droppeth from the Lips of Christ like Myrrhe from Lillies Joh c. 3. v. 15. No one ascendeth into Heaven but He who cometh down out of Heaven the Son of Man who is in Heaven Mark how the Lord to prevent all Objections â—ixeth that Title the Son of Man upon that which hath its constant abode in Heaven all along the several degrees of its descent and Ascent Jesus Christs encompasseth and circleth in His Human Nature Descending walkiâ—g sadly on the Earth hanging on the Cross lying in the Grave with the Glory of the same Humane Nature Eternal in the Heavens I will now finish my Building and lay the Top-stone by giving you three Representations of the Person of your Beloved with its Beauty in the Resurrection as his Spiritual Soul and Spiritual Body stand in the same Glory with their Spiritual Principle and Pattern as they are two distinct Heavens exactly answering that Heaven from which they come it being both their Mine and their Mint So I shall conclude this use 1. Repres All my representations shall be grounded on clear Scriptures Can. 8. 6. The Spouse prayeth to Christ Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart as a Seal upon thine Arm. The prayers of the Heavenly Bride are made by the Spirit according to the will of God and so are always answered The Divine and Humane Nature are Bridegroom and Bride married together in one Person As the Impression of a Seal in Wax hath all its Substance and Subsistance in the Wax is nothing but what the Wax is in that Form so the glorified Soul and Body of our Blessed Lord stand as Seals as Impressions in that glorious depth of Love of Light of Life of all Being which is the Root and Heart of the God-Head they stand as Sealed Impressions on the Arm of God that is on every Excellency every Beauty every form of Glory in which the God-Head with endless variety with incomprehensible Sweetness and Majesty spreadeth forth itself This is all that which they are the unfathomable Love and Innumerable Beauties of the Divine Nature in the Forms of a Divine Soul and a Divine Body 2. Repres Job c. 38. 14. speakâ—ng of the New Heaven and Earth telleth us that they are turned to the Eternal word as Clay to the Seal The Manhood of Christ in Glory hath the first Model of these in itself As a Golden Seal maketh the Impression of itself on Wax and then fixeth itself unto a constant abode in the Impression which it hath made so the Eternal Word imprinteth by itself immediately upon its own Soul and Body a clear deep and full Image of itself in all the Treasures of its Immortal Life and Blessedness uniting itself in its Divine Substance to this Divine Image most intimately most intirely inseparably After this manner the Glory with which the Humane Nature of Christ is glorified is the Form and fulness of the Divine Nature in its Purity unmixt with any other Substance or Image in its Perfection possessing comprehending enjoying itself in each distinct part here distinctly and compleatly The God-Head by its unvailed Presence and full Appearance at once fashioneth the Manhood of our Jesus in every part and point into its own Supream Form and filleth that Form throughout with its own most glorious Fulness 3. Repres St. Paul telleth the Saints that their Souls and Bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Corin. 6. 19. If it be so in the Members it is so without question in the Head Jesus himself calleth his Body a Temple Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up again This he spake of his Body The Divine Nature the Glorified Soul the Spiritual Body of our Heavenly Bridegroom are three wonderful Temples The matter of which these Temples are made is all Spirit of the Eternal Spirit the Light of Eternal Life in the Spirit The fashion of these Buildings is the form of God All the Beauties and varieties of the Essential Wisdom all the ravishing delights of the first the highest and most universal Harmony in the God-Head shine in every part of these living structures Within is seen the high and Holy Trinity with all its deep dazling and delightful Mysteries unvailed all the Persons appearing in the Lights of their naked and united Beauties In the pure and transparent brightness of this Supream Glory which is the first and the last are seen all things that ever passed or are to pass over the Stage of this Creation from the Beginning to the End with their several Motions and Changes yea Forms far more innumerable and greater than ever were or can be seen in this World the whole compass of Eternity and Time as it cometh down out of Eternity as it beareth the Figure of it as it returneth again as it lieth in the bosom of Eternity as it is one piece with it and maketh a Triumphant part of the Divine variety there All these are seen in the amiable and admirable Face of the Trinity within these Temples as they are continually rising up out of their Fountain the Unity of the first and most transcendent Love the Father of all as they are continually falling down into this Fountain again as they are ever playing upon the bosom of it All things are seen here as rich varieties in the Harmony of an entire and Immortal Beauty which comprehendeth all Forms and hath no bound besides itself which sitteth entire and undivided upon every Form and Part throughout the whole which is the only Birth and Image of the Father All things are seen here as they make up one unexpressible Marriage-Joy between this Love the Father the Original and this Beauty the Birth the Son the Image by which they both breath forth themselves into one Spirit the Band and Union the Inmost Center and outmost Circle of all Sweetnesses Graces Amiablenesses Pleasantnesses Pleasures Rests Complacencies Delights and Joys thorow Heaven Earth Time Eternity In these three Temples these Things are to be observed that we may understand their Divine Nature and wonderful make aright 1. All three are perfectly distinct in the highest degree of distinction each from other 2. All three perfectly answer and are alike to one another 3. Every one comprehendeth the other Two exactly and entirely in itself that all Three stand together in each several Temple 4. All three Temples joyn perfectly into one Temple 5. The first Temple is the precious and living Stone out of which the other two grow up into living Temples It is the Root the Life the Substance the Form the Fulness the perfection the glory of the other Two I must interpose here two Cautions to prevent mistakes 1. Cant. Preserve carefully the distinction between Spiritual Things both in the Person of our Saviour and in his Mystical Body The Spirit taketh away all Separations and Divisions from God All breaches upon the Unity of God are wounds with which Sin pierceth the Prince of Life The Spirit
Coming is not Natural nor the Manifestation Moral both are Supernatural and Spiritual tâ—e Drawing of the Father A Seed hath a Power or Principle which sent it forth abides in it and works thorow it It hath also an Image which grows up out of it Jesus Christ is the Seed in the Soul of Man the Father is the Power the Son is the Image in this Seed When a Corn is cast into the ground a Power goes forth from it into the Earth round about which attracts and draws it which unites and incorporates it with the Seed which sends it forth again in the Form of that Plant first in the Herb then in the Blade last in the Ear. So the Father thorow Jesus Christ diffuseth himself into the whole Soul draws it into Christ who lies there as a Seed makes it One with him who brings it forth again into his own Form and Fruit. St. James saith Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will beg at be us by the Word of Truth The Word is the Seed of Truth Christ Jesus in us The Will of God is composed of those two forementioned A Supream Fulness a Soveraign Sweetness These powerfully and pleasantly stir up the Godhead to bring forth the creatures and to bring forth it self in the creatures These delightfully and effectually move God to propagate himself endlesly and infinitely These heats of love the delights of fruitfulness are the inward and only Motives which put on our heavenly Father to quicken his Seed in us to make it grow up by degree till it hath perfectly brought forth it self into its own form and fulness Thus St. Paul tells us Gal. 1. 16. It pleased the Father to reveal his Son in him As the Sun draws up the Plants out of their Roots and discovers them to the open Air so the Father reveals and discloseth Jesus Christ in the Soul 4. Cause The Ministry of Man to Man Heb. 1. 14. We read that Angels are made Ministring Spirits for the good of those that are to inherit Salvation So it pleaseth God often to make men as Angels to minister Spiritual things to their Brethren It is one of the Mysteries of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit The great God is pleased by the Fleshly waies of man's doing speaking writing reading living to express and convey himself A Learned man admires it as having a Height of Wonder in it that so low so narrow so dark dead divided things as words and letters should carry into our Souls the highest Images of the divinest Life Truth and Glory This is the Infiniteness of the Godhead which brings forth itself in the greatest Variâ—ty of Shapes yet still keeps the Unity preserves it self entire and full in every one Thus the Divine Nature imprints it self upon the thoughts of Earthly man as scattered Dust and by the Motions of this Dust in words implants it self by one Man upon the Soul of another There is a Three-fold Ministry of Man by which God works in the Conversion of men 1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God 2. Exhortation by words to men 3. Example of life before men 1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God for men St. Paul describes Prayer Rom. 8. 27. God heareth His Spirit for it makes intercessions in us according to his will Prayer is the Conception of the Soul when it hath taken in from Heaven the Spirit in the Form of some Divine Blessing Then it grows big with this Blessing it travels with it it labours to raise it self into God that by the clearness of his Light by the fulness of his Life it may bring it forth to perfection A Spiritual man is like Abraham who had in himself that Seed in which all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed He hath conceived with a Seed of Blessedness to all Creatures Therefore as Paul travelled in birth with the Galatians till Christ was formed in them so doth a good man travel in birth by Prayer having many Pangs and Throws in the Spirit till this Blessedness be formed in each Soul St. Paul tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours c. A Heavenly Spirit is an Universal Father it lookâ— upon all Creatures as its own Off-spring or Bowels As Job sacrificed constantly for his Children while they were feasting in their course So is this Spirit praying for the Souls of men while they are playing away themselves in Vanity This is the First Ministry 2. Exhortation by words to men David promiseth and prophesieth Psal. 51. 13. I will teach transgressâ—urs thy ways and Sinners shall be converted unto thee Before in the former verse he had prayed Restore thy Ioy and establish thy free Spirit in me Then he adds I will teach transgressours thy ways the ways of thy Love and Wisdom with man Sinners shall be converted unto thee that is by the report of thy sweet Contrivances upon me and Compassions towards me When the Heart feels the Waters of Divine Life and Joy bubling up warm from the bosom of the Godhead then the Tongue becomes the Pen of a ready Writer labouring to imprint the Form of the same Life and Joys upon other hearts also If you will have me weep when you speak weep your self you that speak said a Wise man When a man utters those heavenly Loves Truths Delights of Jesus Christ in which his own Soul lies melting and bathing her self while he reports them Then he often hath his Tongue made the Quill of the Godhead by which he toucheth other Souls and makes the same Musick upon them David call his Tongue his Glory because by it he displayed that Glory of God which was treasured up in his heart to the view of many Hearts St. Paul tells us that God hath chosen the Foolishness of Preaching to make it His Power unto Salvation God sends down the highest Glory into inferiour Forms in which they descend by degrees then in the lowest they become a Seed out of which they grow and rise again by degrees to their first Height So the Divinity puts its self into our Saviour then into our Hearts then into our Tongues so into Words hovering in the Air thus low it is become Now by Words as a Seed it is cast into the Ear of another so it passeth into the Heart where it springeth up into the Fairness of Christ and from that into the Fulness of God 3. Example of Life before Men. St. Paul tells the Saints Philip. 2. 15. They should be blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked generation in which they shine as Light When one Candle is lighted we light many by that When God hath kindled the Life of his Glory in one man's Heart he often enlightens many by the Flame of that spread thorow his Conversation Philosophers tell us that every thing hath Beams by which it manifests and multiplies itself Sure nothing hath so piercing
Superiour and Inferiour One above Another below In that above is the Fountain of Pleasure from thence the stream descends which makes that below ever-green and flourishing with delights Eden signifies Pleasure or Delight which name in another word is given to Christ as he was eternally in the bosom of the Father Prov. 8. 30. I was by him one brought up with him Delights from day to day Jesus Christ in his Heavenly Image in the Substance and Essence of the eternal Light is Eden the Paradise above In his earthly Image the sweet Shade where all his Beauties seem at once to sleep and spring he is the Paradise below There is he the Eden and the Fountain in the midst of Eden Here the Garden watered by the River going forth from Eden A good Heart hath in itself both these Paradises the Fountain and the Stream Eden and the Garden Cant. 4. 15. The Lord Jesus calls his Spouse A Fountain of Gardens a Well of living Waters flowing from Libanon The holy Heart is both the Fountain which makes all things Gardens Paradises which way soever it flows and those Gardens too It is both Libanon with the Fountain in it and the Gardens below in the vallies in the midst of which the Living Waters from this Fountain run along Reasâ—n The Heart is that Spirit which is the first Spring and Principle of Life in man Prov. 4. 23. Keep thine heart with all Diligence For out of it are the Issues of Life All the treasures of this World its Light Forms Vertues operations are first in the Sun From thence they flow forth in various Streams all round about him while yet they are still comprehended in him as being not only their inmost Center but also their outmost Circle of Light and Life So is the Heart or Spirit of Man an Invisible Sun in the midst of him far more great or glorious than this which we see in which all forms and acts of Life like Beams rise up first and fullest from whence they are dispensed and dispersed The Hebrew word to keep imports a double sense 1st Diligently observe thine Heart what Spirit or Principle it is by which thou art acted Such as this is such is thy whole Life If thy Heart be a Substantial true pure Spirit thy whole way and work all thy Joyes are Substance Truth Light Immortality as the Visions of God If the Heart which is in thee be shadowy thy Life is vain and empty the dream of a shadow Is thy heart corrupt and polluted then are all thy Streams poisoned death lurks and sports itself in them with an innumerable company of Devils 2. Keep that is preserve thine own thy true Heart with all diligence Abide in Christ and his Love as the only root of Life from whence alone spring the sap greennesses flowers fruits of true Sweetnesses Beauty and Blessedness Watch day and night that no other Spirit put forth itself in thee for every other Principle besides Christ and his Love will certainly prove a Counterfeit and instead of a Heart out of which the Issues of Life ought to be a root of bitterness There is a Twofold Heart 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 1. There is a Natural Heart This is the supream part of the natural Soul the Angelical Spirit in Man 1 Thes. 5. 23. St. Paul prayes The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have the natural Man divided into three parts which are equally capable of being sanctified or by defilement made subject to blame 1. Spirit 2. Soul 3. Body The Spirit is as the Fountain the Soul the Stream of Life The Body the Channel in which this Stream runs along The whole Man is one Beam sprung immediately from the Divine Glory The upper end of the Beam where it is fullest and brightest immediately united to and rooted in the supream Light makes the Spirit The lowest point least and darkest almost vanishing into the Shade with which it mingles its light where it toucheth the Earth is the Body The Soul is the middle of that Beam partaking of both these dividing and uniting them like the Firmament between the Waters above and the Waters below the Angels being the Waters above the Firmament and Corporeal Lives those below The Spirit is the Angel in Man or Man in the Similitude and Society of Angels the invisible Image the first Treasury of all his Natural Beings Beauties and Life which afterward descends and distinguisheth itself into the varieties of Inferiour Acts and Appearances St. Paul therefore in the forementioned place calls it their whole Spirit The Body is the Outward and Visible Image the Shadow below of this above The Soul is the Life by which the Spirit descends into the Body maintains communion with it and gathers it up again into itself According to these Distinctions and Descriptions Solomon discourseth Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The name of God there signifies Gods or Angels for whom it is frequently and expresly used in the Holy Scripture The Jews say it properly imports the Divine Nature as it is cloathed with the Angelical God in the midst of all his Holy Angels coming forth into the Creation descending to be the Head of it It is an English Proverb If men could live without the company of Women men they should converse with Angels This is true when the Spirit which is the Head and the Man in us withdraws itself from its Shadowy Image the Body which is as the Woman it finds itself in the Form of an Angel and in the Society of Angels From the Angelical State and Company it descends into the Body Thither it returns again when it leaves the Body This is the Natural Heart the Angelical Spirit in Man made in the Similitude of God as he cloaths himself with the Angelical Image as with a Garment of Light and so vailing his naked unaccessible Glories comes forth to be the Head of Angels This Spirit is the Immediate Seat of the Divine Presence the Glory the Angelical Throne Here the precious things of the Sun and the Moon of the Invisible and Visible Image of the Divine Nature here the Riches of the whole Creation appear together in their fullest Lustre and most beautiful Order The Letters of the Latine Name for Heart Cor make the first Letters of those word Camera Omnipotentis Regis which being interpreted are the Chamber of the Almighty King It is a common observation that the Heart of Man is Triangular which therefore cannot be filled with the round World but only with the Trinity This Heart of which we speak is properly Triangular consisting like the Angels of these Three Essence Understanding and Will the proper and Immediate Type of the Trinity which as it can be
of Life Light Love into this Darkness as the Center in the midst of this glorious Circle where all the Lines from every Point of it meet in One. Again O Believing Soul in this Sight in this Sense in the vertue of these Divine Descents return and spread thy self by all these Lines of Glory together with thy God into the Circle of Eternity There comprehend All thy self and All in the Incomprehensible Mystery of God There see hear tast enjoy Him as Beauty itself Sweetness itself Musick itself Joy itself in All. See Hear tast enjoy All as that Beauty that Musick that Sweetness that Joy in him Thus call him by every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Call every thing in him by a new name above every name which is named in this world or that which is to come When Jacob saw the Chariots which his Son Joseph sent to bring him down into Egypt his Soul revived and he said it is enough that my Son Joseph liveth I will go see him before I die When thou seest Clouds of Enemies or oppositions in thy Affairs which are apt to perplex thee and fill thee with care shut this Eye of Flesh which representeth all things false open the Eye of the Spirit Then look again and see the Chariots of fire and Horses of fire a Spiritual fire shining with Glory burning with Love refining and spiritualizing all things as they ascend with them Now let thy Spirit revive within thee from its care to a Heavenly calm and to praises Say it is enough my Jesus liveth and loveth me This is his Chariot The Flames of it are Flames of Love He is himself in the midst of it upon a seat of Gold I see him He cometh to carry me up above this world into his Heavenly Kingdom I will ascend with him 4. Ingred The making of our requests known to God What Hearts-â—ase is this to have the priviledge of expressing all our desires to God himself with freedom and familiarity at a banquet of Wine of Spiritual Loves better than Wine The Husbandman planteth his Vine against a South-wall and spreadeth all the Branches of it there where it may receive the Sun fullest and longest that by this means all the vertue of the plant may be drawn forth into a great plenty of fairer and sweeter Grapes Let thy Spirit be a Heavenly Vine planted by the Eternal Spirit in thee Let thy will be the Heavenly sap of the Divine Will and the Divine Love in thee Instead of cares spread all thy desires like the Branches of this Vine fasten them continually before thy Invisible Sun the Face of God where the Beams of his Love and Excellencies fall with greatest heat and constancy So shall all the sweet Sap of thy Vine all the Divine Will in thy Will that is all Seeds all desires of Good of Love of Loveliness of Joy of Blessedness be made to grow and be ripened in their proper season unto the most perfect and most pleasant Fruit. 5. Ingred Universality Be careful in nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving make your requests known to God There is nothing too great for us to be assured of the Ear and Heart and Hand of God in it There is nothing too little for us to trouble him with Every thing that can befal us in an opportunity a Scene for all manner of Communion with God for Faith and Love to act all their parts upon in all their several Habits and Dresses Prayer Supplication Thanksgiving Requests find a pâ—ace in every Providence Day unto Day declareth Knowledge Night unto Night uttereth Speech Psal. 19. 3. Every State every season of Light and Darkness in all senses bring down from Heaven to us in one lovely Love Appearance or another Jesus Christ with the Heart of the Father Let every day and every night as it returneth to Heaven again carry up Jesus Christ from our Hearts and our Hearts in him in some Spiritual dress to the Bosom of the Father In every thing thy God acteth all manner of Loves expresseth and conveyeth all his Glories to thee In every thing do thou meet him return to him the activity of all thy Loves and the exercise of all Graces 6. Ingred The Ground of all these Ingredients and their vertue in this Cordial The Lord being at hand v. 5. The Philosopher in a Mill seeing his Friends making a doubt of coming in to him there out of a disesteem of the place and of him for being found in that place invited them in with these words here also are the immortal Gods When thou feelest thine heart standing at a distance from any condition for the obscurity of it or disquieted with cares in any condition for the troubles of it say to thine heart after this manner here also is my Jesus with all his Train of Immortal Glories Loves Angels and Spirits Here he is in a Figure of himself Here is he in Person under this Figure Here he is ready to shine forth and appear gloriously This is his Shadow This Shadow is his Tabernacle in which he dwelleth with me Upon this Ground will I tune all my cares all the unquiet motions of my Spirit to Prayers and Praises to the Melody of Faith Love and Joy Thus much for the 2d Lesson of living without Care with content upon this First Principle in the knowledge of the Lord and his Beauties that he maketh this world a Shadow falling from his Beautiful Person 3. Lesson Live beautifully and purely as Priests to God in this present world For this world is the Temple of God in as much as it is Jesus Christ in a Shadow For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-Head Rom. 1. 20. Four things make a Temple 1. A Divine Authority for the building of it This World is the Creation of God 2. A Divine Pattern The Invisible things of the God-Head of the Lord Jesus the power of the God-Head of Eternity are figured upon this World 3. A Divine End The proper end of these Figures is to form notions of the Divine nature upon our minds to lead us to converse with it to bring us into the Participations of it that it may enjoy itself in the reflections of its own excellencies and Glories from us v. 21. When they knew God they glorified him not as God They emproved not these Figures and Notions to an entrance within the Vail into the Glory itself which was the Divine end of them 4. A Divine Presence Jesus is he who filleth All in All Ephes. 1. l. In what a Calm in what Serenity in what Purity with what Beauty should we appear in this world as Priests in the Temple and in the midst of the Mysteries of God Psal. 29. 9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his
the Sons of God The word led is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted As the Soul acts the Body as the principle of reason the Soul of Man as the nature of the Sun acts the Sun in its shinings in its motions thou also art acted by the Divine Spirit to which the Sun the Soul of Man the principle of reason are empty and weak shadows so far as thou in truth art a Child of Light and a Son of God the Father of Lights Let me here by the way touch a three-fold string in your Souls 1. A mournful string 2. A string of desire 3. The string of praise 1. Is the Spâ—â—it the principle of a Saint how then should we mourn thâ—â— this Spirit of Grace this Comforter is grieved that this Spirit of Light and Life is quenched by unbelief sensuality unkindness and neglect how should we mourn that this Holy Spirit this Spirit of Truth is slighted and spoken evil of as a Spirit of licentiousness or as a fancy and delusion and all this among Saints at least in profession when as this Spirit is the only principle of Saintship St. Jude in his Epistle speaketh of this as the Sin of Devils for which they are cast down to Hell and bound in Chains of Darkness that they did forsake their first state and their own habitation It is in Greek not their first state but their first principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Saints is not this a Sin greater than that of Devils not only to forsake but to grieve and cast shame upon this first and most blessed Spirit which is your only principle a principle of Divinâ— Life Light and Purity your own habitation a habitation of Divine Rest and Glory 2. O all you who desire to be Saints or to grow in the new and Divine Nature of a Saint let your hearts burn by day and by night with continual longings for the Spirit This alone is that of which a Saint is bred by which he is nourished This alone is the Heavenly Root the Sap the sweet Dew Showers and Influences the warm and cherishing Sun-shine to every Spiritual Plant Cry therefore and wait for this Spirit wait upon it minister to it seek it suck it in by all means thorow all its own manifestations and ordinances of Nature or of Grace When this world was first made a beautiful frame out of a dark Deep the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters When Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and rested upon her In both places the expressions seem to allude to a Bird or a Dove spreading itself over its Nest to hatch its young Ones When the Lord Jesus was Baptized the Holy Ghost descended and rested upon him in the form of a Dove Dost thou indeed desire to have thy dark defiled dead heart made a new Creature to have Jesus Christ to be born or to grow within thee and to be Baptized yet more into Jesus Christ the Sea of all Heavenly Beauties Loves and Joys O then pray to the blessed Spirit to make thy Soul his Nest to move upon the face of thy Spirit to overshadow thee to descend and rest upon thee in his Dove like form 3. O all ye Saints sing the praises of the holy Spirits let the high praises of the holy Spirit be ever in your mouths Say to the Spirit this is the womb of Divine Life and Power which hath born us and brought us forth to be Children and Heirs to God these are the Breasts of Divine Life and sweetness which give us suck this is itself the Heavenly Milk of the Eternal word by which we live and grow Do you see any glympse of Evangelical Light and Truth do you feel any workings of Grace any sweet springings of Love and Joy Give Glory to the Spirit it is this blessed Spirit which now shines in you enlivens you and acts you The Children of Iracel in the Wilderness in a great want of water met with a Well then they sang to it in these words Spring O Well the Princes have digged it with their Sâ—aves When ever thou meetest with any fresh stream any sweet drop of the water of Life rising up within thee in thâ—s parched Land and weary Wilderness sing to thy Well sing to the blessed Spirit and say in thy Song my Well springeth my Jesus hath digged it in my heart with the Golden Scepter of his Gracâ— and Love Thus let every gracious thought gracious moving of thy mind will or affections put into thy mouth a new Song of joyful praises to the Spirit as the dear and inseparable principle of Life of Heaven of Eternity within thee thine ownâ— principle Thus much of the Principle 2. The two effects of this Principle are a Spiritual sense savour both comprehended in that expression to be heavenly minded How often doth my Spirit labour in the Bosom and power of the Eternal Spirit for these two things 1. That all Men were brought forth into this Spiritual Principle 2. That all who have the Spiritual Principle within them were continually acted by it How sweet would life be to them for the sight of their Eyes and rellish of their Spirit They that live in the Spirit see all things by a Spiritual Light It is indeed a pleasant thing to behold this Light Every glympse of it infuseth a heavenly joy into the Heart and scattereth all Clouds of grief or melancholy These see all things in a Spiritual Image that is in a Divine and Immortal Glory They tast the sweetness of a Heavenly and Divine Love in every thing Every thing presenteth itself to them in an Heavenly Appearance and every appearance of things entreth into their Souls with a heavenly taste and rellish far sweeter than Hony to the Palate All our converse with things of every kind of Nature or Grace of Sense or reason proceedeth from a union with those things in one Principle and is a communion with them in that Principle Such as the Principle is such are the Appearances and rellishes of things to us such is our converse with them All Appearances of things to Men or to Angels in every natural Principle to our senses or to our understandings are no more than shadows or dreams The Spirit alone is Truth When melancholy forms and Images of things in this world afflict our Spirits when the pleasant things here lift them up to vain joys and glories if the holy Spirit awaken himself and arise in us all these fly away all other appearances of things break up into an appearance of Eternal Beauty and Blessedness springing forth from this Spirit like the shadows of the night when the Sun is seen and a dream when a Man awaketh We are taught by natural Philosopy that the Images of things are seen thorow a Christalline humor in the Eye as a fine Glass If this Christal be dyed with any colour all things which we see appear
Prophet Habakkuk speaking of Christ in the Spirit tells us Chap. 3. ver 4. is in his hand That is In the spiritual discoveries of Christ which are as hands of light by which he puts forth himself and taks hold of the World As our Author some where expresses himself upon those words Who among us is yet able to comprehend all the distinct ages and growths of good minds To understand the various Improvements measures and attainments the several capacities languages and operations which are peculiar to those ages and growths It is impossible for us to set the bounds to spiritual things To stint that Spirit in our selves or others which is a fountain of Divine Light and Life in all regenerated Souls continually sending forth new streams and running along with afresh succession of Waters without any stop or limit We are too proud to understand the condescentions too low to take the height too shallow to fathom the depth too narrow to measure the breadth too short to reach the length of the Divine truth and goodness and the various communications of theâ—selves to us We cannot assign the highest or the lowest state of Saints whilst they are here below We cannot say all above this is fancy whimsie dream and delusion all below that is common carnal formal and superstitious As we ought not then to despise and contemn that which is below So let us not censure and condemn that which is above us Blessed be God all Good Souls in the midst of their greatest distances from one another here below do all meet in the Divine Comprehension above We are all enfolded in the Divine Arms we are all encircled in the Divine Love That has breadth and length and depth and height enough to reach and hold us all And if we cannot yet receive and embrace each other in our several ages growths measures and attainments it is because we have little low dark narrow and contracted hearts feel but little of the love of Christ and are no more fill'd with that Spirit which is the spring the center the circle the band to all good Spirits in heaven and on Earth There is as great a difference in the statures of Souls as of bodies In the growths of Christians as of men and all other things St. John Joh. 12. c. distinguishes these growths into little Children Young men Fathers twice together That we might take the more distinct notice of them Our Author was in the highest of these ranks Was indeed one of the tallest among his Brethren whether we consider the height of his own spiritual discoveries and enjoyments or the depth of his condescentions to the lowest and least of them For the true stature of any thing cannot be exactly taken without measuring from both ends That is not truly tall or great which seems to stand high and look big but that which reaches furthest which is most extensive comprehending and Universal Our Author was indeed a true Father in Christ and so esteemed by all who knew him For his own great understanding and experience in Divine things for the excellency of his Ministery whereby he did in Jesus Christ thorow the Gospel beget and edifie many As also for the great tenderness and Father like bowels which throughout his whole Ministry and in all his other converses he delighted to be still expressing towards all the weak and little ones Nor was his skill herein less considerable than his Naturalness This Character thou wilt find eminently due to him as thou perusest these discourses in which he is still careful to provide Milk for the Babes whilst he sets stronger Meat before the men Those who are Spiritual and by being so are able spiritually to discern spiritual things to compare them with themselves and to feed on them not only as they are brought down to us in fleshly Images and resemblances But as they express and manifest themselves in us in their own spiritual forms and glories Sure I am if thou art truly come within the compass of the lowest of those growths before mentioned if thou art become so much as a little Child in Christ if thou hast but that genuine instinct and naturalness of Soul towards God and all Divine things which is essential to and inseparable from the New birth in its most infant state if thouâ—hast but the least degree of a Spiritual mind any spiritual sense and savour there are a great many things in this Book which thy Soul must of necessity understand eccho to rellish and acknowledge to be exceeeding good Let then the goodness of what thou dost understand encourage thy Charity to think that which is above thy reach may be better At least let it prevail with thy reason not to judge sentence and condemn it It is every where esteemed an high and difficult Office to be a Judge in the Affairs of this lower World The Wisdom of our Nation has provided as a Noble Author observes that so great a Work should not depend upon One Person every Court of Iudicature having a certain number of Judges or Assistants belonging to it Nor can a Iudge depute his Authority to another it being an Office and Work of greatest Confidence Trust and Skill and therefore personal and inherent And with what wariness and caution do the Rules of all our Courts direct their own proceeding to a Judgment in every little case here below It is certainly a much higher and harder work to be a Iudge in the matters of another World in things not obvious to Sense and transcendent to Reason in things above all the natural Principles of Wisdom or Truth in any creature The Jews speak of it as one of the first things delivered by God to Moses by him to Joshua and so down to all their Elders and Wise men in all Ages To be slow in judging St. Paul cautions us 1 Cor. 4. 5. To judge nothing before the time until the Lord come To pass a Iudgment to pronounee a Sentence upon Persons and Principles in spiritual matters is in its own nature and in the consequences thereof the greatest the weightiest act our Souls can put forth and therefore not to be hastily executed nor indeed at all without his presence from whom all the Authority Power and Capacity of Spiritual Iudgment is derived God has committed all this Iudgment in a more especial manner to Jesus Christ and there can be no true right authentick valid and final Iudgment without him and where he is not present He has no where so deputed this Office and Work to any Person or Company of persons as to alienate the dignity and glory of it from himself And whether he dispence it immediately or mediately he cannot be excluded It is his Presence and Power the Appearances of Christ and the manifestations of his Spirit which do give to any Society of men the Distinction and Authority of a Church to every Church or Person the right the ability of
Content Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah but she meets an Angel that sweetly sends her back thither where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit Hagar this Fleshly Being the Bond-woman This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress she flies from her Face her Appearances which oppress the Flesh with their Glory But the bright Images of this Beauty as Angels meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight in the Principles of Nature By the flashes and breakings forth of these Man is persuaded to return and submit himself to the supreme Beauty his Mistress and Parent so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father Happy is that Soul that after all her weary steps thorow the world to seek Content now tyred thinks of Returning to her Father her first Husband and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb out of which I was brought forth into this world Thy Sweetness is the Bosom in which I must eternally rest How long shall I linger here O when shall I once leave this world and come again to thee Q. 4. How come we hither Thorow a Darkness You shall in the first of Genesis see that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature thorow which all things pass out of one into the other This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World or any Creature When we come into this life we come well drencht drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness There is no more any Remembrance of former things We know not where we were when God laid the Foundations of the Earth or what we were before that when all our Bones were first written by God in his Book when first those Eternal Forms which were to frame and sustain every shape or state into which we should pass were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom We are of Yesterday and know nothing We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us and swallows up this into it self as it passeth along Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wild Asses Coâ—t Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt as void as that of all Eternal Images Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World all which you must put off so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness into which you must return Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life Those waters of Forgetfulness into which we must all descend will wash them all away Imagine this Life as an Island surrounded with a Sea of Darkness beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity Blessed is he that can raise himself to such a Pitch as to look off this Island beyond that Darkness to the utmost bound of things He sees his way before and behind him What shall trouble him on this Twig of Life on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight Thou cam'st through a darkness hither but Yesterday when thou wer 't born Why then shouldst thou not more readily and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills Let us then ever be in Tune to sing that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing and so much-suffering Job Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb Naked shall I return thither again The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Blessed be the name of the Loâ—d Naked camest thou my Soul thorough a Darkness into this World strip't of all the Glories above Naked must thou return again out of this World quite strip't of all the Glories and Griefs here The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God while thou art in that Darkness Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories Eye to Eye Heart in Heart They and Thou being made One Life One Spirit and without Partition or Vail Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us If this Face of Nature which now presents it self to us have such Beauties Greatnesses Varieties as ravish us from all sense of our selves our present safety our souls our God from the Love and Delight which from them flow into our Spirits what Sights what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ what Ravishments would surprize us and snatch us out of Flâ—sh if we saw Him For Nature and this World is but the Earthly Inferiour Imperfect Image of God and of the Person of Christ which is the Heavenly and Supream Image Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes But if we saw Him we should much more despise Ten thousand Worlds ten thousand times heightned in Glory as a heap of Dunghills in Comparison of Him Our Blindness our Blindness clips the wings of Desire clogs the Spirit of Delight in us O Jesus cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls and we shall run from all things after thee fly beyond all things towards Thee How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces Shew thy self to me and set many Worlds many Death 's more between me and thy self my Spirit shall shoot it self like an Arrow thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine can Translate me as Enoch or Eliah of old I have thus Finish'd the First Image in which man lives before his Conversion The Image of Nature 2. Image of the Devil The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image The First was that of Nature the Second this of the Devil which we now are to take a view of But what can we see or say of this Who can draw a Picture of or describe Darkness and Confusion The Power of Darkness and Division prevailing over the Powers of Light and Love in the Creature This is the Devil If you will pourtray a Devil
Thing Two Things make a Reality in the Soul 1. The Object 2. The Inward Affections 1. The Object As the Woman is to the Man his Image his Glory in the Image So is the Soul to her Object If she espouse her self to the Lying Vanities of this World she makes her self one with them both Vanity and a Lye If she cleave to the Rock of Ages the Rock of the Godhead growing to that growing up out of that she becomes a Living Stone a Rock of Eternity in her self This is the First Motion in Religion the winding of the Soul about the utmost point of the Creature and turning in towards God again This is the Discriminating Dividing Temper between Religious and unregenerate Persons the Touching of the Soul with God as the Needle is touch't with the Load-stone when it may have various agitations yet it feels the Impressions of God in the midst of all when it can never establish or quiet itself in any posture save then only when it is pointed on God My Soul hath said to the Lord thou art my Portion Lamen 3. Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me He is at my Right hand I shall not be moved God is our Assistant there where he is our Object at our Hand if he be in our Eye This is the Life and Essence of Religion the exaltation of God in our Spirits as our Chief Object to which and by which we are directed Examine thy self by this If the world be all to thee and God a Fancy then art thou like that world a Fancy and a Bubble If God be all to thee and the world a Dream then thou hast Strength Life and Substance For thou art one with him who is the Life Strength Substance Being of all things Is thy Heart as a Hearth on which Thorns only blaze Are the workings of thy Spirit like thin and fine Smoak slight and vanishing Can then there be any Religion where there is no Reality He is the Religious man who graspes Substance who digs thorow all things till he meets with a sure Foundation who hath taken hold of something Solid Satisfactory Everlasting at which his Soul stops on which she stays her self I hate them saith David that look to lying Vanities but my trust is in the Lord. There is a Three-fold Sense of things which makes a Religious man Real 1. Sense of this World's sorrows 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. 3. Sense of Divine Love 1. Sense of this World's sorrows No man is in the Spirit of Christ who hath not been at the Cross in the Grave of Christ and there seen the end of all this world's Glories Who beholds things in the Eternal Light He that hath first seen this world in a Fire out of which it falls into blackness of Darkness By the Cross of Christ the World is crucified to me saith St. Paul I come to kindle a Fire in the World saith our Saviour and what will I if it be already Kindled They that go down into the Deep see the Wonders of the Lord saith the Psalmist Whoever is gone up to Heights of Grace hath gone down into the Deep of the First Creation and seen Wonders of Darkness there Jonah tells us of himself Jon. 2 6. I went down to the bottom of the Muntains the bars of the Earth were about me for ever Hast thou descended with thy Saviour to the Bottom of this Creation hast thou seen about thee those everlasting Bars of Darkness which bear up and bound this Creation Then shew us the effect which Solomon mentions in Ecclesiastes A sad Countenance makes a good Heart As Darkness contracts the Eye unites the Fancy and makes it strong So a sad Face of things makes the Spirit gather up itself into itself live serious and Recollected 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. We saith St. Paul knowing the Terrours of the Lord persuade men 2. Cor. 5. 11 If we know God we know his Terrours and what the Power of his Wrath is can we not then persuade our selves to be serious Have you seen the Treasures of wrath laid up with God for those that harden their Hearts in Sloth and Sense to an insensibleness of Spiritual and Eternal things Have you heard those seven-times-seven fold increases of Fury upon those who go on in Vanity and yet say it shall not be so it shall be well with them Cannot these things make you Real and Sober If still vanity be your Life your Food your Joy if still Lightness be your Air and Shadows the Game which you hunt with your Reason and Senses then fear lest you have seen Shadows only of these Objects lest your Religion too be vain 3. Sense of Divine Love The Scripture saith in one place to good men The Joy of the Lord shall be your Strength Such as the Nourishment of our Spirit is such will its Constitution and our Conversation be If our Food our Joy be Divine and we eat the Bread of Angels our Lives will be Divine and our Faces shine with Angelical Beams If our Delights be Vanity and we feed on wind our Spirits and Conversation will be windy The same Solomon that said of Mirth what dost thou And of Laughter it is Madness Eccles. 2. 2. He saith Prov. 3. The ways of Wisdom are ways of Peace and all her Paths are pleasantness Spiritual Pleasures are Serious ones as Grave as Wisdom itself for they are her Walks The Love of Christ constrains us saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. The Love of Christ holds in binds up and unites the Spirit not suffering it to pour forth itself loosely That Liberty which is Daughter to Divine Love what a Stranger is it to Licentiousness Those Sweetnesses which flow from God and his Glories how do they look down upon and despise Empty Mirths and mad Laughters A Bride made a Woman of a Cat and set among the Guests in the bridal Chambear on a sudden runs after a Mouse which stir'd in a Corner of the Room If thy Soul be still ready to fly at every vanity which is at any time started in the eye of it thou maist be cloth'd with the Form of a Heavenly Bride but sure thou hast still a Brutish Spirit Thus you see how the Object of a Religious man makes him Real The Second Reality in Religion is that of Inward Affections 2. The Inward Affections My Son saith Wisdom in the Proverbs give me thy Heart Perhaps you give to God your Feet to carry you to Sermons you give him your Hands to work or fight for him you give him your Tongue to discourse of Him but have you given him your Heart Doth that cleave to him long and pant after him sigh for him live only in Him David saith to God Psâ—l 51. Thou lovest Uprightness in the Inward parts The more Inward any thing is the more Upright it is Are thy frequentest Groans such as thou dost not express thou canst not express such as thy Spirit
only feels God's Spirit only hears It is the Counsel of our Lord Jesus Pray to thy Father in Secret and He shall reward thee openly The most Secret things are the most Serious Dost thou commune with thine own Heart upon thy Bed about the things of God and Eternity Do the workings and Labourings of thy Soul after thy Saviour hold thine eyes waking while others are sleeping Solomon tells us The Heart knoweth its own Sorrow and a stranger intermeddles not with its Joys Blessed is he who hath a sense of a Sorrow for Sin and the absence of God which his own Heart only is conscious to Blessed is he who lives on hidden Manna who hath his Bosom still warmed with a secret Flame of Divine Love and Joy to which all others are Strangers Man hath as St. Paul teacheth a Spirit a Soul a Body So hath Religion God the Eternal Object and Spring of our Religion is the Spirit our Inward Affections are the Soul our outward Actions the Body Outward Actions most glorious if they go alone make but a Dead Religion are a Body without a Soul Inward Affections without God make but a Brutish Religion a Soul in a Body without the Immortal Spirit I now conclude this Application 2. Use For Direction I will divide this into a Threefold Direction 1. Direction Entertain mournful Tempers as Angels Improve them as Treasures When Jonah was in the bottom of the Sea and belly of the Fish his Soul fainting within him then he remembred the Lord Jonah 2. 7. As Pearls are found at the bottom of the Sea so frequently do the Beauties of the Lord Jesus disclose themselves to us in the depths of Grief when we are sunk below the waters of this world and are swallowed up into a Spirit of Darkness It is St. James's advice Jam. 1 4. Let Patience have its perfect work and it shall make you perfect As one Element stretcht to the utmost passeth into another Water into Air Air into Fire as a Cloud big and swelling dissolves it self upon the Earth so thy Griefs if thou wait calmly upon them as they swell and grow will at length dissolve themselves into God As Snow and Frost cherish the Seed in the ground so do biting and binding Sorrows both kill the weeds of Vanity and ripen the Seed of Divinity in Man I can no more want Sorrows for my Soul than the Husband-man can want Winter seasons for his Corn fields As natural Melancholy draws the Soul deeply into her self and her Divinest Principles whence she issues forth again with the most great and glorious Lights so do sad things work upon a holy Spirit sinking her thorow her self into the Depths of the Godhead out of which she riseth renewed to a fresh Spring of Life and Joy 2. Direction Look stedfastly to the end of all Flesh. In every Pleasure Strength Glory see the Worm and the Fire which is bred in all fleshly things the one never to go out the other never to die till Flesh be no more The belly for meats and meat for the belly but God shall destroy them both and I will be in bondage to neither saith St. Paul If thou engage thy Soul in any earthly Content thou puttest thy self into a Prison whence you must come by Death or where Death will find you Why should I put on that which I must keep on with lasting vexations or put off with present Pains The world and my senses were made one for another The Devil hath defiled and disordered both God distractâ— and will destroy both The Joy of my Life and my Life shall depend oâ— neither 3. Direction Preserve Hope towards God ever alive in thy self Hos. 2. 15. We read of the Door of Hope Hope is the Door of Happiness This admits us into the Godhead He that suffers Hope to sink under Despair in his Spirit locks and bars up the Door of Heaven against himself Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferr'd makes the heart sick But Hope cut off kills the Heart and makes it lie dead in Sin and Flesh. He will lay his mouth in the Dust if there may be Hope Give a man Hope and you cast the Seed of a New Soul of God into him What saith one May I the vilest of men the lowest of creatures hope to be pardoned Nay more to be loved to be made partaker of a Divine Spirit and Glory May I thus lâ—st hope this Then will I fear worship serve God do suffer any thing for him or from him I will lay my mouth in the Dust at his feet if I may have Hope Hope declares the most right and most sweet thoughts of God It sets the Soul in the rightest and sweetest frame towards God He exalts God and gives him the highest Glory that dares at worst to hope for the best things from him He that praiseth me he honoureth me saith God Psal. 50. There are Two Grounds for Hope which never fail 1. God is nigh thee Acts 15. Thou hast thy Being in him Thou wer 't made by Jesus Christ thou subsistest in him as in thy Root Thou art the work of his hand the Son of his Handmaid Nature Thy Natural Being is a putting forth a manifestation of Christ. Wait alwaies in Hope for his highest and divinest manifestations which come after this Thine eyes shall see them if thou let not go thy Hope but wait conâ—idently to the end 2. God is Infinite He is All All that thou canst think or wish For thou couldst not think or wish any thing if it were not first in him He is beyond thy Distresses or Desires Hope then ever in this God who is already in thee who is Infinite whose Power is above all thy Pressures whose Love is above his own Wrath. Christ is called our Hope Christ in you the Hope of Glory to signifie that Hope is the Son of God and his Image growing in us that Hope should have no Ground but Christ and then be as its Ground Immortal Inâ—inite Thus much for the Second Part in this Point of Conversion The Circumstances There is yet remaining the Third Part the Causes of this Change 3. Part. The Cause of our Change or Conversion This is manifold Some Causes are essential some only Occasional Some remote some near Yet all are as Links in a Chain one depending on another St. Paul scatters all these Causes within the compass of a few verses 1 Tim. 2. 1. I will therefore that prayers be made for all men 3. For God will have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth 4. For there is one God and one Mediator the man Christ Iesus 5. Who hath given himself a ransom for all to be revealed in due time All the Causes of our Conversion are in these words comprehended under Five Heads 1. Cause The Relation of God to Man 2. Cause The Mediation of Iesus Christ. 3. Cause The Manifestation of the Truth 4. Cause The Ministry of Man
that which is Natural then that which is Spiritual so it is true in this First is the Servile State in Religion then the Son-like So we read Gal. 4. 7. Now are ye no more Servants but Sons Thus the Son-like State is the second step or Remove in Religion But it will be necessary for me to open the Servile State first that the Son-like may be the better understood 1. State Servile This State hath Four Signs 1. Sign Fear 2. Sign Dependencies 3. Sign Forms 4. Sign Solicitude 1. Sign Fear A Saint in a Servile State serves God chiefly from a Principle of Fear Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear St. Paul doth not speak here of a Sinful State in Nature but of a Servile State in Grace This will appear clearly if you compare this place with the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians You shall see in both Places the Twofold State of a Servant and a Son in Religion described alike almost in the same terms Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again Galat. 4. 1. The Heir while a Child differeth nothing from a Servant v. 3. Ye were in bondage to worldly Elements V. 7. Now are ye no longer Servants Rom. 8. 15 17. But the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father Now are ye Sons if Sons then Heirs Galat. 4. 6. He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts whereby we cry Abba Father 7. Sons and Heirs c. Thus the Spirit of Bondage is a Spirit sent forth from God in the ministry of the Law Therefore the Apostle saith Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage This Spirit begets men to God but it is in a Servile-State by and to Fear Fear is the Seed and Fruit of this Spirit So a man by it becomes a Son to God but by the Bond-woman So he is partly a Son partly a Servant or rather a Son in the State of a Servant But I must further explain this Fear by 1. The Distinction of Fear 2. The Object 1. The Distinction of Fear There is a Twofold Fear 1. Fear Slavish 2. Fear Filial 1. Fear Slavish This Fear comes before Love and is cast out when Love comes 1 John 4. 18. Perfect Love casteth out Fear But what Fear is this That which is Slavish So it is added Fear hath Torment A Slavish Fear is to the Heart as Fire is to Gold Gold is wrought by the Fire to a softness and fitness to receive the King's Image then it is taken out of the Fire So this Fear subdues the Heart to a yielding temper to receive the Impressions and Image of God in Love Then it is cast ouâ— 2. Fear Filial This follows after Love flows from it is as sweet and desirable as Love itself The Scripture saith in one Place Who would not fear thee This Fear is a Plyantness of the Soul to God yielding to him form a near sense of his Greatness and Goodness both in one It is like the Bowing of some Flowers towards the Sun being toucht with his Influences and Beams Revel 14. 6. An Angel in the midst of Heaven preacheth the Everlasting Gospel What is the Everlasting Gospel The glad Tidings of Eternal Love in God to the Creature This Angel at the seventh v. cries aloud Fear God This Fear answers Love and Ecchos to it in the Heart Love saith God is thine Fear saith I will no more be mine own Love saith God will come down into thee and fill thee Fear saith I will sink down out of my self and give way to God The Filial Fear is proper to the Son-like State It is the Slavish Fear which is the Sign of that Servile State of which we now speak A Son-like State hath Love for its Eldest Child Fear for its Youngest A Servile State hath Fear for its First-born Love here is a Younger Brother In the Son Fear is the Motion of Love In the Servant it is the Motive to Love The Servant is the Son of the Bond-woman The Son is born of the Free-woman The Soul in a Servile State of Religion ascends out of Flesh towards God So Fear is First and Love riseth out of Fear as Fire out of Smoak The Soul in a Son-like state descends comes down from God as a Bride ready trim'd So Lâ—ve is First and brings forth Fear as a pure Flame breaths from it a fine Air. This is the Distinction of Fear This the Sign of a Servile State a Slavish Fear 2. The Object of Fear This is exprest by the Holy Ghost Heb. 2. 15 Those that were held in bondage by the Fear of Death The Jews were under the Law in a Servile State under a Slavish Fear This Fear had Death in its Eye for its Object Death hath two things in it Loss and Pain Loss of Life with all the Sweets and Comforts of Life Pain in the Labours and Pangs at the parting of Soul and Body Thus a Slavish Fear hath a Twofold Object 1 Object Loss 2. Object Pain 1. Object Loss A Christian in a Servile State fears the Loss of God more than God The Fear of God makes a man sink out of himself into God Fear of Loss of him makes a man apt to sink into himself in Despair A Servile Christian fears the loss of Gods Favour more than the loss of God the loss of the Fruits of his Favour which are Peace within Prosperity without more than the loss of his Favour 2. Object Pain A Spiritual Son-like Saint fears the Departures of God the loss of Divine Enjoyments more then all Pains or Tortures But the Servant in Religion is not any thing so much sensible of the loss of all the joys in Heaven as he is struck with trembles at the pains of Hell Iohn the Baptist was a Figure of the Servile State He presseth his Exhortation with such Reasons as these The Axe is laid to the Root of the Tree Save your selves from that wrath which is to come Iesus Christ was the Head and Figure of the Son-like State He moveth by other Arguments The Kingdom of God is at hand Light is come into the World Come to me and have life in abundance I have done with the First and most apparent Sign of a Servile State Fear 2. Sign Dependencies A Servile Christian seeks God chiefly by outward Assistances Gal. 3. 24. The Law was a School-master to bring us to Christ. A School-master ties Children to their set Times Rules Exercises till they can speak a Language judge of Truth converse with wisdom naturally from inward and free Principles So the Law which is the Mistris under whom we are in bondage teacheth us to seek Communion with God at peculiar Times The Forming of our Spirits according to God by particular Rules The Deriving of Truths Strengths Comforts from God by several Performances This is our way of Life till the Seed of Life be come up
Dreams all peace from thy waking hours filling them wâ—th Tumult and Sorrow till Life become more hateful to thee than the most hateful Death I chose Strangling rather than Life saith Job Chap. 7. 15. What can help or comfort thee at such a time as this When an evil Spirit over-whelms all the Creatures to a man what can the Creatures do 5. Spirit of God I cannot express I tremble to think this God can make his own Spirit a stream of Fire and Brimstone in thy Spirit If. 30. 33. The breath the Spirit of the Lord a stream of Brimstone God can himself be an everlasting Burning upon thy Immortal part Who can lie down with everlasting Burnings Can all thy Tears or Pleasures quench these Burnings Well might Moses cry out Psal. 90. 11. Who knows the Power of his Wrath. According to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. You may read the latter Clause thus As is thy Wrath so should the Fear of thee be There is an unsearchableness an Incomprehensibleness in the Wrath of God No Creature can take it in but is swallowed up by it Let men fear God according to his Wrath. Let men fear to make him their Enemy or if they do let them meet so potent an Enemy betimes while he is yet on the way that they may cast themselves at his Feet with Submission Repentance Fears and Tears If you harden your Heart by Insensibleness or sensuality he can multiply the Stroak of Sorrow upon thy Heart seven times seven times more still seven times nay seventy times seven endlesly till thy Heart be ground to the smallest Dust and so lie under his Feet If thy Soul be as high rough untractable as a Whale or Sea He can tame and calm thee by Griefs If thy Soul were a Leviathan arm'd with impenetrable Scales over-looking every lofty thing God can make his Sword which is his Spirit to approach thee he can put hâ—s Hook into thy Nostrils draw thee forth out of thy swelling Seas of Lust and Pride lay thee Panting and Languishing upon the dry Shore before him Thus ends the Third Persuasive 4. Persuasive Fear what God will certainly do to punish and purge Sinners 1 Cor. 3. 13. The Fire shall try every man's work Mark 9. 49. Every one shalt be salted with Fire That which is the highest Principle the Supreamest Power in every kind will subdue all other Powers and Parts of things to itself So it is said of Christ Philip. 3. 21. According to thaâ— working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself If this Principle of power meet wâ—th any thing suitable to itself it cherisheth and hâ—ightens that till it be perfectly like perfectly one with itself Thus every Sacrifice is seasoned with the Salt of Divinity But where it meets with a Contrariety it conflicts and contests with it making the Conflict as fierce and lasting as the Contrariety till â—t have consumed it Thus every man shall be Salted with Fire Thus is Fire among the Elements Thus is God among the Creatures as a Fire Salting every man's Person trying every man's Work If he meet with any holy work he rests upon it in the Secret of his Glory as a Fountain of Beauty and Blessings If he meet with any pure and sweet Spirit like hâ—mself he closeth with it in all manner of gentleness and softnâ—sâ— as Two Flames embrace one another But where he meets with opposition he rageth He bâ—rns upon dark unclean untractable Hearts as Fire in the Iron-works till he hath poured them forth into the Temper and Mold of his Spirit and Image Take heed then of feeding upon fleshly Pleasures withâ—ut Fear as St. Jude speaks O men and women what do you while you live upon the World and in Sin As the Woman said of her self in the story of the Kings 1. King 17. 12. I am gathering sticks to bake a Cake for me and my Son that we may eat it and die This is your posture You are every where wandring and busied to gather the Greatnesses and Pleasures of this world that you may feed with these your Fleshly part fat and strong as a Sacrifice that the Fire of Divine wrath may come down upon you and devour you I shall conclude this whole use thus If there be a God which hath brought forth all the Sweet and good things which are before us here which now move Desire or Delight in us sure this God is Almighty and can yet heighten this Goodness this Sweetness to an Infinitâ—ness as well as an Endlesness Fear then for a Drop to lose the Sea for a Tast the Feast thy share in such Delights for the short temptation of a Darling-Sâ—n If there be a God which hath contrived and sent abroad all the Evils which now afflict affright amaze mortal men sure this God is this way too Almighty and can extend these Sufferings till there be no Bound to them in our sense no end of them in our Eye Fear then to dare this God by your Dalliances in Fleshly vanities If there be a God who is pure just true sweet meek sure he loves such things as these and hates the contrary sure he will set himself â—gainst all proud impure false fiery Ways and Spirits till he have conâ—â—unded them or consumed these things in them Fear then to be sound before the Eyes of this God without the Righteousness and Spirit of your Saviour as a Garment fast and close giâ—t to you Fear to be seen by him in your Nakedness For his Eyes are a bright and hot Flame which will dâ—scover thy Shame and burn thy Flesh as the Whore's in the Revâ—lation with Fire I have spoken of Two Signs of a Servile State in Religion Fear and Dependencies There Remain Two more Forms Solicitude 3. Sign Forms There are Two Sorts of Forms which the Holy Ghost mentions in the Scripture 1. Eternal Forms 2. Temporary Forms 1. Eternal Forms Philip. 2. 6. Jâ—sus Christ is said to be In the Form of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that Form He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God This Form is the Substance itself Spirit and Truth This is the Essential Form which is no Shadow but One with the Substance no Appearance Separable from Truth but that Appâ—arance which is Truth no Letter or Outside but One Spirit with the Spirit having Life in itself St. Paul speaks of this Fâ—â—m Rom. 12. 2. Re ye transformed in the Renâ—wing of your Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again Rom 8. 29. He hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is an Inward and Spiritual Fâ—rm It is the Evangelical Form which is seen by Evangel'cal Eyes which is fâ—lt as well as seen being â—ower as well as Form 1. John 1. 2. 2. Temporary Forms The Apostle speaks of these Fâ—rms 1 Cor. 7. 31. The Fashion of this World passeth away St. Paul useth the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Woman to the Man This is plain by comparing those Two Places Psal. 8. 5. Thou hast made him that is man a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2. 5. Unto Angels he hath not put in subjection the World which is to come But unto Jesus Christ That is implyed in the Place The Law is the Law of the Husband Now the Law was administred by Angels the Ministring Spirits which are Principalities and Powers of this Creation as the Vice-Gerents of God Now St. Paul saith that by the Body of Christ that Husband died which held us in Subjection to the Law The whole Frame of Nature was shaken by the Death of Christ and must fall by the Power of it Then St. Paul adds that we were subject to the Law while we were in the Flesh. All these things make it plain that by the Flesh he understands the State of Nature in its highest Principles and utmost Extent Thus much for the First Term Flesh. 2. Letter This is the Image of God in Flesh. Letter and Spirit are opposed by St. Paul as Old and New Rom. 7. 4. And he teacheth us that by the Death of the Flesh in the Body of Christ we are freed from our Service to God in the Oldness of the Letter St. Paul opposeth Spirit and Letter as Inward and Outward He calleth that the Letter which is Outward in the Flesh Rom. 2. 28 29. The Spirit is Jesus Christ as He is the Heavenly Image of God within in the Heart of God 2. Cor. 3. 15. This is that which is Inward under the Vail of Flesh. The Letter is the Image of God in the outward Man as it is drawn forth from and discovered in the Principles of the first Creation which is the Vail 3. The Law This is the State of the Soul while she lives in the Letter and hath Communion with God only by the Letter St. Paul thus describes a Legal State Gal. 4. 3. When we were Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World While we are under the Law we are Infants we have neither the Ear nor the Heart nor the Mouth of the Spirit and the Spiritual man in our Souls We are Uncapable of Taking in or making out God in his own Divine Image according to Spiritual Principles or the Elements of the New Creation Therefore we are in Bondage to Natural Principles and Reasonings We are bound up within the Compass of this Creation as in a Prison We are unskill'd in unacquainted with any Principles or Appearances of things besides those of this Creation We compare Spiritual Things by these Things of Nature We hear God with the Ear we speak of him with the Tongue of this Creation We receive and cherish such Notions of God as are agreeable with this Frame The Manifestations of God which spring from Spiritual Principles from the Face of God himself are Barbarians to us while we are under the Law To the Law of Nature to the Testimony of Reason to the Elements of this World whatsoever speaketh not according to these whatsoever casteth off or doth not cloth its Speakings with these Forms though it be the Spirit Himself hath no Light in it to our Understandings while we are under the Law These Elements or Forms in which we are tied up while we are under the Law are 1. Weak 2. Dark 3. Beggarly 4. Old 1. Forms are weak Things They have only the Shadows of Good Things to come They have not the Substance They cannot give us the Good Things Themselves Forms set the Picture of our Beloved before our Eyes but they cannot lay the Person Himself in our Arms. They are but a Letter from our Husband They have not the Spirit of our Husband in them 2. Forms in the knowledge of God are Dark Things They can give us no clear or certain Discoveries The greatest Light of Communion or Comfort that can come while we are shut up in Forms is but like a Spark from a Flint at Midnight It hath much Doubt Diffidence and Fear mingled with it 3. Forms are Beggerly Things They cannot lay open before us the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Jesus Christ is Rich in Glory He can fill all Appearances He can bring forth Innumerable Appearances He hath Glory above all appearances which the Creature is capable of He can bring forth more Glory into thy Heart than can be made out in thy Heart itself by any Appearance The Power of Glory which thy Spirit feels shall be above the Appearance which it sees 1 Corin. 14. 14. Ephes. 3. 19. How poor then and Beggarly must that Spirit be in the knowledge of the Glory of God which is shut up in any one Form in any one Sort or Degree of Manifestations While thou canst not part with any Particular Form of Appearance while thy Spirit is not indifferent and universal extending itself to all Forms in the Manifestation of God while thou art not above the Forms of this World Thou wilt be but a Beggar in thy Divine Discoveries or Enjoyments He must be above the Letter in the Spirit above and out of all Created Images in the Light of Life itself that will attain to those Riches of assurance of a full understanding in the Mystery of God and Christ which St. Paul speaks of Coloss. 2. 2. 4. Forms are Old God hath blasted all Forms and Ways of his Appearing by the Principles and Elements of the Creature If they have had any Beauty yet now they are Blear-eyed If they have been Fruitful yet now they are become a Barren Womb which is as the Grave The Cross of Christ and the Glory of his Appearance in the Spirit have taken away the Life and Glory of all Manifestations or Administrations in the Flesh. They are Old Withered Decayed and Dying The more our Saviour shines out in the Glory of his Father the more will they Droop till they drop quite into the Dust 4. Sign Solicitude Rest and want of Rest are the distinguishing Notes of a Legal or Evangelical State His Rest shall be Glorious saith the Prophet of the Lord Jesus in the Times of the Gospel Esa. 11. 10. Come to me saith our Saviour to those under the Law You that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest Mat. 11. 28. A Legal Spirit hath a Four-fold Solicitude 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person 2. Solicitude for Assiance in Perplexities 3. Solicitude for Light in the way 4. Solicitude for Life in the work of Grace 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person While the Soul is under the Law the Seed of God Jesus Christ is not yet come up nor revealed within her She sits therefore trembling in the Dark sometimes Confident that it is a Seed of Love sometimes as Peremptory that it is a Seed of Wrath which lies hid in her So she is perplexed and anxious in herself St. Paul teacheth us Coloss. 2. 2. that
Assurance ariseth from the Acknowledgment of God in the Mystery even of the Father and of Christ. The Mystery of the Gospel lies hid under the Law the Heavenly Image is covered and kept out of Sight by the Earthly All this while a Saint is apt to be looking down into himself and to judge of Love or Hatred by those Appearances which he finds of either in himself But still he finds those Appearances Mixt Unconstant Doubtful So he is ever tost from one thing to another with much Unstableness and Unquietness If he look up to God he sees Him in a Cloud thorow the Principles of the Creature in which he judgeth of God after the manner of Man and so one while he believes him to be a Sweet Friend another while an Irreconcileable Enemy But he that is truly Evangelical looks upward still like Stephen He sees with the Eye of his Spirit Heaven that Divine Image and State of things opened to him He seeth the Father and Jesus Christ standing at the Right Hand of the Father and himself in the Arms of Jesus Christ as Lazarus was seen lying in Abraham's Bosom This Discovery of the Mystery of God above gives him a full Assurance concerning the Acceptance of his Person in the Beloved One. 2. Solicitude for Affiance in Perplexities The Temper of a Legal Spirit in this Point is fitly express'd Psal. 116. 10. 11. I was greatly afflicted I said in my hast All men are Lyars While our Comforts depend upon the Forms of our Saviour's Appearing to us either Inwardly or Outwardly we are as cast off and at a Loss upon every Change When a Temptation or unexpected Trouble ariseth we are like a Ship in a Storm that hath lost its Anchor We are carried away with the violence of the Tempest Then wâ— cry All our Signs for Good have deceived us All the Marks of Divine Love which men have given us all the Encouragements and Comforts with which they have carried us on All the Manifestations and Workings which we discovered as Grounds of Assurance in our own Hearts All these have deceived us Good God whom or what shall we trust What shall we do that we may have rest in the Time of Trouble This is the uncertainty of his Comforts who is under the Law who hath not all his Comforts and Confidence wrapt up in One Spirit with Jesus Christ who is the Same without Change in the midst of all Changes Yesterday and to Day It is this alone which can make us sweetly to Rejoyce in our Infirmities and Tribulations 3. Solicitude for Light in the way While the Law is our School-master the Letter is our Way and Guide The Letter hath a Twofold Inconvenience in it First the Way of the Letter is cut out into great Diversity of Paths It is full of Windings and Turnings It hath manifold Rites and Observations in it Secondly the Letter itself is Old and Dim So the Directions which it gives us are very Dark and uncertain to us These Two Inconveniences make us perpetually full of Disputes and Doubts in our selves every step that we take whether we be in a right way or no. We never can be delivered from this Solicitude till we be brought into the High and Plain way of the Spirit in which the wayfaring Man though a Fool cannot erre 4. Solicitude For Life in the Work of Grace Rom. 8. 3. The Law being weak thorow the Flesh Heb. 7. 16. Iesus Christ is made a Priest not after the Law of a Carnal Command but after the Power of an Endless Life The Life of Grace under the Law is very Weak For the way of its Working is by Fleshly Principles It is so conveyed thorow them as if it were wrought out of them altogether In this State the Soul eats the Bread of Life with the Sweat of her Brows She is fain to till an Earth full of Bryars and Thorns She carries on the Working of Grace with much Difficulty for the present and Anxiety for the Future For the Life of Grace is weak and it puts forth itself after the Way of the Life of Reason by Parts Affections Passions Resolution Industry This way of Working by these Powers naturally carrieth along with it much Care and Vexation Whereas under the Gospel the New Earth bringeth forth the Fruit of the Spirit of its own accord according to the several Seasons and Growths of it And this is done while the Husbandman sleepeth while the Spirit lies sweetly at Rest in the Bosom of her Saviour without any Care or Toil. The Life of Grace in the Law is as Water drawn up out of a Deep Well by Buckets-full at a time But in the Gospel it is a Living Fountain springing up Freely Plentifully Uncessantly So much for the Signs of a Servile or Legal State in Religion I will conclude this Head with one Use of Consolation Application Use. Consolation You who feel not your selves carried up into the Glory of God by the Spirit as upon the Wing of an Eagle but are creeping towards Heaven like Worms upon the Ground you have great Priviledges belonging to you and a great Portion of Comfort Your Priviledges in which you that are under the Law may Glory and take Comfort are these You have an Adoption or Son-ship a Protection a Presence of Glory a Peculiar Worship a Pledge and Type you may have a Precious Seed in you 1. Priviledge Adoption or Son-ship Rom. 9. 4. You are the Israelites in the Letter or Flesh to whom pertaineth the Adoption God is your Father in a more especial way than to the Rest of Men in a nearer Relation than that of Creation You are Sons though by the Bond-woman You are begotten again of God into a New Image of Himself though this Image be in the Flesh and of the Flesh as the Mother 2. Priviledge Protection God was with all his Thousands of Angels on Mount Sinai in the midst of the Fire and Thick Darkness This was an Allegory and signified thy Heart with its Fears and Agonies under the Law in the midst of which God and His Angels dwell as a Defence over thee The Law was added because of Transgressions to Protect thee from the Power of the Devil in thy Lusts and Corruptions 3. Priviledge the Presence of Glory This is reckoned up Rom. 9. 4. The Glory The Glory is some Manifestation above the Work of Nature sent forth from God and having God present in it conversing with us by it Such was the Pillar in the Wilderness such the Smoak in the Temple the Appeapearance at the Oracle Thou also who fearest God and workest Righteousness though under the Law yet hast a Glorious Work of God upon thy Heart a Divine Appearance of God in thy Spirit a near Presence of God with it by which thou hast Access to Him and Communion with him We read of those that are near and those that are far off Thou in the State of Nature wast far oâ—f
from God Now being brought under the Law thou art near to Him When thou shalt be brought up into the Light of the Gospel thou wilt see thy self in Him 4. Priviledge Peculiar Worship The Covenants the giving of the Law The Service of God pertained to the Israelites Rom. 9. 3. Thou art an Israelite a Kinsman of Christ and all the Saints nay a Brother according to the Flesh if thou hast the Work of the Law upon thy Heart The Covenant nay both Covenants in the Letter in the Outward Dispensation and Administration belong to thee Thou hast a Right to all the Ordinances and to every Instituted Service of God The Promises in the Proposal of them concern thee in the First Place Go then to the Sacraments Pray Read the Word Hearken to the Promises whatever thy Troubles or Terrours be These are appointed for thee to keep to Comfort to carry thee on till Christ be revealed in thee 5. Priviledge The Pledge and Type of Spiritual and Eternal things Rom. 9. 4. The Promises The Fathers Christ according to the Flesh. When thou feelest the Bondage of the Law to lie heaviest upon thee thou hast this to comfort thy self with All the Saints of old in whose Loyns the Life and Heirs of all Grace and Glory lay lived in this State and were subject to the Law even until death Jesus Christ Himself was born of Legal Parents and made under the Law Besides The Law is a Fleshly Image of all the Joys of the Gospel and the Spirit and Heaven The Law holds them forth all not in the Type or Image only but in the Prophecy of them as being certainly to come Moses and the Prophets go together and Moses himself is One of the Chief of the Prophets As Christ according to the Flesh was an Israelite so the Law is the Beauty and Glory of Christ in the Flesh testifying of itself and its own coming in the Spirit Sit down then under thy Fig-tree under the Shadow of the Law with good Nathaniel till thy Vine be grown up There look on Him who seeth thee Behold that Glory which looks forth in the Law as in a Fleshly Image of itself Feed thy self with the Expectations of his Shining out whom this Image prophesies of to thee When he discovers himself thou shalt know that He was in Covenant and Communion with thee even when thou wert under the Fig-tree 6. Priviledge You may have a Precious Seed in you While you are Legal you are in Bondage to many Fears and Terrours You weep for you say you can discover nothing of Christ in you It is true the Seed is not come up yet but it may be Sown You come not Rejoycing and bearing your Sheafs with you yet you may be those who go forth weeping and carrying your Precious Seed with you When Darkness would drive you to Despair then take to your selves the words of St. Paul Gal. 3. 23. Before Faith that is the Revelation of Christ in my Flesh I am kept under the Law under Terrours and Rigours Shut up in Darkness and Fear from all Comforts or Confidence unto the Faith that Appearance of Christ which shall be revealed but now is hid as a Seed only in me Though thou canst not yet with good old Simeon sing over Jesus Christ in thine Arms a Song of Peace and Rest to thy Soul yet thou mayst with Mary have him in thy Womb. This Burthen which thou bearest and goest with so heavily may be the Burthen of the Lord the Immortal Word in thee These Pangs which thou feelest may be not to the Death of thy Soul but the Birth of a Son a Saviour whose coming forth shall make thee to forget all thy Sorrows and Rejoyce because a Son is born unto thee by which Birth thou art no more a Servant but a Son I have now done speaking of the Servile and come to the Son-like State in Religion 2. The Son-like State This is known by a Four-fold Property 1. Love 2. Life 3. Spirituality 4. Resignation 1. Property Love I shall shew this in two places of Scripture 1. Scripture Galat. 4. 6. Because ye are Sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father St. Paul in these words toucheth four Things which will much open this Point and this Particular 1. The Sonship of a Saint 2. The Concealment of this Sonship 3. The Discovery of it 4. The Effect of this Discovery 1. The Sonship of a Saint This is the Union of a Saint in one Spirit with him who is the only begotten Son of the Father Jesus Christ. It is the Fellowship of the Person of a Saint in one Life one Image with the Person of his blessed Saviour The Apostle unites these two our being Sons and our having the Spirit of his Son And that which St. Paul in this place calls The Spirit of His Son he calls the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8. 15. That Spirit which is the Spirit of all the Sons of God 2. The Concealment of this Sonship The coming of the Spirit into our Souls doth not make us Sons but manifests us to be such We are First Sons and then the Spirit of his Son is sent forth into our Spirits So we read plainly Because ye are Sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts While we live in sin and slavery we are in truth Sons though we be as Princes in disguise Yet ever God retains in himself the Root and Image of our Persons as of Sons So our State of Sonship is twice hid once in the Secret of divine Glory again under the Shadow of our Flesh. 3. The Discovery of this Sonship This is by the sending of the Spirit into our Hearts This Spirit is manifold Ephes. 4. 3. Keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Where the Unity is kept by a Bond there a Multiplicity is clearly signified 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one Body Christ and his Saints are there spoken of All these together are one Body of Divinity and Glory Each particular Saint is a Member of this Glory a Son or Child of this Divinity Each one hath the same Spirit which comprehends all the Persons of our Saviour and his Brethren God in his own time sends down this Spirit upon every one of his Sons When it comes it discovereth in itself thy Saviours Person and thine in one Light Life and Form in one Relation to God as being both Sons The Spirit shining forth in thy Spirit shews itself at once One with God and One with Thee So it becomes both the Witness and the Evidence of thy Relation to God as of a Son to a Father Therefore St. Paul teacheth us Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God The Spirit is the Brightness of the Godhead which as it descends into our bosoms opens the Godhead to
us there discovers us to our selves as we were Eternally comprehended in that Root as we grow up out of it as we abide and flourish in it This Spirit being immediately united to God immediately united to our Spirits is an immediate Testimony of our Sonship 4 The Effect of this Discovery He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts crying Abba Father The natural Effect of our Sonship made manifest in us is a natural Affection to our Father While we are in the State of Nature we know not whence we come nor whither we go when once we have received the Spirit of Sons we then see God to be the Father who did bear us in his Loyns from Eternity who brought us forth into this World who can never forget us though a Woman should forget her only Child who hath ever Bowels of a Father care tenderness sweetness towards us who cannot always hold but He must discover himself to us When a Saint feels these Workings of the Spirit of God in his own Spirit then his Bowels turn within him then he melts then he casts himself into the Embraces of his God and cries My Father Abba Father Thus God gives a Check to our Lusts changing them into a divine Love by Discovery This is the First place of Scripture 2. Scripture 1 Joh. 4. 16. 17. He that dwells in Love dwells in God and God dwells in him For God is Love In this is Love made perfect that we may have Boldness before him in the day of Iudgment Because as He is so are we in this World Two things are taught us in these words 1. The Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State 2. The Affection of such a Saint towards God 1. The Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State The Relation between a Father and a Son in Nature hath three Parts 1. Part. The Nature of the Father is in the Person of the Son It is one in both as the Sap and Seminal Power is the same thorow the whole Tree 2. Part. The Person of the Son subsists in the Nature of the Father as the Body of the Tree in the Root 3. Part. The Person of the Father propagates and multiplies itself in the Person of the Son as the Body of a Tree runs out into Branches Such a Relation with so many Parts is there between God and a Saint as between Father and Son 1. Part. The Divine nature is in the Person of a Saint as the Fountain of his Being the Fulness of his Person Thus St. John saith We dwell in God not in the Fleshly Image of God as a Servile Christian but in the Spiritual Image the naked Bosom of the Godhead 2. Part. The Person of a Saint is in the Divine Nature as in his Root in his Element in his proper Principle as that which comprehends him communicates itself to him sustains him flows in upon him shows itself in all things possesseth acts him entirely Thus saith St. John We dwell in God that is as a Worldly Spirit dwells in the Spirit of this World 3. Part. God propagates himself in a Saint Both are one Life one Spirit multiplying itself into various Forms Both unitedly and in One pass thorow all Forms So St. John again teacheth As He is so are we in this World This is the Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State as that between a Father and a Son 2. The Affection of a Son-like Saint towards God To dwell in God and dwell in Love to have God and to have Love dwelling in us are both One thing For God is Love God is an Infinite Sweetness which is both Fountain and Sea in one a Fountain sending forth many Streams many Sons a Sea drawing all into its own Bosom again by a Natural course He then that is a Son of God is a Son of Love Love of that first Love coming forth from it and returning thither whence it first came This Son-like or Filial Love hath Two Characters 1. Character The Degree 2. Character The Extent 1. Character The Degree of Love Love in a Son-like Saint riseth to a Confidence a Boldness in the presence of God even then when he puts on the most terrible Appearance in the day of Judgment The Ground of this Boldness in a Filial love is Three-fold 1. Reason A Saint that is a Son knows and feels God to be Love 2. Reason He knows himself to be in this Love to be One with God in his Heavenly Glory 3. Reason He knows this Love to be in him God to be one with him in his worldly Disguise We have boldness because as he is so are we in this World All these Three Reasons are wrapt up in this One Clause As he is in the World Love itself so are we with Him sensible of Him As He is in the World and at once above the World in Glory so are we in Him As he is in the World clothing his Divine Substance with Fleshly Appearances so are we because he is in us This is the first Character of a Filial Love 2. Character Extent of Love A Saint that is a Son hath not a particular Love to God or any Object He is as his Father is Love in its full Latitude He dwells in Love Love is the Air in which he breaths in which he receives all Shapes of things in which he communicates himself to them A Son of God is like his Father in Two Things 1. He is a beautiful Light shining upon all things equally stamping its own bright Form upon them so beholding them 2. He is a Cloud of Sweetness like gentle and soft Rain falling upon every thing till it have sweetned it by degrees to the same height and enjoying it in that Sweetness Exhortation Make God your only Mark and Aim What is it which you seek for Love God is Love What is it which makes every Action or suffering sweet This if Love be the beginning What gives you Rest in every End of things Love Then seek God above all things Make him the Beginning and the End of your way So you shall have a sweet Rest in all For He is Love How strange is that perverseness which is in the Nature of man When man was first made he was placed in a Garden where he had liberty to eat of all the Trees excepting one Tree only which bare all manner of Curses for Fruit the Forbidden Tree Yet then man eats of this one Tree and lets the rest alone Now all the Trees in the same Garden which are all Creatures in the World have wo and death growing upon them There is one Tree only in the m'dst of the Garden bringing forth Glory and Immortality This Tree is God Now man will feed plentifully on all the other Trees but will not touch this Tree of Life We all have Notions in our heads and Expressions upon our Tongues concerning God
that if we speak of Wisdom He is Wise if we speak of Strength He hath power if we speak of Glory He is beautiful if we speak of Joy and Delights He is sweet But oh that there were such Hearts in us to set up this God in our Spirits for the supream Wisdom Power Beauty Sweetness I will divide this Exhortation into Three 1. Exhortation Seek the Knowledge of God As our Saviour once spake passionately over the Jews O Hierusalem Hierusalem if thou hadst known the things of thy peace In like passion doth my Spirit breath forth this over you that now read it O Man O Woman If thou knewest the One thing of thy Peace the Knowledge of thy God This is the Chief the only thing the Allthings of thy Peace For when thou knowest him thou knowest Love in truth the Life of Love and this is Eternal Life John 17. 4. This is Eternal Life to know thee Press the knowledge of God upon thy Spirit by these Three Motives 1. Motive The Knowledge of God is the Inlet of all Grace and Comfort Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard If Faith be the mother and nurse of a Spiritual Life the knowledge of God is the Father and the Food of Faith and of that If Faith be the Fountain that sends forth the Streams of Divine Strengths and Consolations the Knowledge of God is the Sea that supplies this Spring Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God The Word of God is the Image of God which is Jesus Christ. This Word represents itself Three ways Eternally Internally Externally 1. Eternally the Word of God represents itself to Glorified Spirits That Knowledge of God which is begotten upon the Spirit by this Representation is call'd Seeing For it is a Representation in a clear Light as before a man as face to face 1 Tim. 3. last Seen of Angels 2. Internally to men on Earth by the Principles of Natural Reason or by Supernatural Principles from the Spirit or from the Written Word 3. Externally by the outward Creatures by the Senses and Objects of Sense These two last ways of Representation are call'd Hearing or Report For they are Representations of God conveyed thorow the darkness of our Natures as a Voice speaking from behind us from behind the wall of our Flesh. When God is pleased thus to give his Word to put forth a Discovery of himself thorow our dark Principles as by the Hearing of the Ear in our Souls then God in all that he appears to be appears to be Love This Sense of God thus imprest upon the Heart unites it to God makes it to believe him trust itself to him repose itself on him rest in him leave its desires and hopes with him that as He lives so this Heart may live as he works and carries on his own Desire so he may work on this Heart and advance the Happiness of it Thâ—s Faith cometh by Hearing Hear then what Nature without you speaks aloud of God that He is good true just full and free Listen to that report which is made of God by all your Senses by all the things of Sense in the several Languages of their Beauty Power Plenty Pleasure Variety Listen to the inbred voice of your own Reason Hear the clear report which that makes of God that there must be One the First and so the Best of all above All in All gathering up all into himself the Beginning and the End of All. Listen to Supernatural Principles If you cannot hear or understand the language of the Spirit yet hearken to the sound of the Written Word which cries in your Ears God gave his Love and Glory to man before he gave a Being to the World When man had made himself Miserable God gave Himself to misery and death for man God all along quite thorow Time to Eternity carries on this work of making himself wonderful in man and Man a wonder of Blessedness in Him He that stops not his Ears against these sweet Reports of such a God a God of Love cannot but be charmed by them A man that hears this will beleive he will at least cast himself on God and say Whither-ever thou goest carry me with thee Where ever thou stayest be thou my Rest. To thee only O my God to thee entirely O my Love do I trust my self This is the first Motive to the knowledge of God 2. Motive The Knowledge of God emproves and exalts the Soul Psal. 90. 14. I saith God will set him up on high because he hath known my name None can tell but they who have tasted what a Divine Height what a Height of Divine Strength and sweetness there is in the Knowledge of God I will set him on high the word in Hebrew signifies I will seat him in a strong Castle situate on a high Rock Such a Castle is the Knowledge of God for Air Prospect and Strength As a man grows in the Knowledge of God he feels himself lifted up into a Divine air in which purity peace pleasure Angels breath he perceives himself walled in with an assured safety and rest which nothing can reach nothing can shake The Knowledge of God opens a man's Eyes to see Fields of Glory and Rivers of pleasure in the midst of which he is every where together with Horses of Fire and Chariots of Fire which continually plant themselves between him and every Enemy 3. Motive The Knowledge of God preserves a man from Evil. Gal. 4. 9. After that ye have Known God or rather are known of him how come ye to turn back to those weak and beggarly Principles to which ye desire to be in bondage These Beggarly Principles are the Principles of this world in which we lye by nature as in a Prison â—n a House of Bondage where Sin binds us Shame covers us Death feeds upon us What shall deliver us from this Prison this Slavery The Knowledge of God will do it and that alone can do it When God puts forth his own Image in us he then owns us and makes us to know and own him Thus we know and are known by this Image of God living in our Spirits As the Serpent of Moses devoured the Serpents of the Magicians So this Image of God in our Spirits swallows up all the Images and Shapes of this inchanting World which are as Serpents tempting and stinging us casting forth the Poyson of Sin and death upon us This Image presents us with Heavenly Forms plants us in itself cloths us with itself so furnisheth us with Treasure and Armour Now having thus known God and the sweet Freedom of his Love how can we desire or bear to be again in bondage to our former Vanities 4. Motive the Discovery of God shews us all that our hearts cau wish to see Psal. 37. 4. You have this Counsel given you Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee
not that God to be their Father It is my Fathers Pleasure to take care of me It shall be my only care to please him If I be careful for any outward thing my care shall be not a Solicitude for my self but Obedience to Him Yet the care of this also shall be upon him For if my Father cloath the Flowers and my Flesh will he not much more cloath my Soul if He feed the Birds and my Body will He not much more feed my immortal Part with food convenient for it 2. Resignation in Woes When our dear Lord saw a black Sea of Horrours ready to break upon him when he heard the Tempest of Divine wrath now roar about him in the midst of all this he maintains a Calm upon his Spirit by a Resignation of himself and all things to his Father Father not my Will but Thine be done There is nothing so natural as for a Child to run to the lap of its Parents in extremities and to have a Confidence in them It is as natural for a Child of God in pains or griefs to cast itself into the arms of God and there to breath forth its sorrows after such a manner as this My God thou art my Father thou hast a greater share in me than I have in my self I was thine before I was mine own Thou gavest my Being to me and me to my self O how great is thy Dearness towards me thine own How great is thy Delight in me Thou art far nearer to me than my Self to my Self I have my Being not in my Self but in Thee I am the Branch thou art the Sap the Spirit that runs thorow this Branch and quickens it How much more quick more deep more full a Sense hast thou my God of all my Sufferings than I can have Thou canst do all things Thou hast Strength I have none Thou knowest all things Thou hast Wisdom I have none I then give over my whole Being unto thee Bear me as thou dost always in thine Arms and carry me whither thou wilt Comprehend me as One with Thee Let me be Thine be Thou mine and do what thou wilt with me I can fall no lower than thou fallest with me When I am at lowest I shall have thy Power and Wisdom beneath me As thou risest thou shalt raise me together with thy self by These Application Use. 1. A Conviction of the Evil in Sin Can I think and not think that I have a Being Can I think that I have a Being and not think that I have it from God the Fountain of Being Can I think that I have my Being from Him and not think of Him as my Father Can I think of Him as of a Father and oppose my Will to His Will and cherish in my Breast an Enmity against him This I do as often as I Sin Is there any thing so Unnatural as Sin I will press this Dissuasion from Sin by a Two-fold Aggravation of the Evil in it 1. Aggravation There is no Obligatiâ—n like to that of a Child to its Father A Mans Wife is his Glory 1 Corin. 11. 8. But it is the Glory of an Image For the Man is the Head of the Woman who is of the Man But the Father is the First the Fountain Glory of the Child its Head For the Child is of the Father God is the Father of us all our Head our Glory Do we then refuse to be guided by him Do we chuse our Shame instead of him Can we cut our selves off from him to unite our selves to vanity and make our Lusts our Head A Man should love his Wife as his own Body saith St. Paul Ephes. 5. 28. A Man's Wife is as Himself But a Father is more The Lord Jesus said It is more Blessed to give than to receive The Child is to honour to love its Father above itself as a greater a more Blessed Thing as that which gives itself to itself Our God is our Father How unnatural then is it to prefer our Self nay the Brutish the sensual part of our selves nay the Disorders of that part before Him The Apostle fitly joyned these Two Lovers of Pleasure more than Lovers of God without natural Affection 2. Aggravation There is no such Father as God is God is twice our Father once by Nature another time by Grace When we Sin against him we are his Enemies four times over 1. We deface his Image in our Natural man 2. We obscure and oppose his Heavenly Image 3. We grieve the Spirit of His Grace 4. We crucifie his Son Shall we be less than Men to him because he is more than a Friend to us Shall we be worse than Single Enemies to him because he is better than a Single Father to us O Let us take heed how we refuse the Commands of our God as a Father lest we receive not from him the Comforts of a Father in our Confusions and Desolations when we shall most need them lest we be not received by Him into the Bosom of a Father when Death shall take away all other Refuges Use. 2. Exhortation Consolation to the Children of God Maintain the Affections and Obedience of Children towards God Have the Confidence and Comfort of Children in God Remember this always that God is your Father It was this that carryed on Jesus Christ with so much Integrity and Industry thorow Life thorow Death Jobn 17 4. Father I have finished the Work which thou gavest me to do It was this comforted Jesus Christ in the Darkest Night of Affliction when he was forsaken by all his followers and Friends John 16. 24. Yet I am not alone for my Father is with me Would you have Oyl for the Wheels of your Spirit to make it run swiftly smoothly and sweetly thorow the hardest and roughest Employments Say this over often to your Spirits This is the Work of my Father Would you have Oyl for the Lamp of your Hearts to make it burn with a bright and chearful Fâ—ame in the greatest Trouble Say this over often to your Hearts This is the Will of my Father Enforce this double Uâ—e upon thy self by Three Considerations 1. Consider God is by Nature more than a Natural Father to thee Thou hast thy Being not only of but in Him In Him we live and move and have our Being Acts 17. 28. Can then thy God forget thee or thou neglect Him while thou art in his Power his Presence his Arms his Bosom There thou art ever Canst thou lie in his Embraces grow up out of his Heart and see him frown at Sin and yet Sin and yet not melt under his Frown Can he hold thee in his Spirit as one Spirit with him and hear thee groan and feel thy heart beat and yet not melt over thee 2. Consider God is by nature many Fathers to thee The Continuation of thy Being is a continued Creation For it flows forth from God fresh every moment So many moments as there are in
with so sweet a Majesty that he pierc'd the Hearts of His Enemies with Arrows of Love Such a King is every Spirit which is Brother to this Jesus Righteousness sits upon him and shines from him as a Garment of Light Truth and Wisdom it shews as wrought into a Harmony of Courage Justice Temperance it sparkles with Tempers of Goodness Gentleness Meekness Humility These things like Arrows wound the stubbornest Hearts with a Liking and a Love that a man's bitterest Enemies bow to him 3. The Scepter Psal. 45. 6. It is said to our Saviour The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Righteous Scepter Righteousness is the Scepter of Strength in the Kingdom of Christ by which all things are swayed and governed Psal. 16. 7. If a mans ways please the Lord his Enemies shall be at peace with him Holiness or Righteousness is such a Harmony such a Musick between God and Man as all things hear and obey They that make use of hellish Charms make the Picture of a Person in Wax and as they work the Wax by the Fire so they work upon the Person Goodness hath a Heavenly Charm in it For a Righteous man hath in himself the Heavenly Image of God which is the First and radical Image of all things By this Image he hath a power upon all things Thus Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter in the Kingdom of God 1. Use. Learn to hate Sin by the Rule of Contraries For if Righteousness cloath you with the highest Honour Worth Strength of Kings if it crown you with the Glory of God if it carry you up to the Life of God then what doth Sin Sin by the Rule of Contraries puts upon you the Baseness Badness Weakness of Slaves Sin wraps you up in the Shape sows in you the Seeds of Devils Let us then look on Sin in this Five-fold View As it puts on us 1. Weakness 2. Badness 3. Baseness of Slaves 4. Shapes of Devils 5. As it plants in us Seeds of Devils 1. Sin puts upon us the Weakness of Slaves Gen. 49. 3. 4. Reuben thou art my First born the Beginning of my Strength Excellency of power O Man O my Soul consider what thou wert in thy Beginning A Divine Flame shot forth from an Angels Bosom into this lump of Clay not to abide imprisoned in it but to feed upon it as fuel so to return and make its way upward making all things that resist its prey and nourishment What is it that hath thus enfeebled and cool'd thee and chang'd thee from Fire into Water Sin hath done this Now thou lyest spread upon the Earth swayed by every weak Breath or Spirit that blows upon thee unable to contain thy self casting thy self into the Figure and Shape of every Object on which thou touchest Thy Swordâ— hath thus weakned thee Man was the Reuben of God the First-born in the first Creation the Excellency of Dignity and Power the Head of Strength He was the Chieâ— Image of the Divine Nature made to be the Spouse and Queen of the God-Head the Onely One of her Mother The Rest of the Creatures were to be as Concubines only particular inferiour Images of God The Soul foolishly forsakes the Bosom of her God to throw herself into the Embraces of these Concubines so she defileth herself and them so she dishonoureth her King and Husband in both so pours forth her self loosely upon the Ground as spilt Water 2. Sin puts a Badness into men It puts into us a Three-fold Badness of Folly Filth Fury 1. Sin fills us with folly Sin so far befools thee O vain Man as to despise deny Blessedness Beauty Eternity there where they are in God the First the Fountain the Substance of all Beings and to seek them there where they are not in Fleshly shadowy fleeting Trifles This is that Folly the Head-Spring of all Sin which St. Paul complains of Rom. 1. 21. They became vain in their Imaginations their foolish Heart being darkned This was the Folly The Eternal Substance and Fulness was darkned and disappeared in their Spirits which brought forth instead thereof empty Images So St. Paul explains it at the 23. v. Changing the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man and Birds c. What degree of Folly is this to refuse to acknowledge or own the true God who is Eternal Life and to make each painted perishing Vanity a God to us while we make it the Object and Spring of our Hopes and Happiness But thus it is most just that they to whom the true God is but as an Idol an empty name to them each Idol each empty Appearance should be their God This is the First Badness in Sin Folly 2. Sin fills a Man with Filth Carnality and Corruption signify both the same thing in Scripture To be Spiritual is to be Holy to be Fleshly Sinful To be Carnally minded that is to be Fleshly-minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. Is there any thing more foul than this for a Soul which was made as a Spirit for Spiritual Joys and Glories so to mingle itself with Flesh as to see receive rellish nothing but by Senses of Flesh so to drown itself in Flesh as to be uncapable of conversing with taking conteâ—t in any but Fleshly objects This is the State of a Sinful Soul Thus is she over-spread with Flesh as one great Spot The Interpreters of the Proverbs teach us that the Young Man there is the Soul which is naturally Immortal ever young ever flourishing the Matron the chast Spouse that woes this Young Man Divine Wisdom the Heavenly Image of the Divine Nature The Strumpet this Worldly Image of things O say now when thou Sinnest Alass How do I dishonour and defile my self I who should who might live chastly constantly sweetly with the Eternal Image of Glory my God my Spouse mine own I pour forth my self into the lap of Strangers of Unconstant Whorish Flattering Fading Beauties in Flesh. O Filth O Shame That Spirit that should tread upon the Stars ride upon the Angels rejoyce with God everlastingly that Soul labours and sweats in Dust and Death as a Slave rowls in the Mire of Flesh like a Beast rakes in the unsavory sinks of all various Lusts as an unclean Spirit 3. Sin fills a man with Fury Solomon in his Proverbs tells us of One that throws about Fire-brands and Swords and saith Am I not in jest Prov. 26. 18. 19. This is Solomon's Foâ—l which is a Sinner Can it be that any should make Ruines and Reproaches their Delight nay their Devotion too Jonah said once He did well to be angry even unto Death Can it be that any should cherish a Rage to the Death Destruction of Men Kingdoms and Souls and then think such a Rage Religion such a Fury Zeal and that these things they ought to do Can it be that any should draw Tears and blood from others from
Heart Commune with your Hearts What is the Heart The Heart is the Inward Principle the Life-Principle 1. The Heart is the Inward Principle So you read of the Heart of the Sea Exod. 15. 8. and the Heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. Mark 7. 18. Whatsoever thing cometh from without defileth not the Man v. 19. Because it entreth not into thy Heart but into thy Belly and passeth into the Draughts v. 21. From within from the Heart of men proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries c. The Meats which we take in from without reach the Body in all the parts of it and they reach the Soul as it lives in the Body working upon it and making changes in it Both these then are the Belly the Outward Man which is maintained from an Outward Principle and passeth away into the Dust and Darkness But the Heart is more Inward and Immutable It is that which abides in the Invisible part of things and is that Hidden Spring the Principle both of Soul and Body This Heart in the Natural Man is the Spirit of Man in the Spirit of the Devil or in the Spirit of Divine Wrath or rather in both So from the Heart come evil thoughts So St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 3. 20. If our Hearts condemâ— us God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all things But if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence before God Every man hath in him a Principle more Inward than the Spirit of the Devil which is the Spirit of God as it comes forth into his Spirit and gives his Spirit a Created Invisible Immortal Being in itself among Angels This is that Heart of man with which he is to commune this is the Seat of Justification Or Condemnation The Spirit of Man as it lives above in the Spirit of God according to his Wrath or his Love Or the Spirit of God as it becomes the Principle of Nature a Principle in the Spirit of Man If this Heart condemn us that is the Spirit of God as it is the Principle of our Spirits God is greater than our Hearts that is the Spirit of God as it is in itself above our Spirits hath a greater Fulness of Majesty and Light in itself where it is as the Light in the Sun when as in our Spirits it is but as the Light in the Star If therefore it testifie Wrath to us in this relation in which it is but as a Glance it shall more fully testify wrath against us in that State in which it is the Full Glory As it is a Principle in our Spirits it opens itself truly but imperfectly in a right Sense but in a part only of its own Sense But as it is in itself it knows all things it opens itself to the utmost of its own sense and eternal purpose A man should neither comfort nor condemn himself from the language of his own Spirit as it lives in the Outward Soul or Body and speaks of its own This Spirit should be silent and still But we are to commune with the Divine Principle in us with our Spirits as they dwell within in the Spirit of God For so the Spirit of God and our Spirits are twisted in One make One Heart testify One thing and that truly whether it be for Life or for Death from Wrath or from Love For the Spirit of God and of Man in this Principle are an Image of the Spirit of God as it is absolute and supream in the God-Head But there is a Heart within this Heart This Heart is a Principle of Life or Death Love or Wrath. There is within this a Heart which is the Life-Princiciple and the Love-Principle 2. The Heart is the Life-Principle Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life What is this Heart which we are to keep when we are to deny our selves We are to keep it not with Caution to preserve our selves from it but with Confidence to preserve our selves by it This place of Scripture is like that before it Prov. 4. 13. Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom or Instruction saith Keep her for she is thy Life Jesus Christ as he is in the Spirit is our Life-Principle Colos. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear He is the Treasure of our Hearts and our truest Heart For from Him as He is in the Spirituality of his own Person are the Issues the Out-goings of our Life Mat. 6. 21. Where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Our Treasure and our Hearts are both with Jesus Christ in Heaven Colos. 3. 1. The Heart is the Treasury of all good things A good man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. Jesus Christ is this Heart which hath the Treasure in it For in him are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge hid Colos. 2. 3. Jesus Christ is the Heart as he is the Head of Man 1 Corin. 11. 3. The Head of every Man is Christ The Head of Christ is God The Lord Jesus as he is the Heavenly Man is the most proper Head and Heart of man the First Principle before all others the most inward Principle lying within and beneath all other Principles the Life-Principle Thus we see what the Heart is 1. Jesus Christ as He puts forth Himself in the Natural Spirit of Man to be the Principle of Nature either in a Power of Wrath or Love 2. Jesus Christ as He is in his own Heavenly Spirit and Person comprehending the Life Perfection and Blessedness of Man in Himself as in a Divine Root or Treasury 2. The Bed This is the Second thing of which we are to seek the meaning We read of a Bed of Tribulation Revel 2. 22. This Bed is a Spirit of Darkness Weakness Woe and Torment We read of a Bed in Tribulation which God prepares for those whom he loves Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness or Thou wilt turn it the Inside of Peace Love and Glory for the Outside of Pain and Trouble or thou wilt change it from a Bed of Languishings into a Bed of Rest or a Bed of Love We read of Beds of Joy and Glory Psal. 149. 5. Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them Sing aloud on their Beds In the Canticles there is mention made of the Bed of Christ and His Spouse Can. 1. 16. Our bed is Green There is also Solomons Bed who was a Type of the Heavenly Bridegroom Cant. 3. 7. Behold his Bed which is Solomons threesâ—â—re valiant men are about it of the valiant men of Israel This Bed is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus which shines forth and buds with Sweetness and Beauty which goes forth in the midst of the Angels cloathing itself with those Mighty and Glorious Spirits This Spirit draws the Soul forth from the Tumults of the Flesh takes her off from her own Strength and casts
her upon itself as upon a Bed of Rest. By this time we see what the Holy Ghost means by the Heart and the Bed Let us now return to that place of that Psalmist for the opening of which we have brought in all these Scriptures Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own Heart upon your Bed and be still that is discourse not with your Spirit as it lives in this Body upon these Outward Appearances For so it is one with the Strange Woman it is a Strange Heart it is a Fountain that makes itself common and defiles itself it is not your own Fountain alone your own Heart but a wandring false lying Heart Retire your self into your Chamber in which the Candle of the Lord shines that is into your Spirit as it hath the Spirit of God for the Spring of Natural Light and Life in it Here wait quietly and silently for the openings of the Spirit of God in the secret Voice of Nature within you But stay not here Silence this Spirit too draw your self yet more inward into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus as He is the Inward Man within the more inward than the secretest Retirements of the Natural Spirit Here cast thy self upon thy Bed in thy Heart and commune with thy Heart upon thy Bed This is thy Bed and thy Heart both in one Here lay thy self at Rest upon this Spirit which is the Comforter advise with this Spirit which is the only Counsellor the Spirit of Truth So be thou still let thine own Spirit the Spirit of this World and Nature in thee be silent He that thus hearkens in Silence what the Lord will say shall certainly hear him speak Peace to his Saints The Spirit of God in thy Natural Man may speak of Wrath to thee and God will confirm that voice of Wrath in the Spirit of thy Natural Man And so here thou canst find no Bed to comfort thee But go a little beyond thy Natural Man and thou shalt meet with the Spirit of God as it is in its own Freedom and Fulness in the Lord Jesus Here is a Bed ready prepared for thee Now silence thine own Spirit for ever and hear no more what the Spirit in thine own Spirit speaks but what this Spirit speaks as it is here in Jesus Christ and this Spirit will certainly make thee to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness Thus the Lord giveth his Beloved Rest not in themselves but in Himself I have now finished the First Part of Spiritual Peace which is Silence the Silencing of a Three-fold Spirit the Spirit of Wrath from God the Spirit of the Devil the Spirit of Man 2. Part Satisfaction The Second Part of Spiritual Peace is Satisfaction This consists in Two Things 1. A Sweet League with all things 2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League 1. A Sweet League with all things There can be no Satisfaction where there is any thing wanting and not made up or any thing Crooked and not made straight as Solomon speaks Eccl. 1. 15. There is no Satisfaction where there is Division or Contention Jobs Friends promiseth this Satisfaction to Job Job 5. 23. Thou shalt be in League with the Stones of the Field and the Beasts of the Field shall be at Peace with thee v. 24. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace Behold a League wiâ—h all things below thee Beasts and Stones Principles and Appearances of Life descending are the Beasts The Stones are the Principles and Appearances of Darkness descended to the lowest the Dead Images of things Behold a League here with all things above thee thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace The Powers above thee are thy Tabernacle The Angels are thy Tabernacle God is thy Tabernacle Thou shalt dwell peaceably in these These shall be in Peace not in stormy or fiery Appearances upon thee Behold a League with all Times with Eternity Thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace Thou shalt not fear what is to come because all Times to come shall be in Covenant with thee Whatever Times come to others still thy Tabernacle thy Angel thy God shall be peace upon thee and this thou shalt know before hand This is that League with all things which Jobs Friend promiseth to him without which there can be no Satisfaction or Peace Quest. But you will perhaps ask me how this League is made Ans. I answer that it is made by living in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit in you is this League or Covenant For the Spirit is the Unity and hath the Band of Peace in itself Ephes. 4. 3. The Lord who is the Spirit is call'd the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Num. 16. 12. and 27. 16. This place agrees with that Luk. 20. 38. God is the God of the Living not of the Dead for all things live to Him As our Saviour said that Little Children had their Angels which beheld the Face of God in Heaven So it is most true that each Fleshly Appearance hath its Spirit in which it lives with and to God Every Beast or Stone hath its Angel in which it is comprehended after a living manner and by which it is governed Every Angel hath its Spirit in Jesus Christ in which itself is again comprehended after a Divine manner and by which it is entirely managed Thus the Spirits of all things are in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of every Creature which is the Scepter that sways it the Lawâ—giver to it is in the haâ—d of the Spirit of Christ and goes forth from between his Feet If then thou wouldst be in League with all things and at Peace with them be thou One Spirit with Jesus Christ so all Things and Times shall be One Spirit with thee and this Unity of Spirit is the Bond of Peace To be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. If thou wouldst live comfortably take hâ—â—d of dwâ—lling in the Fleshly Tabernacle in the Fleshly Savour and rellish of things Let thy understanding and Soul abide in the Spirit of God So thou shalt converse always every where with lively and lovely Objects All things round about thee within thee without thee shall have Life and a Harmony a Tuneableness with themselves and with thy Spirit a Peace-fulness in their Life All things shall have an Angelical Life and Sweetness to thee as they have to the Elect Angels All things shall have a Divine Life and Sweetness to thee as they have to God This is the First thing in which Satisfaction consists a Sweet League with all things 2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League This is the Second Thing in which the Satisfaction of Spiritual Peace confists Es. 14. 3. And it shall come to pass in that day the Lord shall give thee Rest from thy Sorrow and from thy Fear and from thy hard Bondage wherein thou wast made to serve Poor Soul while thou livest in the Darkness of Fleshly things
thou hast Sorrow breaking thee by the Oppression of present Evils thou hast Fear pursuing thee with the expectation of more Evils yet to come thou hast thy Desires carried forth uncessantly and violently toward those Objects which cannot satisfy but divide disappoint and distract them making them to labour under a hard Bondage to work in the Fire and feed on the Wind. But when the Day of the Lord the Day of the Spirit comes then the Soul is in Covenant with all things she hath all Evils subdued to her so her Passionate part is Satisfied and calm she hath all good things freely to enjoy so her Desires are at rest in the bosom of their proper Objects thus the whole Soul hath Peace all her Faculties acquiesce in their several Perfections all her Powers move with a full Complacency in their several Operations Thus that is made good which is prophesied in another place Es. 32. 17. The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever When thou hast the Lord Jesus in the Spirit then thou hast Righteousness brought forth to victory in thee For all things are then gathered up into One Body or Fulness of Divine Glory in thy Soul Now thou hast Peace with Quietness and Assurance for ever This is the Satisfactory Rest when no Passion hath any thing to disturb it no Desire wants any thing to distract it But all is quiet in the Soul for present and assured to Eternity This God doth when he brings us into his Kingdom which is the Unity of the Spirit Thus much for the Second Property of the Kingdom of God which is Peace in the Two Parts of it Silence and Satisfaction Application Use. 1 Direction If you would have Peace understand and distinguish rightly the Grounds of your trouble As they are Three so you shall know them by their several ways of working 1 Ground The Spirit of Wrath from God hath its way of Working in the Soul peculiar to itself It makes present Impressions of Trouble and Terrour But it doth it with an Absoluteness an Arbitrariness laying no Premises drawing no Conclusions This was the great Dispute between Job and his Friends Job complained that God set a Watch over him a Spirit of trouble that should suffer him to take no Rest no way on no side that He scar'd him with Visions and frighted him with Dreams God appointed a Spirit over him which fill'd him sleeping and waking with dreadful Appearances Job 7. 12. 14. Jobs Friends charge him to have Iniquity in his Hand Job 11. 14. And Hypocrisy in his Heart Job 8. 13. otherwise say they Thou shouldst have prosper'd still thy hopes should not thus have perished So they laid Premises to the Wrath of God which fell upon Job On the other side Job maintains the Vanity of this Life where all things fall alike to all the Absoluteness of God who deals alike with all at Pleasure the Slightness and Shadowiness of Man in this Fleshly State where God alike sweeps away the Lives and Glories of all sorts of men as Shadows The Excellency of Afflictions in the Saints the Propriety of this State of things which is properly subject to the Principalities and Powers of Darkness Job 9. 22. 23. 24. He destroyeth the Perfect and the Wicked None therefore can say that any Sufferings are a Sign of a Reprobate Man or of Hatred in God If the Scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the Tryal of the Innocent God will laugh at the miseries of a Good man as being but a Melancholy Dream when the Man is asleep which wakes him and he finds himself well in Glory The Earth is given into the Hand of the Wicked and hath covered the face of the Judges of it It is improper to expect any thing right in this State which is the Season for Darkness and the time of the Reign of those Spirits which are the Powers of Darkness under whom the good Angels are vailed and imprisoned Thus Job shews his Friends how they plead deceitfully for God And Job hath this Testimony given him by God that his Friends had not spoken right things of God as he had done Job would grant that he had sinn'd But the Lord could forgive him all his Sins and he knew His Redeemer liv'd his Record was on High He would never grant that his Sufferings were any Argument of his Sinfulness or want of Sincerity in him Jeremy complains Lamen 3. 6. He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old The Spirit of Wrath from God can make itself a Prison of Darkness to thee depriving thee of all the Sweet Comfortable Lightsom Appearances of things leaving thee only Shady Frightful Empty Melancholy Shapes hovering about thee as they that are Dead This Spirit can keep thee in this Darkness that thou shalt find no way out of it by Friends Ordinances Prayers Endeavours of thy Spirit within thee This Spirit can bind thee fast up in itself sit heavy upon thee sink thee still lower as a Chain So he goes on complaining v. 7. He hath bedg'd me about he hath made my Chain heavy But the Spirit of Wrath from God never draws forth any uncomfortable Conclusions for Eternity No when such thoughts as these arise I am cast away for ever I shall be eternally damn'd in Hell These thoughts are not from the Spirit of God but from some other Spirit And so Jeremy brings them in v. 18. I said my Hope and my Strength is perished from the Lord. It is not He the Lord said though he were in His Wrath but I said Thus we see how we may know when the Spirit of Wrath from God is the Ground of our Inward Trouble There is a Four-fold Remedy against this Trouble 1. Remedy Resignation Say in the midst of this Darkness and Fear It is the Lord let him do whatsoever pleaseth him I am in His arms these are His ways with me Can the same Fountain bring forth Bitter and Sweet Waters Be not deceived be not disturbed O my Soul but leave thy self with God as a Faithful Creator let him make what He will of thee The Word of the Lord every Appearance in which God comes forth unto thee is good Fear not to receive him and to sit down though it be in Darkness for then thou sittest under his Shadow Only neither take from nor add to his Words or Appearances in thee by the Suggestions of any other Spirit 2. Remedy Retirement Withdraw from the Fleshly Man together with this Pillar of Clouds and Fire which sits upon that Draw thy Spirit up to the Unchangeable Spirit of Glory and the State of thy Spiritual Man in that Glory So did Job My Record is on High Appeal from that Testimony or Discovery which God gives of Himself below in thy Earthly Man to that Testimony or Discovery which God gives of thee above in the Simplicity and Nakedness of His Divine
them This is the Second Tryal 3. Tryal The Third Tryal of Spiritual Ioy is the Quality of it Spiritual Ioy is a Glorious Ioy 1 Pet. 1. 8. You Rejoyce with Ioy Glorious and unspeakable Spiritual Ioy hath a Spiritual Glory resting upon it and puts a Spiritual Glory upon the Spirit and Person of that man in whom it is Spiritual Joy ariseth from a sight of the Glory of God Therefore it holdeth forth the Image of this Glory in the Spirit and in all its workings Try your Joys by this What of the Glory of God What of the Mysteries of the Gospel What of the Heavenly Man What of the Spiritual manifestations of the Lord Jesus have you seen or known St. James saith that Faith is dead without works that is without the life and power of God working in you So Joy without the Spiritual Discoveries of God in it is carnal dead and empty Tell me not that your Heart is full of Joy But unfold to me those Discoveries those Shinings out of God which you have met with in your Spirits So shew me your Joy Obj. But you will say perhaps I see a Glory but it is unexpressible and you are uncapable of it Ans. I answer to that Four Things 1. A Spiritual Glory cannot be exprest by any inferiour Principle or Power by any abilities of the Natural man But it can express itself As it can be so it can be manifested in the Soul Spiritual things give a Subsistance to themselves in the Natural man So they can give an Expression to themselves there Rom. 10. 8. The Word is nigh thee in thy Heart and in thy Mouth v. 10. With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness with the Mouth man confesseth unto Salvation The Life of Christ who is the Glory of God hath a Mouth as well as a Heart in the Soul of man The Glory of God unites itself to the Spirit and Principle of man for the adopting of him and entituling of him to Heaven for his Justification It puts forth itself by the Mouth thorow the whole Image of the man for the Change and Transfiguration of that for his Glorification Ans. 2. Secondly it is true that the Glory of God in the Soul cannot express itself in its own Form thorow the natural man But it can express itself by Earthly Images by Types and Figures so as to convince even Carnal Hearts Jesus Christ so shewed forth the Glory of his Father while he lived in Flesh that the very Officers which came to apprehend him confessed and said Never man spake like this man John 7. 46. He spake to their sense as having Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He put forth thorow his Flesh Declarations of that Power of Light and Divine Glory which dwelt in him beyond all that any other Spirit or Principle could send forth Ans. 3. Thirdly though a Spiritual Glory cannot evidence or testifie itself to Natural men yet it may to such as are Spiritual As Face answerâ— Face in a Glass so doth the Heart of man Saith Solomon Prov. 27. 19. So doth the Spiritual Heart of man There is a Proportion between Spiritual men and Spiritual things The Glory of God in one Heart shews itself to the Glory of God in another Heart thorow the Natural man as a Face shews itself to itself in a Glass He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches Revel 2. 7. A Spiritual man hath an Ear in his Heart by which he can hear and take in thorow the outward Ear the things spoken by the Spirit even as they are inwardly spoken by the Spirit in its own Language The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets saith St. Paul 1 Corin. 14. 32. Spiritual men can judge of the Workings the Appearances the Joys the Glories of the Spirit in another man as Rational men can judge of Reason Ans. 4. Spiritual Joy is as unexprâ—ssible as Spiritual Glory You may hold forth as much of one as of the other If you can declare nothing of either distinctly and clearly then both are at the best but confused and uncertain in your Souls Spiritual Love and Spiritual Joy have both this Property they set the Heart on work to be ever enditing a good matter sweet matter touching the King the Glory of the Lord Jesus They make the Tongue of a man like the Pen of a ready writer Psal. 45. 1. sweetly swiftly forming and warbling forth distinct Expressions of the Divine Glory Thus much for the Third Tryal 4. Tryal The Fourth Tryal of Spiritual Joy is this Spiritual Joy is above the Natural man 1 Pet. 1. 8. Joy Glorious and Unspeakable 1 Cor. 2. 9. The Eye sees not the Ear hears not the Heart takes not in the Spiritual Joys of a Christian. Sense Fancy Reason all the Faculties and Powers of the Rational man are too low to reach too narrow to receive these Joys Obj. If it be thus how can any man have these Joys or have any sense of of them while he is on the Earth Ans. I answer to that by Two places of Scripture 1. The First place of Scripture is 2 Corin. 4. 7. We have this Treasure in Earthly Vessels that the Excellency of the Power may be of God and not of us The Spiritual man possesseth the Treasure of Spiritual Joys in itself But the Natural man holdeth in itself this Joy because it holdeth the Spiâ—itual man in itself as the Water of life in a Vessel So the Excellency of the Power which takes in Spiritual Joy is of the Spiritual man though it be in the Natural man who is united with the Spiritual man in One Person 2. The Second Place of Scripture is 2 Cor. 4. last We as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord c. The Natural man is the Glass the Spiritual man is the living Face As a living Face makes an Image of itself in a Glass and then sees enjoys itself in that Image So the Spiritual man makes an Image of its Joys in the Natural man and hath a living substantial Enjoyment of them that way while the Natural man holds the Image only After the same manner the Soul in the Body contemplates enjoys itself and all immaterial things in the imagination only which is a Material Glass Examine your Joys do they admit a Stranger the outward man into their Fellowship to intermeddle with them Do they flow alike thorow the Regenerate and the Unregenerate part as upon a Level I would then question though I would not condemn them Those Spiritual Joys have the greatest Doubtfulness and Danger in them which make the greatest Impressions Motions and Discoveries of themselves in the Natural man St. Paul speaketh of the Spirits putting up from the Heart of a Saint Unexpressible Groans Rom. 8. Those Griefs and Joys are most likely to come from the Spirit which make the least Sound Noise or Alteration in the Fleshly part I
have done with this Use of Examination Use. 2. Conviction Do not think Religion or Holiness a Melancholy thing Do not fear to be Religious as if then you must part with all your Delights and put your self into the perpetual Desert of a solitary sad sour Conversation Holiness and Religion have their own Joy and will take none of yours 1 Tim. 6. 6. Godliness is great gain with Contentment Let me commend Holiness to you in Three Particulars 1. Particular The First Particular is this Holiness is a Kingdom in itself It is Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Right way of taking in and holding forth the Majesty of God Holiness is the Uniting of the Soul by a vital and conjugal Union to God who is the Lord of All who is All in All. Thy Maker is thy Husband Es. 54. 5. Religion is a Discovery in the Soul of God as the Eternal Spirit the Quickning Spirit as bringing forth Himself as working his own works as fulfilling his Joy as setting up his Kingdom in the Soul He hath shined into our Hearts the Glory of the Knowledge of God 2 Corin. 4. 6. Religion is a Drawing of the Soul up to God into the Glory of God as the Sheet which St. Peter saw was drawn up into Heaven Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Call Heb. 3. 1. Can this be a Melancholy thing where there is so much of Heaven so much of the Love Life Glory of God himself Can there want Content where there is a Kingdom the Kingdom of God Or Delights where the Immortal King Jesus Christ keeps his Court Why shouldst thou think it strange when all things in Nature are united to their Head and in that have their Perfection that thy Soul should be re-united to her God and partake of his Fulness and there possess a Fulness of Joy Thou art our Father Say they in the Prophet I will return to my Father saith the Prodigal Son Luke 15. 18. This is the First Particular 2. Particular Godliness or true Religion is Gain It is so far from making you loosers in any point that it gives you your own again with Usury and Increase It will not divorce your Spirit from any of your Joys but it will make the Marriage-bed of your Delights Honourable and Undefiled Green and Flourishing There is a double Gain of Joy in Holiness 1. There is a Gainful Change made upon your Joys when you come to be truly Religious Your former Joys are transfigured like the Garments of Jesus Christ. They are changed from a Vile to a Gloriâ—us State from a Corruptible to an Immortal State 2. There is a Gainful Addition made to your Joys by being Holy Holiness brings in upon your Spirits higher greater and more Heavenly Joys such as you were never acquainted with before Godliness hath the Promises of this Life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Gen. 49. 2 6. Jacob blesseth his Son Joseph after this manner The Almighty shall bless thee with the Blessings of Heaven above and with the Blessings of the Deep that lieth under v. 27. He adds The Blessings of thy Father hath prevailed above the Blessings of my Progenitors Come taste and see what Sweetness what a Blessing there is in being Holy The Blessing of a Holy and Spiritual Principle in your Hearts will prevail above the Blessings and Joys of all your Natural and Worldly Principles You shall have the Delights of Heaven above and the Delights that are in the Deep of Nature which lies below All these you shall enjoy while you are on Earth 't is true indeed you shall enjoy them in the Promises which is as a Spring in the Earth which is by the Life of Faith as under a vail of Contradiction in a hidden way but a sweet sure substantial way Do not thou Doubt but that God can make Abrahams dead Body a Father to an Isaac even thee in this Earthly State which is dark and dead to possess as thine own all mirth of Angels men all the Precious things of the Sun and Moon the Creature and the Creator if thou put thy trust in him Do not fear to give up and Sacrifice thy Isaac thy Natural Joys to thy God by devoting thy self to Him in a Religious way It shall be no loss or Death to thy Joys He shall give thee thy Isaac thy Joys again in the Figure and Fellowship as a Seed of Eternal Joys 3. Particular Religion gives you Joy with Contentment with Assurance and Rest. When you come to God and have your Joys in him you are at home at your End in your Center So all the Workings Desires Inclinations of your Soul are satisfied they acquiesce and are still God is your Beginning and your End When you live to him he gives you assurance in your Joys he seals them to you because he is the Beginning the first of all He gives you Rest in your Joys that you care for you are capable of nothing more because he is the End the close the fulness of all Happy and Blessed is he to whom the Kingdom of God is come God giveth that man Joy and no trouble no Stain no Shame no Sting with it Happy and Blessed is he who hath share in this Joy for to him the Bitterness of Death and every evil is already past 2. Part Enlargement The Enlargement of the Soul in God is the Second Part of Spiritual Joy This is fitly exprest by the Prophet Esa. 52. 9. Break forth into Joy Sing together ye wast places of Jerusalem For the Lord hath comforted his people he hath redeemed Jerusalem The Lord first Redeems the Soul delivers her from the State of Servitude and Subjection then she breaks forth into Joy Natural Joy is the Dilatation or Enlargement of the Heart Spiritual Joy is the Dilatation or Enlargement of the Holy Spirit in man When the Divine Principle in the Soul breaks out of the Darkness of our Nature when it breaks forth from the Bonds of Flesh into its own Liberty and Freedom this is the Kingdom of God and the Joy thereof in the Soul You have this Joy of the Kingdom fitly and fully described in a Parable by our Lord Jesus Mat. 13. 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for Joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that Field The opening of this Parable will tend very much to the Explaining of this Particular of which I am now speaking There are Five Things to be opened in the Parable 1. The Field 2. The Treasure in the Field 3. The Concealment of this Treasure 4. The Discovery of the Treasure 5. The Purchase of the Field 1. The Field This is the First Thing The Kingdom of God is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field What should this Field be Can it be any other thing than the Natural Image of God in Man This is
Here you have a Paradise in or above the Third Heavens We read that the most Holy place was not yet opened while the First Tabernacle stood Heb. 9. 8. The way into the most Holy place was not yet made manifest while the First Tabernacle was standing So the Heavenly Paradise was not discovered while the Earthly Paradise flourished in the Creature but there was a vail between them Jesus Christ lay hid in the Image of the Earthly man Thus the Treasure was hid in the Field before the Fall of Man But by the Fall the Field itself was lost The Natural Image of God withdrew and disappeared in all the Glory of it when man sinned So far as it remained it remains captived imprisoned by the Devil under Darkness Lusts monstrous Images Rom. 1. 23. Sinful men are said to change the Glory of the incorruptible God in the Natural Image into the Image of a Corruptible Man of four-footed Beasts c. The Fall of Man brought in this Corruptible Image in which Man and all the Creatures now are which detains the Image of God as a Prisoner in itself Thus now the Treasure is doubly hid in the Field and in the Bryars which over-grow and hide the Field itself 4. Discovery Which when a man finds saith Christ. When Jesus Christ was to come in the Flesh he sent John Baptist to prepare his way This Preparation was to be made by a restoring of the Divine Image in Nature which is the First Restitution of all things that was to be made by Eliah and this Eliah was John the Baptist. He was also to point out Jesus Christ to shew how he was figured out in that First Image and now ready to break forth thorow this Image So when the Season comes in the Soul Jesus Christ the Eternal Image puts up the Natural Image of God in the Soul and puts forth himself thorow it as the Seed of Corn first comes up in the tender Blade like a low Herb an ordinary Grass before it comes forth into the shape of Corn. So the Redemption and the Discovery begins in the Soul which makes way for the Joy of the Kingdom of God 5. The Purchase He hides it and goes with joy and sells all that he hath and buys this Field Here the Purchase of the Field for the Treasures sake is exprest About this the Soul goes with Joy But what means this Second Concealment This Hiding of the Treasure again after that it is once found This Hiding of it is the laying it up in a Mans Heart The hiding of it in a Mans inward Spirit and the hiding of a mans self in it according to his Inward Spirit A man now draws this Treasure of Glory out of that Fleshly Darkness under which it lay into his inward Principle and withdraws his inward Principle out of the Flesh and the Lusts of it into this Treasure Then a Man for the love of this Treasure and in the Strength of it sells all that he hath casts away his Corruptions the Creatures his own Being as they are his own as he hath them in himself that he may have his own Being and all the Creatures in the Natural Image of God and that Image in Jesus Christ And this the Soul doth with Joy For this is that Enlargement that Liberty which is the Kingdom of God and the Joy thereof in the Soul Now the First Image of God is brought out of its Prison now Jesus Christ is brought out of his hidden streightned State to Freedom in the Soul Now those Discoveries of God which lay shut up in Jesus Christ as in a Seed thrust forth themselves into Liberty in the Spirit of Man The Spirit of a man is brought forth from the darkness narrowness of Lusts and the Flesh into the Liberty of these divine Appearances into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus where the Spirit of man is in a Depth Height Breadth Length without any Limit or Confinement This Liberty is the Divine Joy of the Spirit I will conclude this Particular with that place of Scripture Psal. 96. 12. Let the Field be joyful and all that is therein then shall all the Trees of the Wood Rejoyce This Psalm is a Prophesy of the State and times of the Gospel as appears by the First Verse which calls this Psalm a New Song This is the Name by which the Gospel is frequently expressed in Scripture The Sense then of this Psalm is chiefly Spiritual In the Verse before this Twelfth Verse we read thus v. 11. Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad let the Sea râ—ar with the fulness thereof The Natural Image of God as it is above the Creature and the Head of the Creature is the Heavens The Earth the Light-part the Sea the Dark part which both make One Creature as Earth and Sea make One Globe Then follows v. 12. Let the Field rejoyce The Field is the Image of God as it grows up out of the Creature and is the Life of that While a man is in a Sinful State the Field languisheth the Vertues and Excellencies of God are withdrawn and hid in it But when a man is New-born then this Field rejoyceth and breaks forth into Singing The Discoveries of God grow up high full and thick as Trees of the Wood and Sing together in the Soul which is now at Liberty and in Joy in the midst of thâ—m as in her Paradise restored Application Use. 1. Information That which hath been spoken on this Particular instructs us in Three Things of very great Concernment 1. Instr. What Man is 2. Instr. What a Sinner 3. Instr. What a Saint 1. Instr. What Man is That which makes a Man is the Natural Image of God First is that which is Natural then that which is Spiritual 1 Corin. 15. 46. Three Things go to make up the Being of a Man To be a Man is 1. To be the Image of another 2. To be the Image of God 3. To be the Image only and no more 1. To be a Man is to be the Image of another Gen. 1. 26. God made Man in an Image in a Likeness He that is a Man is to have no Principle Form Activity Appearance of his own But in all he is to answer the Principle Forms Actings Appearances of another in that manner of which Solomon speaks Prov. 27. 19. As in the Water Face answers Face so is the Heart of Man Man in this Creation is the Face in the Water which answers to another Face above the Water All Creatures are Representations Man the chief Creature is the chief Representation The Philosopher called Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature made for Imitation to hold forth something before and above himself St. Paul calls the First Adam a Figure or Type Rom. 5. 14. St. Paul in one place tells the Corinthians that he transferred things to himself and to Apollos as in a Type or Figure for their sakes Man is to
Sing This is Spiritual Musick the working of Spiritual Joy to Shout and to Sing We read of a Two-fold Song which Spiritual Persons sing Revel 15. 3. They Sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. The Song of Moses is the Law the Song of the Lamb the Gospel When the Children of Israel had passed thorow the Red Sea and saw their Enemies lie dead on the Shore then they Sung the Song of Moses who drew them out of those Waters according to the Signification of his Name When the Soul hath escaped out of the Sea of Blood mingled with Fire which is the Dissolution of her Natural Principles in Troubles and Terrours by the Baptism of the Spirit when shee sees her Spiritual Enemies slain on the Dry Land of Christ Spiritual Appearance then she Sings the Song of the Lamb who was dead but is alive and lives for ever the Song of Peace Singing naturally with the outward voice is the highest and fullest Activity of the Natural Spirits So Singing Spiritually and with the Inward Man is the highest Activity of the Spirit in our Spiritual Part. This Spiritual Musick or Singing which is the working of the Wine of Spiritual Joy in the Soul consists of Three Things 1. The Heightning of the Soul towards God 2. The Tuning of the Soul to God 3. The Exercise or Entertainment of the Soul upon God and with God 1. The Heightning of the Soul towards God This is one Piece of that Activity of Spiritual Ioy which is the true Musick of the Soul In that place cited before Psal. 65. 13. Singing and Shouting are put together 1 Thessal 4. 16. The Lord Jesus is said to descend from Heaven with a Shout This Shout is the Awakening and the Elevation of the Soul or Body towards the highest State of things by the Powerful breakings forth of the Glory of God upon them Psalm Psal. 57. 7. David had said I will Sing and give Praise Then he calls upon himself v. 8. Awake up my Glory awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early Some say Davids Glory was his Tongue but then sure it was such a Tongue of Fire as sat upon the Heads of the Apostles a Tongue of Spiritual Manifestations and Heavenly Glory like a Flame enlightning and heating both at once Man is the Glory of God saith St. Paul 1 Corin. 11. 7. The Spiritual Man is the true and Spiritual Glory of God The Natural Man is but a Shadowy Glory David calls upon his Glory to awake as distinct from himself and then he saith I shall awake like that of St. Paul Galat. 2. 20. I live not but Christ in me there is the Glory awakening itself and the Life that I live is by the Faith of the Son of God there is himself awakened in that Glory Then the Soul sings when the Life of Jesus Christ which is her Glory awakens itself in her and awakens her together with itself into the Light of God to a Contemplation of and fixing upon his Beauties Now the Soul is above her ordinary Pitch as Waking is above Sleeping Now she sits above herself upon the top of her Spiritual Principles as a Bird upon the Top-branch of a Tree Singing in the Sun-shine the highest Light of Divine Discoveries This is the First thing in this Activity or Spiritual Musick 2. The Timing of the Soul to God In that fore-mentioned Psal. 57. 7. David speaks of awakening three distinct Lives His Glory His Psaltery and Harp Himself The Glory is Jesus Christ in the Soul Self is the Soul The Psaltery and Harp those Heavenly Principles and Powers which as Ministring Spirits go forth from Jesus Christ into the Soul suiting fitting and tuning the Soul to her Saviour Revel 15. 2. St. Iohn saw the Saints that had gotten the victory over the Beast stand upon a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire and the Harps of God in their hands Then in the next verse they Sing The Sea is this Creation especially the Invisible the Angelical Part of it In this State it is a dark troubled foaming Sea But in the Kingdom of Christ it shall be a Sea of Glass a Chrystalline Sea clear calm fresh taking in and holding forth the Lord Jesus the Image and Face of God as a Glass as a pleasant Stream The Fire with which it shall be mingled shall be the Spirit of God and of Glory resting upon the Creature The Saints standing upon this Sea shall have the Harps of God in their hands Angels are the Trumpets of God This State of the Saints which is here described is their Angelical State when they shall be like the Angels These Harps of God then are Angelical Tempers and Principles which Jesus Christ brings forth and puts into the Soul as Harps into their Hands by which they are tuned and fitted made ready for Him to sing to Him Thus the Soul is tuned to God being put into a Spiritual and Heavenly Temper like an Angel beholding the Face of God and in a readiness to Sing forth to Sing aloud his Glory Coloss. 3. 16. St. Paul speaks of Spiritual Songs which they were to Sing with Grace in their Hearts This is that which David calls his Harp This is the Harp of God in the hands of the Saints the Grace of God in their Hearts This is the Tuning of the Soul to Christ the Receiving of Grace for Grace from Christ the winding up of Grace in the Heart to a pitch of Conformity and Communion with Jesus Christ like the Tuning of two voices or Instruments one to another that so Christ and the Soul may make Musick each to other and have their Joy fulfilled in one another So much for the Second Thing 3. The Exercise and Entertainment of the Soul upon God and with God This is the Third thing in the Souls Singing for Ioy. David saith in one place I will Sing of thy Righteousness and in another I will Sing of thy Power The Spiritual Joy and Musick of a Saint is to fly abroad among the Excellencies of the Divine Nature to enlarge and act his Spirit to the Height upon the Beauties and Brightnesses in the Face of God the Uprightness Truth Perfection in the Heart of God the Freedom Fulness Fruitfulness Infiniteness in the Spirit and Life of God David hath often expressions to this purpose I will Sing to thee I will Sing to the Lord. So St. Paul speaks Making melody to God The Holy Soul Sings of God to God Spiritual Joy is the Free letting forth of the Spirit with God concerning God It is often the Work and Delight of a Holy Soul to open her mouth wide to take in to the utmost the contemplation of God the communications of his Greatness Fulness Sweetness Glory and then when she is fullest to pour forth herself again into the Ear and Bosom of her God You may see this in the Psalmist Psalm 45. 1. My Heart is enditing a good matter I
speak of the things touching the King My Tongue is as the pen of a ready writer The Heart was here full A Spring of Heavenly Sweetness had opened itself in it It bubled and boyled up apace It enlarged itself into a Flood of matter But all was touching the King the Beauty the Glory the Graciousness the Pleasantness the Love the Power of Jesus Christ. And the Heart full of this Blessed matter empties itself again as fully upon Jesus Christ. My Tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer I have now shewn you the Third Part of Spiritual Joy which is the Activity of the Soul in God Use. 1. For Instruction Spiritual Ioy is no Secure Slothful Carnal thing 1. Spiritual Joy is no Secure thing It hath the least and the greatest Security in it It suffers a man to be least of all secure in himself or in any Creature that he may be most secure in God True Joy consists in the Heightning of the Soul towards God The Soul that is acquainted with this Joy hath a Fear and Trembling upon her while she is among the Creatures though she be in the Fulness of them She can rest no where till she get up above them all and come to God God makes a Gracious Promise to a good Man Psal. 91. 14. I will sâ—t him on high because he hath known my name The word signifies the setting of a man in a Strong Castle situate on a High Rock The God-Head is the Rock the Messiah or the Humanity of Jesus Christ is the Castle upon this Rock A Holy Soul is in Safety and may be in very great Security but not in her self nor in the World Her Safety and Security lies in being carried upward and set on high in being encompassed with Jesus Christ and God as with a Tower of Defence The Soul hath her high Rock and her Strong Castle of Spiritual Joy and Triumph not in the knowledge of any thing here below not in any Earthly acquaintance but in the knowledge of God I will set him on High because he hath known me If we be in the Light as God is Light then is our Joy full and the consolations of the Lord Jesus cleanse our Hearts from all Clouds of Griefs and Fears This is the First Instruction 2. Spiritual Joy is no Sluggish Thing It is the Enlargement and Activity of the Soul I went by the Field of the Sluggard saith Solomon end I saw it over-grown with Thorns Thy Spirit is thy Field If thou be not plowing it up with the Cross of Christ and sowing it with the Seeds of Grace Glory and Immortality by the Life of Christ and waiting for and gathering and feeding upon the Appearances of these in thee thou art this Sluggard and canst expect nothing but Thorns That Soul which is not Spiritually active in Christ will be miserably passive in Cares and Confusions Divine Joy is the Highest and most Harmonious Activity of the Soul upon the highest Excellencies of the Best and most Blessed Object which is Jesus Christ. While the Husband-man sleepeth Tares are Sown If Jesus Christ be asleep in the Ship the Winds toss it and the Waves fill it A sleepy or sluggish temper of Spirit breeds Fears Cares and all Sorts of Troubles Awaken the Lord Jesus in thy Spirit and be thy self awake in his Spirit if thou wouldst have Peace and Joy 3. Spiritual Joy is no Carnal or Fleshly Thing This is the Third Instruction The Joy of the Spirit is the Exercise and Entertainment of the Soul on God Mark the Temper and Spirit of St. Iohn 1 John 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have Fellowship with us and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Iesus Christ. V. 4. And these things write we unto you that your Ioy may be full V. 5. This then is the Message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is Light and in him there is no Darkness at all Spiritual Joy springs from seeing Spiritual Objects and hearing Spiritual Mysteries The Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing Saith Solomon Eccl. 1. 8. The Natural Eye and Ear can convey no Satisfaction to us For they are but a Dream The Sight and hearing of the Things of this Life can give no Satisfaction for they are but a Shadow A Full Joy Joy and fulness both together come by a Spiritual way of seeing and hearing the Things of Eternal Life You may have a slight empty vanishing Joy by Fellowship with the Pleasures and Glories of the Flesh. But if you will have a full and solid Joy which may endure for ever your Fellowship must be with the Father and the Son Jesus Christ. Bring before your Spirits the Excellencies and Delights of the whole World Let all the Creatures send into your Souls from the best Hand Messages of their Loveliness and Loves You for all this can have no true Joy no compleat Joy in any of these things For all the Creatures have in their highest Sweetnesses and Glories a Darkness which will begets Doubts Fears and Distractions in you Would you have Joy Seek it in the Declaration and Discovery of God who is Light and hath no Darkness in him Seek it in the Contemplations of God by his own Light So long thou shalt have Peace and Joy as thou turnest away thy Spirit from the Lying Vanities of the Creature and takest in and livest upon Messages of God which are brought in upon thee by God himself Behold the Face of God and thy Heart shall live in Pleasures For in his Face is the Fulness of Joy with all manner of Pleasantnesses without any uncomfortable Dash or Mixture of Darkness But while thine Eye looks upon the Sparklings or Appearances of any Creature thine Heart shall never be without the biting of the Serpent So much for the First Use. Use 2. Exhortation Press forward toward the High Calling of this Royal and Joyful State in Religion Your Fears Doubts and Servile Tempers in your Religion arise from a want of Growth Forget that which you have already attained and follow hard after Jesus Christ. There is before you a State of Peace Pleasure and Perfection in a Kind Travel on thorow this vale of Tears in which you now are from Strength to Strength till you come to see the God of Gods on Mount Sien in this State of Royalty and Joy But you may now ask me Two Quesâ—â—â— Quest. 1. Whether is this Royal and Joyful State of Holiness attainable in this Life May we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before we go out of this Body Dath not St. Paul say that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven â— Corin. 15. 50. My Answer to this Question is Four-folâ—â—â— 1. Answ. So far as we are risen with Christ while we are on Earth So far we are entred into the Kingdom of Hâ—â—â—en before
The Puttings forth of Christ in us are Unsatisfactory This One thing I do saith the Apostle forgetting those things which are behind I reach forward towards that which is before What is that Observe the next verse will tell us The Mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Iesus Christ. That which is come forth of Christ into thy Natural Man that is now Behind thee That which is Before thee is the Person Possession and Life of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and Glory of God The Unity of this Spirit the Fellowship of this Glory as it is in the Person of Christ this is That Mark which is Before us All that which is in our Persons while we are in Flesh is Behind us and to be forgotten by us It hath a Darkness a Shadowyness an Emptiness a Transitoriness from the Flesh in which it is inclosed So it cannot stay with us or satisfie us It cannot hold us It vanisheth it passeth behind us and is to be forgotten by us Our best Things while we are in this vile Body are a Heavenly Treasure in an Earthen Vessel as St. Paul speaks They are Pure and Sweet as they flow from the Spirit of Christ but as they are in our Spirits they tast of the Vessel they receive an Unsavouriness or Unsatisfactoriness from their Communion with our Earth and Flesh. The Grace of Christ in thee is like a Beam which is at once in the Bosom of the Sun and in the Bosom of the Earth That End of the Beam which is to the Sun is pure and perfect Light But that which is towards the Earth is Dim full of Motes and Dust. The Shinings forth of Christ in thee have such a double Relation to Christ and to thee As they are Christs and in Union with him they are Light and Life in Christ without any Emptiness or Mixture But as they are Thine and have their Being in thy Heart they are like Gold in the Mine partaking very much of the Earth in the midst of which they lie The Power of Christ magnifies it self in thy Weakness as the Apostle speaketh of Himself The Life of Christ in thy Spirit is Wine mingled with Water If thou take it in itself and in Christ it is the Power of Christ. But if you look upon it as it is in your Spirit it is Wine and Water Power in Weakness On Christ's part it is Magnified but on thy part it is Weak and can afford thee but a Weak Unsatisfying Joy 4. Fourthly and Lastly The Communications of Christ in us become Unsafe when we build our Joys upon Them St. Paul is ever very careful in this One Main Point when he rejoyceth at any time in the Grace of God to set aside his own Person and to set up that Grace in the Person of Christ. I thank God thorow Jesus Christ my Lord Rom. 7. 1. What ever matter of Rejoycing or Thankfulness a holy Soul finds it still finds and acknowledges it to have all its Vertue Sufficiency and Safety from and in the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore doth it draw all through that Person out of its own Person lest it should think of it self above what is meet Look to Jesus Christ the Beginner and Finisher of thy Faith and Joy For God hath appointed Him as the Mediator in whose Person alone every Thing is made truly Acceptable unto God and Man He alone must be thy Beloved in whom thou must be well-pleased Thou must be well-pleased and Joy'd with every Grace onely in Him as Thou and It meet in him Otherwise thou art in danger of Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry by which thou wilt grieve thy Husband the Lord Jesus and rob thy self of his blessed Presence This is a Way by which thy Soul often falls on a sudden from High Enjoyments into a Dark and Desolate Condition When the Lord Jesus fills thee with the Warmth and fruitfulness of his Embraces first thou lookest upon the Fruits of Christ in thy Soul and art exceedingly taken with the Beauty and Sweetness of these Now thy Heart and thine Eye begin to go a whoring from thy Heavenly Spouse when they begin to look off from his Person though it be upon something sent forth from Him Secondly thou then reflectest upon thy self with Delight to see thy self so adorned so strengthened Thou thinkest thy self Rich and Safe So ere thou art aware thy Soul makes her self like that Whore which said I sit like a Queen and shall see no sorrow Thirdly Thy Saviour now grows Jealous He turns away his Face He withdraws his Graces the Testimonies of his Presence from thee He leaves thee to the Power of Temptations and Lusts. This he doth that thou mayst learn not to Exalt thy self by his Gifts nor His Gifts in thy Self but Both in him whose Person is the Life of Both and ought to be the Only Object of all thy Love and Joy Thus the Apostle had the Buffetings of Satan and a Sting in his Heart that he might not be exalted by his Revelations but his Saviour and he only in his Saviour Take heed then of looking upon the most Glorious Graces of Christ in your own Person But keep your Eye unmoved on the Person of your Saviour and look upon Both your Self and your Graces in that true Glass and perfect Image So I pass from the Negative to the Affirmative Part of this Rule 2. Part Take the Rise of your Ioy from Iesus Christ as He comprehends you in Himself It is necessary for me here to make plain this Rule by Propounding and Answering Three Questions which perhaps most of your Spirits will be ready to ask in themselves 1. Question First you may ask me What I mean by Iesus Christ. Answer I shall answer so far only as I apprehend most pertinent to the Point in hand My Answer to this Question shall be Six-fold 1. Answer Our Lord Iesus is a Spirit 2 Corin. 4. The Lord is that Spirit A Spirit hath a Three-fold Power 1. A Penetrating 2. A Receiving 3. A Uniting Power 1. Power Penetrating When Jesus Christ was made Spiritual by his Resuâ—rection He could pass thorow the Door when it was shut and present himself in the midst of the Room and the Disciples on a sudden All Bodily Substances are forc'd to remain one without another They touch and joyn only by their Out-sides They cannot mingle but by Breaking themselves into little pieces So the Golden Calf was stampt to Powder that it might mix itself with the Waters But this is the Excellent Nature of Spirits that they can be a whole Army of them in One Spirit or in the Body of any Creature passing into the very Essence or Being of it most Inwardly most Universally and yet neither Divide nor Stretch it The Lord was in this manner present with His Ten Thousand Thousands of His Angels on Mount Sinai which was a Bodily Substance that might be touched So the Lord and all
the Angels and all the Spirits of Just men the General Assembly of all Glorious Spirits meet on Mount Sion which is a Spirit that cannot be toucht with hands The Person of thy Saviour is such a Spiritual Substance He can come into thy Closet thy Bosom thy Heart He can dwell in the same Body in the same Soul with thee in the most Inward Parts in every Part of Both and yet take up no more Room The Word which is Christ is within thee even in thy Heart and in thy Mouth in the most Inward and most Outward Part. All of Man and every Creature is either Heart or Mouth an Indrawing or an Out-driving Power the Inward Principle or the Out-ward Appearance Our Saviour divides the whole Man into Heart and Mouth when He tells us that Nothing which enters into the Mouth defiles a Man but that which comes forth from the Heart Jesus Christ is a Spirit in thy Heart and in thy Mouth He pierceth to the Bottom of the most Secret Principle of Life and Being in thee He is as Inward with That and Thee as That is with Thee He passeth quite through all over the Bredth and Length of that Body that Appearance in which thou walkest He makes it His Clothing as it is Thine This is the First Power of a Spirit 2. Power Receiving A Spirit receives other Things into self as Inwardly as Entirely as It conveys itself into Them We read of the Depths of Satan Rev. 2. 24. of the Deep Things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. We read of a Pit for the Devil which can be no other than a Spirit of Darkness and Wrath in himself or in God Rev. 20. 3. We read of Chambers for the Saints Es. 26. of a House and Mansions for them above which can be no other than Spirits of Grace and Glory in God A Spirit hath an Opening and a Depth in itself into which it can receive all things without any Breach in it self An Evil Spirit hath its Pit into which it taketh in and swalloweth up whatever it taketh hold of A Good Spirit hath its Chambers and Mansions its Retreats and Abodes in it self for what Guests it pleaseth to admit or draw in Abide in me saith Iesus Christ to his Disciples Iob. 15. 4. As every Thing may be a Temple to a Spirit Your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. As a Saint is the Temple of Christ So a Spirit may be a Temple to any Thing So the Lord Iesus is a Temple into which the Saints may at all times enter and have Communion with God Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it again This he spoke of his Body John 2. 21. The Body of Christ was a Temple shut up with a Vail before it while it was Natural But when it was made Spiritual by the Resurrection it was the most Holy place set open for thee to come into it and never to go out more Heb. 9. 1 3 8. Flesh is a mere Shadow which can only touch upon Things but can take in Nothing A Spirit is the Life and hath a Depth in it for which it is compared to Water This is the Second Power of a Spirit 3. Power Uniting The Spirit is the Band of Unity 'T is true of every Spirit so far as it hath the Nature of a Spirit in it Bodies in Flesh are Divided and Broken things being held together only so far as they are Bound up in One Spirit Bodies in Flesh converse with all things at a Distance in a Divided Manner Our Saviour is said to take away the Wall of Partition in his own Flesh when he crucified the Flesh in himself for Himself and the whole World Eph. 2. 14. A Spirit is Uncapable of Division being One in it self and making all things One with it which it takes in or converses with Spirits are compared to Flames Heb. 1. As Flames they lick up into themselves and Incorporate as it were with themselves whatever they light upon or work upon So the Power which caught up Eliah was represented by a Chariot of Fire It was as a Chariot because it took him into it self It was a Fire because it took him up into the Fellowship of One Life Glory and Spirit with it self This is the First Answer to that Question which asketh What we understand by the Person of Christ when we speak of his comprehending us 2. Answer Christ is the Highest Spirit He is Lord of all We read 2 Cor. 4. the last words thus the Spirit of the Lord. It is in Greek the Spirit the Lord. Jesus Christ is the supreme Spirit that Spirit which is Lord of All. The Majesty of our Saviour's Person consists in this that he is that Spirit which hath the most Absolute Power over all Spirits Persons and Things together with the most comprehensive Greatness A Spirit is like a Prospect the Higher it is the more Commanding and Comprehensive it is 3. Answer Christ is the Brightest Spirit He is the Brightness of the Father's Glory Heb. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Out-shining All the Effusion of Beams from the Godhead is through the Person of Christ. All the Beams meet within the Compass of that Person We before cited a Place of Scripture which calls the Spirit A Band of Unity The Lord Jesus is that Spirit in which all the Goings forth of the God-head are united as a Knot of Beams a Band a Bundle of Divine Irradiations or Manifestations This Blessed Person and Spirit is the Highest the clearest Light which as a Garden-bed discloseth and exposeth all things to view in the most natural naked and distinct manner This is the Word which being spoken all things are exprest Heb. 4. 12 13. The Word of God is lively All things are naked and bare before him with whom we have to do 4. Answer The Person of Christ is the First and Fountain-Spirit The Second Adam is a Quickning Spirit a Life-giving or Life-making Spirit All Spirits Persons and Things that have Life or are from Life they are in this Spirit as Waters in their Fountain They are in Him Primarily and Eminently They are in Him more truly than they are in themselves For they derive that which they are in themselves from Him 5. Answer Christ is the Image of God Col. 1. 15. He is the Image of the Invisible God But you may say that every thing is an Image of God one way or another It is true for St. Paul saith that the Invisible things of God are made manifest by the things that are made Rom. 1. 20. Therefore the meaning of St. Paul in that other place is that He is the Image the Full Image the Proper the Perfect Image of God All the Workings and Manifestations of God are in this Blessed Spirit and that according to their several States with their Proper Distinctions Otherwise the Image were Imperfect All the Discoveries of God are in
the Creature should dwell in Him Coloss. 1. 19. Obj. But you may object and say It is true all things that have a Being or Subsistency have it in Christ For all things subsist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Him Coloss. 1. 17. But there are Two ways of being in Christ One as He is Head of the First Creation So Plants and Brute Creatures have their Being Motion and Life in Him as well as Men or Angels What Happiness or Joy can I have in this Another Way of being in Christ is as He is Head of the Second Creation the First-born from the Dead The Lord Jesus in this State comprehends the Spirits of men in Himself with a very great Contrariety some in Love others in Wrath. So we read that there were Sheep set on his Right Hand and Goats on His Left Mat. 25. 33. What comfort can I have in the Lord Jesus till I know on which Hand I stand What shall discover to me whether I be comprehended in his Love or his Wrath Ans. I entreat thee to understand and lay up this which I shall now say carefully in thine Heart It is a Preparation to the Answer to this Objection which thou hast made and the only way of Satisfaction It is this The Left Hand of Jesus Christ is his Weakness his State and Appearance under a vail of Flesh as he bears the Image of the Creature upon Himself For this Reason the Works of Wrath are the Strange Works of Christ and God Es. 28. 21. This Expression His Strange Work signifies a work with which he is not acquainted in His own Person and Nature a Work which is uncouth to Him in which the Height of his Skill and Power delight not to put forth themselves a work in which he is descended out of his own Form into some inferiour Form of the Creature and so become a Stranger to Himself The Right Hand of Christ is the Person or Spirit of Christ in its full Power and Glory as Christ is at the Right Hand of God that is in Immediate and Personal union with the Father When the Love of Christ is signified by his Right Hand the meaning is that Love belongs to Christ in the Proprâ—eâ—y of His Person Therefore St. John saith God is Love 1 John 4. 16. Now the Answer to the Objection follows clearly from these Premises if they be clearly understood You shall know that you are comprehended in the Love of the Lord Jesus if you look within the Vail beyond the Creature to the End to Jesus Christ in the Simplicity of his own Person as he is the Beginning and the End of all the Works of God 2 Corin. 3. 13. It is only the Discovery of the naked Person of Christ in you which can discover your Persons naked in the Love of Christ. 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined into our Hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the â—ace of Jesus Christ. You cannot see the Glory of God in his Eternal Love to your Persons but by the Shining out of God from the Naked Face or Person of Jesus Christ within your Hearts 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in Himself because He hath the Son of God in Hâ—mself who is the only True and Faithful Witness While you look at any thing below Christ whether without or within your selves while you look at any thing oâ— or in Christ besides himself while you look upon Christ in any Relation Capacity or Consideration and not in the Singleness of his own heavenly and Divine Person you will sit under a Cloud though light may be sown for you He that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life John 8. 12. You can have Light in your Eye no longer than your Eye is upon the Person of Christ. Every other way iâ— Darkness Then do this Tâ—ke off the Eye of your Souls from all Outward Things Turn it Inward into the Sâ—cret of your own Spirits There lay aside all Appearances of your Self or any Creature which would draw your Eye to it â—â— Glittering Cloud at best or a Shining Vail So wait till Jesus Christ sets his own Person before your Spirits in the Light of God When you see him you shall in the same Light see your Selves in Him and together with Him in Love Now for ever after make your self your Graces but Glasses to see the Face of Christ in and Christ will be a Glass in which you shall see your own Face in the Love and Glory of God Obj. Still you may urge and say But how and when shall I have this Appearance of Jesus Christ to me Ans. 1. St. Paul tells thee how Jesus Christ shall appear to thee 2 Corin 4. 6. God who hath made Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts As Light shined out of Darkness so shall Jesus Christ appear in thine heart out of the midst of Ignorance Unbelief Lusts and all manner of Contrariety Thy Evil shall no more hinder his Discoveries than Darkness can the shining of the Light His breakings forth no more depend upon or are assisted by thy Spirit than the spreading of the Light through the Air depends upon the Air. As Light was brought forth upon the Waters when there was no Light by the Moving or Hatching of the Spirit of God and by the Word of God So shall God upon thy Spirit as easily as soon as a Word is spoken bring forth in thy Spirit the Sight of Christ where there was no Sâ—ght at all of him Thus you see How the Lord Jesus shall be discovered in thee But still thou cryest How long Lord When shall this be I answer thee to that also that it shall be in the Fulness of thy Time As the World hath its fulness of Time so hath a particular Soul for the bringing forth of Christ in it God hath several works upon thy Soul various Forms to bring thee thorow and to bring forth himself in before thee When these are full then will he last of all come forth to thee in his Last and full Appearance which is the Manifestation of the Lord Jesus God hath his Ordinance with the Sun and Moon which run their Race from one end of the Sky unto the other These at length enlighten every part of the Earth in its Season as they come to it in their Course The Ordinance and Covenant of God is as sure with Jesus Christ who is the Day-star and Day-light of thy Spirit He hath his Goings forth decree'd and set Him from Eternity Wait thou for him as the Watch-men watch for the Morning For thou shalt so certainly see his Appearance in thy Soul The Vision of Christ is for an appointed Time It is like the Birth of Isaac who was the Type It hath its Set time In its Set time it shall not fail Go thy ways then be at
to the capacity of this so is the capacity of the Will and Affections of the whole Soul of Man The Love of Christ is too strong too great for them all All the Powers of Man are here overcome They cannot take it in Let ' them then cast themselves into this depth of Sweetness and say Because we cannot take thee into us do thou take us into thee 2. Spring Beauty This is the second ground of Joy in the Person of God Hâ—s Beauty David speaks of this Psa. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the Beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Three things are remarkable in these words concerning the Beauty of the Divine Nature 1. David was a King a King in the East where the Pomp and Glory of Courts excelled that of these Western parts of the world as much as Courts here ouâ—shâ—ne the Countrey Yet David could have for ever left his Court for the Temple and the Glories of that for a sight of those Beauties which are in the face of God 2. David was a Husband and a Father he was sweet enough in both Relations an Affectionate Husband a Tender Father Yet David could have been content never to have seen Wife or Children more so he might have seen continually the Beauty of God 3. The Soul of man hath a Seminal Infiniteness by which her desires grow endlesly She therefore is delighted most with those things which least bound her which still draw forth fresh desires by opening fresh delights The Spirit of Man loves that best which makes the utmost Satisfaction an Engagement upon a farther pursuit Such is the Beauty of God David prays that he may be in the Temple to behold it and to be searching still The Loveliness of the God-Head actuates that Seminal Infiniteneâ—s in the Soul giving her the sweetest rest by suffering her never to rest from fresh Enquiries in her fullest Discoveries There are Two things in the Beauty of God which will make thee glad at all times if thou turn thine Eye towards them 1. The Beauty of God drowns all other Beauties Luk. 5. 39. Our Saviour tells us No man having drunk old Wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If thou once drink the old Wine of Eternal Beauties in the face of Jesus Christ thou canst not miss or desire the new Wine of any Creature Loveliness while the relish of that Beauty is upon thy Spirit For thou wilt say The Loveliness of my Saviour is far lovelier and all other Loveliness is not lovely compared with this which so much excels it 2. The Beauty of God draws all other Beauties into itself Elibu saith Ioâ— 34. 14 15. If he set his heart upon man if he gather unto himself his Spirit and his Breath All Flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again to dust All Creatures are moulded out of Darkness as out of Dust. The Beauty of each Creature is a Spirit or Blast from God shining upon this darkness which makes thee different Flesh of all kinds As the Sun-beams put out the fire by drawing up the finer fiery parts into themselves So God sets his face on man draws in the Spirit of Loveliness to that face of Loveliness in himself Then the fleshly form fades and the Dust remains alone Keep thine Eye upon this Loveliness in the Person of thy Saviour So thou shalt never mourn for the loss of any lovely thing which was as the Light of thine Eyes to thee For thou shalt meet with every lovely thing with every relish of Beauty in this Beauty as a man meets with the taste of the Sugar in the Wine into which it was melted and dissolv'd 3. Spring Power No man can ever want Matter of Rejoycing in any Case that understands and considers the Power of God Our Saviour said to the Sâ—â—dduces that denied the Resurrection Ye err not knowing the Scriptures and the Power of God If you err and exceed in Grief at any time it is because ye know not the Power of God For if ye did ye would see there the Resurrection and Immortality of all your Desires Hopes and Joys When our Saviour was entring into the blackest Cloud of sufferings that ever came upon any Creature He comforted himself in the Power of God Mark 14. 36. Abba Father all things are possible to thee With this he comforts his Disciples in that great matter of their Salvation Matth. 19. 26. With men this is Impossible but with God all things are Possible The Power of God can do Three Things 1. It can change One contrary into Another and make them to Embrace each other 2. It can call back time that is past 3. It can give a Being to Things that have been and have ceased to be any more 1. The Power of God can change One contrary into Another and make them both to Embrace each other Psal. 139. 11 12. If I say the Darkness shall cover me even the Night shall be light about me When thy Soul saith the Darkness of this Affliction will over-whelm me and quite swallow me up then can the Power of God make that Night of Affliction to be a Light of Comfort and Joy round about thee Yea the Darkness hideth not from thee saith David to God but the Night shineth as the Day No Darkness no Mid-night of Sorrow can hide or lock up itself or a Soul from the Power and Glory of God These will dwell together with the deepest darkness and the blackest night These can make themselves One with them and so make them to shine equal with the cheerfullest day of Prosperity The Power of God can pierce into the thickest Cloud of Grief It can bring in thither all the Love Excellency Delight of the God-Head It can make the Darkness of Grief a bright Light to discover all these and lay them open to the view of your Spirits David goeth on The Darkness and the Light are both alike to thee O Wonderful Union of Contraries O Unsearchable Power O Powerful Matter of universal Joy God is the onely Truth and the Measure of Truth Darkness and Light are both alike to him who is the first and last As Light holds forth Darkness and makes Manifest all Excellencies in itself So Darkness holds forth Light and is a manifestation of all Glories an Image of all Images of Beauty and Pleasure before God Light hath its own proper Appearance and is seen by God in its own distinct Shape as it is in itself Yet in the seeing of it all Things are seen So doth Darkness appear before God in its darkest and rightest Form and all Lights of Comforts Holiness Truth appear together with it in the same Appearance Blessed are they that abide in God or are like to God For no Darkness hideth any Joy from them
the Running out of Things from the Glory of God the breaking of the Harmony of Divine Love Beauty and Wisdom by a Discord Sorrow is the Return of Things into this Glory the bringing of the Discord into a Harmony again Both these Evils are the Matter of Spiritual Mourning 1. The Evil of Sin We are to grieve for the Evil of Sin in our selves and in others 1. We are to grieve for Sin in our selves Psa. 51. 3. David cryes to God I acknowledge my transgression my sin is before me When Sin appears in its right shape to us it brings forth sorrow as its Image in our souls as naturally as the face of God begets a face of Joy in our hearts Mourning is as the Mouth by which we confess our corruptions It is the Image and Form in which the sense of guilt holds forth it self in the Spirit He that grieves and glories not in the Glory of God calls Good Evil and Light Darkness He that is merry and mourns not under guilt he calls Evil Good and Darkness Light Both lye under a Curse one for turning the Glory of God into a Lye the other for Boasting himself in a Lie against the Truth Not to feel a Sorrow for Sin is to deny the Nature of it to destroy the Person of Christ to make void his Cross to confound and dissolve the Mystery of God 2. We are to grieve for Sin in others Psal. 119. 53. David complains Horrour hath taken hold of me because of the Wicked that forsake thy Law When the Sun the Light of the World laboureth under an Eclipse by the Moon the Sight of it naturally strikes a kind of Horrour upon the Spirits of Men. For it portends Blood and Ruine in one Kind or another In each Sin there is a more Dreadful Eclipse The Image of God which is the True Life and Light of all Creatures laboureth and groaneth being opprest under and darkned by the Image and will of Man He that understands this Sight sees in it a certain Presage of Wrath and Desolation which fills him with Astonishment Ephes. 4. 30. Grieve not saith St. Paul the Holy Spirit of Christ. Sin grieves the Spirit of Christ. As Jesus Christ Sympathizeth and Suffereth with us having a fellow-feeling of our Infirmities by a Union of Spirits So a good man hath a Sympathy and fellow-feeling with his Saviour when he sees his Spirit grieved by the Sins of other men Thus we are to Mourn for the First Evil the Evil of Sin 2. The Evil of Suffering We are to mourn for our own Sufferings and the Sufferings of others 1. We are to mourn for our own Sufferings Es. 22. 12. In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning What Day was this It was a Day of Calamity when Death was before their Eyes So you may see at the 13th verse They said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die The Providences and Appearances of God are his Language in which he speaks to us God requires of us that we should have an Ear to hear and a Tongue to answer him in his own Language It is said in one place that the Heaven should hear the Earth Is it not much more fit then that the Earth should hear the Heavens The Heavens are the Image of God the Heart of Man is the Earth Shall God speak to us in Wrath and Ruine and shall not we hear and answer him with Fear and Trembling Shall God speak to us in Thunder Storms and Blood And shall not we hear and answer him with Tears and Broken Hearts 2. We are to mourn for the Sufferings of Others 2 Corin. 11. 2 9. Who saith St. Paul is sick and I am not afflicted who is offended and I burn not Every good Man is like his God and Father All Things are his because he is the Spouse of Christ the Child and Heir of God one Spirit with Christ and God So he suffers in all As St. Paul said I make up the Sufferings of Christ in my Flesh So saith he All Things that Suffer add to my Sorrows and make up my Sufferings in their Flesh. A good Man is One spirit with Christ. Thus he is like Christ a Spirit of Univeral Sweetness which longs and labours to bring forth itself in Peace and Pleasures every where When it meets with a Soul shut up in Griefs it is straitned and afflicted there and burns like a Fire to be at liberty in that Heart This Spirit suffers with each Heart till it can make every Heart to rejoyce with itself It is never entirely Risen from the Dead while there is any one in the Grave of Sorrows That One is a Member of its Body and it is ever present with the whole Body being all of itself in every Part of that all in the Sorrows of the Militant and Suffering Part as truly as it is all in the Joys of the Triumphant and Rejoycing Part. This is the Matter of our Mourning Evil in both kinds of Sin and Suffering 2. The manner of our Mourning This is the Second Particular My way in this shall be to give you some Distinctions and then some Rules drawn from those Distinctions The Distinctions are Three First of the Appearances of God Secondly of the State of Things Thirdly of the Life of Man 1. Distinction of the Appearances of God These are Two-fold 1. The Supream 2. Subordinate Appearance 1. The Supream Appearance of God is One Blessed for ever perfect in Glory Unchangeable This is Jesus Christ the same Yesterday to Day and for Ever Heb. 13. 8. This is that Heavenly Image of the God-Head which gathers up into one in itself all Images of things in all Times David speaks of this Psal. 16. 11. In thy Presence or Face is fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand are pleasures for evermore In these words are Four Things 1. The Presence or Face and the Right Hand of God Both these expressions signify God in his Naked Highest and Rightest Appearance 2. Pleasures are here doubly exprest by Joy and Pleasures 3. There is Perfection in those Pleasures a Fulness of Joy This fulness intimates a Solidity or Substantiality of Joy for the kind and Abundance and Satisfactoriness for Degree 4. A Perpetuity is added to all this The Pleasures are for evermore This is the Description of God in his Supream Appearance in which there is all Variety but no Mixture all Communion and Communication but no Chance This Appearance is Light without any Darkness 2. The Subordinate Appearance of God is Manifold God in this respect is called the Lord of Hosts because he comes forth in an Army of Appearances which are his Ten Thousand Chariots his Millions of Angels God in his Supream Appearance is Light in his Subordinate Appearance a Fire He is in this Appearance a Mixture of Light and Darkness He hath various effects Cherishing and Consuming Drawing forth all Things and
Mourning at the highest then say my Soul there is yet a Sight of God higher than this into which if thou couldst raise thy self thou shouldst find all their Love and Delight It is a Rule among Divines that there is no Supream Evil. Evil hath its Root in the Subordinate Manifestations of God in his Clothings and Disguises Travel on to the Naked Person to the open Face of God and thou Travellest beyond all the Fountains and Heads of Grief or Evil. 2. Rule Understand well that the Object of all Sorrow is the State of Things in flesh not in the Spirit The Law is the Ministry of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 7. Sin comes in by Occasion of the Law Rom. 7. 8. The Law is the Occasion of Sin and the ministry of Death by reason of the Flesh Rom. 8. 3. What the Law could not do that is to make us Holy or Happy thorow the weakness of the Flesh. The weakness of the Flesh is the Ground on which all wickedness and woe is wrought The Flesh is the Shadow the Vail Hebr. 10. 20. Whatever evil is the Object of thy Grief so grieve as knowing it to be in the Shadowy part in the Out-side of Things only 'T is but a Leprosie in the Skin Job calls the Fleshly State of Things in themselves and not in the Spirit but Skin Job 19. 26. So doth the Devil in the Proverb Skin for Skin The Inside the Substance the Spiritual and Life-part of those Things over which thou so sadly breakest thy heart is Peace The Altar for Sacrifices was without the vail all thy Evils are without the vail let thy griefs then abid without the vail like the Servants of Abraham at the Foot of the Mount But let thy Spirit enter within the vail and let Isaac only go thither with thee the Child of Mirth and Laughter The Sea and Storms are without the Vail only in the Shadow The Anchor and the Rock Rest is within the Vail in the Spirit and Truth of Things 3. Rule Grieve so as having thy Head still above the Clouds of Grief in a clear Light of Peace and Joy Thy Head is Christ thy Head is thy Heavenly Principle thy Life hid with Christ in God Colos. 3. 3. This is your Head hiding itself in a Divine Light and Glory above all Storms and Changes Divide your self then in your Sorrows Let your grief be upon your Inferiour parts but let your Head be in Joys And as your Inferiour Parts are subordinate to your Head So let the Joys of that be as the head of your Griefs They that are washt need to have their Feet only washt said our Saviour Let your Feet only be washt with Tears And then remember that the Anointing of Glory and the Oyl of gladness is upon your Heads So mourn as that you may be like the Description of Christ Revel 1. 14. 15. that your Face may shine like the Sun in its Strength while your Feet are in the Furnace Feel your God stroaking your Head with his right hand while his left hand is striking your Feet with an Iron Rod of Affliction See how Job in a Tempest of Miseries yet Glories in his Head lift up above the Storm Job 16. 18 19. O Earth cover not thou my Blood and let my Cry have no place Also now behold My Witnes is in Heaven and my Record is on High When thy Tears and Blood run down upon the ground when thy Cries fill the Earth then raise thy self like Job and say even now behold My Head is in Heaven now I have a Life in my Heavenly Principle which is an Eternal Record of my Glory and Blessedness This testifies of a Beauty and Joy to me in these very Sorrows 4. Rule Let the Heavenly Principle as it lives in the Earthly be the Spring of your Sorrows Let not thy Griefs be an Oppression to the Spiritual Man in thee but an Oblation from it Thy Griefs will be an oppression to it if they proceed not from itself Originally For then its Joys in the Flesh are taken away from it by another by the Fleshly Principle Thy Griefs are an Oblation by the Spirit when they flow Primarily from the Spirit For then itself layeth down its Joys as Christ speaketh of his Life The Blood which our Saviour shed is called in Scripture the Blood of God Though the Blood ran thorow the Humane Nature Yet the Person or Principle that bled in that Nature was God Our Divinity ordinarily teacheth us this that Christ was Man that he might Suffer God that he might Merit His Blood had been of no value with God if it had not been the Blood of God In like manner your Tears cannot be Heavenly and Divine if they be not the Tears of the Heavenly and Divine Principle in you Though the Earthly Principle be as the Earth in which these bitter Waters bubble up and run along yet the Heavenly Principle must be the Spring in this Earth out of which they arise Otherwise they will be of no use to you nor value with God 5. Rule Let the Mourning of your Earthly Principle be a Subordination and Submission to your Heavenly Principle This makes your Sorrow a Sacrifice when without this your Mourning is but Murmuring Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Jesus Christ is brought in speaking to God his Father Sacrifice and Burnt-Offering thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared mâ— Then said I lo I come to do thy Will O God Thus the Heavenly Principle speaks the same Language in every St. Thou wilt have no more Sacrifices of Beasts The Time is past in which thou hast taken pleasure to have the Inferiour Earthly Principle to be Sacrificed to and by the Superiour Heavenly Principle while thine Image was present only in the Type and Shadow But now thou hast prepared a Body for me thou hast brought me into the Earthly Principle that I should make a Burnt-Offering of my self to thee as of my own Body They were to bring no Strange Fire to the Sacrifice but to wait till Fire from Heaven fall down upon it and consume it In like manner is the Earthly man to lay itself on the Altar by the Power of the Heavenly Man and to wait till that bring forth a Flame of Sorrow upon it The Earthly man should say alwaies to the Heavenly I mourn that I may do thy Will and not mine own Est quaedam flere Libido There may be a Lust in weeping and so there is when the Outward Man fulfils his own will in weeping and not the Will of the Inward Man which is one with the Will of Christ and God 6. Rule Let the Earthly Principle as it is in itself be only a Slave to you in your Griefs If the Flesh have a Power of its own to make you Grieve to qualifie or measure your Griefs it will bring the Curse of the Serpent upon you it will make you to go upon your Belly
to sink altogether into your sensual and Corruptible Part. It will make you feed upon Dust seek a merit in and a Nourishment from your Sorrows When the Flesh hath Liberty to interpose it self in our mourning it makes our mourning Brutish or Devilish It makes our mourning Brutish by deriving it from outward and Temporal Things by terminating it on these So our Lamentations are as the howl of Dogs and cry of Bears It makes our mourning Devilish by mingling it with discontent and despair So the Roarings of our Spirits are like the yellings of Devils to Christ Art thou come to Torment us The Flesh is to be kept as a Hewer of Wood Drawer of Water We are to make use of the ways and weaknesses of it to help to break our Hearts and bring forth Tears at the direction of the Spirit in us The work of our Grief upon our Natural Part as it is in itself must be to keep it under to beat it as a Slave to destroy it as an Enemy This is the Ass which is not for Sacrifice but to have its neck broke except it be redeemed by its Subordination to the Spiritual Part. I have done speaking of the manner of Spiritual Mourning I come now to the Third Particular in the opening of the Nature of this Grief which is the Measure The Measure of Spiritual Grief hath Three Limits 1. Limit The casting out of Filth 2. Limit The casting down of Flesh. 3. Limit The clearing up of the Face of God towards us 1. Limit The casting out of Filth St. Paul 1 Corin. 5. 3. in the case of the incestuous Person blames the Church that they had not mourned that he who had done this Thing might be cast out from among them The Case is the same in our own Persons We are to mourn that every Evil Thing may be cast out of us We are to keep our Hearts in a melting temper till our Lusts be quite melted down till the Gold and the Dross be separated one from another We are to weep till we have washed our selves clean in our Tears Obj. But you may here ask What Power is there in our Tears or Sorrows to cleanse us from our Filth shall we say with the Papist that our mourning merits Grace if not of Desert yet for desire out of Congruity Or shall we say with the Arminian that our griefs are a moral way of working upon our will to mortifie that and make it weary of the Pleasures of Sin for the Pennance of Sorrow Ans. I answer to this that there is neither any merit in the Tears of any Creature to move God For if thou be Righteous it is to thy self And the Heavens with all their Hosts are Folly and Filth before Him Neither is there any Efficacy in the woes of man to purge the will of man For who can bring a clean Thing out of an unclean Can any one redeem his Brother from Death Can one Passion or affection in Man by a Death in Sorrow redeem his Brother another Passion or affection from the Death of Sin They must let this alone for ever But the Spiritual Griefs of a Saint are the Buddings of Aaron's Rod of the the Cross of the Lord Jesus in him And from hence they have their value with God and their Vertue on us 1. First my Sorrows have a value with God as they are the Sufferings of my Saviour in me St. Paul saith of himself 1 Colos. 24. I rejoyce in my Sufferings while I fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my Flesh for his Bodies sake All the Sufferings of Believers are the Sufferings of Christ propagating themselves thorow his mystical Members We are one Spirit with our Lord Jesus in our Tribulations as well as in our Consolations Our Groans as much as our Gloryings are the Breathings of that Spirit As the Soul is all in all the Parts of the Body making every Member a part of the Humane Nature putting upon it the Beauty of that Nature So is Jesus Christ in every Thing of the actings or Sufferings of Christ any where giving a Divine Beauty and worth to it by vertue of the Union 2 Corin. 4. 10. Always bearing about in my Body the Dying of the Lord Jesus that the Life of the Lord Jesus may be made manifest in my Body This St. Paul saith of himself The Tears from our eyes are the Blood from the Heart of the Lord Jesus Though not as our Tears yet as his Blood they have Power with God to bring forth his life in us Jesus Christ dies over again in thy griefs that so he may act his Resurrection over again in thy Graces The Father makes a Promise to the Lord Jesus Es. 53. 10. When he shall make his Soul an offering for Sin he shall he see his Seed This is an Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son that when he hath descended to the lowermost parts of the Earth he should then begin to ascend When the Image of the Invisible God hath put itself off into the Strange Forms of Darkness and Death then is it to spring up again out of these and again to behold itself in its own proper shape and power which is its Seed Thy Saviour and Husband makes his Soul an Offering for Sin in all the Sufferings of thy Soul Therefore mayest thou now challenge it of the Father in the name of Jesus Christ that he may see in thee his Seed which is the Power of an endless Life Thou mayest say behold O my God! by him whose the Signet and the Staff is the Glory and Power of thy God-Head by him am I in these Pangs and Sorrows Let then a Man-child be born in my Heart which may be called after his name that I may rejoyce in it and remember my Sorrow no more Thy Benjamin is come before thee into the Land of Aegypt as thy servant in my servitude Thy Darling hath brought himself into my guilt and griefs he stands before thee in them The Lamb of God a slain in my sufferings O then let it be a Passover that the evil Angel of Lust and Misery may pass from the house of my Spirit when he sees the blood of this Lamb in my Tears sprinkled upon the Posts of the Door 2. Secondly Our Sorrows have a vertue on us as they are the Sufferings of Iesus Christ in us Galat. 6. 14. God forbid saith Paul that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus by which the world is crucified to me and I to the World As the Person of Christ is the Seed of God which springs up into many Sons to God so is the Cross of the Lord Jesus a Seed that remains not alone but brings forth much Fruit. It grows up into a multitude of Crosses a Cross in each good Heart a Cross in every Creature of this world This Cross of Christ is the wisdom and
Power of God making themselves first the Tree of the Curse on which all the Principles and Spirits of this world must hang Then the Tree of Life bringing forth the Fruits of Paradise and the Third Heaven Every care or cross in a Saint is this Cross of his Saviour sprouting in his Person The Lord Jesus lies hid in each Tear in each sigh of a Holy Spirit He is there as the Seed falling into the Earth and Dying By this Death he delivers himself from Death in thy Heart and breaks out on every side into Discoveries of his Grace and Glory Say of thy Trouble why art thou cast down O my Soul This is that Death of my Saviour in me by which he destroys the power of Death in my Spirit Sin and the Devil This is the way in which thou shalt praise him and see him swallowing up the Principle of Darkness in Darkness that he may bring forth himself in the Light of his Countenance to be the Light of thy Countenance I have been the larger in this Objection that so I may be the more clearly understood both in this and in the following Particulars Whatever mention is made of any Beauty or Grace in a Saint is not to be imputed to the Saint but to the Grace and Face of Jesus Christ in him so is the Excellency or Efficacy of our mourning the Discovery of our dying Saviour in it No Persons no Sorrows are Spiritual if they be not one Spirit with Jesus Christ. But thus much for the First limit in the measure of our Sorrows the casting out of Filth 2. Limit The casting down of the Flesh 1 Cor. 9. 27. I saith the Apostle keep under my body and bring it into Subjection The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I beat it black and blew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I make it to serve The end and so the bound of Humiliation is First to bring down the Principle of the Natural Man into a Principle of Darkness that it may no more put forth itself in its own Light and Life Secondly it is to subdue that Principle to the Heavenly Principle that it may be quite slain in itself and revived in the Spiritual Man a Spiritual Principle Rom. 7. 24. St. Paul calls the Natural Man this body of Death or the body of this Death It is a body of Death in a Two-fold sense First Thy Outward Man is the shadow of Death cast upon thy Spirit It is the Valley of the Shadow of Death thorow which thou walkest here below Thou art in the Body sunk down to the borders of Death being already come within the shadow of it The whole face of things upon thy Person and round about thee is a dead Image and the Image of Death For he who hath the Power of Death hath entred into it with his Principality and taken away the true Life of it setting it up now as an Appearance in and of himself Secondly Thy Outward Man is a Body of Death because it is appointed to Death The Body by one Death hath brought it self out of the Divine Life into the Power of Darkness into a Hellish Root Now by another Death it must be broken off from this Root and brought back again into an Eternal Stock Our mourning then must last while we are in the Body of this Death till this be no more this Body but perish in Death The Devil cast us out of our Innocency and from the face of God he set up himself by setting up the Natural Man in it self We were turn'd out of Paradise when we came into this Body which is now the Beast's skin Again By the Ruine of the Natural Man we must raise the Building of God and cast down the Devil By putting off the Beast's skin by the dissolution of the Tabernacle of Beasts skins in Death we return into Paradise We are therefore to go mourning to our Graves 3. Limit The clearing of the face of God towards us Matth. 9. 15. Our Saviour tells the Jews That his Disciples could not fast while the Bridegroom was with them But the Bridegroom should be taken away And then they should fast in those days The Face of God in Jesus Christ is the Soul's Bridegroom Who that is the Bride of this Bridegroom can take joy in any thing when this Face is withdrawn and hid from him Shall not our Souls fast from the Freedom and Fulness of Natural Delights when our Spirits are made to fast from the Beauties and Delicacies of Jesus Christ This is the season of Mournning It is now beautiful to see a holy Soul Widow-like with a Vail upon the face of all her Glory and Content when her God is gone a great Journey from her What can she do but mourn when he is absent who was the Light of her Eyes the Anointing of her Face and Head What can set an end to her mournings till he return and wipe away all Tears from her Eyes by setting himself in the Eye of her Spirit Psal. 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled saith David Will it not be Winter when your Sun is gone Can you expect a Spring till he turns toward your Earth again Is it not the Presence of the Lord Jesus that makes all things fresh and full of Beauty round about thee When he is withdrawn who was the Image of God in them do not all things droop and languish in thine Eyes Canst thou then chuse but languish with them If the Lord Jesus be the Root of thy Spirit and his Spirit the Sap of thy Comforts thou wilt grieve in his absence without arguments to persuade thee to it as naturally as Flowers nipt with Frosts hang the head Nay no arguments will be able to raise thee to any degree of chearfulness except he come and make himself the argument When thy Corruptions like Fogs from the Earth have gathered into Clouds which hide the Heaven of thy Lords Face from thee weep then till these Clouds be again dissolv'd by the Showers of thy Tears and so thy Jesus again discover himself over thee as a clear sky I have done with the Third particular in the Nature of Spiritual mourning which was the measure of it 4. The Mystery The Mystery of every thing is in God Ephes. 3. 9. the Mystery hid in God who created all Things by Jesus Christ. This is the Mystery of Things their ground their beginning and end in the Person of God and Christ. Neither can we be Spiritual in any thing any further than we see the Mystery of it and stand in the Mystery The Mystery of a holy Grief is Threefold 1. Mystery Conformity to Iesus Christ. 2. Mystery Complyance with the Will of God 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons 1. Mystery Conformity to Jesus Christ. We read Ephes. 1. 4 5. that we were chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the world We were predestinated to the Adoption of Children by
Jesus Christ. We sprung up in Eternity in the Heart of God out of the Person of the Lord Jesus there as Images of him who as he rose up in the Divine Nature the essential Image of it was Fruitful from the Root of that Nature according to the Power of Life and Store of Spirit in it So he multiplied himself by the strength of the Father into many such Images in the heart and thoughts of God Thus we were chosen in and by him Thus also we were chosen to be Conformed to the Image of this Son as you shall read Rom. 8. 29. Whom he did foreknow he did also predestinate to be conform'd to the Image of his Son The Fathers fore-knowledge of us in his Son was the ground of our predestination by him and conformity to him A chief part in Christ is the dark part his Sufferings a chief part of our Conformity to him lies in our Sufferings and Sorrows Rom. 8. 17. Joynt-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Our whole inheritance is our conformity to the Lord Jesus This Inheritance lies as well in Suffering as in being glorified We have a double interest in Christ One in the Unity of his Spirit Another in the variety of his Body According to our First interest we are one with Christ that is by the Unity of the Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. So we are to have the fulness of Christs Sufferings form'd over again upon our Persons in the Spirit 2 Cor. 4. 10. According to our Second interest in the Body of Christ we are only particular members 1 Cor. 6. 15. In this particular membership a particular 〈◊〉 of Sufferings pertains to us according to our place in the Body The portion of sorrow allotted to every Saint in this capacity is as much inferiour to the miseries of our Blessed Saviour as that Member is inferiour to the Head But for this reason the Providence of God leads us to occasions of sorrow and then opens in us a spring of Sorrow that we may fulfil our measure in the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 21. This is the first Mystery of our Griefs our Conformity to Christ that we may be Brethren Spouses and Members of Christ. 2 Mystery Our Complyance with the Will of God We mourn that we may be like Christ Brethren grown up from one Root with him Spouses drawn forth from his side Bone of his Bone Flesh of his Flesh Principle of his Principle Image of his Image Strength of his Strength Weakness of his Weakness But now you may ask what the mystery of all sufferings and griefs are as they are Christ's first and so ours Answ. I answer to that by a place of Scripture Heb. 5. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered There are Two Waies of Learning one Speculative in the Contemplations of the Spirit the other Practical in the Conformity of the Person There are Two Waies of Obedience one in the Will being prepared and ready to all things the other in the Work of Doing or Suffering being actually undertaken and thorowly undergone Our Lord Jesus was ever in all things obedient to his Father so far as that State in which he was would permit While he liv'd in Heaven he was obedient to the Death in the Contemplations of his Mind and the Conformity of his Will so far as these two Wings could carry him But all this while the Devil might say of Jesus as he did of Job He dyes for his Father in his Speculations and Purposes at a distance while his Father maintains a hedge of Life and Joys round about him while he sees not Death but as Death it self is a living and beautiful Image in a Prospect of Glory Therefore Jesus Christ is brought down into Flesh that he may try and so experimentally learn another way of suffering by an Actual Descent into the Power of Darkness and Misery as it is in its own Principle Our Father could have prevented the Rising up of the Spring or Principle of Sin in the Heart of the creature So he could have cut off all occasions of sorrow or suffering He could have taken away Sin by a change and not by a Death Transfiguring instead of Crucifying us and this too by the heavenly Person resting upon us in a White Cloud and taking us up in it self without its Descent into the Dark Cloud of this earthly Body Thy Father could restrain the Issues of Lust in thee which send forth so much Filth upon which we pour forth so many Tears So our Tears might have been spared But if all this had been where had been the Testimony of our Obedience to the Father There are Two Waies of Obeying God One in the concurrency of his Will and ours the other in a contradiction between his Will and ours A holy Spirit obeys God the first way in Heaven and Joys For there it takes up its Joys and tasts a Sweetness in them much more out of Obedience than Appetite because they are the Will of God rather than because they agree with its own will But we obey God the Second way on Earth in Afflictions In Heaven we give up our will to be swallowed up in the Will of God as a River in the Sea In our Sorrows we Sacrifice our wills to the Will of God as the Beasts were Sacrificed by their Death and by Fire So Jesus Christ when his will was at the height of contrariety to the Will of God according to its own proper inclination If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Yet then he cut the Throat of his will and laid it panting upon the Altar to be wholly consumed in the dreadfullest way in the Fire of divine wrath and vengeance Thou in all thy Griefs accomplishest the same Mystery after the same manner Thou Feastest the will of the Father by the Fast of thine own will Thou obeyest thy God and servest his Pleasure by the binding and Offering up of thy Isaac all thy Pleasures 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons This is yet a Further and the utmost depth in the Mystery of our Sorrows The Scripture holds it forth in the Person of Christ as the Pattern in our Persons as the Copies of that Pattern We read of Jesus Christ Heb 2. 10. that he was made Perfect through Sufferings That is Perfect which hath all parts belonging to it It belonged to the Person of Jesus Christ to act all parts to appear in all shapes For he was to be the dwelling place of all Fulness 1 Colos. 19. He was to unfold the manifold wisdom of God in his own Person Ephes. 3. 10. He came forth as the Word to make a full and distinct expression of God The Nature of God is the Glass in which all Natures are first formed and seen The Natures of Light and Darkness Shame and Glory Joy and Misery to say
which the Angels drink in rich Discoveries of God the Glories and sweetnesses of the Divine Nature which are there poured forth immediately from their Fountain which are that Wine of Love with which Christ and his Spouse entertain each other O the Dignity O the Delights of a Holy Soul Angels sing to it Angels pry into its Beauties and Joys Angels draw the Waters of their blissful Light and Life from this Well The Sounds Operations Lives Essences of Angels are only a Musick Songs of Love and Joy to the beloved Soul and her Bride-groom in their Union In this sense Christ and a Saint in their Spiritual Glory ride together upon the Cherubims The Angels are made as perfumed gales of Wind on which they Flie Flames of a Divine Fire of Love Joy and Glory which continually spring up shine before them and round about them penetrate thorow all things converting all things into the same Ministerial Brightnesses and Harmonies of an Immortal Life and Love under their Feet But there is another passage worth our observation before we leave the Title to this Psalm To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim Shoshannim was an Instrument of six strings upon which the Tune to this Song was plaid If there be as Divines say Tot Mysteria quot Apices so many Mysteries as points of words letters or Marks in the Holy Scripture we may well believe this six-stringed Instrument to allude to the Creation made up of the several Works of six several Days He that hath Eyes to see what the Spirit doth and Ears to hear the Sound of the Spirit understands this great frame to be a well-tuned Instrument of so many strings as there are Creatures in it the whole Composure of Providence from the beginning of the world to the end of it this Song of Loves plaid upon it by Jesus Christ to his Heavenly Bride whose Spiritual senses see the Harmonious and Delicate Motions of his Hand upon every string and take in with unexpressible delight the ravishing Melody Shoshannim signifies also the six-leaved Lilly Can. 2. 1. It is doubtful whether the Holy Spirit speak in the Person of Christ or the Church when he saith in his Song I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valleys It is generally understood of Christ. In that Mysterious History of Esther as Esther Mordecai the Jews so the City Shushan the City of the Lilly represent the Church of Christ in general or each holy Soul in particular Interpreters here apply the Lilly to the Bride It is in the plural number Lillies and the clause may be rendred concerning the Lillies So the Subject of this Song of Loves is signified to us Jesus Christ and his beloved Bride two Lillies upon the same Root Flourishing with the same Beauties smiling Reflections each of other Either of them with his six leaves comprehends in itself the perfections of the whole Creation in their Original Purities and Sweetnesses Both alike in that Spiritual Image in which they are united are to the variety of Creatures as the Seventh Day to the other six a Bed of Rest and Delights with a Canopy of Glory their Rest Sanctification and Blessedness But it is time to pass from the Title to the Psalm itself The first verse is a Preparation to the matter contained in the Song It consists of Three Parts 1. The Flame and fulness of the Author My heart enditeth a good matter The word Enditeth is used only this once Some expound it boileth with a good matter and make it an allusion to Meat-offering in the Sanctuary prepared by fire in a Frying-pan So the eternal Spirit which is Love hath the place of the Holy Fire The Heart is the Frying-pan The Excellencies of Jesus Christ in his own Person and his Brides with their mutual Affections and Joyes are the Meat-offering Some interpret this Boiling by the bublings and wellings forth of a Fountain Thus the Chrystalline Waters of the Light Life and Beauties of Christ mingled with the Heavenly Fire of his Love are the Sea The Heart is the Spring into which this Sea by Invisible Tracts and hidden Passages conveyeth its flowing Treasures which from thence pour themselves forth into rich pleasant and plentiful Streams 2. The Excellency of the Subject I speak of the things which I have made touching the King This King is called God and seated upon the Throne of Eternity v. 6. which verse is cited and applied to Jesus Christ as he comes the second time into the World attended by all his holy Angels after his Resurrection and Ascent to the Throne of his Father This is the King this is the Bridegroom and the Beloved of the Soul Jesus cloathed with the Royal garment of his Divine Nature crowned with the Glory of the Father perfumed with all the good ointments of the Holy Ghost 3. The Power by which the Author is inspired in the composing of this Song My Pen is the Tongue of a ready Writer Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21. As the Son is the Wisdom Power and Glory of the Father So the Holy Ghost is the Love of the Father and Son he is called by the name of Charity or Love 1 Cor. 13. v. 1. 8. He is that Love by which God and a Saint dwell one in another as Love is described to be the Union between the Lover and the beloved Object So he is spoken of 1 John 4 16. God is Love He that dwells in Love dwells in God and God dwells in him It is the Inspiration of this Holy Spirit of Love by which this Song of Loves was penned My Heart is enditing a good matter My heart is full boileth up and floweth forth with a good matter sweet beautiful and profitable This Heart represents every Member of Christ which all have one and the same Spirit These words thus opened afford us this Doctrine 1. Doct. A good Heart is a Treasury of good things Matth. 12. 35. A good man out of the good Treasure of his heart bringeth forth good Things A Treasure or Treasury implyeth two things 1st A Place A good Heart is a Treasury like Heaven in three respects 1. It is great and spatious It comprehends all things within itself It hath nothing above it or without it to shut it up and confine it 2. It is of a shâ—â—â—ing and glorious Substance made of Light 3. It is incorruptible immoâ—â— impregnable No Thief can there break in to steal No moth or rust consumes There is no Principle of corruption or decay within No power from without can prevail there 2. Precious things laid up in this Heavenly Heart make it a good Treasury All the precious things of the Sun and Moon of the Heavens above and the deep below are here Here are Eden and Paradise Gen. 2. 10. A River went out of Eden to water the Garden The Jews observe from this place that there are two Paradises a
fitted and filled up only with the Truth of that Type those Three ever-blessed Persons as their Seal in the noblest mettal next themselves it contains more expresly more at large and more gloriously all those Figures and Draughts of Divinity which are imprinted upon the Face of any Creature O the inestimable Treasures of Mans Natural Heart if Sin change it not from a Palace of Angels to a Prison of Devils or a Grave 2. There is a Spiritual Heart 1 Corin. 6. 16. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Mark the Absoluteness and Universality of the expression one Spirit He who is joyned to the Lord Jesus by believing is one Spirit with Christ one Spirit in Christ one Spirit as Christ is one Galat 3. 19 20. St. Paul thus distinguisheth between the Law and the Gospel The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one There is a Twofold Mediator one who hath his Ground in the Distance and his End to maintain the Distance between Two Parties The other is founded in an Unity and his work is to manifest and make perfect this Unity The Character of the Law is Duality and Division God and the Creature are presented each to other as two upon different Principles treating on a Covenant of works containing different Terms to be performed by each apart In the Gospel God reveals himself as he is One as he is the Ground the Object the End of all his affections and operations as he comprehends himself and the Creature in one Person and in one Spirit in our Lord Jesus as he loves the Creature with the same love with which he loves himself and beholds it in the same Glory with which he beholds himself in Christ. This is the Covenant of Grace in which the Lover and the Beloved are both One You may now ask me two Questions Q. 1. How God is One Q. 2. How a Believer is one Spirit Q. 1. How is God One An. God is one four wayes 1. He is perfect He comprehends all parts of Excellency in every kind and degree Essentially in one supream and undivided Point of Being within himself He is to himself the Eye the Light and the Object the Love the Loveliness the Joy and Fruit of both all in One. The most curious Composition of all Sweets in one Ointment or Perfume The most natural extraction of the vertues of all herbs and flowers into one Sweetness in Hony falls infinitely short of the Unity of all Perfections here and the Perfection of this Unity 2. God is Pure There is no mixture in him As they say of Gold the purest Mettal It is plenum sui full of itself so is God in the highest sense Every grain of pure Gold is Gold Every thing in God is God There is no mixture Division Allay or Bound The Divine Nature is endlesly compleat and entire within itself like a Sea of unshaded Light which hath no shore or Bottom God is Light and in him is no darkness 2 John 1. 5. 3. God is unchangeable He is the Rock unmoveable He is the Rock of ages All successions of Time like Waters of a River pass by him and behold him through all revolutions fixt in the same place and State He is the Rock of Eternity As Wheels turning round in a Cave within a great Rock So all the Times and Changes of this World are comprehended within the Unchangeableness and Eternity of his Essence 4. God is the Fountain He is not a Broken Barren but a perfect and pregnant Unity Rom. 9. 36. Of him and Through him and To Him are all things to whom be Glory for ever As all numbers are a Unity multiplied so are all things various Sparklings of this Divine Unity Emanations and Manifestations of the same God presenting himself to us at sundry times and in divers manners Love is defined to be Partus in pulchro a Birth in a Beauty This is the true nature of things that Divine Love which is the Birth of all Varieties of and in this Beautiful this Blessed Unity 2. Q. How is a Believer one Spirit 1. That One Eternal Spirit brings forth the Spirit of a Saint as his own immediate proper and Peculiar Birth as the dear Reflection of himself A Saint is the Workmanship of Jesus Christ not as a Picture is of a Painter but as a Child is of the Father one Spirit one Life one Divine Nature is in Both. 2. This one Spirit begets and brings forth the Spirit of a Saint in his own likeness Rom. 8. 29. God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is to his heavenly Image as he is the quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 49. The Lord Jesus is our Father the Father of the new World the New Birth in us as he is the Heavenly one that Spirit which is the supream Unity the Lord and Fountain of Life and Spirits So he brings us forth in the Image of the same Heavenly Form and of the same Divine Unity Thus he prays to his Father John 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest to me I have given to them that they may be One as we are One. Behold the Divine Birth of a Saint the Divine Likeness into which he is born and the Divine Unity the Ground and Form of the Divine Birth and Likeness 3. The Eternal Spirit unites itself to the Spirit of a Believer thus regenerated in the most Intimate Entire and Inseparable manner They mutually inhabit fully possess perfectly enjoy each other In life and death time and eternity they are undivided Thus this Heavenly Adam the Unity and Fountain of Spirits casts himself into the sleep of Humane Life and of Death that he may bring forth from his Side and his Bosom this Sister-Spirit this true Eve the Mother of all Living of all Heavenly and Spiritual Lives as he is the Father Then when he awakens in the Resurrection from the Dead he takes her to be his Spouse as she is his Sister in the Fellowship of the Divine Unity which is the glorious Ring and Circle of all Relations So she who is Spirit of his Spirit in the likeness of the same Spirit is made one Spirit with him Thus you have an Answer to these two Questions You see how God is One How he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit O that men knew God unvailed revealed in the Light and Grace of the Gospel as he is One O that they they did rellish the Sweetness of this Unity of the Spirit which is the height of all Relations by which God is one to a Believer in all times and things one in him one with him by which he also is one to in and with God! This sight and sense would make us to be continually in Pangs of longings to be regenerated and brought forth into this Spirit and Unity as Jesus Christ is
always in pangs of Love to bring it forth and form it in us But to conclude this Reason This Holy Spirit this Spirit of Unity and Unity of the Spirit is the Spiritual heart of which we speak St. Paul Ephes. 3. expresseth it by being rooted in Love This is that Root which we have in the eternal Love of God in that Love which is God in God as he is Love This is the new Heart which is bred and cherished in the bosom of the Father These Heavens above us comprehend in their Circuits all things here below which as learned men teach us are figures images of their vertues sent forth from them But they have fixed in themselves innumerable Bodies of Light and Glory far exceeding all things here They say that these Heavens are Circular because that round Figure is most caâ—acious and beautiful as being an Image of the Unity of Angelical 〈◊〉 How great and glorious a Circle then vastly transcending the Heaven of Heavens is this Divine Unity this Spirit which is the new heart of a Saint All the Heavens and this earth lie within the compass of it as Light shadows which it casteth from it self But as for those Treasures which are proper to it which are fixt in it how infinitely more innumerable how infinitely richer are they The mind of Christ with all the Beauties and Brightnesses there the deep things of God with all those Lights and Joys unfathomable to every natural Eye and Heart lie within the Circuit of this Spiritual Principle A great Philosopher call'd the Angelical Spirit in man which is his Natural Heart the Flower of the Soul It is so indeed as the Blossoms upon Fruit-Trees but the Divine Spirit the Spiritual heart is the Fruit 1. Use. Seek this good heart which hath so good a Treasure in it That you may seek it with all affection and diligence take these Three directions Believe the Truth of this Principle Consider the Preciousness of it Understand your Propriety in it 1. Believe the Truth of this Principle When the Apostles asked the Christians in Samaria whether they had received the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not so much as heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. Is not this the temper of many amongst us of most of the sensitive and natural Spirit in us all We do not so much as believe that there is a Holy Ghost much less that this Holy Ghost is poured out upon any Soul as a Heavenly Anointing from above or dwells in any heart as the Principle of a supernatural and eternal Life He that comes to God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Fix in thine heart with an unshaken faith these two Radical Truths from which all the fatness and sweetness of the Tree of Life is derived into our Spirits 1. That God is 2. That there is a Union between God and Man in One Spirit Say frequently to thy self It is true It is the first Truth upon which all other Truths are built that there is a supream incomprehensible Being which shines through all and fills all the Fountain and Measure the End Perfection and Blessedness of all Beings It is as true that this ever-glorious God descends in Jesus Christ to sow himself by his own good Spirit as a Divine Seed in the heart of man below that by the unvailing of his original Excellencies he shines as a spiritual Sun from above into the Soul to quicken awake and call forth this Seed in the vertue of which the Soul springs into a new and heavenly Being comes to God by the fresh Participations of his life grows up into his Likeness pleaseth him is possess'd and enjoy'd by him possesseth and enjoyeth him with an unexpressible fulness of all mutual and Divine Pleasures When the Merchant in the Gospel found a Pearl in the Field he went and sold all to purchase this Field If you have discovered this rich Pearl of the Divine Nature as a Root at the bottom of yoâ—â— Spirits go exchange every Principle Power and excellency to give 〈◊〉 self up to the conduct activity fruitfulness enjoyment of this alone 2. Consider the preciousness of this Heavenly Principle Es. 6. 13. God compares his people in the greatest desolations to an Oak whose Substance is in it when it hath cast its leaves so saith he the Holy Seed shall be the Substance thereof Consider here three Precious Things in this good Heart which is the Seed and Principle of Grace in us 1. This Spiritual Principle is a Substance Solomon complains of all things under the Sun the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing He brings this as an Argument and effect of their vanity All things here are Shadows only and so empty unsatisfactory endlesly raising expectations and desire but never answering them When this Spirit which is far above the Sun is received by thee when this becomes the Principle of all thy faculties which sees in thine Eye hears in thine Ear understands and wills in thine heart when this is the Treasury from which all Objects come forth to act those faculties then thine Eye will be satisfied with seeing substantial Beauties thine Ear will be filled with substantial Melodies thine Understanding will sit down to a Heavenly Feast of substantial Lights and Truths thy Will shall lie down to a Sweet and Eternal rest in a bed of substantial Embraces and Joys in the midst of the Substance and Essence of Goodness itself 2. This is the Holy Seed The Heavens over our Heads are pure They are free from that gross and dark Matter with which all Forms of things are mixt here on Earth This Purity of theirs is their Transparency Light Lustre Harmony Vertue Incorruptibility Yet they are Corporeal and Bodily their bright Beauties shall be turned into Darkness and Blood The Angels are purer far than these Heavens They have no Cloud Clog or Dross of Bodies Yet are they mixtures of Light and Shade Their Glories are vails upon the true Glory They wax old as a Garment and are changed Their Nature is subject to stains and falls But this Principle which is the Seed and Heart of a Believer is purer than the Heavens or the Angels It is the Spirit of God the true Light in which there is no Darkness Simple incorruptible Unchangeable 3. This Principle is durable It is a Fountain springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life John 4. O precious Treasure Eternity is defined to be the full and unbounded Possession of all Good at once in One. Pearls have their price because they have their lustre in a lasting Substance This Holy Seed is the onely Pearl of price both for its Lustre and for its lastingness The Will of Man naturally moves to good The greater the good is and the more clearly it appears to us so much the more natural and powerful are the motions
others Beauties Jesus Christ in the Canticles often calls the Holy Soul his Sister-Spouse He calls her Can. 1. 9. My Love The word in Hebrew according to its Root is the same with that which signifies a Friend who is described to be Alter Idem the same in another Person It properly imports One made into Two by a Division as Adam and Eve the other half on Ones self 3. By a Union of Substances Bodies can never meet in One No one Body can ever be in two places at once nor two bodies ever in one place They unite only by Touches by their outsides by Accidents and Shadows A Holy Heart and Heavenly Things unite as Spirits as the purest Spirits where the Unity is most perfect These intimately totally essentially formally penetrate possess fill and actuate each other You have a shadow of it in the mixture of Lights or in two clear and bright Eyes when they look full and stedfastly one upon another So Christ prays John 17. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us Again v. 23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One. The Radical and Original Unity is that of the Blessed Persons in the Trinity the most immediate Branches and liveliest Copies of it are those Two of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's Person of the Head and Members in his Mystical Body But this shall suffice for our present Doctrine that a good Heart is a Treasury of good things PSAL. XLV VER II. Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever THis Psalm is a Song of Loves It containeth the whole mystery of the Gospel and of the life of a Saint with his Saviour both in the Figure and Substance which is all an Heavenly Song of Spiritual and eternal Loves An Holy Soul in love with Jesus Christ is altogether taken up with this Threefold exercise 1. The Description and Contemplation of the Person of her Beloved 2. The Desire and continual longings by day and by night to be possess'd of to enjoy this Person 3. The care and labour to be like him to partake of his Beauties and Graces to derive them by the channels and streamings of the Spirit into itself to transform itself into his Likeness St. Paul spends the first part of his discourses in drawing aside the Curtain and setting the Person of Christ in its entire form naked glories and native sweetnesses in the Eyes of Believers Then he leadeth and presseth them to the enjoyment first next to the Imitation of this Jesus upon the ground of his own Loveliness Love and Life The first part of this Psalm is spent in like manner upon the Person and Praises of the Lord Jesus This Verse hath Three Parts 1. The Beauty of Christ Thou art fairer than the Children of Men 2. The Love and Sweetness of Christ Grace is poured into thy lips 3. The Seal of the God-Head of the Father of his Blessedness and Eternity upon the Person of Christ therefore God hath blessed thee for ever 1. The first part in the Text is the Beauty of Christ Thou art fairer than the Children of Men. Jesus Christ is the fairest of all men He is fairer than the whole generation of Mankind He is fairer than any person born of Man The Lord Jesus excells all Mankind in Beauty in Three respects 1. The Humane Nature of Christ taken by itself was born of a Virgin-Mother and God immediately supplying the place of a Father So it was as a Morning-beam begotten between a pure Sun and a clear sweet Air. Then it was born without Sin the proper and only deformity of Spirits Thus his Soul and Body were like a Silver stream flowing quietly in a clean channel where the Image of the Skie and all the Heavenly Bodies figures itself constantly and clearly So did the Mind Will and Workings of the God-Head figure themselves and shine in the Manhood of Christ. Lastly it is the common sense of Divines that the Complexion of Christ was very delicate and pure arising from the most accurate proportion of the Elements the most exact Harmony and purity of the Humours and Spirits in his Body We never read that he was at all Sick As this made all his Sufferings the greater thorough the quickness of his sence so it made him in his outward Form extreamly sweet and lovely above the rest of men But besides all this the Holy Ghost seems to fix its eye upon the Humane Nature of Christ in two other States different from that of his Incarnation by the Virgin Mary as he is the First-born of the whole Creation or of every Creature and as he is the First-born of those that rise from the Dead Coloss. 1. 15 18. The Jews say that the Messias was the first Creature that all the rest were made by Him in Him and for Him as Pictures to the Life and Copies to the Original A German Divine teacheth that he who receives the Body of Christ receives at once all that is good or fair in the whole world from the Beginning to the End of it But the Humanity of the Lord Jesus as he is the First-born of those that are risen from the Dead excels Adam in all his Innocency and primitive Perfections yea and Himself also as he was the First-born of every Creature the Natural Head of Angels as much as Heaven exceeds the Earth or a Paradise in the third Heavens an Earthly One 1 Corin. 15. 49. The former was an Earthly Beauty fading designed for a Sacrifice to be exposed to all sorts of shame and Sufferings to be made a Prey to the devouring jaws of Death This latter Beauty is Heavenly Incorruptible seated upon a throne which indureth for ever and ever 2. The Second Respect in which Christ is fairer than the Children of men is the Union between the Divine and Humane Nature All the Beauties of our Saviours Manhood are heightned by this Union to that Lustre and Loveliness which cannot be express'd in any meer Creature as a fine Cloud a Garden of Flowers a Statue of Gold are quite other things when the naked Sun sheds his Beams immediately upon them than when they are seen in a common or reflected Light By vertue of this Union the Humane Nature of Christ is One Person with the Divine As precious stones are a common water congealed but inclosing particles of the Heavenly Aetherial Light and Spirit So the Manhood of the Lord Jesus in its lowest state of Flesh in its Blood in the Grave excel'd in vertue outshined in Lustre Rubies Diamonds all the precious things of the Creature in Heaven and Earth by vertue of this Union For in all these States God was the Person there all subsisted in him as Branches in the Tree of Eternity As Thomas did to the Wounds of Christ
persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit In the First of these verses Jerusalem above is said to be the Mother of us all In the Second these All us are expounded to be the Children of Promise In the Third verse the same persons are described by being born after the Spirit This Phrase of being born after the Spirit is fully explained by that of Jesus Christ from whence it seemeth to be taken John 3. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit To be born after the Spirit and of the Spirit signifie both the same thing Is it not then evident that the Jerusalem above which is free which is the mother of all the Spiritual Seed is the Eternal Spirit after which a Saint is born that is of this Spirit and in the Image of this Spirit where there is Liberty 2 Corin. 4. Now lay the Third Scripture by these two Heb. 12. 22. We are come to Mount Sion the Heavenly Hierusalem the City of the living God to the Millions of Angels the general Assembly to the Church of the First-born written in Heaven to the Spirits of just men made perfect to God to Jesus Christ. Before we Saw Hierusalem above and the Spirit now we see Mount Sion and the Heavenly Hierusalem to be the same Is it not then an infallible demonstration that Sion and the Holy Spirit are One as the Type and the Truth Can any other be the living City of the living God where all the Holy Angels the First-born of the Father the Spirits of all Saints as well on Earth as in Heaven Jesus Christ in his Mediatory Kingdom the Father upon the Throne of Judicature meet and appear together in the full liberty of Eternal Light Love and Joy besides the Unity of the Spirit which is the Sweet and Sacred band between the two Glorious Persons in the Trinity between all pure Spiritual Divine Beings above and below This is the Spring and Immortal Seat of them all 2. We have in this place another Person set forth by this bright and lovely Character the Perfection of Beauty We may discover our own Beloved and Bridegroom the Lord Jesus under this Title if we bring to it the Lights of two other Scriptures shining like this by his Appearance in them In Heb. 1. 3. He is stiled the Brightness of Glory Is not this the same as to say The Perfection of Beauty 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined in our hearts unto the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ Can Face answer Face in a Glass more exactly than these Two Scriptures answer one another In both you have God God shining in one you have God shining from the Perfection of Beauty in the other God shining with a Light of Glory in the Face or Person of Christ. God in all the Creatures whether they be Visible or Invisible casts forth Shadows only of Himself Then he appeareth in the Perfection of Beauty when he appeareth in the Person of Christ as Light in the Body of the Sun 3. But why are these two so joyned as if they were the same Thing from Sion the perfection of Beauty I will not examine whether we may not disjoyn them in reading by putting in between them and or in Particles frequently understood from Sion and or in the Perfection of Beauty God shineth This needeth not There is plainly a difference between the English and the Hebrew The Hebrew runneth word for word thus From Sion from the Perfection of Beauty God hath shined So you have the Three Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity clearly distinguished and united in this shining of the God-Head The Father shineth from the Spirit his holy hill of Sion from the Person of Christ the Perfection of Beauty These Two Persons are placed here as One in Another a Globe of Light in a Globe of Light and the Father shining from them both to awaken in us this great and glorious Truth that the Persons of the Sacred Trinity have their Perfection in each other and are ever undivided when they appear nakedly in their proper Forms The whole Trinity is the Crown of Beauty upon every one of them In particular Jesus Christ never appears as the Perfection of Beauty but when he and the Spirit appear both in One 2 Cor. 3. from the 14th to the end you read of a vail upon the Face of Moses the Person of Christ in the Type then of a vail upon the Hearts of the Jews These are both the same vail For the vail is never upon the Person of Christ properly and simply but upon the Eye of our Spirits as the Cloud is never upon the Body of the Sun but upon our Corporeal Eyes For as that doth in the midst of its world so doth the Person of Christ in the midst of all things ever comprehend and contemplate himself and all things in the simple and pure Light of his own naked Beauties But then in the same place we read that the Vail is taken away in Christ and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty that is freedom from the Vail Christ is seen unvailed in his naked Glories It is added Now the Lord is that Spirit Then mention is made in the last verse of beholding the Glory of the Lord with open Face that is Eye to Eye the naked Eye of our Souls to the naked Eye of his Beauties every Spirit being all Eye The verse is closed thus as by the Spirit of the Lord or more agreeably to the Greek as of the Lord the Spirit I have alledged all this to make it plain to you and to seal it upon your understandings and memories that Jesus Christ is then only seen in his true Person and shape without a vail when he is seen in the Spirit when Christ and the Spirit are seen as two distinct Persons in One. Sion the Type of the Spirit signifieth Vision Hierusalem the Figure of the same Spirit the Heavenly Hierusalem is by interpretation the Heavenly Vision of Heavenly Perfection and Peace The Lord Jesus is the Perfection of Beauty the Heavenly Harmony of all things the Peace of all Hearts and Desires The Person of the Spirit is the Heavenly Vision of this Heavenly Perfection By the way observe that the Holy Ghost speaks in this 50 Psal. of the Day of Judgement the Second and last Coming and Appearance of our Lord and Saviour after which he shall go away and disappear no more See here what manner of Appearance this is in what State in what Form the King of Glory comes to the Marriage of his Bride and to reign upon the Earth He comes in a Spiritual and Divine Form in the Person of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit is an anointing of Beauty upon the whole Person of our Beloved He again is a Sun of Beauty looking forth in the Person of Spirit Nay the
Lord Jesus cometh in the Glory of all the Three Persons the Father shineth in the Person of the Son the Son shineth in the Person of the Spirit all Three in One shine together in the glorified Humanity of the Lord Jesus all three glorifie that with themselves Inhabiting and shining forth round about with a full Light of glory in it Figuring themselves in their Divinest Forms upon it overshadowing it and cloathing it with the Brightnesses of their own most entire and most naked Appearances Thus is Jesus the Perfection of Beauty The Glory of the God-Head is now consummate in Him when all the Three Persons appear quite unvailed in his Person You who love and wait for this Appearance of your Heavenly Bridegroom who see this day which his Spiritual Beauties make and rejoyce to see it with a Joy unspeakable and glorious you who live in the sweet dawnings of this day upon you you who have any thing of the Spirit of the Bride in you cry continually Even so so come quickly Lord Jesus in this Thrice-Beautiful and Thrice-Blessed Appearance Thus the Person of Christ is the Perfection of Beauty Perfection implyeth 3 Things 1. Clearness 2. Compleatness 3. Comprehensiveness 1. Clearness That which is perfect is pure hath no spot or mixture of any thing Forreign As every drop of Milk is Milk so every thing the smallest Point in the Person of Christ is Beauty He is Beauty itself in the abstract in its simple Essence This Finite world cannot satisfie our desires because they are infinite Behold here the Person of Christ a world of Beauty and infinite to terminate and satiate your infinite desires For every thing is bounded by another or by its Contrary nothing by itself as Light by Darkness Life by Death Our Lord Jesus is a Light of Beauty where there is no Darkness and so no bound to set a stop to it from multiplying itself endlesly within itself meeting no where in its utmost Circles of glory with any thing besides itself It is this Beauty which is sown in every Spirit shooting up and budding in desires flowring in delights Love is this Beauty in the Seed desires the sproutings of this Love Therefore are our Loves and Desires infinite because this Jesus the Beauty which is their Root and their Fruit is so 2. Compleatness The Beauty of Christ is perfect nothing can be added to it Solomon saith Eccles. 1. 7. All rivers run into the Sea and the Sea is not at all the fuller It is the Person of Christs which is this Mystical Sea of all Beauty and Sweetness all the rivers of created Beauty and Sweetness go forth from him and take away nothing They all return into him again and add nothing When Lot had been made to drink Wine freely by his Daughters he perceived not when they lay down nor when they rose up Believing beloved Souls drink in the Lovelinesses of your own Heavenly Husband drink abundantly of them so will ye have little or no sense of the presence of the Sweetness of any Object or Relation among the Creatures when ye lye down in its embraces or of its absence when ye rise up from it never to return to the enjoyment or sight of it any more Your Jesus in his single Person is all Loveliness compleat in itself He is the same that which all Creature are that which they are not with them and without them Their presence and their absence are the same equally full of the same Beauty and Sweetness in him 3. Comprehensiveness The Perfection of Beauty comprehendeth all Beauties and Beautiful Things in itself It is the First and Essential Beauty which by its presence beautifies every thing The Beauties of Angels Stars and Flowers of Bodies and Spirits all flourish together eminently and unfadingly in the Person of Christ which is the Paradise of God and the Bed of Flowers there Thou who mournest and loathest thy self for some Deformity or Defilement of Spirit who bemoanest thy self for some defect comfort thy self concerning this in the Person of Christ. God is said in one place to call all the Stars by name and no one of them is wanting The Person of thy Saviour hath all Spiritual and Natural Beauties in itself Here thou mayst call by Name the proper Beauties of thy Person to cloath all thy shame with Glory to supply all thy wants with suitable Grace Thou shalt find no one wanting Every one will answer readily here am I behold I bear thine Image and the Inscription of thy Name upon me I have been laid up from Eternity in the Perfection of Beauty and kept for thee unto this Season You that complain for the want of any Loveliness come to Jesus Christ that you may have it and have it in abundance richly to enjoy He is that well of Beauty springing up to eternal Life that is with All with Infinite with Endless Beauties You who 〈◊〉 your hearts captivated by any thing lovely on Earth come hither Where the Person of Christ is seen as he appears in the Spirit unvailed there is Liberty the fulness of a Divine Beauty the freedom of a Divine Love taking off from our hearts the Chains of every ensnaring and enslaving passion Behold that which thou lovest in Christ the perfection of Loveliness where it is truest and sweetest so love it in him Behold Christ beautifying by his presence every beautiful Object like the Sun-shine on Flowers so love him in it One said if a man know not the way to the Sea let him follow the course of a River Every stream of Sweetness flows from our Saviour and runs into him Let thy heart accompany it in this course so shall it be led by a pleasant Guide to Jesus Christ. The nearer thou followest it to Christs Person the larger and fuller will the Sweetness be as a River near the Ocean till it be perfected in him When thy heart breaketh over any departing Beauty or dying Sweetness in a Friend Child Wife or Life then think upon the Comprehensiveness of Christs Beauty which holds all other Beauties in it as Heaven doth the Angels Solomon saith in Ecclesiastes When man dieth the body goeth to the Dust from whence it came the Spirit to God who gave it Each thing returns to its Original to the Element from whence it is taken and of which it is ever a part Darkness sinks down into the Pit of Darkness the Spirit which is the Light Life Sweetness every where every Spark and Image of Divinity re-ascends and retreats into the Bosom of the first Image of God which is Christ. Each pleasantness each beam of loveliness is a glance and sparkle of this Eternal Image of Essential Beauty which enfoldeth all things and mingleth itself with all things That which thou callest the fading of any Sweetness dear unto thee is only the hasting of the loving stream to its beloved Sea the disappearing of the bright flame of Life into the glorious Brightness
of its unseen Element Thou sayst it is now dying now dead when it is emptying itself into the Ocean of Beauties retreating into the pure and incorruptible Element of Beauty the Blessed Person of Christ. Cleave to it in this view of it cast thy self with it into these secret and sacred depths of Life and Loveliness so shalt thou never lose it or thy self save by being both together swallowed up into the perfection of Beauty the Eternal Treasury of all Beauties Jesus Christ. I have now finished the Two first Reasons of the Fairness of Christ above all things the Original the Perfection of Beauty in his Person Before I pass to the other Two Reasons let us look down a little upon our selves and make some application of these Beauties which we have seen in the Person of our Lord to our own Persons to enlighten the Darknesses and redress the deformities there Use. 1. A Caution Let us take heed that we make no inference take no encouragement from the Loveliness of Christ to make our selves unlovely in his Eye to defile his Spouse in our selves to stain his Glory by Sensuality Lust or any presumptuous Sin Our Saviour now dying saith to his Father of his Disciples I sanctify my self that they also may be sanctified John 17. Jesus Christ put off in Death every thing of Earth and Flesh. He lifteth himself up by his Cross into Glory that he may present himself again to the Eye of our Spirits in the Spiritual and Heavenly Brightness of the Divine Form and Glory that he may baptize us into the same Sea of his Blood and into the same white Cloud of his own Spiritual Beauties that we also by him may die to the Flesh and live with him in the Spirit Hath Jesus Christ to this end made himself higher than the Heavens Heb. that our Hearts and Liveâ— should be low and vile as the Earth Is he ascended above all the Angels all the Principalities and Powers of Light that we should become like Beasts and yield up our Bodies and Spirits Instruments to the Principalities and Powers of the Darkness of this World and of Hell Is there any hope of renewing such a Person by words who thus turneth the rightest and pleasantest words of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties unto nourishment to vain and filthy Lusts to Corruption Is any more to be done but to leave him to that Dreadful and Delightful Maran Atha which is by interpretation The Lord cometh to the Person of Christ himself in his own immediate Appearances when those glorious and unexpressible Beauties of the Spirit and God-Head in which he shall appear shall be Flames of Fire burning upon and consuming every Earthly Fleshly Principle or Spirit in every Form Use. 2. A Conviction of the Evil of Sin which blindeth us to the sight of this Beautiful and Blessed Person of our Lord Jesus How should we all curse to the Pit of Hell from whence it arose that Charm or Enchantment if any had such force to change the Sun into Sack-cloath or hinder it from shining any more upon the Earth How much worse than a Grave would it make the whole world when we should have eyes open and no Light Far greater is that mischief which the Devil worketh by Sin By the charm of this world which he raiseth as an Apparition and Lying Image from Hell together with the Lusts which he awakeneth by it he taketh away from us the glorious Light of Christs Person ten thousand times brighter sweeter and of more consequence to us than the Sun in Heaven 2 Corin. 4. 4. By this means all our faculties are as so many Eyes continually awakened continually benighted with the blackness of Darkness deluded with empty Shadows and disappointed of the beloved Substance So are our Spirits wandring in an everlasting Darkness tormented night and day with the fire of their own restless eager and unsatisfied desires while Jesus Christ their only Light and Food is hid from them under the Cloud of their Corruptions Take heed especially of three Sins 3 of Covetousness Uncleanness Enmity 1. Take heed of Covetousness Mat. 6. 22. Our Saviour warneth his Disciples to take heed what they made their Treasure because where the Treasure sure is there the Heart will be v. 21. The beloved Object irresistibly draweth the Heart to itself and transformeth it into itself as Seed doth the ground in which it is sown The Eye saith Christ is the Light of the Body If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness and if the Light which is in thee be darkness how great is that Darkness The whole Soul and every Spirit is an Eye The understanding is an Eye of Light the Will is an Eye of Love The same word for the substance of it in the Hebrew signifies an Eye and a Fountain The Object is the Light of this Eye which sheds abroad in it the Beams of its Light Sweetness and Influence These are the waters springing up in this Fountain The single Eye in the Language of the Scripture is the good the liberal large open Eye The Eye is single from its Object when it hath fixed unchangeably in it that single Object which is truly and eternally One when it looketh upon all things only as they are comprehended in this Unity This is such a singleness such a simplicity that the Eye and the Object are both One the Supream and Eternal Unity is both the Eye and the Object in this Spirit and so the Fountain which goeth forth from its own Eden maketh the Soul a Paradise and watereth the whole Body The Evil Eye is a contracted divided narrow covetous envious malicious Eye Beware O man that the things of this world that this world be not in thine Eye As Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God so is this World the Image of its God the Devil the Prince of Darkness by which he becomes visible to thee enamouâ—eth thy Soul setteth himself in thine Eye and thine Heart with all his Hells and Fires hid within this Cloud And now a blackness of Darkness big with a dreadful Tempest of Wrath dwelleth within thee and covereth all things round about thee But if Jesus Christ be the Object of thy Love he will be as a Divine Sun in the Center and midst of thy Spirit powring forth a great plenty of rich and glorious Beams thorow all parts every point of thy Soul thy Body every thing round about thee Now all things shall be to thee one entire and beautiful Body of Divine Light Indeed the world compared with the great and glorious world of Light and Beauty in the Person of Christ is as a Mote in the Sun But if this Mote be in thine Eye it will deprive thee of the sight of this Sun 2. Take heed of Uncleanness St. Jude v. 23. teacheth us to hate the Garment spotted
murmurings whisperings hard thoughts evil speakings or any such thing Heaven is not now open upon you neither do you see Jesus as he comes up out of the Baptism of his Sufferings into a Resurrection of Glory with the Eternal Spirit in the Form of a Dove in a Form of Love resting upon him The Priests in the Temple were Morning and Evening to trim the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick by pouring in fresh Oil that the Light might not go out by day nor by night Your Persons O ye Saints are the Temple your Spiritual and Divine part the Golden Candlestick the Heavenly Person of your beloved is the Light in the Lamps of this Candlestick If you would preserve this Light of Glory continually shining in you be continually pouring in from that vessel of Love the Heart of the Father fresh Love which is the Golden Oyl of the Spirit in which the Life and Light of the Divine Nature burneth and shineth eternally But to conclude my discourse concerning these Three Sins The Scripture saith Covetousness is Idolatry We make an Idol of every Image besides the Lord Jesus alone which we set up in our Hearts as real and excellent to bow down our Souls to it by our esteem and affection Every Idol hath its Devil in it St. Paul saith plainly What the Gentiles Sacrifice to Idols they Sacrifice to Devils You cannot eat of the Table of the Lord which is his Glorified Person to feast upon the Delicacies of his Beauties set before your Spirits there and eat of the Table of Devils which is this world to feed upon the Dainties of the Flesh here You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord which is his Spirit to take in the Wine of Spiritual Sweetnesses from this and drink of the Cup of Devils which is the Spirit of this World to swallow down the riches and pleasant things of that 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. We read of Spots at the Feasts of the Saints who are those that have Eyes full of Adultery St. Jude expoundeth those Feasts to be Feasts of Charity that is Love-Feasts which were Joyned with the Supper of the Lord. The Appearances of Christs Person in the Visible Angelic l Divine Images are our several Love-Feasts An adulterous Eye in the moral sense which looketh upon any visible Object after an undue manner is a Spot upon the First Love-Feast The adulterous Eye in a legal sense which looketh upon any Fleshly or visible Figure of things is a Spot upon the Second The adulterous Eye which setteth its Love upon Created Forms on Earth or in Heaven is a Spot upon the Last and best Love-Feasts All these Spots are Clouds upon the Person and stains upon the Beauty of Christ which at once dishonour and grieve him darken and defile us making us unworthy and uncapable of his blessed Appearances to us As an adulterous Eye of Lust so the blood-shot Eye of Wrath is unable to look upon this Heavenly Object or to bear the brightness of his Glory I will wind up this Use with this solemn adjuration and charge If there be such a Person as our Jesus if this Person have such unsearchable Treasures of Beauty and Joy in it if the presence and appearance of this King in his Beauty as a Bridegroom as a Spiritual Sun in the hearts of the Saints be no dream or fancy but the very Spirit and Truth and Life of the Gospel I adjure and charge you all his Saints by the Hinds and Roes of the Field by the lovely Person of your Christ by the pleasantness of his Appearances in you that laying aside Covetousness casting away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit putting off all Wrath Malice Envyings and evil speakings you fix your Eye upon fill your Souls with the Beautiful and blessed Person of the Lord Jesus This is your own Fountain Drink waters from this Fountain alone Behold your selves one another all things in the Light of this Person of these Beauties as they lie here as they are comprehended in this fairest greatest and most Divine Image of all Loveliness Christ is the Truth The Appearance of things in the sweet Light of his lovely Person is True This is that Truth which if you walk in it shall dwell with you for ever shining with a precious and living lustre in the darkest places of Sorrow or Death In this Truth live at peace live in love within your selves with one another with all things So the God of Peace and Love shall be with you Amen Reas. 3. I now come to the Third Reason of the Doctrine our Lord Jesus is the fairest of all things because he hath all the parts of Beauty compleat and entire in his person That work with my own Spirit and with all Spirits which is my design and delight is to woo them for Christ and espouse them as chast Virgins to Christ. Eccles. 12. 10. We read that the Preacher sought out acceptable words and the words which he found out were upright Solomon was a figure of Christ in glory King in the Hierusalem above This Glorious Person is the Preacher the Text and the Sermon Acceptable words in the Original Language are words of delight as you may see in the Margin If ever it be fit to seek out pleasant and delightful words it is on this Subject when we treat of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties If ever it be necessary to take care to speak right words it is now when we speak of him whose Person is the Center from which all the lines of the Gospel of Evangelical Truths Graces Comforts Glories Spirits are drawn into which they all run in which they all meet My endeavour therefore is that all my discourses may be steps from one Scripture to another that by the explications and applications of these I may enlighten your minds to the sight and warm your affections to the love of these Blessed and Heavenly Beauties There are four Parts of which all Beauty consisteth 1. Variety 2. Harmony in the variety 3. Light in the Harmony 4. Life in that Light These four meet all eminently and transcendently in the highest degree in the Person of our Saviour 1. There is all variety in the Person of Christ. Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Observe how St. Paul cometh to this total Sum at the foot of the Account to this Conclusion of all Fulness in Christ. From the 15 th v. to this you have the whole Compass of Things in Nature Grace and Glory From the 15 th to the 18 th you have the Circuit of Nature in the full extent of the Creation with its Creator First there is God as he is the Author of Nature Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God v. 15. Then you have the whole Creation He is the First-born of every Creature or of all the Creation The First-born is the Excellency of Dignity the Excellency of Strength Every
first Sun they shine in the midst of them shine quite thorow them They behold not the Figures ascending like a Pillar of Smoak perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary from this golden Altar of Christs glorious Form comprehending them and being ever beneath them how they lose themselves by degrees in the sweet shade of Christs Death how they spring again new in the brightness of his Resurrection how they lie continually in the Original Glory where the whole mystery is entirely comprehended perfected and finisht These men set not their hearts upon this glory of the Father in Christ to make that their Righteousness their Strength and their Song in every other Appearance as in the house of their Pilgrimage They take no pleasure in the joints of all the members in this Divine Body which are Jewels wrought by the hand of a skilful workman this Unity being itself the mysterious joynt every where setting all and binding all together in itself in that Wisdom of God which is this Beautiful Person of whom we speak But enough of this Caution and of the Second Part of Beauty in our beloved the Harmony in the variâ—ty 3. The Third Part is the Light in the Harmony John 8. 12. Our Lord saith of himself I am the Light of the World As the Sun the chief and most glorious Body is the Light of all Corporeal and bodily Beings so this blessed Person of our Saviour the first and best Spirit is the Light of all Spirits the first and most Glorious Form is the Light of all Forms of Things Bodies and Spirits He is the First the Supream the universal Light He is that highest Circle of Light which rideth forth upon every Circle or Beam of Light each point in every Beam Psal. 36. 9. David saith to God In thy Light shall we see Light The Light of the Father is Jesus Christ the express Image and Glory of the Father These words of the Psalmist have Two senses 1. As colours are seen in the light of the Sun so every colour Light and Being the Light of the Sun itself is seen only in the Light of Christs Person as this pure and eternal Sun shineth upon every other Light and Form in it and thorow it 2. Every thing as it is seen in the Light of this Heavenly Form is a precious stone of the new Hierusalem It hath a spark of this everlasting Light which playeth in it and is incorruptible The Sun is changed into Sack-cloath at the presence of an Angel whose Light so much excelleth that of the Sun that it hath no Light when that other Light shineth forth The highest Angels vail their Faces with their Wings lose all their Light and Glory when Jesus Christ appeareth upon the white Throne of his proper Forms and naked Person What manner of Light is this then how pure how full of Glory how unexpâ—essible incomprehensible This Light this Lustre of the God-Head is that Scene that Circle in which all the variety the ravishing Harmony of Things lieth in Christ. This is the Form of his Person 4. The last Part of Beauty in Christ is the Life in the Light Life is a Spring of Beings which maketh every thing fresh and new every moment Newness is attributed to the Spirit The oldness of the Letter and the Newness of the Spirit are opposed one to another because the Spirit is Life Life is the Spring of Motion which is the Chiefest Charm in Beauty and in which all Pleasures consist Jesus Christ John 8. 12. calleth Himself the Light of Life The Person of our King is that Light which is the Flower and Crown of the Divine Life and that life which is the lustre the Sparkling the Perfume of this Crown and Flower He is the Fountain of Life Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the Fountain of Life This Lovely Person is the Fountain of Life in the Bosom and Heart of the Father Himself He is the Quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. The Lord is that Spirit which is in its own Essence and proper Form Life itself in the Fountain where it is most pure most plentiful most powerful most pleasant How do all Varieties of things 〈◊〉 in the Youth of all Beauty in this Fountain of Life How do they renew their youth their Beauties every moment endlesly Into what mutual traffick of Beauties and Sweetnesses into what uncessant Sprightly Pleasant motions what Divine Acts of Love Joy Delight do they spring up How is the Beauty and Joy of All fulfilled in every one How are all the Beauties and Joys of All eternally varied multiplyed and increased when all lye together in this Fountain of Life and every One hath this Fountain of Life in Himself This Person of Christ is the Fountain of the Divine Life that Springing Fulness of the Divine Nature in each Form Here the Father the Supreme Love eternally generateth the Son the Original Beauty Both in the Spirit eternally embrace each other infuse themselves into each other renew themselves each in other which is the First and Universal Joy the Fountain of Delights Use. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith the onely Object of your Love the Fountain of all your Comfort and Ioy. 1. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Our Jesus in His Spiritual Form of Glory is the Word of God as the Sun itself is Lux the First Light The Scriptures are the Word of God as the Sun-shine Lumen the Secundary Light The First is a Living Light a Light of Life The Second in it self is Light alone without Life Look thorow the outward Word for the Person of Christ. When He cometh in to thy Soul by His Spiritual Appearance He will be a Light of Life in thee at once revealing His Excellencies in thee Giving thee an Eye to see these Excellencies by this Sight Setting them in thine Heart Setting thine Heart upon them as a Root of Faith Esa. 45. 22. Look to me and be saved all ye ends of the Earth saith Jesus from His Throne High and lifted up on which Esay saw Him sitting which is His Divine Form Behold the Person of thy Saviour setteth it self before thee to attract and allure thine Eye by the Light of His Beauties When thou lookest to Him He holdeth thine Heart fast for ever fixt as a Seal upon His Heavenly form by the Fulness of all things Good Great and Glorious in Himself He soweth the seed of his own Form and Fulness in thee by the flowing forth of the Life together with the Light of his Beauties All Objects for Faith to fix upon the answers of all objections against believing the way to believe the power of believing the act of Faith itself with the Sweetness and Fruits of it all these lie folded up in the rich Treasury of Christs Person all these flow in
at once upon the Soul spring up together in it at the unvailing of the Face of the Lord Jesus as the whole knot of Beams pour out themselves in a moment thorow all the Air to enlighten quicken beautify and cheer it when once the Body of the Sun appeareth Look then to Jesus O poor burthened Spirit Look to him that his Light may shew him that his Living Light may be an Eye in thee to see him that thorow this Eye thou mayst drink in by the streams of this Light of Life him and all his Beauties to be a Well springing up to all Grace and Glory to everlasting Life in thee I shall divide this Exhortation into Two Parts 1. Let the single Person of Christ be the only ground of Faith in thee unto justification Es. 60. 1. Arise and shine for the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Thou who lyest in the Dust bearing thy shame as one free among the Dead be no longer unbelieving but believe The Person of Christ in the Glory of the Father is risen upon thee filleth all things round about thee arise and shine in the brightness of his Appearance Consider the Fulness of Beauties in Christ and say thus with thy self Hath the Sun Beauty enough to gild every Dung-hill and Dung-heap here below though that be on Earth and he in Heaven Is not my Jesus then rich enough in Glories to overspread my shame and nakedness to make my Person shine in the Beams of his though he be higher than the Heavens I fal'n down to the nethermost parts of the Earth Ther Person of Christ is an overflowing Sea of Spiritual Beauties For all Fulness dwelleth in him If thou canst not cast thy self into him stand still and see how he breaks forth on every side cometh on upon thee with mighty Floods with a Deluge of Light and Beauty till he cover thee and swallow thee up into his Bottomless depths of pure and Divine Glory as a vessel in the Ocean which is fill'd within and overflown without with the Waters of the great and wide Sea 2. Let the single Person of Christ be the sole Ground of Faith unto Sanctification All Fulness the Fulness of a Sea and of a Spring is in Jesus Christ Num. 21. 17 18. You have an excellent Figure in a History The Children of Israel wanted water in the Wilderness God gave them a Well Then they sung this Song They encompassed the Well they sung to it Spring O Well the Princes digged it with their Staves at the direction of the Law-giver Dost thou want streams of Grace Is thy Soul a dry and barren Wilderness Behold Jesus whom God hath given thee for a Well At the direction of this Law-giver dig up the ground in thine heart till this Well this Jesus appear Then whatever Grace thou wantest at all times encompass his Spiritual Person in thy Soul and sing to him Spring O Well Joh. 4. 14. The Water which I will give him saith Jesus Christ shall be a Well springing up in Him unto everlasting Life Take but in One Drop the least Drop of the Sweetness of Christ the least glance of His Beauty into thy Spirit in this thou takest in the Person of Christ Himself the Fountain that shall spring up within thee unto the Life of Holiness which is the same for Nature and Duration with Eternal Life in Heaven Divine and Incorruptible 2. Make the Single Person of Christ the only Object of thy Love Let all the Fulness of thy Love be poured forth upon this Person which hath All Fulness of Beauty in Him There is a Twofold Love of Benevolence of Complacency 1. Love thy Lord Jesus with all thy Love of Benevolence St. Paul complaineth Philip. 2. 21. Every man seeketh his own things no man the things of Jesus Christ. Seek and pray for the prosperity of Jesus Christ all thy daies in His Truths in His Graces in His Glory thorow the whole Earth in His Church in every Creature where he is sown as a Seed Love him with the Love of Wife Children Friend Country Parents Life In Isaac shall thy Seed be called said God to Abraham In Jesus let all Relations even of thy self to thy self have their Name Truth and Vertue to thee Let all those Blessings with which thou shalt bless any of these come upon the Head of the Lord Jesus Wish well to bless all these in the name of the Lord Jesus Say continually let the Immortal Word upon its Wheels run and be glorified thorow all these thorow the whole Heavens and Earth Those that are Florists and love Flowers procure the choicest slips of Flowers set them in their Gardens water them watch them cherish them with the greatest tenderness and care So do thou love Jesus Christ. Be continually sowing and setting him his Beauties in thine own in every Spirit in every Appearance Water them cherish them by Word Example Faith Prayer Go out often into the Fields go down often into the Gardens to see whether these precious Plants bud and Blossom 2. Love the Person of thy Beloved with all thy Love of Complacency Prov. 18. 1. A man through desire seâ—arating himself intermedleth with all Wisdom or with all Substance Behold here the Spouse her love of Complacency to her Spiritual Bridegroom in three Steps Desire Separation Enjoyment 1. Desire Thy Saviour is called in the Prophet Hag. 2. 7. The desire of all Nations Thy Jesus who hath all Beauties for all Eyes and Spirits who hath all desirable things in himself is the desire of all Nations Shall not he then be the desire of all Principles and Powers of Life or Being in thy whole Spirit Soul and Body shall not he be the Object of all thy desires This Person who is the Sealed Sum and perfection of all Beauties putteth this Song into thy mouth Can. 7. 10. My Beloved is mine and I am his and his desire is towards me As the word there signifieth he continually is circling round about me hovering over me with the Eyes of all his Beauties and Loves upon me as a Kite about his Prey Do thou add to thy Song this part also and my desire is toward him Psal. 27. David saith one thing have I desired of the Lord that I may be all the days of my life in his Temple beholding his Beauty and seeking still The Heavenly Form of Christ is the Temple or Palace and the God or King in it the Beauty of all Say thou to Jesus Christ I now for what is my sighing before thee This is all my desire that I may be continually in the Heavenly Light and Divine Form of thy Person that I may be continually feasting all my Faculties and Senses on thy Beauties and endlesly making fresh Discoveries of new Beauties in thee 2. Separation Cant. 8. 6. The Church cryeth to Christ Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart as a Seal upon thine Arm. For Iealousy that is Love in its Strength
at its Height is strong as Death cruel as the Grave the flame of it is as the Flame of the Lord. Love and Death both agree in this that they are a separation I protest by my Rejoycing in Iesus Christ I dye dayly saith St. Paul The Love of a Saint to Jesus Christ is a Daily Death a Separation from all created Objects a Retirement out of this whole World visible or invisible into the World of the Blessed that World of Eternal Light and Beauty to be alone with Him and in Him to be inseparably united in One Love in One Loveliness in One Spring and One Stream of Beauties with Him as a Seal upon His Heart as a Seal upon His Arm. Where we read Cant. 8. 6. Love is strong as Death cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame which hath is put in by the Translatours a most vehement Flame is in Hebrew the Flame of Jah of the Lord of Jesus Learn here the Divine Mystery of Love in Death The Death of a Believer a Lover of Christ is Love itself which is the Fire of God burning from the Center of our Spirits from beneath the Foundations of our Natural Being till it have consumed the whole frame of this Creation in us and transformed us into one everlasting Flame with itself till it have separated us from every Form of things into his own Shining and Flourishing Form which is the Person of our Beloved the Temple Palace Paradise of Love of the God-Head which is that Primitive the purest Love 3. Enjoyment This is the Third Step in the Love of Complacency The Intermedling with all Wisdom or all Substance Our Jesus is the only Wisdom Substance and Truth The Fulness of things in Harmony as they make all Beauties and Pleasures in their Substances and Truths as they have the first freshest Glory upon them and are incorrupâ—â—â—e lie in the Person of Christ. The Hebrew word to intermeddle signifieth to mingle with or roul our selves in the midst of all Wisdom and Substance that is in the Bosom of Jesus O believing loving Soul Thy Beloved when He cometh into thy Spirit saith Can. 1. I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Spice I have eaten my Hony with my Hony-Comb I have drunk my Wine and my Milk When thou comest into his Bosom and Spirit say thou to him Now am I come into my Garden my Brother my Bridegroom I gather all pleasant precious and incorruptible Fruits in thy Person together with their Root thy Person So I transplant them into my Spirit and Person I eat of the excellencies of Wisdom which are sweeter to my Soul than Honey is to the Palate I eat them in and with thy Person the essence of Wisdom itself as live Honey with the Honey-comb I drink in my Wine and my Milk the Spirit and Sweetness of thy Divine and Humane Nature of the New Heaven the naked Appearance of the God-Head and the new Earth the Divine Appearance of the whole Creation in thy Spiritual Form Thus I stretch my self at large I roul my self at liberty in the midst of all Beauties and Delights Here I rest in Eternal Ioy with the perfect Complacency of all my Faculties of my whole Spirit Soul and Body in thine Heavenly Person 3. Make the single Person of Christ the Fountain of all thy Comforts 1. Consider that there is indeed such a Jesus so Beautiful Eccl. 11. 7. Solomon telleth us the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun If the light of this Heaven be sweet and the sight of this Sun infuse a pleasure into us when we look upon it what is the Light that shineth in the Person of Christ What doth once glance of this Sun of the Divine World How doth it make the heart in our bosom leap to him and dance about him as the Needle to the Loadstone To go forth in a fair Summers day to look upon the green Fields and clear Skie is a refreshing to our Natural Spirits and begetteth a lightsome Joy in us come forth ye dark and melancholy Souls see this Jesus in his unvailed Person as he rideth forth upon the Circuit of the whole Heaven and Earth in his name Jah in his Divine Form in which he comprehendeth and filleth all see that New Heaven and New Earth which he maketh in himself As Snow at the shining forth of the Sun so will the heaps of Snow the Mists and Clouds about your Heart dissolve into an unexpressible Sweetness and Light of a secret Joy and hope at this Sight By the Light of the Beauties of this Person cometh the Sight of him by this Sight cometh Faith then cometh all Peace and Joy in Believing Could Davids Harp chase away Sauls evil Spirit which vexed him Is there any evil Spirit which will not be chased away any vexation or melancholy which will not be charmed by this Harp of God by the Harmony of all Heavenly Beauty and Musick in the Person of Christ. 2. Consider that this Jesus is Beautiful to make thee Beautiful Ephes. 1. 6. God is said in his Grace that is in his sweetest and richest Love to have made us acceptable that is to have made us lovely in the Eye of his Love to have set us in the Embraces of his Love in the Beloved One in the Person of Christ. When thou liest on the ground covered with Sack-cloath and ashes in thine own Spirit then think thus with thy self When the Lord Jesus appeareth in all his Glories before the Father then doth he represent me then doth he present my Face and Person to the Eye and heart of his Father in the Glass of his own Beauties Will not thâ—s revive thy Soul within thee to understand that the Father taketh that Beautiful Image and sweet Impression of thee upon his heart which he receiveth from the most lovely sight of Jâ—sus Christ in his fullest lustre that all the thoughts and works of the Father concerning thee pass thorow this Medium the Beautiful and Blessed Person of Christ Thou sittest on the dunghil of this Body of Sin this Flesh covered from Head to Foot with the Sores of thy Corruptions Thâ—u liest in the Grave of this Body of Death where all cares and fears like Worms feed upon thee But see Jesus boweth the Heavens and cometh down He descendeth in that Form of Glory which is the Heaven of Heavens encon passâ—ng thee on every side transfiguring thee into a shining Glory as the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty transfigured him when it rested upon him 3. Consider that this Jesus is Bautiful for thee to make thee happy in the enjoyment of Him David in a pang of grâ—â—f comforteth himself after this manner Why dâ—est thou cast down thy self O my Soul why art thou so troubled within me Hope in the Lord I shall yet praise Him the Health
of my Countenance or the Salvations of my Persons of my Persâ—n in every Form and Appearance and my God Psa. 42. 11. Thus do thou discourse with thine own Soul when it is overcast and bowed down with fear care or sorrows Why droopest thou my Soul Why doest thou mourn and groan Why art thou thus unquiet within me Look to thy Iesus I shall yet sing new songs of my Beloved and praise His Beauties these are the Spiritual wine that maketh glad my Heart the Oyl of Joy that maketh my face to shine He is a Million of Salvations and Heavens to me in every state He is my God Why art thou cast down O my Soul Lift up thine Eyes to the Person of Christ Is not this Anoynted One with all the Beauties of the God-Head ever before thee Doth not be continually encompass thee and shine round about tâ—ee with all variety of pleasantnesses and glories like the Rainbow round about the Throne of God Rev. 4. Is not His Desire towards thee that thou mayest rule over His Beauties and satisfie thy self at all times with these Breasts of Divine Sweetneâ—s Feed then like a Roe among these Lillies The Person of Christ is not His own but Thine Thou hast power over it and all its Heavenly Treasures Let Him then with all His Excellencies lye like a bundle of Myrrhe between thy breasts all thâ—â— dark Night breathing Sweetness into thy Spirit and as a Cordiall fortifying thy Heart against all assaults with a glorious Joy Here make thy self with all thy flocks of thoughts and affections to lye down O my Soul Here lose thy 〈◊〉 and this dark appearance of Things in these Lovelinesses of thy Saviâ—ur's â—ersâ—n which cometh forth like a Brdegroom out of His Chamber of Eternity 〈◊〉 His Father's Bosom like a Sun fresh in all His Morning-Beauties to run his race of Glory in thy Person and to swallow up that into the Circles of His Pure Light Reas. 4. I come now to the 4 th and last Reason why Jesus Christ is the Fairest of all things All Beauty is derived from Him Beauty any where in the Creature is an Image of the Divine Nature by which that maketh itself visible testifieth its Presence awakeneth the Soul to a sense of itself and to seek after it The Lord Jesus is the First Image of the Invisible God the Supream Beauty So every other Image is drawn from Him dependeth upon Him and is comprehended primitively purely in Him Every other Beauty is a Copy of Him taken from Him who alone is the Life Col. 1. 18. All things are made by Christ invisible visible in Heaven on Earth Angels all were made by Him and for Him by Him as the Exemplar Cause for him as the End that thorow the Picture the Person Himself might as a Sleeping Seed stir up itself and spring in the Light of every understanding and sense in the Love of every Heart All Things are By Christ Two ways 1. As the Pattern of the Work 2. As the Power Working 1. Every thing is by Christ as the Pattern of the Work Our Lord Jesus is the Wisdom of God Wisdom is an Inward Image in every Spirit according to which it ordereth its way and fashioneth its work that the Whole may be One Piece and a Beauty may result from the agreement of all Parts in the unity of the whole as also from the Harmony of the outward Form and the Inward Image which by their mutual reflections pour forth pleasures and joys into the bosom of each other In Nature the Spirit included in the Seed of a Rose hath within it self the Image of a Rose-tree with all its proportions leaves and flowers beauties and sweetnesses several growths the bud and the full-blown Rose According to this Image the Seed putteth forth it self the Spirit in the Seed formeth it self upon the outward Matter and figureth the whole Plant in all the progress and perfections of it The Person of our Beloved is the onely Image in that Eternal Spirit which is God blessed for ever In this glorious Image doth He ride forth upon the face of the whole Creation from the beginning to the end In all His works of Power and Providence He consulteth onely with this Beautiful Image in His own Breast in which all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge all the Patterns of Beauty and Excellency are laid up He figureth this Image upon every Creature and Work he fixeth this Image itself in every Creature and Work which by the lustre of its presence putteth a Life in the Figure and giveth a gloss to it as the Sun-shine to a Flower Gen. 40. 38 39. We have the History of Jacob laying streaked and speckled rods in the Water-troughs before the Cattel When they came to drink they saw these conceived and brought forth their young streaked and speckled like to these Thus God the Father in all the Excellencies of the God-Head generateth Jesus Christ and setteth his Person before him When he cometh to drink of these waters of Life to take in and feast himself upon the Joys of his own Essence and of the Divine Nature he hath his Beloved Son in his Eye continually From this Beatifical vision he is filled with the Innumerable Forms of his Son's Beauties From this Fulness the Father becometh Fruitful and bringeth forth the Creation with all the Forms and changes of it in the Figure of these Eternal Glories 2. All things are by Christ as the Power working Job 38. 14. It is turned as Clay to the Seal they stand as a Garment How sweet and clear a Depth is this Text How doth Jesus Christ in it shine from the Face of every Creature and from the unfathomable Light of his own Person What is this it it is turned You shall see in the verse immediately before it is the Earth which frequently is taken for the whole Creation in the language of the Scripture as Heaven for God But what is this Seal to which the Earth is turned like Clay Two verses before will shew you that this Seal is the Day-light Luk. 1. 78. Zacharias in his Song expresseth Jesus Christ by this name the Day-spring These are his words The Day-spring from on high hath visited us As the Day-light when it springeth in the morning overspreadeth the whole visible World and setteth a new Form upon every thing so the Lord Jesus as a Seal by the presence of his Person with every Creature imprinteth the figure of himself in a beautiful Form upon it Thus it is turned as a Clay to the Seal Job addeth they stand as a Garment The Creation is spoken of first Collectively It then all the Creatures in particular distributively They. There are two rich Glypmses given us of the glorious Person of our Lord in the Creation by these words 1. As the whole Creation in general so each in particular is sealed with the entire Person of Christ. 2. All the Creatures are Sealed with the
composed and equal motions are the Beauty and Musick of your Spirits 2. The Reason of this Precept followeth The Lord is at hand is near nothing will so quiet the Soul and bring it to rest in every Appearance of things here so as a right sence of the near and immediate presence of the Lord Jesus in Glory with all these things after the same manner in which the Body or Substance is present with its proper Shadow The Body is present with the Shadow four ways as sending it forth immediately from itself and keeping it hanging upon itself by an immediate touch and union every moment as governing all its motions by its own Acts and Operations in itself by its own Appearance there in its Figure and Similitude by its Approach and Readiness to break up the Shadow by its breakings forth thorow it Canst thou think that thy beloved in the sweet shinings of his Beauty in the wonderful actings of the Divine Life in the pleasant motions and mysterious operations of his Love is thus near to every Creature every Providence and not answer this Beauty with the Beautiful smile of a contented mind this Musick with the melody of a well-pleased and harmonious temper of Spirit many that were sick were healed by the shadow of St. Peter overspreading them as he passed by When thou art sick with discontent for any passage of things in this world submit thy self to it as the shadow of thy dearest Lord with which he overspreadeth thee from his own Blessed Person being himself ever at hand there where his shadow is figuring himself with his own Divine Motions and Operations upon it being even now ready to disclose himself thorow it as the Rose breaking out of the Bud. Lie down under every accident as such a Divine Shadow of this Divine Lover with his Love and thou wilt find thy self healed of thy sickness of Mind of every Grief and Melancholy 3. A third Thing in this Scripture alledged is a Prohibition of Care Be careful in nothing Care is a Sin universally in the greatest things as well as the least in the highest things as well as in the lowest Qu. But you will say what Care is that which is Sin Ans. I answer that Care is a Sin which breaketh the moderation of your Spirits which defaceth the Spiritual Beauty which disturbeth the Spiritual Musick of a well-pleased and contentedâ—mind in you which putteth your Spirits out of tune cloudeth the clearness disordereth the Harmony of your Spirits distempering them and making them to jar with discontent Again that care is sinful which is contrary to this Three-fold sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus with every Creature and Occurrence on the Earth as with his own Shadow his Powerful Presence giving it Being and Motion from himself fastning it immediately to himself his Beautifulâ— Presence imprinting the Likeness and Image of himself upon it his Love-Presence calling the Soul to himself by it coming down to meet and embrace the Soul there ready to set himself in the place of his Shadow making that the mark and forerunner of his Person and Loves in their full Light and Heat 4. In the last place the Holy Spirit that skilful Apothecary prescribeth a Cordial to preserve you from this trembling of the Heart from carefulness This Cordial is made up of six precious Ingredients 1. Ingred Prayer With Prayer The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It importeth thus much stand not at a distance tarry not without Come boldly up to the Throne of Grace to God in the purest and most raised heights of his Glory and Love to Love as it is seated upon its highest and most glorious Throne the Heart of God to love as it shineth with its sweetest smiles in the Divine Nature unvailed and naked Enter boldly within the Vail behold God Face to Face so talk familiarly with him as a Friend doth with his Friend Like the beloved Disciple lay thine head in his Bosom so speak to him as a Bride to her Bridegroom 2. Ingred Supplication By Prayer and Supplication v. 6. The word rendred Supplication signifieth in its root three things Want a Band Decency or Harmony Have a Divine sense of thine own Shadowiness and Vanity upon every want which thou feelest Go by a Divine Power and in the Divine Mystery empty thy self into God bind thy self up together with him in that Golden â—Band the unity of his Spirit So move be carried along thorow all things in the Order Decency and Harmâ—ny of the God-Head of the Divine Wisdom and Will As when Sugar is cast into Wine the Wine penetrating into all parts of the Sugar dissolveth and melteth it entirely into itself 〈◊〉 in every state in every streight cast thy self by the Blessed Spirit into that Spirit which is the Wine of the Kingdom of the Father let that Spirit wind and work itself into every part and power into every thought and affection until it have drawn thee quite down out of thy self into one Stream one flood of Desires and Delights of Sweetness Strength and Fulness with itself Moses ascending upon Mount Sinai passed thorow the clouds and fires so he came to the top of the Mount where he saw God face to face The Eternal Spirit is Mount Sion the Mount of Prayer Here are white Clouds of Glory which do much more overshadow the Creature and Love-fires which do much more melt down the Soul and devour it From the Valley of every low Condition betake thy self to this Mount of Prayer Wait for this Holy Mountain the Spirit of Prayer to spring up in every Valley and take thee up and carry thee along upon itself As thou ascendest pass thorow these Clouds lose the light of thine own Beauties and Being before this excelling brightness Pass thorow these Fires Lose thine own Fleshly Substance and Subsistence in the flame of the Spirit Lose thine own Life and Form in the Unity of Divine Love So shalt thou arrive at the top of this Mount where thou shalt see God Face to Face with Life answering Life Love answering Love Beauty answering Beauty being in the full view of his naked Glories transformed into the same Glory by the same Spirit 2 Cor. 3. l. 3. Ingred Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving What a powerful Antidote against Care in every Cross or Difficulty is this to give thanks To see a Divine Glory To tast Divine Love To behold God descending in that Darkness as in a Chariot of Clouds of Angels taking us up to ascend with Him thither into His Palace above where this Cloud shall become a Throne this Chariot a Bed of Love this Angel an Eternal Glory in the Form of God where our Beloved and our Souls shall reign together feast together ly down together in mutual Joys and embraces for ever O Believing Soul art thou in Darkness Open the Eye of Faith see thy Jesus and thy self from the supream Circle of the God-Head running forth with all Lines
Glory In the Hebrew you may read every Thing as well as every One. So the Margin hath it every whit of it that is of the Temple uttereth Glory Such should we ever be as those who see the essence of Beauty who hear the Soul and Spirit of Musick who tast take in and feel the pure the primitive Life of all Sweetness and Joy in the Glory the God-Head itself inhabiting every part and point every passage motion of Things in this whole Creation as in a Temple How would our Persons and lives shine with a spiritual Lustre how sweet would the Musick of our Spirits and Conversation be if we did thus take up and bear this Natural Image as the Tabernacle and the Star of our God our Beloved Jesus Figures made by the Eternal Spirit to worship and enjoy him as St. Stephen speaketh Acts 7. 43. Eccles. 3. We read that there is to every thing a Season and a time to every purpose under Heaven v. 1. To be born and to die to plant and to pull up v. 2. To kill and to heal v. 3. To weep and to laugh v. 4. To love and to hate for war and for peace v. 8. He hath made every thing beautiful in his Time or in its Time v. 11. And whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever v. 14. In the Tabernacle and Temple every part every pin answered to the Pattern on the Mount which were the Heavenly Things themselves in the Spirit in Eternity All objects all actions in the Temple the Beasts the cutting their throats the taking off their skins the taking out their Entrails the cutting them in pieces the boyling the burning them were sacred Figures of Divine and Immortal Glories to which the Musick of the Levites round about upon the walls with their Instruments and voices kept time Thou O Man art set in this world as a Priest in this Temple Behold Both the Intellâ—ctual and the Bestial part in it Love and hatred War and Peace Joy and Grief Light and Darkness Weeping with Howlings Laughter with Shouts Life and Death with all that is delightful or dismal belonging to them all these Heavenly and Divine Mysteries Every one answereth to a purpose in the Heart of God to a Pattern in the Eternal and Essential Form of God Every one answereth to the Musick of the Holy Angels which stand in Quires in the uppermost parts of this Creation as the Levites upon the walls of the Temple The basest the bloodiest Persons and Offices those that kill and those that are killed bear the Figure of Jesus Christ like the Beasts for Sacrifice or the Sacrificing Priests in their linnen Garments stained with Blood Every thing is beautiful in his Time The Time of every thing is Divinely set by a Divine Pattern in a Divine Proportion by a Divine Power Thus each thing is cloathed with a double Beauty 1. The Divine Harmony of the Universal Image in Nature resulting from and resting upon each particular fitly set with a sacred proportion and contrivance in its own Time and in his Time that is by a Divine Hand in a Divine Time 2. An exact and ravishing Harmony with the Eternal Image of the supream Glories in God As line for line feature for feature colour for colour motion for motion from a Face in a Glass answer to the Beautiful Face which beholdeth itself in the Glass so is God and this world the Face in the water and the living Face Beauty itself by looking upon the water at once Figuring itself upon it and beholding itself in it all being reflections of its own Glorieâ— Obj. But you will say we see not now this resemblance of the Divine Glory in the face of the Creature Ans. What God doâ—h he doth for ever v. 14. As Jesus said to Peter of the washing his Feet What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter that may be applied here The work of God in this World and Time is for Heaven and Eternity to be understood and enjoyed there When we shall come into the presence of the Life and the Original then shall we look again with another manner of Eye upon the Picture and have an unexpressâ—ble pleasure to behold one in the other As the Tabernacle when its season was past was taken into the Temple So when Time and this world are past away Time and this world from the Beginning to the End shall be taken up into their first Patterns into Eternity God shall call every thing to the least dust or moment by its name and no one shall be wanting There shalt thou see the Beauty of the whole and of every part in the light and life of its Glorious Original Then shalt thou know what God hath done from the Beginning of the world to the End Thou shalt now possess and enjoy all with unexpressible pleasures when thou shalt thus meet them again in a new Light to be for ever with thee In the mean time as Christ said to Martha Believe and thou shalt see the Glory of God Thy Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and that now and that within thee in thy Spirit John 1. 14. The Word was made Flâ—sh and dwelt tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth O Man O Christian open the Eye of thy understanding open the Eye of thy Faith see this world the Tabernacle the Temple of the Eternal Word behold all things full of the Grace and Glory of his Person in Shadows and Images formed by himself behold himself in the truth of all this Grace and Glory in that height of Glory which is proper to his own Person as he is the only begotten of the Father dwelling with thee in this Temple behind the Vail of every Shadow and Image Behave thy self as in the House of God Walk in the midst of all Creatures and Occurrences as in the midst of so many Divine Mysteries as a Priest in the Temple In purity in peace in wisdom in love bear in every state the Figure of thy Jesus and his Glories converse with it in every thing walk in it at all times See thy Glorified Jesus himself together with his shadow make him the mark of thine Eye and thine Heart terminate all the workings of thy Spirit upon him as the Truth and Substance So wait continually for the breakings forth of the glory as a Heavenly Flame thorow the Shadow upon thee to take thee up into itself And thou as thou ascendest carry up the Shadow with thee 4. Lesson Live abstracted from this world in the world Distinguish and separate thy self from the Natural Person Life and Image which are all the Shadow and no more that thou mayst stand in an Immortal Person a Life of Glory the Essential Image which is the Truth The Lord Jesus saith I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
God in the Valley of the shadow of Death in the Grave As a Sun at night casting up its Cloud and foretelling a fair day so is the Death of a Saint the Glorified Body of a Saint being one Spirit with the Glorified Body of his Beloved casteth up the Cloud of this Natural Body which had lien as the Cloud of Death upon it and now immediately maketh a â—air and Heavenly Day without the interposal or succession of any Night The Glorified Body of Christ and his Bride are hid under this Body oâ— Flesh like the Sun under a thick Mist. It is long glowing and casting glympses of itself thorow the Mist. The Mist groweth thinner The heat and light of Divine Love Beauty and Joy groweth stronger At last the Mist is quite gone drunk up into the Sun The Sun shineth out with open Face and the Freedom of all its Beams 3. Prince That which this Body is to a Saint here that his Glorified Jesus is to â—im in Death We take pleasure rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord saith St. Paul 2 Corin. 5. 8. These words Absent Present relate in Greek to a Country a People Such a presence as the Soul hath with the Body in Lie it hath with its Lord and Love in Death Here thy Body is the Country the Region of thy Soul Thy Body is the Image into which thy Soul is formed in which alone it appeareth to itself or others All thy Relations Companions Contentments are Images presented unto thee in this Glass and Impressions made upon thee by the Images appearing in this Glass All this World is nothing to thee but as it is an Appearance rising up in thy Body which by vertue of the Personal Union raiseth a suitable Act of Life in thy Soul All this World to thee is only a diversity of Forms into which it is varied and a diversity of Impressions made upon thy Soul by this variety of Forms In Death this Glass is broken this Image vanisheth this Country disappeareth like an Enchantment Thy Glorified Jesus cometh in the place of this Body and is a Heavenly a Divine Body to thee Thy Glorified Jesus is that Beautiful Pure and Immortal Form in which thou appearest to thy self and to all Thy Relations Companions Entertainments are the Glorified Person of thy Jesus varied into Innumerable Forms of Love Light and Loveliness All thy Motions Affections and Pleasures are in Sympathy and Consort with thy Jesus by vertue of the mystical and unexpressible Union between thee and him All acts of Life in thee all Touches upon thy Spirit are the kisses of his Divine Mouth Myrrhe dropping from those Lillies of the Heavenly Paradise his Lips This is thy Country thy People thy World the Fulness of the God-Head dwelling bodily in Christ. Spring for joy O dying Saint The World thy Country thine own People the Body into which thou now comest is the Fulness of all Divine Light Divine Life the Fulness of all Divine Forms Loves Joys and Glories dwelling together with the Fulness of a Divine Harmony in the Glorified Body of thy Beloved This hath drunk up into itself thy former Body with all its acquaintances and entertainments the former world with all its furniture PART II. Psal. 45. 2. Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured forth in thy lips Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I divided these words into three parts 1. THe Loveliness of our Lord Iesus Thou art fairer than the Children of Men. 2. The Love of Christ The Love of this Lovely One Grace is poured forth in thy lips 3. The Seal of the God-Head of a Divine Blessedness and of Eternity upon both these the Loveliness and the Love in this Glorified Person of our Saviour Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I have finished my discourse on the first part I now take in hand the second part I have spoken something of the Loveliness of our Beloved One as I have by any Beam from his Beauties been enlightned to some glimmering vision of them and quickned to a weak expression of that which I have seen Now I am to speak of his Love as the Grace and Sweetness of it shall pour forth itself from his Lips into mine by a Spiritual kiss from the Mouth of this Heavenly Bridegroom Grace is poured forth in his Lips The rich composition of this Heavenly-sweet Sentence is made up of three rich Materials 1. Grace 2. Effusion or the pouring forth of this Grace 3. The Lips of the Lord Jesus These are to be explained 1. Grace This in the Language of the Scripture signifieth three Things 1. Grace is Love For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all Men hath appeared Tit. 2. 11. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Men hath appeared Tit. 3. 4. That which in one place the Apostle calleth Grace in the other he expresseth by kindness and love Grace is love in its Fountain freest and sweetest 2. Grace is Loveliness or Beauty Prov. 31. 30. Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain Favour there is Grace It is the same word in Hebrew with this in my Text. Grace is Beauty with its most powerful charms as it toucheth every Spirit answereth every desire maketh all things answer it and dance to its Musick So the Hebrew word imports 3. Grace is Joy or pleasure a fair and smiling Child begotten between these two amiable and ever-pleasant Parents Love and Beauty St. Paul commandeth the Saints to sing making melody to God with Grace in their hearts that is with Divine Joy kindled into a Heavenly Flame from the Love and Loveliness of the Lord Jâ—sus shining forth there unitedly and concentring their joint Beams in the Beloved Spirit Thus Grace is all three Love Loveliness and Joy all these with a peculiar and most eminent heightning as the Sunshine is the Grace of a Garden and the Fâ—owers in it So Grace in the sense of the Gospel is Love Beauty Delight with the God-Head the Sun of Spirits peculiarly and nakedly shining in them But principally and primitively Grace is Love Then it is Loveliness as that is the first Birth and lively Image of Love in which it bringeth forth itself to its own Eye and embraces then sporteth with it as its Spouse It is Pleasure as that springeth from the Union of these two and is their mutual Life and Perfection each in other Grace is a Tree where Love is the Root and Sap Loveliness the fair Tree with its Body and Branches rising out of this Root whose Sap formeth itself into this Beautiful Figure Joy is the Fruit into which the sweet Sap of Love from its Root thorow the Body and Branches of its shining Beauties digesteth itself unto a perfect admirable and Divine Maturity to be the Food and Feast of all Lives all Spirits in Time and Eternity It is Love smiling in the face of every Beauty which is
the Grace of it as the Water and Sparklings of Light in a Diamond are the Grace of that It is the Tast and Rellish of Love in every Joy is as the Wine which is the Grace of the Feast It is the Love of Jesus Christ at its height which is the Grace intended here 2. The Effusion or Pouring forth of this Grace is next to be opened Three things are signified in this Effusion 1. A Fulness of Grace is discovered Natural Agents work to the utmost of their Power God is in nothing so Natural as in His Love His work of wrath is his strange work praeternatural to Him and a Disguise upon Him Love is His Right Hand the Sheep are set at his Right Hand Love flows forth from the Person of the Father unveiled naked as Light from the Sun Millions of fresh Beams each moment from each point 2. Freedom of Grace is manifested in Its Pouring forth itself It is its own First Mover It puts itself into Motion It is a fluid thing It cannot contain itself within its own Bound the Heart of God It is ever pouring forth itself all abroad into every Heart Divine Love is the most universal and importunate Beggar It cometh to the door of every Spirit It Knocketh It presseth in 3. A Force of Love putteth forth itself in this Expression When the Rain cometh with a Tempest and falleth with a great force we say It poureth down Love from above stormeth Hearts most fortified against it It rusheth forth like a mighty flood If any banks or dams oppose it it riseth so much the higher it gathereth so much the more strength till it bear down all before it carry away all with it overflow all swallow up all into itself that all things become One Sea of Love 3. The Lips of Christ into which this Grace is poured forth may be understood four ways 1. The Word of the Scriptures and the Outward Ministery are the Lips of Christ in which Grace is poured forth All the Scriptures are Love-letters from Christ in Heaven all the Ministeries of the Gospel are Love-Embassages Love-tokens 2. All Outward Providences all Inward Discoveries of the Lord Jesus are His Lips with which He kisseth us and poureth forth the Divine Sweetness and Strength of His Love into our Spirits 3. The Spirit Himself is the Mouth and Lips of the Heavenly Bridegroom By this He uniteth Himself most immediately to us in the closest and Divinest Love-union By this He transmitteth Himself and His Love most warmly into us 4. The naked Person of Christ in Glory is to be understood by these Lips The Holy Ghost composeth this Psalm as a Marriage-song to celebrate the Union State and Joys of the Heavenly Bridegroom and Bride in the Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Lord. Here the Person of our Beloved is all a Divine Mouth with which He breatheth forth all the Sweetnesses of His glorious Nature and Love as He sucketh in ours It is all One Divine Eye from which He poureth forth upon us continual Floods of Light Beauty and Grace by which also He taketh us in continually in all Blessed Forms of an Immortal Loveliness and Love Thus we see our selves continually in Him He seeth Himself continually in us Eye to Eye each a Living Glass of glorious Love to the other The Spirit and the Lord Jesus in Glory are Both One. A Bee in a Garden sitteth upon every flower and plant sucking the vertue forth from it This it formeth into One Sweetness in itself which is Honey Full of this Honey it flyeth to its Hive and there layeth up its pleasant Treasures So this Spirit resteth upon every Excellency in the God-Head every Life and Image of things in the Creature It extracteth the several virtues from all It turneth all within itself into One Divine and unexpressible Sweetness which is Love With this Treasure of Love it maketh haste to some broken and forlorn Heart There in this Heart in thine Heart if thou wilt believe that thou mayest tast and see it it layeth down its precious Burthen it layeth up the inestimable Riches of glorious Grace We read in the building of the Temple that there was a great Sea of Brass which stood upon twelve Oxen the figures of the Cherubims Our Saviour's glorified Person is a vast Sea of Love All the Angels of God support this Sea serve this Love The God-Head itself in a bright and sweet flood of Love is poured abroad in this Sea in this Bosom and Person Here every Believing Soul batheth itself in and taketh its Fill of Loves Doct. The Doctrine which I intend to insist upon according to the Grace of God given unto me is this The Love of God is poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Lord Jesus Thy Name is an Ointment poured forth Cant. 1. 2. The Name of our Beloved which His Spouse Knoweth Him by and calleth Him by is That Name above every Name in this World or the World of Angels which the Father hath given Him at His Resurrection and Ascension Ephes. 1. 21. This Name is His Person itself in Glory which is the onely Expression of itself This is an Ointment poured forth O Blessed Ointment of Divine Love which hath all the Cordial Spices and Sweets of the God-Head itself in it which perfumeth all things thorow Heaven and Earth which maketh all Faces to shine with a Divine Lustre and all Hearts to spring with a Divine Joy This costly Ointment was before shut up and kept in an Alabaster Box in the Glorious Secret of the Father's Bosom But now that Box is broken in the Death of our King That Bosom is opened in His Resurrection That sweet Treasure of all Life and Delight the Eternal Love of the Father is poured forth at the Root of the Creation upon the Head of every Creature in the Glorified Person of Jesus Christ. It s sweet Savour is gone forth into the Nostrils of every Spirit to revive it and allure it to its Everlasting Embraces 1. John 5. 11. This is the Record namely of God Himself that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in His Son Eternity is defined to be The Possession of all Good at once and in One. There are Three things which go to make up Eternity 1. A Perfection of Excellency 2. A Collection of all Excellencies 3. A Station of all these with their several Distinctions in One Top-point of Spirituality above all Division or Change Love is the Union of Lovely Things The most Perfect Love is the most Perfect Union which bindeth up all Lovelinesses in their several Perfections into the streightest Unity Eternal Life then is the Life of Love in its Purity and Perfection Eternity is Love itself the firmest and Fullest Union of all Graces and Graceful Things in the height of Glory and the height of Unity This Eternal Life this Eternal Love this Life of Love which is the Life of Eternity is
love For the Divine Nature the Original is love This love throughout the whole nature of things is as a Pyramid made up by degrees of different Unions till it end in the highest and most indivisible point of Unity The Unity of God is that Fountain of love out of which all things proceed The secret force of this Unity is that stream of love which runneth thorow the Heart and Veins of Every Creature in the Person of Christ which is the golden Pipe with its several branches laid thorow the whole Creation from the Beginning to the End There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus Thus the revealed Will of God is love 2. The secret Will of God is love Fury is not in me Who would set the bryars and thorns in Battel aray against me I would go thorow them I would consume them Wrath is not in God It is without him only as a Cloud upon the Sun The heart of God is Love Wrath is but the work of his Hand and that his strange Work like nothing within a disguise only The Face of God and the proper light of it is love Wrath is vizor a mist before his Face and no more Fury in God is love by the opposition heightned to a flame to consume all vanity and enmity that setteth itself before it or against it O that I had a voice powerful enough to reach all the Souls wandring thorow the whole Creation and to call them together to take this Cup of Salvation into the hand of their Faith to set it to the mouth of their Faith and drink deeply of it As the Wine of this Cup goeth down into your Spirits you will find it to go down right How sweetly and how fully will it touch satisfy and fill every faculty every desire every Seed of life with its proper good The Cup of Salvation which I hold forth to you is this Divine Truth the Sum of the Gospel Preached by Angels in their Songs at the Birth of our Jesus The Will of God is love Hear this and believe it O ye Souls the Inclination of God the supream Spirit and Fountain of Spirits is to you The tendency and the bent of the Divine Nature is to make your joys full by the possession of all good in itself and to fulfil his own joys in you For the Will is the Inclination of every Spirit and the Will of God is love Hear this and believe it O ye Souls God is carried with the whole weight of his God-Head to you as to his Center to rest eternally in you and to rejoyce over you For love is the weight of every Spirit and the Will of God is love The Will of God in the Freedom Absoluteness Infiniteness of it is love Now I live saith St. Paul if ye stand fast in the Faith 1 Thes. 3. 8. St. Paul speaketh not this in his own Spirit but in the Spirit of God God in his own Spirit speaketh it with a greater force and fuller sense to every one of you if you believe me and take in my love which is my life now have I a new Love a new Life a new Joy and Heaven in you As you grow in this Faith my Life and Joy increaseth in you If you stand fast in it my Joy and Glory is as firm in your hearts as in Heaven itself If you will believe all the Declarations of God from Heaven the revealed Will of God is Love If you have any Inward and Divine Touch of the secret Will of God all the breathings of his Heart are Love O take in the Love of God that his Love may become a Divine Immortal Seed of all Love and Loveliness in you But now let us hearken to the groans of some poor ones among these multitudes of Souls who parched and burnt up with their Sins Sorrows who benighted in the Darkness of their unbeleief yet among all these Millions of streams of Love which flow forth upon their Spirits from the heart of God among those Millions of Beams of Love which fall from the Eye of God upon their hearts dare not take in any one No though they thirst for Divine Love more than for Life yet shut up their Spirits against all Approaches or Appearances of it as delusions Obj. These Souls sigh forth this great Objection against the Love of God You say the Will of God is love the object of every Will is some good the object of all love is some loveliness What loveliness can there be in me to draw the heart of God to me to be in love with me who am only loathsom by my lusts and deformed by my passions What good can be found in me to attract the Divine Will to center itself in me by love when no good but all evil dwelleth in me Answ. 1. Dear Soul who thus reasonest for thine own sufferings against the love of God I shall give thee three Answers in the behalf and in the name of Divine love O that love itself from the heart of God would drop its Sweetness from its own mouth upon thee and seal it upon thy Spirit while I am speaking for it to thee First Thou wert made in the Image and Likeness of God Gen. 1. All Loveliness consisteth in Suitableness Suitableness in Similitude and Likeness There is nothing which draweth Hearts and Love which attracteth all things so powerfully as Similitude doth Similitude is a kind of Unity and Likeness Oneness Similitude is described to be one Form in two matters or subjects Let this O drooping Soul raise thee to look upward to that Heaven of Eternal Love which ever holdeth thee in its Embraces and shineth round about thee The Divine Image and Similitude is thy proper Person thine Nature thine Essence it lyeth indeed captivated in chains of Darkness dishonoured and defiled by thy lusts wounded and mangled by thy passions oppressed with guilt slain by unbelief in thee Yet this Divine Image is in thee It is thy true self according to the first Creation Dost thou ask now what that good is which attracteth the Divine Will to thee by the love of it God is in love with his own Likeness in thee He seeketh his own Birth His Spouse in thee sprung forth from himself to be his Joy in the midst of all the Creatures to be Queen where ever he is King in the whole Creation This Divine Image in thee this thy Divine self is that Pearl in the Field for which God giveth himself that he may purchase the Fields This is that good to which the heart of God is carried with all its weight of love to redeem it to revive it to raise it out of the Dust that it may shine again in his Glory and sing of his loves The Lord Jesus telleth us Mat. 24. 28. Where the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together The Scriptures represent the Spirit of God in its low
estate in the Flesh of Christ and his Members by a Dove a Groaning Dove The Dove is in the clefts of the Rock and the holes of the Stairs Cant. 2. The Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism before his Temptations in the form of a Dove The Spirit in his Heavenly strength and Glory is set forth by an Eagle I have born them upon Eagles Wings saith God They shall mount up on high like an Eagle saith the Prophet Esay The Spirit is often expressed in the plural number because he is that Unity which is the Spring the Center the Circle and Band of all blessed Spirits He hath in himself an endless variety of Spiritual Glories which are all glorious Spirits in him as he is and one with him whithersoever his Will is to go they all go together with him He is therefore expressed by seven Lamps seven Spirits and Eagles here Where the Carcass is there the Eagles will be gathered together The end of all this is to make way for the letting in of a flood of Heavenly Balsom of Divine love upon every heart upon the broken heart to heal it upon the hardest heart to soften it Eagles from afar and from on high are drawn to slaughter'd Carcasses as to their proper Prey So when the Divine Image lyeth in thee as a loathsome Carcass at the bottom of a dark and deep Dungeon now is it the most proper Bait and most powerful Attractive of Divine love Now the Lord Jesus the Eternal Spirit with all the Troop of Spiritual Powers and Glories resort to this Carcass descend upon it hunger after it Now they feed and feast upon it until they have eaten it up until they have converted it into one pure nature and glorious Spirit with themselves When Ignatius was to be devoured by wild Beasts now saith he shall the Teeth of the Lyons grind me into fine Flower to make fine Manchet of me for the Table of God So do thou say concerning all thy Sufferings within and without These are the Divine Teeth of the Spirit of Heavenly love Now doth my God feed upon me If my God feed upon me if he nourish and enlarge his own Life Joys and Glory by me then shall he also change me take me up into himself diffuse his own Life Joys and Glory into me This is the first Answer Ans. 2. Dear Soul whoever whatever thou art thou art the Off-spring of God St. Paul citeth this from a Poet confirmeth it by a Divine Testimony applyeth it Universally to all maketh it the ground of Evangelical Truths and Loves Acts 17. 28. As some of your own Poets have said We are his Off-spring St. Paul hath something very like this Ephes. 3. 9. The Gospel was hid in God from the Foundation of the World who made all things by Jesus Christ. God had the love of the Gospel in his Heart and sowed it as a secret Seed in the Foundations of the whole Creation when he made all things by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Seed of Nature as well as of Grace and so lyeth hid in the Bosom of every Creature as the true Pearl in the Field That Divine Image of which we spake before was the similitude only the Mother of Pearl This is the Substance the Pearl itself In the Off-spring of God is the Seed of God Where the Seed of God is there is God himself in the Vertue Power and fulness of his Divine Nature For so the Seed of every Plant hath that Plant Virtually and Spiritually in it Be now no more unbelieving but believe Believe the love which God hath to thee Believe that all the Inclinations of the Divine Will are to thee that the Eye and heart of God are turned toward thee in every place fixt upon thee with all that intention and force of Sweetness in the Divine Nature For why He is drawn irresistibly to his own Seed his own Son his own self in thee Thou art his Off-spring When Micah was reproved for crying after the Company he replâ—ed Ye have carried away my Gods and ye say why criest thou after us No more now doubt and say why should the most high God with an Eye of love from Heaven thus follow me into every state of life into all the corners of my heart Why should he by a voice of love from Heaven in the Word in Providences in the motions of his Spirit thus cry and call after me Thou hast his Seed his Son himself in thee Do thou answer him again and say Thou seekest thy self thy Seed thy Sheep crucified buried lost in me O seek and find it find it and take it up into thine Arms keep it in thine Arms till thou bring it home to its own self to its lost Life Joys and Glories again But I also seek my Life my Original my true self hid with Christ in thee in the brightness of thy Glory O take thy crucified self in me home to thee into thy Bosom O give me my Glorified self with thee home to me into my Bosom Thus much for the second Answer Ans. 3. Still the wounded Spirit sigheth and saith Can God take pleasure in any thing common or unclean Dear Souls ever dear to the Divine Will when you have a sense of Sin or Love and when you have none understand the Mystery of the Divine Will in the order and method of Divine love When you understand this you will have a deep and kindly sense of Sin indeed but so as to have a righter and sweeter sense of love by it There is a Twofold Love in God a Love of Complacency or Delight a Love of Benevolence or good Will The first is that by which he taketh pleasure in thee as a Bridegroom in his beautiful Bride The second is that by which his Will is set on work to make thee beautiful and a Bride to himself The love of Complacency is the first and the last love The love of benevolence is a middle-love which ariseth out of this and endeth in it as Springs and Rivers come from the Sea and run into it This is the Order of Divine love First thou art beloved with a love of Complacency from Eternity as thou art seen in that Glass of Eternity the Word the Lord Jesus Secondly Thou art for this love's sake beloved with a love of benevolence in time in thine own Person by which love God willeth all good to thee and worketh all good in thee Lastly Thou art beloved with a love of Complacency to Eterniâ—y in thine own Person as thou art decked with all the Ornaments of the Divine Nature This is the order of Divine love It s Musick is made up of these three Parts 1. Part. Divine-love in the first Part is a love of Complacency or Delight in thee as thou art seen Eternally in the Person of Christ. Dear Soul while thou art complaining here below and fixest thine Eye upon thy shame thy God seeth thee all-glorious
which Eternal Love bringeth forth to itself within itself as its own Essential Form and Image This Glory this Life-Image of Love is that which it is forming in every Aegypt Sea Wilderness and Canaan The Heathen represented the Nature of this thing by Venus the Mother of Love the Seeds and Life springing by a Cupid Love the Child of this Mother Gen. 1. 2. It is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters The Paraphrase upon that Scripture maketh it to be an allusion to a Dove which is the Bird of love sitting upon her Eggs and hatching her young ones The Holy Spirit is often in Scriptures represented by a Dove Eternal Love is of a Truth that Almighty Spirit which at first sate upon the whole Creation to form it and moveth upon it thorow all times to cherish and govern it Love is the Mother of all above All things are the Off-spring of Love a Race of Seminal and Springing Loves Mercy Love runneth along with the whole with each particular of the whole thorow the length of Eternity itself This is still the Burthen of the Song For his Mercy endureth for ever 2. The Works of Grace These are the second sort of Divine Works and these also are the Works of Love These are divided into three Ranks 1. The constant abode of the Soul in the Heart of God Who remembred us in our low estate v. 23. Thou O broken Heart Art sinking by ignorance by unbelief by thy fall from God thou art sinking still deeper into the Darkness and Filth of this World and thy Lusts. Still thou sinkest into the Power and Horrours of the Devil Now thou sayest the Lord hath forgotten me he hath cast me off for ever Yet he remembreth thee in thy low estate Still thou art in his Thoughts thou art in his Heart as a Pillar in the Temple of the Divine Nature which is Love never to go forth Thy Person is ever before him with a Sweet and deep Impression upon his Spirit never to be rased out What hath done this It is Eternal Love This is the Light of the Divine Mind which continually presenteth thee to it in the dress of its own Beâ—uties This is the sweet force of the Divine Will which holdeth thee fast in itself which beareth thee in its Arms thorow all conditions and will not let thee go for ever This is the Reason why He remembreth thee in thy low estate For his Mercy endureth for ever 2. The bringing us back into the Bosom of God This is the second Rank in the Works of Grace And hath redeemed us from our Enemies For his Mercy endureth for ever v. 24. It is Eternal Love in the Bosom of the Father which hath sent Jesus Christ forth from thence for us and to us that he may be our Sacrifice our Ransom and our Redeemer It is Eternal Love in the Person of Christ which cometh down from Heaven to make itself a Sacrifice for us to the Justice and Wrath of God It is Eternal Love in the Person of our Iâ—sus which descendeth upon the Earth as a Field of Blood to undertake the Fight with the Powers of Darkness that he may reskue us and redeem us from all our Enemies on Earth and in Hell It is Eternal Love in the Person 〈◊〉 Iâ—â—us Christ that gâ—veth itself a Price for us that one Pearl in which Hâ—â—ven and Earth with all the treasures of the Creature and Creator lie to puâ—chase us to itself It is Eternal Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom that giveth itself to us to cloath us to form us to act us to be a Crown of Divine Glory upon us to be a Fountain of all Spiritual Loveliness Life Grace Purity and Joys in the midst of us Thus it redeemeth us from our Captivity and Shame Thus it maketh us a Bride fit for itself coming forth ready trim'd out of the Heaven of its own Embraces 3. The nourishing of us in the Bosom of God This Work of Grace cometh in the third Rank Who giveth food to all Flesh For His Mercy endureth for ever Mark how these answer one another Mercy Food All Flesh For ever Eternal Love is both the Feeder and the Food If God give Food If everlasting Mercy Eternal Love in the Divine Nature and Form give Food This is Food indeed not the Flood of a Shadow or a lie My Flesh is Meat indeed my Blood is Drink indeed saith our Lord Jesus The Lord speaketh not this of his Humane Nature For of this he saith in another place The Flesh profiteth not but the Spirit quickneth It is Eternal Love which is the Flesh of Christ the strength and substance of the Divine Nature It is Eternal Love which is the Blood of Christ the Life and Sweetness of the Divine Nature This is that Meat indeed and Drinâ— indeed which Love giveth for Food to all Flesh in its Bosom to nourish it to Eternal Life I have passed thorow the second Sort of 〈◊〉 Works the Works of Grace 3. Works of Glory O give thanks unto the God of Heaven For his Mercy endureth for ever v. 26. and last The Psalm begun with Goodness as its ground of Love v. 1. It closeth its Musick with Heaven as the Crown of Love The natural Heavens the Heavens of the first Creation are not intended here These were mentioned in the body of the Song and pass away These are the last and highest Heavens the Heavens of Glory the high and holy places of Eternity These Heavens are all made of Love All the precious and incorruptible Substance all the unexpressible and pure Sweetnesses All the Divine and unfading Beauties of these Heavens are Eternal Love All the Praises given to God as he appeareth in these Heavens with all his Saints and Angels all his Joys and Glories round about him are attributed to Eternal Love the Root the Flower the Fruit the only reason and rellish of all O give thanks to the God of Heaven For his Mercy endureth for ever For his Love is Eternal The midst of Solomons Chariot is pavâ—d or flameth with Love Cant. 3. The Center of Heaven is a Love-fire All the Spirits and Spiritual Glories of it are Immortal flames of Divine Love 2. Argum. Love is the end of all Things with God This is the second Argument to prove Love to be the proper Name of God and full expression of the Divine Nature Love appeareth to be the last end of all things three ways 1 All the Works of God end in Love 2. All the Attributes and Exâ—ellencies of God serve his Love 3. God resteth in his Love 1. All the Works of God end in Love Psal. 145. v. 9. His tender Mercies are over all his Works The word Mercies cometh from the Belly the inward parts the Womb. It signifieth the very heart of Love where it first liveth and never dieth where it lyeth warmest and hath the strongest pulse It signifieth Love in its Center and
Fountain where its operations are tenderest liveliest and highest It signifieth that the dearest of all Loves the love of a Mother to the Child of her Womb. This Love is over all the Works of God Over in Hebrew hath also the sense of Above It is the end alone which is over all and above all In these two respects Love appeareth to be the end of all the Works of God 1. Love is over all the Works of God As a Bird spreadeth itself over its Nest to hatch and cherish its young ones So the end spreadeth itself over all the means and ways to it The end fashioneth and formeth them Tâ—e end directeth and moveth them The end putteth a Beauty upon them and a pleasantness into them The end terminateth and perfecteth them in itself Thus Divine Love as the Heavenly Dove maketh the whole compass of things its Nest and sitteth upon it Love giveth Being Form Motion Light Life Loveliness Perfection to all the Works of God Love is the consummatior and Crown of all Thus love is the last end 2. Love is above all the Works of God Nothing can be above all besides the end of all The end of all boundeth all things and confineth them Eveâ—y thing which hath an end is finite The end itself is infinite because it haâ—h nothing above it to give bounds to it nothing beyond it to terminate aâ—d confine it Divine Love is the end of all good the measure of all good an infinite good For the love of God is above all the Works of God O the transcendent Sweetness Suitableness Goodness of Divine Love When you have extracted all that is sweet all that is agreeable all that is good out of every Creature every Divine Work the Love of God is sweeter and better than all this Yea there is in this Love a sweetness which so much excelleth which is so quite of another kind that by all this you can take no measure of it you can make no conjecture of it For all this is finite and that is infinite Now it is a firm and sure Rule there is no proportion between a finite and an infinite Being You must tast this Love itself to know how precious it is All the delights here when they are highest truest and purest are dreams only of this Love Awake O Soul and dress thy self to be a Bride to this Love Stir up all those infinite desires which are sown in thee to meet embrace and take in the infinite excellency the infinite Sweetness of this Love 2. All the Attributes and Excellencies of God serve his Love This proveth Love to be the end of all We read thus Ephes. 1. 5 6. Who hath predestinated us to the adoption of Sons by Jesus Christ in himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Grace is Love with these three Graces adorning it Freedom Sweetness Fulness See if this Love be not God himself to which the Praise and Glory is given Can this be any other than God in his last and naked Appearance the end of all to which the Praise and Glory of all is ascribed Behold with what Pomp Divine Love is brought in A long order of Divine Glories go before it Love followeth them as King and God 1. The Counsels of God in Eternity comprehended in the head of them all predestination Who hath predestinated us 2. The Adoption the Sonship all the Sons of God 3. Jesus Christ himself the brightness of the Glory of God by whom all the world Visible Invisible of Nature Grace and Glory are made in whom all the Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth Bodily 4. The Will of God which is the unsearchable Treasure of all Sweetness Goodness Power and Joy the Seed and Fruit of all Desires thorow Earth and Heaven Yea the good pleasure of his Will which the Will of God like the Sun shining in its strength or a full Sea All these in their Order serve to the Praise of the Glory of Divine Love Who hath predestinated us to the Adoption of Sonship by Jesus Christ in Himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace All the most Spiritual and highest Images of God in his Sons all the most beautiful purest and sweetest Idea's of Eternity within himself Jesus Christ the Supream Image the Universal Idea which comprehendeth them all and surmounteth them all give up all their Glories to Love as Stars do their light to the Sun Love is the first and the last the most high Father and end of all This is that last opening of the God-Head in which all other lights of Nature Grace and Glory terminate as in their proper and beatifical end Let us apply this two ways Let it be a Caution a quickning to us 1. A Caution Take heed of provoking the Love of God to Jealousy The greatest Sea rageth with the highest and most dreadful Waves in a Tempest when the Wind 's upon it The Jealousy of this Love is the rage or a God in the greatness of his Power Glory and Majesty at the height of his God-Head For this Love is God in the full and final Glory of his Divine Nature after which we are to expect no other no further Discovery There are two things of which the love of God is most Jealous its Glory and its Bride 1. Love is most jealous of its Glory The Glory of Divine Love consisteth in its Purity its Spirituality its Heavenliness It is a pure Spirit the first and purest of all Spirits It is itself the highest Heaven the Heaven of Heavens If you impute to this Love any thing impure fleshly or earthly it you make this Love a pretence to the flesh and to filth you stain its Glory you put it to open shame you blow up its jealousy to a flame which will burn to the nethermost Hell 2. The Love of God is most jealous of its Bride Thy Soul O Man is the Daughter the Sister the Bride to this Love Take heed of dishonouring the Marriage-bed of Divine Love in thy Soul and defiling its Spouse If thou pollute thy self with any fleshly lust with any worldly love with any Idol without thee or within thee this most high and holy Love will be an everlasting flame and a devouring fire burning upon thee until it have burnt up and consumed every Idol of thine Eyes or Heart every Lust every other Love 2. A quickning Direct the Eye of your Spirits thorow all things thorow all the Attributes and Excellencies of God to his Love Terminate your desires by all Divine Actings and Discoveries beyond them all upon the Love of God For this is the end of all this is God Divine Love is the great and rich Diamond of the Divine Nature All other operations and excellencies of the Divine Nature are the Sparklings the Lustre the Water of this Diamond Let all the Sparklings and Streams
the Victory the Joy and Crown of the Feast I know you prevent me in your thoughts you who love the Lord Jesus by applying this to your Prince your Beloved and his Love his Bride your own Souls I shall bring down all to my purpose and to your practice in the exercise of those Principal and Triumphant Graces Faith Love Heavenly Joy by three Conclusions or Spiritual Maxims 1. Conclu All the Armies of God all the Powers of the God-Head the innumerable Companies of holy Angels and blessed Spirits all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth with their Captain the Lord Jesus at the head of them move and fight in their courses under the Banner of Love Thy Person in a glorious Image of all Divine Beauties is figured upon the Banner as this Eternal Princes Love Love to thee is wrought upon the Banner in Characters of Glory This is the Cause of all motions in Heaven and Earth To this Banner all Powers every where resort unto this they are united under this they march and fight 2. Conclu The Lord Jesus as Captain of the Lord's Hosts with all his Heavenly Armies his ten thousands of Angels his Chariots of fire and Horses of fire continually encompasseth thee marcheth encampeth round about tâ—ee as his chiefest Treasure his Love with Banners of Love spred and displaid over thee on every side of thee round about Every step thou takest in thy way to Heaven is in the midst of these Warriours All Divine Powers continually circle thee in The Invisible and Invincible Hosts of God under the conduct of thy Beloved Jesus are thy perpetual Guard and Convoy In the midst of these thou walkest â—ittest and lyest down thou wakest and sleepest Psal. 91. 11. The Angels have a charge of thee from their Prince and thy Bridegroom that they keep thee in all thy ways that they bear thee in their hands least at any time thou strike thy foot against a stone that thou never stumble The Angels of God are thy Chariots of War thy Chariots of State thy Chariots of Love thy Chariots for Travel in which thou journiest thorow this Wilderness to thy Kingdom the Kingdom of Love and Glory All this they are in one They make thy way thy Palace in the midst of thy Kingdom for Strength for Glory for Delights for Rest in thy Love They bear thee up above in the light of Life in the Life of Divine Love This is the way high and lifted up above all the Powers of Darkness and Death in which they carry thee along that thou mayst never strike thy foot against any stone of offence against any hard and hurtful Form of Darkness Enmity or Death Thy Jesus the Bosom of thy Beloved is this way 3. Conclu These Banners of Love which are spred over thee in thy marches here the same hang streaming over thy head to Eternity and over the Head of thy King as thou fittest at the Feast with him in Heaven The Fights about thee here are the Trophies and Triumphs at the Feast here The same Love is figured on all which maketh all precious Stones and Jewels in thy Marriage-Crown and Crown of Glory to shine there and adorn it for ever Use. The Use which we make of this is to see the difference between the two states of a Saint and a Sinner a Believer and him who believeth not 1. See the blessedness of â— Believer Heb. 1. 2. Jesus Christ is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God that is of Love the express Image of the Substance or Person of God that is of Love For God is Love v. 6. 7. When God bringeth his Son again that is after his Resurrection in his Spiritual and Heavenly Appearance into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He hath made all his Ministers Spirits and his Angels a flame of Fire This concerneth thee O Believer and is spoken of thee O the blessedness of that Soul which indeed receiveth Jesus Christ and his Love by Faith if only thou didst know thine own happiness God hath brought his Son in his second Appearance in his Spirit into thine Heart He is in thee the brightness of the Glory of Love that is of the Divine Nature shining in the midst of thee This is that Eternal Sun from which all blessed Spirits continually drink in the Light Influences Joys of Life and Immortality He is in thee the express Image of Love which is the Substance and Person of God This setteth itself thorow him as a Seal upon thine Heart Now the Power of God is a Servant to his Love in thee Now God saith Let all the Angels of God worship how down to serve my Love in this Soul God himself maketh his Angels Flames of Love enfolding thee penetrating thy Body and Spirit shining within thee round about thee continually in the darkest night He maketh his Angels Ministring Spirits to thee Spirits of Glory Minister Love to thee after an Invisible manner in all visible Things Every moment of time every Circumstance or Accident in time are the Wings of Angels a Chariot of Angels carrying thee above the snares of Death below into Heaven This is thy Portion who believest in the Lord Jesus and his Love 2. See the misery of Unbelievers How wretched art thou who believest not who sayest to the Love of God and the Tydings of it from Heaven Depart from me I have no pleasure in you Those Powers of Darkness that are ever ready to raise up Leviathan from his Stormy deep below curse thee All evil Spirits are Flames of Wrath burning within thee burning from without upon thee alwaies in the midst of thy Jollities at thy Feasts on thy Beds of pleasure Evil Spirits are ever Ministring Wrath to thee after an Invisible manner thorow all Visible Things Devils are thy Chariots These wrap thee up in a thick Cloud in the blackness of Darkness and hurry thee to Hell O be not unbelievers but believe that you may inherit the Land of Love and dwell in it for ever Love inviteth wooeth you to believe that is to receive itself into your Hearts Love will bring its own entertainment and make the Feast for itself if you for your parts will but take it in as a guest 3. Instance The Righteousness of God serveth his Love Rom. 5. l. Grace reâ—gneth by Righteousness unto Eternal Life thorow Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is Love in its Fountain Love upon the Throne Love is brought in here by the Apostle under the name of Grace as a King Eternal Life Heaven is the Kingdom of Love Jesus Christ is the chief Minister of State to this great King God is Love sitting upon the Throne The Lord Jesus is the same supream Love descending from the Throne to be the Universal Servant and General Officer throughout all this Kingdom of Love Righteousness is the Scepter of the King Thy Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousness Psal. 45. Love reigneth by
Unity which is the Divine Nâ—â—ure and which is Divine Love by three Principles of our common Orthodâ—â— Divinity rightly founded upon the Scriptures 1. Prin. God beholdeth All things in himself He goeth not forth out of himself to converse with any Thing He receiveth not any Impression from thing without himself Rom. 11. v. 35. 36. Who hath been his Counsellour or who haâ—â— given to the Lord first that he should repay him God is Simple ever Perfect uncompounded He seeth all things in the Glass of his own Essence He Himself All to himself his own Center and Circumference 2. Princ. Every thing which God seeth in himself he seeth at himself All Forms of things as they appear in God appear cloathed with the Form of God James 1. 5. every good and perfect Gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of Turning All appearances of things in the Fahter of Lights the Sun of Eternity are Lights good and Perfect Lights not Beams but so many entire Suns Springs and Seas of Light the Light of Life and Love in the Bosom of that Sun the Father of them All. For there is no Variableness in God although there be Variety God is the Same in every season and Appearance without any Shadow of Turning 3. Princ. God as he seeth all things in himself in one Divine Form with himself comprehendeth them unchangeably in the closest and sweetest Embraces converseth with them Eternally in the highest degree of all mutual Suitableness Sweetness Satisfaction and Delight Pythagoras said Friendship the best Kind of Love on Earth was One Soul in several Bodies as in so many Images and Reflections of itself Such is God such is Love One Incomprehensible Spirit multiplying itself into Innumerable Representations and Reflections of itself that it may contemplate itself possess itself delight it Self Infinitely for the Divine Form compleat in every One endlessly for the Variety ever New This is the sacred Unsearchable Unity of the Divine Majesty Thus this Unity is the most Sacred and Supreme Love Quest. Now you may perhaps say within your selves some one of you This Love of which you speak is the Love of God within himself the Love of God to himself What is all this Love to me Answ. My answers to this Question shall be so many Applications of this Truth Use. 1. All this Love is nothing to thee who separatest thy self from the Divine Unity by sin Your Sins separate between me and you saith the Lord by the mouth of his holy Prophet You have accounted your selves unworthy of Spiritual Loves in that you have divided your selves from the Unity the Heavenly Body and Spirit of the Lord Jesus You stand in the strength of your own Spirits and walk after your own Imaginations Principles and â—mages which you have found out and chosen to your selves to stand in the Power and walk in the Light of them Matth. 23. 37. Jesus Christ mournâ—th over Jerusalem in these words O Jerusalem Jerusalem who stonest the Proâ—hets and killest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered â—hee as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her Wings But ye would not Thereâ—ore now shall thy house be left unto thee desolate I say unto you Ye shall see me no more until ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Wretched Soul who art still in thy Sins hear thy Saviour after this manâ—er mourning over thee with tears of blood falling from those Wounds which Love in him Sin and Unbelief in thee have made with Words of Pity and tender Compassions falling from his Lips O wretched wretched Soul which by sin woundest that Unity of Divine Love which first sent thee forth from its Blessed Womb which by Unbelief continually killest in thy Self that Unity of the Eternal Spirit which springeth up in thee which sendeth forth sweet glances maketh strong Impressions of itself upon thee to draw thee into its Blessed Bosom O sinful O Unbelieving soul how often within thee without thee in thoughts of thine Heart in touches upon thy affections in the ministery of my Word in the works of my Providence have I spread over thee the Shadowing wings of the Divine Unity the wings of Divine Love of the Heavenly dove my Spirit How often would I have gathered thee under these wings to have lien safe from every Bird of Prey every Evil and Unclean Spirit to have lien warm under that Divine Heart which would have cherished the Divine Life in thee with all the Graces and Joys of it But thou wouldest not Therefore is thy Spirit and Person left to thee desolate without Spiritual Life Spiritual Comfort Spiritual Company which all as Plants of Immortality grow and flourish together in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit as in their Root But poor forlorn Soul when thou shalt see thy Saviour come again in his Spirit into thy Spirit then shalt thou fall down at his feet fly into his Arms and say Blessed is my Jesus coming in the Heavenly Evidence of the Divine Unity which is the Supream Love that subdueth all things to itself Now I believe This Unity this Love is the Ground and Root of Faith Use. 2. All this Love is nothing to thee who livest in the enmity of the Serpent Thou hast no lot nor portion in that Divine Unity which is the Fountain of Love who livest in Wrath Malice and a bitter Zeal The Spouse of Christ the Soul on which he hath set his Love is a Dove hath Hony and Milk under her Tongue Divine Love Heavenly Peace and Joy are a Fountain of Milk and Hony in her Heart Gentle Language Words of Meekness Healing Peace-making works are streams of Milk and Hony under her Tongue flowing from the Fountain of Divine Love in her heart We read in the Book of Job that the Wicked Man shall never see the Land of Brooks of Fountains and of Rivers of Waters but the Serpent shall bite him These expressions seem to allude to the Land of Canaan and the fiery Serpents in the Wilderness which things themselves were Types of the Paradise of Love in the Divine Unity and the Enmity of the old Serpent in the Wilderness of Sin As thou likest not to retain Love in thine Heart language and life but art a fiery biting Serpent by deadly hate bitter Speeches works of wrath and malice formed in Hell so thou shalt never see the pleasant Land flowing with Brooks with Fountains and Rivers of Love The crooked Serpent shall wrap thee up in his cursed folds to draw thee into his hideous Den there bite and devour thee Use. 3. Believe So shall all this Love be thine in thee and to thee I shall make good this to thee by 3 Arguments which are so many Motives to perswade thee to believe to stand fast in the Faith to grow in Faith 1. Argum. Believe and by believing thou shalt be transplanted
before the Testament or Covenant is here expressed by Promises The Law is compounded of Precepts and Promises dependant upon those Precepts as condition of the Covenant to be performed mutually on both sides of prohibitions and threatnings annexed But as the Sun is a Body streaming forth freely by a knot of Beams So is the Gospel a knot of Promises which are all Love in so many clear unmixt Beams shooting themselves freely forth from the fulness and force of Love alone in its Head-spring the heart of God Obj. But you will say Are there not Precepts set down Conditions imposed Duties required high and hard things to be performed in an Evangelical State Ans. It is most true The Gospel hath its Precepts Conditions Duties and these all high hard raised to a pitch of Spirituality and Heavenliness beyond the reach and sight of any natural Spirit But these all depend upon the Promise and not the Promise on them All Evangelical Graces and Duties are Children of the Promise The Promise is as the Hierusalem above free the mother of all living Principles and Performances We read 2 Pet. 1. 4. That we have given to us great and precious promises by which we are made partakers of the Divine Nature You who believe not hear and believe You who believe but faintly and weakly hear that your Faith may be encreased You who are strong in Faith hear and believe yet more Hear how all the difficulties in believing in the whole life of Faith from the Beginning to the end the Promises are Pipes of pure Gold laid into your Hearts from the Heart of Christ in Glory By these from that flourishing Olive Tree the Divine Nature as the best Oil floweth in upon you freely and perpetually When a Gardiner would set choice Plants Flowers in a barren sandy Soil he first bringeth in fresh and fertile Soil to lay upon it Then he planteth in this good ground which he hath made his Flowers and Trees which now flourish and make that barren Earth a rich and pleasant Garden So God findeth thy Spirit O Man barren and sandy a Rock No Spiritual Plant no Truth or Grace of the Gospel can take root or live here But be not thou discouraged by all this by the hardness of thine Heart the barrenness and enmity of thy Spirit to the Heavenly Seed which it killeth as often as it is sown in it Look to the Promises God by these will bring in the Divine Nature With this as a good and Heavenly ground he will overlay and enrich thy Spirit Now God will plant every pleasant Truth every Evangelical Grace in thy Spirit Now they shall all prosper they shall unfold their several Beauties send forth their sweet smell and bring forth much fruit in thee For this new Earth of the Divine Nature shall send forth its Fatness and Sweetness into them and make them to grow When a Prince goeth his progress his Gests are set down before he leaveth his Court which way and how far he shall Travel every day where he shall lodge at night His Servants with Furniture and Provisions from his Court wait upon him all along A Promise is a Declaration and Obligation of Divine Love which it maketh of itself which it layeth upon itself free and immutable Whoever thou art that hearest this believe in the Promise Believe freely in a free Promise This Faith will make thee the Prince of which I speak Thou art now a Prince come forth from Heaven to take thy Progress thorow this world and so return home to Heaven again All thy Gests by day and Rests by night are set down Eternally in Heaven in the Book of Love there which is the Heart of God and from thence in a Promise which is Eternal Love or the Heart of God transcribed to be read by thee The day of a Saint is the Light shining from the Face of God The night is the drawing in and darkning of this Light All thy motions by day with every Circumstance O Believer O Heavenly Prince are described exactly in the draught of Divine Love the Promise Thou goest as it is written of thee there The Holy Angels thine own Servants from thy Court in Heaven attend thee in all thy way with Heavenly Provisions and Minister unto thee as is appointed there Thy resting-place every Night is ordered in the Promise The Blessed Angels go before thee They take up thy lodging for thee They make it ready with Heavenly Furniture They make thy Bed for thee They are a Guard round about thee for the fear of the night All things are done as was set down before in the Bosom of Eternal Love opened in the Promise Thus the Gospel is All a Promise The Promises are Love shining forth by its own Brightnesses and Beams Love is that name of God which is an Ointment poured forth Love is the Divine Nature freely flowing and diffusing itself like Live-Honey As a Bottom of Silk is unwound and wrought out into divers beautiful Figures in a Garment of Needle-work such is thy Life thy whole Story O Saint Divine Love spun forth from the glorious Heart of God as Silk from the curious Worm is wound up into a Bottom in the Promise This rich Bottom worketh out itself into all thy motions and rests into all thy Changes and Chances thorow thy whole course as into so many exact and shining Figures of Eternal Glories Thus Love maketh itself the entire History of thy Life of that History and Life it maketh for thee a Garment to wear in Heaven becoming the Bride of the great King You may see something by my description of this first Pillar on which the Gospel standeth how God is one in the Covenant of Grace and that high Heavenly Unity the sweet Spring of all the Grace and love of the Covenant You will see this breaking forth more like the day dawning by degrees upon you as I shall set before you the other two Pillars of Evangelical Truth 2. Pillar The Promise of the Gospel is to the Seed and to that Seed as to One. To Abraham and to his Seed were the Promises made He saith not to Seeds as to many but to his Seed as to One. v. 16. The Seal of the Promise upon the Seed is the Unity God will not give his Glory to another The Love and Grace of God in the Gospel is his chief Glory Therefore is Evangelical Love to the Evangelical Seed and that for the Unity sake The Seed every where in the Father in all the Off-spring is one with itself Love and Unity are ever inseparable The Strength and Sweetness of the Relation between the Father and the Child is the Unity Love is at its height in a Father because there is the Head of the Unity The Unity here is the Spring of Love From hence its streams run along into all relations with the sweeter and stronger force as they are nearer to this Spring God is Love God
are joyned and raised to the highest point of Unity in Love God assembled all the Powers and properties of the Creation all the Angels the Persons in the Trinity to form a shadow of the Divine Nature in the first Man saying Let us make Man O Man All the Beauties Blessedness and Treasures of the Divine Nature are gathered together into one Sun of Divine Love to make thee new no more a Shadow but a Sun in this Sun a Light in this Light of Eternal Love Open thine Eye and thine Heart to this Love by believing it 3. Argu. Power consisteth in Unity The Supreme Unity which is Love is then Almighty the Supreme and Soveraign Power Is any thing impossible to Almighty Love Is any thing too hard for it What change is there from Darkness to Light from pollution to Purity from profaneness to Piety from the hardness of a Stone to the softness and sweetness of a Dove from a Devil to a Blessed Angel from a Hell to a Heaven which Almighty Love cannot make in thine Heart in a moment with one cast of its Eye upon thee 4. Argu. A simple Unity is Infinite It is ever every where the same Nothing boundeth it because it is itself alone and there is no other thing besides itself together with it to give an allay to it or confine it This is the Infiniteness of the Divine Unity This Unity thus Infinite is Divine Love Come whoever thou art Believe and cast thy self thy Hopes thy Fears thy Griefs thy Joys thy Sins thy Graces into this Abyss this Sea of Love which hath no Bottom nor Shore This will receive them all This will swallow them all up into its sweet and shining Depths This will cover them all with its own rich and glorious Floods as Waters cover the Sea Come Believe and cast thy self all thy Relations the delights of thine Eyes the dear and pleasant things of thine Heart thy whole Spirit Soul and Body into this Infiniteness of Divine Love Thou shalt find them after many days to day immediately eternally sporting themselves in this great and wide Sea of Love Love in the Person of the Lord Jesus descended to the nethermost parts of the Earth and ascended above all Heavens that it might fill all Behold now a Deluge of Divine Love in the Resurrection of thy Jesus Love as a manifold Fountain of a great Deep from below breaketh up and breaketh open itself Love poureth down itself thorow all the Windows of Heaven opened upon thee Thus the Floods of Love increase rise higher and higher till they cover the tops of the highest Mountains of Guilt or Despair of Desire or hope in thy Spirit Only do not thou stop these Fountains of Love from below shut not these Windows of Heaven above to thy self by thy unbelief Love in the Person of the Holy Ghost by the mouth of the Psalmist cryeth unto thee Open thy Mouth wide and I will fill it Open all thine outward and â—nward senses open all the Powers and Faculties of thy whole Man to take â—n this Love Open them yet wider wider still Take in still more of this Love When thou art full of Love to thine utmost Capacity still that Love which remaineth is infinitely more infinitely sweeter than all that which thou hast taken in 5. Argu. That One Seed the Divine Unity is thy Seed in thee that is Love â—tself the first the highest Love Thou also art his Off-spring No Man ever hated his own Flesh. Can a Mother forget her Child saith the Holy Ghost Divine Love is the Seed out of which thou springest Divine Love is thy Father which hath begotten thee thy Mother which hath brought thee forth Can Love itself hate its own Birth and Branch Can Love itself forget its own Child the Child of Love The Prodigal returned first to himself then he thinketh of his Father and of Heaven then his Father meetâ—th him kisseth him bringeth him home entertaineth him with the best Garment with Feasts with Musick with an Universal Joy O Prodigal Thou hast wasted thy Beauty thy Strength thy Parts thy Comforts thy flourishing hopes among Harlots in lewd Company and Conversation Thou feedest among Swine upon Husks and thou starvest in the midst of the Swine for want of Husks O Prodigal The Divine Unity the Seed of God Eternal Love is still thy true self which lyeth below all these disguises of Darkness and Deformity as Jesus Christ lay sleeping at the bottom of the Ship which was ready to sink by the violence of the Storm Thou art the Seed of God For thou also art his Off-spring Thou art the Seed of Love For God is Love O Prodigal Open the Eye of thy Spirit Believe and see Divine Love awakening and appearing in thee as thy true self to thy self Feel it drawing thee by a sweet and irresistible force to itself that is to thy self from whence thou hast so long wandered in a strange Form by the Sorcery of Sin and the Devil Believe and see Divine Love in the true Forms of thy Father and of Heaven opening their Bosom again to thee sending forth a vertue of Heavenly Love from themselves with which they touch thy Heart soften iâ— melt it into kindly repentings a lovely shame and tears of Love kindling sweet desires lively hopes and ardent longings in thee after thy Father and Heaven thine own Country Believe and see Divine Love thy Father coming into the midst of the Swine to thee carrying thee in a rich Chariot made of his own Bosom and Embraces heaping kisses upon thee as he carryeth thee So Love bringeth thee home to its own House the Heavenly Palace of Love There Divinâ— Love cloatheth thee with the best Garment it s own Native and Divine Loveliness Love feasteth thee with its own Joys as they have sprung up thorow a Death for thee into a Resurrection for thee also Love sweetneth heightneth all thy entertainment with its own Musick resounding with a Divine Harmony from all Heavenly Hearts all Glorified Spirits round about thee yea from all things in Heaven and Earth tuned by the Eternal Spirit of Love itself and plaid upon in a most exact and charming Consort Return then to thy true self thy Father and to Heaven Heavenly Love is all these It is also thy way to these thy Light and thy Life in the way Believe Say not now O that I could believe and repent Heavenly Love will form itself into inward Divine Meltings Repentings Acts of Faith and of all Grace in thee Look to this Love and live Eternally in the Bosom of Love The Unity of God which is Love is thy Root which will rise up unto a Divine sap and form itself into all Divine Fruit in thee if thou wait for it For thou art the Off-spring of God Use. 3. The Unity of God is the Root and Reason of Holiness The Unity of God is the Fountain of Love of all Grace and Comfort in the Gospel The
Fountain in the Person of the Father For there Love is in its Glory There is a Three-fold Crown the Marriage-Crown the Crown of a King the Crown of a Conqueror There is accordingly a Three-fold Glory 1. There is the Glory of Beauty This is that of the Sun which sendeth forth his Beams thorow all things and outshineth all things among the Earthly and Heavenly Bodies 2. There is the Glory of Soveraignty which ruleth over all 3. There is the Glory of Victory which subdueth all things to itself and maketh every thing an Ornament to its Triumph This Three-fold Crown doth Love wear this Three-fold Glory is it cloathed with in the Person of the Father It is the Eternal Sun which enlightneth enliveneth sweetneth cheareth all things by its Beams sent forth thorow all from the heights of the Heavens above to the depths of the Sea and the center of the Earth below It also infinitely surmounteth all things in Beauty and Sweetness as it shineth Eternally It is the great King that swayeth and ruleth all every where by its Golden Scepter It is the Glorious Conqueror which pierceth deep into the hearts of all which subdueth all to itself by its flaming Sword of Paradise turning every way By this Sword it cutteth off and consumeth all Flesh and Earth to keep that out of Paradise and from the Tree of Life By this Sword it refineth and converteth all into a pure and Heavenly Flame into Spirit So it bringeth them into Paradise to the Tree of Life in the midst of it Every thing every where doth Victorious Love make the Subject of its Conquests and the Ornament of its Triumphs This is Divine Love in its Glory in its Fountain This is the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father This is the Glory of Free-Grace 2. Inlet into the Fountain of Divine Love All the Riches of Love are seated in the Person of the Father The Apostle applyeth the Riches of Grace to the Father Ephes. 1. 7. According to the Riches of his Grace Three things meet in Riches Preciousness Plenty Power Every thing is purest and so most precious every thing is most united and so most plentiful and so most powerful every thing thus is richest in its Fountain The first Person is the Fountain of Divine Love For in him are the riches of Grace Love is Richest in the Father The heart of the Father is the Treasury of Love No where is Love so pure so unalâ—ayed so precious as in the heart of the Father Traffick O Man for the Treasure of this Love with all thy faculties with all that thou hast and art This Merchandise is beyond that of Gold and Rubies Traffick to this Coast of Spices to this Land of rich and precious Cordials the Land of the purest Love the heart of the Father No where is Love so plentiful in such abundance as in the heart of the Father The heart of the Father is infinitely larger than the Sea yet doth Love cover it as waters do the Sea where it is deepest when it is fullest Cast thy world of Sins O guilty Soul with all thy Mountains of guilt into this Sea of Love Love shall cover them that they shall never appear more If thou seek for them thou shalt not find them Come drink thy fill of Loves O dry and thirsty Soul from this rich and full Spring in the heart of the Father Come thou most insatiate Soul cast thy self into this full Sea of Loves in the Bosom of the Father hath thy self roul thy self in the midst of its rich Billows which rise as high as Heaven No where is Love so powerful so irresistible so full of vertue as in the heart of the Father Wash thy heart in this Fountain and it shall be healed of the Leprosy of every Lust. Lay thy heart down in this Spring in the Bosom of the Father and all its hardnesses shall be dissolved Drink in these waters of Love fresh from the heart of the Father and it shall be a powerful Cordial in thine heart It shall restore thy Life thy Strength the complexion of thy Soul thy Beauty thy Spirits thy Joys as at first as in Paradise as in Heaven as in thine Eternal Original 3. Inlet The Father in the Trinity is the Fountain of all Relations and so the Fountain of Love Father is the sweetest of all Names the Name of the highest tenderest purest and most perfect sweetness A Father is the first Relation and the Fountain of all Relations Adam was first a Father then a Husband So the Humane Nature from him streamed forth into Husband and Wives Sons and Daughters Brethren and Sisters into all Degrees of Kindred Allyances and Friendships Ephes. 3. 15. St. Paul saith that from the Father the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Some render that word Family the Fatherhood or Paternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Fathers in that Relation all the Fatherhoods and Paternities of every Father in Heaven and Earth lyeth first in that first Father the first Person in the Trinity as in their Fountain What comfort is this to every tender careful grieved Father of every sick sinful or lost Child The true Father to thy Child which acteth the part of the Father behind the vail of the shadowy Father in thee is the Father in the Trinity He is the strength sweetness and truth of the Relation every where The Paternity the Fatherhood every where is named from him But if we take the word according to our Translation it affordeth us the same sweet sense more fully The whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named from him from the Father of our Lord Jesus A Family is a chain of Relations which are as so many Links in the chain fastned one to another Father Mother Husband Wife Brother Sister Children Friends All these are named from the Eternal Father All these sweet dear names of Union of Love agree first most properly most truly to him who is the Supream Unity the Original and Fountain of all Unions of all Love All these are named from him He is the true Parent in the Parents the true Child Husband Wife Brother Sister Friend in thy Child thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother thy Sister thy Friends He is descended into all these shadoweth himself under them subsisteth as the truth and substance in them It is this descent of his in them this Presence and Appearance of his which giveth these names to them Love is either the Relation itself or the Blood which runneth along in the vein of every Relation Every Relation is a Union Every Union is Love in its proper kind and degree The Original the Fountain of all Unions of all Loves of all Relations is the Supream Unity which is the Father the first Person in the Trinity All Relations in Heaven and Earth all Unions are broken pieces of the great Diamond of Divine Love The Father is this great Diamond of Divine Love
Entire Eternal the first and highest Unity in which all Unions lie together undivided compleat making up one Sweetness which hath the names and rellishes of all sweetnesses which giveth name and rellish to every sweetness which is above all names and rellishes unexpressible incomprehensible This is the Love-spring in the Trinity of Divine Love This is the Father in the Trinity of the Divine Nature Use. 1. Give all Glory to Free-Grace Ascribe all Riches to it Set your Love upon it This is the Fountain of Divine Love in the Bosom of the Father This is the Fountain of Israel This is the Fountain of the God Head This is your own your only Fountain O Saints All your streams of Life Grace Comfort Glory arise out of this Love-spring in Eternity which is the heart of the Father This is the Fountain this is the Father of Jesus Christ your Fountain and Father in him He that hath drunk the Waters of Life and Love from this Well will never thirst more after any other Waters or drink of any other Spring We read in Numbers of a Well in the Wilderness which the Princes digged with their Staves and sung to it Spring O Well O wandring Souls behold your Well which is before you in every Wilderness The Prince of Life your Jesus hath dig'd and opened it for you from the depths of the God-Head with the Staff the Scepter of his Spirit Look to no other Fountain But sing continually to this Spring O Well Spring O thou heart of the Father Spring in mine heart Spring with streams of Divine Truth Spring with streams of Divine Strength Spring with streams of Divine Joy Send forth thy streams over all my Soul and Body Make all my powers and parts to sing like the Garden of Eden O thou Fountain of Gardens My Prince hath dig'd and opened thee in my heart O thou heart of the Father with the Staff of his Spirit Open mine Eyes O Blessed Spirit that by thee I may see this Fountain which by thee is opened in me It was at the Fountain that Jacob and his beloved Rachel first met The Daughters of Laban came thither to water their Flocks But the Well had a great stone upon it which they could not move Jacob rolled away the Stone and watered their Flocks for them From thence they brought Jacob to their Fathers House knew him for their neer Kinsman and were marryed to him It is at this Fountain of Free-Grace that the Lord Jesus and the elect Soul first meet Sin Death and Wrath make the Stone which cover this Spring The Lord Jesus rolleth away this Stone that thou and all thy Fathers Flocks with thee all the Principles and Powers of Life in thee may drink of this Well Here the Lord Jesus looketh upon thee and loveth thee Here he maketh himself known to thee to be thy Brother and taketh thee to be his Bride From this Well he goeth home with thee unto thy Fathers House into thine heart into thy natural Spirit and thine Earthly Image in these to marry thee to himself to make the fruitful to Eternal Glory to enclose this door of thy natural Spirit with Boards of Cedar a Divine Beauty Sweetness and Incorruptibility to build upon the wall of thine Earthly Image a Palace of Silver into which he will invite his Father the Holy Angels all glorified Spirits to feast and inhabit with himself and thee There was often contention for Wells between the Servants of Abimelech and the Servants of Isaac These digged them and the others stopped them up Contend O Believers for this your Well of Free-Grace Suffer no Aegyptians or Philistines to stop it up by casting in the Earth or Stones and Rubbish of Free-Will of any Wisdom Work or Worth in the Creature As Earth cast into a Spring defileth it so by every thing of the Creature mingled with the Waters of this Fountain they lose their clearness their sweetness their vertue Keep this Spring of the Fathers heart of Free-Grace pure So shalt thou see a clear shining deep of Divine Sweetnesses without any Bottom the Glorious Deep of Eternity itself In the clearness of this Spring shalt thou see thine own Face From the freshness of this Spring thou shalt drink in perpetually new Floods of all living Sweetnesses With the pure Waters of this Spring thou shalt preserve thine heart ever new ever soft ever flourishing with all Joys ever fruitful in all Graces O Saints Keep this Love-Spring the Fountain of Free-Grace open keep it pure in your Spirits Use. 2. Learn this Divine skill O Christians which comprehendeth all the rich mysteries of the Gospel in it Rise up new every moment with all things round about you out of this Fountain of Love in Eternity the Bosom of the Father Return again every moment with all your troop into this Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father Lay your selves down for ever here Here alone is Jesus Christ in his naked Beauties nakedly embraced Seek see and enjoy all your pleasant Relations all pleasant Unions in this Unity of Divine Love the heart of the Father as in their proper Fountain Here is the Truth here is the Life of them all in their Original Here they are unchangeable Here they are as Sun-beams before they come forth descend divide grow shadowy and fading As we keep Flowers fresh by setting their stalks in Water So say of all your Relations in their shadows on Earth of all your sweet things with their Sweetnesses Who is their Father Answer thy self The Fountain of Love Then keep them with their stalks in this Fountain So shall they be ever fresh ever sweet to thee 2. Person The Love-Birth God is Love The three Persons in the Trinity are Love in a three-fold Form and Property or in a threefold Distinct and opposite Relation to itself within itself for the enjoyment of itself in the secret of Eternity abstracted from all Creatures infinitely before them and above them I have spoken of the first Person in this Trinity of Divine Love the Father the Fountain of Love in Eternity I come now to speak of the second Person The God-Head in the second Person is Divine Love in its Eternal Birth and Image The Fountain of Divine Love which is the Father bringeth forth from itself within itself an Eternal Birth the compleat Image of itself the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty This is our Jesus in the Bosom of the Father I shall endeavour to draw the Curtain from before this Blessed and Glorious Birth of Divine Love the Beloved the only one of all Holy and Heavenly Spirits I shall endeavour to set this most desired and most pleasant Person our Lord Jesus before the Eyes of your mind by five Characters or Marks The second Person in the Trinity is 1. The Birth or Image of Divine Love 2. The First 3. The Fairest 4. The Freshest 5. The Fullest Birth and Image of Divine Love 1. Character The Lord Jesus is
than the Son without the Father Both are from Eternity both equally Eternal in this sacred Mystery and Trinity of the Divine Nature of Divine Love Prov. 8. This Son of Love is brought in speaking of himself and his Father Before the Mountains were formed ere yet the foundations of the Earth were laid I was before him as one brought up with him his delight day by day Before all the Creatures in Eternity the Lord Jesus alone was with the Father and none other besides him He was bred up together with him the Lamb the lovely the beloved Birth and Object of all his Loves the delight of his Eyes that fed at his Table and lay in his Bosom If you ask now what the Father did before he made the World the answer is full and sweet the Father in the infiniteness of Eternity brought forth Jesus Christ delighted himself in Jesus Christ the only Birth of all his Love and Desires the entirâ— Image of all his Loves and Joys Use. If you would be Holy Heavenly and Happy if you would be perfect in all Graces Joys and Glories as your Heavenly Father is perfect 〈◊〉 like him in this He is taken up with his Son Jesus alone before above a Creatures in Eternity Let this Jesus as he is the Birth and Image of all Dâ—â—vine Loves in the Father the Fountain of Love be your only one the 〈◊〉 Birth and beautiful Image of your Spirits continually before you bred 〈◊〉 with you into every Age Form and State your only delight day by da This is the first Birâ—â— of Love the Birth of Love in Eternity All those Birth of Love and lovely Images which are in the Creature Shadowy Finite Fâ—â—ding are here Substantial a Spiritual and Heavenly Substance Infinite Endlesâ— Ever-flourishing 3. Character The Lord Jesus as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the fairâ—â— Birth of Divine Love We read 1 Cor. 13. 5. Love behaveth not itself unseemâ— doth nothing uncomely The word uncomely signifieth a want of Proportion Haâ—â—mony Order Figure which make all Beauty and Musick every where Loâ—â— can conceive can form nothing within itself can bring forth nothing froâ— itself but its proper Object its proper effect which is suitable to it 〈◊〉 is Loveliness and Beauty As the Trees of Paradise had their Seed in them so every Birth of Love is in every part full of the Seeds of Love by which begetteth Love again full of the Beams of Love which kindle the sweâ— heat and fire of Love This is loveliness which soweth the Seeds of Loâ—â— and sendeth forth the Beams of Love into Spirits round about it As the 〈◊〉 the Supreme Eye of the visible World is to the Light so is Love the Eyâ—â— and heart of Eternity to loveliness Loveliness is the proper Emanation 〈◊〉 Image of Love by which it planteth itself in all Eyes and Hearts attractâ—â— all things into the Golden Circle and Center into the Glorious Palace of 〈◊〉 Blessed and Eternal Unity in itself which is itself Love then bringeth forth Loveliness and Beauty the Divine Love alâ— vine Loveliness and Beauty the Supreme Love the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty So the Lord Jesus is Beauty itself a Divineâ— Beauty the Supream Beauty the fairest Birth of Love being the first the only Birth of the Father the Fountain of Divine Love Love at the highest Love in its first Sweetness John 1. 14. We saith the Holy Apostle speaking of Jesus Christ saw his Glory the Glory as of the Only-begotten Son of God The Son of God is the only Birth of Love from the Father the Fountain of Love in two respects Comparatively Comprehensively First The Lord Jesus is the only Birth and Image of Divine Love Comparatively for his excelling loveliness We saw his Glory as the Glory of the Only-begotten of the Father So great a Glory shineth in his Person as darkneth all other Beauties all other Births and Images of Love maketh them quite to disappear and seem none at all Secondly Our Beloved Jesus is the only Birth and Image of Divine Love Comprehensively All his Saints are in thine hand All Holy Births and Images of the Father the Spring of Love in Eternity all Divine Lovelinesses the works of this curious Workman all the Jewels of Beauty framed by the skill of the first and Supreme Love in the heart of the Father all are comprehended in this Birth and Image all adorn the Person of Jesus Christ are there in their highest lustre and take their Beauty from him Thus is the Son of God the fairest Birth and Image of Divine Love Use. 1. O Sinners This is that Jesus who wooeth you the fairest of all things Beauty itself the Divine the Supreme Beauty Object no more against him and your union with him Obj. 1. Say not you are unworthy of him it cannot be that he should love Creatures so unlovely as you are Ans. He who would be your Bridegroom will be your Beauty What Bosom of the Highest and Divinest Love are you not fit for when he who is the Highest and Divinest Beauty is your Loveliness What stains can appear in you when the fairest Image from the Fountain of Love comprehending in itself innumerable Glories all Divine all Supreme descendeth upon you and wrappeth you up entirely in itself Obj 2. Say not you are unfit you cannot believe his Love you cannot love him again you shall never be pure and lovely like him to please him to honour him Ans. He who offereth himself to be your Beauty and Loveliness will be your Lover your Bridegroom This Glorious Spirit the Life of all Divine Loveliness will be the Husband of your Spirits All your Fruit shall be from him He who is the fairest Birth and Image from the Fountain of Love will be the Birth of all Spiritual and Heavenly Beauties in you of all Graces Comforts and Glories He will be the lovely Image springing up the root of Love the heart of the Father into your whole Spirit Soul and Body Object then no more Make plain his way Lay open your hearts to this Jesus who cometh to be a Divine Beauty to thy Person a Divine Bridegroom to thy Spirit the Divine Birth of Faith of Love of all Graces Glories Joys and Immortality in thee He will be better to thee than all thy Righteousness sweeter to thee than all thy Lusts Lovelier than all the Idolâ— of thine Eyes and Heart Fruitfuller than all thine hopes Use. 2. O Saints Behold another of your rich Jewels See here that Jewel which when you wear filleth Heaven and Earth with the brightness and sweetness of its light round about you dazleth blindeth and confoundeth the Devils that they cannot come near you to hurt you attracteth and draweth down the Angels from Heaven to gaze upon you to admire you to attend round about you to encompass you whithersoever you go yea allureth ravisheth the heart of the Father himself to come and inhabit in you
see the high and gloriouâ— Trinity the adored and amiable mystery of Eternal Love the three Beauâ—tiful and Blessed Persons of this Trinity of this mystery the Father 〈◊〉 Fountain of Love the Son the Fathers Lovely Birth Bride in their Love-union on their Heavenly Marriage-Bed figuring themselves and shining wilâ— the naked substantial Glory thorow the Figure You will say to the sweetneâ— of every Flower to the Beauty of every prospect in your walks this is thâ— Love-union between the Father and the Son this is the fruit of the Marriage-Bede on which the Father of Loves and his Lovely Image his Son aâ—â— his Bride lie eternally embracing each other This is thâ— perfume this is thâ— lustre of the holy Spirit You will say of every Sickness Sorrow and Death Here also is the Love-union These also are Love-Births Love-Images froâ— the Marriage-Bed of Love in Eternity These also are Doves with Wings 〈◊〉 Silver and Feathers of Gold from that Mother-Dove the Holy Spirit 〈◊〉 Love-Marriage between the Father and the Son in the most holy Triniâ—â— Use. 2. Give Glory to the Persons of this blessed Trinity to this mysteâ—y of Divine Love continually Dost thou perceive any good principle in Grace or nature putting forth itself in thee Give thanks and say This is the Father the Fountain of Diviâ—e Love opening himself and springing in 〈◊〉 Dost thou feel any sweet Appearance of Truth or Goodnes Light or Love in thy Spirit Rejoyce and say this is the Son the Love-Birth the Love-Image the Lord Jesus rising up from his Fountain the Bosom of the Father in me If there be any Vertue any Power any Pleasantness any Joy any Life of Love lift up thine heart and hands on high say This is the Love-union the Love-knot in the most high and Holy Trinity this is the Holy Spirit the Marriage Bed of the Eternal Bridegroom and Bride the Father of all Loves the Image of all Lovelinesses This is thy high and Heavenly Marriage-Bed which is now Green flourishing and fruitful in me Use. 3. Let this be the mark at which thou aimest O Believer to be taken up into this Love union into this Eternal Marriage-Bed to be one with the Father and the Son as they are one in the Unity of the Spirit I have now finished the last Argument for the confirmation of that proposition God is Love The Argument was this The mystery of the Trinity is a mystery of Divine Love Let me conclude this Argument with one general Use. Use. Hold fast the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Study it with humble pure Spiritual understandings with the Scriptures in your Eye as your mark to guide you in your way with the Holy Ghost in your heart as your Light of Life to discern your mark your way and your end It is a deep and Divine contemplation that of a Learned Acute and Heaâ—enly Person God hath two Boxes in which he hath laid up his Jewels the â—ncarnation and the Trinity God hath opened one Box the Incarnation There we have seen rich and sparkling Jewels in the union between the Diâ—ine and Humane Nature here below God manifested in 〈◊〉 But O! What â—ewels shall we see what Loves what Glories what Unions when God shall open his other Box of the Trinity when we shall see God justified in the â—pirit The Trinity is the Supream the Soveraign mystery of the Gospel the â—undation of fair Colours upon which all evangelical mysteries are built â—e Fountain in Eternity from which they slow Then shall we understand 〈◊〉 mysteries when God shall take the vail from before this which is the entire 〈◊〉 clear-shining Face of the God-Head Here is the Supream Unity the Founâ—â—in of all Love Life and Light Here is the variety of Love and of Life 〈◊〉 its fairest Light in its first and fullest Image Here is the Love-union the 〈◊〉 Treasury the curious Spring the golden Band of all Unions Motions â—easures and Joys Blessed is he who with Eyes washed in this Fountain looketh into it seeth himself and all Divine Mysteries there Unvailed So Austin wished to have seen Christ in the Flesh. O how much more Divine and Blessed a Spectacle is it to see Christ in the Spirit that is in the Glory of the Trinity the Three Persons in One with all their Eternal Beauty fully and freely displayed Pray for Wait for Look up continually into the Heights and Lights oâ— the Spirit for this sight I have now brought to an End my last Description of Divine Love which is the Divine Nature God is Love I will seal up this Sweet and Soveraign Truth of the Gospel with One Use. Use. If you will be Children of God be Children of Love God is Love Love is the Divine Nature in God and in all His Holy Ones 1. Beware of Lust the Corruption of Love 2. Beware of Passion the Contrariety to Love 1. Beware of Lust the Corruption of Love The Corruption of the best Thing is the Worst All Lust is Love degenerated Love Corrupted Love is the Best of all things Love in its purity at its Height is the Godhead in God Lust is the Formality and Essence of the Devil as he is a Devil St. Jude teacheth us that fleshly Lusts are the similitude of that First sin of the Faln Spirits which made them of Angels Devils Ixion in the Poets loved a Goddess in the place of whom he embraced a Cloud formed into the Shape of a Divine Beauty Thus he became the Father of the Centaures half Men half Beasts Then he was cast into hell where he is fastened to a Wheel turning continually round on which he is tormented day and night This Pâ—rabâ—e is meant of thee O Lustful Spirit Thou wert made for Divine Love fâ—r the Love of the Divine Beauty Thus hast changed this Love into various Lusts. Thou defiâ—est thy self with Shadows Clouds of Darkness formed into the Empty Snapes of Beauty Instead of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Blessed Harmony of an Immortal Union all thy Births all thy Production are Horrid hateful monsters Man Beast and Devil all in One Spirit in One Person Thy end is the Endless Circle of thy Lusts and of the Divine wrath as the Wheel of Eternity a Wheel of Fire holding thee fast tied to it and torturing thee without any Rest or Period 2 Beware of Passion the Contrariety to Love Sampson tied Foxes together by their Tails with Firebrands between them So he sent them forth to burn up the standing Corn of the Philistines in the Fields O men when ye fall from the Wisdom of God into the Subtlety of the Serpent you become Foxes not Men. Your Lusts your Carnal Interests are your Tayls by which you are tied together in all your Unions and Commerce your Passions are Fire-brands fastned to your Tayls Thus the Devil sendeth you forth to deface and consume the Beauties the Peace the Comforts each of other of the whole Creation round about you
Behold the true Figure of Passionate Persons whose Wrath Envy Hatred Malice are Fire-brands Kindled from Hell and fastned to their Lusts as to their taâ—ls in which they carry them burning about thorow all things In the Holy of Holies was placed a Mercy-Seat all of Beaten Gold the Throne of Grace the Throne of Love Out of this Throne of one piece with it rose up two Cherubims of Beaten Gold They stretched forth their Wings they set their faces one to the other They together looked down to the Mercy-Seat This is the Heavenly Figure of your Christ and you O ye Children of Love in your Love-Union and Spiritual Communion God in Christ Christ in the Glory of the Father is the Golden Mercy-Seat the Throne of Love The Saints are the Cherubims the Children of Love rising up from the Throne of Love of one piece of Gold of one Love-Spirit with it With their Faces their Divine part they look one to another and maintain a mutual society They spread their Hearts their Spiritual understandings their Spiritual affections to each other and so meet so embrace With united Spirits they look down to the Throne of Love in the midst of them out of which they grow up together from which they continually draw fresh Beams fresh Love life and Joy O Saints O Holy Souls be rooted in Love grow up out of this Throne of Love Shine forth with Faces of Love spread forth wings of Love Be in all things one piece one pure Gold of Divine Love with the Throne of Love the Divine Nature For God is Love I am now come to the period of my discourse upon the first part of my Doctrine The Love of God The second part is the Effusion or pouring forth of Divine Love I shall express this to you by six Properties The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ. 1. Freely 2. Purely 3. Plentifully 4. Powerfully 5. Essentially 6. Eternally 1. Property The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ freely 2. Sam. 7. 21. David is brought in as a Type of Jesus Christ. He sitteth in the Temple beâ—ore the Lord when he was setled in his Kingdom and at the height of his Kingly Glory Thus Jesus Christ sitteth upon his Throne in the highest Heavens before his Father He discourseth to his Father of the wonders of his Fathers Love and his own Glory What is my Fathers House that thou hast brought me hitherto v. 18. I was a Man a poor Creature a Worm of the Earth Earthy as the Dust of the Earth as low as the neathermost parts of the Earth as low and naked as the first principle of the first Creation when the Earth was empty and void when darkness covered the face of it This was my Fathers House Yet thou hast brought me hitherto thou hast brought me to thy right Hand far above all Principalities and Powers all Heavens to thy Throne Thou hast given me a new Name above every Name a Name that eminently comprehendeth all Names in it a Name that infinitely transcendeth all Names Thus Love is poured forth in Christ. Jesus Christ goeth on in the Person of David And this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord God thou hast spoken of thy Servants House for a great while to come v. 19. This O my Father which thou hast wrought so wonderfully these mighty Works these Miracles of Divine Love and Glory in my Person seem a small thing to thee Thou hast spoken of my House my Church my Members my Seed to reign with me in the same Kingdom of Glory to Eternity Then Jesus Christ raiseth this Love to the highest point of Admiration to a state of transcendency above the capacity and comprehension of all Humane Hearts of all Created understandings Is this the manner of Man O Lord God! Is there any thing among Men in the compass of the Creation to which this Love can be likened or with which it can be compared Is there any where any Image Figure or Resemblance of such a design such a work of Love and Glory Thus Love is poured forth in the Person of the Lord Jesus See now how freely it is poured forth According to thine own heart hast thou done all this v. 21. Indeed he bringeth in first For thy Words sake for thy Promise for thy Sons sake thine Eternal Word thine Essential Image the Ground of thy Promise the Subject of thy Love and Design the Pattern and Model of thy Work But this word springeth from that Root to which all is ultimately referred the Heart of God According to thinâ— own Heart hast thou done all this The Heart of God is the Fountain of living Loves which springeth up freely of its own accord to Eternal Joys and Glories in the Person of Christ. The Love of God in Christ receiveth its Beginning Force Form Fashion and Finishing from the Heart of the Father All the Works of God are said in the Epistle to the Hebrews to have been Finished from the Beginning of the World All the Loves of God all the Works of Divine Love manifested and wrought in the Blessed Person of our Lord Jesus were finished from Eternity in the heart of his Father All Tides are from the Aestuation of the Sea The Sea boyling up from its Bottom as it riseth and dilateth itself poureth forth floods of Waters into all Rivers which run along in the Bosom of the Earth The Heart of God is the great Sea of Love This from its own Divine Heart Height and Fulness filleth all Spirits with its Heavenly Floods in the Bosom of Jesus Christ. The Will in the Soul is said by a learned Man to be Amplitudo Intellectûs the understanding in its full extâ—nt The Love of God poured forth upon the Person of Christ and upon all the Saints upon all things â—n him is Amplitudo Cordis Divinâ— the largeness of Gods Heart the Heart of God in its full extent and latitude So David addeth in the same place that God doth all this to shew his Greatness the Greatness of his Heart for he faith This is to make thy Servant know v. 21. To display thy self to draw a perfect draught of thy self in the Person of Christ. In what The next verse expresseth it Wherefore thou art Great v. 22. James 1. 5. God is said to give to all men liberally and to upbraid none Love is implyed in the gift Freedom in the liberality and gentleness without reproach The Person of Christ is signified in the universality All Men. Christ is one among the rest of Men Christ is the Fulness of Mankind He took not upon him the Person but the nature of man unrestrained to any particular Person His Humane Nature was not a Branch or an Apple but the Apple-Tree There are two expressions which St. James maketh use of here to set forth the Freedom of Divine Love in the effusions of it 1. He giveth Liberally The Word in Greek is Simply
without any Reserve without any Division of the Heart Simplicity is Unity The Intentness of the Mind upon One Thing The heart of God All the Thoughts of his heart All the Powers of the Godhead All the Divine Attributes are united and intended upon This One Thing alone Love poured forth on the Person of the Lord Jesus Simplicity is without Alteration or Composition The heart of God is single in this Natural unchangeable This is the One Thing the Onely Thing of God's heart This is the Sâ—mplicity of the Divine Operations from Eâ—ernity to Eternity The Effusion of Love in the Person of Christ There may be many Shadows many Vails many Windings But this is the Simplicity the naked Face of the Divine Design of the Divine Work from the Beginning to the End as it lieth in the heart of God 2. Upbraiding none To upbraid is to object some Evil as an Argument of withholding some Act of Love or exercising some Act of Wrath. John 1. 2. 9. Jesus Christ is called the Lamb which taketh away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tollit taketh up beareth the Sins of the World When the Father was to pour forth his Love upon Christ he did not reproach him saying Thou hast the Sins of all the World upon thee Thou hast upon thee Millions of Whoredomes Adulteries Incests Treasons Witchcrafts Murthers Idolatries Rebellious Blaspemies Horrid Profanenesses Apostasies Spiritual wickednesses in Heavenly Angelical Divine Forms the proper Sins of Devils Thou hast many Davids Amnons Absaloms Manassehs Mary Magdalens many Peters many Judas's in thee and comest thou to me for Love How can I give thee my Love Instead of this when he is Baptized into that publick Ministry in which he professedly beareth the Sins of all the World before Men and Angels in which he beareth the Person of the greatest Sinners that ever were in the open Eye of Heaven Heaven openeth upon him the God-Head descendeth upon him visibly in a living Form of Love in the Form of a Dove a voice cometh to him from the Father This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased St. Paul saith Love thinketh no Evil. Solomon saith Love covereth All Sin When the Father should express Love to Christ in the Person of a Sinner he doth not object thy Unloveliness thy Filth thy want of Love thy enmity neither to deny Love nor to make the manner of expressing love lâ—ss sweet less lovely No. As the Seâ— when it floweth covereth all the Sand on the Shore round about with Multitudes of deep Waters so God when he poureth forth his love in Jesus Christ drowneth Eternally the innumerable multitudes of thy Sins with mighty and unfathomable Seas of Love which never return to leave them naked or bare to any Eye any more for ever God poureth forth his Love in Jesus Christ freely that is 1. Naturally 2 Nakedly 3. Indifferently 1. God poureth forth his Love in Christ Naturally Mat. 3. 17. This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Every Faculty or Power is carried forth naturally to its proper object Jesus Christ is the proper object of the Fathers Love The most perfect work of Nature in every thing is to bring forth its like Then nothing so Naturally so Powerfully attracteth love so delighteth aâ— this similitude doth The most perfect and perpetual Act of the Divine Nature in the Father is to bring forth the most perfect Image of himself in the Person of Christ then to pour forth himself in all Divine Loves and Pleasures into his Bosom Pleasure accompanieth all natural operations Pleasure naturally drawetâ— every Spirit Jesus Christ draweth the Heart of the Father all his love entirely to himself because the Father is pleased in him He is the Rest and Joy of his Father Three Things follow upon This â—aturalness of the Father's Love in Christ 1. Sweetness 2. Force 3. Duration 1. Sweetness That is ever Sweetest which is most Natural Live Honey is most esteemed because it droppeth Naturally of its own accord from the Honey-Comb Thou who hungrest after the Love of God lye down in the arms of thy Jesus There Love will drop and fall from the Heart of the Father into the Mouth of thy Spirit as Freely as Naturally as Sweetly as 〈◊〉 Live Honey from the Hâ—ny-Comb 2. Force That which is Natural hath the Greatest Force in it Every Natural Agent worketh to the utmost of its Power Thou who wantest Love be found in Jesus Christ. As the Sun every moment poureth forth All hâ—â— Beams from every part of him because he shineth Naturally so will the Father pour forth himself in Millions of Loves from every Point of his Hearâ— of his Godhead he will pour forth himself in All his Loves he will poâ—â— forth himself All in Loves upon Thee in Jesus Christ. For the Father as Naturally loveth in Jesus Christ as the Sun-shineth 3. Duration Nothing violent unnatural continueth Psal. 30. 5. His angâ—â— endureth but a moment In his favour there is Life Clouds and Storms 〈◊〉 not long They are a violence upon the Air and Praeternatural to it Calmâ—â— Serenities and Clear Sunshines are its Natural State Clouds and Storms of wrath are a Force upon the Divine Nature Strange to it a Disguise upon it The Blessed Calms Serenities and Sun shines of Loves of Love are its proper State Comfort thy self then O afflicted Soul The rain will be over the storm will be pass't away The sweet and clear the Golden the Glorious smiles of Love will return after the Storm and Rain These will rest the Last in the Face of God and upon thy Spirit Wrath is but for a moment at longest the moment of this Life this Shadow this short Dream of Lifes The Truth of Life the Perpetuity of Life Eternity is for Love 2. God poureth forth his Love in Christ Nakedly John 3. 34 God giveth him his Spirit without Measure The Spirit is Love in a Living Person in its Eternal Substance in its Native Seat in its Unlimited Freedom as Light in the Sun God saith to the Lord Jesus I will not stand to measure out my Love to thee Take it All. I will not give thee a Jewel out of my Cabinet but my Cabinet of Jewels I will not give thee an Apple of Love off from the Tree but the Tree of Love with all ripe and pleasant Fruits of Love hanging upon it I will not give thee some Spice from the Island but the Island of Spices the Land of Loves where they grow and increase eternally I will give thee the Infinite Eternal Spirit of Love himself where all the Treasures of Love â—re without number measure or End The Face of Divine Love in Jesus Christ hath no Vail upon it though â—ever so thin no Cloud upon it though never so fine No. Its Love shineth â—orth in Jesus Christ with a naâ—ed face in its Strength with all its Beauties â—ll its Sweetnesses Thou who art weary who art heavy laden with any
a Body of Divine Loves above all Heavens Rom. 8. 28 29. St. Paul triumpheth after this manner I am perswaded thâ—â— neither Death nor Life neither Angels Principalities Powers nor things present noâ— things to come nor heighth nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Love of God in Jesus Christ lineth covereth all things transubstantiateth all things into the same Divine Love St. Paul mentioneth the nearest things to us the most intimate the most Potent the most Penetrating the most Universal the most comprehending the most Transforming Death Life Angels things Present to come Depth Heighâ—h What cometh nearer what toucheth every Point of our whole Substance and Being than Death Life Angels What more intimate to our hearts and Spirits If none of these can come between the Love of God in Jesus Christ and our Persons then all these by the Touch of this Love must be Tinctured and changed into new Forms into Essences of Love As Sugar is dissolved in a Glass of Wine so Death Life Angels things Presâ—nt things to come heighths Depths every other Creature in this Golden Cup of Divine Love the Glorified Person of Christ is dissolved into Love becometh a Rich Love-Cordial to a fainting Spirit making it to dance and sing for Joy when it was intended a deadly Poyson to it The holy Apostle had said upon this Ground a little before In all these things Sword Famine Persecution wee are more than Conquerours It is plain how we are Conquerours Captivity is carried Cuptive Those Forms and Powers of Darkness of Death which thought to captivate us are themselves Captives to Eternal Life and Love in the Lord Jesus As Saul among the Prophets so the Bitterest the Blackest things which assault the Spirit of a Saint encompassed with this Love of the Father poured forth in Christ uncloath themselves and put on Amiable Shapes of Love sing songs of Love breath forth from every part of them the most Delightful Sweetness of Divine Love Thus this Love maketh us Conquerours But what meaneth this to be more than Conquerours Is there a Joy or Glory above this of a Conquerour Grace coming into Glory Love Reigning after Suffering Is there any thing sweeter any thing greater than this Victory of Love Yes St. Paul saith when he was caught up into the Third heavens into the Paradise there he heard Words which it is impossible to utter This is The Paradise in the Third Heavens the Love of God in the Glorified Person of Christ. This Love transformeth every thing every Creature to this heavenly Paradise Those blessed Souls which by believing enter into this Paradise hear Words of Love Words of Joy Words of Pleasure of Glory from this Love which it is impossible to utter which are too sweet too high too ravishing to be exprest A holy Soul in This Paradise of Love feeleth a Joy far beyond that of Marriage of Conquest of Reigning of Children of any thing named in this World or in that which is to come Thus the Sweetness of Divine Love expresseth itself in its Sweet Efficacy Thus the Purity of Divine Love in Christ is manifest in its Sweetness 2. The Love of God in Christ is most Pure because it hath the greatest Virtue Our Divines express hell after this manner All Diseases Pains Griefs here are Evils by a Tincture onely of Divine Wrath a little Drop of Divine Wrath mingling itself with them Hâ—ll is Pure Wrath. Hell is the Abstract of Wrath the Evil of all Diseases Pains and Griefs abstracted from them and heightned to the utmost So Jesus Christ bare all our Infirmities and took our Griefs though he was never sick On the Contrary all the Good all the Joyes in the Creature are a Weak Tincture of Divine Love The Shadow of St. Peter as hâ— passed along healed the sick All the Sweetness and Pleasure in things here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love falling upon them All the Joy in any heart here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love cast over it The Love of God is poured forth Purely in the Person of Christ. There Love is a Substance no Accident There Love is Infinite being allayed or limited by no mixture Our Saviour in Glory is Divine Love in the Abstract It is a Weak Glance of Divine Love like the Sunshine here below cast upon the Water or a Looking-Glass which maketh the Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Figures Motions in the Creature It is a remote Touch of Divine Love like the Ends of the Sun-beams reflected in a Burning-Glass which maketh the Pleasantness and Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue of all Precious Stones and Pearls the Joy of all Relations The Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Features Motions the Pleasantness the Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue Life of all Precious Stones Pearls heavenly Bodies heavenly Spirits the Joyes of all Relations are contained Eminently with an Infinite Enlargement an Infinite heightning in this Divine Face This Tree Pearl this Union the Unity the Purity of Eternal Love in our Glorified Jesus O Sinner come cast thy self freely into the Bosom of thy Saviour Here thou fallest immediately into a Sea of Pure Love Open thy Mouth wide enlarge all thy Faculties to drink in the Sweetness of Pure Love pouring itself by Floods and Seas into thee Feel the Transcendent virtue of Pure Love transforming thee thy heart thy Person into a rich clear and heavenly Pearl in this Sea O Saints swim continually in this Sea of Pure Love the Bosom of your Glorified Saviour Feel the Transcendent Virtue of Pure Love dissolving you also into a Sea of pure Love a Sea of Glass and Fire a Sea of Pure Chrystal Divine Beauty without any Spot of Flesh or Earth Darkness or Death a Sea of Pure Chrystal shining and burning with a Pure Flame of heavenly Joyes without any Smoak of Lusts or Passions Obj. how is the Love of God Pure in Christ Is there not in the Lord Jesus a mixture of Love and Wrath He saith of himself in one place All Judgment is given to the Son of Man He adjudgeth to Hell and to Torments as well as to Heaven and to Joys Matt. 25. Jesus Christ is represented as a King upon the Throne in Glory in the Judgment of the last day v 31. He maketh Separation between the Sheep and Goats v. 32. He setteth the Sheep at his Right hand in the Place of Power Honour and Love He setteth the Goats at his Left hand on his Wrath-side v. 33. He passeth the Sentence of Love upon One inviting them as Blessed Ones to the Kingdom of Love prepared for them of the Father in Eternity v. 34. He passeth a Sentence of Wrath upon the other sending them away with a Curse into the Hell fire with the Devils v. 40. How is the Love of God poured forth Purely without
mixture in Christ I shall give 3 Answers to this Objection 1. A Concession 2. A Distinction 3. An Application 1. Answ. A Concession It is true Contrary things are spoken of Jesus Christ in this point We read I judge no man Moses in whom you trust he judgeth you The Son of Man came not to dâ—stroy Men's Lives but to save them The Work for which Christ came is a Work of Love of Light of Life not a Work of Wrath and Death Jesus Christ came to destroy the Works of the Devil The Devil Is a Lyar and a Murtherer from the Beginning He is the Serpent the Seed of Enmity The Deceit of Sin Death Wrath are the Devil's Work Jesus cometh full of Grace and Truth like the Sun full of sweet Light and influences of Life to destroy the Deceits to scatter into Nothing the Clouds and black Shades of Sin of Death of Wrath to make all a clear and Lovely Sky over our heads a Green and Flowry Earth under out Feet O the Delightfulness of Christ's Person and of his Appearance We read again I came not to send Peace but a Sword I came to Kindle a Fire The Lord Iesus shall come in a Flame of Fire to render vengeance to all those who know not God and who have not believed our Gospel 2 Thessal v. 8. O the Dreadfulness of the Lord Jesus and of his Appearance 2. Answ. A Distinction 2 Corin. 3. 13. You have Moses brought in with a Vail upon his Face You have the Effect of this Vail There is a Blindness upon the Minds upon the Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Jews The Children of Israel cannot see to the End of that which is to be done away They cannot see thorow beyond the Shadowy Glory of the Vail to be taken off to the Naked Glory of the Heavenly Face which liveth and is the same for ever v. 13. 14. There is the Interpetation of the Vail The Vail upon the Face of Moses is a Vail upon the Hearts of the Israelites v. 15. The Vail is removed by the Turning of the heart to the Person of Christ v. 16. The Person of Christ and the Removal of the Vail are Both described v. 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty The Lord Jesusâ— in Glory is a Spirit the Eternal Spirit The Person of Christ was ever a Spirit the Spirit the same Yesterday to Day and for ever even in that Day when he was made Flesh in his humane Nature this Spirit carrieth Liberty along with It as the Sun doth the Light of the Day This Liberty of the Spirit answereth to that Removal of the Vail in the verse before The Vail shall be taken away It is significant Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be taken away quite all round about on every side from off the Whole Image of things from off the Whole Person of Christ from off the Whole Heart the Compleat Person of the Lord Jesus in his Supream Glory as the Supreme Spirit shall shine entirely in the whole Image of things in the whole heart in every Part in every Point of Both. The Close of all is the Blessed Effect of the Removal of the Vail of the Free and full Appearance of this Spirit the Lord Jesus A Liberty of Sight A Liberty of Growth a Liberty of Union and Divine Communion A Saint looketh forth with Opâ—n Face with an Open Eye in the Naked Glory of the Spiritual Man having cast the Vail entirely off He seeth the Glory of the Lord in the Naked Beauties of the Spirit himself compleatly unvailed He seeth this Glory in the Unity of the same Spirit as in a Looking-Glass where Face answereth Face where one is seen as the Dear Image and Reflection of the other A Saint in the same moment seeth and is changed into the Image which he seeth as by one Spirit at once working Both. The Lord the same Spirit in its Unity is the Root the Eye the Life the Light the Looking-Glass the Glorious Face in the Looking-Glass to a Saint Where this Spirit is there is Liberty in that Heart The Vail is taken off from it when the Spirit existeth and appeareth in it There the Lord Jesus and a Saint see each other grow up together in one Glory We all with open face as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or by the Lord the Spirit By this time I believe you see the Distinction which I aim at Jesus Christ with the Vail upon his Face is Mâ—ses Mâ—ses unvailed is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ to the Vailed heart is Moses still Moses to the Naked heart is the same Jesus from the Beginning The Appearance of Jesus Christ according to the Letter after the Flesh is Christ with a Vail upon his Face casting a Vail upon the heart The Appearance of Jesus Christ as the Spirit the Lord of Glory is Christ with his Vail cast off taking the Vail off from the Heart that Both may meet see embrace each other Nakedly Immediately at Liberty in the Open Light of their Eternal Loves and Beauties 3. Answ. Applications 1. Application Fear the Wrath of the Lamb. There is a Day in which the Kings of the Earth Great Men Captains of Thousands shall cry to the Rocks and to the Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the Wrath of the Lamb. When the Great Day of his Wrath cometh who is able to stand Rev. 6. v. 16 17 18. Revel 5. 6. 8. You read of a Lamb who had bin slain standing in the midst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the 24. Elders having seven Eyes and seven Horns which were the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth Behold the Lord Jesus risen from the Dead He standeth in the mâ—dst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the four and Twenty Elders He is the Center of All Glories He filleth All He uniteth All and Compleateth All in his own Person the Uncreated Glories of the God-Head the Four-fold Fountain Glories of the Uncreated and Created Natures in Union The Manifold and Multiplyed Glories of Those Fountains in the Person of every Saint from the Beginning to the End of things having his Crown upon his Head the Universal Kingdom of all Glories in himself with which Kingdom he standeth out of the Person and in the Person of the Lord Jesus which Mysteriously and Divinely involveth and unfoldeth all in itself For this reason they cast down their Crowns at his Feâ—t This Jesus uniteth all States in himself from the highest the Sweetest Light of Life to the Darkest most Dismal Deep of Death For he standeth in the midst of these Glories as having bin slain shewing all the Bloody Baleful Forms of Death in the Triumph of Eternal Life This
Lamb hath seven Eyes and seven Horns which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth Seven is a Perfect Number the Power of all Numbers which multiply themselves endlesly by the Marriage of the Two First Numbers Three and Four the Numbers of the Trinity upon the Throne and the Four Living Creatures most immediately to the Throne and from thence spreading themselves thorow all things being in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne on every side Revel 4. 6. The seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth are the Holy Ghost that one Manifold Infinite Spirit which divideth Itself into Innumerable flaming Tongues Eyes Horns into all Forms of things according to its own Good Pleasure ever Containing all within itself ever filling all with itself See now the Lamb with seven Eyes and seven Horns seven Spirits sent forth into all the Earth The Lamb is Jesus risen from the Dead The Lord the Spirit who hath Innumerable Living Lights of Glory in himself Innumerable Living Springs of Light and Glory with which as with so many ever-waking Eyes he shineth and seeth thorow all things who hath innumerable Powers Almighty Powers Fountains of Power as so many Horns with which he ruleth and reigneth in the midst of all things A Poet in a bright Night taken in a Wood by Robbers which would kill him said to them As many stars as shine in the Sky so many Eyes now look upon you and will be witnesses of this Murther O Sinner who art hatching who art practising any lust in the most secret corner of thine heart or Closer be awake be aware See the Lord Jesus with ten thousand with a Numberless Number of Eyes Shining Flaming Eyes of Pure Glory looking forth full upon thee from every point of the Walls the Roof the Floor all things round about thee from every point of thine own Heart and all that is within Thee See the Lord Jesus with as many Horns of Divine Power from every Point of things running upon thee to break Thee off from thy Lusts or to break Thee in pieces O Saint who mournest sitting in Darkness Lying in Prison encompassed with black thoughts with Enemies Invisible or Visible be awake be aware See thy Jesus thy King thy Beloved with ten thousand a Numberless Number of Eyes sweetly-shining sweetly-Flaming Eyes of Pure Love from every Point of the blackest Darkness of the darkest Prison of thy Darkest thoughts themselves looking forth upon Thee See him with as many Golden Horns of Divine Power from every part from every side running upon thine Enemies to ruine them to cast them down to the Ground down to the bottom of the Pit until they rise no more whether they be things Visible or Invisible See him with the same Innumerable Golden Horns from every part of things from the thickest Darkness round about thee running to Thee to raise Thee up to set Thee on high upon the Rock of Eternity in the midst of the Throne of God Revel 1. 14 The Eyes of the Lord Jesus are compared to a Flame of Fire A Spirit is all one Entire Eye and full of Eyes The Lord Jesus is the Supreme Spirit spreading himself thorow all things from the height of Heaven above to the Depth of Death and Hell beneath The Firmament is not set so thick with Stars as the Whole Earth the whole-Creation all things are set with the Eyes of the Lord Jesus These Eyes are so many Suns of Love to the Flowers the Wheat the Gold the Diamonds to increase their Beauty draw forth their Sweetness ripen their Fruit make them sparkle and shine more pleasantly But to Stubble and Thorns to Vanity or Enmity they are a flame of Fire burning upon it until it be consumed O Fear the Wrath of the Lamb. 2. Application Fear to look with a Vailed Heart upon the Vailed Face of the Lord Jesus If thou seest the Shadow the Letter of the Gospel if thou seest the Vail the Flesh of Christ if thou seest not to the End of these as things to be done away if thou seest not thorow these beyond these the Lord the Spirit which is the Heavenly Body and Substance to the Shadow the Naked Face the Naked Unchangeable Eternal Person of Christ hid under the Vail it is not Jesus Christ but Moses in whom thou trustest Thou art not in the Arms of a Lovely pleasant Bridegroom but at the feet of a severe Judge This is the Law from Mount Sinai which engendreth bondage which trembleth and shaketh for fear where Thunders roar and Lightnings fly abroad from the midst of a thick Darkness This is not the Lord Jesus full of Grace that Perfect Love which casteth out fear the Perfection of Beauty on Mount Sion which standeth firm for ever which may be touched kissed and embraced Take heed to thy self O Temporary Believer Thou Jew thou Christian outwardly in the Letter onely This is not the Sun of Righteousness on which thou lookest but the Cloud which covereth the Sun If the Eye of thy Spirit stay here and pierce no further out of this Cloud will come down upon thy head a tempest a Whirlwind and Flames of Fire The Vail is upon your Hearts while the Gospel is read even to this day 3 Application Blessed art thou who lookest with a Naked Heart upon the Naked Person of Christ. He who is fixed in the Letter the Outward Form the Flesh of the Eternal Word is One of the People of the Jews who stood below at the Foot of the Mountain having in their Eye the Outside onely of things These saw nothing but the Blackness of Darkness and the Flashes of Lightning these heard nothing but the dreadful claps of Thunder He who ascendeth and entreth into the Truth the Spirit is with Moses within upon the Top of the Mount He talketh with God face to face as a man talketh with his Friend He seeth the Divine Light and Calm of Eternity in the naked Person of the Lord Jesus He receiveth the Language of Divine Love the Musick of Eternity with kisses of Love immediately from the Lips of the Lord Jesus He feeleth the Fountain of Life all Joys flowing from the Heart of the Lord Jesus running nakedly thorow his whole Body and Spirit being a better Feast than that of all meats and Drinks filling him with Spirit and pleasantness cloathing him with a fresh Lustre Beauty in a more excellent way The Lord Jesus saith of himself in the Gospel I have a Baptism to be baptised with and how am I streightned till it be over The Loves the Lovelinesses the Divine Life the Delights the Glories the Lord Jesus all the Treasures of the Eternal Word are streightned in the flesh of Christ as the Beauties and Sweetnesses of a Flower the Fruits of a Tree are shut up and imprisoned in the Seed When the Lord Jesus by Death is baptised into a Divine Form and Glory when he cometh
forth as A Spirit as the Eternal Spirit having married the Humane Nature into One Heavenly Form and Spirit with itself Now all the Treasures of Righteousness Life Immortality Love Joy all the Treasures of the God-Head display themselves over the whole Person of Christ entirely nakedly richly to the Height of all their Beauties and Sweetnesses as Flowers full-blown in Spring as Fruit-trees laden with ripe fruit in Autumn Who now can express the Joys when a Naked Heart meeteth with its Naked Jesus when both have cast off their Vails One from his Face The other from his Heart It is the same Blessed hand of the Eternal Spirit which taketh off the Vails from Both dropping Myrrhe a heavenly Sweetness Purity and Immortality as It taketh them off The Reflection of the Face of God upon the Face of Moses on the Mount cast a Divine Lustre and Beauty which remained upon it He came down into the midst of the People bringing a Heaven in his Face along with him But they could not bear the Brightness of this Naked Beauty He therefore casteth a Vail upon his Face So they remain in Darkness their Minds are blinded until Wrath cometh upon them to the uttermost This is an Example unto us upon whom the Ends of all Fore-going Times and Actions are come Behold the Lord Jesus is gone up to the top of the Mount He is ascended He is Glorified with the Father with that Glory which he had with the Father before the World was As a Spirit he cometh down again to us in the Shining Form of this Spiritual Uncreated Eternal Glory Wo to you who cannot bear the Brightness of this Appearance who cannot look stedfastly upon the Naked Face the Naked Form of the Lord Jesus this Spirit To you he casteth a Vail over his Face and as he casteth a Vail over his own Face he casteth a Vail over your Hearts To you now he cometh as a Thief in the Night bringing Darkness and Doubt Trouble and Terrours Confusion Desolation and Despair spoiling you of all your Counterfeit Jewels false hopes false Joys false Graces false Christ. But you who love and wait for this Appearanâ—e of your Lord and Saviour like Lightning shining from Heaven into your Hearts you who with the single Eye of a Chast Spouse look to the Beloved Person of your Jesus in the simplicity of his Spiritual and Divine Form Blessed are you of the Lord Jesus To you he cometh as a Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Wings Overspreading you with his warm and Naked Beauties Covering your Deformities Curing your Maladies Infusing new Cordials of Immortal Life and Joy into your Hearts Hatching you to Spirituality raising you upon Silver Wings and Golden Feathers to Heavenly Flights with himself To you he cometh Enlightning enlivening Transforming Glorifying Gathering you up into One Spirit One Glory with himself Where this Spirit the Lord Jesus is there is Liberty of beholding of enjoying the Lord Jesus nakedly immediately entirely eternally without any chain clog cloud interposal or interruption There is Liberty of growing up into a Spirit out of All the Vails of Flesh into One Spirit with him O the Joys of a Naked Heart when it meeteth with its Naked Saviour But as it was with the Painter who called to remove the Vail that he might see the Picture when their was a Vail onely painted there The Vail was all the Picture so is it with the hypocrite with the Temporary Believer His Jesus his Heaven is a Vail onely a Vail like that of the Tabernacle finely wrought with Pictures of Angels of Heaven of Jesus but Keeping him for ever from the Face the Bosom of Jesus the society of Angels the Joys of Heaven in the Outermost Darkness His hope is a Spiders Web. The Poison of Death and Hell are bred there I hear a Voice frequently in my Spirit saying to me Cry What shall I cry 1. Cry There was an Ark in which Noah and his Family were safe from the Flood which drowned the World The onely Ark in which Noah the Believer the Child of Rest shall be safe from the Flames which are now ready to devour the World is the Naked Person of Christ in the Invisibility and Spirituality of his Divine Eternal Form 2. Cry The Sound and noise of the Hammers framing the Ark for Noah preached the Righteousness of God the Ruin of the World very near The Sound and noise of the Lord Jesus the Spirit of Life the Spirit of Love in his Naked Person in his Naked Loves and Lovelinesses growing up forming himself in the Spirits of his Saints preaches now a Deluge of Destruction Death and Hell at the Door ready to enter in The Rest and Righteousness of God in his Bosom alone the Rest of God in his Loves the Righteousness of God in his Loveliness 3. Cry As it was in the Days of Noah so it will be now The whole World will go on to eat and Drink to marry and give in Marriage to mock at this Preparation of an Ark at these Discourses of these Endeavours for the Spiritual Person of Christ in the Heavenly Image for the Revelation of him in our Spirits for the Retirement of our Persons into him The whole World will go on in Sensuality and Carnality mocking at the Lord this Spirit the Ark till the day that God open the Windows of Heaven from above and break up the great Deep of Hell from below to cover them with and swallow them up in Unquenchable Flames They say that Seth foreseeing Two Destructions of the World prepared Two Pillars upon which he engraved all Mysteries of Humane and Divine Knowledge One of Marble to endure the Flood the other of Brick to continue in the Flames St Peter speaking of the Flood and the Ark addeth The Like Figure whereunto now saveth us Baptism not the washing away of the filth of the Flesh but the Answer of a Good Conscience by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Lord Jesus counselleth the last Church Laodicea to buy of him Gold tried in the Fire Gold tried in the Fire no more loseth any thing or receiveth any harm in the Fire but shineth more gloriously The Lord Jesus risen from the Dead and become a Spirit the Fountain of Life is the Gold tried in the Fire of Death and the Divine Wrath. An Ark of Wood saved Noah from the Waters Behold an Ark of pure Gold a Spirit of Immortality and Glory which shineth with greatest Glory in the midst of the Everlasting Burnings This is our Jesus who saveth us from the Fire which is already Kindled and burneth upon the World which will immediately raise itself to a Mighty Irresistible Flame Blessed are you who enter into this Ark of Gold and shut your selves up into It. Here you shall lie upon beds of Love as in the Marriage-Chamber in the Bosom of your Bridegroom encompassed with Songs of Joy while the Fire dreadfully devoureth all without
round about you Then shall Worldly Christians Hypocrites Temporary Believers all who have lived in the Lusts of the Flesh or the Letter onely of the Gospel take hold of climb up upon the outside of the Ark the outward Fleshly Form and Appearances of the Eternal Word the Lord Jesus Then shall they too late cry to be taken into the Spirit which alone is Truth which alone hath Immortality But they shall be rejected They shall lose their hold drop off into the flames and perish there I will conclude all with that Scripture John 14. v. 30. 31. When Jesus Christ perceived that the hour and Power of Darkness were now come upon him he saith The Prince of this World cometh Arise let us go hence Thus saith the same Jesus now in the Hearts of his Beloved Ones to his Spouse The Prince of Darkness The hour and Power of Darkness of dread of Destruction of the Devouring Fire cometh Arise let us go hence out of the visible things of the Flesh into the Invisibility of the Spirit The Ark of Pure Gold Paved with Loves 3 Property Plenty This is the Third Property in the Effusion of Divine Love upon the Glorified Person of Christ. It is poured forth plentifully I will divide this Head by Streams flowing from it 1. The Fulness of all Love is poured forth in Iesus Christ. 2. The Person of Christ is all Full of Love 1. The Fulness of all Love is poured forth in Jesus Christ. We read Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that all Fulness should dwell in him that is in Jesus Christ. All Fulness and so the Fulness of All Love had its Seat its Bed in the Bosom of our Saviour But the Pleasure the Will of the Father which is the Highest Pleasure Pleasure in one Substantial most Perfect Eternal Act is the Well Spring which sendeth forth this Plenitude of Divine Love into Christ. The Words lye so in Greek that they may be properly rendred according to the rules of Grammar after this manner All Fulness was well pleased to dwell in him God is the Fulness which filleth all in all He alone is in any Place in any Spirit in any Creature Repletive so as to fill it God is Love God then is the Fulness of all Love Nothing attracteth and draweth so powerfully as Pleasure doth God who is that Love which is all Fulness the Fulness of all God who is the Fulness of all Love poureth forth himself to the Full to the last drop if we may so speak of that Love which hath neither First nor last Beginning nor End in the Lord Jesus For in Christ he poureth forth himself with Pleasure which is the highest of all Pleasures The Effusion of Love is itself a Pleasure Then the Beautiful and Blessed Person of the Lord Jesus is the most pleasant Channel the most pleasant Seat and Palace of Divine Love This Fulness of Divine Love in Christ shooteth forth itself into Three Branches 1. Love in all States 2. Love of all Kinds 3. Love in all Degrees 1. There is in Jesus Christ flowing forth from the Father a Fulness of Love in all States There are Three States of Divine Love in our Blessed Saviour There is 1. Preventing Love 2. Assisting Love 3. Finishing Love Divine Love in Jesus Christ hath these Three States and a glorious transcendent triumphant Fulness in every State 1. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father A Fulness of all Preventing Love 2. Tim. 1. 9. St. Paul teacheth us that God hath saved us not according to works which we have done but according to his own Purpose and Grace given us in Christ before the World was Before thou hadst any thoughts of Love to Jesus Christ before thou hadst any Being in This World before the World was there was a Love from the Father in Jesus Christ to Thee to Thee whoever thou art that liftest up the Eye of thy Spirit the Eye of Faith to see thy true Self thine own Person in this Dwelling-Place this Palace of Divine Love where thou hast bin hid where thou hast had thine abode thorow all generations from Eternity Christ in the Glory of the Father the heart of the Father in Christ. This Preventing Love well understood removeth Two Objections out of the way of many hearts to the Bosom of their Jesus Object 1. Broken-hearted Sinners distressed Souls frequently plead thus against themselves We cannot think that Jesus Christ hath any Love for us because we cannot believe his Love Answ. Hear O broken-hearted Sinners O Distressed Souls Hear and believe Jesus Christ hath in himself from his Father the Fulness of all Preventing Love He beginneth to you in Love He beginneth with you He giveth you Faith to believe his Love To you it is given to believe The Son of Man cometh and giveth you an understanding to know the True God by his Proper Name of Love 1. John 5. 20. The Preventing Love of God in the Bosom of Christ cometh to Thee poureth forth itself in thy Bosom giveth Thee a new Eye to see the Divine Beauty a new Ear to hear the heavenly Melody a new heart to take in rellish and understand the Spiritual Sweetnesses Fulnesses Joys of this First Love Love in its Fountain in the Fountain of Eternity This New Wine of the Everlasting Kingdom giveth itself to Thee with a New Bottle a New Spirit which will take in and hold this precious Liquour Not one drop of it shall ever fall besides this Bottle or be spilt out of it Object 2. But still thou poor troubled trembling Soul thinkest the glad Tydings of the Gospel of Pure Preventing Love too good to be true Thus thou arguest against thy self If I were but moderately evil or morally good if I could in any degree comply or close with Jesus Christ when he offereth his Love and himself to me then might I have some hope that I had some place in his heart But if the Lord Jesus himself should shine forth with the Sweetest Vision of Preventing Love in the midst of my Fleshlinesses Filthinesses hardnesses Enmities and should say to me as the Angel to Mary hail thou that are greatly Beloved Hail thou that are freely Beloved I should not onely wonder at this Salutation but believe it all to be a vain Dream of my deluded Fancy Answ. Let me tell Thee a Story A beautiful Aegyptian Youth when his Friends desired to take his Picture desired them to take him up seven daies after his death and then to take his Picture Thou the most defiled the most deformed Sinner wert once beautiful once in the freshness and flower of thy Youth in Paradise It is true thou art now dead dead of the most loathsom disease dead by the most killing and corrupting Death dead in sin Yet now after that thou hast bin many years dead Jesus Christ in his Glorified Person cometh like a Bridegroom from heaven not onely to take thy Picture but
to take thy Person into the Arms of his Preventing Loves to breath bis Preventing Loves into Thee as a New Life the Spring of a New Beauty excelling that which was lost by Thee in Paradise incorruptible that never fadeth not passeth away Ladies and Queens have sometimes hatched Eggs in their Bosoms Thy dead deformed Person will thy Saviour hatch in the warm and naked Bosom of his Preventing Loves unto a Divine Life that shall answer Love with Love and flourish in the Loveliness of every Grace every Glory through thy New-born Soul and body according to their proper seasons Having known the Love of the Lord my Spirit laboureth yet not my Spirit but the Love of the Lord Jesus in my Spirit laboureth by all means to bring forth itself in the fresh and full Sense of its First its Free its Preventing Sweetnesses in your hearts as a Spring of Living Waters in a dry and barren Wilderness But as a tender Mother taketh a beloved Child weak and peevish laieth it in her lap poureth a Cordial down into its stomack so will your Jesus do with you O Grieved Spirits who are weak without strength froward will not take in his Love He will take you lay you upon his knees and pour this precious Cordial of his Preventing Loves into your Mouths Then will it go right and sweet down to the bottom of your heart There it will become a Well springing up with pure sweet and plentiful Streams of every Spiritual Truth Grace Comfort or Joy unto Eternal Life This is The First State of Love in the Lord Jesus Preventing Love 2. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father a Fulness of all Assisting Love 2. Cor. 14. v. 7. 8. 9. St. Paul had a thorn in his Flesh messengers of Satan sent to buffet him He prayed thrice that he might be delivered from them He had this answer from the Lord My Grace is sufficient for Thee Many tender-hearted Saints who feel their Lusts as Thorns in their Flesh who feel their Passions as the Messengers of Satan the Angels of the Dragon buffeâ—ing them cry out frequently in the Agonies of Fear and Grief O this Lust O this Thorn in my Flesh Sure at last it will wound me so deeply to the heart that it will let out the Life-blood of all faith hope grace and comfort O this Passion O this Messenger of Satan It will one day carry me back again into those Chains of Darkness and that Bottomless Pit out of which I seem to my self sometimes to have escaped But O Believer tossed with the Tempests be comforted Fear none of these things Look up continually to the Blessed Person of your dear Saviour lifted up into Glory in the midst of your Spirits See the Father pouring forth himself into the Fulness the Glorious Fulness of all Assisting Loves in his Bosom Pray continually and hear this Blessed voice from the Mouth of your Saviour continually sounding in your ears My Assisting Loves are sufficient for Thee Obj. But some Soul that wanteth Comfort will say When the Lord Jesus hath once by his Preventing Love planted a New Principle and Habits of Grace in me he now expecteth that I should improve this Principle and act these Graces If I do this and make use of that which I have I may comfortably look for his Assisting Love and that more Grace should be still given me But what New Loves can I promise my self to accompany me and carry me on in my way while I so ill requite the Lord Jesus for his First Loves that I suffer his Gifts to lye unimproved his Graces to lye unactive in me hid in the Earth by my Sloth or Sensuality Answ. I shall proceed in my answer to this Objection by Three Steps 1 Stâ—p This Objection wrappeth up together in it something True something False 1. This is False That the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus dependeth upon our Emprovement of Grace already received from him This is not True No by no means Assisting Love is as free as full as absolute as much all as much alone in Carrying on the Work of Grace in us as Preventing Love is in Beginning it God hath poured forth in Christ the Fulness of all Assisting Love I am the Truth the way and the Life saith our Saviour Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Life of all Grace in the way as much as in the Beginning or End Without me ye can do Nothing Every Act of Grace every thing in every Act of Grace which distinguisheth it from a meer Non-Entity from an Absolute Nothing Every Degree of Spiritual Being in the whole Life of Grace with all the Exercises of it through the whole way from the Beginning to the End is all alike Immediately from Jesus Christ. That which is True in the Objection is this the Emprovement of Spiritual Principles the Exercise of our Graces are attended with Clearer Illuminations Sweeter Enlargements more Divine heighthnings of all heavenly Truths Graces and Consolations in us On the other siide when Faith is not acted when holiness is neglected Darkness Decay Distress and Death dwell upon us But these things are all entirely Consequences and Effects not Causes or Attractives of Assisting Love The Assisting Love of our Lord Jesus is as the Sun which by its Presence bringeth Light Warmth Fruitfulness Life Beauty Pleasurealong with it When it withdraweth itself leaveth the Cold hardness Storms Desolation of Winter behind it The Bridegroom chargeth the Virgins of Jerusalem by the Roes and Hinds of the Field that they stir not up nor awake his Love until She please Cant. 2. 7. The Angels of heaven which are the Invisible Ministers by whom all things move in the whole Order of Second Causes are here understood according to the sense of some learned Divines By the Virgins of Jerusalem The Roes and hinds of the Field are the Pleasant Loves and Lovelinesses of the Eternal Spirit in the heavenly Person of Christ. The Law of the Eternal Beauties and Loves of the Divine Nature lieth upon all things upon all the Ministers and Armies of God that the Spouse of Christ be never laid to sleep or awakened but according to its own good pleasure as it is One Spirit with the Lord Jesus by a knot of Everlasting Love as a Queen at the Right hand of her King set down in Heavenly Places with him in him upon the same Throne When the Divine Principle which is the Bride and the Spiritual Man in a Saint retireth itself and goeth to its rest in this Night the Wild Beasts Bruitish Lusts Raging Passions come forth to prey upon the Natural Man covering it with filth wounds But when the Day spring ariseth from on high when the season cometh for this Man this Heavenly Seed Bride to awake to stir up her self and come forth again in this New Morning the Beasts return to their Den Lusts and Passions sink down into their own
Assisting Love so certainly will it lay the Top-stone Your Eyes shall see it You shall in like manner cry to it with a Shout of Angels and Blessed Spirits all round about you Grace Grace Pure Love Finishing Love There are Three Sorts of Comforts which the Finishing Love of God in Christ ministreth to us 1. Against the Difficulties of Life 2. Against the Darkness of Death 3. Against the Dreadfulness of the Great and Last Day 1. Comfort against the Difficulties of Life St. Paul had prayed thrice against the Thorn in his Flesh and the Buffetings of Satan He receiveth this Answer My Grace is sufficiâ—nt for thee My Strength is perfected in Weakness I rejoyce therefore gladly in my Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me My Grace You have there the Father the Fountain of Love the Fountain of Free Grace You have at the end of the verse the Lord Jesus Glorified into whom this Fountain floweth continually covering his Person all over without filling it all within with the Gâ—ories Immortalities and Joys of Divine Love This Jesus resteth upon St Paul in the Power in the Perfection of All his Loves He maketh Perfect he finisheth his Loves the Pure and heavenly Work of his Loves upon him when he is weakest The Holy Ghost discovereth a Mystery here A Mystery is a Divine Secret A Divine Glory with a Divine Vail cast over it a Divine Light surrounded with a Divine Darkness The Head of Christ all Pure Fine Gold covered with Locks and Curles black as a Raven The Mystery which the Holy Ghost here unvaileth to us is One of the richest and sweetest among all the Mysteries of the Gospel It is the Mystery of Love of Finishing Love Blessed are those Eyes that see the Glory Blessed are those Hearts that understand and rellish the Sweetness of This Mystery It is This When Divine Love would put forth itself in Greatest Power and Glory when it would finish make Perfect the general or any Particular Work of Love in us it chooseth that Season when we are weakest lowest have least of Loveliness Life Love or Suitableness to Love when we are in the greatest unlikelyhood for it when we seem to be at the greatest Distance from it Cant. 6. v. 12. The Spouse is brought in speaking thus Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Amminadib I have not Learning enough to understand why Amminadib is set here as One Proper name whenas in the Hebrew there are Two distinct Words which have their common signification and are rendered in the Margint of the Bible My Willing People Moreover that word As is put in by the Translatours and where we read Made me the Original properly is expressed by Set me The words thâ—n run thus in the Hebrew Text Ere I was aware or I knew not I knew not how I knew nothing of it my Soul set me the Chariots of my Willing People or by the Addition of One Preposition understood My Soul set me in the Chariots of my willing people It will be worth our time and pains if we stay a little upon the opening of this verse We shall find a Spiritual a heavenly Treasure in it and bring the Application home to our hearts more Clearly more Comfortably There are Four Questions which may be made here 1. Qu. Who this People are which the heavenly Bride calleth My People 2 Qu. What the Willing People are 3 Qu. What the Chariots are 4. How the Soul of the Bride setteth her In these Chariots or maketh her As these Chariots 1. Qu. Who the heavenly Bride 's own People are Answ. These whom the Spiritual Bride calleth Her own Pâ—ople are Heavenly Spirits in Glory It was said of Jacob when he died He was gathered to his People While a holy Soul is in this World she is as an unknown Princess under a Disguise in a strange land the language whereof she understandeth not In Death this Princess-Bride returneth home to her own People to her own Kindred her own Relations and Acquaintances There all understand the languages Faces and hearts of Each other There they mutually drink in the Spirits of Each Other and in the Spirits of Each other all Pure Immortal Loves Beauties Joys There is another Scripture which commenteth upon this and confirmeth our Explication of it It is Eccles. 12. 7. The Dust returneth to the Earth as it was The Spirit to God who gave it That which is translated God is in the Plural Number Gods often applyed to the Angels The Jews say it signifieth God cum Indumentis suis as he cloatheth himself with the Forms of Angels and appeareth in them The Soul of a Saint cometh forth from the Land of Angels and Glorious Spirits in the midst of which God reigneth into this World as into an Exile or Banishment When it dieth then it goeth home to its own Countrey and People to its own City and Fellow-Citizens The Inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all I shall add one Text more which will make all the rest Clear Hebr. 11. 14 15 16. The Saints there are said to seek a Countrey The Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Native Countrey Then to prevent a mistake you are told that this Native Countrey was not that from which they came on Earth It is distinguished from that and plainly called A heavenly Country Their Native Land which is a heavenly Countrey Behold those whom the Spouse of Christ calleth My People The Inhabitants of the City of the Living God her heavenly Countrey her Native Land above the Heavens as the word beareth These are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Assembly of the First-born all Forms of things all the Saints in Spiritual Beings and Beauties in the Likeness of Christ as he is the first-born of every Creature before they descend from their Thrones of Pure Glory from their Virgin-Lustre and Sweetness in the Bosom of Christ into Flesh upon the Earth The Innumerable Company of Angels the Glorious Attendants of the Saints in their higher and First-born Glory The Spirits of just men made Perfect either in the Body or out of the Body come to this heavenly Land Living walking and conversing there among the Inhabitants of this Land in the Spirit These are Thy People Thine own People O Believer O thou Blessed Bride of thy Glorified Jesus You have the Answer to the First Question 2 Qu. What are the Willing People Answ. Again I am ignorant why the same word is rendred in the Margin of this Scripture Willing when as immediately after Cant. 7. 1. The same word Nadib is translated Prince O Prince's Daughter or O Princely Daughter If I mistake not the Church is spoken of in that Chapter as being now in Glory upon the Throne You have this word Nadib used to the same sense of the same Subject Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be Willing in the day of thy
the Creation the Living Creatures in the Chariot are the Angels of the Thronâ— in the Glory of the Kingdom of the Coronation and Marriage-Day The Firmament the New Heaven is the Glory of the Father The Chariot itself which containeth him in which he descendeth bowing down the Heavens as he descendeth The Lord Jesus himself in his own Glory is Distinct from all these Glories compreâ—endeth them and rideth forth in them This is that Image in which he shall appear at the last Day as a New Creator and a New Creation making all things New as the most Entire most Naked Image of the Invisible God in all his most Pure and most Invisible Glories as the First-born of the whole Creation in general and of every Creature in Particular as the Whole Creation in its Virgin-State in its Ideal Glory while yet it sprung up out of the Bosom of God and stood onely in the Bosom of God and was a Sister-Spouse to the uncreated Beauty This is that Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy That Divine Presence that Word of God which came to all the Holy Men of old in the Light of which as in the Glass of Eternity the First and Supreme Truth they saw Visions dreamed dreams and spake of him This is the Chariot of the Princes of the Saints in the Glory of the Spirit 4 Qu. How doth the Soul of the Spouse make her as this Chariot of her Princely People or set her in it Answ. The Soul of the heavenly Bride is her Lord her Life her Love her heart her True Self her Beloved her Jesus He descendeth in his Chariot and taketh her up into it He appearing in his heavenly Image composed of the Glory of his Father his own Glory the Glory of all his holy Angels which is his Chariot as he appeareth in her translateth and transfigureth her into the same heavenly Image She also is now become a Chariot made up all of the same Glories with the same Jesus the same Queen the same Company of Princes riding together in it The Soul of the Bride is also Faith the 〈◊〉 of God the Divine Nature the Spirit in a Saint This Divine Life in a Saint by a Descent of the Lord Jesus upon it in a moment ere a Saint is aware he knoweth not how both taketh him up to set him in this Chariot and Transformeth him into it I have onely prepared you by all this for the Application of the Scripture opened by us to our present purpose that we may take in with a greater Sense with a Deeper Impression the Comfort and Joys of Finishing Love making Perfect its most Beautiful Works and Displaying its most pleasant Strengths in our Weaknesses Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of my Princely People or set me in them Hearken to me my Brethren Is there not among you a Poor Believer a Mournful Saint which hath long prayed long sighed for a Clear Sight of Jesus Christ a Sense and Seal of his Love Sweet and Constant Communion with him To this Soul I now speak Perhaps after all this thou art embracing the Dunghil of Distrust and Despair Perhaps thou art sitting upon the Dunghil of some Fleshly Lust or Earthly Care of Covetousness or Lasciviousness Vanity or vexation Now in a moment which thou thinkest not of ere thou art aware Jesus Christ in the Divine Brightness of some heavenly Truth flashing like Lightning in upon thy Spirit may descend may discover himself in his Heavenly Image with his naked Glories naked Loves to thee Now are thou art aware he may make this heavenly Image at once a Laver of Precious Blood in which he washeth Thee white as the Light itself from every Spot a Chariot of heavenly Princes in which he cometh down to Thee upon thy Dunghil taketh Thee off from thy Dunghil to ride with him in the Fellowship of all Immortal Spirits while all the holy Angels bear Thee up and carry Thee on upon the Firmament of the Father's Glory at the side of thy Beloved whither the Mind of the Spirit is for Thee to go Ere thou art aware the Lord Jesus can change thy Dunghil can change Thee into a Divine Chariot of Eternal Spirits in which he will ride forth with Thee thou shalt ride forth together with him having his Loveliness in thine Eye his Love in thine heart thorow all Forms of things Light and Darkness Life and Death as thorow various Fields differing Regions of Spiritual Beauties and Delights in the Vast Continent the Vast World of the Divine Nature Thus comfort thy self against the Discouragements of Life with the Fulness of Divine Love â—inishing Love in the Glorified Person of Christ which maketh Perfect its Strength and Sweetness in Weakness and Enmity which giveth Thee the Desire of thy Soul thy Jesus most clearly most dearly into thy Bosom when thou lyest locked up fastest in the Bosom of the Strange Woman oâ— This Strumpet and this Witch the Hellish Darkness cloathed with Figures of Fleshly Softnesses Sweetnesses Lights and Treasures Gen. 28. 11 12. Jacob had pursued the Spiritual Blessing the heavenly Birth-right and had obtained the Promise the Purchase After all this he flyâ—th alone as a Banished Person from his Father's house He is benighted in an open field He lieth upon the naked ground He hath under his head for a Pillow a Cold Hard Stone Now Finishing Love maketh Perfect its Strength in this Weakness giving him now the Evidence the Pledge the First-fruits of that Spiritual Blessing that heavenly Birth-right which he had a Promise of and a Title to Now Heaven is opened to the Eye of his Spirit in a Dream A Ladder â—â—acheth from Heaven to Earth One End of it resteth on the Bosom of God above The other End standeth upon the Ground at his head below Angels descend and ascend upon the Ladder He awaketh and saith This is none other than the Gate of Heaven the house of God and I was not aware of it The Stone on which he lay is now anointed and becometh a Pillar and Altar a Figure of Jesus Christ in all his Divine Loves and Lovelinesses Jacob is in every holy One. Hear this you broken hearts You complain We have tasted something of the Sweetness of Preventing Love if this be Preventing Love to cast in upon our Spirits gracious hints and hopes of Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things when we sate in the Shadow of Death and did not so much as know or Believe that there was a Spirit a Heaven We have also tasted something of the Sweetness of Assisting Love if this be assisting Love to help us to carry us on for a wearisome length of time with sighs and groans unutterable to cry for the Revelation the Possession the Fruition of these Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things in the Foretast of them But O! where is Finishing Love Now instead of this behold we are benighted with Darkness of Spirit
in their full beauty and sweetness ever fresh never fading never failing As fast as one is gathered another springeth up in its room These Immortal flowers of divine love grow here for thee They have thy name written upon them They bend and bow themselves towards thee They invite thy hand to gather them They are ripe in every season and gathered with the least touch of thy spirit Thou who hast a Spirit black and burning with the deepest guilt take the flower of justifying love stick it in thy bosom This will take out all the heat of pain and take away all the deformity and stain from thy spirit Thou who labourest under the disease of any corruption See here the flower of sanctifying love Carry this in thine hand in thine heart It is a powerful a pleasent remedy against every lust or passion Doth the Instability of thy spirit the uncertainty of thy spiritual condition afflict thee The flower of electing love hath a soveraign vertue in it to establish and â—ix thine heart in a triumphant peace and joy above all changes or fears Art thou melancholy is thine heart cast down within thee for some apparent reason or thou kno west not why look upon this pleasant flower of comforting love smell to it wear it in thy bosom It shineth with a heavenly lustre which recreateth the Eyes and infuseth strange joy into the heart It breatheth forth a sweetness from it which will make you think your self in Paradise or kissing those blessed Cheeks of your heavenly lover your Jesus which are Beds of Spices It hath a spirit in it which is the extract of all Cordials which hath all comforting vertues in it which is the soveraign Comforter of hearts and spirits the only causer of delight and pleasure on Earth or in Heaven If any one be dejected with a sense of shame let him make himself a Nose-gay of these three Flowers regenerating adopting glorifying love Every one of these casteth a wonderful light from it which will make thee to see thy self in the unity of the eternal Spirit in the form of the Son of God Thou wilt see the whole face of things as a glorious Heaven round about thee all full of bright and shining Angels encompassing thee guarding thee attending upon thee as the heir of God Jesus in glory walking with thee hand in hand as his Brother God himself beholding thee with an unmoved and full Eye of esteem wonder and complacency as his onely one the Object of all his love the Ground of all his joy The State of a Saints Soul and Body in Death THe peculiar consolations and joys of Death to a Saint pour forth themselves into ten distinct channels or streams 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Both descend no more but ascend in Death 3. Death hath in it no melancholy overcast or unpleasant darkning to the Soul or Body but a sweet unexpected surprising and ravishing increase of a pure divine and triumphant light circling in and shining through all 4. Death casts no deformity upon either part of a Saint but cloaths both with an heavenliness amiableness and beauty 5. Death is no streightning or imprisonment to Body or Soul but a blessed enlarging of both to a divine state and freedom 6. The Death of a Saint hath nothing bitter in it but is a spring of pure sweetnesses and pleasures dividing itself into every part and making all the garden of God 7. There is nothing of the Devil in the Death of a Saint but Christ risen and glorified is all fills all and shines thorow all 8. Death hath nothing of wrath in it but is all divine love unvailing itself 9. There is nothing of Death in the Death of a Saint but life and immortality unclouded and shining forth clearly 10. Death is no other thing to a Saint than a heightning of his spirituality making him all thorough-out spiritual purely spiritual without any mixture unchangeably spiritual without any interruptions inconstancies or darkintervals 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Corinth 5. 1. St. Paul expresseth this ground of confidence and joy in Death For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens It is the observation of learned Divines that the Greek word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to be dissolved signifieth to take up ourâ—Inn from that circumstance of unloosing the Horses and taking them out of the Waggon or Chariot to bring them into the Inn and Stable that there they may be at their liberty to rest and feed and lie down From this word upon this ground an Inn or House of reception refreshing for Travellers hath its name in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At our Birth which is the morning of this life and our entrance upon our Journy through this weary world our Souls and Bodies are joyned to this fleshly Image by the natural spirit the spirit of this world as Horses put into a Waggon to which they are fastned by their Harnes and Traces The Body is as the fore-horse but the Soul as the filler which draws most and bears the chief weight All the day long of this life we draw this Waggon heavy laden with all sorts of temptations and troubles thorow deep ways of mire and sand This only is our comfort that the divine will which is love itself in its perfection as a hand put forth from Heaven thorow a Cloud at our Birth put us into this Waggon and governs us all the day In the evening of our life at the end of our Journey Death is the same divine will as a naked hand of pure love shining forth from an open heaven of clear light and glory taking our Souls and both Bodies out of the Waggon and Traces of this â—leshly Image and Spirit and leading them immediately into their Inn into a place of freedom rest and refreshing into the unity of the eternal spirit into the Bosom of our Lord Jesus Obj. But before I proceed any farther I will indeavour to make my whole way more clear by answering an objection which perhaps already ariseth in most of your thoughts You may be ready to say Is this your meaning as you seem clearly to express it that the Bodies also of the Saints suffer no dissolution in Death but return immediately to a state of purity and perfection This seemeth to contradict the common sense of all the faith of the Saints and the plain letter of the Scriptures Do we not with our Eyes see every day the dead Bodies of the best Persons thrown into the Grave turning to Corruption and Putrefaction either before or in the Grave dissolved to Worms and
he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The Holy Ghost clearly relates to the death of the Lord Jesus and of a Saint He speaks of the time perfectly past he that hath suffered in the Flesh that is he that by dying hath compleated and finished his sufferings in the flesh he hath ceased from sin He that dyeth in union with Christ in the vertue of his death and in a conformity to it in the first moment of death ceaseth from all the Evils of Sin the Guilt the Power the Pollution the Punishment and so from Death itself See the inseparable connexion between the Flesh Sufferings Sin and Death All these continue together and cease together O you that hear or read understand these things and lay them to heart This Flesh which is so dear to us which we are so loath and unwilling to part with which we tender as our nearest and dearest self is our only division from our self a bed of Snakes and Enmity It is the root the seat the food the fewel the fruit of Sin and suffering and death This Fleshly Principle and Sense this worldly Light and Image which we account Life and the Sweetness of Life in which we think all the dear Treasures and Joys of Life are comprehended is no other than a deep dark and miery Dungeon where we lie in the midst of the hissings stings and poysons of innumerable Toads and Serpents This Sin which so easily besetteth us and winds itself into our bosoms is that weight which presseth us and sinketh us down that chain of Darkness which tyeth us down and fastneth us here below in the horrible Pit and Dungeon of this Fleshly Principle and Sense this Fleshly this worldly Spirit and Image This Death which seemeth so dreadful to us which we so tremble at and fly from is that dearest Friend come down from Heaven from the bosom of God that beautiful hand put forth from the secret of Eternal Life Love and Glory which taketh off this weight which knocketh off this chain of Darkness and restoreth to us our silver Wings and golden Feathers by which in a moment we fly forth from this Cage of unclean Spirits this Dungeon of the Fleshly Principle and Sense never to return into them any more O Believers fear not fly not from Sufferings Be willing to sacrifice and offer up this Flesh as a whole Burnt-Offering in the Flame of Sufferings unto Death Kiss Death as a lovely Bride as those perfumed Flowers those Beds of Spices the Cheeks of the Heavenly Bride-groom mentioned in the Canticles For the Flesh the fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this Flesh of this World together with the Sufferings Sin and Death end all at once in the Death of a Saint in the very first moment of his Death A Holy Divine when he was dying lay upon his Death-Bed singing this often over Now I shall sin no more We read Isaiah 59. 2. That our Iniquities separate between us and our God our Sins hide his face from us Death is indeed a separation but it is not the separation of the Soul from the Body The separation of the Soul or the Body from God this is Death indeed this alone is Death This world this worldly Spirit and Image is the Curtain or Vail the Partition wall between us and the Face or Bosom of our Heavenly Bridegroom our Lord Jesus So saith St. Paul Our Gospel is hid to those whose Eyes the God of this world hath blinded that they should not behold the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Christ. The Fleshly Principle or Sense is the unpassable gulf between us and the unsearchable Treasures of the Divine Nature of the Blessed Persons in the Divine Nature the Father the Eternal Word the Holy Spirit Sin digs up and keeps open this Gulf sin builds up this Partition wall Sin draws this Curtain between us and the Divine Beauties the Divine Blessedness O dying Saints break forth into singings O all ye Saints rejoice and triumph at every thought at every approach of Death Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoyced to see it saith our Lord Jesus in the Gospel The word rejoyce in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he danced a Galliard When the Virgin Mary with Christ in her Womb came to the Mother of John the Baptist the Babe within her sprung for joy Thus O Believers let your hearts spring for joy within you at the approach and presence of Death So Death coming to you as a beautiful and a heavenly Virgin with Jesus Christ in its Womb not after the Flesh but in the Glory of the Spirit to be delivered of him immediately into your Bosoms as a Bridegroom that at once in the same moment appears to you in Glory makes you worthy of himself by being like himself and one Glory with himself makes all things Life Immortality Glory round about you Behold the day of your Death both afar off near at hand as the day of Christ as a day which the Lord Jesus makes rising himself as the true Sun upon you so iurning this Sun into Darkness before the brightness of his own appearance enlightning all within you and without you with another Light infinitely greater infinitely sweeter At the sight of this day as Abraham did so let your hearts spring with a pleasant lightness and dance Galliards in your Bosom Now sing of Death and say in your songs every one of you as you lie upon your Death-beds I shall sin no more I shall be in Flesh no more no more for ever in this Fleshly Principle and sense which hath so long bewitched me and held me by their â—orceries in the House of Whoredoms and of Death I shall be in this world so loathsome and so hateful to me I shall see this world and this Image of things which hath been so long so tempting and tormenting to me no more for ever Farewel for ever all distances all divisions between me and my Jesus my God Henceforth shall I with open face in my Soul and my Body behold the open and unvailed Face of God Henceforth shall I with my naked Soul and Body lie for ever in the naked Bosom of my Glorified Saviour my King and Husband giving him of my Loves drinking in abundantly his Loves and bringing forth continually by him all the Spiritual and Heavenly fruits of Life and Immortality The morning is called Rosy-fingred because the morning Beams as Rosy-fingers seem to open the Curtains of the night and let in day upon us Death is to a Saint of a truth this Rosy fingered morning which by sweet beams breaking forth from on high draws aside the Curtains of this night of Flesh and lets in upon us the Eternal day which at once in a moment overspreads our Souls and Bodies and fills all things to us with its blessed Light making us and
Saint with what quietness and security mayest thou lye down to rest and sleep in the midst of all wants enemies and dangers Thy Body itself is a Fellow-Member in the Body of Christ with all the glorious Angels and Blessed Spirits with Christ the head of all and the Father the Head of Christ. All these have the same care of thy Body for every part of it in every State as for themselves For it is themselves a Member and part of themselves They all are present with it they encompass it they minister unto it all things seasonable for its defence and comfort 2. There is a Communion of sufferings Whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it O Christians what a sweetning is this to the bitterest affliction How doth this take away the solitude the sadness the sting from Poverty a Prison a Sickness the Grave You are in the heart of all Angels and Saints of Christ and of the Father to suffer to live and to die together with you All the Heavenly company that are by one Spirit gathered together into that one glorious Body of Christ lye down with you in the Dust in a Dungeon on a sick Bed in the Grave How is the Spouse of Christ now in its most solitary and afflicted State indeed as two Heavenly Companies according to the expression in the Canticles 3. The Fellow-members in the Body of Christ have a Communion of Joy and Glory Whether one Member be honoured all the Members rejoice with it A Believer is ever glorious ever blessed St. Peter saith that when we suffer for the name of Christ the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon us Every suffering of a Saint so far as he is a Saint is for Christ. Why art thou ever melancholy why is thy Heart heavy within thee O Believer Open thine Eyes to see them open thine Heart to take them in Behold the Joys and Glories of all the blessed in Heaven are thine are present with thee and ever rest upon thee I will conclude this Communion with that most remarkable expression God hath tempered the Body together The word is hath mingled the Body together How full an expression is this How doth this mixture sweeten all our sufferings and make all our Joys far more pleasant Thou O Believer with all thy shame and sufferings art tempered and mingled together with all the Saints and Angels above with Christ and the Father with all their Joys and Glories All the same Heavenly Company with all the same Joys and Glories are tempered and mingled together with thee with thy shames and sufferings here below Thus are all one piece and that one piece whole and entire in every one Thus is the greater the greatest comeliness put upon the most indigent Thus is there no Schism in the Body As in many Spirits tempered into one Spirit many Liquors tempered into one Liquor many Spices beaten into the smallest Powder mingled into one costly Ointment every portion of this Spirit this Liquor this Ointment hath all the Spirits all the Liquors all the Ointments of the whole in it so is the Body of Christ in general and every Member in particular 3. The proportion or suitableness There is no Schism in the Body of Christ. If this be pure precious living immortal heavenly and glorious then is thy Body also O Believer so far as it is a Member of this Body pure precious living immortal heavenly glorious How living how immortal how beautiful how glorious how divine a thing is that Body of a Saint which is a Member of Christ in Glory What Life what Joys are those of this Body which is in so dear so inseparable so intimate an Union and Communion of the same Life Joys Beauties and Spirit with all the glorious Angels blessed Spirits Christ himself the Head of all the Father in Christ This is the State of the Body of a Saint as it is a Member of Christ. But while a Saint lives in this world his Body is partly the Member of this Heavenly Husband the Lord Jesus and partly the Member of a Harlot this World and the Flesh in as much as a Saint here below hath his life and conversation divided between the pure Spirit of Christ and the Whorish Spirit of this world O sweet O beautiful O precious and blessed Death By Death is the joyful and glorious separation made in the Body of a Saint between the precious and the vile between the heavenly Bridegroom the Lord Jesus and the Hellish Adulterer this World Now it ceaseth for ever to be in any degree any more the Member of the Harlot to be in a Carnal or worldly Spirit Now it 's for ever singly entirely gathered up into the Spirit Body and Bosom of Jesus Christ. O! how pure how shining in what Angelical in what Spiritual in what Divine a form and fulness of unexpressible rest beauty and delight is the Body of a Saint in the very moment of Death when like fine Gold purged from its dross or a Heavenly Sun that hath cast up its cloud it now comes forth out of the Whorish Spirit of the Flesh and this World a single and pure Member in the pure and divine Body of our Lord Jesus These are the three things contained in this Membership of the Body of a Believer in Christ Union Communion and proportion From this I shall raise a threefold short exhortation 1. Set a value upon the new Birth upon the Regeneration Content not your selves with being once born By your first Birth you have Souls and Bodies Members of this world By the Spirit of this world they are Baptized into the Body and Society of Darkness Corruption Death Wrath the whole Company of wicked Spirits and Devils Give your selves no rest till you are born again By the new Birth which is from above you have new Souls and new Bodies which are Members one of another Fellow-members of Christ. Your Souls and your Bodies both are by that one Eternal Spirit Baptized into one Spiritual Immortal and glorious Body with the Spirits of all just men made evangelically perfect by the Blood and Spirit of Christ with all the Holy Angels with Christ and the Father Press into the Fellowship of this mystery Here you shall see it indeed to be true that Grace is Glory begun in your Souls and Bodies both that when you believe a Spirit of Glory rests upon your whole Person by your Union with Christ. 2. Possess this Vessel of your Bodies in holiness For so you shall possess it in honour Possess it converse with it in a Spiritual Principle So you shall enjoy it and your selves in it as a Member of Christ. You shall see feel enjoy within your selves in this Body the Spirit the Life the Immortality the Joy the Glory of the whole Body of Christ the society of all things Heavenly Blessed and Eternal to wake and to sleep to walk and lie down to live and
his Heart continually bringing him forth into his whole Person and Life with an increasing clearness and fulness As the Object is to the Faculty and to the Soul so is Jesus Christ to a Spiritual Person his Pattern his Object his Food his Feast which spreads itself quite thorow his Person and Life which all throughout turns into Life Strength Beauty Cheerfulness and Joy to him 5. A spiritual person in a sweet and sealing manner sees the Spirit himself presenting the Lord Jesus to him within himself in a spiritual Glory feels the Spirit himself springing up immediately within him in all sights of Christ in all his changes and growths into Christ. He sees and feels this Spirit to be Jesus Christ himself He sees and feels this Spirit and this Jesus to be in himself and one Spirit with himself So the verse forementioned runs We all with open face beholding as in a Looking-glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord or according to the Greek by the Lord that Spirit These are the sweet and blessed Advantages of a Spiritual State I will add some few and short Directions to this State 1. Look to the New Birth in You. See that you be born again that you be born from above that you be born of the Spirit that this which is born in you be Spirit Jesus Christ saith That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This only is the New Birth Newness is only in the Eternal Spring the Spirit 2. Take care of your Union with Christ that it be a Spiritual Union that you be united to Christ as he is risen from the Dead and in Glory as he is a Spirit the King and Bridegroom of Spirits that you be united to Christ in the Spiritual Man that your Union be a Spiritual Marriage that you be one Spirit in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit which is Love 3. Pray for the Spirit for a Spiritual Understanding for the Knowledge of things in the Spirit as they are Spirit and Life and so alone Truth Suck in the Spirit by day and by night from the lips of Christ from the kisses of his mouth 4. Die to every thing of the Flesh that you may live in the Spirit Bear about in your Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the Life also of the Lord Jesus according to the Spirit may be manifested in your mortal Bodies At the young Phoenix is said to spring new and fresh out of the Ashes of the Old One so doth the Spirit in the newness of an Heavenly and Immortal Glory spring out of the Grace of Christ. 5. Live purely live in Love These two Purity and Love are the principal fruits of the Spirit by which the Spirit himself is drawn down and held in our Hearts being fed and delighted with them Every kind and degree of impurity and enmity quencheth the Spirit and maketh him to withdraw himself into Heaven again The Scripture saith The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit to bring forth its own Beauties Delights and Fruits all over the Spirit of Man in the place of the Eternal Spirit The Scripture saith also That the Flesh envyeth against the Spirit The Flesh hath an envy and an envious malice to see the Spirit with its Eternal Glories Joys and Fruits to flourish in the Soul 6. Lastly Take heed of thinking that you know enough He that thinks he knows any thing knows nothing as he ought to know it saith St. Paul He that thinks he knows any thing knows things only after the Letter which is a knowledge of shadows only and a shadow of knowledge This is that knowledge which pusseth up which swels a man with a windy conceit of knowledge But that knowledge which is from the Spirit as its Fountain and in the Spirit as its air and element and of the Spirit as its only object this makes a man at the highest degree of his knowledge on Earth to be sensible that all his knowledge is but as the light of the night a light shining in a dark place not the day-star and the Sun itself risen upon him This man thinks himself at best as a door-keeper only or as the Hebrew word signifieth one standing at the threshold of the House of God who looketh in at a distance and hath only a weak glimmering prospect of the Glories there but is not yet entered into the Light of those Glories to behold them as they are to know them as he ought to know them and is to know them He therefore as a new born Babe from the Womb of the Spirit keeps his Eye ever fixed with wonder and pleasure upon the light of the Spirit and ever thirsts to drink in more and more the sweet milk of this Light The Subject of our discourse hath been the passage of a Saint by Death not only in his Soul but in his Body also into a State of purity pleasure perfection and immortality One of the objections against this was taken from common sense to which Death presents the Bodies of the holiest Persons liveless ghastly dissolving to dust We have answered this objection by a distinction between a twofold sense Carnal and Spiritual But this objection was enforced from the Body of Christ which was a rueful and bloody spectacle in Death which lay three days in the silence darkness and restraint of the Grave It is necessary therefore to say something particularly to the State of Christs Body in Death by the application of this distinction to that also I shall ground this discourse upon that Scripture Luke 12. 50. They are the words of Christ I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I streightned till it be over This Baptism is generally and as I humbly conceive rightly interpreted to be the sufferings of Christ at his Death The Baptism of Christ and the accomplishment of that Baptism were both at the time of his Death The sense of this Baptism before it came was an unexpressible streightning or affliction and oppression to the Soul of Christ. He cries out how am I streightned The words thus opened afford this observation The Lord Jesus had his greatest trouble and his greatest Triumph at the time of his Death Then was this bloody Baptism and then was the blessed accomplishment of this Baptism I shall open this in seven Propositions whereof 5 set forth the trouble the other two the Triumph of Christ at his Death 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus 2. Propos. God in his own Person as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth stood at once in a twofold Principle one Natural and Temporary the other Supernatural and Eternal 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary
the Manhood of Christ in its Earthly State stood in a natural Principle according to its proper essence and created Form but in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle according to its Personal subsistence in the Eternal Word How patient should we be of Life nay with what delight and wonder should we pass the time of our Pilgrimage hero if with a Spiritual Eye we beheld the Lord Jesus in Flesh and saw our life in flesh a conformity to his What a Divine Spectacle what a mystery of Divinity how full of Sweetness Beauty and Glory doth the Life of Christ in Flesh appear when it is rightly seen The Natural Spirit of this world with its natural Image in its full compass stood in the midst of the Lights Immortalities Glories of that Divine Person which is the Brightness of Glory the Sea of all Sweetnesses and Loves Eternity itself God himself This was the Eternal Principle which brought it forth from itself which bears it up in its own Bosom which acts it fills it comprehends it as itself one Person with itself itself Personally in a Divine and Mysterious Figure in the midst of all its Divine and Substantial Glories 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary Principle he stood under the Curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the Curse to the utmost extremity The Scripture saith he was made a Curse for us Although together with the Natural Principle he took not the Corruption yet he took the Curse You that read or hear this prepare your selves to receive a Relation of Divine Love which will at once break your hearts and make them whole again That God who is Blessedness itself the purest Light of Life Joy and Glory in Person cloaths himself with Flesh even with the Fleshly Spirit and Principle that he may make himself a Curse for your sakes in your stead Thus he receives immediately into his own Person into his own Breast and Heart all the stings of the Curse of Separation of Loss of Shame of Pain of Guilt of Grief of Horrour Amazement Death All these stings he receives into himself as they are dipt all over in the most unmixt and fiercest Poison of the Divine Wrath. All these stings he felt at once envenomed with Wrath in the tenderest and most sensible manner with the quickest and sharpest sense Never was never can there be such a sting such a sense of any sting in the Spirit of Man or Devil or any Creature Do we hear all this and that all this was from love to us and are we not by a sympathy of love wounded with a sense of those stings which thus stuck in our Saviours Heart Do we not feel our hearts wounded with a sense of those Sins of ours which fixed those stings there But doth not this sense also fall like drops of precious Balsom upon our Hearts to heal those wounds immediately or to turn them into Fountains of Love and Joy when we hear that it was Love and infinite Love in the Heart of God himself which took these stings out of our low and wretched Persons to fix them in that most High and Glorious Person which is Eternal Love and Life itself He was made Sin for us that is a Sacrifice for Sin in a flame of Wrath in our stead that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him to ascend in the Bosom of his glorified Person in a pure flame of Love Delight and Glory above all Heavens 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a supernatural and eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a Light of Divine Glory in a Life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with immortality Our Jesus at the same time in his natural Principle and in his Flesh was encompassed with a blackness of darkness and was filled with the bitterness of the Curse at the same time in his supernatural Principle the Eternal Spirit even in the natural Principle in the Flesh in the midst of the darknesses bitternesses he saw them all he conversed with them he tasted them feasted upon them enjoyed them and himself in them as the Light and Sweetness of Heavenly Love as Roses and Lillies the Hony and the hony-comb in the Paradise of God as the delicacies of Eternity and a banquet of Wine in the Kingdom of God For he received he saw he rellished them in the will of his Father and the will of his Father in them Thus he speaketh of them when he cometh first into the World I come to do thy Will O God All things which he met with in the World and in Flesh were to him the pure and entire Will of God alone presenting itself in so many various Forms where the Substance and the Forms both were the same Will like a Feast in several Dishes where the Meat and the Dishes too are alike delicate food So Christ himself expressed it John 4. It is my Meat and Drink a Divine Meat and a Divine Drink to do the Will of my Father All the sufferings and passions of Christ were an active accomplishment an active entertainment of the Will of the Father of that Will of that supream Will which is the pure Fountain Measure Essence perfection of all Good Loveliness Love Sweetness and Joy The sufferings of our Lord Jesus appeared to him in a Spiritual Light as Heavenly Beauties cloathing his Person making it so much the more lovely in the Eye of his Father the truest Judge of loveliness and Beauty My Father loves me saith Jesus Christ because I lay down my Life for my Sheep How sweet and dear a sense hath the Lord Jesus of the Curse and of Death when he had this sense of them that they made him lovely to his Father attracted his Fathers Heart to him and made him more in love with him The blackest Cloud that resteth upon Christ discovered itself to his Spiritual Eye to be in truth a Glory surrounding him All the griefs of his Heart appeared to be Jewels of Glory and Immortality hanging in his Bosom For saith Christ when he was now to suffer now is the Son of Man Glorified and again he saith the Father is Glorified in the Son O! how dâ—fferent is the truth of things in the Spirit from the outward appearance in the Flesh When Jesus Christ was spit upon Scourged Crucified as this World gives forms and names of things then in the sense and language of Heaven of Eternity of the Eternal and Spiritual Principle in himself he was glorified all these were as so many fresh Lights of Glory in which his Person shines forth to itself and to the Father in
Fellowship between the Father and Christ and the Spirit and the Saints in the Spirit at the coming of the Spirit is this 1. The blessed Person of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is the beautiful band of that sweet and sacred Union in which the two other Persons the Father and the Son most nakedly most entirely at the utmost heighth of their Beauties and Loves possess and enjoy each other The same Person of the Spirit in the mystical and Marriage Union between Christ and the Soul is that sweet and sacred Unity by the Virtue of which the Father Christ and a Saint in the Purity and Perfection of all Heavenly sweetnesses and excellencies behold love and take Pleasure in each other as one Spirit By this you may see how the Spirit is the Promise and the Seal and what this Seal of the Spirit means The Lord Jesus fully expresseth it in the verse mentioned At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you This day is the day of the Spirit the day of the Spirits coming into the Soul and appearing there In the Revelation of this third Person the Holy Spirit when he shines forth in the Spirit of a Saint the Father Christ and a Saint are all seen together in one Glory the Glory of the Father in the Fellowship and Unity of this Spirit which is the Spirit of Glory This Union and this Vision takes the Saint up into itself fixeth itself in a Saint displayeth itself there by the immediate Brightness and Glory of that Heavenly Person the Spirit himself which is the Spirit of Truth This is the Seal of the Spirit this is the Banner of Love Thus he sets himself as a Seal upon the Heart of his spouse thus he spreads himself as a Banner of Love over her head in his Banqueting-house How clearly in this Day in this Vision and Unity of the Spirit doth the Beloved Spouse of Christ see Heaven and Paradise ten thousand Heavens and Paradises new-born and risen within herself herself new-born and risen into the midst of them and enjoying them all Dost thou mourn O dejected Soul that thou hast not received this Seal of the Spirit Alas how few have How hath this Seal been withdrawn since the Nations of the World received the mark of Anti-Christ Mourn thou together with all the Saints for the absence of the Heavenly Bridegroom in this Vision of his Glory and Seal of his Love But mourn not as without Hope Press forward to this Day of the Spirit and to the Brightness of the rising of the Lord Jesâ—s together with the Father upon thy Soul in the Person of the Spirit which is the Union of all Loves Joys and Glories as all Lights are United in the Sun This Day hath already dawned some few have seen the dawnings of it and rejoyced to see it when it hath shone forth upon the tops of their Spirits as the Sun in the pleasant morning of a Summers-day gilds the Tops of the Mountains 2. The Second Evidence is the Witness of the Spirit Of this Paul speaketh Rom. 8. v. 16. The Spirit itself beareth Witness in our Spirit that we are the Children of God This Witness of the Spirit may be more interrupted and be accompanied in the Soul with less Glory and a less triumphant Joy yet is it clear and sweet and sure although the clearness and the sweetness have their different degrees The Witness of the Spirit is as tho Voice of God in the Soul received and ecchoed to by the Soul The Seal of the Spirit is the Glorious Face of God unvailed in the Soul and by the kiss of its mouth Uniting it to the Soul so that it stamps its own Heavenly Image upon the Soul and Ravishing the Soul into one Life and Form of Glory with itself becomes its own Reflection there equally embracing and embraced enjoying and enjoyed in the Unity of the Spirit Thou who feest not the Seal of the Spirit upon thy heart open thy Spiritual Ear hearken unto the voice of the Spirit hearken to the voice of thine own Spirit These two by a sweet Consent and Harmony may testifie together the Love of God in thee Their voice may be low and not to be heard in the Tumult and noise of thy Fears and Doubts In the calmness quietness and rest of a meek and resigned Spirit hearken diligently and thou mayest hear this low voice Though this voice be low yet is it clear and sweet The Love and Peace and Joy of the Spirit the Spirit of Love Peace and Joy himself are in this low voice 3. The third Evidence is the Instinct of the Spirit which seems to be mentioned by St. Paul as a less degree of Evidence going before that of the Witness of the Spirit Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye Cry Abba Father The little Lamb newly yeaned and come forth from the Dam in a great flock amongst many Lambs and Ews knoweth its own Dam discerneth its call from all others runneth to it keepeth by its side when it is in any fear seeketh and sucketh its Milk and the nourishment of its Life from it This is the Instinct of Nature which faileth not the Births of Nature Thus every Child of God hath much more a Spiritual and Divine Instinct which is inseparable from the Divine Nature in it The Spirit of God in it when the Light of the Divine Nature is most obscured is a Spirit of Son-ship or Childhood in the Soul by secret Impressions leading it inclining and carrying it to God as its Father giving it a secret sense and discerning of the Voice of God and of its Relation to God as by the instinct of the Divine Nature Consider this ye doubting fearful and distressed Saints consider this and be comforted Thou hast no clear sight of the Face of God Thou hast no clear Testimony of the Love of God in thy Spirit Thou hast no distinct understanding of thy Union with God or of the Nature of God or of the things of God Thou hast no Evidences by which thou canst satisfy thy own Reason thorow any discourse of Reason But thou art inwardly carryed in thy desires and inclinations to God to please him to be with him Thy Soul secretly hangs upon God and cleaveth to him Thou inwardly longest and thirstest to suck in from his Breasts the milk of Spiritual Life Comfort and Light In the day of thy fears and distress thine Eye looketh to God thine Heart cryeth and hasteth to him The call the voice of God in his Providences his Word and the inward motions of his Spirit touch thine Heart and turn thy Bowels within thee How often in the greatest doubts and distresses of thy Spirit dost thou sigh forth to God the name of Father Behold this is the instinct of the Divine Nature in thee This is the Spirit of Adoption by which thou art acted and by
which thou cryest Abba Father Although thou understandest it no more than the Lamb understandeth how or why it is carryed to its Dam and drawn by its bleatings Go thy way then and be no more troubled give thy self up to the instinct and leadings of this holy Spirit within thee Thou shalt certainly see the time when the obscure smoak of the Spiritual Instinct in thee will break up into a clear Light and flame of a Joy unspeakable and Glorious both in the Testimony of the Spirit heard within thee and the Seal of the Spirit seen upon thee either in this Life or in Eternity We read in the 2 of Chron. That Solomons Throne had a Foot-stool of Gold and six steps up to the Throne On each side of these steps were two Lyons that supported every step Thou who hast the Throne of the Divine Nature in the midst of the Spiritual Paradise and Heaven set up within thee in its obscurest and lowest state rest in peace and joy on the Foot-stool itself and upon the lowest step of this Throne For the Foot-stool itself the lowest state is of Gold of an incorruptible and Divine Nature which will certainly in its proper time lift thee up to the full height and Glory of the Throne itself The lowest step here even at the highest hath for its support and guard two Lyons The Lord Jesus the true Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in all the Varieties and Riches of his Spiritual Glories multiplies his Presence and Appearance round about thee to sustain defend and cherish thee in these first beginnings of Grace in thee in the midst of thy darkness and weakness after the same manner in the same Heavenly Person of his in the same fulness of Love Power and Glory as he is with the highest Saints When we began to speak of this first step of the Resurrection or new Birth we propounded four Heads to treat upon 1. The Life which is risen 2. The Death out of which it riseth 3. The Resurrection itself 4. The way of this Resurrection We have finished our discourse upon three of these We are now to speak briefly of the last 4. The way of the Resurrection in the new birth is Jesus Christ. He saith of himself in the Gospel of St. John I am the Way Jesus Christ is the way of this Resurrection in six Steps 1. He is the Price 2. The Head 3. The Root 4. The Pattern 5. The Companion 6. The Life of this Resurrection 1. The Blood of Christ is the Price of this Resurrection Jesus Christ by his Blood hath doubly redeemed us from Death 1. By Purchase giving his Life a Ransom for us to the Divine Justice 2. By Conquest having by the effusion of his Blood and loss of his Life gained a perfect Victory over all the Powers of Darkness 2. The Lord Jesus above in Heaven is the Head of the Resurrection from the Dead In the latter part of the first of Eph. we have Jesus Christ gloriously presented unto us in his Resurrection from the nethermost part of the Earth and in his Ascent above all Heavens Then the Apostle concludes that discourse and Chapter with this Blessed Consolation that God had given him in this Glory of the Resurrection from the Dead to be the Head over all things to his Church Thou who mouâ—nest over thy sins as the worst of Deaths who doubtest who despairest of Life raise thy self to a lively Hope Look up and see thy self already risen in his Resurrection already set down in Heavenly Places together with Christ as a Glorious Spirit in that first Spirit the Head and Fountain of them all from which they are as Inseparable as the Beams in their upper ends are from the Sun Thus St. Paul speaks in the former part of the 2d Chap. of the Eph. upon that Divine Ground which he had laid in the end of the first Chapter That Christ in his Resurrection from the Dead is the Head over all to his Church 3. The Lord Jesus as he is risen from the Dead by his Spiritual Presence in our Hearts is the root of the Resurrection or new Birth in us 1 Corin. 15. Jesus Christ as he is the second Adam is said to be a quickning Spirit and the living corner Stone precious and tryed in his Death and precious in his Resurrection out of which we grow up to be a Temple to God that is both a Spiritual Heaven and a Spiritual Paradise Eph. 3. He is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith The Lord Jesus is that Spirit which is the Root of all Spirits natural or supernatural the Root of all Life Natural and Spiritual Earthly or Heavenly Humane Angelical or Divine Dost thou feel the weight of Death heavy upon thee hast thou no sense of any spark of true Life in thee to sweeten either Death or Life to thee Look up to thy Root at the bottom of thy Spirit thy Jesus Abide in this Root wait for this Root Here are all the Treasures of Spiritual Life laid up At the set time in the proper season this Root shall spring and bud and blossom and bring forth it 's heavenly Fruits replenished with the Light and sweetness of the Divine Life and spreading themselves thorow thy whole Soul Thus shall that Life of God which thou hast lost which in thy death retired itself hither into its Root rise again in thee and thou be new-born into this Life Thus shall Jesus Christ as an Heavenly Root in thy Heart bring forth himself unto the Life of Faith which is his own Heavenly Image in thee within the Vail the Cloud of Flesh. Thus doth he make thine heart from this Root of Eternity to be an Heavenly Habitation and dwelling place for himself raised up new and Eternal out of the Ruines of Death 4. Our blessed Saviour is the Pattern of the Resurrection to us In the 8th of the Rom. we are said to be predestinated to be conformed to his Image Eph. 1. God is spoken of as working Faith and so bringing forth the Spiritual Life in us according to that exceeding greatness of his Power by which he raised Christ from the Dead We read in the Gospel that a mighty Angel came down from Heaven and rolled away the Stone from the mouth of the Grave while the Watchmen about the Grave were cast into a deep sleep to make way for the rising of Christ. How frequently doth the Soul which feels the horrour of the Spiritual Death think its Resurrection to a Divine Life to the Heavenly Graces and sweet Peaces of that Life impossible Alass the Flesh is as a Grave in which it is shut up Its Lusts and Temptations are as a mighty Stone rolled upon the mouth of this Grave Tempters visible and invisible are as Watchmen round about the Grave to keep thee there But be not discouraged at any of these things O thou disconsolate Soul Look to thy Pattern the Lord Jesus as it was
with him so shall it be with thee A supernatural Power a mighty Angel from Heaven shall bind up thy Tempters thy Spiritual Enemies in chains of Darkness as in a deep sleep shall remove the great Stone the most powerful Lusts and Temptations from the mouth of thy Grave God himself in his Power in the greatness of his Power as it excelleth and transcendeth all Powers all things all thoughts of men or Angels God himself in his Almightiness in the infiniteness of his Power and God-head God himself in the immediate naked most potent most high most Glorious Appearances and Operations of his God-head shall come down upon thee shall arise and shine in thee and as he riseth raise thee together with himself into the Light of Life Whil'st thou lyest in Sin thy true Person or Life lie together dead in thee as to thee But beneath thy Soul at the bottom of it they lie hid in God who is the ground of every natural being and the Treasury of all Spiritual Beings At the season of the new birth God discocovers himself in thy Soul as a glorious ground out of which thy Life and thy Jesus spring up together by degrees like Twin-lillies Roses from the same stalk or root which is Christ. Thus shalt thou rise from the Dead with a shout of Heavenly Joys 5. Christ is the Companion in the Resurrection St. Paul tells the Galatians he travels in birth again with them till Christ be formed in them We read 1 Corin. 6. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit A saint and Christ are one Spirit by a Spiritual Marriage which makes two Spirits perfectly one yet so that they remain perfectly and distinctly two in one When thou risest from the dead in Regeneration thy Jesus riseth together with thee out of that Grave in thy Heart into which thou hast cast him by thy Sin at the Fall when thou in thy true Life and Paradise in thee fell into the same Grave together with him Jesus Christ and the Soul spring up together in the first Creation as Twins For St. John saith in his first Chapter of his Gospel that without him that is in a single state disjoyned from Christ was nothing made that was made Christ and the Soul like two Twin-lillies flourished together in Paradise Together they died by the Fall Many times since thy birth into this world have Jesus Christ and with him that Beautiful and Blessed Life which thou enjoyed'st in Paradise been rising again into thy Heart into a more excelling Paradise that in the Spirit and in Heaven which is Eternal But alass thou hast still thrown them back again into the same Grave in thy flesh by the new wounds which thy renewed Lusts and Unbelief have given them Notwithstanding all this when the set time is come nothing can withstand the rising in thee Jesus Christ and thy Soul are together born anew in thee from the womb of Eternal Love where they lay hid and wrapt up together in the Grave itself They now come up together in one Spirit into one Spiritual Life and Heavenly Image in which Paradise also comes up new and fresh together with them By the same immediate and glorious operation of the God-head they break irresistibly forth thorow the darknesses of the night and scatters them and breaks them up as it shines thorow them How blessed is this Union and Fellowship Christ and the Soul ever undivided grow up now together in the mutual sight in the mutual embraces of each other thorow every state and degree of the Regeneration or Resurrection Light or Darkness Solaces or Sufferings Life or Death In all by the Heavenly Union they are mutually a Crown of rejoycing one to another 6. Christ is the Life of this Resurrection So himself testiâ—ieth in the 11 of St. John I am the Resurrection and the Life How sure how sweet is thy Life O Believer who art risen from the Death of Sin and born again to thine Heavenly Father Thy Life is sure It is Christ himself the Power God eternal Life itself who is thy Life the Life of thy Graceâ— here the Living Hope of Glory in Heaven the Life of God in thee which never dies in the midst of Death Thy Life is sweet O Believer How unexpressible is this pleasure to feel Jesus Christ himself the only delight of the Father in Eternity the only Delight of all the Holy Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven springing up in thy Heart flowing thorow thy whole Soul and Person working in all acting all as Life in thee Thus I have finished this fourth Head the way of the Resurrection in its first step the Regeneration or New-birth and the discourse itself upon this subject FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 15. line 22. for word r. world p. 19. l. 25. for and thou r. O thou p. 55. l. 1. for spirit r. letter p. 66. l. 15. for three r. four p. 115. l. 38. dele by p. 126. l. 2. dele the first have p. 139. l. 2. for ni r. in l. 14. for an r. any p. 151. l. 1. for no r. not l. 7. for diviness r. divineness p. 158. l 22. for thee r. the p. 175. l. uâ—â— for their r. there p. 189. l. 16. for because r. and 3dly because p. 194. l. 14. for word r. words p. 205. l. 11. dele the first 1 p. 206. l. 32. for beautiful r. beauty p. 208. l. 39. dele at the word below p. 210. l. 17. for of spirit r. of the spirit p. 211. l. 20. for creature r. creatures p. 228. l. 35. for forms r. form p. 236. l. 24. for each in r. each creature in p. 249. l. 20. for form r. forms p. 252. l. 33. for though be it r. though it be p. 279. l. 9. for Vse 3 d r. Vse 4 th p. 294. l. 35. for pants r. plants p. 297. l. 5. for the glory r. with glory p. 299. l. 27. for 4 r. 1. p. 300. l. 32. for so God is light r. so God is life p. 301. l. 31. for the Divine Sea r. the Divine Saint p. 311. l. 3. for 3 steps r. 4 steps p. 314. l. 11. for is vizor r. is a vizor p. 315. l. 28. for thine nature r. thy nature l. 39. for fields r. field p. 319. l. 39 for is it r. it is p. 321. l. 16. for thy will r. thy God p. 325. l. 22. for four r. two p. 329. l. 17. for nature of this thing r. nature of things p. 332. l. 33. for which the will r. which is the will p. 335. l. 35. for are r. have p. 341. l. 4. for flesh r. fleshly p. 342. l. 19. for beware r. 2 dly beware p. 349 l. 41. for it conquest r. its conquest p. 350. l. 39. dele the Light p. 352. l. 14. for to the end r. to the end are removed p. 380 l. 25. for thus r. thou l. 41. for o passionate r. of passionate p. 392. l. 36. for poureâ—h r. poured p. 423. l. 9. for are r. ere p. 433. l. 7. for tof r. of p. 448. l. 27. for it it r. it p. 450. l. 17. for so r. see p. 451. l. 21. for same r. next for 1 Cor. r. 2 Cor. p. 472. l. 32. for resteth r. rested p. 480 l. 7. r. form p. 512. l. 3. r. Look to thy Root
so plentiful Beams as the Divine Nature When this is brought forth in any Spirit it cannot but manifest itself by beautiful Beams of Love and Holiness as it manifests so it often multiplies itself upon other Spirits When thou art Converted saith Christ to Peter strengthen thy Brethrâ—n It is the Perfection of Life to bring forth its Like When a man is himself made partaker of the life of God The Perfection of this life displays itself with such power and luster thorow the whole man that it many times draws strangers first into the Love then into the Likeness of it 5. Cause Manages of Providence These are often Moral Helps to Man Outward Hints which God is pleased to make and take for the Inward and Spiritual work of our Conversion But as they say of Stars they do not operate but indicate only not produce but point out effects and events in Earthly things So outward Providences when they are most are Concurrencies only not Causes in a proper sense not Living Hands to do any thing in the Truth of this Change but as Hands in a Margin to declare sometimes what God is doing These Workings of Providence by Natural effects in our Bodies civil accidents in our Life Moral Impressions on our Hearts are as the motion of the Waters when the Angel descended into the Pool which motion accompanied but contributed nothing to the Healing Vertue It is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that hath mercy Sometimes God brings forth this Change when the Waters of outward Providence are quite calm as when the Apostles were called from their Nets Matthew from the Custom Gideon from the Flail Elisha from the Plow Sometimes God spreadeth this healing and enlivening vertue thorow the Soul when the Waters of the Natural man work high a contrary way as when Saul was chang'd into Paul he was then surprized with the Love and appearance of Jesus Christ when he was persecuting him Yet it pleaseth our Father very often to manage and forelay outward things so that he takes hold of them as occasions or opportunities to make his way into our Souls There are Two things in outward Providence which God especially makes use of to this purpose 1. Natural Affections 2. Temporal Afflictions 1. Natural Affections As we season Vessels for the Liquor with which we mean to fill them and as the Threshers of old had the Staff for the more tender Corn and the Wheel for the Harder So God made John the Evangelist of a gentle Heart seasoned with Still but Strong affections like a River that runs quiet but swift and deep This John Jesus Christ takes into his bosom makes him his Lute on which he sounds forth his softest sweetest Loves Beauty Delights So he lives so he dies St. Peter was naturally more of the Rock and Flint sharp hard and fiery Jesus Christ brings the Wheel over him and breaks him forely while he first forswears his Saviour near his Cross then afterwards is forc'd to follow his Saviour to the Cross. St. Paul had a vigorous profound Spâ—rit by Nature and Education Jesus Christ flashes upon him a with Glory from Heaven fills him with the deep and high Discoveries of Divine Glory makes him to fill the world with the loud reports of them as the Trumpet of Christ. Our Lord found some of his Apostâ—es Fishing He takes hold of them by this which was their Employment and Enjoyment their Inclination oâ— Education Come saith he follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men. One Man is caught and carried by sensual Beauties and Pleasures Jesus Christ covers the Golden Hook of His Love and Spirit with a Bait of Beauty and Pleasure to take this Man come saith Christ and follow me I am fairer than the Sons of men I have a Beauty beyond that of any Creature I am the Brightness of the Eternal Glory the Lively Image of the Invisible God I am the Light and Life of all Loveliness in all the Creatures They when they shine swâ—â—test are but shadows to me shadows of me I am all Pleasant altogether all Pleasantnesses and Delights together As Jesus Christ whispers this to the Soâ—l he lets fall upon it a Glimpse a Touch a Tast of Himself which makes all this Real So he ravisheth the Soul of this Man from the midst of his Vanities Sensualities Lusts into his own Embraces by the strength of a higher though purer Delight Another man is Rational and Philosophical led by inclination and study to trace the hidden ways of Nature to search the first Springs and continued course of Things The Lord Jesus works Himself into the Reason and speculation of this Man Come saith our Saviour and follow me I am the Wisdom of God by which the whole Creation was contrived came forth and is carried on I am the beginning the way the end of all things Time draws out its Line and runs its Race in me Eternity comprehends itself in its Center and Circle in me All the Treasures of Knowledge are in my Love You shall see all Mysteries all Forms and Motions of God and the Creature bare and naked in my Light As He speaks this He opens something of Himself upon the Soul which gives it a Glance of this Light and Sight Now He that sat before at Gamaliels feet like Paul sets his feet upon the head of all that learning and sits with Mary at the feet of Christ. Now Jesus Christ is the Reason of his Reason and the only Reason to it Now Jesus Christ is all his Philosophy and Study Thus God makes use of Natural Affections 2. Temporal Afflictions You have a Platform of Gods working by these from the mouth of Elihu Job 33. 19. He is chastned with pain upon his bed the multitude of his bones with strong pain The place of a mans Rest and Pleasure is made the place of his Torment All the several Principles and Strengths of Life are several Springs Seats and Strengths of Pain and Misery 20. v. His Life abhorreth Bread and his Soul dainty Meat The Nourishment of Life is tedious and becomes a Burthen The most pleasant Entertainments the sweetest delicacies of Nature and the Creature are now loath'd 21. v. His Flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen his bones that were not seen stick out All the cloathings all the Beauties of his Being wither and wear away Those Forms in which he walked disappear The Foundations the lowest Principles of being in him are discovered and left naked like the Sea without waters a Deep having no Face but that of Darkness an Earth void and without Form 22. v. His Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers The Life of the Spirit in the Body is now sinking into a Silent Darkness The Life of the Spirit in itself is almost swallowed up into those Spirits which are the principles of a dark a dying Life or a living Darkness and
by two Illustrations and one Distinction 1. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth to its Idea that is to its First Principle and Pattern in God God himself in the Fulness of his Person is the Principle and Pattern of Man Righteousness is the Image of God in Man Coloss. 3. 10. The New man which is the Righteous man and the Righteousness of man is said to be Created in Knowledge after the Image of Him who hath created Him There is a Twofold Image of God one Earthly the other Heavenly The Earthly Image of God in Man is the Righteousness of Nature The Heavenly Image is the Righteousness of the Spirit or in the Spirit 2. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth its End in God God is the End of all things Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for Himself The End of Man is the Possession and Fruition of God as his only Portion of Being Beauty Blessedness Psal. 16. 5. The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul This then is the Righteousness of man his Union and Communion with God to live in Him by Him with Him to Him For this reason is Christ said to be made of God Righteousness and Sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. Because in the Person of Christ it is that God and Man are made One one Love one Life one Likeness Distinct. There are two sorts of Righteousness 1. Imputed 2. Inherent 1. Righteousness imputed You may read of this Philip. 3. 9. That I may be found in Him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of God by Jesus Christ. There is a Righteousness of the First and of the Second Adam That of the First Adam is our own the Righteousness of the Law It riseth out of the Earth it is but a Shadow at best the Gilding of an Earthen Vesâ—el a Reflection upon a Brick Wall That of the Second Adam comes down from Heaven is of God is the true Gold the sure substantial everlasting Righteousness As when a Cloud is placed in that part of the Sky on which the Sun shoots forth his Beams the Cloud is over-spread by those Beams and made Glorious in their Glories So are there four Things in this Imputed Righteousness 1. The Person of Christ as the Sky or Heaven 2. The God-head as the Sun shining in this Sky 3. The Cloud poor man drawn up from the Earth into the bosom of his Saviour by his Union with Him 4. The Glory of the God-Head falling upon him encompassing and clothing his whole Person in Jesus Christ. This is that Righteousness which is of God by Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 12. 26. St. Paul teacheth us that if one member be honoured all the members rejoyce together with it When a Crown is set upon the Head of a King it puts a Royalty and Majesty upon his whole Person The Head of Man is Christ the Head of Christ is God The Glory of the God-Head in Christ is the Crown upon the Head of the Heavenly man this puts a Royal Beauty of Holiness the Majesty of that Divine Righteousness upon every mystical member upon each Soul how mean soever that is united to Jesus Christ in one Spirit thorow believing The Beauty of the God-head shining thorow the Humane Nature of Christ thorow his active and passive Obedience thorow his Wounds and so falling upon that Soul which hath cast herself into the Arms of her Saviour this is the Imputed Righteousness of man Take this Caution concerning this Righteousness It is said to be imputed not because it is not truly Ours and in us but because it is not Primarily Ours but by our Union with another Person The Colours in the Rain-bow are said to be Apparent not Real because the Rain-bow is not their Spring though it be their Seat but they are reflected from the Sun shining on the watry Cloud So this Righteousness is said to be imputed to us because it is First seated in Jesus Christ and then reflected from Him on us Yet it is a true Righteousness it is truly immediately on our Persons in our Persons as Jesus Christ is It is therefore said to be imputed because it is not ours Primitively but Consequently because Christ is ours yet not as Absent from us but Present in us possess'd by us 2. Righteousness Inherent 2 Cor. 3. last We all as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are Translated into the likeness of the same Image from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit The Lord Jesus at once enters into a Two-fold Relation to man one of a Sun shining all over him the other of a Root growing up in him We see his Glory in our selves as in a Glass we bring the face of Glory with us We have the Glory in our selves and are our selves the Glass There is the Sun shining which beautifies and justifies a St. We grow up into that Image by the Lord the Spirit of that Glory planting itself in us There is the Root growing which purifies and sanctifies us Our Saviour when he discovers Himself appears at once without us and within us Without us he riseth upon us as a Light of Loveliness Es. 60. 1. Rise out of the Dust and shine for thy Light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Within us He riseth as a Light of Life Galat. 1. 16. When it pleased the Father to reveal his Son within me This is our Righteousness Imputed and Inherent This Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter of Royalty in the Kingdom of God 1. The Crown So St. Paul stiles it 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge shall give me in that day The Righteousness the Glory of God resting on Man is that Crown which both entitles him to and enstates him in the Kingdom of God As a King ever possesseth his Crown though he wear it only on high days at solemn meetings of the people so a Christian may have this Crown though laid up while he is on Earth But he doth not appear with it openly till that great day the Resurrection when the whole world shall meet 2. The Robe The Righteousness of God and Man is the Imperial Robe which both as Kings are cloth'd with Es. 61. 10 He hath covered me with a Robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom dâ—cketh himself with Ornaments Behold a Royal and a Bridal Robe It is Righteousness which puts upon the Spirit the beauty of a Bridegroom the Majesty of a King That Soul which shines forth in Righteousness makes itself a King not by Right only but Choice too by Love as well as Law Psal. 45. 4. 5. In thy Majesty ride prosperously because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness c. Thine Arrows stick in the hearts of thine Enemies the people fall under thee This was sung of the Lord Jesus Righteousness cloth'd him