till we come to him What went yee out for to see A reed shaken with the winde This is all that we see in Ordinances and our owne performances till we see Christ and Christ in the flesh r Joh. 14. 2. beares witnesse to himselfe in the Spirit What goe yee out for to see Christ crucified at Jerusalem ſ Psal 68. 12. She that tarried at home divided the spoile It is power over that that is evill and unto that that is good that is in the desires of us all and without which religion is but a Bawble and as the Apostle Paul sayes t 1 Cor. 15. 32. what advantageth it me to have fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not So may I assume If the principles of the Gospel are not to rise in our hearts they are not worth the contending for Who would goe against the streame and expose himselfe to lose his friends and all to vindicate or to get a Notion onely Men and their Opinions shall perish but the word of the Lord endures for ever and he that doth the will of God abides for ever Behold I shew you a mystery the death of Christ is but one and the resurrection of Christ is but one the death of Christ is in us and the resurrection of Christ is within us It is without us and Objectively propoūded to us that it may awaken and work within us That blood of Iesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sinne is shedding in us day by day For so as that place given in to me u 1 Joh. 1. If we walke in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of his Sonne Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin i. What is not this light we die to it we judge it and so are cleansed from it And who is he that thus dyes to evill and darknesse Surely none but he in whom the Son of God is come And he in whom the Sonne of God is come his death is the death of the Son and so pretious as it is written vv Psalm 116. 15. Preticious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints This is that Sacrifice of God even a x Psa 51. 17. broken heart which is by no other than the appearance of the sonne of God in us For if it be not upon this Altar and by this y Heb. 9. 14. eternall Spirit it is but as the z Isa 66. 3 cutting off a dog's neck We are ignorant of one of the main points of the Gospel while we know not that Christ is in us as wel as we in him We were in him in his flesh upō the Crosse he is in us in the Spirit and so is the Scripture verified a Joh. 15. I am in you and you in me This mighty One was shut up in us long before we knew him and b Gal. 3 23. we are shut up in weaknesse and bondage unto the revelation of him and when we know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made comformable to his death then are we c Eph 1. 13. sealed by the holy Spirit of promise then doe we beare in our bodies the Markes and the dying of the Lord Jesus and his life is manifest in our mortall flesh This sealing of the Spirit hath been the longing expectation of Christians of old though we have had a wrong conception of it as the Disciples had of Christ's Kingdom thinking the sealing of the Spirit to consist onely in a ravishment of heart and extasie of joy but rising we know not whence nor how When as this joy in the holy Ghost full of glory and this riches of assurance is no other than the pleasant d Heb. 12. 11. fruits of righteousnesse springing from the death of the Lord Jesus and the perfect work thereof in us or from our suffering in the flesh For e 1 Pet. 4. 1. he that hath suffered in the flesh a text that I open in this book hath ceased from sin saith the Apostle Peter And f Rom. 6. 5. if we hvae been planted in the likenesse of his death saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans wee shall be in the likenesse of his resurrection And g Heb. 9. 28. Christ was once offered to beare the sins of many sayes the Authour to the Hebrewes and to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second time without sin unto salvation To conclude this poynt what God hath joyned we have severed and pul'd asunder the links of that glorious Chain Rom. 8. 29. 30. God multiplies not acts vainly and superfluously In every act of God as it is in him is all but not as it comes forth from him and is apprehended by us All is done in Christ to God and it appeares in Christ first to faith but not fully to enjoyment though in order to it till Christ be revealed in us All was done to God from the foundations of the world And in all those acts the Scriptures attribute to God the higher we goe into the greater infinitenesse and comprehensivenesse doe we ravell Election contains h 1 Pet. 1. 2. sanctification of the Spirit faith in it but in the manifestation and bringing down of things to us the latter act still gathers up and comprehends the former yea swallowes it up as the Rationall life containes the Sensitive in it selfe eminently so the Spirit comprehends the Letter and the Mystery comprehends the History Those that know Christ in them onely immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so full and glorious a proportion in him to their ende It is and must be confest that God is and subsists otherwise in Himselfe or in the blessed Trinity than in men But this hinders not the immediatenesse of his presence and dwelling in men But this shall suffice to be spoken to the first point to cōvince that many desire the end in terms but in deed deny it and to hold forth some light that they may doe otherwise As God hath not left himselfe without witnesse to his glorious Truths in all Ages so neither in the present Age as in the assertions before instanced may appeare though by quarrelling Truths that stand upon the same foundation the Assertors themselves make it manifest that either they know not what they hold in the premises as it may fall out with Disciples for Christs Disciples l John 14. 4 5. knew whether he went and knew the way as the Lord himselfe tells them though they knew not that they knew so much or else they let it slip again which is that the Apostle warns the Hebrewes of Chap. 2. 1. saying Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time wee should let them slip Both which proceed from the receiving these
that he doth and is in Heaven in all he doth he wants no command to tell him he must do thus and thus he would naturally do those things whereby he might shew forth the vertues and praises of him that hath called him for he is a living man who needs stir up life to live in a living man Life wil shew it self If you be living Christians the Spirit of God will work in you and it will be like fire consuming your flesh and every day carrying you forth to the honor and praise of God This is a living man and this is he in whom Christ is risen But one Question more and that is of what part or principle in a man are these things spoken Doth this life break forth in the flesh or is it a life in the Spirit only I answer that this life is not in any part or principle in a man It is not in the soul it is not in the body it is not in the Spirit but a a man is taken up into this life It is when we are removed from our selves that we are in the Spirit Enoch was not for God took him The Lord takes us into this life we take not the Lord into our principle we are not comprehenders of this life but we are comprehended Here is the mistake we see men that hold forth such a doctrine and principle as this and we see flesh it may be in them still and they see flesh in themselves still Do but consider therefore that same place 1 John 3. beginning compared with the 6. verse Now are ye the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what ye shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Compare but this with the 6. verse Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not We are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear our flesh is a vail and while we are in the flesh let us act never so spiritually yet we fall short of this life Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God But if at any time we are taken up into the communion of this life it is by being taken out of our selves therefore saith Paul Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell I conceive God gave Paul an earnest of that which he will make known to his people in the latter days and made it known to Paul in a visible and sensible rapture and whosoever in the latter days is taken into the communion of this life must be spiritually dissolved as Paul was for as Christ crucified in the flesh is but a fleshly pattern of our being crucified in the Spirit So Paul being taken out of the body fleshly is but an Image of the Beleevers being taken out of the body into the Spirit and so when we are taken up into him He that abides in him sinneth not But when we go to make out God in our flesh behold we cannot make out the glory of this appearance in us when we come to live in a fleshly principle I say we find shortness and death and darkness and make out the things of God in visible and audible shapes as it were but God makes out himself to us when he takes us out of our selves into himself without any form Did you see any shape saith the Lord to the Israelites when the Lord talked with you So when the Lord takes a man into this communion with himself he takes him out of the flesh off from Ordinances administers not to him in the flesh and thus indeed it is that only when we are taken out of our selves can we apprehend or speak of this same life in God A Beleever when he is taken up into God and Christ he sees that which he cannot make out by all his parts and all the helps that he hath he sees that freedom from sin he sees as it were that omnipotency with him when he is taken up he sees himself perfect as God said to Abraham walk before me and be perfect Here is that which he cannot make out to the world Well may men say Do not we see that you are a man I am so but you cannot see what I am when I am taken up into God God is the subject and recipient that comprehends us we cannot comprehend him Use Now all that I would infer from hence is thus much I beseech you that you would know the things that concern your peace O what a sad thing is it that men should run away from life This is an evill heart with a witness to depart from the living God This is darkness with a witness when the Creature will comprehend God and will not be comprehended by God when we will say There is no other enjoyment of God then what we can make out in the flesh No other state then what may be visible to men Oh take heed of this and take heed of despising those that bring you the glad tydings of peace How beautifull rather should even the feet of those be though upon the Mountains that bring these glad tydings that say unto Sion thy God raigneth Christ hath been long in a Sepulchre he is now rising and you have the Testimony hereof brought to you by men like your selves and we are not able to make out the glory of it to you This flesh is not the subject and recipient of this glory this flesh is laid by But what we have seen and heard we declare unto you And therefore we beseech you not to depart from the living Lord. Every man would be a living man in his health Every man would be a living man in his trade would drive a free trade and will you only be content to be dead creatures in respect of communion with God I beseech you gird up the loyns of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is yet to be brought unto you by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in Spirit as well as beleeve that grace that is already brought by the Manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh Do but consider that God hath always entertained his people with a long expectation of things ere he hath given them It was but in the Apostles days that the first fruits of the Spirit were given The Israelites were in Aegypt 400 years before they came to the Land of Canaan This was but a typicall Canaan and not worth the waiting so long for as the spirituall Canaan Then again consider Gods promises have been first sown and dead in the earth of mans unbelief before they have been performed witness Sarahs womb barren witness the children of Israel in Egypt made slaves and bondmen what likelyhood was thereof their being a Kingdom of Priests unto God Nay from the beginning of the performance there is usually an Apostacy that comes before the ful accomplishment was it not so when God began to perform his promise to Israel of
Clouds you have a Chapter before and after this that you are ready to say when you read it What profit is it nothing but a Chronologie and a Genealogie a descent of persons but here is that which is enough to take up the meditation of a whole Chapter Enoch walked with God c. Of all the rest it is said that they lived so long and begat so many sons and daughters but when the Holy Ghost comes to Enoch he saith first of him in the 22 verse and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah c. and not contented to give such a touch the Holy Ghost records again and moreover that he walked with God and was not for God took him That which I do design and which I hope if the Spirit of God so design may be for good unto your hearts out of these words is this viz. to hold forth unto you a chief Character of a Christian if so be that they were Christians from the beginning as they were for they all dyed in the Faith as it is said in the 11. Hebrews and that is this that he is one that is not it is a strange Character to shew you what a man is by telling you he is not This is the very main thing of a Christian the most essential thing that can be affirmed of him that he is not Enoch walked with God and was not c. First for the meaning of the words there is no great difficulty in them the Phrase is common of walking that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit but what is the meaning of this he was not It is one thing in the Letter another in the Spirit it hath both a literal and mystical meaning he was not that is he was translated so we find in the 11. Heb. 5. where it is said By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found and so it follows in the Text he was nor for God took him But there is also a Spirituall meaning of it and that is this Enoch was not that is he in himself was not but his own being excellency and glory was past away he was nothing but what he was he was in Christ Christ was to him his life his person and his all in the Original it runs thus Enoch walked with God and was not he according as the Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Galathians Nevertheless I live yet not I c. So it is said here Enoch walked with God and not he for God translated him in the Spirit translated him into Jesus Christ and so a Beleever is one in Jesus Christ he is nothing in himself his self is past away he hath got a new self God is his self Christ is his self Now that same former sence of God translating him literally that was but an outward signification to the world as it were of that which was Enochs real glory Enoch was past out of the flesh into the spirit out of himself into God when he was upon earth and God to signifie this to the world takes him from the sight of men and translates him locally This was a Figure of that which was done in the spirit before and it is far the greatest to be translated in the spirit If a man were carryed into heaven if he were not translated inspirit he would have no joy in heaven for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore we are said to be translated out of darkness into light and out of the Kingdom of Sathan into the Kingdome of his dear Son And thus having made way I shall come to observe something out of the words First here is the translation of a Saint and then here is the Author and Principle of that translation The translation of a Saint the point that I would observe from thence is this Observ That every true Christian he is translated out of his owne being into a being in God and this is the death of a Christian Enoch walked with God and he was not he is dead unto the world and he is dead unto the Law he is dead unto his own righteousnes and unto all created glory and excellency but he is alive unto God a true Christian he is not that is he is not in himself his self is past away he hath got another self a new self and that is God instead of his old self instead of his rotten self you shal see this in the 7. Rom. the latter end So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Mark you there The flesh a Believer counts none of himself as it is in Rom. 8. 9. You are not in the flesh but in the spirit if the spirit of God dwel in you and so in the 6. Chap. of that Epistle How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Sin is said to be condemned in the flesh in the 8. Chap. 3 v. That which I desire chiefly to bind my self unto is this to shew unto Beleevers that if so be they be true Beleevers they have a being in God and in the Spirit yea an intire being they are to have no being at all in the flesh I say if so be they are true Beleevers they have an intire being in God and the Spirit and are to account themselves to have no being no interest at all in the flesh There are they that speak of a fleshly and a spirituall part in Beleevers and this same spiritual part they look upon as that which should be encouraged that to which all the promises belong but many times they cannot find this same spiritual part and so can have no comfort as in time of tentation and I beseech you consider that for it will be a sufficient argument against the going on in such a kind of apprehension as that is of a spirituall part and a fleshly and the like taking this spirituall part to be grace in the act for when they finde not grace in the act they cannot take any comfort at all then they â—ake up themselves in the same heap and dunghill with the world but if God made out this to you that you have an intire being in the spirit and that it is possible for a Saint to retreate into the spirit so wholy as to gather himself intirely and to gather up all his interest into the spirit this would be much to the relief comfort of a poor soul Now I must shew you what are the fruits and consequences of this and then come to shew you the way that God brings his people to this First I wil shew you the benefit of a Christians losing himself in the flesh this is the benefit of it he loseth sin by losing that being in the flesh pray mark it he doth lose his sin and the reason is this because it is only flesh that is the
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
copious as well as very sweet bestowing the whole 14. 15. 16. Chapters upon them Among all the comforts Christ doth minister unto them this is one and a chief one That they should see him again and he would hide himself from them but a little while Not only his going away was for their advantage but he would come again to them This he tels them often especially here at the 17. verse of this Chapter A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me And to let pass the rectfying of their understandings concerning these promises and these undertakings of his he tels them what he wil do for them when he sees them again and what shal be their condition in that day At the 22. verse in general he tels them Their hearts should rejoyce and no man should take their joy from them And particularly verse 23. In that day you shal ask me nothing saith he verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name he wil do it They shall have all their Petitions It shall be a day of grace and favour such as Herods birth-day was when he promised he would give Herodias his Daughter the half of his Kingdom but this is not restrayned to half of the Kingdom for we know the spirit himself is promised to those that ask him the Spirit is the Kingdom of God it is God and his Kingdom and all Another benefit and advantage of that time when he would see them again is this that I have read to you in the Text I wil shew you plainly of the Father Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh that I will speak no more in Parables but will shew you plainly of the Father Obiect But it wil be said Christ spake in Parables to the Multitude but he spake not in Parables to his Disciples or if he did he opened the Parables to them as it s said When be came into the house he opened the Parable of the tares and so he did other Parables Solu I conceive this Scripture meaneth other kinds of Parables then those for in such Parables Christ spake not at that time but under Parables here is meant not only those very portions of Scripture which have the form of Parables but the whole Preaching and Ministry of Christ as Man and not only so but the whole Ministration and Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ may be called a Parable and thus were they Parables that he had spoken to them in I have spoken to you hitherto in Parables but the time cometh when I wil speak no more to you in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father And this plain shewing of the Father is when Christ comes in the Spirit While a Beleever knows Christ only after the flesh he knows the love of God and the Covenant of God and the things that concern his peace only in a Parable but when God comes to do those things in him in the Spirit which were done to him in Christ in the flesh Why then doth God shew himself unto him plainly This shall suffice in brief to have opened the words unto you The parts of the Text are these two 1. Here is the casting up as it were of the Dispensation or Administration of Christ in the flesh It is cast up what it amounts unto and that is a speaking to the world in Parables 2. Here is the glory of Christs appearing in the Spirit in the heart of a Beleever and that is a plain Demonstration or shewing of the Father In this latter are these two things 1. Here is the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father I will shew you plainly of the Father 2. Here is the Quality of the Spirits Discovery it is a plain Discovery Doctr. I shall speak first of the former shal observe unto you this point That the Preaching and Administration of Christ in the flesh was but a speaking to us as it were in Parables Hitherto saith Christ have I spoken to you in Parables The time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in Parables If we enquire what a Parable is we shal find that the Use of a Parable doth agree with the Nature of this Discovery or Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ for to this shall I confine my Discourse A Parable is this when there is a latent sense under patent words When there are words outwardly sounding one thing and a sense under those words that is not conceived by the Vulgar understanding This is a Parable It is a Riddle It is a dark saying And certainly the Wise man in the beginning of his Book of Proverbs or Parables as he calls them wherein are the Treasures of the Gospell He calls the Gospell there Parables Prov. 9. 6. Now that Christ in the flesh is such a Parable may be made good unto you thus There is one thing doth appear outwardly and runs into the sences of men And there is another thing held forth under that which few do perceive but those that are singularly taught of God That which is visible and obvious and runs into the sences of men is a Carnall transaction A Bargain between God and Christ The doings and sufferings of Christ in the flesh and by these doings and sufferings our Life our Justification and our Peace This is the outward form as it were this is the Parable Now what is that which is held forth under this Parable There are these two things that are veyled and hid under this Parable which most men doe not set their eyes upon And the first is this The Love of the Father This is scarce eyed by most men but they think that the worke of their salvation proceeds from the kind heart of Jesus Christ and so they look upon his Humane Heart and Affections as the Root and Original of their Redemption Whereas Christ tells us in this Chapter I say not that I will pray for you for the Father himself loves you As who should say though I should hold my peace the Father himself loves you Now this is that which few men see in and under this Parable Christ Jesus in his dying for man was set up by God in the place of God to shew us the great love that God did bear unto man I say he was set up by God in the place of God and that not to shew his own love only but to shew the Fathers Love and therefore we find these names given unto Christ and these things spoken of him That he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person And we saw his Glory saith John as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God The Apostles and Spiritual men saw the Love of God held forth through the doings and sufferings of Christ And therefore it is said I beseech you
unto you That we are not justified we are not sanctified by Christs dving by Christs suffering in the flesh only that is not the compleat Ministration of our salvation There indeed we see our salvation as in a glass and it is transacted as in a figure as in the history but then are we actually sanctified when as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our hearts revealing unto us the Love of the Father and revealing unto us our Reconciliation that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross but which is dispensed unto us by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was For the Apostle Rom. 8. doth in two places speak so expresly to this purpose that no man can wave it or put it by verse 10. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness Here is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ If Christ be in you and there is no salvation without it then the body is dead the body of your own Righteousness and your own Strength and wisdom is crucified in conformity to the death of Christ Christs death was but the figure of the death that must pass upon the flesh of every Beleever and therefore though we may say I am crucified with Christ c. We cannot take any comfort till the body be dead in us And the other place is the 4. verse of Rom. 8. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us c. Pray mark it You dream of a Righteousness of the Law fulfilled for you that is true too Christ fulfilled it for you perfectly but there is a fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in you And the Apostle shews what that is when you are crucified to the fleshly principle and walk in the spiritual principle though you walk not in perfect obedience yet spiritually it is done in you The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit So then look after this that you be sanctified through the Truth that is that you in very deed be sanctified according to the pattern of Sanctification in Christ Jesus Let me minde you again of that Scripture Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus that ye put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man c. Look that this be done Object But you will say unto me is not this to bring us again into Bondage To charge this upon us when as we are bid look that it should be so and so with us Solution I answer it is your great interest that these things should be done in you but it is not expected that they should be done by you According to the working saith the Apostle of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and set him c. It is Gods mighty power that works in you it is God that crucifies you it is God that quickens you Christ offered up himself by the eternall Spirit it was not by the resolution of his flesh that he gave himself to dye as many a Valiant Roman hath done for his Country but it was through the eternal Spirit and therefore that which you are to do is to wait upon God And herein comes the use of the doing of these things in the man Christ Jesus before your eyes It is to strengthen your faith and expectation of having these things done in you by the same power and spirit And therefore if you ask me what use you should make of Christs Death and Resurrection and these things I say look upon them as the earnest of your salvation look upon them as the very sealing of the Covenant between God and you God reads over as it were all the Covenant before us and seals it in our presence and this is the scope of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ It is but to manifest the life to us to shew what God will do upon your flesh So what God did to Christ Jesus and so how he carryed him to glory so how he was tempted and be not you discouraged though it be so with you See how the Disciples were dismayed when Christ wrapt up himself for a Moment in the grave as in a cloud of darkness They said we thought this bad bin he that should have redeemed Israel See what an end the Lord made with him the same end will the Lord make with you also THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS JOHN 17. Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy word is Truth Verse 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth THis same Portion of Scripture that is read to you is an Enforcement or part of an Enforcement of one of those savory Petitions which Jesus Christ put up at his departure out of this world for his Disciples and in them for all his elect The Petition is this Sanctifie them through thy Truth This Petition he doth in part explain and he doth enforce and urge it with Arguments 1. He explains it in part that part thy Truth he explains it thus thy word is Truth Now before I go any further By the word here we are not to understand this same Letter for we know this same Letter of the word is taken up by every one to defend his opinion and therefore this is not the meaning of thy word is Truth But the meaning is this That that word that was with God and that was God that word is Truth I conceive this same truth being a relative notion is here to be taken in opposition to form Thy word is Truth The meaning is this That thy word it is not only a form and an appearance in which thou dost make out thy self unto the world but thy word indeed is the very Truth that is it is thy self and so Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified not by planting the knowledg of the literal word in their minds but by ingraffing the nature of the Divine word in their hearts that is by ingraffing God himself by God himself becoming one with them This is the only means of Sanctification This is the true Sanctification by the word The ingraffed word which is able to save our souls Now having explained his request he enforces it and the first Enforcement of it is this from the title and the reason that may be pleaded why they should be sanctified why the Members of Christ should be sanctified Why saith he There is as much reason why they should be sanctified as there is why I should be sanctifyed For as thou-hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Mark it I pray and you will see that it is not such a wringing of the nose
that will cause blood when we make a necessity of the same things to be wrought in us as were wrought in Christ Iesus For as God hath sent Christ into the world so did Christ send these his Disciples into the world that is as God did send Christ into the world to make known himself so Christ Iesus when he hath fulfilled his Ministration in the flesh he sends out Beleevers I say he sends out Beleevers upon the same design to make out God and his glory to the world So that then this is a sure and satisfying ground why the same glory of the Father must work in Beleevers that wrought in Christ because that Beleevers are sent out upon the same errand and design that Christ was sent about As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent these into c. Beleevers hold forth God in a spiritual discovery to the world that is they hold forth that glory of the Fathers working and discovering it self in them in a spirituall way which Christ held forth in a fleshly way My meaning is Beleevers are not lift up upon a material Cross as Christ was and do not suffer without the gate as Christ did but their Old man is crucified spiritually and they are raised and quickond by a lively hope spiritually This is the Reason that Christ saith As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Therefore sanctifie them with thy Truth thy word is Truth And for their sakes saith he I sanctifie my self This is as it were the making up of the Reason and the meaning of it is this saith Christ Herein doth thy design come to its period and perfection even in the Sanctification of my Members Herein thy design Oh Father is come to the birth and is brought forth for while this design works only in my person it is not at its term and period till it come to work in their persons for I am but as it were an intermediate forme and person in whom thou dost discover thy self for the present with relation to the like discovery in them through the spirit afterwards And therefore saith he For their sakes I sanctifie my self that c. As who should say If it were not in relation to them there should be no such thing as my dying and suffering and rising again It is but in relation to their Sanctification that the same glory may work in them in the Spirit conformable to this pattern of mine in the flesh And thus you have the meaning of the words For their sakes I sanctifie my self c. That which I shal insist upon at this time is the last word of the Text Through thy Truth So that the Observation that I would ground thereupon is this Doctr. That that Glory of the Father which works in the body of Christ the Saints is the Truth of that same Image that did appear in the head of that body Christ Jesus It is called an Image in 2 Cor. 3. ult we all as in a glass behold the Glory of the Lord there it is equivalently called an Image for your face in a glass is but an Image of your face but it follows more expresly And are changed into the same Image from glory to glory But stil I desire you to carry that along that a Beleevers crucifying is not a fleshly crucifying as Christs was but his Old man is crucified by spiritually discoveries This is the Truth and the other is but the form Now I must explain my self here You wil ask me whether that same work of God that is wrought in the hearts of Beleevers be their eternal life their happiness and salvation Whether that be their Righteousness for there is a great prejudice against Doctrines of this kind as if we did take away from Christ and give to that work of God within us that honour that is due to Jesus Christ Answ Now I conceive that neither the Actions of God in Christ I mean of Christ dying and rising nor the like Actions of the Spirit in us conforming us unto Christ are our salvation or eternall life but the making out of eternal life they are only the Manifestation of that grace that was given us before the world began If you ask me then what is our happiness and our life I conceive that God alone is our happiness God in union with us Mark it not only God loving us for love is but an expression to us Love is a sweet thing among the creatures and we know what love is from one to another but the Love of God to us is but the making out of a kind of spiritual Union that is between God and a Beleever So that to say that the Love of God placed upon us is our happiness is too weak and too low an expression but this is our happiness that we are in God and in Jesus Christ and that the Father and the Son is in us and is our Righteousness and our Strength in Union with us This is our happiness and eternall Life Now I say all the Dispensations of God are but to make out these things unto us Give me leave to illustrate it to you by going a little about This was our Lot and Portion from the beginning God was our Portion and God did maintain our Lot as Psa 16. And God was become in Union with the creature This was in the beginning of the Creation and this was in the Person of Christ Iesus as an Earnest of the whole but this same Union and this great happiness that the creature might be sensible of it and that it might come home with the greater advantage as it were and we might have the more lively taste of it therefore did God ordain all those intervening administrations therefore he makes the first Adam as a figure of Christ and therefore he bestows but a little grace on Adam or makes him mutable that he might fall that the Love of the Father might be the more manifested to us which we could never have seen nor admired so much if we had not been thus led about unto it And this is the end of Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit and so I shal come to shew you the difference betweene Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Saints for if we give glory to any other then unto Christ we shoot beside the mark we give it to Christ stil but there is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit both these agree to make out the Father and here is the difference of that work of God within us from that work of God in Christ This latter is the Truth of the former Sanctifie them through thy Truth that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon me There is the Truth I desire to cleer up this to you by some famiâ—â—ar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said
to dye for our sins and rise again for our Justification Here is now Christ in the Flesh here is his Ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preached unto men and it is told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son There is nothing to be done Justice is fulfilled God is reconciled he would not else have slain his Fatlings and made a feast for us Therefore beleeve Here is the outward dispensation but now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lyes under the guilt and weight of sin and such a grievious sin comes to his mind and not only one but multitudes of sins lye upon him whereby he cannot beleeve or take comfort in these glad tydings Do ye not see that there is need of another Ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus as well as a Proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the Proposition of the Gospel That whosoever beleeveth in Christ Jesus shal have eternal life c. And God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeves in him should have eternall life Yet all this while the poor soul lyes dead til not only the Letter but the Spirit of the Gospell comes and appears to him Till Christ appears not only in the first Court that is his own flesh or the Letter of the Gospell but in the inmost place of all that is in this mans conscience for we may allude to that place Heb. 9. 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Pray mark it Jesus Christ did not suffer in Heaven but without the gate he suffered in the world but he is entered into Heaven These words are spoken figuratively its true he went up visibly to his Disciples into Heaven that is a place remote from their sight a Cloud received him out of their sight The true Heaven and that Heaven where Christ doth appear to the comfort and relief of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called Heaven because as Heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man the heart of man is the place of God He is said to be the searcher of the heart he sits there and wounds and heals there there is Gods true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the notions there but it is in the heart of a man thither it is that Jesus Christ is gone Christ in the Spirit is in the hearts of his people that is Christs place for that is the Fathers place for he is in the Father and he goes to the Father as it is said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Now you know that the Father though he be without us he is within us he can neither be said to be without us or within us inclusively nor exclusively for he fills all things and is comprehended in nothing So Jesus Christ is within us the Father is in the hearts of men and so is Christ and that is the Heaven where he appears now for do but consider this that which follows in the 25. vers Pray mark it Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin That which is rendered the end of the world may be translated the end of the age or the end of that Administration That which I note from thence is this that Christs sufferings put an end to one world that world was at an end when Christ had suffered that is God had dispatcht the outward discoveries of salvation and now he would discover it within us now al that was to be done by him was within us He went into the holy place he went into Heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us and there it is that Jesus Christ speaks a word for a poor soul There it is that Jesus Christ sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the Letter in the History of the Gospel but if he appear nor in the Spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word aright Christ sets us free by making us Sons and the Son abideth in the house for ever Pray mark it unless we be made Sons we cannot abide in the house for ever we do not abide in the house for ever by having an eternall title by Christ but by a real Son-ship within us That same which makes Christ a Son makes us Sons and so you have it cleared unto you by that instance that this is the truth and the other in comparison of this is but the form but the Representation or Image but the Emblem of this Truth and so what is it unto us in matter of Sanctification to say Christ hath taken hold of our nature and purified it and seperated it and sanctified it what is this to the sanctifying of us if our persons be not taken into that same Union and be not sanctified with the same Spirit that Christ is Reason Now for this Reason I shall desire you to look within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudiced spirits he wil clear this Truth to you If so be it might be no offence I should give you my own experience for the confirmation of this point for we can speak nothing but what we have heard and what we have seen Now I must confess and profess unto you that God hath made real this Truth unto me not by study not by notion not by outward discovery but by an inward experiment For this I have found and I trust more have found it besides my self though it may be they cannot tell what to call those things that work within them nor how to express it it may be but this I have found that all outward administration hath been weak and unable to produce those fruits and effects which the Scripture makes mention of it hath been as the Law What the Law could not do in that it was weak c. And look into your selves whether you have not found it so in your selves that you have had some corruption that hath troubled you Some masterful lust you would be glad to get the victory over and ye would account him a Messenger one among a thousand that could shew you how to effect your desires I am sure it hath been so with me and when I have seen such words as these in the Scripture Sin shall not have Dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace I have considered with my self and have done as I have been directed to do and I have told my self thou art under grace and I have pleaded this to God Lord I am under grace I am under
wherein they walk in the Spirit Use But the main Use which I intended and that for which I did in a main part pitch upon these words is to reconcile Beleevers in their different walkings and administrations Indeed it is sad that there should be any falling out that there should be any difference as Reconciliation doth import Let there be no strife among you for you are brethren Let us not judg one another as the Apostle saith here Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not If so be that Christians do not judg themselves in their forms why should we judâ— them And if so be that we do not judg one another why should we think that we are judged one of another for there 's the quarrell many times Such a man cannot walk in a different form from me but I think presently he condemns me and accounts me fleshly and carnall It is a sign that thou judgest thy brother in his form that dost think that he judgeth thee in thy form For such as we are our selves such we judg others to be Let us not judg one another for God hath received him that eateth and God hath received him that eateth not Where is the unity of the Spirit that the Apostle speaks of Ephes 4. Is there no unity but where there is uniformity Because we have not still one form have we not therefore one Father one Lord one Baptism or one common condition of suffering Doth not the world hate you if you be Saints And doth it not hate them also that walk in another form if they be Saints Let us not judg one another the strangeness that is among Christians because of forms is sad to behold How we are loosened one from another and how we are lost one to another if we once strike out of that path wherein we have walked one with another Is not this a denying a crucifying of the Lord of glory Is not this a disowning of Christ in one another Is not this a knowing one another after the flesh If you do good to them that do good to you what reward have you Do not even the Publicans the same So if you love them that are in the same form with you what thank is it Every man loves him that will say as he says and that will build up that which he builds up The Apostle saith That he that offends against a weak brother sins against Christ And is it not so He that judgeth his brother doth he not judg the Lord in his brother He that judgeth his brother by a form that overlooks the appearance of the Lord in his brother and sees his deficiency in such a form why doth he not now subject the Spirit as it were and subject the divine excellency of Christians and Saints to fleshly evidences and tryalls It must make out it self in this fleshly form and appearance or else there is nothing of God nothing of the Spirit The Reason why we agree not in severall forms is not because the forms differ but the fault is in our hearts God gathers up all forms and imbraces them in love and it is because we look not upon our brethren in their severall forms in the Spirit of God and of Christ that we do not imbrace them too The Devill carches away the spirituall Image and Appearance that is under every form wherein all forms agree and he fixes our eye upon the very outward form wherein the difference consists and so nourishes strife and discord among brethren That which the Apostle said of the Law the end is glorious the end of Moses Administration was glorious I may assume here the true face the true Image and the true and spiritual Appearance in and under every form is glorious and it is God and it is one and the same but the outward figure doth differ He that hath the Spirit of God and in that Spirit looks upon all forms he imbraces them all he reconciles all he walks with all with Jew with men under the Law with men without Law and doth not stumble nor is an offence All Saints are one body Now as in the body there are several members and each member differs as in a figure so in usefulness too yet are all usefull in their places So it is in the several attainments and administrations that Saints are under each doth differ from other in spirituallity and power and glory The Scriptures are a Record and Register of all those severall administrations that God hath brought his people under of all the severall forms in which God hath appeared to them and the Scripture bears witness to every of these and there is none of these but were usefull in their time in their order and place and the one doth lead unto the other in a way of ascending still and as the hand cannot say unto the foot I have no need of thee so neither can the highest administration say to the lowest administration I have no need of thee for there are still those that are benefitted by the lowest administration as well as there are some that are raised up to the highest administration The Nurse in a family where there are children is usefull in her place as well as the Steward of the house that looks to all the estate Milk is usefull to babes as well as strong meat to men Therefore as the members of the body do all of them do their office in their several places without disputing and murmuring The hand saith not because I am not the head therefore I am not of the body nor the foot because I am not the eye to see the way therefore I will not carry on the body in the way So should it be in the Body of Christ Let us every one in that station and calling wherein we are set in the body minister to the Lord whether as Nurses to give to the children or whether as Stewards to provide meat for strong men If we had a right understanding of things there would not be these breaches among us because we walk not all in the same way are not all in the same form It is the beauty of the body to have variety of parts The manifold wisdom of God is seen in it his word is purified seven times and he brings forth the same truths in more spiritual and higher appearances and higher and higher yet the same Lord is fulfilled over and over They that are yet in the low bough's may come to the top bough But here 's the Resolution of all Those that are yet below being not able to comprehend that which is above them and that which is more capacious then themselves they cannot bear witness to it nay they cannot bear with it But still take this for a certain truth the higher you go and the more God draws you up the more able you will be to comprehend and reconcile all underappearances and all lower administrations and to discern
likewise must the end of every State of Christians in the flesh and in Forms and Ordinances be The Comforter could not come except Christ did go away An higher appearance of God cannot come but it removes a lower appearance of God as a grain of corn doth not rise up but by dying and rorting in its first body as the Apostle speaks But it shal suffice to have spoken thus much concerning the dying Christian But now what is this same living Christian Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Who is it that lives why the Lord lives and onely the Lord they shall swear The Lord liveth and As I live saith the Lord There is none lives but God so that whosoever lives it is by the Lord living in him The Apostle saith so much when he saith not I but Christ liveth in me This same living thâ—â— of the Lord in us doth relate unto the dying and buriall of the Lord in us The Lord he is buried or obscured in us and then he riseth as it is said I am he that was dead and am alive and behold I live forevenmore and as it is Ephes 4. He that ascended is the same also that first descended into the lower parts of the earth And this is the great Mystery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh and justified in the Spirit first manifest in the flesh The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us c. And so the Word comes and at length carries up flesh with it into spirit Indeed we are but the grave as it were of the Lord Jesus This whole Creation as it is known after the flesh and as it is injoyed by us and as we converse with it carnally and as it is carnally received by us it is but the Tombe as it were where the Lord is interred it is but the grave the sepulchre wherein the Lord is buried Why then what is the living of the Lord the Lords Resurrection the Lords sprouting forth out of this same grave this same sepulchre Answ It is this it is the Lords appearing and the Lords discovering himself and the Lords comming forth and putting off his Vaile and covering putting off his grave-cloaths as I may say this is the Lords living For the more profitable handling of this take these things 1. That the Lords death is the creatures life The burying or obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of man and the life of formes and the life of flesh 2. And in the second place the resurrection appearance of the Lord is the death of man and the death of forms and the death of flesh While the Lord Jesus hides himself while he breaks not forth in his glory the creature is something and Forms are something and they grow up and flourish as the grasse doth by the showrs But when the Lord Jesus comes forth in his Spirit and appears then the grasse withereth and the flower fadeth so we finde it in Esay 40. 6 7. The voyce said Cry And he said What shal I cry All Flesh iâ— grosse and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grosse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grosse What is the meaning of the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon it The meaning is this when the Lord comes forth in his Spirit and reveals himself in his glory then the glory of flesh passeth away as when the Sun appears in the firmament the stars take their leave we know that as flesh is enmitie unto spirit so spirit is enmitie unto flesh and therefore it is said that they lust the one against the other In the third place take this proposition That as the obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of the creature and the life of that flesh and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the extinguishing of the Creatures life So thirdly this is and hath been the design of God and his glory from the beginning to come forth out of this same grave and from under this same Vail under which he hath lain hid and been covered by severall steps and therefore every step of Christs appearance is comparatively with the former darkness a state of life and a gradual Resurrection When Christ did come forth from under the Jewish Ceremonies when the body was come then was Christ raised in some sense and then did Christ begin to live and flourish and those that saw this they lived in the Apostles sense here Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Here was a graduall Resurrection in this though not a compleat Resurrection There was a thicker Vail taken off of Christ and a thinner vail put on so that Christ then coming forth under a thinner Vail is called by the name of the highest and last appearance of all It is called a Living not but that Christ did still lie under a vail as the Apostle saith Through the vail that is his flesh And the New Testament Ordinances though they are finer vails yet they are vails to the Lord yea I may say that the very graces of the Saints as we look upon them in a kind of fleshly form as we look upon them in their particular names and circumstances so they are a vail to the Lord Jesus yea Christ is said to rise when he comes into the world I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly that is more abundantly then they had under the Jewish Ordinances because that was a grosser vail In this sense you may understand That I am the way the truth and the life c. If you understand it in the flesh it is in comparison of the former a lively appearance of God Not that this is the highest appearance of God for to you that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation So that I say Christ is coming out of the grave and every step is a step to life a step of the Resurrection a degree of life Now then from these things if you ask me who is this same living Christian I shall answer you first in a Subordinate sense secondly in an Ultimate sense In a Subordinate sense he is a living Christian in whom the Lord Jesus hath passed through many forms and vails He that is not in bondage to those same gross and thick and dark appearances of God But now in the Ultimate sense the Truth is that while we are on this side that same highest and brightest appearance of God till he comes to be all in all in us we cannot be said to be living Christians though in respect of former and darker appearances the present appearance of God to us may set us up in a higher degree of life yet in comparison of that which is to come the very best and highest of this state is but a death while God administers to us under any form under
any vail there is so much of darkness and there is so much of fear and enmity against God and therefore I pray mark it those disputes among us concerning faith whether the act of faith doth justifie us or whether it be an act of God that doth justifie us I conceive that herein faith is perverted and we do make a quite contrary use of it then ever God appointed he â—ath set up faith as a light in a dark place and behold we are ascribing that unto faith which is due only unto God And hence is that other dispute Whether God doth dwell in us only by grace and be with us only by influences and opperations as he is in other creatures after their kind Whence arise these questions but out of the smoke of the bottomless pit and out of enmity against God That grace and the influences of God will step into the place of God himself they will step into the place of the Bridegroom Christ himself in the Spirit is the grace of the Spirit So that while God appears unto us under any form even grace that is the purest vail yet God is not all in all we find faith would be something and grace would be something and this is through the flesh Now there is but one thing more to do and that is a little to explain as far as we can what this same resurrection in a man what this same putting off of the vail is what the state of a Beleever is in such a condition I shall express it to you by these two things By the purity and by the strength of it The Purity lies herein that the Lord he is all in all Here is the Purity of that state Ordinances they are not Graces they are not the Lord is all in all the Lord is all in graces nay the Lord is all in himself he is sufficient to the soul The Lord is that which Ordinances were and that which Graces were that the Lord is as you shall see Rev. 21. 22. And I saw no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Mark it what are all Ordinances but as the Temple was under the Law The Temple was that same form wherein God appeared unto his people It was a figure to them of the body of Christ in which the fulness of the God head was to dwell and doth dwell When Jesus Christ came who was the body the Temple was no more So the same comparison we may make between the flesh of Christ or Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Spirit What was the flesh of Christ but the true Temple the body the substance of that figure and shadow that was amongst the Jews Thus it was in relation to types that went before But what was it in respect of that which was to come afterwards I will send you another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth c. That this Comforter may come this same presence of Christ must be removed It is expedient for you that I go away and destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again the third day But when he was raised again I beseech you do but mark did Christ let his body be of that use to his Disciples after he rose again When Mary came and fell at his feet to kiss them saith Christ Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father The same with that which Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5. Though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more Mary saith Christ my body is no longer a Temple but your hearts and spirits must be the Temple I am not yet ascended c. Thou must know nothing in me as before Thou must know God in me I am breaking forth into the glory of the Father and shall not appear in the flesh any more Christ in the flesh met with many an unbelieving soul that went unbelieving away from him but Christ appearing in the Spirit opens the most unbelieving heart This is the first thing in this same living Christian nothing but Purity it self nothing but God himself is his repast is his delight 2. But then secondly This estate may be described by its strength and power also It is that which I confess is a stumbling block to the world and it may well be so to see men boast of such attainments above ordinances and yet to have so little sign of them in their walking and conversation to see them carnal still to see them dote upon the world still to see them still as proud and passionate as ever My beloved you have not so learned Christ if you be living men if you have the living principle in you your life is not to discourse in another sphere and dialect then most men do it is not to be able to contradict and throw down the forms of the world This is not this same living man No where the Lord Jesus is broke forth in Spirit where he is risen from the dead Mighty works will shew forth themselves in that man It is a state of power and of glory and therefore saith the Apostle phil 3. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Oh there is power in Christs Resurrection All these Scriptures belong unto that state He that is born of God sinneth not for the seed of God abideth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God He that abideth in him sinneth not You have these Scriptures in the first Epistle generall of John To them that look for him the second time shall he appear without sin unto salvation Oh if Jesus Christ doth but put up his head in our Horizon he chaseth away much darkness as the Sun when it peeps towards day but when Jesus Christ is fully risen there shall not be the least Cloud the least corner hid from him he will detect all corruption there and divide between the joynts and the marrow There is no such purifying in the world as by the presence and appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Spirit he purifies while in him we see the Love of God in the flesh but when Iesus Christ is risen in you he makes you purifie your selves as he is pure he fetcheth up all from the bottom This takes you off from I dollizing not only the forms of your Religion but the forms of your content in outward things Let not that man say he lives in the Spirit that is buried in any creature Let not any man say he is above Ordinances that is not above the forms of this world If he do not weep as if he wept not and rejoyce as if he rejoyced not and buy as though he possessed not and use this world as not abusing it Considering that the fashion thereof these forms as well as others passeth away This is a state of power his prayers are made with spirit and life he enjoys God in every thing
Jesus doth procure the Love of the Father whereas Christ doth but manifest and declare the Love of the Father and therefore saith Christ I say not that I wil pray for you for the Father himself loves you Now having exhorted you to contend towards the knowing of the Father and living in the Father and not living in any forme for all forms are to cease forms are not our perfection The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Let me give you this caution Let no man think there is no use of Christ and no use of Preaching or Ordinances of Prayer c. No this cannot be inferred from the Doctrine This only may be inferred that this is not that glorious rest where a Christian is to sit down formes are but helps but God doth by forms bring us to know himself without a form and no man knows the Father but he that knows him by Christ whom he did send therefore you cannot cast away those forms The Scriptures wil last so long as there is ought of them to be fulfilled But that which we are contending toward in all these means is the knowing of the Father and then we shal see that simplicity and unity that is in the truth then we shall see all those knots loosed and dark ways opened then we shall see that all those things of Christ coming and dying and suffering for us were but Parables Now this is the sum of the Gospel that God loves Beleevers and is their Righteousness and their Strength and Love and Faith and All not thus resolved is but a Parable that doth cloud the Father They were not ordained to cloud the Father but they do through our weakness cloud the Father from us They were ordained that they might infinuate and convey according to our capacities the knowledg of the Father into us but as I said before in all forms there is weaknes and forms shal be done away as time hastens to be no more and God be all in all THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS JOHN 17. 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth THese words are an enforcement of that Petition which Christ put up for his Disciples and for all Beleevers to the end of the world that Petition you have in the 17. v. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth The Reason by which Christ enforces this Petition follows immediatly As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world And therefore Father saith he sanctifie them through thy truth as if he should say Behold they are sent out into the world as I was sent out into the world they are sent out into a sinfull world into a lewd world they are sent forth upon the same errand and design that I am sent into the world viz. to shew forth the vertues and praises of God and therefore sanctifie them saith he through thy Truth thy word is Truth And for their sakes I sanctifie my self c. Here is a further Enforcement of his Request The meaning of it I shall give in a Paraphrase It is as much as if Christ had said behold my Sanctification is levelled at their Sanctification their Sanctification is the end and my Sanctification is but the means It is for their sakes that I sanctifie my self that they may be sanctified My own sanctifying of my self is not for my own sake it is for their sakes and therefore I lose my end in all that I do I lose my end in dying and suffering if they be not sanctified That 's the scope of the words in general Now we come to open them particularly to you 1. What is meant by this same sanctifying for their sakes I sanctifie my self Was Jesus Christ common or unclean that he speaks here of being sanctified Had Jesus Christ any sin in him that need to be removed that he speaks here of being sanctified No there was no sin in him neither was there any guil found in his mouth and yet Jesus Christ is said to be sanctified not only in this place but in other places as Heb. 2. He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one saith the Apostle when he speaks of Christ that did sanctifie himself Therefore it is needfull to shew you what is that sanctifying of Christ that he meaneth here what it was and by what it was First it may be taken either particularly for the sanctifying of himself by his Cross by offering up himself Thereby he did sanctify himself by offering up himself he was crucifyed in the flesh that he might live unto God in the spirit Christ did lay down the glory of the first Adam in which he did appear absolute and compleat before his sufferings but he layd down that glory and that righteousness he layd down that same body of his that so he might be renewed again in the Glory of the Father 2. Or else secondly this same Sanctification may be meant of the whole as of the death of Jesus Christ It may be meant of all that befel him from his Cradle to his Cross of all that was done in him or done by him or done upon him All this was the sanctifying of Christ And it is called a making of him perfect It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings And so by temptation he was made perfect as wel as by his Cross and so Sanctification here may be as much as Qualification this did qualify Christ for the end for which he was designed and ordained which end was to reveal the Grace of the Father and the salvation of man in and by that grace and all that was done unto Christ it was a sanctifying of him or a compleating of him thus to be the Author and the finisher of our Faith to be a compleat type and pattern and a compleat Covenant and Witness unto us Now having explained those words for their sakes I sanctâ—fie my selfe There is but one word more that needs to be explained and that is thy Truth For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth What is meant by this word thy Truth This same word here thy Truth is a relative word and I conceive it may relate to this same Type Pattern Image or Representation These two you know are members of a distinction Image and Truth Shadow Truth So by the Truth in this place you are to understand that which answers unto the shadow Type or Representation And so you have the meaning of these words Thus saith Christ Therefore am I come into world and have done and suffered these things before the eyes of men to the end that the like things may be done in the spirit in al my members whereof I have exhibited to the world a map and description in my own body
and person For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the truth So then you may observe these things out of the words 1. That Sanctification is a large notion in Scripture it s a large notion for the meaning of our Saviour speaking of his sanctifying himself and of his members being sanctified is not to defix the thoughts and apprehensions of the hearers unto that same grace that we commonly call Sanctification in distinction from Iustification but Sanctification is that in this place that comprehends the whole Mystery of God in a Saint which is called here by the name of Sanctification even as it is said By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified It were far from pure Divinity to understand them that are sanctified there to be meant of inherent Sanctification only or properly that is of the Grace of the Spirit working in us holiness but he hath perfected them that are sanctified that is them that are separated by the Fathers Love them that are called in time them that are led by the Spirit and so it may comprehend the whole Election and Vocation and Iustification and Sanctification and all and so we are said to be chosen through Sanctification of the Spirit But I shall not open these places any further 2. Next observe here are two Sanctifications here is a typicall Sanctification as I may so say and here is a real Sanctification Here is the Sanctification of Christ and here is the Sanctification of his members For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified I should be too long if I should observe all the particulars that the words wil afford and insist upon them therefore I shall pick out these two things only and the first I shal speak of but briefly and the second is that I do chiefly intend The First is this Doctr. That Jesus Christ's Sanctification or those Transactions of Christ in the flesh have not their ends in themselves but they have their end and fulfilling in us For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth That which is for anothers sake mark it or for the sake of another thing to be don that is not to be rested in it self but Jesus Christs Sanctification his dying and his rising it was for another things sake and therefore it is not to be rested in nor to be gloried in in it self For their sakes I sanctifie my self Jesus Christ is unto his seed as the First Adam was unto his seed He is a common Root and our salvation is transacted in him as in a Figure As our destruction was wrought in Adam as in a Figure As destruction and death did seize upon us all in a Figure in Adam so doth life and salvation await us all all the elect in Christ Jesus It doth descend upon them all as in a Figure for so the Apostle doth parralell the First Adam and the Second Adam together Rom. 5. where you may read it at large Now that I say these things were done in a Figure I wil give you my meaning of it thus and the proof of it also Adam lost all his by a Covenant and so Christ restores all his by a Covenant but we know that a Covenant although it doth give me a title in Law unto such or such an estate or commodity yet this same Covenant is not the very possession it self So this same Covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Coppy as it were and is the common person with whom it is made This Covenant gives our Faith the First Hold and First Title but it is not the very possession it self In possession the salvation it self is wrought or rather revealed in us As we do not inherit sin and death from the first Adam meerly by Covenant in which we were involved but we participate of the nature of Adam and we so come to have an evil conscience we have the very same Nature that Adam had and the same trembling conscience that Adam had so in this case we have the very Death and Life of the Lord Jesus working in us So that you see the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are not to be gloried in in themselves or as they rest in the man Christ Jesus but we are to wait for the like things to be translated in us and upon us and that is the next thing I come unto Doct. 2 For their sakes I sanctify my self that they might be sanctifyed through the Truth This is that the Apostle saith Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes c Where he shews what the Truth is in Iesus even the putting off the old man and the putting on the new man which is created c. This is the Truth this is the work in the Spirit done in every Beleever conforme to that work wrought in Christ in the flesh This is our sanctifying through the Truth and so you have the Apostle holding forth the Saints suffering from Christs example as the Ministration or Token of their salvation 1 Pet. 2. 21. Even hereunto were ye called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. Mark ye Iesus Christ is our example Christ in the flesh and what was done in him in a visible way in the flesh that is wrought in us in an invisible way in the spirit and t is said 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arme our selves with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Mark it here The Apostle doth not say we have ceased from sin by Christs suffering in the flesh for us but be doth admonish us here of a personal suffering if we would cease from sin What this same suffering in the flesh is I shall tell you in a few words It is to have our life in the flesh extinguisht that as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me It is to know nothing by our selves This is to suffer in the flesh as the Apostle says I know nothing by myself He did not act at all to be dead unto the Law and to be dead in our first relation unto God this is the suffering in the flesh We are first in the relation of Mercenaries by the Covenant of Works and have a kind of stock of our own to trade withall Now to suffer in the flesh is to cast awaythi same confidence of our own to to despair of our abillities and to see our selvs able to do nothing For while we are in the flesh the motions of sin which are by the law do work in our
to do So after a time Christ leads us from a knowing of him after the flesh as representing things to us to know him within us as a quickning Spirit Consider how ☞ much it concerns you not to shut your eyes against this but examine it and try it because the truth is you will make slow advance til you are past through the fleshly Administration and are under the Spirit Look into the 28. Isa 9. Whom shall he teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts Pray mark it There is a question and there is an answer Whom shall I teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand doctrine there 's the question The answer is them that are weaned from the milk c. This same milk and these same breasts are the foolishness of God whereby he had made out himself to us according to our infirmity they are the fleshly Appearance and Discoveries of God these are the brests and this is the milk and till we have proceeded further we are in the flesh And as you will count it a shame for an old man to lie sucking at the dugg so you are in an uncomely posture to be always sucking the brest and always under rudiments and to know no more of God then he holds forth in an Image without you This is not your interest to rest here and therefore I beseech you to wait upon God for the humble he will teach in his way And although I have met with some objections against this and more may be raised from the Scripture that may seem to make against this yet they are made clear to me therefore wait upon God to clear them up to you If be this taken from me I profess I know no hope that I have of my calling for what is our hope but the hope of the high calling God cals us to fellowship with himself and hath manifested this by his Son Weigh these things in the Ballance and consider that Christ comes in Clouds and not in clear Discoveries at the first the Lord give you understanding in all things THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN ROM 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. HERE is the Unity of Beleevers in their principle and the Destruction of Beleevers in their Forms All Christians in what form soever whether they be bond or free it is to the Lord there 's their Unity but there are bond and there are free there are Jews those that are under the Law there are those that are without Law there are such as do live to the Law and such as do dye to the Law there is their Destruction I have already observed this point unto you Doctr. That God is in all forms not only in distinct forms but in opposite forms Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. He that regardeth a day and he that regardeth not a day the Lord is in the light aâ—â— in the principles of the one as well as of the other The Lord is guide and leader of him that observes a day and of him that observes not a day This seems to be a contradiction a Paradox God is but one the Truth is but one 't is true but there are several steps and degrees of this Truth We shall never come to be all one and the Name of the Lord will never be one among us untill God is come forth in his most spirituall appearance and untill he hath brought us all to acknowledg that appearance but in order to Gods making out himself in his spirituall appearance in his naked discovery and with an open face he doth manifest himself in forms and under vails and he doth put off one form after another put off a more gross and put on a more fine put off a more thick and put on a more thin and spirituall and subtile vail God is in all forms but comprehended of no form if he were comprehended in any then he would not be in a diversity of forms There 's the great mistake of Christians and this same dark principle is that which makes us so to clash one against another We know not the mind nor the manner of the Lord we think if he be in our form he can be in no other form God is in a variety of forms and appearances that so no flesh may glory in his presence God will not be tyed to one form always for then that would be lookt upon as more then a form I have already gone through three things in the handling of this point which for the help of your memories I will only name to you the expounding of it the bounding of it and the grounding of it For the bounding of it thaâ— is the only thing I shal now remember you of Is God in all forms Then every superstitious wretch will take sanctuary here I answer thus far That whatsoever form any man doth conscientiously take up that is a form of Scripture-cognizance and doth walk in it to the Lord being perswaded it is the Lords mind He hath acceptance with the Lord For this is the bound the Holy Ghost sets in the Text He that regards a day regards it to the Lord. Is a man sincere in what he doth Doth he it to the Lord Doth he take it up because he thinks it is the Lords mind And doth he serve the Lord and not any lust Not a lust of honor and the applause of men Or the profit and commodity of this world Or the preferment of the time Why if he doth it to the Lord who art thou that judgest him The Scriptures hold forth unto us severall forms as God hath put on severall forms in his appearance to his people and the Scriptures are the records of all these and direct us unto them Now whosoever in the sincerity of his heart takes up any of these and walks in them as unto the Lord he is accepted of him Now the Use I made of this shall not be repeated but there is one Use more behind I exhorted you the last time that you should hold it forth that you do observe all your forms unto the Lord and every one bring forth his proper fruit whether you be in forms or whether you be above forms Thus the holy and happy man is described in the first Psalm He brings forth his own fruit in his season Look what season and administration you are under see you bring forth your proper fruit Those that are in forms see that your forms be advantage ground to rise up to the Spirit Those that be above forms let them bring down the glory of God and the Spirit upon all forms wherein they converse with men and as God hath brought them forth in the Spirit so let them bring forth every action and form