assuredly be found to be the beginning of the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ that is to say of the Gospel preached by that trumpet that gives the certain second and makes manifest the Sons of God in an immutable everlasting state of righteousnes and glory here upon earth in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken which is to succeed all other Kingdoms shewing itself to be the stone cut out of the mountains that will fill the whole earth This everlasting Gospel we are told Revel 14.6 7. is to be preached by an angel flying in the midst of heaven that must with a loud voice say unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation kindred tongue and people fear God and give glory to him for the houre of his judgment is come This is the houre or the day of that great judgment wherein God will judg the world by that man which he hath ordeined Jesus Christ This houre and day is to have continuance in the course of its execution on the earth for the space of a thousand years During this time the Kingdoms of this world shal become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ as holding of him their universall head and exercising all their authority under him Revel 11.15 So then in effect Christ alone shall reigne and be exalted in that day one Lord and his name one over all the earth This day is to begin as hath bin said with the second comming of Eliah and is described in the Scriptures of truth as to the severall particulars thereof The seventh angel sounds by reason whereof it comes to passe that there are great voices to be heard in heaven appointed by Christ as he is the bright morning star and head of all Principalities and powers the true Michael and Archangel to seize upon all scepters and governments of this world to take the Rule and visible power out of the hands of all the Potentates of the earth and reassume it in such a wonderfull manner into the hands of the holy and elect angels who under Christ are appointed the highest and cheif Rulers of the visible world that by the astonishing dispensations of Gods providence in that season it will appear and be acknowledged that Christ hath begun and entered upon the taking to himself his great power in order to exercise his visible Rule as the great only and universall King over all the earth This he will do to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the Kingdom of men giving it to whomsoever he will Yea it shal be acknowledged and seen that under the most high the heavens do rule Dan. 4.26 All matters shall at that time be carried on in the earth visibly by the decree of the watchers v. 17. the supream counsell and senate of judicature wherein the holy angels shall sit and exercise jurisdiction under Christ for the good of his church on earth They are ministring spirits in this very respect sent forth and authorized for this employment even to minister for them who shal be heirs of salvation as it is written all things are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods In that day saith Christ for brasse I will bring gold and for yron I will bring silver for wood brasse and for stones yron so glorious will then the restoration of al things be and I will also make thine officers peace and thine exactours righteousnes Violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting not destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls of defence salvation and thy gates of justice prayse Then the haughtines of man shal be layd low and his lofty lookes brought downe and the worshippers of idols shall goe into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and of the glory of his majesty when he shall thus arise most terribly to shake the earth Esay 2. The same thing is promised Haggai 2 6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come that is to say after the terrible forerunning dispensation ministred by Eliah that went up to heaven in a fiery chariot to take his seat amongst this heavenly colledge of angels and be in that glory with other the spirits of just men made perfect shall the desire of all nations Christ himself come to perfect and consummate what is left wanting in the operation of the former ministry and fill his owne house with glory in the sight of the whole world during the space of a thousand years 2. But 2dly although at the sounding of the seventh trumpet it do come to passe that there be great voices in heaven what is that to the inhabitants that are on earth those that are at home in the body absent from the Lord whose spirits are fast asleep in the earth to wit in the organicall life and exercise of bodily senses Will not they be out of the hearing of the sound of these heavenly voices At least will they be able to understand their meaning unlesse what is uttered by the angelicall tongues be in words easy to be understood by the spirit of their minds who live and dwell in mortall clay and that an easy understanding thereof also be communicable to the sensuall part of the soule which is as the door to take in and give out againe what shal be heard by the sound of such a heavenly Trumpet By what is recorded for our instruction we may be assured this is not impossible nor unpracticable It hapned thus to the Apostle John before his change by death even whilst he was a prisoner and a banished man in the I le of Patmos for the Word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ He looked and behold a door was opened in heaven By the opening of that door he came to be made able to hear the voices in heaven the first and second voice of the angel Revel 4.1 10 8. as it were of a trumpet talking with him which sayd come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter By the power of that voice calling him he was immediatly in the spirit that is as Paul absent from the body He had such an awakening of his inward senses wrought in him such an opening and making of them meet to heare and receave what by the tongue of the angel was to be delivered that he was in the spirit or in the exercise of the same kind of life and manner of conversing with spirits that they are in one with another or that the spirits of just men made perfect do use with the holy angels when in the state of soules seperate from the body made equall to angels and children of the resurrection in the first degree or step of it which is called Revel 20
in the flesh abolishes and abrogates that dispensation of the mosaical ministry and in stead thereof makes the heart and conscience of man in himself and followers the fleshly tables whereon the law is written by the Spirit of the living God Hereby a conformity of holy flesh is wrought in man like unto the flesh of Christ through the hearing of the word This is the washing of our body or natural man with the pure water of the living WORD and Spirit of Christ through the ministry of the outward preaching thereof to the purging and clensing us from all filthines of flesh And this is obteined through the vertue and price of Christs blood together with the atonement and remission of sins past Under this dispensation it is that by the doctrin of the cross signified in the Sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper and thereby lively represented to the eyes of the very natural man he is taught the Gospel a second time under the Scripture dispensation of law and Gospel Neverthelesse this teaching yet is short of the glory of God to be revealed in and by Christs personal appearance in Spirit which as it is the 3. Third and last dispensation of law and Gospel so does it differ in excellency and glory very much from the other two For it is the fruit of the vine which Christ reservs to drink with his owne brethren and faithful Servants in the Kingdom of his father or which his father hath given unto him that those that have continued with the Son in his temptations and followed him fully in the regeneration may eat and drink at his table in this his Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel or the natural and fleshly holy seed jew or gentile who at that day shal be found to be but in their mutable state of righteousnes and life This is the best wine far exceeding any before receaved in types figures and Sacraments being that which Christ keeps till the last as that fruit of himself the heavenly and true vine which will refresh the heart of God and of man or of the divine and heavenly man as wel as of the earthly and natural man brought forth in the exercise of an immutable righteousnes and made after the power of an endlesse life The former of these is to sit at Christs right hand the latter at his left in this his Kingdom and glory unto which both of them are fitted and prepared by the father through the lively conformity they are taken into and made to beare with Christ in his death and resurrection So much be spoken in way of resolution to the first general query of the 4 above propounded to insist on in this Treatise to wit concerning the subject matter of the law or command of God delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God under the threefold dispensation thereof together with the difference of these dispensations under the law of nature Scripture Spirit The time of the latter branch of the 2d dispensation beginning with John the Baptists and Christs owne personal ministry in the flesh is now far spent and the yet more glorious day of Christs 2d appearance and dispensation in Spirit is at hand The second General query to be insisted on is concerning the mutable state man was created in at first and remains in even after the fall out of which he is again capable to be changed and either restored and regenerated by the knowledg of Christ in the Gospel or else cast down for ever into eternal perdition The WORD that hath bin the old Commandement from the beginning that it may evidently appear to all understandings to be the word of Truth doth branch itself forth as hath bin declared into two Testimonies or witnesses which are both of them the law of Gods mouth The one conteins in it the doctrine of the law of works the rule of mans first communion with God in the first Covenant the other the doctrin of the law and righteousnes of faith the rule of that 2d communion which God thinkes fit to take man into in the spirit of his Son which can never be lost as the first may but endures to everlasting life Now two Testimonies according to the law are sufficient for the discovery and confirmation of all truth Answerable hereunto does he that is Truth itself shine and give forth the light of his glory whose two Testimonies may either be joyned in consortship harmony and subserviency with and to one another in the ministry and dispensing of them and so become a law of life to all that heare and obey them that new song mention'd Rev. 14.3 sung before the throne called chap. 15.3 the song of Moses and of the lamb sung together in perfect harmony and agremēt which no man can learne but the 144000 Virgins that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth being redeemed from among men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. But now these two laws or Testimonies of works and of faith as they may be taught and dispensed in difference disagreement inconsistency and opposition one unto the other may become a ministry of death either by setting up and exalting the letter above and against the spirit or disjoyning the spirit from the letter as that which may be without it and needs no consortship with it This is the work of the false deceitful Spirit the father of lies and is not of the Truth Now these being the Testimonies which from the beginning are commanded by God to be heard and obeyed no sooner was man created in Gods image and endued with an immortal intellectual rational and sensual soule made a free agent but God set them before him as a meet and capable subject to be made wise and happy in the practice of them The work of the one of them was immediatly written in his heart by the finger of God at his creation and the word of the other of them as soon as he was put into Paradise was sounding every wherein his eares and was exposed to the sight of his mind in the visible types and signes of the Sabbath the institution of marriage the tree of life and by the ministry of the holy angels Two things are recorded by Moses concerning the first make and constitution of being given unto man by God at his creation The first we find Gen. 1.26 27. where the counsel is taken by the blessed Trinity his creatours within themselvs saying Let us make man in our image after our likenes and let him have dominion over the visible creation and be fruitfull multiply and replenish the earth ruling over every living thing that moveth upon the earth So God created man in his owne image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them God is in his being the highest reason and the operation or work of his mind is discovered and made knowne by the word of his
mouth These two powers in him are reteined in most absolute agrement and usefulnes each unto the other Answerable to this patern in great is man made in little as to his Spirit and soule with this only difference that the work of mans mind in reference to Gods law and his word and outward action in reference to his mind have not immutability in them but may disagree and chāge from their first harmony and primitive patern set them in God The powerfull impression of this patern on the spirit and soule of man was such as in respect thereof it is said God made man upright or perfect formed his mind in perfect agrement and likenes of operation with his owne mind and in full consent and liking of his law as that which is holy righteous Spiritual and good given for man to obey as his duty He disposed him also by a natural bent and inclination of mind to doe good resist evil love righteousnes and hate iniquity This was the state of mans Spirit or soule as yet seperate from his body and not partaker of that flesh and blood which was afterwards formed out of the dust of the earth The second thing therefore noted concerning mans building or creation is that he also became a living sensual or animalish soule actually clothed with bodily organs that God formed for him out of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 And he breathed into his nostrills the breath of life or sent mans soule that was before created in Gods image into that body so appointed and given to it by God as the earth wherein the seed of mans Spirit was planted and the feild in which it was made to grow by reason whereof man became a living soule that is to say by the most intimate union and inhabitation thus wrought by God between the spirit and body of man there was an awakening and bringing into actual exercise the sensual and bodily nature of his mind by sitting to it these meet organs Neverthelesse that which was before in the state of a soule separate an equal and associate to angels comes by this means to be abased and made of little reputation being brought to a kind of equality with the beasts that perish And in like manner as thus the spirit of man was after its first creation embodied and made flesh as a dark shadow of what is done to him t is said to have bin so with the heavens and earth when created yea even every plant of the feild had a state of being before it was put in the earth and every herb of the feild before it grew Gen. 2.4 5 Now through the intimate union and conjunction that mans body is taken into with his soule it is made a living acting speaking creature participant with his rational and intellectual spirit and in fellowship there with meet to have and exercise dominion as God appointed over every living creature that moves upon the face of the earth Thus the bodily life of man became in itself as an Eden the garden of God and the feild that he had blessed and made fruitful unto every good word and work in subserviency and subjection of desire to mans intellectual and angelical part which by the very order and law of nature as having not only priority but eminency of being was given to it both as Lord and husband a superiour and yet a kind of equal joyned with it in such a harmonious consistency that the actings of both natures made up but the compleat and entire Act of mans judgement and will Thus was man created male and female in the spirit and person of Adam before Eve was created as Gen. 1.27 and 2.28.25 do shew And he receaved a charg from God to keep this body in subjection to the dictates of his mind and not suffer it to usurp authority over that part in him which is most the man to wit the angelical or intellectual part When God had thus planted the garden of Eden or pleasure and delight in this spirituall sense as wel as in an outward and literall he puts mans spirit into it giving him the keeping dressing and Rule of it with this expresse command saying of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat but of the tree of knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die For out of the ground the Lord God had made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledg of good and evil Thus was there a paradise without man and within him a garden of pleasant fruit which he might take delight and pleasure in and which he was appointed to dresse and keep in the order wherein God had delivered it over to him and to improve it to the end for which he was brought into it by God And for his instruction herein he was commanded and allowed the use of the outward as wel as the inward senses of his mind with this only caution and Restriction that he should by no means nor upon any pretēce whatsoever hearkē to or obey the voice of his sensual and bruitish nature how rational so ever the judgment of it which is but flesh might seeme to be considered as in its owne single operation tempting and drawing off the cōsent and love of the intellectual part from the streight rule of its duty required in Gods law For the spirit of the mind which is the stronger and better part in man as that which is immortall remains under the morall and perpetuall convictiō of as wel as obligation to the righteousnes required in the law of God the light of which although it may be smoothered for a time cā never be wholly extinguished but is that work of the law in the heart that is and wil be unalterably either excusing and encouraging or accusing and tormēting the mind as cause is give by every mās works It is therefore called the conscience that servs in stead of a thousand witnesses and whē it is awake does alwayes consent to the goodnes and righteousnes that is in the law By this rule therefore sin could not make its approaches but warning would be given and to know evil barely in the abstract without consenting to it or becomming one with it in approbation and delight was not the thing which God forbade him but the feeding on it with consent and delight upon the beholding of its desireablenes in the judgment of the outward senses and as it gratified the bruitish lust and desire of the flesh so as thereupon to be drawn into a compliance and induced to make it the Act of the whole man suffering sin thereby not only to conceave but to be perfected Hence is it said 1 Tim. 2.13 14. that Adam was first formed then eve And Adam or the intellectual and superiour part in man
is under from God as he is made in Gods image he hath an aptitude a strong bent lively inclination and disposition of mind to the right and just which is conteined in the law of God and wherein mans whole duty doth consist But because as hath bin said man is by nature not withstanding all this left at such a liberty as that he is not by any certain prevailing and overcomming power over and against whatsoever shall make resistance with held and restrained kept and bound fast to his duty at this door through the weakenes of the flesh sin entered and death by sin passed upon all men because in Adam the common parent all men had sinned This door unto sin is kept open so long as mans naturall freedom continues with him either as receaved at first before the fall or by way of restoration through the redeemers blood since which we shall speake unto in its proper place That which opens this door is mans owne lust as it is written Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his owne lust and enticed Thē when lust hath conceaved it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death The mind of God is above all temptatiō to evil The mind of man is not so though formed in Gods image whilst he is yet under the law and its dominion and hath not atteined unto nor bin brought under grace So long then as man lives in and will not part with his primitive natural fredom nor resign it through faith in exchang for a second gift of it from God in a better kind and way he is stil under the dominion of the law and not only accountable for the breaches of it and transgressions against it but under the inevitable condemning and revenging power thereof that wil first or last execute the curse threatned upon all evil doers But he that is under grace is become dead to the law being crucified with Christ or fastned and bound by the power of the death and cross of Christ with such a bent of mind and hatred against sin as nothing can alter or chang and is so quickned and made free and a live unto righteousnes as nothing can hinder the course and duration of it By this means the door of the mind is so fixed and fast shut against all sin as it is not in the power of the gates of hel ever to set or break it open more In the mind of man we are to acknowledg as hath bin already intimated two parts 1. the spirit of the mind the superiour and intellectual part equalizing man with angels 2dly the sensitive and inferiour part which abases man into the likenes and into a kind of equality with the Beasts and is indeed capable to make him a beast yea actually and that too generally does make men so This inferiour part of mans spirit is as the door of his mind the mouth or instrumēt of its cōverse inward or outward and in distinction from the first and superiour power the spirit of the mind is called in scripture flesh or the sensuall and living soule Hēce that of the Apostle Rom. 7.25 So then I myself with my mind do serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin So also our blessed saviour observing the fleshly drowsines of his disciples that they could not watch one hour with him at such a pinch of straits as he then was in the spirit says he is willing but the flesh is weak This was the lusting flesh in mā evē in paradise whilst in his innocēcy and through its weaknes was the door of the mind set open to let in temptation and sin For it is soon taken and deceaved and is weak in resisting evil And it is as soon weary of wel-doing if the way to persevere in weldoing be through the crosse and all kinds of streights hardships and disappointments unto the flesh even to this fleshly and sensual part of mans mind For no sooner does this come into activity and liberty by the conjunction and fellowship it is taken into with the intellectual and superiour part the spirit of the mind but it is apt to run wild fly out and grow untamed and extravagant as that which loves not to be accustomed to the yoke and held in subjection to the spirit of the mind as that is subjected to the law of God It is apt to judg itself wise enough to make its owne choice and to trust to its owne single judgment in all its actings And in case it be cross'd and not complied with by the dictates of right reason in its superiour part 't is apt to murmure and be sullenly rebellious so as to forbeare to do its office and duty to its head and Lord the spirit of the mind In order to bribe off and gain the consent and approbation of the superiour and ruling power of the mind to the way and course it desires to take it will invent many fair specious and plausible pretences make false representations of things fascinating appearances and mists to delude and blind the superiour discerning of the mind It will turne every stone to obteine its end spreading before the spirit of the mind flattering speeches as nets and bands to take and ensnare it as the strong man Samson was serv'd by his Dalilah This demeanour and practice of the woman the female and inferiour power of the mind towards its Lord and husband the superiour is most lively described by Solomon Eccles 7.26 I find sayes he more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands bands who so pleaseth God which without faith is impossible shall escape from her but the sinner shal be takē by her he that is a sinner through unbeleife The spirit of mans mind by refusing and resisting that offer and work of the spirit of God whereby it should be brought into a most free subjection and captivity to the law of faith becomes a sinner and so comes to be taken by the nets and snares the enticing words and pretences of its inferiour power and in downright tearmes at length to be wholly captivated and subjected under the usurped commanding influence of that sensuall life it ought to rule over This was the lusting flesh in Adam as also in Eve before the fall which the Serpent knew how to tempt and gratify And such did the weaknes of this flesh prove that it was not able to withstand or resist the temptation All that the serpent aim'd at was but to prevaile with this flesh to think itself so wise and sufficiently able to move and act by the strength and excellency of its owne single judgment as that it might safely undertake to doe what should be found most liking and agreable to its owne sense and refuse the
in the Sacramentall signes of his death on which he appoints them to feed as so manifesting him unto them till he himself come in his owne personall appearance in spirit to shew them the same mystery in the substance it self or originall patern Of the above-mention'd sorts of beleevers partaking of the light and life of Christs first appearance from the voice and testimony of the scriptures together with the sacramentall signes of his death instituted by commandment from God in his written word does the visible Christian church consist that hold themselvs to the rule of the Scriptures for their guide and are faithfully obedient in putting into practice what is therein revealed Amongst these there alwayes is as we have shewed a select number of hidden and beloved ones kept through the power of faith unto salvation without whom the rest would be as Sodom and Gomorrah And for the sake of this small remnant that truly and properly are Gods heritage out of all the rest as the new wine in the cluster it is that the Lord sayes destroy it not for there is a blessing in it These are they that being in and under the law of the Scriptures the teaching of Gods outward and written word shal be judged by this law as to the things they are found failing in and as to their comming short of the end set before them in this ministry Now the end of it is to bring them by faith to the sight and fellowship of Christ himself speaking in spirit as he is the word of the beginning and gives forth the light of the glory of God in his owne face with which he shines in the hearts of his people This comes to passe when once it pleases the father to reveal his Son in us setting him as a living patern before the eyes of our faith that in unity and similitude of spirit with that wherein the works are done by him in himself we may fulfill the law of God after him and be brought to live and dwell together in the same love which hath its season of dawning in the heart as the true day-star to prepare the soule to meet with Christ in the glory of his secōd appearāce Concerning these is it said Rom 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit When they have begun in the spirit they do end there also and draw not back to be perfected in the flesh As they live in the spirit so their care and practice is to walk in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh Their praise is of God not of men They lose the prayse and honour of men because they seek both of them from God only They are strangers and pilgrims with him on the earth as all their fathers were They sojourne in tents in the outward land of Canaan the streets of the visible church and various self-chosen wayes of visible worship which Christians of different judgments walk in These invisible saints have their eye set upon the heavenly countrey and building that hath foundations which is the workmanship wrought in God the engraffed WORD and by him is held forth to the eye of that faith that is the evidence of things unseen and is able to espy for us this land of promise in the spirit whilst it is yet at a great distance and very far off There is evidently set before this eye of our faith the crucified spirit of Christ as he offered up himself in sacrifice to the will of the father learning obedience by the things that he suffered in denying his owne will that we may tread in the same steps dying with him that we may live with him and suffring with him that we may reign with him Through such fellowship with him in his suffrings and conformity with him in his death we shall be found still advancing and pressing forwards if by any means we may attein the resurrection of the dead or that redemption of the body which is atteinable in this life by those that diligently presse after the mark for the prize of their high calling which is in Christ Jesus This resurrection and redemption of the body will be experimented upon the rising of the witnesses and then better understood In the mean time the eagle-eyed beleever lives upon the dead carkasse of Christ crucified seen so in spirit And he is content as a mēber of his dead body to be made the scorne and off-scouring of the world a member of the forsaken Zion that dwells in the feild in a wildernes-state solitary and alone that no man regards because his dwelling is in the dust in expectation of rising together with Christs dead body Untill that season this sort of beleevers in stead of being found within the pale of the visible church do follow Gods invitation of them into the secret chambers of his presence and do dwell in his house a building not made with hands in the person and spirit of Christ where they behold his beauty shutting the doors about them as to any visible entercourse with the worldly Church Thus they hide thēselvs as it were for the little moment that his indignation is to last and be exercised on thē by the power and during the reigne of the Beast Blessed are those that thus die in the Lord though by the world called and accounted phanatick waiting for the brightnes of his second comming He that hath ears to hear let him hear To shut up thē and close the ministry of the day of Christs first appearance as after this manner the Redeemer hath bin lifted up in it and the work of common and temporary as well as of peculiar and eternall Redēption hath bin wrought by him and made manifest to all sorts of men and of beleevers in the world we shall now come in the next place to a distinct consideration of the fourth and last generall head of enquiry above mentioned in this discourse which is concerning the very being life and constitution of the new creature or that immutable state in righteousnes and glory that begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second 4. The fourth generall enquiry then is about the immutable state of life and righteousnes in the new creatures constitution or that change which is brought upon man by the new creation The new creatures life is founded as hath bin shewed in the birth of the fathers love in the soule Of this love are they born who are by Christ the immortall seed layd hold on cleaved unto and apprehended in that intimate and inseperable marriage-union in spirit which is never to be dissolved in the Covenant ordered in all things and sure that is contracted in his person between the father and the Son through the holy Ghost Where ever this union is there is Gods love there is Christ inseperably united to that soule
of sons of a higher and lower dignity of this man and of that man that is borne there whether of noble or common degree all free heaven-born citizens and subjects of one and the same great and universall King They shall dwell in perfect unity together and be of one accord as brethren singing the song of Moses and of the lambe in sweet harmony and consort and the stranger and the uncleane shall no more passe through this glorious city For there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that does defile nor that worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they only which are written with the writing that is upon both those stickes before-mentioned in the lambs both of life This is the church and civill state which the ministry of Eliah is to prepare the way unto as the end to which all the work of restitution which thereby shal be wrought does and must tend This will be effected by the powerfull preaching of the everlasting gospel by a ministry that shall have the tongues not of men only but of angels filled with the inspiration of the holy Ghost as also yeilding vengeance and flames of fire as a day of great judgment and distinction that is to be brought and executed upon ungodly men and willfull opposers of that work by the pouring out upon them the seven vialls of Gods wrath like as Moses his ministry did upon Pharaoh King of Egypt so long as he hardned himself and refused to let Israel his son and his first born goe free and serve him according to his duty By Eliahs second comming then according to the particulars before declared together with the end itself in order to which this ministry of restoring all things is appointed we are to understand no other then the spirit and power wherein the slaine witnesses of Christ shal be quickned made to stand upon their feet and have withall an ascent given to them into heaven as visible associates and copartners with the holy angels in their power and great glory like bright morning starrs and signes of the comming of the son of man even whilst they are yet remaining in the body on this side death This second comming of Eliah therefore is not to be confounded with Christs owne personall comming which succeeds and comes to give us actually and compleatly a part in that which Rev. 20. is called the first resurrection The change effected by Eliah's comming will rather be a transfiguration then what properly can be called the first resurrection by which our bodies wil be made like unto that glorious body of Christ in which he lived on earth fourty dayes before his ascension and in which power and glory he is to shine forth like the sun in his strength as the brightnes of the day of his second comming encreases and rises up to its height For the ushering in hereof this signe in heaven of the son of mans comming is to go before which as hath bin said is no other then the spirit and power which the slain witnesses or the dried dispersed bones and members of Christs dead body his hidden invisible seed of beleevers his church at that time on the earth shal be quickned and raised up into as a heaven upon earth in the sight of the whole world The wise or teachers that then shal be among them shall shine as the brightnes of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnes as the stars for evermore By the power of that faith which brings life and immortality to light in the minds of those that are true Israelits indeed inhabitants of the new and heavenly Jerusalem that is above we have declared that Abraham in type and Christ in spirit and truth is the father unto two sorts of Sons that are both heirs and witnesses of what they se and heare from Christ They are both written among the living in Jerusalem with a writing that is never to be defaced or blotted out Some of them are made conquerours and others of them more then conquerours through Christ that hath loved them and caused them to abide and continue with him in his temptations and to beare a conformity in their minds to his death armed with the same mind as he was for suffering in the flesh as well as carrying about in their bodies the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus They have heard and receaved that language of faith in them and to them with which Paul acquaints us Tim. 2.2 11 12. If we be dead with him we shall live with him if we suffer we shall also reigne with him Unto this carkasse or dead body the eagles the fowles of heaven by a ministry of the spirit of life from God wil be gathered together And as a breath from the foure winds of heaven a wind of prophesy and divine inspiration in the spirit and power of Eliah shall come forth and shew itself in these slain witnesses where ever they shal be found throughout the whole world and bring them together into one sheepfold of visible government both in church and state In this posture it will be found most true that by fire from heaven and as the Lords owne sword they shall plead with all flesh and the slaine of the Lord shal be many that shall fall under them in attempting to rise up against them For in and by this ministry of Eliah the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirl-wind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire When you shal be awakened to se by the comming of this glorious ministry of God what in this day shal be wrought not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord the seven eyes which run to and fro through the whole earth rejoycing to se his work goe on and taking care that there be sutable dispensations of divine providences to further and advance it whereof the decision to be made in the valley of Iehosaphat will not be the least then your heart shall rejoyce and your bones flourish like an herbe and the hand of the Lord shal be knowne towards his Servants and his indignation towards his enemies Then shall the thoughts and words of the enemies of Gods people in designing against them however hidden and secret even in their very bedchambers be knowne and discovered by this ministry of Eliah and the Mountains full of horses and chariots of fire shal be like walls round about the city of God to defend them And not only the eyes of the Prophet the eyes of the inward man of the Saincts or of the spirit of their mind but the eyes of the Prophets servant also the beast on which he rides the sensual and outward man of the soule in the exercise of the very bodily senses shal be opened to se that there are more with the people of God then can be against them So shall all feare be removed far from them
seale and lay hold on that one seed which is Christ making it the brightnes of his glory the expresse character of his essential mind which is righteousnes and holines itself This is the WORD that is neer thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst doe it that is to say in the heart and mouth of Christ the second Adam and head of al true beleevers by him to be poured out as an anointing for the whole seed rendring thereby the visiō of Gods mind so plain to them that he that runs may read it The ministry of this law is a voice that First invites all freely to come to the waters every one that is a thirst and he that hath no mony to come buy and eat yea to come and buy wine and milk without mony and without price that they may eat that which is good and delight themselfs in fatnes This first general voice and invitation leaves it to mans choice whether he wil obey and come or not But this law and ministry hath also in it a second voice that carries with it such a prevailing attractive power such an unresistible constraining loue as will receave or admit no deniall It does so powerfully encline the eare and heart to heare and obey that by means of this effectual saving grace there is made an everlasting Covenant between Christ and the soule even the sure mercies of David Christ himself in this dispensation is given to be a witnes commander and leader to those that are under it upon such teams as never to faile leave or forsake them 1. The first of these voices in its ministry is tearmed in Scripture the day of Christ first appearance which hath already risē and had its kingdō in word and also in Spirit but sowē in weakenes It hath shined upō the world had its beginning and continuance and is now drawing very neer to its ending wherein Christ is to be rejected and that by his owne citizēs a generation that are inhabitāts of the earthly Jerusalē vnder the name of Christians succeeding their predecessours the jews into whose room they are surrogated in their froward and bitter principles and Spirit wherein they please not God and are contrary to all men This is called the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by means of the outward word accompanied with the Spirit to all nations as a witnes before the end come or before that dispensation come that puts an end to it as perfective of it restoring it out of its dying and declining state into a brightnes and glory that is everlasting as shal be declared at the rising of the witnesses It began with the ministry of John Baptist as the voice of him crying in the wildernes prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight It was continued encreased and carried up to its height even by the personal ministry of the Son of God manifested in flesh who was born of a virgin died for our sins and rose againe according to the Scriptures And by his ascending up on high he did lead captivity captive and gave gifts to men went on in the greatnes of his strengh conquering to conquer till the war and opposition sprang up that was raised against him by the man of sin and Son of perdition for the space of 42 months or 1260 years to the overspreading the face of the church with apostacy and thick darknes Herein so great a progresse hath bin made that we are brought as it were to the shutting in of the evening of this first glorious Gospel day and new Testament ministry in Spirit and by the written word to the verifying that Scripture Luk. 17. which sayes The dayes will come when ye shal desire to se one of the dayes of the Son of Man and ye shall not se it because the light of it must withdraw to give place and make way for the approaching glory of another of the dayes of the Son of Man even that of his second appearance and Kingdom at which time he shall shew himself the only Potentate over all the earth KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS 2. The second voice and ministry of the Gospel above mentioned performed in and by Christs second appearance is that which as hath bin said doth powerfully encline and prevailingly work upon the hearts of men for the obedience of Gods law binding up their soules in the life that is eternall This second appearāce though the yonger does with Jacob lie in the same wombe with the first in the hearts of all true beleevers And though it come not out first yet at last it obteins the preeminence and birthright causing those that are children of this day even whilst they are under the first dispensation to abide with God as pilgrims and strangers therein as all their Fathers were and by faith to espy this promised land and heavenly countrey whilst at a distance and very far off Esai 33.17 and to wait for it with patience in a certainty of hope and stedfastnes of confidence till they enter into and become actuall possessours of it The operation and effect which this second day of Christ appearance shal have upon beleevers in its very morning brightnes will render them in their minds like to the elect angels in obeying the law of God active powerfull and stedfast in working righteousnes It will qualify them also with a meet frame of Spirit for angelicall converse whilst yet in the body as sutable associates and consorts with them in Gods service and worship And from the powerfull influences that shall descend from the intellectuall and superiour part of mans mind quickned with the warmth and life of those holy Spirits in the hand of Christ the animall or souly life and bodily nature of man shal be formed into such subjection as will by degrees work out a perfect redemption of the body from the bondage of corruption even in this life as the needfull preparatory dispensation of Eliah that first comes and restores all things before the personal appearing of the son himself For although he will first shew himself in the glory of the holy angels as the bright morning star in the beginning of this day yet is he to come forth also in the farther progresse of this day in the glory of his father and therein to shine forth as the sun in his strength after that he hath first sent his angels to gather out of this his Kingdom all things that doe offend and them which doe iniquity casting them into a furnace of fire Whē this preparatory work is done by the messengers he sends before him Christ will reveale himself from heaven and by that glorious sight which he will give of himself chang those that then are alive and remain on the earth into his owne likenes in soule and body and gather them unto himself as meet consorts and associates for him in that his glorified state catching them up to him in that
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
nor ever be sure of keeping the condition of that Covenant upon which God promises to be his God and to be and abide in loue and communion with him for ever And it is most unquestionable that the Lord will faithfully performe his promise and his oath the two immutable things wherein he cannot lie The only doubt is whether man in this first make and frame of mind be able to performe the duty required of him Every benefit requires answerable duty Gods bounty then to man in giving him his being creating him in his owne image and likenes must needs lay a strong obligation upon him to loue God with the love that he requires And if this love be made by God a necessary condition of mans obteining eternall life it is certainly possible for man to performe this condition even to loue the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength either in the power of what he hath or of what by the same gracious and liberall hand of God he may be made to have For an impossible condition is all one with a negative as if God should say that eternall life and blessednes is utterly impossible and altogether vnatteinable for man The nature of man is most drawne and commanded by love This is that which swayes and carries it in its motions after the object which it pursues Now the appearance which God gives of himself in his Son the image of the invisible God the brightnes of his glory and expresse character of his person is the most beautifull and desireable object that can come into the mind of man for his fruition and inheritance And he is not only lovely in himself but full of love to man He hath such love in him to mans nature as he hath not to any besides no not to the angels For he took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham which thereby came to be knit in personall union with the only begotten Son of God And yet farther the love of God in Christ towards men is most largly and liberally diffusive to the filling all those that doe become willing receavers and enterteiners of it with its owne fulnes and unsearchable riches of divine treasure shewing itself not in word only but in deed and in truth to all those that are taken into cohabitation with it as the habitable part of its earth The cords of this love are the cords of a man attracting by arguments exceedingly adaequate and suited to the reason and understanding of man Where lies then this great mystery that it should be impossible for man to continue in the love which God commands and declares as the law he is to observe and performe upon the severest penalties of his displeasure Is it not rather indeed a grosse mistake for any to thinke or say so And are we not rather to conclude and affirme that it was not only possible for man to have performed this great and comprehensive duty of continuing in the love of God which is the fulfilling of all law before his fall but is so still by such restoration of strength and ability as men doe receave by the vertue of Christs death and resurrection Man in his first creation was furnished with an ability to be his owne keeper in that righteous and good frame wherein he came fresh and lively out of Gods hands with which he girds himself and goes whithersoever he will He was created unto good workes that he should walke in them he had the enlightning and quickning influence of Gods spirit to assist and direct him therein Yea he was so intimately ioyn'd with the Lord the spirit in love likenes and agreement that it may truly be sayd his soule was as it were a part of his joyned and continued to him as the habitable part of his earth the temple which he built for himselfe to dwell in And must it not needs be very irksome and painfull to depart be cut of disioynted and separated by our iniquity from him that is our life But as man hath thus a righteous and reasonable soule which ought to be guided by the mind and law of his God so hath he also a power of girding and turning himself according to the free motion of his owne will He hath in his soule a changable principle which can move and conclude either way to good or evil according to the differing report and representation that is made to him by the one or other part of his mind that is his intellectuall or sensuall nature of both which he is composed as hath bin shewed So then according to the arguments given by these different parts of his composition on the one hand or on the other being furnished with a competent measure of divine light to discerne and conclude aright as to the way he should goe God leavs him so far forth in the hand of his owne counsell as to be at liberty to chuse and determine within himself as it shall seem best to him In this vnconstant and moveable estate of man this dividednes and wavering of mind inclinable to good and also to evill under the shew of good man being left free and without constraint what is it possible for him to doe can he love the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength and his neighbour as himself and can he continue so to doe unchangably and perpetually The answer very breifly may be 1. That it is possible for man to be perpetually moved in and by that love to God which is required by the law 2. It is possible for man considered either as before or since the fall to move himselfe in the performance of this his duty for a much longer continuance then he shews himself willing and inclinable to do it in his mutable state 3. It must reasonably be supposed that while man reteins such a changable principle and fountaine of action in him as the freedom of his owne will and to be in his owne keeping and at his owne dispose his obedience to Gods law and his walking with him must needs be as God him self complains at an all-adventures and without any stedfastnes in his Covenant But he that as single and at his owne dispose in the freedom of his owne will cannot keep himself firme and stedfast in the performance of his duty may so yeild himselfe to be bound up in the will and motion of another who is unchangable that he may be kept in the power thereof unmoveable and free from all danger of departing or turning aside to the right hand or to the left from the holy and streight way of Gods Commandements And this seeming bondage to the will of another is the truest greatest and most absolute freedome being that which falls to mans share as he comes to be actually united with Christ in the band of the choicest and most excellent marriage union We may then safely conclude that it was possible
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
her untimely and over-forward request on their behalf Mat 20 20 22. She seemed desirous to have them in the throne before they had drunk of the cup and bin made partakers of the great tribulations wherein they were to abide with Christ and all other beleevers in them represented This suffring season is to hold till the time of the Gentils shal be fulfilled for the treading downe and trampling under foot by the space of 42. months the holy city and tabernacle of David that hath bin reared up amongst them by the Apostles ministry after it was fallen amongst the jews Act 15. v. 16 17. When it was fallen amongst the jews it came to be set up in the midst of the Gentiles a nation that for a season did very affectionately bring forth the fruits of the gospel Thus the residue of men those that were not regarded till the jewish nation was rejected and broken off from the good olive tree were brought to seek after the Lord even all the gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who doth all these things This is the first act and effect of Christs resurrection or of that day in the spirit upon the hearts and minds of the children of this his Kingdom which is preparing them by the trialls allotted to them in the keeping the word of his patience to sit with him on his throne and shine forth in the day of his power not only as bright morning stars but as the sun itself in its strength in the Kingdom of their father The beginning of the whole day of Christs Kingdom wherein he will have the word of his patience kept in faith and faithfull witness-bearing was without all question from the time of his Ascension according as it is written Act. 1.8 Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth To like effect spake Ananias to Paul upon his conversion Act 22 14 15. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and se that just one and shouldst hear the voice of his mouth that thou mayst be a witnesse unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard And although there be something in this conversion of Paul which is extraordinary as to his unction and mission into the ministry and office of Apostleship yet this description of the Apostles conversion hath that in it as to the essentiall parts of it which is common to all the spirituall seed of Abraham For first they are all chosen to know the will of God secondly to know it by the sight of the just one Christ in spirit through faith thirdly to heare the voyce and understand the language of the spirit of Christs mouth by the eare that is given them to hear what Christ in spirit saith to the churches or to particular members of his body fourthly to be witnesses according to their measure and degree of light in their stations and callings of what they have seen and heard In this sence the whole spirituall seed of Abraham are Christs witnesses specially since his ascension from which time he began to be seen by them in spirit and to speak to them from heaven by his indwelling presence in their hearts through faith True beleevers as hath bin opened are of two sorts or degrees Both of them are free-born sons and citizens of the same heavenly Jerusalem and holy city Christ calls them his two witnesses and declares the sackcloth testimony of his name which they are to bear during the treading down of them the holy city underfoot even by the gentiles of the outward court for the space of 42 months But although that these two witnesses were in being and also engaged in the work of witnessing what they had seen and heard according to Christs commission immediatly after the comming down of the holy Ghost upon them at the day of Pentecost not only in Jerusalem and Samaria but also to the ends of the earth yet the time of the treading them underfoot by the gentiles of the outward court did not begin till some hundreds of years after nor by the same reason could their sackcloth testimony begin which had relation to that treading downe and must needs therefore be contemporary with it When once this began it was to continue but 42 months or 1260. years from the very same time as that power that was to tread them downe came to have its beginning as authorized or permitted to make war with them and bring them under To the Beast which all the world wonder'd after and fear'd to make war with was power given to continue 42 months that he might make war with the saincts and overcome them Rev. 13.7 Who or what this beast is was long agoe made knowne to Daniel and by him foretold and described ch 7 23 24. It is said to be the fourth beast signifying the fourth Kingdom or universal oppressing power that should be on the earth over the saints of God and that should come in processe of time to stand up in a diversity from all the other three Kingdoms or universall monarchies that had gone before it This considerable variation did come to passe and shew itself in a horn of remarque and note by itself that upheld the same oppressing power and principles against the saints of the most high for the treading downe of the holy city that the other three had don before but under a new forme or name of Christian which they had never owned On the account of this name or outward profession of Christianity which the fourth beast came to make in the course of the little horne he plucks up by the roots the worship and many prophane customs that had bin cleaved to owned and practised during the reigne of meer down-right heathenisme all the time of the three former Kingdoms Babylonish Persian Grecian as also a great part of the Romane till this fourth Kingdom or universal monarchy came to be headed with the little horne under the style of universall Bishop or cheif preist when the Romane empire that had bin heathenish came to divide and sinke downe into ten horns or Kingdoms all agreeing yet in this to give up their power to the little horne in acknowledging the papacy and universal Rule over them in spiritualls by the Bishop of Rome These ten Kings with their civil power thus uniting under one head as to spiritualls do together with their head constitute that course and state of the fourth monarchy under which it is called the little horne Now when the time of this combination began is somewhat difficult to say exactly and to a year But if the beginning of this little horne be once rightly found out and stated it will not be difficult to say when it shall end or when the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth shal end which must be at the same time For the 42 months of this little hornes continuance in
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
shall first destroy all his enemies even death itself and shall end with the universall resurrection and and passing of the finall sentence winding up all in the resigning up of his Kingdom to the father that God may be all in all Thus the thousand years is no distinct time from the day of Judgment neither before it nor after but the same with it the whole time during which this great day of judgment does continue in the very beginning whereof Antichrist shall finally be destroyed and not before These therefore in Scripture are called the times of Christs Kingdom wherein he will shew himself the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this for the space of a thousand years in the last period of which comes the last and finall sentence before mentioned to be pronounced and executed The reason therefore why the excellent promises above recited are not yet performed is twofold 1. The times for their performance are not yet fully come though very neer But most certaine it is as we have heard that they shall and will come 2dly Because the seed also to which they are made is not yet come to be made manifest as they shal be in distinction from all counterfeits and false pretenders which say they are Jews and are not but do lie This discrimination and certaine cleare discovery of the true seed of God from the false will be begun to be made by the ministry of Eliah or the ministry that shall rise up in the spirit and powers already discribed This excellent ministry must and wil be attended with a church of saints answerable which shall consist of the risen witnesses the dry bones that this spirit of prophesy brings out of their graves from the foure winds of heaven causing them to stand againe upon their feet an exceeding great army All of them are to be quickned by the means of this powerfull and glorious ministry with a spirit of life from God that enters into them and shews itself to be that life from the dead in them which is never more subject to corruption It is unto these also that God sayes by a great voyce from heaven which they are fitted with ears to heare come up hither and they do accordingly ascend up to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them or rather heaven is brought downe into their knowledg and possession here on earth whilst as yet they are clouded with their mortall body which nevertheles shall at last be changed in a moment and they not se death In the meane time they shall experience their very mortall body freed from the bondage of corruption and restored to the primitive purity glory use and serviceablenes unto the mind which it had in paradise in the persons of our first parents before the fall And to these shall it be given to se the opening of the heavens long since promised by Christ and the temple of God that is there opened also and in the temple the arke of the Testament both which Revel 15.5 are put together and called the temple of the tabernacle of the Testimony in heaven which in that day shal be opened the true tabernacle or sanctuary which God pitch'd and not man Heb. 8.2 In this temple dwelleth the fulnes of the God head bodily the vision whereof is to be made plaine to the eye of our sensuall part or to our inward bodily senses that by seing the mind of God in such legible characters in the spirit and person of Christ the like mind may be found and seen in all that are his who are then to appeare in the same likenes by seing him as he is That which Christ is and in spirit shal be seen to be as the mind of the father is wrought out in him the Apostle Paul points out Philip. 2.5 c. 1. He is in the forme of God the WORD of life who was in the beginning was with God and was God And thus considered he accounts it not robbery to be Gods equall 2dly In the dispensation of the fulnes of time the same that is in the forme of God is also found in fashion as a man and is made flesh with the use of a living soule in the very earthly and outward senses of it bearing the form and likenes of the first Adam in his primitive purity 3. He that thus descended into flesh and the lowermost parts of his habitable earth in which earthly make and nature he became inferiour to angels for the suffering of death is the same that out of this does ascend and is exalted far above all heavens by being made in his humane spirit soule and body the temple wherein all the fulnes of the God head dwells bodily and a meet vessel to receave possesse and be the minister of it unto others He is the WORD of life the brightnes of the fathers glory the expresse character of his substance by which this manhood is sealed and made heavenly partaking with the living WORD as he is the Angel of Gods presence in whom is Gods name He is the cheif and highest Angel and as such is head of all principalities and power And over and above all this in his archangelicall estate he is the true Michael Gods equall the man that is made Gods fellow or second in the same divine throne of glory In these three cheif particulars Christ the temple of God in heaven shal be seen and made manifest as that which he is and will witnes himself to be in the hearts of all true beleevers the sons of his love that are to be are his likenes and to be seen with his name and superscription upon them In this respect it is that he hath given that commandement 1 John 4 20 21. that he who loveth God in Christ love his brother also which those that doe not will thereby prove themselvs liars if they say they love God For how can he love God or Christ whom he hath not seen that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen There is a day comming when that which Christ wil be seen to be in himself he wil be seen to be also in his members that shal be receaved and gathered unto him as joynt heirs and possessours of his fathers love and glory When Christ who is their life shall so appear they shall also appear with him in glory They shall no longer remaine in their hidden and concealed state wherein they are judged according to men in the flesh whilst they live according to God in the spirit Nor shall they any longer be like Princes walking on foot whilst Servants ride on horse back Behold then upon the opening of the temple of God in heaven the powerfull and glorious effects that the ministry of the spirit flowing from thence shall produce and be accompanied with for the making manifest the true Israel of God The Lord himself will descend first with the voice of the Archangel that
heavenly aire or Spirit where they are to be ever with the Lord. In effect the day of Christs second appearance brings upon the stage of this world life from the dead working and declaring the first resurrection mentioned Revel 20. which is to continue visible to men on earth one thousand years The glorious chang which shal be made in the progresse of this day upon the soules and bodies of the Saincts shal be such as will no more leave them subject to corruption For over them the second death shall have no power This is another of the dayes of the Son of Man which succeeds the first is to continue a thousand years and then also have its end upon the sons making a voluntary and entire resignation of this his Kingdom unto his Father that God may be all in all For during this thousand years the son in his Kingdom shal be exalted as he to whom the father hath committed all judgmēt to be executed so that what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth shal be loosed in heaven Whom he will he shall slay and whom he will he shal keep alive as the most absolute Monarch and only Potentate that ever reigned on the earth to the end that during this season and space of time all mē may honour the son with the honor due to the father and in this appearance of the Son se the father as in his vicegerent and doe him homage in this his living Image the Lords Christ or anointed one the man that by God is ordeined to rule the world in righteousnes even all the nations upon the earth during this his day which immediatly praecedes the day of eternity and last judgment wherein God is to be all in all The son himself after that all things shall have bin subdued and subjected unto him shal be subject to the Father that put all things under him This second day of the Son of Man is that one day knowne to the Lord not day nor night but a kind of middle state between that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible It is neither absolutely one or the other but a mixture of both And it shall come to passe in the evening of this day it shal be light and the passage out of this into the day of eternity very pleasing and delightsome It shall distinguish itselfe as hath bin already intimated into the 3 usuall parts of a day MORNING MIDDAY NIGHT. 1. In its morning beauty and appearance the Eliah comes and restores all things as is foretold of him the BRIGHT MORNING STAR which is to shew to the kings of the east the neer approach of the only begotten Son himself and be to them and all other inhabitants on the earth the signe of the Son mans approaching and comming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory 2. In the noontide of this day of the Son of Man in his Kingdom shal be seen the height of the sunshine of that royall power and greatnes which shal be exercised by him in the capacity of universall King over all the earth the season wherein there shal be one LORD in his owne person visible and his name one throughout the whole world 3. There shall also be a declining and evening state of this glorious day which willingly and cheerfully gives place to the day of eternity wherein the father unveyled shall shine forth and be all in all How fitly does Ezekiel in the vision he had of the holy waters represent and describe this growing encreasing Kingdō of Christ revealed in the Gospel the light of Gods law that shines forth in the Son himself into the obedience and power whereof we are to be changed from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit The waters issued from under the threshold of the house eastward on the right or south side Ezek. 47. Their first comming forth was by measure the measure of a man and gradually from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loins from the loins to a river unpassable by man as meer man in his first constitution of being 2. 2dly then the same waters came forth in a communication above and beyond the measure of mans first nature into a river that man may swim in without drowning or being at all subject to die any more how much higher soever it rise above the head of the naturall man the first Adam And of this Noah by faith was aware who that he might obtein a state of safety from the overflowing flood by which al the world not made beleevers and taken into the arke were drown'd obeyed the counsel and command of God in building the arke and going into it after it was built and ready to receave him Herein have we a lively type of Christs humane nature offered up by the immortal Spirit and brought forth into the life that is from the dead never to die more but hath the keys of hel and death committed to him Unto the likenes of this heavenly building and temple of the living God in Christs person every true beleever is fashioned and conformed and is thereby made a fit vessel to swim in those waters of life safely and delightfully which by rising up above al the measures and proportions of the first world drowne them but are the proper element for those that are saved to live in They are fitted with enlarged hearts and mouths wide enough open'd to take in and receave those streams and rivers of the emanations of divine bounty and love how broad or deep soever they prove and how high soever they may rise and overflow For they have the man Christ Jesus their head the second Adam who as their forerunner is gone before to prepare the way for them and as the true arke in which are many mansions to receave them into himself that where he is they may be also Of what hath bin already said this then is the sum Christ is the eternall WORD and speaking power of God by whom are all things He is also as hath bin shewed the rock of ages the place of Gods rest throughout all generations the eternal Sabbath Heb. 4. wherein God finished his works so fully to his content that therein he took up his Rest even in the person and Spirit of the Mediatour the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath lain hid in God who created all things according to the eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Further This eternall WORD who is the creatour of all things visible and invisible being in the Mediatour the image of the invisible God does bear the name of the blessed Trinity and stamps the impression and character thereof upon all the works of his hands He is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending of the creation of God In the Psalms and Ecclesiastes God is called by the name of creatours as being three
of what already they have receaved from him at his command He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Both these divine oracles and manifestations of Gods will law and Gospel were made knowne to Adam in Paradise the one typed out in the tree of the knowledg of good and evil fitly resembling the first created liberty and fredom of will man was left to the exercise of under the law the other by the tree of life placed in the midst of the Paradise of God lively figuring out the better fredom and lasting holines which the Son himself makes us partakers of in the Gospel as he is the end of the law to al that beleeve and can be perswaded to trust him as the Gospel requires In both these respects it is that John sayes I write no new Commandement to you but an old commandement which was from the beginning As it first came forth in law and Gospel before the fal it was the law written in Adams heart and the Gospel set before the eyes of his mind by the ministry of angels in lively types and figures This we are to understand by the law of nature by which all natural men shal be judged who never have atteined or lived under the hearing of the written law or word of God given afterwards in the holy Scriptures 2dly The self-same old commandement of God that is both law and Gospel came forth since the fall by divine inspiration in the bookes of the old and new Testament The law was under this dispensation engraven on tables of stone conteining the ten commandements The Gospel was represented in the ceremonial law of Moses ministry under the old Testament Then againe the law is written in the fleshly tables of Christs heart as he was born of a woman and made under the law and the Gospel was represented in the two Sacraments of baptism and the Lords supper instituted during the dayes of Christs flesh the witnesse whereof is left us upon record in the New Testament as that manifestation of Gods wil which the Son himself in and by his first appearance hath brought to light This we are to understand by the law of the Scriptures which are not of private interpretation nor a prophesy that is come to us by the will of man but that which holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost for a sure ground of truth to be relied upon 3dly and lastly the same commandement or word of God which hath bin from the beginning is to come forth once more in and by the son's second and personal appearance in Spirit a fiery and living law call'd in Scripture the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus which by faith is espied and seen as the Land of promise into which all true beleevers must enter and where they must inherit the immutability and eternal life promised a life from the dead which those that possesse whether in the glory of the first or second Resurrection though as yet but in the seed shal never die more The second death shal not have power over them but all tears shal be wiped away from their eyes and all cause of sorrow or fear This is the Son's Kingdom in Spirit which he receaves and enters upon by the appointement of the father He is pleased to begin it in weaknes and subject it a while to great sufferings but will shortly enter upon and continue the exercise of it in power during the space of a thousand years wherein he is to judg the world in righteousnes effectually causing his wil to be done on earth as it is in heaven The law under this dispensation is found as the tables of the Testimony laid up in the heavenly tabernacle of Christ the Son of Man a fiery law of indignation and vengeance in severity without mercy upon all wilful disobedient sinners The Gospel under this dispensation is as the throne or heaven itself together with the earth that is made Gods footstool or the natural man subjected and brought through faith to Gods foot in a way exclusive to al boasting This is the new heavens and new earth of which the new Jerusalem consists that comes downe from God written in and upon the heart of Christs manhood glorified and made immutably holy shining forth as the living Image of God in a twofold forme to wit in the form of a servant not only made a Son which is the first but exalted to a name above every name and anointed with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows that 's the second Thus Christ is the WORD as is above sayd that is commanded to a thousand generations He that was he that is and he that is to come the Almighty He was both law and Gospel in the day or under the dispensation of the law of nature is the same in the day and under the dispensation of the law of the Scriptures and is to come and wil shew himself to be the same also in the day and under the proper and immediate dispensation of the law of the Spirit of life that is in him This is the spiritual day of the Lord the thousand years Jubilee and Sabbath This third dispensation hastens apace draw's very neer and the faithfull and upright in heart beleeve expect and wait for the comming of the Lord therein both as an Eliah in and by his messengers and Servants elect angels and beleeving men that shal restore all things root up every thing that offends by a swift execution of vengeance on evil doers in the morning of this day and after that in his owne person wherein the man Christ by whom God hath ordeined to judg the world in righteousnes wil shew himself as the great King and bridegroom that hath the bride whose mariage he wil gloriously solemnize on earth in order to cary her up with him into heaven upon the expiration of his thousand years reigne and the Resigning up of his Kingdom into the hands of this father that God may be all in all That the matter of Gods command and mans duty is the same as wel under the law as under the Gospel and in them both under all the three dispensations before mentioned is sufficiently cleered and demonstrated nor is the difference lesse perspicuous wherein each of them vary one from another 1. The law of nature writes the matter of the law and duty commanded upon the nature and in the very heart of man teaching and instructing him also in the nature of the Gospel the new nature by the ministry of angels in most apt significant types and figures suited to his natural understanding 2dly The law of the Scripture first writes the law in tables of stone and teaches the Gospel by the types conteined in the ceremonial law or a sort of ordinances that are worldly rudiments being but the shadow of the good things to come whereof the body is Christ Afterwards therefore Christ coming