things by or from the conviction and evidence of Reason or the letter onely a light far below the spirit and experience thereof and so they know them but darkly and as though they knew them not cannot see to the end of k 2 Cor. 3. 13. them whereas did they know them in Spirit they would know them more certainly and their capacity withall would be inabled and inlarged stedfastly to behold them and take in more and more of their glory without being dazled For want of which they expose themselves to that exprobration of the Apostle l Gal. 5. 7. Ye did run wel who hath hindered you And that serious caution of the Apostle belongs to them m 1 Cor. 3 10 11. No other foundation can any man lay than that is laid but let every man take heed how he builds thereon viz. with unsuitable stuff lest his work be burnt or how he pull down that that is suitable lest he be found a fighter against God For if that old Simile of theirs be proper That even as the Seaman drawes his vessell to the rock not the rock to him so we doe not draw God to us by prayer or other means but our selves are drawn to him Then what blasphemy is it to say that Christ came to reveale to declare the love of God to us not to purchase it Again it hath been said by them of old time that Christ is not the cause but the effect of the Fathers love If this be truth then the love of the Father and our peace was not purchased but preached by Jesus Christ for the cause cannot be purchased but is declared by the effect Thirdly if also as it hath been said of old time Our redemption by the blood of Christ were but the extravagancy of grace for my part I dare not say what may be gathered and inferred from thence and yet both Premises and Inference have my heart exceedingly but sure it is much modesty to containe within this inference That if we be begotten again from the dead or recovered out of the horrible pit of sin to the lively hope and enjoyment of of this glorious grace which was before this redemption and all or any the works or acts of God and is through all and in all and live therein This is only that that fully answers the aim and end of God as without this or on this side hereof to rest in the knowledge of any plot or mystery of the way or of Christ without reaching together also the mystery of the n Father is no better than Negromancy or the smoak of the bottomlesse pit it is to dwell in the borders and flourish and not in everlasting life And lastly if as hath been sayd all the enmity be on our part and we are to be reconciled to God not God to us then all that language of Atonement and Purchase c. is to us and for our sakes according as it is said o Rom. 5. 11. We have received the atonement not God and we are redeemed and bought p Rev. to God not of God and is spoken to man and his Conscience who was made under a law and as we grow up in the knowledge of the truth becomes resolved into a mystery namely of suffering in the flesh and so ceasing from sin But indeed not onely may some choice sentences of some few bee brought in to witnes to these things there are none that hold the Principles of religion in so great bondage and obscurity in the very letter but a testimony may be drawn out of their own mouthes as the Apostle Paul doth towards the Athenians out of their own Poets For if the nature of God be one unchangeble as all men wil confesse if Jesus Christ be the same q Heb. 13. 8. yesterday to day and for ever as the letter of the Scriptures affirm we need seek no further evidence of these things Then God is true and every Man a lyar The law of liberty is in r Jam. 1. 25. James resembled to a glasse This law of liberty is the power and Spirit of the Lord Iesus in the heart of man reflecting the glories of the Lord there and changing us into the same appearances according to that Scripturtures 2 Cor 3. last Now as in a glasse such as the face is that looks therein such is the image or species that is seen there whether the face be black or whether it be beautifull whether it come towards the glasse or goe from it so doth the image in the glasse for the glasse hath no forme no image no species of its own but is wholly representative of the object that looks therein Even so is the apearance or representation of God in our hearts according to the work of God in our spirits for if thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted But if thou dost evill sinne lies at the door In the one the spirit of Adoption shews God as a Father in the other the spirit of Bondage shewes him an angry jealous God according as it is written againe ſ Psa 18. 26. With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward and with the upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright The witnesse evidenoe or representatiō of God in the spirit of man being alwayes according to truth is various changeable according to the changeable capacity and condition of the creature but God all the while through all these changes remains in himselfe unchangeable being cbangeable onely in his appearances to us and in us For hee is not onely the unchangeable glasse wherein all changes are truly represented and the unchangeable eye and light wherein wherby they are according to their true state seen discern'd but is the unchangeable Father of these differing changeable lights appearances that are thus seen by us represented in us according to another text in James chap. 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Yet what pity is it not onely the ordinary sort of Teachers who take for Doctrines the Traditions of men but even those who have separated themselves to a more diligent enquiry after truth seem to be of a choycer tast yet are dazled with the light they carry in their own Lanthorns But were this infirmity shall I call it an iniquity surely it is both according to its respective subjects found onely in the teachers it were not so great though a very great mischief But where shall we find almost a Saint that knowes his owne prayers or is not afraid to meet his own deare hopes in the things we are speaking of It may not bee forgotten what a spirit of prayer was powred forth upon the people of God in this Kingdome some 6 or 7 years past how our hearts were drawn forth in requests for the Spirit for the kingdome of Christ for
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
copious as well as very sweet bestowing the whole 14. 15. 16. Chapters upon them Among all the comforts Christ doth minister unto them this is one and a chief one That they should see him again and he would hide himself from them but a little while Not only his going away was for their advantage but he would come again to them This he tels them often especially here at the 17. verse of this Chapter A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me And to let pass the rectfying of their understandings concerning these promises and these undertakings of his he tels them what he wil do for them when he sees them again and what shal be their condition in that day At the 22. verse in general he tels them Their hearts should rejoyce and no man should take their joy from them And particularly verse 23. In that day you shal ask me nothing saith he verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name he wil do it They shall have all their Petitions It shall be a day of grace and favour such as Herods birth-day was when he promised he would give Herodias his Daughter the half of his Kingdom but this is not restrayned to half of the Kingdom for we know the spirit himself is promised to those that ask him the Spirit is the Kingdom of God it is God and his Kingdom and all Another benefit and advantage of that time when he would see them again is this that I have read to you in the Text I wil shew you plainly of the Father Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh that I will speak no more in Parables but will shew you plainly of the Father Obiect But it wil be said Christ spake in Parables to the Multitude but he spake not in Parables to his Disciples or if he did he opened the Parables to them as it s said When be came into the house he opened the Parable of the tares and so he did other Parables Solu I conceive this Scripture meaneth other kinds of Parables then those for in such Parables Christ spake not at that time but under Parables here is meant not only those very portions of Scripture which have the form of Parables but the whole Preaching and Ministry of Christ as Man and not only so but the whole Ministration and Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ may be called a Parable and thus were they Parables that he had spoken to them in I have spoken to you hitherto in Parables but the time cometh when I wil speak no more to you in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father And this plain shewing of the Father is when Christ comes in the Spirit While a Beleever knows Christ only after the flesh he knows the love of God and the Covenant of God and the things that concern his peace only in a Parable but when God comes to do those things in him in the Spirit which were done to him in Christ in the flesh Why then doth God shew himself unto him plainly This shall suffice in brief to have opened the words unto you The parts of the Text are these two 1. Here is the casting up as it were of the Dispensation or Administration of Christ in the flesh It is cast up what it amounts unto and that is a speaking to the world in Parables 2. Here is the glory of Christs appearing in the Spirit in the heart of a Beleever and that is a plain Demonstration or shewing of the Father In this latter are these two things 1. Here is the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father I will shew you plainly of the Father 2. Here is the Quality of the Spirits Discovery it is a plain Discovery Doctr. I shall speak first of the former shal observe unto you this point That the Preaching and Administration of Christ in the flesh was but a speaking to us as it were in Parables Hitherto saith Christ have I spoken to you in Parables The time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in Parables If we enquire what a Parable is we shal find that the Use of a Parable doth agree with the Nature of this Discovery or Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ for to this shall I confine my Discourse A Parable is this when there is a latent sense under patent words When there are words outwardly sounding one thing and a sense under those words that is not conceived by the Vulgar understanding This is a Parable It is a Riddle It is a dark saying And certainly the Wise man in the beginning of his Book of Proverbs or Parables as he calls them wherein are the Treasures of the Gospell He calls the Gospell there Parables Prov. 9. 6. Now that Christ in the flesh is such a Parable may be made good unto you thus There is one thing doth appear outwardly and runs into the sences of men And there is another thing held forth under that which few do perceive but those that are singularly taught of God That which is visible and obvious and runs into the sences of men is a Carnall transaction A Bargain between God and Christ The doings and sufferings of Christ in the flesh and by these doings and sufferings our Life our Justification and our Peace This is the outward form as it were this is the Parable Now what is that which is held forth under this Parable There are these two things that are veyled and hid under this Parable which most men doe not set their eyes upon And the first is this The Love of the Father This is scarce eyed by most men but they think that the worke of their salvation proceeds from the kind heart of Jesus Christ and so they look upon his Humane Heart and Affections as the Root and Original of their Redemption Whereas Christ tells us in this Chapter I say not that I will pray for you for the Father himself loves you As who should say though I should hold my peace the Father himself loves you Now this is that which few men see in and under this Parable Christ Jesus in his dying for man was set up by God in the place of God to shew us the great love that God did bear unto man I say he was set up by God in the place of God and that not to shew his own love only but to shew the Fathers Love and therefore we find these names given unto Christ and these things spoken of him That he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person And we saw his Glory saith John as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God The Apostles and Spiritual men saw the Love of God held forth through the doings and sufferings of Christ And therefore it is said I beseech you
mark it in the 5. of John The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that men might honor the Son as they honor the Father He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that hath sent him God is he that must inherit all honor and glory to eternity but he hath for the present set up Christ Jesus to make himself known unto the world It was not that Christ should make himself known or that we should lye down in the Discovery of Christ but that by Christ the Father might be known and discovered to us and his love and therefore it is said That this is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The meaning is not as if it were not enough to know the Father but that there is no knowing of the Father but by Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for that end So that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled his Ministration when he hath made known the Father and then is the Kingdom delivered up by the Son yea by all the Sons of God when once they come to know God by Christ they deliver up the Kingdom from Christ unto God even unto the Father This is the first thing that is hid under this same Parable Christ bears the name but God doth the thing Christ saith I came to do the work of him that sent me God saith unto Christ thou shalt make me known unto the world But the second thing that is hid under this Parable is the doing of the like works in the Saints as were done in Christ Jesus This is that which they onely see and receive that are delivered from the delusions of Antichrist Antichrist cryes up Christ in the flesh cries up that same man Christ Jesus that dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification but he knows not Christ in the Spirit he knows not Christ and him crucified in the Saints He knows not the power of his Resurrection in Beleevers He knows not the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead working in us in both these respects is Christs Ministration in the flesh a speaking in Parables First because the Gospell seems to run thus as that Christ hath done this and that for us whereas indeed it was God in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. before end And whereas the Gospell seems to deliver to us a History only of what Christ Jesus hath done for us in the flesh It doth indeed hold forth the Model and Platform of that salvation that is carryed on in the spirit and is revealed in the breasts of the Saints I say that is wrought and revealed there sutably and agreably to all those steps and stages to all those points and periods you shal find in the Letter The same things are done in the Saints in the Spirit that were done in and upon Christ in the flesh And now I have opened this point unto you if you require any reason for it why God did speak to us in a Parable and why he shews us things as in a glasse why he shews us rather the Image of things then the things themselves Reason it is because of our weaknesse it is because of our childishnesse It was the manner of the Heathen to put wisdom into Parables to put their wise Observations into fables into pleasant tales and stories for these two reasons First that they might hide wisdom from the Vulgar 2. That they might the better insinuate it into their Children and those that were ingenuous And these two Reasons may be given why God teaches the world by Parables It is for their weaknesse sake It is to take them and lead them by the hand to speak to them in childish things in things within their own sphere and understanding So God hath done to us in the flesh of Christ You will beleeve a man loves you if he wil dye for you you wil beleeve a Creditor wil be reconciled to you if he pay the debt himself Why behold thus doth God satisfie man 2. Rea. God doth this to hide these things from the prophane of the world I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and hast revealed them unto babes c. And therefore if you observe it Christ did commonly speak to the Multitude in Parables they had Parable upon Parable they had rind upon rind one shel upon another that they could not easily come to the kernell And the Reason is this that wicked and prophane men may scoff and jeer at the Letter and Parable but God doth keep the truth from that contempt and obloquie The outward Court is given to the Gentiles to be trodden down God makes it not much matter men may tread down outward forms and God may let them prophane them but there is a place where none come that defile and that is the Spirit the truth as it is in Jesus Gods Truth is Himself We know that precious things have covering upon covering they have lappings one upon anotherâ— Iewels have Caskets to put them in though the Casket fall into the dirt yet the Iewells will be kept clean So prophane and wicked men may preach and receive the Gospell in a Parable in the outward Letter But what hast thou to do to take my word in thy mouth the word in the Spirit for it is that hidden wisdome that is prepared for our glory as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2. Vse Now all the Use of this point I shal make to you is this to desire you to look into your selves whether you know any more then Parables whether you can doe any more then say over Parables Examine your selves by those two things spoken of before Do you discerne God under the forme of the man Christ Jesus Do you see God coming forth unto you in Christ And then do you find the Gospel to be realized in your hearts and spirits Do you find these transactions to be transacted over again in you The death of Christ in you The life of Christ in you The Resurrection of Christ in you Now a further thing I aime at is this and this specially The plain shewing of the Father by the Spirit Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I will speak no mâ—re to you in parables but will shew you plainly of the Father I shal only speak at this time of the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father The time cometh that I will shew you plainly of the Father So that the point is this Doctr. That the adequate Object or the whole and intire Object of the Discovery of Christ and the Gospel is the Discovery of the Father unto us This our Saviour plainly intimates here in saying The time comes that I wil shew you plainly of the
wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit and therefore as Christ saith we may be bold to say after him The flesh profits nothing if you only know Christ as dying and rising without you it wil profit you nothing unles you know him as dying rising within you Error in this is the root of the dead faith wherof the world is full This is the root of that formall profession of that form of godliness which men doe advance soe far in and glory so much of and shroud themselves under unto the persecuting of the power of godliness to the persecuting of the Spirit This setting up of the History of Christ being ignorant of the Mystery Any man is capable of remembring the story of Christ and telling and rehearsing it if he hath but common reason and can say as wel as another that Christ dyed for him and can throw himself upon Christ and hang upon Christ This is not Faith this is not Salvation We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile We know not how to shake off the pretenders and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternall life Through the ignorance of this truth we have counted it enough if a man hath had the knowledg of the Story of Christ and hath said he casts himselfe upon Christ for salvation But harken what James saith Faith without works is dead Harken what Paul saith Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death He doth not say that such a proposition of the Gospell did set him free He doth not say that the hearing that Christ dyed for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as there was the Law or Letter the outward Covenant is it that entailes life upon Jesus Christand his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed This is the Covenant that God made with Christ that he made with Abraham of old I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed Now then they that are of the seed of Christ are in this Covenant as al that were Abrahams seed were in that outward Covenant but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ and to be of the generation of Christ And do not thousands profess themselves so to be Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord and press to enter into Heaven We cannot put a difference between one or other except we know this truth for they say they are in the Covenant they say they are of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this They hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he dyed for their sins and rose for their Justification and this they beleeve and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veryest Hypocrite do so as wel as the truest Saint But here is that which puts a difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poore creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep This distinguishes them from the other So that if you lay your salvation upon an historicall Christ you wil be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him you must have the same eternall Spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice yea your selves and your own Righteousness This is true salvation Here is salvation manifested unto life But you wil say to me Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ Is it not a giving away from Christ And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us Solu To this I answer that it is no giving away from Christ at all for we make Christ to be all in all in this only we distinguish of Christ There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the witness the Covenant the common Person in whom our salvation is transacted as in a figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the reall salvation within us For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit but the Manifestation of God the coming forth of God and unto this must we attribute and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation this is the Savour of life unto life Of his own wil begat he us Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father This same Will of God brought forth is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit Christ Iesus is the outgoing of the Fathers Wil the Manifestation of the Fathers good Pleasure Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Beleever If you confine Christs dwelling to a locall Heaven you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be Christ dwels in thy heart if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit Christ is in thee for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Fathers Will and the Manifestation tion of the Fathers good pleasure this is Christ So that if we give to Sanctification we give to Christ For this is the Will of God even our Sanctification Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification But I desire a little further to examine that same before I let it pass it is said it is a giving to Sanctification and not to the blood of Christ I say no. For 1. I do not here take Sanctification as it is commonly taken as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit I know that our life lyes not in this or the other act or in any particular act Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit 2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit but to the Revelation of the Spirit There is the Revelation of the Spirit as wel as the Sanctification of the Spirit as the Apostle speaks Ephes 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation c. 3. There is the Spirit of grace as well as the grace of the Spirit and to this I give all and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus and so to him I give al and what do I give to the Spirit I give the Manifestation of salvation to life and that 's all 4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend
any vail there is so much of darkness and there is so much of fear and enmity against God and therefore I pray mark it those disputes among us concerning faith whether the act of faith doth justifie us or whether it be an act of God that doth justifie us I conceive that herein faith is perverted and we do make a quite contrary use of it then ever God appointed he â—ath set up faith as a light in a dark place and behold we are ascribing that unto faith which is due only unto God And hence is that other dispute Whether God doth dwell in us only by grace and be with us only by influences and opperations as he is in other creatures after their kind Whence arise these questions but out of the smoke of the bottomless pit and out of enmity against God That grace and the influences of God will step into the place of God himself they will step into the place of the Bridegroom Christ himself in the Spirit is the grace of the Spirit So that while God appears unto us under any form even grace that is the purest vail yet God is not all in all we find faith would be something and grace would be something and this is through the flesh Now there is but one thing more to do and that is a little to explain as far as we can what this same resurrection in a man what this same putting off of the vail is what the state of a Beleever is in such a condition I shall express it to you by these two things By the purity and by the strength of it The Purity lies herein that the Lord he is all in all Here is the Purity of that state Ordinances they are not Graces they are not the Lord is all in all the Lord is all in graces nay the Lord is all in himself he is sufficient to the soul The Lord is that which Ordinances were and that which Graces were that the Lord is as you shall see Rev. 21. 22. And I saw no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Mark it what are all Ordinances but as the Temple was under the Law The Temple was that same form wherein God appeared unto his people It was a figure to them of the body of Christ in which the fulness of the God head was to dwell and doth dwell When Jesus Christ came who was the body the Temple was no more So the same comparison we may make between the flesh of Christ or Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Spirit What was the flesh of Christ but the true Temple the body the substance of that figure and shadow that was amongst the Jews Thus it was in relation to types that went before But what was it in respect of that which was to come afterwards I will send you another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth c. That this Comforter may come this same presence of Christ must be removed It is expedient for you that I go away and destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again the third day But when he was raised again I beseech you do but mark did Christ let his body be of that use to his Disciples after he rose again When Mary came and fell at his feet to kiss them saith Christ Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father The same with that which Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5. Though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more Mary saith Christ my body is no longer a Temple but your hearts and spirits must be the Temple I am not yet ascended c. Thou must know nothing in me as before Thou must know God in me I am breaking forth into the glory of the Father and shall not appear in the flesh any more Christ in the flesh met with many an unbelieving soul that went unbelieving away from him but Christ appearing in the Spirit opens the most unbelieving heart This is the first thing in this same living Christian nothing but Purity it self nothing but God himself is his repast is his delight 2. But then secondly This estate may be described by its strength and power also It is that which I confess is a stumbling block to the world and it may well be so to see men boast of such attainments above ordinances and yet to have so little sign of them in their walking and conversation to see them carnal still to see them dote upon the world still to see them still as proud and passionate as ever My beloved you have not so learned Christ if you be living men if you have the living principle in you your life is not to discourse in another sphere and dialect then most men do it is not to be able to contradict and throw down the forms of the world This is not this same living man No where the Lord Jesus is broke forth in Spirit where he is risen from the dead Mighty works will shew forth themselves in that man It is a state of power and of glory and therefore saith the Apostle phil 3. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Oh there is power in Christs Resurrection All these Scriptures belong unto that state He that is born of God sinneth not for the seed of God abideth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God He that abideth in him sinneth not You have these Scriptures in the first Epistle generall of John To them that look for him the second time shall he appear without sin unto salvation Oh if Jesus Christ doth but put up his head in our Horizon he chaseth away much darkness as the Sun when it peeps towards day but when Jesus Christ is fully risen there shall not be the least Cloud the least corner hid from him he will detect all corruption there and divide between the joynts and the marrow There is no such purifying in the world as by the presence and appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Spirit he purifies while in him we see the Love of God in the flesh but when Iesus Christ is risen in you he makes you purifie your selves as he is pure he fetcheth up all from the bottom This takes you off from I dollizing not only the forms of your Religion but the forms of your content in outward things Let not that man say he lives in the Spirit that is buried in any creature Let not any man say he is above Ordinances that is not above the forms of this world If he do not weep as if he wept not and rejoyce as if he rejoyced not and buy as though he possessed not and use this world as not abusing it Considering that the fashion thereof these forms as well as others passeth away This is a state of power his prayers are made with spirit and life he enjoys God in every thing
freehold of sin and when a man is once gone out of the flesh he is gone out of sins Territories out of sins Dominions and he loseth his sin by this means and that in a two-fold sense First sin cannot be charged upon him as you shall see the Apostle for it in the 7. Rom. So then it is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me Pray marke it Why not I But because I am gone out of the flesh I am gone out of the fleshly principle I do not own my self I have a being out of my self I have a being in the spirit and there can no guilt or sin follow me the avenger of blood cannot pursue him further then flesh for being in the spirit he hath got hold of the Horns of the Altar Wil you condemn the Son of God The heir of Glory Is Christ a Sinner Can the Son of God be under the wrath of God Why he is ceased to be in himself he is in Christ And then secondly Sin it cannot rule over him he loseth his sin that way He that is born of God keeps himself that the evil one toucheth him not he that abideth in him sinneth not and divers such places in the 1. Epistle of John for it is only the flesh that the Divill hath a title unto and that sinne hath a title unto sin hath title indeed to the Old Adam and to all the Sons of Old Adam as they are natural and as they are flesh and blood they are the slaves and vassals of Sin and Satan but the new creature he hath nothing to do withall It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God You may understand it this way also when the Devill comes to tempt a Saint that lives in the Spirit he doth as good as come and bid the Son of God to fall down and Worship him 2. As he loseth his sin by this means so he is set free from death by this means set free from condemnation the wrath of God cannot seize upon him This is my well beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased God cannot be displeased with his wel beloved Son When a man is once in Christ there is nothing issues out from God but love nothing but smiles and good words and good wishes this is the benefit of a man being in Christ of a man not being in himself of a man ceasing to be in the flesh he loseth his sin and doth escape death and judgment And therefore it is that this same Enoch here as a pledg to all other that walk in his steps he was translated that he should not see death it self because death is as it were an Emblem of the punishment of sin an Emblem I say for if the damned had no worse punishment then the death of the body it were no punishment but death hath a form of punishment therefore Enoch was translated that he should not see death because he was not that is he was not himself he was in Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life Yea a 3. benefit whatsoever tribulation a Christian is in he may rejoyce in it if he be not this is indeed the very sum of his comfort the summe of his happiness that whatsoever estate and condition he seems to be in outwardly yet he hath a retreating place in which he can look upon all these things that befall his flesh and can rejoyce in them and be above them when a man shal see that these afflictions that are upon him are for physick not for punishment he can withdraw from them all and he can be a Spectator of them and not suffer at all he is active in all he doth withdraw himself from under all it is true saith he this is upon my flesh but yet he doth possess and enjoy an other state and another life and another personallity in the Spirit he is in Christ and as I am in Christ there is no condemnation towards me I am sure there is nothing but love towards me this is the highest comfort that can be for a man to be able to withdraw himself from all sin and misery as if he had no part in it though it be upon him this is that the Holy Ghost speaks in the 91. Psalm 1. 2. it is spoken expresly there He that dwelleth in the secret place of the mosthigh shal abide under the shadow of the Almighty and that is he that dwells in the spirit this is fulfilled many times in the literall understanding of it that the Saints do escape when Common Calamities are in the world but there is a fulfilling this in the Spirit when the spiritual Being of a Beleever can stand and look upon his fleshly Being as if the sufferings thereof were not upon him but upon another person and this is the Experience of the Saints I am perswaded I speake to the Experience of some Saints And thus a Christian evades all shifts all charge sin upon him he shakes it off it doth not belong to him Lay afflictions upon him he escapes them all is indempnified not that a beleever doth therfore take boldness to sin because of this No there is none doth more abhorre Sin then this person I now speak of the discovery that God makes to such persons is directly contrary destructive to Sin Now the next thing is to shew The Meant you by what means God makes a Christian not to be himself and in himself and that is by God revealing another self within a Christian by this doth God put a Christian out of himself by substituting and revealing another self in that Christian What is that A Spiritual self that is God himself in Jesus Christ he becomes a new Principle in that same soul a Principle of life and of action a Principle of righteousness and of strength It may be thought to be done otherwise but we shall find though God carry the worke under another form and appearance yet this is indeed the vertue and power that doth the deed turns a man out of himself it is Gods discovery of himself to the soul we may think that God doth it by the Terrors of the Law as there when the Commandment came I died I through the Law am dead unto the Law c. Rom. 7. 9. we may think God doth it by discovering the vanity of our hearts and the weakness of our Principles for that they cannot make their party good with Sin but notwithstanding we are overcome all this is true but the soul is not carryed forth powerfully and effectually to part with it owne self till God doe pawn himself to the soul to be instead of himself till God say to the soul forsake thy self and I will be unto thee instead of thy self I will be thy Righteousness and thy strength I will be instead of the Law til then it is impossible that the soul should part with self and should not be So that it is
of God born unto him above and before the mafestation of it in the sufferings of Iesus Christ He may see it in God Himself though by Christ Do not think you know as much as you need to know and as much as is the interest of your life and happiness to know in knowing the flesh of Christ in knowing the man Christ Iesus for unless you know God in his appearance under that form you mistake Christ and make him an Idol I am nothing saith Christ the flesh profits nothing He that sends is greater then he that is sent Christ saith so himself If God be greater then Christ then Christ himself is but a Medium through which you come to be acquainted with God and in which you must not rest There is no comparison between that which is infinite If so be that Christ himself if the man Christ Iesus were eternall life he would not have said The Father is greater then I. No know the Father by Christ is eternall life Take heed of being offended when you shal hear such like Doctrine as this that the sufferings of Iesus Christ in the flesh for us were as it were but a Parable in which God spake to us and that Gods Heart was not set upon the very having of a little blood for the sins of his people but that herein he premeditatedly if we look upon it in the Originall contrivance would commend his love to us and herein if we relate to the lapsed estate he considers us poor creatures as we are and speaks to our childishness and weaknesse who being made under such a Law and having incurred the curse could not see how there could be reconciliation without blood-shedding Be not offended when as you hear that there is a greater work done in the Spirit in the Saints then was the offering up the flesh of Christ That there is a greater Sacrifice offered up to God when as the old Adam mans own Righteousness and Strength is crucified and is offered up unto God I say a greater Sacrifice then the very Sacrificing of the flesh of Christ him self that is if you take the Sacrifice of Christ without the Mystery for that Sacrifice was indeed the root as wel as the figure of this same Sacrifice 2. And in the second place If so be you need be warned of Idolizing the Humanity of Iesus Christ we had need to warn you of Idolizing other forms There are two sorts of formes wherein God appears to the world There is the Humanity of Christ which is the first and the Highest and the most immediate Form and Appearance of God and there are Ordinances in which God appears as it were at the second hand and by reflexion as when the Sun appears in the Rain-bow or when it makes another Sun like it self in a watry cloud which is but the Sun by reflexion so Ordinances are but the shadow as it were of the Image Christ is the Image of the Fathers Person he is but the Image neither but the Ordinances are but shadows of the Image therefore take heed of Idolizing forms your interest lies in knowing the Father not in knowing any form whatsoever and take heed of censuring and judging spirituall discoveries Those that should have told the Disciples that there was a better thing then the presence of Christ with them in the flesh certainly they would have given much offence to them Take heed of being offended if we say there is a higher thing then Ordinances then fasting then praying yea we may say there is a higher thing then beleeving and that is seeing the Father and knowing the Father without a form manifesting and revealing himself in his own immediate light Now this I desire you to wait for and seek for and to press towards this point and that for these Reasons 1. Because every form hath weakness in it and therefore you cannot rest in the knowing God in a form 2. Every form hath some unlikeness in it which comes to pass through our mistake and certainly your great Clarks do so criticize upon the Letter of the Scripture that they are by the Letter many times led out of the way and from the mind of the spirit and those that look upon Christ and calculate all the actions and sufferings of Christ with an eye of Reason What a strange thing do they make of the Gospel They make it a notional thing Every form hath weakness and an unlikeness in it you wil never see God as he is till you see him without a form till you see him in Himself 3. I shall shew you what are some of the actings of that state of Beleevers when they shal come to be past form Christ tells you some of them here John 16. In that day saith Christ you shall ask me nothing There is one But what then Whatsoever you shal ask the Father in my name he wil give it you This is another This is a Beleever that is come out of a form that is gone beyond this form when he goes to God not in the name of an outward Mediator only but he goes to God in the same Spirit in that inward unction that is upon him for that I conceive Christ meaneth here whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name Now every Beleever hath the name of Christ upon him and hath the name of the new Ierusalem upon him and hath the new name upon him his name is the Christ of God the annoynted of God the annoynting that is upon you shall teach you all things now then is that man past formes that goes to God as Christ himself would go to the Father if he were in distress He goes in the same unction that was powered upon Christ Jesus So he doth not formally make use of the name of Christ as a man would use the name of some great man and say I beseech you Sir that you would do this favour for me for such a ones sake but he goes to God as a woman comes in her husbands name right or interest to a great King her husband being a Favorite of that King the woman doth not make use of anothers name but she makes known to the King what she is and under what relation she stands and so doth a Saint come in the same anoynting of Jesus Christ to the Father for God in raising up Christ doth shew to us that he will raise up all that are his as he raised up the man Christ Iesus not raise them out of the grave of earth only but out of the grave of Self out of that same base being they had in Self and corruption unto that glorious being in God 4. And then another thing is this At that day you shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I wil pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you Alas while we are weak we know not the Love of the Father to us but think that Christ
and person For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the truth So then you may observe these things out of the words 1. That Sanctification is a large notion in Scripture it s a large notion for the meaning of our Saviour speaking of his sanctifying himself and of his members being sanctified is not to defix the thoughts and apprehensions of the hearers unto that same grace that we commonly call Sanctification in distinction from Iustification but Sanctification is that in this place that comprehends the whole Mystery of God in a Saint which is called here by the name of Sanctification even as it is said By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified It were far from pure Divinity to understand them that are sanctified there to be meant of inherent Sanctification only or properly that is of the Grace of the Spirit working in us holiness but he hath perfected them that are sanctified that is them that are separated by the Fathers Love them that are called in time them that are led by the Spirit and so it may comprehend the whole Election and Vocation and Iustification and Sanctification and all and so we are said to be chosen through Sanctification of the Spirit But I shall not open these places any further 2. Next observe here are two Sanctifications here is a typicall Sanctification as I may so say and here is a real Sanctification Here is the Sanctification of Christ and here is the Sanctification of his members For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified I should be too long if I should observe all the particulars that the words wil afford and insist upon them therefore I shall pick out these two things only and the first I shal speak of but briefly and the second is that I do chiefly intend The First is this Doctr. That Jesus Christ's Sanctification or those Transactions of Christ in the flesh have not their ends in themselves but they have their end and fulfilling in us For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified through the Truth That which is for anothers sake mark it or for the sake of another thing to be don that is not to be rested in it self but Jesus Christs Sanctification his dying and his rising it was for another things sake and therefore it is not to be rested in nor to be gloried in in it self For their sakes I sanctifie my self Jesus Christ is unto his seed as the First Adam was unto his seed He is a common Root and our salvation is transacted in him as in a Figure As our destruction was wrought in Adam as in a Figure As destruction and death did seize upon us all in a Figure in Adam so doth life and salvation await us all all the elect in Christ Jesus It doth descend upon them all as in a Figure for so the Apostle doth parralell the First Adam and the Second Adam together Rom. 5. where you may read it at large Now that I say these things were done in a Figure I wil give you my meaning of it thus and the proof of it also Adam lost all his by a Covenant and so Christ restores all his by a Covenant but we know that a Covenant although it doth give me a title in Law unto such or such an estate or commodity yet this same Covenant is not the very possession it self So this same Covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Coppy as it were and is the common person with whom it is made This Covenant gives our Faith the First Hold and First Title but it is not the very possession it self In possession the salvation it self is wrought or rather revealed in us As we do not inherit sin and death from the first Adam meerly by Covenant in which we were involved but we participate of the nature of Adam and we so come to have an evil conscience we have the very same Nature that Adam had and the same trembling conscience that Adam had so in this case we have the very Death and Life of the Lord Jesus working in us So that you see the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are not to be gloried in in themselves or as they rest in the man Christ Jesus but we are to wait for the like things to be translated in us and upon us and that is the next thing I come unto Doct. 2 For their sakes I sanctify my self that they might be sanctifyed through the Truth This is that the Apostle saith Ephes 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes c Where he shews what the Truth is in Iesus even the putting off the old man and the putting on the new man which is created c. This is the Truth this is the work in the Spirit done in every Beleever conforme to that work wrought in Christ in the flesh This is our sanctifying through the Truth and so you have the Apostle holding forth the Saints suffering from Christs example as the Ministration or Token of their salvation 1 Pet. 2. 21. Even hereunto were ye called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. Mark ye Iesus Christ is our example Christ in the flesh and what was done in him in a visible way in the flesh that is wrought in us in an invisible way in the spirit and t is said 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arme our selves with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Mark it here The Apostle doth not say we have ceased from sin by Christs suffering in the flesh for us but be doth admonish us here of a personal suffering if we would cease from sin What this same suffering in the flesh is I shall tell you in a few words It is to have our life in the flesh extinguisht that as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me It is to know nothing by our selves This is to suffer in the flesh as the Apostle says I know nothing by myself He did not act at all to be dead unto the Law and to be dead in our first relation unto God this is the suffering in the flesh We are first in the relation of Mercenaries by the Covenant of Works and have a kind of stock of our own to trade withall Now to suffer in the flesh is to cast awaythi same confidence of our own to to despair of our abillities and to see our selvs able to do nothing For while we are in the flesh the motions of sin which are by the law do work in our
mēbers to bring forthfruit unto death Rom. 7. I will give you one more Scripture to prove this and that is Eph. 1. 17. where the Apostle prays thus for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understandings being inlightened that ye may see what is the hope of his calling And at the 19. verse That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead Pray mark it The Apostle doth directly and expresly assert that there is the working of the same mighty power in Beleevers that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead And the Apostle Rom. 8. saith in general That as many as God did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son That is God did predestinate them to be carryed on the same way that Christ was and so the same things to be done in them that were done in him Object There is only one Objection that I shal answer before I come to the Application of the point and that is in Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ Here lyes the Objection if so be we are circumcised in Christ If all Beleevers are circumcised in him at once as this Scripture seems to hold forth by the putting off of that same body of his by that very circumcision of his Why then you will say our Sanctification tarries not for the appearance of the like things in us I confess this Objection lies plain in appearance against what hath been spoken But I shall answer to you thus and shew you how we are circumcised in Christ by his circumcision and how it is that notwithstanding we are actually and personally circumcised by the circumcision of the Spirit and by reall circumcision 1. First then we are circumcised in Christ foederally as in our root and common person we are unto God circumcised in Christ as in a Figure Pray mark it it is I say as in a Figure for thus we are to look upon Jesus Christ not as one that came to excuse the Old man from dying or to set us up in a state of salvation without working any thing within us Nay he came to reveal the Kingdom of God within us and to set it up within us but he first gave us a pattern of the Kingdom and first transacted all our salvation in a Figure before he transacted it within us by the Spirit and this transacting our salvation without us in a Figure bears its use and proportion towards the effecting of the work of Sanctification within us by the Spirit For thus God hath hereby caught us by guil as I may so speak even as when we stood in Adam Adam falling cast us all down So now God he comes and reveals a second Adam and this same second Adam God sets up as our common root representing us all and this is that Covenant that God proclaims from heaven Look what is the fat◠of the second Adam that shal be the fate of all the seed if he stand al shal stand if he fal they shal al fal Now Iesus Christ comes stands in our stead and was made under the Law and he dyes and suffers goes away in the flesh suffers in the flesh and is not overcome of death or Hell or the pains of death but rises again Here 's our salvation transacted in a Figure and set before us As it did fare with Christ so it shall fare with us we shall as certainly come to glory as he did Here is the Type here is the Original Pattern here is the fore-runner here is the draught or copy of the Covenant written in broad Characters upon the person of Iesus Christ This is the use of Christs dying and suffering and sanctifying himself and so we are said to be sanctifyed in him as our root representing us What proportion this bears to the transacting of our salvation within us is this Hereby we are brought to God hereby our weak hands are lifted up and our feeble knees are strengthned Hereby we are caught as it were with guil and God doth hold forth our salvation as in a Parable to us But if so be the work rest here let us suppose an impossibility we are but in an ill condition if we be not circumcised also together with Christ really by the spirit as well as circumcised in Christ foederally and typically and representatively it wil go but ill with us We may see what is to be done by looking upon the History of Christ but til we find the same things done in us in the mystery in some measure we can have little comfort We may see the end of the Lord with us even the same end he made with Christ Jesus but we must follow his steps also as the Apostle Peter saith He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1. Now the use I shall make of this is to confirm that Doctrine I have formerly delivered to you that Doctrine that needs confirming again and that need be whetted upon us because we are exceeeding dull of hearing spirituall truths the Doctrine is this namely That the whole History of Christ wil profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find experimentally the same things done in you by the Spirit I desire to commend this Doctrine to you again and again That the History of the Gospell is but a Parable as it were that holds forth to us the story of things done and not only so but holds forth a glass of things to be done by the spirit within us I beseech you therefore be not offended when as we say that Christ according to the History of him only and according to his Ministration in the flesh is but a form in which God doth appear to us and in which God doth give us a Map of our salvation Thou knowest it not to be thy reall salvation except it be revealed within thee in the Spirit Jesus Christ is called the Image of the Invisible God God comes forth to be seen in the flesh of Christ as in an Image as in a Representation it is not the naked appearance of God but it is an Image of God Now we know the Image serves in the absence of the lively face of the living Person and so do all these same transactions of Jesus Christ they serve untill the Kingdome of God be come to us in the Spirit A Map serves untill a man knows the Country and so do these same Transactions of Iesus Christ they serve as constant Monuments unto us Monuments I say and Pillars and Memorials and Types of that same salvation that is to be
that will cause blood when we make a necessity of the same things to be wrought in us as were wrought in Christ Iesus For as God hath sent Christ into the world so did Christ send these his Disciples into the world that is as God did send Christ into the world to make known himself so Christ Iesus when he hath fulfilled his Ministration in the flesh he sends out Beleevers I say he sends out Beleevers upon the same design to make out God and his glory to the world So that then this is a sure and satisfying ground why the same glory of the Father must work in Beleevers that wrought in Christ because that Beleevers are sent out upon the same errand and design that Christ was sent about As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent these into c. Beleevers hold forth God in a spiritual discovery to the world that is they hold forth that glory of the Fathers working and discovering it self in them in a spirituall way which Christ held forth in a fleshly way My meaning is Beleevers are not lift up upon a material Cross as Christ was and do not suffer without the gate as Christ did but their Old man is crucified spiritually and they are raised and quickond by a lively hope spiritually This is the Reason that Christ saith As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Therefore sanctifie them with thy Truth thy word is Truth And for their sakes saith he I sanctifie my self This is as it were the making up of the Reason and the meaning of it is this saith Christ Herein doth thy design come to its period and perfection even in the Sanctification of my Members Herein thy design Oh Father is come to the birth and is brought forth for while this design works only in my person it is not at its term and period till it come to work in their persons for I am but as it were an intermediate forme and person in whom thou dost discover thy self for the present with relation to the like discovery in them through the spirit afterwards And therefore saith he For their sakes I sanctifie my self that c. As who should say If it were not in relation to them there should be no such thing as my dying and suffering and rising again It is but in relation to their Sanctification that the same glory may work in them in the Spirit conformable to this pattern of mine in the flesh And thus you have the meaning of the words For their sakes I sanctifie my self c. That which I shal insist upon at this time is the last word of the Text Through thy Truth So that the Observation that I would ground thereupon is this Doctr. That that Glory of the Father which works in the body of Christ the Saints is the Truth of that same Image that did appear in the head of that body Christ Jesus It is called an Image in 2 Cor. 3. ult we all as in a glass behold the Glory of the Lord there it is equivalently called an Image for your face in a glass is but an Image of your face but it follows more expresly And are changed into the same Image from glory to glory But stil I desire you to carry that along that a Beleevers crucifying is not a fleshly crucifying as Christs was but his Old man is crucified by spiritually discoveries This is the Truth and the other is but the form Now I must explain my self here You wil ask me whether that same work of God that is wrought in the hearts of Beleevers be their eternal life their happiness and salvation Whether that be their Righteousness for there is a great prejudice against Doctrines of this kind as if we did take away from Christ and give to that work of God within us that honour that is due to Jesus Christ Answ Now I conceive that neither the Actions of God in Christ I mean of Christ dying and rising nor the like Actions of the Spirit in us conforming us unto Christ are our salvation or eternall life but the making out of eternal life they are only the Manifestation of that grace that was given us before the world began If you ask me then what is our happiness and our life I conceive that God alone is our happiness God in union with us Mark it not only God loving us for love is but an expression to us Love is a sweet thing among the creatures and we know what love is from one to another but the Love of God to us is but the making out of a kind of spiritual Union that is between God and a Beleever So that to say that the Love of God placed upon us is our happiness is too weak and too low an expression but this is our happiness that we are in God and in Jesus Christ and that the Father and the Son is in us and is our Righteousness and our Strength in Union with us This is our happiness and eternall Life Now I say all the Dispensations of God are but to make out these things unto us Give me leave to illustrate it to you by going a little about This was our Lot and Portion from the beginning God was our Portion and God did maintain our Lot as Psa 16. And God was become in Union with the creature This was in the beginning of the Creation and this was in the Person of Christ Iesus as an Earnest of the whole but this same Union and this great happiness that the creature might be sensible of it and that it might come home with the greater advantage as it were and we might have the more lively taste of it therefore did God ordain all those intervening administrations therefore he makes the first Adam as a figure of Christ and therefore he bestows but a little grace on Adam or makes him mutable that he might fall that the Love of the Father might be the more manifested to us which we could never have seen nor admired so much if we had not been thus led about unto it And this is the end of Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit and so I shal come to shew you the difference betweene Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Saints for if we give glory to any other then unto Christ we shoot beside the mark we give it to Christ stil but there is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit both these agree to make out the Father and here is the difference of that work of God within us from that work of God in Christ This latter is the Truth of the former Sanctifie them through thy Truth that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon me There is the Truth I desire to cleer up this to you by some famiâ—â—ar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said
to dye for our sins and rise again for our Justification Here is now Christ in the Flesh here is his Ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preached unto men and it is told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son There is nothing to be done Justice is fulfilled God is reconciled he would not else have slain his Fatlings and made a feast for us Therefore beleeve Here is the outward dispensation but now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lyes under the guilt and weight of sin and such a grievious sin comes to his mind and not only one but multitudes of sins lye upon him whereby he cannot beleeve or take comfort in these glad tydings Do ye not see that there is need of another Ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus as well as a Proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the Proposition of the Gospel That whosoever beleeveth in Christ Jesus shal have eternal life c. And God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeves in him should have eternall life Yet all this while the poor soul lyes dead til not only the Letter but the Spirit of the Gospell comes and appears to him Till Christ appears not only in the first Court that is his own flesh or the Letter of the Gospell but in the inmost place of all that is in this mans conscience for we may allude to that place Heb. 9. 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Pray mark it Jesus Christ did not suffer in Heaven but without the gate he suffered in the world but he is entered into Heaven These words are spoken figuratively its true he went up visibly to his Disciples into Heaven that is a place remote from their sight a Cloud received him out of their sight The true Heaven and that Heaven where Christ doth appear to the comfort and relief of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called Heaven because as Heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man the heart of man is the place of God He is said to be the searcher of the heart he sits there and wounds and heals there there is Gods true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the notions there but it is in the heart of a man thither it is that Jesus Christ is gone Christ in the Spirit is in the hearts of his people that is Christs place for that is the Fathers place for he is in the Father and he goes to the Father as it is said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Now you know that the Father though he be without us he is within us he can neither be said to be without us or within us inclusively nor exclusively for he fills all things and is comprehended in nothing So Jesus Christ is within us the Father is in the hearts of men and so is Christ and that is the Heaven where he appears now for do but consider this that which follows in the 25. vers Pray mark it Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin That which is rendered the end of the world may be translated the end of the age or the end of that Administration That which I note from thence is this that Christs sufferings put an end to one world that world was at an end when Christ had suffered that is God had dispatcht the outward discoveries of salvation and now he would discover it within us now al that was to be done by him was within us He went into the holy place he went into Heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us and there it is that Jesus Christ speaks a word for a poor soul There it is that Jesus Christ sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the Letter in the History of the Gospel but if he appear nor in the Spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word aright Christ sets us free by making us Sons and the Son abideth in the house for ever Pray mark it unless we be made Sons we cannot abide in the house for ever we do not abide in the house for ever by having an eternall title by Christ but by a real Son-ship within us That same which makes Christ a Son makes us Sons and so you have it cleared unto you by that instance that this is the truth and the other in comparison of this is but the form but the Representation or Image but the Emblem of this Truth and so what is it unto us in matter of Sanctification to say Christ hath taken hold of our nature and purified it and seperated it and sanctified it what is this to the sanctifying of us if our persons be not taken into that same Union and be not sanctified with the same Spirit that Christ is Reason Now for this Reason I shall desire you to look within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudiced spirits he wil clear this Truth to you If so be it might be no offence I should give you my own experience for the confirmation of this point for we can speak nothing but what we have heard and what we have seen Now I must confess and profess unto you that God hath made real this Truth unto me not by study not by notion not by outward discovery but by an inward experiment For this I have found and I trust more have found it besides my self though it may be they cannot tell what to call those things that work within them nor how to express it it may be but this I have found that all outward administration hath been weak and unable to produce those fruits and effects which the Scripture makes mention of it hath been as the Law What the Law could not do in that it was weak c. And look into your selves whether you have not found it so in your selves that you have had some corruption that hath troubled you Some masterful lust you would be glad to get the victory over and ye would account him a Messenger one among a thousand that could shew you how to effect your desires I am sure it hath been so with me and when I have seen such words as these in the Scripture Sin shall not have Dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace I have considered with my self and have done as I have been directed to do and I have told my self thou art under grace and I have pleaded this to God Lord I am under grace I am under
the Gospel and why should sin have dominion over me and thereupon I have studied the promises because 't is said There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by them we might be made partakers of the divine nature I have looked upon Jesus Christ dying for me because the Scripture saith The Love of Christ constrains us c. When all this while I have been like Siseras Mother wondering in my self why do his Chariot Wheels stay c Why am I not set free from my lusts Is the Gospel a broken Reed Doth it tell us things that we must make up by imagination rather then feel the real operation and experiment of them within us The last Scripture I was much exercised in in relation to these things was this in the Epistle of John He that abideth in him sinneth not Hereupon I enquire what this is to abide in Christ and sought to make it out to my self by my own Reason and to find it out by the Letter of the Scripture and all the account I could give of it did relate to the creatures action I thought we must be still commanding our selves and putting our selves on to abide in Christ and we must call upon one another to abide in Christ And thus was I exercised in a continuall toyle and perplexity and never could see my desires all this while I could not find my corruptions slaine by all these means til God was pleased to hold forth this discovery to me which I do now desire to hold forth to you viz. that it is not the flesh of these things it is not the historicall knowledg of these things it is not the saying you are under grace it is not being under the forme of the Gospell that can change your hearts set you free from sin but it is the Spirit that when he comes doth chase away all Clouds as the Sun on the earth It is Christ in the Spirit who is the truth within you represented by that History without you and yet all these things are the making out of God to you they are not your happiness or your life for our happiness lies not in any action be it in the greatest action not in the mortification of sin nor in vivification but our life lyes in Union that hidden principle within us that is God And if ever you would have this Union and that which is your hope made out to you and would have the enjoyment of it in this life you must wait upon that Jesus that came down from the Fathers Bosom and lived in the flesh you must wait upon him to come and live in your spirits not only to bring you forth in the participation of his nature but to fill you with the fulness of God for so we have warrant to expect that you may be filled with all the fulness of God Now this the Lord shew you to be a Truth There is a two-fold Truth there is a mediate Truth and an ultimate Truth there is a Truth manifesting and a Truth manifested Now the Truth manifested is Union That they all may be one as we are one This is the Truth that God would manifest to us by these things by coming to us in the flesh of Christ and in the Spirit Now the Truth manifesting is the Appearance of Christ in the Spirit sutable and conformable to that outward Appearance of Christ in the flesh without us for our sakes And you wil never have the Love of God and your Union with God manifested to you unless it be manifested to you by the Spirit and except God work the same works in you that he wrought in Christ And thus I have discharged my self of this same Testimony There are but two or three things that I shall speak by way of Use and the first is this Consider that which our Saviour speaks John 16. 5. saith he there It is expedient for you that I should go away and pray mark it here These times from Christs departure are the times of the Spirit And pray mark that in the first place the Spirit is the power of the fleshly administration he is the power within us of that fleshly or administration without us The Spirit is often called power in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power ◠Observe this that there is but one Administration upon the world at a time there is but one Administration upon a Person at a time So that if you be under that Administration of the Spirit you are past from under the fleshly Administration This is clear from hence that Christ saith It is expedient for you that I go away for except I go away the Comforter wil not come A seed of corn doth not grow up in the eare or the blade except it dye in its own first form and so it is here That which I would infer from hence is this That you must go quite through the fleshly Administration before you can come under the spirituall Administration You must see the Originall of the Administration and the end of it that is the Father the Father sent the Son and he sent the Son to reveal the Father And it is not in the Death of Christ you are to see it it is not in the Resurrection of Christ you are to see it He brings you to the sight of this by the power of these things working within you And to confirm this to you I desire you to consider That when as the Scripture speaks of Christ and when Christ himself speaks to the Father you shall find that the Dialect is exceeding different When Christ speaks to the Father look into the 17 of John 11. And now saith he I am no more in the world but they are in the world keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me When the Scripture speaks of Christ to men it saith That God hath given him power over all flesh that he should give life to whomsoever he will And so the Scripture exalts Christ but when Christ speaks to the Father he doth quite devest himself and saith Father I have kept them through thy name I have manifested thy name unto them verse 6. Mark ye Christ had made this discovery to them that all the power he had was of the Father And now saith he Father I come to thee keep them through thy name It was before by Gods name that Christ kept them but now it breaks forth more clearly that it was through the Fathers name and so I conceive that this is a kind of resignation of the Kingdom to the Father ☞ It is true the Administration was to go over and over again that is Beleevers are first trayned up under a legall Administration and trayned up under an Administration of Christ in the flesh before they come to the Administration of Christ in the Spirit but as Christ himself when he is going out of the world saith I have done all that I came
leading them into Canaan Did not they fall back in the wilderness Was it not so in Abraham when Isaac was born and growing up to his Fathers hope Then Isaac must be sacrificed So I conceive it is here the Spirit began to be sprinkled in the primitive times in gifts and since that what an Apostacy hath there bin So that the Spirit is yet to be poured out and now after the Apostacy is to be the harvest And so I am perswaded many Christians enter into Ordinances in the Spirit and fall back into the flesh there remains therefore a Restitution a latter day a latter rain as Job speaks at the latter day I shall see God in my flesh and is not the Lord putting up his head in our Horizon Therefore think not the promises of life and salvation have given down all they have travailed with FINIS A Postscript LEast my meaning in any thing be lockt up from the Readers understanding I thought good to add the key of this distinction 1 There is a two-fold Administration of the Kingdom of God viz. outward and inward the outward in signs the inward in truth 2. As the outward and the inward Administration are contradistinguished the one to the other so they are distinguished and differ gradually in themselves i. e. The outward Aministration or Letter of the Gospel excells that of the Law So likewise in the inward Administration or Revelation in us The first Appearance of Christ in us is swallowed up of his second Appearance in us The Kingdom of the Father excels the Kingdom of the Son and the state of the Resurrection of Christ in us the state or likeness of his death And therefore when it is said that Christ in Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts reveals the Father plainly whom we saw but as in a Parable in his flesh or without us I desire ye should understand also that the first Appearance of Christ within us doth not give a full and perfect testimony and witness of the Father for then the Apostle would not have said of such that they see darkly and there would be no expectation of a second Appearance and upon this account it is that in that discourse on John 16. 25. I speak of Righteousness and Sanctification and Faith and Love being forms or glasses which must all be resolved into God at length that he may be all in all And the same thing I desire may be carryed in mind for the understanding of those discourses on John 17. 19. That as the inward Appearance and Working of Christ is the truth of the Outward and the outward is but a Form serving thereto so the second appearance of Christ in us is the truth of the first appearance and the first appearance is but the way unto the latter And when as in those discourses on Rom. 14. they are held forth as dying Christians that stick in Forms and things outward in the flesh of Christ I desire Saints may be aware that there is the flesh of Christ within them or a fleshly manifestation or appearance of Christ in flesh in them which is that that they are not to satisfie themselves withall but are to waite till they be brought forth with Christ in the glory of the Father till faith and Righteousness and al those Forms Vails be broken up into one single view of the Father or God al in all till childish things thoughts and language be put away and we see God face to face as he is till God himself be a place of broad Rivers and Streams in his own Name and not under another name till he make all things new and bring forth all our injoyments of him in a new light and a new glory So much as we are short of this so much are we under death though we may be past from outward forms and have the life dwelling in us And they that shall deny this to be possible in this life must deny the new Jerusalem to come down from God out of heaven and the expresse letter of Revelations Chapter 22 verses 3 4 5. where it is written And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shal be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads And there shall be no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall raign for ever and ever And they that say this body of ours hinders err not knowing the power of God and what that flesh is that cannot inherit which is not this body which is in its self neither good nor evil but the subject of two Inhabitants two Men and so is good or evil as it is ruled by the one or by the other the old or the new man Self or Christ the old man may be and is destroying in Saints dayly while the body remains These things are hinted in the precedent discourses more generally and obscurely I add this only for explanation FINIS