enable us to effect this work of faith whereby we may live and also may die to the Lord and in neither sin nor serve our selvs Christ both died and rose againe and is become Lord both of the dead and of the living even in this sense before opened To this agrees what the same Apostle testifies 2 Cor. 4 12.13 compared with 1 Cor. 4.8 13. Here we find the Apostle the father and true elder as to his growth up into Christ strong in the faith and the Corinthians they are the children babes in Christ weak and low in faith but high full and puffed up in their fleshly minds Let us therefore consider the differing characters he gives of the one and of the other though both beleevers such as in their living and in their dying are or may be the Lords Ye now are full sayes Paul or this is your time of being rich and reigning as kings without us but I would to God you did indeed reigne that we also might reigne together with you But it is otherwise with us even a dying time We are troubled on every side perplexed persecuted cast downe alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus God having set forth us that are the Apostles most strong and eminent in faith as it were appointed unto death and to be made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong Ye are honourable but we are despised So then death workes in us but life in you And we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I have beleeved and therefore have I spoken we also beleeve and therefore speak knowing that he which raysed up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you That then which is wrought in men by Christ through the ministry of the outward word by the spirit and life of his first appearance is either restoration-work single or restoration-work joyned and accompanied with true regeneration and eternall salvation Restoration-work single is that which is called the spirit of bondage making but those servants that abide not in the house for ever as having never tasted nor partaken of that freedome wherewith the Son makes those free indeed that he knits into an indissoluble union with himself But restoration-work as it is accompanied with salvation or the birth of the immortal and incorruptible seed of life and righteousnes is that which is called the spirit of adoption of power of love and of a sound or stedfast mind that principle of life begotten and springing up in us whereby we put off that which is mutable and corruptible and put on that which is immutable and incorruptible as well in the inward man of the heart as in the outward man of the flesh We have already shewed that their obedience is accepted with God who are faithfull to their light under the first dispensation of Gods word speaking in them to the inward senses of their mind as was the case of the centurion Such persons in every nation are owned by God as those that fear him and work righteousnes And this feare is in a sense faith for they cannot thus come to God and obey him but they must beleeve that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and hearken to his voyce Neverthelesse this is not the faith that is in the regenerate flowing from the spirit and life of the new creature and working by love but it is the faith which all restored enlightned men may have in conformity to what Adam had before his fall that knew and obeyed the eternall WORD as creatour and maker of both worlds though not as the redeemer and Saviour of men by the blood of the crosse from sin and the wrath attending it This sort of faith is that which flowes from mans exercise of his right knowledg and free will wherein he was created after Gods likenes and did receave the truth in his knowledg but in no fixed permanent love thereof because he was left free to change his mind as seemed good unto himself being in case of his failer therein personally responsible to the penalties and curse of the law For to be created with such a righteous mutable principle of activity and free moving power in the mind was simply in itself good and might be lawfully used to answer the end for which it was given which was by way of voluntary resignation to chang and turne out of that wavering unstable active power though at present righteous into that love that should bind up the moving power of mans Spirit into a stedfast and unmoveable delight and rest in righteousnes and into a fixed and unshaken enmity and aversnes of mind to sin and all evill By this new creation and forming of the spirit of man within him his first freedome is taken from him and done away or it is swallowed up into a freedome much better and more excellent wherein man is made more in Gods image and after his similitude then at the first For though all things were in a good estate with man at first when God made him upright that is to say in a due conformity unto the divine will for the performance of a pure and holy worship and service to God justice and true judgmēt to his neighbour and for the walking in a due sobriety temperance and continence as to himself yet God would have him know he might be better made through a new creation which should more then comprehend all the good of his first make and adde also to it an immutability God did therefore forbid man to trust to the uncertaine riches and fading glory of his first estate and timely to look and make out for a better But in stead of this man notwithstanding Gods prohibition runs himself aground into a very bad and evill condition Out of this forlorne state the first thing that God propounds to him in and by the knowledg of the redeemer is his restoration which God is willing to draw him to by the ministry of Moses and turn him to by the ministry of Eliah even the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make a ready people prepared for the Lord to meet and receave him as he is given by the father in a better Covenant ordered in all things and sure of which there can never be any breach either on Gods or mans part as there was and wil be againe of the first Covenant how often soever it be repeated and renewed unlesse it end in mans being receaved and taken into the second There is then a ministry of the first Covenant in the hand of the Redeemer Sprinckled with the blood of his crosse which is able to rectify the depravation of things caused by sin and mans first breach with God consisting in a restitution towards mans
or a threefold cause of the being that is givē unto the creature 1. Of the creatures hidden and secret Being as it subsists and lives in the mind of God by way of his purpose and decree and in his fore knowledg 2. As this seed of creature-being that lives in God is brought into its naturall and proper form of life made a part and member of the first creation in a mutable state 3. As it is changed and translated out of its mutable state and corruptible fashion into a form of being and state of life that is immutable wherein the first creation is not destroyed or annihilated but consummated and brought to its final perfection so as to answer rhe holy end and design of the Creatour who as the potter hath absolute power over his owne clay to make vessels of honour or dishonor as pleases him and in such manner as is exactly consistent with the wisdom and justice of a most holy God The nature of men and angels is formed in Gods likenes wherein they are made with hearing eares seing eyes and working hearts to attend unto and observe the divine oracles delivered to them from the mouth of God as the law under which they are created the rule of their life and actiō to guide them in the passage out of their mutable state into that which is immutable Gods words therefore doe come forth in the threefold dispensation before described visible and intelligible words to their minds or creature-understandings answerable to the state they are found in and to the degree and measure of their growth whereunto they have atteined For there can be no communion or intercourse between God and man but by such divine words as are visible and intelligible to creature understanding signifying such things as their eyes may se their ears heare and that are in themselvs possible and rationall to be obeyed which all Gods laws to man most certainly are Hence is it thar John testifies of the WORD of life itself that it is visible and hath bin heard and seen from the beginning being no new commandement but the old made visible and intelligible first by the book of the creature then by the book of the Scriptures and lastly by the living mouth and heart of Christs manhood assumed into personall union with the eternall WORD and thereby made the brightnes of Gods glory the expresse image of his essentiall mind where the vision at last becomes so plaine to all beleevers that he that runs may read it The humanity or flesh of Christ singly considered is no where in Scripture called the WORD but at most the engraffed WORD For the WORD is that which is made flesh and dwells in us which though after it was born of a woman and found in fashion as a man actually partaking of flesh and blood with the rest of the children it was seen heard and handled as the glory or manifestation of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth in the form of a man was actually in Being and life from the beginning which the flesh of Christ was not and was Davids Root the BRIGHT MORNING STAR the Lord the WORD which David in Spirit saw Psal 110.1 when he sayd the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool These things premised our way wil be much more open and cleer to proceed in what we have propounded as to a serious search and pursuite after life eternall We are hereby naturally lead into the ensuing method and have our matter pointed out to us for our discussion and enquiry in these following particulars 1. What are the things that are the subject matter of the command delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God that are the law of his mouth visible and intelligible to man by the light and law of nature the light and law of the Scriptures the light and law of faith or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus And if the matter be one and the same that is declared and made knowne in and under these three dispensations wherein is it that they differ from each other 2. What is that state of mutability which by nature man is brought into Is his mutability lost or no by the fall as wel as his natural righteousnes and purity may he not yet be changed back againe at least to a gradual recovery of his natural righteousnes yea and yet fatther into a more excellent state of life and righteousnes then at first he receaved Is his primitive uprightnes in kind recoverable or no Is it actually and universally restored to all mankind by the blood and ransom of the Redeemer as the means to lead men to repentance and bring them all to the practical knowledg of the truth by inwardly cleansing and purging them from their old sins and setting them in the way of that amendment and newnes of life which God by his law calls for and commands from all men every where 3. Is it possible for man is his mutable state considered as either before or after the fall according to the degree of restoration he does arrive unto to hear and obey the things of Gods law and so to keep the commandements and demean himself in his actings conformable thereunto as not to turn from them or let them depart from his heart all the days of his life untill his translation into his immutable state 4. And lastly What is that immutable state in righteousnes and glory which begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second unto which man is fore-ordeined and through effectuall calling and plantation with Christ in his death and resurrection is prepared and made heir of in his mutable state in order at last actually to inherit and possesse it at Christs seconds comming that other day wherein the Son of Man is to be revealed from heaven which hath its MORNING MIDDAY and EVENing also that immediatly precedes the last day of eternity which hath no division or parts 1. First as for the things of Gods law or matter commanded unto man which God wills that he should heare understand and obey as that on which his life and death depends and does therefore with all plaines and certainty set before him that ignorance or other excuse of any kind may not be pretended by him all is reduced by our Saviour who best knows it into a very narrow compasse Luk 10 28. in his answer to the lawyer that came to tempt him saying Master what shall I doe to inherit eternall life The question does plainly intimate first that some things were to be done by man and that by Gods command and instruction in order to obtein or be made heir of eternall life 2. That so doing or working the work of God the inheritance is sure Christ in his answer denies nothing of this but thinks fit to try the knowledg of
the lawyer and answer him according to his owne heart and principles What is written in the law sayes he how readest thou The lawyer replies Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all they soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self This Christ agrees to be the sum of the things conteined in the commandements of God which man is to doe and in the doing and obeying whereof as he ought and God requires will make him heir and sure of eternall life Therefore all that Christ adds is Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live But although these few words contein mans whole duty to God and to his neighbour yet as by the following verses does appeare in the parable of the wayfairing man that fell amongst theeves there is more in it then at first we are aware of to perform this duty to God and to our neighbour rightly and after such manner as is acceptable to God For so do to it requires faith that faith which works by love or which makes us new creatures giving us the sight of that man in the person of the Mediatour that hath seen God by whose testimony we also are taught to so him and know that he is and what he is even the rewarder of all those with eternall life who diligently seek him No man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the son will reveale him He that beleeveth on the Son of God hath this witnes in himself by the sons comming into his heart and bringing this knowledg along with him giving us to know him that is true and that we are in him that is true even in him that is the true God and eternall life By such knowledg are we preserved from idols and setting up some other thing in our hearts for the true God or from ignorantly bestowing our worship love and service upon him He that beleevs not God hath made him a liar because he beleeves not the Record which God gives of his Son when it is plainly represented and set before his eyes in such legible characters that he is able to understand and perceave the Record even that God hath given unto us eternall life and that this life is in his Son and is to be had only in the gift of the Son made to us in a most intimate and inseperable union which he that hath hath life he that hath it not hath not life Whatsoever comes short of this let it make never so faire a shew for the present it wil be sure to end in death Hence is it that without faith it is impossible to please God because otherwise we cannot know him as we ought with such certainty as not to mistake him for some other thing or some other thing for him And so also will it be with us as to our neibour or brother we shall take him to be our neibour and brother that is not he and he that is not we shall account to be him For not knowing the very Image and first patern set up in Christ our elder brother and the lowly meek spirit in him which with God is of great price how can we know the children and many brethren that are to be conformed to him therein Unlesse we know and love him that begets how can we know and love them that are begotten of him For both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren those who if we be are love unto we thereby know that we are passed from death to life And if we love not but hate them sitting and speaking against these our brethren slandering our owne Mothers Sons we are in Gods account no better then Cain wicked munderers whatever righteous works we are conversant in according to the letter of the law Be we as zealous and forward as we will in offering our sacrifices and bringing our gifts before the altar till we be first reconciled to our brother we are directed to leave our gift before the altar as better not to offer it at all with a heart which is without that love by which faith works In this sence are we to understand 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. If we have al other gifts and good things from God that are possible to be had and not this love with them we are nothing we are but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs The saying therefore of Christ do this and thou shalt live according to his owne reading and understanding of the law is do this at present by the light thou art under but give not off be not satisfied til thou come to do it by faith as a new creature with the knowledge and love which faith teaches and workes and thou art a true heir of eternall life and shalt most certainly enter into it and possesse it for ever Leave thy sacrifice and thy guift before the altar in humility and brokenes of Spirit and in lowlines of heart rather then take upon thee to offer it untill thou have the Son given to thee and art regenerated For it is better for thee that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay Keep thy foot therefore when thou goest into the house of God or doest enter upon the performance of his worship and Service in thy natural mutable frame of Spirit and be more ready to heare then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evill even in their very prayers and duties of divine worship By faith it is that the right and stedfast Spirit is formed the whole and entire heart which God requires We may then take notice that there is a twofold reading preaching hearing receaving and obeying of the Word of God and doctrine of his law the one after a lesse the other after a more excellent way the one proportiond to the sight hearing and heart of the natural and earthly man in his mutable state properly called the law the other proportioned to the sight hearing and heart of the heavenly and spiritual man properly called the Gospel How readest thou says Christ to the learned lawyer when he would point out the law in the former sence and as to the latter himself is the reader preacher and worker of it as he is the Son himself and word of faith which through our being in him in whose manhood it is as in our mouth and in our heart is made bread to us and not only possible but most desireable and prevailingly attractive unto us to do and fulfil after him In this sence it is that Christ is the end of the law to all that beleeve and the law in its first kind of teaching or reading is the Schoolmaster or teacher that sends us to Christ and is appointed to keep us under its rule and discipline
till it put us into the hands of a better and surer guide which is the Son himself who by the voice of his Servant or messenger that he sends before him gives notice of his comming But when he comes himself he teaches the way of God more perfectly the way of knowing and loving God of fearing him and keeping his commandements which is the whole duty of man According to this gradual discovery and revelation of the mind and will of God in his law there are several degrees of growth and age that man is or may be acquainted with in the conformity and obedience that he is to yeild to Gods holy law and commandement 1. First that of childhood signifying the state of mans mutability and unstable righteousnes wherein he is wavering liable to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine apt to be deceaved 2. The state of youth or years of discerning and settled judgment in those that by faith are strong and have overcom the wicked one in whom the Word of God is abiding and hath taken fast hold and root importing the life of the first resurrection in them at least in the principles thereof over whom the second death is never to have power 3. The state of fatherhood and most ripe years in those that have known him that is from the beginning and are one with him one with the father as Christ and the father are one the church that are in God the father the Bride the Lambs wife by whom is made known the manifold wisdom of God and unsearchable riches of Christ unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places the very holy and Elect Angels This importeth the life of the second resurrection in them and the highest ascent into union and communion with God To all these several kinds of growth ages or statures of humane perfection the word and law of God is a Rule suiting itself and commanding the same Duties to be performed as to the knowledg and love which we are to have and bear towards God and towards our neighbour accordingly as the heart is principled and qualified for the performance thereof with a first second or third measure and degree of light and power from God enabling thereunto For that which God requires of man in the obedience he is to yeild unto him is according to what he first gives and causes him to have and not according to what he hath not The commandement therefore of God or the law of his mouth which conteins in it and requires from man his whole duty both towards his God and towards his neighbour is as to the matter of it the same for the rule of mans walking in communion with God either in the first or second Covenant being that which in Scripture is called the law as wel as that which is called the Gospel 1. It is called the law as it is the divine oracle and righteous command of the supreme lawgiver strictly enjoyning exact and compleat obedience and severely punishing the least tittle of disobedience being dispensed in such manner as leaves it to mans liberty and fredom of wil to hear and obey or to refuse and disobey at his owne peril upon the penalties and curse declared in it 2. T is called the Gospel or good tydings as it is the free and gracious condescention or good wil of God appearing towards man which God the Mediatour exercises upon the foresight of what man would doe as left to his owne freewil in and under the law For this in pursuance of his fathers decree does he cleave unto and lay hold of mans nature or the seed of David according to the flesh resolving to bring upon the natural frame of mans Spirit as left to his owne arbitrary choice and freewil a most beneficial and necessary change through which man is prevailed with to give up and resigne back againe that first liberty of his into the hands of his faithful creatour who first gave it and to trust him for the restoring it in such manner and measure back againe as may be best for him and may most certainly and infallibly attein the end for which it was first given which was to fulfil the righteousnes of Gods law Accordingly does he receave it in a new a more excellent and certain manner of hold and exercise wherein it is made impossible for him to transgresse the law of God by sinning and most possible and free for him to run the race of Gods commandements Through this new enlargment and fredom of heart given him by the influencing power of that love which is stronger then death man is so bound up in the wil of God so absolutly subjected to what the law requires as makes him sure to inherit eternal life The living and primitive patern of this obedience is wrought out in mans owne nature in the person of the Mediatour and set before his eyes with an attractive and transforming power to draw man after him and transform him into the same image from glory to glory from the glory of his first creation in conformity to the law in Christs first appearance to the glory of the new creation in conformity to the Gospel in his second And thus Christ enables his beleeving followers to fulfil the law after him who came not to destroy but fulfil it in the Gospel And as some are thus changed by the attractive influence of Christs constreining love others with whom also his Spirit for a season strives by the same Gospel manifestation of him are upon their wilful refusal hardned and fixed in their disobedience To such he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to those who after this gracious offer made knowne unto them doe obstinately despise and reject it preferring their first and natural fredom of the Sons of men to this more excellent fredom and glorious liberty of the Sons of God In order to make triall of them herein since the fal Christ hath obteined of the father on their behalf the restoration of that lesser glory and inferiour liberty of nature that ought to be resigned for the greater that excels and is to remain by the price and ransome of his owne blood from whence flowes a conditional remission of al sinners as to sins past and a free and general restoration of them to the priviledg and benefit of their first natural fredom and primitive righteousnes in kind and in such degrees and measure as is requisit and sufficient for the making of such a trial and rendring them without all excuse nothing having bin wanting in him to bring them to repentance and to receave the truth in the love of it He hath given that former sort of gifts to the rebellious also that prove enemies and haters of him in the more excellent gifts and priviledges that he offers them also in a superiour dispensation which cannot be receaved by them without an obedient surrender and losse
contrary without being bound up to any necessary dependance upon or holding conformity and agrement in its actions either with the right dictates of the intellectual part or with the righteous rule of Gods law This once obtein'd Satan had his end For he well knew that this being granted all the rest of the evil he desired to bring into man and by him into the world would easily and quickly follow And this was so pleasing and gratifying a baite to the flesh the assuming a power to direct its owne steps take its owne course and way that it was quickly swallowed downe by man without any due deliberation or pause upon the matter suspecting no hurt as yet till the lust that thus was conceaved came to be finished and to take along with it the spirit of the mind corrupting and seducing that also from the simplicity that is in Christ and thereby turning the soule from the truth of God declared in his law to the lie and deceit of Satan conceaved in his crafty suggestion Thus by degrees was man brought to worship and serve the creature that is the devil more then the creator under whose law he was first made and who is the only true God blessed for ever Unto this the Scripture witnesseth Rom. 1 22 23. Professing themselvs to bewise they became fools and changed the glory WORD or Image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and unto birds four-footed beasts and creeping things This man came to by preferring the counsell of a fallen angel that was gratifying and desireable food in the eye of flesh before the holy law and commandement of the living and eternal God which by the eye of his spirit or superiour part of his mind he saw and knew himself obliged to the observation of For this cause God gives men up to the course and full sway of their owne wills and vile affections leaving them as bondslaves to sin and Sathan children of wrath and disobedience in whom the Prince of the aire seats himself as in his throne carrying them captive to his will Mans continuance in honour and in Gods image wherein he was created was but a very little while He quickly found out and followed many inventions contrary to Gods expresse command written in his mind as also signified by the sundry peeces of the creation and sounded out by an audible voice to him from God himself Sin being after this manner the voluntary and free act of our first parents not only conceaved but finished in the disobedience by them wrought and persected the wages of it which is death they immediatly receaved For being presently alienated from the life of God or the righteousnes performable by them in that image of God wherein they were created they became dead in trespasses and sins The image of God in man was defaced changed into an image in some sort of the devil All pronesse and inclination of the will to good was forthwith worn off and lost upon the fall and not only so but contrary qualities thereunto possessed the mind Thus mans primitive freedom and alacrity to righteousnes was turn'd into vile subjection and service to the devil and to all manner of uncleane affections and unrighteous actions Neverthelesse this sudden and unexpected chang in man brought about by the subtilty and influencing power of the Serpent by reason of the weaknes of the flesh that discovers itself in mans mutable state is not such but that this deadly wound is capable of healing and man capable of being thereby restored yea to be made not only as good but better then he was at first through the vertue and efficacious power of Christs sacrifice and death which was not only a generall propitiation and atonement of sins past but also for the sanctifying and purifying mans nature for time to come after a more excellent manner through regeneration then it was by creation Unto this regenerate state our first parents were called by the voice and doctrine of the Gospel speaking to them in and on the seaventh day as the only way and means to have prevented the fall and kept out sins entrance upon the nature of man For when God committed to the keeping of Adam his owne soule in the good estate wherein he had set it by making man in his image and after his owne likenes it was not without a most speciall charg to keep this choise jewel safe and vncorrupted at the peril of his very life till chang'd into a better state This God required him to do in the use of the best wayes and means that should be afforded him even by taking fast hold of instruction not letting her goe but keeping her as his life yea keeping his heart above all keepings as that from whence are the issues of life To this end was the tree of life placed in the midst of paradise open to his sight that he might have the view of it And by what was figured and signified to him in this tree was it declared how the keeping of his soule might be by another even by the Son of God or by the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth dwelling in the heart by faith which the worldly or fleshly mind does not cannot receave but by such an act of absolute resignation of itself in obedience to the wil of the Son of God as is more hatefull to it then the worst of evils Yet is there no other way possible for man to keep his soule safe for any long continuance and in the houre of trial when assaulted by the power of darknesse The counsel and instruction given by the word of the Gospel in the tree of life was that if man found upon full debate and consideration within himself that he was not like to continue long safe in his owne hands neither could with certainty keep himself pure and incorrupt as the law required that then he would be content to accept for his guardian and keeper the Son of God himself in whose person the judgmēt and will of man is fixed so as to be the corner stone to al the rest of the heavenly and spirituall building even the effectual means to fix and make immutable in righteousnes both men and angels that wil be prevailed with to let him take the charge of ruling and keeping their hearts in such manner as pleases him This is the only way for man to become free indeed with a better freedom then that of nature abovemention'd even with the freedom wherewith Christ himself is first made free as he is the son of man in heaven who came downe from heaven before he ascended up againe thither John 3.13 This good will and gracious offer of the Son of God figured out in the tree of life our first parents either neglected and slighted or the way of his keeping them did not please them but the suggestions of Satan were rather hearkned unto that they might safely leane to their
law and Gospel still or rather the two Testaments that are in force with mankind by the death of the Testatour the Lord Jesus Christ By the first of these man is renewed and restored out of the fall and brought in some degree to the fruition and exercise of his first righteousnes and freedome of will in order to the making proof and triall of him once more And by the second of them he is regenerated and begotten of the immortall seed into an immutability in righteousnes and glory in a life that is from the dead uncapable ever to be lost or faile more These two Testimonies and Testaments of God are visible words inward spirituall words and lively oracles that create their owne suitable organs and vessells in the minds of men for their reception And there is an inward sight of them to be had by man as well as an outward hearing to which purpose it is sayd 1 Joh. 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you That which John saw heard and handled was from the beginning and was seen heard and handled from the foundation of the world at sundry times and in divers manners under former dispensations till at last the dark shadows of him vanished and the true light itself began to shine and dawne in his owne personal appearance first in the flesh and then afterwards in the Spirit There are therefore inward and spirituall senses whereby the man of God sees heares tasts savours and handles the word of God Such senses there must be because there is an inward as well as an outward man of the heart which must not want his due powers and faculties any more then the other For since the words themselvs are divine even words of spirit and life how can they be otherwise perceaved then by senses suited to their nature spirituall senses distinguished from those of the animalish outward man of the soule which is not at all skilled in that manner of knowing and discerning From the exercise of spirituall life and the senses thereof proceeds the spirituall tast savour and approbation of those divine words that are the significations of Gods will and law to us Unto such experienced men skilled in the words of truth we may appeale as to the true and full significancy of divine oracles which the disputer of this world in the perverse and presumptuous use of his naturall senses and understanding contradicts and blasphemes doe you not see this truth doe you not handle with your hands this Word of life do you not tast that the Lord is gracious This is the much more excellent way of understanding the Scriptures when after such a spirituall manner we relish handle se tast and have a share in what we know of the word of God as the Apostle prayes Phil. 1.9 For this I pray sayes he that your love may abound in knowledge and in all judgment or in every spirituall sense He that was from the beginning is Christ the living WORD of God the WORD wherein was life and that life the light of men even of every man that comes into the world He is the light of men in and under a threefold dispensation or manner of ministry He is the word of God God to men that makes with them either a conditionall and dissoluble Covenant or an absolute and everlasting Covenant that can never be dissolved The first of these is the word of the beginning by which God begins to make himself knowne and declare his will in his law to all men that law by which they must one day be judged The second is the word of the oath conteining a free promise to some and a gracious receaving of them into his love therein to abide for ever but a finall and judiciall rejection of others concerning whom he therein swears that they shall never enter into his Rest but be given up to the wayes that they have chosen and fixed in their owne delusions in the everlasting chains whereof he binds them up and reservs them with the fallen angels to the judgment of the great day This is that which is the end and consummation-work both wayes to all that have passed under the first Testament or conditionall Covenant Christ considered as he is the word of the beginning the author and minister of the conditional Covenant and of the life and quickning proper thereunto hath a comming forth in light and life unto men which is called his first appearance which he dispenses in the capacity of the promised seed pursuant to the manifestation of Gods will unto man in paradise immediatly after his fall He is therein declared the saviour and redeemer of man he by whom alone is remission of sins and all those that beleeve not on him shall perish in their sins For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernes so hath the father provided that the WORD made flesh be lifted up in the sight of all men and preached to them that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And God would have men know that he so loved the world as that he gave his only begotten Son to take and beare away their sins and lead them into the way of salvation in stead of condemning them upon the fall of our first parents as he might justly have done He then that beleevs in the Son of God is not or shall not be condemned But he that beleeveth not that is receavs not his word in the love thereof is condemned already because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Son of God The justice of such condemnation will shew itself in this that when this light is come into the world men have chosen and loved darknes better then light yea to discover the evill of their mind they hate the light and as neer as they can shun all appearance of it least they should be reproved thereby and convinced of their evill deeds and be converted and God should heale them But how is Christ the saviour and redeemer lifted up before the eyes of all men and how comes he with light into the world or into the mind of the naturall man who receavs not the things of the spirit of God but accounts them foolishnes Yea he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned and are therefore too deep for him to fathom too high and heavenly for him to reach being destitute of spirituall senses and discerning suitable thereunto By way of answer to this we must be carefull rightly to distinguish and divide the word of truth which as hath bin said hath a first voyce and the light of its first appearance as also a second voice and the brightnes of a second comming It is by means of the first voice and the light and life ministred in
one of one immortall seed and he not ashamed to call us and owne us for his brethren As he is so are they that are borne of one and the same immortal seed each one resembling the children of the great King They become one with him through this birth as he is one with the father They are fixed and rendred unmoveable in his love as he is in his fathers love This they arrive at by his declaring to them the fathers name or giving the manifestation of the fathers love as he and the father are one that the love wherewith the father hath loved these his children may be in them and that the Spirit of the Son that lives in the fathers love may also be in them even the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father From thence-forward are they evidently no more servants but true heaven-born Sons and heirs of God through Christ being taught to know God after the same manner as they are knowne of him and to apprehend that for which also they are apprehended of Christ Jesus It is Christ in the spirit of this love that apprehends the soule layes hold on the heart and cleaves to it as he is the sealed one of the father till he change it into the same love and image from glory to glory working us into such a conjunction in spirit with him and likenes in operation to him that not we in the exercise of our former and naturall free will but Christ in this his love and glorious liberty of the Son of God lives in us and we in him as in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken This love does not only cast out fear but frees from all danger of any more breach of Covenant with God whence his finall departure from us should follow or our separation from him This way of giving himself to us is love indeed in a much more excellent way then appeared in such gift as he made of himself to us in our first creation or in his restoration-work upon us since singly considered as that whereby he makes a new proof and triall of us In both those two former sorts of restoration-work above mentioned God is indeed pleased to make us his people manifesting himself and his will to us and making knowne to us good and evill experimentally so that we have tasted of the evil and of the good when the Lord hath restored our first fredom and put it in our power againe to cleave to him and love him or else to leave and forsake him In this state he set Adam under the counsell rebukes and threatnings declared in his law with a liberty to stand or fall Whoever then stands upon these tearms with God is alwayes in the same danger can never be out of the fear of a breach that may happen between God and him through his owne default The comming of that love and the spirit of it above-mentioned into the soule does perfectly secure from and cast out all such feare And this it doth perform by its attracting prevailing power in and over the will whereby man is brought to give up the absolute Rule and power of keeping himself into the will of him that is this love and is made fully content to be in his hands and under his wormanship as a little child created a new unto the good works before ordeined that we should walk in them The soule is hereby fitted and prepared with a meeknes and lowlines of mind to draw together in one yoke with the spirit of this love whose command is easy and burden light requiring no more nor other thing to be done then what by faith we se our head the second Adam in our very nature to have done before us And as many as are taught and enabled by Christ to walk with him according to this rule that is as a race set before them in his cross they are the true Israel of God and mercy and peace shall for ever rest upon them Conformity to this rule of the crosse is the high way the way of holines which all the ransomed of the Lord are appointed to passe and wherein the waifairing men the true pilgrims on earth though become as fools and little children cannot erre but will infallibly come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads But this way of holines appears to flesh and blood so strait a gate to enter in at so fiery a baptisme to passe through so bitter a cup to drink up that none whoever that are left to the freedom of their owne wills or naturall liberty restored will ever be inclined to drink it off or conforme to Christs example and command therein They looke upon ir as a rock of offence a stone of stumbling which they know not how to get over nor have any mind to it This bitter cup and hard saying is provided by God as the bitter waters were of old to try the adultresse or false hearted wife to her husband It hath the like operation both wayes as the antitype and mystery of the bitter water in the Mosaical ministration It hurts not those that are chast in whose spirit there is no guile but makes them more fruitfull in good works such good works as proceed from a lively operative saving faith which those that truly and savingly beleeve in Christ wil be carefull to maintein But it corrupts and rotts others ripening them faster on to their owne destruction It is to this sacrifice of the first freedom of our wills or free wil offring that the Apostle exhorts us Rom. 12.1 2. I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies or living soules a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God your reasonable service or the service which your reason owes unto God in seing and accounting yourselvs fools under his teachings and weak and insufficient under his ruling power in you Obj But it will be objected If I suffer the freedom of my owne will to be taken from me I either become a perfect slave or am reduced into that necessity of action with which all creatures work by a Kind of instinct so shall I come to be unmanned and made a very beast Answer In such suggestions and groundlesse surmises we erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God If we did both these consequences of mans being reduced to slavery or bestiality through such resignation of his freedom and rational powers that make up his reasonable sacrifice into the hands of God who will returne all back againe with usury would appear exceeding far from truth as is possible For so far is that frō a bestiall state of life and will that succeeds in the room of our rightly resigned freedom to the will of God by the crosse of Christ and fellowship with him in his death that it highly advances man into a more glorious liberty evē the liberty of the sons of God a freedom to good only a liberty
for good And although this kind of life and union do lie hid and concealed as it may for a long time asleep in the vessell of the mind as Christ was in the ship when it was in danger to sink with the waves yet by it is the soule Kept and seperated to the Lord as Paul was from the womb notwithstanding which he walked as a Pharise nay as a persecutour of the true church till this seed of Gods love revealed itself in him This is the first degree of the new creatures hidden and concealed state and this foundation of God is sure for he knows who are sealed with this his living seal from the womb though neither as yet themselvs know it or any other but only the Father and the Son The second degree of new creature life arising from the immortall seed of Gods love sealed as yet and concealed in the heart of the beleever is as it yet lies undermost and at botome suffring Esau the elder brother to come out first into view It gives way to the restoration-work which puffs up the flesh in making the spirit of the naturall man full and rich in his first abilities of pure nature and exercise of his freewill Such a saint girds himself as peter had done when he went whithersoever he would He wil be a very active couragious follower of Christ whilst he works miracles and all the world runs after him yea he will promise faire also to goe even to prison and death with him but in the hour and power of darknes the faith he acts upon this bottome and all his other graces faile and abide not the triall unlesse the seed which lies undermost appear and shew forth its preserving overcomming and never failing power In this 3d state or degree of new creature life we are with the Corinthiaus such as are carnall and babes in Christ but cannot properly be addressed unto as spirituall Christians We are ready in this state with good Samuel to say of Eliab the elder brother surely the Lords anointed is before us in the restoration-work wrought by the spirit of Christ in our soules We are little aware that the true David the man after goes owne heart the inward man which feeds upon that which is not corruptible lies hid and is not yet seen as he is but under a veyle only and as through the lattesse In these true saving faith is but weak and low not knowne rightly to themselvs but upon grounds that may and will fail them A third state or degree of this new birth and new creature life is when upon being found triall-proof the love of God comes to spread itself abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost when the seed which is at the bottome and lies undermost works and removes out of the way him that lets every impediment and weight that presses downe It comes now to circumcise the foreskin of the flesh which is the cover and veile under which it hath layn so long hid bringing under and laying low the fleshly man in us teaching him subjection and shewing him that law by which the elder is to serve the yonger and come behind but no longer to lead the way or be preferred before him For the naturall man to come under this discipline is the great crosse which is so fiery and dreadfull to flesh and blood the cup which if it were possible every one would avoyd But 't is by this means that the naturall man is made subject and becomes a meet vessell for the use of his Lord. And now when we are thus in weaknes according to the flesh most low broken and crucified then are we strongest after the spirit and the work of faith springing up with vigour is fulfilled in us with power so comes it to be cleerly seen to ourselvs though yet very much hid as to others When it hath once rooted and grounded the inward man in this love it will diffuse the good ointment to the very shirts of the garment and cloath the beleever with change of raiment that as the soule is made all glorious within the outward man may be glorified also and Christ not only admired in the heart but glorified in and by the mouth of the same beleever which is the fourth degree of new creature life This fourth and last degree of the perfecting of the love of God in us is reserved to the day of Christs second appearance called also the day of the manifestation of the sons of God which we shall now in the next place enquire into and apply ourselvs to search after according to such discovery thereof as God hath bin pleased to make knowne By way of preparation to this enquiry let us take notice of what we find described and foretold of it by the Prophet Hosea chap. 6. v. 2 3. After two dayes he will revive us that is in the end of the second day In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Life from the dead and immortality shall be brought to light in us The day of Christs Kingdom in the spirit considered as the going forth of it is prepared as the morning which encreases more and more to a perfect day distinguishes itself into two distinct seasons It comes upon us and to us as the raine as the former and the latter rain upon the earth In the former it is a Kingdom of patience in the latter a kingdom of power The Kingdom of Christ in spirit is that stone which whosoever falls upon shal be broken to peices or they shall split and break themselvs in peeces that fal upon it whilst it is yet but the Kingdom of his patience in himself or his suffering servants who amidst all their sufferings in the flesh do remain in spirit true members of the Kingdom of the stone lively stones of Christs spirituall building abiding firme and unmoveable under all trialls of persecutiō and opposition But on whomsoever this stone or Kingdom of Christ shall fall in the day of its power when it becoms a mountain filling the whole earth it shall grind them to powder It will make them as the chaffe of the summer threshing floore which the wind of Gods just anger will so carry away that no place wil be found for them The beginning of the third day mention'd Hos 6. seems cleerly to be about the time of Christs ascension and day of Pentecost when the former rain of the spirit came downe or some few years after at the final ruin of Jerusalem and the jewish Kingdom To know the certain period of the second day and beginning of the third will much conduce to the better forming of our judgments as to the seasons of this Kingdom that are yet to come We may hereby also gain some sight into the two dayes that are past and the distinguished parts of time that the holy Ghost does intend and signify to us by those two former dayes By the
the first Resurrection The Apostle does there speak of the time when this way of heavenly converse between the saincts that are on earth and the holy angels shal be frequent and usuall and no such wonder or strang thing as yet by most it is accounted This will be brought to passe by the opening of the door in heaven interpreted by Christ himself Jo. 1.51 in his answer to Nathaniel Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou Thou shalt se greater things then these What greater things A door open in heaven as a means of easy and familiar entercourse between the inhabitants of heaven and dwellers on earth The angels are to be employed as messengers of intelligence between Christ and his Saincts before the time of his owne personall converse with them on earth For saith Christ verily verily I say unto you Hereafter you shall se heaven open or the gate and door that is made into it and kept open by me for the ascent and descent of my holy angels between me and my Saincts on earth At that day Christ wil be glorified in his Saincts and honour them in the sight of them that hate them God will answer them before they pray whilst they are yet speaking he will heare and speedily avenge them of their adversaries He will grant them the desire of their hearts But when will this day be that these great and wonderfull things shal be seen The text is plain and expresse Revel 11. T is evidently to begin at the rising of the witnesses who shall immediatly upon their rising be thus in the spirit as John was on the Lords day in the I le of Patmos This wil be the proper and usuall dispensation in that day of the Lord that is to begin at the sounding of the seventh trumpet The spirit of life from God shall then enter into the witnesses set them upon their feet and immediatly qualify them to be in the spirit or have their inward senses awakened and fitted to hear and receave messages from heaven and the knowledg of the mind of their Lord by the immediate impression and inspiration of angels employed by him for that purpose We know this was frequently the case with Daniel and most of the other dear servants and prophets of the Lord. Unto Jacob this great mystery and truth was most particularly and distinctly foretold in the ladder which he saw the feet whereof touched the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels ascending and descending upon it and the Lord himself standing above and speaking by that means unto Jacob acquainting him thereby with his mind and giving to him most rich and precious promises The interpretation of this ladder was not only made by our saviour to Nathaniel as we have opened but it was at the same time given to Iacob with the vision itself as appears by the Result that came into his mind thereupon when he sayd How dreadfull is this place It is the very house of God where his throne is It is the very gate of heaven through which by the ministry of angels in the hand of Christ as he is the son of man and hath the use and exercise of all kinds of humane sense in perfection in his glorified manhood the inward and outward man of the saincts shal be so affected changed and transformed as to give them a kind of entrance into and a being in heaven even whilst they are yet here in the body This Christ wrought and obteined the power of when he ascended up above all heavens and as man did come to have a more excellent name then the angels Now that he ascended what is it but that he who was in the forme of God and counted it not robbery to be equall with God did first descend lower then the angels into the fashion of an earthly man the lowermost part of his habitable earth Prov 8 31. even the animalish and sensuall nature of man using and exercising as well the bodily as spirituall senses appertaining to the very naturall man When he had done this by laying hold on the seed of Abraham and receaving it into personall union with himself he set up that ladder in his owne person the feet whereof stand on the earth whilst the top of it enters into the highest heaven For he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill and fulfill all things That therefore which Jacob pronounced in the spirituall interpretation of his vision is most undeniable This is none other sayes he then the house of God the building not made with hands whose builder and maker is God the fathers house wherein are many mansions built by the eternall WORD and wisdom of the father in the person of the mediatour considered as he is the first borne of every creature and the beginning or first begotten from the dead Col. 1. in whom is that life that is the light of men who was before all things and by whom all things consist The way for God that is the high and lofty one inhabiting eternity to descend and come to dwell in the humble broken and contrite spirit as the place of his rest and the way for the humble poor and broken spirit to ascend into the persence and sight of God all this was wrought out in our nature by the WORD that made himself flesh and in that body died rose again and ascended where he was before as in the volume of Gods book it is written of him This he told his owne disciples Jo. 14. In my fathers house are many mansions If it were not so I would have told you Behold I go to prepare a place for you to set the ladder by which the ascent and descent is contrived into my fathers house for such as you are And if I goe and prepare a place for you you may be sure I will come againe and gather you unto my self that where J am ye may be also At his comming again the same Apostle John finds the thing to be true that his Lord had promised For Revel 11.12 19. it appears that upon the rising of the witnesses and sounding of the seventh trumpet the temple of God wil be opened in heaven which is the same opening of the heavens before-mentioned Jo. 1.51 and there wil be seen in his temple the arke of his Testament the law of the two tables written in the heart of Christ the Son of Man from whose presence the fiery law is to be dispensed by the ministry of angels at which there wil be lightnings voices thunderings an earth quake and great haile The door into heaven being thus set open the risen witnesses are spoken to v. 12. saying come up hither or be with me in the spirit in a mind fitted to enterteine converse with me by the ministry of the holy angels And for such a blessing and benefit be not unwilling
as often as there shal be occasion to be absent from the body that you may be present with the Lord. For if herein you should appear vile in the eyes of wordly men as men beside yourselvs as David did in dancing naked before the arke yet is it to God And when you change againe from that inwardnes of life with God to be more in outward converse with men and more sober in their thoughts it is for their sakes and for their great benefit rather then yours that thereby you may be able to turn many of thē to righteousnes In this sence not excluding the literall it will be found true that the saincts shal be called to be and live in the spirit with Christ and to walk with God on earth before their translation as Enoch did Answerable to this it is said Dan. 12.2 compared with 1 Cor. 15.51 52. And many of thē that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt The spirit of our mind which sleepes in the dust of the earth wil be wrought off from that love and delight it is apt to take in making the body its home and exerting itself in such kind of operations as are in and by the use of our bodily organs and wil be gathered and carried up by the ministry of the holy angels forming a meetnes in the senses of the inward man of the heart into a converse with them and with Christ himself in spirit as a better home and city of habitation then that of the dust of the earth wherein it hath bin so long an inhabitant In order to this the soule will be endued or clothed upon with a hearing eare and a speaking tongue like to that of the angels in their immutable state And for this self same thing we are wrought by God who hath given us the earnest of his spirit already insome degree but will give it in the highest degree and measure it is atteinable before the change that comes upon us by death when this body is to be layd downe and brought into a state of actuall separation from the soule This change by death unto those that have partaken first of this awakening shal be very easy like unto the translation of Enoch who saw not death or had no sense of it in a way of pain or horrour His passage was sudden and in a moment very easy and desireable The Apostle Paul therefore speaking of this kind of change that should happen at the sounding of the seventh trumpet even in the beginning of it as we have opened does say behold I shew you a mystery that which as yet is a great secret but hereafter shal be very commonly experienced we shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shal be raysed incorruptible Those whose spirits were before as 't were asleepe in the dust of the earth and dead in respect of the spirituality and heavenlines they are now awaken'd into wil be acknowledged as in that kind and degree of resurrection which wil be made knowne at the rising of the witnesses They shall not die that is leave the body with any painfull sense of death but in a moment shal be changed and translated into glory This awakned risen state is not that which shal be peculiar only to the saincts but wicked men the children of perdition in way of everlasting contempt shall also partake of it with a like way of operation upon the spirit of their minds by wicked angels transforming themselvs into angels of light and hoping by this means to gaine credit to their ministers as ministers of righteousnes also which in a way of counterfeit resemblance the father of deceit wil be preparing during this ministry of Eliah till he be bound up by Christ from any more deceaving of the nations in this kind or any other This the Apostle Paul does very cleerly intimate 1 Cor 13.7 where he admits there may be those that may speake not only with tongues of men but also of angels who yet not having or living in the spirit of love there described will be found to be but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs vessels of great contempt compared with those that make the right and true musick Revel 14. those harpers that are taught how to sing the song of Moses and of the lamb in sweet harmony and consortship together and thereby turne many to righteousnes who shall shine like bright morning stars 3. The third particular then that shal be an eminent effect of Eliahs second comming is the raysing up in the world a more excellent way of preaching hearing and obeying the gospel then ever yet hath bin knowne upon the face of the earth even that which Rom. 11.15 is deservedly called life from the dead and is to be the means of bringing in the fullnes both of jew and gentile This is darkly pointed out by Dives in the parable Luk. 16.30 when in his answer to Abraham he sayes that if one went to his brethren from the dead they would repent hereby glancing as 't were at such a kind of excellent and powerfull ministry as was intended by God to be set up in the world whereby to bring men to repentence or as Luk. 14.23 to compel them to come in that Gods house may be filled with the fullnes both of jew and gentile This kind of ministry is that wherein both for cleernes and certainty of the matter preached and the power of that spirit in which it is ministred shal be beyond all that hath yet bin seen or experienced in the church For in this day the heavens shal be commanded to drop downe from above and the skies to poure downe righteousnes and the earth to open and bring forth salvation that righteousnes from heaven and in the earth may spring up together and this by the Lords owne most powerfull forming and creation Esay 45.8 So Psal 50.1 6. The Lord the mighty God hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the Son to the going downe thereof Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall keepe no longer silence A fire shall devoure before him and it shal be very tempestous round about him He shall call to the heavens from above or make use of the angelicall ministry in the judging of his peoples cause for them as those that he will first employ to go before him and declare his righteousnes and then afterwards will he come in his owne personall appearance and shew that he is judge himself Christ will give the angels a call nay a command and commission to prepare the hearts and mouthes of the saincts as trumpets through which they may give a certain sound to the making manifest the knowledg and vision of God and of
his law in both his Covenants so plaine that those who run may read it And unto this selfsame thing the heart and mouth of those that God will think fit to use in this ministry shal be wrought by Christ spirit as the most glorious earnest they can receave here on earth of the life in glory which they shall for ever enjoy with Christ in heaven For it shall come to passe that those who are thus called into this ministry shal be found speaking with the tongues not of men only but of angels and to have also the love requisite to distinguish them from all counterfeits Yea they shall have this love of Christ and the spirit of it perfected in them to the casting out of all torment and feare making them bold as a lion fearing the face neither of devils nor of men in the discharge of this their ministry which shal be so powerfull as to turne many even innumerable multitudes to righteousnes to the admiration of all beholders The Gentiles shal come to this light and Kings to the brightnes of the very rising thereof Then shalt thou se and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged because the noise or abundance of the sea shal be turned towards thee or multitudes and prophane persons who before were to be seen foaming out their owne filth shall now be converted to thee the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee Esay 60 5. And not the Gentiles only but the Jews also or the mysticall earthly Jerusalem consisting both of Jews and Gentiles that earth shal be made to bring forth in one day that nation shal be borne at once That Zion so soon as she travels shall bring forth her children whose wall the sons of strangers shall build up and their Kings shall minister unto her For in my wrath sayth the Lord I have smote thee but in my favour I have had mercy on thee Therefore thy gates shal be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and their Kings with them For the nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Yea those nations shal be utterly wasted In these beleevers shall Christ be admired and to the exercise of their faith all things shal be possible The power of the keyes shal be so committed to them as is promised that whatsoever they bind or loose on earth shall be bound and loosed in the heaven These will be found to be the angels that come forth out of the temple with the seven vials of Gods wrath commissionated to poure them out upon the beast the whore the false Prophet and the whole Kingdom of Antichrist They shall not need to take care as to what they are to speak and answer for themselvs when they are brought before Magistrates for Christs name sake for in that houre a mouth and wisdom shal be given unto them which their enemies shall not be able to resist 3. The third particular that shall accompany the second comming of Eliah is the neccessary consequent and product that shall and must attend the excellent and powerfull ministry above made knowne For it is by the breath of this mouth of the Lord in his servants the loud plaine and certaine sound of this seventh Trumpet even when it begins to sound that Jacob must arise as low and as small as he and the dispersed seed of God will at that time be judged to be in the eye of the world or in their owne sight Ezek. 37.11 These bones however they seeme to be dried up must live and by this breath of prophesy from the Lord that is to enter into them they shall once againe stand upon their feet with that firmnes and stability as never to fall more When the command is once given for the spirit of prophecy to come forth in that excellent and powerfull way of ministry before-mentioned it will first make a great noise amongst the inhabitants of the world It wil be a voyce of noise from the city a voyce from the temple a voyce of the Lord rendring recompence to his enemies And after the noise which shal be occasioned by this voice of the Lords second appearance to the great joy of his saints and utter shame of his and their enemies there shall immediatly follow a great shaking or earth quake where in a tenth part of the city shall fall to make way for the more easy and ready comming together of the dry bones which will thus gradually become an exceeding great multitude in excellent order For first the sinews and flesh will come upon them and the skin will cover them above but no breath in them yet This is a typicall description of the state of the witnesses who do for a season lie as it were breathlesse and dead in the street of the great city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt But upon the command given to the breath of prophesy that was called from the foure winds to breath upon these slain and cause them to live the breath comes into them and they live and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army even these dry bones of the whole house of Israel who looked upon themselvs a little before as those whose bones were dried whose hope was lost and who were cut off for their parts For at this time God will open as it were the very graves of his people and cause them to come out from thence into their owne land the land of the promised spirit Emmanuells land by putting after this admirable and extraordinary manner his spirit within them that shal be in them and to them as life from the dead causing them to know that the Lord hath opened their graves fro them and brought them into their owne land by vertue of the everlasting Covenant that he hath made with them and hath set his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore The Lord in this day will performe the word spoken by the Prophet Micah chap. 2 12 13. I will surely assemble O Iacob all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel I will put them together as the sheep of the flock in the midst of their fold They shall make a great noise by reason of the multitude of men The breaker up is come up before them they have broken up and have passed thorow the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall passe before them and the Lord on the head of them For the children of Israell shall abide many dayes without a King Prince or sacrifice image Ephod or Teraphim And afterward shall they return and seeke the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodnes in the latter dayes when the Mountaine of the house of the Lord shal be established upon the top of the Mountains and the las shall goe out of Zion and the word of the Lord from