the Angels and all the Spirits of Just men the General Assembly of all Glorious Spirits meet on Mount Sion which is a Spirit that cannot be toucht with hands The Person of thy Saviour is such a Spiritual Substance He can come into thy Closet thy Bosom thy Heart He can dwell in the same Body in the same Soul with thee in the most Inward Parts in every Part of Both and yet take up no more Room The Word which is Christ is within thee even in thy Heart and in thy Mouth in the most Inward and most Outward Part. All of Man and every Creature is either Heart or Mouth an Indrawing or an Out-driving Power the Inward Principle or the Out-ward Appearance Our Saviour divides the whole Man into Heart and Mouth when He tells us that Nothing which enters into the Mouth defiles a Man but that which comes forth from the Heart Jesus Christ is a Spirit in thy Heart and in thy Mouth He pierceth to the Bottom of the most Secret Principle of Life and Being in thee He is as Inward with That and Thee as That is with Thee He passeth quite through all over the Bredth and Length of that Body that Appearance in which thou walkest He makes it His Clothing as it is Thine This is the First Power of a Spirit 2. Power Receiving A Spirit receives other Things into self as Inwardly as Entirely as It conveys itself into Them We read of the Depths of Satan Rev. 2. 24. of the Deep Things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. We read of a Pit for the Devil which can be no other than a Spirit of Darkness and Wrath in himself or in God Rev. 20. 3. We read of Chambers for the Saints Es. 26. of a House and Mansions for them above which can be no other than Spirits of Grace and Glory in God A Spirit hath an Opening and a Depth in itself into which it can receive all things without any Breach in it self An Evil Spirit hath its Pit into which it taketh in and swalloweth up whatever it taketh hold of A Good Spirit hath its Chambers and Mansions its Retreats and Abodes in it self for what Guests it pleaseth to admit or draw in Abide in me saith Iesus Christ to his Disciples Iob. 15. 4. As every Thing may be a Temple to a Spirit Your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. As a Saint is the Temple of Christ So a Spirit may be a Temple to any Thing So the Lord Iesus is a Temple into which the Saints may at all times enter and have Communion with God Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it again This he spoke of his Body John 2. 21. The Body of Christ was a Temple shut up with a Vail before it while it was Natural But when it was made Spiritual by the Resurrection it was the most Holy place set open for thee to come into it and never to go out more Heb. 9. 1 3 8. Flesh is a mere Shadow which can only touch upon Things but can take in Nothing A Spirit is the Life and hath a Depth in it for which it is compared to Water This is the Second Power of a Spirit 3. Power Uniting The Spirit is the Band of Unity 'T is true of every Spirit so far as it hath the Nature of a Spirit in it Bodies in Flesh are Divided and Broken things being held together only so far as they are Bound up in One Spirit Bodies in Flesh converse with all things at a Distance in a Divided Manner Our Saviour is said to take away the Wall of Partition in his own Flesh when he crucified the Flesh in himself for Himself and the whole World Eph. 2. 14. A Spirit is Uncapable of Division being One in it self and making all things One with it which it takes in or converses with Spirits are compared to Flames Heb. 1. As Flames they lick up into themselves and Incorporate as it were with themselves whatever they light upon or work upon So the Power which caught up Eliah was represented by a Chariot of Fire It was as a Chariot because it took him into it self It was a Fire because it took him up into the Fellowship of One Life Glory and Spirit with it self This is the First Answer to that Question which asketh What we understand by the Person of Christ when we speak of his comprehending us 2. Answer Christ is the Highest Spirit He is Lord of all We read 2 Cor. 4. the last words thus the Spirit of the Lord. It is in Greek the Spirit the Lord. Jesus Christ is the supreme Spirit that Spirit which is Lord of All. The Majesty of our Saviour's Person consists in this that he is that Spirit which hath the most Absolute Power over all Spirits Persons and Things together with the most comprehensive Greatness A Spirit is like a Prospect the Higher it is the more Commanding and Comprehensive it is 3. Answer Christ is the Brightest Spirit He is the Brightness of the Father's Glory Heb. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Out-shining All the Effusion of Beams from the Godhead is through the Person of Christ. All the Beams meet within the Compass of that Person We before cited a Place of Scripture which calls the Spirit A Band of Unity The Lord Jesus is that Spirit in which all the Goings forth of the God-head are united as a Knot of Beams a Band a Bundle of Divine Irradiations or Manifestations This Blessed Person and Spirit is the Highest the clearest Light which as a Garden-bed discloseth and exposeth all things to view in the most natural naked and distinct manner This is the Word which being spoken all things are exprest Heb. 4. 12 13. The Word of God is lively All things are naked and bare before him with whom we have to do 4. Answer The Person of Christ is the First and Fountain-Spirit The Second Adam is a Quickning Spirit a Life-giving or Life-making Spirit All Spirits Persons and Things that have Life or are from Life they are in this Spirit as Waters in their Fountain They are in Him Primarily and Eminently They are in Him more truly than they are in themselves For they derive that which they are in themselves from Him 5. Answer Christ is the Image of God Col. 1. 15. He is the Image of the Invisible God But you may say that every thing is an Image of God one way or another It is true for St. Paul saith that the Invisible things of God are made manifest by the things that are made Rom. 1. 20. Therefore the meaning of St. Paul in that other place is that He is the Image the Full Image the Proper the Perfect Image of God All the Workings and Manifestations of God are in this Blessed Spirit and that according to their several States with their Proper Distinctions Otherwise the Image were Imperfect All the Discoveries of God are in
to sink altogether into your sensual and Corruptible Part. It will make you feed upon Dust seek a merit in and a Nourishment from your Sorrows When the Flesh hath Liberty to interpose it self in our mourning it makes our mourning Brutish or Devilish It makes our mourning Brutish by deriving it from outward and Temporal Things by terminating it on these So our Lamentations are as the howl of Dogs and cry of Bears It makes our mourning Devilish by mingling it with discontent and despair So the Roarings of our Spirits are like the yellings of Devils to Christ Art thou come to Torment us The Flesh is to be kept as a Hewer of Wood Drawer of Water We are to make use of the ways and weaknesses of it to help to break our Hearts and bring forth Tears at the direction of the Spirit in us The work of our Grief upon our Natural Part as it is in itself must be to keep it under to beat it as a Slave to destroy it as an Enemy This is the Ass which is not for Sacrifice but to have its neck broke except it be redeemed by its Subordination to the Spiritual Part. I have done speaking of the manner of Spiritual Mourning I come now to the Third Particular in the opening of the Nature of this Grief which is the Measure The Measure of Spiritual Grief hath Three Limits 1. Limit The casting out of Filth 2. Limit The casting down of Flesh. 3. Limit The clearing up of the Face of God towards us 1. Limit The casting out of Filth St. Paul 1 Corin. 5. 3. in the case of the incestuous Person blames the Church that they had not mourned that he who had done this Thing might be cast out from among them The Case is the same in our own Persons We are to mourn that every Evil Thing may be cast out of us We are to keep our Hearts in a melting temper till our Lusts be quite melted down till the Gold and the Dross be separated one from another We are to weep till we have washed our selves clean in our Tears Obj. But you may here ask What Power is there in our Tears or Sorrows to cleanse us from our Filth shall we say with the Papist that our mourning merits Grace if not of Desert yet for desire out of Congruity Or shall we say with the Arminian that our griefs are a moral way of working upon our will to mortifie that and make it weary of the Pleasures of Sin for the Pennance of Sorrow Ans. I answer to this that there is neither any merit in the Tears of any Creature to move God For if thou be Righteous it is to thy self And the Heavens with all their Hosts are Folly and Filth before Him Neither is there any Efficacy in the woes of man to purge the will of man For who can bring a clean Thing out of an unclean Can any one redeem his Brother from Death Can one Passion or affection in Man by a Death in Sorrow redeem his Brother another Passion or affection from the Death of Sin They must let this alone for ever But the Spiritual Griefs of a Saint are the Buddings of Aaron's Rod of the the Cross of the Lord Jesus in him And from hence they have their value with God and their Vertue on us 1. First my Sorrows have a value with God as they are the Sufferings of my Saviour in me St. Paul saith of himself 1 Colos. 24. I rejoyce in my Sufferings while I fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my Flesh for his Bodies sake All the Sufferings of Believers are the Sufferings of Christ propagating themselves thorow his mystical Members We are one Spirit with our Lord Jesus in our Tribulations as well as in our Consolations Our Groans as much as our Gloryings are the Breathings of that Spirit As the Soul is all in all the Parts of the Body making every Member a part of the Humane Nature putting upon it the Beauty of that Nature So is Jesus Christ in every Thing of the actings or Sufferings of Christ any where giving a Divine Beauty and worth to it by vertue of the Union 2 Corin. 4. 10. Always bearing about in my Body the Dying of the Lord Jesus that the Life of the Lord Jesus may be made manifest in my Body This St. Paul saith of himself The Tears from our eyes are the Blood from the Heart of the Lord Jesus Though not as our Tears yet as his Blood they have Power with God to bring forth his life in us Jesus Christ dies over again in thy griefs that so he may act his Resurrection over again in thy Graces The Father makes a Promise to the Lord Jesus Es. 53. 10. When he shall make his Soul an offering for Sin he shall he see his Seed This is an Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son that when he hath descended to the lowermost parts of the Earth he should then begin to ascend When the Image of the Invisible God hath put itself off into the Strange Forms of Darkness and Death then is it to spring up again out of these and again to behold itself in its own proper shape and power which is its Seed Thy Saviour and Husband makes his Soul an Offering for Sin in all the Sufferings of thy Soul Therefore mayest thou now challenge it of the Father in the name of Jesus Christ that he may see in thee his Seed which is the Power of an endless Life Thou mayest say behold O my God! by him whose the Signet and the Staff is the Glory and Power of thy God-Head by him am I in these Pangs and Sorrows Let then a Man-child be born in my Heart which may be called after his name that I may rejoyce in it and remember my Sorrow no more Thy Benjamin is come before thee into the Land of Aegypt as thy servant in my servitude Thy Darling hath brought himself into my guilt and griefs he stands before thee in them The Lamb of God a slain in my sufferings O then let it be a Passover that the evil Angel of Lust and Misery may pass from the house of my Spirit when he sees the blood of this Lamb in my Tears sprinkled upon the Posts of the Door 2. Secondly Our Sorrows have a vertue on us as they are the Sufferings of Iesus Christ in us Galat. 6. 14. God forbid saith Paul that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus by which the world is crucified to me and I to the World As the Person of Christ is the Seed of God which springs up into many Sons to God so is the Cross of the Lord Jesus a Seed that remains not alone but brings forth much Fruit. It grows up into a multitude of Crosses a Cross in each good Heart a Cross in every Creature of this world This Cross of Christ is the wisdom and
persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit In the First of these verses Jerusalem above is said to be the Mother of us all In the Second these All us are expounded to be the Children of Promise In the Third verse the same persons are described by being born after the Spirit This Phrase of being born after the Spirit is fully explained by that of Jesus Christ from whence it seemeth to be taken John 3. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit To be born after the Spirit and of the Spirit signifie both the same thing Is it not then evident that the Jerusalem above which is free which is the mother of all the Spiritual Seed is the Eternal Spirit after which a Saint is born that is of this Spirit and in the Image of this Spirit where there is Liberty 2 Corin. 4. Now lay the Third Scripture by these two Heb. 12. 22. We are come to Mount Sion the Heavenly Hierusalem the City of the living God to the Millions of Angels the general Assembly to the Church of the First-born written in Heaven to the Spirits of just men made perfect to God to Jesus Christ. Before we Saw Hierusalem above and the Spirit now we see Mount Sion and the Heavenly Hierusalem to be the same Is it not then an infallible demonstration that Sion and the Holy Spirit are One as the Type and the Truth Can any other be the living City of the living God where all the Holy Angels the First-born of the Father the Spirits of all Saints as well on Earth as in Heaven Jesus Christ in his Mediatory Kingdom the Father upon the Throne of Judicature meet and appear together in the full liberty of Eternal Light Love and Joy besides the Unity of the Spirit which is the Sweet and Sacred band between the two Glorious Persons in the Trinity between all pure Spiritual Divine Beings above and below This is the Spring and Immortal Seat of them all 2. We have in this place another Person set forth by this bright and lovely Character the Perfection of Beauty We may discover our own Beloved and Bridegroom the Lord Jesus under this Title if we bring to it the Lights of two other Scriptures shining like this by his Appearance in them In Heb. 1. 3. He is stiled the Brightness of Glory Is not this the same as to say The Perfection of Beauty 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined in our hearts unto the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ Can Face answer Face in a Glass more exactly than these Two Scriptures answer one another In both you have God God shining in one you have God shining from the Perfection of Beauty in the other God shining with a Light of Glory in the Face or Person of Christ. God in all the Creatures whether they be Visible or Invisible casts forth Shadows only of Himself Then he appeareth in the Perfection of Beauty when he appeareth in the Person of Christ as Light in the Body of the Sun 3. But why are these two so joyned as if they were the same Thing from Sion the perfection of Beauty I will not examine whether we may not disjoyn them in reading by putting in between them and or in Particles frequently understood from Sion and or in the Perfection of Beauty God shineth This needeth not There is plainly a difference between the English and the Hebrew The Hebrew runneth word for word thus From Sion from the Perfection of Beauty God hath shined So you have the Three Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity clearly distinguished and united in this shining of the God-Head The Father shineth from the Spirit his holy hill of Sion from the Person of Christ the Perfection of Beauty These Two Persons are placed here as One in Another a Globe of Light in a Globe of Light and the Father shining from them both to awaken in us this great and glorious Truth that the Persons of the Sacred Trinity have their Perfection in each other and are ever undivided when they appear nakedly in their proper Forms The whole Trinity is the Crown of Beauty upon every one of them In particular Jesus Christ never appears as the Perfection of Beauty but when he and the Spirit appear both in One 2 Cor. 3. from the 14th to the end you read of a vail upon the Face of Moses the Person of Christ in the Type then of a vail upon the Hearts of the Jews These are both the same vail For the vail is never upon the Person of Christ properly and simply but upon the Eye of our Spirits as the Cloud is never upon the Body of the Sun but upon our Corporeal Eyes For as that doth in the midst of its world so doth the Person of Christ in the midst of all things ever comprehend and contemplate himself and all things in the simple and pure Light of his own naked Beauties But then in the same place we read that the Vail is taken away in Christ and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty that is freedom from the Vail Christ is seen unvailed in his naked Glories It is added Now the Lord is that Spirit Then mention is made in the last verse of beholding the Glory of the Lord with open Face that is Eye to Eye the naked Eye of our Souls to the naked Eye of his Beauties every Spirit being all Eye The verse is closed thus as by the Spirit of the Lord or more agreeably to the Greek as of the Lord the Spirit I have alledged all this to make it plain to you and to seal it upon your understandings and memories that Jesus Christ is then only seen in his true Person and shape without a vail when he is seen in the Spirit when Christ and the Spirit are seen as two distinct Persons in One. Sion the Type of the Spirit signifieth Vision Hierusalem the Figure of the same Spirit the Heavenly Hierusalem is by interpretation the Heavenly Vision of Heavenly Perfection and Peace The Lord Jesus is the Perfection of Beauty the Heavenly Harmony of all things the Peace of all Hearts and Desires The Person of the Spirit is the Heavenly Vision of this Heavenly Perfection By the way observe that the Holy Ghost speaks in this 50 Psal. of the Day of Judgement the Second and last Coming and Appearance of our Lord and Saviour after which he shall go away and disappear no more See here what manner of Appearance this is in what State in what Form the King of Glory comes to the Marriage of his Bride and to reign upon the Earth He comes in a Spiritual and Divine Form in the Person of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit is an anointing of Beauty upon the whole Person of our Beloved He again is a Sun of Beauty looking forth in the Person of Spirit Nay the
the Victory the Joy and Crown of the Feast I know you prevent me in your thoughts you who love the Lord Jesus by applying this to your Prince your Beloved and his Love his Bride your own Souls I shall bring down all to my purpose and to your practice in the exercise of those Principal and Triumphant Graces Faith Love Heavenly Joy by three Conclusions or Spiritual Maxims 1. Conclu All the Armies of God all the Powers of the God-Head the innumerable Companies of holy Angels and blessed Spirits all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth with their Captain the Lord Jesus at the head of them move and fight in their courses under the Banner of Love Thy Person in a glorious Image of all Divine Beauties is figured upon the Banner as this Eternal Princes Love Love to thee is wrought upon the Banner in Characters of Glory This is the Cause of all motions in Heaven and Earth To this Banner all Powers every where resort unto this they are united under this they march and fight 2. Conclu The Lord Jesus as Captain of the Lord's Hosts with all his Heavenly Armies his ten thousands of Angels his Chariots of fire and Horses of fire continually encompasseth thee marcheth encampeth round about tâ—ee as his chiefest Treasure his Love with Banners of Love spred and displaid over thee on every side of thee round about Every step thou takest in thy way to Heaven is in the midst of these Warriours All Divine Powers continually circle thee in The Invisible and Invincible Hosts of God under the conduct of thy Beloved Jesus are thy perpetual Guard and Convoy In the midst of these thou walkest â—ittest and lyest down thou wakest and sleepest Psal. 91. 11. The Angels have a charge of thee from their Prince and thy Bridegroom that they keep thee in all thy ways that they bear thee in their hands least at any time thou strike thy foot against a stone that thou never stumble The Angels of God are thy Chariots of War thy Chariots of State thy Chariots of Love thy Chariots for Travel in which thou journiest thorow this Wilderness to thy Kingdom the Kingdom of Love and Glory All this they are in one They make thy way thy Palace in the midst of thy Kingdom for Strength for Glory for Delights for Rest in thy Love They bear thee up above in the light of Life in the Life of Divine Love This is the way high and lifted up above all the Powers of Darkness and Death in which they carry thee along that thou mayst never strike thy foot against any stone of offence against any hard and hurtful Form of Darkness Enmity or Death Thy Jesus the Bosom of thy Beloved is this way 3. Conclu These Banners of Love which are spred over thee in thy marches here the same hang streaming over thy head to Eternity and over the Head of thy King as thou fittest at the Feast with him in Heaven The Fights about thee here are the Trophies and Triumphs at the Feast here The same Love is figured on all which maketh all precious Stones and Jewels in thy Marriage-Crown and Crown of Glory to shine there and adorn it for ever Use. The Use which we make of this is to see the difference between the two states of a Saint and a Sinner a Believer and him who believeth not 1. See the blessedness of â— Believer Heb. 1. 2. Jesus Christ is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God that is of Love the express Image of the Substance or Person of God that is of Love For God is Love v. 6. 7. When God bringeth his Son again that is after his Resurrection in his Spiritual and Heavenly Appearance into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He hath made all his Ministers Spirits and his Angels a flame of Fire This concerneth thee O Believer and is spoken of thee O the blessedness of that Soul which indeed receiveth Jesus Christ and his Love by Faith if only thou didst know thine own happiness God hath brought his Son in his second Appearance in his Spirit into thine Heart He is in thee the brightness of the Glory of Love that is of the Divine Nature shining in the midst of thee This is that Eternal Sun from which all blessed Spirits continually drink in the Light Influences Joys of Life and Immortality He is in thee the express Image of Love which is the Substance and Person of God This setteth itself thorow him as a Seal upon thine Heart Now the Power of God is a Servant to his Love in thee Now God saith Let all the Angels of God worship how down to serve my Love in this Soul God himself maketh his Angels Flames of Love enfolding thee penetrating thy Body and Spirit shining within thee round about thee continually in the darkest night He maketh his Angels Ministring Spirits to thee Spirits of Glory Minister Love to thee after an Invisible manner in all visible Things Every moment of time every Circumstance or Accident in time are the Wings of Angels a Chariot of Angels carrying thee above the snares of Death below into Heaven This is thy Portion who believest in the Lord Jesus and his Love 2. See the misery of Unbelievers How wretched art thou who believest not who sayest to the Love of God and the Tydings of it from Heaven Depart from me I have no pleasure in you Those Powers of Darkness that are ever ready to raise up Leviathan from his Stormy deep below curse thee All evil Spirits are Flames of Wrath burning within thee burning from without upon thee alwaies in the midst of thy Jollities at thy Feasts on thy Beds of pleasure Evil Spirits are ever Ministring Wrath to thee after an Invisible manner thorow all Visible Things Devils are thy Chariots These wrap thee up in a thick Cloud in the blackness of Darkness and hurry thee to Hell O be not unbelievers but believe that you may inherit the Land of Love and dwell in it for ever Love inviteth wooeth you to believe that is to receive itself into your Hearts Love will bring its own entertainment and make the Feast for itself if you for your parts will but take it in as a guest 3. Instance The Righteousness of God serveth his Love Rom. 5. l. Grace reâ—gneth by Righteousness unto Eternal Life thorow Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is Love in its Fountain Love upon the Throne Love is brought in here by the Apostle under the name of Grace as a King Eternal Life Heaven is the Kingdom of Love Jesus Christ is the chief Minister of State to this great King God is Love sitting upon the Throne The Lord Jesus is the same supream Love descending from the Throne to be the Universal Servant and General Officer throughout all this Kingdom of Love Righteousness is the Scepter of the King Thy Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousness Psal. 45. Love reigneth by
of that Sacrament pointing out the Truth figured in that Type The Lord Jesus is a Husband to Thee in his own Blood Thou must also be a Spouse to him in thine own Blood St Paul saith Ye are dead to your first Husband by the Dead Body of Christ that ye may be married to another to him who is risen from the Dead Rom. 7. 4. You must come thorow the Death of Christ into his Marriage-Bed You cannot lye down in the Embraces of his Love in Glory except ye be first married to his Crucified Body and united to that in the Embraces of Death Flesh and Blood saith St Paul cannot enter into the Kingdom of God into the Kingdom of Spiritual Love If a Fleshly a Natural Spirit striveth to enter into the Love of God in the Glorified Person of our Lord Jesus it â—alleth short of the Truth the Life it attaineth to a Similitude only The Love and Glory of the Father of Christ of Heaven to the most raised Spirit of this Creation is an Enchantment Delusion a Dream This Gâ—ace of God in the Figure this Divine Love in a Dream is for the most part turned into Wantonness Lust. So men become in the heighth of the Purest Notions of the Sweetest Images no more than Filthy Dreamers The Death of Christ in the New Birth in Purity and Power of the holy Ghost is the Angel with a Flaming Sword turning every way which keepeth the Entrance into the True Paradise the Way to the Tree of Divine Love as well as of Divine Life The Eternal Spirit is the Flaming Sword Death here in its outward form is an Angel ministring to this Spirit He that dieth by this Sword and Flame in the hand of this Angel cutteth off burneth up all Fleshly Forms and Lives is in the same moment new-born into a Divine Immortal Spirit In this Spirit he entereth into the Paradise of Love in the Third Heavens above the Heaven of Sense or all things Visible above the Heaven of Reason Angels all things Invisible Intellectual of the First Creation in the Glorified Person of Christ. Here nothing entereth which hurteth or defilâ—th But be not discouraged when ye hear of a Baptism in Death before the Heavens open and the Dove Divine Love descend to rest upon you to give you rest in itself It is Love itself which is the Baptiser which leadeth you and goeth down with you into Death It is a River of Love which is the Jordan the Death into which you go down and are baptised We are baptised St. Paul saith in the forementioned place into the Similitude of Christ's Death The Death of Christ was Death in Truth a Substantial Real Death The Death of Christ in a Saint is Eternal Love Eternal Life in the Likeness and Form of Death a Similitude onely of Death in a Substance of Immortal Love and Glory in the Person of our Jesus ascended Use. 4. Take heed of mingling the Lusts of the Flesh with Spiritual Loves Jealousy is the Rage of God as well as of Man It burneth to the Foundations of the Earth A Fly bred out of Dung so infested the Eagle that it forced him to lay his Eggs for safety in the Lap of Jupiter the Heathen-God The Fly mounteth up aloft carrieth up some Dung with it letteth it fall into Jupiter's lap He arising and shaking the Dung out of his Lap shaketh ouâ— the Eagle's Eggs with it which fall broken to pieces upon the ground This is a Fable The Moral is good Thou art a Saint Thou layest the Births of the Divine Spirit in Thee thy Graces Hopes Joyes with thy self in the Bosom of Divine Love O take heed that thy Flesh that Dung-Fly mingle nothing of its Filth with these Births of the Spirit in the Pure Bosom of Heavenly Love If it do assure thy self that Love will cast all the Filth all Flesh out of its Chast and Spiritual Embraces As that falleth to the Ground thou also wilt fall with it and have many a broken bone many a broken heart We read in the Revelation of the Dragon and his Angels in Heaven together with Michael and his Angels But they fought there till the Dragon and his Angels were cast out Thou O Believer art a Heaven in which God dwelleth as Love where all the Angels as Angels of Love where all Forms of things are as Heavenly Angels of Pure Love round about him ministring to him Shall there be now seen in this Heaven in thy Person O Believer silthy Lusts furious Passions the Dragon and his Angels together with the Lord Jesus Divine Love and its holy Angels How hateful how horrid a Wonder What a Prodigy is this If it be so let there be no rest in the Heaven of thy Spirit let there be a continual Fight until the Dragon with his Angels the Fleshly Spirit with its Lusts and Passions be cast out When the Unclean Dog and the fiery Dragon are no more Thy Lamb will feed and lye down to rest thy Turtle will make its Nest and enjoy its Mate its Beloved in quiet Nothing shall disturb or make them afraid in all the Paradise of Divine Love Use. 5. Comfort your selves O Believers You travel thorough the Valley of Baca Baca signifieth a Mulberry Tree and Weeping You travel thorow a Valley of Tears a Mournful Valley where all the Trees that grow are Mulberry Trees Emblems of Grief and Wo. You are frequently overspread with the black Shades of Fear Unbelief Doubt Distrust Despair You often fall into the hands of violent Robbers Evil Spirits in the forms of various Temptations Corruptions Passions These spoil you leave you naked wounded desolate You dig up pits in Duties Ordinances But many times no Rain no Descent of the Spirit from Heaven filleth these Pits Yet be not discouraged all you who believe the Love of God in Jesus Christ. Strengthen the feeble Knees You shall go on from Strength to Strength from Light to Light so you shall come every one of you at last to a Clear Sight to a Compleat Fruition of the God of Gods on Mount Sion of God in his Supreme Glory in the Nakedness Purity Simplicity Unity of the Eternal Spirit Lift up the feeble hands These weak Graces of yours mixt interrupted with so much Corruption These weak Persons Bodies and Spirits wearied wounded stained with so many Sufferings Sins and Sorrows shall be crowned with perfect Glory For why Pure Love Almighty Love That Love which is itself God over all Blessed for ever This Love comes forth casting off all vails pouring forth itself from all its Eternal Springs in all its Infinite Fulnesses in the Glorified Person of Christ This Love hath begun and shall it not make an End As Certainly as it hath laid the Foundation and you have cried to it Grace Grace Pure Love Preventing Love as Certainly as it hath gone on to build you up thus far and still you have cried to it Grace Grace Pure Love
Confirmation I will open it in three Parts 1. The Change 2. The Circumstances 3. The Cause of this Change Part 1. The Change There are two States to be considered in this Part. 1. The State of Man before this Change 2. The State to which this Change is made 1. State That of Man before this Change Man before his Conversion walks in a threefold Image 1. The Image of Nature 2. The Image of the Devil 3. The Image of Divine Wrath. 1. Image of Nature St. Paul tell us 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Man Earth and Heaven are here opposed not as Men and Angels Visible and Invisible things but as the State of things in the Creature and in Christ. So it appears manifestly by the Context of that place that the first Adam the Earthly Man the first Creation Nature in the Visible and Invisible things of it are all the same thing and One Image Into this Image Man is born of his Natural Parents In this he lives Naturally This Image hath three things in it 1. 'T is a Representation 2. 'T is a Meer Representation 3. 'T is a Mixt One 1. The Image of Nature is a Representation The Earthly Man is an Image of God as well as the Heavenly St. Paul teacheth us Rom. 5. 14. in the latter part of it that the first Adam is a figure of him who is to come that is Jesus Christ. Whatever Rich workings and various forms are in him who is the Wisdom of God Whatever Depth of Life Heighth of Activity Store of Virtues are in him who is the Power of God Whatever ravishing Beauties are in him who is the Brightness of the Father's Glory Whatever endless Sweetnesses of Love Loveliness mutual Relations are in him who is the first the Only begotten of the Father All these are figured out and represented to us in the Earthly Image This is the first thing 2. The Image of Nature is a Meer Representation It hath a show of things but not the very things themselves We read Psal. 39. 5. Man at his best Estate is altogether vanity Take the first Man at his Best as he was crown'd with the whole Quire of Angels when they were the first and freshest Rayes of Divinity among the Creatures as he was cloath'd with the heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars while yet they were the near and transparent Images of Angels living in them as he hath spread about his Feet all the Delicacies of Air Earth and Sea when they were Pure and Chrystalline Reflections of the heavenly Bodies The first Man in this State was a meer Phantome a fleeting Fancy a Bubble Vanity quite thorow and so he vanisht in his Fall Gen. 1. 27. God made Man in his own Image Psal. 39. 6. Surely Man walketh in a vain show Those two expressions Image vain Show are both the same in Hebrew TSelem If you translate the same word in Genesis as it is translated in the Psalm you will then read thus God made Man in a vain show of himself Obj. But you may object thus against this If God be Omnipresent and fill All how can any thing be a Representation of him without him He is at the bottom of the Sea in the shades of Death and Hell Psal. 139. 8 9 10. Can any thing be a meer Show when he who is All is every where and fills each Show of things Ans. 'T is true as Euthydemus the Heathen taught of old All things are in each thing Or as St. Paul since him hath Preacht upon clearer grounds God is a Fulness filling all in All Eph. 1. 23. But this also is true that All things are in each thing according to the Manner of that in which they are God is as truly in the Froward as in the Gentle Spirit But we learn the Differences of his Presence from David Psal. 18. 26. With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward God is not only on Mount Sion but on Mount Sinai yet so that on Mount Sinai he is a flame of fire on Mount Sion a calm and clear Light So God is in Himself and in the Creature In Himself he is Himself the Eternal Rock and Substance of things He is in the Creature only as his own Shadow This is the Infiniteness and Unsearchableness of God He comprehends the thinnest Shadows in Himself and makes them there Substantial Again he casts Himself into every Shadow or Show and Himself there becomes but shadowy Thus he is All in All. Thus much for the second thing in the Natural Image 3. The Image of Nature is a Mixt Representation The Making of the World was divided into so many Parts as Days each Day had its Night a Morning and an Evening made the Day This was to signifie that the Fundamental Constitution of this frame of things was laid in a commixture of Light and Darkness These two mutually catch and enfold one another The Light discovers God The Darkness obscures that Discovery so that seeing we do not see The Light pleaseth us the Darkness perplexeth those pleasures so that this Life is as a Shady Valley as a Shadow of Life and Death Heaven and Hell both in one The Light invites and allures us to those Immortal Seats above pointing out a shining Path to them The Darkness affrights us and drives us back casting a mist of Doubt upon those beautiful Beings presenting it self between them and us as a Dreadful Gulf to be pass'd Nature is by this means an Image of the Perfections which are beyond Nature but an Imperfect one God speaks it Isa. 55. 9. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my waies higher than your waies and my thoughts than your thoughts The waies of God are the unchang'd workings of Glory perpetually casting it self into all Changes in the Divine Nature The Thoughts of God are the deepest Roots the most spatious Expansion and Putting forth the fixt and glorious Platforms or Figures of things in the Godhead The Waies and Thoughts of Man are the figurings of things in Nature or according to the Forms of Nature This is a certain Rule The first thing in every kind is the Original and Substance all second things are Images of that The first thoughts and waies are those in God The Waies of Nature the Thoughts in Man are second to those and so Images of them but with as vast a Difference as the Distance is between Heaven and Earth Thus Imperfect and Mixt is Nature yet an Image of Divine Perfections and Purity We have now taken a view of the first Image in which Man walks before his Change Use 1. Excitation The first Use is to awaken in us a Sense of our State as we are Men. This would very advantagiously direct sweeten assist our Conversion Let us then to this end consider these four Questions 1.
Content Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah but she meets an Angel that sweetly sends her back thither where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit Hagar this Fleshly Being the Bond-woman This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress she flies from her Face her Appearances which oppress the Flesh with their Glory But the bright Images of this Beauty as Angels meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight in the Principles of Nature By the flashes and breakings forth of these Man is persuaded to return and submit himself to the supreme Beauty his Mistress and Parent so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father Happy is that Soul that after all her weary steps thorow the world to seek Content now tyred thinks of Returning to her Father her first Husband and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb out of which I was brought forth into this world Thy Sweetness is the Bosom in which I must eternally rest How long shall I linger here O when shall I once leave this world and come again to thee Q. 4. How come we hither Thorow a Darkness You shall in the first of Genesis see that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature thorow which all things pass out of one into the other This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World or any Creature When we come into this life we come well drencht drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness There is no more any Remembrance of former things We know not where we were when God laid the Foundations of the Earth or what we were before that when all our Bones were first written by God in his Book when first those Eternal Forms which were to frame and sustain every shape or state into which we should pass were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom We are of Yesterday and know nothing We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us and swallows up this into it self as it passeth along Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wild Asses Coâ—t Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt as void as that of all Eternal Images Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World all which you must put off so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness into which you must return Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life Those waters of Forgetfulness into which we must all descend will wash them all away Imagine this Life as an Island surrounded with a Sea of Darkness beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity Blessed is he that can raise himself to such a Pitch as to look off this Island beyond that Darkness to the utmost bound of things He sees his way before and behind him What shall trouble him on this Twig of Life on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight Thou cam'st through a darkness hither but Yesterday when thou wer 't born Why then shouldst thou not more readily and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills Let us then ever be in Tune to sing that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing and so much-suffering Job Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb Naked shall I return thither again The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Blessed be the name of the Loâ—d Naked camest thou my Soul thorough a Darkness into this World strip't of all the Glories above Naked must thou return again out of this World quite strip't of all the Glories and Griefs here The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God while thou art in that Darkness Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories Eye to Eye Heart in Heart They and Thou being made One Life One Spirit and without Partition or Vail Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us If this Face of Nature which now presents it self to us have such Beauties Greatnesses Varieties as ravish us from all sense of our selves our present safety our souls our God from the Love and Delight which from them flow into our Spirits what Sights what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ what Ravishments would surprize us and snatch us out of Flâ—sh if we saw Him For Nature and this World is but the Earthly Inferiour Imperfect Image of God and of the Person of Christ which is the Heavenly and Supream Image Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes But if we saw Him we should much more despise Ten thousand Worlds ten thousand times heightned in Glory as a heap of Dunghills in Comparison of Him Our Blindness our Blindness clips the wings of Desire clogs the Spirit of Delight in us O Jesus cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls and we shall run from all things after thee fly beyond all things towards Thee How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces Shew thy self to me and set many Worlds many Death 's more between me and thy self my Spirit shall shoot it self like an Arrow thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine can Translate me as Enoch or Eliah of old I have thus Finish'd the First Image in which man lives before his Conversion The Image of Nature 2. Image of the Devil The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image The First was that of Nature the Second this of the Devil which we now are to take a view of But what can we see or say of this Who can draw a Picture of or describe Darkness and Confusion The Power of Darkness and Division prevailing over the Powers of Light and Love in the Creature This is the Devil If you will pourtray a Devil
Thing Two Things make a Reality in the Soul 1. The Object 2. The Inward Affections 1. The Object As the Woman is to the Man his Image his Glory in the Image So is the Soul to her Object If she espouse her self to the Lying Vanities of this World she makes her self one with them both Vanity and a Lye If she cleave to the Rock of Ages the Rock of the Godhead growing to that growing up out of that she becomes a Living Stone a Rock of Eternity in her self This is the First Motion in Religion the winding of the Soul about the utmost point of the Creature and turning in towards God again This is the Discriminating Dividing Temper between Religious and unregenerate Persons the Touching of the Soul with God as the Needle is touch't with the Load-stone when it may have various agitations yet it feels the Impressions of God in the midst of all when it can never establish or quiet itself in any posture save then only when it is pointed on God My Soul hath said to the Lord thou art my Portion Lamen 3. Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me He is at my Right hand I shall not be moved God is our Assistant there where he is our Object at our Hand if he be in our Eye This is the Life and Essence of Religion the exaltation of God in our Spirits as our Chief Object to which and by which we are directed Examine thy self by this If the world be all to thee and God a Fancy then art thou like that world a Fancy and a Bubble If God be all to thee and the world a Dream then thou hast Strength Life and Substance For thou art one with him who is the Life Strength Substance Being of all things Is thy Heart as a Hearth on which Thorns only blaze Are the workings of thy Spirit like thin and fine Smoak slight and vanishing Can then there be any Religion where there is no Reality He is the Religious man who graspes Substance who digs thorow all things till he meets with a sure Foundation who hath taken hold of something Solid Satisfactory Everlasting at which his Soul stops on which she stays her self I hate them saith David that look to lying Vanities but my trust is in the Lord. There is a Three-fold Sense of things which makes a Religious man Real 1. Sense of this World's sorrows 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. 3. Sense of Divine Love 1. Sense of this World's sorrows No man is in the Spirit of Christ who hath not been at the Cross in the Grave of Christ and there seen the end of all this world's Glories Who beholds things in the Eternal Light He that hath first seen this world in a Fire out of which it falls into blackness of Darkness By the Cross of Christ the World is crucified to me saith St. Paul I come to kindle a Fire in the World saith our Saviour and what will I if it be already Kindled They that go down into the Deep see the Wonders of the Lord saith the Psalmist Whoever is gone up to Heights of Grace hath gone down into the Deep of the First Creation and seen Wonders of Darkness there Jonah tells us of himself Jon. 2 6. I went down to the bottom of the Muntains the bars of the Earth were about me for ever Hast thou descended with thy Saviour to the Bottom of this Creation hast thou seen about thee those everlasting Bars of Darkness which bear up and bound this Creation Then shew us the effect which Solomon mentions in Ecclesiastes A sad Countenance makes a good Heart As Darkness contracts the Eye unites the Fancy and makes it strong So a sad Face of things makes the Spirit gather up itself into itself live serious and Recollected 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. We saith St. Paul knowing the Terrours of the Lord persuade men 2. Cor. 5. 11 If we know God we know his Terrours and what the Power of his Wrath is can we not then persuade our selves to be serious Have you seen the Treasures of wrath laid up with God for those that harden their Hearts in Sloth and Sense to an insensibleness of Spiritual and Eternal things Have you heard those seven-times-seven fold increases of Fury upon those who go on in Vanity and yet say it shall not be so it shall be well with them Cannot these things make you Real and Sober If still vanity be your Life your Food your Joy if still Lightness be your Air and Shadows the Game which you hunt with your Reason and Senses then fear lest you have seen Shadows only of these Objects lest your Religion too be vain 3. Sense of Divine Love The Scripture saith in one place to good men The Joy of the Lord shall be your Strength Such as the Nourishment of our Spirit is such will its Constitution and our Conversation be If our Food our Joy be Divine and we eat the Bread of Angels our Lives will be Divine and our Faces shine with Angelical Beams If our Delights be Vanity and we feed on wind our Spirits and Conversation will be windy The same Solomon that said of Mirth what dost thou And of Laughter it is Madness Eccles. 2. 2. He saith Prov. 3. The ways of Wisdom are ways of Peace and all her Paths are pleasantness Spiritual Pleasures are Serious ones as Grave as Wisdom itself for they are her Walks The Love of Christ constrains us saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. The Love of Christ holds in binds up and unites the Spirit not suffering it to pour forth itself loosely That Liberty which is Daughter to Divine Love what a Stranger is it to Licentiousness Those Sweetnesses which flow from God and his Glories how do they look down upon and despise Empty Mirths and mad Laughters A Bride made a Woman of a Cat and set among the Guests in the bridal Chambear on a sudden runs after a Mouse which stir'd in a Corner of the Room If thy Soul be still ready to fly at every vanity which is at any time started in the eye of it thou maist be cloth'd with the Form of a Heavenly Bride but sure thou hast still a Brutish Spirit Thus you see how the Object of a Religious man makes him Real The Second Reality in Religion is that of Inward Affections 2. The Inward Affections My Son saith Wisdom in the Proverbs give me thy Heart Perhaps you give to God your Feet to carry you to Sermons you give him your Hands to work or fight for him you give him your Tongue to discourse of Him but have you given him your Heart Doth that cleave to him long and pant after him sigh for him live only in Him David saith to God Psâ—l 51. Thou lovest Uprightness in the Inward parts The more Inward any thing is the more Upright it is Are thy frequentest Groans such as thou dost not express thou canst not express such as thy Spirit
Coming is not Natural nor the Manifestation Moral both are Supernatural and Spiritual tâ—e Drawing of the Father A Seed hath a Power or Principle which sent it forth abides in it and works thorow it It hath also an Image which grows up out of it Jesus Christ is the Seed in the Soul of Man the Father is the Power the Son is the Image in this Seed When a Corn is cast into the ground a Power goes forth from it into the Earth round about which attracts and draws it which unites and incorporates it with the Seed which sends it forth again in the Form of that Plant first in the Herb then in the Blade last in the Ear. So the Father thorow Jesus Christ diffuseth himself into the whole Soul draws it into Christ who lies there as a Seed makes it One with him who brings it forth again into his own Form and Fruit. St. James saith Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will beg at be us by the Word of Truth The Word is the Seed of Truth Christ Jesus in us The Will of God is composed of those two forementioned A Supream Fulness a Soveraign Sweetness These powerfully and pleasantly stir up the Godhead to bring forth the creatures and to bring forth it self in the creatures These delightfully and effectually move God to propagate himself endlesly and infinitely These heats of love the delights of fruitfulness are the inward and only Motives which put on our heavenly Father to quicken his Seed in us to make it grow up by degree till it hath perfectly brought forth it self into its own form and fulness Thus St. Paul tells us Gal. 1. 16. It pleased the Father to reveal his Son in him As the Sun draws up the Plants out of their Roots and discovers them to the open Air so the Father reveals and discloseth Jesus Christ in the Soul 4. Cause The Ministry of Man to Man Heb. 1. 14. We read that Angels are made Ministring Spirits for the good of those that are to inherit Salvation So it pleaseth God often to make men as Angels to minister Spiritual things to their Brethren It is one of the Mysteries of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit The great God is pleased by the Fleshly waies of man's doing speaking writing reading living to express and convey himself A Learned man admires it as having a Height of Wonder in it that so low so narrow so dark dead divided things as words and letters should carry into our Souls the highest Images of the divinest Life Truth and Glory This is the Infiniteness of the Godhead which brings forth itself in the greatest Variâ—ty of Shapes yet still keeps the Unity preserves it self entire and full in every one Thus the Divine Nature imprints it self upon the thoughts of Earthly man as scattered Dust and by the Motions of this Dust in words implants it self by one Man upon the Soul of another There is a Three-fold Ministry of Man by which God works in the Conversion of men 1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God 2. Exhortation by words to men 3. Example of life before men 1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God for men St. Paul describes Prayer Rom. 8. 27. God heareth His Spirit for it makes intercessions in us according to his will Prayer is the Conception of the Soul when it hath taken in from Heaven the Spirit in the Form of some Divine Blessing Then it grows big with this Blessing it travels with it it labours to raise it self into God that by the clearness of his Light by the fulness of his Life it may bring it forth to perfection A Spiritual man is like Abraham who had in himself that Seed in which all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed He hath conceived with a Seed of Blessedness to all Creatures Therefore as Paul travelled in birth with the Galatians till Christ was formed in them so doth a good man travel in birth by Prayer having many Pangs and Throws in the Spirit till this Blessedness be formed in each Soul St. Paul tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours c. A Heavenly Spirit is an Universal Father it lookâ— upon all Creatures as its own Off-spring or Bowels As Job sacrificed constantly for his Children while they were feasting in their course So is this Spirit praying for the Souls of men while they are playing away themselves in Vanity This is the First Ministry 2. Exhortation by words to men David promiseth and prophesieth Psal. 51. 13. I will teach transgressâ—urs thy ways and Sinners shall be converted unto thee Before in the former verse he had prayed Restore thy Ioy and establish thy free Spirit in me Then he adds I will teach transgressours thy ways the ways of thy Love and Wisdom with man Sinners shall be converted unto thee that is by the report of thy sweet Contrivances upon me and Compassions towards me When the Heart feels the Waters of Divine Life and Joy bubling up warm from the bosom of the Godhead then the Tongue becomes the Pen of a ready Writer labouring to imprint the Form of the same Life and Joys upon other hearts also If you will have me weep when you speak weep your self you that speak said a Wise man When a man utters those heavenly Loves Truths Delights of Jesus Christ in which his own Soul lies melting and bathing her self while he reports them Then he often hath his Tongue made the Quill of the Godhead by which he toucheth other Souls and makes the same Musick upon them David call his Tongue his Glory because by it he displayed that Glory of God which was treasured up in his heart to the view of many Hearts St. Paul tells us that God hath chosen the Foolishness of Preaching to make it His Power unto Salvation God sends down the highest Glory into inferiour Forms in which they descend by degrees then in the lowest they become a Seed out of which they grow and rise again by degrees to their first Height So the Divinity puts its self into our Saviour then into our Hearts then into our Tongues so into Words hovering in the Air thus low it is become Now by Words as a Seed it is cast into the Ear of another so it passeth into the Heart where it springeth up into the Fairness of Christ and from that into the Fulness of God 3. Example of Life before Men. St. Paul tells the Saints Philip. 2. 15. They should be blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked generation in which they shine as Light When one Candle is lighted we light many by that When God hath kindled the Life of his Glory in one man's Heart he often enlightens many by the Flame of that spread thorow his Conversation Philosophers tell us that every thing hath Beams by which it manifests and multiplies itself Sure nothing hath so piercing
in us which makes Divine Love as our Pulse Faith our Breath Holiness our Constitution Galat. 3. 23. We were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith that should be revealed A Legal Christian having a perpetual Alarm of Fears within him entrencheth himself strongly in Promises and Threatnings Ordinances and Duties in the outward Letter as a Wall or Mount of Earth He plants a Guard about his Spirit of Resolutions Vows and such like Fleshly obligations He takes care for a constant supply of Provision from without from the Gifts and Parts of men for a maintenance of these Forces Angels saith Christ Marry not nor are given in Marriage Angels are ever strong ever feasted yet have no Meals They are always refresh't and at rest yet have no season for Sleep They marry not to any thing without themselves yet they multiply themselves their Images and Fruits to Eternity Earthly man must have his Meal and Sleeps in their appointed time or else he dies He must joyn himself in marriage to another without himself or else he remains barren Such is a Christian under the Law if he have not his Duties Ordinances Ruleâ— and Retirements to which he is true and constant he falls down into Dust and Deadness or runs out into Lust and Profaness Therefore saith St. Paul we were shut up A Saint is now like an Ivy which cannot bear itself up or bring forth fruit upon its own Root or Stock but must twine about some outward Prop else it liâ—s on the ground and withers I defer the other Two Signs that I may now divert my self to some Application of these 1. Use. Exhortation This is Double 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve him from the Freedom of a Natural Life 2. Exhorta Serve God by outward Rules till you know how to serve Him by the Regulation of an Inward Light 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve Him from the Freedom of a Natural Life We read 2 Pet. 1. 4. of a Divine Nature Nothing is so skilful sweet strong lasting as that which is Natural as the Sun shines God is kind a man truly Spiritual is holy and heavenly But where is that man among the whole race of men who loves God lives in God as his Element lives to God as his Joy and Glory and all this because it is his Nature Are â—ot these the times of which our Saviour spake when he said Shall the Son of Man find Faith upon the Earth In what heart can we find such a Faith such a Union between God and Man as that these Two shall have but one Life that the Man may say as Saint Paul did Now Christ liveth in me In this universal Dis-appearance of the Divine Nature it were happy if men would serve God from the Force of Fear when they cannot do it from a natural Freedom If men would be wrought by an awe to a Compliance with God while yet they have no Complacency in him O that men would fear if they cannot love that Omni-present Omni-potent God in whom we all live by whom we breath I shall urge this Exhortation by Four Persuasives 1 Persuasive Fear the Loss of the Divine Presence here on Earth Job expresseth a great sense of this Job 29 He sighs out his complaints v. 2. O that it were with me as in the days of old when God preserved me v. 3. When his Candle shined upon my Head when by his Light I walked thorow Darkness The Candle is the Image of God in Nature which burns in the Seven-fold Candlestick of the Angelical Nature This Glory rested upon the Spirit of Job's Natural Man as a Light upon his Head leading him thorow the Darkness of his Fleshly Being v. 4. As I was in the days of my Youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle The Secret of God is the Invisible Glory of the Divine Image among the Angels which before he express'd by the Candle The Angels seem to be the Secret For they are the Chambers the Paviliâ—ns of God God was in the midst of them in the Dark at Mount Sinai The Tabernacle is the Body or outward Man To this place agrees that in the Psalm Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about them that fear him The Angel of the Lord or the Angel the Lord is the Divine Image in Nature and the Law The Camp the Host or Armies of Angels In the Gospel instead of this Image is Jesus Christ instead of Angels in their Natural Glory are Angels in a Spiritual State residing upon the Head the Spirit the Tabernacle the visible Frame the Bodily Being of a Saint V. 5. When the Almighty was yet with me When my Children were yet about me Job in his first days was a Type of man in Innocency The Presence of the Almighty in the Angelical Nature on the top of his Spirit was as the Head of his Being The Angelical Lives putting themselves forth in the rest of bodily things as Souls to them were as the Children Images and Dependencies of the Soul of Man But at the Fall the Almighty withdrew from man These Lives were drawn in from the rest of the Creatures V. 6. When I washt my steps in Butter When the Rock poured me out Rivers of Oil. The steps of Job were his wayes below in the visible part of things which were wash'd with the Peace and Plenty of Inferiour Contents raised from these Inferiour Creatures as Butter Rivers of Oyl The Spirit of Angelical Divine Life among invisible Superiour Glories did flow forth abundantly upon him from that Rock which was the Almighty These Words of Job afford us a Twofold Principle of Policy for Natural things 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all Earthly Comforts 2. Principle The Removal of this Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all earthly Comforts Tell me O Man what hath kept thee thy Peace and Plenty all thy Dayes Months and Years Thy God hath preserved thee When thou hast been in a doubtful difficult dangerous State of things what then hath pointed out a clear and shining path to thee in that darkness When thou hast had trouble in thine Affairs calamities in thy Person confusion in thy Soul what then hath sent forth a Beam of Comfort and Council through thy Spirit to light thee out of all these The Candle of God hath been upon thy head God hath look'd sweetly forth from the top of thy Spirit through the Principles of Nature and this hath been thy Light When thou hast wash'd thy Feet as thou hast walk'd in smooth soft flowing streams of Peace and Plenty when thou hast seen thy Children playing about thee like lively Lambs in pleasant Pastures while thou hast been as their Sheepherd feeding thy Spirit from invisible Spirits
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Outward Figure and Shape in Bodily Things whâ—ch is a meer Accident varyâ—ng often while the Substance remains the same not reaching to the Spirit but Inhering in the Outward Body and Perishing with it He makes use of the same word Rom. 12. 2. Be not ye Confâ—rmed to the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but be ye Transformed Temporary Forms are Empty Figures Accidental Out-side Shapes But Divine Forms are Substantial Spiritual Essential We speak now of such Forms as these under the Law which are not the Life and Power of God but may be without these and yet as Fair in themselves The Scripture makes use of this Word Form in this Sense frequently Rom. 2. 21. St. Paul saith of the Jew who is One Outwardly not Inwardly as he concludes in the last Verse of that Chapter that he hath a Form of Knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word is Elegant and seems to signify a Form not Natural springing forth from the Life or Substance but a Form Affectate Artiâ—icially made 2 Tim. â— 5. St. Paul speaks of the same thing and useth the same Word Having a Form of Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but denying the Power of it Thus much for the Explication and Justification of the Word Forms as they are a Sign of Legality The Thing which I understand by Forms is the Image of God and Godliness taken in or held forth according to the Principles and Appearances of This Creation St. Paul saith Galat. 4. v. 3. When we were Children we were in Bendage under the Elements of the World v. 4. But when the Fulness of Time came God sent forth His Son v. 9. After that ye have known God or rather are known of God or are made to know by God how turn ye again to weak and Beggerly Elements to which ye desire again to be in Bondage Mark what Oppositions the Apostle maketh 1. Opposition Between the Elements of the World and the Son sent forth When Jesus Christ the Heavenly Image of God is revealed in our Spirits then we are free from that Slavery of Spelling the Name of God out of the Elements of this Creation We no more go to the Aegyptians for their Learning that is to the Principles of Nature for the knowledge of God 2. Opposition Between the Knowing of God so as being known or made to know by God and the Elements of the World We know God by Divine Principles when we know him by an Immediate Union with Him which gives us the Naked Appearance of God in our Spirits by the Mutual Comprehension of our Spirits in that Appearance and Spirit Till we thus know God we know Him not We have no Image but Shadows only of Him We know Him by Worldly Principles which are Dark and Beggerly The Scripture often links together these as in a Chain The Law the Letter the Flesh Man the World the Outward Man the Iâ—w Forms Rom. 2. 28. 29. You have a Jew Outwardly in the Letter Outward in the Flesh whose Praise is of Men. Rom. 8. 3. The Law is weak thorow the Flesh. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 7. There are Coupled The Letter which kills and the Ministration of Death engraven in Stone Gal. 4. 3. 5. Those that are under the Elements of the World are the same with those that are under the Law Râ—m 2. 17. There is a Jew resting in the Law v. 18. He is instructed out of the Law and approves the things that are Excellent v. 20. He hath a Form of knowledge and of Truth in the Law All these and the Particular Sign of a Servile State now in hand which is Forms will be clearly understood by the Opening of Three of the Fore-mentioned Terms 1. The Flesh. 2. The Spirit 3. The Law 1. The Flesh Flesh and Spirit Carnal and Spiritual are opposed aâ— Time and Eternity the First and the Second Creation All the Empty and Temporary Things of this World are Flesh. Ioh. 6. 63. 1 Pet. 1. 24. Ioh. 17. 2. Sometimes Flesh is taken for the Corrupt State of Things as Iude 23. The Garment spotted with the Flesh. Sometimes it is taken for the Visible Part of Natural Things as 2 Cor. 7. 1. All Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit In the Former place Flesh was the Filth that defiled the Garment of Nature Here it is Natures upper and Outward Garment which is in danger of being defiled Thirdly Flesh is taken for the whole Frame of Nature in the Visible and Invisible Part of it So Mat. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak The Spirit there is the Spiritual the Flesh the Natural Man So Luke 3. 6. All Flesh shall see the Salvation of the Lord. This place is cited from Es. 40. 5. The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all Flesh shall see it together Compare this with 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Angels are Part of that Flesh which sees the Glory of God and hath it revealed in them Lastly Flesh is taken for Created Nature both Body and Spirit as it is spiritualized Jesus Christ spake in this sense Iohn 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed He expounds himself afterwards v. 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Our Saviour means thus much The Creature in me as it is a meer Creature is uncapable of so near an Union with you or so great a vertue in itself as to be the food or Conveyance of Eternal Life to you But as it is become a New Creature and is made One in Person and Spirit with the Divine Nature So you may feed upon it after a Spiritual manner and be nourished up by it to Eternal Life For so the Lord adds The Words that I speak are Spirit and Life So we read of the Fleshly Tables of the Heart But the Common Acceptation of Flesh when it is opposed to Spiritual Things and joyned with the Law is the Third that is the first Creation or this World This is manifest from the seventh of the Epistle to the Romans v. 2. The Woman is bound by the Law to her Husband while he liveth saith St. Paul v. 4. Ye are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye may be married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead He goes on v. 5. When we were in the Flesh the Motions of Sin which were by the Law Then v. 6. But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held The Principles and Frame of Nature in the Invisible Powers and visible Parts of it are our Husband by the first Creation For we were made subject to Angels in that State as in the New Creation we are to Jesus Christ. And we were made by Nature a little Lower than Angels in the next degree of Inferiority to them as the
Woman to the Man This is plain by comparing those Two Places Psal. 8. 5. Thou hast made him that is man a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2. 5. Unto Angels he hath not put in subjection the World which is to come But unto Jesus Christ That is implyed in the Place The Law is the Law of the Husband Now the Law was administred by Angels the Ministring Spirits which are Principalities and Powers of this Creation as the Vice-Gerents of God Now St. Paul saith that by the Body of Christ that Husband died which held us in Subjection to the Law The whole Frame of Nature was shaken by the Death of Christ and must fall by the Power of it Then St. Paul adds that we were subject to the Law while we were in the Flesh. All these things make it plain that by the Flesh he understands the State of Nature in its highest Principles and utmost Extent Thus much for the First Term Flesh. 2. Letter This is the Image of God in Flesh. Letter and Spirit are opposed by St. Paul as Old and New Rom. 7. 4. And he teacheth us that by the Death of the Flesh in the Body of Christ we are freed from our Service to God in the Oldness of the Letter St. Paul opposeth Spirit and Letter as Inward and Outward He calleth that the Letter which is Outward in the Flesh Rom. 2. 28 29. The Spirit is Jesus Christ as He is the Heavenly Image of God within in the Heart of God 2. Cor. 3. 15. This is that which is Inward under the Vail of Flesh. The Letter is the Image of God in the outward Man as it is drawn forth from and discovered in the Principles of the first Creation which is the Vail 3. The Law This is the State of the Soul while she lives in the Letter and hath Communion with God only by the Letter St. Paul thus describes a Legal State Gal. 4. 3. When we were Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World While we are under the Law we are Infants we have neither the Ear nor the Heart nor the Mouth of the Spirit and the Spiritual man in our Souls We are Uncapable of Taking in or making out God in his own Divine Image according to Spiritual Principles or the Elements of the New Creation Therefore we are in Bondage to Natural Principles and Reasonings We are bound up within the Compass of this Creation as in a Prison We are unskill'd in unacquainted with any Principles or Appearances of things besides those of this Creation We compare Spiritual Things by these Things of Nature We hear God with the Ear we speak of him with the Tongue of this Creation We receive and cherish such Notions of God as are agreeable with this Frame The Manifestations of God which spring from Spiritual Principles from the Face of God himself are Barbarians to us while we are under the Law To the Law of Nature to the Testimony of Reason to the Elements of this World whatsoever speaketh not according to these whatsoever casteth off or doth not cloth its Speakings with these Forms though it be the Spirit Himself hath no Light in it to our Understandings while we are under the Law These Elements or Forms in which we are tied up while we are under the Law are 1. Weak 2. Dark 3. Beggarly 4. Old 1. Forms are weak Things They have only the Shadows of Good Things to come They have not the Substance They cannot give us the Good Things Themselves Forms set the Picture of our Beloved before our Eyes but they cannot lay the Person Himself in our Arms. They are but a Letter from our Husband They have not the Spirit of our Husband in them 2. Forms in the knowledge of God are Dark Things They can give us no clear or certain Discoveries The greatest Light of Communion or Comfort that can come while we are shut up in Forms is but like a Spark from a Flint at Midnight It hath much Doubt Diffidence and Fear mingled with it 3. Forms are Beggerly Things They cannot lay open before us the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Jesus Christ is Rich in Glory He can fill all Appearances He can bring forth Innumerable Appearances He hath Glory above all appearances which the Creature is capable of He can bring forth more Glory into thy Heart than can be made out in thy Heart itself by any Appearance The Power of Glory which thy Spirit feels shall be above the Appearance which it sees 1 Corin. 14. 14. Ephes. 3. 19. How poor then and Beggarly must that Spirit be in the knowledge of the Glory of God which is shut up in any one Form in any one Sort or Degree of Manifestations While thou canst not part with any Particular Form of Appearance while thy Spirit is not indifferent and universal extending itself to all Forms in the Manifestation of God while thou art not above the Forms of this World Thou wilt be but a Beggar in thy Divine Discoveries or Enjoyments He must be above the Letter in the Spirit above and out of all Created Images in the Light of Life itself that will attain to those Riches of assurance of a full understanding in the Mystery of God and Christ which St. Paul speaks of Coloss. 2. 2. 4. Forms are Old God hath blasted all Forms and Ways of his Appearing by the Principles and Elements of the Creature If they have had any Beauty yet now they are Blear-eyed If they have been Fruitful yet now they are become a Barren Womb which is as the Grave The Cross of Christ and the Glory of his Appearance in the Spirit have taken away the Life and Glory of all Manifestations or Administrations in the Flesh. They are Old Withered Decayed and Dying The more our Saviour shines out in the Glory of his Father the more will they Droop till they drop quite into the Dust 4. Sign Solicitude Rest and want of Rest are the distinguishing Notes of a Legal or Evangelical State His Rest shall be Glorious saith the Prophet of the Lord Jesus in the Times of the Gospel Esa. 11. 10. Come to me saith our Saviour to those under the Law You that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest Mat. 11. 28. A Legal Spirit hath a Four-fold Solicitude 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person 2. Solicitude for Assiance in Perplexities 3. Solicitude for Light in the way 4. Solicitude for Life in the work of Grace 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person While the Soul is under the Law the Seed of God Jesus Christ is not yet come up nor revealed within her She sits therefore trembling in the Dark sometimes Confident that it is a Seed of Love sometimes as Peremptory that it is a Seed of Wrath which lies hid in her So she is perplexed and anxious in herself St. Paul teacheth us Coloss. 2. 2. that
that if we speak of Wisdom He is Wise if we speak of Strength He hath power if we speak of Glory He is beautiful if we speak of Joy and Delights He is sweet But oh that there were such Hearts in us to set up this God in our Spirits for the supream Wisdom Power Beauty Sweetness I will divide this Exhortation into Three 1. Exhortation Seek the Knowledge of God As our Saviour once spake passionately over the Jews O Hierusalem Hierusalem if thou hadst known the things of thy peace In like passion doth my Spirit breath forth this over you that now read it O Man O Woman If thou knewest the One thing of thy Peace the Knowledge of thy God This is the Chief the only thing the Allthings of thy Peace For when thou knowest him thou knowest Love in truth the Life of Love and this is Eternal Life John 17. 4. This is Eternal Life to know thee Press the knowledge of God upon thy Spirit by these Three Motives 1. Motive The Knowledge of God is the Inlet of all Grace and Comfort Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard If Faith be the mother and nurse of a Spiritual Life the knowledge of God is the Father and the Food of Faith and of that If Faith be the Fountain that sends forth the Streams of Divine Strengths and Consolations the Knowledge of God is the Sea that supplies this Spring Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God The Word of God is the Image of God which is Jesus Christ. This Word represents itself Three ways Eternally Internally Externally 1. Eternally the Word of God represents itself to Glorified Spirits That Knowledge of God which is begotten upon the Spirit by this Representation is call'd Seeing For it is a Representation in a clear Light as before a man as face to face 1 Tim. 3. last Seen of Angels 2. Internally to men on Earth by the Principles of Natural Reason or by Supernatural Principles from the Spirit or from the Written Word 3. Externally by the outward Creatures by the Senses and Objects of Sense These two last ways of Representation are call'd Hearing or Report For they are Representations of God conveyed thorow the darkness of our Natures as a Voice speaking from behind us from behind the wall of our Flesh. When God is pleased thus to give his Word to put forth a Discovery of himself thorow our dark Principles as by the Hearing of the Ear in our Souls then God in all that he appears to be appears to be Love This Sense of God thus imprest upon the Heart unites it to God makes it to believe him trust itself to him repose itself on him rest in him leave its desires and hopes with him that as He lives so this Heart may live as he works and carries on his own Desire so he may work on this Heart and advance the Happiness of it Thâ—s Faith cometh by Hearing Hear then what Nature without you speaks aloud of God that He is good true just full and free Listen to that report which is made of God by all your Senses by all the things of Sense in the several Languages of their Beauty Power Plenty Pleasure Variety Listen to the inbred voice of your own Reason Hear the clear report which that makes of God that there must be One the First and so the Best of all above All in All gathering up all into himself the Beginning and the End of All. Listen to Supernatural Principles If you cannot hear or understand the language of the Spirit yet hearken to the sound of the Written Word which cries in your Ears God gave his Love and Glory to man before he gave a Being to the World When man had made himself Miserable God gave Himself to misery and death for man God all along quite thorow Time to Eternity carries on this work of making himself wonderful in man and Man a wonder of Blessedness in Him He that stops not his Ears against these sweet Reports of such a God a God of Love cannot but be charmed by them A man that hears this will beleive he will at least cast himself on God and say Whither-ever thou goest carry me with thee Where ever thou stayest be thou my Rest. To thee only O my God to thee entirely O my Love do I trust my self This is the first Motive to the knowledge of God 2. Motive The Knowledge of God emproves and exalts the Soul Psal. 90. 14. I saith God will set him up on high because he hath known my name None can tell but they who have tasted what a Divine Height what a Height of Divine Strength and sweetness there is in the Knowledge of God I will set him on high the word in Hebrew signifies I will seat him in a strong Castle situate on a high Rock Such a Castle is the Knowledge of God for Air Prospect and Strength As a man grows in the Knowledge of God he feels himself lifted up into a Divine air in which purity peace pleasure Angels breath he perceives himself walled in with an assured safety and rest which nothing can reach nothing can shake The Knowledge of God opens a man's Eyes to see Fields of Glory and Rivers of pleasure in the midst of which he is every where together with Horses of Fire and Chariots of Fire which continually plant themselves between him and every Enemy 3. Motive The Knowledge of God preserves a man from Evil. Gal. 4. 9. After that ye have Known God or rather are known of him how come ye to turn back to those weak and beggarly Principles to which ye desire to be in bondage These Beggarly Principles are the Principles of this world in which we lye by nature as in a Prison â—n a House of Bondage where Sin binds us Shame covers us Death feeds upon us What shall deliver us from this Prison this Slavery The Knowledge of God will do it and that alone can do it When God puts forth his own Image in us he then owns us and makes us to know and own him Thus we know and are known by this Image of God living in our Spirits As the Serpent of Moses devoured the Serpents of the Magicians So this Image of God in our Spirits swallows up all the Images and Shapes of this inchanting World which are as Serpents tempting and stinging us casting forth the Poyson of Sin and death upon us This Image presents us with Heavenly Forms plants us in itself cloths us with itself so furnisheth us with Treasure and Armour Now having thus known God and the sweet Freedom of his Love how can we desire or bear to be again in bondage to our former Vanities 4. Motive the Discovery of God shews us all that our hearts cau wish to see Psal. 37. 4. You have this Counsel given you Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee
with so sweet a Majesty that he pierc'd the Hearts of His Enemies with Arrows of Love Such a King is every Spirit which is Brother to this Jesus Righteousness sits upon him and shines from him as a Garment of Light Truth and Wisdom it shews as wrought into a Harmony of Courage Justice Temperance it sparkles with Tempers of Goodness Gentleness Meekness Humility These things like Arrows wound the stubbornest Hearts with a Liking and a Love that a man's bitterest Enemies bow to him 3. The Scepter Psal. 45. 6. It is said to our Saviour The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Righteous Scepter Righteousness is the Scepter of Strength in the Kingdom of Christ by which all things are swayed and governed Psal. 16. 7. If a mans ways please the Lord his Enemies shall be at peace with him Holiness or Righteousness is such a Harmony such a Musick between God and Man as all things hear and obey They that make use of hellish Charms make the Picture of a Person in Wax and as they work the Wax by the Fire so they work upon the Person Goodness hath a Heavenly Charm in it For a Righteous man hath in himself the Heavenly Image of God which is the First and radical Image of all things By this Image he hath a power upon all things Thus Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter in the Kingdom of God 1. Use. Learn to hate Sin by the Rule of Contraries For if Righteousness cloath you with the highest Honour Worth Strength of Kings if it crown you with the Glory of God if it carry you up to the Life of God then what doth Sin Sin by the Rule of Contraries puts upon you the Baseness Badness Weakness of Slaves Sin wraps you up in the Shape sows in you the Seeds of Devils Let us then look on Sin in this Five-fold View As it puts on us 1. Weakness 2. Badness 3. Baseness of Slaves 4. Shapes of Devils 5. As it plants in us Seeds of Devils 1. Sin puts upon us the Weakness of Slaves Gen. 49. 3. 4. Reuben thou art my First born the Beginning of my Strength Excellency of power O Man O my Soul consider what thou wert in thy Beginning A Divine Flame shot forth from an Angels Bosom into this lump of Clay not to abide imprisoned in it but to feed upon it as fuel so to return and make its way upward making all things that resist its prey and nourishment What is it that hath thus enfeebled and cool'd thee and chang'd thee from Fire into Water Sin hath done this Now thou lyest spread upon the Earth swayed by every weak Breath or Spirit that blows upon thee unable to contain thy self casting thy self into the Figure and Shape of every Object on which thou touchest Thy Swordâ— hath thus weakned thee Man was the Reuben of God the First-born in the first Creation the Excellency of Dignity and Power the Head of Strength He was the Chieâ— Image of the Divine Nature made to be the Spouse and Queen of the God-Head the Onely One of her Mother The Rest of the Creatures were to be as Concubines only particular inferiour Images of God The Soul foolishly forsakes the Bosom of her God to throw herself into the Embraces of these Concubines so she defileth herself and them so she dishonoureth her King and Husband in both so pours forth her self loosely upon the Ground as spilt Water 2. Sin puts a Badness into men It puts into us a Three-fold Badness of Folly Filth Fury 1. Sin fills us with folly Sin so far befools thee O vain Man as to despise deny Blessedness Beauty Eternity there where they are in God the First the Fountain the Substance of all Beings and to seek them there where they are not in Fleshly shadowy fleeting Trifles This is that Folly the Head-Spring of all Sin which St. Paul complains of Rom. 1. 21. They became vain in their Imaginations their foolish Heart being darkned This was the Folly The Eternal Substance and Fulness was darkned and disappeared in their Spirits which brought forth instead thereof empty Images So St. Paul explains it at the 23. v. Changing the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man and Birds c. What degree of Folly is this to refuse to acknowledge or own the true God who is Eternal Life and to make each painted perishing Vanity a God to us while we make it the Object and Spring of our Hopes and Happiness But thus it is most just that they to whom the true God is but as an Idol an empty name to them each Idol each empty Appearance should be their God This is the First Badness in Sin Folly 2. Sin fills a Man with Filth Carnality and Corruption signify both the same thing in Scripture To be Spiritual is to be Holy to be Fleshly Sinful To be Carnally minded that is to be Fleshly-minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. Is there any thing more foul than this for a Soul which was made as a Spirit for Spiritual Joys and Glories so to mingle itself with Flesh as to see receive rellish nothing but by Senses of Flesh so to drown itself in Flesh as to be uncapable of conversing with taking conteâ—t in any but Fleshly objects This is the State of a Sinful Soul Thus is she over-spread with Flesh as one great Spot The Interpreters of the Proverbs teach us that the Young Man there is the Soul which is naturally Immortal ever young ever flourishing the Matron the chast Spouse that woes this Young Man Divine Wisdom the Heavenly Image of the Divine Nature The Strumpet this Worldly Image of things O say now when thou Sinnest Alass How do I dishonour and defile my self I who should who might live chastly constantly sweetly with the Eternal Image of Glory my God my Spouse mine own I pour forth my self into the lap of Strangers of Unconstant Whorish Flattering Fading Beauties in Flesh. O Filth O Shame That Spirit that should tread upon the Stars ride upon the Angels rejoyce with God everlastingly that Soul labours and sweats in Dust and Death as a Slave rowls in the Mire of Flesh like a Beast rakes in the unsavory sinks of all various Lusts as an unclean Spirit 3. Sin fills a man with Fury Solomon in his Proverbs tells us of One that throws about Fire-brands and Swords and saith Am I not in jest Prov. 26. 18. 19. This is Solomon's Foâ—l which is a Sinner Can it be that any should make Ruines and Reproaches their Delight nay their Devotion too Jonah said once He did well to be angry even unto Death Can it be that any should cherish a Rage to the Death Destruction of Men Kingdoms and Souls and then think such a Rage Religion such a Fury Zeal and that these things they ought to do Can it be that any should draw Tears and blood from others from
Heart Commune with your Hearts What is the Heart The Heart is the Inward Principle the Life-Principle 1. The Heart is the Inward Principle So you read of the Heart of the Sea Exod. 15. 8. and the Heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. Mark 7. 18. Whatsoever thing cometh from without defileth not the Man v. 19. Because it entreth not into thy Heart but into thy Belly and passeth into the Draughts v. 21. From within from the Heart of men proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries c. The Meats which we take in from without reach the Body in all the parts of it and they reach the Soul as it lives in the Body working upon it and making changes in it Both these then are the Belly the Outward Man which is maintained from an Outward Principle and passeth away into the Dust and Darkness But the Heart is more Inward and Immutable It is that which abides in the Invisible part of things and is that Hidden Spring the Principle both of Soul and Body This Heart in the Natural Man is the Spirit of Man in the Spirit of the Devil or in the Spirit of Divine Wrath or rather in both So from the Heart come evil thoughts So St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 3. 20. If our Hearts condemâ— us God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all things But if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence before God Every man hath in him a Principle more Inward than the Spirit of the Devil which is the Spirit of God as it comes forth into his Spirit and gives his Spirit a Created Invisible Immortal Being in itself among Angels This is that Heart of man with which he is to commune this is the Seat of Justification Or Condemnation The Spirit of Man as it lives above in the Spirit of God according to his Wrath or his Love Or the Spirit of God as it becomes the Principle of Nature a Principle in the Spirit of Man If this Heart condemn us that is the Spirit of God as it is the Principle of our Spirits God is greater than our Hearts that is the Spirit of God as it is in itself above our Spirits hath a greater Fulness of Majesty and Light in itself where it is as the Light in the Sun when as in our Spirits it is but as the Light in the Star If therefore it testifie Wrath to us in this relation in which it is but as a Glance it shall more fully testify wrath against us in that State in which it is the Full Glory As it is a Principle in our Spirits it opens itself truly but imperfectly in a right Sense but in a part only of its own Sense But as it is in itself it knows all things it opens itself to the utmost of its own sense and eternal purpose A man should neither comfort nor condemn himself from the language of his own Spirit as it lives in the Outward Soul or Body and speaks of its own This Spirit should be silent and still But we are to commune with the Divine Principle in us with our Spirits as they dwell within in the Spirit of God For so the Spirit of God and our Spirits are twisted in One make One Heart testify One thing and that truly whether it be for Life or for Death from Wrath or from Love For the Spirit of God and of Man in this Principle are an Image of the Spirit of God as it is absolute and supream in the God-Head But there is a Heart within this Heart This Heart is a Principle of Life or Death Love or Wrath. There is within this a Heart which is the Life-Princiciple and the Love-Principle 2. The Heart is the Life-Principle Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life What is this Heart which we are to keep when we are to deny our selves We are to keep it not with Caution to preserve our selves from it but with Confidence to preserve our selves by it This place of Scripture is like that before it Prov. 4. 13. Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom or Instruction saith Keep her for she is thy Life Jesus Christ as he is in the Spirit is our Life-Principle Colos. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear He is the Treasure of our Hearts and our truest Heart For from Him as He is in the Spirituality of his own Person are the Issues the Out-goings of our Life Mat. 6. 21. Where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Our Treasure and our Hearts are both with Jesus Christ in Heaven Colos. 3. 1. The Heart is the Treasury of all good things A good man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. Jesus Christ is this Heart which hath the Treasure in it For in him are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge hid Colos. 2. 3. Jesus Christ is the Heart as he is the Head of Man 1 Corin. 11. 3. The Head of every Man is Christ The Head of Christ is God The Lord Jesus as he is the Heavenly Man is the most proper Head and Heart of man the First Principle before all others the most inward Principle lying within and beneath all other Principles the Life-Principle Thus we see what the Heart is 1. Jesus Christ as He puts forth Himself in the Natural Spirit of Man to be the Principle of Nature either in a Power of Wrath or Love 2. Jesus Christ as He is in his own Heavenly Spirit and Person comprehending the Life Perfection and Blessedness of Man in Himself as in a Divine Root or Treasury 2. The Bed This is the Second thing of which we are to seek the meaning We read of a Bed of Tribulation Revel 2. 22. This Bed is a Spirit of Darkness Weakness Woe and Torment We read of a Bed in Tribulation which God prepares for those whom he loves Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness or Thou wilt turn it the Inside of Peace Love and Glory for the Outside of Pain and Trouble or thou wilt change it from a Bed of Languishings into a Bed of Rest or a Bed of Love We read of Beds of Joy and Glory Psal. 149. 5. Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them Sing aloud on their Beds In the Canticles there is mention made of the Bed of Christ and His Spouse Can. 1. 16. Our bed is Green There is also Solomons Bed who was a Type of the Heavenly Bridegroom Cant. 3. 7. Behold his Bed which is Solomons threesâ—â—re valiant men are about it of the valiant men of Israel This Bed is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus which shines forth and buds with Sweetness and Beauty which goes forth in the midst of the Angels cloathing itself with those Mighty and Glorious Spirits This Spirit draws the Soul forth from the Tumults of the Flesh takes her off from her own Strength and casts
her upon itself as upon a Bed of Rest. By this time we see what the Holy Ghost means by the Heart and the Bed Let us now return to that place of that Psalmist for the opening of which we have brought in all these Scriptures Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own Heart upon your Bed and be still that is discourse not with your Spirit as it lives in this Body upon these Outward Appearances For so it is one with the Strange Woman it is a Strange Heart it is a Fountain that makes itself common and defiles itself it is not your own Fountain alone your own Heart but a wandring false lying Heart Retire your self into your Chamber in which the Candle of the Lord shines that is into your Spirit as it hath the Spirit of God for the Spring of Natural Light and Life in it Here wait quietly and silently for the openings of the Spirit of God in the secret Voice of Nature within you But stay not here Silence this Spirit too draw your self yet more inward into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus as He is the Inward Man within the more inward than the secretest Retirements of the Natural Spirit Here cast thy self upon thy Bed in thy Heart and commune with thy Heart upon thy Bed This is thy Bed and thy Heart both in one Here lay thy self at Rest upon this Spirit which is the Comforter advise with this Spirit which is the only Counsellor the Spirit of Truth So be thou still let thine own Spirit the Spirit of this World and Nature in thee be silent He that thus hearkens in Silence what the Lord will say shall certainly hear him speak Peace to his Saints The Spirit of God in thy Natural Man may speak of Wrath to thee and God will confirm that voice of Wrath in the Spirit of thy Natural Man And so here thou canst find no Bed to comfort thee But go a little beyond thy Natural Man and thou shalt meet with the Spirit of God as it is in its own Freedom and Fulness in the Lord Jesus Here is a Bed ready prepared for thee Now silence thine own Spirit for ever and hear no more what the Spirit in thine own Spirit speaks but what this Spirit speaks as it is here in Jesus Christ and this Spirit will certainly make thee to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness Thus the Lord giveth his Beloved Rest not in themselves but in Himself I have now finished the First Part of Spiritual Peace which is Silence the Silencing of a Three-fold Spirit the Spirit of Wrath from God the Spirit of the Devil the Spirit of Man 2. Part Satisfaction The Second Part of Spiritual Peace is Satisfaction This consists in Two Things 1. A Sweet League with all things 2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League 1. A Sweet League with all things There can be no Satisfaction where there is any thing wanting and not made up or any thing Crooked and not made straight as Solomon speaks Eccl. 1. 15. There is no Satisfaction where there is Division or Contention Jobs Friends promiseth this Satisfaction to Job Job 5. 23. Thou shalt be in League with the Stones of the Field and the Beasts of the Field shall be at Peace with thee v. 24. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace Behold a League wiâ—h all things below thee Beasts and Stones Principles and Appearances of Life descending are the Beasts The Stones are the Principles and Appearances of Darkness descended to the lowest the Dead Images of things Behold a League here with all things above thee thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace The Powers above thee are thy Tabernacle The Angels are thy Tabernacle God is thy Tabernacle Thou shalt dwell peaceably in these These shall be in Peace not in stormy or fiery Appearances upon thee Behold a League with all Times with Eternity Thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace Thou shalt not fear what is to come because all Times to come shall be in Covenant with thee Whatever Times come to others still thy Tabernacle thy Angel thy God shall be peace upon thee and this thou shalt know before hand This is that League with all things which Jobs Friend promiseth to him without which there can be no Satisfaction or Peace Quest. But you will perhaps ask me how this League is made Ans. I answer that it is made by living in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit in you is this League or Covenant For the Spirit is the Unity and hath the Band of Peace in itself Ephes. 4. 3. The Lord who is the Spirit is call'd the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Num. 16. 12. and 27. 16. This place agrees with that Luk. 20. 38. God is the God of the Living not of the Dead for all things live to Him As our Saviour said that Little Children had their Angels which beheld the Face of God in Heaven So it is most true that each Fleshly Appearance hath its Spirit in which it lives with and to God Every Beast or Stone hath its Angel in which it is comprehended after a living manner and by which it is governed Every Angel hath its Spirit in Jesus Christ in which itself is again comprehended after a Divine manner and by which it is entirely managed Thus the Spirits of all things are in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of every Creature which is the Scepter that sways it the Lawâ—giver to it is in the haâ—d of the Spirit of Christ and goes forth from between his Feet If then thou wouldst be in League with all things and at Peace with them be thou One Spirit with Jesus Christ so all Things and Times shall be One Spirit with thee and this Unity of Spirit is the Bond of Peace To be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. If thou wouldst live comfortably take hâ—â—d of dwâ—lling in the Fleshly Tabernacle in the Fleshly Savour and rellish of things Let thy understanding and Soul abide in the Spirit of God So thou shalt converse always every where with lively and lovely Objects All things round about thee within thee without thee shall have Life and a Harmony a Tuneableness with themselves and with thy Spirit a Peace-fulness in their Life All things shall have an Angelical Life and Sweetness to thee as they have to the Elect Angels All things shall have a Divine Life and Sweetness to thee as they have to God This is the First thing in which Satisfaction consists a Sweet League with all things 2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League This is the Second Thing in which the Satisfaction of Spiritual Peace confists Es. 14. 3. And it shall come to pass in that day the Lord shall give thee Rest from thy Sorrow and from thy Fear and from thy hard Bondage wherein thou wast made to serve Poor Soul while thou livest in the Darkness of Fleshly things
Fruit of God Full of God One Spirit with God to thee 2. Secondly if thou know thy self Spiritually thou canst not want Joy A Spiritual Knowledge of thy self holds thee forth to thy self as One Spirit with Jesus Christ. Thou seest thy self there where thou seest Christ. Thou seest Jesus Christ there where thou seest thy self He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit with Him 1 Corin. 6. 17. Dost thou in any Sufferings know that Isus Christ and Thou make but One Spirit in those Sufferings and canst thou forbear to Rejoyce in them Canst thou think of no Glory or Blessedness in Heaven itself but thou knowest that Jesus Christ and Thou make but One Spirit in that Glory and canst thou chuse but Joy in it Hast thou this Knowledge that thy Saviour and thy self run along thorow all Things Twisted into One Spirit undivided in Light and Darkness from the Beginning to the End of Things and hast thou not Joy in all Things A Spiritual Knowledge of thy self teacheth thee to look upon thy self as made in the Image and Likeness of Christ. Jesus Christ saith of Himself Iohn 3. 13. No man hath ascended up into Heaven but He that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man that is in Heaven Jesus Christ had One Part of Himself above in Heaven at the same time that the Other Part of Him was below on Earth As Jesus Christ unites God and the Creature in his own Person his Face being as the Sun shining in the Highest Glory when his Feet are in the Furnace the Fire and Fading State of the lowest Things So the Soul of Man in her Natural State unites the Heaven and the Earth the Invisible and the Visible Part of this Creation Thy Soul in her Top and Supream Part which is her Truest self and substance lives ever Invisibly and Immortally among the Angels She in the mean time subsists here below among these Fleeting Shadows only in her Lower Part in which she is but as a Shadow of herself He that knows this hath this Joy alwaies that the Inconstancies and Tumults of this Life wet but his Feet trouble his Dreams only His Better Part his Waking Part His Life is Constant above these Floods in the Company of Spirits Death catcheth thy Shadow and no more of thee Thy true self is above the Region and Reach of Death Immortal as the Angels But behold A Greater Cause of Joy Thy Soul in her Spiritual State hath a fuller Resemblance of her Saviour That Life which thy Soul hath at the Top of this Creation is yet but a Dream a Show the Feet only Psal. 17. 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness Saith David The Soul in this Creation is fallen into a Sleep she hath her Sleeping Part only here and her Life at Highest even in the Angelical State of it is but a Dream The Life the Truth the Waking and Chief Part the Head of thy Soul is above Angels with Christ in God Iohn 13. 9 10. Peter said to Christ Not my Feet only but my Hands and my Head Iesus saith unto him He that is washed needeth not save to wash his Feet but is clean every whit All of thee that comes within the Compass of this Creation thy Immortal as well as thy Mortal Part all is but thy Feet For all that needs Washing Thy Head and thy Hands are above Nature in a Spiritual and Supernatural Glory ever un-troubled un-spotted the same Yesterday to Day and for ever like Christ. Dost thou thus Spiritually discern thy self Thou canst not then but rejoice in the midst of all Changes and Confusions For thou seest thy Life thy True Being thou seest thy self awake in an Unchangeable State with all Contents round about thee as Christ in God 3. Thirdly If thou know this World Spiritually thou canst not want Joy When we look upon this World after a Spiritual manner we see it as a Show Man walks in a vain Show Psal. 39. 6. What Pain have all the Miseries of this World to Him that looks on them as an Empty Show without any Substance of Evil Nay what Peace or what Pleasure do they afford thee when they are as a Tempest in a Picture or a Battel in a Story A Spiritual Eye perceives this World in all the Pieces and Particularities of it to be an Image of Heavenly Glories Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of Him are clearly seen by the Things that are made Even His Eternal Power and God-Head The Mind of Man naturally rejoyceth to see a Resemblance of any thing especially of Excellent Things especially of Things Beloved Thou canst not carry a Spiritual understanding with thee thorow the World but thou wilt rejoyce over all the Works of God in the World when thou seest thy God with his Beauties and Blessednesses Imaged forth and brought to thy mind by them all If there be any Thing which is most Dark to thee thou wilt say of that Yet here is something of my God pictured out though I know not what of Him it is This World is a Principal Part of the Mystery of God When the Seventh Trumpet shall sound then shall the Mystery of God be finished Revel 10. 7. This World is indeed a Deep of Darkness yet it hath the Wonders of God in it They that go down into the Deep see the Wonders of the Lord Psal. 107. 24. The Soul sports itself and plays with the Miserablest Things of the World when she perceives herself to be in them as in the midst of the Mystery of God and among his Wonders I have done with the Second Rule by which you see that your Spiritual Knowledge and Joy go Hand in Hand 3. Rule Faith and Joy are ever in an Equal Degree and Activity St. Paul prays for the Romans Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of Hope fill you with all Peace and Joy in Believing Faith Peace and Joy are Companions of equal Stature and Favour in the Heavenly Life Faith and Joy are like the Sun and Light Joy is the Daughter of Faith but ever as old and strong as the Mother There are Three Joyful Things in Believing 1. A Ioyful Prospect 2. A Ioyful Possession 3. A Ioyful Purchase 1. A Joyful Prospect Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Faith sets Heaven with all its Angels Spirits Joys Glory Christ and God whatsoever is Excellent and Invisible in thine Eye Faith discovers all these Things to thee with a Conviction and Demonstration of their Reality He that believes hath presented to the Sight of his Mind that Frame of Things in which God lives and that not as a Show or Apparition but in a Substantial manner The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about those that fear him Psal. 34. 7. This Camp hath in it all the Powers of the Angelical and Divine Nature These continually encamp about a Saint and encompass him in the midst of
have strong Temptations mighty Lusts and no Power to withstand them I cannot Trust in God or Believe in Jesus Christ I find no Profit in the Ordinances I take no Pleasure at all in Spiritual Things Obj. But you will say may I not rejoyce when I discover the Workings of Grace in my Heart Is it not a just Cause of Grief when I feel my Heart hardned from the Love and Fear of God Ans. There is a Right and a Wrong Way of Rejoycing and Grieving in these Things The Mistake lies here in not Distinguishing between these Ways Psal. 3. 7. David rejoyc'd that the Lord by his Favour had made his Mountain so strong But this Mirth was quickly turn'd into Mourning It would not have been so if David instead of Rejoycing in the Mountain made strong by the Favour of the Lord had Rejoyc'd in the Lord and his Favour which made that Mountain strong Or rather if instead of that Favour of the Lord he had made the Lord of that Favour his Joy Psal. 77. Asaph abandoned all Joy and gave himself over to Grief for Gods With-drawings from him in the Sensible Conveyances of His Grace to his Soul v. 2. 3. c. But he repents himself of Measuring his Ioy or Grief by this Standard and finds a Cause of Joy above these Troubles v. 10. I said This is mine Infirmity but I will remember the Years of the Right Hand of the most High I shall speak of Spiritual Mourning when I come to the next Mistake In the mean time I will give you Two Rules for the Removing of the Mistake in this Point of Grounding our Joys The Two Rules are These 1. Rule Make God as He is in Himself the Object of your Ioy without any Consideration of your selves at all 2. Rule Take the Rise of your Ioy from Iesus Christ not as He Communicates Himself to you but as He Comprehends you in Himself I will begin with the First Rule 1. Rule Make God as He is in Himself the Object of your Ioy without any Consideration of your selves at all When St. Paul commands Joy he confines us to the Person of God for the Matter of our Joy Philip. 3. 1. Finally Brethren Rejoyce in the Lord. The Person of the Lord hath Space and Room and Entertainment enough for thy Joys in their largest Extent Thou needst not wander besiâ—es the Tents of any Creature within thee or without thee Do but still Pitch thy Thoughts upon this Mark and thou shalt have Plenty of Joy He that makes God as He is Alone the Matter of his Rejoycing will find Abundant matter of Joy in every Season You have David's Example in this kind Psal. 118. 14. The Lord is my Strength and Song He is become my Salvation The Lord is then Strong in you and for you when you receive Him in the Simplicity of His Nature unmixt with anything of the Creature God is weakned and straitned when He is Compounded with any other thing You bring Him out of Himself and below Himself when you joyn Him with any thing besides Himself It is said of Jesus Christ in the Gospel that in One Place He could do no Great Work because of Their Unbelief Faith is the Emptying and Filling Grace It Empties the Soul of itself and the Creature It Fills the Soul with God While we abide in Unbelief that is in any Thing of our Own or the Creatures we weaken God in us we bind Him and make Him un-able He can do no Great Work in us We have God in Power when we have Him in Purity we have Him in Purity when we have Him in the Simplicity and Nakedness of his own Person Thus the Lord is thy Strength And thus must He be thy Song the Subject of thy Joy When thou singest of God alone then art thou strong and hast strong Joys The Lord is thy Salvation So far as thou goest out of thy self and the World so far as thou entrest into God thou entrest into Salvation Joy and Heaven itself I will back this Rule with some Particular Motives 1. Motive Look to God in the Nakedness of His own Person and you shall see Light without any Darkness John 8. 12. Jesus Christ saith of Himself I am the Light of the World He that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Our Saviour is the Light that points and chalks out our way to us He is the Star that goes before us and stands over the God-Head as the House in which He and We must find our Rest and dwell for Ever Follow Christ. Which way goes Christ He goes by the Cross and thorow Death He descends to the Lowermost Darkness Then He ascends thorow all things till He comes above All. He goes up above the Highest Heavens into God Go you after the Lord Jesus Tread in the Steps of this Shepherd of the Flock Go by the Cross the Death and the lowest Darkness Carry every thing of the Creature with thee this Way into These Then rise up out of All pass thorow All till thou come beyond All unto the High and Holy Habitation of the God-Head If thy Heart be in this Treasure of the Divine Nature if thine Eye be upon it and thy Way be towards it thy Way itself shall be a Light of Truth and Joy without any Darknâ—ss Psal. 104. 2. Who coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment and stretchest out the Heavens like a Curtain Every Thing of the Creature is a Covering upon God even the Brightest the most Beautiful Piece of the Creature the Light itself The Highest and most Glorious Things the Heavens themselves are Curtains drawn before the Lord Hiding and Darkning Him to us You must break thorow the Light of Angels the Highest Heavens the Divinest Excellencies of this Creation into the Open Face of the Godâ—Head if you will have the true Light of Peace and Joy in your Spirits While you sit under any Thâ—ng Created you sit under a Cloud in the Dark you can never be free from Fears Doubts Uncertainties and Unsatisfactions This is the First Motive 2. Motive Set your Heart and Thoughts on God in the Simplicity of His own Nature and you shall sit down under Love without any Mixture of Wrath. Esa. 27. 4. The Lord saith of Himself Fury is not in me who would set the Bryars and Thorns against me in Battel I would go through them I would burn them together God as He is in the Singleness of His own Person and Nature hath nothing of Wrath in Him but all Sweetness Love and Blessedness God in Himself is Light and Love He is a Fire a Principle of Wrath only as He is in the Fleshly Creature Straitned Imprisoned and Resisted by the Darkness of the Flesh. If you hold up any Created Strength or Excellency before God you set Bryars and Thorns against Him upon which God Kindles in his Wrath as a Consuming Fire 1 Corin.
the Creature should dwell in Him Coloss. 1. 19. Obj. But you may object and say It is true all things that have a Being or Subsistency have it in Christ For all things subsist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Him Coloss. 1. 17. But there are Two ways of being in Christ One as He is Head of the First Creation So Plants and Brute Creatures have their Being Motion and Life in Him as well as Men or Angels What Happiness or Joy can I have in this Another Way of being in Christ is as He is Head of the Second Creation the First-born from the Dead The Lord Jesus in this State comprehends the Spirits of men in Himself with a very great Contrariety some in Love others in Wrath. So we read that there were Sheep set on his Right Hand and Goats on His Left Mat. 25. 33. What comfort can I have in the Lord Jesus till I know on which Hand I stand What shall discover to me whether I be comprehended in his Love or his Wrath Ans. I entreat thee to understand and lay up this which I shall now say carefully in thine Heart It is a Preparation to the Answer to this Objection which thou hast made and the only way of Satisfaction It is this The Left Hand of Jesus Christ is his Weakness his State and Appearance under a vail of Flesh as he bears the Image of the Creature upon Himself For this Reason the Works of Wrath are the Strange Works of Christ and God Es. 28. 21. This Expression His Strange Work signifies a work with which he is not acquainted in His own Person and Nature a Work which is uncouth to Him in which the Height of his Skill and Power delight not to put forth themselves a work in which he is descended out of his own Form into some inferiour Form of the Creature and so become a Stranger to Himself The Right Hand of Christ is the Person or Spirit of Christ in its full Power and Glory as Christ is at the Right Hand of God that is in Immediate and Personal union with the Father When the Love of Christ is signified by his Right Hand the meaning is that Love belongs to Christ in the Proprâ—eâ—y of His Person Therefore St. John saith God is Love 1 John 4. 16. Now the Answer to the Objection follows clearly from these Premises if they be clearly understood You shall know that you are comprehended in the Love of the Lord Jesus if you look within the Vail beyond the Creature to the End to Jesus Christ in the Simplicity of his own Person as he is the Beginning and the End of all the Works of God 2 Corin. 3. 13. It is only the Discovery of the naked Person of Christ in you which can discover your Persons naked in the Love of Christ. 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined into our Hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the â—ace of Jesus Christ. You cannot see the Glory of God in his Eternal Love to your Persons but by the Shining out of God from the Naked Face or Person of Jesus Christ within your Hearts 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in Himself because He hath the Son of God in Hâ—mself who is the only True and Faithful Witness While you look at any thing below Christ whether without or within your selves while you look at any thing oâ— or in Christ besides himself while you look upon Christ in any Relation Capacity or Consideration and not in the Singleness of his own heavenly and Divine Person you will sit under a Cloud though light may be sown for you He that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life John 8. 12. You can have Light in your Eye no longer than your Eye is upon the Person of Christ. Every other way iâ— Darkness Then do this Tâ—ke off the Eye of your Souls from all Outward Things Turn it Inward into the Sâ—cret of your own Spirits There lay aside all Appearances of your Self or any Creature which would draw your Eye to it â—â— Glittering Cloud at best or a Shining Vail So wait till Jesus Christ sets his own Person before your Spirits in the Light of God When you see him you shall in the same Light see your Selves in Him and together with Him in Love Now for ever after make your self your Graces but Glasses to see the Face of Christ in and Christ will be a Glass in which you shall see your own Face in the Love and Glory of God Obj. Still you may urge and say But how and when shall I have this Appearance of Jesus Christ to me Ans. 1. St. Paul tells thee how Jesus Christ shall appear to thee 2 Corin 4. 6. God who hath made Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts As Light shined out of Darkness so shall Jesus Christ appear in thine heart out of the midst of Ignorance Unbelief Lusts and all manner of Contrariety Thy Evil shall no more hinder his Discoveries than Darkness can the shining of the Light His breakings forth no more depend upon or are assisted by thy Spirit than the spreading of the Light through the Air depends upon the Air. As Light was brought forth upon the Waters when there was no Light by the Moving or Hatching of the Spirit of God and by the Word of God So shall God upon thy Spirit as easily as soon as a Word is spoken bring forth in thy Spirit the Sight of Christ where there was no Sâ—ght at all of him Thus you see How the Lord Jesus shall be discovered in thee But still thou cryest How long Lord When shall this be I answer thee to that also that it shall be in the Fulness of thy Time As the World hath its fulness of Time so hath a particular Soul for the bringing forth of Christ in it God hath several works upon thy Soul various Forms to bring thee thorow and to bring forth himself in before thee When these are full then will he last of all come forth to thee in his Last and full Appearance which is the Manifestation of the Lord Jesus God hath his Ordinance with the Sun and Moon which run their Race from one end of the Sky unto the other These at length enlighten every part of the Earth in its Season as they come to it in their Course The Ordinance and Covenant of God is as sure with Jesus Christ who is the Day-star and Day-light of thy Spirit He hath his Goings forth decree'd and set Him from Eternity Wait thou for him as the Watch-men watch for the Morning For thou shalt so certainly see his Appearance in thy Soul The Vision of Christ is for an appointed Time It is like the Birth of Isaac who was the Type It hath its Set time In its Set time it shall not fail Go thy ways then be at
Rest have this assurance in thy self that thou â—alt stand up in the Light of Christ in thy Lot Cantic 6. 13. You have a Song in Parts Christ and his Angels answering one another or the Spirit of Man answering it self Return O Shulamite that we may see thee What will ye see in the Shulamite As it were the Company of two Armies Invisible Things and Visible Divine and Humane God and the Creature united in a Holy Soul Hitherto I have persuaded you to see nothing besides the Single Person of God and Christ if you would have true Joy Now you may say to me what shall we see in the Single Person of God and Christ to give us true Joy I think it therefore necessary for me to point out to you the Several Springâ— of Joy for all Seasons in the Person of God and Christ before I leave this Subject that so my discourse upon it may be more full and Satisfactory to the Soul There are various Springs in the Person of God which but look't upon by any Spirit in any Condition would certainly bubble up a Sweet Delight into that Spirit I will indeavour to lead you to these Springs There are Five distinct Springs of Joy in the Person of Christ or God 1. Love 2. Beauty 3. Power 4. Wisdom 5. Glory 1. Spring Love Psal. 63. 3. David confesseth to God Thy Loving Kindness is better than Life Solomon faith A living Dog is better than a dead Lyon Life is the best of all Created Things Yet the Love of God is better than Life Instead of Better you may read Sweeter Did you ever tast a Sweetness in Life In your own Life Or in the Life of any Thing that was dearest to you The Love of God can make this Sweetness none at all overcoming it with a greater Sweetness in itself The Love of God can Sweeten the Loss of your own Life or the Life of those in whom you have most Delight because it is itself far Sweeter Waters are Sweetest in their Fountain The Love of God is the Fountain of Life All Lives derive themselves as Streams from this Head Hath Life ever been Sweet to you Come to the Love of God and you shall tast the Sweetness in a Sweeter manner in its Fountain The Love of God hath a Six-fold Sweetness in it 1. A Pardoning 2. A Healing 3. A Clearing 4. A Chearing 5. A Crowning 6. A Conquering Sweetness 1. There is in the Love of God a Pardoning Sweetness David melts out this Psal. 103. 3. Who pardoneth all thine Iniquities O hear this you who with Mary Magdalen have a full number of Sins in you and those ripened into so many Devils Though your Iniquities be as a Mountain reaching up to Heaven the Love of God hath a Sea of Sweetness in it which can swallow up this Mountain that nothing of it shall ever appear any more 2. There is a Healing Sweetness in the Love of God David adds this in the former place Psal. 103. 3. Who healeth all thy Diseases The Woman who had many years been afflicted with a Bloody Issue and had spent all on Physitians was cured by one Touch of the Hem of Christs Garment Here is Comfort for you who have old Sins or Sorrows like Sores running continually upon you and can find no help or ease The Love of Christ can cure you in a Moment with one Touch onely of its Sweetness upon your Spirits 3. The Love of Christ hath a Clearing Sweetness 1 Iohn 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding by which we may know Him who is true What Job said of himself is true of the Love of Christ It is Eyes to the Blind The Psalmist makes a Sweet Conjunction of Tasting and Seeing Isal. 34. 8. O tast and see that the Lord is gracious 1 Sam. 14. 2. Jonathan said See I pray how mine Eyes have been Enlightned because I tasted a little of this honey Do but tast this honey the Sweetness of the Love of Christ and see how the Eyes of your minds will be Enlightned to a Discovery of Spiritual and Heavenly Things 4. The Love of God hath a Chearing Sweetness the Heavenly Spouse saith to her Saviour Thy Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. It is the Advice of Solomon's Mother Prov. 31 6 7. Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of a heavy heart Let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his Misery no more The Sweetness of our Saviour's Love is the True Wine the New Wine as He is the True Vine This is strong drink of a strength to ravish and transport the Soul out of and above her self Give this drink to that Spirit which is dropping into Hell or Despair Give this spiritual wine to him that hath a heart heavy with guilt wrath and terrours Let him drink freely One draught of this Sweetness shall make him forget his guilt and remember his fears no more The fifth Sweetness in the Love of Christ is a Crowning Sweetness Psa. 103. v. 4. God saith David to his soul crowneth thee with loving kindnesses and tender mercies The Love of God casts its Sweetness all round about thee that thou canst turn thy self no way but thou meetest with this Sweetness Jesus Christ encompasseth thee with a Ring of Sweetness as a Garland of Roses encompasseth the Head Nothing can come at thy Person but it must come thorow this Sweetness and so be Sweetned by it St. Iohn calls Jesus Christ Revel 1. 5 6. Him that loved us c. and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of Christ Crowns us Kings Kings to God not Imaginary but True Kings not Puppet-Kings in the Play of this Life but Real Kings not Kings to shadows for the Dream of Time but Kings for Eternity to God Kings as God and Christ whose Kingdom is not in this world but in heavenly places and in the Power of an Endless Life 6. A Conquering Sweetness This is the last Of this St. John testifies concerning Christ Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his own he loved them to the end The Love of Christ hath a conquering and triumphant Sweetness indeed for it bring all things Sin Misery Flâ—sh Time the World Death to an end but hath itself no end Fear not lest thy corruptions or evil should outwear thy Saviour's Love No It is made of a durable and everlasting Sweetness which will outlast all things besides it self or subdue them to itself Here you may change the Riddle and sing Out of sweetness comes strength and out of the heavenly meat of our Spirits comes forth the Eater that devours all other things and makes them its meat Eph. 3. 19. St. Paul saith of the Love of Christ that it passeth knowledge This is a Conquering Sweetness which conquers all our faculties our largest even our Understanding itself The Understanding is the Gate of the Soul according
Wherever there is any Subject to be wrought upon or to receive the work God works all in that Subject Wherever there is any Effect to be wrought God works all in that Effect Not an Angel or Bird flies or falls not a Thought a Hair a Dust moves but as he moves in it and moves it 3. The Pattern of these Workings God worketh all Things according to Counsel Counsel and Wisdom are both the same Thing This is the Glory of God and the Happiness of the Creature that nothing â—omes to pass which is not the Work of God and nothing is wrought by God which is not a Work of Wisdom Philosophers and the Scriptures agree in setting forth the excellent Nature of Wisdom by a Two-fold Description of it 1. Description Wisdom is Knowledge with a Head Knowledge is the Image of Things The Golden Head of this Image is the Heavenly Image of God in the Person of our Lord Jesus Colos. 2. 18. 19. St. Paul calls the Study of the Nature of Angels not Wisdom but Folly and Vanity a vain Puffing up of the Fleshly Mind why Is not this a High and Excellent Knowledge Yes But now it was vanity not Wisdom a vain Swelling not a Substantial Fulness and Greatness of Spirit in those of whom the Apostle speaks Because they held not the Head God then who works all things in Counsel and true Wisdom holds the Head in all His Workings that is whatever he brings forth He brings it forth in the Divine Appearance of his Son he brings forth the Divine Appearance of his Son upon it as the Head Wisdom saith of God and herself Prov. 1. 27 29 30. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when He appointed the Foundations of the Earth Then I was by Him as his Delight This may be as truly spoken of every Passage of thy Life of the least Accident that concerns thy Person For the same God in the same Wisdom hath wrought these that prepared the Heavens and laid the Foundation of the Earth Thou mayst with as great Assurance hear in every Thing of Grief or Joy which thou meetest with in Flesh or Spirit the Glorious Person of thy Beloved Saviour speaking to thee after this manner God hath prepared this for thee and I am here This hath the Father appointed for thee and now am I with thee to be thy Delight brought up and growing up before thee together with this and every other Appearance You look upon things vainly with a Fleshly mind after a heedless manner if you see not the Brightness and Delight of the God-Head in the Person of Christ as a Crown of Rejoycing upon every Providence You deface the work of God you look not upon it as he hath wrought it Holding the Head if you see not the Face of Christ in every Act or Accident as in a Glass God in this Sense hath made Christ his Only Begotten Son in that he brings forth nothing but Discoveries of Jesus Christ. For he is the Head of all Things and this is the Wisdom of God the Holding of this Head in all This is the First Description of Wisdom 2. Description Wisdom is the Fulness of Things Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Fulness of all Things Colos. 1. 19. Wisdom is that Contrivance that Harmony of Things that casts the whole Fulness of Things into each Thing As Members in the Body amongst whom the Joy of all pertains to every one and the Grief of each One to all So are all the Parts of that work which is wrought in Wisdom Wisdom is a Spirit that conveys the Life Power and Sense of all into each Particular that all may rejoyce and mourn together every where As in a good Picture all the Proportions of the whole Face meet and concenter as it were in each Line Point or Touch giving you from thence a Cast of the Beauty of the whole So hath God prepared and appointed all his Works in Wisdom like an Excellent Picture that the Fulness of the Whole and the Beauty of all Parts may shew forth themselves from every Part. Is there any thing so dark so low as that the Wisdom of God reacheth not to it and shines not in it If the Wisdom of God be there then is there the Center the Concurrency the Union of all Things of all Glory If the Wisdom of God shine there then is there a Spiritual Light opening all Divine Beauties making that Thing the Gate of the Creation of Paradise Heaven and the Divine Nature This is that Traffique of Wisdom which makes the Merchandise of it better than that of Silver Gold or Pearl 4. The Original of that Pattern God works all things according to the Counsel of his will The Will of God is the Principle and Original of his Wisdom The Will of God is the highest Rule Rest and Rejoycing of all manner of Goodness The Phaenix is said to spring out of a Nest of all manner of Spices laid together and fired by the Sun the Will of God is such a Flaming Nest of all Beauties and Sweetnesses at their Height Out of this will the Wisdom of God springs forth into every Act of Providence being Beautiful and Precious in it The Will of God is the highest Reason of all things What if God willing to shew the Riches of his Grace What if God willing to shew the Power of his Wrath The Will in a Spirit is as the Sea to a River All its workings flow out of it and into it It is its Spring and Fulness Shall not thy Will rest and rejoyce in that which is the Will of God that is the Highest Reason the fullest Rest and Blessedness of the Divine Nature The Will of God out of which God himself drinks all his Delights in which he bathes himself this Will is the Eternal Fountain The Wisdom of God is a Large and Broad River poured forth from this Fountain Every Creature each Passage of things in the Creature is the Water of this River Shall it not be Sweet to thee Canst thou not drink of this Water of the River of God sent forth from his own Fountain with Delight 2. Scripture Deut. 32. 4. Moses sings of God He is the Rock His work is perfect All his ways are Iudgment The Work of God is Perfect in the whole For all the ways of God in his work in Particular are in Judgment that is in exact Wisdom This place affords us Three comfortable Observations concerning the ways and works of God 1. Observation Nothing comes to pass but that which is best 2. Observation Nothing falls out but in the best Time 3. Nothing is brought about but in the best manner The former place of Scripture taught us that all things are the Work of God This teacheth us that his work is Perfect and all the ways of it Exact according to the best Judgment of things and the rightest rules of Wisdom which are the
and Power of Immortal Life in them 5. Rule Let your Mourning be in God In him saith St. Paul of God we live and move and have our Being Acts 17. 28. It is true Naturally of all men It is much more true of Saints in a Spiritual sense We live the life of Grace we Mourn we have our Spiritual Being and Motions in God A Natural and Spiritual Man have their Being in God after a different manner A Natural Man hath his Being in God as he is the Principle of the First Creation in which he is as in Thick Darkness A Spiritual Man hath his Being in God as God is in Christ who is the Brightness of the Glory of God Abide in me saith Christ that is in the Brightness of the Glory of God and ye shall bring forth much Fruit John 15. 4. 5. If you will bring forth your Tears as Fruit to God you must weep in the midst of the Glory and Joys of the Divine Nature God in his Naked Beauties must be the Stage on which you must act the saddest part of your Sorrows What Part will not such a Stage and Scene of Delights make Pleasant If thou mournest right thou art in God while thou mournest thou seest nothing below above on every side of thee but the Gold and Curious Work of his Glory Will not this Guild thy Grief and put a chearfulness upon it PSAL. XLV VER 1. My Heart is enditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King my Tongue is the Pen of a ready Writer THis Psalm is believed to be composed upon the same occasion with the Canticles The Marriage between Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh which is made by the Holy Ghost a Type of the Mystical Espousals between the Lord Jesus and a Holy Soul The Eternal Spirit delights to play with itself casting from its Heavenly person the shaded Light of this Creation then filling every part of it even the darkest with figures of its own Sweetnesses and Beauties Strange Wives were charged upon Solomon as a Mother-Sin big with many hateful Birthâ— Yet this cloudy piece of Providence is a Vail curiously wrought with the Divine Images of Christ on the Throne his Queen all in beaten Gold at his Right Hand with their pure immortal Lovelinesses Loves and mutual Joyes under which Vail lies hid the Living Face itself of all these Glories Prov. 25. 2. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing but the Glory of Kings to search out a matter It runs thus in the Original It is the Glory of God to conceal the Word but the Glory of Kings to search out the Word It is a height of Glory beyond the Compass of every created Understanding the hiding of the eternal Word which is brighter infinitely than ten thousand Suns all joined into One under a vail slighter and thinner than the most empty shadow to form the Picture of this Glorious Word upon every part of the shadow and then again to vail that also with the Darkness of the Shade But this is the Glory of Jesus Christ to bring down these Mysterious heights and make them familiar to the Eye of the Creature It is an Eye of Glory in the Saints those Fellow-Kings to Jesus Christ by which they discover the Picture in the shade the ravishing depths of the Life itself in the Picture and make it their Royal Entertainment to converse continually with the Beauties and Sweetnesses of the Divine nature in them both invisible to common senses This Psalm is entituled A Song of Loves The sweetest Matter exprest in the sweetest Manner Both are a Divine Harmony The Loves here are a Harmony of the most Heavenly and most Spiritual Hearts The Song the Harmony of the most Heavenly and most Spiritual Voices The Loves figure out the Father the pure unfathomed unconfined Spring of Unity and Sweetness where all things lie embracing each other in their first and softest Bed The Song represents the shining Word the harmonious Wisdom the Essential Musick Beauty and Image of the Godhead the Son in whom all the Riches of Love are with an equal Richness and Loveliness displaid The Song of Loves these Loves thus sung this Marriage of Love and Loveliness paint out to us the Joyes and Glories of the Thrid Person the Holy Ghost But by whom was this Song sung Some read The Song of the beloved Virgins These are the friends of the Bridegroom and the Bride which sing the Epithalamium or Marriage-Song In the Canticles they are called The Daughters of Jerusalem which some Interpreters understand to be the Holy Angels Angelical Spirits are expressed by the name of Virgins very fitly 1. For the preservation of their native sweetness their primitive beauty the flower of the Divine Image iâ— them uncorrupt untainted 2. For their single Estate being separate from mixture and union with any sorts of Earthly Bodies below them and not yet raised to a marriage with the Divine Body the Substance and Fulness of the God-Head in Jesus Christ because they are the fairest softest and sweetest Images of all created Things It is the manner of the Hebrew Tongue to express the Beauty and Loveliness of things by the feminine Sex The Woman is the Glory of the Man Christ the Brightness of the Fathers Glory is represented in this Form by the Jerusalem above the Mother of us all In the Proverbs he is figured by a Virgin-Queen in her Pallace his Angels as Maidens attending on this Virgin-Queen and sent forth by her to invite her guests Thus separate and Angelical Spirits those invisible Beauties which are the immediate Copies and Springs of all visible things as also the Mark and White to which the activity and operations of all natural Principles as Arrows are directed be known by the names of Nymphs and Virgins Iâ—hn the Baptist was the Restorer of the Law the proper Ministry of Angels which was ministred by Angels and by which only the Angelical Life and Glories as figures of the Divine were ministred to us He therefore is called by the Holy Ghost An Angel going before the Lord to prepare his way He speaks of himself as a Friend of the Bridegroom rejoicing to hear his voice and making one in the Quire of Angels which sing to the Bridegroom and the Bride while they lie on Beds of Glory in the embraces of each others Love These Angels are those Friends which Jesus Christ calleth upon in his Song of Songs when he comes into his Spouse's Garden Cant. 5. 1. I have drunk my Wine with my Milk Eat O Friends Drink be enebriated with Loves St. Paul expounds this Scripture Eph. 3. 10. That unto the Principalities and Power in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God The Hearts and the Lips of the Spouse of Christ the Marriage-Union between Christ and a saint in the spiritual and Heavenly Image is the Golden Cup out of
Superiour and Inferiour One above Another below In that above is the Fountain of Pleasure from thence the stream descends which makes that below ever-green and flourishing with delights Eden signifies Pleasure or Delight which name in another word is given to Christ as he was eternally in the bosom of the Father Prov. 8. 30. I was by him one brought up with him Delights from day to day Jesus Christ in his Heavenly Image in the Substance and Essence of the eternal Light is Eden the Paradise above In his earthly Image the sweet Shade where all his Beauties seem at once to sleep and spring he is the Paradise below There is he the Eden and the Fountain in the midst of Eden Here the Garden watered by the River going forth from Eden A good Heart hath in itself both these Paradises the Fountain and the Stream Eden and the Garden Cant. 4. 15. The Lord Jesus calls his Spouse A Fountain of Gardens a Well of living Waters flowing from Libanon The holy Heart is both the Fountain which makes all things Gardens Paradises which way soever it flows and those Gardens too It is both Libanon with the Fountain in it and the Gardens below in the vallies in the midst of which the Living Waters from this Fountain run along Reasâ—n The Heart is that Spirit which is the first Spring and Principle of Life in man Prov. 4. 23. Keep thine heart with all Diligence For out of it are the Issues of Life All the treasures of this World its Light Forms Vertues operations are first in the Sun From thence they flow forth in various Streams all round about him while yet they are still comprehended in him as being not only their inmost Center but also their outmost Circle of Light and Life So is the Heart or Spirit of Man an Invisible Sun in the midst of him far more great or glorious than this which we see in which all forms and acts of Life like Beams rise up first and fullest from whence they are dispensed and dispersed The Hebrew word to keep imports a double sense 1st Diligently observe thine Heart what Spirit or Principle it is by which thou art acted Such as this is such is thy whole Life If thy Heart be a Substantial true pure Spirit thy whole way and work all thy Joyes are Substance Truth Light Immortality as the Visions of God If the Heart which is in thee be shadowy thy Life is vain and empty the dream of a shadow Is thy heart corrupt and polluted then are all thy Streams poisoned death lurks and sports itself in them with an innumerable company of Devils 2. Keep that is preserve thine own thy true Heart with all diligence Abide in Christ and his Love as the only root of Life from whence alone spring the sap greennesses flowers fruits of true Sweetnesses Beauty and Blessedness Watch day and night that no other Spirit put forth itself in thee for every other Principle besides Christ and his Love will certainly prove a Counterfeit and instead of a Heart out of which the Issues of Life ought to be a root of bitterness There is a Twofold Heart 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 1. There is a Natural Heart This is the supream part of the natural Soul the Angelical Spirit in Man 1 Thes. 5. 23. St. Paul prayes The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have the natural Man divided into three parts which are equally capable of being sanctified or by defilement made subject to blame 1. Spirit 2. Soul 3. Body The Spirit is as the Fountain the Soul the Stream of Life The Body the Channel in which this Stream runs along The whole Man is one Beam sprung immediately from the Divine Glory The upper end of the Beam where it is fullest and brightest immediately united to and rooted in the supream Light makes the Spirit The lowest point least and darkest almost vanishing into the Shade with which it mingles its light where it toucheth the Earth is the Body The Soul is the middle of that Beam partaking of both these dividing and uniting them like the Firmament between the Waters above and the Waters below the Angels being the Waters above the Firmament and Corporeal Lives those below The Spirit is the Angel in Man or Man in the Similitude and Society of Angels the invisible Image the first Treasury of all his Natural Beings Beauties and Life which afterward descends and distinguisheth itself into the varieties of Inferiour Acts and Appearances St. Paul therefore in the forementioned place calls it their whole Spirit The Body is the Outward and Visible Image the Shadow below of this above The Soul is the Life by which the Spirit descends into the Body maintains communion with it and gathers it up again into itself According to these Distinctions and Descriptions Solomon discourseth Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The name of God there signifies Gods or Angels for whom it is frequently and expresly used in the Holy Scripture The Jews say it properly imports the Divine Nature as it is cloathed with the Angelical God in the midst of all his Holy Angels coming forth into the Creation descending to be the Head of it It is an English Proverb If men could live without the company of Women men they should converse with Angels This is true when the Spirit which is the Head and the Man in us withdraws itself from its Shadowy Image the Body which is as the Woman it finds itself in the Form of an Angel and in the Society of Angels From the Angelical State and Company it descends into the Body Thither it returns again when it leaves the Body This is the Natural Heart the Angelical Spirit in Man made in the Similitude of God as he cloaths himself with the Angelical Image as with a Garment of Light and so vailing his naked unaccessible Glories comes forth to be the Head of Angels This Spirit is the Immediate Seat of the Divine Presence the Glory the Angelical Throne Here the precious things of the Sun and the Moon of the Invisible and Visible Image of the Divine Nature here the Riches of the whole Creation appear together in their fullest Lustre and most beautiful Order The Letters of the Latine Name for Heart Cor make the first Letters of those word Camera Omnipotentis Regis which being interpreted are the Chamber of the Almighty King It is a common observation that the Heart of Man is Triangular which therefore cannot be filled with the round World but only with the Trinity This Heart of which we speak is properly Triangular consisting like the Angels of these Three Essence Understanding and Will the proper and Immediate Type of the Trinity which as it can be
fitted and filled up only with the Truth of that Type those Three ever-blessed Persons as their Seal in the noblest mettal next themselves it contains more expresly more at large and more gloriously all those Figures and Draughts of Divinity which are imprinted upon the Face of any Creature O the inestimable Treasures of Mans Natural Heart if Sin change it not from a Palace of Angels to a Prison of Devils or a Grave 2. There is a Spiritual Heart 1 Corin. 6. 16. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Mark the Absoluteness and Universality of the expression one Spirit He who is joyned to the Lord Jesus by believing is one Spirit with Christ one Spirit in Christ one Spirit as Christ is one Galat 3. 19 20. St. Paul thus distinguisheth between the Law and the Gospel The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one There is a Twofold Mediator one who hath his Ground in the Distance and his End to maintain the Distance between Two Parties The other is founded in an Unity and his work is to manifest and make perfect this Unity The Character of the Law is Duality and Division God and the Creature are presented each to other as two upon different Principles treating on a Covenant of works containing different Terms to be performed by each apart In the Gospel God reveals himself as he is One as he is the Ground the Object the End of all his affections and operations as he comprehends himself and the Creature in one Person and in one Spirit in our Lord Jesus as he loves the Creature with the same love with which he loves himself and beholds it in the same Glory with which he beholds himself in Christ. This is the Covenant of Grace in which the Lover and the Beloved are both One You may now ask me two Questions Q. 1. How God is One Q. 2. How a Believer is one Spirit Q. 1. How is God One An. God is one four wayes 1. He is perfect He comprehends all parts of Excellency in every kind and degree Essentially in one supream and undivided Point of Being within himself He is to himself the Eye the Light and the Object the Love the Loveliness the Joy and Fruit of both all in One. The most curious Composition of all Sweets in one Ointment or Perfume The most natural extraction of the vertues of all herbs and flowers into one Sweetness in Hony falls infinitely short of the Unity of all Perfections here and the Perfection of this Unity 2. God is Pure There is no mixture in him As they say of Gold the purest Mettal It is plenum sui full of itself so is God in the highest sense Every grain of pure Gold is Gold Every thing in God is God There is no mixture Division Allay or Bound The Divine Nature is endlesly compleat and entire within itself like a Sea of unshaded Light which hath no shore or Bottom God is Light and in him is no darkness 2 John 1. 5. 3. God is unchangeable He is the Rock unmoveable He is the Rock of ages All successions of Time like Waters of a River pass by him and behold him through all revolutions fixt in the same place and State He is the Rock of Eternity As Wheels turning round in a Cave within a great Rock So all the Times and Changes of this World are comprehended within the Unchangeableness and Eternity of his Essence 4. God is the Fountain He is not a Broken Barren but a perfect and pregnant Unity Rom. 9. 36. Of him and Through him and To Him are all things to whom be Glory for ever As all numbers are a Unity multiplied so are all things various Sparklings of this Divine Unity Emanations and Manifestations of the same God presenting himself to us at sundry times and in divers manners Love is defined to be Partus in pulchro a Birth in a Beauty This is the true nature of things that Divine Love which is the Birth of all Varieties of and in this Beautiful this Blessed Unity 2. Q. How is a Believer one Spirit 1. That One Eternal Spirit brings forth the Spirit of a Saint as his own immediate proper and Peculiar Birth as the dear Reflection of himself A Saint is the Workmanship of Jesus Christ not as a Picture is of a Painter but as a Child is of the Father one Spirit one Life one Divine Nature is in Both. 2. This one Spirit begets and brings forth the Spirit of a Saint in his own likeness Rom. 8. 29. God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is to his heavenly Image as he is the quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 49. The Lord Jesus is our Father the Father of the new World the New Birth in us as he is the Heavenly one that Spirit which is the supream Unity the Lord and Fountain of Life and Spirits So he brings us forth in the Image of the same Heavenly Form and of the same Divine Unity Thus he prays to his Father John 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest to me I have given to them that they may be One as we are One. Behold the Divine Birth of a Saint the Divine Likeness into which he is born and the Divine Unity the Ground and Form of the Divine Birth and Likeness 3. The Eternal Spirit unites itself to the Spirit of a Believer thus regenerated in the most Intimate Entire and Inseparable manner They mutually inhabit fully possess perfectly enjoy each other In life and death time and eternity they are undivided Thus this Heavenly Adam the Unity and Fountain of Spirits casts himself into the sleep of Humane Life and of Death that he may bring forth from his Side and his Bosom this Sister-Spirit this true Eve the Mother of all Living of all Heavenly and Spiritual Lives as he is the Father Then when he awakens in the Resurrection from the Dead he takes her to be his Spouse as she is his Sister in the Fellowship of the Divine Unity which is the glorious Ring and Circle of all Relations So she who is Spirit of his Spirit in the likeness of the same Spirit is made one Spirit with him Thus you have an Answer to these two Questions You see how God is One How he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit O that men knew God unvailed revealed in the Light and Grace of the Gospel as he is One O that they they did rellish the Sweetness of this Unity of the Spirit which is the height of all Relations by which God is one to a Believer in all times and things one in him one with him by which he also is one to in and with God! This sight and sense would make us to be continually in Pangs of longings to be regenerated and brought forth into this Spirit and Unity as Jesus Christ is
always in pangs of Love to bring it forth and form it in us But to conclude this Reason This Holy Spirit this Spirit of Unity and Unity of the Spirit is the Spiritual heart of which we speak St. Paul Ephes. 3. expresseth it by being rooted in Love This is that Root which we have in the eternal Love of God in that Love which is God in God as he is Love This is the new Heart which is bred and cherished in the bosom of the Father These Heavens above us comprehend in their Circuits all things here below which as learned men teach us are figures images of their vertues sent forth from them But they have fixed in themselves innumerable Bodies of Light and Glory far exceeding all things here They say that these Heavens are Circular because that round Figure is most caâ—acious and beautiful as being an Image of the Unity of Angelical 〈◊〉 How great and glorious a Circle then vastly transcending the Heaven of Heavens is this Divine Unity this Spirit which is the new heart of a Saint All the Heavens and this earth lie within the compass of it as Light shadows which it casteth from it self But as for those Treasures which are proper to it which are fixt in it how infinitely more innumerable how infinitely richer are they The mind of Christ with all the Beauties and Brightnesses there the deep things of God with all those Lights and Joys unfathomable to every natural Eye and Heart lie within the Circuit of this Spiritual Principle A great Philosopher call'd the Angelical Spirit in man which is his Natural Heart the Flower of the Soul It is so indeed as the Blossoms upon Fruit-Trees but the Divine Spirit the Spiritual heart is the Fruit 1. Use. Seek this good heart which hath so good a Treasure in it That you may seek it with all affection and diligence take these Three directions Believe the Truth of this Principle Consider the Preciousness of it Understand your Propriety in it 1. Believe the Truth of this Principle When the Apostles asked the Christians in Samaria whether they had received the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not so much as heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. Is not this the temper of many amongst us of most of the sensitive and natural Spirit in us all We do not so much as believe that there is a Holy Ghost much less that this Holy Ghost is poured out upon any Soul as a Heavenly Anointing from above or dwells in any heart as the Principle of a supernatural and eternal Life He that comes to God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Fix in thine heart with an unshaken faith these two Radical Truths from which all the fatness and sweetness of the Tree of Life is derived into our Spirits 1. That God is 2. That there is a Union between God and Man in One Spirit Say frequently to thy self It is true It is the first Truth upon which all other Truths are built that there is a supream incomprehensible Being which shines through all and fills all the Fountain and Measure the End Perfection and Blessedness of all Beings It is as true that this ever-glorious God descends in Jesus Christ to sow himself by his own good Spirit as a Divine Seed in the heart of man below that by the unvailing of his original Excellencies he shines as a spiritual Sun from above into the Soul to quicken awake and call forth this Seed in the vertue of which the Soul springs into a new and heavenly Being comes to God by the fresh Participations of his life grows up into his Likeness pleaseth him is possess'd and enjoy'd by him possesseth and enjoyeth him with an unexpressible fulness of all mutual and Divine Pleasures When the Merchant in the Gospel found a Pearl in the Field he went and sold all to purchase this Field If you have discovered this rich Pearl of the Divine Nature as a Root at the bottom of yoâ—â— Spirits go exchange every Principle Power and excellency to give 〈◊〉 self up to the conduct activity fruitfulness enjoyment of this alone 2. Consider the preciousness of this Heavenly Principle Es. 6. 13. God compares his people in the greatest desolations to an Oak whose Substance is in it when it hath cast its leaves so saith he the Holy Seed shall be the Substance thereof Consider here three Precious Things in this good Heart which is the Seed and Principle of Grace in us 1. This Spiritual Principle is a Substance Solomon complains of all things under the Sun the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing He brings this as an Argument and effect of their vanity All things here are Shadows only and so empty unsatisfactory endlesly raising expectations and desire but never answering them When this Spirit which is far above the Sun is received by thee when this becomes the Principle of all thy faculties which sees in thine Eye hears in thine Ear understands and wills in thine heart when this is the Treasury from which all Objects come forth to act those faculties then thine Eye will be satisfied with seeing substantial Beauties thine Ear will be filled with substantial Melodies thine Understanding will sit down to a Heavenly Feast of substantial Lights and Truths thy Will shall lie down to a Sweet and Eternal rest in a bed of substantial Embraces and Joys in the midst of the Substance and Essence of Goodness itself 2. This is the Holy Seed The Heavens over our Heads are pure They are free from that gross and dark Matter with which all Forms of things are mixt here on Earth This Purity of theirs is their Transparency Light Lustre Harmony Vertue Incorruptibility Yet they are Corporeal and Bodily their bright Beauties shall be turned into Darkness and Blood The Angels are purer far than these Heavens They have no Cloud Clog or Dross of Bodies Yet are they mixtures of Light and Shade Their Glories are vails upon the true Glory They wax old as a Garment and are changed Their Nature is subject to stains and falls But this Principle which is the Seed and Heart of a Believer is purer than the Heavens or the Angels It is the Spirit of God the true Light in which there is no Darkness Simple incorruptible Unchangeable 3. This Principle is durable It is a Fountain springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life John 4. O precious Treasure Eternity is defined to be the full and unbounded Possession of all Good at once in One. Pearls have their price because they have their lustre in a lasting Substance This Holy Seed is the onely Pearl of price both for its Lustre and for its lastingness The Will of Man naturally moves to good The greater the good is and the more clearly it appears to us so much the more natural and powerful are the motions
of our Will to it Did we understand the goodness of this Spiritual Principle for the Reality the Excellency the Eternity of it the Waters are not carried so naturally so constantly to the Sea nor Fire upwards to the Bosom of Heaven as our Souls would to this Sea of Life and Bosom of Love Union with God in the Unity of his own Spirit Thus we have done with the 2d Direction to quicken us in our pursuit of a new Heart a Spiritual Principle which is to consider the preciousness of it 3. Understand your Propriety in this Divine Principle 1. You were made in the Similitude and Image of God He is your Original the Substance and Truth of your Being more truly your selves than you are your selves 2. God is your Father There is one God the Father of whom are all Things saith St. Paul 1 Cor. The Cheeks of Christ are said to be Beds of Spices Cant. 5. v. 13. Our Immortal Souls our whole Persons are sprung up out of the Glories of the eternal Spirit as Spices and Flowers out of their Beds in the Gardens When we are united to this Spirit we return to our own Original like those flowers we sink down into our proper Beds and Roots to receive a fresh Life and Beauty 3. We are made by and in Christ Col. 1. By Christ as our immediate Principle and Pattern In Christ as our proper Habitation The Original Sin of Devils which infected Mankind is plainly set down to be this Jude 6. They kept not their first State in Greek Principle but left their own Habitation Propriety begets Love for both Love and Propriety have their life and root in Unity There is nothing which is so much thine own as God as Christ as the Spirit These are thine own Father thine own Habitation where thou art at home thine own Principle thine own Original thine own truest and best Self Let this Propriety then by Love ascending from thee by the sense and influence of a greater Love far descending upon thee encourage allure and attract thee to this Divine Principle this Spirit of Union by which thou becomest one Spirit with Christ and the Father Thus return O man whosoever whatsoever thou art to thine own Home to thy proper Unity as the wandring Bird to her nest and the Wife of Adulteries to the bosom of the Husband of her Youths where she finds a Fountain of Heavenly Loves still flowing fresh for her as at the first into which she casts her self and finds all the Beauties of her Youth and Purity restored unto her as in the beginning her sins and sorrows flying away and vanishing into the Air of this eternal Spirit as Shadows of the Night and Dreams of a man asleep when he waketh Use 2. This good Treasure of a good Heart is a Cordial and Comfort against Losses or Sufferings Heb. 10. 34. The holy Penman tells the Disciples to whom he writes they took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance Some read it knowing that you have in your selves in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance This Scripture upon the riches of the Spiritual Principle in a Believer groundeth five sweet and full Consolations 1. Thou hast the Substance A Lacedaemonian invited to hear one sing like the Nightingale answered To what purpose when I can hear the Nightingale itself When thy sense mourns to thy Soul and saith They have taken away our Estates our Friends all the joys of Life They will take away our Lives also let thy soul reply why should we mourn for the Shadows when still we have the Substance 2. Thou hast all things better Philosophy saith that every plant below hath its Star in Heaven each Star its Angel above the Angels their Idea's or Original Essences and Truths in God to which they are as Types only Is thy Flower withered Thou hast it in a Star Is thy Star darkned For thy Star thou hast an Angel Are the good Angels which ministred to thee withdrawn from thee They are present and appear to thee in a better manner in the Form of God Canst thou grieve for the loss of a Figure in Wax when thou hast the same Figure in a Gold-Seal from which the Impression of that Form was made upon the Wax 3. Thou hast all to endure for ever The Scripture compares Spiritual and Heavenly Things to Spices for their Sweetness and Incorruptibleness because they partake much of the Sun Spices are prefer'd before Flowers because they have a more lasting Sweetness and not only so but they preserve us both living and dead from corruption Therefore they are used for preservatives from Infection and for Embalmings Thou seest thy Flesh and all the Glory of the Flesh round about thee wither and fade away Trouble not thy self In stead of these Flowers thou hast Spices Thou hast all thy pleasant things in an incorruptible Spirit where they not only preserve their sweetnesses ever fresh for thee but thee also ever flourishing in the enjoyment of them 4. Thou hast all in Heaven A Believer is ever in Heaven and hath Heaven in himself For that Spirit which is his Principle is the highest Heaven The Joys of the Gospel are compared often to a Feast to a Wedding-Dinner at the Marriage of a Kings Son Now there go to make up a Feast not only costly and curious fare but all things suitable Stately and rich Rooms Musick Perfumes excellent company all the Furniture and Entertainment great beautiful and delighting Thus thy Sufferings only change the Scene What thou hadst before on Earth now thou hast in Heaven in the glorious Fellowship of all Angels and Triumphant Spirits with the Ointments of the Holy Ghost the Melodies and Harmonies of Divine Love sounding thorow all the Beauties of the Divine Nature in the purest Light guilding all Joys and Immortal Pleasures like Doves with Silver Wings and Golden Feather flying about every where being nothing but the Spirit of all Grace Joy and Glory in various forms 5. Thou hast all this Substance this Heaven in thy self A Believer hath these Heavenly Things in himself by a threefold Union 1. By a Union of Love As these Heavenly things are thy Beloved so thou art their Love As thou beholdest all pleasantnesses in their faces so thou art their Garden of Pleasures where all precious things new and old are treasured up for thy Beloved They are thy rest and delight their Desire is towards thee You are in the Unity of the Spirit as One made Two and Two made One again 2. By a Union of Likeness Those Heavenly things and thy Spirit are as Brother and Sister that suckt the breasts of the same Mother as Twin-Lilies or Roses springing from the same Root of Love They are to you and you to them as clear and shining Glasses in which you mutually see the Faces each of other and your selves as reflections of each
Prize under which all the Troop march for which they fight to which and under which the whole Troop is gathered together The Beauty and Loveliness of Christ's Person is the Banner spread over all things under which in the force of which for which all things move in their several courses to which the gathering together of All shall be The Instinct of this is All Love The Possession and Springing forth of this All Joy We read in the Acts of an Altar with an Inscription To the unknown God St. Paul preaching upon this Text telleth the Athenians Him whom ye ignorantly worship preach I unto you meaning Christ. In the whole frame of Nature every Heart every Creature every Affection every Action is an Altar with the same kind of Inscription To the Unknown Beauty To the Unknown Jesus This is the Mark the White which every Being in nature ignorantly moveth to which every motion ignorantly aimeth at this is that which all Understandings all Loves ignorantly worship esteem and adore this Beauty of Jesus Christ concerning which we now speak Blessed are your hearts O Believers which are Spiritual Altars with the Person of Christ engraven upon them by the finger of God flaming with the fire of an heavenly Love and bearing this Inscription To the known Beauty of that Jesus whom we know whose Person our Eyes have seen our Ears have heard our Hands have handled the Arms of our Spirits have embraced I come now from the Proof to the Reasons of the Doctrine which are four 1. Iesus Christ is Beauty in its Original 2. He is the Perfection of Beauty 3. He hath all the Parts of Beauty most compleat in his Person 4. All Beauty is derived from him Reas. 1. The Person of Christ is Beautiful in its Original He is the First so the Highest and Best Beauty Heb. 1. 3. Christ is said to be The Brightness of the Glory of God Four things go to make up the Glory of God 1. Excellency 2. Excellency at the height 3. An Union of all Excellencies reflecting upon imparting themselves to each other All center themselves in the bosom of every one All see themselves living and shining in the face each of other as in a living Looking-glass Our Beloved is that Image into which this Glory so brings forth it self that it is One with it self Brightness implies three things 1. Glory at the Height as Light in the Sunshine 2. Glory appearing Glory in an Image 3. Glory in its Purity The Person of our Jesus is such an Image as is the Glory itself a Deep of Glory a pure unmixt unconfined infinite Glory He is an Image of so clear Glory so One with the Glory that All the God-Head appears in Him and nothing of it can hide itself from being seen there The Person of Christ is the Essential and Eternal Glory of the God-Head in its own proper Form in which it may be seen by Spiritual Eyes in which it may be a heavenly Bridegroom capable of being possessed embraced and enjoyed by the Spiritual Bride the Wife of this Lamb without spot or blemish Can any soul that hath had the least glympse of this Mine this Mass of Glory the Blessed Person of Christ be so treacherous like Judas as to value him at and sell him for thirty pieces of silver the Riches of this world Can any Spirit upon whose inward Eye the least Beam of his Beauty hath faln be so prophane as Esau was to sell his Birthright his Inheritance in this Kingdom of Beauty the Glorious Person of his God and Saviour for a Mess of Pottage for sensual satisfactions for a lust for a shadowy life on Earth It is added Heb. 1. 3. That He is the express Image of His namely God the Father's Substance or Person True Beauty is defined to be the proper and native Image of some True Good The True Beauty calls and allures all hearts to it The True Good gives them rest in the bosom of that Beauty Beauty is Goodness visible Good is the Invisible Spring and Center in that Beauty God is the First and Supreme Good Jesus Christ then who is the Express Image of His Substance and Person in whom He is figured after the most exact and lively manner is the First and Supreme Beauty God the Father is the First and Supreme Good as the God-Head in the Root Jesus Christ is the First and Supreme Beauty as the God-Head in the Flower springing out of and standing in the Bosom of its Root having all the virtues of the Root in clear and full figures forming themselves most gloriously and most amiably upon it The Holy Spirit is the First the Supreme Love and Joy as the God-Head in the Fruit in which all the precious virtues of the Root all the lively and lovely Beauties of the Flower are tasted feasted upon and enjoyed To make our Esteem Admiration Adoration and Love yet greater we must also observâ— that these Three in the Divine Nature in the Person of Christ the Root the Flower and the Fruit are inseparable they all mutually comprehend each other that every One may be perfect having the Other Two entire in it self Ho! every one that sitteth under the shadow of any melancholy any grief or fear that saith who will shew us the True Good Who will shew us Beauty indeed or where the place of Love is Who will make us to drink of the Fountain of Joy Come hither to the Person of Christ. But come boldly stand not without the Vail press into the Holy of Holies come near to the Person of Christ himself Come past all shadows of Glory come to the brightness of Glory the naked Person of your Jesus Here shall your Eyes be satisfied with Beauty your Souls shall rest in Goodness you shall take your fill of Love and Joy Reas. 2. The Person of Christ is the perfection of Beauty Psal. 50. 2. From Sion the Perfection of Beauty God shall shine There are three Things which I would make clear to you in this Scripture 1. That Sion is the Third Person in the Trinity the Holy Spirit 2. That the Perfection of Beauty is a description of the Second Person the Lord Jesus 3. Why these two are so joyned as if one only were meant This verse hath a deep Mystery of Divinity in it Glorious Persons are contained here But there is a Vail of borrowed Names from inanimate things upon them It will be worth your time and patience to stay a while at this place to search into the Mystery to take off the Vail and discover the Beauty 1. I think it will be plain to every understanding that the blessed Spirit is figured by Mount Sion if you compare three Scriptures Gal. 4. 26. Jerusalem above is free which is the Mother of us all Gal. 4. 28 29. We Brethren are the Children of the Promise as Isaac As therefore it was then so it is now he that is born after the Flesh
Lord Jesus cometh in the Glory of all the Three Persons the Father shineth in the Person of the Son the Son shineth in the Person of the Spirit all Three in One shine together in the glorified Humanity of the Lord Jesus all three glorifie that with themselves Inhabiting and shining forth round about with a full Light of glory in it Figuring themselves in their Divinest Forms upon it overshadowing it and cloathing it with the Brightnesses of their own most entire and most naked Appearances Thus is Jesus the Perfection of Beauty The Glory of the God-Head is now consummate in Him when all the Three Persons appear quite unvailed in his Person You who love and wait for this Appearance of your Heavenly Bridegroom who see this day which his Spiritual Beauties make and rejoyce to see it with a Joy unspeakable and glorious you who live in the sweet dawnings of this day upon you you who have any thing of the Spirit of the Bride in you cry continually Even so so come quickly Lord Jesus in this Thrice-Beautiful and Thrice-Blessed Appearance Thus the Person of Christ is the Perfection of Beauty Perfection implyeth 3 Things 1. Clearness 2. Compleatness 3. Comprehensiveness 1. Clearness That which is perfect is pure hath no spot or mixture of any thing Forreign As every drop of Milk is Milk so every thing the smallest Point in the Person of Christ is Beauty He is Beauty itself in the abstract in its simple Essence This Finite world cannot satisfie our desires because they are infinite Behold here the Person of Christ a world of Beauty and infinite to terminate and satiate your infinite desires For every thing is bounded by another or by its Contrary nothing by itself as Light by Darkness Life by Death Our Lord Jesus is a Light of Beauty where there is no Darkness and so no bound to set a stop to it from multiplying itself endlesly within itself meeting no where in its utmost Circles of glory with any thing besides itself It is this Beauty which is sown in every Spirit shooting up and budding in desires flowring in delights Love is this Beauty in the Seed desires the sproutings of this Love Therefore are our Loves and Desires infinite because this Jesus the Beauty which is their Root and their Fruit is so 2. Compleatness The Beauty of Christ is perfect nothing can be added to it Solomon saith Eccles. 1. 7. All rivers run into the Sea and the Sea is not at all the fuller It is the Person of Christs which is this Mystical Sea of all Beauty and Sweetness all the rivers of created Beauty and Sweetness go forth from him and take away nothing They all return into him again and add nothing When Lot had been made to drink Wine freely by his Daughters he perceived not when they lay down nor when they rose up Believing beloved Souls drink in the Lovelinesses of your own Heavenly Husband drink abundantly of them so will ye have little or no sense of the presence of the Sweetness of any Object or Relation among the Creatures when ye lye down in its embraces or of its absence when ye rise up from it never to return to the enjoyment or sight of it any more Your Jesus in his single Person is all Loveliness compleat in itself He is the same that which all Creature are that which they are not with them and without them Their presence and their absence are the same equally full of the same Beauty and Sweetness in him 3. Comprehensiveness The Perfection of Beauty comprehendeth all Beauties and Beautiful Things in itself It is the First and Essential Beauty which by its presence beautifies every thing The Beauties of Angels Stars and Flowers of Bodies and Spirits all flourish together eminently and unfadingly in the Person of Christ which is the Paradise of God and the Bed of Flowers there Thou who mournest and loathest thy self for some Deformity or Defilement of Spirit who bemoanest thy self for some defect comfort thy self concerning this in the Person of Christ. God is said in one place to call all the Stars by name and no one of them is wanting The Person of thy Saviour hath all Spiritual and Natural Beauties in itself Here thou mayst call by Name the proper Beauties of thy Person to cloath all thy shame with Glory to supply all thy wants with suitable Grace Thou shalt find no one wanting Every one will answer readily here am I behold I bear thine Image and the Inscription of thy Name upon me I have been laid up from Eternity in the Perfection of Beauty and kept for thee unto this Season You that complain for the want of any Loveliness come to Jesus Christ that you may have it and have it in abundance richly to enjoy He is that well of Beauty springing up to eternal Life that is with All with Infinite with Endless Beauties You who 〈◊〉 your hearts captivated by any thing lovely on Earth come hither Where the Person of Christ is seen as he appears in the Spirit unvailed there is Liberty the fulness of a Divine Beauty the freedom of a Divine Love taking off from our hearts the Chains of every ensnaring and enslaving passion Behold that which thou lovest in Christ the perfection of Loveliness where it is truest and sweetest so love it in him Behold Christ beautifying by his presence every beautiful Object like the Sun-shine on Flowers so love him in it One said if a man know not the way to the Sea let him follow the course of a River Every stream of Sweetness flows from our Saviour and runs into him Let thy heart accompany it in this course so shall it be led by a pleasant Guide to Jesus Christ. The nearer thou followest it to Christs Person the larger and fuller will the Sweetness be as a River near the Ocean till it be perfected in him When thy heart breaketh over any departing Beauty or dying Sweetness in a Friend Child Wife or Life then think upon the Comprehensiveness of Christs Beauty which holds all other Beauties in it as Heaven doth the Angels Solomon saith in Ecclesiastes When man dieth the body goeth to the Dust from whence it came the Spirit to God who gave it Each thing returns to its Original to the Element from whence it is taken and of which it is ever a part Darkness sinks down into the Pit of Darkness the Spirit which is the Light Life Sweetness every where every Spark and Image of Divinity re-ascends and retreats into the Bosom of the first Image of God which is Christ. Each pleasantness each beam of loveliness is a glance and sparkle of this Eternal Image of Essential Beauty which enfoldeth all things and mingleth itself with all things That which thou callest the fading of any Sweetness dear unto thee is only the hasting of the loving stream to its beloved Sea the disappearing of the bright flame of Life into the glorious Brightness
of its unseen Element Thou sayst it is now dying now dead when it is emptying itself into the Ocean of Beauties retreating into the pure and incorruptible Element of Beauty the Blessed Person of Christ. Cleave to it in this view of it cast thy self with it into these secret and sacred depths of Life and Loveliness so shalt thou never lose it or thy self save by being both together swallowed up into the perfection of Beauty the Eternal Treasury of all Beauties Jesus Christ. I have now finished the Two first Reasons of the Fairness of Christ above all things the Original the Perfection of Beauty in his Person Before I pass to the other Two Reasons let us look down a little upon our selves and make some application of these Beauties which we have seen in the Person of our Lord to our own Persons to enlighten the Darknesses and redress the deformities there Use. 1. A Caution Let us take heed that we make no inference take no encouragement from the Loveliness of Christ to make our selves unlovely in his Eye to defile his Spouse in our selves to stain his Glory by Sensuality Lust or any presumptuous Sin Our Saviour now dying saith to his Father of his Disciples I sanctify my self that they also may be sanctified John 17. Jesus Christ put off in Death every thing of Earth and Flesh. He lifteth himself up by his Cross into Glory that he may present himself again to the Eye of our Spirits in the Spiritual and Heavenly Brightness of the Divine Form and Glory that he may baptize us into the same Sea of his Blood and into the same white Cloud of his own Spiritual Beauties that we also by him may die to the Flesh and live with him in the Spirit Hath Jesus Christ to this end made himself higher than the Heavens Heb. that our Hearts and Liveâ— should be low and vile as the Earth Is he ascended above all the Angels all the Principalities and Powers of Light that we should become like Beasts and yield up our Bodies and Spirits Instruments to the Principalities and Powers of the Darkness of this World and of Hell Is there any hope of renewing such a Person by words who thus turneth the rightest and pleasantest words of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties unto nourishment to vain and filthy Lusts to Corruption Is any more to be done but to leave him to that Dreadful and Delightful Maran Atha which is by interpretation The Lord cometh to the Person of Christ himself in his own immediate Appearances when those glorious and unexpressible Beauties of the Spirit and God-Head in which he shall appear shall be Flames of Fire burning upon and consuming every Earthly Fleshly Principle or Spirit in every Form Use. 2. A Conviction of the Evil of Sin which blindeth us to the sight of this Beautiful and Blessed Person of our Lord Jesus How should we all curse to the Pit of Hell from whence it arose that Charm or Enchantment if any had such force to change the Sun into Sack-cloath or hinder it from shining any more upon the Earth How much worse than a Grave would it make the whole world when we should have eyes open and no Light Far greater is that mischief which the Devil worketh by Sin By the charm of this world which he raiseth as an Apparition and Lying Image from Hell together with the Lusts which he awakeneth by it he taketh away from us the glorious Light of Christs Person ten thousand times brighter sweeter and of more consequence to us than the Sun in Heaven 2 Corin. 4. 4. By this means all our faculties are as so many Eyes continually awakened continually benighted with the blackness of Darkness deluded with empty Shadows and disappointed of the beloved Substance So are our Spirits wandring in an everlasting Darkness tormented night and day with the fire of their own restless eager and unsatisfied desires while Jesus Christ their only Light and Food is hid from them under the Cloud of their Corruptions Take heed especially of three Sins 3 of Covetousness Uncleanness Enmity 1. Take heed of Covetousness Mat. 6. 22. Our Saviour warneth his Disciples to take heed what they made their Treasure because where the Treasure sure is there the Heart will be v. 21. The beloved Object irresistibly draweth the Heart to itself and transformeth it into itself as Seed doth the ground in which it is sown The Eye saith Christ is the Light of the Body If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness and if the Light which is in thee be darkness how great is that Darkness The whole Soul and every Spirit is an Eye The understanding is an Eye of Light the Will is an Eye of Love The same word for the substance of it in the Hebrew signifies an Eye and a Fountain The Object is the Light of this Eye which sheds abroad in it the Beams of its Light Sweetness and Influence These are the waters springing up in this Fountain The single Eye in the Language of the Scripture is the good the liberal large open Eye The Eye is single from its Object when it hath fixed unchangeably in it that single Object which is truly and eternally One when it looketh upon all things only as they are comprehended in this Unity This is such a singleness such a simplicity that the Eye and the Object are both One the Supream and Eternal Unity is both the Eye and the Object in this Spirit and so the Fountain which goeth forth from its own Eden maketh the Soul a Paradise and watereth the whole Body The Evil Eye is a contracted divided narrow covetous envious malicious Eye Beware O man that the things of this world that this world be not in thine Eye As Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God so is this World the Image of its God the Devil the Prince of Darkness by which he becomes visible to thee enamouâ—eth thy Soul setteth himself in thine Eye and thine Heart with all his Hells and Fires hid within this Cloud And now a blackness of Darkness big with a dreadful Tempest of Wrath dwelleth within thee and covereth all things round about thee But if Jesus Christ be the Object of thy Love he will be as a Divine Sun in the Center and midst of thy Spirit powring forth a great plenty of rich and glorious Beams thorow all parts every point of thy Soul thy Body every thing round about thee Now all things shall be to thee one entire and beautiful Body of Divine Light Indeed the world compared with the great and glorious world of Light and Beauty in the Person of Christ is as a Mote in the Sun But if this Mote be in thine Eye it will deprive thee of the sight of this Sun 2. Take heed of Uncleanness St. Jude v. 23. teacheth us to hate the Garment spotted
with the Flesh. The Holy Spirit seemeth here to represent a Saint after this manner Jesus Christ in the inward and Spiritual Man as a Sun shining in Heaven The outward and natural Man as a Garment of Light sent forth from this Sun thorow which the Sun itself is seen in every point of it As often as any unclean thought or fleshly Imagination ariseth in us this becomes a spot upon our Garment Now the White is turned into Blackness of Darkness the Beauty into Burning the Face of Christ and of Heaven are clouded and appear no more Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God saith our Saviour Matt. 5. All vision dependeth upon the suitableness between the Eye and the Object All sense in every kind of things proceedeth from the suitableness between each Faculty and its proper Object Suitableness is the visible Image and effect of an hidden Unity and awakeneth that as the Sun doth its own Seminal vertues in the Earth which spring up into all manner of Plants Flowers and Fruits The pure Beauties of Christs Person are seen only by a pure Eye which Eye is the living Image of the same Person in the Unity of the same Spirit and awakened in us by the Appearances of that Glory There is a Three-fold Purity Moral Legal Evangelical If we would see the Image of God in the visible Frame of Nature which is the Person of Christ in its Shadow we must be baptized into the Blood that is into the Principle and Spirit of this Image we must be washed in this Laver from all the gross disorders and pollutions of the Flesh unto a Moral Purity If we would see the Divine Image shining in the midst of the Intellectual Angelical Invisible things of Nature which is the Person of Christ in its Picture let us baptize our selves into the Blood that is into the Spirit and Principle of this Image Let us in this Spring wash off by the Fire upon the Altar offer up all sensitive Forms which is the Sacrifice of Beasts that our Spirits may be like the vail of the Tabernacle having Cherubims the Forms of Invisible and Heavenly things only formed upon them This is our legal Purity But would we see that Image of the invisible God which is itself invisible to every Natural Eye of Men and Angels Would we see not the Shadow the Picture but the Brightness of Glory the Person of Christ in the Life unvailed We must then be baptized into the Blood the Spirit the Principle of this Eternal Essential Image of God This alone can purify the Heavenly Things themselves Heb. This alone can wash out the impression and similitude of every Creature in its Natural State that the uncreated Glory which alone is the true Heaven and lies hid under the other as a Diamond in a heap of rubbish may shine forth This is our Evangelical Purity and our Evangelical Vision of God in the Person of Christ. When thou art come never so little past the lusts of the Flesh thou shalt meet with him whom thy Soul loveth Jesus Christ in his Shadow This will be an Earthly Paradise to thee springing up thorow thy body thy senses all vsible things round about thee When thou art come never so little past the Flesh itself and all Appearances of things in that thou shalt meet with him whom thy Soul loveth in a lively lovely Picture thy Jesus in the Form of an Angel All that was dear to thee and present with thee in the dark shadow thou shalt now see again with gain and enjoy in the bright Picture Thy Earthly Paradise shall be grown up transformed and enlarged with thee into a Heaven of Angels When thou art come never so little past these Watchmen themselves the Angels without the walls of the City of this whole Creation thou shalt meet with him whom thy Soul loves the Lord Jesus in his naked living and eternal Beauties Here thou shalt see the Light of Life far above all Shadows and Pictures enlarging itself to take in and comprehend them also Not only the Persons and Things represented in those lower Scenes and Forms but the Scenes and Forms themselves appear again and appear eternally in this last and highest opening of the Mystery of God Not only that Rose which was the Treasure hid in the Seed the Stalk the Leaf the Thorn sheweth itself full blown in all its Beauties and Sweetnesses but that Seed Stalk each Leaf every thing of the Rose-Tree every dust of the Earth round about it is now a Distinct Rose This is the Rose of Sharon our Jesus seen as he is the vail taken off in the Gospel by the Holy Spirit Follow after Holiness in all degrees of it that you may see this Jesus as he ascends thorow all Degrees of things Fly from every degree of uncleanness which will be a spot upon your Garments that the Beauties of Christ cannot shine in them neither in your outward and Earthly or your Inward Angelical Garment 3. Beware of Enmity The Holy Ghost saith â— John He that hateth his Brother walketh in darkness until now Every Saint every Man every Creature each Providence is our Brother as it is the work of God the Birth of God by Jesus Christ and beareth the Image of him who is the Wisdom of God All Hatred is a Twin-birth with Darkness Both arise immediately out of the departure and separation from the Unity which is the womb from whence spring together that Blessed Pair Light and Love All Enmity and Hatred besides that which is the loving and lovely opposition of Love itself to Hatred and Enmity is the seed of the Serpent out of which himself ariseth and by which he propagateth his Serpentine brood The Jews say in their Proverbs The Spirit of God resteth not upon an Angry or a sad Man While thy Soul is wrapt up in a black Cloud of Malice or tossed with any Tempest of wrath the Sun of Love the Glorious Person of thy Saviour which is all an immortal Flame of Love appeareth not to thee neither can it be seen by thee all whose Lovelinesses are the Beauties and Beams of Love Rom. 3. 24. Jesus Christ is called the Propitiation This was in the Tabernacle and Temple the Golden Mercy-Seat on which God sat between the Cherubims and talked with Moses In allusion to this we read of the Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. The Person of Christ in his Heavenly Form is the Propitiation the Golden Mercy-Seat the Throne of Grace the Throne of Love of the freest sweetest purest Love If you streighten a Flame and bar it from its Liberty of extending and dilating itself you extinguish it and lose at once its Light and Heat If you contract the Love of Christ in you by Wrath or Enmity you make your self uncapable of the sweet Light of his Appearances and of the Heavenly Heat of his Graces and Consolations While there is among you strife anger malice
Creature is in Christ as in the Excellency of the Divine Strength in its Divine Root Power Life Vertue as in the Excellency of the Divine Dignity in its Divine Form Beauty and Fruit. As our Lord Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God so the whole Creation lieth in him as in a Glorious Fountain-Head in a Beautiful Womb in a Beautiful Pattern in one entire Form of Beauty As our Lord Jesus is the First-born of every Creature so each Creature is seen distinctly in Him and he appeareth distinctly in each Creature in its Primitive Pure Paradisical State In the next place you have this General drawn down into Particulars the Heaven and the Earth the Visible the Invisible things of the Creature Angels with all their Orders all comprehended in the Light of Christ's Beauties like the living Creatures in the White Sheet let down out of Heaven to St. Peter as he prayed on the top of the house All are For By In Him v. 17. Lastly For a close you have all the Forms of Nature like Flowers of Silk in a Garment of Needle-work shining together in the Person of Christ v. 19. We read in the latter part of that verse All things subsist by him It is in Greek word for word All things have subsisted together in him As Beams of Light stand in the Sun and out of the Sun such a Sun is Jesus Christ such a Visible Image of the Invisible God at the Head of the Creation in which and out of which all the Creatures stand like a Bright and mysterious knot of Millions of Distinct Beams As a great and fresh Picture taken from the Life made up of many less Pictures which stand in it of which several Copies are taken from itself and Copy from Copy So is our Beloved the first born of every Creature in which all the Creatures subsist together in their proper Distinctions and their Universal Harmony After this first Circuit of Nature St. Paul passeth to the second Circuit of Grace v. 18. Here also all things appear in Christ as their first Principle and their proper Habitation Jude The Garden of All the distinct Root and Flower of each Spiritual Plant. He is the Head of the Church the Beginning the Principle the first-born from the Dead Both these Circuits St. Paul bringeth into one Divine Circle of Christ's Glorious Person like two distinct and pleasant Apartments one excelling the other in Riches Greatness and Beauty within the same Palace in which all the pleasures of the God-Head and of the Father lie For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell v. 19. Thus we see how St. Paul bringeth all fulness through all Generals and Particulars of things every where into Jesus Christ like the Silver and Gold out of all the Mines of Nature and Grace refined and fashioned by the Hand of a curious Workman the Divine Spirit into one Jewel Behold All Fulness the Fulness of all kinds and Degrees All Fulness the Fulness of all Things Invisible and Visible Angels and Men Heaven and Earth Flesh and Spirit God and the Creature All Fulness the Fulness of all States Light and Darkness Honour and Dishonour Pain and Pleasure the Griefs of all Sufferings the Joy of all Glories the deepest Guilt of Sin the brightest Crown of Righteousness He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Life Death the Resurrection from the Dead Immortality The Earth with its nethermost parts the Heavens with all the Heights above them in a word Love and Wrath with all their Changes and Dresses All Fullness dwelleth together in Jesus Christ. O the Greatness of the Majesty and Fulness of this Heavenly Person Job saith of Wisdom which is one of the names of Christ Job 11. v. 6. The Secrets of Wisdom it is double to that which is The Person of Christ in the Secrets of its Spiritual Treasures containeth all things which are and appear in the Light and Eye of the Creature and besides these which are Copies their Originals Thus is it double to that which is having in itself the Shadow and the Substance the Picture and the Life whereas all that is is Shadow and Picture only The Platonists call Secondary and created Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beings the Original they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Unity above all Being But Job going on to speak of Jesus-Christ addeth Canst thou find out the Almighty to Perfection v. 7. As high as Heaven deeper than Hell v. 8. The Measure thereof is longer than the Earth broader than the Sea That is observable The Divine Wisdom called also the Almighty is as high as Heaven but deeper than Hell His Heights are all Heavens and his Depths are Heaven below Hell itself What are the Dimensions what are the Comprehensions of this Spiritual Person It is the Heaven of Heavens for height of Glory It stretcheth the Compass of its everlasting Beauties and sweetnesses beneath Hell itself comprehending that in its Depths amidst the precious things of its sacred deep below It s Measure extendeth beyond both Earth and Sea in all their Literal and Mystical Images As the Earth hangeth in the midst of the Air as the Air moveth in the bosom of Heaven So Earth Hell Sea Air Heaven and all live move and have their Being in this most high Person and Spirit O the Greatness of the Majesty and Fulness of Christ I think not fit to pass over this Part of our Saviours Beauty the variety in him without Two Notes one of the happiness of Believers the other of the Unhappiness of Sinners 1. Note How happy are they who are persuaded in their hearts to trust in Jesus Christ and by faith to abide in him They dwell together with and in all Fulness When they travel through the valley of Baca of Weeping they go from Strength to Strength from one part of the Variety from one Beauty in the Person of their Beloved to another So they see the God of Gods in Sion the open face and full Beauties of their Bridegroom in the Unity of His eternal Person and Spirit in every form of things Every Pit the deepest and darkest is filled with Divine Beauties in him and his Fulness Psal. 139. v. 6. David cryeth out This Knowledge is too wonderful for me The Name that is the Person of Christ is Emmanuel that is God with us Mat. 1. v. 23. God inhabiting all Forms of things that all Fulness may dwell in him and so he may be with a Believer a Believer with him every where at all times David was in this Contemplation of Christ's Person and ravished with it Thou compassest my path v. 3. Thou hast beset me behind and before v. 6. I am encompassed and shut in with thy Person behind and before from Eternity to Eternity in every Form of Darkness or Light Earthly or Heavenly I am still with thee All
these are Varieties only in thee It is thy self thy Person besetteth compasseth comprehendeth me and my way in them all O Believers when you see Jesus Christ in the least glance of His Person with the same Eye of Light and Love as David saw him with do not you also meet with wonders of Delight and Glory which are too great for your Hearts Affections or Understandings to take in Do not the lowest and least things seen in him appear to you as Divine Wonders with such a height of Light in them as no created Eye can reach But David caught up into the view and Embraces of Jesus in his Heavenly Form proceedeth in his Rapture Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence Face or Person v. 7. The Spirit and the Presence or Person of Christ are here both one to teach us that this Person and Presence of our Saviour in which he is the same yesterday to day and for ever in His Appearances to the Saints under the Law under Grace in Glory is entirely Spiritual a pure Spirit If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there v. 8. Hell in Hebrew and Greek signifies no more 〈◊〉 the Grave or the State of the Dead It is added in Hebrew Behold Thou These words art there are put in by the Translatours as you may see by the Change of the Letter If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea v. 9. even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me v. 10. If I say the Darkness shall cover me even the Night shall be light round about me v. 11. Yea the Darkness hideth not from thee but the Night shineth as the Day the Darkness and Light are both alike to thee v. 12. These last words too are added to thee Go thy wayes O Believer O beloved Spouse of this Heavenly Lover say to him with the same tongue in the same language of Light and Love as David doth Wherever I fly or fall I am ever encompassed with ever wrapt up in thy Spiritual and Glorious Person as my Heaven as the Air of my Life O my Beloved If I fly it is in the face of these Brightnesses If I fall I lie in the Bosom of these Beauties When I ascend up into Heaven behold thou art there Heaven is as a great Room of State and Pleasure in the Divine Building of thy Person The Light of this is all the Glory the Love and Loveliness of this are all the Treasures and feasts of Joy there The several Appearances of those Distinct Varieties in thy Person shooting forth themselves like Beams with a Divine Lustre Warmth and Life make all the Angels in Heaven The Assembly of Glorified Saints is the Fruitfulness and Fulness of thy Person first thy Birth and then thy Bride like Eve to Adam in Paradise the Heavenly Eve to the Last Adam in the Heavenly Paradise thy self multiplying it self that it may have a meet Help for it self to be the Object of all its Loves the Subject of all its Joys the Mother of all Living What have I in Heaven besides thee Ps. 73. 25. Thy Person filleth all those shining and smiling Forms of things in Heaven They are all the Beauties in thy Face the smiles in thine Eye If I die behold thee Death itself is first an extasie of Love in which thou overshadowest me in a moment snatching me out of the Light of this world into the sweet and everlasting Light of a far greater and more Blessed world thy Person Then is it an extasie of Joy to find the same Jesus cloathed with the same white and shining Rayment in the Grave as I beheld him in Heaven The Grave becomes a Bed and that Bed thy Bosom Luke 16. 22. The Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abrahams Bosom the rich man also dieth and is buried That which the Grave is to the rich man that to the Begger to the poorest Saint is the Bosom of Jesus figured by Abraham in whom he lay hid as the Seed of Eternity Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 7. Aminadab is my Princely People a Chariot of Angels of Glorious Spirits This is the manner of the Death of Christs Spouse Ere she is aware her Soul setteth her upon or rather itself becometh to her a Chariot of Angels where she sitteth upon a Golden Throne of Love encompassed with Curtains of Light and so is transported in the twinkling of an Eye into the Arms of her Beloved her whole way itself lying in the same embraces which are the end of her way and those Angels being the varieties and the movings of those Fulnesses of beauties in the Bridegrooms Person which is the same Spring and Rest of love in them all Go on then believing Soul with David and say to thy Saviour but the time may come when I shall neither rest on thy bosom as a Throne of Grace in Heaven nor as a Bed in the Grave in the Fellowship of thy Death I may be hurried to the uttermost parts of the Sea to that State where storms of malice and wrath rage most in the midst of the blackness of Darkness But when it is so even then thou risest upon me and sweetly breakest like a lovely morning in the Beauties of thy Person round about me Thou takest me upon thy Divine Beams as upon Silver Wings with Feathers of Gold in which the Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature are united As thou in thy course circlest thorow all the infiniteness of differing Beauties within thy self thou carriest me upon these Wings of thine to the extremities of this Sea of Darkness and Tempests Even here also as in Heaven itself thy hand which is thy self thy Spiritual Person thy Divine Life in Act the Activity and Appearance of thine inseparable Glories lead me as my Strength within my guide and way before me my light round about me Yea even here thy right Hand which is thy Person in the sweetest fullest Act and appearance of Love Beauty Majesty and Power holdeth me at once bearing me up in itself encompassing with itself Thus the Sea and Tempests are still thy Person in the same Lovely and Eternal Form opening new Wonders of Beauty and discovering greater Riches of vaster varieties within the bright Bound of its own Spiritual Fulness Yea if I sink so low that I begin to faint and say now the Darkness will cover and overwhelm me now the night will seal up my Eyes from the sight of my Beloved and hide him from me then the Night it self becomes a bright Sun round about me in the Heaven of thy Person where every spot of Darkness as well as Beam of Light is a shining Point or line of Beauty and all so many several Suns set thick one by another Can.
moveth as always carried on in the Chariot upon the Wings of this Harmony A Caution Naturalists report a Serpent to be often bred of the Brain and Marrow of a mans back when he is dead So too often that Serpentine Spirit which feedeth upon the dust of sensuality and beareth an enmity to the Holy and Heavenly Dove is engendred from the sweetest and most substantial Truths which are as the Marrow and Brain of Divine Wisdom when they are become corrupted and dead notions in dead and corrupt Spirits How are these two glorious Principles the Golden Pâ—llars on which the Whole Gospel is established That all Fulness dwelleth in Christ That every thing of Christ in Christ is altogether lovely â—mproved by many unto the grossest Pollutions and greatest Profanenesses But these are willingly ignorant that as God is the God of order and not of confusion so all variety lieth in Jesus Christ in that perfect Harmony which is the Beauty of Holiness and the excellency of the Divine Wisdom All natural things stand in Christ in a double Harmony one with another and with the Divine Nature as faultless Figures of that purity and glory in the Eternal Spirit So Jesus Christ is both in one the Image of the Invisible God and the First-born of every Creature Colos. 1. 15. Then this Beautiful Nature of things in Christ is made a Sacrifice upon the Altar of the Cross in Death that it may put off the Negative Imperfections the Shadowy Darkness Slightness Confinement Mutability inseparable from a meer Figure Thus is this State of things subject to a double Law without it and above it one of its Pattern on the top of the mount above Nature the other of Death that it may by putting off itself in the Shadow put on its truer self in the Eternal Original Thus we read that Christ as he was the First-born of the whole Creation became the First-born from the Dead Colos. 1. 18. Thus thorow Death being purified by the Blood of the Lamb the Creature passeth out of that Shadowy State by rending the Vail of Flesh where it is in Bondage into the Liberty of the Sons of God where it is a Royal Law of Life of Love and of Liberty to itself in the Spirit of God and of Glory The Heavenly Person of our Lord Jesus is a Circle within a Circle 1. The first and innermost Circle is the First Image of God in Nature This comprehendeth the whole Creation This is made up of its Day and Night Light and Darkness All things of Light of Truth and Goodness are embraced by a Light of Divine Love All things of Darkness of the evil of sin lye in the Darkness of Divine wrath where the Evil of Sufferings as a Secret Fire consumeth them 2. The Circle which immediately infoldeth this is that of the Death of our Saviour Here the First Image entreth into a Divine Shade where by degrees it loseth it self and vanisheth as to its former appearances in the Figure sinking into its Eternal Seed The Spirit of Glory in this Divine Shade is the Blood of Christ purifying the Heavenly Things in the Creature by washing away the Earthly Forms This State the Jews call the lower Paradise the Paradise under the Earth For as a Seed hath in it self all the Beautyes and Sweetnesses of the whole plant under the vail of a naked Grain so here all things are as Spiritual and Divine Plants full of all Beauty and Sweetness under the covert of this Purple Perfumed Shade of our Saviour's Death to which the Holy Ghost was an anointing of all precious Spices and a Lamp shining in the midst of it This Spirit is also as a Fountain from Eden running along in the midst of this Paradise like a River and Gardens under ground in the Secret of the Earth The third Circle is the Kingdom and Glory of Christ. In this the two other Circles are seen the First thorow the Second as Faces in a Glass of Glory Here the Heaven of the God-Head is open'd and all things appear as Angels of God ascending and descending in the Person of Christ. This is the Spring of the Spirit in which all created Forms flourish like green Leaves and flowry Blossoms in the Tree of Life never to fall or fade the Eye of the God-Head as a rising Sun shedding for ever sweet Beams of Love and Life upon them 4. The last and greatest Circle the Crown of Life and Beauty is the Glory of the Father This is the Autumn and Season for Ripe Fruit. Now is Jesus returned thither where he was at first Now is he revealed who was from the Beginning God is the first and the last all in all All things see and enjoy themselves all things are seen and enjoyed in their unchangeable Originals This is that Spiritual and Heavenly Form of Christs Person into which he is ascended in which he is as on the Throne of the Father which endureth for ever and ever in which he hath gathered up all things into one This is that Head of our Lord Jesus which is of the finest and solidest Gold Thus we have seen the Order in which all things lie in our Saviours Person according to which he descendeth first and then ascendeth within himself The Unity of this first and highest Form which is the Supream and largest Circle the outmost and inmost to all the rest as their Root and their Crown in the bosom of which all the rest lie as Colours and Figures in the Light This so goeth down into the other that it maketh all one and resteth itself entirely upon each point of every one and enfoldeth the whole in itself so that all have the Truth and the true manifestation of their Being and Beauty only as they lie in this pure and perfect Light Every inferiour Circle or Form of things is comprehended in the Superiour and hath there a double Appearance 1. In plain So it is a native Flower in that Mystical Garden a fair feature in that Face of Beauty a Spirit of that Spirit in that Spirit one Spirit with it 2. In Perspective Thus the lower is seen in the higher as at a distance as at the end of a Cave as it was in itself as passed away according to that fashion of it Coloss. 2. 17. St. Paul complaineth of those who intrude themselves into Heavenly mysteries which they have not seen not holding the head These as St. Jude speaketh are Sensual that is men acted only by a natural and common Soul not having the Spirit So in those things of our Lord Jesus which they know as brute Beasts they corrupt themselves They have not anointed Eyes to see the Harmony and Spiritual Beauty of all things in the Person of the Lord. They discern not how the Original and first Glories by fit steps shoot forth themselves into Figures and Shadows how they lie hid as the immortal Seed and Substance in them how like the Invisible and
Person of the Lord Jesus without and filled with the same Person within Every Creature rightly seen is as a Garment of Light cloathing the Body of the Sun the Person of Christ and wrought in every part of it with the Figure of this Spiritual Sun The Type of it was the Vail before the most Holy Place Within were the Cheruâ—ims of Massy Gold Upon the Vail was wrought the Similitude of the same Cherubims in all manner of rich Colours Thus the Earth is turned to Christ as a Clay to the Seal and every thing in it standeth as a Garment upon him Perhaps he who peruseth this place in Job will find reason to believe that the Holy Spirit pointeth at Three States 1. The Creation as the Figure 2. The Person of Christ incarnate as the First-fruits 3. The Reformation as the Life in the full Harvest Neither will it seem unlikely to those who compare the Scriptures that Zacharias alludeth to Job and Job here to the first of Genesis In three things all agree 1. a Darkness 2. A Light rising in this Darkness and triumphing over it 3. A New Form given to all things by this Light But to return Heb. 1. 3. Our Lord is said to be The express Image of his Fathers Substance The word is Character which signifieth an Ingraving as upon a Seal Great Persons first engrave their Arms upon some precious matter as Gold or a rich stone This is their Seal With this they stamp the same Image upon several pieces of Wax as they have occasion So God the Father setteth deeply and richly the compleat Form of his Divine Person and Substance upon the Person of his Son Then he setteth him as a Gold-Seal upon the Creation as Virgin Wax and so imprinteth all his Beauties upon it But the Lord Jesus stampeth one part of the Creation with the Impressions of his Person thorow another so that the Figure is more clear and perfect in the invisible part of things upon Angels and Spirits more obscure and imperfect upon the Visible part the Things of Sense Before I leave this we are to take notice that the matter of the Creation which Job calleth Clay is expressed by Water in the beginning of Genesis Iâ— you set a seal upon water it receiveth the Impression without resistance but keepeth it only by the continuance of the Seal itself upon it Thus the Preservation of the Creature to the end is the same thing with the Creation of it at first it is the Impression and Figure of our Saviours Beautiful and Blessed Person which is the Essence and Form of each Created Being It is this Glorious Person itself the Fountain of all Forms fixed in the Impression which alone every moment preserveth each Essence and all Beings by renewing them If the Seal be taken off immediately the Figure vanisheth and is no more Use. 1. Let all this that hath been spoken of the Person of Christ perswade us to study this Person in which such unsearchable riches are laid up and to seek the knowledge of him Beautiful things alone are worthy of knowledge This Jesus then is worthy of our knowledge For he is fair He is fairer than all things and so most worthy to be known all Beauties are comprehended in and derived from him His Person then should be the Center where all the lines of our knowledge meet and from whence they are drawn I shall press upon you the Study of your Beloved in the simplicity and nakedness of his Heavenly Person by Two Arguments 1. The Easiness 2. The Excellency 1. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is Easy Heb. 5. 11. The Holy Spirit had made mention of Melchisedech in the verse before In this he addeth Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered by reason of the dulness of your hearing Melchisedech signifieth the King of Righteousness This is Jesus Christ in that Spiritual Form of Divine Glory which is the Throne of Righteousness In this he was eternally with the Father in his heart and Eye In this he was with the Saints from the beginning of the World the Immortal Seed in their Hearts the Joyful and Glorious Object in the Eye of their Faith In this he appeared frequently to them thorow outward Figures The Holy Ghost telleth the Hebrews that He hath many things to say to them of this Person He hath many innumerable Beauties in Him to unvail and shew to them He hath many things to say many words and expressions to declare the riches of each single Beauty When David saw this Person of Christ as a City compact in it self where all Spiritual Beauties and Beautiful Spirits dwelt together in a most Beautiful Order in the unity of this First and Great Spirit in the Eternal Palace of His Spiritual Form he cryed out Glorious things are spâ—ken of thee O thou City of God! Psal. 87. 3. So saith the Spirit here of whom I have many things to Say Then He addeth and hard to be uttered This seemeth a strange Testimony to bring to prove the Knowledge of Christ to be easy which saith plainly the things of Christ are hard to be uttered But you will presently see these words to have in them a full and manifold proof of this which we intend The Beauties of Christ are hard to be uttered Whence ariseth this Difficulty From the Nature of the Things St. Paul teacheth us that Every thing which maketh manifest is Light Eph. 5. 13. If that which maketh every thing manifest be Light then is the Light itself most manifest of all things then the higher and greater the Light the clearer the fuller is it in the Manifestation of Itself and of all other things The Person of Christ is the most pure most perfect and most universal Light Nothing shineth so openly so clearly in every creature in every place in every Spirit Nothing so easy to be seen as the Person of this Lovely One Whence then is the difficulty of uttering His Glories The Spirit answereth the Question It is from the Dulness of our Hearing How evident an Argument is this of the Presence of our Beloved with us that He is before our Eyes in every Appearance of Things that He is in the midst of us How plain a Testimony is it of the openness and clearness of His Beauties of their nearness and suitableness to our senses that it is a Dulness in us not to see this Person these Beauties We never account it to be a Dulness of Sense not to discern things Distant or Difficult Solomon saith Prov. 14. 6. Knowledge is easy to him that understandeth The Knowledge which this Divine King had his eye upon thorow his whole Book was that Wisdom which is the Brightness of the Glory of God shining forth in the Soul The Holy Ghost seemeth thorow this book of the Proverbs to express by understanding a Divine Light and Sense which is the Spirit of Christ in us by Wisdom that Divine
lovely morning breaketh upon thy Spirit from the midst of the shades of unbelief and thy natural State it maketh a day of Power a day of Armies Jesus Christ appeareth now in the Glory of his Father in his own Glory in the Glory of all his holy Angels He boweth down all these Heavens and with them descendeth from above into thy Spirit With these Armies of Glories he fighteth against all the Powers of Darkness in thee With the Power of these Glories he subdueth thee to himself winneth thy Love transformeth thy Spirit and Person shineth upon and draweth forth to maturity every Seed of Glory in thee The Person of thy Jesus shining out in thee is that Morning from which as from a Beautiful and Blessed Womb falleth the Dew of Christs Youth which is his Spirituality his Eternity ever-full ever-flourishing with all Divine Beauties upon his Person This Dew maketh all Graces to spring in thy Soul powerfully plentifully beautifully pleasantly with State and Majesty As that Vine which hath most of the Sun bringeth the most kindly Grapes the greatest Clusters the fairest and best coloured the sweetest the largest Grapes the most abounding with Spirit and Heat yielding the best Wine so doth that Soul which liveth most in the Eye of the Lord Jesus under the Beams of his Person unvailed bring forth the most kindly Fruits of the Spirit in all these respects 1. All Grace aboundeth most it is as the Dew 2. It is pleasantest Thy people are a willing people There is most of Love of Life and Delight 3. It is most Beautiful There are the Beauties of Holiness 4. Every Grace is greater spreadeth and enlargeth itself more hath more vertue and force in it The Appearance of Christ. maketh a Day of Power 5. It is more Princely hath enstamped upon it more of the Person of the Lord Jesus and so more of the Majesty of the Divine Nature 6. It yieldeth the most excellent wine of Heavenly Joys to make glad the heart both of God and Man It is the Dew of Christs Youth It hath in it a Confluence a Concurrence of all the Lovelinessâ—s Sweetnesses of the Person of our Lord in his Spâ—ritual his Immortal State which is his Youth flourishing in the height of all Divine Pleasantness and Glory never to fade or decline O! Let us all be found in the â—umber of the Watchmen that watch continually for this morning Let us go forth from under the vail from out of the Cave of the Flesh and of the world into the Light of this morning into the sweet breakings of the Eternal Day from the glorâ—ous Person of our Saviour Let us receive the Dew of his Youth falling upon us Let us see the Dew of his Youth falling upon all things round about us making the Deseâ—t to Blossom as the Rose our Hearts all things to us Spring Blossom and Flourish with the Spiritual and Immortal Beauties of our Beloved This Dew is his Sowing his watering them every where Use 2. A Direction to the Knowledge of the Person of our Saviour and his Beauties The Lord himself saith The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life John 6. 63. Jesus had been speaking of Himself of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood He meaneth by words the Things which those words signify The Person of Christ the excellencies and vertues of his Person concerning which he spake to them are not Flesh and Blood which are the Shadows only dying dead yea Death itself nor meerly Spiritual but Spirit Substantially and Essentially which is Life not by Participation but Primitively in the Essence in the Spring This is the ground which I lay for the direction which I am to give you in your study of the Beautiful Person of Christ Christ and his Beauties are Spiritual Now not I but St. Paul giveth you two Rules 1 Corin. 2. 7 8. The Holy Apostle speaketh of the Knowledge of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery Then he expresseth this Wisdom of God in a Mystery to be Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory the Lord whose Person is all Glory whose Principality and Kingdom is Glory in the Abstract Glory in its utmost extent He had said this was unknown to all the Princes of this world the Princes in Wisdom as well as Power the highest ranks and orders of Men or Angels To confirm this he citeth a Scripture in the next verse v. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entered into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Observe by laying these three verses together how St. Paul meaneth one Thing by these three expressions The Wisdom of God in a Mystery the Lord of Glory Things prepared by God for those that love him The Person of Christ is that Image of Glory and of the God-Head in which lieth the entire Mystery Wisdom and design of God from the Beginning to the End with all its way He is a Collection of all those Beauties and Blessedness Loves and Joys prepared by the Father for his Beloved Ones to feast upon to Eternity Of these St. Paul determineth that the noblest highest largest senses understandings hearts of the most excellent Creatures are uncapable of the least Glympse or tast of them This he draweth down afterwards to a Rule which is my first Rule Rule 1. Spiritual Things are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. This Rule divideth it self into Three Branches 1. Spiritual things are discerned by a Spiritual Eye St. Paul saith The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he for they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Nature hath a Twofold Eye the Eye of Sense the Eye of Reason The Eye of Sense is common to Man with Beasts and is the Bestial Eye This discerneth the Beauties of Flesh and Blood We have histories of Beasts Birds and Fishes which have been in love with Beautiful Virgins and Youths But this Eye is blind to Spiritual Objects A Material and Corporeal Object if it excel and be transcendent in Sweetness Harmony or Beauty destroyeth the Sense as the Sun dazleth darkeneth and putteth out the Eye How much more unable are our Senses to take in or bear Immaterial and Spiritual Glories Nature 's other Eye is that of Reason of the Mind the Intellectual Eye which is common to Man with Angels This is the Angelical Eye in Man This can discover can take some measure of the Invisible things of the Creation and maintain some Commerce with Angels But the Darkness of this Eye to the Beauties of Christ is painted forth in a lively manner by that sweet and sublime Prophet Isaiah c. 6. v. 1. The Lord Jesus appeareth sitting upon the Throne of His Spiritual and Divine Form His Train of Glories filled the Temple v. 2. The Seraphims themselves which are â—eputed the Highest Order and Degree of Angels cover their faces
with two of their Wings as uncapable of the Brightness of this Blessed Appearance We generally profess to abhor the Principles of Sadducees and Socinians O that we did not most of us fall in too far with them in the real and practical part The Sadducees deny both Angel and Spirit They allow nothing besides that which their Senses can take hold of and assure to them Let us awaken our own Souls and examine our selves Are we not very apt to reject and condemn Jesus Christ Himself if He come in any Appearance of Beauty and Glory which beareth not the Figure of which hath not some proportion to the Forms of Flesh and Sense The Socinians acknowledge both Angels Created Spirits and the Eternal uncreated Spirit above them But they admit nothing more of these than their reason can give reception to They ascend no higher to these than the Wing of their Natural understanding can carry them They make reason the only Rule and Judge of Divine Things The men of Sodom went about groping for the door at which the Angels went in and could not find it because they were blind Is not this too frequently our case How many How often do we all go about in our searches groping for that Gate of Heaven by which the Angels all Divine Appearances go in and out at the Heavenly Person of our Saviour but find him not because we seek him with those natural Eyes of our own sense and understanding which are perfectly blind to his Beauties Divines teach us that one way of knowing God is by Negations when we run over each particular good in every Creature when we lay all the good of the whole Creation together in one heap and then say nothing of this is God all this is nothing of God as he is in himself his Nature and Person is infinitely beyond and above all that is here We were advanced to a good degree in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus if we were arrived at this Negative way of knowing him if when we were gone as fâ—r risen as high as our outward senses our inward faculties could enlarge and lift up themselves we then said of all this is not Jesus Christ. No he is made higher than all the Heavens of sense than all the Heavens of Reason and of Angels When we are thus stopt and bounded let us turn to Prayer and wait for the opening of a New Eye in us David cryeth out Psal. 24. 7. Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in So do you cry Thou everlasting Door thou Eye of Eternity thou Spiritual and Divine Eye open thy self in me that by thee the King of Glory may come in to me and fill all my Soul and Senses themselves with His Train So shall I see my King in His Beauty 2. Spiritual things are discerned in a Spiritual Light 1 Job 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as He is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin As He is in the Light He is God the Father as is manifest by that part of the last clause in the verse Jesus Christ His Son That term As is Emphatical and Distinguishing There is a Twofold Light One in which the Creature is Another in which God is One God maketh the Other God is The Creature is in a Derived and Changeable Light like the Earth God is like the Sun in His own Light inseparable from Himself St Paul distinguisheth between these two Lights God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkeness hath shined in our hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face or Person of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Behold here One Light which is commanded by the Creating Word of God out of Darkness which is called up out of the Possibility and Principles of the Creature Another Light which is the immediate Shine of the God-Head itself in the Face of Christ. As the Sunshine is called the Flower of Light because it springeth and â—lourisheth in the Body and Face of the Sun itself so is this called here a Light of Glory in the Face of Christ. God Himself is called the Father of Lights Jam. 1. 17 that is the Eternal Sun the Sun of Spirits the Supreme Sun of all Beings Spiritual and Corporeal He is the Fountain of Light the first and purest Light His Essence is a Light of Glory This Essential Light of his own unchangeable Glories is the Heaven in which he is St. Paul saith of him he only hath immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 6. 16. The Light of God is so pure that it is invisible to every Creature It shineth with such a Strength and Fulness of Glory that no mortal Eye the natural sight of no Man or Angel can approach it or pierce into it In this God himself dwelleth as in a Palace composed of the Beams and Brightnesses of his own God-Head spread round about him and encompassing him on every side In this Palace he resideth in the Center and midst of every Spirit every Being hid from the search of all In this high and strong Tower of Divine Light Jesus Christ dwelleth together with the Father and is hid there after the same manner Colos. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God He is hid in God by the excess of Light in an Abyss of Glory But how then shall we see Jesus Christ in his own Light if that Light of his Person and Beauties by its unsearchable Riches and Incomprehensible unapproachable Glories hide him from us St. Peter answereth this objection 1 Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvellous Light His Light in Greek is properly his own Light Every Light in the things of sense is from the Sun But that is the Suns own Light which is inherent in the Body of the Sun which floweth immediately from it in which the Sun himself is seen In like manner that is Gods own Light by way of eminency peculiarity and distinction from every other Light which is the very shine and sparkling of the God-Head in itself upon itself in which it seeth and rejoyceth in it self in which alone it is seen which is inseparable from the Divine essence and Persons as the Sun-shine is from the glorious body of the Sun This is a Marvellous Light This Light itself is a Divine Wonder It is above the reach of every Humane or Angelical understanding It is a Light which openeth a Divine World of Glorious Wonders every thing is then only seen right and in its true state when it is seen in this Light Every thing seen in
Individual and Substantial Body of mine as it was in Flesh the Other the awakening of Spiritual Senses in you the Shining forth of my Glorified Body and my Divinity by their own Light upon these thorow this Sign of my Natural Body reassumed for this Service But now beware that you make not this Sign a Stumbling-block to you to make you think me now like your selves and such a one as formerly I was to have a body of an Earthly Substance or Figure consisting of Flâ—sh and Bones No the Days of my Flesh are past I was put to Death in my Flesh and to the Flesh I am now quickened by the Spirit to live for ever in the Spirit A Spirit hath not Flesh nor Bones as you see me now to have This seemeth to be something of our Saviours sence in this place St. Paul Rom. 8. 6. saith To be carnally-minded is Death but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace The Greek word comprehendeth an Act of both the Faculties of our Souls our Understanding and our Will To look upon things in their Fleshly Forms to savour and rellish a Fleshly Sweetness in things is Death To see things in their Spiritual Appearances to savour and rellish them in a Spiritual Sweetness This is Life and Peace which is the Harmony the Musick the Crown of Life When the Disciples looked down into the Grave for Jesus Christ the Angels reproved them saying Why seek ye the Living among the Dead He is not here He is risen He is gone before you into Galilee as Himself spake unto you The Flesh was our Saviour's Grave and is still the Grave of the Spirit All Forms and Beauties of the Flesh are Grave-cloaths bound about Him Let us no more seek the Living and Immortal Person of our Beloved nor His Living and Immortal Beauties which are all Spirit and Life among the Dead things of the Flesh. He is not here in Flesh any more He is risen and gone before us into the Spirit Let us follow Him thither I have done with the First Rule to direct us in the Knowledge of the Person of Christ Spiritual Things are to be discerned Spiritually Rule 2. Spiritual Things are to be compared with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. 13. The Holy Ghost teachâ—th comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual This Rule bringeth me to the Mark and White which I aim at That I may hit it the more exactly I must â—ix a while upon that Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 35. and so forward I lay this Groundwork for the Building which I intend to raise upon this Scripture The set Design of the Apostle here is to discourse of the Resurrection of the Body He therefore frameth this Question to himself which containeth the Great Subject of his whole Discourse in this place How are the dead raised up and with What Body do they come v. 35. In answer to this question he treateth of the Bodies of the Saints in general of the Body of Christ in particular as the Root and Rule of the Resurrection to all the rest Upon this ground I shall raise three Propositions as three Stories in my Building which will take in the greatest part of St. Pauls words upon this Subject in this Scripture Prop. 1. The Body of Christ risen from the Dead is not to be compared with the Body of Christ living upon the Earth or Dying St. Paul likeneth by a large similitude the living Body to a Seed the Body raised to a perfect Plant sprung up out of that Seed v. 36. 37 38. St. Paul maketh expresly three Differences 1. The Life of the one is a Death compared to the life of the other and so the world in which it is a Grave to that Image of things in the Resurrection v. 36. That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die 2. They differ as two several Bodies for Substance and Shape Thou sowest not that Body that shall be v. 37. 3. One is as bare Grain naked dark deformed little slight the other hath a Body a Substantial Beautiful Distinct fulness It hath a Form of Light and Beauty proportions of greatness and magnitude a fulness of Substance It hath a Divine Body a Body drawn forth from the Treasury of the God-Head God giveth it a Body v. 38. It is a Body a Form and Fulness sprung forth from the Divine Wisdom and Will bearing the Glorious stamp of these in which themsâ—lves rest with a full Complacency God giveth it a Body 〈◊〉 himself pleaseth v. 38. It is also to the Seed it s own Body and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. As John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ he is perfer'd before me because he was before me as in the purity and Paradise of the Creation the perfect Plants were first in the Fulness of their Beauty and Fruit bearing their Seed in them so in the Paradise of Eternity before the World which is Christ the Word the Wisdom of God the Immortal the Glorious the Divine Bodies and Forms of things were first as the Flourishing Tree comprehending in themselves the Bodies and Forms of Flesh as Shadows or naked Seeds hid in the Light or Bosom of the beautiful Substance and Fruit. Then came forth the Earthly Forms of things into the State of this Creation These are Shadows under which the Divine Substances are vailed These are Seeds in which the Tree itself lieth hid as a Divine Mystery By the breaking up of these Shadows and the dying of these Seeds the Immortal Bodies and Glorious Substances themselves spring forth thorow them So every Seed hath its own Body in the Resurrection 1. It is that Body of Glory in which it lay and to which it relateth as its Divine Original or first Idea in the mind and will of God 2. It is that which lay hid virtually in it 3. It is that which springeth up out of it and changeth it into itself Thus the Body of our Lord risen is the same Body in relation to the same Idea or Pattern in God to the same Soul to which it is joyned as its proper Form in the Person of Christ to the same first Matter out of which it is taken God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. My Brethren what joy is it to think that the Body of our loving and beloved Jesus that our own Bodies that the Bodies of our dearest Relations and delights lose nothing of themselves in Death yea are much more themselves by Death in the Resurrection as a man awake is much more himself than in a Dream a King upon his Throne than in the Grave and Tomb We shall lose nothing of our selves nor of our distinction But I fear I go to far for common understandings to follow me I will therefore conclude this Proposition with a plain representation of the Truth to you As the thing figured exceedeth the figure so the difference between the Body of our
who hath only a Shadowy life in a Shadowy Body wherein is he to be accounted of Cease from every thing of Nature and the Creature It was at best a Shadow What Excellency then hath it to be esteemed of and reckoned upon What stability or Strength to be trusted to and relied upon Can you â—ill your Embraces with an empty Shadow Can you hold fast in your Arms a flying Shadow Will the Eye of your Spirit be satisfied with seeing Light your heart be filled with Life shall your Soul feed upon Substance in a Shadow This is the first voice from Heaven sounded in the very essence of a living Soul 2. O living Soul cast thy self into the Bosom of thy Saviour and cleave to him Dost thou not now perceive plainly that he is thy Root thy Substance thy Life thy Strength thy Fulness thy Light thy Righteousness thy Perfection thy Glory in a word thy true self when thou art in thy best state a Shadow only of him according to the first Creation Is not this the Beauty of Nature in thee and thy Moral Righteousness to bear the Figure of him and his Tabernacle in thy Person Is not this thy Spiritual Glory thine everlasting Righteousness to be taken up into him and to be cloathed with him to have thy Shadow drunk up into his Light Is not this the Life Strength and rest of both states to be united to him to be acted by him in that Union to be resigned again to him in and thorow all Actings or Sufferings Let us consider what wretched things we were in death if it were not for Jesus Christ. How would our poor Souls when they were thrust forth and cast out of these Bodies wander eternally naked empty in the dark and desolate driven up and down with the Storm without burnt upon within by the unseen Fire of Divine wrath But now Jesus Christ hath been to all his Saints from the Fall the Seed of a glorious Body into which they retreated passing from hence and were at rest as in a Bed of Love which was green and springing Since the Resurrection our breath of Life in Death and in the Fall of this frail Body drops into the Bosom of that Heavenly Body of our Beloved as the ground of Divine Life and Glory from thence to grow up into and flourish in an Immortal Body of its own like unto it and by a Divine Union joyned with it in Eternal Embraces Quest. 3. In what sense the Lord Jesus is here said to be a Quickning Spirit Ans. To this I answer three things 1. The Person of Christ as it comprehendeth both Natures Divine and Humane both parts of the Humane Nature Soul and Body is a Quickning Spirit 2. The Humane Nature is expresly spoken of to be a Quickning Spirit The last Adam was made a Quickning Spirit Again the Second Man is the Lord from Heaven v. 47. 3. The Body of our Lord is principally intended under this description of â— Quickning Spirit This appeareth by the whole Scope of the Apostle in this place which is to shew with what Bodies the dead Saints are raised and come again v. 35. This is manifested by the Context All the foregoing all the following verses treat of this Subject the Body in the Resurrection Mention is made of a Natural and a Spiritual Body in the verse immediately before v. 44. The same are again brought in immediately after v. 46. Then the force of the Comparison and Opposition maketh this plain It is a sure Rule Comparisons and Oppositions must speak of the same thing to the same point and in the same respect We have endeavoured to prove that the living Soul chiefly and emphatically marketh out the Body of Adam in Paradise when his Body had more of Life and was more a Soul more Angelical than our Souls are now Therefore the Quickning Spirit opposed to the living Soul must especially design the Body of our Jesus in Glory Lastly other Scriptures say the same thing John 3. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That which is born of the Spirit is not only Spiritualized heightned and adorned with Spiritual qualities like the Picture of a Man with Lines and Colours or the Statue of a Man richly gilded One is a Stone the other a piece of Canvas still But it is a Spirit substantially and essentially It is a Spirit not as a Soul or an Angel is a Spirit but as that Spirit is of which it is born after the same manner in which That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh substantially and Flesh of the same kind with that which bringeth it forth As the Father and the Son have both the same humane Nature in a humane Form The humane Nature is one in both But the humane Form is distinct in each and maketh them two Persens so the Divine Nature of the Eternal Spirit springeth up in a Divine Form in that which is born of it The Eternal Spirit bringeth its Birth forth in a Divine Form and at once together with that itself with its own Divine Nature and Divine Form dwelling in it as the Root the Life the Form the Fulness the Fruit the Perfection the Truth the Glory of it the Spiritual Temple the God in the Temple both Spirits in the same Form both mutually Temples to each other both one Spirit Thus it is made a Spirit in the same Form with its Mother-Spirit the Eternal Spirit itself It is made a distinct Spirit It is made one Spirit with the Fountain Spirit It is made a Quickning Spirit having the Fountain of Life and Spirits in itself Now the Body of our blessed Saviour in the Resurrection is new-born from above of the Spirit of Life It is therefore a Spirit of Life a Fountain-Spirit a Quickening Spirit The Resurrection doth not gild doth not spiritualize the Personal or Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. It maketh them Gold within as well as without It maketh them all throughout pure and fine Gold a Spirit of Glory In this Creation and in natural things all excellencies are Qualities Accidents all Beauties are no more than skin-deep In the new Creature in Spiritual Things every excellency is a substance every Beauty is the Essence and Person itself there a Spirit is not excellent or Beautiful or Immortal But each Excellency each Beauty Immortality is that Spirit The Person the Spirit is the Excellency the Beauty Immortality itself Each distinct excellency is a distinct Spirit and all Excellencies all Spirits are one in each one making that a full Assembly the whole Quire in itself They all dwell together and are made perfect in one This is the New-Creature the Spiritual Birth the Resurrection from the Dead How happy and blessed are they who have their part in this Birth in this Resurrection There is another Scripture to this purpose 1 Corin. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is
Job 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The true and Spiritual Body which is an Immortal Plant in the Heavenly Paradise according to the Almighty Power and Mysterâ—ous Will of the Eternal Word in which it standeth and Flourisheth maketh itself into a Body of Flesh. Again by the same Power in the sweet and glorious Mystery of the same Will it maketh this Flesh a Spirit If you ask now where it is it is Singing and Triumphing throughout all the Divâ—ne Powers throughout all the â—nnumerably various Forms of Eternal Life Beauty and Joy in the Heavenâ—y Body â—or that which was Flesh is now Spirit As the Tabernacle was removed into the Temple when the Temple was built up and set there as a part of the Sacred Mysteries in that Holy Place so the Spiritual Body when it is raised taketh up into itself and comprehendeth in itself the Vailing Form of Flesh as a Beautiful Form in that Divine Mystery which it finisheth in itself Qu. But you will say now perhaps How is this done by what Power and in what manner is the Body of our Lord in the Resurrection made a Quickning Spirit Ans. I answer that it is done by vertue of the Personal Union between the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ. The Person is the Word the Eternal Spirit This Word the Soul the Body of our beloved Jesus are all one Person so all one Eternal Spirit the Fountain of Life As the Soul is said to be all in the whole Body and All in every part of it so is the Person in Christ the Immmâ—rtal Word All in the whole Humane Nature and All in every part of it either Soul or Body The Union between the Divine Nature in our Bridegroom and his glorified Body is equally immediate and entire as between that and his Triumphant Soul The Humane Nature subsisteth and standeth in the Divine as a Tree in its Root But this Union in the days of his Flesh is as that between the Tree and its Root in Winter The Resurrection is our Saviours Spring-time and Summer Every living Root in Spring ceaseth not to send forth its Sap into the Tree until it have brought forth the Tree into that Form and laden it with those Fruits which are proper to the Root In the Resurrection the Divine Nature riseth up with all its Sweetness and Fatness all its Vertues and Powers into the Humane Nature till it have spread and fashioned it entirely into its own Form till it have laden it all over with the precious Fruits of its own excellencies Joys and Glories In every power part and point of Soul and Body though never so mean so small the Fountain of the God-Head openeth itself the Fulness of the God-Head poureth forth itself that as the Waters cover the Sea so every distinct Part or Point appeareth as a distinct Sea of the Divine Life Joys Loves and Glories without bottom or bound This O shadowy Man O faln lost Man is thy Jesus thy Life thy Saviour Look to this Jesus with an Eye of Faith with an Eye of Love live by Him live in Him live to Him Triumph thou because of this Jesus Look to Him as 1. Thy Principle 2. Thy Pattern 3. Thy Price 4. Thy Portion 1. Look to this Jesus who is All-Beautiful with the Beauty of the GodHead itself as thy Principle I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit Without me ye can do nothing saith Jesus Christ Job 15. 5. The Tree first comprehendeth the Branch in itself then sendeth it forth supplying it continually with its own Life and Sap. By the vertue of this Life Sap the Branch taketh hold of the Tree sucketh in continually fresh and vital nourishment by which it flourisheth and bringeth forth much fruit What shall I say for thee who yet partakest not of the sweetness and fatness of this Spiritual Tree of Life and love Thou canst bring forth no Fruit thou canst do nothing towards thine own fruitfulness Without this Jesus thou canst do nothing O that thou didst understand thine own Emptiness and the Fulness of Sap in this Vine How truly All things Angels Men All the Creatures can do nothing are nothing without this Jesus that Spirit which is the onely Truth the onely Lfe in and thorow All I will pray over thee with inward bleedings of Divine Love from my heart O that Jesus thy Root who comprehendeth even thee also in the Fulness of His Heavenly sap and vertue would bring thee forth by a new birth as a Heavenly branch in Himself O that He would continually milk forth from His Breast the streams of His Life into thee Thus He abideth in thee Now do thou now wilt thou by Him abiding in thee abide in Him Shoot forth thy self into Him as roots do their Sprigs and Branches into the Earth beneath by the actings of thy Faith upon him Draw his Spirit and Grace into thy self Be green be fair and flourishing in the Eye of Heaven Bring forth much Fruit for thy self thy Saviour thy Heavenly Father all Angels and blessed Spirits to feed upon in Eternity 2. Look to this Jesus as thy Pattern What thou hast seen done in his Soul and Body by the Union between these and the God-Head the same Glory shall be brought forth in thy Soul and Body also by the Union between him and thee if thou in thy Soul and Body adhere and stick to his glorified Soul and Body as they are full of the Eternal Word dwelling in them and resting upon them The Angels reproved the Disciples when Christ was taken up into Glory because they looked to a visible Heaven to see their glorified Lord still with Eyes of Flesh Why stand you here gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven I say to you in another sense stand and look upon your Jesus as he ascends This is your Pattern As you have seen him in his Humane Nature go up out of all Fleshly and Visible Images into an Invisible Glory as you have seen him taken out of the sight of every created Eye in the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty of the Father which is the Heaven of Heavens so shall the same Jesus in like manner come again in your Souls and Bodies descending into them upon those Spiritual Heavens and changing them by degrees from Glory to Glory till they also put off every thing of Flesh and disappearing to every natural Eye be made perfectiâ—n the same Spirit to be for ever together with him there where he is and like him 3. Look to Jesus as thy Price The Lord taketh notice of the low thoughts and disesteem which the Jews had of him by that which they gave for him thirty pieces of Silver This saith he by the Prophet is the Price at which they valued me
composed and equal motions are the Beauty and Musick of your Spirits 2. The Reason of this Precept followeth The Lord is at hand is near nothing will so quiet the Soul and bring it to rest in every Appearance of things here so as a right sence of the near and immediate presence of the Lord Jesus in Glory with all these things after the same manner in which the Body or Substance is present with its proper Shadow The Body is present with the Shadow four ways as sending it forth immediately from itself and keeping it hanging upon itself by an immediate touch and union every moment as governing all its motions by its own Acts and Operations in itself by its own Appearance there in its Figure and Similitude by its Approach and Readiness to break up the Shadow by its breakings forth thorow it Canst thou think that thy beloved in the sweet shinings of his Beauty in the wonderful actings of the Divine Life in the pleasant motions and mysterious operations of his Love is thus near to every Creature every Providence and not answer this Beauty with the Beautiful smile of a contented mind this Musick with the melody of a well-pleased and harmonious temper of Spirit many that were sick were healed by the shadow of St. Peter overspreading them as he passed by When thou art sick with discontent for any passage of things in this world submit thy self to it as the shadow of thy dearest Lord with which he overspreadeth thee from his own Blessed Person being himself ever at hand there where his shadow is figuring himself with his own Divine Motions and Operations upon it being even now ready to disclose himself thorow it as the Rose breaking out of the Bud. Lie down under every accident as such a Divine Shadow of this Divine Lover with his Love and thou wilt find thy self healed of thy sickness of Mind of every Grief and Melancholy 3. A third Thing in this Scripture alledged is a Prohibition of Care Be careful in nothing Care is a Sin universally in the greatest things as well as the least in the highest things as well as in the lowest Qu. But you will say what Care is that which is Sin Ans. I answer that Care is a Sin which breaketh the moderation of your Spirits which defaceth the Spiritual Beauty which disturbeth the Spiritual Musick of a well-pleased and contentedâ—mind in you which putteth your Spirits out of tune cloudeth the clearness disordereth the Harmony of your Spirits distempering them and making them to jar with discontent Again that care is sinful which is contrary to this Three-fold sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus with every Creature and Occurrence on the Earth as with his own Shadow his Powerful Presence giving it Being and Motion from himself fastning it immediately to himself his Beautifulâ— Presence imprinting the Likeness and Image of himself upon it his Love-Presence calling the Soul to himself by it coming down to meet and embrace the Soul there ready to set himself in the place of his Shadow making that the mark and forerunner of his Person and Loves in their full Light and Heat 4. In the last place the Holy Spirit that skilful Apothecary prescribeth a Cordial to preserve you from this trembling of the Heart from carefulness This Cordial is made up of six precious Ingredients 1. Ingred Prayer With Prayer The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It importeth thus much stand not at a distance tarry not without Come boldly up to the Throne of Grace to God in the purest and most raised heights of his Glory and Love to Love as it is seated upon its highest and most glorious Throne the Heart of God to love as it shineth with its sweetest smiles in the Divine Nature unvailed and naked Enter boldly within the Vail behold God Face to Face so talk familiarly with him as a Friend doth with his Friend Like the beloved Disciple lay thine head in his Bosom so speak to him as a Bride to her Bridegroom 2. Ingred Supplication By Prayer and Supplication v. 6. The word rendred Supplication signifieth in its root three things Want a Band Decency or Harmony Have a Divine sense of thine own Shadowiness and Vanity upon every want which thou feelest Go by a Divine Power and in the Divine Mystery empty thy self into God bind thy self up together with him in that Golden â—Band the unity of his Spirit So move be carried along thorow all things in the Order Decency and Harmâ—ny of the God-Head of the Divine Wisdom and Will As when Sugar is cast into Wine the Wine penetrating into all parts of the Sugar dissolveth and melteth it entirely into itself 〈◊〉 in every state in every streight cast thy self by the Blessed Spirit into that Spirit which is the Wine of the Kingdom of the Father let that Spirit wind and work itself into every part and power into every thought and affection until it have drawn thee quite down out of thy self into one Stream one flood of Desires and Delights of Sweetness Strength and Fulness with itself Moses ascending upon Mount Sinai passed thorow the clouds and fires so he came to the top of the Mount where he saw God face to face The Eternal Spirit is Mount Sion the Mount of Prayer Here are white Clouds of Glory which do much more overshadow the Creature and Love-fires which do much more melt down the Soul and devour it From the Valley of every low Condition betake thy self to this Mount of Prayer Wait for this Holy Mountain the Spirit of Prayer to spring up in every Valley and take thee up and carry thee along upon itself As thou ascendest pass thorow these Clouds lose the light of thine own Beauties and Being before this excelling brightness Pass thorow these Fires Lose thine own Fleshly Substance and Subsistence in the flame of the Spirit Lose thine own Life and Form in the Unity of Divine Love So shalt thou arrive at the top of this Mount where thou shalt see God Face to Face with Life answering Life Love answering Love Beauty answering Beauty being in the full view of his naked Glories transformed into the same Glory by the same Spirit 2 Cor. 3. l. 3. Ingred Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving What a powerful Antidote against Care in every Cross or Difficulty is this to give thanks To see a Divine Glory To tast Divine Love To behold God descending in that Darkness as in a Chariot of Clouds of Angels taking us up to ascend with Him thither into His Palace above where this Cloud shall become a Throne this Chariot a Bed of Love this Angel an Eternal Glory in the Form of God where our Beloved and our Souls shall reign together feast together ly down together in mutual Joys and embraces for ever O Believing Soul art thou in Darkness Open the Eye of Faith see thy Jesus and thy self from the supream Circle of the God-Head running forth with all Lines
of Life Light Love into this Darkness as the Center in the midst of this glorious Circle where all the Lines from every Point of it meet in One. Again O Believing Soul in this Sight in this Sense in the vertue of these Divine Descents return and spread thy self by all these Lines of Glory together with thy God into the Circle of Eternity There comprehend All thy self and All in the Incomprehensible Mystery of God There see hear tast enjoy Him as Beauty itself Sweetness itself Musick itself Joy itself in All. See Hear tast enjoy All as that Beauty that Musick that Sweetness that Joy in him Thus call him by every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Call every thing in him by a new name above every name which is named in this world or that which is to come When Jacob saw the Chariots which his Son Joseph sent to bring him down into Egypt his Soul revived and he said it is enough that my Son Joseph liveth I will go see him before I die When thou seest Clouds of Enemies or oppositions in thy Affairs which are apt to perplex thee and fill thee with care shut this Eye of Flesh which representeth all things false open the Eye of the Spirit Then look again and see the Chariots of fire and Horses of fire a Spiritual fire shining with Glory burning with Love refining and spiritualizing all things as they ascend with them Now let thy Spirit revive within thee from its care to a Heavenly calm and to praises Say it is enough my Jesus liveth and loveth me This is his Chariot The Flames of it are Flames of Love He is himself in the midst of it upon a seat of Gold I see him He cometh to carry me up above this world into his Heavenly Kingdom I will ascend with him 4. Ingred The making of our requests known to God What Hearts-â—ase is this to have the priviledge of expressing all our desires to God himself with freedom and familiarity at a banquet of Wine of Spiritual Loves better than Wine The Husbandman planteth his Vine against a South-wall and spreadeth all the Branches of it there where it may receive the Sun fullest and longest that by this means all the vertue of the plant may be drawn forth into a great plenty of fairer and sweeter Grapes Let thy Spirit be a Heavenly Vine planted by the Eternal Spirit in thee Let thy will be the Heavenly sap of the Divine Will and the Divine Love in thee Instead of cares spread all thy desires like the Branches of this Vine fasten them continually before thy Invisible Sun the Face of God where the Beams of his Love and Excellencies fall with greatest heat and constancy So shall all the sweet Sap of thy Vine all the Divine Will in thy Will that is all Seeds all desires of Good of Love of Loveliness of Joy of Blessedness be made to grow and be ripened in their proper season unto the most perfect and most pleasant Fruit. 5. Ingred Universality Be careful in nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving make your requests known to God There is nothing too great for us to be assured of the Ear and Heart and Hand of God in it There is nothing too little for us to trouble him with Every thing that can befal us in an opportunity a Scene for all manner of Communion with God for Faith and Love to act all their parts upon in all their several Habits and Dresses Prayer Supplication Thanksgiving Requests find a pâ—ace in every Providence Day unto Day declareth Knowledge Night unto Night uttereth Speech Psal. 19. 3. Every State every season of Light and Darkness in all senses bring down from Heaven to us in one lovely Love Appearance or another Jesus Christ with the Heart of the Father Let every day and every night as it returneth to Heaven again carry up Jesus Christ from our Hearts and our Hearts in him in some Spiritual dress to the Bosom of the Father In every thing thy God acteth all manner of Loves expresseth and conveyeth all his Glories to thee In every thing do thou meet him return to him the activity of all thy Loves and the exercise of all Graces 6. Ingred The Ground of all these Ingredients and their vertue in this Cordial The Lord being at hand v. 5. The Philosopher in a Mill seeing his Friends making a doubt of coming in to him there out of a disesteem of the place and of him for being found in that place invited them in with these words here also are the immortal Gods When thou feelest thine heart standing at a distance from any condition for the obscurity of it or disquieted with cares in any condition for the troubles of it say to thine heart after this manner here also is my Jesus with all his Train of Immortal Glories Loves Angels and Spirits Here he is in a Figure of himself Here is he in Person under this Figure Here he is ready to shine forth and appear gloriously This is his Shadow This Shadow is his Tabernacle in which he dwelleth with me Upon this Ground will I tune all my cares all the unquiet motions of my Spirit to Prayers and Praises to the Melody of Faith Love and Joy Thus much for the 2d Lesson of living without Care with content upon this First Principle in the knowledge of the Lord and his Beauties that he maketh this world a Shadow falling from his Beautiful Person 3. Lesson Live beautifully and purely as Priests to God in this present world For this world is the Temple of God in as much as it is Jesus Christ in a Shadow For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-Head Rom. 1. 20. Four things make a Temple 1. A Divine Authority for the building of it This World is the Creation of God 2. A Divine Pattern The Invisible things of the God-Head of the Lord Jesus the power of the God-Head of Eternity are figured upon this World 3. A Divine End The proper end of these Figures is to form notions of the Divine nature upon our minds to lead us to converse with it to bring us into the Participations of it that it may enjoy itself in the reflections of its own excellencies and Glories from us v. 21. When they knew God they glorified him not as God They emproved not these Figures and Notions to an entrance within the Vail into the Glory itself which was the Divine end of them 4. A Divine Presence Jesus is he who filleth All in All Ephes. 1. l. In what a Calm in what Serenity in what Purity with what Beauty should we appear in this world as Priests in the Temple and in the midst of the Mysteries of God Psal. 29. 9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his
if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send Him to you Joh. 16. 7. Jesus Christ in the Shadow in the Flesh is the Crucifier and the crucified Jesus Christ in the Substance in the Spirit is the Comforter and the Comforted How expedient is it for us in the midst of these Shadows to withdraw our selves into the Life and Truth that when all things there are dying upon the Cross all things here may be Comforters and Comforts which continue for ever The Lord Jesus saith to the Father Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a Body hast thou prepared me that is to be offered up in the place of all Sacrifices Hâ—b 10. 1. We read v. 1. that the Law hath a Shadow only of good things to come Jesus and all His Members have the Shadowy Body of this Natural Man and the First Creation fitted for them only to sacrifice themselves in these to the Eternal Truth that thus they may return on high into That All Shadows are under the Law The Law hath Shadows only of Good things to come All Sacrifices are under the Law The Gospel is a Feast Spirit and Life How wise how blessed is he who gathereth himself up entirely out of Nature and Flesh into the Invisible Glory of the Spirit In which while Flesh is suffering as a Sacriâ—ice by Fire he seeth all Flesh Suffering and Sacrifices to be Shadows only Shadows of Immortal Joys and Himself already in those Joys triumphing over and comprehending those Shadows in the Beautiful and Blessed Truth These are the Lessons from the First Principle which was that this World in its pure Naturals falleth as a Shadow from the Glorified Person of our Saviour 2. Principle The Presence and Appearance of the Person of our Lord Jesus and His Glory is withdrawn from the faln and corrupt World The Devil is called in the Scriptures The Prince of Darkness and The Prince of this World This World the World in this faln state is Darkness Darkness is the Privation of Light The absence of the Sun from the Earth is the Cause of Darkness Our Saviour in Glory is the Light the Sun of the whole Creation While He goeth away with His Beams into a far countrey to shine in the Invisible World He leaveth all behind Him in the Dark Three Lessons naturally flow from this second Principle 1. Lesson Believe not any Appearances of things in this World Darkness in the language of the Holy Ghost signifieth Deceit The Lord Jesus saith of Himself I am the Truth Truth hath lest the World together with Jesus Christ. Blessed is he who having the Possessions or Powers of this World in his Hand the Smile or Frowns of it before his Eyes the Griefs or Joys of it in his Heart can with a good assurance say Have I not a Lye in my Hand and in my Heart Are not the Apparitions of the Devil the Father of Lyes before me 2. Lesson Love not the things of this World James 4. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity with God It is not now the Seed of the Woman which is a Divine Loveliness and Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom which springeth up in all the Forms and Fruits of this World Yet a little while saith He to the World and ye shall see me no more No! It is the Seed of the Serpent in Deformity and Enmity in a Contrariety to all Spiritual Beauty Goodness and Truth which groweth up every where Your Love to any part of this World is Unclean and Adulterous By it you leave the pure and sweet embraces of your own Glorious Husband to ly down infolded in the treacherous Twinings of the old Serpent the Dragon 3. Lesson Walk not after the Fashion of this World Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this World While the Lord Jesus was with this World it was His Shadow He figured His Beauties upon it He acted it with His Spirit His Name was as an Ointment poured out upon it He spake to us and conversed with us there But now when He is absent the beautiful Figure is gone the Darkness with all its confusions and cursed Fruits remain The Spirit of Darkness ariseth in it with all his Hellish Forms of Deceit Defilement and Wrath If thou cloath thy Spirit with any Worldly Image thou puttest on a filthy Garment which will pollute thee thou puttest on a fiery garment which hathâ— the burning poysons of Hell hidden in it which will cleave inseparably to thee torturing and consuming thee with a hidden inward and uâ—quenchable flame This is the Second Principle 3. Principle Jesus Christ hath reconciled all things hath gathered up all things into One hath made all things New with the Spiritual and Eternal Glory of the Father as the World standeth in the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead and in His Glorified Person as a New Head to it with a New Name Lesson You then that are Christ's live victoriously and triumphantly in this World Abide in your Head â—There you see all this World lying conquered captivated comprehended in a new and endless World of Life Love and Glory Rom. 5. We rejoyce saith St. Paul v. 2. And not onely so but we glory in tribulation v. 3. Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us v. 5. O Christians live in Joy Live in Glory live in perpetual Triumph For by the Resurrection and Ascension of your Jesus the bitterest Enmities the blackest Extremities are Forms Floods of Light and Love in that Sea of Light and Love the Holy Ghost breaking forth from the sweet and glorious Deep of the God-Head in the Heart of the Father Rom. 8. v. 57. In all these things famine nakedness sword mentioned before we are more than conquerours through Him that loved us v. 58 59. For nothing life nor death nor Angels things present nor things to come nor height nor depth shall be able to sparate us from the love of god wlâ—â—â— is in Christ Jesus Dear Soul dwell for ever in this good Land of Life and Love thy Saviour in the Spirit Nothing here can separate thee from the Divine Love Every thing then that cometh to thee in life or in death must come in that Element of Love it must come in a Lovedress it must be Love itself in a Lovely Form Every thing that toucheth thee here must touch thee with the Heavenly kisses and Embraces of Divine Love Otherwise there would be a Separation between Love and thee In thy glorified Jesus is the Love of God that Love which is God the God-Head of Love O blessed Habitation O Happy and Heavenly Countrey thine own Countrey indeed What so much our own what so near us so much One with us as Love Here Love in its God-Head filleth all in Spiritual Forms in Forms of Glory and of God
Chapter and beginning of the Second the Loveliness of the Spouse and the Love between her and the Heavenly Bridegroom in her Sufferings and Death as they are acted upon the Stage in the glorious Scene of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in the State of Espousals and in their Union in one Spirit The dying Spouse there singeth to her Lord Behold thou art fair my Love yea thou art pleasant also our Bed is green v. 16. Jesus Christ is fair to a Saint Eye in his Divine Loveliness being risen up into the Glory of the Father He is pleasant to her in his Loves which are his Loveliness in Motion acting beautiful parts transforming itself into delightful Shapes with endless variety in all pouring forth itself into her Bosom taking her up into itself with Blessed Changes of one into another The Unity of the Spirit is the Bed of Divine Loves which is ever green that is as the word importeth ever encompassed with a Heavenly Calm and Serenity ever flourishing ever fruitful Death itself is the mutual embracing of these two Heavenly Lovers in this Bed of Spiritual Loves in the midst of a Divine calm and clearness while out of these embraces they spring up into innumerable Forms of Eternal Beauties and Joys which are the flourishing Fruits and Blessed Children of this Marriage-Union It is said that nothing was made without Christ apart from Christ that was made in the Creation John 1. 2. Remember O Christian that in the new Creature thou art thou sufferest thou doest nothing in life or in death without thy Jesus in Glory apart from thy Jesus in the Unity of his Spirit which is the Center and Circle of all Blessed Spirits with all the Train and Treasures of the Divine Nature While thou livest all the Body of Christ Heavenly Spirits Innumerable Angels live with thee thy life All these all the Lights and Loves of the Supercoelestial State die with thee thy Death 4. Pos. All this Resurrection Ascension into the Heavenly places Fellowship of a Believer with Christ is in Christ. He hath raised us together and hath made us sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus See now those places above the Heavens those more than Heavenly Things in the midst of which a Saint is set They are all in the glorified Person of Christ who is made higher than the Heavens The Learned tell us that there are three Worlds 1. This which is visible 2. The Angelical World 3. The Divine World All things of the upper and greater Worlds are in the lower as in the Seed All Things of the lower are in the Superiour as ripe Fruit. Every thing is in each according to the nature of that place Behold This is the Divine World the Person of our Lord and Love ascended up on high above all Heavens of Angels Here in him the Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth Bodily that is not shadowily or seminally in its Shadow or Seed but in its Substance and Perfection While here thou standest fast in this thy Jesus thine own proper habitation Death itself is an Angel nay more it appeareth in a Divine Form is become a Divine Glory a rich and ravishing piece of variety in the Unity of the Divine Nature In the World of Angels every thing is a distinct Angel In the Divine World all things are cloathed with the form of God As a Child lying in its Mothers lap a branch from the Mother bearing her Image with its mouth at the Breast looking upon her Face falling asleep in her Bosom yet not so sleeping but that still it sucketh as it sleepeth such is a Saint dying in Jesus Christ. He lieth in the lap of the Supream Glory encompassing him on every side and bearing him as its own Birth and Image His mouth is at the breast of this Glory His Eye is upon the Face of this Glory He sleepeth in its Bosom But it is a Divine sleep While he sleepeth he is awake and keepeth his Eye still upon the Glory and sucketh in the Glory still in Death We have this excellently represented in one place by the Prophet Esay where the Heavenly Hierusalem which is our Jesus in the Spirit is said to bear her Children on her sides and to dandle them on her Knee In another place they are said to walk in the Light of the new Hierusalem These Dandlings and Dancings in the Arms of that Glory which is our Mother our Father and our Husband our Heavenly Jesus such walks in its sweet and living Light are all the Motions and Changes of Life and Death to those that are in Christ Jesus I shall conclude my Observations from this Scripture with the difference between the Death of a Man standing in the Root of the First Adam and a Christian in Christ. Death to one is a Poyson In eating of the Forbidden Fruit he dieth out of the Earthly Paradise yet remaining in its ruines in this World into a Land of Briars and Thorns into a vast and howling Wilderness where the Light is Darkness and where there is no Order The Death of the other is a Cordial of dissolved Pearl In eating of the Tree of Life he 〈◊〉 out of a Land of Briars and Thorns into a Heavenly Paradise the Paradise of God I have done now with the first Scripture 2. Script Verily verily I say unto you except a Corn of Wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much Fruit John 12. 24. These are the words of our Saviour concerning himself upon a report made to him hy Philip that some Greeks desired to see him The design of Jesus is partly to raise them from a Carnal view of him on Earth to a Spiritual sight of him in a Heavenly Glory after Death partly to signify the difference between his State of humiliation in this Life where he is single and Barren in the Flesh and his State of exaltation after Death where he â—iseth up an Universal Person reconciling comprehending All in the Unity of the Spirit a Fruitful Person being a new head and root in the Love Life and Glory of the Father to all Mankind Jews and Gentiles to all Creatures Our Saviour while he lived was as a single naked grain of Wheat But when he sprung up out of the Grave he became a pleasant and flourishing Plant bearing much Fruit many grains of Wheat in one Ear many all Persons all Angels and Spirits in Glory in that one his own Person and Spirit He was in the Flesh as one Rose one Apple pull'd off the Tree He is in the Spirit as the Rose-Tree the Apple-Tree All Angels and Saints all Forms of Things are glorified in his Glory all in Heavenly and Immortal Persons are in his Heavenly Person as full-blown Roses growing upon the Rose-Tree as full-ripe Apples upon the Apple-Tree The Death of a Saint is upon this ground made most beautiful and pleasant Can. 2. 3. As the
Apple-Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons I sat down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet to my taste There are three distinct parts in the Hebrew 1. I desired and sweetly delighted in his Shadow 2. Then I sate down 3. And his Fruit was sweet to my taste The Apple in Holy Scriptures and in the writings of Learned Authors is famous for a pleasant Cordial nourishment of Life and for an Emblem of Love You may see this in this Chapter v. 5. Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of Love Apples are Emblems of Love for their pleasant looks to the Eye their fragrant smell their delightful tast their cordial vertue their round form which is a Figure of Unity the Root and Sap and Fruit of all Love In the midst of the Wood of this Life where all Forms of things are like blasted and barren Trees good neither for Shade nor Fruit Jesus Christ standeth as an Apple-Tree a Tree of Life and a Tree of Love Fair Flourishing and Fruitful When the poor Spouse of Christ thorow all this Life is wearied with scorching Heats sounding Tempests raging Storms then her Beloved when He seeth His Fit Time springeth up as a Paradisical and Heavenly Tree As He springeth up He overshadoweth His Spouse not as a cloud overshadoweth the Sun or as Darkness in the absence of the Sun overshadoweth the earth but as the approaching and rising Sun overshadoweth the Stars So the Lord as a Tree of Glory spreadeth His Shadow over all those Lights of the Night the Principles Powers Activities Appearances oâ— the Natural Man drinking them up into One Light of Glory and Immortality with Himself while He drowneth them with a Sea of Love breaking in upon them and overflowing them How sweet is this Approaching Shadow of her Lord's Blessed Person to the Love-sick Soul a Shadow perfumed with the Ointments of His Love shining with the purple Lustre of His Beauties quickened with the Life of His Glories a Divine Shadow With what Desire with what Delight doth the Holy Soul go under this Shadow How precious in the Eye of God of all the Angels of a Saint Himself is This Death This Death is no Evening to a pleasant Day but a Lovely Morning and glorious Sun putting out the Lights of the Moon with all the Sars because the Time of the Night is past and the Day is come Never did the softest and sweetest Sleep 〈◊〉 with more pleasure upon the Senses of any Person than this Shadow of Death cometh upon the Heavenly Bride Here a Saint sitteth down As Hee entreth into this Shadow he entreth into Rest into the Unâ—ty of God where He resteth for ever from his own Work and Spirit to lye down in the Eternal Spirit Now he catâ—h of his own Apple upon this Apple-Tree He meeteth with Himself in Glory in the Glorified Person of his Beloved as the ripe Fruit of Life and Love hanging ready upon its own Tree in Eternity In the same moment he seeth it he taketh it in he rellisheth it with unexpressible sweetness and delight as being Great Glorious His own by the nearest dearest Suitableness and propriety Himself in the Entirest Unity in the same Moment he seedeth upon it is Transubstantiated into it and becometh that Lovely Apple that full-ripe Fruit of â—ove upon the Tree As he thus seedeth upon his own Apple and is changed into it at once he seedeth upon is changed into all the Apples of the Tree and the whole Tree itself For this is the Divine Mystery of Spiritual Pâ—anâ—s in the Heaveâ—ly Paradise each Fruit each part of the Plâ—nt comprehendeth the whole Pâ—ant all the Plants stand live and grow together in each Plant. Every Person aâ—d Spirit in Glory hath its own Name all Names written upon it It is itself an Entire Heaven in which all the Heavenly Inhabitants shine and sing and dance together with their various Beauties Musicks and Motions cast into the most Divine Harmony by a most perfect Unity 3. Script Iohn 14. v. 2. 3. In my Father's hâ—use are many Mansions If it 〈…〉 I would have tâ—ld you I go to prepare a place for 〈◊〉 And if I goe and prepare a place for you I will come again â—nd receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Three Mysteries are opened to us in these words 1. The Place of Blessed Persons after this Life 2. The Preparation of this Place 3. Their Passage into this Place All are full of a Joy glorious and unspeakable 1. The Place of Blessed Spirits after this Life It is saith Christ my Father's House The House of the Father is the Glorified-Person of His Son This is the Temple of God in Heaven the Palace of the great King In Him the fulness of the God-Head dwelleth bodily All glorious Persons Angels Saints and Spirits as they are comprehended in the Person of Christ and make up His Body the Divine Body the Body of Glories and Eternity in Him as they are Beautiful Members in that Body so are they Mansions in that Temple Apartments in that Palace Every Apartement in this Divine Palace hath the whole Palace with all the Persons Prospects Furniture Entertainments of the whole within itself This is the Place 2. The Preparation of this Place I go to prepare a place for you While this Palace of Eternity with all its Apartments which are also its Inhabitants the Glorified and Immortal Persons of all Saints stood in the Father in the Divine Nature alone it was hid from the Eye of every Creature it was shut up that none could enter into it it was remote from every Creature at a very great distance The Lord Jesus by His Death and Resurrection entring with the Humane Nature into this Eternal Habitation hath set it up in the Nature of Man hath brought it near to us hath set it in our view hath set it open for us The Gates of this Temple of this Heavenly Hierusalem stand open day and night to all quarters of the Heaven and the Earth All the Apartements of it with our several Names written upon them our several Persons in Glory appearing in them stand ready The Lord Jesus Himself is the Beautiful Gate the Living Way the Ascent the rich Stair-case to this Temple The Angels are continually descending in Him as Chariots to bring down riding upon them our glorious Saviour and our glorious Selves into the Bosom of our Spirits here below The Bridegroom and the Bride ready trimm'd and already joyned in One come thus down out of Heaven come thus forth from the Temple The Angels are continually ascending by this Stair-case carrying up our Spirits beforehand on visits into this Palace into our own Apartments into the Bosom of our own Glorified and Immortal Substances there Every Grace every Providence every Motion of things to him whose Eyes are opened is such an Angel
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
his Glory in Heaven Now there is no Solitude in the Unity which maketh Paradise a Wilderness the Unity is the true Paradise within itself springing up into variety then marrying itself to it and so flourishing from this Union with all manner of Beautiful and pleasant Fruits By this Birth and Distinction in the Unity Adam and Eve are capable of enjoying themselves each in other and of multiplying themselves Thirdly Eve is brought to Adam again and these two are made one Flesh. This is the making of two one again which were first made two of one This Unity in the Distinction and Distinction in the Unity is that Marriage in Paradise which is the Type of that Incomprehensible Marriage above all Heavens which is the Third Person in the Trinity In him the Father and the Son spend Eternity in mutual Embraces and multiply themselves into an Infiniteness of Blessed Lives Blessed Loves You that are Married Persons see your selves in this double Glass of Paradise and the Trinity By these Glasses dress your selves in your Loveliness and Loves one for another St. Paul saith that Marriage is Honourable among all or in all things A Type hath a double Honour the Figure which is Shadowy the Truth which is a substantial Glory Husbands and Wives preserve the Honour of your state at least in the shadowy part Bear the Figure of the Ever-glorious Trinity whose Type you are by a mortal Beauty Truth Purity Sweetness which are the Gold and precious Mettal in the Ring of this Love-union This will make Marriage an Earthly Paradise But rest not in this You will find a Serpent here that will quickly poyson all your Sweets and change your Flowers into Thorns if you pass not thorow the Earthly into the Heavenly Paradise Then you wear the Marriage-Crown in Truth when that Spirit which is the Band of Love between the Father and the Son is the Eternal Band of Divine Love between you also when you also make your Marriage-Bed in the Bosom of the Holy Ghost What Joys what an Immortal Off-spring is born of those Lovers where the Love-fellowship of these below and the sacred Love-fellowship of the Blessed Trinity above descend and ascend one into another where they mingle themselves Universally 3. Love-Union in the Soul Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The Divine Being Life and Form of the Soul in which it is a Spirit lie first wrapt up in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit its Heavenly Mother above The Eternal Spirit out of this Love-Center and within the Love-Circle of its own Unity by the New-birth in the Soul bringeth forth at once a Daughter-Spirit a Sister and Spouse to itself This Divine Spirit like the Paradisical Eve so soon as it is born of its Heavenly Adam is brought to him again and they Two are made one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. As a New-born Babe so soon as it is sprung out of the Womb seeketh the Breast of the Mother that it may suck forth a continued stream of Life from the Fountain of its Life so is it in the Spiritual Birth So soon as the New-born Spirit ariseth up out of this Unity which is the Womb of the God-Head it is immediately received into the Arms of this Unity it desireth after it hunteth for it returneth to it fastneth upon this Unity which is the Breast of the God-Head By this it draweth in the sincere and pure Milk of the living Word it taketh in by plentiful streams the Light Life Glory Substance of the Divine Nature to grow by them O you who indeed 〈◊〉 born of this Unity lie continually in the Bosom of it hang continually upon this Breast But thus as in the Eternal Generation in Heaven as in the Creation in Paradise as in the Regeneration which is the opening of Paradise and Heaven both a second time in the Soul all are Love-Births Love-Unions The Unity distinguisheth itself within itself into another self which is yet still the same that there may be a variety in the Unity without the breach of the Unity The Virgin above bringeth forth a Son which is also her Lord and continueth a Virgin still The Beautiful variety which is the Effulgeâ—cy of the Unity rejoyneth itself again to it and still remaineth a variety in its distinction from it Thus the Love-Marriage is every where solemnized and every where maketh a Paradise and a Heaven above and below This is the first Description of Divine Love a Divine Union where one Glorious Spirit is made two and these two make themselves one again Use. Learn from the Beauty and Sweetness of Divine Love the Evil of this Worlds Love by their contrariety to it Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to the Father Who therefore is this World's Friend is an Enemy to God James 4. 4. See the Evil of this World's Love in 3. Steps 1. Step By loving this World you separate yourselves from the Love of God You estrange your selves from all true Joy Peace and Rest. For these are the Attendants and Companions of Divine Love Cant. 3. 7 8. You read of Solomon's Bed which hath fourscore valiant menos the valiant men of Israel round about it with their swords girt upon their thigh for the fear of the night How great how Divine is the Sweetness the Safety the Security of Spiritual Love He that abideth in this Love enjoyeth an Uninterrupted Rest and untroubled pleasures in a Night of the greatest Darkness Dangers Tumults and Storms He hath ever round about Him a Troop of Holy Angels for his Guard armed with the Glorious Power of the Spirit This is the Sword upon their Thigh In the midst of these he lyeth upon a Royal Marriage-bed Here he is encircled with the Spiritual Embraces of King Solomon the Lord Jesus in Glory the King of all Peace Perfections and Pleasures This is the Love of God that Love by which God and the Soul live and dwell together in One Spirit You now who prefer the blackness of darkness before the Beauty of Christs Face restless cares endless fears continual dangers and deaths before the Rest and Joys of Christ's bosom love this world and let the love of Jesus Christ go 2. Step. By the Love of this World you make your selves Adulterers with a Witch and a Common Whore Poor Soul thou forsakest the Arms of thine own Love thy Loving Roe and pleasant Hind the Wife of thy Youth of Eternal Youth the Heavenly Image in the Person of the Lord Jesus Thou givest thy self up to the Embraces of the strange Woman the Strumpet this World the Fleshly Image of Things The Love of your Saviour is all Truth Purity Peace Immortality The Love of this World beginneth in Deceit hath its Power in Enchantments its Effect Pollutions its End Destruction She giveth thee Drink indeed in a Golden Cup. But she maketh thee to drink in first a Wine of Sorceries
love For the Divine Nature the Original is love This love throughout the whole nature of things is as a Pyramid made up by degrees of different Unions till it end in the highest and most indivisible point of Unity The Unity of God is that Fountain of love out of which all things proceed The secret force of this Unity is that stream of love which runneth thorow the Heart and Veins of Every Creature in the Person of Christ which is the golden Pipe with its several branches laid thorow the whole Creation from the Beginning to the End There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus Thus the revealed Will of God is love 2. The secret Will of God is love Fury is not in me Who would set the bryars and thorns in Battel aray against me I would go thorow them I would consume them Wrath is not in God It is without him only as a Cloud upon the Sun The heart of God is Love Wrath is but the work of his Hand and that his strange Work like nothing within a disguise only The Face of God and the proper light of it is love Wrath is vizor a mist before his Face and no more Fury in God is love by the opposition heightned to a flame to consume all vanity and enmity that setteth itself before it or against it O that I had a voice powerful enough to reach all the Souls wandring thorow the whole Creation and to call them together to take this Cup of Salvation into the hand of their Faith to set it to the mouth of their Faith and drink deeply of it As the Wine of this Cup goeth down into your Spirits you will find it to go down right How sweetly and how fully will it touch satisfy and fill every faculty every desire every Seed of life with its proper good The Cup of Salvation which I hold forth to you is this Divine Truth the Sum of the Gospel Preached by Angels in their Songs at the Birth of our Jesus The Will of God is love Hear this and believe it O ye Souls the Inclination of God the supream Spirit and Fountain of Spirits is to you The tendency and the bent of the Divine Nature is to make your joys full by the possession of all good in itself and to fulfil his own joys in you For the Will is the Inclination of every Spirit and the Will of God is love Hear this and believe it O ye Souls God is carried with the whole weight of his God-Head to you as to his Center to rest eternally in you and to rejoyce over you For love is the weight of every Spirit and the Will of God is love The Will of God in the Freedom Absoluteness Infiniteness of it is love Now I live saith St. Paul if ye stand fast in the Faith 1 Thes. 3. 8. St. Paul speaketh not this in his own Spirit but in the Spirit of God God in his own Spirit speaketh it with a greater force and fuller sense to every one of you if you believe me and take in my love which is my life now have I a new Love a new Life a new Joy and Heaven in you As you grow in this Faith my Life and Joy increaseth in you If you stand fast in it my Joy and Glory is as firm in your hearts as in Heaven itself If you will believe all the Declarations of God from Heaven the revealed Will of God is Love If you have any Inward and Divine Touch of the secret Will of God all the breathings of his Heart are Love O take in the Love of God that his Love may become a Divine Immortal Seed of all Love and Loveliness in you But now let us hearken to the groans of some poor ones among these multitudes of Souls who parched and burnt up with their Sins Sorrows who benighted in the Darkness of their unbeleief yet among all these Millions of streams of Love which flow forth upon their Spirits from the heart of God among those Millions of Beams of Love which fall from the Eye of God upon their hearts dare not take in any one No though they thirst for Divine Love more than for Life yet shut up their Spirits against all Approaches or Appearances of it as delusions Obj. These Souls sigh forth this great Objection against the Love of God You say the Will of God is love the object of every Will is some good the object of all love is some loveliness What loveliness can there be in me to draw the heart of God to me to be in love with me who am only loathsom by my lusts and deformed by my passions What good can be found in me to attract the Divine Will to center itself in me by love when no good but all evil dwelleth in me Answ. 1. Dear Soul who thus reasonest for thine own sufferings against the love of God I shall give thee three Answers in the behalf and in the name of Divine love O that love itself from the heart of God would drop its Sweetness from its own mouth upon thee and seal it upon thy Spirit while I am speaking for it to thee First Thou wert made in the Image and Likeness of God Gen. 1. All Loveliness consisteth in Suitableness Suitableness in Similitude and Likeness There is nothing which draweth Hearts and Love which attracteth all things so powerfully as Similitude doth Similitude is a kind of Unity and Likeness Oneness Similitude is described to be one Form in two matters or subjects Let this O drooping Soul raise thee to look upward to that Heaven of Eternal Love which ever holdeth thee in its Embraces and shineth round about thee The Divine Image and Similitude is thy proper Person thine Nature thine Essence it lyeth indeed captivated in chains of Darkness dishonoured and defiled by thy lusts wounded and mangled by thy passions oppressed with guilt slain by unbelief in thee Yet this Divine Image is in thee It is thy true self according to the first Creation Dost thou ask now what that good is which attracteth the Divine Will to thee by the love of it God is in love with his own Likeness in thee He seeketh his own Birth His Spouse in thee sprung forth from himself to be his Joy in the midst of all the Creatures to be Queen where ever he is King in the whole Creation This Divine Image in thee this thy Divine self is that Pearl in the Field for which God giveth himself that he may purchase the Fields This is that good to which the heart of God is carried with all its weight of love to redeem it to revive it to raise it out of the Dust that it may shine again in his Glory and sing of his loves The Lord Jesus telleth us Mat. 24. 28. Where the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together The Scriptures represent the Spirit of God in its low
to this end that you may not sin by departing from it but if any man do sin that he may presently return Saul was softned and melted when he heard the language of love from David who had watched over him to preserve him while he slept in the midst of that Army with which he made War upon him Is this thy voice my Son David said he then Open thine Eyes see the Divine Will with innumerable Eyes of love watching over thee in the midst of thy rebellions Open thine Ears hear the Divine Will wooing thee with the sweetest language of love in the midst of thy pollutions This will turn thee again to the Will of God to melt thy self into its Bosom when once this thought ariseth in thee that thou returnest to a Bosom of love ever open to thee Use. 3. Be in love with Holiness Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God This Will is Love How easy is that Yoak How light is the Burthen How pleasant is the Law of Love Keep my Commandment and abide ye in my Love even as I abide in my Fathers Love saith Jesus Christ. To abide in the Divine Will to keep the Commandments of that is to abide in the Paradise of Divine love to dress it and keep it David saith of the Law of the Lord Psal. 19. It is more to be desired than thousands of Gold and Silver It is sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb In keeping it is exceeding great reward Hear O beloved Souls and be wise and be in love with Holiness In every command to Holiness God cometh to you in the Light and Purity of all his Divine Beauties in the Strength and Sweetness of all his Divine loves to make thee like himself to marry thee to himself In every act of obedience to this law of Holiness thy Person shineth with a Heavenly lustre by the shining forth of the unvailed Person of God upon thee thou receivest a kiss of Heavenly love immediately from the Mouth of God and returnest it again O tast and see Then you will say that this Heavenly Traffick is beyond that of all precious of all pleasant things No where such loveliness as this no where such love Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God The Will of God is Love the Fountain and the Life of all Incorruptible Beauties of all pure and ever-flourishing Pleasures I have done with the second â—escription of Divine Love which defineth it to be the same with the Divine Will 3. Descrip. God is Love He who was the Disciple of Love who lay in the Bosom of Love and so best knew what Love is declareth Divine Love to be the Nature and Essence of God God saith he is Love He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him 1 Joh. 3. 16. As the Sea is a heap of Waters The gathering together of the Waters God called the Sea Gen. 1. As the Body of the Sun is a pure and simple Light so is God a Collection of Loves a gathering together of all Loves into one Spirit This is the Divine Nature an Unity a Purity a Simplicity of Love I shall endeavour to shew you by four Arguments that there is no name which doth so properly so fitly express the nature of God as this of Love 1. Argum. The first the principal Thing the beginning of all Things in God is Love Psal. 136. I intend a short Paraphrase upon this whole Psalm because it maketh so clearly and fully for my purpose being taken altogether from the beginning to the end of it If you would hear the Musick of Angels of Heaven if you would hear the living Harmony of the Divine Nature as it is all Love listen with a Spiritual Ear to this Psalm which is a Song composed entirely of this Subject of Divine Love If the Spirit of God assist me to sound forth aright the Heavenly Musick of this Psalm I do not doubt to make your hearts in your Bosoms to leap and dance to it by that time I have done First Take two general Observations concerning this Psalm 1. Gener. Observ. This is a Psalm of Praises and Thanksgivings the Work of Heaven a Heavenly Work But all the Praises here are attributed to all the Thanksgivings are terminated in Love and the Eternity of Love This is the burthen of the Song repeated in every verse this is that into which all the Strength and Sweetness of the sense is still resolved this maketh one half of every verse quite thorow the whole Psalm For his Mercy endureth for ever The Word in Hebrew signifieth alike Mercy Kindness Love That word endureth is added by the Translatours You may read the words with as full an agreement with the Original as I humbly conceive For his Love is Eternal But however this be if we adhere to the Translation Mercy is one of the sweetest tenderest largest names of Divine love 1. Mercy is Love condescending and descending from the heights of all Heavens above to the nethermost parts of the Earth to the nethermost Hell 2. Mercy is Love uniting itself to the vilest and most miserable Creatures which lie below which stick in the Mire and Clay in the bottom of the Pit There love sympathizeth with them maketh itself entirely one with them in their low estate 3. Mercy is Love making a mutual and strange exchange with those loathsome and lost Souls Iâ— taketh to itself their guilt shame weakness and woes It giveth to them its own Righteousness Strength Beauties Joys and Glories Thus Mercy is the circle of Divine love as it cometh forth from Heaven and Eternity goeth down to the lowest depths of Time and the Creation then ascendeth again till like the Sun it return thither where it first arose Poor and broken Spirits who lie at the utmost ends of the Earth mourning as outcasts hope evermore in Eternal love wait for it The love of God will find you out it will meet with you and take you in its way For Divine love is Eternal It encompasseth Heaven and Earth Time and Eterty His Mercy endureth for ever 2. Gener. Observ. This Psalm comprehendeth all things in it Created or Uncreated the Nature of God the Persons of God and of Christ the Wonders of God the Works of God the Works of Nature Grace and Glory It comprehendeth all things Then it maketh the ground and Crown of all to be Love this is brought in to every particular in each verse as the Reason Rule Result of all For his Mercy endureth for ever for his love is Eternal It is a maxime in Nature that all motion is founded upon something unmoveable This is the Divine Maxime upon which Heaven and Earth standeth all motions in the heart of God and in the Creature of Grace and Nature are founded upon the unmoveableness the unchangeableness of eternal Love O blessed Love O blessed God who is this love O blessed Soul which with a spiritual Eye created
of sweet light from this precious Stone draw your Eyes and Hearts to the Diamond itself to the naked Bosom of Love There is the abundance of Glory There you shall milk forth the Divine Life Delights and Glory in abundance As the Wood was of old laid upon the Altar and the Sacrifice upon the Wood in order to the descent of fire from Heaven which turning the Wood and the Sacrifice into one flame with itself returned thither from whence it came so let your life and religion be a continual Sacrifice to Eternal Love Let the Lord Jesus be thine Altar which is Love rising up out of the Earth Lay all Duties Graces Truths Spiritual Discoveries as Wood upon this Altar Bring thy Soul thy Heart thy whole Person for the Sacrifice Now wait look upward pray for Love as the pure flame of the God-Head to come down to change all to unite all unto itself in one Love and so ascend again with all unto its own place above the Heavens I have shewed in general how the Divine Attributes all serve Love as their end I will explain it yet more by three instances of the three chief excellencies in the Divine Nature Wisdom Power Righteousness 1. Instance The Wisdom of God serveth his Love According to the riches of his grace in which he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence As a plentiful Spring by the abundance of its Waters maketh a bed and channel to itself in which it runs along so is the Divine Wisdom a manifold and deep channel which the full Spring of free Grace of Eternal Love maketh to itself by the force of its endless streams as they flow thorow all things and play with themselves in various courses and forms until they meet again in the Sea of Love the Bosom of God Divine Wisdom is the richness of Divine Love spreading itself into an infinite variety sporting itself with itself in all diversity of Forms and Shapes thorow innumerable Changes innumerable Windings and Turnings bringing forth itself into a most ravishing Harmony of all Divine Beauties and Joys Divine Wisdom is Love forming itself into rich designs most beautiful contrivances full of unexpected and surprizing turns full of depths past the search of every created Eye that in the close it may display its blessed Treasures more fully that it may raise and enlarge every Spirit to take in its Joys Thus the riches of Grace have abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence The Wisdom of God is the Divine art of Love The Divine Prudence and Providence is the Net of Love to catch Hearts and Souls in spread thorow the Sea of the Creation O blessed Fisher of Souls Dâ—vine Love O blessed Net of love the Divine Wisdom and Providence Thrice-blessed Souls that are caught in this Net by this Fisher These are taken only to be removed out of the Salt and troubled Sea of this World into the sweet clear and calm Sea of Love But wretched are those Spirits who like Carps in a Pond sink themselves down deep into the mud of flesh and fleshly lusts that they may escape this Divine net of Love The Wisdom of God is the Musick of Love by which it charmeth Spirits to attract them to itself to compose them unto a Heavenly Harmony of Peace and Purity Those are indeed Adders the Seed of the Serpent who love not the sound of this Musick who stop their Ears that they may not hear this Charmer the Divine Love though he charm with so much skill 2. Instance The Power of God serveth his Love Rom. 1. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto every one that believeth The Gospel is the Ministry of Grace or Love The Divine Power then acting in the Gospel is the Minister and Servant of Love This will appear more by laying together three Scriptures in the Canticles which opening one another will send forth a sweet light of Divine Grace shining in them 1. Scrip. Cant. 5. 10. It is said of the Lord Jesus He is the Chief among ten thousand The Hebrew word for Chief is Standard-bearer I humbly conceive that we are not to understand here the Person that beareth the Standard or Banner who ever is inferiour to many Persons in the Army but the Prince whose the Standard or Banner is which is carried unto which all the Army is gathered together and under which it moveth The sense seemeth to be the same with that Joshu 1. Jesus Christ appeared in the form of a man with a drawn Sword in his hand Being asked by Joshua who he was he answered The Captain of the Lord's Hosts 2. Scrip. Can. 6. 10. The Spouse of Christ which is the Church in general and every believing Soul in particular is described to be Terrible as an Army with Banners This relateth to the Army and Banners mentioned before Cant. 5. 10. Psal. 34. 7. we read that the Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about those that fear the Lord. It is in the Original Tongue the Angel Jehovah The Lord Jesus is God with God the Father above all Angels and Men. He is God setting up his Pavilion in the midst of the holy Angels He is God setting up his Pavilion with Men in the midst of their Spirits This is the Captain of the Lords Hosts the Prince of Glory who as a great Prince at the head of an Army placeth things dearest to him his Treasure his Princess in the midst of the Army as in a place of Strength and Honour 3. Scrip. Cant. 2. 4. The King brought me into his Banquetting House and his Banner over me was Love You will say now what hath Love or a Banquetting House to do with a Banner of War You shall now see how these Scriptures come home to my end and declare the Power of God to be the Servant and the Soldier of his Love The proper intent of a Banner is to bear the Cause of the War wrought upon it either by Image or Inscription or both It is frequent when the War is ended for the Conquerors in the rooms in which they feast for joy of the Victory to have hanging over their Heads the Banners under which they are fought These are Tropheys marks of the Victory and Ornaments of the Triumph Silken flags aâ— solemn Shows at publick Feasts at Funerals are Imitations and Images of this If a King make a War for his Bride or Love he may very well have Love in a rich Figure and in Golden Leâ—â—â— displayed upon his Banners Neither can any thing be more pertinent when he returneth home and feasteth publickly with his Queen than to have these Banners with Love inscribed upon them in golden Letters and figured upon them in glorious Images waving over their Heads to encrease their Joys by this Declaration Love was that for which the King fought Love was the force by which he conquered Love is the end of
Entire Eternal the first and highest Unity in which all Unions lie together undivided compleat making up one Sweetness which hath the names and rellishes of all sweetnesses which giveth name and rellish to every sweetness which is above all names and rellishes unexpressible incomprehensible This is the Love-spring in the Trinity of Divine Love This is the Father in the Trinity of the Divine Nature Use. 1. Give all Glory to Free-Grace Ascribe all Riches to it Set your Love upon it This is the Fountain of Divine Love in the Bosom of the Father This is the Fountain of Israel This is the Fountain of the God Head This is your own your only Fountain O Saints All your streams of Life Grace Comfort Glory arise out of this Love-spring in Eternity which is the heart of the Father This is the Fountain this is the Father of Jesus Christ your Fountain and Father in him He that hath drunk the Waters of Life and Love from this Well will never thirst more after any other Waters or drink of any other Spring We read in Numbers of a Well in the Wilderness which the Princes digged with their Staves and sung to it Spring O Well O wandring Souls behold your Well which is before you in every Wilderness The Prince of Life your Jesus hath dig'd and opened it for you from the depths of the God-Head with the Staff the Scepter of his Spirit Look to no other Fountain But sing continually to this Spring O Well Spring O thou heart of the Father Spring in mine heart Spring with streams of Divine Truth Spring with streams of Divine Strength Spring with streams of Divine Joy Send forth thy streams over all my Soul and Body Make all my powers and parts to sing like the Garden of Eden O thou Fountain of Gardens My Prince hath dig'd and opened thee in my heart O thou heart of the Father with the Staff of his Spirit Open mine Eyes O Blessed Spirit that by thee I may see this Fountain which by thee is opened in me It was at the Fountain that Jacob and his beloved Rachel first met The Daughters of Laban came thither to water their Flocks But the Well had a great stone upon it which they could not move Jacob rolled away the Stone and watered their Flocks for them From thence they brought Jacob to their Fathers House knew him for their neer Kinsman and were marryed to him It is at this Fountain of Free-Grace that the Lord Jesus and the elect Soul first meet Sin Death and Wrath make the Stone which cover this Spring The Lord Jesus rolleth away this Stone that thou and all thy Fathers Flocks with thee all the Principles and Powers of Life in thee may drink of this Well Here the Lord Jesus looketh upon thee and loveth thee Here he maketh himself known to thee to be thy Brother and taketh thee to be his Bride From this Well he goeth home with thee unto thy Fathers House into thine heart into thy natural Spirit and thine Earthly Image in these to marry thee to himself to make the fruitful to Eternal Glory to enclose this door of thy natural Spirit with Boards of Cedar a Divine Beauty Sweetness and Incorruptibility to build upon the wall of thine Earthly Image a Palace of Silver into which he will invite his Father the Holy Angels all glorified Spirits to feast and inhabit with himself and thee There was often contention for Wells between the Servants of Abimelech and the Servants of Isaac These digged them and the others stopped them up Contend O Believers for this your Well of Free-Grace Suffer no Aegyptians or Philistines to stop it up by casting in the Earth or Stones and Rubbish of Free-Will of any Wisdom Work or Worth in the Creature As Earth cast into a Spring defileth it so by every thing of the Creature mingled with the Waters of this Fountain they lose their clearness their sweetness their vertue Keep this Spring of the Fathers heart of Free-Grace pure So shalt thou see a clear shining deep of Divine Sweetnesses without any Bottom the Glorious Deep of Eternity itself In the clearness of this Spring shalt thou see thine own Face From the freshness of this Spring thou shalt drink in perpetually new Floods of all living Sweetnesses With the pure Waters of this Spring thou shalt preserve thine heart ever new ever soft ever flourishing with all Joys ever fruitful in all Graces O Saints Keep this Love-Spring the Fountain of Free-Grace open keep it pure in your Spirits Use. 2. Learn this Divine skill O Christians which comprehendeth all the rich mysteries of the Gospel in it Rise up new every moment with all things round about you out of this Fountain of Love in Eternity the Bosom of the Father Return again every moment with all your troop into this Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father Lay your selves down for ever here Here alone is Jesus Christ in his naked Beauties nakedly embraced Seek see and enjoy all your pleasant Relations all pleasant Unions in this Unity of Divine Love the heart of the Father as in their proper Fountain Here is the Truth here is the Life of them all in their Original Here they are unchangeable Here they are as Sun-beams before they come forth descend divide grow shadowy and fading As we keep Flowers fresh by setting their stalks in Water So say of all your Relations in their shadows on Earth of all your sweet things with their Sweetnesses Who is their Father Answer thy self The Fountain of Love Then keep them with their stalks in this Fountain So shall they be ever fresh ever sweet to thee 2. Person The Love-Birth God is Love The three Persons in the Trinity are Love in a three-fold Form and Property or in a threefold Distinct and opposite Relation to itself within itself for the enjoyment of itself in the secret of Eternity abstracted from all Creatures infinitely before them and above them I have spoken of the first Person in this Trinity of Divine Love the Father the Fountain of Love in Eternity I come now to speak of the second Person The God-Head in the second Person is Divine Love in its Eternal Birth and Image The Fountain of Divine Love which is the Father bringeth forth from itself within itself an Eternal Birth the compleat Image of itself the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty This is our Jesus in the Bosom of the Father I shall endeavour to draw the Curtain from before this Blessed and Glorious Birth of Divine Love the Beloved the only one of all Holy and Heavenly Spirits I shall endeavour to set this most desired and most pleasant Person our Lord Jesus before the Eyes of your mind by five Characters or Marks The second Person in the Trinity is 1. The Birth or Image of Divine Love 2. The First 3. The Fairest 4. The Freshest 5. The Fullest Birth and Image of Divine Love 1. Character The Lord Jesus is
Debt any Burthen 〈◊〉 Guilt Sin or Sorrow come lay thy head upon this Pillow the Naked â—eart of God in the Naked Bosom of Jesus Christ. Here thou wilt sleep and thy â—eep will be sweet to thee thou wilt forget thy Debts and Cares thou wilt 〈◊〉 no weight no burthen upon thee any more 3. The Love of God poureth forth itself in Christ Indifferently that is 1. Without Distinction 2. â—ithout Condition 1. The Love of God poureth forth itself in Christ without Distinction John 〈◊〉 16. God so loved the World that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoâ—ver believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting Life Let 〈◊〉 Sinners let all the Souls of all Mankind hear this All Persons all States 〈◊〉 Dâ—grees the Persons of all Sinners All States and Degrees of Sin are Aâ—â—e to the Love of God in Jesus Christ. It findeth no Distinctions It maketh â—ll Distinctions by its own Election Descent and Operation It taketh away 〈◊〉 Distinctions by putting the greatest Comeliness upon the most uncomely â—rts by pouring forth itself in the greatest Loveliness upon the unloveliest â—arts by being Infinite in the Effusion of itself upon Every Part of Christs 〈◊〉 The First Matter is said by learned men to be a Deep of Emptiness and Darkness a meer Possibility a Pure Passiveness to all Forms of Things Such Matter such a Subject is every Soul to the Divine Love in Christ. Every Soul is in itself a great Deep covered with the Blackness of a Darkness But it is to This Love a meer Possibility a Pure Passiveness It cannot actuate itself to a Complyance or a Resistance Love cometh to it as its Form infuseth itself into it penetrateth thorow the whole Substance of it filleth it in every Part. Love reigneth Powerfully over it reigneth gloriously in it maketh it a Kingdom of Love maketh it a Lovely Queen to itself standing at its own right hand reigning and ruling together with itself in this New Kingdom of Love Rom. 5. 20. Where Sin abounded there Grace hath abounded much more Seas and rivers have their High-Water Marks Thus far their Waters come when they are highest but no further The Sea of Divine Love in the Bosom of Christ hath no High-Water Mark no Bound Thus far Love shall flow thus high its pure and sweet Waves shall rise to wash to make white to make new to overflow Sinners of such Circumstances But beyond this no Love shall pass to Sins of such aggravations of so deep and foul a Dye to Sins against so much Light so much Love to Sins so often repeated after so many new Repentances new Resolutions to Sins so black so bloody No The Love of God is without Distinction to all Sins and over all Sinners in Jesus Christ. If It maketh any Difference It floweth first It riseth highest there where Sin hath most abounded that there It may be most Glorified The Love of God in Jesus Christ maketh the greatest Sinners its Patterns to all the World of Men and Angels Its Master-pieces to Eternity 1 Tim. 1. 15. God had mercy on me the Chiefest of Sinners that I might be an Ensample to all that shall believe in ages to come saith St. Paul The holy Apostle doth not speak vainly when he calleth himself The Chief of Sinners he speaketh the truth in the Holy Ghost and lyeth not He setteth himself as a Light on a high Watch-Tower to all thorow all ages that shall faâ—â— upon Seas of Lust in a dark Night of Ignorance and Unbelief exposed to Storms of Wrath. He inviteth them to make thither there they shall be safe they shall find rest they shall find a Heven of Divine Love in the Bosom of Jesus Christ defended by the Rocks of Eternity the Divine Attributes from every wind No Vessel will fear want of water there where it seeth the greatest Ship of the greatest burthen deepest loaden which draweth the greatest depth of waters to sail safely St. Paul being dead yet speaketh to the greatest Sinners in every age after this manner Behold a Sea of Love a Channel of Love the Love of God poured forth in the Bosom of Jesus Christ. My self the greatest Sinner deepest loaden with Sin and Guilt who draw the greatest depth of Love have here found Love enough unfathomable Love on which I have bin carried safely triumphantly unto that Flourishing Land of Glory where now I feast continually with all Blessed Spirits in the midst of all Incorruptible Beauties and Joyes Let no sinner ever after me doubt to trust himself to this Channel to put himself upon this Sea of Love in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus Thus the Love of God poureth forth itself without Distinction in the Glorified Person of our Blessed Saviour 2. The Father poureth forth his Love in Christ Indifferently that is Without Condition 1. The Love of the Father dependeth upon no Conditions between himself and his Son the Father doth not say to Christ I will pour forth my Love in thee for Sinners but upon this Condition that thou make thy Soul an offering for Sin that thou satisfie my Justice and my Wrath that thou take upon thee to make them capable of my Love suitable to me in Holiness and Spirituality All that the Lord Jesus hath done or suffered is no Condition but Consequent of the Father's Love Love is the Sea These are the many Springs by which it variously boileth up the many Streams and Windings in which it playeth with itself as it runneth along in this Earthly Image until it return into the Sea itself again from whence it came The Lord Jesus testifieth The Words which I speak are not mine but the Father's He doth the Works It is the First the Supreme Love itself which shut up itself in Flesh which was made Flesh It is That Love which weepeth bleedeth dyeth which hangeth upon the Cross lieth in the Grave It is that Love which riseth again maketh itself a Spirit ascendeth up on high taketh to itself Its First and great Glory It is that Love which as a Spirit cometh to thee Invisibly by day and by Night which is now with thee Invisibly wooing thee in all Forms in Its Blood in Its Beauties by all means working itself into thine heart It is The Love of the Father That Love which is the Onely Father which doth all the Works which speaketh all the Words in the Person of the Lord Jesus It is the same Gold which is stampt in several pieces with several Images to make Crowns Angels Twenty shilling Pieces Coin and Currant Money for Traffick The Incarnation Active Obedience Sufferings Resurrection Intercession of the Lord Jesus his Presence his Powers his Operations in the Spirit are All The same Gold The same Divine Love in several Forms bearing several Figures for Traffick and Commerce between God and the Creature When thou presentest to God the Blood the Glory the Intercession the Spiritual Operations the Graces of the Lord Jesus
thou settest before him his Love himself in various Manners in various Mysteries The Onely Coin the Onely Currant Money the Onely Means of Commerce in the Kingdom of Heaven is Love the First Supreme Eternal Love the Gold of Eternity the most high and most Glorious Unity in all varieties stampt with all Figures 2. The Father in giving his Love maketh no Condition with Sinners He doth not say I give thee my Love for that Sinner upon Condition that he be humbled that he accept of my Love that he believe in thee The Gospel is a Covenant of Grace The Covenant is All Love The Covenant is Compleat in the Person of Christ who is The Divine Love Eternal Love in a Divine Infinite Eternal Person I have given him saith the Lord by the Prophet Esaâ—ah for a Covenant to the Natiâ—ns All Preparations Qualifications Acceptations are not Conditions of This Love but Infallible Consequents not Causes without which the Covenant hath no Force but Irresistible Immutable Effects of it By Grace ye are saved Ephes. 2. The whole Work of our Salvation from the Begining to the End from the first Design in Eternity to the last Act in Eternity is Pure Love Divine Love shineth in upon a Dark Spirit Enlightneth Awakneth Convinceth it by Its own Heavenly Brightness Divine Love burneth up flameth in a Defiled Dead heart raiseth a Divine Life and Sense in it melteth it consumeth its Dross maketh it new The Love of the Father in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus is the Golden Mine out of which a Saint is first taken the Flaming Mint where he is Melted refined made pure Gold and stamp't with the Divine Image Rev. 1. 5. 6. He saith St John of our Lord Jesus hath loved us and washed us in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of the Father in the heart of Christ is our onely Fountain All the Blood which streameth from the Wounds of Christ to wash us runneth down from this Fountain This Love is the Costly Ointment running down upon all our Persons anointing us for Priests and Kings Poor Soul which lyest in thy Sins which lyest a Slave in Chains at the bottom of a Dark Deep and Miry Dungeon The Love of the Father in the Person of the Lord Jesus cometh to thee It taketh thee into itself as a Bath of most pretious Blood in which It cleanseth thee from all thy filth cherisheth all thy parts bringeth thee to thy self to a Divine Beauty to a Divine Warmth sense and Life This Love setteth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Crown upoâ— thy Head It infuseth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Spirit into thee 〈◊〉 changeth itself in thine Iron Chains into Bracelets of Gold upon thee in thâ— Dungeon into a Temple and Palace It filleth thee this Temple this Palace round about thee with Its own clear and Proper Appearance in the Glory 〈◊〉 God Thus it dwelleth with thee Eternally Thus the Love of the Fatheâ— in the heart of Christ softneth enliveneth washeth thee with Its own Blood maketh thee by itself a Priest and King to itself Eternally I have done with the first Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Freedoâ— Use. 1. The Gospel is compared to a Marriage-Feast for a King's Son Goâ— the Father is The King His Son is the Bridegroom Eternal Love attendeâ— with all The Lovelinesses and Joys of That Love are The Feast Thou 〈◊〉 Man O Sinner Thy Soul is invited to this Feast of Love not onely to 〈◊〉 Guest but The Beautiful Blessed Bride The Ministers the Angels The Spirit of Love himself are sent forth as Eâ—bassadours to bring thee to This Marriage 1. Obj. Say not I am Unworthy Unlovely in my Sins and shame Answ. This Love is free It seeketh not but bringeth Loveliness along with it This Love is itself The Wedding-Garment and the Marriage-Crown This Feast as thou eatest giveth thee strength Beauty and a Right to it This Feast of Love maketh Its Guest This Marriage of Love maketh a Bride Obj. 2. How can I leave my precious and pleasant Things for This Love Answ. Canst thou not part with a single dying Flower in thy hand for a Root of Flowers to set in thine heart in thy Garden The Love of God is The Root of all Precious and Pleasant Things in Eternity Canst thou not part with a Shadow for the Substance a Picture for the Life a Counterfeit for the Truth a glass Diamond or Pearl for a right Diamond the true Pearl All thy Pleasant Things here are Shadows Pictures counterfeits This Love is All Pleasantnesses all Preciousnesses in their Substance Life Truth Obj. 3. I am weak I shall dishonour This Love I shall be disloyal to It. I shall return to my Lusts. Ans. This Love requireth no Qualifications but worketh all Give up thy self to be the Creature of This Love This Love will make Thee a Heavenly Bride to itself out of Nothing out of Contrariety Enmity This Love will be both a new a Divine Creation of Thee and a Continual Preservation This Preservation shall be a Continued Creation of Love Resign thy self to This Love which is the onely Fountain of Life and of all Loveliness Use. 2. Love again Who planteth a Vine and drinketh not of the Wine The Father planteth Jesus Christ his Love his Vine in thy Soul Let him drink of the Wine of thy Loves Love thy God with the same Freedom Simplicity and Sweetness with the Same Naturalness Nakedness and Force with which he loveth Thee Use. 3. Love one another as God loveth you Pour forth all your Love into the Bosom of Christ. There let it run into the Bosom of every Saint of every Creature There love one another without Distinction without Condition Freely receive one another into embrace one another in the Riches of the Grace and Glory of Jesus Christ as the Father receiveth and embraceth you Use 4. Abide in the Love of the Father 1. Abide in the Father's Love by Faith in the Lord Jesus The Glorified Person of Christ is the Land of Life the Land of Love the Love of the Father is the Sweetness and Fatness of this Land Faith is the root of thy Soul in this Pleasant Land By Faith thy Soul is vitally fixed in this Divine Soil in the midst of all the Sweetnesses and Pretious Sap of Divine Love By Faith thou drawest the rich heart of this Glorious Earth the Love of The Father to thy self Thou feedest upon It nourishest thy self by It and growest up to an Entire Tree of Love 2. Abide in this Love by holiness Holiness is the lovely Fruit which springeth up out of the Love of the Father and is Its Food Holiness is the Purity of the Spirit by which the flame of heavenly Love liveth and spreaded itself there Holiness is the Spiritual Chastity of the Soul to her heavenly Bridegroom 3. Abide in the Father's Love by keeping his Commandments The Commands of
the Father are Beams of Love which he shooteth into our Bosoms Obedience to them is the Reception of these Beams and the Reflection of them back again into the Bosom of God Obedience is the Activity of Divine Love enlarging itself freely in our Souls If it be contracted or shut up it goeth out 4. Abide in the Father's Love by the Peace of your Spirits Peace of Spirit is a Heavenly Calms and Serenity which freely receiveth and preserveth entire the Beams and Sunshine of Divine Love Passions are Clouds and Storms which cut off and darken the Beams of Love The Spirit of Love resteth not upon an Angry or Melancholy Man 5. Abide in the Father's Love by Spiritual Joy Joy is Love flaming One saith that Laughter is the Dance of the Spirits their freest Motion in Harmony and that the Light of the Heavens is the Laughter of Angels Spiritual Joy is the Laughter of Divine Love of the Eternal Spirit which is Love in our Spirits True Joy is Eternal Love the Eternal Spirit in Its Freest Motions in Its fullest Harmony and Complacency in our Spirits 6. Abide in the Love of the Father by Heavenliness The Presence of God in his Wrath is hell The Presence of God in his Love is Heaven Love is the Sunshine of the Godhead sweetning and guilding all things round about it after a Divine Manner as this Sun doth these Skies So far as thou abidest in a Heavenly Image of Things where every Object is covered with an Immortal Pleasantness and Glory thou abidest in the Love of God 7. Abide in the Father's Love by Spirituality Love is an Union The highest Love is the highest Unity the Unity of the highest Spirit In the Unity of this Spirit all things are Spirit of this Spirit All Varieties in this Unity of the Spirit are Spirits Divine Eternal Spirits of this Supreme Spirit in this Supreme Spirit Supreme Eternal Loves from the womb in the Bosom of this Supreme Love Abide in This Palace of Love The Unity of the Spirit Let this be thine Eternal habitation Be continually here in the Sweet and Blessed Society of Beautiful Pure Eternal Spirits Living Immortal Loves Behold Converse with all things within Thee without Thee in these Forms So shalt thou abide in the Love of the Father as It is poured forth in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus So This Love shall guide Thee as thou walkest into Fields of Light and Divine Pleasures into the Gardens of the Divine Nature This Love shall talk with Thee when Thou wakest as Moses and Elias talked with Jesus Christ in the Transfiguration of the Departure out of every other Image of things into this Paradise of Love flowing with all the Joyes of Life and Love in the heavenly Form of Christ. So This Love shall keep thee when thou sleepest as a Rich Canopy of Divine Substance over thy head as a Guard of Immortal Sweetnesses round about Thee as a heavenly Consort of Divine Spirit Divine Loves by their Musical Harmony continuing and crowning thy sleep I have done with the First Property of Divine Love as It is poured forth in Christ Freedom I come to the Second which is Purity 2. Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Purity The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ Purely The Lord Jesus is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God Hebr. 1. v. 2. Brightness is the Purest Light of Glory The Prime Glory in God is his Grace his Love He doth all for the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1. Jesus Christ in heaven in thine heart O Believer is the purest Stream the richest Flood of Divine Love the Love of the Divine Nature in the Brightness of Its Glory We are taught that this Light of the Sun which we enjoy here below is only a Shadow of that Light which shineth in the Body of the Sun itself The Sun in its highest Lustre is the Shadow of an Angel The Highest and Brightest Angel in his Purest Glories is no more than a Shadow of our Glorified Jesus He alone is the Brightness of Divine Glory without any Shade the Purity of Divine Love without any Allay Love is Loveliness in Motion As fine Gold melted into a Pure and shining Stream so is the Person of our Lord Jesus in Glory the Godhead in the Purity Perfection of all Its Lovelinesses melting itself into a most Pure Precious Stream of Love in which it runneth along winding turning meeting sporting with itself from Bosom to Bosom in the Father the Son and all the Saints O Broken-hearted Sinner who â—ittest in the Shadow of Death who wanderest in a Wilderness where there is no water ready to dye for thirst open thine Eyes see this Pure Light of Divine Love which shineth round about Thee in the midst of Thee see this Pure Stream of Divine Love which runneth along before Thee in that Wilderness thine heart the Blessed Person of thy Saviour which is this Pure Light this Pure Stream of Divine Love which filleth All. Take in the Waters of this Stream drink freely of it Cast thy self into this Stream let it cover Thee let it roul Thee along with it sport thy self in it There are Two Arguments of the Pure Effusion of Divine Love in Christ 1 The heighth of Its Sweetness 2 The Greatness of Its Virtue 1 The Love of God in Christ sheweth Its Purity by The heighth of Its Sweetness The Purest things are Sweetest The Love of God in Christ is the Rose upon its Stalk New-blown in its Virgin-Freshness and Sweetness To be Carnally-minded is Death to be Spiritually-minded is Life saith St. Paul Rom. 8. Impurity Carnality is the Death of Love dulleth embaseth embittereth it by Corrupting it Purity Spirituality is the Life of Love heighteneth and immortaliseth all its Sweetnesses all its Pleasures The Sweetness of the Love of God in Christ is made up of Three Parts 1. The Nearness of the Union 2 The Firmness of the Union 3 The Efficacy of the Union 1 The Nearness of the Union is the First Part of the Sweetness in the Love of God poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Saviour Love is an Union Where Love is Sweetest the Love-Union is Nearest The Love of God in Christ bindeth up God Christ all the Saints immediately in the most naked most warm Embraces of each other It maketh them All up into One Beautiful Body It melteth them All into One Blessed-Spirit of Divine Love The Bridegroom in the last of the Canticles expresseth his Love to his Bride after this manner If she be a Door we will inclose her with Cedar Cedar Wood is Eminent for three Things It is sweet Beautiful Incorruptible Blessed art Thou O Believer the meanest of all Believers who art a Door onely in this heavenly Temple Christ risen from the Dead a Door by which the Glories of the Godhead go in and out between the Visible and Invisible World Thy
a Body of Divine Loves above all Heavens Rom. 8. 28 29. St. Paul triumpheth after this manner I am perswaded thâ—â— neither Death nor Life neither Angels Principalities Powers nor things present noâ— things to come nor heighth nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Love of God in Jesus Christ lineth covereth all things transubstantiateth all things into the same Divine Love St. Paul mentioneth the nearest things to us the most intimate the most Potent the most Penetrating the most Universal the most comprehending the most Transforming Death Life Angels things Present to come Depth Heighâ—h What cometh nearer what toucheth every Point of our whole Substance and Being than Death Life Angels What more intimate to our hearts and Spirits If none of these can come between the Love of God in Jesus Christ and our Persons then all these by the Touch of this Love must be Tinctured and changed into new Forms into Essences of Love As Sugar is dissolved in a Glass of Wine so Death Life Angels things Presâ—nt things to come heighths Depths every other Creature in this Golden Cup of Divine Love the Glorified Person of Christ is dissolved into Love becometh a Rich Love-Cordial to a fainting Spirit making it to dance and sing for Joy when it was intended a deadly Poyson to it The holy Apostle had said upon this Ground a little before In all these things Sword Famine Persecution wee are more than Conquerours It is plain how we are Conquerours Captivity is carried Cuptive Those Forms and Powers of Darkness of Death which thought to captivate us are themselves Captives to Eternal Life and Love in the Lord Jesus As Saul among the Prophets so the Bitterest the Blackest things which assault the Spirit of a Saint encompassed with this Love of the Father poured forth in Christ uncloath themselves and put on Amiable Shapes of Love sing songs of Love breath forth from every part of them the most Delightful Sweetness of Divine Love Thus this Love maketh us Conquerours But what meaneth this to be more than Conquerours Is there a Joy or Glory above this of a Conquerour Grace coming into Glory Love Reigning after Suffering Is there any thing sweeter any thing greater than this Victory of Love Yes St. Paul saith when he was caught up into the Third heavens into the Paradise there he heard Words which it is impossible to utter This is The Paradise in the Third Heavens the Love of God in the Glorified Person of Christ. This Love transformeth every thing every Creature to this heavenly Paradise Those blessed Souls which by believing enter into this Paradise hear Words of Love Words of Joy Words of Pleasure of Glory from this Love which it is impossible to utter which are too sweet too high too ravishing to be exprest A holy Soul in This Paradise of Love feeleth a Joy far beyond that of Marriage of Conquest of Reigning of Children of any thing named in this World or in that which is to come Thus the Sweetness of Divine Love expresseth itself in its Sweet Efficacy Thus the Purity of Divine Love in Christ is manifest in its Sweetness 2. The Love of God in Christ is most Pure because it hath the greatest Virtue Our Divines express hell after this manner All Diseases Pains Griefs here are Evils by a Tincture onely of Divine Wrath a little Drop of Divine Wrath mingling itself with them Hâ—ll is Pure Wrath. Hell is the Abstract of Wrath the Evil of all Diseases Pains and Griefs abstracted from them and heightned to the utmost So Jesus Christ bare all our Infirmities and took our Griefs though he was never sick On the Contrary all the Good all the Joyes in the Creature are a Weak Tincture of Divine Love The Shadow of St. Peter as hâ— passed along healed the sick All the Sweetness and Pleasure in things here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love falling upon them All the Joy in any heart here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love cast over it The Love of God is poured forth Purely in the Person of Christ. There Love is a Substance no Accident There Love is Infinite being allayed or limited by no mixture Our Saviour in Glory is Divine Love in the Abstract It is a Weak Glance of Divine Love like the Sunshine here below cast upon the Water or a Looking-Glass which maketh the Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Figures Motions in the Creature It is a remote Touch of Divine Love like the Ends of the Sun-beams reflected in a Burning-Glass which maketh the Pleasantness and Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue of all Precious Stones and Pearls the Joy of all Relations The Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Features Motions the Pleasantness the Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue Life of all Precious Stones Pearls heavenly Bodies heavenly Spirits the Joyes of all Relations are contained Eminently with an Infinite Enlargement an Infinite heightning in this Divine Face This Tree Pearl this Union the Unity the Purity of Eternal Love in our Glorified Jesus O Sinner come cast thy self freely into the Bosom of thy Saviour Here thou fallest immediately into a Sea of Pure Love Open thy Mouth wide enlarge all thy Faculties to drink in the Sweetness of Pure Love pouring itself by Floods and Seas into thee Feel the Transcendent virtue of Pure Love transforming thee thy heart thy Person into a rich clear and heavenly Pearl in this Sea O Saints swim continually in this Sea of Pure Love the Bosom of your Glorified Saviour Feel the Transcendent Virtue of Pure Love dissolving you also into a Sea of pure Love a Sea of Glass and Fire a Sea of Pure Chrystal Divine Beauty without any Spot of Flesh or Earth Darkness or Death a Sea of Pure Chrystal shining and burning with a Pure Flame of heavenly Joyes without any Smoak of Lusts or Passions Obj. how is the Love of God Pure in Christ Is there not in the Lord Jesus a mixture of Love and Wrath He saith of himself in one place All Judgment is given to the Son of Man He adjudgeth to Hell and to Torments as well as to Heaven and to Joys Matt. 25. Jesus Christ is represented as a King upon the Throne in Glory in the Judgment of the last day v 31. He maketh Separation between the Sheep and Goats v. 32. He setteth the Sheep at his Right hand in the Place of Power Honour and Love He setteth the Goats at his Left hand on his Wrath-side v. 33. He passeth the Sentence of Love upon One inviting them as Blessed Ones to the Kingdom of Love prepared for them of the Father in Eternity v. 34. He passeth a Sentence of Wrath upon the other sending them away with a Curse into the Hell fire with the Devils v. 40. How is the Love of God poured forth Purely without
forth as A Spirit as the Eternal Spirit having married the Humane Nature into One Heavenly Form and Spirit with itself Now all the Treasures of Righteousness Life Immortality Love Joy all the Treasures of the God-Head display themselves over the whole Person of Christ entirely nakedly richly to the Height of all their Beauties and Sweetnesses as Flowers full-blown in Spring as Fruit-trees laden with ripe fruit in Autumn Who now can express the Joys when a Naked Heart meeteth with its Naked Jesus when both have cast off their Vails One from his Face The other from his Heart It is the same Blessed hand of the Eternal Spirit which taketh off the Vails from Both dropping Myrrhe a heavenly Sweetness Purity and Immortality as It taketh them off The Reflection of the Face of God upon the Face of Moses on the Mount cast a Divine Lustre and Beauty which remained upon it He came down into the midst of the People bringing a Heaven in his Face along with him But they could not bear the Brightness of this Naked Beauty He therefore casteth a Vail upon his Face So they remain in Darkness their Minds are blinded until Wrath cometh upon them to the uttermost This is an Example unto us upon whom the Ends of all Fore-going Times and Actions are come Behold the Lord Jesus is gone up to the top of the Mount He is ascended He is Glorified with the Father with that Glory which he had with the Father before the World was As a Spirit he cometh down again to us in the Shining Form of this Spiritual Uncreated Eternal Glory Wo to you who cannot bear the Brightness of this Appearance who cannot look stedfastly upon the Naked Face the Naked Form of the Lord Jesus this Spirit To you he casteth a Vail over his Face and as he casteth a Vail over his own Face he casteth a Vail over your Hearts To you now he cometh as a Thief in the Night bringing Darkness and Doubt Trouble and Terrours Confusion Desolation and Despair spoiling you of all your Counterfeit Jewels false hopes false Joys false Graces false Christ. But you who love and wait for this Appearanâ—e of your Lord and Saviour like Lightning shining from Heaven into your Hearts you who with the single Eye of a Chast Spouse look to the Beloved Person of your Jesus in the simplicity of his Spiritual and Divine Form Blessed are you of the Lord Jesus To you he cometh as a Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Wings Overspreading you with his warm and Naked Beauties Covering your Deformities Curing your Maladies Infusing new Cordials of Immortal Life and Joy into your Hearts Hatching you to Spirituality raising you upon Silver Wings and Golden Feathers to Heavenly Flights with himself To you he cometh Enlightning enlivening Transforming Glorifying Gathering you up into One Spirit One Glory with himself Where this Spirit the Lord Jesus is there is Liberty of beholding of enjoying the Lord Jesus nakedly immediately entirely eternally without any chain clog cloud interposal or interruption There is Liberty of growing up into a Spirit out of All the Vails of Flesh into One Spirit with him O the Joys of a Naked Heart when it meeteth with its Naked Saviour But as it was with the Painter who called to remove the Vail that he might see the Picture when their was a Vail onely painted there The Vail was all the Picture so is it with the hypocrite with the Temporary Believer His Jesus his Heaven is a Vail onely a Vail like that of the Tabernacle finely wrought with Pictures of Angels of Heaven of Jesus but Keeping him for ever from the Face the Bosom of Jesus the society of Angels the Joys of Heaven in the Outermost Darkness His hope is a Spiders Web. The Poison of Death and Hell are bred there I hear a Voice frequently in my Spirit saying to me Cry What shall I cry 1. Cry There was an Ark in which Noah and his Family were safe from the Flood which drowned the World The onely Ark in which Noah the Believer the Child of Rest shall be safe from the Flames which are now ready to devour the World is the Naked Person of Christ in the Invisibility and Spirituality of his Divine Eternal Form 2. Cry The Sound and noise of the Hammers framing the Ark for Noah preached the Righteousness of God the Ruin of the World very near The Sound and noise of the Lord Jesus the Spirit of Life the Spirit of Love in his Naked Person in his Naked Loves and Lovelinesses growing up forming himself in the Spirits of his Saints preaches now a Deluge of Destruction Death and Hell at the Door ready to enter in The Rest and Righteousness of God in his Bosom alone the Rest of God in his Loves the Righteousness of God in his Loveliness 3. Cry As it was in the Days of Noah so it will be now The whole World will go on to eat and Drink to marry and give in Marriage to mock at this Preparation of an Ark at these Discourses of these Endeavours for the Spiritual Person of Christ in the Heavenly Image for the Revelation of him in our Spirits for the Retirement of our Persons into him The whole World will go on in Sensuality and Carnality mocking at the Lord this Spirit the Ark till the day that God open the Windows of Heaven from above and break up the great Deep of Hell from below to cover them with and swallow them up in Unquenchable Flames They say that Seth foreseeing Two Destructions of the World prepared Two Pillars upon which he engraved all Mysteries of Humane and Divine Knowledge One of Marble to endure the Flood the other of Brick to continue in the Flames St Peter speaking of the Flood and the Ark addeth The Like Figure whereunto now saveth us Baptism not the washing away of the filth of the Flesh but the Answer of a Good Conscience by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Lord Jesus counselleth the last Church Laodicea to buy of him Gold tried in the Fire Gold tried in the Fire no more loseth any thing or receiveth any harm in the Fire but shineth more gloriously The Lord Jesus risen from the Dead and become a Spirit the Fountain of Life is the Gold tried in the Fire of Death and the Divine Wrath. An Ark of Wood saved Noah from the Waters Behold an Ark of pure Gold a Spirit of Immortality and Glory which shineth with greatest Glory in the midst of the Everlasting Burnings This is our Jesus who saveth us from the Fire which is already Kindled and burneth upon the World which will immediately raise itself to a Mighty Irresistible Flame Blessed are you who enter into this Ark of Gold and shut your selves up into It. Here you shall lie upon beds of Love as in the Marriage-Chamber in the Bosom of your Bridegroom encompassed with Songs of Joy while the Fire dreadfully devoureth all without
to take thy Person into the Arms of his Preventing Loves to breath bis Preventing Loves into Thee as a New Life the Spring of a New Beauty excelling that which was lost by Thee in Paradise incorruptible that never fadeth not passeth away Ladies and Queens have sometimes hatched Eggs in their Bosoms Thy dead deformed Person will thy Saviour hatch in the warm and naked Bosom of his Preventing Loves unto a Divine Life that shall answer Love with Love and flourish in the Loveliness of every Grace every Glory through thy New-born Soul and body according to their proper seasons Having known the Love of the Lord my Spirit laboureth yet not my Spirit but the Love of the Lord Jesus in my Spirit laboureth by all means to bring forth itself in the fresh and full Sense of its First its Free its Preventing Sweetnesses in your hearts as a Spring of Living Waters in a dry and barren Wilderness But as a tender Mother taketh a beloved Child weak and peevish laieth it in her lap poureth a Cordial down into its stomack so will your Jesus do with you O Grieved Spirits who are weak without strength froward will not take in his Love He will take you lay you upon his knees and pour this precious Cordial of his Preventing Loves into your Mouths Then will it go right and sweet down to the bottom of your heart There it will become a Well springing up with pure sweet and plentiful Streams of every Spiritual Truth Grace Comfort or Joy unto Eternal Life This is The First State of Love in the Lord Jesus Preventing Love 2. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father a Fulness of all Assisting Love 2. Cor. 14. v. 7. 8. 9. St. Paul had a thorn in his Flesh messengers of Satan sent to buffet him He prayed thrice that he might be delivered from them He had this answer from the Lord My Grace is sufficient for Thee Many tender-hearted Saints who feel their Lusts as Thorns in their Flesh who feel their Passions as the Messengers of Satan the Angels of the Dragon buffeâ—ing them cry out frequently in the Agonies of Fear and Grief O this Lust O this Thorn in my Flesh Sure at last it will wound me so deeply to the heart that it will let out the Life-blood of all faith hope grace and comfort O this Passion O this Messenger of Satan It will one day carry me back again into those Chains of Darkness and that Bottomless Pit out of which I seem to my self sometimes to have escaped But O Believer tossed with the Tempests be comforted Fear none of these things Look up continually to the Blessed Person of your dear Saviour lifted up into Glory in the midst of your Spirits See the Father pouring forth himself into the Fulness the Glorious Fulness of all Assisting Loves in his Bosom Pray continually and hear this Blessed voice from the Mouth of your Saviour continually sounding in your ears My Assisting Loves are sufficient for Thee Obj. But some Soul that wanteth Comfort will say When the Lord Jesus hath once by his Preventing Love planted a New Principle and Habits of Grace in me he now expecteth that I should improve this Principle and act these Graces If I do this and make use of that which I have I may comfortably look for his Assisting Love and that more Grace should be still given me But what New Loves can I promise my self to accompany me and carry me on in my way while I so ill requite the Lord Jesus for his First Loves that I suffer his Gifts to lye unimproved his Graces to lye unactive in me hid in the Earth by my Sloth or Sensuality Answ. I shall proceed in my answer to this Objection by Three Steps 1 Stâ—p This Objection wrappeth up together in it something True something False 1. This is False That the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus dependeth upon our Emprovement of Grace already received from him This is not True No by no means Assisting Love is as free as full as absolute as much all as much alone in Carrying on the Work of Grace in us as Preventing Love is in Beginning it God hath poured forth in Christ the Fulness of all Assisting Love I am the Truth the way and the Life saith our Saviour Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Life of all Grace in the way as much as in the Beginning or End Without me ye can do Nothing Every Act of Grace every thing in every Act of Grace which distinguisheth it from a meer Non-Entity from an Absolute Nothing Every Degree of Spiritual Being in the whole Life of Grace with all the Exercises of it through the whole way from the Beginning to the End is all alike Immediately from Jesus Christ. That which is True in the Objection is this the Emprovement of Spiritual Principles the Exercise of our Graces are attended with Clearer Illuminations Sweeter Enlargements more Divine heighthnings of all heavenly Truths Graces and Consolations in us On the other siide when Faith is not acted when holiness is neglected Darkness Decay Distress and Death dwell upon us But these things are all entirely Consequences and Effects not Causes or Attractives of Assisting Love The Assisting Love of our Lord Jesus is as the Sun which by its Presence bringeth Light Warmth Fruitfulness Life Beauty Pleasurealong with it When it withdraweth itself leaveth the Cold hardness Storms Desolation of Winter behind it The Bridegroom chargeth the Virgins of Jerusalem by the Roes and Hinds of the Field that they stir not up nor awake his Love until She please Cant. 2. 7. The Angels of heaven which are the Invisible Ministers by whom all things move in the whole Order of Second Causes are here understood according to the sense of some learned Divines By the Virgins of Jerusalem The Roes and hinds of the Field are the Pleasant Loves and Lovelinesses of the Eternal Spirit in the heavenly Person of Christ. The Law of the Eternal Beauties and Loves of the Divine Nature lieth upon all things upon all the Ministers and Armies of God that the Spouse of Christ be never laid to sleep or awakened but according to its own good pleasure as it is One Spirit with the Lord Jesus by a knot of Everlasting Love as a Queen at the Right hand of her King set down in Heavenly Places with him in him upon the same Throne When the Divine Principle which is the Bride and the Spiritual Man in a Saint retireth itself and goeth to its rest in this Night the Wild Beasts Bruitish Lusts Raging Passions come forth to prey upon the Natural Man covering it with filth wounds But when the Day spring ariseth from on high when the season cometh for this Man this Heavenly Seed Bride to awake to stir up her self and come forth again in this New Morning the Beasts return to their Den Lusts and Passions sink down into their own
Principle the Bottomless Pit out of which they arose But the Musick to which the Spiritual Spouse moveth in these Retirements and Returns is the Love of the Spiritual Bridegroom like the Silver Trumpets of the Sanctuary in the Wilderness to the Children of Israel sounding a Retreat and a Rest or a March and a Progress Obj. But you will say If there be nothing to be done by us to what purpose are all Duties Prayers Attendances on the Word If nothing can be done by us in the Acting and Improvement of Spiritual Principles to what end are all Admonitions Exhortations Instructions Promises in the Holy Scriptures Ans. These are all Assisting Love descending from the Bosom of the Bridegroom above into the Lap of his Bride below in various forms like the Sun-shine Showers from Heaven falling upon the Bosom of the Earth They are the same Assisting Love ascending again by various degrees in various Shapes or Growths like the Flowers the Corn shooting up out of the Ground Hos. 2. 22. It is promised that God will hear the Heavens the Heavens shall hear the Earth the Earth shall hear the Corn and Wine and the Corn and Wine shall hear Jezreel Jezreel is the Seed of God All the Ordinances all Forms all Motions not of Grace alone but of Nature also are the Commerce and Traffick of the Divine Nature with itself as it is the head of Fine Gold above all and the Hidden Pearl the Precious Seed at the bottom of all In every Step of things in every Form in every Language of Heaven and Earth of Grace and Nature in every Ordinance God seeth the face heareth the Voice answereth the Cry of Jezreel his own Seed his own Son Jezreel seeth the Face heareth the Voice answereth the Call of God of its Father Jezreel is the Dove whose Face is Lovely whose Voice is Sweet to the Heavenly Bridegroom although it be from the Holes of the Rock and the Hollow places of the Stairs from the lowest the darkest Dispensations from the nethermost parts of the Earth from the meanest Ordinances from an Inward an Outward Prison or Grave The Heaven the Earth the Corn the Wine Duties performed Ordinances enjoyed Graces Acted the Word published All are the Green Flourishing Fruitful Bed of Preventing or Assisting Loves on which the Lord Jesus and his Spouse embrace each other In Ordinances the heavenly Bridegroom pipeth or mourneth to Jezreel the Divine Seed his Sister-Spouse In Duties or Graces Jezreel danceth or mourneth to him again Thorow all these Assisting Love sweetly shineth or soundeth from above sweetly again reflecteth and Ecchoeth back from the Spirit of a Saint below This is the Answer in its First Step. 2. Step. The Reason given by the Philosopher why the Heavens which we see over our heads move so regularly so harmoniously so constantly from the begining of the world hitherto is this They have Assisting Forms Intelligences Angels which move them which turn them round Many Souls sweetly touched with the Allurements of Divine Love in Christ fear to come to him to cast themselves into His Bosom by Believing They distrust their own strength and constancy for their continuance in a holy temper They doubt they shall fall back with greater guilt and shame to themselves with greater reproach to the name of the Lord Jesus Many weak Christians are day and night tormented with like fears and doubts that they shall fall away at last by the force of some Corruption or the Difficulties in the waies of Holiness Dear Souls be not discouraged from believing or in believing be not kept off from the Bosom of Christ be not disquieted in His Bosom by any fears or doubts You have a Good Angel for an Assisting Form you have an Assisting Form brighter and more glorious than the highest and brightest Angel more powerful than all the Angels in Heaven You have the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus present with you in your Spirits by day and by night This doth move this will move and turn about your Hearts your lives regularly harmoniously constantly in all the Circles of Divine Graces Truths Joys Glories according to the Laws and Patterns in the Supreme Mind in the Heart of God thorow all times Eternally Preventing Love is the Golden Chain which draweth thee to the Embraces of Christ. O run when thou feelest thy self so drawn Assisting Love is the Golden Chain that tyeth thee fast and close immediately inseparably for ever in these embraces Rest with Confidence and full Assurance in these embraces feed with desire and delight among the Lillies here lye down to sleep in these embraces Thy sleep will be sweet to thee 3. Step. Learned men and Divines teach us that the Preservation of the world is continuata Creatio a continued Creation In every moment of Time from the Begiâ—ning of the world to the end the Divine Act of Preserving and Governing the world according to the Present form proper to it for that Season is entirely the same with the Act of Creation In every moment from the Begining of the world to the end the whole world with all things in it rise up into the form designed for that moment in the Eternal Law of the Divine Wisdom out of the nothingness of the Creature out of the Omnipotency of the Creator as freely as freshly as fully as Absolutely as in the first Moment of Its Being So is it and much more clearly sweetly gloriously so in this Creation of God the Creation of Grace Assisting Love is no other than Preventing Love Continued A continuation of Preventing Love They say A line is One Individual Point in motion This is most true All Assisting Love the whole Life of Grace and Glory in a Saint is One Individual Unchangeable Point of Preventing Love Eternal Love in Motion spreading itself within Itself to an Infinite Circle In every moment of a Saint's spiritual Being from his first Conversion to Eternity the Act of Assisting Love in Preserving in Governing thee is the same with that first Act of Preventing Love in Regenerating thee In every moment of thy Spiritual Being from thy first Conversion to thy Glorification in Eternity thy Spiritual Man the Divine Nature in thee riseth up into the form of that Moment answering Its Pattern in the Heavenly Image the Glorified Person of Christ out of thine own Nothingness out of the glorious fulness of the God-head in Christ as freely as â—reshly as sweetly as absolutely as entirely as in the first moment of the New-Birth in thee I will conclude this Second State of Divine Love in Christ Assisting Love with that of the Greek Epigram thus translated fer Fatum sin ferre recuses non minus te feret Fatum Bear thy Destiny If thou refuse to bear it thy Destiny will nevertheless bear thee and carry thee along Cast thy self O believer into the Bosom of the Assisting Love of thy God in Christ to be born up and carried along in it But
if thou refuse and murmure nevertheless this Assisting Love will take thee into Its Bosom and bear thee and carry thee along with It in Its own Way laid out and lifted up in Heaven in the Spirit into Eternal Joys If we believe not yet is He faithful and cannot deny Himself God is Love He cannot deny Himself in the unchangeablness of His Divine Essence which is Love He is True and faithful to the unity and simplicity of his own naked Being which is Love in the midst of all our changes unbeliefs unfaithnesses 3. There is poured sorth from the Heart of the Father in the Bosom of our Glorified Saviour The fulness of all finishing Love I know no Scripture which displayeth the finishing Love of God in Christ with more sweetness riches and fulness than that Ephes. 2. v. 4 5 6 7 8. You have here Love under several names in five verses repeated six times Mercy Love Grace Grace Kindness Grace You have it brought in with Magnifying Titles Rich in Mercy Great Love Exceeding Riches of Grace The Salvation of a Saint is here presented to us as a rich Piece of fine Enamelling First the Ground on which the Enamelling lieth is Gold Then you have the rich Enamel upon the Gold Lastly some beautiful Picture is formed in the Enamel Such a piece of Divine Work is a Saint 1. The Ground of the Work is Pure Gold Pure Love Preventing Love God doth all from Rich Mercy for the Great Love wherewith he hath loved us v. 2. 2. The rich Enamelling upon this rich Ground of Love is Love too All the Work is a curious close and fine Enamelling of Divine Love upon a glorious Ground of Love You have this brought in and doubled v. 3 8. By Grace ye are saved 3. The Beautiful Picture formed in this Enamel of Love upon a Ground of Love is the Heavenly Face of Divine Love naked entire in all its Lovelinesses and Glories to ravish all Spirits into a delightful Admiration That to the Ages to come might be shown the Exceeding Riches of his Grace v. 7. This is the End of God in Christ. He draweth upon the whole Person of a Saint the Heavenly Form the Divine Figure of Love as Love is God of Himself as God is Love He draweth this Divine Figure of Love in all its Riches in those Riches of Sweetness Loveliness Glory which exceed which transcend all Degrees all Capacities all Understandings in the Creature He doth it to this end that the Father the Lord Jesus all Angels and Spirits all Creatures in Ages to come that is in Eternity may see with Extasies of Joy and Wonder the Entire Form of Divine Love in its most naked most lively richest Beauties figured upon and shining in the whole Person of a Saint from one end of his Story unto the Other Do you not discern the Finishing Love of God in Christ making All perfect in Eternity The Ground of the Work of God in a Saint is Love It is all inlaid in every point of it with Love It is All Overlaid with Love When St. Paul had gone through the Particulars and several times declared All to be Grace Pure Love after all that he wrappeth up all over again in Grace in Pure Love By Grace ye are saved v. 8. A Saint is like a Gold-Watch in a Gold-Case A Work of Love in a Covering of Love as rich as the Work If you go never so low all thorow a Saint to the Nethermost parts of the Earth to his lowest Foundations All is Love If you search into the Heights of Eternity above him round about him All is Love Comprehending Crowning Love You will see the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ yet more clearly if you consider Three Things set before you in this Scripture 1. It is Love which is the Supream Sun of Eternity which generateth us to a Divine Birth which infuseth a Divine Principle of Life into us and awakeneth it in us For his greatest Love wherewith he hath loved us he hath quickened us v. 4. 5. This is Pre-venting Love It is Love which maintaineth carrieth on floweth forth into the Stream of Divine Life in us from the Beginning to the End By Grace ye are saved He hath raised you v. 5. 6. The Way of a Saint is a Continued Resurrection Every Moment is a New Resurrection every Resurrection supposeth a Death The whole Way o a Saint from the First Incarnation of Christ in him is a Contexture of Deaths and Resurrections Divine Lights of Life and Shades This whole Way of a Saint the Deaths as well as the Resurrections the Shades as well as the Lights are Divine Grace Pure Love Love putteth on the form of Death and shineth thorow it Death putteth on the Form of Love and shineth in it This is Assisting Love It is Love which setteth us down in Heavenly places Love maketh itself a Heaven of glory and bliss a Kingdom of Joy a Throne of pure Gold a Crown of Immortality This is Finishing Love They are the same Riches of Mercy the same Greatnesses of Love which shine forth in our hearts at our Regeneration at every Resurrection and in Heaven at our Glorification God rich in Mercy for his great Love hath quickened us raised us set us down in Heavenly Places All is the Same Love the Seed the Tree the Blossom the Fruit. 2 All the Steps in the whole Way of a Saint from the Beginning to the End are so many Love-Unions He hath quickened us together with Christ v. 5. He hath raised us together with him He hath set us down together v. 6 Every new Step in Grace or Glory is a New Love-Union Every Act of Divine Life is composed of a Blessed and Beautiful Trinity of Divine Loves 1. There is the Lord Jesus That Spirit which is the Supream Love the Essential Image the Eternal Son of That God which is Love the Bridegroom and Beloved of a Holy Soul 2. There is the Spirit of a Saint the Sister the Spouse the Love of this Love this Bridegroom Spirit of the same Spirit Love of the same Love sprung from the same Root formed into the same Image and Tree bearing the same Fruits of Divine Love 3. There is the Holy Spirit the Marriage-Dove the Marriage-knot the Love-Union between these Two Divine Loves Thus every Act every Moment of a Saint's Life is a Divine Trinity of Heavenly Eternal Loves coming forth in a New Dress suitable to each New Moment 3. All the Parts of a Gracious or Glorious Life are acted all the Forms and Moments of the State of a Saint His Beginning Progress End are acted and comprehended in the Pure Element of Heavenly Love in the Divine World of Spiritual Love in that Great and Glorious Deep into which all the Fountains of Love in the whole God-Head in the Heart of the Father are broken up and pour forth themselves in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus He
Assisting Love so certainly will it lay the Top-stone Your Eyes shall see it You shall in like manner cry to it with a Shout of Angels and Blessed Spirits all round about you Grace Grace Pure Love Finishing Love There are Three Sorts of Comforts which the Finishing Love of God in Christ ministreth to us 1. Against the Difficulties of Life 2. Against the Darkness of Death 3. Against the Dreadfulness of the Great and Last Day 1. Comfort against the Difficulties of Life St. Paul had prayed thrice against the Thorn in his Flesh and the Buffetings of Satan He receiveth this Answer My Grace is sufficiâ—nt for thee My Strength is perfected in Weakness I rejoyce therefore gladly in my Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me My Grace You have there the Father the Fountain of Love the Fountain of Free Grace You have at the end of the verse the Lord Jesus Glorified into whom this Fountain floweth continually covering his Person all over without filling it all within with the Gâ—ories Immortalities and Joys of Divine Love This Jesus resteth upon St Paul in the Power in the Perfection of All his Loves He maketh Perfect he finisheth his Loves the Pure and heavenly Work of his Loves upon him when he is weakest The Holy Ghost discovereth a Mystery here A Mystery is a Divine Secret A Divine Glory with a Divine Vail cast over it a Divine Light surrounded with a Divine Darkness The Head of Christ all Pure Fine Gold covered with Locks and Curles black as a Raven The Mystery which the Holy Ghost here unvaileth to us is One of the richest and sweetest among all the Mysteries of the Gospel It is the Mystery of Love of Finishing Love Blessed are those Eyes that see the Glory Blessed are those Hearts that understand and rellish the Sweetness of This Mystery It is This When Divine Love would put forth itself in Greatest Power and Glory when it would finish make Perfect the general or any Particular Work of Love in us it chooseth that Season when we are weakest lowest have least of Loveliness Life Love or Suitableness to Love when we are in the greatest unlikelyhood for it when we seem to be at the greatest Distance from it Cant. 6. v. 12. The Spouse is brought in speaking thus Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Amminadib I have not Learning enough to understand why Amminadib is set here as One Proper name whenas in the Hebrew there are Two distinct Words which have their common signification and are rendered in the Margint of the Bible My Willing People Moreover that word As is put in by the Translatours and where we read Made me the Original properly is expressed by Set me The words thâ—n run thus in the Hebrew Text Ere I was aware or I knew not I knew not how I knew nothing of it my Soul set me the Chariots of my Willing People or by the Addition of One Preposition understood My Soul set me in the Chariots of my willing people It will be worth our time and pains if we stay a little upon the opening of this verse We shall find a Spiritual a heavenly Treasure in it and bring the Application home to our hearts more Clearly more Comfortably There are Four Questions which may be made here 1. Qu. Who this People are which the heavenly Bride calleth My People 2 Qu. What the Willing People are 3 Qu. What the Chariots are 4. How the Soul of the Bride setteth her In these Chariots or maketh her As these Chariots 1. Qu. Who the heavenly Bride 's own People are Answ. These whom the Spiritual Bride calleth Her own Pâ—ople are Heavenly Spirits in Glory It was said of Jacob when he died He was gathered to his People While a holy Soul is in this World she is as an unknown Princess under a Disguise in a strange land the language whereof she understandeth not In Death this Princess-Bride returneth home to her own People to her own Kindred her own Relations and Acquaintances There all understand the languages Faces and hearts of Each other There they mutually drink in the Spirits of Each Other and in the Spirits of Each other all Pure Immortal Loves Beauties Joys There is another Scripture which commenteth upon this and confirmeth our Explication of it It is Eccles. 12. 7. The Dust returneth to the Earth as it was The Spirit to God who gave it That which is translated God is in the Plural Number Gods often applyed to the Angels The Jews say it signifieth God cum Indumentis suis as he cloatheth himself with the Forms of Angels and appeareth in them The Soul of a Saint cometh forth from the Land of Angels and Glorious Spirits in the midst of which God reigneth into this World as into an Exile or Banishment When it dieth then it goeth home to its own Countrey and People to its own City and Fellow-Citizens The Inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all I shall add one Text more which will make all the rest Clear Hebr. 11. 14 15 16. The Saints there are said to seek a Countrey The Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Native Countrey Then to prevent a mistake you are told that this Native Countrey was not that from which they came on Earth It is distinguished from that and plainly called A heavenly Country Their Native Land which is a heavenly Countrey Behold those whom the Spouse of Christ calleth My People The Inhabitants of the City of the Living God her heavenly Countrey her Native Land above the Heavens as the word beareth These are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Assembly of the First-born all Forms of things all the Saints in Spiritual Beings and Beauties in the Likeness of Christ as he is the first-born of every Creature before they descend from their Thrones of Pure Glory from their Virgin-Lustre and Sweetness in the Bosom of Christ into Flesh upon the Earth The Innumerable Company of Angels the Glorious Attendants of the Saints in their higher and First-born Glory The Spirits of just men made Perfect either in the Body or out of the Body come to this heavenly Land Living walking and conversing there among the Inhabitants of this Land in the Spirit These are Thy People Thine own People O Believer O thou Blessed Bride of thy Glorified Jesus You have the Answer to the First Question 2 Qu. What are the Willing People Answ. Again I am ignorant why the same word is rendred in the Margin of this Scripture Willing when as immediately after Cant. 7. 1. The same word Nadib is translated Prince O Prince's Daughter or O Princely Daughter If I mistake not the Church is spoken of in that Chapter as being now in Glory upon the Throne You have this word Nadib used to the same sense of the same Subject Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be Willing in the day of thy
Power in the Beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy Birth The words lie thus in Hebrew Thy willing People in the Day of thy Power oâ— thy Armies in the Beautiâ—s or Excellencies or Majesties of holiness or in thy holy Pure Beauties from the Womb of the Morning to thee the Dew of thy Youth You have here the Lord Jesus in Glory in his Kingdom in the Day of his Power with his Armies of Angels round about him in the Beauties of holiness in his Frâ—shest Beauties in the heighth of Excellency and Majesty in the Glory of his God-Head filling shining thorow overspreading his humane Nature You have him here in the Brightness Sweetness and Newness of his Eternal Sonship as he cometh â—orth Immediately from the Womb of the Morning the Bosom of the Father who is the Morning the Day-Spring of the God-Head Thus is Jesus Christ with the Dew of his Youth upon him as Fair as Fresh as unfading as a New-blown Rose in the Morning while the Pearly Dew lieth yet upon it Jesus Christ is now as a Bridegroom upon his Coronation Day or as a King upon his Marriage-Day Now his People are a Princely People all Fellow-Kings together with him Now the holy Soul is That Princess and Daughter which is his Queen all in Beaten Gold at his right hand The Willing People are Princes heavenly Spirits in Glory This is the Answer to the Second Question 3. Qu. What are the Chariots of the Princely People Answ. 1. The Chariots are the holy Angels Psal. 68. 17. The Chariots of the Lord are Thousands Ten Thousands of Angels God is in the midst of them as on Sinai in the holy Place You may observe in your Bibles that word Place not to be printed with the same letter as holy to signifie that it is not in the Hebrew but added by the Translatours The Holy may be here any of these or rather all of these in their Subordinations the Sanctuary or Temple the Holy Placâ— the Figure the Lord Iesus the Substance Life to this Figure the holy One the Saints the holy Ones the members of Christ Christ Mystical the Spiritual Temples Heaven the Everlasting Glory of the God-Head in which Christ resideth Sinai was a Type to all these These in their several degrees are Sinai heightned to Sion to the Perfection of the Divine Presence in the Beauty of Holiness and Love You may see too that As before Sinai is added The Hebrew lieth thus Sinai in the holy The Thousands and Ten thousands of holy Angels make all One Chariot in which God rideth Each Angel is also a Distinct Chariot The Chariots of the Lord are according to the number of the Angels But Each Angel comprehendeth in himself the whole Millions of Angels They are distinguished in their Essential Forms but undivided As the same Colours and Lines varied make all Beauties So all Angelical Forms in distinct Relations make up the Essence and Glory of Every Particular Angel God with the Thousands of his Chariots rested on Mount Sinai Sinai or Sion rather is in the Lord Jesus in the Assemblies of the Saints in the Person and Spirit of every Saint in Heaven in the Spirit thorow all the Heavens and the Earth in the Lord Jesus and every Saint The Chariot of Solomon is the Chariot of his Queen also The Bridegroom and the Bride ride together in the same Chariot Jesus Christ and his Spouse Jesus Christ and his Brethren his Fellow Kings Behold then the Chariots of the Princely People of the Immortal Kings of Saints in Glory in the Glory of Christ and of the Spirit whether in the Body or out of the Body They are the Chariots of God The Thousands andâ— Ten Thousands of the holy Angels These are in a double sense the Chariots of these Divine Princes 1. These Princes ride in them 2. God rideth upon them in these Princes as on Sinai as on Sion as in Heaven Answ. 2. The Chariot is the Divine Presence in the Light and Evidence of its own Appearance with all its Train of Glories and Angels as in Heaven with the Universal Form of things comprehended in it enlivened and enlightned by it as in the Glorious Person of Christ at the last day This Divine Presence descending and ascending resting upon and shining forth in the Prophets and Holy men of old in their Visions is described Mystically Ezek. c. 1. and called by the Jews The Chariot There are Wheels Living High Dreadful Glorious Shining as a Pretious Stone full of Eyes that is of Angels of heavenly Spirits I humbly offer it to be considered whether these Wheels be not the Elements these Globes of the Visible Earth and Heavens made New made Spiritual filled with Angelical Lives cloathed with Angelical Forms and Glories in the Kingdom of the Spirit and Mystical Person of Christ. Then the Horses which draw these Wheels are the Living Creatures full of Eyes If the Wheels may be understood to be the visible Part these Living Creatures may present the Invisible Part of the Creation in its Renovation by a Spiritual Glory flowing forth from the Fountain of The God-Head in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus These Wheels and Horses together may perhaps not improbably be thought to be the New Earth Above the Wheels and the Living Creatures is the Chariot itself a Firmament If I may pursue my former Apprehension with Submission to the Spirit of Truth in every Spirit I shall call this the New Heaven The heavenly Image the God-Head unvailing itself appearing in a New Glory This is the Firmament the Heaven born up and carried along by the Innumerable Company of Angels while Jesus Christ sitteth in it as in his Chariot Above this Firmament is the Similitude of a Man as Fire from his Loins upward and as Fire from his Loins downward This is our Blessed Saviour in the Union of his Divine and Humane Nature The Glory of the Divinity of the Eternal Spirit cloatheth both with the same Similitude of Fire which shineth with the Sweetest Light burneth with the greatest force of Love transformeth all things with an Almighty Power into One Pure Immortal Divine Flame with itself The Lord Jesus himself speaketh of his own Coming and Appearance in his Kingdom after this manner The Son of Man shall come in his own Glory in the Glory of his Father and in the Glory of all His holy Angels Our Saviour seemeth to have had the same Vision in the Eye of his Spirit which Ezekiel had The Jews distinguish the Angels into Angels of the Throne nearer to the Divine Majesty Angels of Service at a greater Distance The Glory of the holy Angels make the New Earth the Horses and the Wheels in the Chariot of the great King The Wheels the Visible Part of the Creation the Wheels are made of Angelical Glory But they are the Angels of Service in a New Spiritual Glory The Invisible Things of
the Creation the Living Creatures in the Chariot are the Angels of the Thronâ— in the Glory of the Kingdom of the Coronation and Marriage-Day The Firmament the New Heaven is the Glory of the Father The Chariot itself which containeth him in which he descendeth bowing down the Heavens as he descendeth The Lord Jesus himself in his own Glory is Distinct from all these Glories compreâ—endeth them and rideth forth in them This is that Image in which he shall appear at the last Day as a New Creator and a New Creation making all things New as the most Entire most Naked Image of the Invisible God in all his most Pure and most Invisible Glories as the First-born of the whole Creation in general and of every Creature in Particular as the Whole Creation in its Virgin-State in its Ideal Glory while yet it sprung up out of the Bosom of God and stood onely in the Bosom of God and was a Sister-Spouse to the uncreated Beauty This is that Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy That Divine Presence that Word of God which came to all the Holy Men of old in the Light of which as in the Glass of Eternity the First and Supreme Truth they saw Visions dreamed dreams and spake of him This is the Chariot of the Princes of the Saints in the Glory of the Spirit 4 Qu. How doth the Soul of the Spouse make her as this Chariot of her Princely People or set her in it Answ. The Soul of the heavenly Bride is her Lord her Life her Love her heart her True Self her Beloved her Jesus He descendeth in his Chariot and taketh her up into it He appearing in his heavenly Image composed of the Glory of his Father his own Glory the Glory of all his holy Angels which is his Chariot as he appeareth in her translateth and transfigureth her into the same heavenly Image She also is now become a Chariot made up all of the same Glories with the same Jesus the same Queen the same Company of Princes riding together in it The Soul of the Bride is also Faith the 〈◊〉 of God the Divine Nature the Spirit in a Saint This Divine Life in a Saint by a Descent of the Lord Jesus upon it in a moment ere a Saint is aware he knoweth not how both taketh him up to set him in this Chariot and Transformeth him into it I have onely prepared you by all this for the Application of the Scripture opened by us to our present purpose that we may take in with a greater Sense with a Deeper Impression the Comfort and Joys of Finishing Love making Perfect its most Beautiful Works and Displaying its most pleasant Strengths in our Weaknesses Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of my Princely People or set me in them Hearken to me my Brethren Is there not among you a Poor Believer a Mournful Saint which hath long prayed long sighed for a Clear Sight of Jesus Christ a Sense and Seal of his Love Sweet and Constant Communion with him To this Soul I now speak Perhaps after all this thou art embracing the Dunghil of Distrust and Despair Perhaps thou art sitting upon the Dunghil of some Fleshly Lust or Earthly Care of Covetousness or Lasciviousness Vanity or vexation Now in a moment which thou thinkest not of ere thou art aware Jesus Christ in the Divine Brightness of some heavenly Truth flashing like Lightning in upon thy Spirit may descend may discover himself in his Heavenly Image with his naked Glories naked Loves to thee Now are thou art aware he may make this heavenly Image at once a Laver of Precious Blood in which he washeth Thee white as the Light itself from every Spot a Chariot of heavenly Princes in which he cometh down to Thee upon thy Dunghil taketh Thee off from thy Dunghil to ride with him in the Fellowship of all Immortal Spirits while all the holy Angels bear Thee up and carry Thee on upon the Firmament of the Father's Glory at the side of thy Beloved whither the Mind of the Spirit is for Thee to go Ere thou art aware the Lord Jesus can change thy Dunghil can change Thee into a Divine Chariot of Eternal Spirits in which he will ride forth with Thee thou shalt ride forth together with him having his Loveliness in thine Eye his Love in thine heart thorow all Forms of things Light and Darkness Life and Death as thorow various Fields differing Regions of Spiritual Beauties and Delights in the Vast Continent the Vast World of the Divine Nature Thus comfort thy self against the Discouragements of Life with the Fulness of Divine Love â—inishing Love in the Glorified Person of Christ which maketh Perfect its Strength and Sweetness in Weakness and Enmity which giveth Thee the Desire of thy Soul thy Jesus most clearly most dearly into thy Bosom when thou lyest locked up fastest in the Bosom of the Strange Woman oâ— This Strumpet and this Witch the Hellish Darkness cloathed with Figures of Fleshly Softnesses Sweetnesses Lights and Treasures Gen. 28. 11 12. Jacob had pursued the Spiritual Blessing the heavenly Birth-right and had obtained the Promise the Purchase After all this he flyâ—th alone as a Banished Person from his Father's house He is benighted in an open field He lieth upon the naked ground He hath under his head for a Pillow a Cold Hard Stone Now Finishing Love maketh Perfect its Strength in this Weakness giving him now the Evidence the Pledge the First-fruits of that Spiritual Blessing that heavenly Birth-right which he had a Promise of and a Title to Now Heaven is opened to the Eye of his Spirit in a Dream A Ladder â—â—acheth from Heaven to Earth One End of it resteth on the Bosom of God above The other End standeth upon the Ground at his head below Angels descend and ascend upon the Ladder He awaketh and saith This is none other than the Gate of Heaven the house of God and I was not aware of it The Stone on which he lay is now anointed and becometh a Pillar and Altar a Figure of Jesus Christ in all his Divine Loves and Lovelinesses Jacob is in every holy One. Hear this you broken hearts You complain We have tasted something of the Sweetness of Preventing Love if this be Preventing Love to cast in upon our Spirits gracious hints and hopes of Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things when we sate in the Shadow of Death and did not so much as know or Believe that there was a Spirit a Heaven We have also tasted something of the Sweetness of Assisting Love if this be assisting Love to help us to carry us on for a wearisome length of time with sighs and groans unutterable to cry for the Revelation the Possession the Fruition of these Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things in the Foretast of them But O! where is Finishing Love Now instead of this behold we are benighted with Darkness of Spirit
surrounding us far from our Father's house from the Bosom of our Jesus in the wide solitary naked field of this Fleshly Image We lie upon the Cold Ground of our own Natural Earthly Comfortless Spirits Under our head is the hard Stone of unbelief Distrust Care and Fear Where is now Finishing Love Finishing Love is now nearer to you than you are aware This is the Season for Finishing Love this is the Time in which the Work of Finishing 〈◊〉 is most Beautiful What it now doth will be for Ever for an Eternal Joy and Glory a Work of Eternity It will be now Pure Love Perfect Love It will now work with All Freedom with all Fulness in your Weaknesses Ere you are aware Finishing Love will open itself as the Heaven of Heavens round about you You shall see the Lord Jesus as a Mystical Ladder 〈◊〉 Divine Loves reaching from Heaven to Earth filling with the Fulness 〈◊〉 Divine Loves poured forth in his Glorified Person all the Space betweeâ— Heaven and Earth while One End of this Ladder toucheth the Heart of Goâ— in the Glories of Heaven and Eternity the other End toucheth thine 〈◊〉 thou liest covered with darkness below on the Desolate Earth Divine Love in all Angelical forms stand upon every Round of this Ladder every Degreâ— and State oâ— Things between heaven and Earth in great Troops These â— once descend and ascend bring down the Heart of the Father into thy Bosomâ— and carry up thy Heart into the Bosom of the Father Now thou saiest This Open Field was the House of God of Divine Loâ—â— This Darkness was the Gate of Heaven the Gate of Finishing Love and was not aware By this Gate Divine Love cometh forth from Its Spiritual Pâ—â—lace unto me By this Gate Divine Love bringeth me into its Palace Itâ— enough I have received the Spirit of Promise I am Sealed by it with 〈◊〉 Eternal Image of Divine Loves and Glories with the Heart of my Jesus mâ— God set upon my Heart O my Jesus it is true it is True This was the Sea son of thy Finishing Love and I was not aware Thy Finishing Love maketh Perfect its Strength Light Sweeetness in Weakness Darkness Enmity Thus comfort your selves against the Difficulties of Life in the Freedom the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God treasured up in the Glorified Person of Christ for you 2 Comfort Against the Darkness of Death Gladly therefore will I rejoyce in mine Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me saith St Paul 2 Corin. 12. 10. in the place cited before It is the Power of Finishing Love in Christ which is here intended For that was the Subject of the former part of the verse My Grace is sufficient for Thee Behold Free Grace Pure Love For my Strength is made perfect in Weakness The Strength of Grace of Love is made Perfect in Weakness Behold Finishing Love This maketh the Infirmities not of old Age onely but of our dying hour Pleasant to us that when we are weakest the Power of Divine Love resteth upon us in its Finishing Sweetnesses and Glories When the Lord Jesus hung upon the Cross he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me A Darkness covereth the face of the whole Earth round about Him The next words which we hear from him just as he giveth up the Ghost are these It is Finished A Declaration of Victory A Triumph The Mystery of my Sufferings of Divine Wrath are finished in my Person The Glory of the God Head of Heaven of Eternity All Beauty all Joyes The Mystery of Divine Love are finished and compleated in my Person Both these Mysteries are now finished Both Compleated in One Glory in this One Moment of my Death This is the Pattern of a Saint and of Finishing Love in the Pangs of Death You have a Saint sick on his Death-bed a sense of Sin of Wrath Doubt Despair spreading their black Wings over his Spirit pains faintings deadly pangs seizing upon his Body In a Moment in the midst of these Weaknesses the Lord Jesus in a Chariot of Angels and Invisible Glories with the full Power of all Finishing Loves resteth upon him from without raiseth himself and shineth from within Now in this Moment is the Whole Scenâ— changed The black and baleful Image of Things is changed into a Heaven The fainting dying Person into a Glorified Spirit triumphing in his Chariot of Angels and ascending with the Lord Jesus into the Heighths of Eternity He crieth one moment The Joys of Life the Light of the Sun the Delights of mine Eyes My Dearest Relations and sweetest Friends Life itself forsake me My hope my Faith my Spiritual Comforts my God my God why do ye why doest thou forsake me The Next moment with a Shout of Angels with the Sound of the Silver Trumpets in Heaven he crieth out It is finished The Sufferings of Christ are finished in me Divine Love hath finished upon me all its Mysteries and made the Joys of Eternity full in me A modest Person was sick and in want A Friend sensible of his want and modesty conveyed a Bag of money under his head and pillow while he slept He waketh findeth it smileth and saith This is the Stealth of my Friend Our Jesus frequently casteth a deep Darkness the Shadow of Death over us then when he purposeth under the covert of this Darkness to convey some finished Piece of Glory some Compleat Work of Finishing Love Heaven itself into our Bosom our Persons into a Heaven of Immortalities and Glories unsought unexpected unperceived by us until we are possessed of them until we are in the midst of Them These are the Stealths of our Beloved These are the Stealths of Finishing Love The Power of Christ with all the Fulness of Finishing Loves resting upon a Saint in his Death is excellently described 2 Corin. 5. v. 1 2 3 4. Observe there Four things 1. A Glorious Building 2. The Groans of Burthened Saints 3. The Workmanship of God 4. The Earnest of the Spirit 1. A Glorious Building This is A building of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of God The Materials as well as the Builder and the Form are all of a Divine Nature It is a Pallace hewn out of the Rock and standing in the Rock of Eternity Gold precious Stones Pearls the Body of the Sun Angelical Substances are as Dung to the Materials of which this Building consisteth It is Eternal above Time and so without Beginning or End above Succession and change It is in the Heavens in the Highest Heavens the Heavens of Eternity the Heavens of Heavens in the Eternal and Supream Spirit It is situate in the most Divine Heighths in the midst of the most Divine Lights Loves Purities Powers and Pleasures in the midst of the most Divine Lives and Immortalities 2. The Groans of burthened Saints We groan being burthened The Burthen is the Earthy Tabernacle This Life The Weight of vanity and
hand your Redeemer cometh This is the day of finishing love Jesus Christ cometh in this day to thee O Believer to consummate the Marriage and so all thy joys thy graces thy gâ—ories in thy compleat Marriage to himself The day of the Lord is said to be The Revelation of the Lord from Heaven As the natural day chaseth away the shadows of the night but is the brightness of the Suns beautiful and glorious Body making all things new in the pleasantness of his light to those Eyes that watch for the morning so is this day of the Lord a day of Clouds and Darkness to the Children of the night But it is to thee who lovest and waitest for the appearance of our Lord Jesus the breathing forth of all finishing loves the breaking forth of all finished Beauties from the beloved Person of thy Jesus appearing nakedly in all the glories of the God-Head from Heaven in thy Person in all things round about thee as the Sun of Eternity at once shining in every point of things making a new day of immortality and glory every where The Lord Jesus cometh indeed in flames of Fire But these flames are the Almighty powers and Supream glories of the eternal spirit of eternal love in its purity in its simplicity These are of a truth flames of fire to the enmity to the enemies to all flesh but they are to thee who livest in the spirit flames of finishing love of finished beauties presenting themselves to thee in all forms of things feasting themselves upon thee feasting themselves with thee making themselves a feast to thee I will conclude with that History of Elijah 1 Kings 19. 11. There passed before him a Whirlewind rending the Rocks removing the Mountains a Fire and Earthquake After these came a still veice The learned Jews say That all this was acted before the Prophet in a divine vision that the Whirlwind the Mountains the Rocks torn in pieces the Fire the Earthquake were Angels presenting themselves in those Forms as so many Divine Scenes that the still voice were all the Angels in a Quire making a heavenly melody Thy Royal Bridegroom cometh in every day of Judgment to make more than this true to thee O thou Dove thou Bride of the Lamb. He cometh in the weakness of all flesh round about thee to rest upon thee upon all things round about thee in the power of his finishing loves This is the great day of love and of the spirit in which he will make perfect the strength of his love and spirit while thou art trembling while all things are falling with a great noise round about thee as dreadful ruines in a devouring flame Now lift up thy head into that living and glorious light of the eternal spirit now lift up thine Eyes and thine heart unto that living and glorious light of divine love which breaketh forth from the face of thy Jesus within thee without thee on every side of thee This is the day of the anointing of thine Eyes with the heavenly Eye-salve of changing thee and the whole world to thee into fine Gold Gold tryed in the fire All things now appear to thee as indeed they are a divine vision in a light of Glory The whirlewinds Earthquakes Fires Deaths Ruines are all Angelical Scenes in the Spirit In them all thou seest the Dances thou hearest the still voice the calm charming soft Musick of all the Angels all the Spirits all the loves of God as on his and thy Marriage-day Thus finishing love maketh perfect the light the life the strength of the spirit and of love in thee in thy personal weakness in the universal weakness decay and ruines of all flesh of the whole Creation round about thee A skilful Painter is most discerned in laying his shadows By these he maketh his work softer sweeter more full of life and more taking Thus comfort thy self in all thy weaknesses darknesses and deaths Say thou now is my Jesus exercising his divine wisdom and skill in laying and placing his shadows Now upon these sad grounds will he curiously lay his rich and pleasant colours Now will he form and finish the glorious face of his divine beauties of his divine loves upon me Finishing love then appears then displayeth itself with greatest freedom fulness and sweetness when it maketh perfect its strength its beauties its joys its eternal light in our weakness deâ—ormity despair darkness death These are the rellishes to the Musick the shadows to the beauty of finishing love These are the times for finishing love when it is most beautiful I hâ—ve now made an end of my discourse upon the first rich branch of this divine fulness of love in Christ the fulness of love in all States I come now to the second branch the fulness of love in all kinds 2. There is pâ—ured forth from the Father in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus a fulness of love of all kinds St. Paul saith that God the Father hath abounded in Grace towards us in all wisdom and prudence in Christ. Ephes 1. 6 7. There are three parts of wisdom where it is compleat 1. There is in wisdom a varâ—ety of things 2. A contrivance of this variety into one piece 3. A concurrence and meeting in one of all the several varieties in each part and point of the whole piece by the force of the Harmony The Father aboundeth in his Grace his love to us in all wisdom in Christ. here is fulness upon fulness He aboundeth He aboundeth in all wisdom Nay you have a threefold fulness an abundance an abundance in wisdom which itself expresseth a fulness a riches of variety but then there is superadded all wisdom all variety The Father is a plenitude of love â—of all kinds in all varieties pouring forth himself incessantly endlesly eternally in Christ. God is in Christ in his electing love in his creating love in his preserving love in his redeeming regenerating justifying adopting sanctifying comforting glorifying love God aboundeth with a fulness with a filling an overflowing fulness in all these in each of these several kinds of love in Jesus Christ. Enlightning enlivening softning sweetning healing cleansing defending delighting heightning crowning loves all are here and all are full here to infiniteness Come all ye Souls who want a sense of sin or mourn under a sense of sin for want of a sense of love come hither to Jesus Christ and have love love of every kind love suitable to your longings or wants and have it in abundance The glorified Person of Christ is a spiritual Garden Indeed it is a Garden invisible sealed up from the outward senses But by how much the more invisible it is it is so much the more real glorious and divine This Garden is ever present before thee It flourisheth in the midst of thee It is continually open to every humble believing Spirit In this Garden all kinds of divine love grow as so many flowers which are ever full-blown ever
effect of that union Jesus Christ put a life a divine life into every Creature by his union with it St. Paul seemeth to relate to this Scripture and to confirm this living beautiful and Divine State of all the Creatures as they came forth from God Colos. 1. 16. All things were made in him all things were made thorow him unto him and into him v. 18. All things stood together in him Well then the Dust the Ground the Earth the Darkness in the pure state of the Creation were made in Christ were life in him were made in union with Christ. They were made thorow Christ as their mould and channel They were made by Christ as their Original pattern as the immediate power putting forth itself in them They stood together with the rest of the Creatures in the Divine Unity in Christ. Thus had this Dust of which we speak a Divine life in it a Divine Beauty upon it a Divine Seed in it this life was the life of Christ and so comprehended according to its kind all the lives and vertues of all the Creatures and of Paradise It s beauty was the beauty of Christ in which after the like manner all created beauties centred and met in one Christ himself was the Seed in this Dust and so not only the excellencies and virtues of the whole Creation but all the uncreated Treasures of Life and Glory lay together shaded and vailed within this Dust. But their vail and their shade was a living beautiful and pleasant Picture of themselves all filled with the sweet Odour of those hidden Ointments I have one thing more to say to describe this Dust. Man who was the last days work the comprehension and perfection of the whole Creation was made in a shadowy Image of God For so the word Image in the first of Genesis signifieth and the Scriptures in their whole course testify In the beginning all things came forth from God in an universal Darkness before the Light of the first day This Darknâ—ss is remarkable in several eminent circumstances 1. It was cast forth immediately from the Divine Nature and from the glorious Person of Christ to be a vail round about upon the Eternal Glory itself and to be a ground of the whole Creation 2. It stood in an â—immediate union with the Divine Nature and the glorious Person of Christ springing forth immediately from it and depending immediately upon it 3. The unsearchable riches of the God-Head and of Christ with all the various Excellencies of the creatures as they were in their eternal patterns and principles lay hid together within this shade 4. Out of this ground did God make to spring all the creatures in their primitive paradisical purity and pleasantness being wrapt up here as in their first matter and having their proper seeds sown here Thus was this Darkness a shade indeed but pure indued with a Divine Life cloathed with a Divine beauty and lustre bearing a Divine figure breathing forth a Divine sweetness spread forth every moment fresh with a new lustre and sweetness from the Divine Nature vailing within itself all the Joys and Glories of God Christ Heaven and Paradise and as it hides all these in its Bosom lying itself in the Bosom of Christ. Such is the Ground such is the Dust of the Ground and the Earth out of which the Body of Man was first taken and into which the Body of a dying Saint returns Such is the Darkness of Death that overshadows a Saints body like the Nights in Paradise But there is this advantage now that this pure primitive Dust and Darkness are heightened have a new and greater beauty and sweetness by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead This is the first Dust the Dust before the Fall 2. The second Dust is that after the Fall understood in that sentence Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return This is the Dust of that Death which sin brings forth a cursed Dust the Dust of the cursed Earth which bringeth forth Bryars and Thorns That former beautiful and blessed Dust lies captivated in this as in a Prison or Grave of contrariety and enmity This Dust is composed of three things 1. A Separation Dissolution and Desolation from the â—orce and power of Enmity 2. A Blackness of Darkness from a cloud and storm of wrath 3. The seeds of shame pain anguish horrour and torment hidden in it This Dust is that which the Body of a Saint casts off in Death upon this worldly Image and Spirit together with the Spirit and Image of this world This is that which suffereth dissolution which representeth deformity and striketh the horrour in Death All which are now of the Image of this world and to the Image of this World in the Spirit of this World and to the Spirit of this World within the Kingdom of the Devil having no more relation to a Saint in Death than the filthy raggs of a Prince in a Dangeon to the Prince at Liberty and in his Pallace Death rubbing off the Rust of this cursed Dust from the Body of a Saint leaves it all a shining rich incorruptible Dust of pure Gold His Body is now entirely with Christ a precious pleasant and living Dust in the Garden-Beds the Beds of Spices or perfumed Flowers in Paradise This is the second Distinction of the two Dusts 3 Dist. The third distinction is of a twofold sense Rom. 8. 6. St. Paul teacheth us That to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The Greek runs thus the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit The word mind is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a practical understanding and comprehendeth a twofold act one of the understanding to disâ—â—rn and judge another of the will to tast and rellish So the mind is here a sense and a favour both in one Thus you have here a twofold sense Spiritual and Carnal or Fleshly 1. The Spiritual sense is set forth three ways 1. By the Principle 2. By two effects of this Principle 3. By two companions of these effects 1. The Principle of a Spiritual sense is the Spirit this holy and blessed Spirit is the only and proper Principle of a Saint and Saintship of a Son of God and a Sâ—â—ship to God Art thou indeed a Saint then thou art in the Spirit of Glory and of God as in thy Root and Element as a Tree of Life in the Root of Eternal Life and Love as Fishes in the water of Life as Birds in the pure air of Divine Love as Angels in Heaven Rom. 8. 9. You are not saith St. Paul to the Saints in thâ— Flesh but in the Spirit Art thou indeed a Son of God Then is this Spirit of Grace and Immortality in thee as thy natural Principle as the power of Nature according to the new and Divine Nature which acteth thee Rom. 8. 16. As many as are led by the Spirit of God are
the Sons of God The word led is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted As the Soul acts the Body as the principle of reason the Soul of Man as the nature of the Sun acts the Sun in its shinings in its motions thou also art acted by the Divine Spirit to which the Sun the Soul of Man the principle of reason are empty and weak shadows so far as thou in truth art a Child of Light and a Son of God the Father of Lights Let me here by the way touch a three-fold string in your Souls 1. A mournful string 2. A string of desire 3. The string of praise 1. Is the Spâ—â—it the principle of a Saint how then should we mourn thâ—â— this Spirit of Grace this Comforter is grieved that this Spirit of Light and Life is quenched by unbelief sensuality unkindness and neglect how should we mourn that this Holy Spirit this Spirit of Truth is slighted and spoken evil of as a Spirit of licentiousness or as a fancy and delusion and all this among Saints at least in profession when as this Spirit is the only principle of Saintship St. Jude in his Epistle speaketh of this as the Sin of Devils for which they are cast down to Hell and bound in Chains of Darkness that they did forsake their first state and their own habitation It is in Greek not their first state but their first principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Saints is not this a Sin greater than that of Devils not only to forsake but to grieve and cast shame upon this first and most blessed Spirit which is your only principle a principle of Divinâ— Life Light and Purity your own habitation a habitation of Divine Rest and Glory 2. O all you who desire to be Saints or to grow in the new and Divine Nature of a Saint let your hearts burn by day and by night with continual longings for the Spirit This alone is that of which a Saint is bred by which he is nourished This alone is the Heavenly Root the Sap the sweet Dew Showers and Influences the warm and cherishing Sun-shine to every Spiritual Plant Cry therefore and wait for this Spirit wait upon it minister to it seek it suck it in by all means thorow all its own manifestations and ordinances of Nature or of Grace When this world was first made a beautiful frame out of a dark Deep the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters When Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and rested upon her In both places the expressions seem to allude to a Bird or a Dove spreading itself over its Nest to hatch its young Ones When the Lord Jesus was Baptized the Holy Ghost descended and rested upon him in the form of a Dove Dost thou indeed desire to have thy dark defiled dead heart made a new Creature to have Jesus Christ to be born or to grow within thee and to be Baptized yet more into Jesus Christ the Sea of all Heavenly Beauties Loves and Joys O then pray to the blessed Spirit to make thy Soul his Nest to move upon the face of thy Spirit to overshadow thee to descend and rest upon thee in his Dove like form 3. O all ye Saints sing the praises of the holy Spirits let the high praises of the holy Spirit be ever in your mouths Say to the Spirit this is the womb of Divine Life and Power which hath born us and brought us forth to be Children and Heirs to God these are the Breasts of Divine Life and sweetness which give us suck this is itself the Heavenly Milk of the Eternal word by which we live and grow Do you see any glympse of Evangelical Light and Truth do you feel any workings of Grace any sweet springings of Love and Joy Give Glory to the Spirit it is this blessed Spirit which now shines in you enlivens you and acts you The Children of Iracel in the Wilderness in a great want of water met with a Well then they sang to it in these words Spring O Well the Princes have digged it with their Sâ—aves When ever thou meetest with any fresh stream any sweet drop of the water of Life rising up within thee in thâ—s parched Land and weary Wilderness sing to thy Well sing to the blessed Spirit and say in thy Song my Well springeth my Jesus hath digged it in my heart with the Golden Scepter of his Gracâ— and Love Thus let every gracious thought gracious moving of thy mind will or affections put into thy mouth a new Song of joyful praises to the Spirit as the dear and inseparable principle of Life of Heaven of Eternity within thee thine ownâ— principle Thus much of the Principle 2. The two effects of this Principle are a Spiritual sense savour both comprehended in that expression to be heavenly minded How often doth my Spirit labour in the Bosom and power of the Eternal Spirit for these two things 1. That all Men were brought forth into this Spiritual Principle 2. That all who have the Spiritual Principle within them were continually acted by it How sweet would life be to them for the sight of their Eyes and rellish of their Spirit They that live in the Spirit see all things by a Spiritual Light It is indeed a pleasant thing to behold this Light Every glympse of it infuseth a heavenly joy into the Heart and scattereth all Clouds of grief or melancholy These see all things in a Spiritual Image that is in a Divine and Immortal Glory They tast the sweetness of a Heavenly and Divine Love in every thing Every thing presenteth itself to them in an Heavenly Appearance and every appearance of things entreth into their Souls with a heavenly taste and rellish far sweeter than Hony to the Palate All our converse with things of every kind of Nature or Grace of Sense or reason proceedeth from a union with those things in one Principle and is a communion with them in that Principle Such as the Principle is such are the Appearances and rellishes of things to us such is our converse with them All Appearances of things to Men or to Angels in every natural Principle to our senses or to our understandings are no more than shadows or dreams The Spirit alone is Truth When melancholy forms and Images of things in this world afflict our Spirits when the pleasant things here lift them up to vain joys and glories if the holy Spirit awaken himself and arise in us all these fly away all other appearances of things break up into an appearance of Eternal Beauty and Blessedness springing forth from this Spirit like the shadows of the night when the Sun is seen and a dream when a Man awaketh We are taught by natural Philosopy that the Images of things are seen thorow a Christalline humor in the Eye as a fine Glass If this Christal be dyed with any colour all things which we see appear
of man and dreadfulâ— man in an humane Sense as Death are Divine have a Divine Beauty 〈◊〉 sweetness in them to a Divine Sense and Savour 3. The Humane sense the Humane Image and rellish of things springs from the Devil as he is Saâ—tan that is the Hater the Enemy to all things Divine to Love to Lighâ— to Truth to Immortality and Blessedness 3. The Companion of a Carnal Sense and Savour is Death To be Caâ—â—nally minded is Death 'T is Death in all the black Properties and Powers 〈◊〉 Death 1. That Divine Image of things which alone is the Truth is Spirit and Life both the Paradises the Heavenly and the Earthly as it is new born and united unto the Heavenly lie captivated in a Carnal Mind or Sense as in a Prison or Grave 2. A Carnal Sense is that outermost Darkness which is without the new and Heavenly Jerusalem 3. In a Carnal Sense are disorder confusion and desolation the dissolutions of all the banâ—s of Peace Beauty and Life For these all consist in that order alone which hath for its band the Unity of the Spirit 4. A Carnal Sense hath ever the sting of Death in it Fears Cares Grief Pains Anguishes Torments never cease here They are the Worm which never dyes the Fire which never goes out in this region of the shadow of Death a Carnal Mind or Fleshly Sense Naturalists tell us that some Candles may be so made that all the Persons seen by those lights shall appear as Ghosts one to another or the whole place seem full of Snakes and dreadful Serpents Such are those lights of a Carnal Sense by which all things are seen of thee who art in a Carnal Fleshly State Every thing of Truth as it appears to thee is an apparition from below bearing Paleness Terrour Death and Hell in the face of it Thou canst no where walk sit lie down in peace All places all States to thee are full of Serpents hissing shooting out their forked stings casting their poyson at thee Wo to you O ye Inhabitants of the Earth ye who dwell in a fleshly sense of things The Devil is ever in the midst of you with great rage here he is known by his name Satan the Enemy the Hater But ye O ye Inhabitants of Heaven who live in a Spiritual Principle why are you ever found abroad Why are not all your walks within in the Spirit the heavenly Paradise which God hath planted and set you in to dress it and to keep it and to eat of the fruits of it without any exception within your own Spirits Behold not a single Cherubim but the whole Army of glorious Angels with the Presence and Power of the Eternal Spirit as a flaming Sword turning every way keeps the entrance into this Paradise not to keep you out but to defend you in it by suffering no evil thing none of the Powers of Darkness of Death of Wrath to enter here While you are without in a Carnal Mind and Worldly Spirit you are among the holes of the Foxes the Dens of the Lyons and the Mountains of Leopards All things with which you converse ascend from below from the Earth from the natural Soul and from the Devil as St James teacheth us All these three the Earth the Natural Soul and the Devil are Links in the same chain of Darkness immediately fastned one to another The light and breath of your life in the Spirit of this world is the smoak from the Bottomless Pit Your Beauties your Joys your pleasant things are those Locusts sent forth from thence mentioned in the Revelation with Faces and Hair like Women with Crowns upon their Heads false Shows of Sweetness Softness Greatness and Glory but stings invenomed stings the stings of Death are in their tails O! Retire into your own enclosed Gardens there within your own enclosed Grounds your own Souls sit under your own Fig-Tree your own Vine which are your own Spiritual Principle out of which the universal Image of things both Heavenly and Earthly springeth up into the perfection of all pure Beauties and Joys with immortality Delight your selves under their shadows where you are safe from all Evil and at rest for ever I again testify unto you as I have often and alwaies testified in all my Sermons and Discourses that there is no Salvation to the flesh or in the flesh O then ye who are yet found walking after the flesh give no rest to your selves here Cry night and day without ceasing to the Holy Spirit to take you up upon his Wings and to translate you suddenly in a moment out of this Wilderness of fiery Serpents into the promised and good Land flowing with Rivers of Milk and Hony the Milk of the Eternal Word and the Hony of the Divine Wisdom which both are Jesus Christ the Fulness Sweetness and Glory of the God-Head O that these words as now you read or hear them in this very moment thorow the power of the blessed Spirit might be as the hands of Angels laid upon Lot to hasten you out of this Sodom of the flesh while you linger here into a place of safety the City of the living God in the secret of the Spirit before the Lord rain down fire from the Lord upon all Flesh. The profit the pleasure the seasonableness of this discourse hath carryed me farther stayed me longer upon it than my method seemed to require Let us now return to apply this distinction of a twofold sense Carnal and Spiritual to our present purpose which is to set forth the Beautiful and Blessed Staâ—â— of a Saints Soul and Body in Death We have heard that a Spiritual sense is Life and Peace absolutely universally eternally without mixture confinement or change that all things here are in the purity and perfection of Divine Life Beauty and Joy We have also heard that the Carnal Sense is Death as it reigns entirely here so it it is confined hither shut up in this Pit and without this fleshly Principle hath no where any place I shall bring this Distinction home to my purpose of making Death all over in every part lovely and pleasant to a Saint by two Propositions 1. Propos. This is the first A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person Soul and Body out of the Carnal or Fleshly Principle out of the Fleshly Sense and so out of Death 2. Propos. A Saint by dying is in his whole Person Soul and Body gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle and so into the Immortality of a Divine Life Peace and Delight 1. Propos. A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person Soul and Body out of the Carnal or Fleshly Sense and so out of Death I shall open and confirm this Proposition to you by two Scriptures 1. The first Scripture is the 1 Epistle of St. Peter 4. 1. Wherefore seeing Christ hath suffered in the Flesh let us also arm our selves with the same mind For
all things new in the newness of its own Heavenly and Immortal Beauties The second Scripture is 2 Corin. 5. 6 8. Therefore we are alwaies confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say being willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Of what Body speaketh the Apostle here What Body is this which thus divideth between the Spiritual Bride and her Heavenly Bridegroom that a Saint cannot be present with both at once If he be at home in this Body he must be absent from Christ and a banished Person from his Bosom If he will be present with Christ and enjoy him he must cast off this Body and be absent from it Is this the true and proper Body of a Saint How can that be The true Body of a Saint is as much himself as his Soul is himself He can be no more absent from his own Body than he can be absent from his Soul or from himself We read in the same Chapter 1 Corin. 6. Towards the latter end that the Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost When St. Paul speaketh of a Body from which we must be absent that we may be present with the Lord Jesus sure he cannot mean this Body which is a Member of Christ which is united to Christ and implanted into him Can I be absent from Christ by being present with that Body which is a Member of him a Member in him Can I be absent from this Body which is a Member of Christ while I am present with Christ O Believers be not weary of living in the Body only know your true selves and your own Bodies while you live in these you live in Heaven and are ever with the Lord Jesus For your-Bodies are his Members and so the fulness of him who filleth all in all O Believers fear not to die you part not with any thing that is truly your selves truly your own You part not with your Bodies nor with any thing in which they have any true propriety or which hath any dear Relation to them For your Bodies are the Members of Christ Baptized into one Body with him by that one and the same Spirit which gathereth up all things together unto him and into one in him Thy Body O Believer is the Temple of the Holy Ghost When the Spirit of God and of Glory rests upon this Temple he never removeth off from it any more When he enters into this Temple of his he never goeth forth nor leaves it empty This is his true Temple upon the true Mount Sion the Soul and Body of a Saint which he hath chosen for a resting place for ever O Saints have patience and peace in life For by being at home in your Bodies you are in the Temple of the Holy Ghost which he fills with his Glory where every thing utters Glory O Saints have pleasure in Death For Death cannot divide your Bodies from you nor the Holy Ghost from your Bodies which are his Temple Can you ever be absent from Christ while you are present in your own proper Bodies which are the Temples of the Spirit of Christ Can you by being present with the Lord Jesus be absent from these Bodies of yours which are the Temple of the Holy Spirit which is the highest band of Unity the dwelling place of that Spirit which is one with the Lord Jesus No certainly this can never be Thy Body O Saint is ever in life and in death filled and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost When it seems to fall into the Dust and Darkness of Death according to the Carnal sense then doth thy Heavenly Dove give to it according to the Spiritual sense its own silver Wings and golden Feathers What then is this Body of which St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians which gives him a triumphant confidence in the face of Death while it is his greatest desire to be absent from this Body that he may be present with Christ Is it not that Body of Death against which he cryeth out Rom. 8. l. O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death This he calls also a little before in the same Chapter that flesh of his that self in which there dwels no good This is the Fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this world which is sprung up out of the Fall which lies as a disguise and a cloud upon the true Person the Soul and Body of a Saint What is not this the Body which is the partition-wall between these two Spiritual Lovers Christ and a Saint while he lives here which being cast off in Death they find themselves in the pure beautiful and naked Arms of each other What is Death now to a Saint Is it not the power of the Divine life and love in a Saint breaking forth and as it breaks forth tearing off and burning up this disguise of Flesh Is it not the power of a Divine Light and Glory breaking forth and as it breaks forth scattering and blotting out the cloud of this Body of Death for ever How beautifully does the Body of a Believer shine forth now in Death as a naked Member of our glorified Jesus cleansed from all its dust and defilement when it is taken up entirely out of the fleshly Principle and Sense How beautiful and glorious a Temple on every side of it doth the Body of a Believer now appear in Death when it cometh entirely out of its Cloud by being entirely taken out of the Spirit and Image of this world The true Body of a Saint lieth while this life lasteth as in a Dungeon or Grave It stands here like the glorious Tabernacle composed of the most precious materials Silks Silver Gold the choicest Woods wrought with all the richest colours and the most curious Figures in Needle-work and Carvings of a Divine Workmanship which stood in a vast and howling Wilderness covered with a Tent of Badgers Skins O! how pure how precious how beautiful how divine a thing is the Body of a Saint in Death when it casts off this Body of Death the corrupt the carnal Image and Principle entirely and is seen now no more for ever in any appearance besides that alone of a naked Member in the most lovely shining Body of the Lord Jesus With what sweetness and beauty doth it break forth now as a most amiable and admirable Tabernacle of the Eternal Spirit when by death it casts off the Tent of Badgers Skins with all the darkning and deforming impressions of Dust and heat and at once passeth out of the Wilderness of this worldly Spirit and form of things unto the good Land of rest and promise by passing in a dry and flowry path thorow the River Jordan that sweet and blessed bound of Death between the dreadful desart and heavenly Canaan Give me leave here to
ever in Christ in Christ risen from the Dead a quickning Spirit in the Glory of the Father with the fulness of the God-Head and all fulness dwelling in him Now is the Body also of a Saint at rest in a sweet rest in a living rest For such is the rest of sleep It is in an immortal and glorious rest in a rest of Divine Love and Joys which though it bears the similitude of Death to Carnal Sense yet in truth is above all the degrees and delights of life here For such is the sleep in Christ. But I will open this Proposition to you more clearly and fully by that twofold relation which the Scriptures attribute to the Body of a Believer 1. Of a Member of Christ. 2. The Temple of the Holy Ghost Both these are affirmed by the Holy Apostle and the Blessed Spirit with an assured confidence as truths known to all and undeniable by any 1 Corin. 6. 15. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ 19. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1. The Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ. This relation of Membership implyeth three things 1. Union 2. Communion 3. Proportion or Suitableness 1. There is an union between the Body of a Believer and Jesus Christ an Union of Membership But to what Christ is the Body of a Believer united To Christ risen from the Dead to Christ in Glory So you shall read Rom. 7. 4. You are dead by the dead Body of Christ that you might be Married to another to him who is risen from the Dead Marriage and Membership are two distinct expressions of the same union between Christ and a Saint which for its dearness nearness entireness and inseparableness is unexpressible in as much as it comprehends the sweetness and vertue of all unions among the Creatures either Men or Angels and transcendeth them all But you have these two unions of Membership and Marriage between the Body of a Saint singly and expresly and the Lord Jesus joyned together by St. Paul who founds that of Membership upon that of Marriage 1 Corin. 6. 15. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ Then he makes good that thus v. 16. 17. It is said those two shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit The days of Christs life on Earth are called the days of his Flesh. He hath the name of a Spirit given to him as he is risen from the Dead as he is in the Heavenly Image and in Glory So St. Paul calls him in one place the Lord that Spirit in another place the quickning Spirit St. Peter saith of him he was put to death in the Flesh and quickned in the Spirit Thus the Body of a Saint is married to Christ is a Member of Christ. By this union it becomes a Spiritual Body a Spirit one Spirit with Christ. There is a threefold band of this union of Membership the same Spirit the same Life the same Image 1. The first band of Union in this Membership between the Body of a Believer and Jesus Christ is the same Spirit St. Paul saith 1 Corin. 12. 13. We all by one Spirit are Baptized into one Body The Unity of the ever-blessed Spirit is the sure and sweet band which tyeth one to another the glorious Head and all the blessed Members in the Body of Christ. But what sweetness lies in the universality of that expression we all are Baptized by one Spirit into one Body As the Soul of Man is all in the whole Body and all in every part of it so is that ever-blessed Spirit which is in the whole Heavenly Body of which the Holy Angels Glorified Saints Christ and the Father are Fellow-members one and the same whole and entire in every part of this Body of thine O Believer which in its lowest and most broken State is a Member of Christ. This union is so much more close full and sweet between the Members by how much more Spiritual the Body is by how much the more high and divine the Unity is in this Body by how much the more high and divine the unity of that blessed Spirit is in which the Father of Lights the Heavenly Bride-groom Glorified Saints all the Elect Angels dwell together in one 2. The same Life flowing from this one Spirit is the second band of this Union We read from St. Paul Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him which raised Christ from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit dwelling in you This expression shall quicken signifieth not only an effect at a distance at the last day but a present effect immediately flowing from the indwelling of the Spirit in us For the union between the Spirit and our Bodies by which he dwelleth in them also as well as in our Souls is a vital union an union from which Membership springs This expression then shall quicken your mortal Bodies is like that of St. Paul in the same Epistle Sin shall not have dominion over you if you be not under the Law but under Grace Shall there expresseth an effect immediately and inseparably flowing from its cause a freedom from the dominion of Sin by being under Grace not under the Law The Spirit of Christ findeth our Bodies Natural and Mortal but by its enterance into them and inhabitation in them maketh them immediately Spiritual and Immortal by their union with Christ and by the pouring forth of his Life and Immortality into them 3. The band of union in this Membership is the same Image All the Members of every Body make up one Image in which each several Member bears a part As we have born the Image of the Earthly Man so shall we also bear the Image of the Heavenly So far O Saint as thy Body is a Member of the Heavenly Body of Christ it bears the same Heavenly Image This is the first thing in Membership the union 2. There is in Membership a Communion We read the 1 Corin. 12. 24 25 26. God hath tempered the Body together having given the more abundant honour to that part which lacked that there should be no Schism in the Body but that the Members should have the same care one for another and whether one Members suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoice with it There is a threefold Communion in the Body of Christ. A Communion of Cares a Communion of Sufferings a Communion of Joy and Glory 1. There is a Communion of Cares All the Members have the same care one for another As it is in the Natural Body the Head the Heart the Eye the Hand all are set on work for every other part for the little Toes as for themselves to defend or cherish it upon every occasion so is it in the Body of Christ. O
Saint with what quietness and security mayest thou lye down to rest and sleep in the midst of all wants enemies and dangers Thy Body itself is a Fellow-Member in the Body of Christ with all the glorious Angels and Blessed Spirits with Christ the head of all and the Father the Head of Christ. All these have the same care of thy Body for every part of it in every State as for themselves For it is themselves a Member and part of themselves They all are present with it they encompass it they minister unto it all things seasonable for its defence and comfort 2. There is a Communion of sufferings Whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it O Christians what a sweetning is this to the bitterest affliction How doth this take away the solitude the sadness the sting from Poverty a Prison a Sickness the Grave You are in the heart of all Angels and Saints of Christ and of the Father to suffer to live and to die together with you All the Heavenly company that are by one Spirit gathered together into that one glorious Body of Christ lye down with you in the Dust in a Dungeon on a sick Bed in the Grave How is the Spouse of Christ now in its most solitary and afflicted State indeed as two Heavenly Companies according to the expression in the Canticles 3. The Fellow-members in the Body of Christ have a Communion of Joy and Glory Whether one Member be honoured all the Members rejoice with it A Believer is ever glorious ever blessed St. Peter saith that when we suffer for the name of Christ the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon us Every suffering of a Saint so far as he is a Saint is for Christ. Why art thou ever melancholy why is thy Heart heavy within thee O Believer Open thine Eyes to see them open thine Heart to take them in Behold the Joys and Glories of all the blessed in Heaven are thine are present with thee and ever rest upon thee I will conclude this Communion with that most remarkable expression God hath tempered the Body together The word is hath mingled the Body together How full an expression is this How doth this mixture sweeten all our sufferings and make all our Joys far more pleasant Thou O Believer with all thy shame and sufferings art tempered and mingled together with all the Saints and Angels above with Christ and the Father with all their Joys and Glories All the same Heavenly Company with all the same Joys and Glories are tempered and mingled together with thee with thy shames and sufferings here below Thus are all one piece and that one piece whole and entire in every one Thus is the greater the greatest comeliness put upon the most indigent Thus is there no Schism in the Body As in many Spirits tempered into one Spirit many Liquors tempered into one Liquor many Spices beaten into the smallest Powder mingled into one costly Ointment every portion of this Spirit this Liquor this Ointment hath all the Spirits all the Liquors all the Ointments of the whole in it so is the Body of Christ in general and every Member in particular 3. The proportion or suitableness There is no Schism in the Body of Christ. If this be pure precious living immortal heavenly and glorious then is thy Body also O Believer so far as it is a Member of this Body pure precious living immortal heavenly glorious How living how immortal how beautiful how glorious how divine a thing is that Body of a Saint which is a Member of Christ in Glory What Life what Joys are those of this Body which is in so dear so inseparable so intimate an Union and Communion of the same Life Joys Beauties and Spirit with all the glorious Angels blessed Spirits Christ himself the Head of all the Father in Christ This is the State of the Body of a Saint as it is a Member of Christ. But while a Saint lives in this world his Body is partly the Member of this Heavenly Husband the Lord Jesus and partly the Member of a Harlot this World and the Flesh in as much as a Saint here below hath his life and conversation divided between the pure Spirit of Christ and the Whorish Spirit of this world O sweet O beautiful O precious and blessed Death By Death is the joyful and glorious separation made in the Body of a Saint between the precious and the vile between the heavenly Bridegroom the Lord Jesus and the Hellish Adulterer this World Now it ceaseth for ever to be in any degree any more the Member of the Harlot to be in a Carnal or worldly Spirit Now it 's for ever singly entirely gathered up into the Spirit Body and Bosom of Jesus Christ. O! how pure how shining in what Angelical in what Spiritual in what Divine a form and fulness of unexpressible rest beauty and delight is the Body of a Saint in the very moment of Death when like fine Gold purged from its dross or a Heavenly Sun that hath cast up its cloud it now comes forth out of the Whorish Spirit of the Flesh and this World a single and pure Member in the pure and divine Body of our Lord Jesus These are the three things contained in this Membership of the Body of a Believer in Christ Union Communion and proportion From this I shall raise a threefold short exhortation 1. Set a value upon the new Birth upon the Regeneration Content not your selves with being once born By your first Birth you have Souls and Bodies Members of this world By the Spirit of this world they are Baptized into the Body and Society of Darkness Corruption Death Wrath the whole Company of wicked Spirits and Devils Give your selves no rest till you are born again By the new Birth which is from above you have new Souls and new Bodies which are Members one of another Fellow-members of Christ. Your Souls and your Bodies both are by that one Eternal Spirit Baptized into one Spiritual Immortal and glorious Body with the Spirits of all just men made evangelically perfect by the Blood and Spirit of Christ with all the Holy Angels with Christ and the Father Press into the Fellowship of this mystery Here you shall see it indeed to be true that Grace is Glory begun in your Souls and Bodies both that when you believe a Spirit of Glory rests upon your whole Person by your Union with Christ. 2. Possess this Vessel of your Bodies in holiness For so you shall possess it in honour Possess it converse with it in a Spiritual Principle So you shall enjoy it and your selves in it as a Member of Christ. You shall see feel enjoy within your selves in this Body the Spirit the Life the Immortality the Joy the Glory of the whole Body of Christ the society of all things Heavenly Blessed and Eternal to wake and to sleep to walk and lie down to live and
these so far as you stand in a Spiritual Principle are as another Heaven the Heaven of Heavens the Pallace of the great King which he fills with his Glory where he heeps his Court sits upon his Throne 3. The Saints have communion with God in his Temple In the Temple was the Golden Mercy-Seat There saith God will I commune with thee This was overspread with Cherubims of Glory as St. Paul calls them These Cherubims covered this Golden Mercy-Seat with their Wings and so made the State or Glory about the Throne This is therefore called the secret of the most high and the shadow of the Almighty where a Saint is said to dwell and to lodge Hear O ye Saints what glorious things are spoken of your Bodies be Spiritual and behold in these Temples the Golden Mercy-Seat which is the glorified Person of Christ and the Cherubims of Glory covering it with their Wings and God here upon this Golden Mercy-Seat the glorified Bosom of Christ from between the Wings of the Cherubims ready alwaies to commune with you yea taking you up upon this Golden Mercy-Seat within the Wings of the Cherubims to commune freely with him at all seasons in this secret of eternal safety rest love joy and glory This Temple is the Body of a Saint while he liveth below but now it is in too great a degree covered with a cloud of Flesh filled with the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Saint too rarely enters into this Temple of the holy Ghost in his own Body and more rarely seeth with any degree of clearness the Glory or heareth the voice of the blessed Spirit there What joy is it to think in what a purely sacred and Divine Temple in what a clear and shining Pallace of the eternal King in what open and unstained unvailed visions of Divine Glory in what a secret in what a presence of glorious Angels and Eternal Spirits in the midst of what sweet overshadowings dear encompassings naked outshinings of the Eternal Spirit in what most blessed most ravishing Communion of Eternal Light Life and Love with this Spirit in what sight and embraces with what kisses of incomprehensible Beauties in the sound of what words what salutations what wooings what expressions of the highest Loves and Joys from the Eternal Spirit a Saint finds himself even in his own proper Body in the very moment of his Death when departing out of this Life at once he departs for ever out of the Fleshly Image and the Spirit of this World 4. The Divine Presence and Glory was the defence of the Temple Esa. 4. 5. There is a Prophesy concerning the times of the Gospel expressed by figures taken from the state of things under the Law And the Lord will create upon every â—welling place of Mount Sion and upon her Assemblies a Cloud and smoak by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night For upon all the Glory shall be a defence or a covering When the first Temple was to be destroyed the Prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory removing off from it afterwards when the second Temple was near its end a voice was heard in it saying Let us be gone from hence which was understood to be the voice of God and of his holy Angels with all those invisible companies and Ministers which made up the Glory of the Divine Presence as Nobles Officers and Guards make up the Court of a King O Saints why do you fear for your Bodies hidden Conspiracies or open force diseases the fury of the Elements the malice of Men or Devils These Bodies of yours are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Here are the Holy Assemblies of all the Heavenly Company in the unity of the Spirit whose Temples your Bodies are Of these it is Prophesied to these it is promised that God will create upon them a cloud and a smoak by day the shining of a flaming fire by night Upon these the Glory is a defence or a covering God himself with all his holy Ones his Angels his Watchmen his ministring Spirits is this Cloud this Glory which is the defence and covering upon your whole Persons your Bodies as well as your Souls both have together with Christ a hidden Life a secure Life in this secret of God within this covering of this Divine Cloud Flame and Glory From off these Temples of your Bodies this Glory never removes From within these Temples of your Bodies this heavenly Company never departs for as much as the union in the Spirit of Grace under the Gospel is Eternal Thus the Bodies also of Believers in this Life are the Temples of the Holy Ghost All things in them here are divine Figures of a divine Glory They are filled and covered with the Glory itself They are the seats of the freest Communion with this Glory being the Temples of the God of Gods and so the Pallaces of the King of Kings All this is true of them here as they stand in a Spiritual Principle and in union with Christ by the new birth But this Life is a mixt State We stand partly in a Spiritual partly in a Fleshly Principle These Temples of our Bodies are covered with a corrupt Flesh that we can hardly discern their Spiritual Beauties They are too frequently in too great a part filled with a smoak of Hell the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Believer can rarely enter into this Temple of his Body to behold and converse with the Glory there This is the precious the blessed work of Death in a Believer It breaketh the union it maketh a separation not between Christ and a Believer not between the Soul and Body of a Believer as they are joyned together in Christ by the band and unity of the Eternal Spirit and make one Spiritual Man or Person in Christ but between the precious and the vile between the Carnal and Spiritual Principle of a Saint both in Soul and Body Now in the moment of Death the Soul and Body of a Saint come forth immediately clear and shining Temples of the Spirit the smoak and clouds of the Fleshly Principles and of this worldly Image being for ever driven away from within them and from without Thus you understand St. Pauls sweet and blessed sense of Death when he speaketh of the Body and saith 1 Corin. 5. 1. 2. That we shall not be found naked but be cloathed upon from above with a building of God Eternal in the Heavens which shall swallow up mortality in life Our Spiritual Body which we have in this life by our new Birth as we stand in our Spiritual Principle is this Divine Building sprung from a Divine Root of a Divine Nature or Substance of a Divine Form and Workmanship This is ever in Heaven being inseparably united to Christ and being ever in the Spirit This is Eternal when we die this casts off the Cloud of corrupt and cursed Flesh. This springs forth out of its Spiritual Principle
Death This World with all its Powers and Principalities the life of this World the Cross itself and Death which had so long captivated the Lord Jesus with all the Powers Beauties Joys and Glories of his Heavenly Image binding them in Chains of Darkness within the Dungeon of this Earthly Image whose light is darkness are now themselves in the Person of our Lord Jesus in his Soul and Body together with his Captivity itself carryed up as he ascends and made Captives to that Heavenly Image which they held Captive Here in this Pallace of the Spirit and of Eternity where Darkness itself shines as the Light they are seen as the Captives of the Lord Jesus bound in Chains of Glory spectacles to all the Holy Angels and Blessed Spirits in which the Beauties of Christs Victory and Triumph as so many ravishing Wonders of an Incomprehensible of a Mysterious Power Wisdom Love Glory Divinity subduing all things entirely to themselves eternally shine This honour have all the Saints in their Deaths by the vertue of their Saviours Death by vertue of their fellowship with him and his fellowship with them mutually in their several Deaths all in each Death dying together Where now is the Melancholy of Death and of the Grave It is swallowed up into the Divine Pomp and Pleasure of a most Glorious Victory and Triumph O Saint What fearest thou in Death Or thou who fearest not to be dead why fearest thou to die If thou rejoicest in the Glory of thy departed Soul why mournest thou over thy Body as left behind in a naked and loathsome Prison The act of dying to both is the gaining of a Glorious Victory over the Life and Death the Powers and Principalities of this whole World The passage itself out of this Life is a Glorious Triumph to thy Soul and Body both which with all the Triumphal Ornaments of the Light of Life and Immortality ride forth in the Chariot of the Heavenly Image and the Eternal Spirit over the Spirit and all the forms of this Creation which lie conquered under your Feet In the very moment of your dying all the Powers and Appearances of Nature which rule in the Kingdoms of Sense and Reason are lost for ever so that their place where once they reigned in your Persons knows them no more You sit down upon the Throne of Christ and the Father together with them All the Births Images and changes of time are swallowed up into the bright the beautiful the most delightful depths of Eternity the unfathomable depths of purest Light Love and Joy immediately as Triumphant Conquerors and Kings you are encompassed with the ravishing applauses and shouts of innumerable Angels of Immortal and Glorious spirits springing up and shining forth in all the places of this World where its Light or Darkness Life or Death seemed before to stand You see all these with a Heavenly Musick and Songs of Triumph setting Garlands and Crowns of Victory on your Heads immediately as you pass out of the Light of this Life you see your selves received your Souls and your Bodies both with the most delicious kisses into the Eternal Embraces of the Father and of Christ in that Unity of the Spirit which is the unfathomable center of all Lights Loves and Joys of all beautiful and blissful Spirits created and uncreated All now for ever are filling full your Joys in themselves and fulfilling their Joys in you 4. Scrip. Heb. 2. 14. That he by dying might destroy him who had the power of Death that is the Devil and set them free who all their life time were subject to bondage by the fear of Death The word Power in this place signifieth properly a Prince with a Principality or Dominion This whole world is the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called in Scripture the Prince of this world All Flesh every thing of Nature and of this Creation is comprehended under that name as it is distinguished from and opposed to the Spirit and the new Creation in the Spirit the Kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost and is the Principality of the Devil All Darkness every shadow every evil of Sin or Suffering of Corruption and the Curse of Shame Deformity Pain Grief and Wrath as all these are expressed in the Scripture and in common Language with every other kind or degree of Evil by Darkness are the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called the Prince of Darkness Death is the Devils Principality who in this Scripture is called the Power or Prince of Death All this then hath Jesus Christ by dying destroyed in his own Person this World the Principles and Forms of Nature the Life and Images of Flesh every Darkness inward or outward of mind or sense Death itself For all these lie within the Principality of the Devil and are his Region his Kingdom without the bounds of this Dominion all things are Light Life Love Joy Immortality Spirit and Truth As it is Jesus who dies again in the Death of every Saint as the Death of every Saint is the Death of Christ acted over again in the similitude by the vertue of his Death so doth every Saint as he is one Spirit with Christ after the like manner by dying destroy the Principality the Kingdom of the Devil in his Person also For this is said to be the end of Christ in his Death that he might free all the Saints from the fear of Death O Believers Let your Saviour gain his end upon you and end of most tender Love Be no more in bondage to the fear of Death Let the Lord Jesus see the seed of his Death springing up in your Deaths a Glorious and Divine Seed of Life and Immortality springing up in the place of Death and swallowing it up into Victory Lay aside now for ever those melancholy and delusive Imaginations of Death as a separation of those tenderest Bosom-Friends Soul and Body a separation from your dearest Relations and entertainments the delights of your Eyes an extinguishing of the sweet Light of Life a dismal solitude a perpetual Darkness the Confinement of the Body to the nakedness coldness streightness and horrour of the Grave Dust Stones and Bones covering it and ratling over it Worms feeding upon it the Soul naked and alone taking its flight through a vast distance of empty air and space to another place These are the Forms and Appearances of Death to the Dead only Those who follow Jesus Christ in that living and shining way in which he went thorow Death meet with none of these appalling and affrightful Apparitions Let the Dead bury their Dead saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples but follow thou me Understand this O Believers that all Shadows all Forms of Darkness and of Death are from below Earthly Sensual Devilish from the Earth from the Natural Soul and from the Devil as St. James speaks All this Image and sense of things is that Kingdom of the Devil which together
Being is capable of to be consuming so as ever to wish it as the only medicine of ones evil and ever to fear it as the greatest of all Evils as the most incomprehensible Evil to be no more How sweet and delightful was the Triumph of our Lord Jesus over this Monster which stands with so grim and frightful a look in the Gate of Death O Corruption O Decay O Destructions where is your Victory Jesus Christ comes into the empty and obscure shades of Death with the fulness of the Godhead with all the Lights of the Divine Nature of Angelical and created Glories of Heaven and Eternity with their full splendours shining together all at once in the Unity of his Divine Person This Person which is the Fulness that filleth all in all which is the Brightness that shineth eternally in the Divine Essence now filleth the whole space oâ— Death now enlighteneth it thorough-out now becometh the stage and Scene of Death supporting it on his delicious Bosom bounding it with his bright and blissful Beams Where is the emptiness where is the shade where is the bottomless Pit of Dread decay in Death They are all swallowed up into shining full substantial Glorys in this Triumph of our Saviour over Death These are the Evils of Corruption in Death over which Christ triumphs See row the height of this Triumph Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption Jesus Christ passeth so triumphantly through the Regions of Death that Corruption loseth not onely its force but its appearance 〈◊〉 his presence Jesus Christ seeks for the place of Corruption and finds it no more Thou O God wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption The God-head itself the Divine Person of Christ the Divine Nature inseparable from that Person goes before the Lord Jesus as a Guide when he passeth through this waste Wilderness It cometh behind him as a Rearward of Glory It encompasseth him on every side with its highest Brightnesses and Blessednesses It suffereth him to see nothing but Itself on every side of him The living shining Glorys of his God-head are Light and Eyes to his dead Body in the Grave With these and with these alone his Divine Person now looketh forth thorough his Body in the Grave thorough the Grave to the utmost bounds of the Regions of Death In this Light to these Eyes all things near at hand and afar off throughout are a shining Prospect of Living Beauties to Eternity This Divine Light and these Divine Eyes are a Divine Flame which in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye break up all Shades of obscurity fill all space with their own Brightnesses transform all Shapes even Corruption and Death into the same Divine Forms with themselves to the utmost bound of things Thus God suffereth not his Holy One to see Corruption 2. The second part is the manner of the Triumph the Triumph of Life is expressed in those words Thou shalt shâ—w me the Path of Life There are here two remarkable Triumphs over Death 1 Life in Death 2. The sight and Triumphant sense of this Life 1. Life in Death is declared by the Path of Life which is made for the Lord Jesus thorough Death Noah with his dear Relations and all kinds of Creatures kept dry and safe in the Ark while the fountains of the great Deep were broken up from below and the windows of heaven were opened from above to cover all things with a Flood of Waters the Children of Israel in the Land of Goshen whâ—â—re there was Light and Rivers of Water while darkness was upon the whole Land of Egypt and the Rivers in it were turned into Blood the Children of Israel passing in a dry path thorough the Red Sea which overwhelmed the Eâ—yptian King with his whole Army the Three Children with the similitude of the son of God walking in the midst of the fiery furnace which burnt their bands only and devoured their enemies which cast them in all these were Figures of Jesus Christ passing in a Path of life thorow Death The Lord Jesus himself in his Heavenly divine form as he is the Essential Image of his Father is his own Way and Life thorough Death This is the Fountain of Life and Eternity itself This hath all Lives bound up in one like those innumerable Beams which pour forth themselves through all things in Heaven and on Earth united in the sun Here Life riseth up in its greatest Fulness in its freshest purest and sweetest Streams where all the strengths Beauties and Joys of Life are at their greatest heighth Thus the Godhead in its Essential Image stands in every part and point of the Humane Nature of Christ dying or dead Thus it stands in every step and point of its Way through Death Thus it makes it all as a Fountain and Fâ—ood of Life As the Milky way in Heaven where innumerable Stars mingle their Beams into one Path of Light Such is the Way of Christ in Death which is all a mixture or contexture of the innumerable Beauties and sweetnesses of Life rising up fresh from the innumerable springs of Life in the Bosom of this Heavenly Image which is Eternity and the Divine Essence it self in its own substantial Form 2. The Triumphant sight and sense of Life accompanys the Lord Jesus in this Path of Life thorow Death as is signified by those words Thou 〈◊〉 shew me or make me to know the Path of Life As a Princely Bridegroom leading his Royal Bride in his hand thorough delightful walks when the spring is in its prime makes her to observe all the delights in the Walks saying to her see how pleasantly all things look how sweetly Heaven and Earth smile one upon another how lovely the leaves and blossoms are upon the Trees the grass and the Flowers upon the ground how pleasantly the birds sing in every bush how pure and sweet the air is how 〈◊〉 the year is now Thus God the Father leads Jesus Christ thus the Divine Nature in the brightness of its Glory leads the Humane Nature thorough the Paâ—h of Life in Death as a heavenly Bridegroom its dearest Bride He loâ—k forth upon him with a flaming eye of Love he saith to him behold a new and large prospect of Divine Lights and all the Beauties of Life in Death with what spicy sweetness and immortal perfumes the Spirit of Life and Love as the Air of Paradise and Heaven itself breaths upon all things here 〈◊〉 do Heaven and Earth the uncreated and the created Image of things reflect the same Beauties and sweetnesses one upon another like the Living Face and the Face in a Chrystal Mirrouâ— How do all glories in their lovelyest Forms richest Varieties looking down from above sprouting forth and blossoming from beneath meet and kiss each other How do Angels how do Immortal and shining Spirits spring and sing every where How doth the Shade of Death itself mingling itself with all
these surrounding this Divine Light at the same time surrounded by it give a solemn sweetning and heightning to all like the Base string to the Musick of a Lute making Death it self another Heaven distinct from the Heaven after Death and contending with it for delightfulness Thus God the Father maketh Christ to see the Path of Light in Death 3. The third part in the manner of the Triumph the Pleasure In thy presence are all pleasantnesses and at thy right hand Pleasures for evermore Three pleasâ—n things are here presented in one 1. The Seat of Pleasure 2. The Perfection 3. The Perpetuity of Pleasures 1. The Seat of Pleasure is the Presence and right hand of God The Presence in Hebrew is the Face of God The Son of God The Eternal Word The Essential Form of God and the Brightness of his Glory is the Face of God Behold thou art fair my beloved yea thou art Pleasant our Bed is green saith the spouse in the Canâ—cles to Jesus Christ. He is that Eternal Form and naked face of the Godhead where all the Pleasantnesses of the purest Beauties Loves and Joys first spring flourish and seat themselves His Cheeks therefore in the same Book are said to be the Garden-beds of the most fragrant Spices and persumed Flowers where the highest Beauties and the highest sweetnesses are born and married one to another and bring forth an endless race of Loves and Delights This Face of God in which all Loveliness and Loves thus shine and flame together is also set with so many eyes which continually behold and rejoyce in their own Beauties and Pleasantnesses This Face this Form of God is the Person which subsists in the Human Nature of Christ both Soul Body which in itself gives a subsistance to the whole Humanity of Christ living and dying Thus is it in the Grave and in the dead Body of Christ the seat of all Pleasantnesses the Throne of divine Beauty of Love in Death It is also as a thousand never sleeping never sâ—umbring eyes in this blessed Body with which it uninterruptedly contemplates in it self this Eternal face and Form of God this seat of Pleasantnesses which is its own Person it s own self in its personal Unity and subsistence The right hand of God is the Godhead in the strength at the heighth of Love Power Majesty and Glory as it is above all heavens Here are Pleasures in their proper fear in their greatest force and fulness as they transcend the joys themselves of all created Heavens At this right hand of God is Jesus in the Grave By this right hand of God which hath all pleasures ever attending it was he pleasantly led thorough the Shadow of Death In the Bed of Death this right hand of the most High embraced him that he might sweetly rest there in the midst of all the Pleasures of this Right Hand of his 2. The Perfection of Pleasures is exprest by these two names of Pleasantnesses and Pleasures Pleasantnesses are the Objects of delight or Pleasures in the object Pleasures are the Delights themselves in the fruition and enjoyment of those objects or Pleasures in their Subject The Subject and the Object uniting and mingling and transforming themselves variously by their various mixtures in their union into one mutual life and Form of Beauty and Love make Pleasure and delight You have here all Pleasantnesses in the Face of God and so all Pleasures at the Right Hand of God The Lord Jesus dying and in death beholds the Face of God In this Face he at once beholds all pleasant forms and Forms of Pleasantness the pleasantness of all Forms among Men Angels in their first highest Patterns to which the most Glorious spectacles and spirits of Men or Angels are obscure Shadows and faint imitations In this face he beholdeth pleasant Forms incomprehensible for variety and Glory which never cast any the least shadow of themselves nor were capable of being in the least degree imitated in the highest of created excellencies Death itself is a divine Marriage-bed in which Jesus Châ—ist receives all these pleasant Forms into his Bosom as Lights of Glory shining thick thorow the Cristal Temple of his pure and sacred Body in this Night of his Divine Death He beâ—reth in his dead Body the impressions and Figures of them all with the Heavenly substances themselves in these Impressions and Figures like a seal of Gold fixed on Virgin-wax his dying and dead Body is transformed into one Life and Form with those Original Forms of Pleasantnesses being embraced by them as by a Divine flame which makes it one pure flame of Pleasantness and Pleasure with itself 3. The Perpetuity of the Pleasure At thy right hand are Pleasures for evermore Two things are here signified 1. The continuation of Pleasures in the Person of Christ without any interruption 2. The endlesness of those Pleasures Jesus Christ saith to his Father in one Place thou leadest me by thy right hand The Lord Jesus was ever led by the right hand of the Father out of Heaven into the Virgins Womb out of the Womb into the gloomy Light of this World thorow this World thorow Death and the Grave into Heaven again Thus was this blessed Person ever at the right hand of his Father that is at the right haâ—d aâ—d Fountain of Power Majesty Love Life and Pleasures in the Womb on the earth on the Cross in the Grave So was the Path of this righteous oâ—e a shining Light of divine Pleasures uniâ—terrupted thorow all these thick shades of the blackâ—â—â— darkness There is one thing more in the duration of Christs Pleasures signified in the last Verse of this Psalm above all this The Lord saith to his Father all Pleasaâ—â—â—â—sses are in thy Face Behold here in one undivided point the full circle of Eternity and that an Eternity of Pleasures The Face of God with all Pleasantâ—esses in it Eternity implyes three things 1. the Fulness of all Beiâ—g 2. the utmost heighth of being 3. the undividedness In this Time falls below Eternity that it is a contracted successive Shadow The Face of God which is his Essential Image and substantial Form the God Head itself in the second Person in the Trinity which is our Lord Jesus is this Eternity This is that Person which was Man was Flesh hung on the Cross and lay dead in the Grave No more could the Lord Jesus be separated from the Face of his Father in any part of his Soul or Body in any season either of Life or of Death than a person can be separated from itself or the Lord Jesus be divided from the Second Person in the Trinity Thorow every state thorow the most cloudy days and the most tempestuous Nights the Face of God the Son of Eternity went along with the 〈◊〉 Jesus shining upon every Cloud aâ—d Storm shining thorough all gâ—â—ding all with the Joys and Glories of Heaven itself In this Face as in the
other of the Creature While man stood in Innocency he abode in the Inward Image as his Center in that he Comprehended and Commanded the Image of the Creature The Image of God was Eden the Fountain of pleasures within from thence a River went forth watering the Image of the Creature and making that a Paradise All things were Trees in this Paradise good for food and pleasant to the Eye Trees of perpetual Youth Beauty Pleasure to Man Man was seated in this Inward Image as on his Throne from which he commanded and changed all the Creatures into divers Shapes of Delight at pleasure This is the First Explication 2. Explication The Departure of Man out of this Inward State When Man fell he went forth from his Inward Glory into the Outward Image this is signified Gen. 3. by the Woman yielding her self over to the Will of the Serpent and the Man giving himself up to the Will of the Woman So it was true of Man what is said of the Devils Jude 6. He left his First Estate and his Proper Habitation Now he lived wholly in the Out-forms of things which he broke off from the Inward Image and so made them all an Image of Vanity Darkness and Death keeping the Image of God imprisoned in this Outward Image which suffered it not to put forth itself or appear St. Paul expresseth this Departure as the Root of all Sin Rom. 1. 18. All wickedness is there sum'd up in this Detaining the Truth of God in Unrighteousness That is keeping down the Image of God and True Glory in a corrupt and false Image 3. Explication The return of Man into this Image Man hunting and hunted thorow the exteriour face of things finds neither his desired Prey nor Rest Poor Man oppressed with cares and sorrows he sinks down by a sad Retirement to the bottom of his own Spirit There he happily falls into the bosom of the Divine Image which lay buried under the Ruines of his Soul Here he catcheth some Glimpses of Immortal beauty some Tasts of a high delight some sense of a true Rest. Now he loaths the Empty Tedious Tormenting Follies of this Outer World David experimented this in himself Psal. 16. 7. My Reins instruct me in the Night-season When a Night of nature or melancholy takes away these sensual forms of things from us or makes them a Torture to us then this Hidden Image from the retired Principles of Nature from the secret of our souls puts up itself before us draws us down into itself makes its own Impressions upon us Impressions which have another manner of Light Strength Sweetness in them Now the Soul cries out in the language of Cain to a sweeter purpose How have I been a Fugitive and a Vagabond upon the Earth while I have been driven out from thy Face and Presence and thou beautiful Image of things Come lock me up in thine Embraces that I may never go forth more into that Outward Court of things which is troden down by the Feet of Lusts and Confusions Or if I must go forth again O that I might carry thee forth with me as my Brother that suckt the breasts of my Mother-Nature I would kiss thee and I should not be despised I would enjoy perpetual pleasures in thee and no shame but strength and glory should rest upon me This is the First Change into the Inward State in Nature 2. The Spiritual State in Christ. The Change to this State we are to consider in Three Parts 1. The Preparation in Man 2. The Spiritual State 3. The Passage of Man into it 1. Part. The Preparation in Man to this Spiritual State Man pursued by Griefs from without retired into the Inward Image the Recess of Nature as David into his Cave meeteth with a fresh unexpected view of Beauties here Now he is refresh't now he comes to himself Now he begins to raise himself and say as Samuel did when the eldest Son of Jesse was presented to him Behold the Annointed of God is before me Surely this is no other than the Gate of Heaven But after a little Tryal Man finds this to be but a Natural Image of God an Earthly Paradise only which so soon as it puts forth is ready so soon to dis-appear again He finds it too weak to raise itself clearly from the bottom of those Waters of Vanity Sin and Trouble which have over-flown and over-whelm'd it He perceives it too slight to satisfie him 'T is an Intimation of true joys rather than the Joys themselves 'T is a fair Invitation no full Entertainment Mans joys and hopes here prove to him like the Seed sown in Rocky Ground which springs up suddenly but suddenly withers when once the Sun the Tempting Glories or Scorching Furies of this World beat upon it Now the Soul is as Mary Magdalen at the Grave of her Saviour She looks into her Heart for this Image but finds that gone and her heart as an empty Grave Then she cries O my God who hath taken these Comforts away I thought that these should have delivered me and dwelt for ever with me But wipe away thy Tears distressed Soul As Jesus carryed away his Natural body from Mary to bring it again a Spiritual body So thy God hath withdrawn this Natural Image of divine joyes in thy Spirit but he will restore and bring it into thy soul again a Spiritual Image St. Paul gives thee this Consolation Rom. 8. 3 4. What the Law could not do being weak thorow the flesh c. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfill'd in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The weakness of Natures Inward Image prepares the Spirit of Man for the Spiritual State of things 2. Part The Spiritual State itself The Prophet represents this in a Promise Joel 2. 28. I will pour forth my Spirit upon all Flesh. Three things are here to be explained 1. The Spirit 2. Flesh. 3. Effusion or Pouring forth of Spirit upon Flesh. 1. The Spirit is the Unity of things Ephes. 4. 3. The Unity of the Spirit Unity is appropriated to the Spirit This Spirit is the most High God For he is the First Supream only Unity Gal. 3. 20. God is One. God eminently and exclusively is One. This Spirit the Unity is the Fountain and Life of Things All sorts of Life all Beauty every where are Images of this Self-comprehending Aâ—-comprehending Unity This is the Spirit 2. Flesh Flesh and Spirit differ as Unity and Division or which is the same as Life and Death Rom. 8. 6. To be Carnally-minded is Death to be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace Life is the Unity of Things in which they Contain themselves Death is the Division of Things from themselves Flesh is all Divided Forms of things in the Creature according to the language of the Scripture The Scripture in this sense reckons Angels and Souls of Men as Fleshly things Though Angels are the most United Things the
First Unities or Springs in the Creature and so Spirits Yet they compared with God are Compounded and Divided Things and so fleshly St. Peter thus sums up under the name of Flesh all things that have a Principle of Division in them by which they are cut off from their own Beauty or Being by which they fade and fall away This is Flesh. 3. The Effusion or Pouring forth of the Spirit upon Flesh. This signifies Three things 1. The Spirit nakedly sustaining the Creature as its Immediate Root and Principle So the Spirit is a Spring pouring itself forth into Flesh as it 's Channel 2. The Spirit filling the Fleshly form with its Waters with its clear and fresh Streams the workings of its own Life 3. The Spirit planting its own Image upon each Created Image clothing and overflowing it with its own Appearances Thus St. Paul expresseth the Effusions the Overflowings of the Spirit Rom. 8. 6. To be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace To be Spiritually-minded is to see Things as they are in their Spiritual State In this State all things have a Twofold Representation 1. Represen Life true Life without any mixture of Death Every Sight here is Life For all things are seen as growing up out of this Life-Principle the Spirit and Themselves as Powers of this Life displaying themselves and working in themselves 2. Represen Peace This is the Efficacy of that Life in the Harmony of an Inward Sweetness an Outward Beauty Thus this Spiritual State brings forth to Light again in itself the Inward Image of God in Nature For it shews all Fleshly Forms being yet Fleshly and yet Harmonious Images of the Supream Unity or Beauty But it brings forth this Natural Image with this Twofold Advantage 1. It formerly grew upon a Natural Principle and so was subject to Decay Now it is rooted in this Immortal Spirit and so becomes Immortal 2. It was in Nature an Image only Now it is an Image and a Glass It doth not only Represent the Glories of the Spirit by an empty Show but it sets them before you as Present in their proper substances and so shining thorow it Thus we have gone thorow the Second Part in this Head and seen the Spiritual State in itself 3. Part The Passage of Man into this Spiritual State When the Soul is taught by her Experience and her God that the Secret Delights of the Natural Image are for a Repast only not a Repose that in the strength of these as Eliah's food brought by Angels she is to travel thorow a Wilderness the Ruines of Nature with all its Principles and Images till she comes to the Mount of God Then she takes up a resolution to stay no longer in this Field of Swine with the Swine but to make hast to her Fathers House where every Servant hath Bread enough each Fleshly Form is fill'd with a Substantial Glory When God hath secretly instructed the Soul thus to resolve he as a tender-hearted Father meets her in the beginning of these resolutions falls upon her neck and kisseth her God shews himself in the Soul gives her sweet Testimonies of his Love carries her further off from the Outward Image carries her thorow the most retired Principles of Nature beyond and above them into this Spiritual Principle and State which is the Spirit of Christ where God and the Creature are United where the Spirit is as Water the Flesh as a flourishing Earth standing in that Water and out of it being continually fed continually made Fruitful and Beautiful by it As Jacob at the sight of the Waggons which came from Joseph so this Soul now revives she begins to be her self and to live again as after a long Trance or Death She looks about and sees her self at home she perceives her self in that Spirit in which she came forth from God in which she sees the Face of God again by which she is assured to be carryed on to the full and eternal enjoyment of her God and Father Now saith the Soul I have enough I have not only seen the Face of my God but He hath made me to see His Seeds also the Face of each Object as the Face of an Angel of God Now let me die that I entirely in my Body and whole Soul may be call'd home from my Banishment into this remote part of Things the Out-side of Nature Now let me die in Peace with this Spiritual Image in my Embraces this Sense of Ioys and Glories in my Heart Let me ever abide here O my God! never to go forth more from this Inner Chamber of the Great King into the Tumultuous street of my senses or sensual Reason O that this Spiritual State so full of ravishing Sights which like the Sheet full of all living Creatures before Peter is now let down out of Heaven into my Soul O! that it might never be drawn up again until it take me also up with it into Heaven I have finisht the Second State of our Change at our Conversion The Spiritual State in Christ I pass to the Third 3. The Divine State of things in God As Christ is the way to God So the Divine State is the Spiritual State made Perfect The Soul having been a while taught in the Bosom of Christ begins to grow up to a fuller sense of God in a more naked abstracted absolute and comprehensive manner Now she begins to put off all that ever she put on that God may be her only Clothing She begins to think it not enough to live and walk in the Spirit of God except she be One Spirit with Christ and God She perceives some dark glimpse of that which is meant 1 Cor. 13. 12. To Know as we are Known that is in patrid at home in God Comprehensively by being Comprehended in God and so Comprehending him again The Soul in the glimmering Light of this State brought forth in her Flesh as a small Candle in a dark Lanthorn or faint twinklings of a Star in a Cloud the Soul rudely descries a difference between making the Creature the Glass thorow which we see God and having the Godhead for the Glass placing itself next our Eye and discovering all the Creatures in itself this the Soul climbs up towards this makes her long for Heaven that she may enjoy this Beatifical Vision clearly unâ—as'd of Flesh. The imperfectest Beginnings and rudest Hints of this State in the Soul are to the other State as Honey and Wine to Milk They melt the Spirit of Man to a Transcendent Sweetness and heighten it to a Triumphant Strength As Jesus Christ saith of God out of the Psalmist Psal. 82. 16. He saith of those to whom the word of God came I have said Ye are Gods Joh. 10. 35. So saith the Soul to all things as she looks upon them in this Divine State Ye are God-like Appearances rising up out of God and abiding in him Saul cries 1 Sam. 28. 13. I see Gods ascending up out
The Puttings forth of Christ in us are Unsatisfactory This One thing I do saith the Apostle forgetting those things which are behind I reach forward towards that which is before What is that Observe the next verse will tell us The Mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Iesus Christ. That which is come forth of Christ into thy Natural Man that is now Behind thee That which is Before thee is the Person Possession and Life of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and Glory of God The Unity of this Spirit the Fellowship of this Glory as it is in the Person of Christ this is That Mark which is Before us All that which is in our Persons while we are in Flesh is Behind us and to be forgotten by us It hath a Darkness a Shadowyness an Emptiness a Transitoriness from the Flesh in which it is inclosed So it cannot stay with us or satisfie us It cannot hold us It vanisheth it passeth behind us and is to be forgotten by us Our best Things while we are in this vile Body are a Heavenly Treasure in an Earthen Vessel as St. Paul speaks They are Pure and Sweet as they flow from the Spirit of Christ but as they are in our Spirits they tast of the Vessel they receive an Unsavouriness or Unsatisfactoriness from their Communion with our Earth and Flesh. The Grace of Christ in thee is like a Beam which is at once in the Bosom of the Sun and in the Bosom of the Earth That End of the Beam which is to the Sun is pure and perfect Light But that which is towards the Earth is Dim full of Motes and Dust. The Shinings forth of Christ in thee have such a double Relation to Christ and to thee As they are Christs and in Union with him they are Light and Life in Christ without any Emptiness or Mixture But as they are Thine and have their Being in thy Heart they are like Gold in the Mine partaking very much of the Earth in the midst of which they lie The Power of Christ magnifies it self in thy Weakness as the Apostle speaketh of Himself The Life of Christ in thy Spirit is Wine mingled with Water If thou take it in itself and in Christ it is the Power of Christ. But if you look upon it as it is in your Spirit it is Wine and Water Power in Weakness On Christ's part it is Magnified but on thy part it is Weak and can afford thee but a Weak Unsatisfying Joy 4. Fourthly and Lastly The Communications of Christ in us become Unsafe when we build our Joys upon Them St. Paul is ever very careful in this One Main Point when he rejoyceth at any time in the Grace of God to set aside his own Person and to set up that Grace in the Person of Christ. I thank God thorow Jesus Christ my Lord Rom. 7. 1. What ever matter of Rejoycing or Thankfulness a holy Soul finds it still finds and acknowledges it to have all its Vertue Sufficiency and Safety from and in the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore doth it draw all through that Person out of its own Person lest it should think of it self above what is meet Look to Jesus Christ the Beginner and Finisher of thy Faith and Joy For God hath appointed Him as the Mediator in whose Person alone every Thing is made truly Acceptable unto God and Man He alone must be thy Beloved in whom thou must be well-pleased Thou must be well-pleased and Joy'd with every Grace onely in Him as Thou and It meet in him Otherwise thou art in danger of Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry by which thou wilt grieve thy Husband the Lord Jesus and rob thy self of his blessed Presence This is a Way by which thy Soul often falls on a sudden from High Enjoyments into a Dark and Desolate Condition When the Lord Jesus fills thee with the Warmth and fruitfulness of his Embraces first thou lookest upon the Fruits of Christ in thy Soul and art exceedingly taken with the Beauty and Sweetness of these Now thy Heart and thine Eye begin to go a whoring from thy Heavenly Spouse when they begin to look off from his Person though it be upon something sent forth from Him Secondly thou then reflectest upon thy self with Delight to see thy self so adorned so strengthened Thou thinkest thy self Rich and Safe So ere thou art aware thy Soul makes her self like that Whore which said I sit like a Queen and shall see no sorrow Thirdly Thy Saviour now grows Jealous He turns away his Face He withdraws his Graces the Testimonies of his Presence from thee He leaves thee to the Power of Temptations and Lusts. This he doth that thou mayst learn not to Exalt thy self by his Gifts nor His Gifts in thy Self but Both in him whose Person is the Life of Both and ought to be the Only Object of all thy Love and Joy Thus the Apostle had the Buffetings of Satan and a Sting in his Heart that he might not be exalted by his Revelations but his Saviour and he only in his Saviour Take heed then of looking upon the most Glorious Graces of Christ in your own Person But keep your Eye unmoved on the Person of your Saviour and look upon Both your Self and your Graces in that true Glass and perfect Image So I pass from the Negative to the Affirmative Part of this Rule 2. Part Take the Rise of your Ioy from Iesus Christ as He comprehends you in Himself It is necessary for me here to make plain this Rule by Propounding and Answering Three Questions which perhaps most of your Spirits will be ready to ask in themselves 1. Question First you may ask me What I mean by Iesus Christ. Answer I shall answer so far only as I apprehend most pertinent to the Point in hand My Answer to this Question shall be Six-fold 1. Answer Our Lord Iesus is a Spirit 2 Corin. 4. The Lord is that Spirit A Spirit hath a Three-fold Power 1. A Penetrating 2. A Receiving 3. A Uniting Power 1. Power Penetrating When Jesus Christ was made Spiritual by his Resuâ—rection He could pass thorow the Door when it was shut and present himself in the midst of the Room and the Disciples on a sudden All Bodily Substances are forc'd to remain one without another They touch and joyn only by their Out-sides They cannot mingle but by Breaking themselves into little pieces So the Golden Calf was stampt to Powder that it might mix itself with the Waters But this is the Excellent Nature of Spirits that they can be a whole Army of them in One Spirit or in the Body of any Creature passing into the very Essence or Being of it most Inwardly most Universally and yet neither Divide nor Stretch it The Lord was in this manner present with His Ten Thousand Thousands of His Angels on Mount Sinai which was a Bodily Substance that might be touched So the Lord and all
devouring them again Here God is various sometimes blazing forth brightly sometimes wrapping up himself in a thick Smoak sometimes Burning Dreadfully sometimes shining out Sweetly This is the Appearance of God as he comes forth in a Created Image to the Creature of the First Creation This is called by Moses the Back-parts of God in which he hath many Names proclaimed before him which have Change and Contrariety in them Exod. 34. 6 7. Gracious and Jealous Long-suffering and visiting c. This is the First Distinction 2. Distinction of the State of Things This is Two-fold 1. The State of Things in the Spirit or God 2. The State of Things in the Flesh or the Creature You have this Distinction taught you Heb. 2. 14. For as much as the Children are made Partakers of Flesh and Blood Here you have the Children before their Clothing of Flesh and Blood again you have the Children in that Clothing There is such another place as this which expounds it and is expounded by it Rom. 8. 20 21. The Creature was made subject to Vanity not willingly but in Hope c. It shall be delivered into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Here is the Creature before above after the Vanity of this Creation in the Liberty of the Sons of God Here is the Creature under vanity and in the Corruptible Creation 1. State The State of Things in the Spirit or in God This is a State of Immortal Beauty and Joys All things live to God Luk. 20. 38. To God that is in God All Things live to God that is as they are seen by God for all things are seen by God in God God never looks off or looks out from Himself Rom. 8. 6. To be spiritually-minded is life and peace All things live and flourish to the spiritual mind which is born of God which is both the Eye and Image of God in the Soul as they do to God He that hath the Eternal Spirit for the Eye of his Mind hath it also for the Object of his Mind He that seeth things by the Spirit seeth them in the Spirit All things in the Spirit are One Spirit with that Spirit Spiritual Appearances of the Spirit So they are living and pleasant Images of that Life and Peace which is the Activity and Harmony of the Divine Nature Rom. 11. 36 St. Paul saith of God Of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen God is blessed for ever the Spring and Seat of Blessedness All things cannot but be Branches of Blessedness as they have their beginning their way their ends in him who is the Eternal Spirit of Blessedness and Glory 2. State The State of things in the flesh or in the creature or in themselves This is a Flourishing Fading and Flaming State of Things We have it described by St. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 24. All Flesh is as Grass and all the Glory of the Flesh as the Flower of the Field the Grass withereth and the Flower thereof falleth away All Things in the Flesh are at best Vanity and change in their Principles Their Path is Corruption their Conclusion is Consumption as by Fire This is the Second Distinction 3. Distinction of the Life of Man Man hath a Two-fold Principlâ— 1. A Heavenly 2. An Earthly Principle This Distinction is laid down 1 Cor. 15. 45. The First Man Adam was made a living Soul the New Adam is a quickning Spirit Adam is a Universal Name which includes all Mankind as in its Root or Principle The Two Adams are the Two Principles or distinct Roots of Man One is a Living Soul the Soul of all Mankind in its Natural State The other is a Quickning Spirit the Spirit or Principle of men as they are converted from Nature to Grace or Glory These Principles are called by the Apostle in this place one Heavenly the other Earthly v. 47. The First Man is from the Earth the Second Man is the Lord from Heaven v. 48. As is the Earthy such are they that are Earthy as is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly These Two Principles are likewise called Two Images the Image of the Heavenly and of the Earthly Man v. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Man They are likewise stiled in Scripture the Inward and the Outward Man Corin. 2. 4 14. Though our Outward Man perish our Inward is renewed day by day The Heavenly Principle is as the Center the Earthly as a Point in the Circumference shooting forth its Beams from thence only The Heavenly and Earthly Principle lie mutually infolded in one another The Earthly Principle is in the Heavenly as the Seed in the full-blown Flower The Heavenly Principle is in the Earthly as the Flower lies hid in the Seed The Earthly is in the Heavenly as the Flowers of all Colours are in the Light The Heavenly is in the Earthly as Light is in every Colour These Two are also expressed by the Spiritual and Natural Man 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. So also by the New and Old Man Coloss. 3. 9 10. Man according to the Diversity of these Two Principles is capable of a Five-fold life at once 1. The Life of the Heavenly Principle in itself 2. The Life of the Earthly Principle as it is Comprehended in the Heavenly 3. The Life of the Heavenly as it is in the Earthly 4. The Life of the Earthly as it is Subordinate to the Heavenly 5. The Life of the Earthly Principle in itself 1. Life The Life of the Heavenly Principle in itself Man as he lives this Life is uncapable of any blot of Sin or spot of Sorrow The Apostle speaks with reference to this Life Ephes. 5. 8. Now are ye Light in the Lord Walk as Children of the Light As we live in the Heavenly Principle and that lives in itself we are Children of Light clear Beams of the God-Head like Christ Brightnesses of the Fathers Glory which can neither be Defiled nor Darkned That which is born of God sins not nor cannot sin I may add it grieves not nor cannot grieve according to its Heavenly Birth In this Principle we are Light in the Lord. Our Saviour tells us that we shall be in the Resurrection as the Angels He tells us again that the Angels of Little Children behold the Face of God in Heaven This Life in the Heavenly Principle is the Resurrection In this we are alwaies as Angels While we are like little Ones on Earth we are as the most Glorious Angels beholding the Face of our Father in Heaven while we are inclosed in the Darkness of Flesh we are at the same time Light in the Lord. It is the Opinion of some very learned men that the Supream part of the Soul which is above sensible Things ever living in the midst of Invisible Things the Head and Spirit of the Soul that this is each Mans Angel
But man hath a Head above this Head The Head of Man is Christ as the Head of Christ is God 1 Cor. 11. 3. Man hath a Spirit above this Spirit Whom I with my Spirit serve in the Gospel of his Son Saith St. Paul Rom. 1. 9. The Heavenly Principle is this Head and Spirit Thou hast an Eternal Life in this Head and Spirit of thine In this Life thou art more than an Angel in the midst of the Throne thou art Light in the Lord thou art in the Light of the Lord as He Himself is in that Light This is the First Life 2. Life The Life of the Earthly Principle as it is Comprehended in the Heavenly The Earthly Principle in the Heavenly is as the Heavenly Behold saith Jesus Christ I make all Things new 2 Corin. 5. 17. As the Sun riseth upon the Earth so doth the New Man upon the Old making that also to have a New Face of Immortality as it is comprehended in the Beams of the New Man The Glory of God taking up Elijah was as a Chariot of Fire because as it catcheth up it changeth and conforms to itself that which it catcheth up into itself Such is the Heavenly Principle taking up the Earthly into it When St. Paul was caught up into the Third Heaven and Paradise then he was another man I knew a Man saith he Then he was that Man of Paradise If he was caught up in the Body then was his Earthly Body a Paradisical Body comprehended in the Body of Paradise When he was let down again he was an Earthly Man in an Earthly Body 2 Cor. 12. The Graecian Poet tells us of an Herb which had one Name among the Gods and another Name among Men. All the Things of this world have one sort of Names and Natures as they are in their own Principle But as they are Comprehended and Converst with by a Heavenly Principle they have quite other Names and Natures which are Heavenly As Adam so each Principle gives Names to all Things according to itself and by those Names they are called in that Principle The Sickness and Death of the Earthly Principle have other Names Names of Life in the Heavenly Principle This is the Second Life 3. Life The Life of the Heavenly Principle in the Earthly This is as the Life of Christ in the Flesh. It is the Life of the Son of God in Flesh. This is the Firmament which divides between the Waters of Life above and the Waters of Grief and Death below It reacheth to both and drinks of both It hath in its own Principle all the Springs of Peace and Joy But as it is in one Person and Principle with the Fleshly Man it takes the Infirmities of that upon itself and bears all its Diseases And besides all it hath one Disease of its own which the Earthly Man bears no part in and that is the Imprisonment Restraint and Contradiction of Sins and Sinners which it suffers in the Earthly Principle The Heavenly Principle in the Earthly is both the Primary Inflicter of all Sufferings and the Principle afflicted by those Sufferings 4. Life The Life of the Earthly Principle as it is Subordinate to the Heavenly This is that Flesh of Christ of which St. Paul speaks in the Mystery as of the Spouse of Christ Ephes. 5. 31 32. This is that Spouse which though it have still a Head a Principle of its own yet it vails this Head and subordinates this Principle to the Heavenly Principle as to its Husband till it be taken up into it that so there may be no more Male and Female but one Man in Christ no more Flesh and Spirit but all according to the New Adam a Quickning Spirit This Flesh is indeed washt with pure water that it cannot sin But it is Baptized unto Christ as the Jews were unto Moses 1 Cor. 10 2. in the Cloud and in the Sea It is the Immediate and Proper Subject of all Sufferings This is the Man that saith Lamen 3. 1. I am the Man that hath seen affliction by the Rod of his Wrath. This is a Beast for Slaughter But it is the Lamb among the Beasts It is a Lamb without Spot which is slain all the day long But it is slain as a Sacrifice not as an Abomination 5. Life The Life of the Earthly Principle in itself This is the Wild Ass that runs and snuffs up the Wind. This is the Seat of Sorrows and the Pit of Pollutions St. Paul Colos. 2. 11. calls this the Body of the Sins of the Flesh. The Flesh as it is in its own Principle is the Womb and Mother of all Evil. The Devil sows all his several Seeds in this Womb. So the Body that springs forth from the Flesh is the Devils Body in which all the Members are the several puttings forth of those various Seeds and Divers Principles of Evil cast by the Devil into the Flesh. These Principles are in truth so many particular Devils in him who is their Prince and Head The Body of the Sins of the Flesh is then a Cluster of Devils Incarnated in which each Member in particular is a particular Devil in Flesh Rom. 6. 19. As ye have yielded your Members Servants in a verse before St. Paul called them Instruments unto Uncleanness and Iniquity that is to the Principle of Uncleanness and Iniquity which is the Devil to Iniquity that is to make themselves one with that Principle and the various Images or manifestations of the various Powers in that Principle so yield your Members Servants to Righteousness that is Jesus Christ the Righteousness of God unto Holiness to the pure unmixt unclouded holding forth of the several vertues of Christ thorow your several Members You see the Life of the Earthly Principle in itself that it is the Center or Spring thorow which the Prince of Darkness and Devils thrusts forth all his Evil Powers and Spirits into a Body By this means it is made the Beast that bears the Whore it is made an Ass which bows down its back to all the Burthens of every Devil and Evil. Thus much for the Distinctions which concern the manner of our grieving Now follow the Rules which are drawn from these Distinctions to direct us in the Spiritual manner of Mourning 1. Rule Know the Ground of your Mourning to be the Subordinate only and not the Supream Appearance of God Psal. 30. 5. His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is Life Weeping may endure for a Night but Joy comes in the Morning When thou grievest and lamentest most bitterly then remember that this Discovery of God which covers thee with so much Horrour is but a momentary and dark one it is the Night the Back-part of God The Morning-appearance the Face of thy God is Bright and Shining with Joy The Living True Eternal Discovery which is above all other Discoveries is favourable and kind When thou lookest upon God and takest the Rise of thy