Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	apostle_n	paul_n	21	3	5.4233	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65195	Two treatises ... both written by Sir Henry Vane, Knight in the time of his imprisonment.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Epistle general, to the mystical body of Christ on earth.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Face of the times.	1662 (1662)	Wing V80_PARTIAL; Wing V67_PARTIAL; ESTC R7026	96,369	132

that is not only not in my sight but not in preference to him that I have given to you as my face and mouth Provoke him not for my Name is in him intimating withall that herein they were the more inexcusable because they had him with them and amongst them In him the light of God's Glory was shining forth as in God's own face and very similitude speaking his Mind by his own mouth and he was to be incarnate that the same Word might be near us even in our mouth and in our heart to hear it and do it This is the Prophet like unto Moses which God said he would raise up unto them out of and from the midst of their Brethren Let us then acknowledge this great Mystery of the Father and the Son distinguishing what God is by Nature and Essence from what he gives himself to be in the Person of the Mediator the only begotten that lieth in his bosome who yet is also his Messiah whom he sends and makes his Substitute by way of his in-dwelling Deity and Presence for the performing of all his pleasure in both Worlds The Trinity is the head and immediate cause of the being and fulness which is set up in the Person of the Mediator whom they not only inspire with each of their Names and Similitudes but make him a Vessel of meet use to convey the holy Oyl in the way of a twofold Ministry and Pipe to both Creations He therefore became incarnate that he might make use of no other spoksman immediately to interpret and declare the Mind of God unto his People than the Son of man glorified of which we have the lively Type Exod. 4. 15 16. in the Office of Aaron to Moses shewing that Aaron was made the mouth to Moses and Moses the mouth to God Aarons Office of spoksman figuring out that of Christ's Manhead and Moses his that of Christ's Mediatorship in spirits before his Incarnation upon which occasion God promiseth there in the Type that which he fulfills in Spirit and Truth in Christ's Person For as Moses had Commission to speak to Aaron as God's spoksman to him so hath the Spirit of the Mediator to Jesus the Son of man And as it was Aaron's Office to be spoksman to the People so is it the Office of Christ's Manhead to be the spoksman of Him that Moses typed out that great Prophet the Angel of God's Face and Presence and to be to him the Interpreter and Declarer of God's Mind and signifier of God's Commands to all in both Worlds Christ as he is the Son of man is to himself as he is the Word of God instead of a mouth or Prophet And Christ as he is the only Begotten or Word of the Father is instead of God most high unto his own Manhead answerable to the Promise made vers 15. and thou shalt speak unto him and put words into his mouth meaning Moses to Aaron and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you that is both of you what ye shall do Here we see and may see it with Admiration as the Queen of Sheba did in Solomon's Temple which was the Type the Glorious Ascent into the House of God and the gradual access which by one spirit we have through Christ unto the Father I would have you know saith the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11. 3. that the head of every man is Christ the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God Christ that is the head of every man is the head of his own manhead and therefore was Christ God's Angel Messiah or sent-one before he was Man and had for his Head the one God and Father of all things How God is the Head of Christ we have shewed The blessed Trinity is the Father to that only begotten One who is the hidden Wisdom ordained before the World was to our glory The Angel that is the Messenger and Mediator of God's Covenant of whom he commands us to beware Exo. 23. 21. and to obey his voice Provoke him not sayes he for he will not pardon their Transgressions for my Name is in him What can be more plain The most high God hath his Messiah his Angel or sent-one invested with his Majesty and Power of Command whose Voice must be obeyed as the Voice of God it being his Office to be instead of God to his Church What he binds is bound what he remits is remitted for the Name of God is in him He is in likeness and truth so near to God that he is God's equal the true Michael that is second with God in the Throne and yet he that is found in the Form of God and accounts it no robbery to be equal with God doth not disdain to have also his Equals the man that is his fellow the man of his right-haud whom he hath made strong for himself With the most knowing Jews the acknowledgment of Christ in this his heavenly and spiritual being before his incarnation was most usual and avowed The Angel that redeemed Jacob Gen. 48. they call the Divine Majesty owned for God and for Christ that was tempted in the Wilderness whose Voice say they is to be obeyed as the Voice of the living God and his Office is to be the Leader and Guide of the true Israel the great Prince that is the Presence and Majesty of God and the Lord and Ruler over all the Earth as well as Heaven all that is therein being governed by his hand Unto Him the pure and simple Essence of God is the Father and he is set up from everlasting the Father and Root whence that chief Branch springs that is Jesus the Lord and Christ in the capacity of Son to this Father who must reign till all things be subdued under him that is all inferiour Rule Authority and Power whatsoever that officiate or ought to do so in his right But when that is done and finished then shall this Son also himself be subject unto Him that is his Father that raised him from the dead and put all things under him that God may be all in all This occasioned Christ whilst he was on Earth to say Joh. 12. 28. Father glorifie thy Name speaking therein to God the Mediator to Him whose Office is to be to him the Mouth of God from whom he receives the lively Oracles to deliver to his Church as it is written I will declare thy Name to my Brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing Praises unto thee And again I will put my trust in him even in him who wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right-hand of the Majesty on high or in the heavenly This made Christ say When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me that is mediately and in order afterwards to resign them up unto his Father and give up all his interest of Rule in them

of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of

Freedom than that wherein man was at first Created in that mutable and Primitive state of purity And what this Freedom is we shall shew that is so worthy to be obtained and fought after in exchange for the other This Freedom consists in the witnessing every respect which is wrought in the Understanding and Will of man by Regeneration and Divine birth of the one or other sort to render them of entire use and service unto that higher and superiour Will in the second Adam the Lord from Heaven that is made and given of the Father to be a quickning Spirit unto them in a twofold capacity First of their natural Head and Sovereign whom they are to serve as in relation of Subjects to their King and Law-giver and therein fulfil and answer the very end of the Law of Nature and actually become those righteous persons against whom there is no Law that can take hold of them to punish them or take the least exception to their perfect Righteousness that have given to them a constant and perpetual Will to do right to every one and love the Lord their God most intirely by influence from their Head who in this respect is the common Parent to both the sorts of Children whom he makes free Citizens and Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem his own glorified man-head which is the Mother of us all But secondly Christ the second Adam comes forth also in another Headship to the second sort of these Children which is that of Husband and Bridegroom gathering them up into a state of higher Love and Duty than that of Servants and Subjects and receiving them unto more honorable use in familiarity intimacy and a kind of equality comprehending the Love and Duty of righteous and faithful Servants but in respect of the nearness of relation and union becoming much the more excellent and transcendant The Inspiration and holy Anointing which flows from Christ in this twofold Headship of his into the hearts of these his Members hath that effect upon them as joyns them to him in unity and agreement of spirit or of judgment and will and so entirely possesses them engrosses them in the service and to the use of their Lord that it leaves them at no liberty to 〈◊〉 the use or service of any other but in subordination to his will which excludes sin and all evil esteeming it their greatest happi●… thus to be bound up in a way of love delight and entire ob●…nce in the Will of their Head their second Adam and Lord fr●… Heaven Hence they experience that they are not their own in ●…ny thing for it is not they that live but Christ liveth in them and with his Princely prevailing Influence as their Head is their infallible Guide and firm Security in all their operations giving them such an abiding and growth up in all things into him in an entire resignation and obedience to his Will as co-workers together in every thought word and work that they cannot miscarry nor shall ever be hurt by the second death but shall be rewarded with those pleasures that are at his right-hand and at his left in his Kingdom for evermore And although this most perfect Freedom which is obtained by this binding and conjunction in unity and agreement of spirit with Christ be esteemed by the Possessors of it of price inestimable yet it is the greatest bondage and cross that can befall a wicked heart and is that which is reserved by Christ to be their torment for ever in the end which will be given by him to his first Ministry in the hearts where he is finally rejected from whom after he is departed and withdrawn for a season as if they should never hear of him as indeed they shall not to their comfort yet they shall to their terrour and sorrow be made sensible of him by the fastning which he will make of his Darts of enlightnings into the minds of the wicked as sharp Arrows and a gnawing Worm that shall never dye when by the breath of his mouth he shall kindle a fire of Conviction and self-judging in their Conscience together with the just sence of his Divine Vengeance they can no longer flee nor escape from But on the contrary the truly regenerated souls are made willing and exceedingly pleased to draw in this yoke with their Head to see with his eyes and act by his quickning in all they do and to put on with him this lowliness meekness and purity of spirit which feeds on that which is incorruptible and is with God of great price so great as no righteous workers have his praise and blessing but these who are properly Christ's Mystical Body the Branches that abide in him and whose Fruit is permanent unto Life Eternal and this Body or Church of invisible Saints and spiritual Worshippers of the true God even whilst they are in their Wilderness and suppressed state Christ the great Overseer of their souls doth feed with Teachers af●●● his own heart and is not wanting by an outward Ministry under him ●o feed and refresh with Oyl the Lamps of all sorts that he makes use of as his Witnesses and bear his Name whether according to the knowledge his Will that is revealed in the first or in the second Covenant that so h● may by upholding such an Office under him edifie all that are under his Charge as he sees occasion and is agreeable to the condition the Church is in whether of restraint or freedom from the Powers of the World By those which Christ puts in to the Ministry of his Spirit under him we are to understand such ahe gives his Vnction and Mission unto as he is the Head of Nature or of Grace and from their own Experience are made able to minister the knowledge of Christ in his healing and restoring work or in his regenerating and New-creation-building before described giving their Witness according to what they themselves have received of the Spirit in the three distinct Dispensations of it before expressed in the first of which because of the mutable state of the operation thereof both in themselves as well as in their hearers they that are eminent Preachers unto others by the excellency of Gifts with which they are anointed and that from Christ may nevertheless themselves be found at last Cast-awayes But in the other two they which experience the Anointing thereof become Pillars in the House of God that never go out more and may obtain the highest Order and Rank of Ministry in the Church even that of Apostles in the same way as Paul himself did by such a Spiritual Light of Christ as he sayes 1 Cor. 9. 1. Am not I an Apostle have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord And as thus the Apostolical Order came to have being in the Church by the immediate sight of Christ in Spirit as we see in Paul's Case which comprehends in it all other the inferiour Ranks of Ministers whether Prophets

and way answer but to the outward Court thereof and the Worship appertaining thereunto The former have the true inward Circumcision of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God The latter are those who at best have but the Circumcision of the heart in the letter which labours to shew it self in such outward Circumcision of language and practice as may serve to keep up a shew or form of Godliness in the sight and to the well-pleasing of man whilst they are at an utter distance even in their hearts from the very life and power of Godliness that springs up from the new nature that is found in the true Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and answer to the inward Court Paul takes notice of this in his time Gal. 4. where he distinguishes between an earthly Jerusalem that is in bondage with her Children under the Covenant of Works or Dominion of the Law and a Jerusalem above which is free and is the Mother of all that Seed of Abraham who are Heirs according to the Promise These are described Rev. 12. by the Woman clothed with the Sun that hath the Moon under her feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars This figurative description shewes the Glory of the City Jerusalem as it is above inward and in spirit who with her Children is in freedom under the Covenant and Dominion of Grace The same is also signified by the inward Court appointed to be measured by the Reed of God in distinction from the outward Court which is not measured but abandoned and given up as it were to the power of the Gentiles to be by them troden under foot and defiled 2. In this same space of time falls out the impregnating of the Woman or her growing Great ready to be delivered of a Man-child The principal care of the Apostles and other Teachers who succeeded in their Spirit in the Primitive Church described under the representation of the seven Churches of Asia and the Angels or Officers appertaining to them was to be doing what had the most conducible tendency to the hastening and forwarding this birth of the Man-child which the Dragon opposed diligently watch'd to hinder resist and if possible to devour as soon as born 3. The seven-headed Dragon's lying in wait and managing the battel against Michael and his Angels about the aforesaid birth must needs contemporize with the two fore-mentioned Particulars All the three do therefore fill up the first space of time or age succeeding the Apostles measured out by what is contained in the six first Seals and was fore told to John as that which should happen both to the Church and World until the Womans flight from the Dragon after this great battel in Heaven and retiring into the Wilderness there to be nourished of God her appointed time These three are the immediate Antecedents of those things which have been shewed to contemporize under the seventh Seal and six Trumpets that is to say the distinguishing between the inward and outward Court with the Worship and Service appertaining unto each Secondly The impregnating of the Woman And then Thirdly The battel hereupon arising in Heaven or within the Primitive Church and continuing a long time till at length the Man-child comes to be born Then the Dragon loses his credit and authority in the Church His subtilty in accusing and laying false imputation on the Brethren the truly pure and spiritual part of the Church is detected Hereupon he is cast out into the Earth confined as it were to the outward Court and the Worshippers and Service belonging to it as the only matter for him to work upon for the increase of his Kingdom by the number of Hypocrites and Apostates drawn by him out of the true Church They were in truth never of it though for a while they were in it At length they find it their interest to make a Separation from it being sensual and not having the Spirit they can no longer endure those that have it and that shine forth daily more and more in the Life and Testimony thereof The old Dragon became hereby necessitated to manage and prosecute the War with the earthly Weapons only of worldly Power and Government in a way of outward force and compulsion exercised by the power of humane Laws and of the civil Sword This Power and Sword the corrupt sensual and malignant Church founded and consisting in the worshippers and service of the outward Court getting into their hands or engaging it on their side by mingling Interest with worldly Governours committed Whoredom like Tyre with all the Kingdoms of the VVorld upon the face of the Earth Isa 23. 17. Yea this Beast with two horns so influenced encouraged and back'd the ten horn'd Beast that he became thereby fixed and engaged in his Mind as well as Power to continue and carry on the War forty and two months longer against the Woman and her Seed and to blaspheme God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Thus in brief Heads have we seen how the two first great Sections or Divisions of time in the third Age are filled up to wit the space from John's receiving the Prophecy of them in the Isle of Patmos to the end of the first battel or war made in Heaven and as the issue of that the catching up of the Man-child unto God and to his Throne and the Womans actual flight into the VVilderness and from thence to the rising of the VVitnesses which puts a period to the suffering season alloted to their Prophesying in Sack-cloth And as to the third and last Section of time it is that which is measured out by the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and the pouring out of the seven Vials which begins with the beginning of that Trumpet and continues till the Whore be judged Babylon sunk and the whole Kingdom of the Beast for ever ruined and destroyed This makes way for the marriage of the Lamb to be celebrated here on Earth and so for the coming on of the Kingdom of Christ into the actual exercise of a visible ruling Power and universal Empire over the whole VVorld for a thousand years Having thus had a view of the distinct periods of time together with the matter of the Prophesies which were to be fulfilled in and under each of these distinct Revolutions it will yet much prepare and help our understandings rightly to discern and look into the Mysteries of this most excellent Book if once we can but arrive at a satisfactory opening and interpreting at least in some chief particulars the things which are signified under many of the Figures and Allegorical Expressions made use of throughout the whole Prophecy For Example Let us consider these The seven Churches and the Angels of them The Throne in Heaven The sealed Book The Woman The Dragon and his Angels Michael and his Angels The Man-child The throne and seat of the Dragon's

Evangelists or Pastors and Teachers So there are of these inferiour Ranks to the Apostles which hear and receive the knowledge of the Gospel and the holy Ghost either from the mouths of the Apostles and by the laying on of their hands as did the Evangelists or by other subordinate instituted means that is to say either inwardly onely by the inspiration of Angels thereunto sent and authorized by Christ as to Philip in the case of the Eunuch's Conversion and to Abraham and the Patriarchs after him four hundred years together before the written Word was given and who before the Incarnation were made use of to give the Law which is there called the Word spoken by Angels Heb. 2. 1. Or secondly by the communication of such Gifts for interpreting and opening of the written Word as we find in the Church of Corinth and this by such Prophetical Gifts as not only the Officers did partake of to fit them for the Ministry but secondly the very Members of the Church also shared in for the common edification of the Body So that either by inward Inspiration from Angels under Christ or by the witnessing Spirit of Christ immediately which is the Spirit of Prophecy or by Gifts of Abilities in a more ordinary way for the interpreting and opening the Scriptures Christ hath alwayes had his Labourers in his Harvest And all these several Degrees in the Ministry as they are found in subordination subserviency and agreement one with another in their place and differing measures do make sweet harmony and redound to great profit in the Church But if they break their Ranks and the inferiour exalt and lift up themselves in preference above and opposition to the superiour and greater measures these then corrupt and set up for themselves or are made use of by him that knows how to transform his ministers into Ministers of Righteousness to advance his Kingdom and turn bitter and implacable Enemies and Persecutors of the Womans Seed and true Spiritual Worshippers Let it not then be said that to be against the Ministry in this last sense is to be against all Ministry especially such who acknowledge Christ the Chief Minister and great Ordainer of God's Worship and all those to be his Ministers that have Unction and Mission from him in all the Orders and Degrees of them wherein they are acknowledged by the Scriptures whom God hath pleased to make use of to bear the Witness committed to them during Antichrist's Reign in a suffering sackcloth prophesying state which will not lose its fruit but become a sweet savour of life unto life in them that are saved and a favour of death unto death in them that perish We now shall proceed to the next Enquiry which is Who they are that in Principles are opposit to these two Anointings and the Effects of them and declare their Enmity by their continued War in the posture of our Enemies or dissembled Friends both making up but the same Kingdom of Darkness which since Christs coming is called Antichrists Righteousness and Truth are the two supporters of Christ's Throne with the frist God enlightens and quickens the natural beings of Angels and men who in their mutable and uncertain state are possessors of Righteousness in purity and perfection whilst they are and may be strangers to Truth that is firmness and certainty which is as the Crown and Top-stone to the first Building And therefore the Light of Truth which is a clearness in the Judgment that had a right discerning before that doth fix it and ascertain it beyond all possible doubt and contradiction and the activity of Truth which is a stedfastness and pressing forward in the Will wherein may be found righteous operation before to run in that race and never fail nor faint is most necessary to follow and succeed where the first goes before as that which is its consummation and final perfection In the breast where these two Lights meet imbrace and kiss each other there is the true Vrim and Thummim the Divine enlightned mind which makes all those wherein it is found free Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and beloved Children and Subjects of Christs Kingdom As it is written Joh. 3 19 20 21. Light is come into the world Light in both these respects is come to dwell with us in our own nature when the Word was made flesh and to be amongst us in our mouth and in our heart to hear it and obey it Whence it is that this is said to be the Condemnation of the World that Light is thus come in the person of our Redeemer the second Adam and men have notwithstanding loved Darkness better than Light because of the contrariety that is in the evil deeds of men unto the very nature of Light which makes manifest and reproves them and from thence contracts hatred from evil men very unjustly who love not to be discovered in their wickedness nor to be under censure and reproof for it but perfectly hate thus to be discovered and judged and that is at bottom the quarrel and rise of the enmity between the Subjects of these two Kingdoms of Darkness and of Light Hatred and enmity against the Light of Righteousness and Truth which shine forth in Jesus Christ as in the head and in his Witnesses and Children as the members in what hearts soever they are found are in general the opposit Principles we are now speaking of and the Root or Cause whence those spring is from the love that such hearts at bottom do bear unto evil that is to say to unrighteousness and falshood which they prefer and adhere unto before the Light of the Image of God which is wrought out in Christ and in his members Of these lovers of Darkness more than Light we are to consider Either first such as are born blind and are already darkned in their understandings and alienated in their wills by evil works dead in trespasses and sins Or secondly such as have their Light freely restored to them again for asking and however so much of it as may make them sensible of the need of more and to discern the means of their perfect cure Or thirdly Such as after their first Light restored are offered the gift of a better sight than ever they had at first which shall not only enlarge what they had at first in their primitive purity but preserve it in an endless life without any possible danger ever to lose it more For the first It is the condition of all Mankind in general and was the effect that followed upon the sin of our first Parents by which door Death entred and passed upon all men because in them all had sinned Nor did this befall the Children meerly or principally because of sin as if that were the end that God had in it but that the works of God's Grace should be manifested thereby For no sooner did the disease and wound appear but God had provided a Physician and healing