lowest capacity of creature-creature-nature in the mediatour is above the highest saint The spousal saint one with Christ in his most heavenly and exalted creature-life sees not or enjoyes the divine glory as the lowest part of creature-creature-nature in Christ does by personal union therewith The new-creature spirit in its highest and most heavenly or lowest earthly glorified life is inferiour to the divine but superiour to the first-creation spirit of nature at best because incorruptible and unchangable in the life and goodness thereof In the first being corruptible and changable man is in perpetual bondage and fear as impossible to be secured from death therein Heb. 2. 15. This therefore was never intended by God for an abiding state of rest and true blessednes to Angel or man not being a spirit of unchangable light and life or that can qualify them to receive the vision of the divine glory This shews the absolute necessity of the saints being clothed vvith a House from Heaven by the new-creating vvorkmanship of Christ for his everlasting blessedness From what has been said then it appeares to be the peculiar priviledg of the mediatour to be in every part of his creature-creature-nature in personal union with the divine Consequently is it a crime equally unpardonable for any creature to deny to him or assume to himself his conjunctive divine and creature-name His comprehensive creature-spirit or nature is the living Book wherein the whole divine mind or Law is written in order to be declared to Angels and men If any man then or Angel from heaven shall dare on pretence of adding thereto to make Christ's person only and purely divine and so divide and take from him his creature-nature which is the supream Book and Table on which the divine mind is engraven and by which the divine glory shines forth to
by the compleat death thereof as to all changable first-creation life And ascended into the everlasting new-creature and divine life of God the Mediatour his Root and Father in which fitted for the visible rule of his spiritual kingdom on earth For this blessed thing are Saints out of or in the body all vvaiting as his Members Servants and blessed Retinue to enter with him into the actual possession of this Glorious Kingdom in the visibility of their before hidden Spiritual Life which will be the manifestation of the Sons of God The glad tydings of this second comming of Christ in his spiritual glory to Reign as that of his natural birth in order thereunto will be first signally given by his angelical Messengers as that which will most certainly bring Glory to God in the highest Heavens through a union of peace with his new Heavens and Earth or higher and lower ranks of Spiritual Saints together with undeniable marks of his good vvill to all Men in general that are under his happy government Luke 2. 14. All men that have not excluded themselves by a fixed enmity to this spiritual king shall have their Eyes so far opened at and by his appearing as to see and admire his long-suffring towards them and his restoring to them what at first they lost So will the whole new World joyn in unanimous praises to God through Christ their new-creation King And if this be so a distinct considering the spiritual nature as well as certain visibility of this kingdom will be requisite and this so much the more as the day of his second comming approaches and drawes neerer This growes more evident dayly from the general decay of all natural and moral goodness amongst men and the increase and abounding of all Iniquity litteral and mystical that as foretold will accomplish man's day and period this World Through the extream abounding of iniquity nothing of support or comfort will be left spiritual Saints or reasonable men but a rightly Informed Faith as to the certain approach of the Lord in his spiritual kingdom In the stedfast wel-grounded hope hereof are they called on by Christ to lift up their Heads as knovving his second appearance and consequently their full redemption dravvs nigh and will soon be accomplished For this great and most concerning thing and Truth have we a Cloud of Witnesses in Scripture even for the glorious Comming and Kingdom of our Lord as also an account of the distinct hands by which given divine and creaturely or both together God in his infinite divine Essence the Mediator in his conjunctive divine and creature-nature and the pure creature-spirit of Faith living in a succession of spiritual Saints from first to last do all agree in their Testimony to this Truth The Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. is all opened by Christ the Branch which Paul earnestly desires Saints may be filled vvith the rich and full assurance of And 1 Cor. 11. 2 3. treating of the same high and glorious Truths he layes down the original and fundamental Ordinances of Truth as he received them from Christ's own hand He declares it necessary for men to know That the Head of every Man is Christ and that the Head of the Woman is the Man and the Head of Christ God In these gradations of a three-fold-Headship he summ's up the essential Foundations of all Truth divine and creaturely to wit of God in his divine unity then of the Mediatour in his supream divine and creature-composition and then thirdly of Christ as Son and Branch the appointed means for rendring the said divine and creature-glories of God the Mediator visible to blessed Angels and Saints The highest of these Ordinances of Truth though last expressed is That the Head of Christ is God God the Mediatour in his conjunctive divine and creature-form of God confesses and ownes the single and uncompounded divine Essence as his absolute Head and Father This is the first and highest Ordinance of Truth Next unto this Christ is the head of every man that is Christ as Mediatour in the first and highest conjunction of divine and creature-nature is the immediate Head of himself as the first-born Creature and Resurrection-Lamb and consequently of every Angel and Man in both creations natural or spiritual And then as the third and last Ordinance of Truth is the Man Christ as Resurrection-Lamb in his spiritual new-creation Life Head of the Woman or Natural-state in Christ's person as brought into subjection to the new-creation Man and also of all his heavenly and earthly glorified Saints and Angels or Church Col. 1. 18. There is a like relation of Father and Son in the Mediatour's creature-nature Root and Branch as of the divine Father and Son in the divine nature And so is his Creature-nature throughout and on all accounts the supream creature-likeness of the infinite divinity 'T is the absolute and peculiar Prerogative of the divine nature not only to be the original of its own Being from Eternity or to be what it is without all begining but also of that purely divine Form and Image of it self in the Mediatour to whom God in the single divine Esence is Head and Father It is therefore said 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God in the divine Essence uncompounded with any creature-being and in distinction from God in this supream consideration One Mediatour betvveen God and Men mediating between and therefore consisting of two natures divine and creaturely A Mediatour is not of one but God is one To the Mediatour in this Composition is the single divine Essence Head And the divine nature or purely divine form of God which is one with the divine essence as the immediate former of his own creature-spirit from everlasting Prov. 8. 22 23. stands in a headship or superiority to that creature-spirit which is his own divine workmanship in his own person As the purely divine Son of God is he under a like impossibility with the Father of being immediately seen or known by any but the divine Being it self For in this divine relation of Father and Son are they fitted only for the fruition of each other And so the divine Son lay shut up in the bosom of the divine Father till the good will and mind of both was to build a creature-house for themselves which was the Root and former of all meer creature-beings in both Worlds Heb. 1. 2. This original Word or creature beginning vvas in God and vvith God and vvas God And by it vvere all other things made John 1. 1. 3. The distinction of divine and creature-creature-nature in the Mediatour is intirely preserved in their personal Unity His creature-creature-nature is called the Beginning His divine is without all beginning Again the infinite divine builder of the supream creature house for himself is above the house so built by him though taken into personal union with the divine Inhabitant thereof as is implied Heb. 3. 3 4.
the visible exercise of all power in heaven and earth essentially belonging to the Throne of his Fathers glory And then will his father visibly place this his son on the said Throne as clothed vvith his Robes and strengthned vvith his girdle to exercise his whole Government put into his hands As the distinct Testimonies of the Mediatour in his invisible divine and creature-natures will he visibly set his creature-son and branch on his holy Hill of Sion committing to him the exercise of all his own rule and power in a visible dominion over that House of Juda and Israel that comprehends the whole heavenly and glorified earthly family of Christ The season for this hath yet been by God kept in reserve figured by the clothing of litteral Eliakim in which Christ our mystical Eliakim as son to the mediatour his invisible father is to have all the distinct glories of that mystical fellowship and unity that his divine and invisible creature-nature live in so hung upon him as to be visibly seen and acknowledged by the whole world Their distinct testimonies will be known and owned at that second comming of Christ in our glorified nature in which he will cause to shine forth his invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature And so also by the man Christ shall be Administred and given forth the distinct and differing measures of his fathers divine glory as the everlasting Portions of blessed Angels and Saints according to their respective receptivities as vessels of greater or less capacity even from Cups to Flagons And in this universal Kingdom of his Father shall the Man Christ be established as a Nail in a sure Place for evermore And by him shall blessed Angels and Saints ascribe the glory due to the purely divine nature and the invisible conjunction of divine and creature-creature-nature The Son and Branch acknowledges all his Power to be from his God and Father in personal union with him He declared that of himself in our single fleshly nature he could do nothing and that he receives all his ruling power as exalted into personal union with his God and Father therein Thus comes the Son and Branch to be possessed of all the strength and power of the Mediatours whole person And so is enabled not only to see but do all things Whatever the Father doth that doth the Son also For all the Power of the Father through personal union becomes the Son 's The same Will lives in both But this Will as living in the Father cannot be declared to or received by creatures but as descending to and manifested by the Son On this ground Christ himself declares The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son So the whole will of the Father is executed by the Son Hence in obedience to the Father All must honour the Son as they honour the Father Thus does Christ shew how all that power which originally is his Fathers comes to be his and that all which is his thus again becomes his Father's and he exercises the same in perfect subjection to his Father Yet is the new creature-will of the son distinct from the divine will though one with it through personal union with the divine In this union and absolute subjection will Christ as son and branch rule his spiritual kingdom as declarer and doer of the divine mind which could no otherwise be known or done Christ would not put any weight on himself in the will of our single fleshly nature Yet is he one that beares a distinct record or vvitness to himself and will by the command of his Father give it unto him as exalted into personal union with God and as so the truth he told the Jews worthy of their belief For in our exalted nature is he the only immediate object of faith to Angels and men and the only way and means for their knowing or comming to the father Christ justified his bearing vvitness to himself as thus considered to the Jews on their offence at his owning himself in this union with the father as knovving vvhence he came and vvhether be vvas to go He knew he was to return by way of resurrection into that life whence he descended as spirit of the branch into our fleshly nature in which he enjoyed the divine glory of his father through union with his root before the foundation of the World and this for the compleating his mediatourship So is there a threefold distinct will in the mediatour in perfect unity This was figured by the tvvo or three vvitnesses under the Law whose joynt testimony was sufficient to pronounce sentence of Life or Death on any one For so will that will of the mediatour be which shall be pronounced by Christ in our glorified nature as the mouth and visible declarer of the united wills in his whole person His glorified humane will though the lowest through perfect union with the higher and highest becomes equally authentick with them in its distinct witness So over the kingdom that descends to him by the gift of his father will he exercise a visible rule in his new-creation life and glory at his second comming Christ's own testimony to this his spiritual kingdom at his second appearance did cost him the life of his first And thereby did he finish his vvork on earth even in his single earthly humanity that he had long before perfected in his invisible angelical state The visible repetition thereof he was neither afraid nor ashamed of before the evil powers of this world For when by the Jews brought before Pilate he positively asserted he had a kingdom but of a spiritual nature and not of this World to be brought to light by the death of our earthly nature in him The joy of his spiritual life state and kingdom set before him made him-willingly take the bitter Cup of death to his natural spirit as the only way and passage to the said spiritual life and kingdom wherein to exercise the whole of the divine and creature-power of the mediatour Having then seen the distinct testimonies to this visible spiritual kingdom of the man Christ from the threefold will of divine and twofold creature-nature in the mediatour we are next to consider the distinct testimony given to the same by the true spirit of saintship in all Ages In order to this enquiry consider first what is the spirit of true saintship that has from generation to generation given testimony to the visible spiritual reign and kingdom of Christ This spirit of saintship is at a great distance from the divinity yea perfectly distinct from the first immediate conjunction of the divine and creature-names or natures of the mediatour on the one hand and from the single first-creation name nature or spirit on the other The true spirit of saintship in the members of Christ's Heavenly or Earthly glorified body is found allwayes in a true subjection to the man Christ as their new-creature Lord and Head And
with them in their angelical ministration And by the powerful entrance of Christ's new-creature-life into them will they be raised as found by the angelical reapers the full ripe corn to be gathered up by them into that preparatory service with themselves Next these will they take care of that precious seed-wheat that lies hid under the earth of the natural spirit or at most appears but in its young and tender blade These spiritual Watchmen and preachers of that day are by Christ's command to take care of such The Angels that were to open the Seals and pour forth the vials of God's wrath on the Earth are required not to hurt the grass of the new Earth neither any green thing or tree not the seed or any the least beginnings of an ever-green spiritual life The spiritual seed however hid in the earth of the yet active natural spirit shall by their powerful preaching the everlasting Gospel be made wonderfully to spring up grow and prosper so that this holy seed from among all nations shall abundantly flow in unto them in those days of such a universal return out of all captivities as hath been the well-grounded hope and relieving expectation of Saints in all former ages From the redemption of the spiritual seed by the preparatory ministry of Angels will flow a full restitution to the whole Earth The Earth not yet brought to trial shall by the powerful preaching of the Angels become as the garden of Eden and by obedience thereunto be in measure restored to their first-creation-state in order to their experiencing a far greater mercy by Christ's personal presence if the fault be not their own when brought under such great and high advantages And having thus seen the first part of the work of this preparatory dispensation in reference to the good seed and innocent earth the second we shall find to be in reference to the evil seed who ' after all trial by wilfully rejecting the truth have shewed themselves the accursed earth John saw the same time apointed for a recompence of love to the one and wrath to the other These latter are the Nations that will be angry at Christ's second coming Yea by the preparatory dispensation thereunto will there be set up such a condemning testimony in the hearts of the incorrigibly wicked as will render even that a day of gloominess clouds and thick darkness to them Joel 2. 2. Even their restor'd natural state on which they have doted shall be so signally judg'd and blasted by the breath of the Lord in this his preparatory day set up in his Angels and risen witnesses that it shall be left behind them as a waste and desolate Wilderness with whom the Lord will have no more to do in any way of love or trial ver 3. This season is to put a period to the Serpent's active reign and Christ and his Saint's passive and to bring the seat of the Whore and Beast to judgment who will therefore be enraged more than ever against Christ and his Saints and Angels Then will they come forth in the most subtile imitations of Christ's preparatory angelical ministers For this will Satan prepare his evil angelical Chariots and take his fixed evil seed among men into a like association as Christ's blessed Angels and Saints so as exquisitely to counterfeit this preparatory ministration of Christ to the deceiving if possible the very Elect. He will cloath his false Apostles Prophets and Servants through his sinful transformations with an appearance of Christ's resurrection-Garments And so will he assume to himself the very creature-throne of Christ setting up himself in that glorified Temple in imitation of Christ's united divine and creature-creature-natures shewing himself to be God 2 Thess 2. 4. This will the Devil by his inspired instruments set himself to do in these latter days counterfeiting the Spirit of Christ in himself and Saints as spiritual Magicians to fight against the spiritual Moses's of that day blessed Angels and Saints in the most subtile imitation of their spiritual and true wonder-working power This will Satan do to weaken the authority of their spiritual ministration from implacable hatred thereunto In this mystical way of opposing Christ and his work to be done by Angels and Saints will he and his party of Angels and Men be counterfeiting the signs and wonders wrought by the new-creation-power and spirit of Christ This will they do notwithstanding the signal judgments of God upon them as on the type Pharaoh and his Egyptians God's judgments then instead of working them into an obedience to his message were by them abused to the encreasing their wilful hatred of that hand and power they could not but confess just in smiting them Yet in height of contempt would they be imitating that new-creation-power by which they were convinced the wonders of that day were wrought All this was but a type of what the mystical Pharaoh and his Subjects will do in the preparatory day to Christ's second coming And for a season will they be permitted so to do to try and prove many Many that are spiritually wise will be found stumbling and falling hereby But being unwillingly mistaken their very mistake will be caused to tend to the purifying of their faith and also to the ripening of their enemies for destruction This was figured by the red Sea that became a total destruction to the enemy and salvation to Israel All this shall be more eminently seen in wilful hardners of their hearts against this powerful ministration of Angels On such wilful Sinners in that day will the said Angels pour forth the vials of Gods wrath sealed up from the beginning to this appointed season In whatever deceitful appearances such Sinners will be found out and punished under the distinct vials of wrath poured fourth upon them And they shall all be made to stand as convicted and condemned persons in their own consciences by the powerful light of this angelical ministry as Christ's inferiour court of judicature in order to receive an irreversible sentence of Death from the highest seat of judgment from which can be no appeal being set up in Christ's person by whom as soveraign Lord to be pronounced Yet shall not this sentence be finally executed upon them but on purpose suspended during the thousand years active reign of Christ in which they are to be so chained up as to be disabled to make the least resistance or give any interruption thereunto This powerful restraint as to the expressing their enmity against the peaceable reign of Christ and his Saints will much encrease their torment But let us now resume and come to a more particular and distinct consideration of all these things First What is meant by the Seales the opening thereof and pouring forth of the said Vials Secondly how and in what manner are they to be poured forth and upon whom Thirdly how far are the judgments thereof to reach visible or invisible in this preparatory dispensation
hundreds fifties and tens Thus were the Attendants of the Tabernacle compleated in a spiritual and civil capacity The first were offering Priests and ministring Levit's the other chief and subordinate Rulers with subjected obeyers all which are significant Types of what will be found in the original when made visible as the house or Temple shew'd Ezekiel and new-Jerusalem City shew'd John do evidence In every circumstance will be found such exact proportion and agreement as to manifest all in the litteral Tabernacle harmonious figures of Christ's new-creature building that 's to be made visible in his Kingdom on earth as possessing the throne of his Father in heaven This visible Kingdom is charactred by the coming down of the new Jerusalem out of heaven and setting up the Tabernacle of God amongst men both four-square and walled about with the respective Attendants as the litteral The new Jerusalem John saw to have a wall great and high c. Rev. 21. 12. And as the outward form of the spiritual City and Tabernacle was exactly figured out in the litteral so also the spiritual Attendants thereof by those of the litteral The first row of Attendants may fitly represent those in the second resurrection-state of spiritual life and they were held forth also by the twelve foundations of the spiritual City on which were written the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb as his highest attendants in bridal-union with him as partakers of his heavenly creature-name or nature and therein under him rulers over all others In this second resurrection-state amongst these peculiar inhabitants of the third Heaven a select row of Attendants immediately surrounding the house or throne will be found also a distinction of place and offices as in the first row about the litteral Tabernacle One star in the firmament of this third Heaven will differ from another in glory as inheriting an elder or younger brother's portion therein Though with Joseph and Benjamin types thereof they be all born of the same Mother as well as Father partaking according to their appointed measur's of the second resurrection-spirit yet in the division of the spiritual figured in that of the litteral land of Promise the peculiarly beloved Joseph must have a double portion not only to the other Sons of Jacob not admitted any place in this first row of Attendants but also to the spiritual younger Brother Benjamin who is also in that first row This was fitly represented by the distinct offices and scituation of Aaron and his priestly Sons with other inferiour Levit's about the Tabernacle The highest in this first order of Saints are the bride the Lambs wife possessed of the full blessing of Christ's new-creature-spirit by which priviledg'd to enter within the first vail of the new-creation Sanctuary Christ's earthly glorified Spirit so as to behold the most holy things therein even the divine glory as shining through the pure transparent heavenly creature-face nature or spirit of their Lord and Husband The dignity of these high Priests unto God in a peculiar marriage-marriage-union with Christ in his heavenly creature-spirit is to be placed at upper end of the new-creature Tabernacle of God as admitted to the nearest and most intimate enjoyment of the divine glory any meer creature 's are capable of But inferiour to these are those members of the second resurrection-state who also make up the first row of Attendants These receive but a single portion in comparison of that the high Priests receive Yet in a union of love with the said Spirit are they given to the service of the high Priest's office even to Christ himself and his priestly Sons as accepted in their inferiour service of love and placed above all the earthly glorified congregation of spiritual Israel These though least and lowest in the first row or second resurrection-state are above the highest and greatest in the outward row of Attendants in but the first resurrection-state wherein Angels are the chief This was typed out in John Baptist though they be not the Spouse her self they are faithful Friends and true lovers of the Bride-groom and Bride or of the peculiar bridal-union of Christ and their elder-brother Joseph-Saints so as to find their joy compleated by hearing the nuptial Voice This service of love performed by the younger brother-Saints in the second resurrection to Christ and their elder spiritual Brethren in the high-Priesthood the mystical Aaron and his peculiar Sons is their perfect freedom And as recompence of this labour of love shall they be placed on each side and at bottom or West end of the said heavenly Tabernacle in Christ's Person to the compleating the first row of select Attendants or making up the foundations of the Wall of the said mystical City on which in the single or double portion of the said resurrection-spirit are written the names of those twelve Apostles that comprehend the whole second resurrection-state in distinction from the twelve gates of the City on which are written the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel or whole innumerable multitude of glorified earthly or first-resurrection Saints that make up the new Earth in Christ's new World or Kingdom figured by the twelve Tribes of Israel And as in the second resurrection-state may seem to be a differing degree of spiritual light and glory not only in the other Levit's from the Priests but from one another also as their differing dignities in scituation on the right left-hand and lower end of the Tabernacle do intimate so among first-resurrection-Saints will be found a differing of one Star from another in that glory The variety of Rulers and Governours and also of Subjects and Obeyers therein were figured out in the Princes of the Tribes and subordinate Rulers under them over thousands hundred's fifties and tens All these compleat but the outward row of Attendants about the spiritual Tabernacle These are represented as the great and high Wall of the new Jerusalem and the twelve Princes or chief Rulers are the Angels at the gates thereof as under Christ and his heavenly Saints the highest Rulers over the earthly glorified Wall or first-resurrection Saints And under them also are subordinate Rulers over inferiour spiritual Saints in the first resurrection-state All these with the lowest subjects therein make up the outward row of Attendants about the new-creation Sanctuary So the two distinct rows though parted by the Court yet joyned in a blessed harmony make up the compleat attendance of the Tabernacle in their further or nearer distances and differing scituations or places Thus the first and second-resurrection-Saints though distinguished by the names of new Heaven and new Earth that abide for ever do in an unchangeable union of love make up the whole blessed society and corporation of the new-Jerusalem City which so united is invincible for the name of it is the Lord is there The two-fold new-creature Spirit of the King thereof in highest lowest and all intermediate members of it unites them all in an
The infinite divinity wrapping up it self in a fellovvship or personal union with its own creature-house makes up that wonderful Mystery Ephes 3. 9. The Fellowship of divine and creature-nature was before all time a Mystery hid in God But in this supream divine and creature-fellowship was the certain foundation laid from everlasting for God's revealing his own divinity to Angels and men when made which otherwise had remained invisible and unapproachable to them all for ever The divine Spirit in Building it s ovvn creature house hevv'd out the seven Pillars thereof Prov. 9. 1. This signifies the fulness and variety of this creature-building or spirit in the capacity of Root and Branch Father and Son And through the Son and Branch as admitted into union with the divinity in the same personal fellowship with his Root comes all to be beheld by blessed Saints and Angels But for better understanding this whole Mistery consider farther the relation of Root and Branch or Father and Son in the Mediatours creature-nature as well as in the divine This distinction was fitly figured out in the top and foot of Jacob's Ladder the divinity of the Mediatour standing above or on the top of it as Head thereof And this top of it or creature-root is Head to its ovvn foot the Branch and as fitted by immediate Personal union with the divinity receives the fulnes of that divine Ocean to which so united But in this first and highest Marriage-union of divine and creature-creature-nature is God yet in too great a height for the creature 's immediate sight or enjoyment of him The scorching Beams of the Mediatour's divinity are not so allayed and tempered in this highest union thereof with his supream creature-Spirit the root of all creation as that Angels or Men may receive or converse therewith This highest creature-mount or spirit in the Mediatour was fitly typed out by that mount under the Law that was so glorious and dreadful as to become present Death to all that immediatly touched the same But there is a lower capacity in the mediatour's creature-nature called the Son and Branch which answers the creatures vvish in an immediate Head-ship to them This Son and Branch is to be considered in his invisible angelical state before the foundation of the World and that both in a pure but changable first-creation state as the first-born therein and as the Lamb slain and so by the death of that mortal state taken into personal union with his creature-root in new-creation-Life and through that with his divinity also So comes the Son and Branch to be filled with all the fulness and life of both And the same thing did he in and with our visible humane nature in the fulness of time He made the like sacrifice thereof for the like end And thus is the son and branch in his resurrection-life the blessed medium by which the vision of the divine Glory is let down and given to his creatures which by the root or top of his creature-building singly considered was incommunicable to them By the branch is it brought so neer as with a meet regard to the dignity of the mediatour and safety of blessed creatures to become fit for the sight and injoyment of Angels and Saints The twofold resurrection-state or Heavenly and Glorified earthly Spirit or Life of the exalted branch is the mistical Golden Pot into which the divine Manna the everlasting Food or Bread of life to happy Angels and Saints is put and hath been hid from before the foundation of the world This capacity in Christ as branch is of the same Date with his creature-root as possessed thereby in the beginning of his vvay toward 's the creation of the world Prov. 8 22. By the Man Christ Jesus as living in his new-creature root did all things receive their invisible existence and visible creation By him so considered vvere all things made and vvithout him vvas not any thing made that vvas made or created Jo. 1. 3. 1 Col. 15-17 Heb. 1. 2. Thus the sutable medium by which God condescend's to let down himlelf to creatures sight and enjoyment was prepared as the immediate hand by which they received their creation In the spirit of the branch as standing up in his root had Angels and the spirits of men their first invisible existence and thereby as their parent are brought forth into their personal subsistences by creation And in him is treasured up the Bread of everlasting Life for their Immortal spirits which they are not capacitated to feed on in the mortal life of their first-creation but immortal life by a second This never-perishing food is suted only to a never-perishing Life Both root and branch or creature-Father and Son in the mediatour had from everlasting not only the enjoyment of each other but of the divine glory also in the same blessed person And so did God most high with delight behold all his designs and purposes finished in him before any thing was brought forth by creation And in the wonderful fellowship of divine and creature-nature in himself did God the Mediator rest also from all his vvorkes before any of them were brought forth as beholding all the contrivances of his divine mind in the first conjunction of his divine nature with his creature root thus declared and executed in the Son and branch This branch also had his peculiar delight in the principality or headship given him over Angels and Men as existing in him and looked on as the habitable parts of his Earth before the foundation of the World Prov. 8. 30 31. He rejoyced alwayes before his father not only as enjoying the vision of the divine glory but as the same was in him treasured up and by him communicable to them And thus see we the need of root and branch in the mediatour's creature-nature as the ascent and descent of his great creature-building By the former is he qualified to receive the divine vision in the immediate Ocean-fulnes thereof by the latter to conveigh and communicate it to his blessed Angels and Saints In the creature-root or top of his creature-house is his divinity shut up from his creatures till revealed or opened by the branch The branch is the mystical Door of this great creature-building and also opener thereof to his creatures David by faith saw and heard the great Lord the Mediatour in his highest and first Union of divine and creature-nature speaking to Christ the branch as David's immediate Lord and Head saying The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right Hand until I make thy Foes thy footstool Psal 110 1. Here is a Prophecy of Christ the polished Shaft hid in Gods Quiver as to what he was to be and do in our nature for exalting it into the Glory long before attain'd by him as Resurrection-Lamb and therein head not only to the immortal Spirits of Men and Angels but in a peculiar manner to his spiritual Church He will appear in our glorified
2. This Bovvl or Top of the great creature-building in the Mediatour is the fitted immediate reception of the divine mind in order to the execution of it by his inferiour creature-capacity signified by the golden Candlestick This inferiour part as living in personal union with the superiour and through that with the divinity it self in the Mediatour is said to be God's equal or fellovv who thus found in the form of God accounts it no robbery or presumption to be equal vvith God even in our soveraignly exalted nature as therein fitted to declare and execute the whole will of his divine and creature-lord Zech. 13. 7. Phil. 2. 6. This inferiour creature-capacity of the Mediatour is the second reception of the divine will and power which was first received by and treasured up in his creature-root and by that transmitted to its Son and Branch to exercise and execute the same as fitted thereunto From the creature-root does the branch receive the power of creating the worlds Heb. 1. 2. as also the essentials of all Rule and Government For all these undertakes does the Son and Branch become abundantly qualified through personal conjunction with his creature-root and divine Lord even to create all things and make Laws whereby clearly to state conserve the absolute headship of the single divinity and the Supream Prerogative of the first conjunction of divine and creature-spirits in the Mediatour The Man Christ as Son and Branch declares the deriving all his power from the two headships over him and his exercise thereof in a visible rule over this world in perfect subjection to them according to the righteous Laws of his own making And he allowes unto Angels and Men all such priviledges as are essential to their spiritual rational and sensual Principles in the life and exercise of their intellectual beings So does he render them according to their creature-liberty free Agents as well as immortal spirits Thus deep is the foundation laid for the Rule and Power of the Kingdom of Christ as visibly to be exercised by him in our glorified nature And this power does he ascribe to his conjunctive divine Lord and creature-root and in harmony therewith to God's absolute divine unity as above all and head to all Thus does Jesus Christ as subjected Lord over all under the said twofold headship over him ascribe and bring the glory to God most high in his single divinity the great and high Father of all So through the happy union of divine and twofold creature-nature in the Mediatour may we behold the Government of Peace under which blessed Saints and Angels are to live everlastingly as shining forth betvveen them both Zec. 6. 13. to wit both his creature-capacities In the higher he is the immediate receiver of the divine mind in the lower the executour of the divine will in all things This twofold office of the mediatour is excellently figured out in the essential parts of man's make and the distinct usefulnesses thereof by which fitted for the compleat exercise of his whole being Yea the whole person of the mediatour in all the essentials of his constitution may fitly be represented by what is found in man For as a shadow of the divinity his spirit or intellectual part is the conceiver of its own will Then his Soul as figure of the mediatour's creature-root is the fitted reception of the said will and mind of the spirit And thirdly the will thus conceived by the Spirit and received by the Soul must be brought into visible exercise and execution by the third essential part in man the body 1 Thes 5. 23. figure of the inferiour part or capacity in the mediatour's creature-nature as visible branch to his invisible creature-root in vvhom the god-head also dvvells bodily and so becomes visible to Angels and Saints Thus by owning every distinct part in the mediatour and in man and accordingly assigning to them their proper offices the usefulnes of the whole both in type and substance is compleated as also their respective personalities And as the body is put for the whole man as that by which the invisible Soul and Spirit are rendred visible in the exercise thereof which dignity belongs to it through its personal union with its invisible Soul and spirit it bears the Title and denomination of the whole man in the figure after the same manner as in the substance the person of the Mediatour Hence every distinct Name of the Mediatour is applyed to Christ the Branch as in our nature glorified For therein the fulness of the Godhead dvvels bodily and in personal union therewith shines forth visibly to Angels and Men. In the lowest essential part of the Mediatour in Christ the Man-child that 's to be manifested in the glory of his Father put upon our exalted nature in him And so is the Government of his divine and creature-lord put upon his Shoulders Hence is he called by his Father's wonderful Names The vvonderful Counsellour the mighty God the everlasting Father and Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. This is a full significant Prophecy of Christ the Branch in our nature glorified as the body and visibility of the Mediatour by which his other superiour essential parts his divine spirit and creature-soul are brought to light and rendred visible to his creatures So is the Man Christ Jesus the one Mediatour betvveen God and Men 1 Tim. 2. 5. Yet does not the Mediatour hereby lose either his divine or creature-name in the first conjunction thereof but on the contrary that divine Light and original Creature-immortality which was inaccessible invisible and incommunicable to creatures is made visible in the Man Christ as glorified and exalted on the Throne of David in personal union with his divine and creature-lord Of the encrease of vvhose Government through the said union there shall be no end vers 7. For hereby is this happy Prince of peace abundantly qualified to execute and fulfill the whole divine and creature-will And so through the perfect subjection of the visible body our exalted nature in him to the invisible creature-soul and divine spirit is the will of God and of the whole person of the mediatour declared and fulfilled The will of all is manifested and done by the actual setting up of the kingdom over which Christ is to reign as son and branch in the glory of his divine Lord and creature-father This is significantly figured out by Hilkiam the Father and Eliakim the Son holding forth this relation of our mystical Eliakim the branch bearing the same date with his spiritual root and father Hilkiam in his invisible angelical life that he had in his root from everlasting And in his appointed time must all the glory of his Fathers house be visibly put upon our nature in him on earth as invisibly inherited and possessed by him in Heaven So comes he to be clothed with the twofold Robes of mystical Hilkiam his root and father when this son and branch shall appear in
just hand of God upon them will they take all opportunities to effect what they have long desired even the compleat slaughter of the two witnesses And in all this the Devil discovers himself only in his powerful influencing of outward and visible means towards the carrying on this great design But he is furnished also with inward mystical weapons to fight against God and his spiritual Saints in this latter age that are of a more dangerous nature than the other For these will he use as in the very name and authority of Christ committing therein the highest treason against him In such exercise of his diabolical power will he send forth his false spirits in Christ's new-creation-name as false Christs to make false Apostles joining men with themselves in all sorts of spiritual craft to deceive Spiritual Saints This by such lying signs and wonders of such a deep hidden nature as if Christ had not laid an impossibility on them would deceive the very Elect. On the one hand in imitation of the Cross of Christ will Satan say he is in the Wilderness or secret Chambers on the other in a counterfeit resurrection-state will he exalt himself by sinful transformation into his heavenly spiritual life All this by an angelical ministration knowing Christ's fore-running dispensation to his everlasting Gospel-day by his holy Angels to be at hand as the only means to raise up his slain witnesses out of their Graves And thus have we observed the hand or means by which the two witnesses are to be slain and what the slaying of them is Visible and invisible enemies Men and Devils will combine against them to bring them into such a captivity as all former under Law or Gospel have bin but fore-running types of and so seen by spiritual Prophets and Saints under both dispensations Jeremy Ezekiel Daniel c. have declared this last and great day of sore trouble such as never hath been or shall be So also hath Christ himself prophesied Mat. 24. 21. This very season is indeed the sum of Daniel's many visions the result of what is held forth by the two Kings of the North and South in all the variety and differing appearances they have bin in towards one another through the common profaneness of the former in the cold dead corrupt spirit of nature and the warmth or zeal of the latter in and for the first-covenant life and righteousness of Man Through the powerful influence of the Devil on both can he soder and unite them in a combination against the Saints of the most high so as to bring forth a day of utmost trial and trouble to them For this end Daniel saw these two Kings joined together as the Devil 's twofold weapon in the corrupt and refined principles of nature speaking lies at one Table Dan. 11. 27. and setting or joyning their hearts and hands to mischief true Saints And so both of them in union of mind with the Devil will do his work in effecting the death of the two witnesses Thus will Satan by the practise of the most refined spiritual wickedness and in the expressing greater malice than ever before when his reign draws neer to an end employ all his instruments of cruelty muster up all his force and power for the slaying of Christ's two witnesses And he with his instruments will prosper herein to the accomplishing of their death This we find in the mighty King in Daniel that was to arise last and the beast in John's vision that at end of the Sack-cloth prophecy was to ascend out of the bottomless pit furnished with all sorts of weapons and instruments not only to war upon but overcome and kill Christ's twofold witnessing Saints magnifying himself against the God of Gods The same thing was repeated to Daniel in the vision of the four beasts commonly understood to point out those four Monarchies that are to spend out the remaining ages of the World during the Devil's active power and man's day The fourth beast is described as far worse than any of his Fellows being strong dreadful and terrible and so furious and malicious as with its great iron teeth not only to devour and break in pieces but stamp the residue under his feet This beast had also ten horns and another little horn came up among them which is in a signal manner to war with and prevail against the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. 21. The fourth beast and little horn figure out the utmost strength the Devil from the beginning kept in reserve for this last and most bloody design At the end of the Sack-cloth prophecy in the appointed time of three years and an half will the two witnesses be slain by the little horn Daniel saw come up last and in the least and most unlikely appearance for such a design yet by it the most bloody battel is to be fought in which the twofold witnesses are to be overcome and killed and that in such an enraged malice of their Enemies as not to have any burial permitted them By all may appear the Devil will then rally up all his forces in an universal conjunction of all sorts of principles that are singly natural humane and angelical to bring this most dismal season that ever was experienced by Saints Herein will Satan cause as was shewed Daniel such abominations as shall make wholly desolate all sorts of visible worship and humane affairs Then will all moral and civil Laws customs and constitutions be broken and changed to the setting open a flood-gate and causing an inundation of all sorts of wickedness litteral and spiritual And hereby will be denied both liberty to Saints and propriety to men even to all that shall either from spiritual or rational principles at that season refuse to receive the mark of the beast by not joining with the Devil for slaying the two witnesses litterally or mystically This sad season to be brought on the true spiritual Israel of God was lively represented to Ezekiel by the valley of dry bones Ezek. 37. 1 2. Thus by faith had he a view so long before of these two witnesses that are to be brought into the most deplorable circumstances to the enlightned reason of man imaginable This is implied in the judgment the then house of Israel figure hereof made of themselves saying our bones are dried our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Secondly On this sad condition and slaughter of the two witnesses or whole house of spiritual Israel in the last and most perillous times their enemies will be found in the height of joy and satisfaction looking with great delight on the dry bones or dead bodies of the said house of Israel the two witnesses during the three years and half or time of them utmost extremity in which not permitted burial As an expression of this joy and gratification of their spiritual lust will they send presents to each other as triumphing over the slain witnesses of Christ which
Ravens by whom Saints received that new-creation-food that sustained and nourished them unto eternal life By their angelical representations was Christ the head-Angel of God's covenant revealed to the Patriarks before and to Prophets and Saints after the giving of the Law They appeared on all occasions as employed by Christ in all the messages of God's will to them They opened Heaven to Ezekiel who through a powerful faith was enabled to see take in those wonderful visions of the very divine glory through the new-creature-nature of Christ his head so as to hear the voice of the almighty divinity They were the hand that oft lifted him and others up beyond and above the sight and motion of the natural spirit and body whilst yet in the same By the hand or power of their new-creature Lord did they carry him to them of the captivity by the river Chebar Ezek. 3. 14 15. And by the same hand was he led into the valley of dry bones declared by them to signify the whole spiritual Israel They likewise shewed him that new-creation spirit of prophecy by which the dry bones or slain twofold witnesses in the last and worst of times were to be quickned and made live again Ezek. 37. 1 14. The Scripture abounds with instances of this kind Christ the true Michael sent his ministring Angel or Messenger Gabriel to reveal to beloved Daniel those visions that were to remain a sealed book as to their full accomplishment till the time shewed him for the twofold witnesses to be slain as also how by the peculiar work of the good Angels in a preparitory ministration to Christ's second coming they should be raised into the same life and spirit which the Angel shewed Daniel his lot was fallen in so long before his actual possession of And as Angels were Christ's messengers in giving forth this resurrecton-life through a spirit of faith under the Law before Christ's first coming so were they the first actual dispensers and declarers of the said life and glory under the gospel They first preached the glad gospel tydings of Christ's resurrection in our nature This honourable service Christ employed them in as a just recompence of their being his first followers out of the changeable first-creation into that unchangeable resurrection-land or state of life without ever sinning against Law or Gospel Ezek. 1. 12 20. 10. 11. Hereby did they preserve to themselves in this first-resurrection-state that precedency in place and nature God gave them in their first creation And now as additional to that are they chosen by Christ to be his highest-Officers therein for giving the first report of the said resurrection-state of our nature in Christ's person He is not here but is risen Luk. 24. 6. And as in the two days under Law and Gospel Angels under Christ were the first preachers of the resurrection-state unto men so much more powerfully yet will they be in the third and last day By their powerful sounding the new-creation trumpet or preaching the everlasting gospel-life will the dead witnesses be raised and the elect gathered together from one end of Heaven to the other Mat. 24. 31. They will come forth in such power of the new-creation-spirit of prophecy as to cause it to enter into and build up every part of their crucified nature into the life thereof and compleat union with their angelical helpers and Christ himself therein Ezek. 37. 4 -10. And herein shall they be found the twofold united witnesses of Christ in his heavenly and earthly glorified spirit signified to Ezekiel by the two sticks he was to write upon for Judah and for Joseph with their companions Ezek. 37. 15 22. All this done by the holy Angels in the preparatory dispensation amounts not to the Saint's glorified body For that change will be the immediate fruit of Christ's personal coming and presence But these angelical reapers are to gather together the first-born Church written on the heavenly stick sharers in Christ's heavenly and most excellent new-creature-life mark'd with their Father's name on their foreheads and fitted for the marriage-bed of their heavenly Husband And then are they to gather all those whose names are written on the earthly glorified stick also even an innumerable multitude in the white robes of Christ's spiritual everlasting righteousness Rev. 7. 9. Both these are the Angels to gather by preaching the everlasting Gospel to them By their preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the World in the third and last day before the full end come will be fulfilled Mat. 29. 14. They will powerfully waken up the spiritual seed of the Kingdom in all nations and all that are ripe in the life thereof shall be immediately joyned with them even with Christ's heavenly host of Angels for the work and service of that day And at the same time will they raise up other spiritual Saints into a land of light a spiritual Goshen and pour forth the full vials of Plagues on the hardned enemies of God and them God by his holy Angels will lead Saints out of all captivities as Moses Israel out of Egypt raising out of their great and last grave the whole mystical dead body of Christ Of this preparatory angelical ministration was Christ's transfiguration in his unchang'd body before his death a figure He caused the transforming power of his new-creature-life in which Son of man in Heaven to shine so strongly on his inward man or spirit that his very outward also was made to shine His face or spirit shined as the Sun and his raiment or outward man was white as the light So the crucified spirit dead body or natural man of the two witnesses shall by the Angels powerful preaching the everlasting Gospel be so raised into the powerful exercise of Spiritual life as to make their unchang'd fleshly bodies shine as a high degree of redemption from the bondage of their whole corruptible first-creation-life Such Saints with holy Angels shall shine as Stars through a more signal partaking of Christ's risen Spirit the bright morning Star from whom they all receive their distinct measures of new-creation-light and life In this season and dispensation will Christ make good to his Saints what he long before promised to Joshua as associated with Angels under him his joint powerful instruments for the great work of this preparatory day Of this priviledg was Moses also a signal type as through faith taken into such angelical converse and thereby admitted so near access to Christ the head of Angels as will qualify them to receive the lively oracles of Christ's own mind and become his mouth for declaring the same to others This honour will be put on Saints in the preparatory dispensation to Christ's second coming And thus have we seen by what means or hand the last generation of Saints are to be slain and by what to be raised again and their high priviledg and honour thereupon This by the angelical ministration for this very
distruction of it Of this twofold burning for spiritual as well as literal Sodomy all defilement and unclean practices in Spirit as well as Body which the World in this last time will be more filled with than ever and so ripen'd for judgment we find the Sin and Punishment of literal Sodom a presaging type The sin and punishment in this last and most Sodomitish age of the World is pointed out Jude 7. Angels for mystical Sodomy in an unclean spiritual union together and literal Sodomites as also mystical among Men going after strange evil angelical Spirits as false Christ's and Gods as well as strange flesh suffered the twofold vengeance of eternal Fire or were made to feel the twofold operations of it outward and inward for a total and everlasting destruction of them So will the Fire on this Sodomitish world abounding in all sorts of iniquity spiritual and fleshly be inwardly kindled in every guilty conscience and seconded with an outward burning up of the corrupt World with the sinful fashions and constitutions of it civil or religious melting down and causing all to pass away as also the material parts thereof For the Vials in this dispensation of wrath are not only to be poured on the Earth Sea and Rivers c. mystically but also literally understood This will cause the Heaven and Earth in every consideration thereof as singly natural and of the first-creation sort to melt and pass away as not able any longer in the corrupt or righteous spirit and principles thereof to bear up or stand before the bright light and burning of this preparatory day of the Lord. The evil policies and practices with the forms of religious fashions of the first-creation Heaven or first-covenant Churches will render both fit fuel for the Fire of this day So every part of this old-creation Sodom shall be destroyed But before this as in the type will true Saints with Lot be secured by angelical hands as of the great family of Christ's heavenly or earthly glorified members The Angels that have the command of this twofold Fire in its inward and cutward operations shall in dispersing it fulfil the commands of Christ The seventh Angel pours out his Vial upon or into the Air Rev. 16. 17. Air is the first-creation-spirit in all the parts and branches thereof whereby the Devil from first to last has come forth in his several shapes and various ways to fight against the new-creation-spirit of Christ This Air as by him corrupted through his practice of all sorts of wickedness by word spirit and letter comes now in the comprehensive principle thereof to receive its appointed and prepared just and righteous judgment pronounced and poured forth by the seventh Angel Christ himself as head of Angels in his unvailed new-creation life and Spirit On this comes a loud and powerful voice from the heavenly temple and throne even the glorious new-creation-building the house and throne in and on which the Mediator's divinity dwells and sits In our exalted nature in which immediate head to Angels and Saints will he sound forth the very mind of his infinite divinity and new-creature temple as in personal union with both And from this eminent heighth will he pour forth this Vial of final wrath on the whole first-creation air or spirit or Angels and Men as fixed therein in unchangeable enmity to God and the second In the said almighty divine and irresistibly mighty new-creature-authority and power he says it is done Rev. 16. 17. that is the destruction of all his unchangeable enemies is finished This is implied in the effects and dreadful consequents of this voice upon them voices thunders lightnings and a great earthquake such as never was before seen or felt This is the voice that will once more shake not the Earth only but also Heaven Heb. 12. 26 27. so as to shake all earthly foundations and the most spiritualliz'd heavenly buildings set thereon This voice and the judgment therein pronounced and executed will leave nothing remaining of beauty and glory that 's but of a single changeable earthly nature The voice of Christ in and by the ministry of Angels in giving the Law declar'd its heavenly authority then by shaking the Earth But this concluding gospel-voice will discover and shake all first-creation-life in the most spiritual dress and counterfeit imitation of the second it can appear or come forth in irresistibly demonstrating the perishable nature thereof By this voice all counterfeit heavenly spiritual buildings whose foundations are found earthly and mutable will be tumbled down and the sandy foundation discovered Ezek. 13. 14. All disguises put upon earthly principles by the sinful transforming art skil and subtilty of Satan shall be taken off by this voice of Christ importing the clear naked manifestation of new-creation light and life in his own person For then will be voices thunders lightnings and such an universal Earthquake as will utterly over-turn all things that are but of a mutable nature and can be shaken however firm they have appeared to Men that those things that cannot be shaken even the rocky new-creation-building or spirit of Christ and things thereof may take place come into publick view and remain for ever The voice and appearance of Christ in this invincible new Jerusalem-spirit will be certain and everlasting destruction to all that fight against it Zech. 14. 12. This voice will rent asunder every part of the first-creation building however subtly and artificially set up by the workmanship of the Devil As the marvellous and amazing effects of the pouring forth of this seventh and concluding Vial of wrath on the said Air or first-creation-spirit kept up in enmity to God and the second by evil Angels and Men will it be taken to task and dealt with root and branch to the not only shaking but utter ruine and downfal of the whole Fabrick with all its sinful transformations into a counterfeit spirituality by which they have endeavoured to fortify and strengthen themselves to make the greatest and highest opposition against the new-creation-life and the second coming and Kingdom of Christ therein For this the three parts of the great City Babylon the Dragon Beast and false Prophet the Devil or whole evil angelical nature with humane worldly magistracies and ministries his serpentine seed amongst men these are by the just judgment of God divided or put into unspeakable confusion and discordancy through the terrible thundrings of Christ's new-creation voice and presence upon them all So are they made to bear a share in executing his judgments upon one another as all found in unchangeable enmity to him This was figured by Moab Ammon and mount Seir or Edomit's destroying each other in the valley of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. 22 -25. Thus the whole mystical Babylon will fall flat as the walls of Jerico under the weight of their just condemnation receiving the cup of the Wine of the fierceness of God's wrath Rev. 16. 19. This Babylon is
indissoluble bond of love for ever In it shall be no more curse For nothing of the enmity of the mystical first-creation Heaven and Earth Angels or Men shall be found in Christ's new Earth the lower part of his Kingdom or meanest of his spiritual Subjects This was also typed by Canaan and the literal Tabernacle there erected as God's resting place Hence John saw that Sea representing the first-creation-Spirit as fallen into universal enmity pass away as forc'd to give place to the new Heaven and Earth or two-fold Principles of Christ's new creature-Spirit on which the new Jerusalem is built In this City John also saw the Throne of God and of the Lamb who in the shining forth of his divine and creature-name in personal union is the light thereof to all the Inhabitants the whole heavenly and earthly glorified family of Christ the train or blessed retinue shew'd John belonging to and standing with the Lamb on mount Sion even the Church of the first-born and whole assembly of Saints and Angels that are perfect Spirits waiting to be establish'd in their place of attendance about his spiritual Temple that 's to be open'd by the setting up of his visible Kingdom on Earth Then the most inferiour spiritual Subjects in it shall be cloathed in long white Robes and have palms in their hands garments of immutable righteousness and palms of victory as redeemed from the changeableness and bondage of the first creation Spirit of nature and translated into new creation-principles of true freedom in which to perform an everlasting service of love to Christ in their respective places about his Throne and Temple The vision of all this was given John An Angel open'd to his faith the door of the mystical Temple of Christ's glorified humanity in which he beheld a Throne and as Stephen God the Mediator sitting and Jesus his Son and Branch in our glorified nature standing at his right hand as having in that soveraign exaltation committed to him his Father 's whole rule and authority under him as in personal union with him sitting on the same Throne And round about this Throne John saw twenty four seats and thereon sitting twenty four Elders clothed with long white robes and having crowns of Gold upon their heads Rev. 4. 4. By these are charactered the highest rulers under Christ himself to be by him set up in his Kingdom They are second resurrection-Saints who are the first row of attendants and encompassers of the Tabernacle and Throne sitting on their distinct seats according to their Services The highest seat for the highest of these is beheld in a subjected distance not only from the true Moses the Mediatour but from the true Aaron Jesus in our glorified nature the supreme high-Priest and Parent of his highest priestly Sons that are a select number out of the second resurrection Saints peculiarly qualified for his marriage-bed by a twofold resurrection-garment earthly glorified and heavenly as also by a double portion of the glorified earthly and heavenly spirit of their Lord implied in the distinct kinds of holiness as well as differing measures by which the high Priests are distinguish'd from other Levites These highest priestly Saints seem peculiarly represented by the twenty four Elders who with the younger brothers in the single portion of the second resurrection-state make up the first row of attendants about the Throne or Tabernacle To all these John saw given over and above the white raiment of the earthly glorified congregation members of the first resurrection crowns of Gold that is either a double or single portion of Christ's heavenly or second resurrection-life or spirit And before this Throne thus set up in the third Heaven encompassed with Spiritual Priests and serving Levites John saw a Sea of Glass clear as Christal and round about the Throne four beasts full of Eyes before and behind One like a Lion another like a Calf a third a Man a fourth an Eagle By these angelical rational and sensual faces or likenesses may be represented the whole number in the first-resurrection-state consisting of angelical Princes or chief rulers and of subordinate rational rulers and obeyers For in this first-resurrection-state as well as second are mystical Stars or spiritual Saints differing from one another in glory yet all with the whole earthly congregation of spiritual Israelites Christ's new Earth make up but the second or outward row of attendants about the spiritual Throne or Tabernacle And the clear cristal-Sea typed out by the Court of the Tabernacle dividing and distinguishing the first and second resurrection-attendants through its transparent nature causing them to behold each other and in all their various distances to behold the Throne itself may fitly represent the glorified humanity of Christ This is the blessed and proper medium by which himself and his first-born-Church do converse with Angels and Saints in the first resurrection-state who though without the Tabernacle Court or cristal Sea before the Throne yet through the union of these two distinct spiritual states and principles in Christ do all with unspeakable joy behold the Throne of God the Lamb and also Bride the Lamb's Wife And so do all live in an absolute unchangeable obedience to Christ and perfect union of love with his peculiar spouse and their elder-brother-Saints This appears by the blessed harmony of these first and second resurrection-Saints attending at several distances about the Throne signified by twenty four Elders and four Beasts all falling down together before the Throne of God and the Lamb in an unanimous discharge of the duty of their respective places crying day and night Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was is and is to come These two distinct communities of Saints and Angels ascribe everlasting Glory Honour and Power to God and the Lamb who created all things as their due praise for their immortal and glorified beings The last circumstance in the parallel between the literal and mystical Sanctuary or new Jerusalem City is this No fleshly defiled persons were to enter the former no fleshly or spiritually defiled the latter The touching a dead Soul is in mystery and truth such a touching the first-creation-spirit and life of nature through enmity to God become a dead unclean thing as imports a love to and union therewith This touch renders men unclean on which they are to be cast out of the spiritual Camp and Kingdom of Christ Such mystical Dogs Sorcerers Whoremongers Murderers and Lyars as from wilful hatred to Christ's new-creature-spirit of truth chuse their own spirit of lyes and falshood are for ever to be excluded out of Christ's new-Jerusalem City or Kingdom In this twofold work of leading men to Christ the true door of entrance and keeping out all that climb up some other way will Christ use his Angels typed by the twelve Princes of the Tribes They then as the literal Princes must number the true subjects of Christ's spiritual Kingdom for his service in order to take their
appointed places in the same In discharge of this Office will they rear up the Tabernacle as Moses in the very way of Israel's travelling into Canaan This will they do in their preparatory work by giving the angelical sights and views of Christ's Kingdom before its visible establishment by his own presence This in a like exactness as in the type where nothing was wanting as to the building or attendants thereof at its first rearing in the Wilderness Exod. 40. The form of the House or City with the several places of the members or attendants thereof was from the like angelical hand given Ezekiel and John as also all the Laws and Ordinances to be observed by the attendants in their several stations All this will they do as a preparing the way to their spiritual Lord's coming and fitting of the new World for such a descending of the holy City out of Heaven upon it as will be the visible setting up of Christ's spiritual Kingdom in it even by his visible coming with all his Saints according to Enoch's prophecy Jude 14. These are to take their places in his visible Kingdom as the inward or outward rows of attendants about his Throne This accordingly as they are found to be the seed of the Kingdom quicken'd and raised by the said preparatory dispensation into the first or second resurrection-life though yet remaining in the vile body For they are fitted on Christ's personal call of them to be immediately chang'd into their glorified bodies without death This by Christ's own sounding forth the trump of God 1 Thess 4. 16 17. 1 Cor. 15. 51 52. Then shall death be swallowed up into victory in all the members of Christ written in his new creature book of Life from everlasting This will be the happy conclusion of that preparatory day when Saints shall shine forth in more brightness than ever in any former-dispensation Yet will this day be but as night to the Sun-rise of Christ's personal presence But yet in the evening of this preparatory day it shall be light by the approach of that Sun that shall never go down more Zech. 14. 7. Then will the Angels do as the Angel that finish'd his wrastling-work with Jacob and found him on the utmost trial an heir of everlasting Salvation and as so secured by the weakning of his nature under the Cross When he had thus prepared him for the breaking forth of the new-creation day upon him he does in the same faithfulness to his master say to him let me go that the glorious day of my Lord may break forth whose appearing is my lawful discharge as to my preparatory service thereunto by his yet far greater light The holy Angels John saw at the twelve Gates of the new Jorusalem rejoyce with thanksgiving in their being imploy'd by Christ for the good of the elect seed of men in general yea and for those select spouses and peculiar heavenly friends of Christ heirs of a higher state of Salvation than themselves All of them while but in the childish natural state of Servants do need the instruction and conduct of these ministring Spirits for the safe bringing of them to the doors of the new-creation-City by communicating their visions thereof unto them They lead them to Christ the true door of that City who also is the immediate opener and giver of actual entrance thereunto As Guardians even to Christ's heavenly first-born-Church among other Saints while within their jurisdiction will they conduct them to the gates of the heavenly City and there deliver them up to Christ himself Till they enter the said City must they own their sights and views thereof to these most proper instruments used by Christ the holy Angels These chief rulers in and over the first-resurrection-state are the fittest co-workers with Christ in the preparatory setting up or shewing of his Kingdom to all Saints John in the whole vision given him of things to come the resurrection-life and glory in which Christ's visible kingdom is to be set up acknowledged all to be received from the good Angels under the number seven the figure all along Scripture of the new-creation or resurrection-state By a participation hereof do they take their principality or chief rule over the earthly glorified congregation of spiritual Israelites As testimony hereunto John saw those seven Angels implying the whole number of elect Angels standing before the Throne of the Lamb as partakers of his resurrection-life The like is signified by the sevenfold Trumpet given them by which fitly capacitated for the said work as Christ's chief Ministers to declare his resurrection-life and glory and so to give the joyful tydings of his spiritual coming and Kingdom to all the Earth All this honour is put upon them as a just recompence for their obedient quitting their own natural Land and Habitation their first-creation mutable earthly life and state and becoming the first faithful followers of their head into the true new-creation land of Promise From the moment in which made or found willing to make this exchange of life and principles was the vision of God through faith given them in the resurrection-state So may they properly be called Elders or chief over the good seed among Men who receive from their hand the same Manna of life in Christ themselves feed on They by their more penetrating sight and nature especially as exalted into the spiritual new-creation sight and vision of their head as admitted into personal union with the divinity in our glorified nature and sitting on his Throne and his Bride have bin and are signally useful to communicate the vision of both till the time for these heavenly Saints exaltation into the possession and enjoyment of the marriage bed Thus they shewed John the Lamb and his Bride or peculiar and most heavenly Saints in a subjected love unto both as inferiour to both yet having their joy compleated by a perfect love to both acknowledging themselves to be neither Bridegroom nor Bride but true friends and faithful Servants unto both This their admirable love to Christ and his most heavenly Saints is notably figured out in that of Jonathan to David David is a figure of the most heavenly Saint as made most compleatly after God's own heart Jonathan's true love to him figures out that of the elect Angel to the superiour heavenly Saint His love to David exceeding the love of Women properly describes the spiritual union of the good Angel with the most heavenly Saint as maintained by pure new-creation-principles in both Such love and union must needs greatly excel any love exerciscable in the natural or first-creation-spirit typed out by the Woman which Diotrophes-like covets a pre-eminency in its own name and glory Contrary hereunto new-creation-principles cause the angelical Jonathan's not only unchangeably to love the heavenly David-Saints but from that love to become freely serviceable with Jonathan to place such David's on the Throne in a state superiour to themselves and that as