reserved in heaven for them ready to be revealed in the last time They that are born of this seed are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God and through the power of faith and the abiding of this seed in them are kept unto salvation without any possibility of sinning unto death or any danger of final falling away having by vertue of their reception of this seed in the heart through the gift of God the nature of true believers communicated unto them even the unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God which makes them members of the new Jerusalem children of the promise who are born after the spirit and have that anointing whereby they know all things immediately from the head and fountain itself and need not that any man should teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. which was given to their head the true Aaron without measure running down upon all those that dwell together with him in the unity of the faith of the son of God even to the skirts of his garments upon the lowest members of this NEW JERUSALEM consecrating them a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD with himself to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God This new nature in the seed of it whilst it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen is called faith even the faith that justifies spreading over us the propitiatory covering of Christs spiritual headship and EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS in which we are made to stand for ever spotless and without guile before the Throne of God Those that are of this faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and are of that one seed that are heirs according to the promise The work of this faith and new birth when once wrought out by Christ in the heart and conscience is to breed patience and that patience experience and that experience hope even that hope which maketh not ashamed The patience which is wrought out in every regenerate one by this faith is called the obedience of faith that when it hath had its perfect work maketh us perfect so as to want nothing arming us with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to suffer in the flesh in order to put an end to sin and to work off the soul from the will desire of the flesh into an absolute subjection and conformity to the heavenly will of Christ wherein he is one with the Father and so enabling us to keep the word of Christs patience which is indeed the Law and Rule under which the true believer is subjected until Christs second coming being to rest in the grave with Christ untill the remainder of his sufferings be fulfilled in his whole body the Church under the certainty and with the comfort of his promise that those that thus suffer with him shall also raign with him and those that thus die with him shall also live with him And that all true believers are thus observers of this Rule according to the patern left by Christ in his own sufferings purifying themselves as he is pure keeping the word of his patience and performing the obedience of faith which is required by the law of the new covenant we shall endeavour to make known as in the experience thereof and Testimony from the Scripture it is held forth For through the comprehending power of Christ as he is the head and root of this spiritual seed and precious faith which is obtained by Gods chosen ones they are separated from the very womb yea they have grace given unto them in Christ Iesus before the world began and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in him being accepted in the beloved In this respect Jacob was loved and Esau was hated or the one was accepted and the other was refused in their mothers wombe the children being not yet born neither of them having as yet done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Howbeit we are not in Scripture sense nor in truth as some unwarrantably affirm actual believers until by effectual calling we are made receivers of whole Christ in the seed as before described And therefore the Apostle Paul who is a remarkable example herein though he had received grace in Christ Iesus as in his head before the world began and as thus comprehended in his head was separated and distinguished from the womb in whom the purpose of God according to the election was to stand yet it pleased not God to call him and by revealing his son in him to make him actually a believer and new creature until he had spent many years even a great part of his life in a sowerness and rigidness of spirit under the dispensation of the Law flaming out at last into cruel and fierce persecution of the Church of God though in all still preserved by his head from wilfull enmity For saith he I did it ignorantly In like manner all the children given to Christ by the Father whereof he is to lose none are thus separated and distinguished from the rest of the world as the beloved seed according to Gods purpose from the womb and so according to Gods purpose are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began Yet until it pleaseth God by his grace to call them whether they be in the state of circumcision or uncircumcision they live and walk according to the principles and Rule of that dispensation they are under For so we see in the great instance of Abraham the father of the faithful as by Stephen he is described to us Acts 7. in the manner of the calling with which he was called and whereby he was made actually a Believer and a new creature which was by Gods appearing to him and by the power of his WORD working in him calling and bringing him out of his own Country the land of his Nativity and from his natural relations into the land which he should shew him causing him herein to resign up his natural judgement and will entirely to his disposal and through faith to obey for he went out not knowing whither he went which first remove of his was out of the state of degenerate nature and his heathenish life into the earthly land of Canaan as that was a type and figure of the heavenly and into circumcision or experience of that communion with God which is by the first Covenant whereby the filth of the flesh in his heathenish state was cut off and cleansed and he in minde as well as in body brought into the figurative land of promise even to a conformity in mind and spirit to the Law the perfection of Christs flesh or natural man In this promised land perceiving by faith that it was but the type and shadow of the good things themselves the heavenly Country which was
in him which is so far from being lessened or interrupted by death and the laying down of the use of his bodily life for a time that it never comes to its full and mature perfection until then and as a consequence hereof the body be re-assumed incorruptible In this property and operation of humane life man bears the figure and image of the witness of the Holy Ghost Thus we have described what man is in his essential parts and operations in order to fit him for that communion and converse with God designed unto him by the two Covenants unto the first of which he was actually and perfectly qualified as he became a living soul and did bear the image of God in and upon his natural man as the first Adam being of the earth earthy But unto the other man by his creation was no otherwise qualified and prepared then as he was set up in such a being as was capable by a farther workmanship of God to arrive unto and attain the glory and everlasting perfection of the new and second covenant without which all that was done unto him yet by what he had received from God in his creation if left to his own freewill would but redound to his greater misery and more righteous condemnation before the judgement seat of Christ through his own default This finishing and compleating work of God upon man was reserved to be Ministred to him on the seventh day whereby a far higher and more exalted capacity of mind and operation was to be added to him for the enabling him unto an everlasting happy and compleat communion with God This is that which in his first state was wanting and could not be obtained by him but as the free gift of God then propounded to him in the tree of life This second and last state of perfection held forth unto man from the beginning in the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God is described by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 15. 44 45 46 47 48 49. where he sets it up in contra-distinction to the first and earthly make of man by his creation shewing it to be that life and immortality which is brought to light in Christ as the last Adam the Lord from heaven and quickning spirit calling it the spiritual body as that in which the power of this endless life was comprehended comparatively with the natural body wherein the perfection of Adams mutable and corruptible life consisted saying plainly that there is this spiritual body and heavenly image in the last Adam as well as that natural body and earthly image in the first howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual the first being the life of perfection that was found in the earthly Adam the other being that which was brought to light in the heavenly by his resurrection from the dead and therefore as is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly And in reference unto such as are the right heirs of salvation it is said as they have born the image of the earthly so shall they also bear the image of the heavenly and have their natural or vile bodies changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body by him who through his mighty power is able to subdue all things uno himself And if we desire to be satisfied how this change and translation out of the one perfection and image into the other is to be effected he positively asserts that it is brought upon man as the fruit of Christs resurrection or Ministry of Gods second appearance by and in him which rends the first veil and brings down the first Tabernacle of the natural body into the grave with Christ whence it springs up clothed upon with this house from heaven its spiritual body by means whereof this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality and death and the grave are swallowed up in victory This change and translation was as we have said propounded unto Adam as the end of his creation and was figured out to him in the tree of life and by the twofold exercise of life and ability of mind set up in their perfection in in him by creation he was indued with a power improveable in the use of the means God afforded him to be at least in a tendency unto so glorious an end and disposed in such a posture and frame of spirit as God required in him by the first covenant in order to this farther work which on the seventh day God would make known and impart to him What God herein required from man was signified unto him by the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the prohibition accompanying the same which was not to eat of the fruit of that tree In this tree of knowledge of good and evil man had the sight of himself in the exercise of his natural life and operations appertaining unto him as he became a living soul in the well or evi use whereof he might arrive unto the experience of the supream good held forth to him as the end of his creation the endless life that was to follow or else he might come by the forfeiture of the present good he enjoyed to know the evil of a much worse condition then at first he had for the avoiding of which and to continue in a posture meet to receive the other God required him in the state of innocency to abide in a waiting frame of spirit as a sojourner and stranger in the midst of his present enjoyments in the earthly Paradise that so through his patient forbearance from taking up his Rest or terminating his delight in seen things he might preserve in himself an unengaged unprejudiced spirit to what was yet behind of the counsel of God to be communicated to him as to a more excellent attainment and inheritance to be exhibited to him in the light of the approaching day of the Lord the beamings forth whereof as considered in type were already present CHAP. VI. Concerning the fall of man the steps and degrees to it with the bitter fruits and consequents thereof BY what hath been said of mans Creation it is undeniable that God made him perfect though the perfection of his estate was mutable or subject to change and therefore not the Rest from all eternity designed him by God so that man in this first perfect state had that still wanting which was the finishing and compleating work to what he at present enjoyed howbeit that which was wanting unto man did no way cause or necessitate his fall but that as we shall shew proceeded from the suggestion of Sathan and enticing of his own lust which lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was perfected brought forth death although man in this estate was well and sufficiently armed and provided against it if he
gainer experimentally finding that when thus he is weakest then he is strongest as brought into such a frame of spirit wherein he is disabled to do any thing against the truth and thereby qualified to do all things for the truth This profitable weakness and disability came not all at once upon Christs natural man but gradually growing up at last into the perfect Rest and Cessation from his own works wherein the true sabbathism consists and in which Christ sets forth himself a pattern for his Saints imitation Heb. 4. 10. This made him say Joh. 8. 28. when ye have lift up the son of man then ye shall know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things and he that hath sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone but is ever bringing the natural powers and senses of my mind into perfect subserviency and subjection to my spiritual which through faith are alwaies exercised in unity with my Fathers will so that I do alwaies those things that please him In this blessed association consists the life of the new creature when of twain there is made one new man by the blood of this sacrifice In this new frame of spirit and newness of life and operation Christ delights to be taken notice of Joh. 7. 28. where he saith ye both know me and whence I am I am not come of my self but he that sent me is true whom ye know not but I know him for I am from him and my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me under the power of whose teachings I am so absolutely and intirely brought that I do not so much as speak of my self much less think or act for he that speaks of himself seeks his own glory but he that seeks the glory of him that sent him the same is true and there is no unrighteousness in him And he it is Joh. 5. 20. whom the Father loves and sheweth all things that himself doth and who will shew him greater works then these that ye may marvel for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them by his immediate witness in the Son so the Son quickens whom he will even the whole spiritual seed by making them one with him as he and the Father are one Thus in this first part of Christs passive obedience he through the law becomes dead unto the law through the law of the spirit of life in the second Adam becomes dead unto the law and life of the first fulfilling the whole law of righteousness by being rendred utterly unable to perform one tittle of it in mans first activity and sufficiency or as left alone to the grace and strength received by the first-covenant principles Thus we have seen Christ not only as the Lamb prepared without spot and blemish in order to be offered up but as he became our passover actually sacrificed for us being in one person as well the priest as the sacrifice fulfilling the righteousness and conditions of both covenants in that newness of life and operation which sprang up in him through faith or the unity of operation he was begotten into with the Father Through this twofold obedience of Christ which in him strictly considered is but one as the obedience of one man or last Adam set up in ballance against the disobedience of the first he was that and did that in his own person wherein after a peculiar manner he is made of God wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption unto the right heirs of salvation and is become the ransom and propitiation for all sinners not for those only who so believe as that they shall be eternally saved but for the whole world as upon the terms of the first covenant renewed in the blood of Christ they are reconciled unto God and admitted again into converse and fellowship with him that by doing the things therein required they may live and so be put upon a new proof and trial whether they will live unto themselves or unto Christ that died for them and rose again Righteousness is hereby capable to be derived yea is more or less derived upon all the seed as well those which are of the law as those which are of the faith of Abraham respectively who is the father of us all or the type and shadow of Christ as he is the common parent unto both by his incarnation through which he had a twofold union wrought out in him becomming therein the head and root unto both these seeds and so to all mankind whatsoever who in one of these two respects are all made alive again in the last Adam that died in the first and this by the law of the first-fruits and root unto which the Olive branches do respectively refer for so it is said Rom 11. 16. if the first fruits be holy so is the lump and if the root be holy so are the branches where the branches are described as of two sorts the one such as may be broken off after they are engraffed in as also John 15. 1. c. having their union by the first covenant only the other those that stand by faith never to be cut off as having their union by the second and new covenant Now the first sort of these branches in right of their union and relation unto their head Christs natural man or living body unbroken and uncrucified have one sort of benefit by Christs sacrifice which is conditional and may be lost The second sort in right of their union and relation to their head Christs crucified natural man or dead body have all that the other have and over and above an additional benefit by the same sacrifice of Christ which the others have not and so the full and whole benefit of his death and that absolutely and without conditions This benefit unto each of the seeds from Christ their head is twofold either such as by way of imputation is their justification or such as by way of inherency is their sanctification respectively there is derived to the one such a justification and sanctification as answers in kind to what is required by the first covenant from him who doth those things thereby to live in them to the other there doth flow such a justification and sanctification as answers exactly to the Law of faith or second covenant unto whom faith is imputed without the works of the Law singly considered and in whom faith is operative to the purifying of the conscience in conformity to the purity and poverty of spirit found in Christs crucified and broken natural man They only that are justified and sanctified in this latter sense shall eternally be saved it being out of the power either of life or death or Angels or principalities or powers or things present or things to come or height or depth or any other creature to be able to separate them from this love of God in Christ
of her person in the day of her nativity then God passed by her looked upon her and made it the time of his love saying unto her when she lay in her blood Live and causing her to multiply as the bud of the field till she encreased and waxed great and came to excellent ornaments to have her brests fashioned and her hair grown who was naked and bare for God had spread his skirt over her covered her nakedness and entred into covenant with her so that she became the Lords And he cleansed her with water washing away her blood from her anointed her with oil decked her with ornaments and jewels and caused her to eat fine flower and hony and oil and she was exceeding beautiful and did prosper into a kingdome in which glory of hers she was visible to others so as her renown went forth among the heathen for her beauty which was perfect through the comeliness which God had put upon her This is farther enlarged Deut. 32 4. c. where this work of God upon these Israelites is also called perfect flowing from their rock or from Christ that had been a Father to them and had bought them and made and established them and had thus divided and distinguished them from the rest of the sons of Adam Yet there were amongst these an unwise generation in and under all this those that had no faith and who considered not their latter end but corrupted themselves and had a latter end worse then their beginning so as their grape was the grape of Sodom and their vine was the vine of Gomorah and their spot shewed itself not to be the spot of Gods children declaring them to be a very crooked and perverse generation The first of the same principles with these was Cain whom Eve received as a man from the Lord then those sons of God in the old world who corrupted themselves and left a rebellious race of Giants or men of renown for enmity against God with which fleshly seed the Lord would not suffer his spirit any longer to strive in the daies of Noah Gen. 6. 1 2 3 4. Then Ishmael the son of Hagar the bond-woman figured out this generation under the first covenant after him Esan then the whole nation of the Israelites brought out of Aegypt who were all of them baptized unto Moses in the red sea and did eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink yet with many of them was not God well-pleased And so Israel after the flesh all along from them downward as they are described in all the Prophets to be righteous men and a holy seed yet such as Ezek. 18. 24. turned from their righteousness and committed iniquity stumbling at the stumbling stone being leavened with the leaven of the Pharisees and in whom sprang up a root of bitterness to their defilement so as after all their enlightnings and enlivenings from God they miscaried being such as Elias interceded against saying Lord they have killed thy Prophets and digged down thine Altars and I am left alone and they seek my life Rom. 11. 2 3. and concerning whom Esay is very beld saying All the day long I have stretched forth mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people Rom. 10. 20 21. who also saith of them Rom. 9. 29. except the Lord of Sabboth had left us a seed we had been as Sodom and had been made like unto Gomorah which frame of spirit they fully discovered at last when they crucified the Lord of glory and were the Jerusalem in whom was found the blood of all the Prophets Nor are we to think that this generation of men passed away with the Jews since Christ himself in the very Gospel may be known after the flesh and doth beget an Israel after the flesh in and under Gospel-ordinances and ministrations who by the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the holy commandment delivered unto them in his fleshly manifestation for their Rule may clean escape the pollutions of the world through lust and yet return with the dog to the vomit and with the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 20. c. yea who may by the word of the beginning Heb. 6. 1. or first appearance of Christ pass through the great enlightnings and quicknings from Christ there spoken of to the tasting of the heavenly gift and partaking of the Holy Ghost to the relishing of the good Word of God and powers of the world to come and yet fall away and draw back unto predition being void of that faith that failes not wherewith we are to believe to the saving of the soul This sort of men the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles takes notice of and distinguishes the true believer from having had his warrant for it from Christ himself who said Many are called but few are chosen and again of the labourers in the vineyard he saith there are first that shall be last in Gods acceptance and last that shall be first and that these children of the kingdom shall see many come from the four parts of the world to sit down with Abraham I saac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven and they themselves be thrust out with those that say Mat. 7. 22 23. Lord Lord have not we prophecyed in thy name and in thy name cast outdevils and done many wonderful works unto whom Christ will answer Depart from me ye workers of in iquity I know you not These are they Rom. 4. that find whereof to glory in the flesh of Christ or in their own holy flesh as the seed of Abraham that are by the law or first covenant who are righteous workers according to the law in the most Gospel-like administration of it but at the bottom are still upon the tenure and account of debt for so is their reward accounted to them by God as looking upon them still under the first covenant till they be brought to be of the faith with blessed Abraham These in 1 Cor. the 12. and 13. Chapters are intimated under the title of spiritual men in distinction from the heathen as having the manifestation of the spirit given them to profit with by means whereof they may come to great attainments in spiritual gifts and excellent operations of mind so as to speak with the tongues of men and Angels know all mysteries have all faith so as to remove mountains give all they have to the poor and their bodies to be burned and all this but upon the first root and single seed of natural righteousness remaining yet unexperienced of the more excellent way of enjoying and doing all this in union and harmony with a higher and better principle of life by participation of the divine nature which the true heirs do obtain and which is there called by the name of love Again 2 Cor. 10. 11. These are described under the names of those of which number Paul said he was not who measuring themselves
by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves were not wise but justly comprehended under the rank of foolish virgins over whom the Apostle was jealous with a godly jealousie hoping to have presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ but now fearing lest they should be beguiled and sin after the similitude of Adams transgression through the subtilty of the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light These among the Galatians were they that Paul stood in doubt of as discerning in them principles that would carry them no higher then the first Covenant before whom therefore he laid the distinction of the two Covenants and the two seeds even under the Gospel those that might be born after the spirit and those that might be born but of the flesh only one of the free woman the other of the bond And among the Philippians this sort of Professors were so prevalent that the Apostle was very sharp ch 3. v. 2. v 18 19. calling them those of the concision dogs and enemies to the cross of Christ whose God was their belly and whose glory was in their shame minding earthly things walking in a quite different strain from them who forgetting what is behinde press forward to the mark ver 14. of perfection brought to light by the death and resurrection of Christ worshipping God in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh It would be endless to rehearse the several passages in the remaining Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles deciphering this generation of Professors in the times they lived Teachers of the Law that knew not what they said nor whereof they affirmed as to the lawfull use of the very Law it self who by not holding faith and a good conscience which is interpreted Heb. 10. 23. a not holding them fast but in such wavering uncertain principles as the first Covenant ministers concerning faith made shipwrack and so lost their good conscience too at last drawing back into perdition Like the Jerusalem complained of Ezek. 5. 5. c. where they were so far from walking up to the light of the Covenant with God which they were under that in their walkings they fell beneath the very light and principles of heathens not doing according to the judgements of the nations round about them but becoming adulterers and adulteresses such as defile the Temple of God and therefore such whom God would destroy Lastly as once for all we may see this generation of men in their holy profession and visibility of Saintship incorporated together with the true spiritual seed in every one of the seven Churches mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters which are usually accounted to be typical inreference to the state of the Church under the Gospel from the Primitive times to Christs second coming In every of these churches Christ makes the distinction between the Spiritual Seed that had the spiritual ear and the carnal Seed that had it not but who in and under those very Church-forms were the Nurseries of all hypocrisie apostasie and other Spiritual uncleannesses and defilements there and were not of the faith nor in the faith of those that overcome but were such as from whom the Candlestick and light they had from Christ might be removed verifying therein that saying of his speaking of this generation as they should continue under Gospel Ordinances when he was foretelling the end of the world under the type and figure of the destruction of the material Temple in Jerusalem Verily verily saith he This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled his mystical meaning herein being that this crooked and perverse generation mentioned Deut. 32. 5. who were always resisting the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. and were to succeed in that enmity which they bear unto the true Spiritual Seed to the very end of the world according unto what God declared from the beginning when he said I will put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent should continue till the serpents head be wholly broken and he trampled under foot and the Saints heel wholly bruised or the measure of Christs sufferings remaining to be wrought out in his whole body the Church fulfilled These are they which call themselves Jews but are not in spirit and truth though they pass currant in the judgement of mans day for the only visible Church of God excluding the heathens on the one hand as Sathan appearing in his own likeness and the true spiritual believers on the other hand as the same evil spirit transformed into an Angel of light The third sort of subjects belonging to the last administration of Christs kingdom are they who in faith and patience do possess their souls following the Lamb whither soever he goes not loving their lives unto death but through the blood of the Lamb being received into the unity of the faith of the Son of God have the use of spiritual senses set up in them enabling them to hear and obey what the spirit saith unto the Churches and so are worshippers of God in spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh enjoying within themselves the witness of a better and more enduring substance then what is experienced under the first-covenant-ministry through this law of the spirit of life which the spiritual sied are made under have that overcoming power of Christ ever present with them in the actings of true and saving faith which overcomes the world and gives them the victory over all opposition not but that they also in walking as men have the same common weaknesses as other men are liable to many failings and miscariages but as they are born of God and walk and live in that spirit sin hath no more dominion over them to make them fulfil the lusts thereof Gal. 5. 16 18. These therefore are distinguished from all the earth-born sons or children of the first covenant by their higher and more divine birth as born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. not but that they are born also of all the other principles as well as othermen possess them in common with others something of the corrupt nature with the heathen and something of the renewed nature with the Jew or worldly Christian but they have over and besides a birth of God which none of the other two have living thereby in that light and life which no man hath seen or can see wherein they are a sort of heavenly seers and men of God that enter with Christ within the veyl and are admitted into the sight and enjoyment of God in the very brightness of his glory and express character of his person shining forth in the face of Christs second appearance and herein are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ partaking after this manner of the divine nature it self wherein they see God face to
and blood which interprets all this dealing of Christ in the worst sense as if his mind were wholly turned away and that he had given over to be gracious any more to them that are under this hour and power of darnesse And so seemes worse then a thousand bodily deaths to those in whom the spiritual birth is but low and therefore not unfitly compared to the child in the womb and at the breast where it is said Wo unto those that are with child and give suck in those dayes Yet saith Christ this is but as the waters of Noah which is only to be once done to drive the believer into the Arke even the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection from the dead and then forever to exempt them from such danger any more as having provided that for them which enables them to swim in those waters which drown the world in that pure river spoken of Rev. 22. 1. proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb which compared with Ezek. 47. appears to be a description of the Vision of Holy Waters where they are risen up as a river to swim in which those that are without the Ark attempting to live in must needs be drowned it being above all the measures of their attainments and capacities to receive as members of the first building or worldly Sanctuary And because there is not any thing more highly importing the true Saint then to get well through this wildernesse and not lose the way or fall short hereof under any pretence whatsoever we shall yet endeavour more particularly to handle and declare that which is to be experienced under this dispensation First in respect of what Christ doth and is the worker of by his withdrawing and refusing to continue any longer a Bridegroome in his first appearance to the soul Secondly in respect of the workings of Satan the Tempter who is not idle in this hour and power of darknesse to set on this appearance of wrath from God and Christ Thirdly in respect of the workings of flesh and blood that to the last are violent opposers and resisters And fourthly in respect of the workings of Faith or the new creature disposing the soul to let patience have its perfect work under these manifold tempt ations thereby to make it a perfect and compleat sharer with Christ in his sufferings as the rule and patterne set by him for the obedience of faith which under all this beholds him that is incisible and hath an eye to the recompence of reward in attaining the glory that followes and arriving unto the state of the resurrection from the dead never to die more but for ever to remaine free from the power of sinne and death As to that which Christ works in the heart of the true believer by his separation and refusal to be any longer a Bridegroome to the soul in and by his first appearance It consists chiefly in two particulars First in the preparation used by him to fit the soul for this his absence Secondly in his actual withdrawing and for ever hidng his face as to any farther shining forth upon them singly in and by his first appearance and in that respect becoming as perfectly dead and separated from the soul refusing ever to converse more in the single exercise of that his heshly life according to which the soul is to know him no more The preparation herein used by Christ to fit the soul and support it to bear such an absence of his is lively presented to our view by his carriage in this respect towards his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh when he tells them beforehand John 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Chapters the necessity of his departure from them that he may go to the Father and the expediency of it for them in order to his coming againe and presenting himself to them in a richer compleater glory then what they conversed with him in before Little children sayes he yet a little while I am with you the Bridegroome is with the children of the Bridechamber but this fellowship as to the joy fruits and comforts of it is not lasting it is but for a little while here is no abiding City there is therefore a necessiy of looking out for one to come And I am going a farre journey saith he to receive a Kingdome and returne and ye shall seek me when I am withdrawn and be looking for me to appear again in my fleshly glory but till a change be brought upon you to enable you to follow me in my death you though my Disciples and the Jewes that are far short of you cannot come to me whither I am going But through believing in me you shall be brought to my Fathers house into a heavenly City the Jerusalem that is above where are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you also may be And whither I go you know and the way you know by the workings and teachings of the new nature that is in you through believing and your being borne of God Besides saith he I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth in the first-fruits thereof whereby you shall come to have an understanding in him that is true and that you are in him that is true the Spirit whom the world cannot receive because it sess him not nor knows him being not borne from above as you are but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you to bring you out of your forsaken comfortlesse condition and cause you greatly to rejoyce though now for this season you be in great heavinesse through manifold temptations and to love him whom you have not seene with the eye of sense and in whom though you see him not yet believing you rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory These things I speak saith Christ whilest yet I am present with you and before I depart from you by way of preparing you to bear my absence and My peace I leave with you in this your comfortlesse condition as to sense which peace of mine I give unto you not as the world gives it but in a far more excellent and choice way in which none shall be able to interrupt you conveying it to you as a new name in a white stone which none can read but he that hath it and as hidden Manna the sweetnesse and joy whereof no stranger intermeddles with And therefore let not your hearts be troubled nor be you afraid ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come againe unto you if you loved me you would rejoyce because I say I go unto the Father for my Father is greater then I. And now I have told you before it
they serve the Law of sin finding sin so farre from being perfectly overcome and subdued as once they supposed that by degrees it returnes upon them with greater force then ever making them miserable men as abandoned and left to its inroad and violence without any possibility of being delivered from this death and wrath that comes upon such wilful sinning in which case there remains to them no more sacrifice for sinne but an expectation of fiery wrath Howbeit to repair this losse unto them whilst they have their abode in this world the Devil lets them have as their reward the praise of one another and enables them to carry the world clear before them to the oppressing and trampling down the righteous and spiritual seed wringing out waters of a full cup to them These are they who prosper in the world and encrease in riches who have no bands in their death but their strength is firme who are in no trouble nor are plagned like other men but have their eyes standing out with fatnesse enjoying more then their hearts can wish They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walks through all the earth under the universal Dominion and Rule which Satan as God of the world hath from one end of the earth unto the other This great City or universal worldly spirit and rule under Satan sits as Queene alone and knows no sorrow but with her fornications and sorceries bewitches the world and the inhabitants thereof exercising her universal Rule and Dominion over them under various formes and administrations of government till he come whose right it is and cast downe these Thrones before him receiving to himself Dominion Glory and a Kingdome that all people Nations and Languages should serve him in a Kingdome that is never to be destroyed The principal means which God uses to bring in his Kingdome and oppose these Counter-workings of Satan is his setting up in the person of Christ a bruised broken crucified man that humbled himself to the death of the Crosse suffering without the gates of Jerusalem as the mighty power of God by which to destroy the power of the Devil and bring to nought the wisdome of the wise and the understanding of the prudent as those foolish and weak things of God in mans eye which he hath chosen to confound the great and mighty things of the world and as those base and despised things that are not which he hath chosen to confound the things that are fairest in shew and appearance Which weapons of Christs warfare though mighty through God yet being despicable and weak in the eye of Satan and to the discerning and judgement of men they are thereby the more harden'd and encouraged to contest it out with Christ till at last they come to be trampled under his feet like mire in the streets CHAP. XX. Concerning death to sinne and life to righteousnesse considered as well in the distinct Branches and Parts thereof as in its full extent and comprehensivenesse together with the discovery thereby of that which is counterfeit hypocritical or otherwise defective THe summe of what we have beene Treating of in the preceding Chapters that concerne the Work and Rule of Christ whether in the Natural Legal or savingly beleeving Conscience as also the Saints conformity with Christ in his death the discovery wherof this chapter had immediately and more orderly succeeded but that I was unexpectedly prevented in it by the Presse may very well be reduced unto the two general termes of Mortification and Vivification or of our dying unto sin and living unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. and this according to the kind and measure of Grace received whether common or special temporary or everlasting For in what ever conscience Christ works and gains so farre reception as to be hearkened unto and obeyed in the Voice or Ministery he holds forth himself by whether upon the termes of the first or second Covenant the necessary consequent thereof is a departing from sin and an eschewing of evil as saith the Scripture Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sinne unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse so as the service and obedience ye yeeld unto the one frees and delivers you from the subjection ye were held in unto the other For those that are servants of sinne are free from righteousnesse or dead to it as on the contrary those that are servants unto righteousnesse obeying from the heart the teachings of Christ in any of his Three-fold dispensations before mentioned are free from sinne and become dead unto it according to the Law they are under or the manner of the working thereof in several measures and degrees experienced in any such conscience Now that which we are to understand by righteousnesse whose servants we ought to be and whereunto we are to yeeld our subjection is the Image of God formed and set up in the second Adam or Person of the Mediator propounding it self to be received and entertained by man since the Fall upon the foundation of a new entercourse and converse betweene God and Men which he hath obtained freely through his owne blood shed as a ransome for all whereby also the natural conscience is purged from dead works and fitted againe for the service of theliving God This Image of God consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse hath power as it lives and dwells in Christ to dispence and give the communication of it self in part or in whole according to the nature of the Ministery and the manner of administration by which it is conveighed into the heart and conscience So as if this Image of God be but as the Word and Voice of God in the mouth only of servants whether Angels or Men unaccompanied with the personal presence of the Sonne himself it hath one kind of operation and effect intimated Esay 40. 3 4 5. by that Voice of the Lord or Word of God in the mouth of servants only Crying in the Wildernesse-condition of mans corrupt nature and degenerate state as he is dead in trespasses and sinnes Prepare ye the way of the Lord make streight in the desert a high way for our God and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together declaring herein this preparatory dispensation which tends and leads unto Christ in his first appearance as he is God manifested in flesh in which respect it is that all flesh can see him together for as to his second appearance he dwells in that light and immortality which no flesh can approach unto which no man hath seen or can see as he is a meer natural man This forerunning Ministery unto Christ we may also take notice of Luke 10. 1. After these things the Lord appointed other seventy and sent them two by two before his face into every City and place whither he himself would come saying unto
formes through counterfeit resemblances unto TRUTH to beguile and mislead unstable souls and is daily detected and discovered under all professions or visible formes of Saintship whether more or lesse refined whether earthly and sensual or heavenly and Angelical Hereof there are in these dayes of ours but too many living instances who as Lots wife are turned into Monuments of Gods righteous judgment declared upon them for the admonition of others And that we may not leave this subject without endeavouring to contribute some assistance towards the resolving of that great Question how the true Spirit may with certainty and infallibility be known and distinguished from the false I shall briefly recommend to consideration as conducible to the discovery hereof these following particulars The Spirit of TRUTH is evidently and infallibly distinguished from the spirit of lies and falshood three several wayes by which we may make a trial and judgement of the spirits whether they be of God or no. First by the evidence and witnesse which is given of it by the three that bear witnesse in heaven where the Spirit of TRUTH shines forth in its supreme original light and self-evidence as we have at large shewed in the first and second Chapters Secondly by the Record and witnesse that the Sonne or Christ the true Spirit gives of himself in his flesh or humane nature causing the truth to shine forth in the face of Jesus opening what he is and what he did by coming in the flesh suffering and rising againe according to the Scriptures which 1 John 5. 6. is rendred thus This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that heareth witnesse because the Spirit is truth even the witnesse shining forth in his Spirit and person who whether considered as being and subsisting in the WORD OF LIFE before his being made flesh or considered as after his coming in the flesh living dying and rising againe hath a witnesse born of him in heaven by the FATHER WORD and SPIRIT which Three are one and also in earth by the SPIRIT WATER BLOOD declaring themselves in and upon him as he was found in the fashion and habit of a man which agree in one Thus in the same person we have the greater witnesse which is the witnesse of God or of Christ as he is God and the lesser witnesse which is the witnesse of man or of Christ as he is the Son of man and in both these considered also as testified unto by the Scriptures we have the compleat witnesse which God hath testified of his Son By reason hereof 't is said 1 Joh. 2. 12. Who is a liar but he that denies Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father Whosoever sees not nor acknowledges the TRUTH as witnessed and shining forth in the face of Jesus the Son of man with those that are rightly admitted to serve in the first Sanctuary among the many that are called can much lesse behold it as witnessed and held forth in the brightnesse of Gods face or of the blessed Trinity with those who are culled out of the former and rightly admitted into the holiest of all among the few that are chosen By both these witnesses and records in harmony with the outward Word we do come to know him that is true as the right and whole object whereon through faith we are to fix our eye in the proper forme character and distinction which he gives of himself from all idols or counterfeit appearances of him whatsoever The third or last witnesse which is given us of the true Spirit is that which immediately and necessarily flows from his indwelling presence in our hearts growing up there more and more unto a perfect day by working out in the conscience and spirit of the beleever a confōrmity unto Christ in his death and resurrection causing a dying to sinne and a living unto righteousnesse in the full extent of both as we have opened For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Examine therefore your selves whether ye be in the Faith know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobate And If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead awell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwellesh in you and so the Spirit it-selfe comes evidently and infallibly to witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God as having this Spirit of Adoption poured into our hearts for if we be adopted children then we know we are heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And though we are now Sonnes so as it doth not yet appeare what we shall be when we come to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus at the full manifestation of the sonnes of God yet now we know that we shall then be like him and that we shall then see him as he is yea by faith we now see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and by this knowledge we have of him in the mean time we come to see and experience him that is true and that we are in him that is true even the true God and eternal life having the witnesse in our selves through that holy anointing which is TRUTH and no lie teaching us of all things and abiding in us as a seed to preserve us from the evil and snare of all false and seducing spirits Abide therefore in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you CHAP. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him HAving already in general laid open the methods of Satan the weapons of his warfare together with the diligent and skilful prosecution of his designes upon mankind to seduce them work them off and forever deteine them from their duty and faithfulnesse unto Christ their true Husband and Lord we shall come now in a more particular manner to shew how closse an attendant he is upon the foregoing works of Christ in the hearts and consciences of men considered under the former dispensations walking about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure watching what he can find in such hearts that in the BEGINNING are Gods and Christs owne workmanship as hath beene shewed and trying whom he may corrupt from their first
to Gideon with his company who stood as it were still with their lamps burning and hearts praying unto the Lord until this salvation was wrought for them And this which was wrought by the Lord only is yet said to be done by the sword of the Lord and of Gideon to shew that there was a sword still in the hands of Gods people though retained in such a posture of creature-weaknesse that it was more in shew then any thing else Unto this day of battel fought and won by Gideon doth the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Zachary referre thereby foreshewing how that the like dispensation of Gods power and protection is reserved to be put forth by him on the behalf of that remnant that shall be reduced to such a smalnesse in number and destitutenesse of all visible power that nothing but such a day of battel to be acted over againe for them as this is judged meet by God to be the meanes for their deliverance And because in this battel as we have said there was not only the sword of the Lord but the sword of Gideon it doth seeme to intimate that the sword and power of Magistracie as well Civil as Military shall not be so quite taken out of the hands of Gods people in the last and worst of dayes even whilst the Witnesses are prophesying in sackcloth and finishing their testimony but that in the midst of the little remnant of Gods faithful ones there shall be found such a holding of that sword in their hands as was with Cideon and his three hundred having been taught the practice and use of it in the greatest purity and most exact subserviencie unto Christ it is capable of till the restitution be made of that and all other things in their full redemption from the bondage of corruption by Christs second coming CHAP. XXIV Concerning Magistracy as in its primitive constitution and right exercise it hath its place and beares its part in the Reigne and government of Christ over men in this world WE have already considered Magistracy as in its corrupted degenerated use it is in a manner the Throne and seat of the beast serving to promote and advance the great designe and interest of the Devill in the world whereby it doth become part of his Kingdome and hath its place and use in the Government that Antichrist keepes up to the oppressing and keeping under the deare Saints and Holy ones of the true and living God And therefore it doth not onely follow in course but there is a kind of necessity enforcing to treat of it also as in its primitive constitution and right exercise wherein it is not only capable of serving to a higher end but must through the restitution that all things are to be brought forth in at last be made actually instrumental unto the Holy designes and glorious interest of Christ and his people as his earthly Throne wherein he will sit and rule the Nations as with a rod of iron and part of that dominion which the Father will give unto him in the end of dayes as that Glory and Kingdome wherein all people Nations and Languages shall serve him whose dominion is an Everlasting dominion that shall not passe away and a Kingdome which shall not be destroyed But as a judgement shall sit and take away all other or Contrary Dominion hereunto to consume and to destroy it unto the end whereby the Kingdome and Dominion and the greatnesse of the Kingdome under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High whose Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Dan. 7. 14 26 27. And whereas it is said in this place all Rulers must be brought at last to serve Christ and his people yea to serve Christ in his people it doth not only meane earthly Thrones amongst men but the very heavenly Thrones of Angels themselves who are made subject unto Christ and the true spiritual seed that are the right heirs of salvation unto whom even the Angels are appointed Ministring spirits who yet as we have shewed are the highest Lords and Rulers of this world under Christ those that execute his command in all parts and places of his Dominion throughout the whole world being those that are higher then the highest Rulers amongst men and that know how to bring redresse of grievances and restauration of judgement in a Province when it is violently perverted by the uncontrolable force and power of man then in Authority and Rule there Eccles 5. 8. The Angels then under Christ are the highest powers in this world whose Thrones and Dominions and Principalities are invisible yet are influencing to all visible powers whatsoever steering them to the end Christ hath appointed whatever the intentions designes and interests of the instruments are And all visible powers are the next subordinate Thrones and Dominions unto them which amongst men who are ruled by and under a visible administration of government are accounted supreame and those we call the Higher or highest powers These powers Rom. 13. 1. are said to be ordained of God and 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. are likewise called the ordinance of man both which ingredients are therefore requisite to the setting up of Magistracy amongst men in its right constitution and exercise For men in their Creation and births are made of one blood all the nations of them Acts 17. 26. and so are equal and cannot therefore be distinguished and fixed in such different conditions and capacities of Rulers and subjects but by Gods ordinance and to serve some holy and glorious end of his nor is the subjection which God requires irrational and meerely implicit but rational and voluntary unto which men are to be led not only by the awe and feare of God unto whom it is they pay a duty but are also to be won and perswaded by the sense of their common good and benefit thereby which in what ever formes the government be administred that in themselves simply considered are all lawful and innocent doth difference just and righteous Rule and Government over men from a Tyranny and subjection unto private will and lust which is none of Gods Ordinance but the abuse of it When lust thus creeps into Magistracie which in it self is the good Creature and Ordinance of God it knows how to engender to bondage and tyranny which God for a punishment brings upon the Nations of the world and suffers but it is no part of the Primitive institution of a right Magistracie a description whereof we find Isa 1. 26. where it is prophesied of and promised to be set up as part of Christs Kingdome as reduced to its original patterne for so saith that Scripture I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterwards thou shalt be called the CITY OF RIGHTEOUSNESSE This is yet farther explained Isa 60. 17 18. Where we find that the