sanctification 1 Cor. 1. 30. consisting in a real and actual change of the heart which lieth in our conformity to Christs legal righteousness and is communicable unto men by this covenant in degree and measure so as through this knowledge of Jesus Christ men come to escape the pollutions of the world and to live in a conformity of mind to the holy commandment delivered and exhibited to them in the glory and perfection of Christs flesh or natural man unto which righteous and holy operations man is called by the law and rule of the first covenant wherein when Christ was set up as he was made under the law he was like unto us in all things sin only excepted This sort of holy and righteous operations in men and of holy and righteous principles according to this covenant is at large described Ezek. 18. wherewithal Christ declares that in the day they turn from this their righteousness and commit iniquity they shall die and their righteousness be no more remembred These may be heightned to such measures and degrees of life and light in this first covenant as to know all mysteryes to have faith so as to remove mountaines and to speak with the tongue of men and Angels taste of the heavenly gift and powers of the world to come and yet be as sounding brass and a tinckling Cymbal yea may become the more deeply fixed thereby in irrecoverable enmity against Christ and God which comes to pass by their having received Christ thus in part only and looking no farther then to the perfection through him attainable on this side his grave and resurrection whereas the true spiritual seed and chosen ones of God receive Christ not in part only whereby they have in common with the other all the forementioned benefits but in whole whereby they have over and above that which excels possessing and enjoying the riches of both covenants and all this not conditionally and upon the slippery tenure of the first covenant but absolutely and unchangeably in the second Isa 59. 21. As for me this is my covenant with them saith the Lord My spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforthand for ever In this new and everlasting covenant Christ is given and received in whole answerable to what himself received from the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the womb from whose fulness they receive grace for grace in both those sorts of principles and operations which we have already described in the foregoing chapter according to one of which he is alwaies one with the Father acting in unity of mind with him throughout and according to the other of which he is a righteous man in all his operations after the tenor of the law This then is that which we mean where whole Christ is given to any soul both these sorts of principles and operations through his indwelling spirit and presence are communicated unto it which two perfections are far better then that one that is given single and alone by the first covenant for here when one is ready to fall the other is neer to help him up but woe be to him that is alone Eccles 4. 9. 10. Now Christ by this entire gift of himself begets in and together with that which he communicates single by the first covenant a further capacity in the mind of man to be of one heart and one way with him throughout built up in this unity of the faith of the Son of God so as to make the Saint alwaies do that in a way of true Evangelical obedience which is pleasing unto him as he was alwaies in the daies of his flesh when he was offering up himself in the eternal spirit doing that which was pleasing to the Father When Christ thus bestows himself upon any forming his own reception in them they do obtain thereby the power and dignity to become the sons of God as those that are not born only of blood and of the will of the flesh and of the will of man but of God through which seed of God abiding in them they are made uncapable of sinning wilfully or of so provoking God as that he should swear in his wrath they shall never enter into his Rest being once taken thus into Gods everlasting covenant and made Gods first-born from the dead and co-heirs with Christ higher then the Kings of the earth A seed with whom his covenant shall stand fast and for whom he keeps his mercy for evermore who shall endure for ever and their throne as the daies of heaven who yet if they walk not in Gods law but for sake his judgements if they break his statutes and keep not his commandments as they may do then saith God I will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from them nor suffer my faithfullness to fail but will keep them from the great transgression that presumtuous sins get not dominion over them These are described Rev. 14. 3 4 5. as those that were enabled to sing a new song before the Throne which none could learn but those that were thus redeemed from the earth who are not defiled with women but in this unity and simplicity wherein they are espoused to Christ are kept as chaste Virgins to that their one husband and are followers of the Lamb whithersoever he goes as those that are redeemed from among men and made the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb In whose mouth is found no guile as they are found in this unity with Christ and considered as that one seed Gal. 3. 16. that are without fault before the Throne of God From the consideration of which Scriptures the further benefits that do inseparably accompany Christ as entirely and absolutely given by the new and everlasting convenant are likewise plainly to be taken notice of as the peculiar priviledges of these besides those that they have in common with the others as First that calling which those few chosen ones are called with that shall be saved consisting in this spirit of adoption and son-ship which makes them one spiritual seed with Christ as brought forth into the same unity with him which he is in with his Father whereby they become heirs and are Lords of all perfectly distinguished from the servant or children born after the flesh under the first covenant And that we may the better understand what is meant by this unity of the faith of the Son of God into which all the spiritual seed are begotten we are to take notice of three spiritual unions witnessed unto by the Scriptures First between God and Christ in the WORD that was in the BEGINNING and was with God and was God in which union Christ the Mediator is God Secondly there is
Captains and competitors Michael in the person of the blessed Mediator and the old Dragon in the person of the devil And this last seems to get the start of the other at first on set forasmuch as by means of the womans weakness who was first in the transgression he makes a great advance towards his design supposing he had neer attained his end for he had prevailed so far as to bring Adam and Eve into the transgression and forfeiture of all the natural good they were by creation made possessours of And then further in prosecution of the same design upon this breach made between God and them he endeavours to cast in the seed of alienation and fixed enmity between them and God in order to set up his abiding Throne and seat in the fallen nature of man whereof the first Adam was the earthly head in whom the door was set open whereby sin entred into the world and death by sin Thus things were brought into a most hopeful way in the eye of the devil to disappoint and defeat the design of the Mediator as to the safe conducting the promised seed through all this disadvantage and opposition into the desired place of the true Rest Whence it is that the Mediator and Lamb slain from the beginning did hereupon think it high time to make discovery of himself and of the means for the accomplishing and bringing of his designs to pass in despite of the Serpents subtilty and in downright opposition to the very gates of hell By way of promise therefore he declares and engages himself to set up another man a second Adam Jesus the Son of Mary to be born of the seed of the woman who by being bruised in his heel and undergoing all the rage and enmity that the devil and his instruments could exercise upon him should arrive at such a neerness and intimacy of converse with God in the glory within the veil as that by the joy thereof set before him and the power thereof conveyed into him in the seed of it when he was laid hold on by the WORD in the womb of the Virgin he should be enabled to offer up himself in sacrifice to the Fathers will without spot to God through the eternal spirit enduring the Cross and despising the shame and so through his sufferings entring into the glory that was to follow he is for ever set down upon his Throne at Gods right hand expecting till his foes be made his foot-stool Hence it is that as through man came death so also by man comes the resurrection of the dead and the same man or first Adam who was of the earth earthy becomes the subject matter for both these seeds to work upon the seed of the promise and seed of the Serpent both being to be sown in this earth influenced and managed by these two grand competitors Michael and the Dragon in order to engage and fix the particular men and women of Adams posterity either in their true Rest or in an everlasting enmity thereunto and exclusion from it as they are either begotten of God and born of the spirit whereby they become children of the promise and heirs of salvation or left in the state of their natural beings voluntarily to drink in the seed of the Serpent and thereby to become hardned and prove finally children of wrath and sons of perdition as born after the flesh and as by a fair shew in the flesh they do exercise and manage the fiercest persecution against the true spiritual seed So then according to the birth which they are of they are either measured out with a line of life unto life or a line of death unto death answering the two great ends whereunto we shall find all things serve in this world and in the kingdom thereof This is that being of this world or from beneath spoken of by Christ in the Gospel which though in its rise and beginning as hath been shewed it be of God yet in its progress and end through the unlawful use thereof it comes to be of the devil who is the head and father unto that state spirit and interest which stands in direct contradiction and enmity to that of Christ and the promisedseed as they are the Jerusalem that is from above and are not of this world For in this Serpentine seed there is comprehended an irreconcileable enmity and opposition to the power and excellency of the Cross of Christ In which contrariety and opposition to the Cross all natural perfection and goodness is looked upon by God as considered only in its single seed and as the enjoyers and possessors thereof are left by God to their own natural senses capacities and powers of mind assisted with all needful helps and means proper and suitable to that state without the addition of a higher and more excellent birth reserved by God as a fruit of his bounty and free grace unto his chosen and beloved ones By what hath been said we may plainly see that although Gods own chosen vessels are determined from all eternity and fixed in such a neerness of union with God in their head that they can never be moved but are preserved by the power and influence thereof from all possibility of miscarying so as to fall short of true blessedness yet those that are in the number of the non-elect are not necessarily determined so much as in the means leading them to their destruction but have the free use of their own natural abilities to prevent the same assisted with all suitable requisite helps and means from God to keep them from it who omitteth nothing that is to be done on his part conducible hereunto which is consistent with the freedome of mans will and doth not offer violence to the principles which himself chooseth to joyn issue with God upon besides all which he that is faithful and cannot deny himself is pleased to be in the posture of one that is not yet risen up to shut the door finally upon them but leaves open a possibility of graffing them into an oneness of seed with the right heirs if at his coming he shall find them making a right and lawful use of the blood of Christ required by that first covenant renewed thereby upon them since the fall and not voluntarily rendring themselves uncapable of such favour by their needless provocations in hardning their hearts against the voice and teachings of the Cross and rejecting that counsel of God against their own souls God then is so far from looking upon the fall of man in the first Adam and the act of disobedience by him committed as the fixing of him and his posterity in an incapacity of returning unto God and of being made the true and right heirs of salvation that he is pleased through the blood of Christ to declare himself reconciled to the whole race of mankind as beholding them in a new head in the seed of the woman or second Adam a truth at
therefore not to infer from what hath been said as some ignorantly or maliciously do that in asserting those under the two former dispensations to be capable of miscarrying as not therein arrived at that which is their true safety and blessedness we destroy the faith of many dear Saints and professors of Christ who have dyed or yet may die without ever acknowledging or experiencing a higher or other state of acceptation with God For upon this ground Christ should never have come in the flesh or have promised to come the second time without sin unto salvation because many a true Saint may have died and never seen nor acknowledged him in either of these his comings But indeed this assertion is so far from straitning or lessening the number of those that are the true heirs of salvation that it rather discovers how they may lie hid as they did in Elijahs time out of the observation of visible professors amongst those that they exclude as heathens and may be comprehended by Christ their spiritual head when as yet they may not have their spiritual senses brought forth into exercise so as to apprehend him but may be babes in Christ walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 1 3. undistinguished from the rest of the world And although they may in that respect seem to be men in the flesh yet they may live according to God in the spirit and find acceptance in the beloved one whilst they themselves may either be without law exercising a chaste natural conscience or may be under the law believers so Zealous of the law as to flie in the face of Paul himself for witnessing a higher light then they have yet experience of or can bear Which being premised we shall now proceed to shew what is the third and last sort of Rule and operation of Christ that is set up in the hearts and consciences of men by vertue of the new creation and everlasting covenant described Ephes 2. 10. to be that workmanship whereby we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them distinguished as well from the good works of the law as the good works of nature before spoken to consisting in the operation and exercise of that faith through which we are preserved from falling away taken off from those operations wherein self is kept alive and weighs down the ballance and carried on to the saving of the soul For the nature of this faith is to give subsistence and reception in the heart unto Christ in his second appearance considered as in the seed thereof springing up more and more unto a perfect day which consisting in the very image it self and substantial brightness of Gods glory as it subjects and subdues the first earthly and shadowy image wherein man was created unto a perfect subserviency to and harmony with it self makes of twain one new man or Temple of God in heaven where also is seen the Ark of his Test ament and forms the heart into a subjection unto Christ not only as he is the KING OF RIGHTEOUSNES but as he is KING OF PEACE also qualifying the soul not only to minister in the charge of the Levits in the holy place but to draw neer unto God and enter with the high Priest into the holiest of all as having the exercise of all the natural powers and faculties of the mind in their own proper righteousness and holiness but retained in a broken bruised crucified state perfectly subjected to the spiritual sences and operations brought into exercise through faith to the perfecting and fulfilling of the other and so making the same Saint capable to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb too Thus by living the life of faith the true Saint comes to have the evidence of things unseen and to hope above hope whilst the first Tabernacle is taking down to be laid in the grave and Christ is bringing a perfect weakness and insufficiency upon him to speak think will or do from any other spring or fountain of action and motion then from himself who is risen from the dead or from his exalted heavenly manhood who by degrees as their house from heaven cloaths them upon and keeps them from being found naked though despoyled of their first self-sufficiency ability as it stood single alone This is the faith whereby power is given to us to be the sons of God in a birth and participation of the divine nature wherein God communicates himself in his first and second appearance as knit together and made up of twain into one new name in Christ which none know but they that have it forming up the answer of a good conscience through the resurrection from the dead 1 Pet. 3. 19. to the receiving of whole Christ as he is the finisher as well as the beginner of our faith as he is the High Priest as well as the sacrifice in our nature or as through the unity of Spirit wherein he lives with his Father he does offer up and crucify the will of his flesh bringing it into perfect subjection to his Fathers will This is the patern of being and obedience according to which we are formed when we are made NEW CREATURES being that image of the Son unto which all the adopted children of the new Covenant given by the father to Christ are predestinated to be conformed in copartnership with Christ as he is the first born among many brethren for which he prayed as the peculiar mercy reserved for them in distinction from all the world beside whom therefore in this sense he did not pray for when he desired of his father that they all might be one as he and the father are one Joh. 17. 9 11. And says he the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and be with me where I am that they may behold the glory that thou hast given me in the love which thou shewedst me and wherewith thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world that so also the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them ver 22. 23 24 26. The effect of which prayer is accomplished in the heart and conscience of every true believer that is made a NEW CREATURE and is that which constitutes and sets up the new man in his right and perfect distinction from the first Adams highest purity and utmost perfection consisting in that building of God made without hands mans house from heaven with which he is gradually clothed upon as he is gradually unclothed of the first building and so formed up in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto that perfection of manhood which is attainable even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ unto which we shall arrive when
desolate and a widow for a little moment This act of his in a word is called the hiding of his face from the heart that he had been espoused and married unto by the first Covenant and so hiding as never to be seene or known more after the flesh or in the single light and life of this his first Ministery which is caused two wayes First by the dawning and near approach of the glory of his second appearance which by coming in place turns the Sun and Moon of the first natural glory into darknesse and blood before this great and notable day of the Lord which Christ is willing to suffer and to own it to the soul as that which deserves not the name of glory in comparison of that which doth excel and therefore judges it meet for him in his first perfection and light to decrease as the other increases upon the soul whereby doing this by degrees the soul is not found naked but still becomes cloathed upon with a greater as it is uncloathed of a lesser perfection and between both sin and all evil conscience consisting in the filthinesse of flesh and spirit is kept out more firmly then ever so that as the Mannah of Christs flesh failes and the nourishment thereby decayes the hidden Mannah comes in the roome as bread that is given upon the munition of rocks and waters that will not faile but become a Well springing up to eternall life and a seed of life and light increasing to a perfect day Thus the Sonne resignes up the Kingdome to the Father in the beleeving heart giving way to the Fathers ruling over the heart in his roome that God may be all in all and that by the Sonnes decreasing till he voluntarily abase himself as low as Gods footstoole in obedience unto the Will of his Father he may bring down all enemies with him into the same abasement and subjection whether they will or no to the putting down all rule all authority and power that would under pretence of friendship to his first appearance be enthroning themselves there which thus are triumphed over in this grave to the leading captivity captive And therefore Christ as the Sonne singly considered in his first appearance doth absolutely refuse any longer to continue a Husband and to command in that capacity but gives up his rule into the Fathers hand and comes again along with him in that new glory as second in the Throne and abides ruler over the soul for ever Thus the Bridegoome takes himself away and discontinues his rule in the heart as he is married and entertaines converse with the soul in and by the first Covenant wherein he is known according to the flesh and by this his separation from the soul doth bring the natural man of the Saint into a most perfect wildernesse-condition for barrennesse disconsolatenesse and untrodden paths to sense and reason together with exposednesse to all manner of trials and temptations from within and from without and into this forsaken Widowhood doth Christ purposely lead the beleever for the trial of his faith and to work that work of repentance and change in his mind which is never to be repeuted of even to arme him with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus when he suffered in the flesh to the ceasing or causing of sinne for ever to cease and be abolished And therefore makes it his own work which he fixedly carries on in the soul against all its reluctancies wrastlings and strivings to the contrary as the great discriminating work of his love to his chosen generation the chastenings wherby he reaches the true sons and heirs of salvation the obedience of faith and which he prevailes with them patiently to endure that thereby they may be brought into subjection to the Father of spirits and live This is the discipline wherwith Christ exercises the many sons that he is bringing up unto glory being but the same he exercised in and upon himself Heb. 2. 10. and ch 12. 6 7. not thinking fit to deale thus with bastards v. 8. but leaving them to their liberty content to be out-wrestled and over-mastered by them to their crucifying in themselves the Sonne of God afresh and putting him to open shame in a counter-endeavour to his voluntary resignation of power and enmity to his Crosse setting up the Sonnes Kingdome in their hearts in competition with and opposition to the Fathers which the Sonne himself disclaims hiding his face as one ashamed thereof Thus Christ the Bridegroome takes himself away and becomes dead to the soul that was as his married wife calling to the Saint to follow him into the grave where he shall find that out of the devourer comes meat and out of the strong Lion of the tribe of Judah slaine and crucified doth proceed sweetnesse And as Christ in this manner thinks fit to hide his face and leave the soul in this state of weaknesse and disconsolation in reference to his first presence and communion with the fruits thereof so Satan the great Tempter finding it as it were dark night with the Saint when no man can work nor see his way he then as a wild beast comes out of his den judging it his time to stir and move all his engines of battery on all hands to adde affliction to the afflicted and to bear down to the very pit the broken sinking-spirited Saint in this night of his sorrowes and sufferings and is encouraged hereunto from the general rule of permission given unto him by God as the fruit of that enmity which God said he would put between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent to the bruising of the Devils head and the Saints heele when therefore the Devill sees he cannor prevaile by all his temptations and deceits against the preparation-work that is used by Christ to fit this Saint for sufferings as the oile or ointment poured out upon his head disposing him to conformity with himself in his death but is rejected and cast off by the Saint as he was by Christ the Head when he was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted and when by Peter he was moved to spare himself in confidence that such things should not befall him then this great destroyer comes as a down-right enemy to assault the suffering Saint from all corners as he did Job in his sufferings set before us by the Apostle James as meet for our consideration and as the forerunning type of the end of the Lord in his death upon the Crosse In which remarkable exercise of patience we may behold the enraged malice of this restlesse spirit the Devil at such a time as this For First he endeavours to set God against Job upon pretence that Jobs godlinesse was all for the gaine he had from it and by it and not out of any true love to God or godlinesse for its own sake and as a means to discover the faithfulnesse and to trie the
formes through counterfeit resemblances unto TRUTH to beguile and mislead unstable souls and is daily detected and discovered under all professions or visible formes of Saintship whether more or lesse refined whether earthly and sensual or heavenly and Angelical Hereof there are in these dayes of ours but too many living instances who as Lots wife are turned into Monuments of Gods righteous judgment declared upon them for the admonition of others And that we may not leave this subject without endeavouring to contribute some assistance towards the resolving of that great Question how the true Spirit may with certainty and infallibility be known and distinguished from the false I shall briefly recommend to consideration as conducible to the discovery hereof these following particulars The Spirit of TRUTH is evidently and infallibly distinguished from the spirit of lies and falshood three several wayes by which we may make a trial and judgement of the spirits whether they be of God or no. First by the evidence and witnesse which is given of it by the three that bear witnesse in heaven where the Spirit of TRUTH shines forth in its supreme original light and self-evidence as we have at large shewed in the first and second Chapters Secondly by the Record and witnesse that the Sonne or Christ the true Spirit gives of himself in his flesh or humane nature causing the truth to shine forth in the face of Jesus opening what he is and what he did by coming in the flesh suffering and rising againe according to the Scriptures which 1 John 5. 6. is rendred thus This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that heareth witnesse because the Spirit is truth even the witnesse shining forth in his Spirit and person who whether considered as being and subsisting in the WORD OF LIFE before his being made flesh or considered as after his coming in the flesh living dying and rising againe hath a witnesse born of him in heaven by the FATHER WORD and SPIRIT which Three are one and also in earth by the SPIRIT WATER BLOOD declaring themselves in and upon him as he was found in the fashion and habit of a man which agree in one Thus in the same person we have the greater witnesse which is the witnesse of God or of Christ as he is God and the lesser witnesse which is the witnesse of man or of Christ as he is the Son of man and in both these considered also as testified unto by the Scriptures we have the compleat witnesse which God hath testified of his Son By reason hereof 't is said 1 Joh. 2. 12. Who is a liar but he that denies Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father Whosoever sees not nor acknowledges the TRUTH as witnessed and shining forth in the face of Jesus the Son of man with those that are rightly admitted to serve in the first Sanctuary among the many that are called can much lesse behold it as witnessed and held forth in the brightnesse of Gods face or of the blessed Trinity with those who are culled out of the former and rightly admitted into the holiest of all among the few that are chosen By both these witnesses and records in harmony with the outward Word we do come to know him that is true as the right and whole object whereon through faith we are to fix our eye in the proper forme character and distinction which he gives of himself from all idols or counterfeit appearances of him whatsoever The third or last witnesse which is given us of the true Spirit is that which immediately and necessarily flows from his indwelling presence in our hearts growing up there more and more unto a perfect day by working out in the conscience and spirit of the beleever a confōrmity unto Christ in his death and resurrection causing a dying to sinne and a living unto righteousnesse in the full extent of both as we have opened For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Examine therefore your selves whether ye be in the Faith know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobate And If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead awell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwellesh in you and so the Spirit it-selfe comes evidently and infallibly to witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God as having this Spirit of Adoption poured into our hearts for if we be adopted children then we know we are heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And though we are now Sonnes so as it doth not yet appeare what we shall be when we come to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus at the full manifestation of the sonnes of God yet now we know that we shall then be like him and that we shall then see him as he is yea by faith we now see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and by this knowledge we have of him in the mean time we come to see and experience him that is true and that we are in him that is true even the true God and eternal life having the witnesse in our selves through that holy anointing which is TRUTH and no lie teaching us of all things and abiding in us as a seed to preserve us from the evil and snare of all false and seducing spirits Abide therefore in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you CHAP. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him HAving already in general laid open the methods of Satan the weapons of his warfare together with the diligent and skilful prosecution of his designes upon mankind to seduce them work them off and forever deteine them from their duty and faithfulnesse unto Christ their true Husband and Lord we shall come now in a more particular manner to shew how closse an attendant he is upon the foregoing works of Christ in the hearts and consciences of men considered under the former dispensations walking about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure watching what he can find in such hearts that in the BEGINNING are Gods and Christs owne workmanship as hath beene shewed and trying whom he may corrupt from their first
deriver of life And both come as worshippers of him by sacrifice for cleansing and perfecting their consciences and maintaining union and communion between them and God which through the fall was lost And he that is thus prophesyed of as one to come Mich. 5. 2. is also prepared and set up from everlasting His goings forth having been of old though he takes occasion by the fall of man to reveal himself more fully who is the WORD that hath been heard from the beginning and hath caused the sound of his voice and the power of his Rule and dominion to go forth and be obeyed from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof in all ages For the government of Angels and men is upon the shoulders of this great Councellor and Prince of peace Who as he had the bounds of his Kingdoms and the confines of his dominions set out by the Father from all Eternity so was it now high time to declare himself in the administration and exercise thereof upon this foul miscarriage of the fallen Angels with all mankind in Adam and to shew himself to be He that is the possessor of all power in heaven and in earth and that hath the chief administration thereof This is he spoken of Isa 49. 2. whose mouth the Lord hath made like a sharp sword who was hid in the shadow of his hand and as a polished shaft in the quiver of the living WORD before the Lord called him from the womb of the virgin and from the bowels of his mother ver 1. and to whom God said ver 3. c. Thou art my servant whom I have raised up in righteousness and in whom I will be glorified Ask of me and I will give thee the utmost ends of the earth for thy possession for it is a light thing for me that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light unto the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the ends of the earth Thus saith the Lord In an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped thee who as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world was with God and I will preserve thee and give thee as a covenant of the people to establish the earth and cause to inherit the desolate heritages to say to the prisoners go forth and to them that are in darkness shew your selves to give bread to them that are hungry and waters freely to them that thirst for he that hath mercy on them will lead them even by the springs of water will he guide them and he will make all his mountain a way and his high way shall be exalted Behold these shall come from far and these from the North and the West and these from the Land of Sinim Thus is this polished shaft that is hidden in the shadow of his hand and in the quiver of the Living WORD provided from the beginning with all the power of a mighty Saviour and compleat Redeemer and is bringing of it into exercise upon the first occasion promising the familiar and plain discovery of himself to the very outward as well as the inward senses of man by the Words being made flesh and born of a woman whereby that which was in the beginning might be heard with our ears seen with our eyes handled with our hands of the WORD of life which was with the Father and who from the Creation downward during Moses his ministry was spoken to the Fathers by the Prophets at sundry times and in divers manners till at last he came himself to speak in his own person through whom as in Adam all died all are again revived and made to live CHAP. IX Concerning the Words being made flesh for the performance of the whole will of God in reference to mans redemption and salvation THE WORD in the sense here treated of is not to be understood simply as he is the second in the Trinity but as he is also the root of David the ancientness of whose dayes is spoken of Dan. 7. 13. whos 's goings forth were of old and from everlasting Micah 5. 2. in order to come forth unto God a Ruler in Israel by his being made flesh and so is as well the root as off-spring of David in the same blessed person of the Mediator Rev. 22. 16. having power in the fulness of time to bring forth his servant the BRANCH Zech. 3. 8. or to bring forth himself in the form of a servant as he is that righteous BRANCH Jer. 23. 5. which is promised to be raised up unto David to sit upon his Throne Christ as he is the root of David and head unto both creations is the WORD that was in the BEGINNING the image of the invisible God the first born of every creature and first begotten from the dead in which mysterie that from the beginning hath lain hid in God all men are called to see and know what fellowship is to be had for them by means of the union that is between the man Christ Jesus and the WORD between the ROOT and this BRANCH of the Lord Isa 4. 2. which is beautiful and glorious and whose very earthly fruit is excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel Hereby that which was from the beginning kept as a secret is now made the object of open and familiar converse even that which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the WORD of life for the life which was in the WORD was there the light of men which as a mysterie or secret with the Father does by becoming the BRANCH make it self manifest unto men in their particular beings so that they see it and bear witness and shew that eternal life which was with the Father before the world began but is now made manifest unto us by the appearing of Jesus our God and Saviour God manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory Here we find the progress of this great mysterie of godliness for the making it self manifest unto Angels and men by the means of Christs incarnation life and death in the flesh and final taking up into glory through the power of the resurrection from the dead And as this Jesus in the dispensation of the fulness of time appeared and descended into the lower parts of the earth So we see that he had a heavenly place in his head and root whereby he was found in union with the WORD of life before the world began lying hid in God and was even then as a polished shaft in this quiver of the WORD ready to be sent forth as the servant the BRANCH in his proper season This union though it was mystical heavenly and invisible
a subordinate and subjected way to be inseparably harmonious co-workers with that second and better activity of faith which blessed association of these two in the last Adam is much better then the one that is single and alone in the first making up of twain that one new man and new name which is better then the name of sons and of daughters in the children of the first Covenant Hence it appears that Christ in his active obedience did not only conform to the Law as a legally righteous and holy man doing the work of a servant in the spirit and life of the Son fulfilling the righteousness of the Law by faith but that he did also perform the proper works required by the Law of the new-covenant consisting in the holy observation of the true Sabbath and bringing his fleshly principles into subjection unto and useful co-operativeness with his heavenly and spiritual in the exercise of faith And so Christs active obedience we see distinguisheth it self into the works required to be done by the first and second covenant This hath brought us to the second sort of Christs obedience which is called passive as consisting in that wherein he was a sufferer which also is capable of a twofold consideration First in respect of that which he suffered under the power and activity of faith carrying his natural judgement and will into a voluntary captivity to the teachings of the Father that trained him up to the doing of his Fathers will with the denyal or not doing of his own as properly his in the activity of his fleshly or legal principles or secondly as relating to that wherein he was made a curse for us appointed and delivered up by the Father though still with his own consent to bear the punishment due unto sinners and perform that in his own person wherewith Gods Justice might be satisfied and sin expiated as it is written by his stripes we are healed the just is punished and the unjust is set free Christ was in the first of these respects truly and properly a sufferer as he that submitted himself to be bereaved and deprived of the exercise of these principles in and upon the operation whereof in the judgement of the natural man as single depended the performance of the condition of the first Covenant wherein all mankind was concerned as it is written He that doth these things shall live in them So as the weakness and disability which he suffered to be brought upon himself in this his operation might seem to be the way to expose him to the curse and wrath of God threatned upon non-performance of the condition of the Law as it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them and therefore was hard even for Christs natural man to undergo costing him many a tear groan and cry before his natural judgement was fully silenced and made to yield to it as giving full credit to this report of faith calling for obedience hereunto as to the voice of God Isa 53. And as this seemed hard to Christs natural judgement so nothing was more bitter and cross to the inclinations and desires of his natural will then to have his natural spirit thus broken abased humbled and laid low in such a poor destitute and weak condition as to become a worm no man unable to make resistance or defence for himself by the exercise of that activity that was properly his own which is hereby taken out of his single dispose in order to be brought forth in newness of operation through the power and activity of faith or the seed and principles flowing forth from his second union wherein he and his Father are one and the life he lives and the will he does is not his own exercised single but in conjunction and association with that of the Father Howbeit in this we are not to understand the natural man of Christ as meerly passive or violently bereaved of the use and exercise of this his first operation and activity but are to consider him herein as convinced in judgement and gained in will to the forbearance thereof and cessation therefrom and so voluntarily submitting his own hands in this regard to be bound and his feet tyed upon undeniable reasons and clear demonstrations to the eye of his faith of a far greater good to be redounding to him by the same This Christ asserts Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self who might keep it and exercise it if I would for I have power or freedom to lay it down and also to take it up according to the commandment which I haveh rein received from the Father and because I do it in the way of choice and freely not by compulsion therefore it is my Father loves me Thus also Christ testifieth of himself Joh. 8. where he saith I am one that bear witness of my self or I have a principle in me that can declare it self in the proper life and operation of a natural righteous and holy man as one made under the Law and walking in all the ordinances and commandments of God therein blameless Yet saith he Joh. 5. 30 31. to come forth in the single exercise hereof is not my manner of acting for of my self I can do nothing or I am taught by my Father to do nothing but in association with him as I hear I Judge and I am thereby instructed not to do my own will or go forth in the single exercise of my first activity but to seek the will of the Father that sent me even to the offering up in sacrifice my own proper will and desire For if I should bear witness of my self my witness single were not true or authentique to make out truth according to your law which Ioh. 8. 16 17 18. requires two witnesses for the establishing of every truth therefore saith he there is another with me in association that never leaves me to my single actings and I know that the witness which he gives of me is true and that the testimony which I give flowing from that anointing is truth in the full and compleat evidence thereof That then which in this first sense Christs natural man was a sufferer in consisted in the weakness and disability which was brought upon the fleshly mind to resist the powerful workings of his faith or spiritual mind unto the obedience where of it is voluntarily made captive as the only way and means to be brought into the Rest and Cessation required by the Father in respect whereof it is that he saith he can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these doth the Son likewise and so is no loser by this kind of weakness and inability but rather a rich
an union between the Word and Christs manhood as we have already shewed in the precedent Chapter that in a threefold respect according to one of w th his manhood is found in the form of God and as the son of man he accounts it not robbery to be acknowledged equal with God the man that is his fellow Thirdly there is a union between the manhood of Christ who in the sense before declared is made Gods equal and fellow and the whole spiritual seed in general and each of them in particular who are as the Bride and wife to this Lamb and so in a sense are his fellows and consorts heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ where the Spirit and the Bride say come living together in this unity as Bride and Bridegroom and so intimated Eph. 5. 32. where the natural marriage is made a type of it and the Apostle saith this is a great mysterie But I speak concerning Christ and the Church And now what is more evident then that the Saints by this union with Christ are not deifyed nor Christed but have the place only of his Bride and spouse as the Queen who is all glorious within and who is one the only of her mother To be therefore a member of this Heavenly City a living stone in this divine building is that which we are to understand by this second sort of calling wherein our Election is made sure to us and a new name given us that none can read but those that have it Secondly through this unity of the faith of the Son of God whereby those that are called are placed in the relation of members to Christ as he is the Head of the Church and the first-born from the dead they are for ever justified receiving this further benefit as they stand related to Christ in this his second Headship beyond those that are singly related to his first and obtain thereby but the common and conditional justification For this everlasting justification extends to sins past present and to come absolutely and at once discharging from all sin that their iniquities may be remembred no more and presents them faultless and without guile before the Throne of God as the objects of his eternal love and favour unto which they are entitled in right of their being made his first-born from the dead whose names are written in heaven adopted into his own line family and descent by this their marriage-union with Christ who according to his heavenly manhood is the immediate off-spring of the WORD and eternal Son of God without Father without mother without descent other then that of the very Son of God into which he is adopted and taken by marriage-union which dignity and grace he freely bestows and conveys in a secondary way upon his whole spiritual seed and in this neer union keeps them from ever departing from him Thirdly these unto whom Christ is thus made their righteousness and justification he is made also their sanctification to the purifying of their hearts through believing and cleansing them from all evil conscience as well that which consists in the filthiness of the flesh as that which lies in the filthiness of spirit renewing them in their minds through the putting on of the new man to the exercising as well their spiritual senses in likeness and conformity to Christs actings and life in that unity wherein he and his Father are one whereby he crucified and kept under his natural man as to the exercising of their natural powers and faculties in likeness and conformity to the actings of Christs natural man making them herein subject to the Father of spirits and to live acceptably and work holiness in his sight as renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created them or according to the pattern of the new man in the holy and righteous actings thereof set up in the person of Christ where Christ is all and in all which good works the Saints are fore-ordained of God to walk in as their true Evangelical and new-covenant obedience Fourthly and lastly those unto whom Christ is thus made sanctification he is made also redemption or glorification to the changing them throughout in spirit soul and body into a likeness with his spirit soul and body as he is declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead at such time as our vile bodies shall be made like unto his most glorious bodie by that mighty power of his whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself which is to be brought to light in his times when he shall be admired in all them that believe and answer the expectation of the creature in delivering it from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God at their manifestation and the compleating of their adoption by this redemption of their bodies These are the benefits in short and in general that inseparably accompany the guift of Christs person to the soul as he ministers himself in the two Covenants respectively and are the fruits of his presence there Which will serve as a key to open many things in the following discourse when we come to speak of the practical conscientious part that is begotten in and exercised by the subjects of Christ as they live under his Rule and dominion in the world and are therein contesting and warfaring with the adversary the devil and his instruments CHAP. XI Shewing the subordinate use that the elect Angels are of unto Christ in his bearing up the pillars of the creation that else had been dissolved through the fall and the place which they have in the threefold general administration of his mediatoriall kingdom set up in the world THough sin entred upon all men and death by sin through the act of one mans disobedience and judgement came upon all men because in one man all had sinned yet by the obedience of one and his righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Rom. 5. and where sin abounded grace did abound much more by reason whereof the whole first creation in all the parts of it is made Christs by the price of his blood which was made Sathans and sins by the fall that as the soul of the Father is Christs so also is the soul of the Son and he only that personally transgresses shall die Ezek. 18. 4. God having been pleased to find a ransom in Christ for atonement and propitiation to the forbearance of sins that are past and to the admitting of man to a new treaty of reconciliation and trial by vertue of the first covenant renewed in and through the blood of Christ whereunto the ministry of the good Angels serves and is made use of by Christ the KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS who employs these his ministers of justice as the higher powers over the world committed by him to their charge to mannage order and govern in all the affairs thereof under him
to the flesh through which they clean escape the pollutions of the world and then turn aside from the holy commandment delivered unto them in the ministry of this first covenant These are they that are under the dominion of the law or of Christ as he is the Minister of circumcision of Gods first appearance exhibiting himself to the eyes of their mind in the righteousness of his natural man as he is God manifested in flesh and so witnessed unto by the Scriptures as a holy commandment unto which he begets and requires conformity in them Here he is to be seen and conversed with as on Mount Sinai in the holy place or worldly Sanctuary where his Angels are his chariots even thousand thousands of Angels to administer the glory of this kingdom under him and as his forerunners to prepare the way whither he himself intends to come and vouchsafe his own perpetual presence and abode So then until Christs coming in the flesh into the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man the Word Law or Rule of this kingdom also was spoken given and administred by Angels called the law and Ministry of circumcision or of Moses contained in the two tables together with the Judicial laws and fleshly rites and ordinances of divine service those relating to the second table these to the first and to the material temple-worship which were to contiune till the time of reformation at the comming of the true Temple it self when the WORD was made flesh But Christ being come and having in the body prepared for him fulfilled the will of the Father in offering up himself in the flesh without spot unto God through the eternal spirit and with his own blood entred into the holiest of all he thought fit no longer to dwell in Temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. but abolishing all the former fleshly rites and worldly ordinances belonging unto the Temple-worship that was then he did build up out of the ruines thereof a spiritual Temple 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. which Temple saith the Apostle Paul unto the Corinthians are yee which yet is but such a kind of building for permanency and abiding as the former For whosoever of you saith Paul shall defile this Temple him shall God destroy whoever you be that after your being enlightned and having received the knowledge of the truth shall not hold fast your confidence unto the end but become such servants as are to be cast out of the house making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Thus there is an Israel after the flesh kept up and continued under the Gospel as well as under the law who are now under Christs immediate government by his spirit in the ministry of his first appearance and according to the tenor of the first covenant as they then were under the law and had the word spoke unto them by Angels in the Mosaical ministration both being but one and the same earthly Ierusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children in which it is most true still that they are not all Israel that are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham the Father of the faithful so pretending to be believers are they all children but in Isaac crucified offered up Isaac shall thy seed be called that is to say they that are the children of the flesh and of the living and natural body only are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed that were raised out of a womb as good as dead and sprang up to Abraham after that he had received the promises as they respected his fleshly seed by Isaacs restauration as from the dead the figure of Christs death and resurrection This earthly Jerusalem is the worldly Church under the Gospel the incorporated body of visible Saints called out and separated from the world who for their Law and Rule own and profess the written word and the spirit of Christ received and held forth in no higher a ministry then that of Christ as he is the head and root of all natural purity and perfection singly considered declaring themselves herein a holy or a separated people by a manifest self-distinguishing profession according to the measure of their receiving from Christ and growth up unto him from all heathenish worship yea and corrupt Christian professions or practises walking in all the ordinances and judgements of Christ held forth to them from the Scriptures in the various forms thereof which their light leads them to receive This visible temple or worldly sanctuary of God is a true Church as they walk in the light and according to the truth of this Law under which they are and as shall be shewed the nursery or womb of all the true spiritual seed Rev. 12. 1. c. Where it is described by the woman cloathed with the Sun the day of Christs first appearance and having the Moon or heathenish Gentile state under her feet being exalted into a glory far above them and made use of by God to bring forth the manchild or heavenly seed that are to rule the Nations with a rod of iron which in their divine birth are caught up to God and to his Throne and so much farther exalted above the earthly Jerusalem then she is above the rest of the Nations This earthly Jerusalem in the times of the Law had judicial Laws for the heightning of a civil Magistracy into a sutableness unto the divine service of this worldly sanctuary But since Christs ascension and the spirituality of this very temple to be continued under the Gospel till the fulness of the Gentiles come in and the mysterie of God in Christs fleshly dispensations shall be finished although many attempts have been made and endeavours used to revive a like Magistracy again in conformity to the judicials of Moses in the very letter of them there hath seldom been found any considerable progress or success herein forasmuch as Christ is rather pleased to detain his people in subjection and captivity under the powers of the world and the Magistracy kept up by him over men as men during the season of sufferings allotted to them in which as souls under the Altar of persecution they cry out How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth and are enabled by faith to see through and above the visible powers and thrones of this world into the ministry of Christ by his Angels who are all the while Magistrates and Rulers in a higher sphere and capacity then the others and who as the times of Christ draw near who is the only Potentate and KING OF KINGS shall shew themselves to be his servants taking vengeance in flames of fire upon all ungodly men that are his and his peoples implacable enemies By what then hath been said we may see how consistent this second branch of Christs Rule over men is with
as in common with the other the very same benefit absolutely and unchangeably Of this generation of men in a state of fleshly Saint-ship Paul speaks when he intimates Rom. 9. that they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither saith he because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed v. 6 7 8. The true seed even according to the flesh must be comprehended in Isaac as he is the figure of Christ coming in the flesh And not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one even by our father Isaac it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger ver 10 12. the one representing him that was born after the flesh the seed and children of the earthly Jerusalem engendred from Mount Sinai the other him that was born after the spirit the seed that are begotten of the Ierusalem that is above which is the mother of all the right â—â—â—irs of the promise By this there is presented to our view First the natural fleshly seed of Israel that were only so outwardly whose circumcision was that only which was outward in the flesh which Rom. 2. is counted as no circumcision nor were the persons thereby really differenced at all from Heathens but were inferiour to such of them as by nature were doers of the law ver 25 26 27 28. Secondly here is described to us the true seed of Israel as they are the children of the first covenant and make up the earthly Jerusalem the proper subjects of Christ under this second dispensation as he hath Rule and Dominion over them by the law and is a husband to them by the covenant of works These are at large set out and particularly described Ezek. 16. ver 1. to the 15. Thirdly here are made known to us the true Iacobs those that like Princes wrestle with God and prevail who are the seed that overcome and though they be the younger in birth yet supplant the elder and of last do become the first being preferred before the children of the first covenant how glorious and excellent a shew soever they may make in the flesh for they are circumcised with a further circumcision made without hands in the death of Christ to the taking them out of the life of Christs natural body as it is the keeping up the first Tabernacle or Sanctuary and to the planting them into similitude with him in his dead and crucified body to open thereby unto them the way into the holiest of all the glory that is within the veyl and life that is from the dead Which circumcision Rom. 2. ver 29. is said to have its praise of God in distinction by way of eminency from the two former Now the second sort of Israelites whose Circumcision is inward to the doing away the filth of the flesh only and whose praise is of men are those the Scripture intends by the children of the first Covenant those upon whom the living WORD of God hath had such effect as to write out in the fleshly tables of their hearts a conformity to that image of God that shines forth in the flesh of Christ wherein his natural righteousness and perfection singly considered doth consist as the Rule and holy Commandment which they are to follow and be conformed unto for their sanctification whilst he himself is made their head and covering as to their justification through their actual implantation into the same living natural body or flesh with him or by the marriage union with him into which they are taken by the first Covenant Through which operation and change of condition brought upon them they are very much differenced from the doers or workers of righteousness by nature under the first dispensation for these are taught as to their justification before God and drawing near into communion with him to look at themselves as represented in their head and as having their plantation and abode in him which was figured out by the Shew-bread under the Law by their laying their hands on the head of the sacrifice upon which God had laid all their sins so as they are made righteous not in themselves thus considered but in another even through the Mediatorship of the Man Christ Jesus as their Head in whose natural righteousness and perfection they stand blameless before God wherein all their peace is founded and the comfort of all their communion And secondly as thus they are differenced by this state of their justification which the others are not acquainted with so also the image of God unto which they are to be conformed for their sanctification to the likening them in all things unto the pure and spotless natural man of Christ is that which exceeds and is superiour to the righteousness and perfection of the first Adam as the original pattern is above and before the first Copy though it be of the same nature and kind with it And such is the glory and excellency of this state that God thinks fit to lead the true heirs through this into the glory of their inheritance that is to follow and to give it them in common with those that are children of the first Covenant suffering them for a season to remain together with them as fellow-servants in the house and to live in the form and fashion of servants undifferenced in any thing from them though they be Lords of all Yea farther this first work and change as it is accompanyed with the seed of saving faith Heb. 6. 9. is the beginning of the new creation in the true heirs unto whom Christ is not only the beginner but the finisher of their faith not only the WORD that begins with them in the glory of his first appearance but the WORD that ends with them in the glory of his second whereas those that are the children of the first Covenant singly considered as left alone without the things that accompany salvation as Heb. 6. 1. to 9. though by the word of the beginning they attain great reformation and enlightnings yet after all they prove as the ground that is near to cursing whose end is to be burned falling away after all such enlightnings so that it is impossible to renew them any more unto repentance according to what is also spoken by Jeremiah Chap. 11. 15 16 17. What hath my beloved to do in mine house seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many And the holy flesh is passed from thee the Lord called thy name A green Olive-tree fair and of goodly fruit but now he that planted thee hath pronounced evil against thee and kindled a fire upon thee and thy branches are broken So then to such there remains no more sacrifice for sin but the very justification it self which they were admitted into is denyed them by Christ
for ever to bear their shame and their abominations though yet for a season made keepers of the charge of the Temple for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein Ezek. 44. 13 14. Nevertheless the true Saints by being built up one Royal Priesthood with Christ shall be admitted into the most holy place This the Apostles well understood that were the first ministers under Christ of this dispensation unto the Gentiles which considered singly as the ministry of Christs first appearance is acknowledged by them to be but the building up again of the Tabernacle of David that was fallen and brought down to the grave with Christ in his death which thus he had power to rear up again amongst the Gentiles notwithstanding its fall among the Jews Acts 15. 14. when he did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a People for his name that was now ceased or ceasing amongst the Jews In this sense Paul understands the mercy of God shewed unto the Gentiles Rom. 11. upon the rejection of the Jews confessing it to be but such an implantation of the Gentiles into Christ the good Olive tree which the Jews had before and from which state they might again be broken off as the Jews were already which can therefore be no other state but that which Christ doth communicate as he is the minister of circumcision or of the covenant of works by the means of those gifts and distributions of the Holy Ghost which he gives forth amongst them after his ascention dividing to every one under this first covenant severally and a part according to his good pleasure till thereby his whole flesh or natural body be built up also among the Gentiles and compleated With this agrees fully the exposition which Peter gives Acts 2. of that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in those daies saith God I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ver 16 17 21. From the right consideration hereof we may discern that this dispensation was no other then that of Christs first appearance wherein he was the perfection of the first covenant the giver forth of common salvation and Redemption the minister of circumcision and the setter up of the truth of God in his own flesh which was promised unto the fathers and whereof the whole ministry of Moses was but the type and figure as appears Acts 7. 37. where Moses is brought in saying a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear Christ as thus the true Tabernacle and sanctuary in his flesh which God pitched and not man was also to suffer that so he might bring down the first standing thereof into the grave whereby to make way into the holiest of all whereinto he entered by his own blood and did build up the Tabernacle of David thus fallen in and by his death into the power of an endless life wherein he sate down at the right hand of God exalted far above all heavens having all principalities and powers made subject to him who in his fleshly man was made lower then Angels for the suffering of death We are therefore to understand the TABERNACLE OF DAVID by the means of the eternal words being made flesh to have had a twofold being and building up given unto it First in the natural and fleshly man of Christ wherein he was the perfection of the first Adam bearing that image and made in all things like unto him as he was made a living soul and enjoyed a sinless spotless nature before the fall In this natural perfection singly considered Christ as meer man was inferiour to the Angels as having that life of man in him which was lower then theirs which was the heel which the Serpent had permission to bruise the Lamb without spot and blemish the body that was prepared him to offer up in sacrifice to God as he had received commandment In this building he became Emanuel God with us according to the first covenant and was a new head unto all the sons of Adam in the first Adams image which all that are planted into are taken out of the wild and engraffed anew into the good Olive tree to partake in the fatness and goodnes thereof as it is the root and spring whence proceeds that restauration and renewal of mans first nature given to Adam by creation and corrupted by the fall which renewal as it flows from the flesh of Christ is the fruit and benefit of his death and where-ever it is wrought by Christ in any sons or daughters of Adam it makes them to become members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone baptizing them all whether Jews or Gentiles into the same living body with himself the first Sanctuary and building making them all to drink intothe same spirit and seed upon the same natural perfection and purity which flows forth from his own flesh or natural man typed out by the Manna given from heaven which is said to be Angels food and is interpreted by Christ himself to signifie his flesh which he was to give for the life of the world or for the renewing of life unto the world from himself as head of the first Adams perfection and purity This flesh of Christ is spiritual meat such as the Angels themselves feed upon in heaven as on the incorruptible food which is prepared for them by the quickning given unto Christs natural manhood through the resurrection from the dead which flesh considered as given to men in this world may be received and eaten of by them either worthily or unworthily either in the lawful use thereof for which it was ordained and given by God as the Angels in heaven feed on it and true believers here in this world or in the unlawful use of it as it is fed upon by those that discern not nor distinguish between Christs living body and his crucified body between a being made one living soul with him and a being made one quickning spirit with him in a life springing up out of the ruines of this first Tabernacle the fall whereof in this Lamb slain and the true followers of this Lamb whithersoever he goeth is in order to its being built up anew in him and in them by the resurrection from the dead This second sort of building is that which we mean by that second being which is given to the Tabernacle of David in the person of Christ in which he is exalted above the Heavens and is the Temple opened in heaven Rev. 11. where also is seen the Ark of the Testament and so is Emanuel God with us in and by the New and everlasting Covenant having
them v. 16 17. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and the seventy returned with joy saying Lord even the Devils or uncleane Spirits are subject unto us through thy Name that is to say that sort of Devils that dwell and act in hearts unswept and ungarnished wollowing in the pollutions of the world the grosse and foul abominations of corrupted Nature For there is another sort of Devils that delight to rest in swept cleansed and garnished consciences and to come in there whence the other have beene cast out with whom also the same that dwelt there before as transformed into Angels of light can find an unsuspected re-admission in order to more closse and dangerous designes then ever which the Scripture takes notice of Luke 11. 26. The same thing is darkly intimated in the case that was brought before the Disciples Mat. 17. v. 14 c. to 22. concerning the Devil in the party there mentioned propounded to them as by vertue of their power to have beene cast out and the Text sayes that the Disciples could not cast him out first because of their unbelief ver 20. and secondly because saith Christ this kind of Devils are to be cast out only by Prayer and Fasting or by the power of the Son himself as he openly triumphs over all sorts of Devils whatsoever in the vertue of his grave signifying hereby to his Disciples the need they stood in of that Faith which had power over this sort of Devils as well as the other Thus then by the mouth and hand of servants whether Angels or Men as is plaine in the case of the Centurion Acts 10. going forth in the Name of Christ men may be and are brought out of their corrupt degenerate state Devils in their proper appearance as uncleane Spirits being cast out of them their hearts cleansed their consciences purged and made meet for the service of RIGHTEOVSNESSE for the worshipping of the True and living God without ever conversing immediately with the Son himself so much as in the knowledge of him after the flesh as to the life and power given forth in that Ministery not as yet partaking of those higher and greater Priviledges which all they do in whom and to whom the Sonne is pleased to communicate the Image of God by the Ministery of his own personal presence though it be but in his first appearance wherein all flesh may see his glory together This light either by the inward Ministery of Angels or by the outward Ministery of the Word is that which Enlightens every one that comes into the world John 1. 9. setting up such a work of God in the conscience Rom. 2. and of the Law written in their hearts as sets them free from the service of sinne and bondage of corruption and qualifies them for the service of righteousnesse and of the True and living God All which though it be in it self simply considered but the Effect and Operation of common grace and that which may be fallen from yet if withal there be cast into and found in such a heart that seed of heavenly manhood though yet unawakened as to the exercise of its spiritual sences as in Paul when a persecutor which brings along with it the things accompanying salvation this soul is so farre on-ward of its journey towards heaven by this Legal work and first Covenant-state of principles and life enabling to walk as a man that it is said to be near to the Kingdome of God in the young man's case in the Gospel in a posture ready to receive the higher discoveries of Christ and communications that are inseparable from his own personal presence considered either in his first or second appearance But however it be as to this the general benefits of Christs death communicated in his legal dispensation as he is the Minister of Circumcision puts all men again upon their trial whether they will chuse to go backward or forward and takes away the occasion of using that Proverb in Israel Ezek. 18. wherein it was objected against God that the fathers had eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge For by the meanes of this Ministery renewed unto man in the blood of Christ he laies his claime now to all souls as his by purchase saying All souls are mine giving them admittance upon this score into the favour of a new parley and entercourse as to a full and final reconciliation with God So that now it is he that eates the soure grape whose teeth only are set on edge Jer. 31. 29 30. and unto whom the guilt of the fathers sins are imputed By this meanes then man is put upon his trial againe whom he will hearken unto and obey whether the Law of Righteousnesse Christ in his first Ministery thus visiting him and coming freely to his rescue and redemption setting up the candle of the Lord in his very bowels to search his inward parts or else yeeld himself up to the motions and perswasions of sin and Satan to continue and abide under the bondage of his corrupt state or to be againe entangled with it after a good degree of escape from the pollutions thereof obtained whereby he is rendered altogether inexcusable especially when this good will of God as to reconciliation and a new treaty is tendered freely without any obligation on his part to shew so much grace to fallen man tendered likewise upon promise of communicating more and making farther discoveries where this little is well received faithfully obeyed and rightly used for the end unto which it was given as well as accompanied with threatenings not only of denying more grace upon the evil reception and ill use of this but even of taking away againe this which he hath The benefit then which all under this Ministery have by Christ is the non-imputation of sinnes past upon condition of future obedience and faithful walking with God in the light received to the yeelding themselves obedient servants to this RIGHTEOUSNESSE made known to them in order to lead them forward to higher attainments without hearkening to the motions of sin on the left hand for the bringing them back againe under the bondage of corruption or being prevailed with by the motions of sin on the right hand for the taking off their eye from the mark set before them and causing them to swerve from the FAITH by stopping up the passage towards the glory of Christ in his second appearance the inseparable Benefits and Priviledges whereof they are capable to be sharers in The second Ministery then in and by which RIGHTEOUSNESSE or the Image of God in the second Adam is dispensed and given forth unto men is by the mouth of the Sonne himself speaking on earth in the administration of the first Covenant as the Image of God shines forth in the face of Christs natural man or as he is God manifested in flesh
the Trinity in the first and abstract consideration of God their opinion were in that not to be faulted by their opponents any more then the applying of divine personality unto them in the second consideration of God as he is God the Mediator is to be blamed in them that acknowledge three individual persons in the same Godhead Having thus occasionally opened in what sense the Trinity are three persons coming forth in distinct similitudes in which they are to be known as it were by name we also affirm that thus for them personally to appear and minister a distinct three-fold similitude of God is absolutely necessary in God the Mediator in order to the sitting him for that his Office and to render him the sutable object of converse with the creature either in the life that now is or in that which is to come If therefore the intent of the Antitrinitarians be to assert that God comes forth but in one manner of operation and personality ministring but one single image of himself they do thereby either exclude the creature from any converse with him at all as leaving no other way of converse but such as is improper and impossible for any in the capacity of a creature to obtain and which to enjoy is the only incommunicable priviledge of the Mediator and that only as he is God or else they do so far debase the Majesty of God as to rank him in an equality with the creature confining his similitude to what bears proportion only to the creatures understanding and converse as upon its first natural root thus changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man Hence then we conclude the necessity of three persons in unity of essence The first ministring that similitude and operation which is commensurate to Gods own infinite comprehension The second that which is proportioned to the creatures finite natural discerning springing up in the Mediator as he is the first-born of every creature the root and measure to all inferiour natural beings The third that which is adaequate to the new creatures capacity formed also in the Mediator through the offering up of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in which he is the beginning and first-begotten from the dead the root and measure unto the whole spiritual seed or general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven In all these three similitudes of God or personal appearances of the Trinity considered in themselves the Mediator is truly and perfectly God able to give them forth in himself who therein is the image of the invisible God in which sense he is frequently called in the Scriptures the WORD the WORD of Life the WORD of God Now since the effects of this three-fold operation at least in what concerns the Mediators being made thereby a meet object of converse unto the Creature in its creature-capacity in any sort must needs he owned by the Antitrinitarians themselves why should they be unwilling to be led by these to the acknowledgement of the springs whence they flow which are the three essential properties in God that in the sense we have shewed do very well agree and consist with the unity and simplicity of his essence But as these are short-sighted in this great mysterie so is it but too evident that their opposers also are in other respects overseen who by confounding these two together which ought to be kept distinct do little less then deny Gods essential image under pretence of asserting the three persons or at least entertain very mistaken notions thereof wholly praetermitting the proper witness which the second and third persons bear in the essential image in order to cause their own reception in Christ as he is the first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead And having thus singled out the Fathers witness from the other two they rank it under the notion of a person between the first and the third looking upon the second person only as Gods essential image making it his proper distinguishing character from the Father and the Holy Ghost excluding him thereby out of the number of the three that bear witness and confining the essential image to the Fathers operation only as that which is peculiar unto him They may be supposed to have been led into this mistake by that common description of the Trinity in these expressions the Father begets the Son is begotten the Holy Ghost proceeds understood by them in an improper and differing sense from what the Scrpiture holds forth 1 Joh. 5. 7. where it is said that there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one So that here we find the three that are their own self-evidencers or the head cause of their own manifestation or witness each of whom in this sense do beget are begotten each hidden property producing its own image so come forth in their distinct personal appearances peculiarity of witness w ch all three bear in the face of the Mediator which argues that those who deny the Trinity in these their distinct operations similitudes wherein only they are to be beheld as in a glass by the creature and yet pretend to own their persons hidden vertues and properties do seem rather to please themselves in an implicit faith and formal confession of this high mysterie then to have a due regard to the teachings and witness which the Trinity themselves give as laying open the inward reason and nature of their three-fold operation The first of which bears the name of Father because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him unto the increated and unbegotten understanding of God alone is the first and the original glory The second bears the name of Son because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is proportioned to the natutural mind of the creature and as such is begotten as a secondary and figurative representation of the first The third bears the name of the Holy Ghost because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is the union and proceed of the other two retaining themselves in perfect harmony and love as the sutable object to the new creatures understanding In this sense we say the witness of the Father is unbegotten The witness of the Son is begotten The witness of the Holy Ghost is proceeding as the record which the three in heaven are said to bear which three are one and their witness one as well as three CHAP. II. Concerning the Holy Scriptures their Authority and Vse with the Harmony and Analogie which they hold with the Living WORD WEE have already shewed how by the WORD is not only meant the second person in the Trinity in his distinction from the Father and the Holy Ghost who bears witness as well as they but that the witness it self which is given by them all
as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
four living creatures from its four faces signifying Christ himself thereby as his life is in the WORD and as in that life he comprehends the very form of the son of man and is the root to the whole first creation unto which through the Ministry of Gods first appearance he gives life being motion in the exercise of this his creating power he is the head of Angels and they are the body to him that he makes use of in his service Ezek. 10. 11. Whose voice they hearken unto as ready to execute all his commands and pleasure in this his first dominion The spirituality of motion in the head and body is such that they are said to run and return like a flash of lightning and to the place whither the head is to go they go and turn not and their likeness or appearance was like burning coals of fire and the workmanship of this body was like a wheel within a wheel four wheels Chap. 10. 9. that were but one wheel ver 13. Chap. 1. 15. answerable to the four living creatures that were but one living creature and the rings of the wheels were so high that they were dreadful and were full of eyes in which wheels was the spirit or WORD of life riding as in his Chariot Psal 68. These chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place In a like representation they were beheld by Elishaes servant 2 Kings 6. 17. when he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha as the invisible guard and protection which were with them to defend them from the Syrians By what hath been said we have a little view into the nature and use of Angels in the hand of Christ from the beginning of these sons of the morning that shouted for joy at the beholding of Christ when he was revealed to them to be the corner-stone of stability and fixedness even to the very first creation In general then we may perceive that the office and use of Angels is to be ministring spirits principally sent forth to Minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation in which ministry they are perfected by being made immutable and brought into the best and highest rank of servants transformed into a likeness in life and principles with that which is found in the glorified natural man of the Saint whose service and subjection is made perfect in love as the tongue that readily confesses and the knee that willingly bows to the glory of the Father in the Sons new name in which glory the Saints are co-heirs and so obtain by inheritance a more excellent name then the Angels Heb. 1. 4. who therefore confess that they are not the Son nor the true Bridegroom or Bride but servants and friends to the marriage union esteeming it a posture becoming them to hide their faces before the unveiled glory of the Son to stand still in silence and to let down their wings Ezek. 1. 24. that the glory of the Son sitting on the Throne may shine forth from the firmament that is above over their heads and the heavenly voice of his second appearance may be heard obeyed accounting it their blessedness to be neer the Bridegroom and to be servants and friends to the marriage of the Lamb as a guard of fire round about the Throne on which the Lamb and his Bride sits swift executioners of vengeance 2 Thess 1. 7 8. upon all those which shall endeavour to put those asunder whom God hath thus joyned together These are described Rev. 4. 8. to be they that rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God almighty which was and is and is to come giving glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the Throne and lives for ever and ever As thus they are this heavenly building they are the first heavens the Tabernacle and clouds of heaven or the air for the day-break and glorious sun of Gods first appearance to run his race and finish his course in whereby to enlighten the ends of the earth and all things under heaven These sons of this morning are the first light-bearers to the Inhabitants of the first world therein are covering Cherubs unto the Son in his own proper glory that they may be enabled to bear light or the similitude of Christ in his first appearance unto others they are first the receivers of that light in themselves in a spirituality of being and form fitted and suited thereunto which accommodates them with the exercise of senses meerly spiritual and inward exceeding high intuitive and comprehensive a manner of life shadowing out the divine life in the name of the Father whose voice is net heard at any time nor shape seen but is like a consuming fire to burn up and slay whatever natural Organ is coversant about it or stands before the beams and raies of its most pure and invisible glory In a shadowy imitation of this the angelical spirits when they come forth in the nakedness of their own invisible substance and glory of their own being they are flames of fire consuming and dissolving all objects of outward sense to the very disinabling as to the exercise of all such life of sense any living creatures whose life consists therein whereof the whole fabrick of this visible world in all the parts of it which is reserved to be destroyed by the flames of this fire will be a most undeniable demonstration and death it self is a daily witness hereof in every man who no sooner is deprived of the exercise of his bodily life and departs this world but is brought into a state of life wherein he is an equal and associate to Angels good or bad for in the world to come they neither marry nor are given in marriage saith our Saviour but are equal with the Angels And as thus Christ by the angelieal ministry doth gather in mans breath and leave his body to the dust whilst they return with his spirit to God that gave it in which service they are employed by Christ at mans dissolution Luke 16. 22. so also they have service to perform in their place under Christ in bringing in and continuing the exercise of all bodily life throughout the whole fabrick of the first creation yea even in man himself the abridgement thereof in which operation of theirs they seem not unfitly to be compared to the influence and generating power of the Sun that is it self but a creature and yet effectually co-operates to the production and conservation of bodily life in pursuance of those orders and laws of second causes established by God himself respecting his creation and continuance of the first world The Angels then in their receivings of light and life from Christ have for object the brightness of Gods first appearance shining forth through him as the root of all natural perfection and so
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
Adam fell through unbelief and for want of being kept in his innocent state through the power of faith unto salvation without which the Scripture saith it is impossible for any to please God no not for Adam himself in innocency For though whilst he stood he did that which was just and right as the righteous man Ezek. 18. yet in all this he was conversant only about natural good and righteousness the acceptation whereof depends upon its continuance and is such by way of comparison as renders any acceptable to the Magistrate that keep his laws whereas the filial obedience that is performed to God through beleiving answers the very love and complacency of God in a way of intimate friendship as proceeding from the man that is made after Gods own heart and is blessed in himself and in his deed But as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse as it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things w ch are written in the book of the law to do them And as thus it was with Adam in his righteous and holy state wherein he was created so is it since with all those sons of Adam that are of the works of the law and are made living souls again in their measure and degree by the renewal of the first covenant upon them in the blood of Christ through which they are brought into that which Jude cals a state of common salvation obtained as through the ransom which Christ was made for all v. 3. and which v. 5. the children of Israel were said to share in when they were brought by God out of Aegypt and were made to live unto God by the first Covenant Ezek. 16. Deut. 32. Isai 63. 10. yet many or most of them God destroyed and was not well pleased with through their unbelief having discovered them to be cursed children in whom was no faith or who under all the light received proved bitter enemies and resisters of the work and voice of the Holy Ghost calling them to believe and receive the change that was to be wrought out in them and so enter into Rest This change is comprehended in the life and perfection of the new creature and glory of the spiritual body or heavenly image of the last Adam For so it is written The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit and again it is not circumcision that availeth any thing or uncircumcision but that which is required is to be the new creature having a new name better then that of sons and daughters by the first covenant through which we are made pillars in the house of God never to go out more and are written among the living in Jerusalem whose names shall never be blotted out dwelling on high even upon a munition of rocks where bread even hidden manna is given and the waters of the sure mercies of David that will not fail And if we desire to know what this new creature is it is called faith that works by love which faith translates man out of the natural into the spiritual body and is his new-creature-state wherein the operative powers of his mind are so formed as that he is enabled not only to exercise his natural judgement and will in a crucified and resigned frame in conformity with the dead body of Christ and as quickned together with him through the Resurrection from the dead and made incorruptible but Secondly the believer hereby receives a raisedness of discerning and enlargedness of his natural mind answering that effusion of spirit upon him surpassing all natural knowledge of the uncrucified mind causing him to see as he is seen and to apprehend that for which also he is comprehended in Christ Jesus rendring him a co-partner and co-heir with Christ in the vision of Gods proper and naked similitude as admitted to behold the glory that is within the veil in which capacity the spiritual seed are the bride and wife of the Lamb that are called to sit down on the Throne with him at the right hand of the Majesty on high and who by the means of this their heavenly part do so influence and quicken their natural as that thereby they are enabled to sing both the song of Moses and of the Lamb in perfect harmony together and to do the will of God in earth as it is done in heaven According to their heavenly part or spiritual capacity they sit down at meat with Christ in the Fathers kingdom in the other they are as them that serve in a state equal with the holy Angels This marriage union between Christ and believers is said Rom. 7. to be their marrying unto him that is risen from the dead and this through their becoming dead to their first husband the Law and Ioh. 3. 29 32 33. is said to be the hearing the Bridegrooms voice in what he hath heard and seen from the Father and the receiving that testimony which no man in his natural capacity receiveth through which the Saints do set to their seal that God is true and partake with the Bridegroom throughout in his most intimate communications of glory from the Father as it is written Ioh. 17. 21. That they all may be one in us as thou Father art in me and I in thee Thus we have briefly intimated the change which by way of a new creation is set up in Angels and men through faith in Christ the promised seed as he is the last Adam and was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world putting on this spiritual body in his own person as the first fruits of life from the dead in conformity whereunto every true believer is in his own order clothed upon with the same heavenly image for as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly which though they do not so attain as to be perfect therein whilst in the natural body yet they have the mark in their eye and are pressing forward for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus CHAP. VIII Shewing the conviction and judgement that came upon men and Angels for their sin and disobedience by the shining forth of the All-searching light of Gods second appearance in the WORD before which every creature stands naked and discovered BY what hath been already evidenced in the precedent Chapter it may appear that they certainly do very much derogate from the glory of Christ and proclaim their short-sightedness into his fulness and rich grace that look upon the coming of the Lord Jesus the seed of the promise as an accidental provision only that God had in reserve in case of the entrance and coming in of sin never considering that through faith in him sin from the first might and was to have been kept out and that there was from the beginning no other way nor name nor means where by the creature could obtain a sare sare incorruptible
and immortal life but by faith in Jesus Christ who was from the beginning the right object of faith unto Angels and men to have lead translated them into the true Rest Eternal life without the coming in of sin between if he had been received and believed on when he caused his second voice and heavenly testimony to be heard on the seventh day But forasmuch as the word then preached to them did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith Christ finding this his testimony thus sleighted and resisted by Angels and men resorts to the other part of the power that is in this heavenly voice which is to judge and condemn in righteousness those that shewed themselves disobedient to it and neglecters thereof And here behold the goodness and severity of God severity to them that fell and fell wilfully as did the Serpent and the wicked Angels by plain direct disobedience and down-right opposition to their Head as also yet further by enticing and seducing man also to his sin and fall but goodness to man unto whom he made sin and the judgement declared by reason of the same to be the occasion in all likelyhood of his and Eves conversion and the reason is given why God thus distinguished his way of dealing with Angels and men For the Angels in what they had done sinned wilfully moved by their own malice in a self-hardning fixed way manifestly quitting their Head and their fellow Angels that followed him to the place whither he looked or intended to go whilest they forsook and turned off from him But for Adam and Eve they were seduced and beguiled as over-reached by the Serpent wherefore as the Apostle Paul said in the like case when in zeal he persecuted the Church The Lord was merciful unto me because I did it ignorantly so aso the Lord was merciful unto our first parents that were seduced and beguiled by the Serpent and was pleased to renew his Covenant with them in that blessed and most excellent remedy the blood of Christs sacrifice whose vertue now appeared to be as well of force to make up and restore what was lost by sin and the fall as to bring man into a better state then he had at first which might as we have shewed have been done without sins ever entering or making of this breach and so the instability of those first principles might have been removed that wavering condition might have been fixed against all the assaults of sin or Sathan whatever and secured from all danger of miscarrying through the comming of the same Jesus in the flesh and his entring within the veil by death and the resurrection from the dead without being exposed to the shameful and accursed part of the death of the cross which was properly that which was occasioned by the Fall And although it be the secret counsel of God which makes the true and general discrimination between the objects of his mercy and his severity wherein he freely hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and shews severity on whom he will shew severity yet in the revealed and declared dispensation of his will herein unto Angels or men when he comes to deal and proceed with them either in the way of his mercy and favour or severity and displeasure he alwaies observes a method of proceedings with them most exactly consonant unto his justice and consistent therewith so as he proceeds not actually to a final rejection and casting off the vessels of wrath till they have ripened themselves for the same through their own unworthiness and long abuse of his patience under full and sufficient means of light disswading and warning the contrary Nor doth he suffer those that he intends for objects of his mercy to sin the sin unto death or to arrive at that height of unworthiness as willfully to resist the light of his love but alwaies prevents this extremity of sin in them with seasonable discoveries of mercy and manifestations of his free grace which surely was the meaning of the aforesaid place of Paul when he said because I did it ignorantly I found mercy as much as if he should have said The Lord in mercy would not suffer me to come to that height of sinning for which he swears in his wrath those that do arrive thereunto shall never enter into his Rest which is to do that which all those in some sense or other are guilty of whom God hath determined for ever to exclude from partaking of that union through which only they can enter into the true Rest forasmuch as they have thereby wilfully rendred themselves unworthy and uncapable thereof We are therefore to acknowledge righteousness and truth to be the pillars that bear up the judgements and determinations of God in his most secret counsels when from all Eternity he predetermines and designs Angels and men to their use and service in his house either as vessels of honour or dishonour as objects of his love or hatred For God is true and righteous altogether and will appear and be found so when he is judged and when he comes to declare and lay open the grounds of his proceedings toward his creatures shewing himself willing to be argued with concerning the same but however the secret of these things belongs to God who is best able to give his own account of them in his own time yet what he hath already revealed and so made appertaining unto us to cast our eyes upon we may and ought to take notice of the better to settle our minds in duty and subjection unto him who is the Father of our spirits This then he gives us to understand that he hath supplied and provided against the faultiness and waveringness of the creatures standing by the first covenant in the seventh daies rich grace that was to follow so that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the fleshâ— God by giving the promised seed in the light and power of the new and second appearance fulfilled that which the first was not able to carry through by reason of the weakness of the flesh or readiness which is in all natural beings to prefer the light and glory of Gods first appearance before his second and to refuse the hard condition which appears to flesh and blood in the observation of the duty of the true Sabbath or cessation from its lawful works when ever it is called thereunto though the penalty annexed in case of wilful refusal and disobedience be the utter exclusion of the creature from the blessed end for which it had any being given unto it at all Upon this consideration it is that God who from all eternity doth foresee all things and foreknow how universally all Angels and men will conclude themselves under sin and do as much as in them lies utterly to exclude and debar themselves from the priviledge and mercy of that manner of conversing with him and enjoying of him which is accepted
yet it was so real and influencing that the BRANCH may truly be said to have lived in this his root the Father of Spirits as properly as the seed of the first Adam may be said to have lived in the loyns of him their common parent who was the Father of the flesh Christ the BRANCH considered as thus living in his root is said and accounted in Scripture phrase to act live and perform all that which was the action life and performance of the WORD For by Jesus God is said to create all things and to make both worlds who is said also to be before all things and in all things to have the preheminence And in this heavenly place of residence and abode which Christ the BRANCH hath in his root the whole spiritual seed Eph. 1. 3. are blessed with all spiritual blessings from the foundation of the world and received grace before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. forasmuch as Christ had the same union then contracted between his humane nature and the WORD of life vertually and radically which afterwards by the incarnation flowed forth actually to the making of him not only a living soul after the pure image of the first Adam but a quickning spirit as the original pattern unto the heavenly and spiritual seed of himself the second Adam This praeexistent union between Jesus and the WORD before the WORD actually was made flesh Christ asserts upon several occasions as John 3. 13. where he saies No man ascended up into heaven but he that descended even the Son of man which is in heaven that is in his head and root where as a mysterie he lay hid in God before the world began interpreted thus by himself in effect John 6. 62. when he saies What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before likewise Phil. 2. it is said that he that was found in the form or WORD of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and was found in fashion and habit as a man as if to come forth as the servant the BRANCH were rather a diminution then advance to him simply considered who was before in that exalted state where he though it no robbery to be equal with God And John 8. 58. he asserts this ancientness of his daies unto the Jews saying unto them before Abraham was I am and Mat. 22. 42 43 44 45. he unriddles this mysterie to them where he affirms that he was as well Davids root and Lord as Davids son and off-spring saying that so he was acknowledged by David himself when he was seen unto him in spirit as the Mediator called Lord unto whom God the Father spake Psal 110. 1. where t is said The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stool which expression can no way suite or agree with the second person in the Trinity simply considered but must necessarily be understood of the Lord the Mediator the WORD of life as he is the first born of every creature and first begotten from the dead the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom as risen from the dead the right hand of God is most fitly to be assigned This witness is also given by John Baptist John 1. 30. when he saith After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world both as he is the root and the BRANCH in the former capacity as the root he became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. In the other capacity as the BRANCH he was carried as the Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the Shearers Isa 53. 7. in the dayes of his flesh For though what is said Heb. 9. 27 28. As it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many may seem strongly to confine the death of Christ to his offering up in the dayes of his flesh so as to exclude the other yet if this be compared with v. 26. it will appear to be so far from excluding that it rather asserts it by shewing how both these do well stand and consist together For saith the text he must then often have suffered since the foundation of the world taking that for granted which was performed before or from the foundation of the world in his mystical and heavenly state as he was Davids root But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which he did after an invisible manner in his heavenly and mystical state wherein he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the same thing in the end of the world he doth in a visible manner in mans nature when he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself which sacrifice in his humane nature was but once offered nor could be forasmuch as it is appointed for man but once to die therefore Christ also in offering up this sacrifice as man could offer it up but once as Heb. 10. 12. It is said But this man Christ considered as the BRANCH or off-spring of David after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God In which action he that is the BRANCH and off-spring ascends up into the glory wherein he was before as the ROOT the first born of every creature and first begotten or beginning from the dead Indeed Christ by being the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world did but lay the needful foundation and preparation to the one sacrifice to be once made by him as man in the end of the world for the putting away of sin So as in effect both are but one and the same sacrifice in its compleat consideration and full extent and the obedience also to the will of the Father but one performed now in earth as from the beginning it had been done in heaven Without such a glorious and blessed counsel and contrivance of God preceding the very creation it self and the entrance of sin upon it how can God be said to have finished his works in the person of the Mediator from the foundation of the world and to be entred into his Rest Heb. 4. 3 4. if sin by entring in upon the creation or works of God after they were made should be able to disturb them and bring a desolation upon the whole Fabrick as it ought to have been dealt with in way of Justice if this Lamb slain had not born up the pillars of it who by standing up in the office of Mediator and High-Priest by whose sacrifice the atonement was actually made and remedy provided before the evil and danger did happen did immediately set all things straight again between God
gainer experimentally finding that when thus he is weakest then he is strongest as brought into such a frame of spirit wherein he is disabled to do any thing against the truth and thereby qualified to do all things for the truth This profitable weakness and disability came not all at once upon Christs natural man but gradually growing up at last into the perfect Rest and Cessation from his own works wherein the true sabbathism consists and in which Christ sets forth himself a pattern for his Saints imitation Heb. 4. 10. This made him say Joh. 8. 28. when ye have lift up the son of man then ye shall know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things and he that hath sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone but is ever bringing the natural powers and senses of my mind into perfect subserviency and subjection to my spiritual which through faith are alwaies exercised in unity with my Fathers will so that I do alwaies those things that please him In this blessed association consists the life of the new creature when of twain there is made one new man by the blood of this sacrifice In this new frame of spirit and newness of life and operation Christ delights to be taken notice of Joh. 7. 28. where he saith ye both know me and whence I am I am not come of my self but he that sent me is true whom ye know not but I know him for I am from him and my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me under the power of whose teachings I am so absolutely and intirely brought that I do not so much as speak of my self much less think or act for he that speaks of himself seeks his own glory but he that seeks the glory of him that sent him the same is true and there is no unrighteousness in him And he it is Joh. 5. 20. whom the Father loves and sheweth all things that himself doth and who will shew him greater works then these that ye may marvel for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them by his immediate witness in the Son so the Son quickens whom he will even the whole spiritual seed by making them one with him as he and the Father are one Thus in this first part of Christs passive obedience he through the law becomes dead unto the law through the law of the spirit of life in the second Adam becomes dead unto the law and life of the first fulfilling the whole law of righteousness by being rendred utterly unable to perform one tittle of it in mans first activity and sufficiency or as left alone to the grace and strength received by the first-covenant principles Thus we have seen Christ not only as the Lamb prepared without spot and blemish in order to be offered up but as he became our passover actually sacrificed for us being in one person as well the priest as the sacrifice fulfilling the righteousness and conditions of both covenants in that newness of life and operation which sprang up in him through faith or the unity of operation he was begotten into with the Father Through this twofold obedience of Christ which in him strictly considered is but one as the obedience of one man or last Adam set up in ballance against the disobedience of the first he was that and did that in his own person wherein after a peculiar manner he is made of God wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption unto the right heirs of salvation and is become the ransom and propitiation for all sinners not for those only who so believe as that they shall be eternally saved but for the whole world as upon the terms of the first covenant renewed in the blood of Christ they are reconciled unto God and admitted again into converse and fellowship with him that by doing the things therein required they may live and so be put upon a new proof and trial whether they will live unto themselves or unto Christ that died for them and rose again Righteousness is hereby capable to be derived yea is more or less derived upon all the seed as well those which are of the law as those which are of the faith of Abraham respectively who is the father of us all or the type and shadow of Christ as he is the common parent unto both by his incarnation through which he had a twofold union wrought out in him becomming therein the head and root unto both these seeds and so to all mankind whatsoever who in one of these two respects are all made alive again in the last Adam that died in the first and this by the law of the first-fruits and root unto which the Olive branches do respectively refer for so it is said Rom 11. 16. if the first fruits be holy so is the lump and if the root be holy so are the branches where the branches are described as of two sorts the one such as may be broken off after they are engraffed in as also John 15. 1. c. having their union by the first covenant only the other those that stand by faith never to be cut off as having their union by the second and new covenant Now the first sort of these branches in right of their union and relation unto their head Christs natural man or living body unbroken and uncrucified have one sort of benefit by Christs sacrifice which is conditional and may be lost The second sort in right of their union and relation to their head Christs crucified natural man or dead body have all that the other have and over and above an additional benefit by the same sacrifice of Christ which the others have not and so the full and whole benefit of his death and that absolutely and without conditions This benefit unto each of the seeds from Christ their head is twofold either such as by way of imputation is their justification or such as by way of inherency is their sanctification respectively there is derived to the one such a justification and sanctification as answers in kind to what is required by the first covenant from him who doth those things thereby to live in them to the other there doth flow such a justification and sanctification as answers exactly to the Law of faith or second covenant unto whom faith is imputed without the works of the Law singly considered and in whom faith is operative to the purifying of the conscience in conformity to the purity and poverty of spirit found in Christs crucified and broken natural man They only that are justified and sanctified in this latter sense shall eternally be saved it being out of the power either of life or death or Angels or principalities or powers or things present or things to come or height or depth or any other creature to be able to separate them from this love of God in Christ
of her person in the day of her nativity then God passed by her looked upon her and made it the time of his love saying unto her when she lay in her blood Live and causing her to multiply as the bud of the field till she encreased and waxed great and came to excellent ornaments to have her brests fashioned and her hair grown who was naked and bare for God had spread his skirt over her covered her nakedness and entred into covenant with her so that she became the Lords And he cleansed her with water washing away her blood from her anointed her with oil decked her with ornaments and jewels and caused her to eat fine flower and hony and oil and she was exceeding beautiful and did prosper into a kingdome in which glory of hers she was visible to others so as her renown went forth among the heathen for her beauty which was perfect through the comeliness which God had put upon her This is farther enlarged Deut. 32 4. c. where this work of God upon these Israelites is also called perfect flowing from their rock or from Christ that had been a Father to them and had bought them and made and established them and had thus divided and distinguished them from the rest of the sons of Adam Yet there were amongst these an unwise generation in and under all this those that had no faith and who considered not their latter end but corrupted themselves and had a latter end worse then their beginning so as their grape was the grape of Sodom and their vine was the vine of Gomorah and their spot shewed itself not to be the spot of Gods children declaring them to be a very crooked and perverse generation The first of the same principles with these was Cain whom Eve received as a man from the Lord then those sons of God in the old world who corrupted themselves and left a rebellious race of Giants or men of renown for enmity against God with which fleshly seed the Lord would not suffer his spirit any longer to strive in the daies of Noah Gen. 6. 1 2 3 4. Then Ishmael the son of Hagar the bond-woman figured out this generation under the first covenant after him Esan then the whole nation of the Israelites brought out of Aegypt who were all of them baptized unto Moses in the red sea and did eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink yet with many of them was not God well-pleased And so Israel after the flesh all along from them downward as they are described in all the Prophets to be righteous men and a holy seed yet such as Ezek. 18. 24. turned from their righteousness and committed iniquity stumbling at the stumbling stone being leavened with the leaven of the Pharisees and in whom sprang up a root of bitterness to their defilement so as after all their enlightnings and enlivenings from God they miscaried being such as Elias interceded against saying Lord they have killed thy Prophets and digged down thine Altars and I am left alone and they seek my life Rom. 11. 2 3. and concerning whom Esay is very beld saying All the day long I have stretched forth mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people Rom. 10. 20 21. who also saith of them Rom. 9. 29. except the Lord of Sabboth had left us a seed we had been as Sodom and had been made like unto Gomorah which frame of spirit they fully discovered at last when they crucified the Lord of glory and were the Jerusalem in whom was found the blood of all the Prophets Nor are we to think that this generation of men passed away with the Jews since Christ himself in the very Gospel may be known after the flesh and doth beget an Israel after the flesh in and under Gospel-ordinances and ministrations who by the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the holy commandment delivered unto them in his fleshly manifestation for their Rule may clean escape the pollutions of the world through lust and yet return with the dog to the vomit and with the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 20. c. yea who may by the word of the beginning Heb. 6. 1. or first appearance of Christ pass through the great enlightnings and quicknings from Christ there spoken of to the tasting of the heavenly gift and partaking of the Holy Ghost to the relishing of the good Word of God and powers of the world to come and yet fall away and draw back unto predition being void of that faith that failes not wherewith we are to believe to the saving of the soul This sort of men the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles takes notice of and distinguishes the true believer from having had his warrant for it from Christ himself who said Many are called but few are chosen and again of the labourers in the vineyard he saith there are first that shall be last in Gods acceptance and last that shall be first and that these children of the kingdom shall see many come from the four parts of the world to sit down with Abraham I saac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven and they themselves be thrust out with those that say Mat. 7. 22 23. Lord Lord have not we prophecyed in thy name and in thy name cast outdevils and done many wonderful works unto whom Christ will answer Depart from me ye workers of in iquity I know you not These are they Rom. 4. that find whereof to glory in the flesh of Christ or in their own holy flesh as the seed of Abraham that are by the law or first covenant who are righteous workers according to the law in the most Gospel-like administration of it but at the bottom are still upon the tenure and account of debt for so is their reward accounted to them by God as looking upon them still under the first covenant till they be brought to be of the faith with blessed Abraham These in 1 Cor. the 12. and 13. Chapters are intimated under the title of spiritual men in distinction from the heathen as having the manifestation of the spirit given them to profit with by means whereof they may come to great attainments in spiritual gifts and excellent operations of mind so as to speak with the tongues of men and Angels know all mysteries have all faith so as to remove mountains give all they have to the poor and their bodies to be burned and all this but upon the first root and single seed of natural righteousness remaining yet unexperienced of the more excellent way of enjoying and doing all this in union and harmony with a higher and better principle of life by participation of the divine nature which the true heirs do obtain and which is there called by the name of love Again 2 Cor. 10. 11. These are described under the names of those of which number Paul said he was not who measuring themselves
by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves were not wise but justly comprehended under the rank of foolish virgins over whom the Apostle was jealous with a godly jealousie hoping to have presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ but now fearing lest they should be beguiled and sin after the similitude of Adams transgression through the subtilty of the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light These among the Galatians were they that Paul stood in doubt of as discerning in them principles that would carry them no higher then the first Covenant before whom therefore he laid the distinction of the two Covenants and the two seeds even under the Gospel those that might be born after the spirit and those that might be born but of the flesh only one of the free woman the other of the bond And among the Philippians this sort of Professors were so prevalent that the Apostle was very sharp ch 3. v. 2. v 18 19. calling them those of the concision dogs and enemies to the cross of Christ whose God was their belly and whose glory was in their shame minding earthly things walking in a quite different strain from them who forgetting what is behinde press forward to the mark ver 14. of perfection brought to light by the death and resurrection of Christ worshipping God in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh It would be endless to rehearse the several passages in the remaining Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles deciphering this generation of Professors in the times they lived Teachers of the Law that knew not what they said nor whereof they affirmed as to the lawfull use of the very Law it self who by not holding faith and a good conscience which is interpreted Heb. 10. 23. a not holding them fast but in such wavering uncertain principles as the first Covenant ministers concerning faith made shipwrack and so lost their good conscience too at last drawing back into perdition Like the Jerusalem complained of Ezek. 5. 5. c. where they were so far from walking up to the light of the Covenant with God which they were under that in their walkings they fell beneath the very light and principles of heathens not doing according to the judgements of the nations round about them but becoming adulterers and adulteresses such as defile the Temple of God and therefore such whom God would destroy Lastly as once for all we may see this generation of men in their holy profession and visibility of Saintship incorporated together with the true spiritual seed in every one of the seven Churches mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters which are usually accounted to be typical inreference to the state of the Church under the Gospel from the Primitive times to Christs second coming In every of these churches Christ makes the distinction between the Spiritual Seed that had the spiritual ear and the carnal Seed that had it not but who in and under those very Church-forms were the Nurseries of all hypocrisie apostasie and other Spiritual uncleannesses and defilements there and were not of the faith nor in the faith of those that overcome but were such as from whom the Candlestick and light they had from Christ might be removed verifying therein that saying of his speaking of this generation as they should continue under Gospel Ordinances when he was foretelling the end of the world under the type and figure of the destruction of the material Temple in Jerusalem Verily verily saith he This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled his mystical meaning herein being that this crooked and perverse generation mentioned Deut. 32. 5. who were always resisting the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. and were to succeed in that enmity which they bear unto the true Spiritual Seed to the very end of the world according unto what God declared from the beginning when he said I will put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent should continue till the serpents head be wholly broken and he trampled under foot and the Saints heel wholly bruised or the measure of Christs sufferings remaining to be wrought out in his whole body the Church fulfilled These are they which call themselves Jews but are not in spirit and truth though they pass currant in the judgement of mans day for the only visible Church of God excluding the heathens on the one hand as Sathan appearing in his own likeness and the true spiritual believers on the other hand as the same evil spirit transformed into an Angel of light The third sort of subjects belonging to the last administration of Christs kingdom are they who in faith and patience do possess their souls following the Lamb whither soever he goes not loving their lives unto death but through the blood of the Lamb being received into the unity of the faith of the Son of God have the use of spiritual senses set up in them enabling them to hear and obey what the spirit saith unto the Churches and so are worshippers of God in spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh enjoying within themselves the witness of a better and more enduring substance then what is experienced under the first-covenant-ministry through this law of the spirit of life which the spiritual sied are made under have that overcoming power of Christ ever present with them in the actings of true and saving faith which overcomes the world and gives them the victory over all opposition not but that they also in walking as men have the same common weaknesses as other men are liable to many failings and miscariages but as they are born of God and walk and live in that spirit sin hath no more dominion over them to make them fulfil the lusts thereof Gal. 5. 16 18. These therefore are distinguished from all the earth-born sons or children of the first covenant by their higher and more divine birth as born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. not but that they are born also of all the other principles as well as othermen possess them in common with others something of the corrupt nature with the heathen and something of the renewed nature with the Jew or worldly Christian but they have over and besides a birth of God which none of the other two have living thereby in that light and life which no man hath seen or can see wherein they are a sort of heavenly seers and men of God that enter with Christ within the veyl and are admitted into the sight and enjoyment of God in the very brightness of his glory and express character of his person shining forth in the face of Christs second appearance and herein are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ partaking after this manner of the divine nature it self wherein they see God face to
face in his own similitude apparently conversing with him as friend speaks with friend having the natural powers faculties of their mind which they still possess in common with other men so subdued and made subject to this higher birth of the divine will and presence in them that they are taught to do the will of their father in earth as it is done in heaven and to be the fulfillers of all righteousness not only of that which is according to the rule and law of the spirit of life that they are under exclusive to the rest but what is according to the law and rule of Gods judgements given either to the Jew worldly Christian or to the heathen in the right way of subordination wherein they ought to be practised and observed according to the will of God when we are so made one with Christ as he is made one with the Father ever doing that which is pleasing and acceptable in his sight These are they then in the general whom we mean by those that are born after the spirit and of the free-woman that are from above of the Jerusalem that is above the heavenly City whose builder and maker is God by his own immediate hand forming and setting it up for that end in the person of the mediator as that wherein Christ as the first begotten from the dead might become the head to this whole seed of spiritual believers whose names are written in heaven This divine birth is that through which we believe to the saving of the soul and therefore is described Heb. 11. 1. c. under the name of faith and is said to be the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen giving the sight of him that is unseen to every natural eye and bringing the soul to the knowledge of the inward living WORD through the knowledge of whom we come to understand that the worlds were framed and how they are since upheld and governed By the power of this divine birth Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice then Cain and the famous men of God in old times whose genealogy as all partaking of this spiritual seed is derived in that Chapter from Abel downward through all the old Testament obtained a good report or lived that life which was in repute with God and which he owned as wel-pleasing and acceptable unto him These are they that throughout the new Testament also are to be understood for the seed of true believers there spoken of unto whom as their pattern in spirit these worthies Heb. 11. are propounded that they might run the same race having so great a cloud of witnesses set before them looking also to Jesus not only as he is the author and beginner of our faith in the ministry of his first appearance but as he is also the finisher of it making it the faith that fails not which is attained in and by the new covenant or ministry of his second appearance through which he doth not only appear a King of righteousness conveying a seed of righteousness answerable to the perfection commanded by the law but also a King of peace conveying a seed of everlasting peace and absolute reconciliation between God and the soul through the blood of the Cross wherein the perfection of the life of faith consists For wherever the single seed of righteousness is in any without this other seed of peace blessing will not stay or long abide in that heart nor will the profession of faith and a good conscience be held fast and without wavering and danger of falling away But where both these seeds are cast in together to live together as brethren in unity the elder serving the younger they are the two that are better then one mentioned Eccles 4. 9 10. who shall have a reward for their labour and when one falleth the other shall help him up but woe to him that is single and alone For the wavering unstable principles of the first holy and righteous seed are never rightly fixed nor made durable or abiding unto life eternal but by this higher divine birth whereby the first hearing of the word becomes mixed with faith and produceth in the heart that ground which brings forth the good seed in abandant fruitfulness without any danger of miscarrying This new-creature-life and glory is signified by the white stone and new name that none can read but those that have it who feed upon the hidden Manna and are admitted to sit down at table and meat with the Son in the Kingdom of the Father having the seal of the living God in their foreheads by which they escape out of all trials and spiritual dangers and are brought forth as gold refined by the fire These are they that are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire into the name of the Father Son and Spirit in the truth of the thing in the living WORD and not only in the shadow and figure held forth in worldly rudiments and carnal ordinances being the chosen vessels which God selects out of those many which he hath called causing them to bear his own name his new name whom he makes pillars in his house never to go forth more These are the true seed of the promise as it is written not to seeds as of many but that one seed which is Christ who are now sons though for a season under the veil and form of servants unseen in their true and proper appearance yet at last they must be like unto Christ their head in their heavenly glorified man-hood as saith the Scripture we shall be like him and see him as he is And as thus the spiritual seed considered as living by the faith that fails not are one sort of the subjects under this third dispensation of Christs Rule so there is a counterfeit spiritual seed that are described Jude ver 12 13. who are to be numbred under this third rank of subjects as the second sort under this third administration intruders into this spiritual society of true believers being spots in those feasts of love wherein they feast with them sporting themselves with their own deceivings feeding without fear clouds they are without water carried about of winds foaming out their own shame wandring stars and 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 17 18 19. having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls cursed children who have for saken the right way and are gone astray who speaking great swelling words of vanity allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that had clean escaped from them who live in errour being themselves the servants of corruption whilst they promise liberty to others unto whom is reserved the mist or blackness of darkness for ever Thus man in a threefold respect is the subject of these three kingdoms and dominions of Christ and is so vastly distinguished from himself in these three states that he seems to have as it were a
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
we come to be like him throughout in his glorified manhood and shall see him as he is having that love in us which he had from his Father before the foundation of the world For the opening of this we are to call to minde that the WORD when he was made flesh did set up this building in the seed of it in the person of JESUS THE SON OF MARY as well as that of meer man in which he was made under the Law In respect of both these birth 's of humane perfection in Christ he was said to grow in grace and in favor with God and man and so his manhood in the full extent of it may seem to be described and figured out to us by the vine in Jothams parable whose fruit cheereth the heart of God and of man According to the first of these births he had the effusion of the Spirit above measure a perfection given to him from above making him in this fashion and form of his heavenly manhood above all even the Jerusalem above that is the mother of us all upon which the new name is written qualifying him through this anointing with a heavenly raisedness of mind and divine heightning of all his humane powers and faculties to that fulness and extent whereby he may be enabled as the true Ark of God to swim live and abide in the waters of the divine glory where they are risen so high as to overwhelm and drown all his natural sences or powers of minde making up a river so deep as is impassable to them singly considered and as alone Ezek. 47. 5. which highest waters of the utmost discovery and manifestation of God import and make out that Love of God and of Christ which passeth knowledge and fils the true Saints with all the fulness of God exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think Ephes 3. 19 20. This heavenly manhood anointing and new name which Christ hath renders him as the bush that Moses saw able to abide in the fiery and most glorious appearance of the very form and similitude of God himself and not be burned or consumed yea is that whereby he is prepared through the blood of the sacrifice of himself considered in his other capacity of manhood to enter within the vail and face to face as friend talks with friend converse with God in the unveiled brightness of his glory and express image of his person feeding upon it as his meat and drink even the dainties or feast of fat things provided for him in the kingdom of the Father The joy whereof set before him in the days of his flesh made him endure the cross despise the shame and finish the course of his sufferings with cheerfulness through the sight of him that was invisible to the natural eye In this sense was Christ made man when the WORD was made flesh and was the only begotten son in the bosom of the Father that thus sees God and is able to declare him whereas no meer man whatsoever either hath seen God at any time or can see him This is he of whom John said After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me upon whom the spirit rests and remains who therefore hath power to baptize with the holy Ghost as he did his own natural manhood when he offered it up Secondly then according to the other birth of humane perfection in Christ the spirit was given him by measure as it was to the first Adam when he was made a living soul whereby he was made under the Law like unto other men in all things sin only excepted that is to say with equal powers of mind and capacity of will and understanding as the earthy man or first Adam in his purity capable to think speak do will and desire in all things as a man bearing the same image as the first Adam did before his fall but with this difference that joyntly together with his being made thus a perfect natural man he had the perfection formerly mentioned of his heavenly manhood as that which was the top-stone of the building the crown of glory and honour wherewith he was crowned and made higher then the heavens all principalities and powers being made subject unto him This twofold humane perfection was brought forth in the holy child Jesus by the WORDS being made flesh and through his death and resurrection came to their full maturity and ripeness wherein Christ was declared the son of God with power having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands by the father even as he was the Son of man who in the dignity of this his state and glory can nevertheless do nothing of himself but what things soever he sees the Father do these also doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of man to wit in the twofold respect before mentioned But thirdly over and besides this twofold humane perfection which is in Christ he is also perfect God through the unity of Person whereinto he is begotten with the WORD from the operation whereof the same Jesus that is the Son of man is also the living and eternal WORD OF GOD and is so called Rev. 19. 13. out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword and wherewith he smites the Nations and rules them with a rod of Iron as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS which high priviledge is peculiar to him it appertaining only to the man Christ Jesus to be God as he is that one blessed person that is the Mediator between God and Man and therefore incommunicable to any of the rest of the Seed or many brethren whereof he is the first born But as to what concerns this Jesus as he is the SON OF MAN in respect of the twofold humane perfection that is in him the rest of the seed even the many children given to him by the Father to bring up to glory are co-partners with him attaining to the measure of the stature of that his fulness and perfection through which they are made by him KINGS and PRIESTS to God and are to raign for evermore Into this perfection they are made to grow up in all things in him that is their head being by him begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection from the dead and having the immortal seed of the heavenliness of Christs perfection and life formed and brought forth in them as the inheritance incoruptible and undefiled that fades not away
so ignorant of and such enemies to as most prophanely to call it a fiction and make little lesse of it then blasphemy We say that the flesh or natural man in the Saint whether considered in the workings of his morall nature or of his renewed enlightned nature under the first Covenant is crucified and rendred a copartner with Christ in his dead body whereby the powers and faculties of the mind in the natural man are neither annihilated nor deprived of their lawful use as lawful refers to the obedience of faith and the rule of the Gospel but only have death passe upon them or a disability and privation as to all unlawful use of them or possibility of acting in rebellion resistance or contradiction to the Law of the heavenly nature and mind set up by faith In this crucified posture of the flesh and broken-spiritednesse into which the powers and faculties of the natural mind are brought by faith the Prophet Isa 54. 1. calleth out to the Saint to sing as intimating that though the natural man be hereby disenabled to bear or bring forth fruit to its first husband Christ himself as made under the Law and head of natural perfection single yet it ought neverthelesse to break forth into singing in regard that by her being become dead to the Law she is married to another even to him that is raised from the dead to bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and life and that this its barrennesse is no just cause of reproach to it seeing it came to be lawfully disengaged from all obligation to its first Husband by the dead body of Christ through which her first Husband is become dead unto her so that she is no adulteresse though she be married to another man Rom. 7. 3 4. And therefore Cry aloud for joy saith the Prophet for more are the children of the desolate then of the married wife or she that keeps to her first Husband under the Law Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowheod any more for thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called In these two particulars therefore conformity to the death of Christ is made to consist by the Prophet Isaiah in this Chapter First in Christs own refusal to be any longer a Husband unto the natural man in the Saint through his own voluntary departure and withdrawing of himself out of his own fleshly life to go to his Father and be and remaine for ever in the glory of the Father in order to returne againe to the Saint as he that is risen from the dead to marry and espouse the soul that he hath thus grieved by his withdrawing For saith he The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused by thy God for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee Secondly the Saints conformity unto the death of Christ consists in the desolate forsaken barren state wherein the flesh and natural man is left by Christ as in a dry and barren wildernesse exposed to all temptations and trials from God Angels and Men within and without ready to sink and faile in spirit every moment partly under the appearance of Gods displeasure whose withdrawing and forsaking the soul understands not any more then Job did who was privy and conscious to the faithfulnesse and integrity of his heart to his first Husband whilest he abode with him and partly from the cold dead disconsolate frame of spirit wherein it now finds it self as it measures it self by the life of sense and not by the life of faith under both which pressures the Word of Christs patience is set before the soul by faith to be kept and observed Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame patiently suffering the bruising of his heele according as he had received commandment from the Father In this posture as a Widow indeed the poor broken-spirited Saint remains mourning and weeping left for a season as an Orphan by Christ brought into that condition which Christ foretold unto his Disciples whom at the present he acknowledged children of the Bridechamber whilest they had no higher knowledge of him then in his fleshly glory and perfection Of whom therefore he said As long as the Bridegroome was with them they could not fast but the dayes would come when the bridegroome should be taken away from them then they should fast intimating thereby the dayes of fasting and mourning and being clad in sackcloth which the true Saints witnesses of Christ were to be exercised with during the time of the trial of their faith upon the Bridegroomes being taken from them and changing that living fruitful frame of spirit which they were fed and nourished up in by him as they were his married wife under the Law into a fasting broken mournful desolate state of Widowhood which they are brought into as they are made one with Christ in his dead crucified body and are planted with him into the similitude of his death Christ then after he hath become a Bridegroome and married Husband unto true beleevers in and by his first appearance shining forth upon them in the life and glory of his natural and fleshly perfection wherein he hath nourished them up and made them fruitful children of that his Bride-chamber is pleased and hath power to take himself away from them and continue no longer with them as a Bridegroome under the first Covenant or in the ministery of his first appearance but wholly dissolve that marriage-band betweene them as refusing any longer to come forth in the exercise of life toward them upon the single root of his natural perfection in order upon the trial of their faith and their dutiful keeping the word of his patience during the time of this his separation from them to return again after a little moment and with everlasting mercies to embrace them and be married unto them in the light and life of his second appearance not only supplying to them again that wherein he was withdrawn from them but adding over and above a fuller and more abundant communication of life and glory which untill this death or withdrawing of his be perfected in them they are not capable subjects perfectly to receive and inherit but according to the steps and degrees of this death doth the approa hand increase of this higher life let it self in upon them and fill them This separation and withdrawing of Christ as a Bridegroome is the more bitter and grievous because this his absence carrieth in it the appearance of his wrath and sore displeasure to the eye of flesh
and blood which interprets all this dealing of Christ in the worst sense as if his mind were wholly turned away and that he had given over to be gracious any more to them that are under this hour and power of darnesse And so seemes worse then a thousand bodily deaths to those in whom the spiritual birth is but low and therefore not unfitly compared to the child in the womb and at the breast where it is said Wo unto those that are with child and give suck in those dayes Yet saith Christ this is but as the waters of Noah which is only to be once done to drive the believer into the Arke even the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection from the dead and then forever to exempt them from such danger any more as having provided that for them which enables them to swim in those waters which drown the world in that pure river spoken of Rev. 22. 1. proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb which compared with Ezek. 47. appears to be a description of the Vision of Holy Waters where they are risen up as a river to swim in which those that are without the Ark attempting to live in must needs be drowned it being above all the measures of their attainments and capacities to receive as members of the first building or worldly Sanctuary And because there is not any thing more highly importing the true Saint then to get well through this wildernesse and not lose the way or fall short hereof under any pretence whatsoever we shall yet endeavour more particularly to handle and declare that which is to be experienced under this dispensation First in respect of what Christ doth and is the worker of by his withdrawing and refusing to continue any longer a Bridegroome in his first appearance to the soul Secondly in respect of the workings of Satan the Tempter who is not idle in this hour and power of darknesse to set on this appearance of wrath from God and Christ Thirdly in respect of the workings of flesh and blood that to the last are violent opposers and resisters And fourthly in respect of the workings of Faith or the new creature disposing the soul to let patience have its perfect work under these manifold tempt ations thereby to make it a perfect and compleat sharer with Christ in his sufferings as the rule and patterne set by him for the obedience of faith which under all this beholds him that is incisible and hath an eye to the recompence of reward in attaining the glory that followes and arriving unto the state of the resurrection from the dead never to die more but for ever to remaine free from the power of sinne and death As to that which Christ works in the heart of the true believer by his separation and refusal to be any longer a Bridegroome to the soul in and by his first appearance It consists chiefly in two particulars First in the preparation used by him to fit the soul for this his absence Secondly in his actual withdrawing and for ever hidng his face as to any farther shining forth upon them singly in and by his first appearance and in that respect becoming as perfectly dead and separated from the soul refusing ever to converse more in the single exercise of that his heshly life according to which the soul is to know him no more The preparation herein used by Christ to fit the soul and support it to bear such an absence of his is lively presented to our view by his carriage in this respect towards his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh when he tells them beforehand John 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Chapters the necessity of his departure from them that he may go to the Father and the expediency of it for them in order to his coming againe and presenting himself to them in a richer compleater glory then what they conversed with him in before Little children sayes he yet a little while I am with you the Bridegroome is with the children of the Bridechamber but this fellowship as to the joy fruits and comforts of it is not lasting it is but for a little while here is no abiding City there is therefore a necessiy of looking out for one to come And I am going a farre journey saith he to receive a Kingdome and returne and ye shall seek me when I am withdrawn and be looking for me to appear again in my fleshly glory but till a change be brought upon you to enable you to follow me in my death you though my Disciples and the Jewes that are far short of you cannot come to me whither I am going But through believing in me you shall be brought to my Fathers house into a heavenly City the Jerusalem that is above where are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you also may be And whither I go you know and the way you know by the workings and teachings of the new nature that is in you through believing and your being borne of God Besides saith he I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth in the first-fruits thereof whereby you shall come to have an understanding in him that is true and that you are in him that is true the Spirit whom the world cannot receive because it sess him not nor knows him being not borne from above as you are but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you to bring you out of your forsaken comfortlesse condition and cause you greatly to rejoyce though now for this season you be in great heavinesse through manifold temptations and to love him whom you have not seene with the eye of sense and in whom though you see him not yet believing you rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory These things I speak saith Christ whilest yet I am present with you and before I depart from you by way of preparing you to bear my absence and My peace I leave with you in this your comfortlesse condition as to sense which peace of mine I give unto you not as the world gives it but in a far more excellent and choice way in which none shall be able to interrupt you conveying it to you as a new name in a white stone which none can read but he that hath it and as hidden Manna the sweetnesse and joy whereof no stranger intermeddles with And therefore let not your hearts be troubled nor be you afraid ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come againe unto you if you loved me you would rejoyce because I say I go unto the Father for my Father is greater then I. And now I have told you before it
as those that are borne after the Spirit until the manifestation of the sonnes of God be brought forth The third and last is described Isaiah 60. 20 c. by the Sunne that shall no more go downe and the Moone that shall not withdraw her light for as much as the Lord himselfe shall be their everlasting light and the dayes of their mourning shall be ended When the light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold Isaiah 30. 26. in Christs second appearance to what it was in the first under which light the sonnes that are Lords of all begin to be distinguished from the state of servants by the pangs of the new birth that through the power of faith are wrought leading them into fellowship with Christ in his death lively described Rev. 12. 1 c. as the great wonder that appeared in heaven the Church or spiritual seed under the type of a Woman cloathed with the Sunne signifying the glory of their fleshly man in communion with Christ by the first Covenant having the Moone under her feet as one that is farre exalted above the morality and civility of the heathenish state and upon her head a Crowne of twelve Starres to signifie her conformity of state with the Disciples when Christ as their fleshly Bridegroome was about to leave them John 16. This woman is taken notice of as being with childe travelling in birth and pained to be delivered in opposition to which birth there appeared the great red Dragon the Devil and his Angels mustering up all their forces against the powerful workings of faith towards this birth ready to devoure the childe as soone as it should be borne ver 4. but as hath beene shewed This woman does notwithstanding bring forth a man-childe that is to rule the Nations even the divine birth of faith which is caught up to God and to his throne whilest the Woman or natural man in the Saint flies into the Wildernesse and is there fed and nourished under all the opposition of Satans malice and rage against her till she obtaine with her seed a perfect conquest over the old Dragon and all his adherents CHAP. XIX Giving a general view of the Counter-workings of Satan to the government of Christ in all the forementioned administrations thereof WE are now come to the next general head propounded viz. to lay open the work of the Devil or old Serpent as he with his Angels fights against Michael and his Angels from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof to withdraw and seduce the sonnes and daughters of Adam from subjecting themselves unto Christ under any of the administrations of his government in the consciences of men and to fix them in rebellion and enmity against Christ by the abuse of all his patience and what ever means have beene used by him to the contrary For the Devil knowing very well that whatever kind of union or marriage-band is contracted and renewed betweene Christ and any soul under the first Covenant whether dispensed as the Law of nature or of Circumcision there is place and roome left for him by some means or other to beguile them afresh and by his subtilty to corrupt their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ as he did Eve at the first He therefore makes it his businesse to work the subjects of Christ from under both these dispensations and to dissolve as much as in him lies all obligations and intercourse betweene Christ and them in order thereby to prepare them to receive his serpentine seed as he is that strange Spirit or adulterous competitor with Christ in his bed that sits in the Temple of God as God shewing himself to be God and exalting himself above all that is called God This birth of spiritual uncleanesse he therefore endeavours by all wayes and means to propagate in opposition to the birth of Christ in his heavenly appearance through which he fixes the soul in an implacable and unchangeable enmity thereunto causing a root of gall and bitternesse yea a spirit of falshood and murder to spring up against all growing and encreasing light that witnesses an excellency surpassing the purity of nature or glory of flesh as watching over the birth of such a man-child to destroy it so soone as it appears In which actings of his he distinguishes himself into two sorts of Kingdomes and Rules in the consciences of his subjects represented under the two beasts Rev. 13. which he maintains and upholds in opposition to the Rule and Kingdome of Christ gaining as many as possibly he can from Christ in order to make his opposition the more universal and formidable to hinder and keep out the approaching glory and power of his second coming which that he may the better accomplish he puts himself into all formes from the lowest to the highest from the most fleshly and outward to the most Angelical and inward that the natural man as such is capable of to gaine thereby Proselytes to himself in all ages And whom he cannot hinder from joyning with Christ at all he thus labours to procure their defection and apostasie from him after they have known the way of righteousnesse tasted the good word of God and beene so farre enlightned as after which when they fall away it is impossible to renew them againe unto repentance Thus the worldly and natural spirit of man corrupted and prevailed over by Satan is brought under his dominion and becomes his subject in a twofold capacity in both which men are made the throne and seat of the great Dragon and are impowred by him to carry on in the world two differing administrations of his Rule and Government both centring in one common interest of self and making up one worldly Babel or City of confusion wherein is the strife of tongues the nature of which we shall first treat of in general before we come to the particular unfolding thereof in the following chapters The way used by the Devil to bring these his designes about is by gratifying the natural desires and lusts of men with baits suited and calculated by him unto that frame of spirit and dispensation of light which he findes them under as they have in lesser or greater measures and degrees beene made partakers by Christ of a renewall and restauration of pure natural life by vertue of his blood all his aime being to make them sin wilfully against the reconciliation or atonement freely made for them offered to them and received by them as a fruit of Christs sacrifice and death For the Devill well knowing that the proceedings of Christ through the Gospel in judging and condemning men will be according to what they have and know and not according to what they have not and know not so as those that are without Law shall perish without Law and those that are under the Law shall be judged by the Law and where there is no law made known the disobedience to such unknown Law shall not be
Where all flesh together may behold his glory and sit downe at Table with him in this his presence eating the same spiritual meat and drinking the same spiritual drink that is to say feeding mystically upon his flesh and drinking his blood so as through the vertue of this living bread and drink which is Angels food they may attain unto and be nourished up in a life of RIGHTEOUSNES like unto that of those young men 1 John 2. 14. who were strong through the Word of God thus dwelling and abiding in them wherby they had overcome the wicked One as to all fleshly impurity and filthinesse partaking also of other choice Benefits and Priviledges which those under the first Ministery are meer strangers unto and have scarcely the shadow or tasts of For as Christ and they are knit together in this sort of marriage-union they all together make but one flesh one bread and one body he as the Husband and they as the Spouse each retaining the properties of those relations wherin he as the Head Husband good Olive-tree or true Vine and they as the Branches Spouse or living Members in this his Mystical Body have all things in co-partnership each with other So as all the glory beauty comlines and perfection which is Christs according to the flesh that is not incommunicable is theirs They have the righteousnesse of this his natural perfection wherein he fulfilled the Law imputed unto them in his right and made theirs for their Justification in the sight of God over and besides the indwelling life of it working in them as their personal inherent righteousnesse for their Sanctification Both which those under the first Ministery fall short of and experience not until by advancing forward out of that condition they come to attaine this first marriage with Christ This union with the beautiful fruits thereof that are brought forth betweene Christ and the children of the first Covenant is spoken of Zach. 11. Where also is declared how it may be broken againe ver 10. signified by cutting asunder his first staffe even BEAUTY as that Covenant wherein he had put his owne beauty the comlinesse of God upon them whereupon the holy flesh passes from them and then the next newes of them is they are selling Christ for thirty pieces of silver something that gratifies their natural desire and in their spirit crucifying the Sonne of God afresh whereupon he cuts asunder also his other staffe even BANDS dissolving that first marriage-union and so at last the difference grows up to a perfect loathing of each other and a final separation as himself testifies there concerning their very Pastours and Leaders v. 8. My soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me Yet this sort of men are brought in as at the last day confidently claiming admission into his heavenly Kingdome as their undeniable right challenging him upon this their intimacy with him in marriage-union and cohabitation and so taking it exceeding strangly to find him shutting up the door against them who have so much to plead for their entrance Lord Lord say they open unto us for have not we eaten and drunk in thy presence have not we prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works But he will professe unto them I know you not depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity who under all these choice Priviledges and bountiful dealings from me have made your selves guilty of my body and blood by eating and drinking unworthily and not answering the end for which so great mercy was vouchsafed unto you We say then that this second way of communication of life and light from Christ simply and singly considered as distinctand separate from a higher more intimate and better union imports no more still then that common grace or salvation flowing from Christ as he is the Root Father to the seed which are by the Law or children of the first Covenant in the highest partakings and enlightnings thereof Heb. 6. 4 c. In which sense Christ sayes he is the bread that gives life unto the world John 6. 33. Whereby they are admitted into his conjugal presence and converse as he becomes their Bridegroome and Husband to the keeping up of his Dominion and Rule in their hearts by the Law and upon the termes of the first Covenant all which may faile be broken and end in the highest loathing of each other through their committing greater abominations after such enlightenings and conjugal converse then those of Sodome on the one hand or those of Samaria on the other Ezek. 16. 46 47 c. and therefore the Author to the Hebrews chap. 6. 8 9. tells this sort of enlightned ones what a sad and cursed end they may come unto unlesse there be laid in them the foundation of a better hope by reason whereof he might see cause to perswade himself better things of them even things that accompany salvation The benefits then which thy have by Christ that are under this second Ministery do farre exceed any the first Ministery affords forasmuch as these are knit unto Christ in a Marriage-band though capable of Divorce having thereby given unto them an interest in his person and personal concernments so that his righteousnesse as answering and fulfilling the Law is made theirs for their justification in the sight of God and to the setting of them right againe in the Court of Gods justice as innocent persons upon the termes of the first Covenant the Law being satisfied on their behalf by another which benefits and priviledges neverthelesse are not given unto them absolutely and immutably but conditionally as is truly asserted by those that plead for this General redemption without going farther or higher and for a common salvation or state of legal righteousnesse depending upon the obedience and faithfull walking of the creature in and under such light received as to the continuance thereof This sort of Justification of sinners then is not absolute nor is the interest that such have in Christs Sacrifice for the remission of sins so sure and immutable but that upon their falling away and sinning wilfully Heb. 10. 26. they may justly be denied and for ever deprived of the benefit thereof And this they come to by hearkening to the motions of sinne on the right hand to the resisting of the holy Ghost and rejecting the glory to follow the life Eternal that is to come by staying and fixing on this side Jordan without desire or care to passe over into the true Land of Promise which is their Rest upon the same pretence with the two Tribes and half that liked better to remaine short of Canaan as being taken with the fruitfulnesse and commodiousnesse of that Countrey for cattel pleasing themselves in the enjoyment of fleshly excellencies and glory which they esteeme so high as to be willing rather to sell and part with Christ as he did that sold him for thirty
the one hand and the other upon distinct accounts are to be reputed enemies to the TRUTH in the Spirit and Power thereof as is at large set forth 1 Tim. 1. the first of which are also meant and described 1 Tim. 4. 1. where they are said to be those that are departed from the Faith through giving heed unto seducing spirits and to inspirations of devils in those transformed Ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11. 15. who labour to vent the doctrines of devils such as devils either are authors or objects of through whose Ministery they come to have itching ears formed in them 2 Tim. 4. 3. ready to hearken to all that the Serpent transformed into an Angel of light presents to them by way of instruction and under colour of divine inspiration as taking upon him the Prophetical office of Christ and thereby undertaking to carry them forward to what is more spiritual and to heighten them in their experiences of what SPIRIT and POWER is In this very way he offered to impose upon and deceive if it had been possible Christ himself when perceiving that all the literal Religion and legal worship of the Jewes would not hold him but lay short of his light he shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them the utmost creaturely perfection or natural glory which he was able to give the prospect and representation of in his own Angelical nature being of that highest rank of creatures in the whole first Creation and that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye saying All these will I give thee or make thee to live in if thou wilt fall down and worship me This temptation then which Christ resisted these seduced ones fall under and are snared and taken with to the making of them love and believe a lie and to yield up themselves in a fixednesse of service duty and love unto this false spirit as unto Christ the true Prophet And the better to induce them hereunto and strengthen them in the beliefe of a lie Satan in this his coming as an Angel of light is accompanied with power with signes and lying wonders acting the part of a great friend and favourer of all that is spiritual heavenly and high not opposing at all their having the understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge yea or their having of all faith to the working of miracles or removing of mountaines their speaking with the tongues of men and Angels but unto all these attainments he is conducing as much as in him lies in all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse to serve his designes by gaining the greater credit and authority hereby in their hearts and affections and so the more unperceivably beguiling and winding them over into the belief of a lie and that in a point of highest concernment unto them prevailing with them to receive him in their love and affection even that adulterous spirit and deceiver of the Nations in this his Angelical brightnesse instead of Christ himselfe THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH and SON OF THE LIVING GOD and that considered as shining forth in the glory of his SECOND COMING In consequence hereof he makes them to resigne up all the powers and operations of their minde absolutely into his hands in obedience to his dictates and inspirations upon which they hold themselves obliged to be alwayes waiting in the posture of passive silence in a Counterfeit imitation of the true conformity unto Christ in his death and resurrection So then by this meanes the Devill is found sitting in the Temple of God as God to the apprehension of those who thus possesse him or if you will whom he thus possesses as also to the imagination of others their deluded proselytes where he is opposing and Exalting himselfe above all that is called God And as in former times by JANNES and JAMBRES he withstood Moses through a lively and skilful imitation of his works and miracles so in the latter dayes by such instruments of his as these he shall resist the TRUTH to the causing of many to stumble and be offended thereat for the resemblance sake which this false spirit is able to forme of it Which false and counterfeit appearance of his as we have said the Scripture sets forth and describes under these two heads MORTIFICATION and VIVIFICATION with a Character of Condemnation upon them in the very description made of them Such mortification is spoken of 2 Tim 2. 17. in the case of HYMENEUS and PHILETUS whose word is there said to eate like a canker Intimating what kinde of mortification the word by them ministered did produce even such a one as is caused in the body by cancerous humors carrying certaine mortality in it if not timely prevented not being a mortification in order to health and life but unto unsoundnesse and death These teachers with their followers are men of corrupt and unchast mindes towards the true Lord and husband under all their abstinence and seeming mortification Againe 1 Tim. 4. 2. this mortification is called the searing of the conscience with a hot iron importing the dead and insensible frame which thereby is brought upon the minde to any other delight love or desire save only towards this false spirit with whom it is as it were bewitched to the contracting a spiritual benummednesse and coldnesse to all other lovers whatsoever to the world and all seen things or bodily objects answering unto the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of sensual life yea and also to Christ himself the true and living God so as to become past feeling in the case of any checks accusations or reproofs from the SPIRIT OF TRUTH in order to a totall and full resignation of themselves up to the dictates inspirations and commands of this false and seducing spirit In this sense and on this account we may finde men giving their bodies to be burned 1 Cor 13. 3. yielding up themselves to be deprived of all their natural or sensual comforts yea many times the most lawful of them thereby offering themselves up as in sacrifice unto these satanical flames wherein they are in danger to be everlastingly burning as in a fire that can never be quenched For this searing of their conscience as with a hot yron is but the first fruits in these SONS OF PERDITION of that resurrection into everlasting contempt designed unto such VESSELS OF DISHONOUR as on the other hand the true mortification and resigning up of the natural will and desire to Christ is the first fruits in the true SONS OF GOD of their resurrection into everlasting life This sinne of their under the Gospel as it is more spiritual seems to be pointed out to us by that sinne under the Law committed by those that offered up their children to Molech causing their sons and their daughters to passe through that material fire and to yield up their very bodies in the most literal outward sense and acceptation to be burned in
that sacrifice Jer. 32. 35. which was expresly prohibited Lev. 18. 21. and they threatned with death that should be found practisers hereof Chap. 20. 2 3. yea if men be found conniving in such case as loth to discover the offender God farther declares that he himself wil come forth in his wrathful appearance or face to do execution as it is written v. 4 5. If the people of the Land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not or cause not execution to be done upon him then will I set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off and all those that go thus a whoring after Molech This just judgement and severity of God in his proceeding against this sin as practised in that lowest and most literal sense under the Law will be found in the issue not to be lessened or mitigated but rather much heightned and raised to appear in a more flaming execution of vengeance upon all such in whom this sin finally takes place in a more sublimated and spiritual way to the offering up of their own living bodies and the sensual comforts thereof in a strange fire to the Devil which they ought by fire from heaven taken off the true Altar Christ to have offered up in sacrifice unto God Rom. 12. 1. Secondly the same Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that intimates this way of mortification does also mention the proportionable vivification accompanying it called there the resurrection which such false guides do affirme to be already past in them looking for nothing as future or to come of hell or heaven to the quickning or raising them up into the utmost perfection of life and glory as their attainment whilst herein this life and before that redemption of the body mentioned Rom. 8. 23. which the Saints and the creature it self yet groane after and wait for This resurrection of theirs is called 2 Col. 18. a worshipping of Angels in a voluntary humility intruding into those things which they have not seene as taking it for granted they are hereby made the true spiritual seed and that they are enter'd within the veile as having passed through the STRAIT GATE and undergone the BAPTISME of the HOLY GHOST AND OF FIRE and so that they are also come to be intirely under the teachings of the Father as actual possessors and inheritors of his everlasting Kingdome and glory In all this they are seduced and made through strong delusion to beleeve a lie being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde to the despising and undervaluing of Christ the Mediatour yea 2 Pet. 2. 1. to the bringing in of damnable heresies privily by cunning sleights and beguiling insinuations even to a denying of the Lord that bought them in the incommunicable properties of his Godhead by esteeming and at length in down-right termes asserting themselves to be God or at least to be as much the Sonnes of God in all respects as Christ himself in his own person who is God blessed for ever in consequence whereof we shall finde them at length owning an everlasting and general salvation of all men and Angels This is that posture of spirit into which that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan swells up those that are thus deceived by him in down-right opposition at length to Christ and God asserting himselfe in them and so causing them to assert and own themselves through his inspirations and indwelling presence in them to be both Christ and God Father and Sonne or another while to affirme that there is no God no Heaven no Hell no Angel or Spirit as the Sadduces for if he can perswade them either that he is God or else that there is no God at all he hath enough And in order to make this witness of theirs to stand and take place against all opposition from the true light when he has cried down the living WORD OF GOD into a meere equality on all accounts with the creature or advanced himselfe and his children into the room and place of God himselfe or partnership at least with the WORD in his incommunicable properties but then findes that the outward Word of God can very difficultly be made use of long to countenance either of these designes by degrees he labours to draw them into a state of alienation to that also rendring even the written Word nauseous and despicable to them and causing them to fall a slighting the Scriptures this outward Word of God which rightly represented gives forth the discovery and pleads for the true interest of the inward and living WORD and so professedly to disown all bodily or outward worship and service whatsoever as carnal and inconsistent with the spiritual service they performe Hereupon some of them also forbid marriage and other lawful creature-comforts as called to abstinence and a Virgin-life by which Rule the spirit they live and walk in judges marriage unlawful and commands to abstaine from meats two signal characters of this spirit held forth undeniably to our view 1 Tim. 4. 3. And in all this they carry a shew of wisdome in wilworship neglecting of the body and all things done in honour or satisfaction thereunto as hath been said To these also belong those characters in Jude and Peter where it is said of such that they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time or under pretence of highest light and spirituality to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and so at last returne with the dog to the vomit and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire yea and that avowedly in point of judgement now as a condition they can satisfie their owne consciences in and in which they undertake to justifie themselves against all contradiction These by Peter are called spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own self-deceivings in their feastings with others having eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls and alluring through much wantonnesse them that were cleane escaped from those that live in error Yet all this while they will confidently own themselves as lovers and favorers of the Spirit of TRUTH notwithstanding that they live unto a spirit of falshood in the sight of God even in whoredome and defilement with the father of lies But because many of these may be so meerely deceived as verily to think themselves with a chaste and Spouse-like affection to be embracing of Christ their true Lord and husband and so may be doing what they do ignorantly and not wilfully the Scripture sayes in such case Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them with a holy severity out of the fire lest otherwise they finally perish for this is that kinde of sinning which is unto death and therefore unpardonable when it is done knowingly and wilfully This false seducing spirit is capable of putting forth it self in a greater or lesser degree in and under all
bodies shall be found in the streets of the holy City spiritually called Sodome and Egypt kept for three dayes and an half unburied signifying that they must in all things submit to the bruising of their outward man in conformity unto Christ and be slaine as their brethren have beene from the beginning of the world which is to be their lot in the latter end This prophetical and powerful spirit of Eliah shall be poured forth in those dayes upon the witnesses of Christ that keep the WORD OF HIS PATIENCE and endure the fiery triall of those times not thinking it a strange thing that thereby happens unto them and shall fill them with exceeding joy under all the reproaches which they beare for the Name of Christ as the Spirit of glory and of God that is resting upon them and fitting them for such a season that as John Baptist by his Ministery ushered in Christs coming in the flesh or in his first appearance so this same prophetical spirit of Eliah shall be the fore-running dispensation given forth by the witnesses of Christ in those dayes unto Christs second appearance or coming from heaven as hath beene foretold by all the Prophets since the world began for the restitution of all things as the fruit of his personal presence in the world exercising Rule and Dominion there for a thousand years with his Saints and then carrying them up with him to his Father and their Father into the same Kingdome as continued in glory in heaven for evermore What this prophetical spirit of Eliah is that shall be thus poured out upon the Witnesses of Christ in those dayes is to be understood by what it was in Eliah's person who was but the type and therefore certainly had this spirit in a much inferiour degree to what it shall be in them The spirit of glory and power therefore which he had they shall have and much more as indeed is expressed when it is said if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devours their enemies These have power by the same way Eliah had which was by the prayer of faith to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie yea they have power also over waters to turne them into blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will Yet under all this power and glory they shall remaine exposed in their persons upon the finishing of their TESTIMONY to the rage and power of their enemies who shall then make warre against them overcome them and kill them But notwithstanding on the third day they have power given them to rise from the dead and to ascend up into heaven Rev. 11. 11 12. after a more glorious manner then Eliah did and this in the sight of their very enemies to their terrifying and amazement Thus we see the spirit and power of Eliah what it is that then shall be poured forth and that in a more mystical and spiritual consideration Something we shall also speak to the opening of the state and qualification of the persons that are called the TWO WITNESSES and why they are so called For their state and qualification this is to be known by their names and their apparel They are called the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the whole earth By what hath beene already opened on this subject we are not far to seek what these signifie For the two Olive-trees and two Candlesticks that stand by the Lord of the whole earth must either be Christ in his owne person as he is head to his body the Church and Mediatour betweene God and man shining forth in his first and second appearance as both these perfections of the natural and spiritual man are built up and wrought into a perfect consistency and harmony in him or else these two Olive-trees do signifie the conformity which from him as the head is wrought out in and derived upon his spiritual and heavenly members by his first and second appearance in both those perfections of the first and second Adam as the elder is made to serve the younger and the first is built up into a consistency and harmony with the second by the power of the Crosse making them conformable to him in his death Which conformity is signified by their prophesying in sackcloth testifying the marks which they bear about with them in their mortal bodies of the dying of the Lord Jesus And in this crucified mortal flesh of theirs they are owned by Christ as having the Spirit of God and of glory thus made to rest upon them in a like dispensation unto that of Eliah's prophecy So that when once it shall please God to raise up a seed and generation of Saints in whom these marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus shall be eminent to the slaying and bringing to rest all operating powers and faculties of their natural man as standing in opposition to the Lord of life and glory and subjecting every high imagination in them by the Crosse to the laying of it and all the glory of flesh in a very great measure under the feet of Christ whereby that which lets his glory from appearing unveiled and hath all this time let is taken away then will it be knowne what the TWO WITNESSES are and that they have not hitherto so much as begun their prophecy in the power of Eliah before mentioned so farre are they from being slaine CHAP. XXVI Treating of the time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God their sitting with Christ on his Throne ruling and influencing all things on earth during the space of a thousand years HAving finished what relates to the Saints being made one dead or crucified body with Christ and shewed the opposition which is exercised by the Devil thereunto that which remains to be considered is the gathering also of the Saints together into one glorified body with Christ at his second coming when it shall appear what those shall be that now though they are sons are undistinguished from those that are not who have beene planted into a conformity with Christ in his death and who considered as his dead body having beene exposed to the bruising of their heele by Satan before his being bound up shall be declared the proper subjects and inheritours of this first resurrection in the exercise of the power and glory thereof as KINGS and PRIESTS reigning with Christ a thousand years This time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God is said to be that which is the earnest expectation of the very creature it self Rom. 8. 19. as the season also wherein the whole creation is to be restored to its Primitive purity and to be delivered out of the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God as the benefit which it shall then receive by vertue of the price of Christs blood paid for all for
power and glory shining forth in the beauty of his new name that is above every name either in this world or in that which is to come every knee is appointed to bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and the duty of every tongue shall be to confesse that Iesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Hence then it is evident that as God or the WORD in Christs first appearance was pleased to be manifested in flesh wherein to condescend and make himself of no reputation by taking upon him the forme of a servant and being made in the likenesse or habit of a man and in this fashion as a man subjecting himself to the doing and suffering all that which was required to be done and suffered on the behalf of sinful mankind and for the bringing many sonnes unto glory so also is he that thus did and suffered all things as a man in the dayes of his flesh for our redemption at this time to see his seed and reap the fruit of the travel of his soul which then he made a sacrifice for sin being now a second time to appeare without any reference to sinne as then he did but instead thereof to declare himself the Sonne of God with power by the resurrection from the dead So as in and by this second appearance the man Christ Iesus in the fashion and forme of his exalted and glorified manhood consisting of spirit soul and body in substantial or personal union with the WORD is to shew and manifest himself in the glory of the Father in the joynt and united exercise of the same divine life and power with him and therein to give a plaine demonstration that he is the Sonne of God as by his being made flesh and becoming obedient to the death of the Crosse he did undeniably demonstrate that he was really and properly the Sonne of Man made of the seed of David according to the flesh living the life and dying the death of a perfect natural man Thus the Sonne of man shall come with power and great glory sitting with the Father upon the same Throne therein shewing himself the only POTENTATE the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS dwelling in immortality and that light which no man can approach hath seene or can see Christ then considered as thus dwelling in immortality and that light which is invisible and inaccessible in reference to all those that are meer natural men shall at this time declare himself to be the life and quickning of his own dead body and the object of their converse who having been made one dead body with him as planted in the similitude of his death shall now be called and gathered together unto him in one incorruptible immortal glorified state of spirit soul and body be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection to the attaining of their compleat adoption and the redemption of the body at this manifestation of the sonnes of God and heirs of salvation which is spoken of Colos 3. 4. where 't is said that when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory and 1 Iohn 3. 2. we are now sonnes but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is or as he dwells in immortality and in that light from whence he excludes every natural eye reserving it as the peculiar enjoyment and inheritance of his friends whom he loves that are Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ in the things prepared only for them which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard nor have entred into the heart of the natural man to consider This likenesse which the true Saints shall be brought forth into with Christ the beginning and first-begotten from the dead is described in general by the promise Christ makes to them on that behalf And Iesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19. 28. So Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh sayes he I will grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne which imports First that as by the Fathers quickning of Christ raising him up and fitting him in spiririt soul and body to exercise in unity with him the same divine life and power to the making his manhood Second with him on the Throne so Christ in like manner will quicken and raise up all the members of his dead body or slaine faithful Witnesses that have beene made conformable unto him in his death and fit them in their spirit soul and body to exercise in unity and association with his heavenly manhood the life and power which he is enabled to exercise as he is the exalted Sonne of man to the rendring them a fit Bride Queene and Second with him in his Throne where they shall neverthelesse sit as upon Thrones of their owne as his Equals and co-heirs yet in subordination unto him judging the twelve Tribes of Israel in a light and glory superiour to the earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church yea to the good Angels themselves who shall be found but standing about the Throne whilst the Saints shall be sitting downe with Christ upon it Secondly as the Father gives authority to Christ in the capacity of the Sonne of man to execute judgement as the only l'OTENTATE KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS under him so Christ also shall give and derive to his body the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven authority to be the only Potentates Lords of Lords and Kings of Kings under him whose Decrees and Ordinances shall be binding unto all in heaven or in earth or under the earth next and immediately under Christ their head and this as well in reference to the regulating and well-ordering the service and worship of God in the societies of Saints and all his true worshippers as in reference to the governing and well-ordering the natural and outward converse of men in their humane societies during the reigne of Christ upon earth the thousand years Both these powers and jurisdictions shall be residing in the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven who shall then be declared the Bride the Lambs wife the New Ierusalem coming downe from God out of heaven described Rev. 21. 2. as she that is prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband being that Tabernacle of God with men wherein he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he himself will be with them and be their God wiping away all teares from their eyes so as there shall be amongst them no more death nor sorrow nor crying
but made like unto the Sonne of God abides a Priest for ever at Gods right hand By which description it may appear that the manhood of Christ considered as the OFF-SPRING and BRANCH is brought forth into such likenesse and equality with the ROOT as to be made a fit associate to the Son of God considered as the ROOT And thus it is by way of figure and resemblance with the nature of man in the first degree of life attained by the resurrection from the dead as he is brought forth into the exercise of life like unto Angels and so becomes their equal yet is not an Angel nor loses the subordination and inferiority of his natural being unto the Angels So also Christ is still perfect man notwithstanding this his exaltation yet so as that he is also in the same person God as we have shewed and the Saints that come thus to be branches of the same perfect heavenly manhood with him are so neverthelesse in a distinguished state of subordination and inferiority to him in the capacity of the Bride the Lambs wife who by all this their exaltation are neither Godded with God nor Christed with Christ but are still in the proper capacity of creatures but of the highest and best creatures under Christ their Head exalted above all Angels or any particular nature whatsoever and brought thus at last into the enjoyment of the beatifical vision of God in the face of the blessed Trinity Thus we have endeavoured to describe the glory wherein Christ is given to be the Head and Husband to the whole spiritual seed as actually espousing and taking to wife the whole general assembly of the first-borne bringing them into the same glory with himself as he hath received power from the Father and expressing it to be his will and desire that they should participate of the same glory and be one with him as he is one with his Father Neverthelesse by this dignity given unto them they do not attaine unto the priviledge and preheminence that is due only unto their Head in that Hypostatical union into which he is taken but have that which belongs to them as the BRIDE the LAMBS WIFE in a secondary and subordinate way by marriage-union with Christ wherein they are one with Christ as he is one with the Father Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ but a in weaker inferiour state of glory This is figured out by the woman who partakes of the same life and glory in kind with the man as she is his image or glory and so is as his equal yea one with him by marriage-union yet singly considered is in a state of subordination and inferiority to him And as thus we see what is the attainment unto which the right heirs of salvation do come by the resurrection from the dead when they shall be made like unto Christ and see him as he is so we also have hereby signified unto us what the wicked do arrive unto who must also partake of the resurrection from the dead and be raised up in dishonour to everlasting contempt and that consists first in their being made equal in the first degree of the resurrection with wicked Angels and fit associates for them as spirits perfected to be kept up as vessels of dishonour in a way of contempt Secondly in that state of dishonour into which their body returnes at the resurrection thereof wherein it becomes incorruptible never to be changed more And now for as much as in this manifestation of the sons of God there shall be found the perfect use of the natural sences of their minde and body wholly subjected by the Crosse of Christ to their spiritual and heavenly in this perfect and compleat exercise of their natural sences they shall hold forth that Law of righteousnesse and the obedience thereof unto which natural men in those dayes shall be required to conform who shall for that end not only be set at liberty from the bondage of corruption but stand free from the assaults and wiles of Satan who shall be bound up from molesting them and be moreover advantaged with all needful and requisite helps and meanes to further them therein under the influence of a Ministery and Magistracy brought forth in the highest and utmost perfection and purity that can be enjoyed on earth managed by the person of Christ himself and the whole GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the first-borne The book of the creatures shall also be made legible in the fairest characters wherein they can be written out and the Scriptures opened in the highest degree of clearnesse and full comprehensivenesse thereof an instance of which Christ gave after his resurrection Luke 24. 27. who beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself which will be the general practice of the Saints after their resurrection all along the thousand yeares Reigne Hence it is that besides the change that we have already spoken of which is peculiar to the Saints there shall be brought forth by the Saints as the secondary meanes in Christs hand a most glorious change next in order unto theirs upon the whole creation as we have already laid open in general which in reference to men the principal part of it shall be as a state of common salvation mutable and temporary to the affording of the highest example and proof that possibly can be given of this common state of purity and excellency appertaining to the natural man which men have so generally admired and been so fond of from the beginning of the world to this time Then it will shew it self in its kind and plainly discover what it will signifie and amount unto at its best where it shall be only reteined single and want the benefit of association and consortship with the spiritual sences which are found in the minde of true Saints to the making Christ admired in all them that do beleeve and to the abasing and entirely bringing down the pride and glory of all flesh Thus Christ as sitting upon this Throne of his glory and his Saints with him shall make all things new by bringing forth the second change before mentioned which shall come upon the world the former things as old being made to passe away and to receive a consuming by fire that all things may be renewed and restored into their first purity and natural perfection throughout the whole first creation in all the parts and members of it by vertue of the powerful influence that shall come from this healing refreshing presence of the Lord in with his Saints for that purpose at which time he shall make good that saying of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods by granting a general day of JUBILE and release unto all natural beings then in the world from under the power of sin and Satan and setting up means for the keeping and