conformity with Christ in his death to the glory of the resurrection from the dead as the mark of the price of his high calling wherein true perfection and lasting blessednesse consists Where the Image of God in this third and last sense stands but in the least relative kind of union with any heart there the foundation is laid which is mentioned 2 Tim. 2. 19. where it is said The Lord knoweth them that are his bearing with and passing by all their evil carriages towards him in the times of their ignorance and unregenerate state not suffering the Destroyer to enter and utterly to make an end but because of this New Wine that is found in the Cluster God saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it And though this hidden Being which everlasting righteousnesse hath in the soul to the separating of it unto God from the womb be not that which does actually invest such persons so much as with the Priviledges and Blessings of the first Covenant or give them a personal right to them all which depends upon the marriage-union actually to be contracted betweene Christ and them when they are so joyned as to be made one flesh yet the sanctification that passes upon the soul or separation that is made of it hereby from the womb keeps it from wilful sinning against the grace of the New Covenant and righteousnesse of Faith as appears in Solomon who in the midst of his greatest declinings and falls had this wisdome lying at bottome and keeping him from final Apostasie as the Book of Ecclesiastes at large declares So also in Paul this was evident who confesses in this respect that God shewed mercy to him who was the worst and greatest of sinners because that in all that contradiction and opposition to the light of Faith and of the New Covenant wherein he became a persecutor and a blasphemer he was ignorant and unaware I did it ignorantly sayes he 1 Tim. 1. 13. and elsewhere when called before the Magistrate Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self sayes he that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth By this seed then of saving Faith whereby he was separated from the womb he was preserved from the great transgression or sinne that is unto death And in this sense we may safely understand that Scripture Luke 10. 5 6. Into what house soever ye enter first say Peace be to this house And if the SONNE OF PEACE be there your Peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you againe So that no Peace or durable Blessednesse hath commission from God to rest upon any heart but where this seed is through which the Saints are separated unto God from the womb The Witnesse then which results and presents it self to our thoughts from this view of things is this that dying to sinne and living to righteousnesse considered only as the effect and birth of common grace or life from Christ under the first and second Ministery singly and apart from the effect and operation of saving Faith which is proper to the third Ministery alone does amount to no higher a work in the conscience then what may and will fail And yet this Mortification and Vivification thus produced in the heart is not only real but all such attainments and receivings as these from Christ with all the benefits inseperably accompanying his indwelling presence in the soul by his first appearance are as they are called Ezek. 16. 14 15. his owne comelinesse which he thinks fit to put upon these children of the first Covenant which they notwithstanding unwarrantably trusting unto and resting in do thereby commit iniquity and that such iniquity as that thereupon all their righteousnesse which they have had and done shall be no more remembered but for the iniquity which they thus commit they must die Ezek. 33. 13. as found opposers and fighters against the brightnesse of Christs second coming under pretence of upholding and adhering unto the life and glory of his first The defect therefore of these mens saintship or sanctification lies not in this that it is false counterfeit hypocritical or head-work only and unanswerable to the Rule or holy commandment given unto them For in all these respects it may be and is oftentimes free and faultlesse in the experience of those that have it who in great sincerity and zeale are servants unto righteousnesse and enemies unto sin in the two first Ministeries and upon the termes Christ therein exhibits himself unto them who yet for all this stumble at the stumbling stone and fall at last irrecoverably by setting up the work of God wrought in their hearts either under the first or second dispensation where it only obtaines the place of a Part or Branch in reference to the whole in a direct opposition to the coming on of the whole in the third and last dispensation as well knowing that when that which is perfect does once come and take place then that which is but in part and in that sense imperfect must be done away which such minds so principled as they are can by no means bear being fixedly and utterly unwilling where saving Faith is not at the bottome to part with and forgo these small Pearls whereby to make purchase of the great Pearle which comprehends all the parts in it self and that after a more excellent manner causing them to be enjoyed in a more excellent way they before and in more abundance So that the very Holinesse in kind is not lost but is perfected and fulfilled as we have at large shewed And therefore the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 12. treating of Grace and the gifts of the Spirit under both these considerations first as the manifestation thereof is given in common to every man to profit withall dividing unto every man severally as he will or secondly as there is a giving forth of this Spirit in a more excellent way of life and grace then what the best gifts given several and apart do amount unto exhorts unto the acknowledging and retaining of both these in a consistency and loving harmony together as making but one body or compleat fulnesse in Christ which he calls Love Chap. 13. expressely asserting that all gifts of the Spirit how good and reall soever they be yet considered as they are several and in part only will leave the possessors of them little better then sounding brasse or tinkling Cymbals for they will not last or endure to the end The Apostle hereby intimates unto us the evil use that may be made of good and spiritual gifts when either the parts agree not amongst themselves but the eye sayes to the hand I have no need of thee or the head to the feet I have no need of you or when the parts considered as several conspire together against the whole as the Body against the Soul the Forme against the Power of Godlinesse When therfore the gifts of the Spirit are given
yea have no glory at all in comparison of that which excels and is to follow 2 Cor. 3. 10. or else as that which will be swallowed up of corruption and changed into a body of sin and death is the wages of mans disobedience and fruit of Gods displeasure for the same In this sense we are to understand man to be made in a mutable and corruptible state as having that set up in him and given to him through the well or evil ordering whereof he may either lose and justly be deprived of it in a way of Gods displeasure or exchange it for a second and more excellent appearance of God the glory that is to follow wherein this also is comprehended and made perfect and durable And that we may the better understand the nature of this changeable state wherein man is found under the first Covenant and see the weakness and faultiness thereof comparatively with that which is designed by God unto man wherein to fix and rest it will be needful for us to be more particular in describing first what man is in his essential properties and operations in that make and constitution communicated to him by the Trinity in his creation and then to shew what was the nature of the communion and converse with God which he was thereby fitted and qualified unto in order to grow up to be perfected in by the means for that end given him by God if the fault were not his own as it is written Thy destruction O man is of thy self Man then as he bears the image of the Trinity is constituted of spirit soul and body as his essential parts which whatever suspension of exercise or temporary alteration any of them may have do never suffer annihilation but make up the proper discriminating form of man by which he stands distinguished from all other the works of Gods hands in both worlds And thus first man is created spirit and made to subsist in his head Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world as we have already shewed where he stands comprehended in the life of Christs natural perfection as he is the Father of spirits in like manner by way of comparison as in reference to his fleshly seed all the posterity of Adam stood in the loyns of their common parent from the time of his creation Yet this is not the state of mans spirit made perfect but is only a first degree of his being which is the foundation laid by God to mans exercise of a bodily and spiritual life and operation incident and essential to him as a man whether he become a vessel of honour or dishonour So that in this state of a created spirit man had a being in his head before he was brought forth in the exercise either of his sensual or rational life and is rather comprehended in his head then actually and perfectly apprehending or enjoying in respect of which first state and invisibility of being he is a dark shadow of the witness of the Father Secondly man is to be considered in his bodily frame as he is made of the dust of the ground and had the breath of life breathed into him by God through which he became a living soul This breathing of the breath of life by God into mans nostrils doth declare first Gods bringing the soul of man into the actual being and exercise of its sensual life which till then lay hid in mans spirit by the means whereof he is furnished with a capacity of receiving and taking in by the organs of sense the knowledge of things proper to him as a man which though it be his weaker and inferiour part yet is first in motion in order to yield its service and subjection to the rational and superiour part This life which the soul leads and manages by actuating and informing the senses serving herself of them is that whereby the report of things from without is let in upon mans reason which is for the most part so prevalent as if the soul were absolutely and intirely dependent upon and necessitated unto the use of the senses in respect whereof some have thought very groundlesly that it hath either slept or ceased to be upon the laying down of the body By this first exercise of a living soul in man is figured out the witness of the Son Thirdly the spirit of man is the foundation and spring unto a rational spiritual or intellectual exercise of life wherein he is capable of associating with Angels and becoming their equal even in his natural capacity of a man which also was actually set up in Adam by that act of Gods breathing into him the breath of life and was as the superiour ruling part in man obtaining the place of Lord Ruler and Husband unto his first inferiour and sensual part which in its actings was to be dependent upon and subservient unto this in all usefulness and harmony Thus in a mystical sense man was made Male and Female in the same person through the setting up this two-fold exercise of life and operation of soul in him sensual and rational This second sort of operation is mans higher and nobler part and shews most the man in it the other distinguishes the man very little from the beast but that the countenance of man looks upward and the face of the beast downward The exercise of life in this higher and more raised part of man Adam obtained at first in perfection and had it in its compleat stature so far as it was capable during its association with its mortal body and while it was on this side the state of being made perfect in spirit and equal to Angels Luke 20. 36. by laying down the body in the grave either to good Angels when they become the spirits of just men made perfect or to evil Angels when they are the spirits of wicked men grown up to the height of their natural stature in spirit and by vertue of that perfect exercise of the rational and intellectual part which Adam had in the body he had a capacity to take in the knowledge and discerning of things immediatly from the inward vision represented to him by the ministry of Angels he had also an intuitive prospect into the nature of all visible and bodily things in their causes without being beholding to the report given by his senses and as a fruit hereof we do find Gen. 2. 19 20. That Adam gave names to every living creature according to their nature by vertue of this his intuitive knowledge which he exercised in a way independent upon his sensual part the property of this his spiritual and rational part being to act as in the body or as out of the body that is to say to serve it self of the use of its bodily senses or not according as they conduce to the furthering and bettering him in his true and right discerning of things man then hath a perfect compleat intellectual and rational life springing up
as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
in him which is so far from being lessened or interrupted by death and the laying down of the use of his bodily life for a time that it never comes to its full and mature perfection until then and as a consequence hereof the body be re-assumed incorruptible In this property and operation of humane life man bears the figure and image of the witness of the Holy Ghost Thus we have described what man is in his essential parts and operations in order to fit him for that communion and converse with God designed unto him by the two Covenants unto the first of which he was actually and perfectly qualified as he became a living soul and did bear the image of God in and upon his natural man as the first Adam being of the earth earthy But unto the other man by his creation was no otherwise qualified and prepared then as he was set up in such a being as was capable by a farther workmanship of God to arrive unto and attain the glory and everlasting perfection of the new and second covenant without which all that was done unto him yet by what he had received from God in his creation if left to his own freewill would but redound to his greater misery and more righteous condemnation before the judgement seat of Christ through his own default This finishing and compleating work of God upon man was reserved to be Ministred to him on the seventh day whereby a far higher and more exalted capacity of mind and operation was to be added to him for the enabling him unto an everlasting happy and compleat communion with God This is that which in his first state was wanting and could not be obtained by him but as the free gift of God then propounded to him in the tree of life This second and last state of perfection held forth unto man from the beginning in the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God is described by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 15. 44 45 46 47 48 49. where he sets it up in contra-distinction to the first and earthly make of man by his creation shewing it to be that life and immortality which is brought to light in Christ as the last Adam the Lord from heaven and quickning spirit calling it the spiritual body as that in which the power of this endless life was comprehended comparatively with the natural body wherein the perfection of Adams mutable and corruptible life consisted saying plainly that there is this spiritual body and heavenly image in the last Adam as well as that natural body and earthly image in the first howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual the first being the life of perfection that was found in the earthly Adam the other being that which was brought to light in the heavenly by his resurrection from the dead and therefore as is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly And in reference unto such as are the right heirs of salvation it is said as they have born the image of the earthly so shall they also bear the image of the heavenly and have their natural or vile bodies changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body by him who through his mighty power is able to subdue all things uno himself And if we desire to be satisfied how this change and translation out of the one perfection and image into the other is to be effected he positively asserts that it is brought upon man as the fruit of Christs resurrection or Ministry of Gods second appearance by and in him which rends the first veil and brings down the first Tabernacle of the natural body into the grave with Christ whence it springs up clothed upon with this house from heaven its spiritual body by means whereof this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality and death and the grave are swallowed up in victory This change and translation was as we have said propounded unto Adam as the end of his creation and was figured out to him in the tree of life and by the twofold exercise of life and ability of mind set up in their perfection in in him by creation he was indued with a power improveable in the use of the means God afforded him to be at least in a tendency unto so glorious an end and disposed in such a posture and frame of spirit as God required in him by the first covenant in order to this farther work which on the seventh day God would make known and impart to him What God herein required from man was signified unto him by the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the prohibition accompanying the same which was not to eat of the fruit of that tree In this tree of knowledge of good and evil man had the sight of himself in the exercise of his natural life and operations appertaining unto him as he became a living soul in the well or evi use whereof he might arrive unto the experience of the supream good held forth to him as the end of his creation the endless life that was to follow or else he might come by the forfeiture of the present good he enjoyed to know the evil of a much worse condition then at first he had for the avoiding of which and to continue in a posture meet to receive the other God required him in the state of innocency to abide in a waiting frame of spirit as a sojourner and stranger in the midst of his present enjoyments in the earthly Paradise that so through his patient forbearance from taking up his Rest or terminating his delight in seen things he might preserve in himself an unengaged unprejudiced spirit to what was yet behind of the counsel of God to be communicated to him as to a more excellent attainment and inheritance to be exhibited to him in the light of the approaching day of the Lord the beamings forth whereof as considered in type were already present CHAP. VI. Concerning the fall of man the steps and degrees to it with the bitter fruits and consequents thereof BY what hath been said of mans Creation it is undeniable that God made him perfect though the perfection of his estate was mutable or subject to change and therefore not the Rest from all eternity designed him by God so that man in this first perfect state had that still wanting which was the finishing and compleating work to what he at present enjoyed howbeit that which was wanting unto man did no way cause or necessitate his fall but that as we shall shew proceeded from the suggestion of Sathan and enticing of his own lust which lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was perfected brought forth death although man in this estate was well and sufficiently armed and provided against it if he
8. This was that which Christ told the young man was yet wanting to him that had kept the commandments from his youth and is the strait gate that all must enter at that come into the true Rest This is effected only by believing and partaking with Christ in conformity with him in his death and is a making of us weak with Christ amounting in the end to a perfect disenabling of the mind wherein this spiritual and blessed change is wrought to exercise that arbitrary independent free and proper motion of its own before mentioned in the single light and life of the creature-excellency and perfection communicated and enjoyed by the ministry of Gods first appearance under the first covenant which is apt to puff up and lead the creature to an unwarrantable boasting and glorying in the first light and voice of God Isai 40. 3. the word of the BEGINNING Heb. 6. 1. without staying for the glory of the word that comes in the end and is to follow by the ministry of his second appearance which second voice cries Isa 40. 6 7 8. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand for ever Through this puffing up and heightning property that is incident to the natural frame of mind in Angels and men so soon as they come to the use of this shadow of divine soveraignty set up in them by the exercise of their own free-will their lust presently finds something to work upon and is ready to conceive and bring forth sin whereas the contrary poor and needy frame of spirit is set up by God in Christ for the cure and remedy hereunto by reason whereof as we may find John 14. 30. when the Prince of this world came he found nothing in him The effects then of Christs second appearance caused by the dawning light of that day upon the natural beings of Angels are First the hiding and covering of their faces as those with whom God might justly find fault if they should by any thing they had received glory in his sight and Secondly the sense of the weakness and fickleness of their first estate and thereupon a waxing weary of the burthen they were under whilst they were left by God to such an arbitrary independent exercise of mind as they were intrusted with in their operations under the first Covenant and therefore Thirdly it did cause them to sing and shout for joy to see the remedy and cure which was brought hereunto by God through the power of the Cross of Christ when they came to discern that upon this corner stone the foundations of the first creation were fastned and the instability thereof healed and helped This they found to be the Lords doing and it was marvellous in their eyes the sight whereof they obtained on the seventh day the day which the Lord made in which they did rejoyce and were glad Psal 118. 22 23 24. Here was the joy of the good Angels when by the manifestation of the true Rest revealed in the face of the Mediator the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world they came with a holy curiosity to pry into the sufferings of Christ and glory that was to follow who though he were not yet exhibited but in promise seen by them as subsisting in his head the word of life yet by a discerning agreeable to that of faith in man they had a sight of him as the seed of the woman that was to come and knew him to be the Son by whom God made the worlds and who was the brightness of Gods glory and express image of his substance who upheld all things by the word of his power and through the sacrifice of himself was to sit down on the right hand of the majestie on high and thereby obtain a more excellent inheritance then they concerning whom as the first-begotten they had received this charge from God Let all the Angels of God worship him So then through faith in the death and Resurrection of Christ as the Mediator set up from everlasting the Angels by the power of Christs second appearance came to the sight of the heavenly Image and perfection of the last Adam unto which they were in their places to bear a conformity in the true Mount Sion and heavenly Jerusalem where the Elect and holy Angels are to have their residence howbeit in station inferiour to the Church or general assembly of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and who are the Lambs Bride and wife whilst the Angels are but friends of the Bridegroom and admitted into the secrets of the Bride-chamber whose conformity to Christ in this his spiritual body or heavenly Image changes their natural frame of minde into the like spiritual heavenly-mindedness with their head whereby there is consumed taken away wholly removed and abolished the power and exercise of their first arbitrary and self-disposing property of mind which now being quitted through voluntary resignation they have in the room and place thereof by a translation and engrafture into the spiritual life will and mind of their head the life and motion of all their natural powers more excellently then before in a state of life incorruptible and unchangeable being now throughout partaking and co-operating in a joynt way of life with their head who before stood single and alone in their natural motions and operations Through the refusal and want of this change to have been wrought out in them the wicked angels fell and set up for themselves in a fixed enmity and opposition of spirit hereunto And this shall suffice to have been spoken in reference to the change that is wrought out in the good and Elect Angels In the next place we are to consider the change that is hereby wrought upon the natural being of man considered as a living soul which Adam should have experienced without falling this being appointed by God as the only effectual means to bring him into a fixed and durable state which stability is said Rom. 11. 20. to come by faith through the operation whereof man ceases from the power of standing on his own bottom for the ordering and directing of his steps by the motions of his natural mind which he is enabled to by the first Covenant considered either as it was first given at his creation or as since renewed by the blood of Christ and is made the subject in his understanding and will now crucified and resigned wherein God himself joyns in the exercise of this power with him working in him both to will and to do of his own good pleasure in stead of leaving it to the good pleasure of man who nevertheless is a free and willing co-worker with God in this day of Gods power whence it appears that
large discussed and held forth 2 Cor. 5. as also Jer. 31. compared with Ezek. 18. where Christ challenges all souls to be his as having obtained the non-imputing of sins past unto them in order to put them upon a new trial of personal obedience unto him who is the Lord that bought them and hath renewed life in them that they should henceforth not live unto themselves but to him that died for them Yea this is so evident that the creature itself Rom. 8. 19 20. earnestly groans and labours expecting a restauration by this price of redemption paid by Christ from under the bondage of corruption so as to be brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God In summ therefore there are these two great and general benefits flowing forth from Christs death upon all men The first is a common enlightning of spirit whereby there is set up in them in some degree more or less the candle of the Lord shewing the work of the law in their consciences to the accusing or excusing them in all they do and enabling them to such improvement thereof as to attain the answer of a good natural conscience unto the Rule set before them under the first administration of Christs kingdom The second is Gods not imputing to them sins past as also the often renewing of his pardon to them for sins present Psalm 78. 38. exercising therein his forbearance for the sake of his own justice as pacified and atoned by Christs sacrifice accompanied with protection and encouragement which thence also is afforded them by the hands of the good Angels as his ministers of justice unto all such as by approving themselves faithful in that little they have received are found in the number of wel-doers by which we see the extent of the vertue of Christs blood even to the ends of the earth wherein he hath prepared as large a remedy for the fallen seed of Adam as the dise ase required CHAP. XIV Shewing the continuance and progress of the war between the subjects of Christ and Anti-Christ and the terms and issues upon which they joyn THis war first discovered itself in the two brothers Cain and Abel where the devil comes off equal with Christ so as to gain and prevail with Cain as Christ chose and accepted Abel yea for success in the combate seems to have the better judging probably that in this murther of Abel the promised seed might have been wholly extinct and so have finally miscarried God therefore supplies Abels room with another son through whose line the PROMISED SEED might be yet figured out and carryed on as through Cains line the SEED OF THE SERPENT were shadowed forth and continued But the world coming to multiply and the generations of men to increase the subjects now of Christs three kingdomes distributed as before we have set down are upon the stage at once The first sort of men are those in a corrupt degenerated state whose daughters the SONS OF GOD went in unto Gen. 6. and so begat Giants or men of renown The second sort are typed out and comprehended in this race of GYANTS or men of fame and great repute having the name of sons and God for their Father but being weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary were found to be too light a fleshly seed only though such as therein did bear the first image of God yet who in process of time did so corrupt themselves that God refused to strive by his spirit any longer with them but gave them up to the destruction of the flood as those who became in the imaginations of their hearts alwaies evil before him and in the works they did perform The third sort were found in the family of Noah who was righteous in Gods account and typed out the true spiritual seed Thus we see the distribution of mankind before the flood but after the flood it became much more evident and apparent not only in the three sons of Noah that afterwards peopled again the whole earth but in the time of Abraham with whom God renewed both his covenants making him the Father of many nations or indeed of the two great nations one of the law the other of faith Ishmael born of Hagar the bond-woman figuring out the children of the first covenant that were born after the flesh and Isaac the son of the free woman who was by promise typing out the seed born after the spirit These two seeds were distinguished by their births and dispensations they were under from all the nations of the world besides who were in an open idolatrous heathenish state out of which Abraham was called into the land which God should shew him And in process of time when God made good the promises to Abrahams seed in giving them possession of the earthly Canaan he still continued this threefold distribution of mankind chusing the fleshly seed of Abraham from among all the Nations round about them and placing them in the midst of them and then by his Prophets and the true ministry of his Word subdividing again the spiritual seed from the carnal Into this threefold distribution God was pleased to sort and rank fallen mankind and so to continue them unto Christs second coming in order to accomplish and fulfil the whole counsel of his will upon them which he had fore-purposed and determined within himself and had chosen the Lord Jesus as a polished shaft in his hand to bring to pass accordingly by what he reveals of himself in the Gospel and word of TRUTH wherein first he is declared to the Captain and Author of salvation unto the whole spiritual seed the many sons that are given him by the Father to bring up to eternal glory in the same way he came to it himself who was made perfect through sufferings of whom he is not to lose one but to raise them up all at the last day into everlasting life Secondly he is declared the Redeemer and Ransomer so far of all mankind from under the power of sin and Satan as to disable them to keep off the good things contained in the promises of this life or of that which is to come from any that shall fulfill the condition of them or at least keep themselves as they may from such high provocations and wilful resistance for which God swears in his wrath they shall never enter into his REST. But when man finds such work before him as he cannot go through with by the strength of nature he will not resign up himself in such case though he see there is no other way that God may do it for him by bringing him to Christ that he may have life but sits down in a sullenness of spirit resisting the Holy Ghost and rejecting the counsel of God against his own soul In direct opposition to both these declared branches of Gods will in the Gospel the devil and his instruments set themselves First to attempt by all the power that is in
also expresseth Psalm 34. 12 14 15 16. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many daies that he may see Good let him depart from evil and do good for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth and this without respect of persons for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2. 12. And on the contrary as many as have approved themselves faithful unto God without law in a dutiful and chaste observance of the judgements which by him are given to all nations Ezek. 5. 6 7. are alike accepted Acts 10. 35. as those that under the law have approved themselves righteous in walking in all those commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1. 6. and are equally rewarded by God according to their answerableness to the light they live in who will punctually perform what lies on his part in giving to the righteous man the righteous mans reward according to the tenor of the promises covenant and light they live under For the Lord is a God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God a mighty and a terrible one which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward but judgeth righteously the whole world and all the nations in it Deut. 10. 17. though he was pleased to delight so far in the fathers of the Jewish seed as to chuse their seed after them above all people of the world besides to take them neerer to him and make them a habitation more immediate for himself Yet as to the main which is the grace of being made new creatures the Scripture saith expresly neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any-thing or hinders at all either of them from being taken into the RIGHTEOUSNES OF FAITH and life of the new and everlasting covenant The nations then of the world considered as those that are without law comparatively with the Jews are not left by Christ without a witness of God kept up amongst them nor without Judgements Ordinances and Laws proper to them in that state ordained by God to bring them unto life and to the knowledge of the truth accompanied also with suitable and sufficient means to lead to that end And therefore immediately after the flood God declares himself as making a kind of stipulation and covenant with all nations in the person of Noah and his family giving them statutes and ordinances upon the observance whereof he promiseth his reward and blessing referring the sum of all to this that in the image of God did he make man which perfection he requires and expects still that man should be aiming at and endeavouring the attainment of in all his operations as intimating thereby the obligation under which all men are by nature especially considering the extent of Christs death to yield obedience to that law which was written out in mans nature at first the seeds and principles whereof are renewed freely by gift from Christ in that enlightning wherewith he enlightens every man that comes into the world making the spirit of man in a lesser or higher degree and measure the candle and lamp of the Lord that is fed with oil out of the holy candlestick from Christ through a work in their natural conscience by the ministry of Angels enabling them to a discerning of good and evil according to the light and principles of that natural righteousness wherein they were at first created and requiring them to exercise and improve this talent and ability of mind freely given unto them promising to have his eye for good upon them in their being faithful according to that little they have received and to accept them according to what they have and not according to what they have not and to keep his ears open unto their cry if they want wisdom or strength to go forward and improve what they have received causing them also to meet with protection and encouragement under the ministry of the good Angels in counter-ballance to the discouraging assaults of the wicked ones to the end that by being thus assisted and strengthned in willing and resolving on a holy and righteous course of life and operation and putting the same in practice they may the better bear up against the degenerated part of nature in them and all the power and influence of Satan joyning therewith until the fault manifestly appear to be in their own free-will and determination by rebelling against the Rule and government which Christ hath given them to walk by and detaining the manifestation of the truth communicated to them in unrighteousness And besides this inward strengthning and encouragement afforded by God unto them there is also a visible and outward Testimony of his acceptance accompanying them as in the case of Job where the devil takes notice that as a reward unto Iob in his faithful and upright walking with God in fearing God and eschewing evil God made a hedge about him and about his and about all that he had and blessed the works of his hands giving herein his Angels charge over him being as yet but under this first dispensation though withall he had a seed of immortal life underneath The sum then of what God requires by the Rule and judgements he gives unto all nations is that they depart from evil and do good in the exercise of the natural abilities of their mind rectified and enlightned through the benefit of Christs blood and so made improveable by the use of the means which he affords them in present and is yet further willing to reveal to them in future in order to their growing out of all natural filth and pollution of flesh in conformity to that primitive purity wherein man was at first created and to their being delivered out of the kingdom of Sathan and power of darkness in which the design of the devil is to fix and detain them for ever Now the good answer of this natural conscience unto this Rule and these judgements and ordinances of Christ consists first in the fear and aw of God which such have in them that keeps them from sinning against him or thwarting the dictates of their own enlightned judgement shewing itself in accusing them for evil doings and excusing them in good especially when strengthned herein by inward good motions and impressions that are the effects of the ministry of the good Angels to perswade and encourage hereunto Secondly in a vigilant care and industry to walk up faithfully to this light not slighting or neglecting any proper and suitable means conducing thereunto Thirdly in an experimental sense of the emptiness and insufficiency of the good works by them done to justifie and present them faultless before God before whom the Angels themselves are ashamed and hide their faces which made
cutting them again off from his living body as unprofitable branches fit to be cast into the fire Joh. 15. 6. These are they considered in the exercise of this kind of life and holy operations that are as the fruitful married wife unto Christ under the first Covenant and over whom the Law hath dominion while they are in this life short of and unacquainted with an implantation into Christs dead body not having the similitude and conformity unto his death so much as in the seed of it brought forth in them The answer which these have of a good conscience towards God under the Law is particularly stated Rom. 7. where they are in Pauls own person represented as having that workmanship set up in their hearts and minds which stands in an exact conformity to the Law or image of Christs natural righteousness and perfection which is holy righteous spiritual and good and so having that heart-work in them whereby they adhere to and approve the Law and the goodness and righteousness thereof in opposition to the contrary body of sin and death which is still in being and exercise in them and with them ready upon all occasions to return with prevalency whilst they are but upon this tenure of the Covenant of works and in the wavering unconstant principles thereof by reason of which they find by experience no good thing dwelling in their flesh that is abiding and of a continuing residence with them but such as comes to them as a stranger or a sojourner for a night or short duration and is ready upon their miscarriage to be gone and leave them again estating them but in such a wavering condition as whilst with their mind they serve the Law of God they are ready with their flesh to serve the law of sin and the good that they would do that they do not and the evil which they would not do that they do By all which uncertainty and slipperiness of this their state Christ would teach them to see the need of following the Lamb whither soever he goes and to experience themselves to be most miserable if they advance no further but abide here thinking themselves rich and encreased with goods and wanting nothing whilst they are ignorant that they are miserable and poor and blind and naked as wanting that top-stone which must compleat the whole building And therefore the right frame of spirit in the faithful subjects of Christ under this dispensation is to find no Rest here but to see that this Earthly Jerusalem is no abiding City and to cry out miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death wherein is not only comprehended the corrupted but the corruptible state of mans nature after that he hath been renewed in this life of COMMON SALVATION by vertue of the blood of Christ From this experimental sense God would teach us patiently to lie down under the power of the cross of Christ whose saying then we shall acknowledge to be most faithful and true that if we die with him we shall also live with him and if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him our fellowship with him in his death being the only means by him appointed to translate us out of all death into life eternal and to bring us under that Law of the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. which hath power absolutely to free us from the law of sin and of death in all the branches of it This is the spirit and conscience and these the principles of the children of the first covenant under the Dominion of the law in which while they continue using of it lawfully they are knit unto Christ by his taking unto him his two staves BEAUTY and BANDS Zach. 11. 7. signifying the fruits of his presence with them and amongst them as he is their husband by this covenant until by slighting his greater glory and selling him for thirty pieces of silver they come to discover themselves to be the flock of slaughter and such as he at last departs from and leaves to draw back unto perdition whilst he carries on the poor of the flock that bear him company in his sufferings unto the saving of their souls keeping them through the power of faith unto his Heavenly Kingdom This generation of men are witnessed unto by the Scriptures under a twofold consideration First as they were under the Law as the Law was the figure and shadaw of the good things to come consisting in meats and drinks and divers washings and fleshly rites ceremonies and divine Ordinances under Moses his ministry imposed until the time of reformation or to the coming of Christ in the flesh who in that sense was the end of the Law and of the observance of it as considered in that fleshly commandment and Mosaical administration that pointed at the very image itself that was to be manifested in the flesh of Christ where the same Law was to begin again and become the holy commandment spoken and delivered unto men by the son himself requiring a conformity in and from all men unto the natural righteousness and perfection of man shining forth in his flesh who was made like unto us in all things sin only excepted In this second sense as the Law is now given by Christ the true MINISTER OF CIRCUMCISION Rom. 15. 8. Issued forth by his first appearance immediately written in the fleshly tables of the heart by his spirit whereby the children of it are taken into marriage-union and made one flesh with himself branches of this vine Joh. 15 are we to understand the subjects of this kingdom of Christ that live under this dispensation in the times of the Gospel since his coming in the flesh and putting down the Temple-worship and Service Acts 7. that was in force before his incarnation introducing in the room thereof a spiritual Temple-worship and Service in the conformity which he takes them into with himself in his flesh and living body making them his own Temple house and habitation the first Tabernacle or worldly Sanctuary built up together with him in his natural righteousness and perfection Such principles and such a birth as this of holy and righteous operations and actings are required in him and of him that is made by Christ under the law or a child of the first covenant which Deut. 32. Jer. 3. 21. compared with Chap. 11. 15. and Isa 5. and Ezek. 16. do in express terms testifie shewing how perfect they are as they come out of his hands to whom he is a Father and Redeemer in this covenant planting them wholly a right seed and that together with the choisest vine causing them to grow together for a while in himself the true vine John 15. and thereby renewing in them and upon them a state of holy flesh natural righteousness and holiness and as thus qualified taking them into his own house as his beloved spouse and married wife who yet after all this
reserved in heaven for them ready to be revealed in the last time They that are born of this seed are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God and through the power of faith and the abiding of this seed in them are kept unto salvation without any possibility of sinning unto death or any danger of final falling away having by vertue of their reception of this seed in the heart through the gift of God the nature of true believers communicated unto them even the unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God which makes them members of the new Jerusalem children of the promise who are born after the spirit and have that anointing whereby they know all things immediately from the head and fountain itself and need not that any man should teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. which was given to their head the true Aaron without measure running down upon all those that dwell together with him in the unity of the faith of the son of God even to the skirts of his garments upon the lowest members of this NEW JERUSALEM consecrating them a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD with himself to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God This new nature in the seed of it whilst it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen is called faith even the faith that justifies spreading over us the propitiatory covering of Christs spiritual headship and EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS in which we are made to stand for ever spotless and without guile before the Throne of God Those that are of this faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and are of that one seed that are heirs according to the promise The work of this faith and new birth when once wrought out by Christ in the heart and conscience is to breed patience and that patience experience and that experience hope even that hope which maketh not ashamed The patience which is wrought out in every regenerate one by this faith is called the obedience of faith that when it hath had its perfect work maketh us perfect so as to want nothing arming us with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to suffer in the flesh in order to put an end to sin and to work off the soul from the will desire of the flesh into an absolute subjection and conformity to the heavenly will of Christ wherein he is one with the Father and so enabling us to keep the word of Christs patience which is indeed the Law and Rule under which the true believer is subjected until Christs second coming being to rest in the grave with Christ untill the remainder of his sufferings be fulfilled in his whole body the Church under the certainty and with the comfort of his promise that those that thus suffer with him shall also raign with him and those that thus die with him shall also live with him And that all true believers are thus observers of this Rule according to the patern left by Christ in his own sufferings purifying themselves as he is pure keeping the word of his patience and performing the obedience of faith which is required by the law of the new covenant we shall endeavour to make known as in the experience thereof and Testimony from the Scripture it is held forth For through the comprehending power of Christ as he is the head and root of this spiritual seed and precious faith which is obtained by Gods chosen ones they are separated from the very womb yea they have grace given unto them in Christ Iesus before the world began and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in him being accepted in the beloved In this respect Jacob was loved and Esau was hated or the one was accepted and the other was refused in their mothers wombe the children being not yet born neither of them having as yet done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Howbeit we are not in Scripture sense nor in truth as some unwarrantably affirm actual believers until by effectual calling we are made receivers of whole Christ in the seed as before described And therefore the Apostle Paul who is a remarkable example herein though he had received grace in Christ Iesus as in his head before the world began and as thus comprehended in his head was separated and distinguished from the womb in whom the purpose of God according to the election was to stand yet it pleased not God to call him and by revealing his son in him to make him actually a believer and new creature until he had spent many years even a great part of his life in a sowerness and rigidness of spirit under the dispensation of the Law flaming out at last into cruel and fierce persecution of the Church of God though in all still preserved by his head from wilfull enmity For saith he I did it ignorantly In like manner all the children given to Christ by the Father whereof he is to lose none are thus separated and distinguished from the rest of the world as the beloved seed according to Gods purpose from the womb and so according to Gods purpose are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began Yet until it pleaseth God by his grace to call them whether they be in the state of circumcision or uncircumcision they live and walk according to the principles and Rule of that dispensation they are under For so we see in the great instance of Abraham the father of the faithful as by Stephen he is described to us Acts 7. in the manner of the calling with which he was called and whereby he was made actually a Believer and a new creature which was by Gods appearing to him and by the power of his WORD working in him calling and bringing him out of his own Country the land of his Nativity and from his natural relations into the land which he should shew him causing him herein to resign up his natural judgement and will entirely to his disposal and through faith to obey for he went out not knowing whither he went which first remove of his was out of the state of degenerate nature and his heathenish life into the earthly land of Canaan as that was a type and figure of the heavenly and into circumcision or experience of that communion with God which is by the first Covenant whereby the filth of the flesh in his heathenish state was cut off and cleansed and he in minde as well as in body brought into the figurative land of promise even to a conformity in mind and spirit to the Law the perfection of Christs flesh or natural man In this promised land perceiving by faith that it was but the type and shadow of the good things themselves the heavenly Country which was
the grass withereth the flower fadeth away because the spirit of the Lord blows npon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the WORD of our God shall stand for ever ver 7 8. So then at length the believing part in the Saint cometh to see and experiment the emptiness nothingness and fading of the best natural perfection and fleshly purity not only in legal worldly rudiments and principles but even in Evangelicals so far as they consist in the knowledge of Christ himself but according to the flesh Whereupon the believer becomes willing to be crucified to all confidence esteem or desire of Rest and abode in them seeing a patern left by Christ himself herein when he suffered in the flesh that we also might be armed with the same mind and by being crucified in the flesh may come at last to cease from sin attaining a perfect freedom there-from by the resurrection from the dead And now what high thoughts and proud imaginations do rise up in the heart fit to be brought down and subdued by the cross of Christ then which nothing is more grievous to the soul which loves this Absolon it s own uncrucified fleshly mind and the enlightned reasonings thereof in their very rebellion and endeavours to out it of the everlasting kingdom yea it struggles hard and wrestles vehemently to keep its Isaac from being offered up in sacrifice Oh! how with Zipporah doth the flesh cry out against faith as a bloody husband thus to require the full resignation of the judgement will and desire of the pure holy natural man as well as that of the corrupt All this it doth require and no less will serve its turn then the bringing of the exercise of these natnral senses as they are contesting with and resisting the workings of faith into perfect captivity to the obedience of faith and into perfect rest and silence in the grave of Christ where they are to be bound as in chains and fetters utterly disabled for ever acting more in any resisting or contradicting way unto the power and life of faith and so indeed are set free and have their truest liberty given to them to act more fully then ever in harmony with and subserviency unto the workings and life of faith Thus Rom 8. it is said If Christ be in you the body or flesh is dead because of sin but if the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies or crucified fleshly senses by his spirit that dwelleth in you to the bringing them forth in a better and more excellent way of operation then ever they had before For these fleshly senses as they are planted into the likeness of the death of Christ are made one dead body with him and so are shut up for ever in an everlasting impossibility to act against the truth but only for the truth to act in a way of resisting and contradicting the workings of faith but in subjection and subordination to â—â—em This is that we mean by the obedience of faith and keeping of the word of Christs patience which is required by the law of the new covenant the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as it frees us from the law of sin and death which is so far from destroying the law that it fulfils it and so far from abolishing the good works required by the law that it disannuls only the unlawful use of them setting them up in their right and lawful exercise not single and alone without the faith that is saving or in resistance and contradiction to that faith nor so mixing them with a faith that fails whereby both faith and a good conscience may come to shipwrack but making them in such manner the fruit and children of the operation of the faith of Gods elect as that against such there is no law This is the gathering together into one dead body with Christ wherein all his elect must be found as fashioned into a similitude with him in his death and that for the filling up of the measure of his sufferings in the whole number of his beloved ones that so at last they may arise likewise with his dead body and be gathered together into one glorified body with him or into a similitude with him in the glory and power of his resurrection when they shall be like him and see him as he is when at this appearing of Christ who is their life they also shall appear with him in glory The hope and expectation hereof grounded upon the promises made to this purpose in Col 3. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 21. and many other places of Scripture is that that hath born up the spirits of his people and faithful ones in all ages that have been made willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goeth from desponding and sinking away under all those insolent affronts and contradictions they have met with in their several generations from their insulting unreasonable adversaries the inhabitants of the earth who flourish prosper in the world while they are chastened every morning disciplined under the cross of Christ miscarrying as to all that 's visible and overcome in those hot contests oppositions and assaults which the seed of the Serpent lusting to envy will not fail to exercise them with who indeed could have no power against them unless it were given them from above as Christ the head of this spiritual seed told Pilate in his own personal case Ioh. 19. 11. and as power was given from above against that great Master Lord so is it also given to them to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Rev. 13. 7. but though at present they be so overset by worldly powers that they cannot work any deliverance in the earth neither do the inhabitants of the world fall before them Isa 26. 18. yet at this second coming of Christ he will call up the dead bodies of these his crucified Saints and faithful witnesses not only into a state of security from the destroyer but into a singing and triumphing condition ver 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust Both these states of the true Saint are most lively described Isa 54. which we shall endeavour to give some short tasts of for our clearer enlightning in the present truth specially as to what concerns the former branch the Saints conformity with Christ in his death The other consisting in a conformity to him in his Resurrection-state we shall reserve for the latter end and conclusion of this discourse CHAP. XVIII Concerning the Saints conformity with Christ in his death particularly opened and cleared from those mistakes which the enemies to the Crosse of Christ are apt to brand it with BY conformity with Christ in his death which some have been
come to passe that when it is come to passe ye might beleeve And further I command ye that ye love one another when I am gone If the world hate you you know it hated me first before it hated you if ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you and if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you for the servant is not greater then his Lord These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me But these things I have told you that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them Which things I have beene telling you from the beginning ever since I was with you but now I must put my sayings in execution for I am going my way to him that sent me and none of you are sensible of it or so much as enquiring into that state to which now I am going but because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your hearts Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but when I depart I will send him to you Yet upon my departure the change will be so great which you will experience through my withdrawing of my self as a Bridegroome from you that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowfull but your mourning shall be turned into joy As a woman which whilest she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come so shall you be in the pangs of this new birth when faith begins to be brought forth into exercise and operation by way of encountring these sharp trialls But as soone as the woman is delivered of the child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man-child is borne into the world Thus also shall it be with you when the birth of the Soone of God as the man-child that is to rule the Nations with a rod of iron shall be brought to light in you through believing and the growing evidence of things unseene Ye now therefore have sorrow for a little moment but I will see you againe and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you Such preparative teachings and instructions as these Christ is continually giving forth during his tabernacling with believers in his first appearance that he may make them as little children weaned from the milk and from the breasts in order to traine them up to the use of stronger meat prepared for them in his dead body and crucified flesh which is given to them by him to feed upon till he come and take them into conformity with him in his glorified body which he promises them to do through his intercession with his Father for to make them one with him as he and the Father are one willing that where he is they also may be Through these glances of spiritual light whilest the Bridegroome is yet with the soul in his fleshly presence the Saints do with the Disciples sometimes think and say Lord now speakest thou plainly and not in parables by this we beleeve that thou camest forth from God and art againe leaving the world and going to the Father and yet when the hour of his departure comes indeed then every one scatters and leaves him alone as unwilling to accompany him in his sufferings but are rather drawing back and desirous to stay where they are in the fleshly life and perfection which they have experienced to the making a faire shew of God in the flesh and gaining the visibility of Saint-ship amongst men then to suffer with Christ without the gate leave the Holy City the earthly Jerusalem to go along with Christ to Golgotha the place of skuls bearing his reproach Before the very beleevers themselves will be brought to this what strugling and wrastling is there within themselves to detaine the Bridegroome or first Husband who with the Angel that wrestled with Jacob saith to them Let me go for the day breaks or the day-dawn of my heavenly appearance is overtaking me and calling me away to rest in silence and in the grave as to my appearing to you singly in my fleshly state any more but as I shall come in company and association with a better consort and so compleat the marriage betweene us in the glory wherein I am risen from the dead that you may bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and of life This is the weaned unsetled condition of soul which beleevers whilest under the first Covenant and being in nothing differenced from servants as to what is yet appearing in them and to them in the work of the conscience are led into by this preparative administration of Christ who is in them as in seed even in their new-creature-being and life but as a seed under ground very weakly undiscernably working as yet save only in loosening the soul from resting in its present attainments and keeping it in expectation of some better thing wherein to be made perfect In which state probably most of the dear Saints of God were detained under the Law before Christs coming in the flesh and most of them may still be under the same legal perfection heightned and improved by Christs coming in the flesh or by the effusion of his Spirit upon all flesh in and by the same Ministery of his first appearance and in this first step and degree of the new birth are in as safe a state as to Gods love to them here and heaven hereafter as others that have larger fuller and greater attainments and experiences And as the knowledge of this truth ought not to satisfie any to stay here but should still put them on to be pressing forward whereby to come neerer to the mark of the price of their high calling as the more comfortable strong and prosperous state so also should it satisfie the groundlesse objection of those who stick not to brand this witnesse of the beleevers conformity to the death of Christ with the reproach of rendering the faith of all those Saints and precious ones that have died without the experience or acknowledgement thereof to be of none effect as a most pitiful weak affrightment to deteine some tender-hearted well-meaning persons from receiving and owning the excellency of the knowledge of Christs death which to set evidently before our eyes that is to say Christ crucified within us in making us partakers with himself in his sufferings brings to the second thing the consideration of what Christ does when he actually withdraws and takes himself away from the soul as the Bridegroom that hath cohabited with it for a season in the light and glory of his fleshly perfection or first appearance when he refuses the wife of his youth and leaves her comfortlesse
integrity of Jobs spirit herein the Devil hath leave granted from God to bruise Jobs heele or to be the executioner of Gods wrath upon Job in all manner of appearances and evidences thereof as could render it real and credible to flesh and blood either in Job himself or in the minds and apprehensions of his three friends having for this purpose a permissive Commssion from God to spolle and deprive Job of all gainfull things to him as to this world his life onely excepted Secondly this being obtained and also put into execution he doth his utmost to disquiet Jobs spirit outwardly from the sense of this hard usage and dealing thus received from the Lord to see if he could move him to an impatient murmuring mutining heart against God as a severe Master at best to a faithful servant or else as an unjust dealer according to Covenant who promiseth good dayes to them that do eschew evil and do good which Job having been most diligent and sincere in is neverthelesse thus rewarded as to be numbred amongst the vilest transgressors and malefactors in Gods outward dispensation towards him and yet put upon it to bear it patiently as becoming a broken contrite spirit before the Lord who as he gives freely the good things he bestowes so may also take them away againe without giving account why Thirdly when this takes not he incenses his nearest relations against him imputing the cause of all this wrath to his sincere walking and stedfast cleaving unto God in a singular way from all the rest of the world representing the sad and suffering state hereby brought upon himself and them which he might remedy by letting go his integrity and falling into a fawning compliance with the corrupt interest of the times helived in Fourthly as a backing and seconding of this he moves his three friends against him that probably were all the comfortable society he had in the middest of a heathenish and wicked world round about him and they being professors of the fear and worship of the true and living God and exceeding strict and exact in their walkings as appears by all their arguments and endeavours to perswade Job against the faithful witnesse of his own conscience within that all this is befallen him as a just reward from God of some secret hypocrisie of heart that is in him and unfaithfulnesse to God in his walkings which God hath now found out and punished and which they urge him to acknowledge and give glory to God by repenting and returning from it that so the rod may be removed hereby discovering their great ignorance of Gods designe in this manner of chastening and afflicting his Saints which is done by God for a farre other and higher end then they were aware of that is to say to traine them up unto the obedience of faith consisting in that which God accounts thankworthy in servants to their masters when a man for conscience towards God endures grief suffering wrongfully or without giving cause for it For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even hereunto were ye called because Christ also thus suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sinne neither was guile found in his month who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously This kind of obedience was God intending to teach Job who in and with all his former wel-doings is taught by God not only to want the reward of them for the present but to have the contrary reward executed upon him as the bruising of his heele for the triall of his patience under it and for the practising another kind of obedience and sort of good works then any worldly professour or bastard that is not the true son would ever bear or endure Heb. 12. and which all that are sons must be trained up in as the singular thing which is to be done by them in obeying Gods will in a way of patience which shall not be found in any that are enemies to the Crosse of Christ Fifthly and lastly Satan improves the result of all these appearances of wrath from God perswasions and mistakes of friends and relations together with the inward sense which by all this is ministred to the workings of unsubdued flesh and blood in him to make Job faile and despond in his minde towards God and to conclude himself amongst those that are free amongst the dead to whom the Lord hath forgotten to be gracious ready to cry out My God my God why hast thou for saken me This is the second maine particular of the fulfilling in us a conformity to Christ in his death by Satans bruising of the heele in this manner represented in the example of Job The third is in respect of the workings of unsubdued flesh and blood abiding and remaining in a Saint as the body of sin and death he carries about with him whether from the corrupt or pure old Adam set up in him both which are equally to feele the weight of the crosse of Christ unto which they are to be nailed to the causing of all enmity and sin to cease out of them and be for ever abolished and taken away For which purpose that is to be taken from them and offered up in sacrifice without spot unto God which the natural man in whatever capacity he is whether at his best or at his worst hath no minde to part with upon any termes and therefore doth resist and oppose as long as his ability serves or until a perfect disability and weaknesse be brought upon him rendering it impossible for him to hold out or keep any longer the selfish power to do his own will to speak his own words to think his own thoughts to finde his own desire or exercise his own lust either unto good or evil as living upon his natural root which exercise of free will is essential unto mans natural constitution or first make as hath been shewed in an arbitrary and independant course of motion and action conferred upon him by his participation of Gods first image or the Ministery to him of Gods first appearance single And which so long as that Ministery lasts as its husband or object of converse is kept up in man as a principle of acting by his own free choice and disposal of himself in the use of fit means allowed him by God to induce and perswade him to the good God requires of him This power in the natural man thus to act and live is his joy and delight the desire and lust of his soul and this is revived and strengthened by the Law or the Ministery of Christ in the perfection of the first Covenant which man makes use of to the emboldening and hardening of himself in a
their own righteousnesse not submitting to the righteousnesse of God and so prove deceived and seduced through an unskilfulnesse of discerning in that which is good to the despising and refusal of that which is a more excellent and enduring substance for the fading glory of flesh and the morning dew of natural righteousnesse wanting that wisdome which teaches to distinguish betweene the lawful and unlawful use that is to be made of the Law and the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ worthily or unworthly Behold then the evil desire and lust that may and doth spring up in mans pure holy and righteous nature as by being under the dominion of the Law and living in subjection and conformity thereunto he is striving to separate them whom God has joyned together in Christs second appearance and to uphold competition and opposition betweene those that should dwell together as brethren in unity in the communion of the holy Ghost which counsel of God carries much contrariety in it to mans natural desire and lust which would faine get away with Gods first word the word of the beginning Heb. 6. 1. wherewith God at first visits man refusing to stay to the end and to hear and obey the second word which God is pleased to have with him whereby he finishes and compleats his first operations in him declaring to him his whole counsel whereunto the first dispensation is appointed only as a fore-runner and therefore must needs be short as to that which is the work of the second being no otherwise intended from the beginning but as a messenger or preparer of the way Hence we may see what it is Paul means Rom. 7. and ch 8. when he acknowledges that the Law through the weaknesse of the flesh though it have nothing in it which causes or is the author of sin yet it hath that in it which sinne takes occasion by to set up it self anew and blossome forth againe in mans nature when renewed and restored to a conformity with the Law which is spiritual holy righteous and good for lust is capable to conceive in Adams posterity thus renewed and set up afresh as well as it did in himself at first and lust when it hath thus conceived brings forth sinne or an envying and contesting against the glory of Christs second appearance which sin being perfected or come to its fixing of the mind in an unchangeable and implacable enmity thereunto brings forth death even that death which is spiritual and eternal so Rom. 8. such a carnal mind as this is called death as it stands in such an enmity to the spiritual mind that it is neither subject to that Law of God which is the Law of the Crosse and Spirit of life nor indeed can be Thus saith the Apostle by the coming of the Commandment sin revived and 1 died and what was ordeined for life I found unto me to be unto death sin getting into its vigour and strength thereby assuring the soul that it is here out of all danger being begotten againe into Gods own likenesse wherein man was at first created and having the visible characters thereof shining forth in it written not with inke and on tables of stone but with the Spirit of the living God and on the fleshly tables of the heart shewing it self a right change and a real heart-work above and beyond all that is accounted civility and morality and above all notion and spirituality that is but head-work and fancy What is now to be done sayes the Tempter to this sort of men but to perswade them torest here and praise and blesse Gods Word that by this first visit and beginning hath made so beautiful glorious a change in their hearts nature as this is wherof the experiences are so lively and refreshing especially when reflection is made upon what they are changed from when brought to this and the way and means of attaining it which hath also the approbation and praise of visible Churches and Saints and of the best men so judged by mans day which makes them say Let us tabernacle here with Moses and Elias especially if we be upon the Mount and brought thither by Christ himself transfiguring himself there before us In this earthly building of the renewed natural man let us fix and resist all dawnings and approachings of any higher or better state Let this our Ishmael live was once the voice of Abraham himself that afterwards was perswaded to offer up his Isaac that was but according to the flesh If we be prevailed with to fix here and live after the flesh we shall die Rom. 8. 13. or enter and abide in those wayes of death which make us enemies to the Crosse of Christ and cause him in the end to swear we shall never enter into his Rest As man therefore in the purity and holinesse of his natural will may be using the Law of God lawfully as we have shewed so also he may exercise himself in his own holy and righteous operations of mind and nature in such manner as may be quite contrary to the mind of God and the true end of such conformity wrought in him unto the Law experiencing by this means the evil that is incident unto a pure and uncorrupt state of being and that lust that is to be known only by the coming of the Law Which evil desire or lust of man in this state is a covetousnesse which sets up idolatry in the highest streine endeavouring to oppose Christ in the Spirit by Christ in the flesh by exalting the glory of his first appearance above that of the second Sin in this sense hath for the Mother and Nurse of it mans natural righteousnesse wherein he is apt to glory and be puffed up without cause contrary to the true meaning of the Law which requires him indeed to cherish and maintaine the natural righteousnesse and holinesse therein and thereby ministred whether considered as it shines forth in the flesh of Christ or in their own hearts and consciences in opposition to that which is the filth of the flesh or to the resting in our own personal morality and vertue before the Law came to us but authorizes him not or warrants him to oppose herewith the Crosse of Christ and the excellency of the knowledge of him crucified or to resist upon pretence of keeping that up the coming in of the better and more excellent glory When once therefore such a frame of spirit as a root of gall and bitternesse is springing up in men and that wilfully against manifest conviction and long contestation and patience on Gods part to bring them to another mind at last they are brought by sad experience to find that in their flesh dwells no good thing but such as will be leaking out of this fleshly building of the first Adam at its best if rested in and subject to corrupt So that whilst with the mind they serve the Law of God with the flesh