shall first destroy all his enemies even death itself and shall end with the universall resurrection and and passing of the finall sentence winding up all in the resigning up of his Kingdom to the father that God may be all in all Thus the thousand years is no distinct time from the day of Judgment neither before it nor after but the same with it the whole time during which this great day of judgment does continue in the very beginning whereof Antichrist shall finally be destroyed and not before These therefore in Scripture are called the times of Christs Kingdom wherein he will shew himself the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this for the space of a thousand years in the last period of which comes the last and finall sentence before mentioned to be pronounced and executed The reason therefore why the excellent promises above recited are not yet performed is twofold 1. The times for their performance are not yet fully come though very neer But most certaine it is as we have heard that they shall and will come 2dly Because the seed also to which they are made is not yet come to be made manifest as they shal be in distinction from all counterfeits and false pretenders which say they are Jews and are not but do lie This discrimination and certaine cleare discovery of the true seed of God from the false will be begun to be made by the ministry of Eliah or the ministry that shall rise up in the spirit and powers already discribed This excellent ministry must and wil be attended with a church of saints answerable which shall consist of the risen witnesses the dry bones that this spirit of prophesy brings out of their graves from the foure winds of heaven causing them to stand againe upon their feet an exceeding great army All of them are to be quickned by the means of this powerfull and glorious ministry with a spirit of life from God that enters into them and shews itself to be that life from the dead in them which is never more subject to corruption It is unto these also that God sayes by a great voyce from heaven which they are fitted with ears to heare come up hither and they do accordingly ascend up to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them or rather heaven is brought downe into their knowledg and possession here on earth whilst as yet they are clouded with their mortall body which nevertheles shall at last be changed in a moment and they not se death In the meane time they shall experience their very mortall body freed from the bondage of corruption and restored to the primitive purity glory use and serviceablenes unto the mind which it had in paradise in the persons of our first parents before the fall And to these shall it be given to se the opening of the heavens long since promised by Christ and the temple of God that is there opened also and in the temple the arke of the Testament both which Revel 15.5 are put together and called the temple of the tabernacle of the Testimony in heaven which in that day shal be opened the true tabernacle or sanctuary which God pitch'd and not man Heb. 8.2 In this temple dwelleth the fulnes of the God head bodily the vision whereof is to be made plaine to the eye of our sensuall part or to our inward bodily senses that by seing the mind of God in such legible characters in the spirit and person of Christ the like mind may be found and seen in all that are his who are then to appeare in the same likenes by seing him as he is That which Christ is and in spirit shal be seen to be as the mind of the father is wrought out in him the Apostle Paul points out Philip. 2.5 c. 1. He is in the forme of God the WORD of life who was in the beginning was with God and was God And thus considered he accounts it not robbery to be Gods equall 2dly In the dispensation of the fulnes of time the same that is in the forme of God is also found in fashion as a man and is made flesh with the use of a living soule in the very earthly and outward senses of it bearing the form and likenes of the first Adam in his primitive purity 3. He that thus descended into flesh and the lowermost parts of his habitable earth in which earthly make and nature he became inferiour to angels for the suffering of death is the same that out of this does ascend and is exalted far above all heavens by being made in his humane spirit soule and body the temple wherein all the fulnes of the God head dwells bodily and a meet vessel to receave possesse and be the minister of it unto others He is the WORD of life the brightnes of the fathers glory the expresse character of his substance by which this manhood is sealed and made heavenly partaking with the living WORD as he is the Angel of Gods presence in whom is Gods name He is the cheif and highest Angel and as such is head of all principalities and power And over and above all this in his archangelicall estate he is the true Michael Gods equall the man that is made Gods fellow or second in the same divine throne of glory In these three cheif particulars Christ the temple of God in heaven shal be seen and made manifest as that which he is and will witnes himself to be in the hearts of all true beleevers the sons of his love that are to be are his likenes and to be seen with his name and superscription upon them In this respect it is that he hath given that commandement 1 John 4 20 21. that he who loveth God in Christ love his brother also which those that doe not will thereby prove themselvs liars if they say they love God For how can he love God or Christ whom he hath not seen that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen There is a day comming when that which Christ wil be seen to be in himself he wil be seen to be also in his members that shal be receaved and gathered unto him as joynt heirs and possessours of his fathers love and glory When Christ who is their life shall so appear they shall also appear with him in glory They shall no longer remaine in their hidden and concealed state wherein they are judged according to men in the flesh whilst they live according to God in the spirit Nor shall they any longer be like Princes walking on foot whilst Servants ride on horse back Behold then upon the opening of the temple of God in heaven the powerfull and glorious effects that the ministry of the spirit flowing from thence shall produce and be accompanied with for the making manifest the true Israel of God The Lord himself will descend first with the voice of the Archangel that
till it put us into the hands of a better and surer guide which is the Son himself who by the voice of his Servant or messenger that he sends before him gives notice of his comming But when he comes himself he teaches the way of God more perfectly the way of knowing and loving God of fearing him and keeping his commandements which is the whole duty of man According to this gradual discovery and revelation of the mind and will of God in his law there are several degrees of growth and age that man is or may be acquainted with in the conformity and obedience that he is to yeild to Gods holy law and commandement 1. First that of childhood signifying the state of mans mutability and unstable righteousnes wherein he is wavering liable to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine apt to be deceaved 2. The state of youth or years of discerning and settled judgment in those that by faith are strong and have overcom the wicked one in whom the Word of God is abiding and hath taken fast hold and root importing the life of the first resurrection in them at least in the principles thereof over whom the second death is never to have power 3. The state of fatherhood and most ripe years in those that have known him that is from the beginning and are one with him one with the father as Christ and the father are one the church that are in God the father the Bride the Lambs wife by whom is made known the manifold wisdom of God and unsearchable riches of Christ unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places the very holy and Elect Angels This importeth the life of the second resurrection in them and the highest ascent into union and communion with God To all these several kinds of growth ages or statures of humane perfection the word and law of God is a Rule suiting itself and commanding the same Duties to be performed as to the knowledg and love which we are to have and bear towards God and towards our neighbour accordingly as the heart is principled and qualified for the performance thereof with a first second or third measure and degree of light and power from God enabling thereunto For that which God requires of man in the obedience he is to yeild unto him is according to what he first gives and causes him to have and not according to what he hath not The commandement therefore of God or the law of his mouth which conteins in it and requires from man his whole duty both towards his God and towards his neighbour is as to the matter of it the same for the rule of mans walking in communion with God either in the first or second Covenant being that which in Scripture is called the law as wel as that which is called the Gospel 1. It is called the law as it is the divine oracle and righteous command of the supreme lawgiver strictly enjoyning exact and compleat obedience and severely punishing the least tittle of disobedience being dispensed in such manner as leaves it to mans liberty and fredom of wil to hear and obey or to refuse and disobey at his owne peril upon the penalties and curse declared in it 2. T is called the Gospel or good tydings as it is the free and gracious condescention or good wil of God appearing towards man which God the Mediatour exercises upon the foresight of what man would doe as left to his owne freewil in and under the law For this in pursuance of his fathers decree does he cleave unto and lay hold of mans nature or the seed of David according to the flesh resolving to bring upon the natural frame of mans Spirit as left to his owne arbitrary choice and freewil a most beneficial and necessary change through which man is prevailed with to give up and resigne back againe that first liberty of his into the hands of his faithful creatour who first gave it and to trust him for the restoring it in such manner and measure back againe as may be best for him and may most certainly and infallibly attein the end for which it was first given which was to fulfil the righteousnes of Gods law Accordingly does he receave it in a new a more excellent and certain manner of hold and exercise wherein it is made impossible for him to transgresse the law of God by sinning and most possible and free for him to run the race of Gods commandements Through this new enlargment and fredom of heart given him by the influencing power of that love which is stronger then death man is so bound up in the wil of God so absolutly subjected to what the law requires as makes him sure to inherit eternal life The living and primitive patern of this obedience is wrought out in mans owne nature in the person of the Mediatour and set before his eyes with an attractive and transforming power to draw man after him and transform him into the same image from glory to glory from the glory of his first creation in conformity to the law in Christs first appearance to the glory of the new creation in conformity to the Gospel in his second And thus Christ enables his beleeving followers to fulfil the law after him who came not to destroy but fulfil it in the Gospel And as some are thus changed by the attractive influence of Christs constreining love others with whom also his Spirit for a season strives by the same Gospel manifestation of him are upon their wilful refusal hardned and fixed in their disobedience To such he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to those who after this gracious offer made knowne unto them doe obstinately despise and reject it preferring their first and natural fredom of the Sons of men to this more excellent fredom and glorious liberty of the Sons of God In order to make triall of them herein since the fal Christ hath obteined of the father on their behalf the restoration of that lesser glory and inferiour liberty of nature that ought to be resigned for the greater that excels and is to remain by the price and ransome of his owne blood from whence flowes a conditional remission of al sinners as to sins past and a free and general restoration of them to the priviledg and benefit of their first natural fredom and primitive righteousnes in kind and in such degrees and measure as is requisit and sufficient for the making of such a trial and rendring them without all excuse nothing having bin wanting in him to bring them to repentance and to receave the truth in the love of it He hath given that former sort of gifts to the rebellious also that prove enemies and haters of him in the more excellent gifts and priviledges that he offers them also in a superiour dispensation which cannot be receaved by them without an obedient surrender and losse
were liable to be broken off again and those also that are after the spirit true heirs according to the promise who are in like manner under this dispensation and teaching til the seed himself come and take them from this Schoolmaster in order to bring them under the most lively effectual teaching and instruction of his owne mouth and by his owne personal appearance in spirit to them either as the day-star arising in their hearts and giving forth the glory of his first appearance in his owne face as he is the Son of man in the form of a servant and fashion of the first Adam made immutable or 2dly as the sun in its strength breaking forth in their soules that are gathered to him appointed and qualified to be with him in the Kingdom of his father and admitted to the peculiar priviledge of beholding his glory in the face of his most exalted and heavenly manhood as he is the only begotten lying in the fathers bosome he that is above all What he hath seen and heard in the beholding of the fathers shape and very similitude that he testifieth but no man receaveth this his testimony that is but a meer man and no more For it is not it cannot be conveyed or communicated unto any but with unspeakable words which it is not possible for man in the single capacity of his first nature and make though become immutable to receave or utter so much doe they surpasse all the knowledg as wel as expression of meer man Under the voice of this threefold ministry God the mediatour who is the possessour of heaven and earth the maker of them and all therein hath made of one blood al nations of men for to dwel on the face of the earth hath distributed to al of them and determined the bounds of their habitations as also the different and proper means to bring them back to himself by repentance from dead works and faith towards the living God He hath awakened that light in every one that comes into the world that shal move and cal upon them at some time or other upon occasion of sundry concurring providences to seek the Lord if haply they may feel after him and find him who is not far from every one of us It ought not then to be a thing incredible with us but that by these means provision is made by God in Christ and care taken not only for the restoring of man againe unto that righteousnes and purity of nature which he lost and to the exercise of that kind of freewil which he enjoyed at creation but yet farther to regenerate and beget him into a more excellent fashion of being and heavenly frame of Spirit in and by which the end of his first creation is fully answered and the law of it accomplished Of this we shal now in the third place proceed to treat by way of answer to 3. The third generall Query which is this In what sence is it possible for man in his mutable state considered either before or after his fall according to the degree of restoring healing grace which he does or may arrive unto to hear and obey the things of Gods law without turning from it finally and in so doing to grow up out of his mutable into his immutable state and be made heir and possessour of life eternal To understand this the more plainly and distinctly and to prevent prejudices and mistakes we shal discusse this subject under these 4 particular enquiries following as branches of this 3d maine point and general query 1. Whether was man at first created in a capacity of being and aptitude of mind possible to obey and fulfill the law of nature so to as answer the end of his creation til brought under a second work of Gods hand call'd the new creation and thereby cast into a new mould and frame of being Secondly whether man by sin be so unmade againe and corrupted so disorder'd and disabled that by the blessing and vertue of Christs blood and the proper and fit means that by the father are put into the hands of the Mediatour he is not in a capacity and possibility notwithstanding his losse by the fall to be restored and made able againe to obey Gods law with the same kind of ability God gave him at first And upon such restoration is he not obliged to set about it at least to shew his good will and syncere inclination of mind there unto according to the measure of the ability he receaves 3. How was man to employ and make use of his naturall ability and strength given for the performance of Gods law and according to what rule might or ought he to have walked with God either before or after the fall which would infallibly guide and unmoveably keepe him in the way to eternall life a way which is called the way of holines such as the uncleane passe not over and the wayfaring men though fooles cannot or shall not erre therein and at the end whereof is immortality and eternall blessednes 4. How comes man in a judiciall manner to be hardned by God and made a vessell of wrath fitted and appointed to everlasting destruction And when is it that he shal be denied any farther benefit by the Sacrifice or Christs death and no more permitted to change his mind and turne from his evill wayes though he should seek it with teares but be in a certaine expectation of the unquenchable flames of Gods wrath ordeined for the punishing and devouring of all fixed and impenitent sinners To the first of these enquiries The creatour did at the beginning put a created ability and principle of motiō into the creature But the strength and power of this first impression is not sufficient for the continued motion of every respective creature in its kind but a perpetuall concourse and cooperation of the creatour is needfull thereunto Then doubtlesse man who was made in Gods image a rationall and free agent the masterpiece of the visible creation ought not to thinke himself exempt from such a dependance nor to covet or desire to be made perpetuall upō such tearms as would in effect dethrone his creatour and make more Gods then one The end for which man was at all created was to be perpetually moving in love and service to his creatour as a vessel prepared with meetnes for the use of his Lord in whatever he should be commāded by him for the advancement of his prayse and glory Now as loue is the end and perfection of the commādemēt so is it the first and cheife principle out of which all true obedience to the commād must proceed and a duration and perpetuity in this loue and duty is absolutely necessary to mans hapines and continuance in Gods favour and good liking For untill a man keep Gods commandements out of this principle and be sure of its unchangeablenes he neither can be sayd to walke in that Covenāt or agreement with God
is neer to every one of us upon whose name if we call he will save us from our sins and make our reconciliation once more with God if the fault be not in ourselvs Yea he will save us to the uttermost if we continue in our obedience and in a pliablenes of spirit to the voyce and words of his mouth that will be a sure guide to us till it have brought us into that kingdome of his that cannot be shaken These are the first sort of servants and subjects that may be found faithfull and obedient unto the word and command of God which was from the beginning These are they that feare God and work righteousnes by an inward teaching suited to the spirituall senses of the naturall mind which is the same with the light and law of pure nature Now of these some and those the greatest part by far being wholly left to their owne choice and in the hand of their owne counsell continue not in their obedience but perish through a hardnes and impenitency of heart in which they rebell against the encreasing measure of light with which the holy Ghost would enlighten them in order to the enlarging of their hearts to an entire and stedfast walking with God in that Covenant of his that cannot be dissolved But others of them through Gods free and peculiar preventing grace are withheld from so sinning against God and are layd hold on and apprehended by the son's comming into their soules and contracting a most intimate and inseperable marriage union with them fastning them to himself the rock af ages and cheif corner stone by whom their bow is made to abide in strength and their arms are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Thus of servants they do with the eunuch and centurion who were converted by Philips and Peters ministry of the outward word become Sons that are heirs according to the promise or else they are admitted immediatly to the fight of Christ in spirit as Paul was in his conversion unto which heavenly vision they prove not disobedient being taught not only to live in the Spirit but to walke after the Spirit This then that we have bin speaking of is the first light and workmanship that Christ in his first appearance may and does visit the sons and daughters of men with even those that are not yet brought to the knowledg of his voice in and by the holy Scriptures There is then a second degree of light and glory wherein Christ breakes forth in the workmanship of his Spirit upon the hearts and minds of men which compared with the first is a more excellent and neer approach to the sight of the Son himself testifying most particularly in what manner and at what time the WORD was to be made flesh and in that flesh to be crucified and die for our sins and to rise againe into a life wherein he was never to die more Now the voice of this word is from divine inspiration moving in the hearts and speaking by the mouth of Moses and other the Servants the Prophets of the Lord in the old Testament to John the Baptist and afterwards by the holy Evangelists and Apostles conteining the doctrine of both Covenants that of works and that of faith the law and the Gospell These divine words and oracles were committed to writing and preserved for the use of the Church from Moses his time downwards to this present day by Gods especiall and admirable providence called the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus They are not of any private interpretation but attended with the ministry of the holy Ghost in his various distributions and gifts dividing unto every one severally as himself pleases to the making the doctrine flowing from this word pure and converting the soule that also which is an enlightning of the eyes and a washing of the heart with clean water from its old sins it is profitable also for reproof correction and instruction in righteousnes to the making the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good word and work even such hearers of the word and doers of the work as prove blessed in their deed if the fault be not in themselvs in failing to performe the condition of the Covenant through that faith which excludes boasting and failes not This second sort of hearers and doers of the word are they that are alive unto God through Jesus Christ by hearing the voice of the living word in and through the ministry of the outward letter of the Scriptures testifying of Christ and of the work of redemption given to him by the father to finish and of his comming not by water only but by water and blood to the paying a ransome for our sins and for the planting of us into a likenes with him both in his death and resurrection Under this second dispensation which is the ministry of the outward and written word accompanied with the presence and power of the holy Ghost and his gifts there is a workmanship of Christ formed in and upon the heart consisting of severall degrees and growths up into him who is our head the good olive tree that is willing ready and able to receave us into himself as our spirituall root which bears us and fills us with the oile and fatnes that springs up from the same into every branch and member of his body considered either as his body is his living flesh ot as it is his flesh crucified 1. As it is the mannah and living bread that is the life of the world or of the worldly Church and enlightned naturall man that may eat and drinke in his presence at this his table and eat and drinke his flesh and blood to their owne damnation 2. There be those that feed upon the crucified flesh the carkasse or dead body of Christ out of whose weaknes comes strength and from whose crucifying comes that meat which perishes not but is bread that nourishes to eternall life Thus it is written Rom. 14. None of us that live liveth unto himself and none of us that die doe or ought to die unto our selvs But whether our faith be weake and low and our naturall ability to hear and obey active and strong in us or whether the work of our faith be strong and powerfull and our natural activity weak and low yea brought into the very grave with Christ the life or the death is not to be to ourselvs but to Christ In and with him must we live and in and with him must we die Whether then we live with Christ by faith as it is weak or whether we die with Christ by faith as the work of it in us is powerfull and strong we should live to the Lord and die to the Lord that so living and dying we may be found amongst the number of those that are the Lords For this end and to
masters God and Mammon We cannot take that delight and pleasure in any creature or seeming present good whatsoever which is due from us to God in Christ only but it breaks off our spirits from the God of life To delight in and prefer the way of worshipping God and working righteousnes in the mutable fading humane creaturely principles of our first creation when restored before the performing all in the unchangable divine and never fading principles of the new creation where God comes to work all our works in us and for us this is a very high provocation of God the highest and most deeply delusive and unperceaved idolatry in preferring the creature before the creatour who is God blessed for ever Mans disobedience and failing then with God as to the performance of the condition of the first Covenant renewed and brought into force againe by the blood of the redeemer is that which since the fall does cause a new breach between God and man when it is willfull working that wrath which the Sacrifice of Christ cannot appease And man is not free nor safe from the danger of such wilfull unexpiable sinning and so of that judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries whilst he is under the dominion and jurisdiction of the law And under it he is so long as he is alive to God but upon the condition required in the first Covenant which makes him a debtour to the whole law qualifying him with that naturall ability and exercise of free-will unto which when he trusts as he is too apt to do takes up his rest and engages in the single strength thereof to performe what the law requires then he falls and provokes God to wrath This will he never be able finally to prevent or avoid whilst he cleaves to and takes up his rest in the life and activity of his owne free-will for the enabling him to keep Covenant with God how rich in stock soever he may at present seem to be therein His only way therefore is to passe or rather suffer himself to be translated out of these his mutable principles into that love and stedfastnes of heart in Covenant with God which is the end of the commandement and proceeds from a pure heart good conscience and faith unfeigned Now of those that are alive unto God in the awaken'd principles and renewed life of the first Covenant by repentance from dead works and faith in God the Redeemer and saviour of all men and this by the voice of Christ through the hearing of the outward and written word there are severall sorts the cheif of which only we shall mention 1. Those who are diligent hearers willing and zealous obeyers of what they learn receave and drink in from the holy Scriptures which they are convinced is the mind and will of God written for their direction and instruction in righteousnes either by their owne private reading or by the outward ministry thereof Upon this they make their boast of God and of the chang wrought in their hearts through repentance and faith of their walking with God in the purity of his worship and towards their neighbour righteously according to the commandment delivered unto them Hereby they do indeed come to be quickly and deservedly distinguished from the prophane world having the forme of knowledg and of the truth in the law and written word into the mould whereof the whole man is by them endeavour'd to be cast But all this is but of little availe to them that stay here and rest in the letter of the Scriptures which are not he but testify of him that is come himself in his owne personal appearance God manifested in flesh And he afterwards died and rose againe according to the Scriptures and revealed himself in spirit the better comforter and anointing which teaches all things All this the voice of the Scriptures points at and sends those unto that desire to be made partakers of the life that is eternall But those that hear or obey not this voice do provoke So that though a promise be left unto them of entring into the true rest they fall short of it through unbeleif and pleasing themselvs with a false rest and satisfactiō in this first degree of restoration-work and lively change which is and may be wrought by the ministry of the outward word to the bringing of men into a mutable state of righteousnes which they are upon all occasions in danger of losing and falling from how sure soever they esteem themselvs to be 2. A second sort of hearers there are obeyers of the holy commandment delivered unto them not only by the testimony and preaching of the written word but by the knowledg of the Son himself Christ in spirit which is a degree farther then the first goe who manifests himself to them in a likenes and glory that is bread and sutable food to give life to the world or to man in his first nature Such practicall knowledge and sight of Christ is able to heal and restore man from the leprosy of sin causing him to escape the pollutions of the world and to be washed from his old sins Concerning such is it said that it is impossible for them having bin thus enlightn'd having tasted the heavenly gift bin made partakers of the holy Ghost or Christ in spirit and tasted the good word of God and Powers of the world to come so far as the natural man can be heightned and rais'd to the capacity of on this side true Regeneration if or when they fall away to renew them againe unto repentance The reason is because they do eminently crucify the Son of God afresh in themselvs and put him to open shame yea they trample him under foot accounting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace These before their personal fall or apostasy are not properly under the spirit of bondage as meer servants but are rather children of that kingdom out of which they may be cast who strivingly may seek to enter in at the streight gate after an undue manner and so shall not be able to enter When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and they standing without knock at the door desiring admission and alledging for themselvs that they have eaten and drunk in Christs presence and that he hath taught in their streets his answer to them wil be I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity to the place where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth You shall se Abraham Isaac Jacob and all my true prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselvs that have in one sence bin the children of the kingdom thrust out Luk. 13 24 28. Mat. 7 21 23. and Math. 8 12. These are branches in Christ the true vine and good olive tree partaking of his sap and fatnes for a season But
in the Sacramentall signes of his death on which he appoints them to feed as so manifesting him unto them till he himself come in his owne personall appearance in spirit to shew them the same mystery in the substance it self or originall patern Of the above-mention'd sorts of beleevers partaking of the light and life of Christs first appearance from the voice and testimony of the scriptures together with the sacramentall signes of his death instituted by commandment from God in his written word does the visible Christian church consist that hold themselvs to the rule of the Scriptures for their guide and are faithfully obedient in putting into practice what is therein revealed Amongst these there alwayes is as we have shewed a select number of hidden and beloved ones kept through the power of faith unto salvation without whom the rest would be as Sodom and Gomorrah And for the sake of this small remnant that truly and properly are Gods heritage out of all the rest as the new wine in the cluster it is that the Lord sayes destroy it not for there is a blessing in it These are they that being in and under the law of the Scriptures the teaching of Gods outward and written word shal be judged by this law as to the things they are found failing in and as to their comming short of the end set before them in this ministry Now the end of it is to bring them by faith to the sight and fellowship of Christ himself speaking in spirit as he is the word of the beginning and gives forth the light of the glory of God in his owne face with which he shines in the hearts of his people This comes to passe when once it pleases the father to reveal his Son in us setting him as a living patern before the eyes of our faith that in unity and similitude of spirit with that wherein the works are done by him in himself we may fulfill the law of God after him and be brought to live and dwell together in the same love which hath its season of dawning in the heart as the true day-star to prepare the soule to meet with Christ in the glory of his secōd appearāce Concerning these is it said Rom 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit When they have begun in the spirit they do end there also and draw not back to be perfected in the flesh As they live in the spirit so their care and practice is to walk in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh Their praise is of God not of men They lose the prayse and honour of men because they seek both of them from God only They are strangers and pilgrims with him on the earth as all their fathers were They sojourne in tents in the outward land of Canaan the streets of the visible church and various self-chosen wayes of visible worship which Christians of different judgments walk in These invisible saints have their eye set upon the heavenly countrey and building that hath foundations which is the workmanship wrought in God the engraffed WORD and by him is held forth to the eye of that faith that is the evidence of things unseen and is able to espy for us this land of promise in the spirit whilst it is yet at a great distance and very far off There is evidently set before this eye of our faith the crucified spirit of Christ as he offered up himself in sacrifice to the will of the father learning obedience by the things that he suffered in denying his owne will that we may tread in the same steps dying with him that we may live with him and suffring with him that we may reign with him Through such fellowship with him in his suffrings and conformity with him in his death we shall be found still advancing and pressing forwards if by any means we may attein the resurrection of the dead or that redemption of the body which is atteinable in this life by those that diligently presse after the mark for the prize of their high calling which is in Christ Jesus This resurrection and redemption of the body will be experimented upon the rising of the witnesses and then better understood In the mean time the eagle-eyed beleever lives upon the dead carkasse of Christ crucified seen so in spirit And he is content as a mēber of his dead body to be made the scorne and off-scouring of the world a member of the forsaken Zion that dwells in the feild in a wildernes-state solitary and alone that no man regards because his dwelling is in the dust in expectation of rising together with Christs dead body Untill that season this sort of beleevers in stead of being found within the pale of the visible church do follow Gods invitation of them into the secret chambers of his presence and do dwell in his house a building not made with hands in the person and spirit of Christ where they behold his beauty shutting the doors about them as to any visible entercourse with the worldly Church Thus they hide thēselvs as it were for the little moment that his indignation is to last and be exercised on thē by the power and during the reigne of the Beast Blessed are those that thus die in the Lord though by the world called and accounted phanatick waiting for the brightnes of his second comming He that hath ears to hear let him hear To shut up thē and close the ministry of the day of Christs first appearance as after this manner the Redeemer hath bin lifted up in it and the work of common and temporary as well as of peculiar and eternall Redēption hath bin wrought by him and made manifest to all sorts of men and of beleevers in the world we shall now come in the next place to a distinct consideration of the fourth and last generall head of enquiry above mentioned in this discourse which is concerning the very being life and constitution of the new creature or that immutable state in righteousnes and glory that begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second 4. The fourth generall enquiry then is about the immutable state of life and righteousnes in the new creatures constitution or that change which is brought upon man by the new creation The new creatures life is founded as hath bin shewed in the birth of the fathers love in the soule Of this love are they born who are by Christ the immortall seed layd hold on cleaved unto and apprehended in that intimate and inseperable marriage-union in spirit which is never to be dissolved in the Covenant ordered in all things and sure that is contracted in his person between the father and the Son through the holy Ghost Where ever this union is there is Gods love there is Christ inseperably united to that soule
for good And although this kind of life and union do lie hid and concealed as it may for a long time asleep in the vessell of the mind as Christ was in the ship when it was in danger to sink with the waves yet by it is the soule Kept and seperated to the Lord as Paul was from the womb notwithstanding which he walked as a Pharise nay as a persecutour of the true church till this seed of Gods love revealed itself in him This is the first degree of the new creatures hidden and concealed state and this foundation of God is sure for he knows who are sealed with this his living seal from the womb though neither as yet themselvs know it or any other but only the Father and the Son The second degree of new creature life arising from the immortall seed of Gods love sealed as yet and concealed in the heart of the beleever is as it yet lies undermost and at botome suffring Esau the elder brother to come out first into view It gives way to the restoration-work which puffs up the flesh in making the spirit of the naturall man full and rich in his first abilities of pure nature and exercise of his freewill Such a saint girds himself as peter had done when he went whithersoever he would He wil be a very active couragious follower of Christ whilst he works miracles and all the world runs after him yea he will promise faire also to goe even to prison and death with him but in the hour and power of darknes the faith he acts upon this bottome and all his other graces faile and abide not the triall unlesse the seed which lies undermost appear and shew forth its preserving overcomming and never failing power In this 3d state or degree of new creature life we are with the Corinthiaus such as are carnall and babes in Christ but cannot properly be addressed unto as spirituall Christians We are ready in this state with good Samuel to say of Eliab the elder brother surely the Lords anointed is before us in the restoration-work wrought by the spirit of Christ in our soules We are little aware that the true David the man after goes owne heart the inward man which feeds upon that which is not corruptible lies hid and is not yet seen as he is but under a veyle only and as through the lattesse In these true saving faith is but weak and low not knowne rightly to themselvs but upon grounds that may and will fail them A third state or degree of this new birth and new creature life is when upon being found triall-proof the love of God comes to spread itself abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost when the seed which is at the bottome and lies undermost works and removes out of the way him that lets every impediment and weight that presses downe It comes now to circumcise the foreskin of the flesh which is the cover and veile under which it hath layn so long hid bringing under and laying low the fleshly man in us teaching him subjection and shewing him that law by which the elder is to serve the yonger and come behind but no longer to lead the way or be preferred before him For the naturall man to come under this discipline is the great crosse which is so fiery and dreadfull to flesh and blood the cup which if it were possible every one would avoyd But 't is by this means that the naturall man is made subject and becomes a meet vessell for the use of his Lord. And now when we are thus in weaknes according to the flesh most low broken and crucified then are we strongest after the spirit and the work of faith springing up with vigour is fulfilled in us with power so comes it to be cleerly seen to ourselvs though yet very much hid as to others When it hath once rooted and grounded the inward man in this love it will diffuse the good ointment to the very shirts of the garment and cloath the beleever with change of raiment that as the soule is made all glorious within the outward man may be glorified also and Christ not only admired in the heart but glorified in and by the mouth of the same beleever which is the fourth degree of new creature life This fourth and last degree of the perfecting of the love of God in us is reserved to the day of Christs second appearance called also the day of the manifestation of the sons of God which we shall now in the next place enquire into and apply ourselvs to search after according to such discovery thereof as God hath bin pleased to make knowne By way of preparation to this enquiry let us take notice of what we find described and foretold of it by the Prophet Hosea chap. 6. v. 2 3. After two dayes he will revive us that is in the end of the second day In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Life from the dead and immortality shall be brought to light in us The day of Christs Kingdom in the spirit considered as the going forth of it is prepared as the morning which encreases more and more to a perfect day distinguishes itself into two distinct seasons It comes upon us and to us as the raine as the former and the latter rain upon the earth In the former it is a Kingdom of patience in the latter a kingdom of power The Kingdom of Christ in spirit is that stone which whosoever falls upon shal be broken to peices or they shall split and break themselvs in peeces that fal upon it whilst it is yet but the Kingdom of his patience in himself or his suffering servants who amidst all their sufferings in the flesh do remain in spirit true members of the Kingdom of the stone lively stones of Christs spirituall building abiding firme and unmoveable under all trialls of persecutiō and opposition But on whomsoever this stone or Kingdom of Christ shall fall in the day of its power when it becoms a mountain filling the whole earth it shall grind them to powder It will make them as the chaffe of the summer threshing floore which the wind of Gods just anger will so carry away that no place wil be found for them The beginning of the third day mention'd Hos 6. seems cleerly to be about the time of Christs ascension and day of Pentecost when the former rain of the spirit came downe or some few years after at the final ruin of Jerusalem and the jewish Kingdom To know the certain period of the second day and beginning of the third will much conduce to the better forming of our judgments as to the seasons of this Kingdom that are yet to come We may hereby also gain some sight into the two dayes that are past and the distinguished parts of time that the holy Ghost does intend and signify to us by those two former dayes By the
second of them it seemes very evident that the day of Abrahams naturall seed continuing a nation and visible church owned by God as a peculiar people above all others is certainly intended Yea in some respect we may carry up this day of Abrahams naturall seed as high as shem the blessed Son of Noah in whose loyns and under whose blessing Abrahams seed are comprehended Gen. 9 26.27 Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. and Canaan shal be his servant The true and right iew is here distinguished from all the wicked hardned world 2dly T is said God shall en large or perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem or in the same spirit of faith and thereby become a fellow citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God But if this be not admitted the date of the beginning of this day cannot be denied according to Stevens computation Act. 7.8 to have bin at least when God gave to Abraham the Covenant of circumcision And so Abraham begate Isaac and circumcis'd him the eight day And Isaac begate Jacob and Jacob begate the twelve Patriarchs that were the originall heads of the twelve tribes the Israelits to whom perteined the adoption the glory the Covenants the service of God and the promises whose are the fathers even from the beginning of the new world after the flood and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen By his comming he gave a revivall to Gods work in the midst of its dayes Hab. 3. or in the end of the second day and by his death ended also that whole dispensation of the circumcision relating to the naturall seed of Abraham and the Mosaicall ministry The second day being thus found in its beginning as well as ending it will not at all be difficult from the beginning of that especially if considered as from the time of Noahs bestowing the blessing upon Sem to fill up the space of time of which the first day consists And therein shall we find the continuance of another line wherein God declared himself for the propagating and carrying on of the holy seed of the church For after the death of Abel that was murdered by his brother Cain Adam knew his wife againe and she bare a son and called his name Seth for God appointed him as another seed in stead of Abel whom Cain slew Gen. 4 25. This holy seed from Seth downwards in way of distinction from the rest of the world passed under the name of the Sons of God calling themselvs by the name of the Lord and continuing so to do as we find Gen. 6. till the flood came and drowned the old corrupted apostate world This reduced the holy seed to a new root and spring in the person of Noah an heir of the righteousnes which is by faith Hereof he gave the proof in preparing an ark at Gods command to the saving of his house thereby condemning the world that slighted and rejected that way of being saved These are the two dayes in the end of the second whereof we have bin revived by the comming of Christ in the flesh dying for our sins and rising againe according to the Scriptures It remains now therefore to search out if we can what is the tract of time meant by the third day which is the day of the continuation of Abrahams seed as they are Christs And he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one He that begets and they that are begottē are the one seed that are the Sons of Gods absolute and unchangable choice and love They are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man no not of the Son of man himself as standing in his owne will or exercising his owne humane freedom single but of God or of the Son of man as he and the father are one having as it were but one will betweene them Of this holy and good will they are begotten being taken out of their owne wills and made to stand and live in the will of the Son of God as his resigned humane will lives intirely in the will of his father So come they to be one with him as he is one with the father This seed are those that are of Abrahams faith being of the same spirit and walking in the steps of that typicall father and of Christ himself their father in spirit and Truth These are the true heirs according to the promise and are called to inherit the blessing of Abraham in the actuall receiving of the promise of the spirit through faith the adoption of Sons which makes them like David a people after Christs owne heart For the forming and bringing of them to this God sends forth the spirit of his Son or his Son in spirit into their hearts by which thy cry Abba father Thus Christ comes to dwell in them and with them purifying them in spirit as he is pure to a like-mindednes in all things with himself This spirituall seed who are Christs as the children of his Kingdom the day whereof in spirit begins with his ascension are said Col. 3. to be risen with Christ in the affection and desire of their minds which is set upon things above This renders them dead to things below the seen things which are temporary and perishing causing them by the eye of faith to espy out for themselvs a life and to find an ability to worke the righteousnes that is immutable However hidden weak and low this life and ability may be in the motion and activity thereof for a season 't is that that will never faile as to the effecting in them a conformity to Christs death and arming them to suffer in the flesh and to continue with Christ the season appointed for his temptations and sufferings in the whole body of his true members and followers as well as in himself It prepares them to be his true witnesses in a sackcloth testimony a state of patience and persecution from the world as wel as afterwards to be the witnesses of his power and great glory when he shall come to be glorified in his Saincts and admired in all those that do beleeve During the suffering season they are patiently to undergoe all approving themselvs first to be faithfull witnesses under this baptisme of the crosse as they desire to be found afterwards in the number of the two sorts of his obedient children that are to reigne with him first such as are chosen out of the world into the common rank of sons secondly such as are chosen out of that choice to be freinds and speciall favourites They are both of them appointed and prepared by the father to sit on thrones with Christ the one at his right hand and the other at his left when he shall come forth in his power and great glory as may seem in some sort to have bin perceaved by the mother of Zebedees children in
her untimely and over-forward request on their behalf Mat 20 20 22. She seemed desirous to have them in the throne before they had drunk of the cup and bin made partakers of the great tribulations wherein they were to abide with Christ and all other beleevers in them represented This suffring season is to hold till the time of the Gentils shal be fulfilled for the treading downe and trampling under foot by the space of 42. months the holy city and tabernacle of David that hath bin reared up amongst them by the Apostles ministry after it was fallen amongst the jews Act 15. v. 16 17. When it was fallen amongst the jews it came to be set up in the midst of the Gentiles a nation that for a season did very affectionately bring forth the fruits of the gospel Thus the residue of men those that were not regarded till the jewish nation was rejected and broken off from the good olive tree were brought to seek after the Lord even all the gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who doth all these things This is the first act and effect of Christs resurrection or of that day in the spirit upon the hearts and minds of the children of this his Kingdom which is preparing them by the trialls allotted to them in the keeping the word of his patience to sit with him on his throne and shine forth in the day of his power not only as bright morning stars but as the sun itself in its strength in the Kingdom of their father The beginning of the whole day of Christs Kingdom wherein he will have the word of his patience kept in faith and faithfull witness-bearing was without all question from the time of his Ascension according as it is written Act. 1.8 Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth To like effect spake Ananias to Paul upon his conversion Act 22 14 15. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and se that just one and shouldst hear the voice of his mouth that thou mayst be a witnesse unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard And although there be something in this conversion of Paul which is extraordinary as to his unction and mission into the ministry and office of Apostleship yet this description of the Apostles conversion hath that in it as to the essentiall parts of it which is common to all the spirituall seed of Abraham For first they are all chosen to know the will of God secondly to know it by the sight of the just one Christ in spirit through faith thirdly to heare the voyce and understand the language of the spirit of Christs mouth by the eare that is given them to hear what Christ in spirit saith to the churches or to particular members of his body fourthly to be witnesses according to their measure and degree of light in their stations and callings of what they have seen and heard In this sence the whole spirituall seed of Abraham are Christs witnesses specially since his ascension from which time he began to be seen by them in spirit and to speak to them from heaven by his indwelling presence in their hearts through faith True beleevers as hath bin opened are of two sorts or degrees Both of them are free-born sons and citizens of the same heavenly Jerusalem and holy city Christ calls them his two witnesses and declares the sackcloth testimony of his name which they are to bear during the treading down of them the holy city underfoot even by the gentiles of the outward court for the space of 42 months But although that these two witnesses were in being and also engaged in the work of witnessing what they had seen and heard according to Christs commission immediatly after the comming down of the holy Ghost upon them at the day of Pentecost not only in Jerusalem and Samaria but also to the ends of the earth yet the time of the treading them underfoot by the gentiles of the outward court did not begin till some hundreds of years after nor by the same reason could their sackcloth testimony begin which had relation to that treading downe and must needs therefore be contemporary with it When once this began it was to continue but 42 months or 1260. years from the very same time as that power that was to tread them downe came to have its beginning as authorized or permitted to make war with them and bring them under To the Beast which all the world wonder'd after and fear'd to make war with was power given to continue 42 months that he might make war with the saincts and overcome them Rev. 13.7 Who or what this beast is was long agoe made knowne to Daniel and by him foretold and described ch 7 23 24. It is said to be the fourth beast signifying the fourth Kingdom or universal oppressing power that should be on the earth over the saints of God and that should come in processe of time to stand up in a diversity from all the other three Kingdoms or universall monarchies that had gone before it This considerable variation did come to passe and shew itself in a horn of remarque and note by itself that upheld the same oppressing power and principles against the saints of the most high for the treading downe of the holy city that the other three had don before but under a new forme or name of Christian which they had never owned On the account of this name or outward profession of Christianity which the fourth beast came to make in the course of the little horne he plucks up by the roots the worship and many prophane customs that had bin cleaved to owned and practised during the reigne of meer down-right heathenisme all the time of the three former Kingdoms Babylonish Persian Grecian as also a great part of the Romane till this fourth Kingdom or universal monarchy came to be headed with the little horne under the style of universall Bishop or cheif preist when the Romane empire that had bin heathenish came to divide and sinke downe into ten horns or Kingdoms all agreeing yet in this to give up their power to the little horne in acknowledging the papacy and universal Rule over them in spiritualls by the Bishop of Rome These ten Kings with their civil power thus uniting under one head as to spiritualls do together with their head constitute that course and state of the fourth monarchy under which it is called the little horne Now when the time of this combination began is somewhat difficult to say exactly and to a year But if the beginning of this little horne be once rightly found out and stated it will not be difficult to say when it shall end or when the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth shal end which must be at the same time For the 42 months of this little hornes continuance in
the temple itself or in the most in ward and most holy part of it called the Holy of Holies Having thus distinguished between that which in Scripture is called the common faith or common salvation in these its two differing effects and fruits producing in some a birth of life and grace which is immutable and cannot fayle or be fallen from and in others a birth of repentance and faith that is changable may be repēted of shipwrack'd and miscarry it remains for us to proceed in describing and declaring the second and higher degree that is atteinable in that faith which was once delivered to the Saincts called by Jude our most holy faith He seemes thereby to intimate that by the knowledg of Jesus Christ and ministry of the Gospel faith may be wrought and begotten in the heart according to a threefold degree wherein righteousnes and true holines is revealed from faith to faith from faith of the lowest ranke which is that that failes to that of the second ranke which failes not but makes us conquerours and from thence to that of the highest ranke which gives us power with God to prevaile in all things we desire beyond all we can aske or think making us more then conquerours and with Abraham to be called the friends of God The first is holy the second is more holy the third is our most holy faith The most holy faith is that which Ephes 3.16 is said to be granted or given of the riches of Gods glory wherein he hath an inheritance in his saincts chap. 1.18 and through which he does put forth the exceeding greatnes of his power towards us that beleeve according to what he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his owne right hand in the heavenly far above all principality power might and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come So then according to the power of this exceeding mighty operation of God in that gift of Christs Spirit wherein he grants to some Saincts to beare a more peculiar likenes to him the beleever becomes so exceedingly strengthned with might in the inner man so rooted and grounded in love that he is not only made able to comprehend with all Saints that are sons after the common faith what is the length breadth depth and height of the knowledg and love of God that shines forth in Christ as he is the Son of man made head of all Principalities and Powers which is the highest image of God short of the fathers naked similitude in his owne proper shape and forme but he is over and above all this enabled to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledg and to behold God in that glory of his that shines forth in the face of the blessed Trinity wherein he hath bin delighting himself in and with the eternall WORD from before the foundation of the world Into this glory Christ in his manhood as our fore-runner is entered even within the most inward veyle This was the forme of God wherein Christ was found before he assumed his manhood and he reteins his manhood both in an inferiority to it and in an equality with it by reason whereof Christ as man without robbery is accounted equall with God In this state of glory he is the bridegroome to this most excellent sort of beleevers who therefore dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations but are a peculiar nation of Gods jewells and choice treasure a Kingdom of preists his heritage and immediate possession that as the Tribe of Levi are made to approach neer unto him in stead of all the first born sons of Israel These are the 144000 described Revel 14. to be such as have their fathers name written in their foreheads and that are not defiled with women but are virgins which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and are redeemed from among men as the first fruits to God and to the lamb the pure undefiled bride and spouse of the lamb that is the only one of her mother These are farther described Revel 7. as those that are the chosen out of every Tribe of the chosen seed of God by a small certain number of 144000 a royall preisthood selected and taken out of all the Tribes These being thus first selected out how are the remaining parts in and of every Tribe considered Are they looked upon by God as the world as a people left to themselvs No by no means but also as Gods chosen people in relation to the rest of the world They are his sons according to the common faith making up the gentile fulnes as the other doe the Iews And accordingly in their gentile fulnes or rather as surrogated Iews Rom. 11. have the sutable characters given to them For sayes the Apostle Iohn after this I beheld and so a great multitude which no man could number of all nations people kindreds and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands representing their victorious faith in and under the great tribulations they had and were to passe through in participation with Christ in his sufferings for the testimony of Iesus during the reigne of the Beast Amōgst these he that sits on the throne shall dwell for ever And they will neither hunger nor thirst any more nor shall the sun light on them nor any heat for the lamb will feed them and lead them into living fountains of waters in the state of the first Resurrection where all tears shal be wiped away from their eyes Those then whose hearts are purified by this faith in either of these two degrees of it as it is our precious or our most precious faith that which brings us into the common state of salvation with the gentiles that is durable and everlasting or that which brings us yet farther into the peculiar priviledg of the Jews and first born Sons or God are the people that properly are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise And their day of manifestatiō hastens apace They have bin hitherto even from the beginning of the world to this day a seed of hiddē invisible ones that in all changes of times remaine the pure invisible church And they have all along bin kept undefiled having that birth of God in them which preservs them that sin does not adulterate their hearts or alienate them from God neither can the evill one touch them Thus was it with the seven thousand concealed pure and spirituall worshippers that God had reserved in a time of universall apostacy and corruption in his visible worship in Eliah's time which never did nor would bow their knee to Baal In reference to this seed in all ages is verified that which is spoken by the Prophet Esay chap. 1.9 Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left unto us that are the visible church and have the visible signes of Gods presence and
of sons of a higher and lower dignity of this man and of that man that is borne there whether of noble or common degree all free heaven-born citizens and subjects of one and the same great and universall King They shall dwell in perfect unity together and be of one accord as brethren singing the song of Moses and of the lambe in sweet harmony and consort and the stranger and the uncleane shall no more passe through this glorious city For there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that does defile nor that worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they only which are written with the writing that is upon both those stickes before-mentioned in the lambs both of life This is the church and civill state which the ministry of Eliah is to prepare the way unto as the end to which all the work of restitution which thereby shal be wrought does and must tend This will be effected by the powerfull preaching of the everlasting gospel by a ministry that shall have the tongues not of men only but of angels filled with the inspiration of the holy Ghost as also yeilding vengeance and flames of fire as a day of great judgment and distinction that is to be brought and executed upon ungodly men and willfull opposers of that work by the pouring out upon them the seven vialls of Gods wrath like as Moses his ministry did upon Pharaoh King of Egypt so long as he hardned himself and refused to let Israel his son and his first born goe free and serve him according to his duty By Eliahs second comming then according to the particulars before declared together with the end itself in order to which this ministry of restoring all things is appointed we are to understand no other then the spirit and power wherein the slaine witnesses of Christ shal be quickned made to stand upon their feet and have withall an ascent given to them into heaven as visible associates and copartners with the holy angels in their power and great glory like bright morning starrs and signes of the comming of the son of man even whilst they are yet remaining in the body on this side death This second comming of Eliah therefore is not to be confounded with Christs owne personall comming which succeeds and comes to give us actually and compleatly a part in that which Rev. 20. is called the first resurrection The change effected by Eliah's comming will rather be a transfiguration then what properly can be called the first resurrection by which our bodies wil be made like unto that glorious body of Christ in which he lived on earth fourty dayes before his ascension and in which power and glory he is to shine forth like the sun in his strength as the brightnes of the day of his second comming encreases and rises up to its height For the ushering in hereof this signe in heaven of the son of mans comming is to go before which as hath bin said is no other then the spirit and power which the slain witnesses or the dried dispersed bones and members of Christs dead body his hidden invisible seed of beleevers his church at that time on the earth shal be quickned and raised up into as a heaven upon earth in the sight of the whole world The wise or teachers that then shal be among them shall shine as the brightnes of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnes as the stars for evermore By the power of that faith which brings life and immortality to light in the minds of those that are true Israelits indeed inhabitants of the new and heavenly Jerusalem that is above we have declared that Abraham in type and Christ in spirit and truth is the father unto two sorts of Sons that are both heirs and witnesses of what they se and heare from Christ They are both written among the living in Jerusalem with a writing that is never to be defaced or blotted out Some of them are made conquerours and others of them more then conquerours through Christ that hath loved them and caused them to abide and continue with him in his temptations and to beare a conformity in their minds to his death armed with the same mind as he was for suffering in the flesh as well as carrying about in their bodies the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus They have heard and receaved that language of faith in them and to them with which Paul acquaints us Tim. 2.2 11 12. If we be dead with him we shall live with him if we suffer we shall also reigne with him Unto this carkasse or dead body the eagles the fowles of heaven by a ministry of the spirit of life from God wil be gathered together And as a breath from the foure winds of heaven a wind of prophesy and divine inspiration in the spirit and power of Eliah shall come forth and shew itself in these slain witnesses where ever they shal be found throughout the whole world and bring them together into one sheepfold of visible government both in church and state In this posture it will be found most true that by fire from heaven and as the Lords owne sword they shall plead with all flesh and the slaine of the Lord shal be many that shall fall under them in attempting to rise up against them For in and by this ministry of Eliah the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirl-wind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire When you shal be awakened to se by the comming of this glorious ministry of God what in this day shal be wrought not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord the seven eyes which run to and fro through the whole earth rejoycing to se his work goe on and taking care that there be sutable dispensations of divine providences to further and advance it whereof the decision to be made in the valley of Iehosaphat will not be the least then your heart shall rejoyce and your bones flourish like an herbe and the hand of the Lord shal be knowne towards his Servants and his indignation towards his enemies Then shall the thoughts and words of the enemies of Gods people in designing against them however hidden and secret even in their very bedchambers be knowne and discovered by this ministry of Eliah and the Mountains full of horses and chariots of fire shal be like walls round about the city of God to defend them And not only the eyes of the Prophet the eyes of the inward man of the Saincts or of the spirit of their mind but the eyes of the Prophets servant also the beast on which he rides the sensual and outward man of the soule in the exercise of the very bodily senses shal be opened to se that there are more with the people of God then can be against them So shall all feare be removed far from them
power and office by the sight givē to them of his star a star that made him known to thē and went before them to conduct them to a sight of him in his owne person which is al that this sort of messengers or preachers of Christ can do Thus the book of the creatures by Gods special Ordination and institution in the way of types ād figures through the ministry of angels does teach and preach the righteousnes of God which is in Christ in order to lead us to the personal sight of him that we may in the end hear himself speak After this manner the righteousnes of God in Christ is and may be manifested without the law or written word Secondly In the same Psalm he mentions another sort of preaching and teaching of the knowledg of Christ and that is out of his law the law of his written word the ministry whereof is for the converting of mens Soules and it is a sure Testimony that makes wise the simple more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then hony and the hony-comb The righteous statutes and judgments of God signified in his written word reioyce the heart and are true and righteous altogether His commandement is pure enlightning the eyes Concerning the law or command of God thus manifested Christ sayes search the Scripturs whose true office is not only to revive and instruct you in that law that was written in your hearts at the creation and lost by the fal but to send you to me also that by obteyning a personal sight of me in spirit you might be farther instructed in the knowledge of me But ye wil not come unto me that ye may have life Thirdly and lastly Ps 8 2 David shews that there is another sort of preachers that God sends as labourers into his harvest saying out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou founded or ordeined strength because of thine enemies and that thou mightest stil the enemy and the avenger These babes and sucklings Christ himself interprets and expounds to us Luke 10.21 first of those his sent ones seventy in number which he immediatly authorized and qualified by commission from himself sending them two by two before his face as his harbingers and forerunners into every city and place whither he himself would come Secondly he expounds it of those babes and children of the fathers begetting to whom he reveals those things which he had hid from the wise and prudent One of these babes Peter is acknowledged by Christ to be Mat. 16.17 when he called him the rock Christ hereupon owned him as one of the blessed seed who had that sight and knowledg of Christ in spirit given to him which none but the father could reveale Flesh and blood could neither give nor receave it For such knowledg of Christ requires a spiritual eyesight and discerning peculiar to these children and babes of the fathers owne begetting the plantation of his owne right hand of whom Christ sayes Mat. 13.16 17. Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear Verily I say unto you many prophets and righteous men have desired to se those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them For all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son wil reveal him This sight of the Father and Son in their mutual relations to and fruitions of each other gained by the personal sight of Christ in spirit is mentiond by Paul 1 Cor. 9.1 when he says Am not I an Apostle have not I seen Christ or am not I one of those that by the sight of Christ in spirit and the revelation of the Son in me have receaved grace and Apostleship to the obedience of faith among al nations for his name These are the pure in heart and poor in spirit that are taught after this most excellent manner to se God and have the knowledg of Jesus Christ in order thereby to be made ministers and witnesses as wel of the things at first seē by them as of those also wherein afterwards Christ yet reserus himself farther and more fully to appear unto them These speak the things which they know testify that which they have seē whether their witnesse be receaved or no having themselv first heard the record that God gives of his Son and set to their seal that God is trues This is the threefold cord the lines whereof are streched out over al the world and to the ends of the earth by the quickning power of the living WORD He rideth upon the heaven of heavens of old Loe he sends out his voice in each and in al these his dispensations and that a mighty voice sharper then any two-edged sword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight All things are naked and open to the eyes of this our great saviour and redeemer And as he speaks immediatly by himself by the voice of his owne mouth so does he also send out his voice by his hosts or armies of angels those ministers of his which doe his pleasure and signify his commands to others which they receave as always attending and hearkning to the voice of his word The word therefore as at first it is given in a fore-running and preparatory dispensation to the Sons appearance in his owne person is called Heb. 2.2 the word spoken by angels the command whereof is so stedfast that every transgression and disobedience thereof receaves a just recompence of reward By the Rule and autority of the holy and elect angels exercis'd according to his word and law was God the Mediatour Pleased to put and keep in subjection the whole first creation even man also who in his first and mutable state is the cheif and highest member thereof next under the angels themselvs By means of this angelical ministry and Rule under Christ or in the hand of the Mediatour the righteousnes of God wrought out in the person of the redeemer is made manifest without the law to the gentiles that are without law that is the knowledg of the Scriptures or written word as also by the law to the jews that are in and under the teaching of Gods written oracles and do or may there find the witness and manifestation thereof In and by these it doth appear that Jesus Christ died for our sins and is risen again for our justification By jews in this case we are not only to understand the seed of Abraham according to the flesh but those also among the gentiles who are planted into the same good olive tree Christ on the same tearms of mutability as they
last and most glorious trump of God Christs humanity as head of the elect Angels all principalities and powers being subjected unto him who as he is the Son of man is made the cheif of the aÌ„gels and the prime minister of the WORD of life for food unto them This beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet is that which as hath bin said is the ministry of Eliah and goes before the ministry that shal be immediately exercised by the Son himself in his owne person By Christs revealing himself from heaven the head of angels he employes them as his reapers in the end of the world or in the last times to sever the wicked from among the just and gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend He will send a quickning Spirit of life from his presence that will breath the breath of prophecy into the holy angels those voices that are to be heard in heaveÌ„ saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ These voices wil be heard as it were the voice of a Trumpet talking with the Saincts on earth and calling them up into the same heavenly converse with themselvs causing them immediatly thereupon to be in the spirit beholding the throne that is in heaven and him that sits thereon as the head of those holy and blessed spirits who are all desirous to do him homage and worship refusing to take that to themselvs which is due only to their head and which the saints themselvs on earth would be but too forward to give them as was the case of John Revel 22.8 9. Under this ministry and dispensation the church and every particular member thereof do become the children that are all taught of God inwardly by this heavenly breath or angelical inspiration For this qualifies and enables them by the sight of the just one to know the mind and will of God and to do and fulfill it after Christ as they se he hath done it before them with a heart and spirit like unto his as he is the son of man And as so considered he is head of the holy angels by them speaking to and inspiring the church on earth He is also the head of that church in God the father that is above the angels so as unto principalities and powers the very elect angels by the church in this sence even the generall assembly of the first borne whose names are written in heaven the manifold wisdom of God shal be made knowne By these divine men who are the bride the lambs wife he will shew himself speaking and inspiring the good angels in heaven to all eternity and judging the evill and wicked ones into the flames of eternall fire The first of these attainments is that wherein the lower and common ranke of beleevers called in scripture the fulnes of the gentiles compared with the true Jews Gods first borne sons are gathered into society with the holy angels into a copartnership with them in an immutability of righteousnes and glory and so into Christ their head as into their proper element and sphere in which they are raysed up to live in his sight and to eat and drink with him at his table in his fathers Kingdom to all eternity Over these the second death never hath power And this is called the first resurrection which the other sort of beleevers those that are the fulnes of the Jews do enjoy in common with them during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth And after that they have a farther ascent into the life and glory of the second resurrection which is not to be revealed in the power of it untill Christ have resigned up the Kingdom unto his father that God may be all in all But during the thousand years reigne of Christ on earth both these houses of Israel shal be gathered as sheep under one head and shepheard into one sheepfold and shine forth only in the life and glory of the first resurrection witnessing to the headship of Christ which he exerciseth over the angels and by them over the very church itself whilst the Kingdom of the son is unresigned by him into the hands of the father The life and glory of both these resurrections whether as they respect the mind or body of the true saincts and children of God or both is that immortality which is brought to light by Jesus Christ the life from the dead which will shew itself in the times appointed thereunto and translate us at length into eternity where time shal be no more And we are begotten even while here in our mortall bodies through fellowship with Christ in his resurrection unto a lively hope of this inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fades not away ready to be revealed in these last times Untill then it is in faith only and the seed of it does beget and produce the two sorts of beleevers so frequently mentioned who now by this ministry of Eliah are beginning to be made manifest and shal be distinguished as the true Israel of God from all strangers and deceitfull workers whatsoever that either love or make a lie The first of these are in their principles said to be of the common faith and to have â—â—teined the common salvation Thus Paul writes to Titus as his son after the common faith Tit. 1 4. And Jude v. 3. sayes I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation to the fulfilling of the scripture Rom. 4 17. Gen. 17.5 speaking of Abraham I have made thee the father of many nations as wel as of one nation peculiar above and besides all the rest For so Abrahams seed was to be a seed made up of many nations and a seed of one more peculiarly beloved nation also that were to be seperated to him to dwell by themselvs and not be reckon'd amongst the nations that are the fulnes of the Gentiles Abraham is but the typicall father Christ is the father in spirit and truth to this twofold seed In Gen. 13. and 15. chapters God promised Abraham to make of him a great people numberlesse as the dust of the earth or the stars of heaven which he makes good in the fulnes of the true Jews But chap. 17.5 he gives an additional seed also which he there promises him besides what he promised before saying behold my Covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a high father of a multitude of nations Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram that is high father but Abraham high father of multitudes Hence is it that in Gods everlasting Covenant there comes to be found salvation for a multitude of nations common as it were to all mankind if the fault be not in themselvs and not salvation only for one great nation the Israel that is Gods first borne God hath therefore an everlasting love and salvation which comparatively spoken of is that which is common and extensive to a numberlesse