19. I know my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these eyes I do wonder what a God men fancy to be seen with a fleshly eye I alwayes took God to be a Spirit invisible and that no created fleshly things was able to see him I cannot imagine then how Jobs eyes which were and should be in a visible form and shape should be capable of such a Divine invisible vision But yet if Job was so carnall to conceive that his fleshly eyes should see a spirituall God yet I am not And if any man shall say that Christ hath a Body in heaven which he lived in when he was upon the earth and that may be seen being visible and corporall for that when any man shall prove heaven a locall place and that God the Fathour sits there and receives petitions from his Son Christ as men do visibly here on earth then I shall give him an answer neither have I so learned Christ to make him to consist of flesh and bloud or bodily shape in heaven as men call it for though it be said that Steven saw the heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God yet am I not so carnall to believe That Stevens fleshly eyes might see up above the stars and skies and that the house top might be open where he was and so he bodily saw Christ sitting in a bodily shape at the right hand of God in heaven As a Diuine of Leicestershire did affirm to me in a private conference that he thought it might be so But his divinity being as little as his person I leave him as knowing that the man Christ left his fleshly being to live in the divine which is void of all forme and shape or to be seen visibly by any outward or corporeall substance and that no light can see him but his own and when men live in this light then they will agree with me till then I must leave men to their dark and carnall apprehensions In the meane time I am content to be nothing that God may be all and to let fall my thoughts of any glory or excellency hereafter as a creature as knowing that the fleshly man dies that the spirituall may be raised and that all creature or sensible enjoyment of God shall cease in eternall silence and it is fruit and joy enough in my spirit that God hath so discovered himself in me that I can willingly resolve all my comforts joy and peace into God who is that endlesse and infinite Ocean and rather desire to be comprehended of it then to comprehend it so that by all that hath bin alleadged I cannot see that there is any thing in that called Scripture to prove any fleshly living of the body after this life but that all things and Creatures below God perish and die and God onely lives and rises in more power and glorious appearance then ever be was in when he lived in the flesh which is that resurrection which is spirituall and which we have endeavoured to make out and so I leave it and come to the last Subject of my discourse which is that we call Scriptures and because men are as carnall about that as any of the former and because the ground of all the mistakes in the former is onely the mis-apprehension of the Scripture we shal insist upon that a little the more larger and so conclude Concerning the Scripture IF you take Scripture as it was written by the Prophets and Apostles It is a forme of wholesome words a perfect rule for all outward actions a true Guide for a mans outward conversatition among men The liveliest expression of the mind of God of all other books setting forth all conditions estates and enjoyments of all men in the world it is the word in flesh The word was made flesh it is the highest discovery of God in flesh the truest testimony of God in the world I do verily believe that what pitch soever any man hath or can attain unto but it is able to speak to him in it thus it is in the letter and the out-side of it But if you ask me what I make Scripture I look upon it to be spiritual and so it is the Law written in the heart and so it is spirit and life as Christ saith The words that I speak are spirit and life so that what Christ speaks spiritually that is Scripture and so it is the power of God for take Scripture as it is in the History it hath no more power in the inward man then any other writings of good men nor is it in that sense a discerner of the secrets as it is in the History so it is to be believed above all other writings in the world but as it is a mystery and God being the substance of it so I must believe it as God makes it out in me I must not build my Faith upon it or any saying of it because such and such men writ or speak so and so But from that divine manifestation in my own spirit for the Scripture as it is written outwardly is but an outward witnesse of that which is within and the spirituality of it wherein the life and being of it doth consist is made out by a spiritual discovery I do not go to the letter of Scripture to know the mind of God but I having the mind of God within I am able to see it witnessed and made out in the Letter for if I do a thing lawfull from the Letter yet if I be perswaded in my own spirit I should not do it I sinne Yea further that power and authority which the Scripture hatâ—â— is not because such and such men writ it but from that divine manifestation in them And so indeed if I have the same discovery that they had then I can say it is the word of God otherwise I lie for it is one thing to believe the Scripture because such and such write it as most men do and it is another thing to believe it because God saith so in me and so it is the spirituall speaking of God that is the Scripture and so that is true They that are of God hear Gods Word Now no man can hear God but as God speaks And it is as true that as God speaks spiritually so no man hears him but in a spirituall manner and so we hear Gods word And therefore it is said often in the 1. Rev. He that hath an eare let him hear what the spirit saith to the Churches Which cannot be understood of a carnall eare because every man hath that but as the Spirit speaks spiritually so it is the spirituall eare that hears the Spirit For all the outward speaking or hearing of men or Scripture cannot reach the Spirit Further the Scripture I do apprehend as it is written outwardly is God clothed in fleshly tearmes and expressions and speaks in the language of men as when he speaks of
grosse and carnall conceit of God But I shall not enter upon any thing controvertall onely I shall give you what is made out in me and I conceive no other what the Scripture holds out in the letter and so it is true that there are three that bear record in Heaven and yet these three but one He doth not speak three persons but three and that thus as farre as I conceive The Father is God from all eternity who 's Being was in himself having all Beings wrapt up in himself This God letting himself and his Being in severall formes of flesh is God the Son For I do not apprehend that God was onely manifest in the flesh of Christ or the man called Christ but that he as really and substantially dwells in the flesh of other men and Creatures as well as in the man Christ though as the Scripture speaks he was the most express Image and that the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt bodily in him that is in respect of manifestation but otherwise I conceive that God who cannot admit of degrees can be said to dwell in him more then another and I might shew that his Being in spirit is much more glorious then his Being in flesh the one being but a shadow and Type of the other But I forbear because it may afford another discourse of it self and returne to what we have in hand and that is that God the Sonne is God manifest in flesh Now that we call Holy Ghost is God living in Spirit and all these are not three distinct Beings onely one Being made out in three severall tearmes To make it a little plainer the Scripture saith God is Love and yet it tells us of a threefold Love The first is Gods Love to us the second is our Love to God the third is our Love to one another Now it is plaine these are not three but one For by the same Love that God loves us by the same Love we love him we love him because he loves us and it is the same Love by which we love one another and therefore the Apostle saith He that loves not his brother loves not God And so we have communion with God when we have communion with one another So that Gods Love to us and our Love to him and to one another are not three loves but one so in like manner Love is the Father this Love manifested in Flesh is the Sonne this Love loving the loved is the Holy Ghost and these three are one The Father is God forming all things the Son is God who is formed and manifested in Flesh the Holy Ghost is God manifesting or revealing the manifested thus the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not three persons but one intire Being made out in severall expressions And thus I have done with this subject concerning God being willing to loose my self in the thoughts of him as knowing that he cannot be known and that all words or expressions of Scripture or man come short of Him and do but confound and darken the glory of that great Creator who hath done all things according to reason and is himself the reason and ground of all things for in him they live and move and have their Being and therefore to Him be the Glory for evermore Concerning Heaven NOw for that which we call Heaven I cannot conceive it any locall place because God is not confined or hath his Being 〈◊〉 station in our setled compasse and therefore I see that true which the Letter speakes The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and so I see Heaven to be there where God displaies his own glory and excellency For Heaven is nothing but God at large or God making out himself in Spirit and Glory And so I really see that then men are in Heaven or Heaven in men when God appeares in his glorious and pure manifestations of himself in Love and Grace in Peace and rest in the Spirit when God shewes himself to be all the happiness comfort and reward and so this Heaven is not outward or a place of any outward or carnall bodily happines as men dream of but it consists in righteousness joy peace in the Holy Ghost all which are spirituall and terminated in God alone I do not as I have carnally conceived that when Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven and heard and saw things unutterable that he was bodily taken up or heard God with an audible voice No but I rather conceive it some extraordinary appearance of God filling the Spirit with glorious amazements and admirations of its own excellency So that when God doth gloriously appeare to the silencing of flesh and over-powering the selfish Being in man and fils the spirit with its own glory then is God and his Heaven come in the spirit and such an estate some may be have bin sensible of that they have so felt the over-powering of God in their spirits that they could not tell whether they were in the body or out of the body as was Pauls condition And this Heaven the Land of Canaan was a lively Type of wherein God after he had by a strong hand brought the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt and through many dangers of the Wildernesse and red Sea God at last brought them to a Land of rest in which this is really made out to me that it is the over-ruling power of God in us that takes us from the Egyptian bondage of self and flesh and through the Wildernesse and Sea much toyling and tossing up and downe in selfe-Workes and hard duties outward and carnall services the Law still beating us to Workes of prayer humiliation making us to make Brick without Straw and setting hard and cruell Task-masters over us so that we may say through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but when Gods power is destroying these enemies of our Peace and brings us into that Land of rest that spirituall Canaan which we speak of then do we cease from these labours But truly this I speake from experience so long as men are under Moses they cannot enjoy neither must they come into this Land And therefore I do not wonder that the Scripture speaks Many shall seek to enter and not be able and straight and rarrow is the gate and few there be that finde it I would not speak to discourage any but I really apprehend the greatest pretenders to Heaven scarce know what it is or will ever enjoy it but shall with Moses onely see it a farre off God not being willing to do any great workes in their spirits because of their unbelief but what happyness and comfort they do enjoy to whom God appeares thus spiritually in none know but themselves This is that heavenly Jerusalem spoken of in the Hebrewes into which the souls of just men made perfect are come into The text doth not say we shall come to it hereafter but that we are come
himself and he uses such expressions as are highest in mens esteem and his commands threatnings and promises admonitions exhortations they are all as men speak to one another for I dare not believe God is this or that or can be named by any title or that he ever threatned any people or Nation or promised any that upon such and such terms they should have this or that or upon neglect of him they should suffer this or that for to me it plainly appears that there is neither wrath or anger love or hatred in God or that God was any thing more or lesse to a people upon their sinning or doing any good For then a thousand absurdities would follow But the truth is because men apprehend anger when they sin and God pleased when they do well therefore men speak as one to another and God so far condescends as to speak to men in their own language But that he is so in himselfe I should think blasphemy to affirme for I am confident there is never an error or tenent in the world as men maintaine but if men take that for Scripture which they call the Bible it doth fully and literally countenance and uphold and I know no other way in the world to uphold the authority of Scripture than to make it spirituall And whereas men speak that we deny Scripture I must confesse for my part tha◠I know no greater door opened to the denying it then for men to presse and urge men to do such and such things because the outward word saith so and so indeed so far I shall deny it as the Letter is inferiour to the Spirit so far I conceive the letter doth vaile and shadow the spirituality of it And if men have the Law in their hearts and be taught of God they need not run so often to a great Bible to relieve themselves in straights and doubts as men generally do never reflecting upon their spirits to see what God speaks there I do not speak it to condemn the practise neither is the fault in the Book but in mens carnall conceits of it and seeing men make an Idoll of it and think the reading and perusing the outward word is enough to cure all their wounds and to resolve their doubts so that as men look upon God outwardly and carnally so do they have recourse to an outward word to strengthen their carnall apprehensions Truly I must confesse ingeniously that as to my own spiritual enjoyment I see nothing of any concernment in it or in looking upon it but onely this I see and so it is some comfort to me to read that God hath discovered himself in others as well as in me and that the spirit speaks the same in me as it did in them But for any thing of God that I look to attaine unto by reading or looking upon it I do not care whether ever I look upon one again or no And yet this is no detracting from the glory or authority of Scripture because the Scripture is within and spirituall and the Law being writ in my spirit I care not much for beholding it in the Letter but as to the ends aforesaid And the truth is it is the Law in the spirit that is the true Bible the other is but a shadow or counterpart of it and therefore I do not expect to be taught by Bibles or Books but by God nay further I do not do any thing or abstain from any thing because the outward letter commands or forbids it but by reason of that commanding power which is God in me and his speaking is the power of God to salvation and it is in that by which I live and by which I act and so the Apostle speaks of the law outward that it was not made for the righteous but for whoremongers and such and such And so I see that if men were acted guided by that inward law of righteousnesse within there need be no laws of men to compel or restrain men and I could wish that such a spirit of righteousnesse would appear that men did not act or do things from externall rules but from an internall law within Again to speak a little further concerning the Scripture men generally speak that we must do nothing but what we have a rule for and are asking what warrant have you to do such a thing shew a rule from Scripture and then we will believe you or else it is but a whimsey and I know not what Truly it is true and I would those that talk most of a rule did see that rule for the safest and prime rule that I know for any man is that pure spirituall law and rule of righteousnesse which is within and so far as any man doth any thing beneath or beyond that so far he doth that which he hath no warrant for but who must judge of this rule whether this or that be according to the mind of God or no To this I answer in the words of Scripture because men will soonest believe me That it is the spirit which searches all things even the deep things of God and there is no knowing the spirit but in its own light which is spiritual therefore I think it not so safe to go to the Bible to see what others 〈◊〉 spoken and writ of the mind of God as to see what God speaks within me and to follow the ducture and leading of it in me I shall sooner and so others shall sooner mis-apprehend the mind of God in other men then in my self and the same law and rule being in me which was in those that writ the Bible and to which internall and spiritual rule within I must take a measure and scantling of all my actions I had rather measure them from or by a rule within then by any outward rule or word whatsoever for the one that is to say the Bible without is but a shadow of that Bible which is within which is the Law spiritual the safest and onely rule If any man shall say that I may be deceived and take that for a discovery of God which is but a fancie of my own Brain I answer I may mis-interpret the outward Scripture and so run as great a hazard that way and as soon fall into errour because it speakes of and to men in variety of Estates and conditions and so if I take that part of it which doth not speak to my condition I shall then make a false construction of it so that I conceive the farest and surest rule to walk by is that law of the spirit and as many as walk according to that spirituall rule peace shall be upon them and on the Israel which is of God but as many as walk according to a rule without them and so look for a God and Scripture without they shall be but at a losse and live in continuall trouble and disquietment and if I may speak my own experience without offence
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Is not the Scripture and outward letter a meanes to convey the knowledge of God and meanes to ger Faith To which I answer it is true but what living is it to which hearing is annexed If an outward and carnall living and knowing of God then the outward Scripture contributes to it but if it be a spiritual living which is a living in God then that life must be enjoyed by a spirituall hearing for all the outward hearing in the world cannot reach to that so that to me it is plain that then men spiritually live when God spiritually speakes and so this spiritual life is attained by a spirituall speaking of God and when men heare that spiritual speaking then their soules live spiritually in that and so the word of Christ is verefied That 〈◊〉 an lives not by bread onely but by every word which proceedes out of the mouth of God that is it is not any outward or external way or meanes that supports the Spirit but 〈◊〉 is the divine and spiritual food that the divine and spiritual man lives upon and on that he feedes spiritually with 〈…〉 and satisfaction it being sutable to him and 〈…〉 onely blessed that eat bread in the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 for they never hunger or thirst after any externall or outward teaching or speaking of men and so it is true that faith comes by hearing But what do you make of Faith If it be a spiritual thing as it is then it must needes come by a spiritual meanes which is a spiritual hearing and so the following words explain it That hearing comes 〈◊〉 the word of God Now it is apparent that God speakes spiritually and so he is heard and believed spiritually and men cannot heare God speak but it must be by a spiritual hearing sutable to the speaking But men are still objecting and say did not Christ and the Apostles convince men of the truth of things by the Scripture shewing things must needs be so I answer it is true but the reasons plain which was that because men were not able to bear Christs spiritual speaking it being mysticall therefore he speaks to them in parables and in such a way as they could apprehend and so did condescend to their weaknesse and so Christ speakes of himself that he needed not Iohns Testimony he had 〈◊〉 sufficient proofe with himself and needed not any mans Testimony of him And besides as men did hasten their lief of things upon an outward letter therefore Christ the Apostle brought Scripture to prove things that he miâ—â— bear them with their own weapons And so alleadged Scâ—â—ture to the Devill to answer him in his own way Anâ—â— the Apostles brought Scripture to prove a Christ in the fâ—â— which some went about to deny And whereas sâ—â— alleadge that to the Law and the Testimony if any 〈◊〉 speak not according to that it is because there is no 〈◊〉 in him It is also true if any man speak not from that 〈◊〉 tuall Law in himself and hath not the inward Testimonâ—â— the spirit within in such a man there is no truth let speak what he will and this is the grand cause why meâ—â— dispute and jangle about things because men speak not 〈◊〉 the inward experience and spiritual teaching but from 〈◊〉 dition and the outward letter Nay I verily believe moâ—â— the Religion in the world is borne up because others 〈◊〉 held and done so before them and they think it â—â—ffâ—â—â— to walk in an outward conformity in duties and Ordâ—â—ces and never eye the goings of God in their own Spiâ—â—â— But this by the way and all I drive at in this and Iâ—â—â— no body will be offended that I would make Scripture 〈◊〉 is to be spiritual and not subject to the gross and carnaâ—â—â— prehensions and interpretations of any sort of men 〈◊〉 ever neither dô I lessen the Authority of it in so doing 〈◊〉 the reason of all the mistakes in and about the Scripture 〈◊〉 not in the Scripture but in mens carnall apprehensions 〈◊〉 For if men were spiritual they might judge it also 〈◊〉 spiritual as God himself iâ— And I would have men set 〈◊〉 upon a sure foundation which is God and that Divine 〈◊〉 within us which is pure and Divine Scripture FINIS
proper and peculiar to God for I really see that after God is manifest in flesh and seen of Angels preached in the world and believed in that then he shall after all this be received up into glory and that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God and that nothing lives to all eternity but pure Divine glory I cannot conceive any other resurrection then of carnall to be made spirituall and that is no other then the spirituall appearance of God so that when I would find out what the resurrection is I reflect upon my own spirit and trace the goings of God there and there I can find God rising from one degree of glory to another and changing me into his image by his spirit and so I see how he hath led me from one dispensation to another and from one ordinance to another till at last he appears so spiritually that he over-powers all flesh and formes which I admired in my carnall condition and appears to be that temple glory and light himselfe which I had thought to have had in a sensible and carnall enjoyment hereafter so that I am led to believe that there is no such outward felicity to be enjoyed in this resurrection but that it is God arising in the spirit and shining brighter and brighter till the perfect day making all the creature-apprehensions and knowledge of God to cease and this resurrection I clearly finde in my owne spirit that the most glorious and inlarged parts and abilities in prayer speaking or otherwise in which I have delighted and no question but I did enjoy God in them though in a darke and low estate these I say the glory and beauty of them are all withered and vanished before the bright and glorious appearances of God in the spirit for the Son in me having delivered up his Kingdome and those fleshly and formall manifestations and outward bodily worships ceasing God is all in all so that I can neither in Jerusalem or in the Mount or in any outward form or duty worship God knowing that he is only to be worshipped in spirit truth and that though God was with me in my former carnall and dark condition and did lead me in it gently yet all was but to raise up himselfe and to be that spiritually in me in another way then that which I expected and so of naturall he hath made me spirituall which is the spirituall resurrection that we are speaking of And further I really see that the flesh of man and of all other creatures differ not any thing in the nature of them indeed in respect of the kind and manner some flesh is of men some of Beasts and some of fishes but as flesh none of them are capable of any more glory then one another all being of the same mould and comming to the same end and though the spirit in them or whatsoever is God in them return to their originall which is God and so lives in him again yet the fleshly part returns to dust from whence it came and as the man dies so dies the beast as dies the wise man so dies the foole one end is to them all as Solomon speaks and whereas men imagine that there is a fleshly resurrection and that the same body flesh and bones shall rise and remain a corporall and visible substance how this should be I am sure they do not know themselves for however men speak that the corporall body shall be made a spirituall to me it is ridiculous because the Scripture saith That which is borne of flesh is flesh and can remaine in no other capacity And besides I hope no man will deny that a spirituall thing can be seen of a fleshly or that an externall organ of the body can see an internall and invisible thing the Apostle makes it plaine that the things which are seen are temporall and the things that are not seen are eternall Now how it can stand or consist with reason or Scripture Logick or Rhetorick that men should hold and maintaine that men should visibly see one another in heaven as they call it and know one another and see their visible shape as they lived in on the earth yet they maintaine on the other side this is a spirituall body I cannot see if this be divinity then I am not in the humanity but indeed I am willing to give way to their weaknesse because I have been as childish my selfe only I cannot but take notice of the Babell and confusion that men are in and yet thinke themselves the only Embassadours of peace and as if all knowledge and spirituall learning were confined to them but laying my hand gently on their sore I let them passe and go on to that in hand And whereas the Scripture speaks of a spirituall body I conceived that there is a spirituall body and that this body must be raised which spirituall body I apprehend to be nothing but the divine Being or God in spirit termed a Body for these two reasons as I conceive First because God is the body and substance of all things and so it is said that this God dwelt bodily or substantially in the man Christ he being that person in whose flesh God did more gloriously appear then in any other so he was the most expresse Image oâ— his Fathers person and in this respect God may be termed a spirituall Body though for my part I dare not imagine him to have either person or body Secondly God may be stiled a spirituall body because this body or divine Being is and hath its Being in many Members And so God is stiled the head of the body and Christ is the head of the Church which is his body wherein Ireally apprehend that all the apperances of God in the Saints as they are called all the manifestation of God in flesh or in any fleshly or outward dispensation or form they are but the Carkes and shadow of God who is the body or substance of them all and all these dying and vanishing as they shall God shall onely live and raise himself a spiritual body and therein live to all eternity so that it is spiritually true that the body which is fleshly shall perish and the spirituall body shall be raised as we shall have occasion in the sequel of the discourse to make out but because men are still poring upon a Scripture without them to prove a carnall Resurrection and will believe nothing but what they think the Scripture speaks in the letter though indeed they erre not knowing it or the power of God I shall a little condescend to their weakness in this kind though for my part if there were not a letter in all the Bible to strengthen me in my opinion of the Resurrection I should not much care nor need I the testimony of it as to my self for I have a surer word within to which I take heed yet I say for other mens sakes I shall
take the most principall places of Scripture that men look upon which speak of the Resurrection and in the spiritual discoveries of them if there be any thing to strengthen them in their opinion I shall and must give way And we shall begin with that which is the prime piller of their Faith and that is in the 1. of the Corinths 15. from the beginning to the end of it It being the whole subject of the discourse therein to treat of the Resurrection The drift of the Apostle is to prove the spiritual Resurrection of Christ to be as sure and certain as his fleshly and by the same Argument that he proves the one by the same he also proves the other in a spiritual sense And the comparison lies not betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ and the fleshly rising of men as most men imagine but betwixt the fleshly rising of Christ in the humanity and his spiritual rising in the divinity and so all along you shall see the comparison holds betwixt the naturall and the spirituall and not betwixt the naturall and the naturall And that we may see plainly it appears in the 47. verse The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is from Heaven who is the Lord so that we see he compares the outward earthly man and the Lord from Heaven which is the spiritual and shewes evidently that it is not the earthly man that is raised but the spirituall and so Christ after the flesh was but of the earthly man and so must be destroyed and subdued as wel as other things and formes which did accompany that earthly being and as the one vanished out of sight before the Apostles so must the other and that this may not seeme strange to any man that the flesh of Christ must be destroyed as well as other things It is plain in the 28. verse So that it is apparent that the Sonne of man being of the first Adam after the flesh must as well be subdued and perish with the fleshly forms and administrations that did accompany him For certain I am that as he was God or the divine being in him he could not be subdued so that it is very clear that it was the fleshly appearance that must needes come to nothing as well as the fleshly forme in other Creatures and so Christ did cease to live in the flesh that he might more transcendently live in the spirit and so he laid down his humanity to live in the Divinity and so it is true what the Apostle saith in the 20. v. That as Christ is risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that sleep and are dead in him so such as are dead in him shall surely rise That is they shall as surely rise to a spirituall condition as they have been spiritually dead in him And so he goes on in the 22. verse As in Adam all dyed so in Christ shall all be made alive Here is still the comparison betwixt the natural and the spirituall that is as sure as the fleshly Adam and outward visible forme dies so it is as certain they that are in Christ or the spititual man shall be made alive and quickened and God shall rise and appear in more power and glory in that life of the spirit then ever he did in the fleshly forme or shape But to go on The first fruits is Christ and then they that are Christs at his coming which is thus that as Christ herein was the first fruits of them that did live in the spirit as he saith a little while and you shall see me and a little while and you shall not see me because I go to the Father that is he was to lay down the flesh to live in the divine and spiritual life in which he appeared after his ascension and so was as good as his word and did come in spirit so it should be as spiritually true that they should partake of the same spiritual life and live in the same spiritual Resurrection as he and live in the Father as he did and therefore he comforted them and told them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God But yet in the mean time till the Son of man and all fleshly formes were subdued to the Father till men were brought to live in the Father and to live in a spiritual life till then Christ must raigne till then there must be outward formes of Christs death and there must be manifestations of God in flesh and outward Ordinances But when these are subdued then men must rise or rather God will appear to be that spiritually which they before enjoyed onely in an outward manner as is argued by the Apostle in the 25. verse And the last enemy is death And certain it is this death must be destroyed and the dead must rise or else death cannot be destroyed Now this must needes be a little opened that so we may see what the Resurrection is for certainly the dead must arise or else Christ cannot be risen For the opening of which death we shall take the same method as the Apostle doth here to compare the natural with the spiritual Then we say a man is dead when a man is void of all visible sence and motion when he ceases to act or move when the life is departed when the life is departed when the being ceases to live in the flesh that he cannot move to any outward or naturall act And so a man is spiritually dead or dead in Christ when a man ceases to be or act any thing in the things of God but is moved and acted as God is in him when there is nothing of the self-being appearing in a word when to the world he appeares to act nothing do nothing in an outward and formall way so that men think there is no spiritual life in him Then doth he die in the Lord when he wholly resignes up all his grace abilities knowledge of God into God and knowes not what he doth or is or should know ceasing from his own reachings forth after God living and being to any self-enjoyment or expectation of any future felicity life or comfort out of God For it is certain so long as the Creature thinks that he must act or do something to attain salvation or be any thing distinct from God so long he is alive without Gods life and so must needes be miserable and therefore the Apostle saith if in this life our hope was we were most miserable which life is not to be understood of the fleshly Being But in this life that is if our happinesse comforts did depend upon our owne self-actings and on our own being any thing were we most miserable But our hope is that all our felicity and comfort is terminated and centred in God onely And so Christ spiritually in us is the hope of glory which is a mystery and so being dead in Christ
so long as I lived and looked upon the outward scripture outward commands and duties set times of humiliation prayer I know not what I was always tost to and fro like the waves of the sea But when God appeared and shewed me that there was no scripure God commands worships but what were spirituall like himselfe and within men and what he was the authour and end of and that all things else were but shadowes what sweer peace and comfort I then did and do now enjoy I might tell you if I could for the truth is they are unspeakable and so it is the spirituall discovery of God that is the Scripture I look upon and if so then I must needs inferre that those in whom Christ is spiritually discovered and that live in a spirituall enjoyment of him they must needs be best able to speak the language of the Scripture and to give the sense and meaning of it and are best acquainted with the originall for God being the Authour of it they in whom he is most spiritually discovered must needs know the mind of it and what Scripture is which may exclude all outward parts of learning arts and other qualifications which men boast of for though they may serve to speak scripture outwardly and help to expresse men to one another and to read it in the severall translations of it from one Nation to another yet they all come short of the spirituall discovery of God and so are not essential to the knowledge of him he being onely known and seen in his own light And which may likewise condemne the Romane Clergy I think the English Divines may take their part herein That having attain'd a little skil in the several languages of several countrys and received ordination as they call it they think themselves so invested with power above their brethren that none must be infallible or authentick in the interpretation of Scripture but themselves and men of their order and unlesse they will say themselves that private men as they call them cannot have the same or more spirituall discovery of God then themselves I do wonder that they should so advance themselves and undervalue or despise others But we shall let them passe and return to what we have in hand and we shall see both the Authority and end of Scripture laid down by the Apostle in the 2 of Tim. 3.16 where he saith all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and iâ— profitable to teach c. that the man of God may be made perfect where we see plainly what I have spoken all along That the inspiration which is spiritual and of God is the true proper ground why men are taught and no man can be taught but it must be by a spiritual inspiration or else it is not of God and so the Scripture is not of any private interpretation but holy men speak as they were inspired so that that which gives the rise ground of Scripture is Gods speaking in men or inspiring men and they best know what is Scripture in whom God most powerfully speaks And it is as true that God speaks spiritually in man and not in any audible voice or forme of words for I do not conceive he ever spoke so to any he being void of all shape and form or bodily Organs And when God so speakes that from naturall they are made spiritual then is it indeed they are spiritually taught And to this sweetly falls in that of David thou hast taught me truth in the secret parts then indeed men come to be convinced of their former weak and carnall condition when God spiritually discovers himself in them So that it is not the reading or perusing of the Scripture in the letter of it for so a man may read all his life-time and be never the better that teaches men spiritually But when the Scripture is spiritually made out and interpreted in them then they are taught And then it is that the man of God is made perfect then doth the inward fleshly Being or carnall man appeare dark and carnall and the spirituall or the man of God comes to be perfect and this spirituall man is able to judge all things as the Apostle saith then can he spiritually discern the Scripture in him and so can read it true in the outward letter For I really see that all the knowledge of the Scripture in the letter of it reaches no further but to a historicall and fleshly knowledge of God and indeed to this kind of knowledge which many do boast of the Scripture is very helpfull But he that knows no further then the outward letter knowes but Christ after the flesh And though so I have known Christ Scripture and God yet henceforth know I them so no more they being spirituall Again this I conceive that all the whole story and letter of the Scripture doth but set out and speak but of two estates and conditions of men or in men that is the fleshly Being and the Divine the naturall and the spirituall man And all these are presented to us in their several degrees and actings in each state and personated in severall persons from the beginning to the end of the Bible And so Gain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Jacob and Esau David and Saul and so the good Kings and the bad the good Prophets and the wicked the true Apostles and the false they do but all expresse both Estates and are not so much to be lookt upon in their severall persons but are really fulfilled and appliable to every man in each Estate Degree and Condition whatsoever As to instance it tels us of the Man Christ who lived and died at Jerusalem and that he rose from the dead and ascended and past through all conditions But alas how farre is this from reaching the spirit a man may read it and believe it and yet be never the better do him no more good then any other History which we call prophane But the spirituality and Comfort and that which is spirit and life lies in this to see him found in the spirit to die in him and to rise with him to ascend and sit down with him in the heavenly places being made conformable to him in the spirit to have the everlasting Gospel preacht in the spirit All which the History and Person of Christ and the outward Gospel are but shadows the other is the sealed Book which none can read till God open himself to be the Scripture Then indeed can we understand what Scripture is and then are we guided by that inward life and spirit of truth more then by the outward letter and teachings in the World So that it is not the History of Scripture that is the Scripture or that is the word of God but it is the spiritual speaking of God which is the word of God and is spirit life But some may say doth not the word say Hear and your souls shall live and