wit of the Life that saves and we must be born again to live and that of Water So that two things a dying and a new birth of Water are necessary to Life and the only way through which we must unavoidably pass to come to Happiness or to the perfect new Birth of the Spirit of Wisdom in which latter Birth chiefly consists our Salvation Which things See Dr. Wallâ—s his Sermons of Regeneration Printed for Mr. Rogers at the Sun near Temple Bar. because very few Divines do know what they are and therefore pass them over and teach with Dr. Wallis That we are not bound to know and to trouble our selves with such nice Enquiries as if we were not to be saved by coming saith Paul 1 Tim. 2.4 to the knowledge of the Truth I think fit to declare and for this end to begin by the new Birth of Water To be born of Water then is not to be Baptized as we are now with Water but to take the beginning of our Life from VVater To do which man must become Water be Water himself if not in his Flesh and Bones as Nicodemus took it however within the Heart that is in the inward Man by making his Heart tender 2 Chron. 34.27 and as humble as resigned and in a word as passive or unactive as Water That is to say as Water hath no motion of it self but stands still or if moved falls downwards continually or flows this way or that way as the Wind agitates it so our Hearts should no more have any will of their own but lay still as a dead thing or as being resolved even to die at God's Feet That as out of the shapeless passive unactive Water all the Concretes in the World are formed and produced 2 Pet. 3 5. by the only working of God's Spirit upon it Gen. 1.2 Psal 33.6 so we may out of that state wherein we have no more any motion desire lust or will of out own but only that to yield all and enter into God's Will receive a new form and shaper or be reformed or born again of the first Spirit that gave Adam a true Life Gen. 2.7 after the Image of God put off the earthly Image we have from Father Adam 1 Cor 15.49 And thus by Humility rise again to that state which he and Eve fell from by Pride And this is what is shewed us by the Water and the Way of using it in Baptism We are saith Paul Rom. 6.4 by Baptism buried with Christ into death that is as they which were Baptized in St. Paul's time being cover'd all over when they were dipt in Water were by this means as it were dead and buried to the World So we by this 〈◊〉 Baptism or birth or state of Water become as dead men buried to all the Lusts of the Flesh and to all Self-will as Pride Covetousness and Envy and to all the reliance and hope we have on this World that as Christ adds he rose up from grave through God's Spirit so we should out of this state rise into a new Creature that hath got a Divine Form which is rising from the Dead and the first Resurrection All is made out of Spirit or as Hippocrates saith in primo de Diaeta out of Fire and Water Spiritus est organum in manu summi Dei quo agitantur omnes in hoc mundo species saith Trismegistus of it Which Spirit coming down first from the Stars into the Air and thence into the Water works on it continually whence an Oil is produced and this Oil by a longer digestion becomes a Salt which Salt is the first Matter and true Body of Concretes This is demonstrable from the juices of Vegetables if they be distilled before their Fermentation but better by distilling some May dew or Rain-water because being thin and light and a transparent Liquor by reason of their being circulated in the Air they are not thought by many to have and contain an Oil yet in their distillation they yield an Oil and a Salt which must have been formed there by the Spirit from the Stars it was impregnated with working upon its Vehicle the said Dew or Rain-water So likewise Man being made of Water and of Spirit must be born again of them to become a new Creature and must first become water make his heart soft and tender break that Rock as Moses did Exod. 17.6 and melt the Ice or hardness of his heart into water or the tears of Repentance that by the Holy Spirit which is the Dew the Manna or the true Bread from Heaven that gives life unto the world John 6.32 33. an Oil first and then a Salt which is the true Flesh and Blood or the true Body of Christ ver 51. and also the new Body the blessed Souls shall rise with or our house from above may be formed produced and perfected within him Therefore Christ exhorts all Men to have some Salt in themselves Mark 9.50 that is to say as the Salt understand essential Salt is the first matter of things and results from the Spirit 's action upon the water so all Men should always have some of that same first substance which the Spirit of God forms in Souls bathed in tears and so should give leave to his Spirit to work it in them and produce by its working a Salt to salt them withal ver 49. or preserve both their Body and Soul to Eternal Life from all sort of Corruption such as Leprosy which makes the whole Body insensible and as that thorow hardness of heart which turns Man into such Salt as Lot's Wife was that is a Salt Alkali which is gone through the Fire and therefore can by no means be further wrought upon for thereby losing its Oyl or its Radical Moisture the Vehicle of the Spirit is no more susceptible as the moist essential Salt or Nitre of the Earth is of any sweet influence of Heaven working on it but becomes a meer dead Coal a Lime-stone an Alkali made by Incineration and that melts no more like Ice and other essential Salts by the warmth of the Spirit but by a strong fierce Fire into a hard stone like Glass which is past for evermore all hope of recovery or of regeneration and so makes Man incapable of such Vegetation as the dry Rod of Aaron by its budding forth again typified the Souls must have Therefore remember Lot's Wife flee from the Land of the North this hard frosty dark lowring dismal or Northerly state saith the Lord by Zachary 2.6 whoever will inhabit or live in Jerusalem ver 4. This birth of Water therefore is what makes Man susceptible of the sweet influence and working of God's Spirit on his Soul to renew it and make it grow green and bud and bear Fruits or be fruitful for thereby we do like John by his Baptism of water prepare the way of the Lord that is for the Lord 's coming by his comforting Spirit this birth of
34-29 1 of which you have a very fresh Instance in the late King. To return to the manner of the second Coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost observe that as the lightning comes at first out of the East and then shines even unto the West that is enlightneth the Hemisphere all over so his Coming which is not with any observation Luke 17.20 appears first like the Day-spring chap. 1.78 or the dawning of the day or is like the morning Star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 for there all our thoughts or first glimpses of Light rise then encreasing more and more to the perfect light or day Prov. 4.18 it comes to be like the Sun at Noon and at the Solstice in reference to both which distinct states Christ is called the Morning Star by St. John Rev. 22.16 20. and the Sun of Righteousness by the Prophet Malachy 4.2 because he both dissipates the Morning Clouds by his light and strengthneth by the power of it a Believer so that he brings him to ripeness or to his full perfection the flash at his appearance shining nothing near so bright and comfortable as the Sun and as itself would do if it lasted for ever or endured a great while without vanishing again For after the same manner Christ the Word or the Wisdom and Light and Power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 within us in our hearts Rom. 10 8. springing out of the centre out of a man 's own darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 first appears to the sad mind like glimmering sparks of light which are a great refreshing to the Soul light or knowledge bringing still along with it great joy as I have said Then encreasing and sending its sweet beams by little and little towards the Circumserence till it shines through the whole Sphere it enligthneth all over and at the same time comforts and strengthneth sick sainting Man in such sort that he may rise from the shadow of death wherein he lay as benumm'd and walk and run and not faint and mount up with wings as Eagles Isa 40.31 Joel 2.7 and going from strength to strength Psal 84.7 both take God's Kingdom by force and rise to the very top or crown or zenith thereof which is God's holy mountain or the highest state of bliss and of glory and of light which Mankind is capable of Dan 12.3 Mat. 13 43 -19.28 Rev. 3.21 continuing all the while springing shining enlightning and refreshing the firy dark Soul to eternal life with the water of that Well that is Wisdom and Knowledge flowing out of a Man's self whereof Christ spake in St. John 4 14-7.38 As an ever flowing spring of living water streaming through a hot and desart place would revive the weary Traveller dying for Thirst so this new Spring of Wisdom revives the dry sainting Soul of Samson and Ishmael that is of Christ's stout Champions Gen. 21.20 the Church Militant on Earth as soon as they begin to thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5.6 as it was typified by the water gushing out of the Asses dry Jaw-bone which Samson after a great Victory being ready to die met with in his thirst Judg. 15.18 19. and by the Wells of water which Israel found at last in the dry and desart Land Exod. 15.27 But before he I mean the said sick Man comes to this he must dye the second death according to God's threatning Gen. 2.17 which because God's Word is true shall not pass away from him before it be fulfilled Mat. 24.35 and this is not so easie a matter for him to do as our learned Divines who pass it over sicco pede teach in their Sermons For to speak of this dying which is the other thing needful for the obtaining the said birth of the Spirit it is really a dying and dying you will grant is a hard thing to Mankind Neither is it only such dying as is that of this body of the flesh which Men easily go through But such as is proper and peculiar to the Soul which is so intolerable that none but the Son of Man or at least the Soul of Man enabled by the virtue and strength of the Son of Man can sustain or bear with it Prov. 18.14 For no man he saith himself John. 3.13 doth ascend up to Heaven but he that comes down from thence to give us power and strength and thus by enabling us to die lifts us up thither and there go along with it the terrors of Hell it self Which thing because it seems new and very strange to the world is what I do here take upon me to demonstrate And first to shew what it is This dying is the same death as that Adam died of after he had transgressed which must be some other thing than the death of his Body for he was surely to die the day that he transgressed Gen. 2.17 whereas his Body did live 900 years after And that was a rising or an exasperation of the Fire of his Soul after he tasted the Apple for he had lost long before viz. before he fell asleep the Light of Life which his Soul enjoyed at his Creation to a very intense or high degree of sierceness raging in him till the time he catcht hold of the promise made to him of the Woman's Seed Christ the Light of the world For Life without Light is but a dark and obscure Fire kindled either here or there in some individual place and burning without shining as do all Acids the Frost and those Corrosives called Ignes Potentiales by Chymical Writers whereby the Life just subsists in a very anxious fretful state or condition as being always feeding upon the thing it is in that is upon the Body which it had formed itself till that Body be consum'd or till this hungry Fire be fully satiated And this Fire thus burning was represented to us by the firy Serpent of God's People in the Desart and by a Worm or Serpent which Christ saith doth never die because it is always renascens reproducing or kindling itself anew viz. in the eternal Souls for there it can as well do it always as for once by reason that its Body or Subject doth not decay and when exasperated it is the Death of the Soul or its Hell burning gnawing and making it for ever anxious and full of pain except it reacheth the Light that makes all things comfortable Here consider the grimness of a dark and frosty Night which chills benums and destroys and burns all things on the ground and what state things would lay in if the Light of the Sun were taken out of the world Would not all the living things lay still like Worms in Winter and be frozen up as hard and stiff as Ice in their place Sure the world itself would be nothing but Death all over And thence conceive if you can how sharp severe and bitter are to the despairing Soul whose dark Fire corroding and biting it like sharp Frost or a fretting Humor or some tart
that ask it of him Luke 11.13 Jam. 1.5 and that will saith St. Peter Acts 2. 38-3 19 20. enter into Repentance And this as much as it was given to the Apostles that is if they overcome and in case they follow Christ in the Regeneration Matth. 19 28-20.23 Revel 3.21 as much as the Apostles and primitive Christians did for it being the blessing promised to Abraham and to Adam before him Acts 1.4 5. Luke 24.49 it belongs to as many of their Children as the Lord shall ever call saith Peter Acts 2.38 39. that is to as many as prepare themselves for it or set themselves in order the Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.48 with such preparation as I shall speak of and shew in its time and place and this not only adds he chap. 10 47-11.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is after the manner that we have it our selves he means all the Apostles the Lord going on further in confirmation of this ver 9. putting no such difference viz. of an ordinary and extraordinary gift between us the Apostles and the other Believers as the Lip-Christian's device but giving the Holy Ghost to all indifferently yet in proportion to what degree of true Faith he knows every Believer hath ver 8 that is as much as to Paul and Peter if he believes in Christ as much as they did as it is evident from Cornelius his houshold chap. 10.44 and from the rest of them that believed in the Word chap. 19.6 And because it is the thing promised to Abraham and to his Seed for ever Gen. 13 15-17.7 19. for neither the Jews nor we can name any other thing that doth answer this Promise St Paul calls it the Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 Gal. 3.14 And speaks always as taking it for granted that all the Christian Churches of Antioch Acts 13.52 of Ephesus Chap 2.17 18-3 6-5.18 of Galatia 3.2 3 5 14-5 5 16 25. Corinth 1 Cor. 6.11 19. 2 Cor. 11.14 Rome 5.5 8.11 23. Philipi 3.3 Colossus 1 8-3.10 And of Thessabonica 1 Thess 1 5-5.19 2 Thess 2 13. received or might receive after wards the Holy Ghost So that seeing that all Men may obtain the Gift of it and seeing that Salvation cannot be had without it it being as I said the Perquid of Salvation we are bound that is to say as many of us as will or intend to be Saved to endeavour to get it and therefore to enquire after the Quomodo or right way to procure it that is trade with and improve our Talent so well as to gain many more with it Which Enquiry must be made like the rest in the Scriptures I have said already That as Men make Salvation different from God's Knowledge so they make the means of God's Knowledge or of true Wisdom different from this Spirit to wit good Natural Parts and their own Reason and Wit and consequently they know of no other way to it but hard study in the Schools and Consulting their Masters and their Learned Doctors Books As if the Wisdom of God could be had out of those things and could be confined to the narrow pale of their Rules Whereas on the contrary the Scriptures teach that the Man who will be Learned and Wise must become a Fool 1 Cor. 3.18 a Child Matth. 18.3 That is despond like a Child of his Wit Parts and Learning Except you become as simple Chap. 6.22 and humble as little Children who are not self-conceited and have no prejudice against what their Teachers say and Argue not against it but only amongst themselves striving who shall learn it best you shall remain in Darkness or never see God's Kingdom Chap. 18.4 Luke 18.17 Because God keeps from the Wise and Prudent who say we see John 9 41. all true Wisdom and Knowledge and reveals the same only to humble single-eyed Babes Mat. 11. 25. And it will ever be so because Witness Truth himself v. 26. John 14.6 it is God's Will and Pleasure that it should always be so whatever the great Doctors who would be wiser than Christ therefore blow their Nose at him Luke 16.4 in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may say to the contrary The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek and lewly in heart will he teach his ways Psal 25.9 Wherefore blessed are the meek and they that rule their Spirit Prov. 16.32 For they shall inherit the Earth Matth. 5.5 And Wisdom it self v. 3. Take my yoke upon you saith Christ Chap. 11.29 That is learn of me that I am lowly in heart and you shall come to the Rest or Persection of your Souls O how happy is the Man that bears Christ's Yoke from his Youth The Scriptures teach us further That God's Fear is not only the beginning but the end or a Treasure of Wisdom Prov. 1.7 Isa 33.6 That all they that keep God's Word have such an Understanding Psal 111.10 That they know a great deal more than all their Wisest Teachers Psal 119.99 100 104. And that God layeth up Wisdom for them that are Righteous Prov. 2. 7. Meeting saith Isaiah 64.5 them that work Righteousness and that do delight in it For if any Man will do God's Will John 7.17 Keep the words of Christ Chap. 14.23 God will love him and meet him or come by the Holy Ghost and make his abode with him as he met Cornelius Acts 10.44 because he feared God and wrought Righteousness verse 35. So that the Fear of God is the way wherein what gives Wisdom is to be met with and so is the Quomodo of Wisdom or Salvation Now to Fear God is the same as to do the Will of God and to do the Will of God implies a ceasing from Man that is to say a ceasing from doing the will of Man or being born of the Flesh John 1.13 as being against God's Will and at Enmity with him Rom. 8 7. and consequently implies a dying to our selves that we may be born of and live to the Will of God Rom. 6.11 that is implies such Self-denial or abstinence from all the things which our natural Life desires as makes us as dead to it as they that are no more living or have lost their Life Except the corn of Wheat saith Christ John 12.24 25. fall into the ground and die it brings forth no fruit so the way for Man to keep his Life to Eternal Life is to hate it or cease from the Life he hath of this World or as he saith in Matthew 16.25 to lose it that is to die And in John 3.3 He saith further Except a man be born again and that of Water V. 5. he cannot see God's Kingdom that is receive the Spirit which constitutes God's Kingdom Rom. 14.17 Now to be born again is to begin to have a second or a new Life A second Life implies a dying to the former Therefore we must die before we be born again and live to
water being the true preparation or ordering of the Soul which in the 15th Page I promis'd to speak of For as good ground is made fit to receive and to retain the influence of Heaven or the Spirit that comes down from Heaven into the Air and the Water and the Earth the Scriptures call it the Dew and the Blessing from above Gen. 27 40-49.15 by its being frequently moistned with Rain or Water so our Souls become fit for the Blessing promised Joel 2.28 by being throughly water'd for the Water being void and empty as the Earth was Gen. 1.2 the Chymists call this nature of the Water and the Earth an Alkalick quality it is the sitter to draw and to impregnate it self with the Spirit from the Stars and so to nourish the Earth which is well watered with it by introducing this same starry Spirit into it So the Soul by reducing it self to water becomes void and empty like water that is void of all the cares and desires of this world and thereby is the sitter to be impregnated with the Spirit or the Seed of heavenly Bridgroom And wo be to them saith Christ Mat. 24.19 that are not so prepared but are already with Child and give suck about the time that the Bridegroom comes to them because they cannot go in with him to the Marriage Room and because the door is shut and can no more be opened chap. 25.10 that is they are so hardned that they become like Lot's Wise or to continue here the foregoing Metaphor become like some sort of ground which for lack of competent moisture turns to Sand and Dust and bears nothing but Bryers whose end is therefore to be burned as St. Paul affirms Hebr. 6.8 dry and bound like clods of earth or hard for want of moisture a desolate Wilderness Joel 2.3 yielding nothing but Bryers and even Dust and Ashes or such lixiviate Salt as is made out of Ashes or by Incineration that is a Salt Alkali So that Water or the Birth or the Baptism of Water is always like the Baptist the Forerunner of the Lord who comes in the cloudy sad mourning dark ignorant Souls by the light of his Spirit to revive and comfort them Whence according to St. John 5.6 he comes by Water and Blood that is Water and Spirit Blood being but a Compound of Water and of Spirit and so do all the Children of Adam when they are born to shew them that they must be born again of those two things I say that the Lord comes by his comforting Spirit because when that Spirit comes it is the coming of Christ promised John 14.18 28-16 22 or the Lord that comes himself Seeing that Jesus himself is he that 's sent saith Peter Acts 3.19 20-2 38 from the presence of the Lord to refresh or comfort Men or to be as St. John saith 14. 16. their Comforter for ever And therefore Christ is the same as the comforting Spirit and so the coming of this viz. of the Holy Spirit is the same as the second coming or coming again or the manifestation of Christ himself promised John 14.18 21. Concerning which see Math. 16.28 with Mark 9.1 and Luke 9 27-24.49 Gal. 1. 15 16. And I say that he comes into the sad cloudy Souls for as the Lightning saith he Math. 24.27 30. appeareth out of tho East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man happen in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory For these two Verses may be applied to the said coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost Christ having respect therein to the Disciples question proposed in the 3d Verse concerning his coming again in his day Luke 17.24 that is when he should be revealed ver 30. or should come in his Kingdom Matth. 16.28 though perhaps they might not then understand it in this sense but took it as Men now do as thô it were meant only of his third and last coming viz. at the end of the world Which Answer of Christ sets forth the manner of his Coming and the qualification of the thing which he comes to to wit the cloudy or sad and dark or ignorant Souls which are the Clouds of Heaven hiding Heaven within them Luke 17.21 from the sight of other People For as the Lightning breaks out of the dark thick gloomy Clouds shining through them for a time then the Cloud closeth again so doth his Coming appear in the dark sorrowful Souls John 16.20 22. like a flash of Lightning or sudden Coruscation breaking out of their darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and opening as it were the Cloud that envelops them then shuts it self up again and so continueth to do with many Men for sometime till at last dissipating the darkness altogether it comes to shine through and through the Sphere or the whole Body Mat. 6.22 thus shining from East to West all the Hemisphere over as it hapned unto Christ as his Transfiguration and as it is and will be with all the Saints in Glory who are represented therefore with beams about them because they shine like the Stars and dart out like the Sun their beams on every side Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 For a remembrance of which slashing or coruscation and of the manner of it the Bishops wear a Mitre bearing the shape of a Flame or else of those cloven Tongues which were like as of Fire Acts 2.30 to signifie the opening of the dark clouds in man's head and the cleaving as it were of the sutures in the Scull and man's communication through this cleft part with Heaven which Mitre they assum'd first when this flashing or lightning began to cease in the Church lest the remembrance it self of it should be lost also But that it closeth not up as the Crown of a King doth signified that their flashing did not shine through on all sides that it was but beginning or just breaking out in them and that it continued not with them as with crowned Heads and therefore that they ought not to pretend to and ascribe to themselves so much honour in the Church as Kings may do and consequently much less than they in temporal things especially seeing that the Kingdom of Christ witness himself John 18.36 is not of this world And hence it may be gather'd that the Church was yet modest when they begun to wear it But now the Mitre is got higher than the Crown itself and lords it over Princes and Kings both in Church and State. Which is not well done my Sons my incorrigible Sons would old Eli say to them 1 Sam. 2.24 if he were alive again you ought not thus to break Christ's Yoke and to burst his Bonds if you will be his Disciples or his true Church in England and you may chance to pay for it if you hearken not to the voice of your Father ver 25. For he that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 3
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the
40 days of Temptation are ended chap. 24.48 Therefore all Christians should be made acquainted with these things and their Watchmen saith Joel 2.1 should blow the Trumpet aloud and sound an Alarm to them for note this is to be done in the Lord 's holy Mountain the Church amongst the Faithful and not amongst the Heathen to warn them of that Fire and Sword which the Lord pleads with Ezek. 33. and which is the terrible and gloomy day of the Lord. But I doubt I am Vox clamantis in deserto that is where no body hears For O Lord who is the man that believes our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed John 12.38 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Isa 64.7 However God is over all things and when we water and plant he may give encrease and he hath not lighted my Candle for me to hide or keep it under my Bed but to make it shine as far as I can to others which is I hope warrant enough for me to write without any further Licence or Ordination See what Thomas à Kempis and many other wise Men have left us in writing of the way to Happiness and of the necessity of entring into the Life Death and Sufferings of Christ For because these things be true I mean what I said of the Baptism of Fire and of the Birth of Water all wise Men who always know and justifie Truth Luke 7.35 own them and have often declared and taught them But as there is a variety of Gifts and of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5. they have differently also expressed the same Jamblichus of Mysteries Haec utique sit tibi ad foelicitatem via Consider are decet quà praecipue ratione solvi possis à vinculis quibus anima circa formas at que species mundi contemperatur Est autem solutio nulla praeter ipsam Dei cognitionem Idea namque foelicitatis est ipsum cognoscere Bonum quemadmodum est Idea malorum ipsa quidem bonorum oblivio quae est deceptio inseparabilis à caduco à principiis enim cadens at que repulsa se ipsam projicit ad corporalem ideam dimetiendam à qua corporali Idea solvi debes ut contemplationi cognitioni Dei rursus jungaris Plato calls this I me an this state of Water whereby we become void of the Forms Idea's of outward things Conversio animae humanae in seipsam the Soul converting from things without it into itself Great Hermes with Solomon Cant. 5.2 Ob dormitio mentis à corporis sensibus A sleeping of the Body whil'st our Soul is waking I sleep but my heart is awake like Balaam's eyes that were open all the while his Body was in a trance Numb 24.4 and burning besides like that of the two Disciples of Christ in their way to Emmaus Luke 24.32 The Popish Saints call the same the internal way to God and inward Recollection of which Molina at Rome hath lately said enough to set the Priests against him who cannot abide to hear of dying and suffering but only of that which makes their heart glad Judg. 18.20 a Fat Living The whole Sum of Religion is for man to keep himself unspotted from worldly things or from the Love of the World Jam. 1.27 for in this consists the Love of God Matth. 6.24 and the Love of God with that of our Neighbour is the great Commandment and the Law and the Prophets A great Protestant Divine Famous both for Piety and Learning Bishop Vsher in answer to a Question about Sanctification which one made expresseth thus this Abstraction from the World and this dying by Fire I must tell you saith he we do not well understand what is Sanctification or the New Creature which God formeth by his own Spirit in every Soul which be regenerates of water For it is no less than for a Man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the Will of God and to live in the offering up of his Soul as a whole Burnt-offering like Christ to God the Father And how little are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this work in their Souls Nay and Notionally too I add the Protestants knowing little more of this I mean of the way to become a new Creature than what they call Repentance Which Word yet being taken in its right and genuine sense siguifies more than what they seem to understand by it that is more than any sorrow for Sin and setting upon mending amounts to For what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is it either Protestant or Catholick Repentance No surely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is neither lashing your backs nor grieving two or three hours But it is the amendment itself duly performed it is a Resipiscence which is no less in English than a Fool and a Knave becoming at the same time both a wise and a good Man and a change or conversion from one state or quality viz. the Nature of a Beast to the most opposite state to wit the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 or at least that of Angels Luke 20.36 Which Christians flatter themselves in vain to attain unto by their common Repentance for there needs a hard striving a man must be violent to take God's Kingdom by Force And it can never be done without passing the great Gulph of God's Vengeance and Wrath threatned Gen. 2.17 Luke 16.26 21.22 And thô Peter in the Acts 2 38-3.19 mentions only the Baptism of Water and Repentance as the things necessary to obtain the Holy Ghost that makes Man a New Creature yet in his First Epistle speaking of another thing not strange to the Believers to wit the Firy Tryal he shews thereby that they go through some other thing than that which he calls there Repentance or that the word Repentance with the word Be Converted added to it in that place includes the Firy Tryal which he would not mention there because he spake before a mixt Assembly of People and it being one of those many things Christ who forbids to cast Pearls before Swine would not yet say to the World John 16.12 that cannot favor the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 or more than Peter endure to hear of dying Matth. 16.22 23. he would not declare it them but left to the Holy Ghost the Revelation thereof to them that were not without God's Kingdom as the World is Mat. 4.11 But because it is God's Will that all men should be saved by opening of their blind eyes and by coming at the last to the knowledg of the Truth and the harvest is grown ripe as it appears from the French Prophets and their Prophesies I think it is high time for them that make mention of the Lord not to keep silence but to tell it publickly and found an Alarm of it But whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends this thing or no sure it is that we must dye before