ordinances as the Apostle saith in Colossians the 2. d and the 20.th and in Galathians the 4.th he saith to them But now after ye have known God or rather are known of God how turne yee againe to the weak and beggerly elements whereunto ye desire againe to be in bondage As if he should say in that Chapter as long as ye were under that low dispensation of ordinances ye were but as servants under Tutors and Governours but now is the appointed time of the Father come to make you free and therefore he hath sent forth his Spirit of Adoption into your hearts whereby you crie Abba Father and now that you are no more servants but sonnes why doe you not keep you so Why doe you look back upon those worldly elements as if you had a desire to be againe in bondage to them The Apostle in the same Chapter confesseth that his first coming unto them and preaching of the Gospel was through infirmitie of the flesh being then under a low fleshly dispensation and yet they despised him not but received him as if he had been Christ himselfe but now that he comes to preach unto them in a ministration above Ordinances a dispensation of the Spirit by which they should bee made free poore man he is become their enemie as he there complaines But why Paul art thou become their enemy now that not long since wast so great in their books because I endeavour to draw them off from fleshly ordinances and the Elements of the world that by nature are no Gods by preaching unto them the mysterie of godlinesse Christ manifest in the flesh not only Christ which is dead but rather Christ which is risen in us the hope of glory but they are so fast glewed to their formes that they cannot endure sound doctrine and therefore they look upon me as their enemie Thus is Paul lookt upon as an enemy by those that formerly would have pluckt out their eyes and have given them unto him to doe him good because he tells them the truth and came not unto them in the same ministration that he formerly came to them in but in a higher and more spirituall and yet saith Paul sweetly to them in the 19. and 20. verses My little children of whom I travaile againe in birth untill Christ be formed in you I desire to be present with you now and to change my voyce for I stand in doubt of you See now this blessed Apostle after that Christ was formed in him and that he was brought up to live in the third Heaven in Spirit how earnest and desirous is he to have all those that formerly he had society with and had preacht the Gospell through infirmity unto to have the like spirituall injoyment in them and to be brought up to the same perfection and unity of the Spirit with himselfe Now that Paul was made a partaker of the divine naturre he could as well comprehend the Sea in the hollow of his hand as conceale it the divine nature is love God is love and here you might see this nature in Paul for after he knew the onenesse and unity of the Saints with the Father he must make it knowne unto them and yet they keep close to their old formes and will not heare him because they thinke he is faâ—â—er from his first principles and is led away from his former profession with the errours of the wicked thinking it strange that whilst they are in this veile of flesh they should be so translated into the Image of God as to worship him in such a spirituall manner above Ordinances but here was the difference between them and Paul Christ being formed in him and manifested unto him as the substance of all these shadowes he did by what he apprehended of him see the vanity of the one and the glory and excellency of the other comparing spirituall things with his spiricualized understanding and therefore he saith My little children of whom Itravell in birth againe untill Christ be formed in you And know yee not that except Christ be in you yee are Reprobates And in other place Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not entangled againe with the yoke of bondage But as the Jewes thought that Christ spake of the Temple at Jerusalem that Solomon built when he spake of his body and as Nicodemus thought that Christ had spoken of a naturall birth when he spake of a spirituall so did these men unto whom Paul writ comparing spirituall things to their naturall and carnall understandings thinke that he spake of a naturall man when he spake of the spirituall they thought that he had spoken of naturall freedome when indeed he spoke of a spirituall freedome such as he enjoyed when he was in the stocks the enjoyment thereof being then so gladsome so joyous and sweet unto him that it made him sing for joy of heart as God saith in the last of Isaiah but one when he was in bonds he was yet free and so shall all the Saints of God whose lot and portion it is or shall be to be persecuted for the testimony of Christ their head Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed the Father will uphold them with the right hand of his Righteousnesse It is now the weaknesse of many in our dayes to thinke that because they doe not apprehend God in themselves therefore he is not in them and because that they are not able to comprehend the Father that therefore he is not able to comprehend himselfe in them thinking that he dispences himselfe unto his Saints while they are here only by shadowes and not in substance by these outward meanes as they call it hearing and reading and preaching and Bread and Wine and not in Spirit when for my own part I finde it nothing so as I must needs say and if you shall ask me what comfort I had or supportance when I was under those Administrations truly I must needs confesse I then thought that my greatest comfort in this world was in those ordinances whereas I now finde as Jacob said that of a truth it was God within me that supported and conforted me and I knew it not because I did not then apprehend him the appointed time of the Father was not come to make me free and while I was a servant it was not meet that I should know what my Lord did but now blessed for ever be his name I have heard his sweet still voice within me saying Henceforth call I thee no more a servant but my friend the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but all that I have heard of the Father will I declare unto thee It is now my work in thee to dispell those clouds of fleshly lusts that have a long time harboured in thee and been the veile that hath all this time hindred thee from beholding my glory in spirit I am the new Adam the second Adam I
THE DESIGNE OF GOD In the SAINTS OR The Spirit transporting the minde of a Christian from the humane Nature into the divine In the carrying on of which Designe the Saint is a meere passive By George Hassal a member of the Army Zechariah the 4.th verse the 6.th Then he answered and spake unto me saying this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts LONDON Printed in the year 1648. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Know that in the setting forth but of these few lines I shall be brought under the censure of two sorts of men the naturall and spirituall as for the naturall man I look not upon him as a competent Judge here for he knowes not the things of the Spirit neither can he for they are spiritually discerned and therefore how can he judge of those things he is ignorant of yet I am sure I shall not escape his censure however but blessed be the Father he hath taught me how to beare the hard censures reproaches and revilings of such men with patience whil'st I look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things that are seene are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternall But as for the spirituall man he knoweth all things that appertaineth to life and godlinesse The spirit searcheth the deep things of God and revealeth it unto him so that he is a competent Judge Judging all things yet he himselfe is judged of no man and therefore I am sure of his charitable censure because he can tell how to judge spiritually Now Gentle Reader which of these two thou art I doe not know but this I shall desire to certifie thee of that I doe not write this to teach thee of the Father as to say know him for that is the work of the Spirit nor to enlighten thy understanding for the Lord hath prepared a Lamp for his anointed even Iesus Christ the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world but if this may be to thee as an evidence to these truths as already manifested in thee I shall much rejoyce and so I believe thou wilt for from that short yet sweet experience that I have had of the Spirit I finde it to be the nature of the Saints in whom it is to rejoyce in one anothers light as Solomon saith in Proverbs the 13.th verse the 9.th The light of the righteous rejoyceth 〈◊〉 but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out The Saint who is truly spiritualized is as it were overwhelmed with extreme passions of Love Ioy and spirituall delight in beholding the same light in others that is in himselfe wherefore as the Apostle John then bare record of Christ comming in the flesh and being made manifest in the flesh so doe I now bare record of his coming in the Spirit in the flesh of the Saints and manifesting himselfe unto them and that as the flesh of Christ died at Ierusalem and rose againe so doth the flesh of a Saint when Christ comes dye to the old Adam and by the power of the resurrection of Christ live to the new Adam by the renewing of the mind the Saint being once clothed with Christ which is his Righteousnesse Mortality that came by the fall of the first Adam is swallowed up of life which is the second Adam and so Christian Reader this is my earnest desire that we may waite upon God for a further Manifestation of himselfe untill he shall renew our strength then shall wee mount up with wings as Eagles then shall we runne and not be weary we shall walke and not faint Isaiah the 40.31 Thine in the Bwels of love GEORGE HASSALL THE DESIGNE OF GOD IN THE SAINTS OR The Spirit transporting the minde of a Christian from the humane nature into the Divine THat which according to my apprehension of the Spirit of God I perceive to be his designe in every one of those he intends to manifest himselfe unto but are yet in this veile of flesh is to transport them from flesh to Spirit from fleshly Aegypt where they are in bondage to the spirituall Canaan where he will make them free from Babylon in the Mysterie where they are in Captivity unto Jerusalem in the Mysterie where they shall be free Denizens from the beauty and excellency of a fleshly creature to the beauty and excellency of the spirituall Creator from all worldly glory and honour whatsoever to that heavenly honour and glorious priviledge to be the sonnes of God and Coheires with Christ In whose presence is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore from the power of darkness unto his marvellous light from all outward or imaginary worships formes and carnall Ordinances to worship him who is the true God only in Spirit and truth in a word it is to transport the mind of a Christian or rather the mind which is the Christian when spiritualized from the humane nature of flesh to the divine nature of Spirit as Paul saith Though we have knowne Christ in the flesh yeet henceforth know we him so no more but in Spirit And so the Saint will say when he is got once to live with Christ in Spirit I knew Christ as I thought once in those fleshly dispensations or outward meanes as some call them but henceforth I shall desire to know him no more so but in Spirit as I doe The Saint being baptized with that one Baptisme not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ Peter the first the third and the 21. knowes Christ to be in him that heavenly Manna the bread of life and to be in him a Vine yielding fruit and to be in him a well of water springing up unto eternall life Paul saith that in the ministration of bread and wine they did but hold forth the Lords death till he came And when Christ which was the substance was come then the shadow was to be done away they were not to retaine the shadow with the substance and therefore sayes the Apostle Paul in Colossians the 2. d and the 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drinke or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbath dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ When a man is new borne of the Spirit he is then a new bottle a vessell of honour fit for his masters use Now saith Christ Men doe not put old wine into new bottles but new wine into new bottles and both are preserved New spirituall wine is most fit for that Saint that is new spiritualiz'd Wherefore if he be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world should he be subject to
will sit in thee as a refiners fire as fullers sope I will take away all thy drosse and tin Loe I create a new heaven and a new earth in thee and the first heaven and the first earth shall passe away The first Adam with all his glory and splendor which hath hitherto been thy heaven it shall vanish away and the second Adam which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse must take place and in that new heaven and new earth that I create in thee there shall dwell Righteousnesse It is I friend that am that righteousnesse that will dwell in thee and make mine abode with thee nay I will sup with thee and thou shalt sup with me and I will impart of the divine nature unto thee As the Father hath given to me of the Spirit freely so will I give unto thee and thou shalt partake thereof thou shalt see thy selfe to live in and by me thou shalt see thy selfe to have thy being and spirituall subsistence in me I am that bread of life and that water of life our of thy belly shall flow rivers of living water I will destroy in thee every evill thought and high imagination that exalteth in selfe against me for now is the judgement of this world in thee now shall the Prince of this world be cast out sinne shall have no more dominion over thee for I will so manifest my selfe unto thee that thou shalt no more lust after nor be in love with any thing below me as thou shalt apprehend me in Spirit all thy legall Righteousnesse shall appeare to thee but as a menstruous rag and therefore wait thou upon me untill I accomplish this my work in thee for in the doing of it thou shalt be a meere passive but when it is finisht that I have once translated thee into my Image the shalt thou bring forth fruit suitable to the stock you are graffed into yea thou shalt be so clothed with fine linnen clean and white that thou shalt not in the least be found naked Mortality shall be swallowed up of life and thou shalt give thanks unto him who hath given thee the victory through thy Lord Jesus Christ And as it is my meat and drinke to doe the will of my father so shall it be thine for I will transport thy minde thy heart and affections from all earthly things whatsoever though it have appeared unto thee formerly never so glorious unto heavenly divine and spirituall things that shall never vanish away it shall be more glorious yea more sweet unto thy taste then the hony or the hony combe it shall be more precious unto thee then the gold of Ophir Blessed be the Lord I finde that he hath already in some measure so taken me up above fleshly and carnall things that I only wait upon him for a further and fuller manifestation of himself in me according to his promise for I know that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slacknesse I know that his coming draweth nigh he that shall come will come and will not tarry and though that in outward ordinances I was once busie and active yet I finde that in the inward and spirituall workings within me I was then yea and am still a meere passive and therefore according to my apprehension we must know that in the transportation of a Christian out of the humane nature into the divine he is a meere passive and not active at all untill he partake of the divine nature and then as it is the divine nature of the Spirit to be active in searching the deep things of God and declaring it to him so is it a divine nature in the Spirit likewise to make the minde active in spirituall things and in declaring unto others what God hath manifested of himselfe in him That as the Father is so is he in this present world the 1. of John the 4.th and the 17.th but this we are not able to apprehend whilst we are in the body being absent from the Lord or whilst we are in low fleshly dispensations being absent from the spiritual which is beyond humane sense or common reason For as is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly when we are once translated into his heavenly Image then we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known For as he is perfect so are we with one and the same perfection and as he is holy so are we with one and the same holinesse and as he is righteous so are we with one and the same righteousnes Christ is the Lord our righteousnesse as well as the Fathers only we want a fuller manifestation of it which we must waite for he is that lamp that the Father hath prepared for his Anointed to be a Lanthorne unto their feet and a light unto their pathes whilst we are in the humane and naturall condition there is a strong man armed which is our lusts armed with a desire of worldly riches honour and pleasures keepeth the house which is the minde and for a while the things that he enjoyeth are in peace untill the stronger then he cometh which is Christ and dispossesseth him of the minde taking it off from doting on the world and taketh possession himselfe and maketh it his Temple his house of prayer and whips out all the buyers and sellers out of it he will no longer suffer a den of theeves to harbour there but takes it up for his owne habitation and there he sits as a Refiners fire and as Fullers sope purifying cleansing us as gold and silver that we may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousnesse in all which the Creature is a meere passive still Christ alone who is wonderfull in Councel and excellent in working his arme alone brings salvation to him and his righteousnesse it sustaineth him and therefore sayes the Saints this is the Lords doing and it is wonderfull in our eyes So that I say the Christian in the various workings of God in him which is the drawing him up from one dispensation which is low unto another that is higher and so from one dispensation to another untill he take him up above all to live in Spirit with himselfe doth not in the least help or assist but is a meere passive in it though he think himself active in it by following of good duties which is only bodily exercise and profiteth little as the Apostle saith but being once brought up into the nature of Spirit he is then active in spirituall exercises all his sacrifices that he offers to the Father are spirituall he can offer no other and such only are well pleasing to the Father as are offered in the Son For in him alone he is well pleased God accepts not of any duty or performance whatsoever though never so zealous that is not done and acted in and by Christ
himselfe to the Father from the new Creature which in us is borne of the free-woman and not of the bond-woman of the Spirit and not of the flesh as Christ himself said that God is a Spirit so he said that they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth which is Christ himself He is the way the truth and the life In him we live move and have our being in him we are active and except we abide in him we can doe nothing as he saith in John the 15. ver the 5.th I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can doe nothing So that when a man is borne again when he is brought up to live with Christ in the unity and onenesse of that ever blessed Spirit of himselfe he is then active and bringeth forth much fruit he is then no more a servant as he was before but a friend The servant saith Christ knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you He keeps nothing back from the Saints because they are his friends and he hath chosen them and ordained them that they should bring forth fruit and that their fruit shall remaine saith the Apostle Paul in the first of the Corinths and the last ver But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Where you may take notice that this change in a Christian is wrought by the Spirit this Spirit as a glasse is that in which we behold the glory of the Lord at the sight of which precious and beautifull aspect we are so enamored therewith that there is a present change wrought in us our mindes and affections are by the Spirit transported from all the glory beauty and excellency of the old Creation that is under the Sun that as Solomon said we behold them all to be but vanity and vexation of Spirit unto the glory beauty and excellency of the new Creation which is above the naturall Sun even Righteousnesse and peace and Joy in the holy Ghost A Saint having no sooner found this one Pearle of so great price but he goeth presently and sels all that he hath and buyes it when he is once borne of water which is the Spirit such is the powerfull operation of it that it worketh a Saint into its own nature as fire is said to do wood The law of this Spirit of life is that which frees us from the Law of sin and death it makes us free of that Citie the new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of heaven and indeed is in all the Saints and the Saints in it that live in this Spirit they have no need of the light of the Sun nor the light of the Moone which is the light of the first Adam and his glory but the Lord God shall enlighten them and the Lamb shall be their light which is the second Adam and his glory for as the first Adam was a type or shadow of the second so all those Types and Ordinances and the Law in the letter as given in Moses Administration though the very light and glory of the first Adam by which we only know good and evill yet but a shadow of the light and glory of the second Adam by which we not only know the will of God but are happy in doing of it The old man knows his Masters will but doth it not because he is weak but the new man he is strong it is his meat and drink to doe the will of his Father When the Saint doth come to behold the glory of God in Spirit to enlighten him and the Lamb to be his light by which he seeth his unity and oneness with the Father and the Son he then comes to the true knowledge of the Son of God and growes up to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ as it is in Ephesians the 4. and the 12. so that when the Saints come to have the enjoyment of that everlasting light spoken of in the 60.th of Isaiah They shall be so rooted and grounded in him that they shall not be tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftines whereby they lye in waite to deceive men and therfore said Christ If it were possible they shall deceive the very elect but the Saints having once the enjoyment of this light it is impossible that ever they should be deceived for they are borne of the Spirit and are Spirit now the spirituall man judgeth all things yet he himselfe is judged of no man he cannot be seduc'd by false Prophets that shall say loe Christ is in this forme and loe Christ is in that forme he believes them not because the Son of Righteousnesse is already risen in him with healing under his wings the Day-star Christ Jesus is arisen in him Christ will in no wise suffer the wicked one to touch him For he hath desired him for his habitation Psal 132. ver the 13. and there he dwels and keeps possession in him and where is a stronger then he to turne him out Shall the gates of Hell prevaile against him no nor the Dragon neither our Michael will take a course to overthrow them and leave of them neither root nor branch in the Saint but will keep him as the apple of his eye which cannot behold iniquity Marke what Christ saith in the 60. of Isa and verse 17. unto the Saints or the Church For brasse I will bring gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brasse and for stones iron I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors Righteousnesse What a sweet promise is here of Christ with some expressions which hold forth to us his more excellent and exceeding glory in coming then in the coming of the first Adam did the first man bring brasse with him why Christ will bring for that gold did the first man bring a fleshly Administration 06 why the second man is the Lord from Heaven heavenly he will bring a more heavenly and spirituall administration to the Saint when he manifesteth himselfe unto him But least I should here be mistaken I desire the Reader to take notice that what I call the Saint or Christian is not menat by me man as he is by nature visible to the naturall eye but that which I call the Saint is the minde of a man translated by the Spirit into the Image of God or taken off from the fleshly glory of creature to look upon and affect the spiritual glory of the Creator as is before expressed that is it which I call the Saint for saith Paul I thanke God that with my minde I serve God though with the flesh I serve sinne the minde sanctified is the Saint and so Paul was a Saint and so the minde being taken up by Christ from the humane nature of flesh into the divine nature of Spirit and translated into his Image or likenesse is properly said to be a Christian or new creature so that there is a clear difference between the law of the members in such a man and the law of his mind for the law of his member as Paul said is alwayes warring and rebelling against the law of his mind is what which sometime carries him away captive to sin Wherefore it is not the might of the Presbyter nor the power of the Magistrate either in constraining or in restraining that can make a Saint it is not their forms and ordinances that can any more bring a man to the spirituall Canaan then Moses could bring the children of Israel to the temporall Canaan he must be dead before they come there it is not all the powers in the world that can transport the minde of a man from the humane nature into the divine till when he is neither a Christian nor a Saint but the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his might it is the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts that shall make the great Mountaine become a Plaine before Zerubbable it is he that hath laid the foundation and it is he that shall come and finish it wherefore I shall conclude with that saying of James in chapter the 5. verse the 7. and 8. Be patient therefore brethren to the coming of the Lord Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it untill he receive the early and latter raine Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh FINIS