A TESTIMONY TO An Approaching Glory BEING An account of certain Discourses lately delivered In Pancras Soperlane London By JOSHUA SPRIGGE Esay 61. 11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousnesse and praise to spring forth before all the nations LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1648. The Preface to the READER THere are three Vanities my soule is afflicted to behold under the Sunne Men professing and desiring an end but denying the meanes Ministers not knowing their owne Doctrines and Principles And Christians not owning their owne Prayers and Hopes when they are shewed them again For 1. what have been the Gaspings and pantings of pretious soules alwayes but after the Kingdome of God to come with power in their hearts their lusts to be conquered their mindes renewed the new creature to wax strong and vigorous in them c And 2ly what hath been the glory of our modern Orthodox Divinity but that The Father himselfe loves us That the enmity is on the creature's part not God's according to these Scriptures a 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not himselfe to the world and b Rom. 5. 10. if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son c. That Christ is the gift and effect not the cause of the Fathers love That the worke of Redemption or all that fell from or between Gods electing men to their glorification was but the excursion or extravagancy of Grace but the Prodromus or praeludium to glory And lastly what have been the Prayers and Expectations of the Saints but the coming of Christ and his Kingdom the powring forth of the Spirit the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord to be all taught of God the Lord alone to be exalted the comming down of the New Jerusalem from God out of Heaven c. But what a vanity is it for men to be in with the end and out with the meanes or way conducing thereto What an unnaturall thing is it in Ministers to espouse the forementioned Doctrines to themselves and to be shy of all their kin nay not to know their own espoused except it be in such a colour'd cloathes And who hath bewitcht these Christians that they should not know the Returnes of their owne prayers yet thus stands the matter with us as I have with wonder observed and the evidence of these things may appear by the sequele For first the Lord Jesus as c 1 Cor. 15 45. a quickening spirit dwelling within us informing enlivening acting us is the onely Physitian of value both for Conscience and Conversation the d Joh. 4. 25. Messiah who when he is come will tell us all things the e 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. Vnction that will teach us all things and f Phil. 4. 13. through whom alone we can doe all things g Acts 7. 37. that Prophet raised up unto us out of our selves who will be heard that h Isai 12. last Holy one of Israel in the midst of us that is i 1. Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 3. 1. crucified among us and that is k Col. 1. 27. in us the hope of glory l Gen 3. 15. Gal. 4. 4. the feed of the woman that lies hid and buried in the woman the earth the naturall principle or man a long time even till the due times of the Father when he is pleased to call him forth and m Gal. 1. 15 16. to reveale him in us that n Isai 9. 6. to us a child is born unto us a sonne is given This is the Deliâ—erer the Saviour the Word that is o Rom. 10 8 nigh us the p 〈…〉 engrafted word that is able to save our soules that is q Heb. 1. 2 appointed heire of all things whom r when the Lord brings into the heart of man he sayes Let all the Angels of God all Angelicall Legall appearances Ministrations Operations of man or in man worship Him It is Å¿ Isai 45. 5. He that girds us even while we doe not know him He t Joh. 1. 9. is the light that lightens us even while our Religion and knowledge of him is but worldly and legall while our language is the language of Ashdod and not pure He it is that gaspes and u Rom. 8 9 21 22 groanes in the creature even while it is in bondage to corruption after libertie He vv serves with our iniquities and is pressed under them as a Cart with sheaves And when he x Rev. 11. 17. takes to himself his great power and reignes then is there peace yea y Isai 9. 7. of the increase of his government and of peace there is no end When the Lord z Psa 68. 1 arises in us his enemies are scattered and all our lusts flee before him Though they compasse us about like a Psal Bees in the name power and unction of this Iesus we destroy them and b Phil. 3. 10. Matth. 14. 2. mighty works shew forth themselves when he is risen from the dead in us This c Heb. 1. character of the Father's person is that Coin or d d Money of Solomon that answers to all things and can fill us with the e Eph. 5. 19. fulnesse of God f Joh. 5. 21 26. All life and power doth he carry along with him and in his own person for he is g 1 Cor. 1. 24. the wisdome of God and the power of God h 1 Joh. 5. 12. Whosoever hath the Sonne hath life and whosoever hath not knoweth not acknewledgeth not the Son in him hath not life And therefore it is that the Apostle comforts beleevers with the i Phil. 1. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 12. day of Christ the k 1 Pet. 1. 13. revelation of Iesus Christ and the l 2 Pet. 1. 19. day star to arise in their hearts And m Heb. 10. 37. he that shall come will come and will not tary This is that n Joh. 14. 16. other Comforter the same that walkt in flesh among us but another because he now dwels o Joh 14. 17. in us as well as with us And this was the p Joh. 16. 7. end both of his coming and going away in the flesh that he might come thus in the Spirit This is that coming to which the Law and the Prophets beare witnesse and whereof the whole Scriptures testifie q Mat. 3. 11. I indeed baptize you with water sayes John the Baptist in the name of the whole Law but there is one commeth after me who baptizeth with the holy Ghost and with fire The Law leads us to Christ by the experiment of its weaknesse through the flesh and the vanitie of all things
by the glory of God appearing in the soul that the soul is crucified and turned out of it self even as it was with Christ he knew if he dyed and went away in the flesh he should come again in the spirit and that he saith himself and discourseth of it in the Gospel according to St. John 12. 24. If the seed fall into the ground c. He that loveth this life shal lose it but he that hateth this life shal have life eternal Upon this accompt did Christ yield up himself cheerfully to death Therefore it is said that Jesus Christ by the eternal spirit offered up himself it was by the eternal spirit that reveals the glorious design of the Father in his death that Christ was brought to yield himself unto death Now the degrees by which this death of self is accomplished are these three First God doth make a discovery to the soul of the rotteness of old self and of the bitterness of that self that is tendered to us of Gods self this discovery is made to us and God doth together therewith reveal himself in us he reveals himself in us and shews himself to be our Righteousness and our Strength The soul sees it self possessed of God and sees God dwelling in him now the soul knows it cannot be found naked Now saith the soul I may part with my self when I will for I have a better self And secondly Hereupon the soul hath all its life in God and his heart is set upon God he sees God within him and now his eyes are turned to this Emanuell God dwelling in his flesh and now he admires not the things he did before he did admire other men and their enlargements and abilities he admired their affections and expressions in prayer he admired such and such acts of piety and charity which a man may do and seek himself all this while he admired the flesh but now he hath no confidence or delight in the flesh he looks wholly upon God and admires him and admires that ever God should dwel with man that God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain that he should take up such an heart that he should become the righteousness of such a creature 3. Hereupon follows passion action 1. The soul hereupon hath all its comforts from God and directs all his courses to God and he saith now Ashur shal not save us we will not ride upon Horses we have made mention of other names and other Lords but now by thee only we will make mention of thy name even thine so he hath sweet delight and acquiescence in God 2. The soul doth all to the glory of God if a man live in the flesh he will be acting in the flesh but if a man live in God and live in the spirit and live in that unseen righteousness and upon that invisible strength then all his application of himself is unto God and so he walks not after the flesh but after the spirit and all his waiting will be for this God if at any time he is insensible of his presence he waits upon God he saith not if it werethus withme I should behappy as Martha said if thou hadst â—â—n here my Brother had not dyed she considered not that Christ in the spirit had power now to recover from death as well as keep from death but the soule saith if God wil shine upon me I shal be comforted if he hide his face I am troubled it is not I will do this and I will do that but God wil do this and that and it is not if I had such means I should have power and get ground over my corruptions but if God arise his enemies shall be scattered And such a soul is dead to the Law and the Righteousness of the Law and dead to the workings of it and sees that the Law cannot give strength it is God that of his grace is strength to the poor soul and thus the soul hath entertained God as his guest and let the Sodomites come and compass about Lots House he minds them not the soul sees nothing in comparison but his soule pants as the Hart after the water brook and this is the condition of a soule that is not Now if you ask me the reason of this why a true Christian is one that is not I answer this is the reason of it because God is all and he will be known to be all he will have his people to know so and will have it held forth that he is all and therefore there must be a dying thus and a withering and decaying and a going out of a mans self I know no other reason but this why God did ordaine that same state of nature before the state of grace why he revealed Adam before Christ but only this that so God might make it knwon to us that he is all in all For howsoever God was all in all and would have been all in all and could not be otherwise for was there any thing before God or is there any thing whereof it may be said it is besides God But yet God had not been manifested to be all in all so as he is by causing the Creature to dye to its self as if God had created light and never created darkness light had been light but light is known by darkness So God would have been all howsoever but he is known to be all by this same forme of the creature dying in himself dying in those abilities which are Gods for we have nothing but what is Gods and what he gives us and is to us but God hereby holds forth himself to be all to us after lower and darker forms when removed and corrupted we see still another and higher blessedness in God and it is likewise for to give us our taste he that hath tasted the sower is fit to taste the sweet he that hath seen the fading of the flower is better prepared to see a living activity so we have known God in nature we are hereby prepared to admire Gods discovery in the Gospel Now before the Use of this point there is only one thing more I will mention and that is this That the death of a Beleever is into God as I may so say even as the seed that dyes as a seed but it dyes into a flower that is better then the seed so doth a Beleever do that is the tearm of his death So now I have explained all that I think of to you now the Use is this 1. It serves to discover and disgrace the Religion of most men that are not acquainted with this same dying to themselves you have many especially in these times that do come under this search and tryall and will be found too light and there are two sorts some who have advanced a Reformation from that same knowledg which is come abroad in these times they have set up a form of Religion in their Families and
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
You have heard that forms cannot dispense to us the spirituall Discoveries of God but by their going away in themselves then God hath sent out the Spirit of Elijah among us and God is contending with flesh and God is come into his Temple to sit there as a Refiners fire and he is bringing down all our forms But how He is destroying them in the flesh that he may give us them again in the Spirit This is that account upon which we may converse together and speak together informs as yet not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit not accounting the form any thing Ministers not reckoning themselves to be anointed above their fellows and so making themselves Lords over Gods Heritage No it was only Christ Jesus was anointed above his fellows in that Administration wherein he was to be of publique use to the body but the anointing runs down from the head to the skirts of his garment c. The anointing is upon you all Christians it is the divine appearance within us anoints us above the world The Lord hath a quarrell with all flesh and we shall hear God speaking in one another more purely and he will turn to us a pure language when he hath made us a poor people Poverty and Pureness shall go together And then we will go no more forth to Malcham and when God hath silenced and stopt the mouth of all flesh and he alone is exalted then he will give you Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning and we shall all know the Lord and be able to speak to one another as at the beginning Think not your Religion will not be if the flesh of it be destroyed we shall know it more in the Spirit and see the anointing discovering it self upon the Body of Christ THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN ROM 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. SUch is the Nature of Man such our darkness and blindness such our unacquaintedness with spirituall things that we are even shie and startle at that that is our great interest The Disciples when Jesus Christ came walking unto them on the Sea after he had bin a while absent from them took him for a Spirit and cryed out for fear Jesus Christ the Lord that Spirit that quickning Spirit He hath bin absent from us a while namely during the Apostacy during the raign of Antichrist and he is now visiting us and is comming to us in his own appearance When Christ who is our life shall appear When he shall break forth from under the Vail Now we know him not and are exceedingly afraid yea we cry out for fear we cry out of destroying Religion pulling down Ordinances This is the very case in the Text here There were some in the Apostles days that were still in the flesh I mean that were in that gross flesh that were under that same thick Vail of the Jewish Paedagogy and they were offended at others from whom God had taken that Vail and that did not walk in those Observances they did judg them very like they judged them to be irreligious men What not observe a day that God himself hath instituted Not observe distinction of meats that God himself hath founded What audaciousness is this to throw down the Ordinances of God On the other hand those that did see ground perhaps in the Letter for what they did for the casting off the yoke of these outward Observances yet not walking spiritually in this liberty despised them that were still under these When any thing of a form is received by our nature by our flesh there is a miscarriage in it If God appear in our forms we judg those that are above them If God lead us above them we are ready to despise those that are under them remaining all this while in deed and in truth under a form our selves though we appeare in this distinction from others for uncircumcision is a form as well as Circumcision and it shews it self so to be by this uncircumcised despising of others for forms sake in whom there may be as much or more power then in our selves In this Chapter the Apostle states the Controversie and gives us a Rule to administer towards the one and the other Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judg him that eateth for the Lord hath received him Peradventure the one of them is in a better state then the other yet they are both of them in the Lord they are the Lords The one is a Living Christian the other a Dying Christian yet they are both the Lords For saith he Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. And so we come to the words whence we have observed That God is not only in different forms but in opposite forms such as are regarding a day and not regarding it We have observed likewise what the difference of Christians doth amount unto those that are in bondage to Forms and those that are set free from those forms the one is a living and the other a dying man For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. I spake of the dying Christian the last day and shewed you in what respect he is a dying Christian that is under Ordinances or that depends upon them for every conversing in Ordinances is not a depending upon Ordinances First It is a dying condition for he savours life Carnally they savour their life according to the weakness of the flesh and not according to the power of the spirit according to the carnality of the forme and not according to the spirituality of God Therefore 't is that men do put the Ordinances with God as those that swore by the Lord and Malcham they left not out the Lord but would joyn Malcham with him too they savour life carnally and secondly they fall short of God they fal short of the glory of God ergo they are dying Christians They see God in his weakness but they see him not in his strength and thirdly they must passe through death for every form is raised up that it may dye and not that it should live for ever it is raised up for a Ministration to Minister to some other thing and therefore must have its period Every form is but a way yea the body of Christ is but a way Through the new and living way that is his flesh And I might have added another Reason and that is this That Jesus Christ the end of his appearance in the flesh was death He was manifested in the flesh and brought down the love of God and the glory of God in his flesh he spake the things of God to us in fleshly signs and parables and the end of that State was death and so
likewise must the end of every State of Christians in the flesh and in Forms and Ordinances be The Comforter could not come except Christ did go away An higher appearance of God cannot come but it removes a lower appearance of God as a grain of corn doth not rise up but by dying and rorting in its first body as the Apostle speaks But it shal suffice to have spoken thus much concerning the dying Christian But now what is this same living Christian Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Who is it that lives why the Lord lives and onely the Lord they shall swear The Lord liveth and As I live saith the Lord There is none lives but God so that whosoever lives it is by the Lord living in him The Apostle saith so much when he saith not I but Christ liveth in me This same living thâ—â— of the Lord in us doth relate unto the dying and buriall of the Lord in us The Lord he is buried or obscured in us and then he riseth as it is said I am he that was dead and am alive and behold I live forevenmore and as it is Ephes 4. He that ascended is the same also that first descended into the lower parts of the earth And this is the great Mystery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh and justified in the Spirit first manifest in the flesh The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us c. And so the Word comes and at length carries up flesh with it into spirit Indeed we are but the grave as it were of the Lord Jesus This whole Creation as it is known after the flesh and as it is injoyed by us and as we converse with it carnally and as it is carnally received by us it is but the Tombe as it were where the Lord is interred it is but the grave the sepulchre wherein the Lord is buried Why then what is the living of the Lord the Lords Resurrection the Lords sprouting forth out of this same grave this same sepulchre Answ It is this it is the Lords appearing and the Lords discovering himself and the Lords comming forth and putting off his Vaile and covering putting off his grave-cloaths as I may say this is the Lords living For the more profitable handling of this take these things 1. That the Lords death is the creatures life The burying or obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of man and the life of formes and the life of flesh 2. And in the second place the resurrection appearance of the Lord is the death of man and the death of forms and the death of flesh While the Lord Jesus hides himself while he breaks not forth in his glory the creature is something and Forms are something and they grow up and flourish as the grasse doth by the showrs But when the Lord Jesus comes forth in his Spirit and appears then the grasse withereth and the flower fadeth so we finde it in Esay 40. 6 7. The voyce said Cry And he said What shal I cry All Flesh iâ— grosse and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grosse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grosse What is the meaning of the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon it The meaning is this when the Lord comes forth in his Spirit and reveals himself in his glory then the glory of flesh passeth away as when the Sun appears in the firmament the stars take their leave we know that as flesh is enmitie unto spirit so spirit is enmitie unto flesh and therefore it is said that they lust the one against the other In the third place take this proposition That as the obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of the creature and the life of that flesh and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the extinguishing of the Creatures life So thirdly this is and hath been the design of God and his glory from the beginning to come forth out of this same grave and from under this same Vail under which he hath lain hid and been covered by severall steps and therefore every step of Christs appearance is comparatively with the former darkness a state of life and a gradual Resurrection When Christ did come forth from under the Jewish Ceremonies when the body was come then was Christ raised in some sense and then did Christ begin to live and flourish and those that saw this they lived in the Apostles sense here Whether we live we live unto the Lord. Here was a graduall Resurrection in this though not a compleat Resurrection There was a thicker Vail taken off of Christ and a thinner vail put on so that Christ then coming forth under a thinner Vail is called by the name of the highest and last appearance of all It is called a Living not but that Christ did still lie under a vail as the Apostle saith Through the vail that is his flesh And the New Testament Ordinances though they are finer vails yet they are vails to the Lord yea I may say that the very graces of the Saints as we look upon them in a kind of fleshly form as we look upon them in their particular names and circumstances so they are a vail to the Lord Jesus yea Christ is said to rise when he comes into the world I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly that is more abundantly then they had under the Jewish Ordinances because that was a grosser vail In this sense you may understand That I am the way the truth and the life c. If you understand it in the flesh it is in comparison of the former a lively appearance of God Not that this is the highest appearance of God for to you that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation So that I say Christ is coming out of the grave and every step is a step to life a step of the Resurrection a degree of life Now then from these things if you ask me who is this same living Christian I shall answer you first in a Subordinate sense secondly in an Ultimate sense In a Subordinate sense he is a living Christian in whom the Lord Jesus hath passed through many forms and vails He that is not in bondage to those same gross and thick and dark appearances of God But now in the Ultimate sense the Truth is that while we are on this side that same highest and brightest appearance of God till he comes to be all in all in us we cannot be said to be living Christians though in respect of former and darker appearances the present appearance of God to us may set us up in a higher degree of life yet in comparison of that which is to come the very best and highest of this state is but a death while God administers to us under any form under
that he doth and is in Heaven in all he doth he wants no command to tell him he must do thus and thus he would naturally do those things whereby he might shew forth the vertues and praises of him that hath called him for he is a living man who needs stir up life to live in a living man Life wil shew it self If you be living Christians the Spirit of God will work in you and it will be like fire consuming your flesh and every day carrying you forth to the honor and praise of God This is a living man and this is he in whom Christ is risen But one Question more and that is of what part or principle in a man are these things spoken Doth this life break forth in the flesh or is it a life in the Spirit only I answer that this life is not in any part or principle in a man It is not in the soul it is not in the body it is not in the Spirit but a a man is taken up into this life It is when we are removed from our selves that we are in the Spirit Enoch was not for God took him The Lord takes us into this life we take not the Lord into our principle we are not comprehenders of this life but we are comprehended Here is the mistake we see men that hold forth such a doctrine and principle as this and we see flesh it may be in them still and they see flesh in themselves still Do but consider therefore that same place 1 John 3. beginning compared with the 6. verse Now are ye the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what ye shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Compare but this with the 6. verse Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not We are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear our flesh is a vail and while we are in the flesh let us act never so spiritually yet we fall short of this life Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God But if at any time we are taken up into the communion of this life it is by being taken out of our selves therefore saith Paul Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell I conceive God gave Paul an earnest of that which he will make known to his people in the latter days and made it known to Paul in a visible and sensible rapture and whosoever in the latter days is taken into the communion of this life must be spiritually dissolved as Paul was for as Christ crucified in the flesh is but a fleshly pattern of our being crucified in the Spirit So Paul being taken out of the body fleshly is but an Image of the Beleevers being taken out of the body into the Spirit and so when we are taken up into him He that abides in him sinneth not But when we go to make out God in our flesh behold we cannot make out the glory of this appearance in us when we come to live in a fleshly principle I say we find shortness and death and darkness and make out the things of God in visible and audible shapes as it were but God makes out himself to us when he takes us out of our selves into himself without any form Did you see any shape saith the Lord to the Israelites when the Lord talked with you So when the Lord takes a man into this communion with himself he takes him out of the flesh off from Ordinances administers not to him in the flesh and thus indeed it is that only when we are taken out of our selves can we apprehend or speak of this same life in God A Beleever when he is taken up into God and Christ he sees that which he cannot make out by all his parts and all the helps that he hath he sees that freedom from sin he sees as it were that omnipotency with him when he is taken up he sees himself perfect as God said to Abraham walk before me and be perfect Here is that which he cannot make out to the world Well may men say Do not we see that you are a man I am so but you cannot see what I am when I am taken up into God God is the subject and recipient that comprehends us we cannot comprehend him Use Now all that I would infer from hence is thus much I beseech you that you would know the things that concern your peace O what a sad thing is it that men should run away from life This is an evill heart with a witness to depart from the living God This is darkness with a witness when the Creature will comprehend God and will not be comprehended by God when we will say There is no other enjoyment of God then what we can make out in the flesh No other state then what may be visible to men Oh take heed of this and take heed of despising those that bring you the glad tydings of peace How beautifull rather should even the feet of those be though upon the Mountains that bring these glad tydings that say unto Sion thy God raigneth Christ hath been long in a Sepulchre he is now rising and you have the Testimony hereof brought to you by men like your selves and we are not able to make out the glory of it to you This flesh is not the subject and recipient of this glory this flesh is laid by But what we have seen and heard we declare unto you And therefore we beseech you not to depart from the living Lord. Every man would be a living man in his health Every man would be a living man in his trade would drive a free trade and will you only be content to be dead creatures in respect of communion with God I beseech you gird up the loyns of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is yet to be brought unto you by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in Spirit as well as beleeve that grace that is already brought by the Manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh Do but consider that God hath always entertained his people with a long expectation of things ere he hath given them It was but in the Apostles days that the first fruits of the Spirit were given The Israelites were in Aegypt 400 years before they came to the Land of Canaan This was but a typicall Canaan and not worth the waiting so long for as the spirituall Canaan Then again consider Gods promises have been first sown and dead in the earth of mans unbelief before they have been performed witness Sarahs womb barren witness the children of Israel in Egypt made slaves and bondmen what likelyhood was thereof their being a Kingdom of Priests unto God Nay from the beginning of the performance there is usually an Apostacy that comes before the ful accomplishment was it not so when God began to perform his promise to Israel of
till we come to him What went yee out for to see A reed shaken with the winde This is all that we see in Ordinances and our owne performances till we see Christ and Christ in the flesh r Joh. 14. 2. beares witnesse to himselfe in the Spirit What goe yee out for to see Christ crucified at Jerusalem ſ Psal 68. 12. She that tarried at home divided the spoile It is power over that that is evill and unto that that is good that is in the desires of us all and without which religion is but a Bawble and as the Apostle Paul sayes t 1 Cor. 15. 32. what advantageth it me to have fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not So may I assume If the principles of the Gospel are not to rise in our hearts they are not worth the contending for Who would goe against the streame and expose himselfe to lose his friends and all to vindicate or to get a Notion onely Men and their Opinions shall perish but the word of the Lord endures for ever and he that doth the will of God abides for ever Behold I shew you a mystery the death of Christ is but one and the resurrection of Christ is but one the death of Christ is in us and the resurrection of Christ is within us It is without us and Objectively propoūded to us that it may awaken and work within us That blood of Iesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sinne is shedding in us day by day For so as that place given in to me u 1 Joh. 1. If we walke in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of his Sonne Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin i. What is not this light we die to it we judge it and so are cleansed from it And who is he that thus dyes to evill and darknesse Surely none but he in whom the Son of God is come And he in whom the Sonne of God is come his death is the death of the Son and so pretious as it is written vv Psalm 116. 15. Preticious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints This is that Sacrifice of God even a x Psa 51. 17. broken heart which is by no other than the appearance of the sonne of God in us For if it be not upon this Altar and by this y Heb. 9. 14. eternall Spirit it is but as the z Isa 66. 3 cutting off a dog's neck We are ignorant of one of the main points of the Gospel while we know not that Christ is in us as wel as we in him We were in him in his flesh upō the Crosse he is in us in the Spirit and so is the Scripture verified a Joh. 15. I am in you and you in me This mighty One was shut up in us long before we knew him and b Gal. 3 23. we are shut up in weaknesse and bondage unto the revelation of him and when we know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made comformable to his death then are we c Eph 1. 13. sealed by the holy Spirit of promise then doe we beare in our bodies the Markes and the dying of the Lord Jesus and his life is manifest in our mortall flesh This sealing of the Spirit hath been the longing expectation of Christians of old though we have had a wrong conception of it as the Disciples had of Christ's Kingdom thinking the sealing of the Spirit to consist onely in a ravishment of heart and extasie of joy but rising we know not whence nor how When as this joy in the holy Ghost full of glory and this riches of assurance is no other than the pleasant d Heb. 12. 11. fruits of righteousnesse springing from the death of the Lord Jesus and the perfect work thereof in us or from our suffering in the flesh For e 1 Pet. 4. 1. he that hath suffered in the flesh a text that I open in this book hath ceased from sin saith the Apostle Peter And f Rom. 6. 5. if we hvae been planted in the likenesse of his death saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans wee shall be in the likenesse of his resurrection And g Heb. 9. 28. Christ was once offered to beare the sins of many sayes the Authour to the Hebrewes and to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second time without sin unto salvation To conclude this poynt what God hath joyned we have severed and pul'd asunder the links of that glorious Chain Rom. 8. 29. 30. God multiplies not acts vainly and superfluously In every act of God as it is in him is all but not as it comes forth from him and is apprehended by us All is done in Christ to God and it appeares in Christ first to faith but not fully to enjoyment though in order to it till Christ be revealed in us All was done to God from the foundations of the world And in all those acts the Scriptures attribute to God the higher we goe into the greater infinitenesse and comprehensivenesse doe we ravell Election contains h 1 Pet. 1. 2. sanctification of the Spirit faith in it but in the manifestation and bringing down of things to us the latter act still gathers up and comprehends the former yea swallowes it up as the Rationall life containes the Sensitive in it selfe eminently so the Spirit comprehends the Letter and the Mystery comprehends the History Those that know Christ in them onely immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so full and glorious a proportion in him to their ende It is and must be confest that God is and subsists otherwise in Himselfe or in the blessed Trinity than in men But this hinders not the immediatenesse of his presence and dwelling in men But this shall suffice to be spoken to the first point to cōvince that many desire the end in terms but in deed deny it and to hold forth some light that they may doe otherwise As God hath not left himselfe without witnesse to his glorious Truths in all Ages so neither in the present Age as in the assertions before instanced may appeare though by quarrelling Truths that stand upon the same foundation the Assertors themselves make it manifest that either they know not what they hold in the premises as it may fall out with Disciples for Christs Disciples l John 14. 4 5. knew whether he went and knew the way as the Lord himselfe tells them though they knew not that they knew so much or else they let it slip again which is that the Apostle warns the Hebrewes of Chap. 2. 1. saying Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time wee should let them slip Both which proceed from the receiving these
things by or from the conviction and evidence of Reason or the letter onely a light far below the spirit and experience thereof and so they know them but darkly and as though they knew them not cannot see to the end of k 2 Cor. 3. 13. them whereas did they know them in Spirit they would know them more certainly and their capacity withall would be inabled and inlarged stedfastly to behold them and take in more and more of their glory without being dazled For want of which they expose themselves to that exprobration of the Apostle l Gal. 5. 7. Ye did run wel who hath hindered you And that serious caution of the Apostle belongs to them m 1 Cor. 3 10 11. No other foundation can any man lay than that is laid but let every man take heed how he builds thereon viz. with unsuitable stuff lest his work be burnt or how he pull down that that is suitable lest he be found a fighter against God For if that old Simile of theirs be proper That even as the Seaman drawes his vessell to the rock not the rock to him so we doe not draw God to us by prayer or other means but our selves are drawn to him Then what blasphemy is it to say that Christ came to reveale to declare the love of God to us not to purchase it Again it hath been said by them of old time that Christ is not the cause but the effect of the Fathers love If this be truth then the love of the Father and our peace was not purchased but preached by Jesus Christ for the cause cannot be purchased but is declared by the effect Thirdly if also as it hath been said of old time Our redemption by the blood of Christ were but the extravagancy of grace for my part I dare not say what may be gathered and inferred from thence and yet both Premises and Inference have my heart exceedingly but sure it is much modesty to containe within this inference That if we be begotten again from the dead or recovered out of the horrible pit of sin to the lively hope and enjoyment of of this glorious grace which was before this redemption and all or any the works or acts of God and is through all and in all and live therein This is only that that fully answers the aim and end of God as without this or on this side hereof to rest in the knowledge of any plot or mystery of the way or of Christ without reaching together also the mystery of the n Father is no better than Negromancy or the smoak of the bottomlesse pit it is to dwell in the borders and flourish and not in everlasting life And lastly if as hath been sayd all the enmity be on our part and we are to be reconciled to God not God to us then all that language of Atonement and Purchase c. is to us and for our sakes according as it is said o Rom. 5. 11. We have received the atonement not God and we are redeemed and bought p Rev. to God not of God and is spoken to man and his Conscience who was made under a law and as we grow up in the knowledge of the truth becomes resolved into a mystery namely of suffering in the flesh and so ceasing from sin But indeed not onely may some choice sentences of some few bee brought in to witnes to these things there are none that hold the Principles of religion in so great bondage and obscurity in the very letter but a testimony may be drawn out of their own mouthes as the Apostle Paul doth towards the Athenians out of their own Poets For if the nature of God be one unchangeble as all men wil confesse if Jesus Christ be the same q Heb. 13. 8. yesterday to day and for ever as the letter of the Scriptures affirm we need seek no further evidence of these things Then God is true and every Man a lyar The law of liberty is in r Jam. 1. 25. James resembled to a glasse This law of liberty is the power and Spirit of the Lord Iesus in the heart of man reflecting the glories of the Lord there and changing us into the same appearances according to that Scripturtures 2 Cor 3. last Now as in a glasse such as the face is that looks therein such is the image or species that is seen there whether the face be black or whether it be beautifull whether it come towards the glasse or goe from it so doth the image in the glasse for the glasse hath no forme no image no species of its own but is wholly representative of the object that looks therein Even so is the apearance or representation of God in our hearts according to the work of God in our spirits for if thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted But if thou dost evill sinne lies at the door In the one the spirit of Adoption shews God as a Father in the other the spirit of Bondage shewes him an angry jealous God according as it is written againe ſ Psa 18. 26. With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward and with the upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright The witnesse evidenoe or representatiō of God in the spirit of man being alwayes according to truth is various changeable according to the changeable capacity and condition of the creature but God all the while through all these changes remains in himselfe unchangeable being cbangeable onely in his appearances to us and in us For hee is not onely the unchangeable glasse wherein all changes are truly represented and the unchangeable eye and light wherein wherby they are according to their true state seen discern'd but is the unchangeable Father of these differing changeable lights appearances that are thus seen by us represented in us according to another text in James chap. 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Yet what pity is it not onely the ordinary sort of Teachers who take for Doctrines the Traditions of men but even those who have separated themselves to a more diligent enquiry after truth seem to be of a choycer tast yet are dazled with the light they carry in their own Lanthorns But were this infirmity shall I call it an iniquity surely it is both according to its respective subjects found onely in the teachers it were not so great though a very great mischief But where shall we find almost a Saint that knowes his owne prayers or is not afraid to meet his own deare hopes in the things we are speaking of It may not bee forgotten what a spirit of prayer was powred forth upon the people of God in this Kingdome some 6 or 7 years past how our hearts were drawn forth in requests for the Spirit for the kingdome of Christ for
Clouds you have a Chapter before and after this that you are ready to say when you read it What profit is it nothing but a Chronologie and a Genealogie a descent of persons but here is that which is enough to take up the meditation of a whole Chapter Enoch walked with God c. Of all the rest it is said that they lived so long and begat so many sons and daughters but when the Holy Ghost comes to Enoch he saith first of him in the 22 verse and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah c. and not contented to give such a touch the Holy Ghost records again and moreover that he walked with God and was not for God took him That which I do design and which I hope if the Spirit of God so design may be for good unto your hearts out of these words is this viz. to hold forth unto you a chief Character of a Christian if so be that they were Christians from the beginning as they were for they all dyed in the Faith as it is said in the 11. Hebrews and that is this that he is one that is not it is a strange Character to shew you what a man is by telling you he is not This is the very main thing of a Christian the most essential thing that can be affirmed of him that he is not Enoch walked with God and was not c. First for the meaning of the words there is no great difficulty in them the Phrase is common of walking that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit but what is the meaning of this he was not It is one thing in the Letter another in the Spirit it hath both a literal and mystical meaning he was not that is he was translated so we find in the 11. Heb. 5. where it is said By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found and so it follows in the Text he was nor for God took him But there is also a Spirituall meaning of it and that is this Enoch was not that is he in himself was not but his own being excellency and glory was past away he was nothing but what he was he was in Christ Christ was to him his life his person and his all in the Original it runs thus Enoch walked with God and was not he according as the Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Galathians Nevertheless I live yet not I c. So it is said here Enoch walked with God and not he for God translated him in the Spirit translated him into Jesus Christ and so a Beleever is one in Jesus Christ he is nothing in himself his self is past away he hath got a new self God is his self Christ is his self Now that same former sence of God translating him literally that was but an outward signification to the world as it were of that which was Enochs real glory Enoch was past out of the flesh into the spirit out of himself into God when he was upon earth and God to signifie this to the world takes him from the sight of men and translates him locally This was a Figure of that which was done in the spirit before and it is far the greatest to be translated in the spirit If a man were carryed into heaven if he were not translated inspirit he would have no joy in heaven for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore we are said to be translated out of darkness into light and out of the Kingdom of Sathan into the Kingdome of his dear Son And thus having made way I shall come to observe something out of the words First here is the translation of a Saint and then here is the Author and Principle of that translation The translation of a Saint the point that I would observe from thence is this Observ That every true Christian he is translated out of his owne being into a being in God and this is the death of a Christian Enoch walked with God and he was not he is dead unto the world and he is dead unto the Law he is dead unto his own righteousnes and unto all created glory and excellency but he is alive unto God a true Christian he is not that is he is not in himself his self is past away he hath got another self a new self and that is God instead of his old self instead of his rotten self you shal see this in the 7. Rom. the latter end So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Mark you there The flesh a Believer counts none of himself as it is in Rom. 8. 9. You are not in the flesh but in the spirit if the spirit of God dwel in you and so in the 6. Chap. of that Epistle How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Sin is said to be condemned in the flesh in the 8. Chap. 3 v. That which I desire chiefly to bind my self unto is this to shew unto Beleevers that if so be they be true Beleevers they have a being in God and in the Spirit yea an intire being they are to have no being at all in the flesh I say if so be they are true Beleevers they have an intire being in God and the Spirit and are to account themselves to have no being no interest at all in the flesh There are they that speak of a fleshly and a spirituall part in Beleevers and this same spiritual part they look upon as that which should be encouraged that to which all the promises belong but many times they cannot find this same spiritual part and so can have no comfort as in time of tentation and I beseech you consider that for it will be a sufficient argument against the going on in such a kind of apprehension as that is of a spirituall part and a fleshly and the like taking this spirituall part to be grace in the act for when they finde not grace in the act they cannot take any comfort at all then they â—ake up themselves in the same heap and dunghill with the world but if God made out this to you that you have an intire being in the spirit and that it is possible for a Saint to retreate into the spirit so wholy as to gather himself intirely and to gather up all his interest into the spirit this would be much to the relief comfort of a poor soul Now I must shew you what are the fruits and consequences of this and then come to shew you the way that God brings his people to this First I wil shew you the benefit of a Christians losing himself in the flesh this is the benefit of it he loseth sin by losing that being in the flesh pray mark it he doth lose his sin and the reason is this because it is only flesh that is the
copious as well as very sweet bestowing the whole 14. 15. 16. Chapters upon them Among all the comforts Christ doth minister unto them this is one and a chief one That they should see him again and he would hide himself from them but a little while Not only his going away was for their advantage but he would come again to them This he tels them often especially here at the 17. verse of this Chapter A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me And to let pass the rectfying of their understandings concerning these promises and these undertakings of his he tels them what he wil do for them when he sees them again and what shal be their condition in that day At the 22. verse in general he tels them Their hearts should rejoyce and no man should take their joy from them And particularly verse 23. In that day you shal ask me nothing saith he verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name he wil do it They shall have all their Petitions It shall be a day of grace and favour such as Herods birth-day was when he promised he would give Herodias his Daughter the half of his Kingdom but this is not restrayned to half of the Kingdom for we know the spirit himself is promised to those that ask him the Spirit is the Kingdom of God it is God and his Kingdom and all Another benefit and advantage of that time when he would see them again is this that I have read to you in the Text I wil shew you plainly of the Father Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh that I will speak no more in Parables but will shew you plainly of the Father Obiect But it wil be said Christ spake in Parables to the Multitude but he spake not in Parables to his Disciples or if he did he opened the Parables to them as it s said When be came into the house he opened the Parable of the tares and so he did other Parables Solu I conceive this Scripture meaneth other kinds of Parables then those for in such Parables Christ spake not at that time but under Parables here is meant not only those very portions of Scripture which have the form of Parables but the whole Preaching and Ministry of Christ as Man and not only so but the whole Ministration and Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ may be called a Parable and thus were they Parables that he had spoken to them in I have spoken to you hitherto in Parables but the time cometh when I wil speak no more to you in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father And this plain shewing of the Father is when Christ comes in the Spirit While a Beleever knows Christ only after the flesh he knows the love of God and the Covenant of God and the things that concern his peace only in a Parable but when God comes to do those things in him in the Spirit which were done to him in Christ in the flesh Why then doth God shew himself unto him plainly This shall suffice in brief to have opened the words unto you The parts of the Text are these two 1. Here is the casting up as it were of the Dispensation or Administration of Christ in the flesh It is cast up what it amounts unto and that is a speaking to the world in Parables 2. Here is the glory of Christs appearing in the Spirit in the heart of a Beleever and that is a plain Demonstration or shewing of the Father In this latter are these two things 1. Here is the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father I will shew you plainly of the Father 2. Here is the Quality of the Spirits Discovery it is a plain Discovery Doctr. I shall speak first of the former shal observe unto you this point That the Preaching and Administration of Christ in the flesh was but a speaking to us as it were in Parables Hitherto saith Christ have I spoken to you in Parables The time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in Parables If we enquire what a Parable is we shal find that the Use of a Parable doth agree with the Nature of this Discovery or Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ for to this shall I confine my Discourse A Parable is this when there is a latent sense under patent words When there are words outwardly sounding one thing and a sense under those words that is not conceived by the Vulgar understanding This is a Parable It is a Riddle It is a dark saying And certainly the Wise man in the beginning of his Book of Proverbs or Parables as he calls them wherein are the Treasures of the Gospell He calls the Gospell there Parables Prov. 9. 6. Now that Christ in the flesh is such a Parable may be made good unto you thus There is one thing doth appear outwardly and runs into the sences of men And there is another thing held forth under that which few do perceive but those that are singularly taught of God That which is visible and obvious and runs into the sences of men is a Carnall transaction A Bargain between God and Christ The doings and sufferings of Christ in the flesh and by these doings and sufferings our Life our Justification and our Peace This is the outward form as it were this is the Parable Now what is that which is held forth under this Parable There are these two things that are veyled and hid under this Parable which most men doe not set their eyes upon And the first is this The Love of the Father This is scarce eyed by most men but they think that the worke of their salvation proceeds from the kind heart of Jesus Christ and so they look upon his Humane Heart and Affections as the Root and Original of their Redemption Whereas Christ tells us in this Chapter I say not that I will pray for you for the Father himself loves you As who should say though I should hold my peace the Father himself loves you Now this is that which few men see in and under this Parable Christ Jesus in his dying for man was set up by God in the place of God to shew us the great love that God did bear unto man I say he was set up by God in the place of God and that not to shew his own love only but to shew the Fathers Love and therefore we find these names given unto Christ and these things spoken of him That he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person And we saw his Glory saith John as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God The Apostles and Spiritual men saw the Love of God held forth through the doings and sufferings of Christ And therefore it is said I beseech you
mark it in the 5. of John The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that men might honor the Son as they honor the Father He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that hath sent him God is he that must inherit all honor and glory to eternity but he hath for the present set up Christ Jesus to make himself known unto the world It was not that Christ should make himself known or that we should lye down in the Discovery of Christ but that by Christ the Father might be known and discovered to us and his love and therefore it is said That this is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The meaning is not as if it were not enough to know the Father but that there is no knowing of the Father but by Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for that end So that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled his Ministration when he hath made known the Father and then is the Kingdom delivered up by the Son yea by all the Sons of God when once they come to know God by Christ they deliver up the Kingdom from Christ unto God even unto the Father This is the first thing that is hid under this same Parable Christ bears the name but God doth the thing Christ saith I came to do the work of him that sent me God saith unto Christ thou shalt make me known unto the world But the second thing that is hid under this Parable is the doing of the like works in the Saints as were done in Christ Jesus This is that which they onely see and receive that are delivered from the delusions of Antichrist Antichrist cryes up Christ in the flesh cries up that same man Christ Jesus that dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification but he knows not Christ in the Spirit he knows not Christ and him crucified in the Saints He knows not the power of his Resurrection in Beleevers He knows not the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead working in us in both these respects is Christs Ministration in the flesh a speaking in Parables First because the Gospell seems to run thus as that Christ hath done this and that for us whereas indeed it was God in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. before end And whereas the Gospell seems to deliver to us a History only of what Christ Jesus hath done for us in the flesh It doth indeed hold forth the Model and Platform of that salvation that is carryed on in the spirit and is revealed in the breasts of the Saints I say that is wrought and revealed there sutably and agreably to all those steps and stages to all those points and periods you shal find in the Letter The same things are done in the Saints in the Spirit that were done in and upon Christ in the flesh And now I have opened this point unto you if you require any reason for it why God did speak to us in a Parable and why he shews us things as in a glasse why he shews us rather the Image of things then the things themselves Reason it is because of our weaknesse it is because of our childishnesse It was the manner of the Heathen to put wisdom into Parables to put their wise Observations into fables into pleasant tales and stories for these two reasons First that they might hide wisdom from the Vulgar 2. That they might the better insinuate it into their Children and those that were ingenuous And these two Reasons may be given why God teaches the world by Parables It is for their weaknesse sake It is to take them and lead them by the hand to speak to them in childish things in things within their own sphere and understanding So God hath done to us in the flesh of Christ You will beleeve a man loves you if he wil dye for you you wil beleeve a Creditor wil be reconciled to you if he pay the debt himself Why behold thus doth God satisfie man 2. Rea. God doth this to hide these things from the prophane of the world I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and hast revealed them unto babes c. And therefore if you observe it Christ did commonly speak to the Multitude in Parables they had Parable upon Parable they had rind upon rind one shel upon another that they could not easily come to the kernell And the Reason is this that wicked and prophane men may scoff and jeer at the Letter and Parable but God doth keep the truth from that contempt and obloquie The outward Court is given to the Gentiles to be trodden down God makes it not much matter men may tread down outward forms and God may let them prophane them but there is a place where none come that defile and that is the Spirit the truth as it is in Jesus Gods Truth is Himself We know that precious things have covering upon covering they have lappings one upon anotherâ— Iewels have Caskets to put them in though the Casket fall into the dirt yet the Iewells will be kept clean So prophane and wicked men may preach and receive the Gospell in a Parable in the outward Letter But what hast thou to do to take my word in thy mouth the word in the Spirit for it is that hidden wisdome that is prepared for our glory as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2. Vse Now all the Use of this point I shal make to you is this to desire you to look into your selves whether you know any more then Parables whether you can doe any more then say over Parables Examine your selves by those two things spoken of before Do you discerne God under the forme of the man Christ Jesus Do you see God coming forth unto you in Christ And then do you find the Gospel to be realized in your hearts and spirits Do you find these transactions to be transacted over again in you The death of Christ in you The life of Christ in you The Resurrection of Christ in you Now a further thing I aime at is this and this specially The plain shewing of the Father by the Spirit Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I will speak no mâ—re to you in parables but will shew you plainly of the Father I shal only speak at this time of the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father The time cometh that I will shew you plainly of the Father So that the point is this Doctr. That the adequate Object or the whole and intire Object of the Discovery of Christ and the Gospel is the Discovery of the Father unto us This our Saviour plainly intimates here in saying The time comes that I wil shew you plainly of the
Father For if there had been any thing else that they had needed to have known he would have mentioned that also This is life eternal saith Christ John 17. 3. to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent to know thee by Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent as I told you before for we cannot know the Father but by Christ But more particularly and expresly in Iohn 14. 8. saith Phillip there Lordshew us the Father and it sufficeth us pray mark As Pilate and other wicked men as Balaam and the High Priest many times spake things that they knew not all that was in what they spake Sodoth Phillip here he speaks more truth then he is aware Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us It is most true and Christ never contradicts him he never says no it would not suffice to know the Father The Father is the whole object of divine Discoveries The Fathers Love as in the 6. of Iohn 29. This is the wil of him that sent that of all those he hath given me I should lose none The Fathers Person No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him This then I say that which was the scope of Christs comming downe from Heaven must needs be the adequate scope of the Gospell But to declare the Father was the scope of Christs comming downe from Heaven to declare the Fathers Person as wel as the Fathers Love Therfore he is called the express Image of his Person God did not send the Image of his Person but that we should know his Person by that Image Many take up the Image and the Picture and they never know the Person as when they take up Christ in the flesh for indeed Christ in the Spirit is one and the fame with the Father knowest thou not that I am in the Father the Father in me as Christ discourseth in that 14 of Ioh. 9. 10 11. Have I been so long time with you And hast thou not seen me Phillip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And therefore are these expressions in Scripture of beleeving in God by Christ and coming to God by Him and through Him Jesus Christ Himself in the flesh is but a forme in which the Father doth present himself unto the world But what is the Father you wilsay Ans The Father here is God in Himself bringing forth all things within Himself possessing all things with in Himself God as he is this is the Father you know that is the expectation of the Saints to see God as he is Iesus Christ and all that God is to man in Iesus Christ it is in a form descending or in a condescending form Righteousness is such a form Sanctification is such a form Redemption is such a form All these are but formes in which God descends unto us they are not God Himself as he is And there shall come a time when these forms shal vanish when as the Saints shall heare no more of Righteousness or of Sanctification for Righteousness what is it but a relative word that relates to sin when sin shall be no more righteousness shall be no more Sanctification is a relative word that signifies peculiarity and separation This refers to common things and unclean things but when there shall be no unclean nor common thing but God shall be all in all and all things shall be in a form or appearance suitable to the form wherein they were in God then the notion of Sanctification shall cease so then the Father is the journies end of a Christian That which is first is last and that which is last was first The Father is first of all There was a time when God lived only in Himself and possessed all things in a divine form in Himself His own Diety was his Heaven and was all unto him The time cometh when these things that are brought forth in a distinction from God in proper beings of their own shal be returned and marryed to him and united to that Original whence they sprang and live in his life and shine in his glory And so the Father who is the first shall be the last also The end must find the beginning as the year is discribed to you by such an emblem of a Snake taking his tayl in his mouth the end running into the beginning all things came from God and God by all things shews Himself All things are Pictures and Emblems of God and especially Christ Iesus and the Saints they shew forth the vertues and the praises of God but all these things they must they do wheel about until the end doth find the beginning and so God shal be all in all When God hath made known himself by his Sonne unto the Saints then shal God cease administring any longer to the world as he hath done by our flesh and by the man Christ Iesus but God Himself shall be all in all So that by the Father here I mean not a Person in the Trinity but rather the whole Trinity considered essentially originally as containing in them that state appearance of things which was their first and Originall glory which is said in Scripture to be in the form of God which this present state and appearance waits to be cloathed withall and to be swallowed up in so as to subsist act and live in that and not in their own yet their own not to be destroyed by this nor mixed or confounded by this but cloathed upon with this and so of Christ it is said that he shal come in the glory of the Father Christ is not destroyed but is stil and keeps his distinct being but this being lives acts and appears in the Glory of the Father Reason Now if you ask me the Reason of this why is it not all the Reason in the world that God should only be and only appear and only be glorified He may lend his glory for a time and may lend his name for a time unto others that they may make him known unto the world as a King may lend his Kingly Honor to some Leiutenant in another Country as suppose in Ireland that so that Country may be Conquered for him and Governed for him but when it is done we know all derivative power and authority and names whatsoever do yield up to those from whom they receive their Commission when they have done that for which they had their Commission and so it is in this case Use To apply this same truth I desire you in the fear of God not to mistake me nor wilfully to pervert what I say Let us take heed of Idolizing even the humanity of Iesus Christ Himself of Idolizing his doings or his sufferings We see God through these doings or sufferings of Iesus Christ for us as through a Glass but it is no Blasphemy to say that a Beleever may come to see a Love
mēbers to bring forthfruit unto death Rom. 7. I will give you one more Scripture to prove this and that is Eph. 1. 17. where the Apostle prays thus for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understandings being inlightened that ye may see what is the hope of his calling And at the 19. verse That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead Pray mark it The Apostle doth directly and expresly assert that there is the working of the same mighty power in Beleevers that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead And the Apostle Rom. 8. saith in general That as many as God did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son That is God did predestinate them to be carryed on the same way that Christ was and so the same things to be done in them that were done in him Object There is only one Objection that I shal answer before I come to the Application of the point and that is in Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ Here lyes the Objection if so be we are circumcised in Christ If all Beleevers are circumcised in him at once as this Scripture seems to hold forth by the putting off of that same body of his by that very circumcision of his Why then you will say our Sanctification tarries not for the appearance of the like things in us I confess this Objection lies plain in appearance against what hath been spoken But I shall answer to you thus and shew you how we are circumcised in Christ by his circumcision and how it is that notwithstanding we are actually and personally circumcised by the circumcision of the Spirit and by reall circumcision 1. First then we are circumcised in Christ foederally as in our root and common person we are unto God circumcised in Christ as in a Figure Pray mark it it is I say as in a Figure for thus we are to look upon Jesus Christ not as one that came to excuse the Old man from dying or to set us up in a state of salvation without working any thing within us Nay he came to reveal the Kingdom of God within us and to set it up within us but he first gave us a pattern of the Kingdom and first transacted all our salvation in a Figure before he transacted it within us by the Spirit and this transacting our salvation without us in a Figure bears its use and proportion towards the effecting of the work of Sanctification within us by the Spirit For thus God hath hereby caught us by guil as I may so speak even as when we stood in Adam Adam falling cast us all down So now God he comes and reveals a second Adam and this same second Adam God sets up as our common root representing us all and this is that Covenant that God proclaims from heaven Look what is the fat◠of the second Adam that shal be the fate of all the seed if he stand al shal stand if he fal they shal al fal Now Iesus Christ comes stands in our stead and was made under the Law and he dyes and suffers goes away in the flesh suffers in the flesh and is not overcome of death or Hell or the pains of death but rises again Here 's our salvation transacted in a Figure and set before us As it did fare with Christ so it shall fare with us we shall as certainly come to glory as he did Here is the Type here is the Original Pattern here is the fore-runner here is the draught or copy of the Covenant written in broad Characters upon the person of Iesus Christ This is the use of Christs dying and suffering and sanctifying himself and so we are said to be sanctifyed in him as our root representing us What proportion this bears to the transacting of our salvation within us is this Hereby we are brought to God hereby our weak hands are lifted up and our feeble knees are strengthned Hereby we are caught as it were with guil and God doth hold forth our salvation as in a Parable to us But if so be the work rest here let us suppose an impossibility we are but in an ill condition if we be not circumcised also together with Christ really by the spirit as well as circumcised in Christ foederally and typically and representatively it wil go but ill with us We may see what is to be done by looking upon the History of Christ but til we find the same things done in us in the mystery in some measure we can have little comfort We may see the end of the Lord with us even the same end he made with Christ Jesus but we must follow his steps also as the Apostle Peter saith He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1. Now the use I shall make of this is to confirm that Doctrine I have formerly delivered to you that Doctrine that needs confirming again and that need be whetted upon us because we are exceeeding dull of hearing spirituall truths the Doctrine is this namely That the whole History of Christ wil profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find experimentally the same things done in you by the Spirit I desire to commend this Doctrine to you again and again That the History of the Gospell is but a Parable as it were that holds forth to us the story of things done and not only so but holds forth a glass of things to be done by the spirit within us I beseech you therefore be not offended when as we say that Christ according to the History of him only and according to his Ministration in the flesh is but a form in which God doth appear to us and in which God doth give us a Map of our salvation Thou knowest it not to be thy reall salvation except it be revealed within thee in the Spirit Jesus Christ is called the Image of the Invisible God God comes forth to be seen in the flesh of Christ as in an Image as in a Representation it is not the naked appearance of God but it is an Image of God Now we know the Image serves in the absence of the lively face of the living Person and so do all these same transactions of Jesus Christ they serve untill the Kingdome of God be come to us in the Spirit A Map serves untill a man knows the Country and so do these same Transactions of Iesus Christ they serve as constant Monuments unto us Monuments I say and Pillars and Memorials and Types of that same salvation that is to be
wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit and therefore as Christ saith we may be bold to say after him The flesh profits nothing if you only know Christ as dying and rising without you it wil profit you nothing unles you know him as dying rising within you Error in this is the root of the dead faith wherof the world is full This is the root of that formall profession of that form of godliness which men doe advance soe far in and glory so much of and shroud themselves under unto the persecuting of the power of godliness to the persecuting of the Spirit This setting up of the History of Christ being ignorant of the Mystery Any man is capable of remembring the story of Christ and telling and rehearsing it if he hath but common reason and can say as wel as another that Christ dyed for him and can throw himself upon Christ and hang upon Christ This is not Faith this is not Salvation We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile We know not how to shake off the pretenders and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternall life Through the ignorance of this truth we have counted it enough if a man hath had the knowledg of the Story of Christ and hath said he casts himselfe upon Christ for salvation But harken what James saith Faith without works is dead Harken what Paul saith Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death He doth not say that such a proposition of the Gospell did set him free He doth not say that the hearing that Christ dyed for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as there was the Law or Letter the outward Covenant is it that entailes life upon Jesus Christand his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed This is the Covenant that God made with Christ that he made with Abraham of old I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed Now then they that are of the seed of Christ are in this Covenant as al that were Abrahams seed were in that outward Covenant but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ and to be of the generation of Christ And do not thousands profess themselves so to be Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord and press to enter into Heaven We cannot put a difference between one or other except we know this truth for they say they are in the Covenant they say they are of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this They hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he dyed for their sins and rose for their Justification and this they beleeve and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veryest Hypocrite do so as wel as the truest Saint But here is that which puts a difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poore creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep This distinguishes them from the other So that if you lay your salvation upon an historicall Christ you wil be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him you must have the same eternall Spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice yea your selves and your own Righteousness This is true salvation Here is salvation manifested unto life But you wil say to me Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ Is it not a giving away from Christ And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us Solu To this I answer that it is no giving away from Christ at all for we make Christ to be all in all in this only we distinguish of Christ There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the witness the Covenant the common Person in whom our salvation is transacted as in a figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the reall salvation within us For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit but the Manifestation of God the coming forth of God and unto this must we attribute and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation this is the Savour of life unto life Of his own wil begat he us Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father This same Will of God brought forth is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit Christ Iesus is the outgoing of the Fathers Wil the Manifestation of the Fathers good Pleasure Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Beleever If you confine Christs dwelling to a locall Heaven you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be Christ dwels in thy heart if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit Christ is in thee for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Fathers Will and the Manifestation tion of the Fathers good pleasure this is Christ So that if we give to Sanctification we give to Christ For this is the Will of God even our Sanctification Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification But I desire a little further to examine that same before I let it pass it is said it is a giving to Sanctification and not to the blood of Christ I say no. For 1. I do not here take Sanctification as it is commonly taken as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit I know that our life lyes not in this or the other act or in any particular act Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit 2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit but to the Revelation of the Spirit There is the Revelation of the Spirit as wel as the Sanctification of the Spirit as the Apostle speaks Ephes 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation c. 3. There is the Spirit of grace as well as the grace of the Spirit and to this I give all and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus and so to him I give al and what do I give to the Spirit I give the Manifestation of salvation to life and that 's all 4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend
to dye for our sins and rise again for our Justification Here is now Christ in the Flesh here is his Ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preached unto men and it is told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son There is nothing to be done Justice is fulfilled God is reconciled he would not else have slain his Fatlings and made a feast for us Therefore beleeve Here is the outward dispensation but now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lyes under the guilt and weight of sin and such a grievious sin comes to his mind and not only one but multitudes of sins lye upon him whereby he cannot beleeve or take comfort in these glad tydings Do ye not see that there is need of another Ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus as well as a Proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the Proposition of the Gospel That whosoever beleeveth in Christ Jesus shal have eternal life c. And God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeves in him should have eternall life Yet all this while the poor soul lyes dead til not only the Letter but the Spirit of the Gospell comes and appears to him Till Christ appears not only in the first Court that is his own flesh or the Letter of the Gospell but in the inmost place of all that is in this mans conscience for we may allude to that place Heb. 9. 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Pray mark it Jesus Christ did not suffer in Heaven but without the gate he suffered in the world but he is entered into Heaven These words are spoken figuratively its true he went up visibly to his Disciples into Heaven that is a place remote from their sight a Cloud received him out of their sight The true Heaven and that Heaven where Christ doth appear to the comfort and relief of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called Heaven because as Heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man the heart of man is the place of God He is said to be the searcher of the heart he sits there and wounds and heals there there is Gods true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the notions there but it is in the heart of a man thither it is that Jesus Christ is gone Christ in the Spirit is in the hearts of his people that is Christs place for that is the Fathers place for he is in the Father and he goes to the Father as it is said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Now you know that the Father though he be without us he is within us he can neither be said to be without us or within us inclusively nor exclusively for he fills all things and is comprehended in nothing So Jesus Christ is within us the Father is in the hearts of men and so is Christ and that is the Heaven where he appears now for do but consider this that which follows in the 25. vers Pray mark it Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin That which is rendered the end of the world may be translated the end of the age or the end of that Administration That which I note from thence is this that Christs sufferings put an end to one world that world was at an end when Christ had suffered that is God had dispatcht the outward discoveries of salvation and now he would discover it within us now al that was to be done by him was within us He went into the holy place he went into Heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us and there it is that Jesus Christ speaks a word for a poor soul There it is that Jesus Christ sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the Letter in the History of the Gospel but if he appear nor in the Spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word aright Christ sets us free by making us Sons and the Son abideth in the house for ever Pray mark it unless we be made Sons we cannot abide in the house for ever we do not abide in the house for ever by having an eternall title by Christ but by a real Son-ship within us That same which makes Christ a Son makes us Sons and so you have it cleared unto you by that instance that this is the truth and the other in comparison of this is but the form but the Representation or Image but the Emblem of this Truth and so what is it unto us in matter of Sanctification to say Christ hath taken hold of our nature and purified it and seperated it and sanctified it what is this to the sanctifying of us if our persons be not taken into that same Union and be not sanctified with the same Spirit that Christ is Reason Now for this Reason I shall desire you to look within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudiced spirits he wil clear this Truth to you If so be it might be no offence I should give you my own experience for the confirmation of this point for we can speak nothing but what we have heard and what we have seen Now I must confess and profess unto you that God hath made real this Truth unto me not by study not by notion not by outward discovery but by an inward experiment For this I have found and I trust more have found it besides my self though it may be they cannot tell what to call those things that work within them nor how to express it it may be but this I have found that all outward administration hath been weak and unable to produce those fruits and effects which the Scripture makes mention of it hath been as the Law What the Law could not do in that it was weak c. And look into your selves whether you have not found it so in your selves that you have had some corruption that hath troubled you Some masterful lust you would be glad to get the victory over and ye would account him a Messenger one among a thousand that could shew you how to effect your desires I am sure it hath been so with me and when I have seen such words as these in the Scripture Sin shall not have Dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace I have considered with my self and have done as I have been directed to do and I have told my self thou art under grace and I have pleaded this to God Lord I am under grace I am under
to do So after a time Christ leads us from a knowing of him after the flesh as representing things to us to know him within us as a quickning Spirit Consider how ☞ much it concerns you not to shut your eyes against this but examine it and try it because the truth is you will make slow advance til you are past through the fleshly Administration and are under the Spirit Look into the 28. Isa 9. Whom shall he teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts Pray mark it There is a question and there is an answer Whom shall I teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand doctrine there 's the question The answer is them that are weaned from the milk c. This same milk and these same breasts are the foolishness of God whereby he had made out himself to us according to our infirmity they are the fleshly Appearance and Discoveries of God these are the brests and this is the milk and till we have proceeded further we are in the flesh And as you will count it a shame for an old man to lie sucking at the dugg so you are in an uncomely posture to be always sucking the brest and always under rudiments and to know no more of God then he holds forth in an Image without you This is not your interest to rest here and therefore I beseech you to wait upon God for the humble he will teach in his way And although I have met with some objections against this and more may be raised from the Scripture that may seem to make against this yet they are made clear to me therefore wait upon God to clear them up to you If be this taken from me I profess I know no hope that I have of my calling for what is our hope but the hope of the high calling God cals us to fellowship with himself and hath manifested this by his Son Weigh these things in the Ballance and consider that Christ comes in Clouds and not in clear Discoveries at the first the Lord give you understanding in all things THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN ROM 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. HERE is the Unity of Beleevers in their principle and the Destruction of Beleevers in their Forms All Christians in what form soever whether they be bond or free it is to the Lord there 's their Unity but there are bond and there are free there are Jews those that are under the Law there are those that are without Law there are such as do live to the Law and such as do dye to the Law there is their Destruction I have already observed this point unto you Doctr. That God is in all forms not only in distinct forms but in opposite forms Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. He that regardeth a day and he that regardeth not a day the Lord is in the light aâ—â— in the principles of the one as well as of the other The Lord is guide and leader of him that observes a day and of him that observes not a day This seems to be a contradiction a Paradox God is but one the Truth is but one 't is true but there are several steps and degrees of this Truth We shall never come to be all one and the Name of the Lord will never be one among us untill God is come forth in his most spirituall appearance and untill he hath brought us all to acknowledg that appearance but in order to Gods making out himself in his spirituall appearance in his naked discovery and with an open face he doth manifest himself in forms and under vails and he doth put off one form after another put off a more gross and put on a more fine put off a more thick and put on a more thin and spirituall and subtile vail God is in all forms but comprehended of no form if he were comprehended in any then he would not be in a diversity of forms There 's the great mistake of Christians and this same dark principle is that which makes us so to clash one against another We know not the mind nor the manner of the Lord we think if he be in our form he can be in no other form God is in a variety of forms and appearances that so no flesh may glory in his presence God will not be tyed to one form always for then that would be lookt upon as more then a form I have already gone through three things in the handling of this point which for the help of your memories I will only name to you the expounding of it the bounding of it and the grounding of it For the bounding of it thaâ— is the only thing I shal now remember you of Is God in all forms Then every superstitious wretch will take sanctuary here I answer thus far That whatsoever form any man doth conscientiously take up that is a form of Scripture-cognizance and doth walk in it to the Lord being perswaded it is the Lords mind He hath acceptance with the Lord For this is the bound the Holy Ghost sets in the Text He that regards a day regards it to the Lord. Is a man sincere in what he doth Doth he it to the Lord Doth he take it up because he thinks it is the Lords mind And doth he serve the Lord and not any lust Not a lust of honor and the applause of men Or the profit and commodity of this world Or the preferment of the time Why if he doth it to the Lord who art thou that judgest him The Scriptures hold forth unto us severall forms as God hath put on severall forms in his appearance to his people and the Scriptures are the records of all these and direct us unto them Now whosoever in the sincerity of his heart takes up any of these and walks in them as unto the Lord he is accepted of him Now the Use I made of this shall not be repeated but there is one Use more behind I exhorted you the last time that you should hold it forth that you do observe all your forms unto the Lord and every one bring forth his proper fruit whether you be in forms or whether you be above forms Thus the holy and happy man is described in the first Psalm He brings forth his own fruit in his season Look what season and administration you are under see you bring forth your proper fruit Those that are in forms see that your forms be advantage ground to rise up to the Spirit Those that be above forms let them bring down the glory of God and the Spirit upon all forms wherein they converse with men and as God hath brought them forth in the Spirit so let them bring forth every action and form
them all in the Unity of the Spirit and of the appearance and breaking forth of God But so much shall serve for that Use and that Point Now I come to the next Point and that 's the difference between men in their forms or rather the amount of their difference what it amounts to We have it in these words Whether we live or whether we dye Who is he that dyes It is he that is in bondage to outward observances that depends upon fleshly forms Who is he that lives Why it is he that is free You know ye often meet with these distinctions in Scripture Circumcision and uncircumcision Jew and Gentile bond and free quick and dead Liberty is the next thing to life What good doth a mans life do him if he be not a free man I mean spirituall Liberty or Liberty in the Spirit and Bondage it is next to death But upon other Considerations is it here called living and dying But it may be said is not the Text abused to interpret it thus allegorically or to make a Metaphor of it should it not be taken literally Whether we live that is in the body we live to the Lord or whether we dye that is go out of this body we dye to the Lord I answer besides that such an interpretation is to make the Apostle here speak impertinently as being quite from the business he hath in hand You shall find also it is cross to the Letter of the Scripture for that is not death that men call death and that is not life that men call life For God is the God of the living and not of the dead in that sense Abraham is alive though dead The Scripture calls not them dead nor God the God of the dead in that sense but the living and all things live to God Again he saith not they dye in the Lord though that be to be taken spiritually but they dye to the Lord. And if you ask why should they be called dying Christians dying Saints The Apostle will tell you when he saith To be carnally minded is death Rom. 8. 6. That which is translated carnally minded signifies to savour carnally to savour God and our life carnally this is death but he that is in bondage to forms savours God and life carnally ergo it is death and he is a dying man That he savours carnally appears from hence That he doth relish better and savour more the weakness of God in an Ordinance then the strength and excellency and glory of God in the Spirit and in his own proper appearance He is more taken his heart goes out more after a sight of God in flesh then to see him in Spirit is not this to savour life carnally For to think that a mans life is bound up in any form or in flesh is it not a carnall savour And yet do not many Christians do so Do not they think that God and an Ordinance do nourish and feed and administer strength to you but not God without an Ordinance The Apostle saith We have this treasure in earthen vessels Now if a man counts not this to be treasure except it be in an earthen vessell is not this carnall It is true while we do receive God in any form it is mercy but to say God cannot be meat or nourishment without a form this is to savour our life carnally How many Christians are troubled and assaulted with doubts concerning their good estate that have a load lying upon them and Clouds of darkness before them that hanker after an Ordinance to come dispell these Clouds O if I could receive such an Ordinance a Sacrament in such a manner This would solve all objections and give them full assurance when as they have God they have his Promises The word is nigh thee saith the Apostle in this Epistle Chap. 10. even in thy heart But behold except this God will come to them in flesh they can make no use of him they cannot see how God should do it in Spirit without a form this is to savour life carnally therefore they linger in their desertions and temptations and are not help't out of them because they stay for God to come to them in such a way and see no salvation for them in himself for then they would depend upon him Agreeable to this Scripture is another viz. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh we shall dye Now there are many sorts of flesh saith the Apostle There is one kind of flesh of men another of beasts another of birds another of fishes There is flesh of fishes that will carry a man swimmingly like the Spirit and there is flesh of birds that wil soar aloft like the Spirit there is high-raised flesh but if we live after the motion or principle of any thing below God we live after the flesh Even if we live after the motion of Graces themselves not resolving our graces into God If the sparkling and turning of our graces themselves be the wine that doth chear and refresh us yea the flesh of Christ if we stick in that vail and stand not in the naked Spirit of Christ before God passing through Christs flesh both in him and in our selves as he hath past through it we are not yet past out of the flesh I say not that they that have the use of forms are dying Christians but they that depend upon them they that cannot have life from God unless he present himself to them in the flesh Reas 2 The second Reason They that fall short of God are in a dying condition but those whose life is bound up in any form they fall short of God He that attains not God loses the Race He that attains not the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus loses the Race and he dyes He that is in bondage to outward observanâ—es and depends upon them fals short of God that is of the glory of God He hath God under a vail in his form but not God in his glory He sees God vailed not his open face not as he is He hears of God in a Parable he sees him not plainly even the flesh of Christ is a vail and till we are past through that through the Mediatorship and through the fleshly state in our selves we appear not in the open presence of God Reas 2 The end of forms is death The end of Christs fleshly state and appearance was death either we must lye and dye in form I mean not eternally or we must dye to form There 's no coming to a higher state but by dying to the former state Christ was Crucified in flesh before Justified in Spirit He that endures to the end shall be saved He that passes through all things forgets and dyes to imperfect discoveries to fleshly appearances let them be never such spirituall flesh he only is in the way of this salvation here meant The fleshly form as it is in Saints hath in it the
seed and principle of the spirituall appearance and genders it by dying God that commanded light to shine out of darkness God brings forth glory to his people by affliction tribulation and dying Their comforts go away in the flesh ere they come in the Spirit While the flesh lasts upon them the Spirit is not broken forth While the form or fleshly appearance is any thing to us and we promise our selves any thing from it God is not all in all while God is not all in all our comforts are not brought forth in the Spirit and so are not made perfect In all fleshly appearances there is Enmity to God therefore God is Enmity to them and is the death of them This Enmity is discovered in the disputes that we have about faith Whether it justify as a Condition or as an Instrument only and about the Spirit whether the Spirit be in us by presence or by influence only which are mists that arise out of the bottomless pit and argue God is not all in all there and so that soul is not perfected The Scripture in 1 Zeph. 2. c. paralels the dispensation Christians are under I wil utterly consume all things from off the Land saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast I will consume the fowls of the Heaven and the fishes of the Sea and the stumbling blocks with the wicked and I will cut off man c. and v. 4. I will stretch my hand upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem c. upon Professors And I will cut off ver 5. them that worship and swear by the Lord and Malcham This is the condition of our times light is broken in upon us and we see that Ordinances are nothing without the Lord every one will confess that that the Letter is a dead Letter without the Spirit and the Ordinances are meer forms without Gods Appearance in them and therefore our design is to couple the Lord and Ordinances together and we cannot endure to hear of the parting of them Swear by the Lord and by Malcham even as you see men now adays do so we may have but Ordinances we are well This is that which I was speaking of before that we do promise our selves something from the fleshly form and appearance and so like the Israelites we are hankering after the flesh-pots of Aegypt though they had as good meat in the Wilderness yet the flesh-pots ran in their minds So though God offer himself and though Christians tell you for what they tell you God tells you they tell you they cannot find God in such and such forms but find him abundantly good in the Spirit and they find that he recompences the want of all forms in the Spirit though he be gone out of the Temple yet they find him in their hearts they press you to wait till God appear to you in the Spirit Oh say you I can never beleeve it that God should do it without an Ordinance or that God should strengthen you without an Ordinance God think you with an Ordinance can strengthen me and deliver me and save me out of a temptation not otherwise this is to say that the Ordinance or fleshly form doth add something to God If you will confess God to be all in an Ordinance you must confess him to be all without an Ordinance to be sufficient of himself I desire not to be mistaken I do not judg those that find God in Ordinances and outward forms Let them wait upon God and let them receive and partake of the benefit of the Ordinance and let them bless God for it and be faithfull to their own principles and let them be sweet to others but when we do find God in a form and in an Ordinance to say he is not to be found and enjoyed any other way this is not a right Spirit Nay when we find not God in an Ordinance yet we will keep to it as if God were not to be enjoyed any other way This is the greatest unreasonableness that can be to put no worse a name upon it Now I have done with the Reason of the point I should shew now who are the living Christians and how they are in a more living condition that are free from the bondage of outward observances that do not depend upon any fleshly appearance or administration but see a fulness and sufficiency of God in the Spirit and enjoy the same for else for men to have a notion and principle of it and not to enjoy God in the Spirit they may come from a sad outward Religion and forms to no Religion nay to Atheism and God will judg the free as well as the bond They may be free from Ordinances and yet may be as fleshly to God as if they were under the Jewish observances But the Use that I would make of what hath bin delivered is first a Use of Admonition unto those that are still in forms and secondly a word of Instruction to us all 1. It is for Admonition to those that are in forms We say not that the Lord is not within you nor that which you do you do not to the Lord but the holy Ghost saith of you you are dying Christians While thou canst only see God in a fleshy Image and Representation thou art in a dying condition For it is a sign thou seest not God in his glorious and Spirituall Appearance for if thou didst thou wouldst say as they in the Mount at Christs transfiâ—uration Oh it is good for us to be here Let us look no more for God in forms and fleshly administrations at least you would desire to have your portion in fleshly Representations not but that that man who hath God broken forth in him in spirit and power may suffer others in those forms and not lose his own enjoyments You are Christs and you are Christians but you are in a fleshly and dying estate and you may be put shrewdly to it that do depend upon a form and fleshly administration When it cannot be had what wilt thou do Thy case is much as a mans that is kept up by Cordials and by means that the Physitian uses to him and not to be compared with him that is in a way of recovery that is past the danger of his disease in whom nature is growing strong and is overcoming the malignity of the disease by little and little When the other wants the Physitian it is as much as his life is worth and the Cordiall if it be long a fetching the man begins to faint he hath not his strength within him but without in Cordials So is the cases between him that lives upon Ordinances and him that lives upon Christ in the Spirit Christ is never in a journey or to fetch a great way off therefore I say you are in a dying condition that depend upon forms 2. Use is of Instruction to give us light in what the Lord is now doing and in the consequence thereof
any vail there is so much of darkness and there is so much of fear and enmity against God and therefore I pray mark it those disputes among us concerning faith whether the act of faith doth justifie us or whether it be an act of God that doth justifie us I conceive that herein faith is perverted and we do make a quite contrary use of it then ever God appointed he â—ath set up faith as a light in a dark place and behold we are ascribing that unto faith which is due only unto God And hence is that other dispute Whether God doth dwell in us only by grace and be with us only by influences and opperations as he is in other creatures after their kind Whence arise these questions but out of the smoke of the bottomless pit and out of enmity against God That grace and the influences of God will step into the place of God himself they will step into the place of the Bridegroom Christ himself in the Spirit is the grace of the Spirit So that while God appears unto us under any form even grace that is the purest vail yet God is not all in all we find faith would be something and grace would be something and this is through the flesh Now there is but one thing more to do and that is a little to explain as far as we can what this same resurrection in a man what this same putting off of the vail is what the state of a Beleever is in such a condition I shall express it to you by these two things By the purity and by the strength of it The Purity lies herein that the Lord he is all in all Here is the Purity of that state Ordinances they are not Graces they are not the Lord is all in all the Lord is all in graces nay the Lord is all in himself he is sufficient to the soul The Lord is that which Ordinances were and that which Graces were that the Lord is as you shall see Rev. 21. 22. And I saw no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Mark it what are all Ordinances but as the Temple was under the Law The Temple was that same form wherein God appeared unto his people It was a figure to them of the body of Christ in which the fulness of the God head was to dwell and doth dwell When Jesus Christ came who was the body the Temple was no more So the same comparison we may make between the flesh of Christ or Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Spirit What was the flesh of Christ but the true Temple the body the substance of that figure and shadow that was amongst the Jews Thus it was in relation to types that went before But what was it in respect of that which was to come afterwards I will send you another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth c. That this Comforter may come this same presence of Christ must be removed It is expedient for you that I go away and destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again the third day But when he was raised again I beseech you do but mark did Christ let his body be of that use to his Disciples after he rose again When Mary came and fell at his feet to kiss them saith Christ Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father The same with that which Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5. Though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more Mary saith Christ my body is no longer a Temple but your hearts and spirits must be the Temple I am not yet ascended c. Thou must know nothing in me as before Thou must know God in me I am breaking forth into the glory of the Father and shall not appear in the flesh any more Christ in the flesh met with many an unbelieving soul that went unbelieving away from him but Christ appearing in the Spirit opens the most unbelieving heart This is the first thing in this same living Christian nothing but Purity it self nothing but God himself is his repast is his delight 2. But then secondly This estate may be described by its strength and power also It is that which I confess is a stumbling block to the world and it may well be so to see men boast of such attainments above ordinances and yet to have so little sign of them in their walking and conversation to see them carnal still to see them dote upon the world still to see them still as proud and passionate as ever My beloved you have not so learned Christ if you be living men if you have the living principle in you your life is not to discourse in another sphere and dialect then most men do it is not to be able to contradict and throw down the forms of the world This is not this same living man No where the Lord Jesus is broke forth in Spirit where he is risen from the dead Mighty works will shew forth themselves in that man It is a state of power and of glory and therefore saith the Apostle phil 3. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Oh there is power in Christs Resurrection All these Scriptures belong unto that state He that is born of God sinneth not for the seed of God abideth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God He that abideth in him sinneth not You have these Scriptures in the first Epistle generall of John To them that look for him the second time shall he appear without sin unto salvation Oh if Jesus Christ doth but put up his head in our Horizon he chaseth away much darkness as the Sun when it peeps towards day but when Jesus Christ is fully risen there shall not be the least Cloud the least corner hid from him he will detect all corruption there and divide between the joynts and the marrow There is no such purifying in the world as by the presence and appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Spirit he purifies while in him we see the Love of God in the flesh but when Iesus Christ is risen in you he makes you purifie your selves as he is pure he fetcheth up all from the bottom This takes you off from I dollizing not only the forms of your Religion but the forms of your content in outward things Let not that man say he lives in the Spirit that is buried in any creature Let not any man say he is above Ordinances that is not above the forms of this world If he do not weep as if he wept not and rejoyce as if he rejoyced not and buy as though he possessed not and use this world as not abusing it Considering that the fashion thereof these forms as well as others passeth away This is a state of power his prayers are made with spirit and life he enjoys God in every thing