from Christ Christ is one with God through the spirit of the Father Saints are one with God through the spirit of Christ 1 Tim. 3.16 Rom. 15.7 Joh. 17.22 Christ was received up into the glory of God by the Father Saints are received into that glory of God by Christ God dwels in Christ gloriously in a first higher and clearer manifestation God dwels in Saints as truly and verily but covertly and as yet in a second lower and darker manifestation through Christ in a spirit dwelling in them yet daily leading them up into more and more glory by clearer revealings of himself in us until he fully appear having done away all veils from off his face then shall we be like him that is we shall then be filled with the glory he is filled with for we shall see him as he is that is the same glory which is in him shall come forth in us 1 Joh. 3.2 and we shall see him by having that which dwels in him manifest in us Thus in all things hath Christ the preheminence over Saints and yet Saints are partakers with Christ of the same Divine Nature and spirit dwelling in them SECT XVI The fourth reason against the spirit in us OUR Fathers nor our Fathers Fathers knew not nor understood not this Mysterie how could the union of Christ and Saints being a Mysterie of so high and Divine a nature be hid and shut up from them through so many ages and generations if there be such a union as Christ himself by Spirit or Divine Nature dwelling in Saints Answered I shall close up my testimony to this Truth with an account of some things which I judge have shut up the world for so long a time under the darkness and unbelief of the great Gospel-mysterie The first veil which hath been upon the truth of spirit in Saints 1. Besides the holy and unsearchable reasons in the secret counsel and will of God the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ or of God the Father in Christ being but darkly and weakly seen and apprehended by them who have been Fathers and Lights in their day in former times hath also much darkned if not quite hid out of sight this Mysterie of God or Christ dwelling in Saints For as the union of God and Man in the person of Christ is the cause or fountain from whence flows the union of God or Christ in Saints so the true knowledge of the union of God and Man in Christ Vnion of God and Christ darkned darkens the union of Christ and Saints is the key for the true understanding of the union of Christ and Saints Now the Guides and Leaders of the Church in former times looking upon this great Mysterie as upon all other Gospel-mysteries in a faith mingled with the unbelief ignorance and humane Philosophy of those times they have conceived God and the Man Christ to be one in an hypostatical union or a personal union so and in such manner as that the Man Christ as Man hath no personality at all that is hath no proper personal subsistence of Person but only of Nature under which dark and involved description favouring more of Metaphysical subtilty then of the simplicity of Christ they locked up the true state and nature of the union of God and Christ and so commended it to the world and by Tradition through succeeding generations down to our present times to be such an union as the Saints could not be partakers with him in the same union whereas the account that the spirit gives in the Gospel of this union is plain and simple and full of glory 2 Cor. 5.19 Col. 2.9 1 Tim. 3.16 God was in Christ reconciling the world The fulness of the Godhead dwels in him bodily My Father that dwels in me doth these works God was manifest in flesh and such as doth bring this union down to Saints Joh. 14.20 and joyns them in the fellowship and community of the same union with Christ At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you That they all may be one in us as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they all may be one in us as thou Father art in me Joh. 17.21.23 and I in thee I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the world may know that God hath loved Saints as he loved Christ the glory which the Father gave to Christ which was union with God the same glory Christ gives to Saints that they may be one with the Father as he and the Father are one Joh. 17.22 23. And upon this very account that Christ hath union glory and spirit and all the riches of Divine fulness not for himself alone but to extend and shed forth the same upon Saints is he as I humbly judge called the root of David the true Vine the second Adam the first-born amongst many Brethren And now which of these Accounts does most clear the union of God and Christ that of the Schools or this of the Scriptures and whether of these does darken and abolish and whether of these does clear and establish the union of Christ and Saints let all that are spiritual and meek in heart discern and judge SECT XVII Second veil which hath been upon the truth of spirit in Saints SEcondly The framing and composing the whole knowledge of God Speculative and Practical otherwise called the Systeme and Body of Divinity according to the pattern of Natural Reason thus moulding and fashioning the spirit and things of the spirit into the perishing models and narrow platforms of Nature this hath been another seal to seal up the Mysterie of the spirit in us In those Books I find God and the Attributes of God first discussed and opened in a poor natural way before Christ be named whereas God never did any thing either in making the world or redeeming of sinners without the Son Nor can God nor any thing of God be clearly seen and known but first through the knowledge of the Son The greatest truths how corrupted and perverted formerly and as yet I find in those writings the justification of sinners by Jesus Christ to be an absolution only from the guilt condemnation and punishment of sin but not from the filth and spot of sin after the way and manner of earthly Judicatures who do pardon or remit the guilty person upon a price or ransom from the guilt and punishment of his offence though he be in mind and heart as much as before this is to bring down the glorious and free grace of God in imputing our sins to Christ and his righteousness unto us to the low and imperfect administrations of Justice amongst men to restrain the Omnipotent vertue and power of the righteousness of Christ which is able to make us become the righteousness of God in him
state Fourthly that which constitutes perfects and denominates the first Adam and all in him is no more but a spark of light a Divine breathing a created inspiration called a living soul that which perfects constitutes and denominates the second Adam and all in him is the Fountain of light the increated inspiration therefore called a quickening spirit Christ and Saints in him wherein excelling Adam and all natural men in him The summe of all is herein is the second Adam which is Christ and all Saints in him differing from and excelling the first Man which is Adam and all natural men in him that the first Man hath no more but a communication of gifts the second of the quickning spirit himself This is the first testimony to this truth that the spirit himself dwelleth in Saints SECT III. THE second testimony to this truth follows from Gal. The second testimony to the spirits in-being in us 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me Rom. 8.13 If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body c. The Truth flowing from these Scriptures linked together may be presented under the ensuing Conclusions 1. A Saint is both a dead and a living thing as he came forth in the state and nature of old Adam which is earthly and after the flesh and so stands up and lives and doth all in a spirit mind and principle contrary to God as a man under no government nor command of God nor of any but his own will and fleshly lusts and so is out of God in nature selfishness and flesh As thus he is dead being crucified with Christ who in the body of his flesh condemned the state nature law will and works of old Adam in all his Saints and abolished it in his death Again he is a living thing as the heavenly and divine life of Christ is revealed in him So that now it is no more he man or creature but Christ the son of God who lives and acteth and rules him whither and how he pleaseth Sins crucified perfectly and at once to faith imperfectly and gradually to sense 1 Cor. 15.31 2. Sins and the works of old Adam are crucified and slain two ways in the head and in the members in Christ they were perfectly slain once and for ever in the flesh of Saints they are slain by a gradual mortification He that said I am dead with Christ said also I dye daily they are perfectly dead as in faith having put off the flesh and put on Christ they have yet somewhat to kill as in sense having flesh and a body of death to put off This is clear from Col. 3.3 5. Rom. 6.6 12. 3. The same divine principle of life and righteousness which did slay and abolish sins and death in the flesh of Christ doth slay and abolish sins and death in the flesh of Saints head and members vine and branches having but one life as they live in and by one common principle law or spirit of life so they have one death and that which slays the one slays the other But lest there may be obscurity or offence in words I offer this explication of my sense upon those expressions of abolishing sins and death in the flesh of Christ and in the flesh of Saints 1. Hereunto doth agree the witness of the Apostle Rom. 8.3 Eph. 2.15 2. The son of God or Christ manifest in flesh must be considered to have put on a twofold state Rom. 8.3 1. As he descended and came forth in the form and likeness of sinful flesh that is in the name nature comprehension and reckoning of sinners so he was reckoned both by the Father and himself to have put upon him the spirit and life mind and will flesh and body of sinners and so offered and resigned up his life will and body as the life will and body of sinners to the eternal will to be delivered unto death As we were in Christ under this state Saints how perfectly crucified and freed from the guilt and filth of sin so though in the life of flesh or sense we feel the body of sin yet to live in us as if it were not dead and crucified yet in the life of faith or in a mysterie we reckon our natural man life flesh sin and the whole old Adam root and branch Rom. 6.4 6 11. to be indeed and perfectly dead and buried Col. 2.11 12. and abolished for ever out of the sight of God The second state of Christ was as he ascended and left the world in the reality and truth of a justified man 1 Tim. 3.16 Heb. 7.26 Having taken up not his own single person only but in his person our nature the nature of all Saints into a sinless justified and heavenly state of divine life and glory in union with the Father So while in flesh sense or old man we are and live in this world Saints how raised up into a spotless state we reckon our selves in faith mysterie or new creature to live no more in this world but to be raised up together with him and freed from sin in the filth as well as the guilt of it Col. 2.12.20 Rom. 6.7 Eph. 2.6 Joh. 14.20 and to be set in the heavenly places in a spotless justified and heavenly state in union with the Father in Christ Jesus This digression holds forth my sense of abolishing sins in the flesh of Christ and Saints 4. The Divine Nature dwelling in Christ was that principle which crucified our sins in his flesh which I do with submission conceive is thus to be understood That the Divine Nature in Christ crucified the spirit life understanding The Divine Nature crucified our sins in Christ reason will and affections of the man Christ to it self his reason as a man was not the light of his created mind and spirit but the Eternal Wisdom in him his own will ceased and was not but the Fathers will in him he gave up his whole man and therein our earthly man which as in us was active arbitrary lordly and selfish to be a meer passive thing unto the Divine Nature so that the Eternal Wisdom and Will revealed and taught all commanded and acted all in Chriâ—â— his created humane wisdom will and reason was sâ—â—owed up of the eternal wisdom and will in him as â—rop of the great Ocean If then as the third Conclusion depones the same principle which abolished our sins in the flesh of Christ The Divine Nature crucifies sin in Saints doth crucifie sin in us then the Divine Nature or the same spirit of Christ doth mortifie or crucifie sin in us by his dwelling and manifesting himself in us and is daily abolishing our wisdom reason light will and affections by the nearer approachings and clearer revealings of the eternal wisdom light will and fulness in us until Christ and Saints be made one compleat
living holy Temple for the everlasting and blessed God to dwell in Upon this ground I must thankfully and gladly own and affirm that the spirit himself dwels in Saints and is daily subduing them by dyings to themselves to the flesh and world to be a Temple for the Divine Nature in his admirable and blessed Being to dwell in SECT IV. The third testimony to the spirits in-being in Saints ANother witness to this truth is from Gal. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same These Scriptures spiritually weighed together do cast a mutual reflexion each upon other and send forth this high and blessed truth Vnion of Christ and Saints is in substance 1. That the union of Christ and Saints stands in or is by a mutual participation each of others substance or substantial natures and not only each of others qualifications or habits And that this participation is twofold Of Christs partaking of the nature and flesh of Saints One of Christs partaking of the humane nature and flesh of Saints marrying it and taking it into union with his Divine Nature and in it as in the root head and first-born from the dead sanctifying all Saints to be a Virgin Spouse and Bride for himself of whom he saies in a figure Thou shalt be called Hephzibah Isal 62.4 Psal 132.14 for the Lord delighteth in thee and here will I â—â—ell for I have desired it And thus Christ and Saints are become one flesh and one body Ephes 5.30 31 32. The other is of Saints partaking of the Divine Nature and Spirit of Christ Of Saints partaking of the nature and spirit of Christ Isai 54.5 through faith taking it into union with their own nature and in it receiving God their Maker the Lord of Hoasts to be their Husband and everlasting Bridegroom to dwell in them Therefore it is said He that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 2. That the ground and reason of both these participations of Christ with Saints and Saints with Christ is one and the same in him and in them viz. in Christ who partook of the flesh of Children because one of the Children in Saints who partake of the spirit of the Son because they are sons Which relation of Christ to Saints ☜ as it was truly and really perfected in that kindly and natural product of his cloathing himself upon with our flesh the seed of Abraham without which he had neither really been in himself nor could have been truly manifest nor declared to be our Brother or one of the Children so the relation of Saints to Christ being the same and so of equal force and vertue and so hath like effect and operation is therefore truly and really perfected in that congenial and natural product of their cloathing themselves upon with his spirit the seed of God without which Saints neither really are in themselves nor can be truly manifest or declared to be the Brethren or the Sons of God I do therefore humbly affirm the Divine Subsistence of the spirit to dwell himself in Saints and not only by infused qualifications or habits and this partaking of the Divine Nature to be that which only makes Saints truly to be and principally denominates and declares them to be the Sons of God SECT V. The fourth testimony to the spirit in Saints THE fourth witness to this truth is from 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Eph. 2.21 In whom all the building c. groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 1. All the Temples expressed and found in Scripture are either Idol-Temples 1 Chr. 10.10 2 Chr. 36.7 Ier. 50.2 Acts 19.26 27. Ioh. 2.19 21. Ezek. 41.1 which are three the Temple of Dagon the god of the Philistines the Temple of Bel and Merodach at Babylon the Temple of the goddess Diana at Ephesus in Asia Or Temples for the true God which are these the Temple at Jerusalem made with hands the Temple of Christs body the Temple of Saints 1 Cor. 3.16 the Temple opened in Heaven Rev. 11.19 the Temple revealed to Ezekiel in visions Rev. 21.10 being the same with the Temple opened in Heaven and is the new Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God The Temple at Jerusalem fulfilled in Christ and Saints 2. The Temples of the true God carry this account in them the Temple at Jerusalem was the type held forth God dwelling in flesh as the invisible mysterie of the Gospel in a dead shadow or external figure as the visible rudiment the shadow or rudiment was to cease and the mysterie to be truly fulfilled in him that was to come The Temple of Christs body and Temple of Saints or flesh of Christ and Saints was the anti-type The mysterie of God dwelling in flesh typed and prefigured in the first Temple is truly fulfilled and brought forth in these second and third Temples The Temple of Christ and Saints perfected in the last Temple opened in Heaven But so as in the flesh of Christ it is already manifest revealed and consummate but in the flesh of Saints it is as yet covered obscure and inchoate The Temple seen in vision by Ezekiel and the Temple opened in Heaven or the new Jerusalem which are the last Temples and both one are the perfection and full growing up of the second and third Temples into one living holy Temple for the Lord or the mysterie of God manifest in the flesh now in Saints yet covered and inchoate shall be in that last Temple revealed and consummate so that the first Temple had or held forth the Mysterie in shadow or letter the second and third had it in spirit and truth yet dark and covered as in Saints the last Temple takes off the darkness and covering from off the third and holds it forth revealed and consummate the first had the Mysterie but in shadow and so darkest the second and third had it in truth and more clear the last shall have it in perfection and so in the brightness of the perfect day Thirdly the Idol-temples and true Temples do agree in this those had in them their god their oracle and their graven image to whom all the Nations flowed together as to a god Jer. 51.44 The true Temples have their Oracle their Glory the true Divine nature and spirit dwelling in them without which they are not Temples and so are common and unholy the indwelling of the holy Spirit being that onely which makes them Temples and sanctifies them to be an habitation for God even as the body of Christ could not be called a Temple but from the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in it so the Saints are not nor cannot
be called Temples but from the fulness of God filling them and dwelling in them Eph. 3.19 all which doth hold forth a clear account of this truth as worthy of all acceptation that the spirit or Divine nature it self dwells in Saints SECT VI. A Further witness to this truth is from 1 Cor. 6.17 But he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit Ephes 4.4 The fifth testimony to the spirit in Saints There is one body and one spirit First members of the natural body being many are but one body because united together and living in one common principle or spirit of life dwelling in them so Christ and Saints being many members are but one mystical body because united together and living in one eternal spirit dwelling in them Christ is to the soul what the soul is to the body the one being as real an union in spirit and Mysterie as the other is in nature and reason yea and much more real for what the natural spirit is to the body natural that and far more is the Spirit of Christ to Saints 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Vnion of Christ and Saints by created inspirations only brings forth two conclusions which destroy the reality of that union First conclusion Secondly he that brings down this union of Christ and Saints in one body by one spirit to be no more then an union of the created inspirations and habits of one spirit he must unavoidably affirm the conclusions following both which do debase weaken and quite disanul the reality of the union between Christ and Saints or Saints and Saints First that the highest principle of life in Saints as one body is some created gift or habit of grace or something below the spirit for as in the natural body so it is in the body spiritual the highest principle of life is that only which unites many members into one body and denominates them one body so that if it be not the Spirit himself but some infused habit which unites Christ and Saints into one body then that infused habit is the highest principle of life in Saints as one body of Christ which assertion besides the irrationality of it in making an habit or quality a principle of life may be judged the highest wrong and dishonour that can be to the body of Christ that the Body of bodies the body of the Son of God the Temple and City of Jehovah the eternal Spouse of Christ the Lambs wife the joy and praise of all the earth that body which shall be comprehensive of such stupendious masses and eternal weight of glory should have no higher larger no more substantial principle of life then a bundle of created habits how doth this strip the glorious body of Christ Mystical of its glory and perfection and brings it into a condition below the very natural body of a man whose highest perfection of natural life consists in something more substantial and noble then any such thing as a meer habit or quality Second conclusion Secondly if the union of Saints with Christ in one body be only by infused habits then the Mysticalness and reality of the union comes to no more then a moral union the union of man with God no more then the union of man with man or two lovers or friends that is of one heart mind or thought in a moral conjunction and so the riches of the glory of that Mysterie which was hid from Ages and Generations under the whole Law and not made manifest until the dayes of the New Testament which is Christ is in us are no more but that which hath been common Col. 1.26 27. and known amongst all men in Ages and Generations Vnion of Christ in Saints was a Mysterie hid until the dayes of the Gospel that is a moral union wherefore this union of Christ and Saints being a Mysterie so ful of glory and hid from the Prophets and Fathers under the Law must be something unseen unknown to the world before something more hiâ—h Divine and perfect then moral union that having been well known unto the Saints before and therefore it is Christ himself in Saints that is not onely an heart will or mind like to Christ in Saints but Christ himself his Divine nature and spirit in Saints a Mysterie so deep and glorious that the Disciples of Christ understood it not all the while he was with them in the days of his flesh until some time after he was gone unto his Father and in that day they should know that he was in the Father and they in him and he in them Joh 14.20 All which do give their witness to this glorious Mysterie of truth that the spirit himself dwells in Saints SECT VII ANother convincing witness to the spirits in-being in Saints is from Joh. 14.16 17. I will pray the Father The sixth testimony to the spirit in Saints and he shall give you another Comforter which shall be in you Joh. 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you c. God in Christ the great promise under the Law First two great promises have been made and revealed to the world one by the Father under the Law of sending the Messias or Emanuel or God manifest in the flesh of Christ whose coming forth in the flesh should put an end and consummation to that administration of him under the Law the other by Christ of sending his spirit into the flesh of Saints God in Saints the great promise under the Gospel whose first coming forth should put an end to Christs dwelling among us in the flesh which accordingly came to pass and his second approach or coming forth should finish the Mysterie of God or the witness of Christ under the Letter and external administration of the Gospel which yet is not come to pass but is that we wait for until it be revealed in us Both these promises pass through the same states conditions and changes Secondly both these promises may be observed in their several succeeding reasons and proper day of their comings forth to have trodden the same path of Occurrences and to have passed through the same states conditions and changes each after other They are as follows The first promise or God in flesh and his threefold state The first Promise or God coming forth in flesh had his appearance disappearance and reappearance or had his time of witnessing his time of being cut off from witnessing his time of finishing or sealing his witness by his rising again and ascending up into glory in the first state or time God was in Christ yet veiled and hid in his weak flesh obscure estate and uncomely form from the wise and prudent Princes Scribes and Disputers of this world but known and manifest to a few Babes and despised ones which state prepared him for his second state or time wherein he
as an enjoyment of me in spirit is more perfect and excellent then an enjoyment of me in flesh Ioh. 16.6 7. The sending therefore of this spirit was somewhat an higher thing then only in gifts and graces and it is yet more manifest when Christ said Joh. 16.22 I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Christ in Saints a truth that could not be born in the day of Christs presence in flesh What some of those things were which could not be born he toucheth upon Joh. 14.26 which words in a full sense are as if he had said While I am with you in this state of flesh if I should tell you that as I am now I am in my Father and you in me and I in you you would not believe me nor bear such things howbeit when the spirit is come unto you he will reveal the truth unto you and then in that day ye shall both know and believe it that I am in you and you in me though now this knowledge of me being a knowing of me after the spirit is too high for you who yet know me only after the flesh and so cannot conceive while you see and know me only in and after the flesh how I should be in you or you in me or I in my Father Therefore the time being at hand appointed of my Father that this carnal and low estate you are in shall pass away and a more high and spiritual come forth for this cause I must withdraw in flesh that you may know and enjoy me in more glory and spirit Christs presence in flesh gives place to his presence in spirit God glorifies himself in man to glorifie man in himself for now you gaze upon my external form and love and know and converse with me as a man without you but then you shall know and converse with me as a spirit in you And now you see me alone as away from my Father and you look upon your selves and I and the Father as separate and divided Beings but then you shall know that my Father and I and you are one and perfect in one and that I am not alone but I and my Father in me and that you are not by your selves but I and the Father in you Which though all this blessedness and union be already so in you and in me yet you neither know it to be so nor is it manifest that it is so nor are you able to bear my words should I tell you more of it therefore I must withdraw that he may come into you who will let you see all this to be so and more then I shall now tell you of or you will believe And now what is the sum of all Are all these things the withdrawing of Christ in flesh to make way for his appearance in spirit his taking them off from desires to enjoy him in flesh and drawing them up to desire his coming in spirit his laying forth the unprofitableness and lowness of the one and the expediency and glory of the other his shewing their enjoyment of him in flesh to be carnal their knowledge and light carnal Joh. 16.22 and many things that is the whole volume of the heavenly mysteries of the Father in Christ of Christ in Saints and Saints in Christ was too high for them And on the contrary the enjoyment of him in spirit so high and clear that they should know all mysteries and all truth which in the time of his presence in flesh they could not bear I say again are all these things no more do they come to no more then the sending and dwelling of the spirit only in gifts and graces Or rather do they not all make up this truth and present it to us with open face that Christ sends the Comforter the Spirit himself to dwell in Saints in his own Divine Nature SECT VIII The seventh testimony to the spirit in Saints A Further testimony to this truth is from Rom. 8.17 18 19. And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ 1. That which the Father hath of old ordained and prepared for them whom he loves is to glorifie man in himself that is to raise him up into a state of the highest happiness and perfection that the Creature can be capable of or that can be communicated from God to the Creature which is for a man to possess the glory of God within him so as the Eternal Fulness of the Divine Nature and Love doth manifest it self and flow into him in such a divine manner of full glory and perfect brightness All objects and appearances dye out of us as God appears in us that all objects and appearances of other things knowledge thoughts and imaginations are all done away and swallowed up by the appearance of him who is all even as the light of a dying spark is swallowed up of the burning flame and the Lord alone is the only thing seen felt and embraced by them any sight or vision taste or possessing below God himself cannot stand with the glory laid up for us because there the light of Eternity or of the eternal Godhead will open it self in us through us and over us as the eyelids of the morning and then he shall no longer be hid for we shall see him as he is It were not glory nor happiness if there were any covering to obscure or hide God from us that we could not see him surpassing and gloriously reigning over all And this seeing of God as he is Seeing God as he is how to be understood which is the glory laid up for us must not be conceived nor understood after an humane manner or after the vain Philosophy of this world to be a contemplation of God as of some glorious appearance or shew of him without us but it is the Divine Nature it self dwelling in us and filling our seeings tastings and knowings with nothing below besides or less then himself he will set his own glory in us and love it in us and us in it and will always behold himself in us not his image only as something distinct but himself and so as he will be our joy we shall be his joy he will be our Husband we shall be his beloved Spouse he will give us nothing but himself and we shall taste of nothing but himself his love unto us is like a fire it will burn up whatsoever hath ever separated between himself and us we shall be so in one another that he will be in us as a burning fire and we shall be in him as a fire of love his delights to Eternity will be spent upon us and the great deep shall be opened unto us and we shall be a Temple for God and he will be a Temple for us Such things as these are some of that glory which is laid up for them that love him which is now in this
through and over and beyond all things most eminently in Christ and Saints These are a further account and reason of my faith joy and hope That the spirit himself in his own glorious power and Divine Nature dwels in Saints however as yet not acknowledged by many of themselves SECT XI THE last record to the spirits in being in Saints Tenth testimony to the spirit in Saints that I shall present is the sweet and heavenly testimony which is in Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Col. 3 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear The Divine life of Christ or the life of God in Christ is not the life of Christ alone as one single person but the life of Christs mystical body of Saints Christ and Saints have but one life the eternal spirit whereby he and they live in one All that Christ received was given to him not as single and alone but as Head of a spiritual Body and so his life and fulness is not the life and fulness of one but of many in one The Father revealed his fulness in Christ not that it should stop and be confined or restrained there that is in the flesh of Christ as one man but that through him it should proceed flow out and be poured forth upon all the Children And so as the Father in Christ is the life of Christ or he by whom Christ lives Joh. 6.57 so Christs in Saints is the life of Saints not the flesh of Christ but God manifest in his flesh or the Father in Christ by whom Saints live And so Christ is the way through which God comes down into Saints not in created influences or graces only but in the spring of influences in the fountain of graces in his own essential love nature and fulness filling them in a divine and incomprehensible manner even as the natural spirit or soul of man is in the head and not there only but diffused in and through all the members and is the life of all in which the members being many become and conspire into one body So is the spirit of God in Christ the Head and thence and therethrough shed abroad not by infusions only as some distinct effects but by himself into all the members 1 Cor. 12.12 13. and is the life of all in and for which they being many become one spiritual body And if it be not so is not the union between the head and members of a body natural more real and substantial then the union of Christ and Saints or is not Christ the head of all things less to his Church then the head of an earthly Creature to its body and if Christ be in Saints by created workings only and not by spirit then all those figures allegories and parabolical similitudes of Vine and Branches Husband and Wife Head and Members chosen and expressed by the spirit in Scriptures to shadow out the union of Christ and Saints have much more in them then is in the mysterie or truth typed and shadowed by them If Christ himself be not in Saints no life in Saints Secondly if Christ himself be not in Saints there is no life in them graces separate from Christ are dead things faith love humility zeal if they have not Christ in spirit wrapped up in them are no more faith nor love then the body of man without the soul is a man Graces are to Christ what the chanel is to the river cut off the stream that runs in the chanel from the river and the chanel becomes as the parched land full of weeds and briars So graces are the passage through which Christ lets out himself if he shuts up they are dryed up and wither The graces of a moral man have glory and beauty in appearance but having nothing above man that is not having Christ living and flowing in them they are clouds without water wandring stars trees without fruit whited wals their faith is the dead faith of Pharisees their holiness the holiness of Hypocrites their beauty in the flesh is the beauty of Harlots graces without Christ in them leave a man dead his soul empty all his worship carnal until Christ awake and bring in himself in spirit and glory and then my soul makes me like the Chariots of Amminadab and my feet are become like Hinds feet and I shall tread upon all high places and nothing shall be able to hurt us because of the Anoynting which dwels in us Thirdly it is worthy of consideration whether the state of the new Creature in Christ be no more nor higher then the state of the first man in his pure Paradisical nature before the transgression if no more then the administration of light and glory from God upon Adam and Adams union with that light was as high and spiritual as is the light and union which by the Gospel is administred to a man in Christ and the first man who was made but a living soul had as much glory in him as the second man who is made a quickning spirit Second Adam and all in him wherein excelling the first Adam and all in him but if the new Creature does excell the first Adam then the preheminence must consist both in internals and externals that is in perfections within him and priviledges without him And this is manifest that the new Creature excels first in priviledge in that Adam was under a Law of works a Covenant that might be broken the new Creature is under a Law of grace a Covenant that cannot be broken a better and surer Covenant better in this that it was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 This new and better Covenant is the excellency of a man in Christ above Adam under the old faulty Covenant as to external priviledge the better promises of this new and better Covenant are the excellency of the new Creature above Adam as to internals or perfections within him which promises are I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my judgements and do them Ezek. 36.27 Isa 59.21 Heb. 8.10 2 Cor. 3.6 The excellency and dignity of the new Covenant above the old is in that the old Covenant ministred the letter only and could not cause man to walk in righteousness the new Covenant ministers the spirit into Saints 〈◊〉 so causeth them to walk in righteousness and that the Covenant cannot be broken New Covenant ministers spirit into us therefore cannot be broken the Law the letter only therefore broken by all which it appears that the first man broke the Covenant he was under because it put not the spirit into him and also the new Covenant cannot be broken because it is the ministration of the spirit and puts it into Saints so that whosoever takes the spirit himself out of Saints either brings the Saints back again into the old Covenant or he makes the new Gospel-Covenant into which they are redeemed
to be the ministration not of the spirit but of the letter only And as the glory of the new Covenant above the old is in this 2 Cor. 3.7,8 that it is the ministration of the spirit the Law but of the letter only so the new Creature hath in him more glory and perfection then the first man in this that the spirit himself is put into him created gifts only which might be depraved and lost were all that was put into the first Adam And this shall finish and close up this cloud of witnesses which do all give testimony and set their seal unto this Truth not in the sense of any carnal distinction whereunto it is by the infirmity of the Saints unwarily by the disputers and wisdom of this world wrongfully perverted but in the simple and Gospel-sense of the plain and sound words wherein it is expressed That the spirit of Christ which is the Divine Nature dwels in Saints though covered and yet undiscerned by most of them SECT XII THE in-dwelling of the spirit in Saints in this simple and plain sense carries in it a nearness and union between God and the Creature so mysterious high and inconceivable to flesh and blood that the man of sin who sees by no higher light then Nature and therefore not able to judge of spiritual things least of all of the highest of spiritual things God dwelling in Saints and Saints in God is not able to bear it that is this union the truth that is in it being a light so clear that it takes off the veil discovers the mysterie of iniquity which 〈◊〉 at veil stains and shames the pride and glory of his Kingdom and utterly strips shakes and undoes all flesh Spirit himself in Saints why so sentenced and excommunicated out of the world Wherefore that he may quench a light so glorious and keep all the world under the cloud of thick spiritual darkness and the yoke of bondage unto humane inventions commandments of men will-worships pharisaical legal righteousness which are the arm and glory of his Kingdom and horn of his power he judgeth sentenceth and excommunicates it out of the world under the most odious notions and imputations of blasphemy damnable doctrine This truth why so dreaded of Saints making the Creature God equal with Christ and under these black and abominable disguises that which is the beauty of all Gospel-truths is so deformed that it looks terrible and dreadful unto most Saints being but weak and Children in the faith and knowledge of the mysterie insomuch that we are ready to say of it It is a spirit and to fly from it though it be the nearer approachings of our dear Saviour Wherefore for the sake of such that they may see out of obscurity and the cause of Truth that it may shine out of darkness and scatter all those veils and lying imputations that have made it dreadful to all men I shall enquire into the strongest reasons that I know to be against this Truth and I hope give some account that they are false accusations and lying words against the Truth at the best but shadows of Reason to blind the eyes of the weak from seeing their own liberty and glory SECT XIII THEY are these which follow If the Spirit or Divine Nature it self dwels in Saints First counter-reason against the spirit in us then every Saint is God and so to be worshipped as God even as the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ he is therefore God and so is and ought to be worshipped as God Answer Of this Argument some may say The shew of thy countenance is like lightning and by thy clear beams of reason thou hast at once scattered all that hath been said But of these things I do humbly conceive 1. That the in being of God in Saints does not make them become God no more then the in-being of God in other Creatures makes them God his glory fils both Heaven and Earth he only knows and comprehends himself fully and perfectly the lengths depths and bredths of this stupendious Being cannot be seen or comprehended by the Creature Therefore he comes forth in the Creation as it were cloathed upon with a garment the whole world is but as his vesture or raiment that shall be changed and he that is Eternal Light Love and Wisdom cloaths himself with it as within an house or tabernacle wherein he will dwell for a time that through it as through a little Orb or Globe he may let out some pieces and portions of the external excellencies of his incomprehensible Godhead he stretcheth forth the Heavens as a Curtain and spreadeth out the Earth as a Tent to dwell in and the depths are his Pavilion and thus all Nature is filled with the glory and majestie of the Lord and he is in it and through it yet is not the world God but he that is in the world is God and the world of Nature is no more but the place of the soles of his feet or his lower Tabernacle wherein he sets his dwelling place for a time until he awake and make all things new and come forth in that higher glory which the old Heavens and Earth shall be too narrow to receive too short to contain 2. The in-being of God or the Divine Nature made not the man Christ or the flesh of Christ become God God and man became one in a mutual in-dwelling enjoyment and embracement each of other in Christ yet continued infinitely distinct in Nature and several in being one from the other God came forth in Nature or the things that are made and dwels in it as in an house or Tabernacle that waxeth old and shall be taken down and therefore he shines forth in it in fewer beams and at a greater distance and so more darkly yet so as that the invisible things of him even the Eternal Power and Godhead may be clearly seen and understood of all the world as a testimony to leave them without excuse so God came forth in Christ God in Christ yet the man Christ is not God but Christ is God and dwels in him but as in a living higher and eternal Tabernacle and therefore he shines forth in him in many beams of everlasting mercies grace and reconciling love and in much more nearness and so more clearly yet so as known and manifest only to Saints Therefore to this end was Christ born and came into the world that he might be a Mercy-seat a Throne of grace and a living Mansion for the fulness and glory of God to dwell in and through him to come near reveal himself and commune with us and in and by him to do all our works of obedience death and life for us So that the will and mind of Christ as man became wholly passive and self-resigned and the mind and will of the Divine Nature altogether active to enlighten teach command and do all in him The highest honour and happiness