had followed the directions given him by God For in this natural constitution of spirit soul and body which man obtained by creation his understanding will and affections were all placed in their true rectitude and proper subordinations his rational and his sensual mind were set in right tune and harmony together disposed and fitted to the bringing forth of all manner of righteous and holy operations answerable to the image of God wherein he was created which contained as much of divine light and manifestation as man in his earthly capacity and first make could take in amounting but to a shadowy representation of Gods mind and a sight of it but in part in order to prepare him to receive more by a second and new creation on the seventh day when he should have been admitted within the veil to have beheld Gods very similitude open and bare-faced conversing with him as friend speaks with friend Now man being thus furnished with a reasonable soul and all the excellencies of its operations before described with freedom of will to choose the good and refuse the evil honoured also with a soveraignty over the creatures in this fair posture of preparation to receive more was nevertheless seduced ensnared and made a prey of by Sathan sin and death to the rendring as it were abortive all that work which was already passed upon him and to the letting in of sin and death with the deserved curse and wrath of God through him as through a door upon all his posteritie The occasion of this was twofold First the present enjoyment of good from God under the ministry of the first covenant the fruit of which to the eye of flesh and blood even at its best was so glorious and appeared so beautiful and desireable that man was easily perswaded that it was the best and highest attainment hee needed to look after and thereby through Sathans subtilty rendred secure and negligent as to the use of means given by God to carry him on pass him through and conduct him out of this his corruptible state as from glory to glory into the power of an endless life without the intervening of sin to the full and perfect securing of mans nature from all prevailing power of fins assaults for ever which was not done by creation The second occasion of mans fall was the freedom of his will wherein the judging and desiring faculties of his mind were entirely committed by God to his own free motion and operation upon the terms of the covenant he was brought into with God which was to be dealt with according unto his works to be rewarded with life or with death as he should rightly order or abuse this liberty of action with which God had invested him by way of tryal and probation That man had such a power of free-will as this First the nature and tenor of the Covenant he was taken into doth demonstrate which is conditional in reference to the works of man And God throughout deals with man under that Covenant according to his works strongly thereby asserting them to be mans own so as the very reward which comes thereby is accounted to him of debt even the thing which his own action as left alone unto himself therein hath brought upon him and entitled him unto Secondly without such a power of free-will mans first estate could not have been mutable at least could never have changed into corruption for if it had been necessary to him to have stood he could not have fallen and if it had been necessary to him to fall God had thereby made himself the Author of sin which could not be Now the power itself wherein mans free-will consisted was the free use and exercise of his judging and electing power of mind either in reference to good or evil as it should be presented to him and come before him in a way to be by him decided and determined as his deliberate act and resolution which Paul calls 1 Cor. 4. 3. mans judgement or mans day Adam had then this honour given him by creation to exercise his humane judicature or mans day not only upon all the works of Gods hands already made in the six daies and presented before him in Eden the garden of God but he had also as in prospect and contemplation what was yet behind and to come both which being the object or subject matter that Adam was to pass his judgement upon God was pleased by way of precaution and premonition to forbid him to fix his eye and his desire upon things seen which are temporal and fading there being a reserve of unseen things as an enduring substance to be imparted and communicated to him on the seventh day That which Adam was forbidden was not simply to forbear the use of his free-will but the evil and unlawful use of it as through an unwise discerning and erroneous judging between the present temporary good which he saw and the future durable excellency of the things unseen and but in hope there did spring up an inordinate coveting and desire in him after the retaining of the first to the despising and rejecting of the second preferring the vision of God in part and as under a vayl before the full and compleat view of his glory unvayled To induce man unto this the Serpent employed all his power and subtilty contributing all the influence he could from his and the fallen Angels example herein which together with the aptness in the natural desire of man to be enticed this way to serve his own belly rather then the Law and Command of God and to gratifie his natural appetite rather then shew his obedience to Gods voice did prevail with him to eat the forbidden fruit whereby the door was set open for sin and death to enter upon himself and all his posterity That which remains yet to be declared on this subject is the possibility which Adam had in the state of innocency to have made a right use of his free-will so as thereby to have done what God required him to do by the first Covenant And by the way when we speak of this Covenant in reference to the state of innocency it is to be understood for the same thing with the law of nature under which Adam was created and hath this difference in it from what it was afterward when dispensed by the name of the Law under Moses ministry and called Heb. 9. The first Testament receiving its renewal from the blood of Christ that as it is the law of nature it requires mans personal righteousness and holyness to be continued in even the preservation of mans nature in the sinless state wherein he was created as the condition of keeping up and maintaining that sort of union and communion between God and him though not therein to rest but to be ready to be carried on by God into a sure unmovable and fixed state of life from whence there is no possibility of falling Whereas the
an union between the Word and Christs manhood as we have already shewed in the precedent Chapter that in a threefold respect according to one of w th his manhood is found in the form of God and as the son of man he accounts it not robbery to be acknowledged equal with God the man that is his fellow Thirdly there is a union between the manhood of Christ who in the sense before declared is made Gods equal and fellow and the whole spiritual seed in general and each of them in particular who are as the Bride and wife to this Lamb and so in a sense are his fellows and consorts heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ where the Spirit and the Bride say come living together in this unity as Bride and Bridegroom and so intimated Eph. 5. 32. where the natural marriage is made a type of it and the Apostle saith this is a great mysterie But I speak concerning Christ and the Church And now what is more evident then that the Saints by this union with Christ are not deifyed nor Christed but have the place only of his Bride and spouse as the Queen who is all glorious within and who is one the only of her mother To be therefore a member of this Heavenly City a living stone in this divine building is that which we are to understand by this second sort of calling wherein our Election is made sure to us and a new name given us that none can read but those that have it Secondly through this unity of the faith of the Son of God whereby those that are called are placed in the relation of members to Christ as he is the Head of the Church and the first-born from the dead they are for ever justified receiving this further benefit as they stand related to Christ in this his second Headship beyond those that are singly related to his first and obtain thereby but the common and conditional justification For this everlasting justification extends to sins past present and to come absolutely and at once discharging from all sin that their iniquities may be remembred no more and presents them faultless and without guile before the Throne of God as the objects of his eternal love and favour unto which they are entitled in right of their being made his first-born from the dead whose names are written in heaven adopted into his own line family and descent by this their marriage-union with Christ who according to his heavenly manhood is the immediate off-spring of the WORD and eternal Son of God without Father without mother without descent other then that of the very Son of God into which he is adopted and taken by marriage-union which dignity and grace he freely bestows and conveys in a secondary way upon his whole spiritual seed and in this neer union keeps them from ever departing from him Thirdly these unto whom Christ is thus made their righteousness and justification he is made also their sanctification to the purifying of their hearts through believing and cleansing them from all evil conscience as well that which consists in the filthiness of the flesh as that which lies in the filthiness of spirit renewing them in their minds through the putting on of the new man to the exercising as well their spiritual senses in likeness and conformity to Christs actings and life in that unity wherein he and his Father are one whereby he crucified and kept under his natural man as to the exercising of their natural powers and faculties in likeness and conformity to the actings of Christs natural man making them herein subject to the Father of spirits and to live acceptably and work holiness in his sight as renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created them or according to the pattern of the new man in the holy and righteous actings thereof set up in the person of Christ where Christ is all and in all which good works the Saints are fore-ordained of God to walk in as their true Evangelical and new-covenant obedience Fourthly and lastly those unto whom Christ is thus made sanctification he is made also redemption or glorification to the changing them throughout in spirit soul and body into a likeness with his spirit soul and body as he is declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead at such time as our vile bodies shall be made like unto his most glorious bodie by that mighty power of his whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself which is to be brought to light in his times when he shall be admired in all them that believe and answer the expectation of the creature in delivering it from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God at their manifestation and the compleating of their adoption by this redemption of their bodies These are the benefits in short and in general that inseparably accompany the guift of Christs person to the soul as he ministers himself in the two Covenants respectively and are the fruits of his presence there Which will serve as a key to open many things in the following discourse when we come to speak of the practical conscientious part that is begotten in and exercised by the subjects of Christ as they live under his Rule and dominion in the world and are therein contesting and warfaring with the adversary the devil and his instruments CHAP. XI Shewing the subordinate use that the elect Angels are of unto Christ in his bearing up the pillars of the creation that else had been dissolved through the fall and the place which they have in the threefold general administration of his mediatoriall kingdom set up in the world THough sin entred upon all men and death by sin through the act of one mans disobedience and judgement came upon all men because in one man all had sinned yet by the obedience of one and his righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Rom. 5. and where sin abounded grace did abound much more by reason whereof the whole first creation in all the parts of it is made Christs by the price of his blood which was made Sathans and sins by the fall that as the soul of the Father is Christs so also is the soul of the Son and he only that personally transgresses shall die Ezek. 18. 4. God having been pleased to find a ransom in Christ for atonement and propitiation to the forbearance of sins that are past and to the admitting of man to a new treaty of reconciliation and trial by vertue of the first covenant renewed in and through the blood of Christ whereunto the ministry of the good Angels serves and is made use of by Christ the KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS who employs these his ministers of justice as the higher powers over the world committed by him to their charge to mannage order and govern in all the affairs thereof under him
in a superiority in all things unto the Church or true spiritual seed which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all built up into a Heavenly conformity in all things as a Wife and Spouse unto this her Head and Husband This excellency of Christs exalted manhood was surely intimated unto Iaceb by that ladder Gen. 28. 12 which in his dream he beheld set upon the earth the top whereof reached to Heaven as also the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it For thus we find it interpreted by himself Iohn 1. 50 51. as that greater sight of his humane perfection then what could be seene in the dayes of his flesh Verily verily sayes he I say unto you hereafter you shall see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Sonne of man as if he should have said You shall see the Heavenly Temple of God opened Rev. 11. 19. that is to be found in the WORD OF LIFE and the heavenly discoveries flowing thence or sent forth from the same in their ascents and descents in and upon the manhood of Christ as the means chosen for the making manifest the riches of his glory to men and Angels in their particular beings and persons In these three respects shall the true SONNES AND HEIRS OF SALVATION fitted and adorned as a Bride and Heavenly body to this Husband and Head appeare bearing on them the image of the last Adam made like unto him to the seeing of him as he is and shining forth in this likenesse they will have accomplished upon them that manifestation of the sonnes of God which shall vastly difference them from the naturall or fleshly seed considered in their highest mutable perfection or in the incorruptible forme wherein they shall be raised up to everlasting contempt By vertue then of this conformity in image which the Saints shall be brought into with Christs heavenly manhood they shall come forth in the exercise of this threefold life in kind wherein the manhood of Christ hath beene conversant ever since the laying down of his earthly and natural body First of that life which all the true sonnes and heirs of salvation that have died in the faith have beene exercising ever since their change or falling asleep in the Lord that is to say the life of the spirits of just men made perfect a life like that of the Angels or perfect spirits that can live and act without dependance upon bodily life and motion described by Christ himself where he sayes that they who shall be accounted worthy to obteine that world and the resurrection from the dead as were Abraham Isaac and Jacob who then were and yet are in the possession of it neither marry nor are given in marriage for they are equal unto the Angels and are children of God and of the resurrection Luke 20. 35 36 that is to say are the children of God in their spirits made perfect and thereby are become equals and fit associates for the holy Angels themselves as the souls of wicked men departed this life become equals and fit associates for the evil Angels concerning which state also in the best sense Christ spake unto the thief upon the Crosse when he said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The second exercise of life which the Saints as gathered unto Christ their Head at his second coming shall be brought forth in is that of a glorified incorruptible body in fashion made like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. Into the exercise of which life they are not yet entered but reserved for it by the MAN CHRIST IESUS the FIRST-FRUITS who will have the souls of those slaine under the Altar to rest yet for a little season in the single exercise of their Angelical life as spirits of just men made perfect untill the gathering of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the first-borne together and setting them who have beene the slaine Witnesses of Christ upon their feet in the exercise of this immortal incorruptible bodily life here in this world wherein they are to continue and abide for a THOUSAND YEARS keeping the true Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord in that seventh part of the time of the worlds duration All worldly strength wisdome and power shall then as the walls of Iericho fall flat before Iesus the true Ioshua and these true Israelites as having beene by them compassed about six dayes and now on the seventh a thousand years being with the Lord as one day 2 Pet. 3. 8. making way for the end mentioned 1 Cor. 15. 24. to come and shew it self at which time the fleshly Rule and Kingdome of Christ in his first appearance till then kept up in the world as the first general Dominion is delivered up unto the Father the Sonnewillingly becoming subject herein with reference to the bringing himself forth in his second appearance to rule and reign in the place of the first that God may be all in all and that all other rule authority and power may hereby be put downe yea death it self as the last enemy may be destroyed and made unable to deteine any under its power that the quickning vertue shining forth in this presence and appearance of Christ shall call forth and give freedome unto The Saints in the exercise of this life with Christ upon earth during this THOUSAND YEARS shall be those in whom Christ will be admired and the Father glorified This state of theirs is the reward spoken of in Scripture where it is said The meek shall inherit the earth and Godlinesse hath not only the promise of the life to come but of this also 1 Tim. 4. 8. So Rom. 4. 13. The Promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world is declared not to be by the Law or to have its accomplishment under the first Covenant-dispensation but through the righteousnesse of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who with other beleevers died and received not the making good thereof It therefore remains to be performed in its due time at this manifestation of the Sonnes of God which faith sees and acknowledges Heb. 11. 39. These all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise to wit this promise of being heirs of the world and of all Nations being blessed in and by the meanes of the spiritual seed which will certainly be fulfilled to them in the times of the NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH Isa 65. 17. c. God having foreseene and reserved some better thing for us saith the Author to the Hebrews that they without us should not be made perfect but that all of us may enjoy that better thing together at once in the keeping of a holy Sabbath unto the Lord at the coming of this day of God in which the Heavens that
yea have no glory at all in comparison of that which excels and is to follow 2 Cor. 3. 10. or else as that which will be swallowed up of corruption and changed into a body of sin and death is the wages of mans disobedience and fruit of Gods displeasure for the same In this sense we are to understand man to be made in a mutable and corruptible state as having that set up in him and given to him through the well or evil ordering whereof he may either lose and justly be deprived of it in a way of Gods displeasure or exchange it for a second and more excellent appearance of God the glory that is to follow wherein this also is comprehended and made perfect and durable And that we may the better understand the nature of this changeable state wherein man is found under the first Covenant and see the weakness and faultiness thereof comparatively with that which is designed by God unto man wherein to fix and rest it will be needful for us to be more particular in describing first what man is in his essential properties and operations in that make and constitution communicated to him by the Trinity in his creation and then to shew what was the nature of the communion and converse with God which he was thereby fitted and qualified unto in order to grow up to be perfected in by the means for that end given him by God if the fault were not his own as it is written Thy destruction O man is of thy self Man then as he bears the image of the Trinity is constituted of spirit soul and body as his essential parts which whatever suspension of exercise or temporary alteration any of them may have do never suffer annihilation but make up the proper discriminating form of man by which he stands distinguished from all other the works of Gods hands in both worlds And thus first man is created spirit and made to subsist in his head Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world as we have already shewed where he stands comprehended in the life of Christs natural perfection as he is the Father of spirits in like manner by way of comparison as in reference to his fleshly seed all the posterity of Adam stood in the loyns of their common parent from the time of his creation Yet this is not the state of mans spirit made perfect but is only a first degree of his being which is the foundation laid by God to mans exercise of a bodily and spiritual life and operation incident and essential to him as a man whether he become a vessel of honour or dishonour So that in this state of a created spirit man had a being in his head before he was brought forth in the exercise either of his sensual or rational life and is rather comprehended in his head then actually and perfectly apprehending or enjoying in respect of which first state and invisibility of being he is a dark shadow of the witness of the Father Secondly man is to be considered in his bodily frame as he is made of the dust of the ground and had the breath of life breathed into him by God through which he became a living soul This breathing of the breath of life by God into mans nostrils doth declare first Gods bringing the soul of man into the actual being and exercise of its sensual life which till then lay hid in mans spirit by the means whereof he is furnished with a capacity of receiving and taking in by the organs of sense the knowledge of things proper to him as a man which though it be his weaker and inferiour part yet is first in motion in order to yield its service and subjection to the rational and superiour part This life which the soul leads and manages by actuating and informing the senses serving herself of them is that whereby the report of things from without is let in upon mans reason which is for the most part so prevalent as if the soul were absolutely and intirely dependent upon and necessitated unto the use of the senses in respect whereof some have thought very groundlesly that it hath either slept or ceased to be upon the laying down of the body By this first exercise of a living soul in man is figured out the witness of the Son Thirdly the spirit of man is the foundation and spring unto a rational spiritual or intellectual exercise of life wherein he is capable of associating with Angels and becoming their equal even in his natural capacity of a man which also was actually set up in Adam by that act of Gods breathing into him the breath of life and was as the superiour ruling part in man obtaining the place of Lord Ruler and Husband unto his first inferiour and sensual part which in its actings was to be dependent upon and subservient unto this in all usefulness and harmony Thus in a mystical sense man was made Male and Female in the same person through the setting up this two-fold exercise of life and operation of soul in him sensual and rational This second sort of operation is mans higher and nobler part and shews most the man in it the other distinguishes the man very little from the beast but that the countenance of man looks upward and the face of the beast downward The exercise of life in this higher and more raised part of man Adam obtained at first in perfection and had it in its compleat stature so far as it was capable during its association with its mortal body and while it was on this side the state of being made perfect in spirit and equal to Angels Luke 20. 36. by laying down the body in the grave either to good Angels when they become the spirits of just men made perfect or to evil Angels when they are the spirits of wicked men grown up to the height of their natural stature in spirit and by vertue of that perfect exercise of the rational and intellectual part which Adam had in the body he had a capacity to take in the knowledge and discerning of things immediatly from the inward vision represented to him by the ministry of Angels he had also an intuitive prospect into the nature of all visible and bodily things in their causes without being beholding to the report given by his senses and as a fruit hereof we do find Gen. 2. 19 20. That Adam gave names to every living creature according to their nature by vertue of this his intuitive knowledge which he exercised in a way independent upon his sensual part the property of this his spiritual and rational part being to act as in the body or as out of the body that is to say to serve it self of the use of its bodily senses or not according as they conduce to the furthering and bettering him in his true and right discerning of things man then hath a perfect compleat intellectual and rational life springing up
by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves were not wise but justly comprehended under the rank of foolish virgins over whom the Apostle was jealous with a godly jealousie hoping to have presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ but now fearing lest they should be beguiled and sin after the similitude of Adams transgression through the subtilty of the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light These among the Galatians were they that Paul stood in doubt of as discerning in them principles that would carry them no higher then the first Covenant before whom therefore he laid the distinction of the two Covenants and the two seeds even under the Gospel those that might be born after the spirit and those that might be born but of the flesh only one of the free woman the other of the bond And among the Philippians this sort of Professors were so prevalent that the Apostle was very sharp ch 3. v. 2. v 18 19. calling them those of the concision dogs and enemies to the cross of Christ whose God was their belly and whose glory was in their shame minding earthly things walking in a quite different strain from them who forgetting what is behinde press forward to the mark ver 14. of perfection brought to light by the death and resurrection of Christ worshipping God in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh It would be endless to rehearse the several passages in the remaining Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles deciphering this generation of Professors in the times they lived Teachers of the Law that knew not what they said nor whereof they affirmed as to the lawfull use of the very Law it self who by not holding faith and a good conscience which is interpreted Heb. 10. 23. a not holding them fast but in such wavering uncertain principles as the first Covenant ministers concerning faith made shipwrack and so lost their good conscience too at last drawing back into perdition Like the Jerusalem complained of Ezek. 5. 5. c. where they were so far from walking up to the light of the Covenant with God which they were under that in their walkings they fell beneath the very light and principles of heathens not doing according to the judgements of the nations round about them but becoming adulterers and adulteresses such as defile the Temple of God and therefore such whom God would destroy Lastly as once for all we may see this generation of men in their holy profession and visibility of Saintship incorporated together with the true spiritual seed in every one of the seven Churches mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters which are usually accounted to be typical inreference to the state of the Church under the Gospel from the Primitive times to Christs second coming In every of these churches Christ makes the distinction between the Spiritual Seed that had the spiritual ear and the carnal Seed that had it not but who in and under those very Church-forms were the Nurseries of all hypocrisie apostasie and other Spiritual uncleannesses and defilements there and were not of the faith nor in the faith of those that overcome but were such as from whom the Candlestick and light they had from Christ might be removed verifying therein that saying of his speaking of this generation as they should continue under Gospel Ordinances when he was foretelling the end of the world under the type and figure of the destruction of the material Temple in Jerusalem Verily verily saith he This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled his mystical meaning herein being that this crooked and perverse generation mentioned Deut. 32. 5. who were always resisting the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. and were to succeed in that enmity which they bear unto the true Spiritual Seed to the very end of the world according unto what God declared from the beginning when he said I will put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent should continue till the serpents head be wholly broken and he trampled under foot and the Saints heel wholly bruised or the measure of Christs sufferings remaining to be wrought out in his whole body the Church fulfilled These are they which call themselves Jews but are not in spirit and truth though they pass currant in the judgement of mans day for the only visible Church of God excluding the heathens on the one hand as Sathan appearing in his own likeness and the true spiritual believers on the other hand as the same evil spirit transformed into an Angel of light The third sort of subjects belonging to the last administration of Christs kingdom are they who in faith and patience do possess their souls following the Lamb whither soever he goes not loving their lives unto death but through the blood of the Lamb being received into the unity of the faith of the Son of God have the use of spiritual senses set up in them enabling them to hear and obey what the spirit saith unto the Churches and so are worshippers of God in spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh enjoying within themselves the witness of a better and more enduring substance then what is experienced under the first-covenant-ministry through this law of the spirit of life which the spiritual sied are made under have that overcoming power of Christ ever present with them in the actings of true and saving faith which overcomes the world and gives them the victory over all opposition not but that they also in walking as men have the same common weaknesses as other men are liable to many failings and miscariages but as they are born of God and walk and live in that spirit sin hath no more dominion over them to make them fulfil the lusts thereof Gal. 5. 16 18. These therefore are distinguished from all the earth-born sons or children of the first covenant by their higher and more divine birth as born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. not but that they are born also of all the other principles as well as othermen possess them in common with others something of the corrupt nature with the heathen and something of the renewed nature with the Jew or worldly Christian but they have over and besides a birth of God which none of the other two have living thereby in that light and life which no man hath seen or can see wherein they are a sort of heavenly seers and men of God that enter with Christ within the veyl and are admitted into the sight and enjoyment of God in the very brightness of his glory and express character of his person shining forth in the face of Christs second appearance and herein are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ partaking after this manner of the divine nature it self wherein they see God face to
large discussed and held forth 2 Cor. 5. as also Jer. 31. compared with Ezek. 18. where Christ challenges all souls to be his as having obtained the non-imputing of sins past unto them in order to put them upon a new trial of personal obedience unto him who is the Lord that bought them and hath renewed life in them that they should henceforth not live unto themselves but to him that died for them Yea this is so evident that the creature itself Rom. 8. 19 20. earnestly groans and labours expecting a restauration by this price of redemption paid by Christ from under the bondage of corruption so as to be brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God In summ therefore there are these two great and general benefits flowing forth from Christs death upon all men The first is a common enlightning of spirit whereby there is set up in them in some degree more or less the candle of the Lord shewing the work of the law in their consciences to the accusing or excusing them in all they do and enabling them to such improvement thereof as to attain the answer of a good natural conscience unto the Rule set before them under the first administration of Christs kingdom The second is Gods not imputing to them sins past as also the often renewing of his pardon to them for sins present Psalm 78. 38. exercising therein his forbearance for the sake of his own justice as pacified and atoned by Christs sacrifice accompanied with protection and encouragement which thence also is afforded them by the hands of the good Angels as his ministers of justice unto all such as by approving themselves faithful in that little they have received are found in the number of wel-doers by which we see the extent of the vertue of Christs blood even to the ends of the earth wherein he hath prepared as large a remedy for the fallen seed of Adam as the dise ase required CHAP. XIV Shewing the continuance and progress of the war between the subjects of Christ and Anti-Christ and the terms and issues upon which they joyn THis war first discovered itself in the two brothers Cain and Abel where the devil comes off equal with Christ so as to gain and prevail with Cain as Christ chose and accepted Abel yea for success in the combate seems to have the better judging probably that in this murther of Abel the promised seed might have been wholly extinct and so have finally miscarried God therefore supplies Abels room with another son through whose line the PROMISED SEED might be yet figured out and carryed on as through Cains line the SEED OF THE SERPENT were shadowed forth and continued But the world coming to multiply and the generations of men to increase the subjects now of Christs three kingdomes distributed as before we have set down are upon the stage at once The first sort of men are those in a corrupt degenerated state whose daughters the SONS OF GOD went in unto Gen. 6. and so begat Giants or men of renown The second sort are typed out and comprehended in this race of GYANTS or men of fame and great repute having the name of sons and God for their Father but being weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary were found to be too light a fleshly seed only though such as therein did bear the first image of God yet who in process of time did so corrupt themselves that God refused to strive by his spirit any longer with them but gave them up to the destruction of the flood as those who became in the imaginations of their hearts alwaies evil before him and in the works they did perform The third sort were found in the family of Noah who was righteous in Gods account and typed out the true spiritual seed Thus we see the distribution of mankind before the flood but after the flood it became much more evident and apparent not only in the three sons of Noah that afterwards peopled again the whole earth but in the time of Abraham with whom God renewed both his covenants making him the Father of many nations or indeed of the two great nations one of the law the other of faith Ishmael born of Hagar the bond-woman figuring out the children of the first covenant that were born after the flesh and Isaac the son of the free woman who was by promise typing out the seed born after the spirit These two seeds were distinguished by their births and dispensations they were under from all the nations of the world besides who were in an open idolatrous heathenish state out of which Abraham was called into the land which God should shew him And in process of time when God made good the promises to Abrahams seed in giving them possession of the earthly Canaan he still continued this threefold distribution of mankind chusing the fleshly seed of Abraham from among all the Nations round about them and placing them in the midst of them and then by his Prophets and the true ministry of his Word subdividing again the spiritual seed from the carnal Into this threefold distribution God was pleased to sort and rank fallen mankind and so to continue them unto Christs second coming in order to accomplish and fulfil the whole counsel of his will upon them which he had fore-purposed and determined within himself and had chosen the Lord Jesus as a polished shaft in his hand to bring to pass accordingly by what he reveals of himself in the Gospel and word of TRUTH wherein first he is declared to the Captain and Author of salvation unto the whole spiritual seed the many sons that are given him by the Father to bring up to eternal glory in the same way he came to it himself who was made perfect through sufferings of whom he is not to lose one but to raise them up all at the last day into everlasting life Secondly he is declared the Redeemer and Ransomer so far of all mankind from under the power of sin and Satan as to disable them to keep off the good things contained in the promises of this life or of that which is to come from any that shall fulfill the condition of them or at least keep themselves as they may from such high provocations and wilful resistance for which God swears in his wrath they shall never enter into his REST. But when man finds such work before him as he cannot go through with by the strength of nature he will not resign up himself in such case though he see there is no other way that God may do it for him by bringing him to Christ that he may have life but sits down in a sullenness of spirit resisting the Holy Ghost and rejecting the counsel of God against his own soul In direct opposition to both these declared branches of Gods will in the Gospel the devil and his instruments set themselves First to attempt by all the power that is in
a Name given him above every name either in this world or in the world to come according to that description we find of him Isaiah 4. 2. c. where Christ the BRANCH is held forth in both these capacities called also Zach. 4. the two olive trees or sons of oyl that stand by the Lord of the whole earth by means of the one emptying out the golden oyl of all natural perfection as he is the Son of man singly considered Christ according to the flesh Head and Root of the renewal of natural purity and perfection by vertue of his blood unto Adams fallen posterity and by means of the other emptying forth the oyl of Gods new Name and of all Spiritual perfection as he is the beginning and first born from the dead made Head to the Heavenly body the Church that general Assembly of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven In both these respects this BRANCH of the Lord is to be made beautifull and glorious so as the very fruit of the earth or the earthly Adam shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel Isa 4. 2. For in them the very being of the first Adams perfection considered as built up again in fellowship and harmony with the second Adams perfection through the Resurrection of the dead is as the Ark of the Testament which is to be seen in this Temple whereby the Song of Moses shall be sung as perfectly as the Song of the Lamb as the musick and harmony requisite to be made by the inhabitants of the NEW JERUS ALEM those that are left in Zion and that remain in Jerusalem when God shall have cleansed them and purged them by the spirit of Judgement and burning by the baptism of the fire of the sacrifice of Christs death wherby they are written among the living in Jerusalem that is do become a Heavenly Tabernacle as built up into a life from the dead for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain in which dwelling places of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies the Lord will create a cloud and a smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence ver 3 4 5 6. From this Scripture it appears that after men have had that work pass upon them which baptizeth them into one living Body with Christ making them living Members of his fleshly Manhood and enabling them to bring forth the excellent comely fruits of the renewed earthly Adam ver 2. unless they yet further abide the trial of fire which is to pass upon them by the Spirit of Judgement and burning of the day of Christs second appearance they will not continue long in ZION nor remain members of this earthly Jerusalem but will defile and pollute the Temple and Tabernacle of God set up in them in conformity to the flesh of Christ and so make themselves fit subjects for God to destroy and to swear in his wrath that even this Generation thus far advanced out of Egypt toward the Land of Promise shall never enter into his Rest as those that are but after such a manner Christs house as is intimated Heb. 3. 6. whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end And as those Paul speaks of amongst the Corinthians that walked like men 1 Cor. 3. 3 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are Those then are the Children of the first Covenant who are Christs seed and off-spring as he is the Head of the first Adams natural perfection and doth renew the Spirit and power of that perfection in the purity thereof as a seed in fallen man that shall grow up and prosper even into a Kingdom in the soul so as to be the prevailing principle there and carry the Rule and sway over the corrupt and prophane part causing men clean to escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of him after the flesh only and with this flesh as the true Manna and bread given them from heaven nourishing them up in the beauty and strength of his natural life The character of this sort of Christs children by the first covenant is lively set down by the Prophet Ezekiel instancing in the children of Israel whom God took by the hand and led out of Aegypt under the ministry of the first covenant wherein he was a husband unto them as appears Jer. 31 32. and had made them beautiful and of great renown in the sight of the Heathens round about them from whom they were separated as made perfect through his comliness which he had put upon them Ezek. 16. 13 14. which sort of Gods children Paul ranks those Galatians amongst that still desired to be under the Law in the time of the Gospel Gal. 4. calling them children of that covenant given from Sinai gendring to bondage or of the Ierusalem that now is to wit the earthly Jerusalem in distinction from the children of the other covenant or of the Jerusalem that is above viz. the heavenly For we must not think that this generation of men passeth away through the coming in of the Gospel but is rather much more improved and compleated forasmuch as by the means of Christ death the Holy commandment is now spoken by the Son himself delivered more immediately by the dawning of the light of Christs first appearance in the heart which was in the time of the ministry of the Law the word only spoken by Angels as committed unto them to mannage through whose ministry or disposition Acts 7. 53. the circumcised seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob received it who were as figures of this circumcision to be made immediately by Christ himself among the Gentiles without hands by the pouring forth of his spirit upon all flesh and building them up with him into one living body as the true Israel of God after the flesh all which amounts but to the compleating of Christs living body through this first-covenant-work of his set up in the heart and conscience called in Scripture the FIRST FAITH which may be departed from and prove a faith that fails as being held upon wavering and uncertain principles until it be fixed by the baptism of fire and have that brought forth in fellowship with it which accompanies salvation to wit the incorruptible and immortal seed of the perfection of the second Adam causing them to dwell on high and placing them upon the munitions of Rocks where bread is given to them and waters that do not fail The Rule that is given unto this fleshly seed or children of the first covenant is the pattern of Christs natural life and perfection as he appeareth in the fashion of a man and form of a servant like unto us in all
formes through counterfeit resemblances unto TRUTH to beguile and mislead unstable souls and is daily detected and discovered under all professions or visible formes of Saintship whether more or lesse refined whether earthly and sensual or heavenly and Angelical Hereof there are in these dayes of ours but too many living instances who as Lots wife are turned into Monuments of Gods righteous judgment declared upon them for the admonition of others And that we may not leave this subject without endeavouring to contribute some assistance towards the resolving of that great Question how the true Spirit may with certainty and infallibility be known and distinguished from the false I shall briefly recommend to consideration as conducible to the discovery hereof these following particulars The Spirit of TRUTH is evidently and infallibly distinguished from the spirit of lies and falshood three several wayes by which we may make a trial and judgement of the spirits whether they be of God or no. First by the evidence and witnesse which is given of it by the three that bear witnesse in heaven where the Spirit of TRUTH shines forth in its supreme original light and self-evidence as we have at large shewed in the first and second Chapters Secondly by the Record and witnesse that the Sonne or Christ the true Spirit gives of himself in his flesh or humane nature causing the truth to shine forth in the face of Jesus opening what he is and what he did by coming in the flesh suffering and rising againe according to the Scriptures which 1 John 5. 6. is rendred thus This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that heareth witnesse because the Spirit is truth even the witnesse shining forth in his Spirit and person who whether considered as being and subsisting in the WORD OF LIFE before his being made flesh or considered as after his coming in the flesh living dying and rising againe hath a witnesse born of him in heaven by the FATHER WORD and SPIRIT which Three are one and also in earth by the SPIRIT WATER BLOOD declaring themselves in and upon him as he was found in the fashion and habit of a man which agree in one Thus in the same person we have the greater witnesse which is the witnesse of God or of Christ as he is God and the lesser witnesse which is the witnesse of man or of Christ as he is the Son of man and in both these considered also as testified unto by the Scriptures we have the compleat witnesse which God hath testified of his Son By reason hereof 't is said 1 Joh. 2. 12. Who is a liar but he that denies Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father Whosoever sees not nor acknowledges the TRUTH as witnessed and shining forth in the face of Jesus the Son of man with those that are rightly admitted to serve in the first Sanctuary among the many that are called can much lesse behold it as witnessed and held forth in the brightnesse of Gods face or of the blessed Trinity with those who are culled out of the former and rightly admitted into the holiest of all among the few that are chosen By both these witnesses and records in harmony with the outward Word we do come to know him that is true as the right and whole object whereon through faith we are to fix our eye in the proper forme character and distinction which he gives of himself from all idols or counterfeit appearances of him whatsoever The third or last witnesse which is given us of the true Spirit is that which immediately and necessarily flows from his indwelling presence in our hearts growing up there more and more unto a perfect day by working out in the conscience and spirit of the beleever a confōrmity unto Christ in his death and resurrection causing a dying to sinne and a living unto righteousnesse in the full extent of both as we have opened For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Examine therefore your selves whether ye be in the Faith know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobate And If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead awell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwellesh in you and so the Spirit it-selfe comes evidently and infallibly to witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God as having this Spirit of Adoption poured into our hearts for if we be adopted children then we know we are heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And though we are now Sonnes so as it doth not yet appeare what we shall be when we come to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus at the full manifestation of the sonnes of God yet now we know that we shall then be like him and that we shall then see him as he is yea by faith we now see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and by this knowledge we have of him in the mean time we come to see and experience him that is true and that we are in him that is true even the true God and eternal life having the witnesse in our selves through that holy anointing which is TRUTH and no lie teaching us of all things and abiding in us as a seed to preserve us from the evil and snare of all false and seducing spirits Abide therefore in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you CHAP. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him HAving already in general laid open the methods of Satan the weapons of his warfare together with the diligent and skilful prosecution of his designes upon mankind to seduce them work them off and forever deteine them from their duty and faithfulnesse unto Christ their true Husband and Lord we shall come now in a more particular manner to shew how closse an attendant he is upon the foregoing works of Christ in the hearts and consciences of men considered under the former dispensations walking about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure watching what he can find in such hearts that in the BEGINNING are Gods and Christs owne workmanship as hath beene shewed and trying whom he may corrupt from their first
power and glory shining forth in the beauty of his new name that is above every name either in this world or in that which is to come every knee is appointed to bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and the duty of every tongue shall be to confesse that Iesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Hence then it is evident that as God or the WORD in Christs first appearance was pleased to be manifested in flesh wherein to condescend and make himself of no reputation by taking upon him the forme of a servant and being made in the likenesse or habit of a man and in this fashion as a man subjecting himself to the doing and suffering all that which was required to be done and suffered on the behalf of sinful mankind and for the bringing many sonnes unto glory so also is he that thus did and suffered all things as a man in the dayes of his flesh for our redemption at this time to see his seed and reap the fruit of the travel of his soul which then he made a sacrifice for sin being now a second time to appeare without any reference to sinne as then he did but instead thereof to declare himself the Sonne of God with power by the resurrection from the dead So as in and by this second appearance the man Christ Iesus in the fashion and forme of his exalted and glorified manhood consisting of spirit soul and body in substantial or personal union with the WORD is to shew and manifest himself in the glory of the Father in the joynt and united exercise of the same divine life and power with him and therein to give a plaine demonstration that he is the Sonne of God as by his being made flesh and becoming obedient to the death of the Crosse he did undeniably demonstrate that he was really and properly the Sonne of Man made of the seed of David according to the flesh living the life and dying the death of a perfect natural man Thus the Sonne of man shall come with power and great glory sitting with the Father upon the same Throne therein shewing himself the only POTENTATE the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS dwelling in immortality and that light which no man can approach hath seene or can see Christ then considered as thus dwelling in immortality and that light which is invisible and inaccessible in reference to all those that are meer natural men shall at this time declare himself to be the life and quickning of his own dead body and the object of their converse who having been made one dead body with him as planted in the similitude of his death shall now be called and gathered together unto him in one incorruptible immortal glorified state of spirit soul and body be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection to the attaining of their compleat adoption and the redemption of the body at this manifestation of the sonnes of God and heirs of salvation which is spoken of Colos 3. 4. where 't is said that when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory and 1 Iohn 3. 2. we are now sonnes but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is or as he dwells in immortality and in that light from whence he excludes every natural eye reserving it as the peculiar enjoyment and inheritance of his friends whom he loves that are Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ in the things prepared only for them which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard nor have entred into the heart of the natural man to consider This likenesse which the true Saints shall be brought forth into with Christ the beginning and first-begotten from the dead is described in general by the promise Christ makes to them on that behalf And Iesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19. 28. So Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh sayes he I will grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne which imports First that as by the Fathers quickning of Christ raising him up and fitting him in spiririt soul and body to exercise in unity with him the same divine life and power to the making his manhood Second with him on the Throne so Christ in like manner will quicken and raise up all the members of his dead body or slaine faithful Witnesses that have beene made conformable unto him in his death and fit them in their spirit soul and body to exercise in unity and association with his heavenly manhood the life and power which he is enabled to exercise as he is the exalted Sonne of man to the rendring them a fit Bride Queene and Second with him in his Throne where they shall neverthelesse sit as upon Thrones of their owne as his Equals and co-heirs yet in subordination unto him judging the twelve Tribes of Israel in a light and glory superiour to the earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church yea to the good Angels themselves who shall be found but standing about the Throne whilst the Saints shall be sitting downe with Christ upon it Secondly as the Father gives authority to Christ in the capacity of the Sonne of man to execute judgement as the only l'OTENTATE KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS under him so Christ also shall give and derive to his body the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven authority to be the only Potentates Lords of Lords and Kings of Kings under him whose Decrees and Ordinances shall be binding unto all in heaven or in earth or under the earth next and immediately under Christ their head and this as well in reference to the regulating and well-ordering the service and worship of God in the societies of Saints and all his true worshippers as in reference to the governing and well-ordering the natural and outward converse of men in their humane societies during the reigne of Christ upon earth the thousand years Both these powers and jurisdictions shall be residing in the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven who shall then be declared the Bride the Lambs wife the New Ierusalem coming downe from God out of heaven described Rev. 21. 2. as she that is prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband being that Tabernacle of God with men wherein he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he himself will be with them and be their God wiping away all teares from their eyes so as there shall be amongst them no more death nor sorrow nor crying
as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
four living creatures from its four faces signifying Christ himself thereby as his life is in the WORD and as in that life he comprehends the very form of the son of man and is the root to the whole first creation unto which through the Ministry of Gods first appearance he gives life being motion in the exercise of this his creating power he is the head of Angels and they are the body to him that he makes use of in his service Ezek. 10. 11. Whose voice they hearken unto as ready to execute all his commands and pleasure in this his first dominion The spirituality of motion in the head and body is such that they are said to run and return like a flash of lightning and to the place whither the head is to go they go and turn not and their likeness or appearance was like burning coals of fire and the workmanship of this body was like a wheel within a wheel four wheels Chap. 10. 9. that were but one wheel ver 13. Chap. 1. 15. answerable to the four living creatures that were but one living creature and the rings of the wheels were so high that they were dreadful and were full of eyes in which wheels was the spirit or WORD of life riding as in his Chariot Psal 68. These chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place In a like representation they were beheld by Elishaes servant 2 Kings 6. 17. when he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha as the invisible guard and protection which were with them to defend them from the Syrians By what hath been said we have a little view into the nature and use of Angels in the hand of Christ from the beginning of these sons of the morning that shouted for joy at the beholding of Christ when he was revealed to them to be the corner-stone of stability and fixedness even to the very first creation In general then we may perceive that the office and use of Angels is to be ministring spirits principally sent forth to Minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation in which ministry they are perfected by being made immutable and brought into the best and highest rank of servants transformed into a likeness in life and principles with that which is found in the glorified natural man of the Saint whose service and subjection is made perfect in love as the tongue that readily confesses and the knee that willingly bows to the glory of the Father in the Sons new name in which glory the Saints are co-heirs and so obtain by inheritance a more excellent name then the Angels Heb. 1. 4. who therefore confess that they are not the Son nor the true Bridegroom or Bride but servants and friends to the marriage union esteeming it a posture becoming them to hide their faces before the unveiled glory of the Son to stand still in silence and to let down their wings Ezek. 1. 24. that the glory of the Son sitting on the Throne may shine forth from the firmament that is above over their heads and the heavenly voice of his second appearance may be heard obeyed accounting it their blessedness to be neer the Bridegroom and to be servants and friends to the marriage of the Lamb as a guard of fire round about the Throne on which the Lamb and his Bride sits swift executioners of vengeance 2 Thess 1. 7 8. upon all those which shall endeavour to put those asunder whom God hath thus joyned together These are described Rev. 4. 8. to be they that rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God almighty which was and is and is to come giving glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the Throne and lives for ever and ever As thus they are this heavenly building they are the first heavens the Tabernacle and clouds of heaven or the air for the day-break and glorious sun of Gods first appearance to run his race and finish his course in whereby to enlighten the ends of the earth and all things under heaven These sons of this morning are the first light-bearers to the Inhabitants of the first world therein are covering Cherubs unto the Son in his own proper glory that they may be enabled to bear light or the similitude of Christ in his first appearance unto others they are first the receivers of that light in themselves in a spirituality of being and form fitted and suited thereunto which accommodates them with the exercise of senses meerly spiritual and inward exceeding high intuitive and comprehensive a manner of life shadowing out the divine life in the name of the Father whose voice is net heard at any time nor shape seen but is like a consuming fire to burn up and slay whatever natural Organ is coversant about it or stands before the beams and raies of its most pure and invisible glory In a shadowy imitation of this the angelical spirits when they come forth in the nakedness of their own invisible substance and glory of their own being they are flames of fire consuming and dissolving all objects of outward sense to the very disinabling as to the exercise of all such life of sense any living creatures whose life consists therein whereof the whole fabrick of this visible world in all the parts of it which is reserved to be destroyed by the flames of this fire will be a most undeniable demonstration and death it self is a daily witness hereof in every man who no sooner is deprived of the exercise of his bodily life and departs this world but is brought into a state of life wherein he is an equal and associate to Angels good or bad for in the world to come they neither marry nor are given in marriage saith our Saviour but are equal with the Angels And as thus Christ by the angelieal ministry doth gather in mans breath and leave his body to the dust whilst they return with his spirit to God that gave it in which service they are employed by Christ at mans dissolution Luke 16. 22. so also they have service to perform in their place under Christ in bringing in and continuing the exercise of all bodily life throughout the whole fabrick of the first creation yea even in man himself the abridgement thereof in which operation of theirs they seem not unfitly to be compared to the influence and generating power of the Sun that is it self but a creature and yet effectually co-operates to the production and conservation of bodily life in pursuance of those orders and laws of second causes established by God himself respecting his creation and continuance of the first world The Angels then in their receivings of light and life from Christ have for object the brightness of Gods first appearance shining forth through him as the root of all natural perfection and so
are hearers and receivers of this voice of Gods WORD in the best and highest capacity of any particular natural beings whatsoever And as their natural capacities are high and vast in their receivings from Christ so their readiness and exactness in conforming themselves to the will of Christ is unimaginable and their power to execute is most strong and mighty nothing under Christ being able to resist them or stand out against them in their ministry that is according to the will of Christ And as thus considered they are those that in the hand of Christ are made use of to bear the light or image of Gods first appearance unto all the inhabitants of the first creation so as not only man himself is made lower then they but with the whole world is put into subjection to them and their ministry as we have before expressed Thus in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth he first set up the heavenly fabrick of the angelical nature and in that as in a subordinate head under Christ comprehended the whole earth and visible world as a mass without form and void through the darkness which was as yet upon the face of this great deep as it stood in the waters untill by the brooding of the spirit of life in the Word upon them making his Angels chariots and flying upon those wings of the wind he caused the earth to stand out of the waters and become a glorious visible fabrick adorned and beautified by the remaning works and products of the six daies as is at large described in the first of Genesis CHAP. V. Concerning the Creation of Man on the sixth Day WEE have already treated of the excellency and raisedness of being given unto Angels who in their invisibility shadow forth the glory of the Father And we have considered them as represented under the light of the first day as it stood divided from the darkness like a glorious heaven which light God called day in comparison of that darkness which he called night This darkness or night seems by the coherence of the verses fitly to represent the Earth considered as that Chaos or confused lump without form and void from whence God produced the bodily and visible frame of the first world with all the hoasts and generations thereof precedent unto and ushering in the creation of man after he had set up the Angels in a separatedness of being from it which visible frame of things so produced was to serve as an outward book of the creatures to make intelligible unto man the invisible things of God even his eternal power and Godhead through such earthly characters as so many kinds of voices in the world none of which wanted their signification or proper use for the service of man in his dutiful serving of God shadowing out the witness of the second in the Trinity which is the image of God in a visible administration to the sense and discerning of the natural being of the creature Forasmuch then as by the progress made by God as yet in the creation whilst the intellectual life of Angels and sensual life of other parts of the creation were brought forth and continued in so vast a distance and separation as heaven and earth so that the harmony and consistency of both seemed yet to be wanting God in his infinite wisdom to shadow and type out the finishing and compleating work which the operation of the Holy Ghost gives to the witness of the Father and of the Son was pleased on the sixth day to create man and in his constitution and building to provide a joynt consistency of both these excellencies and perfections together for man in his rational soul was made an associate to Angels and in his bodily or animal life equal to beasts that perish and in the joynt harmonious exercise of both these in one was that in a total sum which the other two were in a separate and divided condition Hence it is that man by his creation is so made in the image of God as to answer and represent the operations of the Trinity who put forth as it were a holy and divine combination in their workmanship to draw the earthly shadow of their perfections upon man in his creation who is made by them to consist of spirit soul and body 1 Thess 5. 25. But man considered as thus bearing the image of God is made simply to be receiving those properties and operations that are essential to him as a man and therefore is in another sense created in Gods image when he is made naturally righteous and holy in all the operations of this his being This we are taught by the Scripture Gen. 1. 26. 27. compared with Gen. 2. 7. if carefully minded by us where we may find man created in Gods image in a twofold respect First in the essential properties and operations that are incident and appertaining to him as he is a man consisting in the life of spirit soul and body wherein he is made to bear the similitude and resemblance of God in the divine essential properties and operations so as in a creature-being to be the earthly figure and similitude of the Trinity who therefore said Let us make man in our image and let him have dominion and soveraignty over the creatures bearing our likeness in his very make and constitution retaining this shadow of us as that which he can never quite lose without ceasing to be a man And for this reason it is that God saies Gen. 9. 5. 6. he will require the blood of mans life at the hands of every beast and at the hand of every mans brother for in the image of God made he man which if it should only refer to that image of God which man bears as he continues holy and righteous it would expose men in their corrupt state to the same fear which Cain that whosoever found them might kill them and be unaccountable Secondly man by the same act of Gods workman-ship is the image of God as he bears the similitude of Gods righteousness and holiness shining forth in Christs first appearance rendering him meet for communion with God in which consisted the puritie and perfection of the first Adam who was the figure and type of Christ himself according to the flesh the promised seed that was to come and to be made like unto us in all things sin only excepted and as such he was the shadowy Temple and first Sanctuary wherein divine worship and service was to be performed according to the tenor of the first covenant This was effected when God breathed into him the breath of life and made him to become a living soul as appears Gen. 2. 7. compared with 1 Cor. 15. 45 48 49. The image of God in this latter sense set up in man may as experience shews suffer change in a twofold respect either as that which as it ought will wax old vanish away prove as the morning dew
those were that should be everlastingly saved or everlastingly perish would seem by this way of his ordering of things in the first creation to be very accessory to the sin and fall of Angels and men seeing it was in his power to have made them otherwise not at all subjected to this weakness it is very true God could have made them otherwise but when both in wisdom and justice he thought fit to make them thus who art Thou O man that repliest against God And how unseemly is it for the vessel to say to the potter why hast thou made me thus that is subject to such mutability and weakness as may end in everlasting contempt and misery seeing that God puts no influencing necessity upon thee either by his decree or otherwise but leaves thee to the free motion and choise of thy own mind and will herein and for this very reason made thee a creature indued with free will that no turning of the scale towards thy misery and ruine might proceed from him but from the moving and enticing of thy own hearts lust which state also ministred occasion to thee by the weakness and mutability thereof to have looked after that better state that was provided and was approaching even ready to be revealed whereby all the faultiness of thy first state might have been remedied and such a change attained unto as was more worth then all the hazard and loss that lay in the way of coming to the enjoyment of it amounted to The wisdom and justice then of God is very perspicuous in ordering that state of things which by creation was first brought forth as a preparatory and fore-running dispensation to the glory of the spiritual body that was to follow and succeed And the folly and weakness of Angels and men is very inexcusable that in this estate made so bad use of those gifts and communications of God so freely received from the hand of a bountiful Creator as to make him weary of giving more and repent as it were of what he had given already in that it was so shamefully abused by the receivers thereof as to reproach the maker and provoke him to exclude them for ever from the true Rest Now what this second and more excellent state is into which the creature is to be translated may partly be understood by the opposite weakness and faultiness in the other that hath been already opened forasmuch as it contains in it the full cure and remedy thereunto and in general doth procure a full redemption unto the natural body out of its first bondage of corruption and mutability in all respects which therefore the whole creature waits for Rom. 8. 19. but as for the manner and particulars of that glory wherein they shall be brought forth we are to wait till those times of refreshing that shall come from the presence of the Lord for this restitution of all things do themselves give the explanation thereof in visible characters But that which lies most properly before us in the matter we are now handling is the consideration of what that change is in reference to the inward intellectual and rational powers in Angels and men respectively who having received at the first immortal and invisible substances as hath been shewed are not in the essential parts of their first constitution to be annihilated but the Angels are still spirits and flames of fire and men do still consist of spirit soul and bodie retaining the powers and operations incident and proper thereunto after that they have passed by a considerable and irrevocable change through the resurrection from the dead into everlasting honour or everlasting contempt That the perfection of Angels and men which was communicated to them by creation was mutable and corruptible is generally confessed and experienced likewise is it as little to be doubted but that the instability and change in both by their sin and fall did proceed from that freedom of will proper motion of their own which they were enabled to exercise according to the first constitution and natural frame of their minds and spirits wherein they possessed an arbitrary independent and free exercise thereof without any interruption by God who was pleased to suffer this for his own most wise and holy ends intrusting them with what they had received to use and employ it for the glory and in the service of their Creator and not to serve their own private lusts and interests therewith In this honour and trust received from God it would well have become as well Angels as men to have found themselves not a little burthened under the straits and difficulties attending the right managing such soveraignty and arbitrariness of power which seems so much above the weakness of meer creature-beings that until God take them into such intimacy of union by the second Covenant as not to leave them alone in the exercise of this power they are every moment subject to miscarriage in the use thereof God therefore was willing to take a Rise from hence to discover to the creature the needfulness of its being taken out of this wavering state and translated into the permanent glory that was to follow whereby to secure it in the midst of all its present excellency and perfection from destroying itself by forfeiting and losing all that it had already attained and to set up in the creature a house and an abiding place for himself wherein he may rest for ever Esai 66. 1. when all things that his hands had made and are said by him to have been by virtue of the first creation came short of so glorious an end and use as left to themselves and were by him laid by as unregarded That then which God had in his eye and which his heart and regard was set upon consists in a frame of spirit and mind reserved by him to be brought upon Angels men that stood in direct opposition and cross constitution unto this eminently shining forth in the crucified spirit of Jesus the last Adam which God by the vertue and means of his death and resurrection designed to superinduce upon the natural beings of Angels and men as in the way of a new creation before which the old should vanish wear away This Isa 66. 2. is lively set forth where to those expressions all these things hath mine hand made and all these things have been the Holy Ghost subjoyns but to this will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word The like is to be found Psal 109. 16. where Judas and such enemies unto Christ are prophesied of as persecuted the poor and needy man that they might even slay the broken in heart This poverty neediness and brokenness of spirit is that which Christ cals blessed Mat. 5. 3. saying that theirs is the kingdom of heaven being ever accompanied with a purity and a purifying through faith whereby they come to see God v.
8. This was that which Christ told the young man was yet wanting to him that had kept the commandments from his youth and is the strait gate that all must enter at that come into the true Rest This is effected only by believing and partaking with Christ in conformity with him in his death and is a making of us weak with Christ amounting in the end to a perfect disenabling of the mind wherein this spiritual and blessed change is wrought to exercise that arbitrary independent free and proper motion of its own before mentioned in the single light and life of the creature-excellency and perfection communicated and enjoyed by the ministry of Gods first appearance under the first covenant which is apt to puff up and lead the creature to an unwarrantable boasting and glorying in the first light and voice of God Isai 40. 3. the word of the BEGINNING Heb. 6. 1. without staying for the glory of the word that comes in the end and is to follow by the ministry of his second appearance which second voice cries Isa 40. 6 7 8. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand for ever Through this puffing up and heightning property that is incident to the natural frame of mind in Angels and men so soon as they come to the use of this shadow of divine soveraignty set up in them by the exercise of their own free-will their lust presently finds something to work upon and is ready to conceive and bring forth sin whereas the contrary poor and needy frame of spirit is set up by God in Christ for the cure and remedy hereunto by reason whereof as we may find John 14. 30. when the Prince of this world came he found nothing in him The effects then of Christs second appearance caused by the dawning light of that day upon the natural beings of Angels are First the hiding and covering of their faces as those with whom God might justly find fault if they should by any thing they had received glory in his sight and Secondly the sense of the weakness and fickleness of their first estate and thereupon a waxing weary of the burthen they were under whilst they were left by God to such an arbitrary independent exercise of mind as they were intrusted with in their operations under the first Covenant and therefore Thirdly it did cause them to sing and shout for joy to see the remedy and cure which was brought hereunto by God through the power of the Cross of Christ when they came to discern that upon this corner stone the foundations of the first creation were fastned and the instability thereof healed and helped This they found to be the Lords doing and it was marvellous in their eyes the sight whereof they obtained on the seventh day the day which the Lord made in which they did rejoyce and were glad Psal 118. 22 23 24. Here was the joy of the good Angels when by the manifestation of the true Rest revealed in the face of the Mediator the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world they came with a holy curiosity to pry into the sufferings of Christ and glory that was to follow who though he were not yet exhibited but in promise seen by them as subsisting in his head the word of life yet by a discerning agreeable to that of faith in man they had a sight of him as the seed of the woman that was to come and knew him to be the Son by whom God made the worlds and who was the brightness of Gods glory and express image of his substance who upheld all things by the word of his power and through the sacrifice of himself was to sit down on the right hand of the majestie on high and thereby obtain a more excellent inheritance then they concerning whom as the first-begotten they had received this charge from God Let all the Angels of God worship him So then through faith in the death and Resurrection of Christ as the Mediator set up from everlasting the Angels by the power of Christs second appearance came to the sight of the heavenly Image and perfection of the last Adam unto which they were in their places to bear a conformity in the true Mount Sion and heavenly Jerusalem where the Elect and holy Angels are to have their residence howbeit in station inferiour to the Church or general assembly of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and who are the Lambs Bride and wife whilst the Angels are but friends of the Bridegroom and admitted into the secrets of the Bride-chamber whose conformity to Christ in this his spiritual body or heavenly Image changes their natural frame of minde into the like spiritual heavenly-mindedness with their head whereby there is consumed taken away wholly removed and abolished the power and exercise of their first arbitrary and self-disposing property of mind which now being quitted through voluntary resignation they have in the room and place thereof by a translation and engrafture into the spiritual life will and mind of their head the life and motion of all their natural powers more excellently then before in a state of life incorruptible and unchangeable being now throughout partaking and co-operating in a joynt way of life with their head who before stood single and alone in their natural motions and operations Through the refusal and want of this change to have been wrought out in them the wicked angels fell and set up for themselves in a fixed enmity and opposition of spirit hereunto And this shall suffice to have been spoken in reference to the change that is wrought out in the good and Elect Angels In the next place we are to consider the change that is hereby wrought upon the natural being of man considered as a living soul which Adam should have experienced without falling this being appointed by God as the only effectual means to bring him into a fixed and durable state which stability is said Rom. 11. 20. to come by faith through the operation whereof man ceases from the power of standing on his own bottom for the ordering and directing of his steps by the motions of his natural mind which he is enabled to by the first Covenant considered either as it was first given at his creation or as since renewed by the blood of Christ and is made the subject in his understanding and will now crucified and resigned wherein God himself joyns in the exercise of this power with him working in him both to will and to do of his own good pleasure in stead of leaving it to the good pleasure of man who nevertheless is a free and willing co-worker with God in this day of Gods power whence it appears that
Adam fell through unbelief and for want of being kept in his innocent state through the power of faith unto salvation without which the Scripture saith it is impossible for any to please God no not for Adam himself in innocency For though whilst he stood he did that which was just and right as the righteous man Ezek. 18. yet in all this he was conversant only about natural good and righteousness the acceptation whereof depends upon its continuance and is such by way of comparison as renders any acceptable to the Magistrate that keep his laws whereas the filial obedience that is performed to God through beleiving answers the very love and complacency of God in a way of intimate friendship as proceeding from the man that is made after Gods own heart and is blessed in himself and in his deed But as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse as it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things w ch are written in the book of the law to do them And as thus it was with Adam in his righteous and holy state wherein he was created so is it since with all those sons of Adam that are of the works of the law and are made living souls again in their measure and degree by the renewal of the first covenant upon them in the blood of Christ through which they are brought into that which Jude cals a state of common salvation obtained as through the ransom which Christ was made for all v. 3. and which v. 5. the children of Israel were said to share in when they were brought by God out of Aegypt and were made to live unto God by the first Covenant Ezek. 16. Deut. 32. Isai 63. 10. yet many or most of them God destroyed and was not well pleased with through their unbelief having discovered them to be cursed children in whom was no faith or who under all the light received proved bitter enemies and resisters of the work and voice of the Holy Ghost calling them to believe and receive the change that was to be wrought out in them and so enter into Rest This change is comprehended in the life and perfection of the new creature and glory of the spiritual body or heavenly image of the last Adam For so it is written The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit and again it is not circumcision that availeth any thing or uncircumcision but that which is required is to be the new creature having a new name better then that of sons and daughters by the first covenant through which we are made pillars in the house of God never to go out more and are written among the living in Jerusalem whose names shall never be blotted out dwelling on high even upon a munition of rocks where bread even hidden manna is given and the waters of the sure mercies of David that will not fail And if we desire to know what this new creature is it is called faith that works by love which faith translates man out of the natural into the spiritual body and is his new-creature-state wherein the operative powers of his mind are so formed as that he is enabled not only to exercise his natural judgement and will in a crucified and resigned frame in conformity with the dead body of Christ and as quickned together with him through the Resurrection from the dead and made incorruptible but Secondly the believer hereby receives a raisedness of discerning and enlargedness of his natural mind answering that effusion of spirit upon him surpassing all natural knowledge of the uncrucified mind causing him to see as he is seen and to apprehend that for which also he is comprehended in Christ Jesus rendring him a co-partner and co-heir with Christ in the vision of Gods proper and naked similitude as admitted to behold the glory that is within the veil in which capacity the spiritual seed are the bride and wife of the Lamb that are called to sit down on the Throne with him at the right hand of the Majesty on high and who by the means of this their heavenly part do so influence and quicken their natural as that thereby they are enabled to sing both the song of Moses and of the Lamb in perfect harmony together and to do the will of God in earth as it is done in heaven According to their heavenly part or spiritual capacity they sit down at meat with Christ in the Fathers kingdom in the other they are as them that serve in a state equal with the holy Angels This marriage union between Christ and believers is said Rom. 7. to be their marrying unto him that is risen from the dead and this through their becoming dead to their first husband the Law and Ioh. 3. 29 32 33. is said to be the hearing the Bridegrooms voice in what he hath heard and seen from the Father and the receiving that testimony which no man in his natural capacity receiveth through which the Saints do set to their seal that God is true and partake with the Bridegroom throughout in his most intimate communications of glory from the Father as it is written Ioh. 17. 21. That they all may be one in us as thou Father art in me and I in thee Thus we have briefly intimated the change which by way of a new creation is set up in Angels and men through faith in Christ the promised seed as he is the last Adam and was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world putting on this spiritual body in his own person as the first fruits of life from the dead in conformity whereunto every true believer is in his own order clothed upon with the same heavenly image for as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly which though they do not so attain as to be perfect therein whilst in the natural body yet they have the mark in their eye and are pressing forward for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus CHAP. VIII Shewing the conviction and judgement that came upon men and Angels for their sin and disobedience by the shining forth of the All-searching light of Gods second appearance in the WORD before which every creature stands naked and discovered BY what hath been already evidenced in the precedent Chapter it may appear that they certainly do very much derogate from the glory of Christ and proclaim their short-sightedness into his fulness and rich grace that look upon the coming of the Lord Jesus the seed of the promise as an accidental provision only that God had in reserve in case of the entrance and coming in of sin never considering that through faith in him sin from the first might and was to have been kept out and that there was from the beginning no other way nor name nor means where by the creature could obtain a sare sare incorruptible
and the works of his hands judging and condemning the wicked Angels for their disobedience reserving them in chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day and taking the holy and obedient Angels into participation and fellowship with himself in the life from the dead by him obtained and possessed as the Lord to whom God spake to sit down at his right hand from the beginning until he made his foes his foot stool through whom as through a Propitiatory covering he did look down upon all the works of his hands and was at rest and well pleased with them as wrought in the Mediator notwithstanding all that had been done by sin or Satan to effect a breach and alineate his mind from them Hence Job 38. 6 7. it is said that God fastned the foundation of the first world and laid the corner-stone thereof viz. in the person of the Mediator by way of provision and preparation against all the power of sin and Satan in their attempts upon it At this the good Angels those morning stars and sons of God rejoyced prying into this mysterie which made them sing and shout for joy as on the same occasion it is said Psal 118. 22 23 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it to see thereby the Devil and his Angels disappointed in their wicked designs who by the bringing in of sin were in hopes to have hindred the growing up of Jesus the BRANCH that was to spring out of this ROOT But Davids ROOT sitting as Lord at Gods right hand had before obtained that power which was to subdue all enemies and lay them flat at his foot-stool Davids OFF-SPRING therefore was in no danger of having his course stopped or race hindred wherein as a mighty Saviour and Redeemer he was to go forth and rescue the whole spiritual seed out of the hands of sin and Satan to bring them unto the true REST and obtain a gracious reprieve and forbearance for the most obstinate and rebellious also And as this was the end of Christs coming in the flesh he is accordingly fitted and qualified thereunto enabled in every particular to fulfil and accomplish the same But that we may the more clearly and distinctly understand and come to see wherein Jesus Christ as man is made this mighty Saviour and Redeemer unto men we shall consider this in three chief particulars all which were the product and consequents of the Word 's being made flesh As first the seeds and principles of a two-fold holiness and righteousness formed and set up in the mind of Christ as he is a man answerable to both Covenants For by the Word 's being made flesh the man Christ Jesus was taken into a twofold union and communion with God through the overshadowing of the Holy-Ghost in the womb of the Virgin becoming thereby in his own person the substance of both Covenants Isa 42. 6. and ch 49. 8. The true Abraham or Father to both seeds as well that of the Law as that of Faith In both which considerations of his man-hood he was substantially or personally united with God or with the WORD he and the WORD making but one Person and one Mediator which no man whatever besides himself is or can be and by vertue hereof he is qualified both as Priest and Sacrifice to pay that ransom and make that atonement for sin which God required The first of these unions he had as made under the Law or first-covenant which produced in him suitable righteous and holy principles unto the rule and tenor thereof enabling him to fulfill all that kind and sort of righteousness therein and thereby required and commanded In respect of which union and the image of God thence springing up in him and adorning of him he was truly and properly made a living soul and in this fashion and habit of a man was to taste death for every man as being in a state subjected thereunto called the natural body in distinction from the spiritual body For 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body as it is written the first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Through this first union Christ had an exercise of life as meer man and in common with all men sin only excepted by reason whereof the workings and operations of his mind though they were in their kind most perfect yet were but those of the first Adams righteousness in the highest purity and perfection thereof The second union and communion then which is contracted between the WORD and Jesus the Son of Mary made him a quickning Spirit and brought him under the Law of the Spirit or of the second and everlasting Covenant as it is written Isa 59. 21. Thus saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever Through which union Christ as man had the Spirit poured out upon him without measure and above the measure according unto which he was the receiver of it as he was under the Law singly considered as him whom God the Father seals and on whom he confers his new name or second image feeding him with hidden Manna and admitting him into the glory within the veil setting up in him the exercise of spiritual senses suited and prepared to converse with the very substantial brightness and similitude of God face to face even apparently in which Moses was the figure of him Numb 12. 8. In this exercise of life Christ as man is made higher then the heavens exalted to a name above every name far above all principalities and powers having herein obtained a more excellent name and inheritance then the Angels unto whom nevertheless as he was made under the law he was made inferiour for the tasting of death In respect of this his exalted state of humane nature he is called Gods first begotten Heb. 1. 6. by reason of whose hypostatical or substantial union with the WORD the Angels of God are appointed to worship him and to acknowledge him in this glory one and equal with the Father alwaies doing that which is pleasing unto him The seed of this union and communion was sown in the humane nature of Christ in the very womb the former and this both together making up that holy thing born of the Virgin that child Jesus who is said to grow in grace and in favour with God and with man like the vine whose fruit was refreshing to the heart of God and of man having the principles and exercise of life springing up in him that were most suitable agreeable to the heart of both being a man of God after Gods own heart as well as a righteous and holy man according to the Law
Jesus our Lord. But the justification and sanctification received upon the terms of the first covenant which are conditional and depending upon the creatures continuance are subject in a time of tryal to fail the persons concerned therein unto whom through the common relation which all mankind is taken into with Christ as he is flesh of our flesh bone of our bone like unto us in all things sin only excepted there is given as in a way of common grace and salvation first a relative holiness and righteousness in ballance to the relative unholiness and unrighteousness derived to the first Adams posterity as they stood related to him their common parent in his fallen state which is freely conferred upon them with offer and promise to bring them out of the bondage of corruption they are in by nature if they will hear and obey Secondly there is an actual exercise of long-suffering and patience put forth towards them freely on Gods part by vertue of the satisfaction he hath received on their behalf in the sacrifice of Christ by reason whereof he declares himself willing not to impute unto them sins past or present if through obeying Christs voice they shall render themselves capable of such benefit and shall not by their wilful personal sinning against the grace offered them and persisting therein so far abuse the benefit of Christs sacrifice as wholly to render themselves unworthy thereof Thirdly there is an actual imputation of Christs legal righteousness to all such as obeying his call in the first-covenant are thereby made the seed which is of the Law born after the flesh and become actual members of his natural body From what then hath been said concerning Christs active and passive obedience we may discern how far Christ therein wrought out mans redemption as he stood in the relation of a common person and parent to both seeds and as their surety undertook on their behalf to fulfill the righteousness of both Covenants in himself and this after such a manner as to be able to derive and communicate the benefit thereof unto them in a way of the Justification and Sanctification required by either of the two covenants respectively and this either singly and apart each from other or joyntly and together to the rendring those righteous in him that were helpless sinners and wretched ones in themselves Christs obedience then hitherto treated of in the two forementioned branches of his active and the first branch of his passive though it doth procure all that which is needful to make man righteous and holy according to what is required by both covenants yet it is not that properly which expiates the guilt of sin already committed nor frees from the curse of the Law in order to which Christ was made a Curse for us and did bear the punishment due to our sins which without blood could not receive remission at the hands of Gods Justice Heb. 9. There is then yet remaining a second part of Christs passive obedience to be opened wherein this did consist and in respect of which it behoved Christ to suffer as a Malefactor without the Gate a reproachful accursed bodily death with all the heightning circumstances accompanying the same from God Angels and men to the bruising of his heel in which also the Scriptures are very plain and express saying that upon him God laid the iniquity of us all Isa 53. who were as sheep gone astray and 1 Pet. 2. 24. he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree and chap. 3. 18. it is said that he being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust and 1 Tim. 2. 4 6. Who gave himself a ransom for all as willing to have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Christ by being made thus a curse for us redeemed us from the curse of the Law or did that in way of satisfaction to Gods Justice by reason whereof God thinks fit and finds it just to acquit and discharge sinners from the curse and wrath of God due unto them by the Law Which benefit is either renewed to us conditionally and in reference to the first Covenant-obedience by us engaged in to live and be tryed by or is given unto us absolutely and in reference to the second Covenant-obedience as living by faith and interested in the sure mercies of David that never fail Those that partake of this benefit in the first sense are spoken of Heb. 10. unto whom having been once enlightned and then sinning willfully after the knowledge of the truth to the treadding underfoot the Son of God accounting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin but they fall again not only under the first curse but the second death or final ministry of Gods fiery vengeance which no sacrifice of Christ will be admitted to atone on their behalf for ever Psal 49. 8. but like sheep they are laid in the grave for death to feed on they go to the Generation of their Fathers and never see light But those that partake of this benefit of Christs sacrifice in the latter sense have at once a perfect and absolute remission of all sins vouchsafed to them never to be recalled more as it is written Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more This being laid down we shall now proceed to shew first the particulars wherein Christ did undergo Gods wrath and was made a curse on our behalf by way of satisfaction and ransome for the sins of all mankind which properly was our due to have undergone in our own persons and secondly to open the nature of that wrath from God which Christ was capable of undergoing and that was thought meet and required by God to be executed upon him and undergone by him in the work of our Redemption For the particulars wherein Christ underwent the wrath of God and did bear the punishment which was due only unto sinners the Scriptures declare them to be these First Christ was exposed as a mark which was aimed and shot at all the daies of his flesh by the rage and malice of wicked Angels and men and as a spectacle of open scorn and reproach to be trampled upon by his insulting adversaries as if he had been a worm and no man unto all which God was thus far contributing as to suffer it and sit silent as a Spectator yea by his providences and outward dispensations rather furthering then hindring it and this in persuance of his declared mind herein even unto the Serpent himself Gen. 3. 15. when he told him speaking of Christ the seed of the woman he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel For the exercise of all this rage of Devils and men against him did bring to pass no other thing but
body is hereby quickned and brought forth as into its maturity and ripe age in a fulness of stature agreeable to this his raised and exalted state his corruptible having put on incorruption and his mortal having put on immortality to the bringing to pass in himself the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory And now the same Jesus that was crucified and slain by vertue of the compleat exercise of his spiritual senses enters within the veil converses with him that is invisible and sits down at Gods right hand retaining withal in perfect use the exercise of his natural senses powers and faculties of soul and body in a glorified state as being in one and the same person the fulness of Jew and Gentile the perfection of the spiritual and of the natural man joyning them both together in one sheepfold whereof himself is the one great shepheard and overseer This reconciliation Christ hath wrought through the blood of the Cross making in himself of twain one new man having slain the enmity thereby broken down the partition wall and removed that which else would have letted the bringing of life and immortality to light This is the form or fashion of Christs heavenly manhood wherein is to be found the perfection of both seeds built up together in perfect love usefulness and peace and this heavenly image thus wrought out in Christ is the law that shall go forth out of Sion prophesied of Isa 2. 3. and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem that shall establish the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains and exalt it above the hils causing all nations to flow unto it This is the pattern of the house spoken of also Ezek. 43. ver 7. and 10. wherein was the place of Gods Throne and the place of the soles of his feet to dwell in the midst of his people which was to be measured by the house of Israel to make them ashamed of their iniquities and Idols And v. 12. this is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy CHAP. X. Concerning the benefits that do inseparably accompany Christs person where he is received either by the first or second Covenant according to the tenor of both which there is vertue in his blood to reconcile and bring men to God CHrist in the 42. and 49. Chapt. of Isaiah is called The Covenant said to be him that God gives to be a COVENANT to the People to establish the earth and cause to inherit the desolate heritages to say to the prisoners go forth and to them that sit in darkness shew your selves The way wherein Christ given as a COVENANT to any soul is by becoming the received Lord and Christ in that heart ministring a participation and fellowship with him in spirit by the power and presence of himself there either in his first or second appearance and changing that soul into the likeness of himself more or less in one of those his appearances Thus according to the first Covenant he visited the Children of Israel in Egypt brought them out of the house of bondage and baptized them unto Moses in the cloud and in the red Sea causing them to eat the same spiritual meat and to drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of the ROCK which followed them which ROCK was Christ yet with many of them God was not well pleased but as he saith Jer. 31. 32. That my COVENANT they brake though I was an HUSBAND unto them and Isa 63. 8 9 10. he saith Surely they are my people children that will not lye and so upon that condition he was their Saviour admitting them to the benefit of his sacrifice In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them out of the house of bondage and carried them all the daies of old but they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned from the way of love and pitty he exercised towards them before became their enemy and fought against them Thus also Ezek. 16. he ministers life to them decks them with excellent ornaments yea with his own comeliness and spreads his skirt over them After all which they provoke him with greater abominations then ever before and then he and they part again and he becomes their enemy It is evident then that upon such conditional terms as are comprehended in the tenor of the first Covenant Christ can and doth cause his own reception in the hearts and consciences of men and that there are inseparable benefits attending and accompanying this manner of reception of or believing in Christ which is begotten and held but upon the wavering principles of the first Covenant which in respect of its uncertainty is found fault with by God Heb. 8. 7 8. First they that are thus made receivers of Christ are called out of the world to come out of that heathenish state wherein men live as without God and Christ in the world and so are made of the number of those many that are called whereof there are but few chosen and endued with the wisdom from above which will make their calling sure Secondly Christ is made unto such RIGHTEOUSNES in a way of Justification who having made himself a sinoffering for fallen man is pleased even upon the tenor of this Covenant to make them the RIGHTEOUSNES of God in him that is to afford unto them the benefit of his legal righteousness whereby he satisfied the Law so that the Law hath nothing to say against such yea to make them that in him which God in righteousness imputing the benefit of his sacrifice unto them doth accept and is the justifier of them by in declaring Christs righteousness unto them as a propitiation for all their past sins and so to be continued to them as long as they shall do well In which sense God argued with Cain Gen. 4. 7. Whilst thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lieth at the door Through this Propitiatory-covering of Christs blood they are under SANTCUARY and in a City of refuge from Gods wrath and the avenger of blood kept unto the faith to be revealed till by their wilfull sinning and making themselves unworthy of further or more grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin This Justification the world hath in common with true believers as well as the first faith and calling before mentioned Thus t is said 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. that God our saviour will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth who ver 6. gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time The third benefit inseparably accompanying this kind of Christs giving himself by the first convenant is that which we call
to the flesh through which they clean escape the pollutions of the world and then turn aside from the holy commandment delivered unto them in the ministry of this first covenant These are they that are under the dominion of the law or of Christ as he is the Minister of circumcision of Gods first appearance exhibiting himself to the eyes of their mind in the righteousness of his natural man as he is God manifested in flesh and so witnessed unto by the Scriptures as a holy commandment unto which he begets and requires conformity in them Here he is to be seen and conversed with as on Mount Sinai in the holy place or worldly Sanctuary where his Angels are his chariots even thousand thousands of Angels to administer the glory of this kingdom under him and as his forerunners to prepare the way whither he himself intends to come and vouchsafe his own perpetual presence and abode So then until Christs coming in the flesh into the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man the Word Law or Rule of this kingdom also was spoken given and administred by Angels called the law and Ministry of circumcision or of Moses contained in the two tables together with the Judicial laws and fleshly rites and ordinances of divine service those relating to the second table these to the first and to the material temple-worship which were to contiune till the time of reformation at the comming of the true Temple it self when the WORD was made flesh But Christ being come and having in the body prepared for him fulfilled the will of the Father in offering up himself in the flesh without spot unto God through the eternal spirit and with his own blood entred into the holiest of all he thought fit no longer to dwell in Temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. but abolishing all the former fleshly rites and worldly ordinances belonging unto the Temple-worship that was then he did build up out of the ruines thereof a spiritual Temple 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. which Temple saith the Apostle Paul unto the Corinthians are yee which yet is but such a kind of building for permanency and abiding as the former For whosoever of you saith Paul shall defile this Temple him shall God destroy whoever you be that after your being enlightned and having received the knowledge of the truth shall not hold fast your confidence unto the end but become such servants as are to be cast out of the house making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Thus there is an Israel after the flesh kept up and continued under the Gospel as well as under the law who are now under Christs immediate government by his spirit in the ministry of his first appearance and according to the tenor of the first covenant as they then were under the law and had the word spoke unto them by Angels in the Mosaical ministration both being but one and the same earthly Ierusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children in which it is most true still that they are not all Israel that are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham the Father of the faithful so pretending to be believers are they all children but in Isaac crucified offered up Isaac shall thy seed be called that is to say they that are the children of the flesh and of the living and natural body only are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed that were raised out of a womb as good as dead and sprang up to Abraham after that he had received the promises as they respected his fleshly seed by Isaacs restauration as from the dead the figure of Christs death and resurrection This earthly Jerusalem is the worldly Church under the Gospel the incorporated body of visible Saints called out and separated from the world who for their Law and Rule own and profess the written word and the spirit of Christ received and held forth in no higher a ministry then that of Christ as he is the head and root of all natural purity and perfection singly considered declaring themselves herein a holy or a separated people by a manifest self-distinguishing profession according to the measure of their receiving from Christ and growth up unto him from all heathenish worship yea and corrupt Christian professions or practises walking in all the ordinances and judgements of Christ held forth to them from the Scriptures in the various forms thereof which their light leads them to receive This visible temple or worldly sanctuary of God is a true Church as they walk in the light and according to the truth of this Law under which they are and as shall be shewed the nursery or womb of all the true spiritual seed Rev. 12. 1. c. Where it is described by the woman cloathed with the Sun the day of Christs first appearance and having the Moon or heathenish Gentile state under her feet being exalted into a glory far above them and made use of by God to bring forth the manchild or heavenly seed that are to rule the Nations with a rod of iron which in their divine birth are caught up to God and to his Throne and so much farther exalted above the earthly Jerusalem then she is above the rest of the Nations This earthly Jerusalem in the times of the Law had judicial Laws for the heightning of a civil Magistracy into a sutableness unto the divine service of this worldly sanctuary But since Christs ascension and the spirituality of this very temple to be continued under the Gospel till the fulness of the Gentiles come in and the mysterie of God in Christs fleshly dispensations shall be finished although many attempts have been made and endeavours used to revive a like Magistracy again in conformity to the judicials of Moses in the very letter of them there hath seldom been found any considerable progress or success herein forasmuch as Christ is rather pleased to detain his people in subjection and captivity under the powers of the world and the Magistracy kept up by him over men as men during the season of sufferings allotted to them in which as souls under the Altar of persecution they cry out How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth and are enabled by faith to see through and above the visible powers and thrones of this world into the ministry of Christ by his Angels who are all the while Magistrates and Rulers in a higher sphere and capacity then the others and who as the times of Christ draw near who is the only Potentate and KING OF KINGS shall shew themselves to be his servants taking vengeance in flames of fire upon all ungodly men that are his and his peoples implacable enemies By what then hath been said we may see how consistent this second branch of Christs Rule over men is with
applied unto Christ himself to signifie that they are planted with him into the same likeness in Gods twofold name figured out thereby and so have that twofold name and witness wrought out in them which distinguishes them as well from the children of the first Covenant who bear conformity but with one of the Olive branches as singly communicable without the other as also from all that are called Gentiles whose very light is but as darkness to the shining forth of the single witness only in the children of the first Covenant Thus we are to understand by the two OLIVE TREES and the two CANDLESTICKS mentioned Rev. 11. 14. the whole Spiritual Seed considered in their exact conformity to their Head as well in his second as in his first appearance who are the two witnesses that from the very beginning of the world successively in their several generations have been the slain ones of the Lord the slaughtered sheep of Christ for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Yet we are not to rest and content our selves only with this general sense of the place which is true and doth give the proper character of the true Saint possessing and inheriting whole Christ and bearing upon him his whole name or his new name wherein of twain they are made one inseparably communicated as the twofold witness wherein the true heirs of salvation must be found to the glory of God the Father But we may farther take notice of a more restrained and particular consideration of these two witnesses which will be but a small digression from the matter in hand as they are spoken of in that place Rev. 11. where they are also to be looked upon as a particular number of the true Seed living and standing up in the world in that age and season foretold by John and qualified with an extraordinary Spirit of prophesie in reference to the justifying before the eyes of the world the truth of this twofold witness being clothed with power suitable in a way of working wonderful things during the time of such their prophesie whereof Elijah was the type in his days who by praying to God shut up the heavens for three years and an half that it did not rain the like is prophesied to be done by these witnesses ver 6. and brought down fire from heaven to prove that he was a MAN OF GOD and that his God was the true God yet after all this was forced to flie for his life to get from under the cruelty and oppression of his enemies and was at last taken up visibly into heaven in a chariot of fire Elisha beholding and looking upon him In which Spirit of Elijah some of the true Spiritual Seed are reserved by God to be brought forth in the last days and to give a most spiritual and remarkable witness unto the truth of Christs first and second appearance in his Saints before the great and terrible day of the Lord come In which dispensation they shall serve as the immediate forerunners to the brightness of Christs second appearance for the restoring of all things preparatively by this their Ministry of fire as John Baptist served unto the coming of Christ in the flesh by his Ministry of water and in that sense was owned by Christ to be as Elijah already come to wit in the shadow or figure of this Elijah that is to precede his second coming By what then hath been said we may perceive who are meant by the Spiritual Seed and how they are described in the Scripture as the two witnesses of God first in a more general acceptation as in all Ages they are to have their heel bruised and to be slain for the word of God and then in a more particular and restrained sense as some of them are to come forth in the latter days in the Spirit and power of Elijah to prepare for Christs second coming and then to have their dead bodies for three days and an half remain unburied in the great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt which city as the mother of Harlots hath been extant in its spirit and principles from the beginning as well as the prophane heathenish world with the powers thereof embodied together upon differing grounds and interests by the Spirit of the old Dragon and influenced by him as suitable instruments of War and Engines of battery for the bruising of the heel of the true Spiritual Seed and keeping them under in all generations as spectacles to men and angels who are weak despised thirst hunger are naked and buffeted have no certain dwelling place but labour working with their hands who being reviled bless and being persecuted suffer and being defamed entreat are made as the filth of the world and off-scouring of all things to this very day To this War between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent all things tended and wrought from the very moment that Christ did accomplish and finish the seventh days work discovering thereby Gods true REST as it was set up in his own Person as the Mediator and Lamb slain from the foundation of the world when he offered up that in sacrifice according to the will of the Father wherein he rejected and cast under his feet the purest choicest excellency and perfection of all natural beings as they stood single in themselves unperfected by the union and subjection they were to be taken into by his second appearance necessarily conducing to the breaking of the serpents head and top glory in his Angelical nature and to the trampling it under the feeet of the Saints In like manner the Devil that old Dragon perceiving that to be done in Christ the Mediator which he could by no means rellish or bear that which was totally cross and destructive to him as fixed in that selfish spirit or single state of natural perfection wherein he lusted to Rule and Reign as god in the world and propounding the greatness of a Kingdom and glory to himself in which to enjoy his own will think his own thoughts do his own works and speak his own words which were not lawfull for him in the Sabbath of the true Rest to the Lord he wilfully and maliciously quitted his head Christ left his own habitation choosing rather to become the Father of lyes then to remain the son and servant of truth and so finished and compleated that root of enmity against Christ and the Spiritual Seed in himself whose off-spring they are that have this root of gall and bitterness springing up in them notwithstanding the life and perfection of their natural beings wherein either they were at first created or unto which in the principles thereof they are again renewed in the blood of Christ by which they strike in with the devils interest in downright opposition to Christ taking part with that King Apollyon Rev. 9. 11. to destroy him what in them lies as himself plainly tels this sort of men Joh. 8. 37. acknowledging
for ever to bear their shame and their abominations though yet for a season made keepers of the charge of the Temple for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein Ezek. 44. 13 14. Nevertheless the true Saints by being built up one Royal Priesthood with Christ shall be admitted into the most holy place This the Apostles well understood that were the first ministers under Christ of this dispensation unto the Gentiles which considered singly as the ministry of Christs first appearance is acknowledged by them to be but the building up again of the Tabernacle of David that was fallen and brought down to the grave with Christ in his death which thus he had power to rear up again amongst the Gentiles notwithstanding its fall among the Jews Acts 15. 14. when he did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a People for his name that was now ceased or ceasing amongst the Jews In this sense Paul understands the mercy of God shewed unto the Gentiles Rom. 11. upon the rejection of the Jews confessing it to be but such an implantation of the Gentiles into Christ the good Olive tree which the Jews had before and from which state they might again be broken off as the Jews were already which can therefore be no other state but that which Christ doth communicate as he is the minister of circumcision or of the covenant of works by the means of those gifts and distributions of the Holy Ghost which he gives forth amongst them after his ascention dividing to every one under this first covenant severally and a part according to his good pleasure till thereby his whole flesh or natural body be built up also among the Gentiles and compleated With this agrees fully the exposition which Peter gives Acts 2. of that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in those daies saith God I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ver 16 17 21. From the right consideration hereof we may discern that this dispensation was no other then that of Christs first appearance wherein he was the perfection of the first covenant the giver forth of common salvation and Redemption the minister of circumcision and the setter up of the truth of God in his own flesh which was promised unto the fathers and whereof the whole ministry of Moses was but the type and figure as appears Acts 7. 37. where Moses is brought in saying a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear Christ as thus the true Tabernacle and sanctuary in his flesh which God pitched and not man was also to suffer that so he might bring down the first standing thereof into the grave whereby to make way into the holiest of all whereinto he entered by his own blood and did build up the Tabernacle of David thus fallen in and by his death into the power of an endless life wherein he sate down at the right hand of God exalted far above all heavens having all principalities and powers made subject to him who in his fleshly man was made lower then Angels for the suffering of death We are therefore to understand the TABERNACLE OF DAVID by the means of the eternal words being made flesh to have had a twofold being and building up given unto it First in the natural and fleshly man of Christ wherein he was the perfection of the first Adam bearing that image and made in all things like unto him as he was made a living soul and enjoyed a sinless spotless nature before the fall In this natural perfection singly considered Christ as meer man was inferiour to the Angels as having that life of man in him which was lower then theirs which was the heel which the Serpent had permission to bruise the Lamb without spot and blemish the body that was prepared him to offer up in sacrifice to God as he had received commandment In this building he became Emanuel God with us according to the first covenant and was a new head unto all the sons of Adam in the first Adams image which all that are planted into are taken out of the wild and engraffed anew into the good Olive tree to partake in the fatness and goodnes thereof as it is the root and spring whence proceeds that restauration and renewal of mans first nature given to Adam by creation and corrupted by the fall which renewal as it flows from the flesh of Christ is the fruit and benefit of his death and where-ever it is wrought by Christ in any sons or daughters of Adam it makes them to become members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone baptizing them all whether Jews or Gentiles into the same living body with himself the first Sanctuary and building making them all to drink intothe same spirit and seed upon the same natural perfection and purity which flows forth from his own flesh or natural man typed out by the Manna given from heaven which is said to be Angels food and is interpreted by Christ himself to signifie his flesh which he was to give for the life of the world or for the renewing of life unto the world from himself as head of the first Adams perfection and purity This flesh of Christ is spiritual meat such as the Angels themselves feed upon in heaven as on the incorruptible food which is prepared for them by the quickning given unto Christs natural manhood through the resurrection from the dead which flesh considered as given to men in this world may be received and eaten of by them either worthily or unworthily either in the lawful use thereof for which it was ordained and given by God as the Angels in heaven feed on it and true believers here in this world or in the unlawful use of it as it is fed upon by those that discern not nor distinguish between Christs living body and his crucified body between a being made one living soul with him and a being made one quickning spirit with him in a life springing up out of the ruines of this first Tabernacle the fall whereof in this Lamb slain and the true followers of this Lamb whithersoever he goeth is in order to its being built up anew in him and in them by the resurrection from the dead This second sort of building is that which we mean by that second being which is given to the Tabernacle of David in the person of Christ in which he is exalted above the Heavens and is the Temple opened in heaven Rev. 11. where also is seen the Ark of the Testament and so is Emanuel God with us in and by the New and everlasting Covenant having
we come to be like him throughout in his glorified manhood and shall see him as he is having that love in us which he had from his Father before the foundation of the world For the opening of this we are to call to minde that the WORD when he was made flesh did set up this building in the seed of it in the person of JESUS THE SON OF MARY as well as that of meer man in which he was made under the Law In respect of both these birth 's of humane perfection in Christ he was said to grow in grace and in favor with God and man and so his manhood in the full extent of it may seem to be described and figured out to us by the vine in Jothams parable whose fruit cheereth the heart of God and of man According to the first of these births he had the effusion of the Spirit above measure a perfection given to him from above making him in this fashion and form of his heavenly manhood above all even the Jerusalem above that is the mother of us all upon which the new name is written qualifying him through this anointing with a heavenly raisedness of mind and divine heightning of all his humane powers and faculties to that fulness and extent whereby he may be enabled as the true Ark of God to swim live and abide in the waters of the divine glory where they are risen so high as to overwhelm and drown all his natural sences or powers of minde making up a river so deep as is impassable to them singly considered and as alone Ezek. 47. 5. which highest waters of the utmost discovery and manifestation of God import and make out that Love of God and of Christ which passeth knowledge and fils the true Saints with all the fulness of God exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think Ephes 3. 19 20. This heavenly manhood anointing and new name which Christ hath renders him as the bush that Moses saw able to abide in the fiery and most glorious appearance of the very form and similitude of God himself and not be burned or consumed yea is that whereby he is prepared through the blood of the sacrifice of himself considered in his other capacity of manhood to enter within the vail and face to face as friend talks with friend converse with God in the unveiled brightness of his glory and express image of his person feeding upon it as his meat and drink even the dainties or feast of fat things provided for him in the kingdom of the Father The joy whereof set before him in the days of his flesh made him endure the cross despise the shame and finish the course of his sufferings with cheerfulness through the sight of him that was invisible to the natural eye In this sense was Christ made man when the WORD was made flesh and was the only begotten son in the bosom of the Father that thus sees God and is able to declare him whereas no meer man whatsoever either hath seen God at any time or can see him This is he of whom John said After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me upon whom the spirit rests and remains who therefore hath power to baptize with the holy Ghost as he did his own natural manhood when he offered it up Secondly then according to the other birth of humane perfection in Christ the spirit was given him by measure as it was to the first Adam when he was made a living soul whereby he was made under the Law like unto other men in all things sin only excepted that is to say with equal powers of mind and capacity of will and understanding as the earthy man or first Adam in his purity capable to think speak do will and desire in all things as a man bearing the same image as the first Adam did before his fall but with this difference that joyntly together with his being made thus a perfect natural man he had the perfection formerly mentioned of his heavenly manhood as that which was the top-stone of the building the crown of glory and honour wherewith he was crowned and made higher then the heavens all principalities and powers being made subject unto him This twofold humane perfection was brought forth in the holy child Jesus by the WORDS being made flesh and through his death and resurrection came to their full maturity and ripeness wherein Christ was declared the son of God with power having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands by the father even as he was the Son of man who in the dignity of this his state and glory can nevertheless do nothing of himself but what things soever he sees the Father do these also doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of man to wit in the twofold respect before mentioned But thirdly over and besides this twofold humane perfection which is in Christ he is also perfect God through the unity of Person whereinto he is begotten with the WORD from the operation whereof the same Jesus that is the Son of man is also the living and eternal WORD OF GOD and is so called Rev. 19. 13. out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword and wherewith he smites the Nations and rules them with a rod of Iron as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS which high priviledge is peculiar to him it appertaining only to the man Christ Jesus to be God as he is that one blessed person that is the Mediator between God and Man and therefore incommunicable to any of the rest of the Seed or many brethren whereof he is the first born But as to what concerns this Jesus as he is the SON OF MAN in respect of the twofold humane perfection that is in him the rest of the seed even the many children given to him by the Father to bring up to glory are co-partners with him attaining to the measure of the stature of that his fulness and perfection through which they are made by him KINGS and PRIESTS to God and are to raign for evermore Into this perfection they are made to grow up in all things in him that is their head being by him begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection from the dead and having the immortal seed of the heavenliness of Christs perfection and life formed and brought forth in them as the inheritance incoruptible and undefiled that fades not away
reserved in heaven for them ready to be revealed in the last time They that are born of this seed are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God and through the power of faith and the abiding of this seed in them are kept unto salvation without any possibility of sinning unto death or any danger of final falling away having by vertue of their reception of this seed in the heart through the gift of God the nature of true believers communicated unto them even the unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God which makes them members of the new Jerusalem children of the promise who are born after the spirit and have that anointing whereby they know all things immediately from the head and fountain itself and need not that any man should teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. which was given to their head the true Aaron without measure running down upon all those that dwell together with him in the unity of the faith of the son of God even to the skirts of his garments upon the lowest members of this NEW JERUSALEM consecrating them a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD with himself to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God This new nature in the seed of it whilst it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen is called faith even the faith that justifies spreading over us the propitiatory covering of Christs spiritual headship and EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS in which we are made to stand for ever spotless and without guile before the Throne of God Those that are of this faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and are of that one seed that are heirs according to the promise The work of this faith and new birth when once wrought out by Christ in the heart and conscience is to breed patience and that patience experience and that experience hope even that hope which maketh not ashamed The patience which is wrought out in every regenerate one by this faith is called the obedience of faith that when it hath had its perfect work maketh us perfect so as to want nothing arming us with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to suffer in the flesh in order to put an end to sin and to work off the soul from the will desire of the flesh into an absolute subjection and conformity to the heavenly will of Christ wherein he is one with the Father and so enabling us to keep the word of Christs patience which is indeed the Law and Rule under which the true believer is subjected until Christs second coming being to rest in the grave with Christ untill the remainder of his sufferings be fulfilled in his whole body the Church under the certainty and with the comfort of his promise that those that thus suffer with him shall also raign with him and those that thus die with him shall also live with him And that all true believers are thus observers of this Rule according to the patern left by Christ in his own sufferings purifying themselves as he is pure keeping the word of his patience and performing the obedience of faith which is required by the law of the new covenant we shall endeavour to make known as in the experience thereof and Testimony from the Scripture it is held forth For through the comprehending power of Christ as he is the head and root of this spiritual seed and precious faith which is obtained by Gods chosen ones they are separated from the very womb yea they have grace given unto them in Christ Iesus before the world began and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in him being accepted in the beloved In this respect Jacob was loved and Esau was hated or the one was accepted and the other was refused in their mothers wombe the children being not yet born neither of them having as yet done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Howbeit we are not in Scripture sense nor in truth as some unwarrantably affirm actual believers until by effectual calling we are made receivers of whole Christ in the seed as before described And therefore the Apostle Paul who is a remarkable example herein though he had received grace in Christ Iesus as in his head before the world began and as thus comprehended in his head was separated and distinguished from the womb in whom the purpose of God according to the election was to stand yet it pleased not God to call him and by revealing his son in him to make him actually a believer and new creature until he had spent many years even a great part of his life in a sowerness and rigidness of spirit under the dispensation of the Law flaming out at last into cruel and fierce persecution of the Church of God though in all still preserved by his head from wilfull enmity For saith he I did it ignorantly In like manner all the children given to Christ by the Father whereof he is to lose none are thus separated and distinguished from the rest of the world as the beloved seed according to Gods purpose from the womb and so according to Gods purpose are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began Yet until it pleaseth God by his grace to call them whether they be in the state of circumcision or uncircumcision they live and walk according to the principles and Rule of that dispensation they are under For so we see in the great instance of Abraham the father of the faithful as by Stephen he is described to us Acts 7. in the manner of the calling with which he was called and whereby he was made actually a Believer and a new creature which was by Gods appearing to him and by the power of his WORD working in him calling and bringing him out of his own Country the land of his Nativity and from his natural relations into the land which he should shew him causing him herein to resign up his natural judgement and will entirely to his disposal and through faith to obey for he went out not knowing whither he went which first remove of his was out of the state of degenerate nature and his heathenish life into the earthly land of Canaan as that was a type and figure of the heavenly and into circumcision or experience of that communion with God which is by the first Covenant whereby the filth of the flesh in his heathenish state was cut off and cleansed and he in minde as well as in body brought into the figurative land of promise even to a conformity in mind and spirit to the Law the perfection of Christs flesh or natural man In this promised land perceiving by faith that it was but the type and shadow of the good things themselves the heavenly Country which was
abundantly confirm and make good the justification which is not of works but of grace according to Gods purpose The very nature and kinde of this faith may suffice to all unbyassed judgements to shew that those that are justified by it are not justified by works since in its principles and seed it is quite differing from that which is by the Law or born after the flesh which is of works so as the one is differenced from the other in the very kind of perfection and life both as to principles and works the seed and the fruit of each yea and this faith of the right kind considered as abiding in Christ not in us is that that properly justifies the believer For if it be by grace it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work And besides the Spiritual Seed are beloved as they are chosen in Christ before the world began and are distinguished as so accepted in him from the fleshly seed before they have done either good or evil This chusing in Christ is not the justification by faith inasmuch as that act of God never passes upon us till we be actually believers For though we have being in our head who is blessed and beloved before the world began Ephes 1. Yet we are not made to be in our own persons of that Spiritual Seed untill we have the righteousness of our head actually imputed to us and so are made to stand without guile or spot before the throne of God whilst as yet we are ungodly and bear about with us a body of sin and death unsubdued and unabolished which nevertheless in the end by faith is overcome and wholly done away The working power then which is put forth by faith in the heart and conscience of him that is the true Believer is to be distinguished from faith in the first act singly considered as the new birth and reception of Christ to inhabite and dwell there as the root and author of all spiritual life and perfection which indeed is rather itself the work or workmanship of Christ as the suitable reception that he makes for his indwelling presence in the heart then any effect of the power of faith working patience and experience there in pursuance of the end for which it is given which is to work the spirit of man either under the first or second dispensation to a compleat and full resignation of its understanding will and desire unto the teachings light and life of this faith evidencing him that is invisible and giving entrance into the glory that is within the veil shewing what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe Which glory is not seen all that while to the natural senses and discerning but the life and workings of faith wherein the spiritual part of the believer does exceedingly rejoyce the fleshly or natural man in the Saint unsubdued cannot bear but hath its reluctancy against lusting to envy ready to oppose resist and contradict the same to the utmost and is all the season of the trial of faith in great heaviness grief and despondency through manifold temptations whilst the believing part is exercising love on him whom the natural senses cannot reach nor come to the sight of In whom though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious girding up the loyns of our minds in sobriety and hope For the power of faith is such in its operation that it overcomes the world and all the powers of flesh and blood in us at the best which serve but to be made conquest of and triumphed over by faith in order to be nailed to the cross of Christ for the slaying of the enmity which thereby would be springing up to the choaking of the spirtual seed the crucifying afresh the Son of God and trampling under foot the blood of the everlasting Covenant as an unholy thing This power of flesh and blood that ends and expires at last under the conquering and triumphing power of faith causes for a long time a sore and fiery trial in the soul through the sharp contest and dispute that arises between the heavenly powers and spiritual senses on the one hand and the fleshly and natural powers in the same Saint on the other by reason of which the soul is often inclining and falling back into the life of the flesh and workings of the natural will instead of being strengthned in the inward man and fixed there in love and true Rest against all contradicting whatsoever made by flesh and blood whether pure and holy flesh or sinful and corrupt So that oft the party which faith by its power makes for it self in the heart and conscience of the believer is deserted and in a manner given off through the prevalent reasonings and desires of flesh and blood which make resistance in this warfare to their last breath or activity that remains in them And first when faith cals the heart to leave its natural state its kindred and relations in the heathenish world the morality and civility whereof seems to have much to say for it self after the corrupt part in it is cast off the natural powers and faculties of the mind in that state rebel and resist a long season not knowing how to submit though upon hopes of a land of promise specially when they must not know or cannot be made acquainted whither the soul is going and are therefore constantly representing all discouragements imaginable to hinder its obedience to this call of faith till at last they be over-ruled and brought under But secondly when through faiths workings by the power of the Law or Ministry of Christs first appearance the soul is brought out of the corrupt degenerate state of nature hath turned its back upon the land of its nativity and is come to the earthly Canaan to the circumcision of the flesh not in the letter only but in the spirit for the righteousness of works by the first Covenant then hath faith another Call or second voice to the soul causing it to sojourn as a stranger even in the land of promise and to look upon this earthly Jerusalem as no abiding City but that out of which it must also pass into a heavenly Country the Jerusalem that is above forgetting the things that are behind or unto which it hath already attained and pressing forwards to the mark for the price of its high calling to be clothed upon as with its house from heaven Through the call of this last voice of faith all flesh and the glory thereof is blown upon and made as nothing Isa 40. 6. the voice said cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field perishing and fading in a moment
the grass withereth the flower fadeth away because the spirit of the Lord blows npon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the WORD of our God shall stand for ever ver 7 8. So then at length the believing part in the Saint cometh to see and experiment the emptiness nothingness and fading of the best natural perfection and fleshly purity not only in legal worldly rudiments and principles but even in Evangelicals so far as they consist in the knowledge of Christ himself but according to the flesh Whereupon the believer becomes willing to be crucified to all confidence esteem or desire of Rest and abode in them seeing a patern left by Christ himself herein when he suffered in the flesh that we also might be armed with the same mind and by being crucified in the flesh may come at last to cease from sin attaining a perfect freedom there-from by the resurrection from the dead And now what high thoughts and proud imaginations do rise up in the heart fit to be brought down and subdued by the cross of Christ then which nothing is more grievous to the soul which loves this Absolon it s own uncrucified fleshly mind and the enlightned reasonings thereof in their very rebellion and endeavours to out it of the everlasting kingdom yea it struggles hard and wrestles vehemently to keep its Isaac from being offered up in sacrifice Oh! how with Zipporah doth the flesh cry out against faith as a bloody husband thus to require the full resignation of the judgement will and desire of the pure holy natural man as well as that of the corrupt All this it doth require and no less will serve its turn then the bringing of the exercise of these natnral senses as they are contesting with and resisting the workings of faith into perfect captivity to the obedience of faith and into perfect rest and silence in the grave of Christ where they are to be bound as in chains and fetters utterly disabled for ever acting more in any resisting or contradicting way unto the power and life of faith and so indeed are set free and have their truest liberty given to them to act more fully then ever in harmony with and subserviency unto the workings and life of faith Thus Rom 8. it is said If Christ be in you the body or flesh is dead because of sin but if the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies or crucified fleshly senses by his spirit that dwelleth in you to the bringing them forth in a better and more excellent way of operation then ever they had before For these fleshly senses as they are planted into the likeness of the death of Christ are made one dead body with him and so are shut up for ever in an everlasting impossibility to act against the truth but only for the truth to act in a way of resisting and contradicting the workings of faith but in subjection and subordination to â—â—em This is that we mean by the obedience of faith and keeping of the word of Christs patience which is required by the law of the new covenant the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as it frees us from the law of sin and death which is so far from destroying the law that it fulfils it and so far from abolishing the good works required by the law that it disannuls only the unlawful use of them setting them up in their right and lawful exercise not single and alone without the faith that is saving or in resistance and contradiction to that faith nor so mixing them with a faith that fails whereby both faith and a good conscience may come to shipwrack but making them in such manner the fruit and children of the operation of the faith of Gods elect as that against such there is no law This is the gathering together into one dead body with Christ wherein all his elect must be found as fashioned into a similitude with him in his death and that for the filling up of the measure of his sufferings in the whole number of his beloved ones that so at last they may arise likewise with his dead body and be gathered together into one glorified body with him or into a similitude with him in the glory and power of his resurrection when they shall be like him and see him as he is when at this appearing of Christ who is their life they also shall appear with him in glory The hope and expectation hereof grounded upon the promises made to this purpose in Col 3. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 21. and many other places of Scripture is that that hath born up the spirits of his people and faithful ones in all ages that have been made willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goeth from desponding and sinking away under all those insolent affronts and contradictions they have met with in their several generations from their insulting unreasonable adversaries the inhabitants of the earth who flourish prosper in the world while they are chastened every morning disciplined under the cross of Christ miscarrying as to all that 's visible and overcome in those hot contests oppositions and assaults which the seed of the Serpent lusting to envy will not fail to exercise them with who indeed could have no power against them unless it were given them from above as Christ the head of this spiritual seed told Pilate in his own personal case Ioh. 19. 11. and as power was given from above against that great Master Lord so is it also given to them to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Rev. 13. 7. but though at present they be so overset by worldly powers that they cannot work any deliverance in the earth neither do the inhabitants of the world fall before them Isa 26. 18. yet at this second coming of Christ he will call up the dead bodies of these his crucified Saints and faithful witnesses not only into a state of security from the destroyer but into a singing and triumphing condition ver 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust Both these states of the true Saint are most lively described Isa 54. which we shall endeavour to give some short tasts of for our clearer enlightning in the present truth specially as to what concerns the former branch the Saints conformity with Christ in his death The other consisting in a conformity to him in his Resurrection-state we shall reserve for the latter end and conclusion of this discourse CHAP. XVIII Concerning the Saints conformity with Christ in his death particularly opened and cleared from those mistakes which the enemies to the Crosse of Christ are apt to brand it with BY conformity with Christ in his death which some have been
so ignorant of and such enemies to as most prophanely to call it a fiction and make little lesse of it then blasphemy We say that the flesh or natural man in the Saint whether considered in the workings of his morall nature or of his renewed enlightned nature under the first Covenant is crucified and rendred a copartner with Christ in his dead body whereby the powers and faculties of the mind in the natural man are neither annihilated nor deprived of their lawful use as lawful refers to the obedience of faith and the rule of the Gospel but only have death passe upon them or a disability and privation as to all unlawful use of them or possibility of acting in rebellion resistance or contradiction to the Law of the heavenly nature and mind set up by faith In this crucified posture of the flesh and broken-spiritednesse into which the powers and faculties of the natural mind are brought by faith the Prophet Isa 54. 1. calleth out to the Saint to sing as intimating that though the natural man be hereby disenabled to bear or bring forth fruit to its first husband Christ himself as made under the Law and head of natural perfection single yet it ought neverthelesse to break forth into singing in regard that by her being become dead to the Law she is married to another even to him that is raised from the dead to bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and life and that this its barrennesse is no just cause of reproach to it seeing it came to be lawfully disengaged from all obligation to its first Husband by the dead body of Christ through which her first Husband is become dead unto her so that she is no adulteresse though she be married to another man Rom. 7. 3 4. And therefore Cry aloud for joy saith the Prophet for more are the children of the desolate then of the married wife or she that keeps to her first Husband under the Law Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowheod any more for thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called In these two particulars therefore conformity to the death of Christ is made to consist by the Prophet Isaiah in this Chapter First in Christs own refusal to be any longer a Husband unto the natural man in the Saint through his own voluntary departure and withdrawing of himself out of his own fleshly life to go to his Father and be and remaine for ever in the glory of the Father in order to returne againe to the Saint as he that is risen from the dead to marry and espouse the soul that he hath thus grieved by his withdrawing For saith he The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused by thy God for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee Secondly the Saints conformity unto the death of Christ consists in the desolate forsaken barren state wherein the flesh and natural man is left by Christ as in a dry and barren wildernesse exposed to all temptations and trials from God Angels and Men within and without ready to sink and faile in spirit every moment partly under the appearance of Gods displeasure whose withdrawing and forsaking the soul understands not any more then Job did who was privy and conscious to the faithfulnesse and integrity of his heart to his first Husband whilest he abode with him and partly from the cold dead disconsolate frame of spirit wherein it now finds it self as it measures it self by the life of sense and not by the life of faith under both which pressures the Word of Christs patience is set before the soul by faith to be kept and observed Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame patiently suffering the bruising of his heele according as he had received commandment from the Father In this posture as a Widow indeed the poor broken-spirited Saint remains mourning and weeping left for a season as an Orphan by Christ brought into that condition which Christ foretold unto his Disciples whom at the present he acknowledged children of the Bridechamber whilest they had no higher knowledge of him then in his fleshly glory and perfection Of whom therefore he said As long as the Bridegroome was with them they could not fast but the dayes would come when the bridegroome should be taken away from them then they should fast intimating thereby the dayes of fasting and mourning and being clad in sackcloth which the true Saints witnesses of Christ were to be exercised with during the time of the trial of their faith upon the Bridegroomes being taken from them and changing that living fruitful frame of spirit which they were fed and nourished up in by him as they were his married wife under the Law into a fasting broken mournful desolate state of Widowhood which they are brought into as they are made one with Christ in his dead crucified body and are planted with him into the similitude of his death Christ then after he hath become a Bridegroome and married Husband unto true beleevers in and by his first appearance shining forth upon them in the life and glory of his natural and fleshly perfection wherein he hath nourished them up and made them fruitful children of that his Bride-chamber is pleased and hath power to take himself away from them and continue no longer with them as a Bridegroome under the first Covenant or in the ministery of his first appearance but wholly dissolve that marriage-band betweene them as refusing any longer to come forth in the exercise of life toward them upon the single root of his natural perfection in order upon the trial of their faith and their dutiful keeping the word of his patience during the time of this his separation from them to return again after a little moment and with everlasting mercies to embrace them and be married unto them in the light and life of his second appearance not only supplying to them again that wherein he was withdrawn from them but adding over and above a fuller and more abundant communication of life and glory which untill this death or withdrawing of his be perfected in them they are not capable subjects perfectly to receive and inherit but according to the steps and degrees of this death doth the approa hand increase of this higher life let it self in upon them and fill them This separation and withdrawing of Christ as a Bridegroome is the more bitter and grievous because this his absence carrieth in it the appearance of his wrath and sore displeasure to the eye of flesh
come to passe that when it is come to passe ye might beleeve And further I command ye that ye love one another when I am gone If the world hate you you know it hated me first before it hated you if ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you and if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you for the servant is not greater then his Lord These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me But these things I have told you that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them Which things I have beene telling you from the beginning ever since I was with you but now I must put my sayings in execution for I am going my way to him that sent me and none of you are sensible of it or so much as enquiring into that state to which now I am going but because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your hearts Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but when I depart I will send him to you Yet upon my departure the change will be so great which you will experience through my withdrawing of my self as a Bridegroome from you that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowfull but your mourning shall be turned into joy As a woman which whilest she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come so shall you be in the pangs of this new birth when faith begins to be brought forth into exercise and operation by way of encountring these sharp trialls But as soone as the woman is delivered of the child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man-child is borne into the world Thus also shall it be with you when the birth of the Soone of God as the man-child that is to rule the Nations with a rod of iron shall be brought to light in you through believing and the growing evidence of things unseene Ye now therefore have sorrow for a little moment but I will see you againe and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you Such preparative teachings and instructions as these Christ is continually giving forth during his tabernacling with believers in his first appearance that he may make them as little children weaned from the milk and from the breasts in order to traine them up to the use of stronger meat prepared for them in his dead body and crucified flesh which is given to them by him to feed upon till he come and take them into conformity with him in his glorified body which he promises them to do through his intercession with his Father for to make them one with him as he and the Father are one willing that where he is they also may be Through these glances of spiritual light whilest the Bridegroome is yet with the soul in his fleshly presence the Saints do with the Disciples sometimes think and say Lord now speakest thou plainly and not in parables by this we beleeve that thou camest forth from God and art againe leaving the world and going to the Father and yet when the hour of his departure comes indeed then every one scatters and leaves him alone as unwilling to accompany him in his sufferings but are rather drawing back and desirous to stay where they are in the fleshly life and perfection which they have experienced to the making a faire shew of God in the flesh and gaining the visibility of Saint-ship amongst men then to suffer with Christ without the gate leave the Holy City the earthly Jerusalem to go along with Christ to Golgotha the place of skuls bearing his reproach Before the very beleevers themselves will be brought to this what strugling and wrastling is there within themselves to detaine the Bridegroome or first Husband who with the Angel that wrestled with Jacob saith to them Let me go for the day breaks or the day-dawn of my heavenly appearance is overtaking me and calling me away to rest in silence and in the grave as to my appearing to you singly in my fleshly state any more but as I shall come in company and association with a better consort and so compleat the marriage betweene us in the glory wherein I am risen from the dead that you may bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and of life This is the weaned unsetled condition of soul which beleevers whilest under the first Covenant and being in nothing differenced from servants as to what is yet appearing in them and to them in the work of the conscience are led into by this preparative administration of Christ who is in them as in seed even in their new-creature-being and life but as a seed under ground very weakly undiscernably working as yet save only in loosening the soul from resting in its present attainments and keeping it in expectation of some better thing wherein to be made perfect In which state probably most of the dear Saints of God were detained under the Law before Christs coming in the flesh and most of them may still be under the same legal perfection heightned and improved by Christs coming in the flesh or by the effusion of his Spirit upon all flesh in and by the same Ministery of his first appearance and in this first step and degree of the new birth are in as safe a state as to Gods love to them here and heaven hereafter as others that have larger fuller and greater attainments and experiences And as the knowledge of this truth ought not to satisfie any to stay here but should still put them on to be pressing forward whereby to come neerer to the mark of the price of their high calling as the more comfortable strong and prosperous state so also should it satisfie the groundlesse objection of those who stick not to brand this witnesse of the beleevers conformity to the death of Christ with the reproach of rendering the faith of all those Saints and precious ones that have died without the experience or acknowledgement thereof to be of none effect as a most pitiful weak affrightment to deteine some tender-hearted well-meaning persons from receiving and owning the excellency of the knowledge of Christs death which to set evidently before our eyes that is to say Christ crucified within us in making us partakers with himself in his sufferings brings to the second thing the consideration of what Christ does when he actually withdraws and takes himself away from the soul as the Bridegroom that hath cohabited with it for a season in the light and glory of his fleshly perfection or first appearance when he refuses the wife of his youth and leaves her comfortlesse
imputed as it is written Where there is no Law there is no transgression hence is it that in his temptations and assaults with which he approaches men that are subjects unto Christ under his first dispensation or the birth of natural ight by him renewed and wrought out in their consciences he does endeavour either to make them reject scorne and withstand that work of the Law in their hearts so as in their operations to preferre and adhere to the unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse of the flesh before that righteousnesse and holinesse that Christ requires of them or else so to over-value trust and rest in their personal fleshly purity and holinesse unto which they may and do oft attaine under that first administration of Christ as to become fixed opposers and resisters of the higher discoveries of Christ that are yet behind and were to have beene made knowne unto them if through this insobriety and impatience of spirit they had not justly deprived and rendered themselves unworthy thereof Now this sort of sinners and corrupted consciences when thus againe returned into a voluntary subjection unto Satans Kingdome and Rule being such who have sinn'd against and denied the Lord that bought them are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who though they shall not be judged for what they had not and knew not as to the righteousnesse which they themselves were to have found in Christs person for their justification in the sight of God as shall those that are under the second dispensation unto whom Christ in this sense is revealed yet they do justly fall under the sin of unbelief as well as the other bringing down the guilt of Christs blood upon their souls through the unlawful use they make of their present attainments and personal righteousnesse in which they harden themselves to the opposing and keeping off the manifestation of Christs own righteousnesse unto them so much as in the knowledge of him according to the flesh The second sort of Christs subjects which the Devil applies himself to and attempts the gaining over unto his use and service for the encrease of his Dominion in opposition to Christs are those of the Circumcision children of the first Covenant who are the subjects wherein Christ sets up and maintaines his Rule and Dominion by the Law the holy Commandment delivered to them in the knowledge of him according to the flesh into whose hearts he comes as that stronger man to the dispossessing of Satan and casting of him out as an uncleane spirit who till then had beene prevailing over their minds to runne into all excesse of riot in the grosse uncleannesses of the flesh whom now Christ restrains by binding him up and in the roome thereof bringing forth the fruits of his own indwelling presence in them to the cleansing sweeping and adorning of his house and Temple wherein he comes to live with them under the first Covenant Satan perceiving how desperate his game is like to prove by this work of Christ if he should in down-right termes attempt to bring such as these back againe into the bondage of corruption is willing for a while very much to decline that way chusing rather to endeavour a returne into these cleansed enlightened hearts in the forme and appearance of an Angel of light that he may work death in them by that which is good seducing and beguiling them with subtilty as he did Eve by making their very conformity to the Law and the upholding thereof in power and credit in the conscience to be not only the means of his re-entry with seven spirits worse then before but to serve as a strong-hold to resist and beat off Christ in his approaches unto the soul in the glory of his second appearance by fixing it in a hardnesse and implacable resistance against the dawnings of that day and brightnesse of his coming In this posture is the Devil able to seat himself in the very Temple of God as God shewing himself to be God whose coming into the heart is with power with signes lying wonders and all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse in all that perish and take pleasure in this kind of unrighteousnesse and hatred of the truth By this means sin comes forth in the mysterious workings thereof which lies dead amongst those under the first dispensation as it is written without the Law sinne is dead taking its revival as to this kind of its operation by occasion of the coming of the Commandment in power and prevalency in respect whereof it is said The strength of sinne is the Law which strength being wanting in those that are without Law is the reason that sinne thus considered remains in them as dead without motion or activity For untill the soul by the ruling power of the Law be brought into a kind of security in its own apprehension from all prevailing danger of fleshly impurity and uncleannesse this kind of sinning springs not up in its force and vigour working death by that which is undeniably good through which it becomes exceeding sinful In this security the heart of man is the more easily nourished up from the experience it hath of converse with Christ in his own immediate personal appearance as those Luke 13 25 26. who upon this ground maintaine their confidence for acceptance with Christ saying Lord Lord open unto us for we have eate and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets finding themselves planted into him as branches in the Vine or good Olive-tree and so rendered righteous in the righteousnesse of their head and root which knowledge and experience those under the first dispensation are strangers unto being aliens from this Common-wealth of Israel Of this number are they who after much enlightning fall away and draw back unto perdition Heb. 6. and chap. 10. with Demas Hymeneus and Philetus making shipwrack both of faith and a good conscience In these kind of Seducements the Devil hath beene long versed who began this practice upon Adam in his natural righteousnesse and purity experiencing in his case all that resistance that man in honour or at his best estate standing but upon the root of his natural perfection does signifie or amount unto for the keeping out of sin or the hindering it a second time from re-entry and revival to the making of men sin over the same sin againe after the similitude of Adams transgression Thus the old Serpent through this deceit is able to slay man againe and work death in him as fast as natural righteousnesse and holinesse renewed and revived does give him matter to work upon this way This mystery of iniquity is undiscernable at first in the consciences of those where it works who judge it to be their duty and obedience to the Law which they are performing whilst in their very righteous and holy operation they are made to serve a contrary interest unto Christs by going about to establish
their own righteousnesse not submitting to the righteousnesse of God and so prove deceived and seduced through an unskilfulnesse of discerning in that which is good to the despising and refusal of that which is a more excellent and enduring substance for the fading glory of flesh and the morning dew of natural righteousnesse wanting that wisdome which teaches to distinguish betweene the lawful and unlawful use that is to be made of the Law and the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ worthily or unworthly Behold then the evil desire and lust that may and doth spring up in mans pure holy and righteous nature as by being under the dominion of the Law and living in subjection and conformity thereunto he is striving to separate them whom God has joyned together in Christs second appearance and to uphold competition and opposition betweene those that should dwell together as brethren in unity in the communion of the holy Ghost which counsel of God carries much contrariety in it to mans natural desire and lust which would faine get away with Gods first word the word of the beginning Heb. 6. 1. wherewith God at first visits man refusing to stay to the end and to hear and obey the second word which God is pleased to have with him whereby he finishes and compleats his first operations in him declaring to him his whole counsel whereunto the first dispensation is appointed only as a fore-runner and therefore must needs be short as to that which is the work of the second being no otherwise intended from the beginning but as a messenger or preparer of the way Hence we may see what it is Paul means Rom. 7. and ch 8. when he acknowledges that the Law through the weaknesse of the flesh though it have nothing in it which causes or is the author of sin yet it hath that in it which sinne takes occasion by to set up it self anew and blossome forth againe in mans nature when renewed and restored to a conformity with the Law which is spiritual holy righteous and good for lust is capable to conceive in Adams posterity thus renewed and set up afresh as well as it did in himself at first and lust when it hath thus conceived brings forth sinne or an envying and contesting against the glory of Christs second appearance which sin being perfected or come to its fixing of the mind in an unchangeable and implacable enmity thereunto brings forth death even that death which is spiritual and eternal so Rom. 8. such a carnal mind as this is called death as it stands in such an enmity to the spiritual mind that it is neither subject to that Law of God which is the Law of the Crosse and Spirit of life nor indeed can be Thus saith the Apostle by the coming of the Commandment sin revived and 1 died and what was ordeined for life I found unto me to be unto death sin getting into its vigour and strength thereby assuring the soul that it is here out of all danger being begotten againe into Gods own likenesse wherein man was at first created and having the visible characters thereof shining forth in it written not with inke and on tables of stone but with the Spirit of the living God and on the fleshly tables of the heart shewing it self a right change and a real heart-work above and beyond all that is accounted civility and morality and above all notion and spirituality that is but head-work and fancy What is now to be done sayes the Tempter to this sort of men but to perswade them torest here and praise and blesse Gods Word that by this first visit and beginning hath made so beautiful glorious a change in their hearts nature as this is wherof the experiences are so lively and refreshing especially when reflection is made upon what they are changed from when brought to this and the way and means of attaining it which hath also the approbation and praise of visible Churches and Saints and of the best men so judged by mans day which makes them say Let us tabernacle here with Moses and Elias especially if we be upon the Mount and brought thither by Christ himself transfiguring himself there before us In this earthly building of the renewed natural man let us fix and resist all dawnings and approachings of any higher or better state Let this our Ishmael live was once the voice of Abraham himself that afterwards was perswaded to offer up his Isaac that was but according to the flesh If we be prevailed with to fix here and live after the flesh we shall die Rom. 8. 13. or enter and abide in those wayes of death which make us enemies to the Crosse of Christ and cause him in the end to swear we shall never enter into his Rest As man therefore in the purity and holinesse of his natural will may be using the Law of God lawfully as we have shewed so also he may exercise himself in his own holy and righteous operations of mind and nature in such manner as may be quite contrary to the mind of God and the true end of such conformity wrought in him unto the Law experiencing by this means the evil that is incident unto a pure and uncorrupt state of being and that lust that is to be known only by the coming of the Law Which evil desire or lust of man in this state is a covetousnesse which sets up idolatry in the highest streine endeavouring to oppose Christ in the Spirit by Christ in the flesh by exalting the glory of his first appearance above that of the second Sin in this sense hath for the Mother and Nurse of it mans natural righteousnesse wherein he is apt to glory and be puffed up without cause contrary to the true meaning of the Law which requires him indeed to cherish and maintaine the natural righteousnesse and holinesse therein and thereby ministred whether considered as it shines forth in the flesh of Christ or in their own hearts and consciences in opposition to that which is the filth of the flesh or to the resting in our own personal morality and vertue before the Law came to us but authorizes him not or warrants him to oppose herewith the Crosse of Christ and the excellency of the knowledge of him crucified or to resist upon pretence of keeping that up the coming in of the better and more excellent glory When once therefore such a frame of spirit as a root of gall and bitternesse is springing up in men and that wilfully against manifest conviction and long contestation and patience on Gods part to bring them to another mind at last they are brought by sad experience to find that in their flesh dwells no good thing but such as will be leaking out of this fleshly building of the first Adam at its best if rested in and subject to corrupt So that whilst with the mind they serve the Law of God with the flesh
conformity with Christ in his death to the glory of the resurrection from the dead as the mark of the price of his high calling wherein true perfection and lasting blessednesse consists Where the Image of God in this third and last sense stands but in the least relative kind of union with any heart there the foundation is laid which is mentioned 2 Tim. 2. 19. where it is said The Lord knoweth them that are his bearing with and passing by all their evil carriages towards him in the times of their ignorance and unregenerate state not suffering the Destroyer to enter and utterly to make an end but because of this New Wine that is found in the Cluster God saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it And though this hidden Being which everlasting righteousnesse hath in the soul to the separating of it unto God from the womb be not that which does actually invest such persons so much as with the Priviledges and Blessings of the first Covenant or give them a personal right to them all which depends upon the marriage-union actually to be contracted betweene Christ and them when they are so joyned as to be made one flesh yet the sanctification that passes upon the soul or separation that is made of it hereby from the womb keeps it from wilful sinning against the grace of the New Covenant and righteousnesse of Faith as appears in Solomon who in the midst of his greatest declinings and falls had this wisdome lying at bottome and keeping him from final Apostasie as the Book of Ecclesiastes at large declares So also in Paul this was evident who confesses in this respect that God shewed mercy to him who was the worst and greatest of sinners because that in all that contradiction and opposition to the light of Faith and of the New Covenant wherein he became a persecutor and a blasphemer he was ignorant and unaware I did it ignorantly sayes he 1 Tim. 1. 13. and elsewhere when called before the Magistrate Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self sayes he that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth By this seed then of saving Faith whereby he was separated from the womb he was preserved from the great transgression or sinne that is unto death And in this sense we may safely understand that Scripture Luke 10. 5 6. Into what house soever ye enter first say Peace be to this house And if the SONNE OF PEACE be there your Peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you againe So that no Peace or durable Blessednesse hath commission from God to rest upon any heart but where this seed is through which the Saints are separated unto God from the womb The Witnesse then which results and presents it self to our thoughts from this view of things is this that dying to sinne and living to righteousnesse considered only as the effect and birth of common grace or life from Christ under the first and second Ministery singly and apart from the effect and operation of saving Faith which is proper to the third Ministery alone does amount to no higher a work in the conscience then what may and will fail And yet this Mortification and Vivification thus produced in the heart is not only real but all such attainments and receivings as these from Christ with all the benefits inseperably accompanying his indwelling presence in the soul by his first appearance are as they are called Ezek. 16. 14 15. his owne comelinesse which he thinks fit to put upon these children of the first Covenant which they notwithstanding unwarrantably trusting unto and resting in do thereby commit iniquity and that such iniquity as that thereupon all their righteousnesse which they have had and done shall be no more remembered but for the iniquity which they thus commit they must die Ezek. 33. 13. as found opposers and fighters against the brightnesse of Christs second coming under pretence of upholding and adhering unto the life and glory of his first The defect therefore of these mens saintship or sanctification lies not in this that it is false counterfeit hypocritical or head-work only and unanswerable to the Rule or holy commandment given unto them For in all these respects it may be and is oftentimes free and faultlesse in the experience of those that have it who in great sincerity and zeale are servants unto righteousnesse and enemies unto sin in the two first Ministeries and upon the termes Christ therein exhibits himself unto them who yet for all this stumble at the stumbling stone and fall at last irrecoverably by setting up the work of God wrought in their hearts either under the first or second dispensation where it only obtaines the place of a Part or Branch in reference to the whole in a direct opposition to the coming on of the whole in the third and last dispensation as well knowing that when that which is perfect does once come and take place then that which is but in part and in that sense imperfect must be done away which such minds so principled as they are can by no means bear being fixedly and utterly unwilling where saving Faith is not at the bottome to part with and forgo these small Pearls whereby to make purchase of the great Pearle which comprehends all the parts in it self and that after a more excellent manner causing them to be enjoyed in a more excellent way they before and in more abundance So that the very Holinesse in kind is not lost but is perfected and fulfilled as we have at large shewed And therefore the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 12. treating of Grace and the gifts of the Spirit under both these considerations first as the manifestation thereof is given in common to every man to profit withall dividing unto every man severally as he will or secondly as there is a giving forth of this Spirit in a more excellent way of life and grace then what the best gifts given several and apart do amount unto exhorts unto the acknowledging and retaining of both these in a consistency and loving harmony together as making but one body or compleat fulnesse in Christ which he calls Love Chap. 13. expressely asserting that all gifts of the Spirit how good and reall soever they be yet considered as they are several and in part only will leave the possessors of them little better then sounding brasse or tinkling Cymbals for they will not last or endure to the end The Apostle hereby intimates unto us the evil use that may be made of good and spiritual gifts when either the parts agree not amongst themselves but the eye sayes to the hand I have no need of thee or the head to the feet I have no need of you or when the parts considered as several conspire together against the whole as the Body against the Soul the Forme against the Power of Godlinesse When therfore the gifts of the Spirit are given
this woman perfumed and decked with excellent ornaments and gifts as she is described to the full Prov. 7. 10 to the 24. and Eccles 7. 26. is exceeding skilful at inveigling and drawing in numbers and multitudes into her nets and fnares and when they are once caught she leads them as the Oxe to the slaughter fatting them to destruction and Secondly this falsenesse of spirit with which she entices and ensnares men is alwayes accompanied with a fixed implacable rage and enmity against the chaft Spouse of Christ so as she is found drunk with the blood of Saints which is so sweet to none as to this sort of men under and by whom the Lord was crucified at Jerusalem and concerning whom he speaks when he sayes Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucifie and some of them shall ye scourge and persecute from City to City that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from Abel to Zacharias and againe Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem Thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how oft c. Luke 13. 34. Matth. 23. v 34 to 38. CHAP. XXIII Concerning the common interest wherein the Devils subjects meet and correspond under both the dispensations before mentioned which yet by the wisdome and power of Christ comes at last to be dissolved in the use which he makes of the one to destroy the other THE two sorts of subjects before spoken of are the two maine pillars and supports of Anti-christs Kingdome who are figured out in those two beasts which as two fit engines of warre the Devil makes use of in carrying on his enmity against the Saints of the Most High in the contendings of him and his Angels with Michael and his Angels from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof These two beasts in the eleventh of Daniel under the figure of the Kings of Persia and Greece have their ruling power described the one as King of the North the other as King of the South which Ezekiel chap. 20. v. 46. ch 21. v. 2 3 4 5 12. interprets to our hands where by the South he shews is intended the earthly Jerusalem as in her declining apostatizing state she is ripening her self for judgement by the hand of those that are not a people even the Heathenish Nations And by the North He shewes is to be understood the King of Babylon as Head of those Heathenish Nations who areall remote and aliens from the beauty of holinesse that like the Sun in his strength shines forth in Zion These also in the 8. of Daniel are signified by the RAM and the HE-GOAT all which places compared together do make known to us the consistencie and correspondencie wherein the Devil does at his pleasure through Gods permission retaine these two branches of his Dominion when it is for the furtherance and advancement of his work making leagues between them and strengthening them by marriage for in the end of years they shall joyne themselves together saith Daniel The Kings daughter of the South shall come to the King of the North to make an agreement or association in prejudice to the Saints of the Most High and both these Kings hearts shall be to do mischief and they shall speak lies at one table in joynt consultations against the true witnesses of Jesus those that would serve to the introducing of his everlasting Kingdome But in this combination of theirs they shall not prosper to the end though they mingle themselves thus with the seed of men and as the iron and the clay Dan. 2. 43. would faine be embodying themselves together all such attempts shall be frivolous and disappointed by God made an occasion of hastening the ruine and downfal of Antichrists Kingdome that would thus be peecing up it self in both its branches against the Kingdome of Christ For when the hypocritical Apostate-generation of Professors signified by the daugher of the KING OF THE SOVTH as having lived in the warmth and zeal of a legal spirit under the Sun shine or day of Christs first appearance shall be so put to it as to have no other relief left them but to associate themselves in combination with the prophane Heathen against the spirit of Christ in his faithful Witnesses and to espouse the interest and principles of the corrupt degerated world figured out by the first beast and by the KING OF THE NORTH as living remote from the Sun-shine of Christs first appearance under the single Ministery of Angels and by the Iron Dan. 2. as a stony-hearted generation that cannot mix with the Clay Israel with their hearts of flesh or knowledge of Christ after the flesh then is the time of the downfal of both these Kingdomes neere as is intimated by that Dreame of Nebuchadnezzar with the interpretation thereof Dan. 2. signifying to us the whole Kingdome of Anti-christ under the great Image whose brightnesse was excellent and whose forme was terrible the head whereof was of gold and his armes of silver his belly and his thighs of brasse his legges of iron his feet part of iron and part of clay to signifie his two supporters before described and as both of them consist together in one body or Universal Kingdome of Anti-christ having the adornments of spiritual gifts and all sort of natural perfections to set it self out by though ever declining decaying and growing worse and worse in its apostatizing frame of spirit from Christ who towards the end will smite both these Rules and Kingdomes of Satan as well the Iron as the Clay and by dividing them will break them and shatter them to peeces making one of them the ruine of the other So that the great Whore shall be burnt with fire by those very hands that were on her side for a season and so both of them in a manner shall fall together to make way for the stone cut out without hands which as a great mountaine is to fill the whole earth As therefore we have thus seene these two branches of Antichrists Kingdome described in their consistencie and association together so it will be requisite to consider them as in those Chapters in Daniel before mentioned they are represented also in their divided interests and fierce irreconcileable oppositions one against the other Thus we see them signified to us under the RAM and the HE-GOAT the RAM being the same with the King of the North and the HE-GOAT with the King of the South the first having a Kingdome and interest within himself which the openly prophane will and judgement of man espouses and embraces in opposition to and dislike of the rule and interest of the renewed natural man and the reformations and purity of his actions in the exercise of which power the RAM pushes Westward and Northward and Southward laying about on all hands to subdue all unto his degenerated interest and way so that
these meere heathenish subjects even out of the world it self as restored in several measures and degrees to some purity and rectitude of natural principles by the coming of Christ in the flesh and by the preaching of the Gospel to every creature under heaven he therefore winds about and changes his course by transforming himself into an Angel of light and declaring himself a friend unto Christ considered in his first appearance and as he is the restorer and renewer unto man of his first purity natural perfection knowing that by this his dissimulation and feigned complyance with Christ as vile and false a spirit as he is he can come in by flatteries into those souls and consciences whence he hath beene cast out and kept out by force and can returne as unsuspected and take up his place and state in the very Temple of God shewing himself that he is God by all the signes wonders and evidences that flesh and blood can expect from him to approve himself by to the deceiving of the very elect themselves if it were possible and using all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse he knowes how to greaten and enlarge his Dominion and Rule by this second branch of it in the use he makes of enlightned restored men the children of the first Covenant that are under the Dominion of the Law married to Christ by that Covenant and who will admit no Rule nor Government over them but such as is consistent with the righteous and holy operations and actings that are required by the Law in those that work as debtors unto it whereof we have at large spoken in opening the mysterious workings of sinne and Satan that are taken by the occasion of the Commandment working death by that which is good so that the Devil makes a surer game for himself this way then the other for out of this grave there is no redemption but it must be let alone for ever There remaines no more sacrifice for sin nor place for repentance when after such enlightnings there is a drawing back and falling away through a root of bitternesse springing up against the dawning and approaching glory of Christ in his second and heavenly appearance Such backslidings and declinings of heart are fatal as having mingled in them that seed and nature of sinning for which God swears in his wrath whoever becomes wilfully guilty shall never enter into his rest but be delivered up to beleeve a lie that they all that are such might be damned and perish everlastingly because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved but after they had received the knowledge of it became bitter haters and opposers thereof When once this Decree of Gods wrath comes in its execution upon any soul denying unto it the benefit of the sacrifice of Christs death let men have beene never so farre enlightned to the escaping of the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Iesus Christ to the attaining of excellent spiritual gifts having all knowledge all faith that can be had without the love of the truth shining forth in the Crosse and Resurrection of Christ all this and all the righteousnesse they have done shall be no more remembred but in the iniquity they herein commit they shall surely die and their old sins from which they had beene washed and purged returne with vigor and power againe upon them making their latter end worse then their beginning So then the Devil is no loser at last by temporizing for a while and giving as it were leave unto his subjects these sonnes of perdition to conforme to the Lawes of his enemy and walk with the Saints as friends and fellow subjects in Christs Kingdome for when they break and part these drawing back to perdition whilst the true heirs go on to the saving of the soul the Devil finds his reckoning in the winding up and serves himself of this his deceitful compliance by himself and his instruments with Christ and the true spiritual seed to paythem home at last with inveterate rage and malice signified Rev. 12. by that flood of water which he poures out after them if it were possible to drowne and destroy them utterly as is most apparent also in the action and carriage of the He-goat in Daniel that pretended a long while to be for Christ the Prince of the heavenly Host and to engage on his and their behalf against the RAM till hereby he had strengthened the Kingdome to himself and then Christ and the true Saints have the slip given them and none more enraged against them at last then the HE-GOAT none that speaks greater words against them or more ready to piece up in association with the RAM which he before had beaten downe and got the perfect mastery over This will be found by experience a most certaine truth that Hypocrites and Apostates when once they come to wilfull sinning and with Saul to discerne that God hath left them and is departed from them as to what divine presence and fruits of it they had before beene made sensible of none will be more ready to joyne avowedly with the Devil and the worst of his instruments to accomplish their rage against the suffering Saints of Christ who by this meanes have all the power of the world not only withdrawn from being their protection but declaring it self in visible opposition to them and have little other defence left them then in faith and patience to possesse their souls as the poore destitute and needy ones of the flock of Christ Which dark dispensation and season is hastening apace being as it were the midnight-state wherein the Bridegroome shall come the second time without sinne unto salvation and unto which all things must work as the last times draw to their end when the falling away will be greater then ever and the rage of all the Churches enemies most enflamed and implacable and when all visible protection and defence shall be as good as taken away from the true spiritual seed and suffering Saints to the making of such a time of trouble as never was since there was a Nation Yet the Scriptures do declare that although the ordinary visible protection shall be taken away and withdrawn from the holy people and their power of the arme of flesh broken God will however be a little Sanctuary unto that residue and remnant which he shall preserve faithful unto himself under all the trials and shakings that shall be brought upon the world For Zach. 14. 3. It is said Then shall the Lord go forth against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battell which ver 13. interprets to be in the case of Gideon when a great tumult from the Lord was sent amongst his peoples enemies so as they did lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour and rose up one against another until they all fell together like Abners and Ioabs men at the poole of Gibeon and became a prey
bodies shall be found in the streets of the holy City spiritually called Sodome and Egypt kept for three dayes and an half unburied signifying that they must in all things submit to the bruising of their outward man in conformity unto Christ and be slaine as their brethren have beene from the beginning of the world which is to be their lot in the latter end This prophetical and powerful spirit of Eliah shall be poured forth in those dayes upon the witnesses of Christ that keep the WORD OF HIS PATIENCE and endure the fiery triall of those times not thinking it a strange thing that thereby happens unto them and shall fill them with exceeding joy under all the reproaches which they beare for the Name of Christ as the Spirit of glory and of God that is resting upon them and fitting them for such a season that as John Baptist by his Ministery ushered in Christs coming in the flesh or in his first appearance so this same prophetical spirit of Eliah shall be the fore-running dispensation given forth by the witnesses of Christ in those dayes unto Christs second appearance or coming from heaven as hath beene foretold by all the Prophets since the world began for the restitution of all things as the fruit of his personal presence in the world exercising Rule and Dominion there for a thousand years with his Saints and then carrying them up with him to his Father and their Father into the same Kingdome as continued in glory in heaven for evermore What this prophetical spirit of Eliah is that shall be thus poured out upon the Witnesses of Christ in those dayes is to be understood by what it was in Eliah's person who was but the type and therefore certainly had this spirit in a much inferiour degree to what it shall be in them The spirit of glory and power therefore which he had they shall have and much more as indeed is expressed when it is said if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devours their enemies These have power by the same way Eliah had which was by the prayer of faith to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie yea they have power also over waters to turne them into blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will Yet under all this power and glory they shall remaine exposed in their persons upon the finishing of their TESTIMONY to the rage and power of their enemies who shall then make warre against them overcome them and kill them But notwithstanding on the third day they have power given them to rise from the dead and to ascend up into heaven Rev. 11. 11 12. after a more glorious manner then Eliah did and this in the sight of their very enemies to their terrifying and amazement Thus we see the spirit and power of Eliah what it is that then shall be poured forth and that in a more mystical and spiritual consideration Something we shall also speak to the opening of the state and qualification of the persons that are called the TWO WITNESSES and why they are so called For their state and qualification this is to be known by their names and their apparel They are called the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the whole earth By what hath beene already opened on this subject we are not far to seek what these signifie For the two Olive-trees and two Candlesticks that stand by the Lord of the whole earth must either be Christ in his owne person as he is head to his body the Church and Mediatour betweene God and man shining forth in his first and second appearance as both these perfections of the natural and spiritual man are built up and wrought into a perfect consistency and harmony in him or else these two Olive-trees do signifie the conformity which from him as the head is wrought out in and derived upon his spiritual and heavenly members by his first and second appearance in both those perfections of the first and second Adam as the elder is made to serve the younger and the first is built up into a consistency and harmony with the second by the power of the Crosse making them conformable to him in his death Which conformity is signified by their prophesying in sackcloth testifying the marks which they bear about with them in their mortal bodies of the dying of the Lord Jesus And in this crucified mortal flesh of theirs they are owned by Christ as having the Spirit of God and of glory thus made to rest upon them in a like dispensation unto that of Eliah's prophecy So that when once it shall please God to raise up a seed and generation of Saints in whom these marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus shall be eminent to the slaying and bringing to rest all operating powers and faculties of their natural man as standing in opposition to the Lord of life and glory and subjecting every high imagination in them by the Crosse to the laying of it and all the glory of flesh in a very great measure under the feet of Christ whereby that which lets his glory from appearing unveiled and hath all this time let is taken away then will it be knowne what the TWO WITNESSES are and that they have not hitherto so much as begun their prophecy in the power of Eliah before mentioned so farre are they from being slaine CHAP. XXVI Treating of the time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God their sitting with Christ on his Throne ruling and influencing all things on earth during the space of a thousand years HAving finished what relates to the Saints being made one dead or crucified body with Christ and shewed the opposition which is exercised by the Devil thereunto that which remains to be considered is the gathering also of the Saints together into one glorified body with Christ at his second coming when it shall appear what those shall be that now though they are sons are undistinguished from those that are not who have beene planted into a conformity with Christ in his death and who considered as his dead body having beene exposed to the bruising of their heele by Satan before his being bound up shall be declared the proper subjects and inheritours of this first resurrection in the exercise of the power and glory thereof as KINGS and PRIESTS reigning with Christ a thousand years This time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God is said to be that which is the earnest expectation of the very creature it self Rom. 8. 19. as the season also wherein the whole creation is to be restored to its Primitive purity and to be delivered out of the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God as the benefit which it shall then receive by vertue of the price of Christs blood paid for all for
threatned with destruction the Mystical earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church under the Gentiles is therein comprehended and also meant as that which shall at the end of the world and in the last times be found in a most corrupted declined estate of Apostasie 2 Thes 2. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. unto which therefore several characters and signes are appropriated that cannot be understood to be accomplished at the destroying of the material Temple and outward Jerusalem but are necessarily to be meant of this Mystical one as the Heavens that are remaining to be shaken yet once more Heb. 12. signifying the removing of those things that may be shaken as of things that are made that those things that cannot be shaken may remaine This Mystical earthly Ierusalem is that which shall not have one stone left upon another as well as the other Typical Ierusalem not so much as any visibility or forme of worship shall be left to her but she shall be given to the Gentiles or prophane world who shall tread this holy City under foot fourty and two moneths And to make this hour and power of darknesse the more terrible there shall be warres and rumours of warres Nation shall rise up against Nation and Kingdome against Kingdome and there shall be Famines and Pestilences and Earthquakes in divers places yea all these things shall be but the beginning of sorrows For as thus warres and troubles and sorrowes shall be in reference to the outward man so also deceit and errour by false Prophets and false Christs shall arise causing much defilement in reference to the inner man whence will flow great declinings and apostasies from holy and righteous principles for saking of the truth or a waxing cold in the love of it amongst the inhabitants of this Mystical earthly Ierusalem and not only so but there will spring up a root of bitternesse and an implacable persecuting spirit against the faithful WITNESSES of Christ that shall in those dayes be found in her to the afflicting killing or flaying of them and letting their dead bodies lie unburied in the street of this great City which the Nations shall come and destroy for all her whoredomes and apostasies as they did the literal Ierusalem God putting it into their hearts to agree together and burne this Whore with fire And then they themselves that are thus made the rod of Gods anger and executioners of his vengeance on this great City shall not escape but Zach. 14. 3. The Lord shall go forth and fight against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battel For a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour ver 13. So Mat. 24. 29 30. Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sunne be darkned and the Moone shall not give her light and the Starres shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken And then shall appeare the signe of the Sonne of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourne and they shall see the Sonne of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory actually entering upon the exercise of his Kingdome and this First by sending forth his Angels and gathering together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other as into one glorified body with himself to the constituting of this GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the FIRST-BORNE which shall be made up partly of those the Lord brings with him and partly of those which shall be found alive and remaing unto the coming of the Lord or shall be in the natural body during the thousand years all which shal be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye by way of translation as it was with Enoch and not see death Whereby their mortal shall put on immortality and their corruptible shall put on incorruption and death and the grave shall be swallowed up in victory The first in order then which Christ quickens at his coming shall be his own Mystical dead body for the dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes 4. 16. that is those that have beene slaine and have born the marks of the dyings of Jesus upon them who are called Rev. 20. the souls of them that were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus and for the WORD of God who all of them at this time through the quickning power of their Head shall live and reigne with him the first-fruits who hath already for a long time beene living and reigning at Gods right hand as it is written 1 Cor. 15. Every man in his owne order Christ the first-fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming whom he builds or raises up with himself into one spiritual and glorified body v. 44. causing them thereby to bear the image of the heavenly and last Adam as they have borne the image of the earthy or first Adam and this in the utmost perfection thereof as arrived to the measure of the stature of that fulnesse and perfection which declares and manifests it self in Christs heavenly manhood enabled to exercise in copartnership with him the power and glory of a threefold humane life and perfection in which he went before them First when upon the laying down of his natural body he came into the exercise of a life proper to the spirit of a just man made perfect in likenesse and equality with that of the holy Angels who stand in a superiority of life unto the earthly man even of Christ himself Heb. 2. 9. Secondly when he also came forth in the exercise of a humane bodily life raised up in a glorified and incorruptible forme never to die more Rev. 1. 18. in which he conversed with men the fourty dayes betweene his resurrection and ascension Thirdly when yet farther he came forth in the exercise of a divine humane life in which ascending to his God and their God to his Father and their Father he was exalted into a unity and copartnership in life and operation with the ROOT OF DAVID the WORD OF LIFE the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead This is spoken of as the fruit also of his resurrection from the dead Ephes 1. ver 20 21. When through the mightinesse of Gods power that wrought in him he was raised from the dead and set at Gods owne right hand in the Heavenly or in the first and Heavenly Tabernacle that is set up in the WORD treated on by us in the first Chapter farre above all prin ipality and power and might and Dominion and every name or particular nature and being not only in this world but also in that which is to come In which life ver 22. 't is said that to the humane nature of Christ it is given to be the Head over all things or
now are shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up to make way for and give place unto the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH wherein dwelleth righteousnesse which we look for according to his promise 2 Pet. 3. 10 13. Nor are we to think that the Saints departed who are now exercising the life that is equal to Angels are at all debased or lessened in their heavenly or Angelical enjoyment as brought forth gathered together into one spiritual and glorified body with Christ at his coming For hereby they are enabled to exercise over and besides the first that life which Christ led here upon earth after his resurrection which excludes them not from being with the Lord in the aire 1 Thes 4. 17. or in the exercise of their Angelical life in which they are for ever with him for as much as they do assume the exercise of this bodily life againe in its incorruptible forme upon such termes that it is no hinderance to or in the least inconsistent with the free and absolute exercise of the former Angelical life but serves rather as the meanes for them to be in the body as well as out of the body at their owne pleasure and as they shall find it most suitable to Gods designes for the maintaining and keeping up the Rule and Dominion of Christ in the world during the thousand years in the hands of this GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the first-borne who as the Jerusalem coming downe from God out of Heaven are to be the Tabernacle of God with men to administer the accomplishment of Gods promise as to the making good the reward which godlinesse is to receive even in this life and the promise unto Abraham and his seed of making them heir of the world through faith Rom. 4. 13. by vertue of the quickning power of Christ which he shall put forth at this time of the Restitution of all things The forementioned exercise of this bodily life to be assumed by Saints departed at the Resurrection is intimated to us by what is recorded Matth. 27. 52 53. And the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints that slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Signifying by way of figure and prediction the common practice hereof at Christs coming to quicken his Mystical dead body and bring them out of their graves as it is written Esay 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead The third and last sort of humane life which the body or Church of Christ shall by their Head be brought into the exercise of is that of his exalted state as He ascended to his God and their God to his Father and their Father going before to prepare a place for them as being unwilling that his Saints should rest so much as in the second degree of life shining forth in his person by the Resurrection without expecting a higher which he gave notice of to Mary when he said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father John 20. 17. in whose house there are many Mansions John 14. 2. which at the end of the thousand years he hath in store to lead them into as their final and utmost degree of glory and perfection in heaven in the immediate and beatifical vision of God when the world shall be no more mentioned Rev. 20. 11 and as the last retreat to the full Rest God hath prepared for his Saints when upon the expiration of the thousand years Satan being let loose out of his prison shall have mustered up his last reserve of force against them from all the four quarters of the earth even Gog and Magog who for number are as the sand of the Sea who come up on the breadth of the earth and compasse the camp of the Saints about and the beloved City the NEW IERUSALEM which thereupon ascends up into heaven their enemies beholding them into this utmost degree of the Resurrection and their exaltation as made with Christs manhood to ascend to their God and his God to their Father and his Father in the exercise of the life of the first-borne of every creature and first-begotten from the dead to the obteining a name above every name which sets them with Christ far above all principality and power might and dominion the name or nature of any other particular being whatsoever And all this they attaine unto by their being made one with Christ Davids OFF-SPRING as this OFF-SPRING or BRANCH is made one with his owne ROOT who is the beginning and first-begotten from the dead having in all things the preheminence as being from above and over all made higher then the Heavens better then the Angels as having by inheritance obtained a more excellent name then they so that Angels and authorities are made subject to him and therefore in a state exalted above all natural men for they are lower then the Angels In this capacity Christ in his own person received the pouring out of the Spirit without measure and in this capacity his body the Church shall as at the second hand in this day of their ascension and final exaltation receive the effusion of this same Spirit without measure upon them unto which they have spiritual sences in some degree fitted and suited whilst they are here in the body through the newnesse of life and motion set up in them by faith or the new Creation which are yet farther heightned and enlarged after the laying down of the body by the two first degrees of glory and power into which they are brought by the resurrection from the dead but shall then be ripened to their most absolute capacity compleat exercise and perfect use upon this their ascension and highest advance at the expiration of the THOUSAND YEARS Into this state of glory Christ as we have said did arrive in his own person upon his ascension having received of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost or the actual possession of this inheritance of God at Gods right hand where his man-hood doth so become the INGRAFFED WORD of God that as man he is taken into the enjoyment of Gods naked glory and very similitude and forme beholding him face to face and conversing with him as friend speaks with friend mouth to mouth sharing and partaking throughout with the WORD of life the ROOT of David in all those first creature-operations that are set up by the immediate Workman-ship of the Trinity when they personally appeare in the WORD in respect whereof this creature-state in Christ is said to be without Father without Mother without descent Heb. 7. having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life
preserving of them during the thousand years in this their spotlesse sinlesse nature not suffering the Devil to annoy them or deceive the Nations till the thousand years be fulfilled executing upon the rebellious and disobedient his fiery vengeance and indignation to the cutting them off from the Land of the living as Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with making good that Word of the Lord Act 3. 23. And it shall come to passe that every soul which will not hear that Prophet in these his dayes he shall be destroyed from among the people For all those that shall then discover that they love not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity shall be Anathema Maranatha or accursed by this coming and from this presence of the Lord. And therefore we are to know that the natural generation of men which shall be in those dayes how pure and spotlesse soever their fleshly nature be yet being but mutable will have either a good or an evil change passe upon them The good we have already spoken to and of the evil we shall say but little here since we have so at large treated of it also as it is the serpentine seed growing up in and under that which is good to the fixing and hardning of men at last in an implacable rage and enmity against Christ in his heavenly and second appearance For this hardning when it is perfected proves an unchangable enmity and brings on the spiritual or SECOND DEATH wrought out in the natural mind which is not subject to the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus nor ever can be no place being now left for repentance These vessels of wrath will then be raised to everlasting contempt and will have the perfect exercise of their natural sences in spirit soul and body fitted and prepared for the taking in of the full vials thereof that shall be poured out upon them for ever from the presence of the Lord Yea for this purpose they are also heightned to a partaking with the wicked Angels in the raisednesse of their Angelical beings so as to become of equal capacity with the evil Angels through the power of the resurrection from the dead that raises them up into everlasting contempt and gives them their portion with the Devil and his Angels unto whom they serve as a Temple and habitation in like manner as the Saints in their glorified body are the Tabernacle of God And in this Idols Temple the Devil shall be so able to transforme himself into an Angel of light by the experience he will have gained during the thousand years and so to transform his Ministers also as the Ministers of righteousnesse and Apostles of Christ that he shall have the confidence at the end of the thousand years when he shall again be let loose to embody his party of wicked Angels and men from all quarters and come up in this seeming glorious posture to vie it out at last with the New Jerusalem the City of the living God in this its earthly state gathering Gog and Magog to battel the number of whom is as the sand of the Sea who hoping to carry all before them shall come up on the breadth of the earth and compasse the camp of the Saints about the Beloved City desiring and endeavouring to swallow up that Assembly of true Saints on earth who have not had as yet their finall change brought upon them but are waiting for it universally to be accomplished at the end of the thousand years At which period of time the Devil being let loose and putting forth his last and utmost power doth play his game by transforming his party into the likenesse of the glorified body of Christ and his Saints gathering into one counterfeit spiritual body all his children and servants whose coming then shall be with such power and signes and lying wonders as were never put forth by him before Then Christ in a moment shall finally perfect his glorious change upon all the Elect and carry them all up with him to the mansions provided for them in his Fathers house from whence he sends down fire to devour all their adversaries and the whole visible frame of the creation casting the Devil into the Lake of fire where the BEAST and FALSE PROPHET are and shall be tormented for ever day and night by vertue of the just judgement of God which then shall be revealed against the wicked when the last JUDGEMENT shall be set and there shall appeare a great white Throne and one sitting upon it from whose face the heaven and the earth shall flee away so that there shall be no more place found for them even for that heaven and earth wherein there had beene made a full restitution of all things in those times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord during the reigne of the thousand years Then the great and last universal day of judgement shall be brought forth when the dead small and great shall be made to stand up before God and then the books will be opened and another book will be opened which is the book of life and the dead shall be judged out of those things that are written in the books And the sea shall give up the dead that are in it and death and hell shall deliver up the dead that are in them and they shall be judged every man according to their works To be more particular in describing the state of things as to the change which does respect the whole creature during this thousand years will be needlesse considering that the general expressions are so clear and full that it shall be a glorious pure incorrupt state unto the whole creation which shall then keep a holy Sabbath and Rest unto the Lord a seventh part of the time of the worlds continuance in which there shall be no sowing of the field nor pruning of the vineyard nor exacting any labour from the creature but what in voluntary service it shall performe by way of homage and worship unto Christ for the use of his Saints during the thousand years who are yet in their corruptible natural body expecting their great change Even so come Lord Jesus Come quickly FINIS
that sacrifice Jer. 32. 35. which was expresly prohibited Lev. 18. 21. and they threatned with death that should be found practisers hereof Chap. 20. 2 3. yea if men be found conniving in such case as loth to discover the offender God farther declares that he himself wil come forth in his wrathful appearance or face to do execution as it is written v. 4 5. If the people of the Land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not or cause not execution to be done upon him then will I set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off and all those that go thus a whoring after Molech This just judgement and severity of God in his proceeding against this sin as practised in that lowest and most literal sense under the Law will be found in the issue not to be lessened or mitigated but rather much heightned and raised to appear in a more flaming execution of vengeance upon all such in whom this sin finally takes place in a more sublimated and spiritual way to the offering up of their own living bodies and the sensual comforts thereof in a strange fire to the Devil which they ought by fire from heaven taken off the true Altar Christ to have offered up in sacrifice unto God Rom. 12. 1. Secondly the same Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that intimates this way of mortification does also mention the proportionable vivification accompanying it called there the resurrection which such false guides do affirme to be already past in them looking for nothing as future or to come of hell or heaven to the quickning or raising them up into the utmost perfection of life and glory as their attainment whilst herein this life and before that redemption of the body mentioned Rom. 8. 23. which the Saints and the creature it self yet groane after and wait for This resurrection of theirs is called 2 Col. 18. a worshipping of Angels in a voluntary humility intruding into those things which they have not seene as taking it for granted they are hereby made the true spiritual seed and that they are enter'd within the veile as having passed through the STRAIT GATE and undergone the BAPTISME of the HOLY GHOST AND OF FIRE and so that they are also come to be intirely under the teachings of the Father as actual possessors and inheritors of his everlasting Kingdome and glory In all this they are seduced and made through strong delusion to beleeve a lie being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde to the despising and undervaluing of Christ the Mediatour yea 2 Pet. 2. 1. to the bringing in of damnable heresies privily by cunning sleights and beguiling insinuations even to a denying of the Lord that bought them in the incommunicable properties of his Godhead by esteeming and at length in down-right termes asserting themselves to be God or at least to be as much the Sonnes of God in all respects as Christ himself in his own person who is God blessed for ever in consequence whereof we shall finde them at length owning an everlasting and general salvation of all men and Angels This is that posture of spirit into which that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan swells up those that are thus deceived by him in down-right opposition at length to Christ and God asserting himselfe in them and so causing them to assert and own themselves through his inspirations and indwelling presence in them to be both Christ and God Father and Sonne or another while to affirme that there is no God no Heaven no Hell no Angel or Spirit as the Sadduces for if he can perswade them either that he is God or else that there is no God at all he hath enough And in order to make this witness of theirs to stand and take place against all opposition from the true light when he has cried down the living WORD OF GOD into a meere equality on all accounts with the creature or advanced himselfe and his children into the room and place of God himselfe or partnership at least with the WORD in his incommunicable properties but then findes that the outward Word of God can very difficultly be made use of long to countenance either of these designes by degrees he labours to draw them into a state of alienation to that also rendring even the written Word nauseous and despicable to them and causing them to fall a slighting the Scriptures this outward Word of God which rightly represented gives forth the discovery and pleads for the true interest of the inward and living WORD and so professedly to disown all bodily or outward worship and service whatsoever as carnal and inconsistent with the spiritual service they performe Hereupon some of them also forbid marriage and other lawful creature-comforts as called to abstinence and a Virgin-life by which Rule the spirit they live and walk in judges marriage unlawful and commands to abstaine from meats two signal characters of this spirit held forth undeniably to our view 1 Tim. 4. 3. And in all this they carry a shew of wisdome in wilworship neglecting of the body and all things done in honour or satisfaction thereunto as hath been said To these also belong those characters in Jude and Peter where it is said of such that they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time or under pretence of highest light and spirituality to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and so at last returne with the dog to the vomit and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire yea and that avowedly in point of judgement now as a condition they can satisfie their owne consciences in and in which they undertake to justifie themselves against all contradiction These by Peter are called spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own self-deceivings in their feastings with others having eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls and alluring through much wantonnesse them that were cleane escaped from those that live in error Yet all this while they will confidently own themselves as lovers and favorers of the Spirit of TRUTH notwithstanding that they live unto a spirit of falshood in the sight of God even in whoredome and defilement with the father of lies But because many of these may be so meerely deceived as verily to think themselves with a chaste and Spouse-like affection to be embracing of Christ their true Lord and husband and so may be doing what they do ignorantly and not wilfully the Scripture sayes in such case Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them with a holy severity out of the fire lest otherwise they finally perish for this is that kinde of sinning which is unto death and therefore unpardonable when it is done knowingly and wilfully This false seducing spirit is capable of putting forth it self in a greater or lesser degree in and under all