this nature and life hath a promise of a new inheritance in the other world Or if ye will if ye think that may be plainer to you by Kingdom is meant Religion true Religion the Religion which God teacheth his seed the Religion which God writeth in the nature of his seed for there is a Religion also which God writeth in the nature of man and teacheth man but that is not the Kingdom In every dispensation that Truth that Vertue that Light that Life which cometh down upon the seed springeth up in the seed and goeth along with the seed is the Kingdom It is that breath of God from which the new nature or principle came in which the new nature lives and by which it is perfected This it is most properly but in a larger sence it denotes every thing that belongs to the Kingdom and that not improperly neither for every thing belonging to the Kingdom hath the nature of the Kingdom in it and having the nature why may it not partake of the name The Kingdom of Israel took in every thing in their dispensation and the Kingdom of God taketh in every thing in the great dispensation of his life unto his people through the Lord Jesus â—hrist This phrase Kingdom is of very large and full significancy noting out not only the nature and substance of the thing together with the extent and limits of it but also the greatness of it the riches of it the glory of it the perfection of it the presence of God with it its presence and power with God c. 2. What is meant by Word By Word is to be understood any outward form of doctrine any speech notion or apprehension whereby Religion in any part of it is either conceived or expressed As the doctrine of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God the doctrine of self-denyal or going out of a mans self the Doctrine of obedience to the inward spirit or outward commands of the Word the Doctrine of the death of Christ of the Resurrection of Christ c. Word is the outward truth if I may so speak it is the pipe or vessel whereby life is held out to man or whereby it is taken in by man It was in such Doctrines as these forementioned wherein the spirit of life did run as in so many veins in the Apostles times But yet the truth of Religion the Kingdom of God consists not in any of these These do not bring in the Kingdom but the Kingdom will of it self bring forth these where it is The Kingdom of God saith this same Apostle in another place is Righteousness and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost But it is not the word of any of these it is not a glorious description or apprehension of righteousness or peace or joy in the spirit it lies not in mighty elevations or ravishments of heart through the contemplation of these this is the outward Court which is given to the Heathenish spirit of man which hath this bestowed upon him for the reward of his pains in these things But the Kingdom of God is not in word The outward truths of the Gospel in the most pure naked spiritual acception of them are not the Kingdom and he that receiveth them only receiveth not the Kingdom Man may receive every truth of the Kingdom Man may fall into any way nay into every way of Religion and yet fall short of the Kingdom 3. What is meant by Power By power is meant the inward vertue the vigor the spirit which lies in the nature of Religion In every life there is a vertue or power wherein it consists No life lieth in the outwardness of its form or shape but in the inwardness of its nature The life of man consisteth not in outward knowledg in an outward form of reason but in the inward vertue and spirit of reason Thus it is in the life of Religion There is an inward vertue an inward spirit an inward power in the nature of it whereby it changeth the vessel whereinto it comes subjecting the rational part to it self and advancing it in it self as the rational part doth the brutish So that as in a rational man all the faculties of his mind and members of his body are subject to his reason so in the spirituall man not only the members of the body and faculties of the minde but the very spirit of reason it self is subject to this new spirit or principle of life There is this vertue this life this spirit in every thing of Religion in all the Truths in all the Ordinances Institutions and paths of the Kingdom and this only is Religion It is not the knowledg of all the things of God alas the prophane spirit of man under a form of holiness may be very exact in them but the nature the vertue of the things themselves which is preserved entire for the pure into it no unclean thing can enter So that where there is the least true power there must needs be true Religion but there may be all the outward form or fabrick and yet no true Religion at all There may be all the truths of the Gospel all the Ordinances of the Gospel all the ways of the Gospel and the spirit of man walking very zealously in all these and yet this is no part of the kingdom for the Kingdom consists not in the outward letter of the Light Life or Liberty of the Gospel nor in every power and vertue of it but in the inward spirit of it and in that power and vertue which is peculiar to its own nature To illustrate this a little further Take notice of a threefold power in reference hereunto 1. There may be an outward power concurring with the thing as the power of working miracles the gift of speaking with tongues of healing c. This is demonstrative in its kind and according to its nature for else the Lord would not have made use of it for that end but yet it is not the power here spoken of not the power which the Apostle here resolved to know 2. There may be an inward power forming of the thing which may be either the Spirit of the Lord or the spirit of the Creature working by and according to its creaturely imagination By imagination I mean the reason or understanding of man which though it be no imaginer but a certain knower within its own bounds yet in things of this nature in the things of God in the things of the kingdom it is no knower at all but a meer imaginer Now this inward power of reason or imagination will make strange fabricks in the mind of man especially where it hath any superior principle to set it on work or engines to move it or oyl to set it on going This power this vertue being inward is also of a more inward satisfaction to a man then the former By the former a man is as it were compelled to beleeve yet perhaps
not at all satisfied thereby in the nature of the thing but by this a man is led into Faith Love Obedience and so into every thing that is thus formed in him The things which the fancy or reason of man for here the reason of man is but fancy after its manner comprehendeth are as it were made natural to the man Now though this be a great power and can make mighty changes and do mighty things in the spirit of a man yea and worketh very like the truth insomuch as that which is meer man can very hardly if at all distinguish it from the truth yet this is not the truth neither this is not the power which the Apostle here speaketh of 3. There is an inward power or vertue in the thing whereby it is what it is and whereby it does what it does whereby it is what it most naturally is and produceth its own most natural effects There is a true vertue in truth an inward power in the Death and Resurrection of Christ an inward power in faith in love and in the spirit of obedience which lyeth in the nature of it which it disperseth and leaveneth the lump with where it is sown in truth Now this is it the Apostle here means He will know this power he will distinguish by this vertue the nature and truth of the thing it self From whence this may be observed Observ. That true Religion consists not in notion not in apprehension not in expression but in the true Nature Vertue Life and Power of the thing it self The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Let a man have the cleerest apprehension of the truths of God and the cleerest expression of them that may be yet this is not Religion If a man have all knowledg with all the effects of Faith Love Zeal Obedience c. which this knowledg can produce in him yet this is not Religion The knowledg of self-denial of resignation to the will of God with all the self-denial and resignation which this knowledg can produce The knowledg of the Death of Christ and of the Life of Christ with all the effects there of in the spirit of a man neither is this Religion Reas. The reason whereof is this because all outwardness is but a garment wherewith Religion may be clothed or not clothed according to the pleasure of God Now ye know a garment neither is the thing nor a certain evidence of the thing All outward buildings which the spirit of the Lord rears the spirit of the Lord may also leave and the spirit of man of Antichrist of Satan may enter into The Lord hath not yet built his everlasting Tabernacle or Temple and therefore those he doth set up being but shadowes his spirit may as well leave as enter into So that whatsoever may come into apprehension whatsoever may be brought forth in notion or expression is not the thing at best it can be but a true garment but a true appearance but a true house for the thing to be clothed with appear and abide in while the Lord pleaseth But now where there is the nature where there is the life where ther is the vertue wher ther is the power there must needs be the thing Where there is the life of a man there must needs be a man where there is the vertue of a renewed nature there must needs be a renewed nature where there is the power of Religion the power of the Kingdom there must needs be Religion there must needs be the Kingdom for this is from it this is â—n it yea this is it What is the vertue and power of God but God what is the power and vertue of any thing but the thing The vertue of Religion the power of the Kingdom that is it in which the very spirit of it is lives goeth forth and resideth Quest. But what is this same nature life power or vertue of Religion wherein Religion consists This is very necessary to be well considered for there is a nature life vertue or power in the Religion of man That which here the Apostle calleth word hath that in it which man calleth power Let a man receive any apprehension into his mind fully let him but receive it seriously as the truth of God it cometh with a great deal of power it bringeth vertue with it to make changes in him changes in his spirit changes in his understanding changes in his will changes in his conversation And yet this is not the power which the Apostle here looketh after all this is with him but word The greatest inwardness of man is but outwardness with the spirit of the Lord. What then is this same power here or what is the nature of this power of this vertue Answ. To this question I shall return this threefold description by way of answer 1. For the general nature of it it is divinely spiritual It is not a birth from the spirit of man no nor yet from the spirit of Satan but from the spirit of the Lord. There is the true nature life and power of God in it It is the seed of God and it brings forth the true nature of God The Spirit of the Lord begetteth that which is spirit The spirit of the Lord bringeth forth a truly spiritual Religion in the spirit of man where he soweth his seed 2. As touching the common properties of it It is both killing and quickening and that both in ones self and also towards others In every truth of the Kingdom in every thing that belongs to the Kingdom there is that vertue which continually kills and quickens where ever it comes It kills the spirit of man and it quickens the spirit of man It layeth flat all the corruption yea all the life and glory of the creature where ever it appears It is like a fire It burns up all the life of every thing it comes neer and it brings along with it that life which alone can live in that fire I know man hath his several waies of killing and quickening by his notions but it doth not do the thing in truth for under all the seeming deaths of the creature the creature is still alive and under all the seemingly renewed life 's of the creature the creature is still dead in its root and principle yea and also in all its motions and operations 3. For the peculiar nature of it That is sutable to every particular truth to every particular thing of the Kingdom to every particular truth we receive from God to every particular thing portion or member of life which is formed in us Thus the severall truths of the Gospel have their own particular natures The death of Christ its the resurrection of Christ its c. So likewise the several tempers and graces in the spirits of disciples have their particular natures self-denial it s faith it s love its and so the rest theirs whereby they are distinct from one another They
all agree in their common nature and properties and yet have also a distinct nature and properties of their own sutable to that whereof they are formed and to that peculiar end and operation for which they are formed Use 1. Observe the difference between the Religion of man and of God Man receiveth his vertue his strength in Religion from the outward notion The power which is found in him issueth thence but in the Religion of God the strength ariseth yea and the notion it self too from the seed The seed springing up in them in whom it is sown discovereth its own name teaching them how to call it by manifesting it self in them what it is The new Adam knoweth how to name every new creature at the first sight by his knowledg of its nature 2. See how easie it is for Religion to slip in or out of any thing or person This life this nature this vertue may creep in or out at pleasure The life may fill appear and live in that in us one day which the flesh may fill appear and live in the next The spirit of the Lord may rear up and discover himself in that Temple to day which Antichrist may take possession of to morrow Religion I mean the life of it consists in the breath of God not in any outward form whatsoever but in the breath of God there which when God once withdraweth from any thing there is no longer the true nature of Religion there to be found and ever after it is only fit to be a receptacle for the unclean spirit of man which must have some outward court some appearances of the holy nature and institutions of God to place it selfe in But the true nature and use of the thing is then lost that speech referring to the natural state of the creature is here true also Thou withdrawest thy breath they perish 3. Take notice of the proper way of discerning the truth and growth of Religion It is not by having the outward notion it is not by growing in the outward notion of any thing as of Faith Love Self-denial Resignation to Gods will c. but by the vertue and growth of the nature of the thing it self The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power VIII Of the weakness uncertainty and invalidity of the Flesh in reference to the things of God IOHN 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing THe whole Verse runneth thus It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life In the ministrations of God in the things held forth by Christ there is Flesh and Spirit Man who himself is but flesh he eyes the flesh thinking to drink in light life and happiness thence but that lies not where man looks for it viz. in the flesh in the outward reason and understanding of the thing but in the spirit of it in the spiritual nature and vertue of it It is the spirit of the truth that quickeneth not the Flesh of it Christs words in his Light in his Spirit are Life and Spirit in the light of man to the ear of man to the understanding of man they are but flesh Flesh is the principle of Nature the Root of the first Adam and the Garment about the second Adam Spirit is the principle of Grace the Root of the second Adam the new principle of life sown in and renewing the old earth of God Flesh denotes weakness outwardness proneness to pollution and corruption Spirit denotes strength inwardness purity That which is born after the flesh dyes even Christ himself so born dyes That which is born after the spirit lives even the weakest creature so born lives The flesh profiteth nothing There is a fleshly principle and there is a fleshly object neither of which are of any advantage of any true profit to the end here spoken The flesh in man is not a profitable principle the Flesh of Christ is not a profitable object The eye of the flesh is not a profitable eye the sight of the flesh is not a profitable sight the things so seen though otherwise never so excellent in their own light in their own nature yet here are of no use no benefit at all The fleshly object cannot feed the spiritual principle nor can the fleshly principle feed on the spiritual object The flesh is the natural understanding of man take it either with all outward helps of art or of more immediate revelations from God both which may very much advance it This is the principle or eye of flesh The object of this eye is all things so far as they are liable to it even the truths of God themselves the outward nature of them the outward reason of them is flesh Flesh is Gods eye an eye of his making and therefore it can be no disparagement to God to have it see the things of God in its own Religion Now this natural understanding this fleshly principle the eye of man is uncapable of receiving any thing that is spiritual from all the outward teachings of God nor can the truths of God the true nature of the things of God enter into man any such way as he looks for them The Kingdom of God commeth not by observation The spirit of the Lord entereth not into a man at the eye of his spirit Man indeed may receive the outwardness of God the outwardness of his Light the outwardness of his Life the outward Gifts of Faith of Love c. Faith of his own element faith sutable to his own nature yet do not boast O man for who hath received any such thing now but he cannot receive the truth he cannot receive the new life the seed of the kingdom is sown and groweth up man knoweth not how Indeed after the Kingdom hath entered into man and overcome him and new-molded him then he also can receive the truth and answer the touches of it though this is not so properly called a motion of his as of the life in him Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ in me saith the Apostle So that this Scripture teacheth man in all his highest strains Let him climb as high as he can with all the revelations and discoveries of God to him Let him know what he can of Christ receive what he can from Christ act what he can towards Christ All this is to no purpose it is of no use it is of no profit It is true It is of use in its kind It is an excellent kind of operation in this broken state of man and the Lord will make excellent use of it to his end but to the end proposed by God and the end which man aimeth at therein it is of no value It will not reach that eternall life which man aimeth at Observe me equally I say it is profitable in its kind and in its way and shall have its reward but it hath nothing to do with the substance
They who are truly dead with Christ are freed by that their death from their former husband the law The life which was married to it died and hath been laid in the grave and there is no marrying or giving in marriage any more even in this sence in the grave or after the Resurrection The life having dyed in that state and dispensation wherein it was brought forth and placed that it might fulfil it and dye and having slain the man also with it yea the very root and spirit of his life If either or both rise up any more they rise up free They can rise no more under the law of that dispensation to which they were slain So that the life in liberty is as it were a Lord over all the dispensations of God which as they are of an inferior nature to this life so it is their proper place to be in subjection to it He in whom the life lives reigns may in or out at pleasure use them or leave them as the light and pleasure of the nature of this life directs him He may take any of them and seem bound under them though in himself he is still free he may leave them off again and manifest his own freedom when he sees his time All things are lawful for me saith the Apostle but all things are not expedient as if he had said I can do any thing I can use any thing but yet withall I know my time My spirit which knoweth the greatness the largenes of my liberty knoweth also how to manage it And he shews as much in his practise for though at one time he could shave himself and enter into the Temple in a way of legal purification yet at another time when certain crept in to espy out his Liberty he would not give place by subjection no not for an hour but would maintain his Liberty in the very face of them He could make use of circumcision himself by vertue of this Liberty for he circumcised Timothy though he tells the Galathians that if they were circumcised Christ would profit them nothing Nor is this Liberty restrained to the life in it self but sinks with the life into the man All things were made for man All Creatures all Ordinances all Laws all Institutions and Commandments not man for them as Christ saith particularly concerning the Sabbath The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath and when man comes to his right place he shall be above them all and they shall all be subservient to him for whose service use and discipline they were made It is true Man in his present estate is a servant under them and enslaved by them yea the life it self though by the right of its own nature it be far more free yet for a season it may lie under greater bonds then man in his condition of slavery hath yet tasted but when the Son groweth up to his freedom he becomes free indeed yea and that man whom he maketh free is free also But it is a great vanity for any to dream of and to think to make use of and live according to this freedom before it be truly brought forth in them It is not by having the cleer notions and apprehensions of Liberty or by taking scope to themselves according to these notions that men become free but it is by the nature growth and advancement of the true life in them from and according to the true light and Power of the Spirit of the Lord. The former is but poor mans aspiring into a state into which he is not rightly led which tends to greater bonds The other is a fair passage through and from under bonds to which that person who is once set free by the truth shall never be reduced For the Lord will maintain that Liberty unto which his own Spirit Life and Power exalteth This is the First thing wherein Liberty consists a disobligation fâ—om all Laws and Ordinances inferior to the nature or life which is bound by them 2. Liberty consists in an exemption from all powers of a Superior nature If Satan may be supposed to be stronger then the life as he is compared with the life in its weakness though he that then stands by the life and taketh care of it is stronger then Satan yet the life shall be free from him The life which deserves to be called free must be out of the reach or fear of his claws The life is not free which Satan may interrupt or at least not while he may interrupt it Satan must down when the life springs up God will trample down Satan before the presence of the life nay under the feet both of man and the creature when the life appears in them The God of peace will tread down the troublesome spirit of Satan under the spirits yea and under the flesh too of all his Saints in the day of their freedom Nay the very Power of God so far as it was dreadful to Christ and to his Saints for they have always complained of that as the most terrible thing which they have had to deal with and indeed it is that that chiefly afflicteth and slayeth them in the hour of their sickness and death though all the time of their life it was their chief support I say this power they must be secured from too in the day of their Liberty God will not now interpose any more with his exercises as he formerly did in his time of nurturing the life but henceforth there issueth nothing from him but what answereth the nature and desire of the life 3. Liberty lyeth and that most of all in the cleerness strength and perfection of life in the temper of the spirit in the nature life and growth of the spirit If the spirit were never so free from all Laws on the one hand and from all powers on the other hand yet if it failed of cleerness strength or perfection of life it could not be perfectly at liberty If it want either light or strength of life to move with it cannot but fall short in its motions and though it were never so free in other respects yet it would still be bound up in the darkness weakness and imperfection of its own nature If mans reason were free from all Laws and bonds whatsoever yet if it were not full in its own nature if it wanted either light or strength in its kind man could not be free either in the exercise or enjoyment of his natural principle And this holds also in the spiritual principle Its Liberty lies in the perfection of its nature therefore though he may have a taste of it before yet he cannot be fully free until he be brought forth in perfection There must be a cleer spirit within a cleer course and passage for the spirit cleer light about the spirit and full strength and vigor in the spirit or there cannot be a through freedom If the spirit have any clouds
any darkness about it self it is not free If there be any rubs in its way it cannot walk freely therefore God promiseth to this life an high way a plain path in the day of its redemption and freedom as Isai. 35.8 If its light be not very full and cleer and its strength absolutely perfect in reference to its own nature and state it will want of its Liberty it will not be able to come forth or walk in perfect freedom So that that Liberty which is perfect and compleat must be of a perfect seed from a perfect root perfectly grown up and scituated in the life and Spirit of the Lord from which alone it proceedeth and groweth up and in which alone it can live and be enjoyed It hath been and still is a great question how far those that are in Christ are freed from the Law and whether their sins be against the Law or no or only against Christ who is their Life and Law In relation whereunto since it falleth so fairly in my way I shall lay down three Conclusions which may occasion the cleering of it in part and the further better right understanding of this Liberty wherewith I intend to conclude the point only adding somewhat concerning the abuse which it is very liable unto as every other spiritual thing also is in the way that hitherto it hath broke forth and appeared and right use of Liberty from the following words The Conclusions are these 1. He that is in Christ cannot sin against the Law because he is not under it and therefore cannot be bound by it nor be engaged to give any account unto it He is under another husband and therefore free from this as the Apostle reasoneth Rom. 7. But yet mark As Christ himself in his fleshly state was under the Law who was the forerunner and pattern so all his seed in their fleshly state are under the Law likewise They may have sometimes a sight of life and a taste of liberty but until they have followed Christ into his grave and are become dead with him yea and risen with him too they shall not enjoy it While the life lives in the flesh it lives under the Law when the life comes to live in the spirit alone it shall be perfectly freed from the Law This is most certain The life of its own nature is not under the Law nor can its nature to speak properly be subjected to the Law though it may act a part of subjection for a season yet in the acting of that part the sparklings of a diviner life and Law which swallow up this weak life with the whole Law of it cannot but now and then appear as they did in Christ in the time of his subjection and servitude But the man in which the life inhabits and through which the life acts is weak and hath only a promise of strength and of redemption with the life after his death and resurrection with it but hath not any full sense or participation of it but is to remain under bondage and to travail up and down in the wilderness of this worldly state with the life until then And though in the Apostles times the Lord did let out both this life and this liberty into the humane nature in his Saints to give a little glimps what they were yet they were let forth but weakly and they were soon clapped in again and the old husband the Law returns and takes universal possession again though under the name of the life and Liberty of the Gospel This then is the sum To all men whatsoever until they be swallowed up into the spirit of Christ the law is still a Schoolmaster and they may find if they observe themselves the Law of nature or the Law of good and evil which is written in their hearts by nature and further revived by acquired knowledg whether from the light springing up in man and so received thence or from the light held forth in the Scriptures continually instructing and discipling of them As a Schoolmaster it exerciseth them as its Disciples and Schollars Yea in the very times of the Apostles though they had attained a strain of freedom which was not attained before yet they were not altogether free but groaned under bondage and panted after Liberty 2. He that is in Christ cannot do that which the Law judgeth to be sin He cannot act against the righteousness that is in the Law He can no more live to sin then he can live to the Law He hath as little to do with any thing which the Law judgeth evil as with the Law it self He can give no offence to any that have any true light in them for he can do nothing against any true light in any kind This is the nature of truth It longeth for it seeketh after it knoweth it embraceth both its own image and its own substance Truth in the image longeth after the substance Truth in the substance comprehendeth acknowledgeth and embraceth the image The righteousness which is in Christ and his seed in its nature motions and actions comprehendeth the righteousness of the Law Indeed it cannot be comprehended by it but it comprehends it and the righteousness of the Law knoweth it and giveth way to it It hath more in it a far higher kind of righteousness then the Law calleth for but it hath that also Every spiritual motion is beyond the nature and excellency of the Law but yet it hath all that excellency that the Law can possibly expect or exact and therfore cannot offend against the life or truth of the Law The life and righteousness that is in Christ most naturally cherisheth the life and righteousness that is in the Law which they who taste of the truth as it is in Iesus are taught to understand 3. If he could possibly do that which the Law judgeth to be sin yet his sin would not be directly against the Law for the Law cannot judg him as a sinner who is not under it but against his own life which is a greater offence and hath more of the nature of sin in it then if it were against the Law He that is in Christ hath a new life in him which is sown in his spirit and his spirit with that life is transplanted into Christ who is his Lord and Lawgiver And what he now is he is in Christ and what he now does he does unto Christ and is not now any longer under that dispensation of the Law in which he was before his transplantation so that he is not henceforth so much as in a capacity of sinning against it This then is the sum They that are in Christ in his Spirit dead and risen with him who are entred into and swallowed up in the newness Vertue Life and Power of his Death and Resurrection are not subject to the Law of any dispensation though they can also fulfil any yea and are to fulfil the Law of every dispensation but
partly Instructions and partly Corrections He breatheth his Spirit into them and by the power and vertue of his rod beareth down and subjecteth their spirits He burneth up their dross aforehand that he may make them fit to be saved and that it may be righteous for him to save them in the day of the worlds destruction He striketh them down he layeth load upon them he humbleth them exceedingly until he hath fitly tempeâ—ed them to hear and then he teacheth them the Law of his Life And thus he reneweth both his knocks and his beams of light as their condition need and capacity requireth O happy happy thrice happy are they whom God leadeth though through a wilderness and the dismal exercises thereof into his land of rest All that severity of Discipline under which they are now nurtured and trained up is nothing to that misery which they shall then escape or to that life and blessedness which they are hereby prepared for I shall close thus They that trust in lying vanities vanity shall be their recompence Yea they that trust or hope in God or in Christ or in God through Christ after the strength of their own apprehensions fastened upon or gathered from the Scriptures and not according to the knowledg and power of the truth as it is in Iesus shall find even these objects vanity to them their faith and expectation upon them vanity also and their end misery when they sink into death and destruction with the world yea and that somewhat deeper then the world But they who in truth are taught and led by the truth to wait and hope under their bondage and misery for the truth how extravagant or rediculous soever they may appear to all the various eyes of the several sorts of Religious persons from the strange exercises of God upon them shall be owned by the truth The root nature yea and all the motions of the spirit of the creature even in all the dispensations of God is rejected for in the true state and nature of things it is not that which the Lord can accept It is dark in all its light dead in all its life a captive and a slave in all its liberty an hater and a rebel in the midst of all its love and obedience and therefore how can the Lord who searching the spirit cleerly knoweth and discerneth this in the spirit but throw it aside notwithstanding its glittering appearances of light and life from him of precious faith and hope in him and of sweet love and obedience towards him But the root nature and motions of the seed under all its disguises in the midst of all its darkness death bonds captivity and estrangedness from God is his delight is his heir it is the heir of his nature and spirit and therefore shall undoubtedly inherit the truth and glory of life in him He that hath ears to hear let him hear the spirit which testifieth the same thing now as it hath done all along the Scriptures O let him who desireth the truth of salvation harken to the voice of the spirit of God in the Scriptures and not give ear to such fictions as his own spirit doth most naturally form out of them XIV The happy End of the holy Nature and Course of the Seed of Life which the Spirit of Life through all the various dark paths of sin death and misery most faithfully guideth it unto or The sweet and happy End of the Righteous PSAL. 37. vers 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace THe perfect or upright man is he who is of an entire stamp or nature and who walketh entirely with God in every dispensation from the Law of this nature The very nature of man is imperfect He is a transgressor from the womb Let him never so honestly and ingenuously dedicate himself to God and to righteousness yet he cannot for his heart walk with him or live righteously But the other cannot but do so And however he may slip from the weakness of his present estate yet his nature still sets him right again Now there is no man more miserable in his present condition then this man The unrighteous the unholy spirit of man can thrive in the world or flourish in any form of Religion but this man not having the spirit of this world cannot seek or enjoy it nor deliver himself from the oppressions and sufferings which are multiplied upon him by it Nay he is persecuted also and grievously afflicted by the powers of darkness which will not spare him in this their hour Yea his God estrangeth and hideth himself from him he hideth his face from the house of Iacob chastisiing him sorely continually Because of that corruption which cleaveth unto him and which his feet are still gathering the holy God which loveth truth and purity is ever and anon casting him into the fire The Lord by his Spirit of Judgment and Burning doth most naturally search try and judg the spirits of his people until he hath purified and perfected them Alas how sad therefore must it needs be with them in the midst of all these The world may live and flourish but they are still withering and dying The world may enjoy the freedom of its natural spirit after a sort but theirs is in bonds The world may laugh and rejoyce because of the contents they find and can reap and enjoy in the things of the world and in their several forms and exercises of Religion but these cannot but weep and lament that they are left desolate and have no Comforter These are the sick ones these are the blind ones these are the lame ones these are the poor ones these are the naked ones these are the peâ—secuted ones these are the oppressed ones whose misery no eye can see no heart conceive no tongue express Any misery that man meeteth with the spirit of man may pity him in but this is a kind of misery which the spirit of man knoweth not and these are the persons whom he judgeth and whom his heart is hardened against But mark the end of this man Look upon all this distress all this misery all this lamentably hard travel in its end For the end of that man is peace There is no knowing of any thing as it now appears under its vail in this dark shadowy world but if you would understand any thing aright keep your eye fixed upon it and observe it to the end In the end flesh when it is stripped of all its seeming glory will appear what it is and in the end spirit when it is unclothed of all its deformed rags will appear what it is If you consider the perfect man without the discerning of his end he will appear the poorest most miserable most contemptible thing that can be but if your eye can truly follow him unto his end you will have another ghess sight of him there for the end of that man
hath been testified unto you and from whence that testimony may come for ought ye know Have ye dealt ingenuously with the Lord in this point or rather have ye not watched for the halting of those which have testified that so ye might harden your spirits in your own invented ways For if ye could make good that they once were the Lords yet they are not now his unless the same spirit and light did again lead into them and quicken them The Lord loveth Spirit and Truth but regardeth not a dead form although it were the very same wherein his Spirit once did live Can ye blame the Lord for preparing a stumbling block for you or for suffering or giving you up to stumble when ye your selves desire it Ye will have such and such Ordinances paths and practises to be the ways of the Lord every one according to his own imagination and cannot endure to hear any thing to the contrary Ye will be judging and measuring the things of God before ye have received either an eye or light or measure from him But I injure you ye have eyes ye have light ye have the reed of the Word and can measure things aright by that It is well so it must be But assuredly the Spirit of the Lord hath tryed and judged all your light all your ways all your knowledg and practises in Religion and hath found them scanty in his ballance scanty even of that true light nature and spirit which he seeketh to worship him and which he alone delighteth to be worshipped in Alas Sirs ye may please your selves awhile but ye cannot stand before the blasting breath of the Lord which bloweth upon all flesh and corrupteth it If the Lord hath testified against your duties as being things which he requireth not at your hands against your Ordinances and ways of worship as not being those which he hath appointed against your graces as not being of the nature of his Life and Spirit against your evidences for Heaven and happiness as not being such as will endure his tryal and touchstone yea against your very foundation as not being that which the Spirit of the Lord hath layd but which your own spirits by your own art and skill a little heightened perhaps by your study of the Scriptures and other exercises of your mind have fastened and built all upon I say If the Lord hath testified these things against you the Lord will not fail to make them good and whatsoever your confidences to the contrary are ye shall not prosper in them O consider this if ye love your Souls It is not a building upon Christ after the flesh it is not either a beleeving or obeying from any rational knowledg from a knowledg of the understanding though the heart and affections be never so much heated therewith accompanying it never so vigorously which will save any man but a building of a new nature upon the new nature of Christ. It must be a building of a new nature for Christ saveth his building his people his seed his Church and it must be built or founded upon the new nature of Christ for Christ himself saveth not according to the oldness of the letter but according to the newness of the Spirit It is not the building of such a new nature upon such a Christ as man will call so but a building of the truth upon the Truth Alas what a poor imaginary thing is the Christ which many if not most apprehend Christ consisteth not in the name but in the nature and in the spirit of the thing Now who knoweth the nature of Christ or of that God which dwelleth in Christ Who knoweth the nature of his Wisdom the nature of his Goodness the nature of his Greatness the nature of his Life Spirit c. Who knoweth the nature of the Father which begat or the nature of the Son who was begotten either in his life or death yea who knoweth himself Man doth not build himself I mean his own nature upon Christ but that which he calleth himself upon that which he calleth Christ. Here will appear to be strange work when the Lord searcheth into it Wonderful serious are men in their Religion and yet through the present thick darkness little do they know what they do Little do they perceive how they build an imagination upon an imagination It is very true that the Apostles had a true knowledg of Christ and that they came forth with a true knowledg of Christ and it then being the time of light that the Spirit of the Lord also went forth to quicken that knowledg where it pleased him unto the hearers But what knowledg is it whereupon men now build Who now knoweth the nature of the Lords Anointed which is the only Saviour Who looks into the Scripture now with a new eye I am sure with an old eye no man can see the things of God But I see the things of God wilt thou perhaps say therefore my eye is new Nay but thou seest with the old eye and therefore thy sight is not right Take heed lest thou be convinced of this too late O Lord God that ever man should give scope to himself in so great vanity as to lay the stress of his own eternal condition upon the motions of his own blind dark nature But who doth thus I acknowledg to thee O man that in thy light and according to thy measure thou doest not so but in the light of the Lord and according to his measure who doth not so Tell me true Doest not thou built upon Christ according to thy creaturely understanding Ah Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life the fleshly reason the fleshly understanding the fleshly affections of man are too gross to enter into either The first Adam how excellent soever cannot lay one stone in the building of God The eye of mans purest Reason cannot read one line in the Book of God O who knoweth God or his Christ or his Worship or any of his Truths We have a great deal of knowledg in the world why all sorts know but yet my spirit saith to all the sorts of this present generation Who knoweth God neither do I speak about the degree but concerning the true nature of knowledg The gross unclean spirit of man which it still is in the midst of all its Legal and Evangelical washings cleanness and purity cannot possibly see or be acquainted with the Lord. No unclean eye no unclean heart no unclean hand c. can ever come near the Life and Nature of God but only that which is truly changed Nothing can live in the presence of God but that which hath the true Life and Nature of God in it which groweth not from any institution or form of Religion whereby so many appearing changes are wrought in the world but from a true seed sown in the spirit of man by the Spirit of the Lord. Now do not mistake me
only to the Law of pure nature Nor can they properly be said to be subject to that for of it self it floweth from their nature and that in a way of subjection to them so that they may be rather said to be Lords over it All the dispensations of God with all the Laws of them flow from that life which is in Christ and his seed from which life they come in which life they are comprehended to which life they are inferior and owe subjection And though the Lord exercise his Son under them for a season so that they are above and he below they Lords and he a Servant under them yet when the heir is grown up to his age understanding and liberty it cannot but be otherwise And this is the right and proper state and posture of things whereas all things are now out of order the first last and the last first when every inferior nature is comprehended in and subject unto the superior When the sensitive part is subject to the rational the rational to the spiritual the spiritual to the divine The creature to man man to Christ Christ to God And when this is effectually sprung up brought forth and perfected then cometh the Kingdom the universal Kingdom the Kingdom both of God of Christ and of man Then God shall reign when he hath pitched his Tabernacle built up his Temple erected his Throne and Kingdom wherein he will reign When he hath taught his Son and his creature perfect subjection to himself then will he reign in them both Then Christ shall reign When he is become perfectly subject when he hath throughly learned obedience by the things that he hath suffered and hath given up his life to the will of the Father and lain in the grave during his pleasure Then will the Lord at length raise him up to the Crown give him the Kingdom set him at his own right hand and he shall reign henceforth in God and with God Yea When man hath learned this lesson from Christ and hath laid down his life also and buried it in the grave of Christ and there let it lie the time of Christs pleasure Then will Christ also at last raise him up in his own life even as God raised up Christ in his life and he shall reign in Christ and with Christ in God for ever and ever And now tell me ye that have skill which is the most Honorable of these Gods reigning in Christ and in man Christs reigning in God and in man or mans reigning in God and in Christ. Surely God will manifest his skill in imparting himself wholly and fully to his Christ and Christ will shew the same skill and will not fall short in it of conveying all to man that God imparts to him If the whole river cannot run intirely and perfectly every where it will not be satisfied in it self it will not be able to satisfie the desire of its nature which is after this manner to empty it self The Lord will sow liberally that he may reap liberally Nor is it any dishonour to him for us to see acknowledg and hold forth the greatness Excellency and Majesty of him in his seed Hitherto the Worshiping even of God by the mouths and in the spirits of most men hath been Idolatry but hereafter ye shall see man worshipped without Idolatry When the Lord clotheth the flesh of his seed with his own Spirit the spirit of man so soon as ever he beholds it shall fall down before it Yea all the Angels of God shall worship him The meanest Life of Christ in the lowest of his seed if any thing here may be termed mean or low shall deserve the greatest worship of the highest Angels Only use not Liberty for an occasion to the flesh The flesh will be entring into all the spiritual things of God but it is only into the flesh of them and to serve the flesh by them This they who are the seed in the true nature cannot do and they who are advanced to be a type or representation of the seed in any dispensation and so have a taste of the nature life and liberty of the seed are carefully to avoyd the doing of it in that dispensation wherein they are placed by the spirit of the Lord. The spirit of life in the seed cannot do thus This is clean contrary to the nature of that life nor the humane spirit neither so far as it dwells in and is comprehended by that life But that which is but spirit in a type or by vertue of a dispensation but is still flesh at root in its own in most nature is very prone to do thus yea as also the flesh which hangs about that which is spirit in truth both which prejudice themselves very much there and therefore should endeavour watch and pray that they might avoyd it Only use not Liberty for an occasion c. Ye may use all your Liberty only do not abuse it If it be in any kind an occasion or advantage to the flesh ye abuse it If ye manage it so as to satisfie any desire any delight of the flesh this is not true Liberty rightly made use of but the Liberty of the Gospel injured The Liberty of the Gospel it sets free the spirit but it is a yoke of bondage to the flesh it binds up the man wonderful-strait in all his nature and motions letting him not one whit-further loose then he is new made in this new life That Liberty therefore which feeds and satisfies the flesh which gives scope to the carnal spirit of man is not the truth And if there be any light which the spirit of man hath by the Revelation of the Gospel whereby he apprehendeth and practiseth such liberty he understandeth not that light he abuseth that light More particularly There are three main ways of abusing this liberty or the flesh is very apt to take occasion by this liberty to corrupt it self and prejudice the life of its spirit chiefly in these three respects In reference to its Temper in reference to its Rest in reference to its Motions What the spirit slays by true spiritual Liberty the flesh getting into the outside of it quickens and what the spirit thereby quickeneth the flesh thereby slayeth 1. The flesh is apt to take occasion by Gospel-Liberty to corrupt it self in its Temper to begin to lift up it self as if it were something The flesh when it s own nakedness is discovered to it and when it is cast into grievous bonds feeling the fetters and shakles of sin death and misery about it it is mightily ashamed but when it feels these fallen off and in stead thereof it finds it self clothed with the life and liberty of the spirit it begins to prick up its ears again and look upon it self as some-body O how low were the people of the Iews both in the eye of the world and in their own thoughts before the Lord clothed and adorned them but