assuredly be found to be the beginning of the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ that is to say of the Gospel preached by that trumpet that gives the certain second and makes manifest the Sons of God in an immutable everlasting state of righteousnes and glory here upon earth in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken which is to succeed all other Kingdoms shewing itself to be the stone cut out of the mountains that will fill the whole earth This everlasting Gospel we are told Revel 14.6 7. is to be preached by an angel flying in the midst of heaven that must with a loud voice say unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation kindred tongue and people fear God and give glory to him for the houre of his judgment is come This is the houre or the day of that great judgment wherein God will judg the world by that man which he hath ordeined Jesus Christ This houre and day is to have continuance in the course of its execution on the earth for the space of a thousand years During this time the Kingdoms of this world shal become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ as holding of him their universall head and exercising all their authority under him Revel 11.15 So then in effect Christ alone shall reigne and be exalted in that day one Lord and his name one over all the earth This day is to begin as hath bin said with the second comming of Eliah and is described in the Scriptures of truth as to the severall particulars thereof The seventh angel sounds by reason whereof it comes to passe that there are great voices to be heard in heaven appointed by Christ as he is the bright morning star and head of all Principalities and powers the true Michael and Archangel to seize upon all scepters and governments of this world to take the Rule and visible power out of the hands of all the Potentates of the earth and reassume it in such a wonderfull manner into the hands of the holy and elect angels who under Christ are appointed the highest and cheif Rulers of the visible world that by the astonishing dispensations of Gods providence in that season it will appear and be acknowledged that Christ hath begun and entered upon the taking to himself his great power in order to exercise his visible Rule as the great only and universall King over all the earth This he will do to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the Kingdom of men giving it to whomsoever he will Yea it shal be acknowledged and seen that under the most high the heavens do rule Dan. 4.26 All matters shall at that time be carried on in the earth visibly by the decree of the watchers v. 17. the supream counsell and senate of judicature wherein the holy angels shall sit and exercise jurisdiction under Christ for the good of his church on earth They are ministring spirits in this very respect sent forth and authorized for this employment even to minister for them who shal be heirs of salvation as it is written all things are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods In that day saith Christ for brasse I will bring gold and for yron I will bring silver for wood brasse and for stones yron so glorious will then the restoration of al things be and I will also make thine officers peace and thine exactours righteousnes Violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting not destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls of defence salvation and thy gates of justice prayse Then the haughtines of man shal be layd low and his lofty lookes brought downe and the worshippers of idols shall goe into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and of the glory of his majesty when he shall thus arise most terribly to shake the earth Esay 2. The same thing is promised Haggai 2 6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come that is to say after the terrible forerunning dispensation ministred by Eliah that went up to heaven in a fiery chariot to take his seat amongst this heavenly colledge of angels and be in that glory with other the spirits of just men made perfect shall the desire of all nations Christ himself come to perfect and consummate what is left wanting in the operation of the former ministry and fill his owne house with glory in the sight of the whole world during the space of a thousand years 2. But 2dly although at the sounding of the seventh trumpet it do come to passe that there be great voices in heaven what is that to the inhabitants that are on earth those that are at home in the body absent from the Lord whose spirits are fast asleep in the earth to wit in the organicall life and exercise of bodily senses Will not they be out of the hearing of the sound of these heavenly voices At least will they be able to understand their meaning unlesse what is uttered by the angelicall tongues be in words easy to be understood by the spirit of their minds who live and dwell in mortall clay and that an easy understanding thereof also be communicable to the sensuall part of the soule which is as the door to take in and give out againe what shal be heard by the sound of such a heavenly Trumpet By what is recorded for our instruction we may be assured this is not impossible nor unpracticable It hapned thus to the Apostle John before his change by death even whilst he was a prisoner and a banished man in the I le of Patmos for the Word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ He looked and behold a door was opened in heaven By the opening of that door he came to be made able to hear the voices in heaven the first and second voice of the angel Revel 4.1 10 8. as it were of a trumpet talking with him which sayd come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter By the power of that voice calling him he was immediatly in the spirit that is as Paul absent from the body He had such an awakening of his inward senses wrought in him such an opening and making of them meet to heare and receave what by the tongue of the angel was to be delivered that he was in the spirit or in the exercise of the same kind of life and manner of conversing with spirits that they are in one with another or that the spirits of just men made perfect do use with the holy angels when in the state of soules seperate from the body made equall to angels and children of the resurrection in the first degree or step of it which is called Revel 20
seale and lay hold on that one seed which is Christ making it the brightnes of his glory the expresse character of his essential mind which is righteousnes and holines itself This is the WORD that is neer thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst doe it that is to say in the heart and mouth of Christ the second Adam and head of al true beleevers by him to be poured out as an anointing for the whole seed rendring thereby the visiō of Gods mind so plain to them that he that runs may read it The ministry of this law is a voice that First invites all freely to come to the waters every one that is a thirst and he that hath no mony to come buy and eat yea to come and buy wine and milk without mony and without price that they may eat that which is good and delight themselfs in fatnes This first general voice and invitation leaves it to mans choice whether he wil obey and come or not But this law and ministry hath also in it a second voice that carries with it such a prevailing attractive power such an unresistible constraining loue as will receave or admit no deniall It does so powerfully encline the eare and heart to heare and obey that by means of this effectual saving grace there is made an everlasting Covenant between Christ and the soule even the sure mercies of David Christ himself in this dispensation is given to be a witnes commander and leader to those that are under it upon such teams as never to faile leave or forsake them 1. The first of these voices in its ministry is tearmed in Scripture the day of Christ first appearance which hath already risē and had its kingdō in word and also in Spirit but sowē in weakenes It hath shined upō the world had its beginning and continuance and is now drawing very neer to its ending wherein Christ is to be rejected and that by his owne citizēs a generation that are inhabitāts of the earthly Jerusalē vnder the name of Christians succeeding their predecessours the jews into whose room they are surrogated in their froward and bitter principles and Spirit wherein they please not God and are contrary to all men This is called the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by means of the outward word accompanied with the Spirit to all nations as a witnes before the end come or before that dispensation come that puts an end to it as perfective of it restoring it out of its dying and declining state into a brightnes and glory that is everlasting as shal be declared at the rising of the witnesses It began with the ministry of John Baptist as the voice of him crying in the wildernes prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight It was continued encreased and carried up to its height even by the personal ministry of the Son of God manifested in flesh who was born of a virgin died for our sins and rose againe according to the Scriptures And by his ascending up on high he did lead captivity captive and gave gifts to men went on in the greatnes of his strengh conquering to conquer till the war and opposition sprang up that was raised against him by the man of sin and Son of perdition for the space of 42 months or 1260 years to the overspreading the face of the church with apostacy and thick darknes Herein so great a progresse hath bin made that we are brought as it were to the shutting in of the evening of this first glorious Gospel day and new Testament ministry in Spirit and by the written word to the verifying that Scripture Luk. 17. which sayes The dayes will come when ye shal desire to se one of the dayes of the Son of Man and ye shall not se it because the light of it must withdraw to give place and make way for the approaching glory of another of the dayes of the Son of Man even that of his second appearance and Kingdom at which time he shall shew himself the only Potentate over all the earth KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS 2. The second voice and ministry of the Gospel above mentioned performed in and by Christs second appearance is that which as hath bin said doth powerfully encline and prevailingly work upon the hearts of men for the obedience of Gods law binding up their soules in the life that is eternall This second appearāce though the yonger does with Jacob lie in the same wombe with the first in the hearts of all true beleevers And though it come not out first yet at last it obteins the preeminence and birthright causing those that are children of this day even whilst they are under the first dispensation to abide with God as pilgrims and strangers therein as all their Fathers were and by faith to espy this promised land and heavenly countrey whilst at a distance and very far off Esai 33.17 and to wait for it with patience in a certainty of hope and stedfastnes of confidence till they enter into and become actuall possessours of it The operation and effect which this second day of Christ appearance shal have upon beleevers in its very morning brightnes will render them in their minds like to the elect angels in obeying the law of God active powerfull and stedfast in working righteousnes It will qualify them also with a meet frame of Spirit for angelicall converse whilst yet in the body as sutable associates and consorts with them in Gods service and worship And from the powerfull influences that shall descend from the intellectuall and superiour part of mans mind quickned with the warmth and life of those holy Spirits in the hand of Christ the animall or souly life and bodily nature of man shal be formed into such subjection as will by degrees work out a perfect redemption of the body from the bondage of corruption even in this life as the needfull preparatory dispensation of Eliah that first comes and restores all things before the personal appearing of the son himself For although he will first shew himself in the glory of the holy angels as the bright morning star in the beginning of this day yet is he to come forth also in the farther progresse of this day in the glory of his father and therein to shine forth as the sun in his strength after that he hath first sent his angels to gather out of this his Kingdom all things that doe offend and them which doe iniquity casting them into a furnace of fire Whē this preparatory work is done by the messengers he sends before him Christ will reveale himself from heaven and by that glorious sight which he will give of himself chang those that then are alive and remain on the earth into his owne likenes in soule and body and gather them unto himself as meet consorts and associates for him in that his glorified state catching them up to him in that
mouth These two powers in him are reteined in most absolute agrement and usefulnes each unto the other Answerable to this patern in great is man made in little as to his Spirit and soule with this only difference that the work of mans mind in reference to Gods law and his word and outward action in reference to his mind have not immutability in them but may disagree and chāge from their first harmony and primitive patern set them in God The powerfull impression of this patern on the spirit and soule of man was such as in respect thereof it is said God made man upright or perfect formed his mind in perfect agrement and likenes of operation with his owne mind and in full consent and liking of his law as that which is holy righteous Spiritual and good given for man to obey as his duty He disposed him also by a natural bent and inclination of mind to doe good resist evil love righteousnes and hate iniquity This was the state of mans Spirit or soule as yet seperate from his body and not partaker of that flesh and blood which was afterwards formed out of the dust of the earth The second thing therefore noted concerning mans building or creation is that he also became a living sensual or animalish soule actually clothed with bodily organs that God formed for him out of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 And he breathed into his nostrills the breath of life or sent mans soule that was before created in Gods image into that body so appointed and given to it by God as the earth wherein the seed of mans Spirit was planted and the feild in which it was made to grow by reason whereof man became a living soule that is to say by the most intimate union and inhabitation thus wrought by God between the spirit and body of man there was an awakening and bringing into actual exercise the sensual and bodily nature of his mind by sitting to it these meet organs Neverthelesse that which was before in the state of a soule separate an equal and associate to angels comes by this means to be abased and made of little reputation being brought to a kind of equality with the beasts that perish And in like manner as thus the spirit of man was after its first creation embodied and made flesh as a dark shadow of what is done to him t is said to have bin so with the heavens and earth when created yea even every plant of the feild had a state of being before it was put in the earth and every herb of the feild before it grew Gen. 2.4 5 Now through the intimate union and conjunction that mans body is taken into with his soule it is made a living acting speaking creature participant with his rational and intellectual spirit and in fellowship there with meet to have and exercise dominion as God appointed over every living creature that moves upon the face of the earth Thus the bodily life of man became in itself as an Eden the garden of God and the feild that he had blessed and made fruitful unto every good word and work in subserviency and subjection of desire to mans intellectual and angelical part which by the very order and law of nature as having not only priority but eminency of being was given to it both as Lord and husband a superiour and yet a kind of equal joyned with it in such a harmonious consistency that the actings of both natures made up but the compleat and entire Act of mans judgement and will Thus was man created male and female in the spirit and person of Adam before Eve was created as Gen. 1.27 and 2.28.25 do shew And he receaved a charg from God to keep this body in subjection to the dictates of his mind and not suffer it to usurp authority over that part in him which is most the man to wit the angelical or intellectual part When God had thus planted the garden of Eden or pleasure and delight in this spirituall sense as wel as in an outward and literall he puts mans spirit into it giving him the keeping dressing and Rule of it with this expresse command saying of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat but of the tree of knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die For out of the ground the Lord God had made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledg of good and evil Thus was there a paradise without man and within him a garden of pleasant fruit which he might take delight and pleasure in and which he was appointed to dresse and keep in the order wherein God had delivered it over to him and to improve it to the end for which he was brought into it by God And for his instruction herein he was commanded and allowed the use of the outward as wel as the inward senses of his mind with this only caution and Restriction that he should by no means nor upon any pretēce whatsoever hearkē to or obey the voice of his sensual and bruitish nature how rational so ever the judgment of it which is but flesh might seeme to be considered as in its owne single operation tempting and drawing off the cōsent and love of the intellectual part from the streight rule of its duty required in Gods law For the spirit of the mind which is the stronger and better part in man as that which is immortall remains under the morall and perpetuall convictiō of as wel as obligation to the righteousnes required in the law of God the light of which although it may be smoothered for a time cā never be wholly extinguished but is that work of the law in the heart that is and wil be unalterably either excusing and encouraging or accusing and tormēting the mind as cause is give by every mās works It is therefore called the conscience that servs in stead of a thousand witnesses and whē it is awake does alwayes consent to the goodnes and righteousnes that is in the law By this rule therefore sin could not make its approaches but warning would be given and to know evil barely in the abstract without consenting to it or becomming one with it in approbation and delight was not the thing which God forbade him but the feeding on it with consent and delight upon the beholding of its desireablenes in the judgment of the outward senses and as it gratified the bruitish lust and desire of the flesh so as thereupon to be drawn into a compliance and induced to make it the Act of the whole man suffering sin thereby not only to conceave but to be perfected Hence is it said 1 Tim. 2.13 14. that Adam was first formed then eve And Adam or the intellectual and superiour part in man
was not in the Transgression or could not be deceaved by sin but saw cause enough to dissent from and resist it It was the woman the sensual part that was deceaved and was in the Transgression being of such power as not only to entice but so to fetch over the consent of the mind as to make it the act of the whole man And sin being once thus perfected brought forth death All this came by mans ill use of that liberty and freedom he was left unto whilst under the dominion and teaching of the law of workes which commits unto man the keeping and Rule of his owne soule upon severe penalties in case of failer and strictly commands the thing to be done as that which on all accounts it was mans duty to do but layes no prevailing restraint on him to the contrary as the law of faith does The law therefore did in effect shew unto man that the right way of keeping his soule according as is commanded is through the prevailing power of faith whereby man keeps not himself but is kept unto salvation by his faithful creatour to whom he has committed the keeping of his soule in weldoing This was held forth to Adam in the institution of the Sabbath day the day of the spirit and true Rest It is both a day of most powerful restraint and of greatest liberty to man a day that most powerfully and effectually restrains man from sin and all approaches towards it and that as powerfully binds him up unto God and his service which is the most perfect freedom Whilst the bent and inclination of mans will was in its primitive purity he was left freely to the exercise of his owne liking and on that account trusted with the keeping of his owne soule in the state which God at first deliver'd it over unto him which being mutable and not trial-proof in the time of temptation failed But let us now consider a little what it was which God delivered to Adam with such charg and command to keep or to restore to him as good as he found it The Lord committed to his charg and keeping his precious soule and body and his owne image that was by him imprinted and stamped thereupon as his owne coyne and proper goods to be therefore employed for his use to his service and according to his will only Man receaved himself or came thus out of the hands of God without the least blemish and so was to keep himself without any diminution or wast or be exchanged to the profit and advantage of the giver Man thus made in Gods image with a mind like in operation unto Gods might very wel be trusted to doe his owne liking Howbeit there was hereby planted in him at his creation a free principle of wel and evil doing in either of which he had a capacity to act but not properly a freedom by reason of the dominion of the law which he was made under and bound in the obligation of duty to conform unto In this sense man was a servant to the law and under the authority of it even whilst he enjoyed his primitive natural freedom which consisted in the right and priviledg conferred by God upon him of living according to his owne wil and being at his owne free motion and dispose til taken from him forcibly or that he willingly yeild himself up to the service of another as he did at first unto his God most freely and willingly consenting to have his law exercise dominion over him A power then to wil and not to wil at his owne free motion and choice God gave to man upon trust or conditionally that he should be ruled by his law and be careful to keep himself in al his actings most exactly and unchāgably in agreement and harmony with that On this condition Man was at his liberty to do this or that which best liked himself in al other things He had power to kil and power to keep alive in a way of just Rule and magistratical governement He had also in himself a power to doe good and a power to doe the contrary which is evill a power to chang and turn away from doing the good he ought to doe and a power to turn to the evil he ought not to doe A capacity or power in him to doe thus he had from God and it was not sin But his choosing to exercise this left hand branch of his primitive fredom in turning unto and delighting in sin against the law of God which he knew rather then delighting himselfe in the exercise of the right hand branch of his fredom to good in obedience and conformity to the law of God this was his inexcusable miscarriage and sin let him pretend what he wil or can Now although this were mans natural right after this manner to be free as that which in itself is lawfull and good if wel managed and conducted to the end for which it is given yet the being and standing which is given unto man in this fredom is most slippery and dangerous and any long continuance therein is not at al to be coveted after when restored since For this is not the fredom with which God himself is free or with which Christ the Son is free or does make the true heirs of his Kingdom free with nor yet is it the fredom of the holy and elect angels or of the spirits of just men made perfect who yet all are most free agents God himself is the freest of all yet he cannot but will good as of his owne nature bound up unto it He cannot sin or lie Of this fredom doth the man Christ partake and by and under him elect angels and men have their share in it and in and by the exercise thereof doe inherit the life that is eternall and unchangable Such true freedom does import a powerful binding up and restraining of the mind from al possibility of doing evil as evil is taken for sin and the transgression of the law and as powerfull a bent and disposition of will to do what is good right and acceptable in the sight of God without any possibility of hindrance resistance or discontinuance in him who wills or does it The obteining this latter and most excellent fredom is the end for which the first or natural fredom was at all given God would not have his servants in their first make bound up immutably even to that which is their duty but by and with their owne free consent being in a capacity to dissent but at their perill Neither will he have any debarred and for ever excluded from this first fredom but those that wilfully reject it that so the doing good after the power of an endlesse life and the committing of sin with a hardned and impenitent heart may be found in both sorts of men a most free and voluntary act and each receave their reward according to their works By the impression of righteousnes which man
is under from God as he is made in Gods image he hath an aptitude a strong bent lively inclination and disposition of mind to the right and just which is conteined in the law of God and wherein mans whole duty doth consist But because as hath bin said man is by nature not withstanding all this left at such a liberty as that he is not by any certain prevailing and overcomming power over and against whatsoever shall make resistance with held and restrained kept and bound fast to his duty at this door through the weakenes of the flesh sin entered and death by sin passed upon all men because in Adam the common parent all men had sinned This door unto sin is kept open so long as mans naturall freedom continues with him either as receaved at first before the fall or by way of restoration through the redeemers blood since which we shall speake unto in its proper place That which opens this door is mans owne lust as it is written Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his owne lust and enticed Thē when lust hath conceaved it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death The mind of God is above all temptatiō to evil The mind of man is not so though formed in Gods image whilst he is yet under the law and its dominion and hath not atteined unto nor bin brought under grace So long then as man lives in and will not part with his primitive natural fredom nor resign it through faith in exchang for a second gift of it from God in a better kind and way he is stil under the dominion of the law and not only accountable for the breaches of it and transgressions against it but under the inevitable condemning and revenging power thereof that wil first or last execute the curse threatned upon all evil doers But he that is under grace is become dead to the law being crucified with Christ or fastned and bound by the power of the death and cross of Christ with such a bent of mind and hatred against sin as nothing can alter or chang and is so quickned and made free and a live unto righteousnes as nothing can hinder the course and duration of it By this means the door of the mind is so fixed and fast shut against all sin as it is not in the power of the gates of hel ever to set or break it open more In the mind of man we are to acknowledg as hath bin already intimated two parts 1. the spirit of the mind the superiour and intellectual part equalizing man with angels 2dly the sensitive and inferiour part which abases man into the likenes and into a kind of equality with the Beasts and is indeed capable to make him a beast yea actually and that too generally does make men so This inferiour part of mans spirit is as the door of his mind the mouth or instrumēt of its cōverse inward or outward and in distinction from the first and superiour power the spirit of the mind is called in scripture flesh or the sensuall and living soule Hēce that of the Apostle Rom. 7.25 So then I myself with my mind do serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin So also our blessed saviour observing the fleshly drowsines of his disciples that they could not watch one hour with him at such a pinch of straits as he then was in the spirit says he is willing but the flesh is weak This was the lusting flesh in mā evē in paradise whilst in his innocēcy and through its weaknes was the door of the mind set open to let in temptation and sin For it is soon taken and deceaved and is weak in resisting evil And it is as soon weary of wel-doing if the way to persevere in weldoing be through the crosse and all kinds of streights hardships and disappointments unto the flesh even to this fleshly and sensual part of mans mind For no sooner does this come into activity and liberty by the conjunction and fellowship it is taken into with the intellectual and superiour part the spirit of the mind but it is apt to run wild fly out and grow untamed and extravagant as that which loves not to be accustomed to the yoke and held in subjection to the spirit of the mind as that is subjected to the law of God It is apt to judg itself wise enough to make its owne choice and to trust to its owne single judgment in all its actings And in case it be cross'd and not complied with by the dictates of right reason in its superiour part 't is apt to murmure and be sullenly rebellious so as to forbeare to do its office and duty to its head and Lord the spirit of the mind In order to bribe off and gain the consent and approbation of the superiour and ruling power of the mind to the way and course it desires to take it will invent many fair specious and plausible pretences make false representations of things fascinating appearances and mists to delude and blind the superiour discerning of the mind It will turne every stone to obteine its end spreading before the spirit of the mind flattering speeches as nets and bands to take and ensnare it as the strong man Samson was serv'd by his Dalilah This demeanour and practice of the woman the female and inferiour power of the mind towards its Lord and husband the superiour is most lively described by Solomon Eccles 7.26 I find sayes he more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands bands who so pleaseth God which without faith is impossible shall escape from her but the sinner shal be takē by her he that is a sinner through unbeleife The spirit of mans mind by refusing and resisting that offer and work of the spirit of God whereby it should be brought into a most free subjection and captivity to the law of faith becomes a sinner and so comes to be taken by the nets and snares the enticing words and pretences of its inferiour power and in downright tearmes at length to be wholly captivated and subjected under the usurped commanding influence of that sensuall life it ought to rule over This was the lusting flesh in Adam as also in Eve before the fall which the Serpent knew how to tempt and gratify And such did the weaknes of this flesh prove that it was not able to withstand or resist the temptation All that the serpent aim'd at was but to prevaile with this flesh to think itself so wise and sufficiently able to move and act by the strength and excellency of its owne single judgment as that it might safely undertake to doe what should be found most liking and agreable to its owne sense and refuse the
contrary without being bound up to any necessary dependance upon or holding conformity and agrement in its actions either with the right dictates of the intellectual part or with the righteous rule of Gods law This once obtein'd Satan had his end For he well knew that this being granted all the rest of the evil he desired to bring into man and by him into the world would easily and quickly follow And this was so pleasing and gratifying a baite to the flesh the assuming a power to direct its owne steps take its owne course and way that it was quickly swallowed downe by man without any due deliberation or pause upon the matter suspecting no hurt as yet till the lust that thus was conceaved came to be finished and to take along with it the spirit of the mind corrupting and seducing that also from the simplicity that is in Christ and thereby turning the soule from the truth of God declared in his law to the lie and deceit of Satan conceaved in his crafty suggestion Thus by degrees was man brought to worship and serve the creature that is the devil more then the creator under whose law he was first made and who is the only true God blessed for ever Unto this the Scripture witnesseth Rom. 1 22 23. Professing themselvs to bewise they became fools and changed the glory WORD or Image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and unto birds four-footed beasts and creeping things This man came to by preferring the counsell of a fallen angel that was gratifying and desireable food in the eye of flesh before the holy law and commandement of the living and eternal God which by the eye of his spirit or superiour part of his mind he saw and knew himself obliged to the observation of For this cause God gives men up to the course and full sway of their owne wills and vile affections leaving them as bondslaves to sin and Sathan children of wrath and disobedience in whom the Prince of the aire seats himself as in his throne carrying them captive to his will Mans continuance in honour and in Gods image wherein he was created was but a very little while He quickly found out and followed many inventions contrary to Gods expresse command written in his mind as also signified by the sundry peeces of the creation and sounded out by an audible voice to him from God himself Sin being after this manner the voluntary and free act of our first parents not only conceaved but finished in the disobedience by them wrought and persected the wages of it which is death they immediatly receaved For being presently alienated from the life of God or the righteousnes performable by them in that image of God wherein they were created they became dead in trespasses and sins The image of God in man was defaced changed into an image in some sort of the devil All pronesse and inclination of the will to good was forthwith worn off and lost upon the fall and not only so but contrary qualities thereunto possessed the mind Thus mans primitive freedom and alacrity to righteousnes was turn'd into vile subjection and service to the devil and to all manner of uncleane affections and unrighteous actions Neverthelesse this sudden and unexpected chang in man brought about by the subtilty and influencing power of the Serpent by reason of the weaknes of the flesh that discovers itself in mans mutable state is not such but that this deadly wound is capable of healing and man capable of being thereby restored yea to be made not only as good but better then he was at first through the vertue and efficacious power of Christs sacrifice and death which was not only a generall propitiation and atonement of sins past but also for the sanctifying and purifying mans nature for time to come after a more excellent manner through regeneration then it was by creation Unto this regenerate state our first parents were called by the voice and doctrine of the Gospel speaking to them in and on the seaventh day as the only way and means to have prevented the fall and kept out sins entrance upon the nature of man For when God committed to the keeping of Adam his owne soule in the good estate wherein he had set it by making man in his image and after his owne likenes it was not without a most speciall charg to keep this choise jewel safe and vncorrupted at the peril of his very life till chang'd into a better state This God required him to do in the use of the best wayes and means that should be afforded him even by taking fast hold of instruction not letting her goe but keeping her as his life yea keeping his heart above all keepings as that from whence are the issues of life To this end was the tree of life placed in the midst of paradise open to his sight that he might have the view of it And by what was figured and signified to him in this tree was it declared how the keeping of his soule might be by another even by the Son of God or by the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth dwelling in the heart by faith which the worldly or fleshly mind does not cannot receave but by such an act of absolute resignation of itself in obedience to the wil of the Son of God as is more hatefull to it then the worst of evils Yet is there no other way possible for man to keep his soule safe for any long continuance and in the houre of trial when assaulted by the power of darknesse The counsel and instruction given by the word of the Gospel in the tree of life was that if man found upon full debate and consideration within himself that he was not like to continue long safe in his owne hands neither could with certainty keep himself pure and incorrupt as the law required that then he would be content to accept for his guardian and keeper the Son of God himself in whose person the judgmēt and will of man is fixed so as to be the corner stone to al the rest of the heavenly and spirituall building even the effectual means to fix and make immutable in righteousnes both men and angels that wil be prevailed with to let him take the charge of ruling and keeping their hearts in such manner as pleases him This is the only way for man to become free indeed with a better freedom then that of nature abovemention'd even with the freedom wherewith Christ himself is first made free as he is the son of man in heaven who came downe from heaven before he ascended up againe thither John 3.13 This good will and gracious offer of the Son of God figured out in the tree of life our first parents either neglected and slighted or the way of his keeping them did not please them but the suggestions of Satan were rather hearkned unto that they might safely leane to their
enable us to effect this work of faith whereby we may live and also may die to the Lord and in neither sin nor serve our selvs Christ both died and rose againe and is become Lord both of the dead and of the living even in this sense before opened To this agrees what the same Apostle testifies 2 Cor. 4 12.13 compared with 1 Cor. 4.8 13. Here we find the Apostle the father and true elder as to his growth up into Christ strong in the faith and the Corinthians they are the children babes in Christ weak and low in faith but high full and puffed up in their fleshly minds Let us therefore consider the differing characters he gives of the one and of the other though both beleevers such as in their living and in their dying are or may be the Lords Ye now are full sayes Paul or this is your time of being rich and reigning as kings without us but I would to God you did indeed reigne that we also might reigne together with you But it is otherwise with us even a dying time We are troubled on every side perplexed persecuted cast downe alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus God having set forth us that are the Apostles most strong and eminent in faith as it were appointed unto death and to be made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong Ye are honourable but we are despised So then death workes in us but life in you And we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I have beleeved and therefore have I spoken we also beleeve and therefore speak knowing that he which raysed up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you That then which is wrought in men by Christ through the ministry of the outward word by the spirit and life of his first appearance is either restoration-work single or restoration-work joyned and accompanied with true regeneration and eternall salvation Restoration-work single is that which is called the spirit of bondage making but those servants that abide not in the house for ever as having never tasted nor partaken of that freedome wherewith the Son makes those free indeed that he knits into an indissoluble union with himself But restoration-work as it is accompanied with salvation or the birth of the immortal and incorruptible seed of life and righteousnes is that which is called the spirit of adoption of power of love and of a sound or stedfast mind that principle of life begotten and springing up in us whereby we put off that which is mutable and corruptible and put on that which is immutable and incorruptible as well in the inward man of the heart as in the outward man of the flesh We have already shewed that their obedience is accepted with God who are faithfull to their light under the first dispensation of Gods word speaking in them to the inward senses of their mind as was the case of the centurion Such persons in every nation are owned by God as those that fear him and work righteousnes And this feare is in a sense faith for they cannot thus come to God and obey him but they must beleeve that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and hearken to his voyce Neverthelesse this is not the faith that is in the regenerate flowing from the spirit and life of the new creature and working by love but it is the faith which all restored enlightned men may have in conformity to what Adam had before his fall that knew and obeyed the eternall WORD as creatour and maker of both worlds though not as the redeemer and Saviour of men by the blood of the crosse from sin and the wrath attending it This sort of faith is that which flowes from mans exercise of his right knowledg and free will wherein he was created after Gods likenes and did receave the truth in his knowledg but in no fixed permanent love thereof because he was left free to change his mind as seemed good unto himself being in case of his failer therein personally responsible to the penalties and curse of the law For to be created with such a righteous mutable principle of activity and free moving power in the mind was simply in itself good and might be lawfully used to answer the end for which it was given which was by way of voluntary resignation to chang and turne out of that wavering unstable active power though at present righteous into that love that should bind up the moving power of mans Spirit into a stedfast and unmoveable delight and rest in righteousnes and into a fixed and unshaken enmity and aversnes of mind to sin and all evill By this new creation and forming of the spirit of man within him his first freedome is taken from him and done away or it is swallowed up into a freedome much better and more excellent wherein man is made more in Gods image and after his similitude then at the first For though all things were in a good estate with man at first when God made him upright that is to say in a due conformity unto the divine will for the performance of a pure and holy worship and service to God justice and true judgmēt to his neighbour and for the walking in a due sobriety temperance and continence as to himself yet God would have him know he might be better made through a new creation which should more then comprehend all the good of his first make and adde also to it an immutability God did therefore forbid man to trust to the uncertaine riches and fading glory of his first estate and timely to look and make out for a better But in stead of this man notwithstanding Gods prohibition runs himself aground into a very bad and evill condition Out of this forlorne state the first thing that God propounds to him in and by the knowledg of the redeemer is his restoration which God is willing to draw him to by the ministry of Moses and turn him to by the ministry of Eliah even the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make a ready people prepared for the Lord to meet and receave him as he is given by the father in a better Covenant ordered in all things and sure of which there can never be any breach either on Gods or mans part as there was and wil be againe of the first Covenant how often soever it be repeated and renewed unlesse it end in mans being receaved and taken into the second There is then a ministry of the first Covenant in the hand of the Redeemer Sprinckled with the blood of his crosse which is able to rectify the depravation of things caused by sin and mans first breach with God consisting in a restitution towards mans
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
might bring us thus to live in and with him The life that we thus live is through his enlivening and inspiring motiō who for this very ēd gives himselfe to us in such an intimate and unchāgable uniō as makes him our very life or the activity and strength through which we act and live Christs thus being given to us and receaved by us amounts unto true regeneratiō and our being made willing to give up ourselvs thus unto him is the presenting our bodies or lusting fleshly mind a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God This is to make our living soule an offering or reasonable service to God even the freewill offering of those reasonable first created powers of discerning and desiring which however refined do remaine yet corruptible till the transforming work of true regeneration hath passed upon them and this with Abel's is reputed by God and therefore certainly in itself is a much more excellent sacrifice then that which Cain offered or indeed can be offered by any that retaine the life of their owne will as the principle of all their motion and activity in Gods service be it otherwise never so conform to the letter of the commandement They that are under this second work and chang have the Son of God in them so as to be himself the keeper of their soules by oath never to part with or give up his interest in and Rule over them unto any but the father After this manner to receave have and possesse the Son is to beleeve and have life eternall by the new and everlasting Covenant And not thus to receave the son is the unbeleif which when once it takes root springs up with that bitternes and enmity against the principle operation and Testimony of saving faith in true beleevers and so against Christ himself who rules in their hearts by faith as amounts in conclusion to the very second death For it carries them on in to that irrecoverable impenitency and hardnes of heart for which God swears they shall never enter into his Rest To be quickned and risen with Christ in this second work and chang wrought in the soule by him is that resurrection into life which never is to se corruption or change more And he that is thus borne of God doth not commit sin that is the sin of unbeleif above mention'd because his seed remaineth in him which keepeth him from so sinning and the evil one toucheth him not This heavenly immortall seed and birth of the life that is incorruptible keeps the beleever in all trialls and temptations fixed like a rock and as mount Sion that cannot be moved from holding fast the confidence of a lively hope to the end Yet where this resurrection and immortall life is in the seed it does not suddenly appear or shew itself in its owne likenes according to the mightines of the power that works in us But however it is the power of faith through which we are kept unto salvation It is that which after we have passed over the day of temptation the suffering season will be sure to come forth in its powerfull operation and make us perfect stablish strengthen and settle us Hence is it that Christ sayes if we have faith that is of the right kind but as a grain of mustard seed we shall find it to be of such a growing encreasing nature that though it be not presently discerned yet by it shall we be at last enabled to remove mountains and nothing shal be impossible unto it This is Christs meaning also when he sayes that he will raise up such beleevers at the last day that is in the day appointed for the manifestation of these Sons of God in which they shall appear as indeed they are to every eye And the eye that sees them shall acknowledg them the eare that heares them shall bear witnes unto them that they are the seed that God hath blessed not only by strengthning them with might in the inner man and rooting them in love but visibly raising them up in his power to the rendring of them mighty in word and deed With this kind of resurrection that shal be visible in the eyes of enemies and all beholders it is that Christ will raise up the sons of God before described and cause them to live in his sight in this third day at the breaking forth of the brightnes of his second personall appearance as the Kingdom of his power with which as with the latter rain he will visit and refresh the habitable part of his earth and at same time burne like an oven in flames of fire to the consuming and destroying of all his adversaries The way that God will take to make his sons manifest in this day is by a powerfull work of redemption that shal be wrought and passe upon the outward as wel as inward man of the heart upon the speaking acting powers as well as upon the understanding and intuitive faculties of the mind to the freeing of them both from the bondage of corruption and stating the whole person of the beleever in the glorious freedom of righteousnes and true holines 7. This shal be effected first by the ministry of the holy Angels as the Elias that is to come who like the foure winds of heaven shall breath with their influencing gales of prophesy upon the spirits of all men but especially upon beleevers to the gathering them up into a life of spirit and causing them to be as it were absent from the body in order to be present with the Lord whilst yet in the body 2. Secondly This work shal be carried on by the revelation of the son himself from heaven for the changing of our vile bodies into the likenes of his most glorious body We find Mark 1.1 c. that John Baptists ministry though but the messenger sent before Christs face to prepare his way in preaching the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sins is called the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God And the Evangelist luke chap. 1.15 describing that which qualified John for his ministry tells us in the words which the angel spake to his father Zachary that he was filled with the holy Ghost from the womb for the rendring him a fit messenger to usher in the comming of Christ in the flesh by going before him in the spirit and power of Eliah whose work is to restore all things making them right and streight but he is to leave the work of regeneration and ministry of the new creature being and life to the son himself The subject which both these ministries cheifly respected in the day of the dispēsation of Christs first appearance was the inward man of the heart for the rooting and grounding it in love and strengthning it under the many and various trialls of the crosse and temptations that were to be undergone For beleevers are to beare about in their bodyes the markes of
the first Resurrection The Apostle does there speak of the time when this way of heavenly converse between the saincts that are on earth and the holy angels shal be frequent and usuall and no such wonder or strang thing as yet by most it is accounted This will be brought to passe by the opening of the door in heaven interpreted by Christ himself Jo. 1.51 in his answer to Nathaniel Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou Thou shalt se greater things then these What greater things A door open in heaven as a means of easy and familiar entercourse between the inhabitants of heaven and dwellers on earth The angels are to be employed as messengers of intelligence between Christ and his Saincts before the time of his owne personall converse with them on earth For saith Christ verily verily I say unto you Hereafter you shall se heaven open or the gate and door that is made into it and kept open by me for the ascent and descent of my holy angels between me and my Saincts on earth At that day Christ wil be glorified in his Saincts and honour them in the sight of them that hate them God will answer them before they pray whilst they are yet speaking he will heare and speedily avenge them of their adversaries He will grant them the desire of their hearts But when will this day be that these great and wonderfull things shal be seen The text is plain and expresse Revel 11. T is evidently to begin at the rising of the witnesses who shall immediatly upon their rising be thus in the spirit as John was on the Lords day in the I le of Patmos This wil be the proper and usuall dispensation in that day of the Lord that is to begin at the sounding of the seventh trumpet The spirit of life from God shall then enter into the witnesses set them upon their feet and immediatly qualify them to be in the spirit or have their inward senses awakened and fitted to hear and receave messages from heaven and the knowledg of the mind of their Lord by the immediate impression and inspiration of angels employed by him for that purpose We know this was frequently the case with Daniel and most of the other dear servants and prophets of the Lord. Unto Jacob this great mystery and truth was most particularly and distinctly foretold in the ladder which he saw the feet whereof touched the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels ascending and descending upon it and the Lord himself standing above and speaking by that means unto Jacob acquainting him thereby with his mind and giving to him most rich and precious promises The interpretation of this ladder was not only made by our saviour to Nathaniel as we have opened but it was at the same time given to Iacob with the vision itself as appears by the Result that came into his mind thereupon when he sayd How dreadfull is this place It is the very house of God where his throne is It is the very gate of heaven through which by the ministry of angels in the hand of Christ as he is the son of man and hath the use and exercise of all kinds of humane sense in perfection in his glorified manhood the inward and outward man of the saincts shal be so affected changed and transformed as to give them a kind of entrance into and a being in heaven even whilst they are yet here in the body This Christ wrought and obteined the power of when he ascended up above all heavens and as man did come to have a more excellent name then the angels Now that he ascended what is it but that he who was in the forme of God and counted it not robbery to be equall with God did first descend lower then the angels into the fashion of an earthly man the lowermost part of his habitable earth Prov 8 31. even the animalish and sensuall nature of man using and exercising as well the bodily as spirituall senses appertaining to the very naturall man When he had done this by laying hold on the seed of Abraham and receaving it into personall union with himself he set up that ladder in his owne person the feet whereof stand on the earth whilst the top of it enters into the highest heaven For he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill and fulfill all things That therefore which Jacob pronounced in the spirituall interpretation of his vision is most undeniable This is none other sayes he then the house of God the building not made with hands whose builder and maker is God the fathers house wherein are many mansions built by the eternall WORD and wisdom of the father in the person of the mediatour considered as he is the first borne of every creature and the beginning or first begotten from the dead Col. 1. in whom is that life that is the light of men who was before all things and by whom all things consist The way for God that is the high and lofty one inhabiting eternity to descend and come to dwell in the humble broken and contrite spirit as the place of his rest and the way for the humble poor and broken spirit to ascend into the persence and sight of God all this was wrought out in our nature by the WORD that made himself flesh and in that body died rose again and ascended where he was before as in the volume of Gods book it is written of him This he told his owne disciples Jo. 14. In my fathers house are many mansions If it were not so I would have told you Behold I go to prepare a place for you to set the ladder by which the ascent and descent is contrived into my fathers house for such as you are And if I goe and prepare a place for you you may be sure I will come againe and gather you unto my self that where J am ye may be also At his comming again the same Apostle John finds the thing to be true that his Lord had promised For Revel 11.12 19. it appears that upon the rising of the witnesses and sounding of the seventh trumpet the temple of God wil be opened in heaven which is the same opening of the heavens before-mentioned Jo. 1.51 and there wil be seen in his temple the arke of his Testament the law of the two tables written in the heart of Christ the Son of Man from whose presence the fiery law is to be dispensed by the ministry of angels at which there wil be lightnings voices thunderings an earth quake and great haile The door into heaven being thus set open the risen witnesses are spoken to v. 12. saying come up hither or be with me in the spirit in a mind fitted to enterteine converse with me by the ministry of the holy angels And for such a blessing and benefit be not unwilling
as often as there shal be occasion to be absent from the body that you may be present with the Lord. For if herein you should appear vile in the eyes of wordly men as men beside yourselvs as David did in dancing naked before the arke yet is it to God And when you change againe from that inwardnes of life with God to be more in outward converse with men and more sober in their thoughts it is for their sakes and for their great benefit rather then yours that thereby you may be able to turn many of thē to righteousnes In this sence not excluding the literall it will be found true that the saincts shal be called to be and live in the spirit with Christ and to walk with God on earth before their translation as Enoch did Answerable to this it is said Dan. 12.2 compared with 1 Cor. 15.51 52. And many of thē that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt The spirit of our mind which sleepes in the dust of the earth wil be wrought off from that love and delight it is apt to take in making the body its home and exerting itself in such kind of operations as are in and by the use of our bodily organs and wil be gathered and carried up by the ministry of the holy angels forming a meetnes in the senses of the inward man of the heart into a converse with them and with Christ himself in spirit as a better home and city of habitation then that of the dust of the earth wherein it hath bin so long an inhabitant In order to this the soule will be endued or clothed upon with a hearing eare and a speaking tongue like to that of the angels in their immutable state And for this self same thing we are wrought by God who hath given us the earnest of his spirit already insome degree but will give it in the highest degree and measure it is atteinable before the change that comes upon us by death when this body is to be layd downe and brought into a state of actuall separation from the soule This change by death unto those that have partaken first of this awakening shal be very easy like unto the translation of Enoch who saw not death or had no sense of it in a way of pain or horrour His passage was sudden and in a moment very easy and desireable The Apostle Paul therefore speaking of this kind of change that should happen at the sounding of the seventh trumpet even in the beginning of it as we have opened does say behold I shew you a mystery that which as yet is a great secret but hereafter shal be very commonly experienced we shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shal be raysed incorruptible Those whose spirits were before as 't were asleepe in the dust of the earth and dead in respect of the spirituality and heavenlines they are now awaken'd into wil be acknowledged as in that kind and degree of resurrection which wil be made knowne at the rising of the witnesses They shall not die that is leave the body with any painfull sense of death but in a moment shal be changed and translated into glory This awakned risen state is not that which shal be peculiar only to the saincts but wicked men the children of perdition in way of everlasting contempt shall also partake of it with a like way of operation upon the spirit of their minds by wicked angels transforming themselvs into angels of light and hoping by this means to gaine credit to their ministers as ministers of righteousnes also which in a way of counterfeit resemblance the father of deceit wil be preparing during this ministry of Eliah till he be bound up by Christ from any more deceaving of the nations in this kind or any other This the Apostle Paul does very cleerly intimate 1 Cor 13.7 where he admits there may be those that may speake not only with tongues of men but also of angels who yet not having or living in the spirit of love there described will be found to be but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs vessels of great contempt compared with those that make the right and true musick Revel 14. those harpers that are taught how to sing the song of Moses and of the lamb in sweet harmony and consortship together and thereby turne many to righteousnes who shall shine like bright morning stars 3. The third particular then that shal be an eminent effect of Eliahs second comming is the raysing up in the world a more excellent way of preaching hearing and obeying the gospel then ever yet hath bin knowne upon the face of the earth even that which Rom. 11.15 is deservedly called life from the dead and is to be the means of bringing in the fullnes both of jew and gentile This is darkly pointed out by Dives in the parable Luk. 16.30 when in his answer to Abraham he sayes that if one went to his brethren from the dead they would repent hereby glancing as 't were at such a kind of excellent and powerfull ministry as was intended by God to be set up in the world whereby to bring men to repentence or as Luk. 14.23 to compel them to come in that Gods house may be filled with the fullnes both of jew and gentile This kind of ministry is that wherein both for cleernes and certainty of the matter preached and the power of that spirit in which it is ministred shal be beyond all that hath yet bin seen or experienced in the church For in this day the heavens shal be commanded to drop downe from above and the skies to poure downe righteousnes and the earth to open and bring forth salvation that righteousnes from heaven and in the earth may spring up together and this by the Lords owne most powerfull forming and creation Esay 45.8 So Psal 50.1 6. The Lord the mighty God hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the Son to the going downe thereof Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall keepe no longer silence A fire shall devoure before him and it shal be very tempestous round about him He shall call to the heavens from above or make use of the angelicall ministry in the judging of his peoples cause for them as those that he will first employ to go before him and declare his righteousnes and then afterwards will he come in his owne personall appearance and shew that he is judge himself Christ will give the angels a call nay a command and commission to prepare the hearts and mouthes of the saincts as trumpets through which they may give a certain sound to the making manifest the knowledg and vision of God and of
his law in both his Covenants so plaine that those who run may read it And unto this selfsame thing the heart and mouth of those that God will think fit to use in this ministry shal be wrought by Christ spirit as the most glorious earnest they can receave here on earth of the life in glory which they shall for ever enjoy with Christ in heaven For it shall come to passe that those who are thus called into this ministry shal be found speaking with the tongues not of men only but of angels and to have also the love requisite to distinguish them from all counterfeits Yea they shall have this love of Christ and the spirit of it perfected in them to the casting out of all torment and feare making them bold as a lion fearing the face neither of devils nor of men in the discharge of this their ministry which shal be so powerfull as to turne many even innumerable multitudes to righteousnes to the admiration of all beholders The Gentiles shal come to this light and Kings to the brightnes of the very rising thereof Then shalt thou se and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged because the noise or abundance of the sea shal be turned towards thee or multitudes and prophane persons who before were to be seen foaming out their owne filth shall now be converted to thee the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee Esay 60 5. And not the Gentiles only but the Jews also or the mysticall earthly Jerusalem consisting both of Jews and Gentiles that earth shal be made to bring forth in one day that nation shal be borne at once That Zion so soon as she travels shall bring forth her children whose wall the sons of strangers shall build up and their Kings shall minister unto her For in my wrath sayth the Lord I have smote thee but in my favour I have had mercy on thee Therefore thy gates shal be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and their Kings with them For the nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Yea those nations shal be utterly wasted In these beleevers shall Christ be admired and to the exercise of their faith all things shal be possible The power of the keyes shal be so committed to them as is promised that whatsoever they bind or loose on earth shall be bound and loosed in the heaven These will be found to be the angels that come forth out of the temple with the seven vials of Gods wrath commissionated to poure them out upon the beast the whore the false Prophet and the whole Kingdom of Antichrist They shall not need to take care as to what they are to speak and answer for themselvs when they are brought before Magistrates for Christs name sake for in that houre a mouth and wisdom shal be given unto them which their enemies shall not be able to resist 3. The third particular that shall accompany the second comming of Eliah is the neccessary consequent and product that shall and must attend the excellent and powerfull ministry above made knowne For it is by the breath of this mouth of the Lord in his servants the loud plaine and certaine sound of this seventh Trumpet even when it begins to sound that Jacob must arise as low and as small as he and the dispersed seed of God will at that time be judged to be in the eye of the world or in their owne sight Ezek. 37.11 These bones however they seeme to be dried up must live and by this breath of prophesy from the Lord that is to enter into them they shall once againe stand upon their feet with that firmnes and stability as never to fall more When the command is once given for the spirit of prophecy to come forth in that excellent and powerfull way of ministry before-mentioned it will first make a great noise amongst the inhabitants of the world It wil be a voyce of noise from the city a voyce from the temple a voyce of the Lord rendring recompence to his enemies And after the noise which shal be occasioned by this voice of the Lords second appearance to the great joy of his saints and utter shame of his and their enemies there shall immediatly follow a great shaking or earth quake where in a tenth part of the city shall fall to make way for the more easy and ready comming together of the dry bones which will thus gradually become an exceeding great multitude in excellent order For first the sinews and flesh will come upon them and the skin will cover them above but no breath in them yet This is a typicall description of the state of the witnesses who do for a season lie as it were breathlesse and dead in the street of the great city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt But upon the command given to the breath of prophesy that was called from the foure winds to breath upon these slain and cause them to live the breath comes into them and they live and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army even these dry bones of the whole house of Israel who looked upon themselvs a little before as those whose bones were dried whose hope was lost and who were cut off for their parts For at this time God will open as it were the very graves of his people and cause them to come out from thence into their owne land the land of the promised spirit Emmanuells land by putting after this admirable and extraordinary manner his spirit within them that shal be in them and to them as life from the dead causing them to know that the Lord hath opened their graves fro them and brought them into their owne land by vertue of the everlasting Covenant that he hath made with them and hath set his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore The Lord in this day will performe the word spoken by the Prophet Micah chap. 2 12 13. I will surely assemble O Iacob all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel I will put them together as the sheep of the flock in the midst of their fold They shall make a great noise by reason of the multitude of men The breaker up is come up before them they have broken up and have passed thorow the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall passe before them and the Lord on the head of them For the children of Israell shall abide many dayes without a King Prince or sacrifice image Ephod or Teraphim And afterward shall they return and seeke the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodnes in the latter dayes when the Mountaine of the house of the Lord shal be established upon the top of the Mountains and the las shall goe out of Zion and the word of the Lord from
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
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