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
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
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
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
by the glory of God appearing in the soul that the soul is crucified and turned out of it self even as it was with Christ he knew if he dyed and went away in the flesh he should come again in the spirit and that he saith himself and discourseth of it in the Gospel according to St. John 12. 24. If the seed fall into the ground c. He that loveth this life shal lose it but he that hateth this life shal have life eternal Upon this accompt did Christ yield up himself cheerfully to death Therefore it is said that Jesus Christ by the eternal spirit offered up himself it was by the eternal spirit that reveals the glorious design of the Father in his death that Christ was brought to yield himself unto death Now the degrees by which this death of self is accomplished are these three First God doth make a discovery to the soul of the rotteness of old self and of the bitterness of that self that is tendered to us of Gods self this discovery is made to us and God doth together therewith reveal himself in us he reveals himself in us and shews himself to be our Righteousness and our Strength The soul sees it self possessed of God and sees God dwelling in him now the soul knows it cannot be found naked Now saith the soul I may part with my self when I will for I have a better self And secondly Hereupon the soul hath all its life in God and his heart is set upon God he sees God within him and now his eyes are turned to this Emanuell God dwelling in his flesh and now he admires not the things he did before he did admire other men and their enlargements and abilities he admired their affections and expressions in prayer he admired such and such acts of piety and charity which a man may do and seek himself all this while he admired the flesh but now he hath no confidence or delight in the flesh he looks wholly upon God and admires him and admires that ever God should dwel with man that God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain that he should take up such an heart that he should become the righteousness of such a creature 3. Hereupon follows passion action 1. The soul hereupon hath all its comforts from God and directs all his courses to God and he saith now Ashur shal not save us we will not ride upon Horses we have made mention of other names and other Lords but now by thee only we will make mention of thy name even thine so he hath sweet delight and acquiescence in God 2. The soul doth all to the glory of God if a man live in the flesh he will be acting in the flesh but if a man live in God and live in the spirit and live in that unseen righteousness and upon that invisible strength then all his application of himself is unto God and so he walks not after the flesh but after the spirit and all his waiting will be for this God if at any time he is insensible of his presence he waits upon God he saith not if it werethus withme I should behappy as Martha said if thou hadst â—â—n here my Brother had not dyed she considered not that Christ in the spirit had power now to recover from death as well as keep from death but the soule saith if God wil shine upon me I shal be comforted if he hide his face I am troubled it is not I will do this and I will do that but God wil do this and that and it is not if I had such means I should have power and get ground over my corruptions but if God arise his enemies shall be scattered And such a soul is dead to the Law and the Righteousness of the Law and dead to the workings of it and sees that the Law cannot give strength it is God that of his grace is strength to the poor soul and thus the soul hath entertained God as his guest and let the Sodomites come and compass about Lots House he minds them not the soul sees nothing in comparison but his soule pants as the Hart after the water brook and this is the condition of a soule that is not Now if you ask me the reason of this why a true Christian is one that is not I answer this is the reason of it because God is all and he will be known to be all he will have his people to know so and will have it held forth that he is all and therefore there must be a dying thus and a withering and decaying and a going out of a mans self I know no other reason but this why God did ordaine that same state of nature before the state of grace why he revealed Adam before Christ but only this that so God might make it knwon to us that he is all in all For howsoever God was all in all and would have been all in all and could not be otherwise for was there any thing before God or is there any thing whereof it may be said it is besides God But yet God had not been manifested to be all in all so as he is by causing the Creature to dye to its self as if God had created light and never created darkness light had been light but light is known by darkness So God would have been all howsoever but he is known to be all by this same forme of the creature dying in himself dying in those abilities which are Gods for we have nothing but what is Gods and what he gives us and is to us but God hereby holds forth himself to be all to us after lower and darker forms when removed and corrupted we see still another and higher blessedness in God and it is likewise for to give us our taste he that hath tasted the sower is fit to taste the sweet he that hath seen the fading of the flower is better prepared to see a living activity so we have known God in nature we are hereby prepared to admire Gods discovery in the Gospel Now before the Use of this point there is only one thing more I will mention and that is this That the death of a Beleever is into God as I may so say even as the seed that dyes as a seed but it dyes into a flower that is better then the seed so doth a Beleever do that is the tearm of his death So now I have explained all that I think of to you now the Use is this 1. It serves to discover and disgrace the Religion of most men that are not acquainted with this same dying to themselves you have many especially in these times that do come under this search and tryall and will be found too light and there are two sorts some who have advanced a Reformation from that same knowledg which is come abroad in these times they have set up a form of Religion in their Families and
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
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
seed and principle of the spirituall appearance and genders it by dying God that commanded light to shine out of darkness God brings forth glory to his people by affliction tribulation and dying Their comforts go away in the flesh ere they come in the Spirit While the flesh lasts upon them the Spirit is not broken forth While the form or fleshly appearance is any thing to us and we promise our selves any thing from it God is not all in all while God is not all in all our comforts are not brought forth in the Spirit and so are not made perfect In all fleshly appearances there is Enmity to God therefore God is Enmity to them and is the death of them This Enmity is discovered in the disputes that we have about faith Whether it justify as a Condition or as an Instrument only and about the Spirit whether the Spirit be in us by presence or by influence only which are mists that arise out of the bottomless pit and argue God is not all in all there and so that soul is not perfected The Scripture in 1 Zeph. 2. c. paralels the dispensation Christians are under I wil utterly consume all things from off the Land saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast I will consume the fowls of the Heaven and the fishes of the Sea and the stumbling blocks with the wicked and I will cut off man c. and v. 4. I will stretch my hand upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem c. upon Professors And I will cut off ver 5. them that worship and swear by the Lord and Malcham This is the condition of our times light is broken in upon us and we see that Ordinances are nothing without the Lord every one will confess that that the Letter is a dead Letter without the Spirit and the Ordinances are meer forms without Gods Appearance in them and therefore our design is to couple the Lord and Ordinances together and we cannot endure to hear of the parting of them Swear by the Lord and by Malcham even as you see men now adays do so we may have but Ordinances we are well This is that which I was speaking of before that we do promise our selves something from the fleshly form and appearance and so like the Israelites we are hankering after the flesh-pots of Aegypt though they had as good meat in the Wilderness yet the flesh-pots ran in their minds So though God offer himself and though Christians tell you for what they tell you God tells you they tell you they cannot find God in such and such forms but find him abundantly good in the Spirit and they find that he recompences the want of all forms in the Spirit though he be gone out of the Temple yet they find him in their hearts they press you to wait till God appear to you in the Spirit Oh say you I can never beleeve it that God should do it without an Ordinance or that God should strengthen you without an Ordinance God think you with an Ordinance can strengthen me and deliver me and save me out of a temptation not otherwise this is to say that the Ordinance or fleshly form doth add something to God If you will confess God to be all in an Ordinance you must confess him to be all without an Ordinance to be sufficient of himself I desire not to be mistaken I do not judg those that find God in Ordinances and outward forms Let them wait upon God and let them receive and partake of the benefit of the Ordinance and let them bless God for it and be faithfull to their own principles and let them be sweet to others but when we do find God in a form and in an Ordinance to say he is not to be found and enjoyed any other way this is not a right Spirit Nay when we find not God in an Ordinance yet we will keep to it as if God were not to be enjoyed any other way This is the greatest unreasonableness that can be to put no worse a name upon it Now I have done with the Reason of the point I should shew now who are the living Christians and how they are in a more living condition that are free from the bondage of outward observances that do not depend upon any fleshly appearance or administration but see a fulness and sufficiency of God in the Spirit and enjoy the same for else for men to have a notion and principle of it and not to enjoy God in the Spirit they may come from a sad outward Religion and forms to no Religion nay to Atheism and God will judg the free as well as the bond They may be free from Ordinances and yet may be as fleshly to God as if they were under the Jewish observances But the Use that I would make of what hath bin delivered is first a Use of Admonition unto those that are still in forms and secondly a word of Instruction to us all 1. It is for Admonition to those that are in forms We say not that the Lord is not within you nor that which you do you do not to the Lord but the holy Ghost saith of you you are dying Christians While thou canst only see God in a fleshy Image and Representation thou art in a dying condition For it is a sign thou seest not God in his glorious and Spirituall Appearance for if thou didst thou wouldst say as they in the Mount at Christs transfiâ—uration Oh it is good for us to be here Let us look no more for God in forms and fleshly administrations at least you would desire to have your portion in fleshly Representations not but that that man who hath God broken forth in him in spirit and power may suffer others in those forms and not lose his own enjoyments You are Christs and you are Christians but you are in a fleshly and dying estate and you may be put shrewdly to it that do depend upon a form and fleshly administration When it cannot be had what wilt thou do Thy case is much as a mans that is kept up by Cordials and by means that the Physitian uses to him and not to be compared with him that is in a way of recovery that is past the danger of his disease in whom nature is growing strong and is overcoming the malignity of the disease by little and little When the other wants the Physitian it is as much as his life is worth and the Cordiall if it be long a fetching the man begins to faint he hath not his strength within him but without in Cordials So is the cases between him that lives upon Ordinances and him that lives upon Christ in the Spirit Christ is never in a journey or to fetch a great way off therefore I say you are in a dying condition that depend upon forms 2. Use is of Instruction to give us light in what the Lord is now doing and in the consequence thereof
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