al Created Nature What new what strange things what Miracles may we look for now in the government of the world especially when the Church is concerned seeing that our Lord Jesus in this Capacity as he is at the Right hand of God set above al Rankes and orders of the whol Creation is made Head over al things for the Church Jesus Christ could work no Miracles in one place because of the unbeleefe of the Inhabitants Our unbeliefe in that we see not the Lord Jesus as Esaiah saw him by a Spirit of Prophesie fitting upon this Throne of the divine Nature high and lifted up above every Principality and Power is the Reason why we have no more Miracles no more of his new and extraordinary Works in the midst of us It is our unbeleefe that we do not see and acknowledg those wonders which he hath wrought and is stil working while he fils the whol earth with his glory from his Throne John 6. 57. Jesus saith He that eats me shal Live by me even as I live by the Father Revel. 10. 9. 11. The Angel give St. John a Book to Eate and then tells him that he must prophesie before many peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings If we did eate this spiritual and Heavenly Person of Christ which is the Book of Life that Word comming forth from the mouth of God on which alone man Lives If we did by faith in the vnity of the spirit take in concoct digest turn into Nature and Nourishment these Evangelical truths concerning the Person of Christ above al given to his Church the Headship of Christ over al for his Church how certainly then and how speedily should we be fed with Honey from the Rock we should live in our own Persons in our private publike Capacitys upon a constant dayly Stream of Miracles comming down from the Father we should draw down and carry forth waters of life from the depth of the Godhead before the Kings of the Earth and into the midst of the Nations Thus much for the First Argument taken from Jesus Christ Arg. 2. The Second Argument is drawn from the Holy Spirit As the way of God is in Christ having his New name written upon his Person so the Way of Christ in his Church and in the world for his Church is in the Spirit and after the Newness of that Rom 7. 6. But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter The Soul of man is here set forth as having two Husbands The first Husband is the First Adam the Flesh the Natural Man This being slaine by the death of the Lord Jesus the Soul is set free from him and from his Law which is a Law of sin and Death Her second Husband to whom she is married upon the Death of the first is the last man the Glorified Person of Christ as He is in the Resurrection from the Dead And now the Soul is subject only to the Law of this Husband which is the Law of Free Grace of Love raigning by Righteousness which is the Beavty in the Face of the God-head unto Eternal Life through Jesus Christ by Vertue of our Marriage-union with him the Love Righteousness and Immortality of God the Father letting it self forth upon his Person first then in and through him upon us unto our Justification Sanctification and Glory That we should serve As to Fear God in the old Testament and to beleeve in the new so in both to serve him comprehends al parts of Religion the whol Communion between God and the Soul by which God Ministers himself in streams of Truth Grace and joy to the Soul or the Soul Ministers to him by recejving him by recejving al from him by receiving him together with al and by returning it self and al things to him in Love humility obedience thanksgiving The two ways of this Service are the Oldness of the Letter and the newness of Spirit The Letter is that Law which is proper and fitted to the Principle of Nature the flesh the first Adam in his power and purity The Spirit is the Law of the New man the Heavenly Image and second Adam as He is risen from the dead and stands in a Root of Glory from thence blossoming and bringing forth fruit in al his Members The Letter is like unto a Cestern The Spirit is the Fountain The water in a Cestern hath its stint and set measure it is a standing water which hath no spring to quicken it it is apt to corrupt with standing and to dry away Such is the Law of the Letter It is shut up in an outward narrow form and measure it hath not its root in it self it grows old it darkens withers and dies away But the Spirit is a Fountain and as a Fountain hath a Five-fold Newness of Life of Lustre of Purity of Variety of Immortality But here now although it may seem to be a digression from my present scope yet give me leave by the way to interpose a Caution very proper for this discourse of the Letter and the Spirit which is that you mistake not the Ryot Excess and Inordinacy of the flesh for the Newness Freedom and Extraordinariness of the Spirit To assist you in this Caution take this Distinction between the Novelties and Extravagancies of the flesh and the Newness and Extraordinariness of the Spirit First There is a Newness in which there is somthing unchangable an inward Principle a hidden Nature a Life a Rellish which is ever the same however the outward operations and manifestations vary The Life of the Spirit is as a Tree The Tree is new in the Spring the Summer the Autumn having for every Season its fresh puttings forth of Leaves Blossoms Fruit ripe Fruit Yet the Tree is still the same hath the same Root Sap and Nature Secondly There is a Newness where all things are changed not only the outward puttings forth but the most inward Principle where there abides nothing of the savor This is like that change where the Rod of Moses being cast upon the ground was made a real Serpent and the Dust of Egypt being cast up into the Air became living Lice Now as they say in Phylosophy Species et Essentiae rerum sunt sempiternae et immobiles The Essences and Kinds of things are ever the same however there be an Infinitness of uncertainty and change in the Individuals by the variety and change of outward Accidents So in a Saint compared with himself through the whol time of his Regeneracy or compared with all other Saints in all Ages ther is the same new nature the same inward saver in the Principle in the Spirit although the inward forms upon the understanding may have great change according to the different degrees and wayes of Light as also the outward forms of life and Conversation may have great variety in
answer to the Light within But where you see Persons while they profess themselves to be Saints changing all having nothing of the same Nature or Rellish left there is great reason to fear that this is not the Newness of the Spirit but the Wildness of the Flesh not the freshness and variety of the living Spring but the Endless turnings and windings of the old Serpent But to return now and to shew you how this Scripture which hath occasioned this short stay by the way makes good that Doctrine which we have in hand All the way of Jesus Christ in the Saints and in the World for the sake of the Saints is after the newness of the spirit It follows then that it must be it self New and Extraordinary Another Scripture compared with this wil make the Proof from both more strong and cleer Es. 43. 18 19 20 21. Remember ye not the former things neither consider ye the things of Old Behold I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart The Beast of the field shall honor me the Dragons and the Owls because I give Waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart to give drink to my People my Chosen This People have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise There are Four Things to be taken notice of in these words First The Deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonians is the proper subject of this Prophesie in the Letter of it as you shal see at verse 4. This Deliverance from the Babylonians is made in Scripture universally a Type of every Deliverance of the People of God from the Powers of Darkness and of this world but more particularly of the Deliverance of the Church in the last daies from Antichrist which is Spiritual Babylon Secondly In this Deliverance the Lord laies aside all Presidents every old Form and Custom he works a New thing What is this New thing He makes a Way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart These Expressions look backward by way of Allusion to the Coming of the Children of Israel out of Egypt when the Lord made a way for them through the Wilderness going himself before them in the Pillar of a Cloud and of Fire and gave them Rivers of Water from the Rock which followed them in the Desert But this Literal Sense is not that which the Lord here intends For this had been no New thing but had only brought the former things to remembrance by the Imitation and Re-iteration of them Therefore the words look forward to an Allegorical and Mystical accomplishment in the times of the Gospel We all know that Jesus Christ is frequently held forth in the Gospel as the Way John 14. 6. He cals himself The Way Heb. 10. 20. He is said to be the New and Living Way by the rending of the Vail of his Flesh and the raising of him up again in the Spirit In like manner it is an Evident thing that the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel is resembled to Rivers of Water as John 7. 38. Out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water ver. 39. This spake he of the Spirit This then is the New thing which the Lord doth He turns the outward face of things in Church and Common-wealth into a Wilderness puts al into Confusion that no humane Eye can see any way either forward or backward Then he comes forth with new extraordinary appearances in Christ as the Pillar of a Cloud burying all the Light and Life of the Creature in the Darkness of Christs Death as a Pillar of Fire shining and sparkling forth with a New Light and Heat from the Glory of his Resurrection These Extraordinary Appearances in Christ the Lord makes his way in which he walks and into which he leads his People to walk with him in his wonders through the Churches and the Nations When the Spirit of man becomes a Desert like a winter-brook that is passed away and decives the expectation of the weary Traveller all Springs of Wisdom Counsel Help Comfort in the Creature are dryed up then the Lord comes forth in mighty and miraculous workings after the Newness of the Spirit in the fresh flowings of that and makes it to be as Rivers in the Desert Rivers have these Properties First They are from a Living Spiring Secondly They flow along with a great breadth depth and force Thirdly They flow continually running along still with a fresh succession of New waters from the Head of the River Fourthly They make all things cheerful and flourishing round about them So doth the Lord in the Desert of the Creature put forth himself by his Spirit with an irresistable force an uncessant Newness with a quickness of life a breadth and depth of design from the immediate Fountain of the God-head Thirdly It is observable here that the Saints are they who peculiarly drink of these Rivers They have the immediate inward sence Strength Joy Glory the cheif ends and benefit of these Out-goings of the God-head But natural men signified by the Beasts of the field the powers of this world yea the most ignorant and unbeleeving that sit in the greatest darkness which are as the Owles Nay more than that the Dragons the profanenest and wickedest persons both Princes and Stats who have the greatest enmity to Christ and his Church al these shal acknowledg and give glory to the Lord in these Miraculous workings of his from Heaven partly for the greatness of the Conviction by the presence and cleerness of the Appearances of God in the midst of them before their Eyes as is signified verse 19. Now it shal spring forth shal ye not see it partly for the relife and the refreshing which shal be extended to them also in their natural Man and civil affayres For so it is said verse 20. They shal honor me because I give waters in the wilderness c. Fourthly The end of al this is for the Saints that they may be formed and wrought up to God to Spirituality and Heavenlyness to his Likness to one Image and Nature with him to the Immediate enjoyment of him to his Bosom his Throne there to raigne with him from thence as chosen Vessels to carry forth the Praises of God in the Gospel of his Love his Righteousness his Holyness his Beauties his Joys his Glorys into the Nations that the Saints may be as a Holy first-fruits and the Nations as a sanctified Lump through them This people have I formed for myself to shew forth my praise Verse 21. I have now finished the two Arguments for the making good of the Doctrine one taken from the Person and Office of Christ the other from the Influences and Operations of the Spirit as both Christ and the Spirit are in the Newness of the highest and most Evangelical Glory as both stand in relation first to the Church then
is our Seal As many as have fellowship with us in the same principle of divine Wisom wil according to the measure of it so farr as they are free from carnal prejudices and temptations to exercise this Principle know and own this Seal The Manifestations of God are in the Flesh but the justification of those Manifestations is in the Spirit And this is that which makes the whol way of Godliness a Mystery 1 Tim. 3. 16. But now it is necessary to interpose two Cautions for the removing of two Objections Object 1. This Principle seems to make the Light of Reason useless even in Civil things and to lay aside in Humane Affairs the common Principles of Natural Light by which we should converse with men as men and approve our selves to them Object 2. This makes a Gap in the Hedg of all Civil Government for Licenciousness and Confusion to break in when every man may alike pretend to an Inward Justification I intreat you therefore to keep your selves close to these Cautions which I shal now add for the cleering of this matter from these Aspersions Caut. 1. It is the duty of every person in every Affair to provide for things honest not only in the sight of God but in the sight of all men This is a Principle and Law in Christianity Rom 12. 19. Provide for things honest in the sight of all men Honest or Beautiful and Comely for so the word signifies in the sight of all men that is in that Light of Nature which shines universally in al men The Natural Light in the Conscience and Understanding of Man is a Picture of the Spiritual Light which is the Life Reason is a Shadowy Figure of Jesus Christ Now as the Life and the Picture if it be true answer one another and that which is beautiful in the one will be so in the other too so the Spirit and Reason mutually give their testimony each to other what is comely in the eye of one is so to both St. Paul prayes 2 Thess. 2. 3. to be delivered from unreasonable men for al men have not Faith It is true that those who are not Spiritual are also unreasonable the wordis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Absurd uncapable of any common place of Reason any common Principles of Natural light In another place Tit. 1. 15. The same Apostle tels us that to those who are defiled and unbeleeving al thing are impure even their minds and consciences are defiled As a Poet cals the light of the Moon when she is Ecclypsed by the interposal of the Earth between the Sun and her that his beams cannot flow freely and purely unto her Lucem Malignam a Malignant light so is it in men meerly natural the prince of darkness and a principle of Corruption inwardly the world with carnal interests and Humors outwardly put in between the Face of God the Fountaine of al light and their Souls to the making of such an Eclypse that the light of their Minds the highest and purest part of their spirits the lights of their Consciences the divinest part of their Minds like the tops of the Mountaine which receive the beams of the Sun neerest first and fairest the light of both these is defiled and become Malignant Upon this account they either are unable to judg a right of that Testimony which the light of Nature inwardly gives or else unwilling outwardly to acknowledg this inward Testimony but do falsify corrupt deny it according to their fleshly lusts and ends They only for the most part in most affaires can understand and submit to the light of Reason and Nature especially there where Jesus Christ comes forth in new and extraordinary waies upon the Face of Nature and Civil things who have the Spirit in them loosing their Reason which Satan hath bowed down for so many years like the Woman in the Gospel Yet notwithstanding al this a Christian is in every thing to follow after whatsoever is praise-worthy of good report comely with God and with men in that which is the true light of men and right Reason So if their Minds be not altogether reprobate and their Consciences seared if there be any spark of Natural light left alive in them you shal approve your selves to the Consciences and minds of men inwardly although they outwardly speak evil of you As the Historian says of the Romans concerning that excellent Person their deliverer Camillus simul oderant et Mirati sunt they wil admire you while they hate you Answ. 2. Caut 2. Let every one that nams the name of Christ depart from iniquity Whoever pleads a Spiritual life and light for the Principle and Seal of his actions ought to beware that he sow not divers seeds in this field that he mingle not Fleshly designes with Spiritual discoverys Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully If you undertake the worke of the Lord to do your own work the better If you make a shew of the work of the Lord or make use of the work of the Lord so farr to cover and to bring forth the works of the Flesh there lies a curse upon you The Name of the Lord Jesus is like the water of Jealousie which the suspected woman was to drink If thou cal the name of the Lord Christ and of his spirit to witness falsly while thou art unchast and untrue to thy spiritual principles and ends while thou knowest thy spirit to have plaid the harlot and to live in uncleanness with this present world this Name wil like that Drink make thy belly to Swel and thy Bowels to rot within thee it wil certainly bring thee to destruction with shame and abhorrency He that sets upon Extraordinary things upon the account of an Extraordinary Principle Seal hath one of these two things to rely upon First A Divine Power in an irresistable way to subdue the spirits and Forces of men to him Secondly or else a Divine Presence in an unexpressible sweetness to support him when he shal suffer in the thoughts of men or at the Barr of Ordinary powers How watchful ought we to be in affayres of so high a nature or consequence that neither Hypocricy nor Delusion shut the Door to these Confidences in us Sixthly The spirit of Grace the principle and Seal of these Changes This is the last Argument of the Newness and Extraordinariness of the way of the Lord Jesus in the midst of us There are five Marks of the Spirit of Grace First The Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Prayer Zach. 12. 9 10. And it shal come to pass in that day that I wil seek to destroy al the Nations that come against Jerusalem And I wil poure upon the House of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of Grace and Supplication Two things are observable here First It is an Argument that the Lord hath a designe by himself to destroy the enemies of his people
when he pours out a Spirit of Grace upon his people Secondly He alwaies and more especially when he is seeking the ruine of his enemies joynes these two a Spirit of Grace and of Supplication Are there not many that can testifie by their own experience concerning the works of these times that the Heart of God in a Spirit of Grace hath bin let down into the Bosom of his beloved ones that thus their hearts have bin by a Spirit of Supplication drawn up into the Bosom of God and have drawn forth these deliverances from the Wells of Salvation there These Wells are Deep the Deep things of God his Love his Wisdom his Righteousness his power his Glory as these lie in the very depths of his Essence and Divine Nature But Saints have had their Buckets their Hearts to draw with and a line a Spirit of Supplication long and sure enough to let down their hearts into these deep Wels of Salvation which are in the Heart of God These Wells are stil ful of living Waters and these Buckets are stil going Saints keep your expectiations stil fresh Secondly The spirit of Grace is a spirit of Prophecy Esai 43. 9. God challengeth al the Nations Let them bring forth their witnesses who among them can shew us former things that is things before they come to pass or things before their times before the world by a spirit of Prophesie Verse 12. I have declared and have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange God among you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God Hath not the Lord many Witnesses in these Nations yea here present I know he hath In the former daies when ye were with him at your Banquets of spiritual enjoyments on your Bed of spiritual Loves then did he by his spirit before hand signifie within you the snfferings of these times and the Glory which hath risen out of them And as he hath declared so hath he saved us by the same Spirit And now tel me ye that are the Lords witnesses when ye are in your holyest seasons when there is no strange God or Love but Jesus Christ alone shines in the midst of your spirit doth he not stil shew you greater things than these which are yet to come Thirdly The spirit of Grace is a spirit of Holiness Ephes. 1. 13. It is called a Holy spirit Ye were sealed with the Holy spirit of Promise Holiness is the Character and Seal of that spirit of Grace which is promised to the Saints Psal. 99. 8. Thou answeredst them O Lord our God thou wert a God that forgavest them though thou takest Vengeance of their iniquities The Lord testified his presence with the Jews in the Wilderness by his Holiness in taking Vengeance of their Inventions There is a Three fold Vengance which the Lord takes for Sin First On the Persons and this three waies 1. By Casting them off for ever 2. By Cutting of the inward Beams of spiritual Communion between himself and them for a season perhaps for al their life long 3. By Clouding their outward Man with trouble and sorrow God alwaies pardons iniquity to the Persons of his Children in respect to the first of these Vengances He cannot give them over or cease to love them sometimes also in respect to the second and third He continues the sweetness of their Communion with him and the Serenity of their natural comforts un-interrupted Secondly The Second Vengance for sin is on the publike Cause Thus the Lord did forgive the Israelites in the Wilderness and not take Vengeance on the publike Cause For though they al died in the desert yet the Lord kept his cause a live carryed that Victoriously over Jordan into the Land of Canaan and planted it to grow there for many generations The Third Vengance on the Inventions on the Corruptions and Idols of the Heart In this sense the Lord never pardons any The Spirit which hath bin our guide hath Signally declared it self a Spirit of Grace by its abundant Forgivenesses and a Spirit of Holiness by the Vengance which it hath taken for Sin When any have risen up against him his Purity his Progress from the Enmity of the Serpent he hath made the Earth to open and swallow them up into the darknesses below by a Natural or Civil Death he hath made fire to come down from Heaven a spiritual fire of Divine judgement and wrath by which they have bin so withered dryed and burnt up that they have lost al that Greenness of Religion Honor Honesty Morality Natural light which they seemed before to have and have fallen to open Perfidiousness to ranting Profanenesses to a reprobate Sense a stupid Atheisticalness But when the Children of the Kingdom have transgressed by temptations of Covetousness Ambition Fleshliness Passion Delusions Spiritual Pride have fallen to Murmurings Divisions Sensuality Worldly Designs although this Spirit may have pardoned all this to their Persons hiding them in the cleft of the Rock in the wounds of Christ there preserving their Outward their Inward Life and Peace while he hath passed by yet hath he taken open Vengeance of their Inventions by manifest eminent Disappointments in their Expectations and endless confusions in the way of their Designs Yet all this while hath the Holy Spirit pardoned the sins of all Parties to the Cause He hath not suffered that to fall but hath gone on when it seems to faint renewing its strength carrying it up on high as on an Eagles wing enlarging it in Victory Peace Spiritual Liberties at home spreading its Branches over the Seas and to Forraign far distant Lands breaking the Head of the Leviathan the chief strength of Antichrist in the deep Waters Fourthly The Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Vnity Ephel 4. 3. Endeavoring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Vnity is the Character the most immediate and inseparable Property of the Spirit The Bond of Peace hath its strength and root in the Vnity of the Spirit as the Sympathy and Vnion of all the Fellow members in the Body arise from and is preserved by One Soul by the Vnity of the Soul There is a Twofold Vnity First of Inward Affection Secondly of Outward Effect As to the Latter of these I had rather much speak in silent Groans to God than by words to men bleed inwardly than breath forth outward Complaints for the Breaches of the Daughter of my People But so far as concerns the First of these the Inward Affection to Vnity let me call forth you who have the Testimony in your selves that it hath been the Spirit in the Living Creatures in the Hearts of the Saints quickened by the Life of Christ which hath been in the Wheels that have turned about and carried on this whol work from the beginning hitherto I appeal to you What are the Meltings the Weepings over the Divisions among the Saints What Yearnings and turnings of Bowels after a
it be the Knowledg of the Holy is that alone which comes by the Infusion and Illumination of the Holy Ghost Cant. 1 2 3. For the Savour of thy good Oyntments saith the Spouse to Christ thy name is as an Oyntment powered forth Therefore do the Virgins love thee Draw us and we wil run after thee The spirit of Christ in the brightness and sweetness of its light Purity Love Joy is this Oyntment powered forth No Savour is good to a Virgin-Spirit but that alone of these Oyntments Where there is a Virgin love to Jesus Christ the Soul is drawn to run after any excellency only by this Savor by the light and sweetness of the spirit as this Oyntment is poured forth there As it is in the Objects of sight there is the Material Object and the Formal The Material is the thing seen as a flower a Picture The Formal is the colors by which it is seen Besides these is the Light in the Ayre which actuates these colors and makes them to appear So is it in things pertayning to the understanding and Judgment The outward appearance is but the Materiality of the Object the shinings forth of the inward principle is the Formality the Color But the Holy Spirit is the only Light by which the discoverys of the principles of things are drawn forth and laid open I have done now with the Second Vse and come to the Third Vse 2. This is for Exhortation If God go forth in New waies let us be New that we may be fit to meet him and go along with him We read in the Gospel of the Pool of Bethesda John 3. 2. An Angel at certain times came down into this Pool and troubling the waters infused a healing vertue into them Many sick persons lay round about the Pool ready to step in There was also a House to receive the poor diseased waiters This House was called Bethesda which signifies the House of Free Grace You who have the blackest Guilt the deepest brand of any Lust the darkest despair upon your Spirits behold here a way for you to be made new this very moment The Blood of Christ is before you as a Healing and Clensing Pool Your Savior himself is every moment descending into it from Heaven and ascending out of it to Heaven by the Vertue of his Death Resurrection and Ascention to impart the Efficacy of al these to it himself to take you into his bosom in the midst of these Waters to bath you throughly in them till you become quite new then to carry you up with himself into the Newness of the Spirit of Heaven and of the Glory of the Father But perhaps you wil say you are so sick so dead in sin that you cannot move toward this Healing Pool Let not that discourage you the Father himself is ready to take hold of you and by his strength to put you in He draws us to Christ It may be you wil say that you are under the Wrath of the Father and therefore cannot hope that he should give you his helping hand To answer this he hath built a House of free Grace a Bethesda he hath called this Pool of most precious Blood the Pool of Bethesda the Pool of free Grace The Doors of this House stand continually open day and night All Persons are invited and press'd to come in All whom the Father finds here he himself takes and carries in his own Arms to this Pool and laies them in the Arms of his Son who is alwaies descending into it waiting in the midst of it and rejoycing exceedingly when any sinful sick Soul comes thither to him Open your Eyes and see Oye Sons and Daughters of Men Here now in this place at this very hour is the House of free Grace the Healing Pool before you if you will enter into them Nay even here and now you are already in the house of Free Grace and in the Arms of the Father you are in this healing Poole of your Saviors blood you are in your Saviors Armes he is come down to you he is carrying you up with himself thither where al things are New your being Beauty Life company delights new if only you wil beleeve if only you wil open the Eye of your spirit to see the truth as it is in Jesus The Lord Jesus is set down upon the Throne of Grace and fils the whol Earth with the Glory of his Mediation Only the Eyes of men are held that they see not this Glory Vse 4. This is my last Vse which is for Consolation and Encoragement You have now a warr with the most potent Prince in the whol Christian world who is Cheif staff of the Papal Anti-Christian strength You have reason to expect a Combination of al the powers of darkness and this world Visible and Invisible within and without from at home and from abroad against you But fear them not This warr shal not be like other warrs but after a new manner It shal be with the burning of a spiritual and divine Fire Take notice here for your Comfort that this Fire shal have contrary effects upon the Saints and upon their enemys First This Fire upon your enemys shal have these Propertys It shal be First Dreadful Secondly Irresistible Thirdly Devouring Fourthly Tormenting Fiftly Sodeine Secondly This Fire to its friends shal have these Property It shal be First Cherishing Secondly Enlightning Thirdly Defensive as a Wal of Diamonds Fourthly Heightning Fiftly Transforming into one glorious Heavenly immortal nature with it self Sixtly Separating al dross from the Gold Seventhly Vniting melting the Gold til it al run into one undivided mass I shal conclude this use and my Sermon with an allusion to the story of Eliah who sat upon the top of Mount Carmel when the Captaines and their fiftys in the name of the King commanded the man of God to come down But he answered if I be a man of God let fire come down from Heaven and destroy you with your fiftys Carmel signifies the Vineyard of God This top of Mount Carmel is the Church in the spirit of glory in the glorified person of Christ her head where she is as a flourishing Vineyard to God upon the top of a Mount of spirituality Let Kings with their Armys encompass us if we be men of God the seed of God if this be Mount Carmel on the top of which we stand the cause of God the Church the spirit the Mediation of Christ then shal the Holy Angels the spirit Christ himself come down as Fire from Heaven upon our enemys to consume them but upon us to carry us up on high as in the Charriot of Eliah burning with the Love and Glory of God FINIS Books printed by Peter Cole Printer and Book-seller in Cornhil at the Printing-press Several New books of Mr. Thomas Hooker made in New-England And Attested in an Epistle by Mr. Thomas Goodwin and Mr. Philip Nye To be written with the Authors Own