secure estate but a low dispensation which wil dissolve in a higher appearance of God Therefore though men both know and beleeve that there was a Christ crucified in the flesh yet let them not Rest untill they know it in Spirit Then shall a man see Christ daily crucified before his eyes First In him Secondly By him Thirdly For him And fourthly Crucifying of him That he shall say with Paul from experience I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. then shall the soule know both what it is to be crucified by or with Christ and also what this Christ is that lives within him which is become life unto him then he shall know it is not flesh but Spirit and life that lives in him neither shall he be satisfied with hearing of his deaâ— at Jerusalem but with experiencing partly the mystery now made manifest in him and so comes to be known by him then shall he say Though I have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know I him no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. Being he knowes him in the new Creation being made to see and discerne in the Spirit and so behold Christ in the vision of God Hab 2. 3. which is so far from being beheld before as a true crucified estate as indeed there is nothing but darknesse and rebellion in the heart to such an estate onely the soule living and rejoycing in some carnall conception of God and Christ and yet the heart is empty of his light and glory and indeed running from the Fountaine to the streames and from the substance to the shadow or figure as I might plainly lay open how all the actions of Christ in the flesh attributed to him are but reall Types and figures and shadowes of either good things to come or to be revealed in soules I cleerly see that sometimes he spake in Mystery and sometimes yea altogether he acted in Mystery as holding forth what he did in his coming in the soul being a more glorious dispensation then that under the Law as the coming of him in the Spirit is from his comming in the flesh so that what miracles and acts transcendently acted by him above all that was made and is experienced by those in the Spirit who enjoy him who discovers all as namely his raising Lazarus and at the marriage turning water into wine and his healing sick and opening eyes and so all passages flowing from him of this nature were buâ— figures still of what he did and would doe in and for soules and so not only in matters of doing but also in matters of sufferings they are reall figures of the same truth substantially experienced in Saints both place persons condemnation Crosse death â—buriall his agony or withdrawing before his grave and resurrection his not ascending immediatly after his death to his Father but afterwards ascended in the fulnesse of time All these in every particular are known in the true and spirituall sense of them by those that have had fellowship with him in his death and Resurrection and so hath passed from death to life and now is risen within and dwels with him in Heaven and so is swallowed up in the God-head and is rose in the Fathers glory and now is filled with the Spirit this time is the time of knowledge and this is wisdomes time wherein he comes to be satisfaction to them and also is justified by them this is the time when they sing nothing but praise and glory to the Lamb who doth not onely deserve to open the Book Rev. 5. 9. and the Seales thereofâ— but hath opened the Book and discover to the soule the Cabinet and storehouse of the glorious Mystery of the Father and Christ into which City of glory and light the soule is made ro enter and Rest and live for ever that now all things are become new Rev. 21. 5. to and with such a soule the very Kingdome of God and the mystery thereof is opened Rev. 10. 7. and now the Tabernacle of God is with man Rev. 21. 3. and now this glorious mystery Christ is manifested in life and power and become the hope of the compleat glory and fulnesse thereof Col. 1. 27. to be made manifest when it is made capable to comprehend it from being comprehended by it and swallowed up in it then shall this heart dote no more upon shadowes or broken Cisterns or figures of good things to come but he shall be gathered up into God and Christ and shall possesse them in the fulnesse of them The ninth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is visible Church communion or the relations under this notion O this I may say is one of the Idols of Israel and I may say as God was a saying once Come and see yea behold what the Children of Israel is doing in the darke O the darknesse of such Soules who Rest in and under such dispensation truly if I should speak the naked truth and nakedly discover every false Rest I never in my own experience did finde more grosser darknesse sease upon my spirit then did sease upon my spirit under this dispensation Secondly Never more false Laodicean security Thirdly Never more pride and self conceitednesse then at that present ready to judge every one that were not in relation in reference to Church communion to be no Saints 2. Looking more at the practise of Ordinances and being members of Churches then at the reall experience of such a soule 3. More longing after the encrease of members then of their living in the Spirit which were members 4. Judging every one if they were but in and under such Relations to be Saints though they had little yea indeed no experience of God at all refusing communion with such being not of my judgement though they knew what communion in the Spirit was and closed yea joyned with those who were ignorant of it because they were Church members This having been mine and still are many mores at thispresent what Church are they of Are they Baptized What judgement are they of Which doth argue both an Idolizing of and Resting upon these poore dispensations of babes and Children It hath been with me and I feare hath been and is still with many more a coldnesse of love to those yea a condemning also because they have or doe not close with us in every particular in matters of Judgement or formes of worship though the parties live in very high enjoyments of God and are passed these childrens and babes dispensations and all this testifies a Resting upon our formes and manner of worship as for instance An Independent so called and an Anabaptist and so many more as the godly Presbyterian and others under divers distinctions of formes how bitter they are one against anothers what a distance they stand one from another witnesse their preaching and printing and in the same their bitternesse Instance their refusall to
beware of as great an evill on the right hand as on the left and that is That they be not living upon an imaginary God and not the true for it is the way of the Creature to give so much way to his fancy and imagination that whatever it proposeth to be God it lives upon and rejoyceth in and brings the Soul into deep and carnall security with high imaginations of himself being able to apprehend and discourse of deepe and high things and yet want the life and power of any one of them 3. Beware of Judging if thou be broke off from formes those that thou hast left behinde thee in the use there of Confidering that God is in all formes of his own appoinment and that their dispensations may be of God and that they shall there abide but their appointed reason And therefore let thy carriage to them and thy judgement of them be as much as possible may be without offence unto them and for the winning of them and that when God sees a higher dispensation fit for them he will leade them into it only my soule desires they may not be so glued to them as to live in them and not to waite for a higher dispensation from God only in the want thereof they are in the use thereof God owning and appearing unto them in them so that I could wish the wisdome of God may appear so in the hearts of those who doe pretend thus high to live in God that it may truly appear to themselves and to others God led them into the same not themselves I have experienced both the contrary evils and therefore I speake so that if God be love as in his dispensation God is so to him that knowes it not then it must break forth from us if it be living in us to look upon children and babes with a tender eye and respect so as judgement may passe away and the spirit of burning which is Love may appear amongst us Thirdly As others are under mens Teachings so looke thou be under the Teachings of the Vision of God Heb. 2. 3. and that thou speake or pretend to enjoy no more then is taught within thee by the Vision of God for in the want thereof sad experiences testifies we Peecing and patching Religion and high notions together and make it their delight and joy Oh the teachings of God doe open the very heart and the secrets of the sealed Booke and beleeve it to live wholly above all in God It is to live such a transcendent life as is better and sooner spoken then enjoyed and known in truth for there must be such a death within men and a passing from death to lise by man that indeed men may hear of the thing and get it into their imaginations but to enjoy it in the true and reall manifestations thereof many in this shall in their conceits be brought to losse for to have the Scales of the Eternall brightnesse and glory of God opened in the appearance of the Vision in a mans heart to have the very splendor and glory of the divine Being Revealed within man and to be wholly caught up in the whole out of all things so as the soule is wholly swallowed up with God in all things so that now neither eye hath seen nor care hath heard neither by mans heart can be imagined the depths of the life glory and enjoyment of such a heart yet it is his common meate and teaching of the Spirit within him so that no manâ— teaching can reveal the life and center of such a heart but it is better experienced then can be declared it is so transcendent a life and being Yea further for any man to live so in God as he enjoyes God in all and seeth God the life and being of all yea it is not his judgement but hee findes all these things effectually within him For a man may be of the judgement concerning living wholly in God to be the onely Life and yet not to know this from the experience of the visions teaching within himselfe Now it is no benefit for any to be of this and that judgement unlesse he live in the clear enjoyment of the truth he is convinced of in his judgement and understanding here is the glory of a Saint indeed not to know a truth because it is the judgement of any neither because it is his own judgement but that he have within him the truth teaching of it to him from the life and power of it in him So he knowes the Sun to be the Sun not from hear-saies but he seeth the life and glory of it having his eyes opened to behold it and findes by experience the heat and powerfull operation of the same upon him as well as upon the earth So with Saints they doe not receive their Life Light or experience of God living in a Saint from hearing of it but God breakes forth in their spirit and so gives them the fight of the glory light and splendor of God within themselves So soule beware thou be not overcome so with hear-saies as to rest satisfied with the meer notion of God and truths and yet be at this time but a blazing starre who shall fall and cease to be what thou at present both to thy selfe and others seems to be onely for a time thou may by this notionary light in thy understanding and judgement be a blazing star to discover what thou hast for the deceit of thy self and others and yet it is not the light of the being of truth in thee but a borrowed light got from others or in thy imagination or conception which shall suddenly perish and then thou shalt be left in the dark as a man in the Clouds reserved for the great day Oh to be Taught of God is a Jewel it will teach Truth and not lye Therefore in the last place It is worth waiting for though thou waite in silence and in death untill thou do enjoy it lest thou pretend to have that thou hast not and to enjoy that thou enjoyest not for in so doing thou shalt go with a lye in thy Right hand and shelter thy self under vanity and lyes Yet I would not be mistaken that either I am against formes in their time and place and manner neither that I deny that a soul may attaine to such a glorious enjoyment of God as must yea all formes and shadowes may flye away and be dissolved though not destroyed and the person forme and use thereof shall be swallowed up with glory But I defire to compose the great difference that lyes in mens attainments when they all cannot speake one thing or enjoy God in one dispensation then they fall one condemning another â—o as they cannot make out for good of each other that which they enjoy of God in their present dispensations Secondly To unbottom the one of Resting in and living upon or making his everlasting Tabernacle in those Shadowes and the
what is discovered for HE comes with a Satisfactory Witnesse which doth answer all objections and satisfy all doubts in the heart which may arise yea If men instead of approving do deny it to be Truth yet the soules Testimony within it selfe doth bear up his spirit that he is able to say All men belye the Truth Rom. 8. 16. he not in the least being daunted in his assurance thereof though it be opposed by man or devil neither can such a heart be shaken if all the men of the World should arise against the same coming to disprove it Prov. 10. 25. 30. Also he that runs to any visible externall Witnesse pretending Christ is come in the Spirit is a creature altogether ignorant of his said coming and lives much below such a coming for to me this is an infallible Truth that if any man pretend Christ is come into him in the Spirit and yet wants an inward Testimony or Witnesse for it and so is forced to make use of visible Testators he is a man plainly wanting the enjoyment of the same for God in such a case never leaves himself without a sure satisfactory unresistible and undeniable testimony which indeed the Creature who wants the same may well make use of others But flashes if they be deceiveable pretends to come in with a witnesse and therefore many cals this a witnesse they being perswaded of the truth of what it enjoyes But this is as much below the witnesse of the spirituall coming of Christ as the light of the stars is below the light of the Sun How many under a state of flashes which I may say is almost the last Carde Satan can play in a soule to deceive him in his transformings doe live in most great joy light notions or pretended liberty thinking from a meer perswafion they have within them they live in very high enjoyments and doe beleeve they have a witnesse of the Spirit within them for the truth of what they beleeve when indeed it is but a formed imagination and a Card plaid gallantly by Satan to keep the Creature below the enjoyment of God in the Spirit and to live in freedome and Rest when not in truth and in the Lord. Further this is the reason partly of many ups and downs in the heart whereby the Creature is one day beleeving and another day doubting because it is not living in the enjoyment of Christ in the Spirit but may be is under some flashes and so it comes to passe that it is unsetled and unfixed in God Fourthly Flashes are of no long continuance they are not of an enduring nature for they presently appeare are presently gone and so though the Creature had a great deale of light and joy yet when the flash comes to be taken away away goes all the Creatures joy and light and he is left in the cloudes of darknesse and sorrow again Whereas when Christ comes in the Spirit it is not so then all sorrow and mourning shall flee away Isa 60. 19 20. and the darknesse of the Creature shall be expelled and God shall become unto the soul an everlasting lights Rev. 21. 3. 24. so that God and the Lamb shall live in his heart and be sight and glory to him so as his Sun shall never goe downe but he shall live in the light of God and the Lamb for ever and ever For his coming in the Spirit is after the Resurrection of a soul out of the grave whereby he is carried up in the light and glory of God from the descendings of that light and glory from God so as there is a living in the light God lives in and a swallowing up in the fame glory God is swallowed up withall but a flash leaves in its withdrawing the Creature in the same it found him in if not worse for a flash of light or joy is like a flash of light in the Skye upon the darkest night it appears to be the greater the greater the darknesse is So upon a dark soule when it s possessed with much darknesse the least flash that can appear in that is very great and admirable so that the heart being no otherwise able to judge lookes upon it as a manifestation of God yea may be a very glorious one yet it is not so at last is taken away and the Creatures hopes and expectations is frustrated Whereas to such a soule as lives in the day naturall or spirituall hardly can discerne or take notice of such a flash or light because it is so much inferiour to the light and glory of the Sun and day which now is appeared and shines either within him or without him These flashes in the first place if they be of Satan the very end thereof is to lull the creature asleep in the bed of security and there is no resting of the same by any poor creature For First It workes and comes in sutable to the Creatures necessities pretending redresse for the same Secondly It comes with a glorious resembled form or shape God workes in and so it becomes a transformed Satan and not a transfigured Christ Thirdly It is not able to discern the same by reason of the absence of the true light which makes all things manifest Eph. 5. 13. yea the very transforming of Satan Fourthly Flashes in this nature doe come with furniture to back the truth of what it doth declare or speak if there be any jealousies arise in the heart as sometimes there is yet it doth furnish him with strength to mannage the entertainment of it and his joy and peace from it and here Satan plaies his parts for if the heart be of an opinion that it is possible for a soule to doubt after he hath enjoyed a manifestation of God then he will put a Creature upon doubting to make good that false un-sound and un-experienced principle of men that the truest faith is accompanied with the greatest doubtings and here the heart is still deluded and kept in strong perswasions of the truth of his flash 2. If the heart be of that judgement that it is impossible that a soule can doubt againe after he hath enjoyed a manifestation of God then Satan will transforme himselfe into a capacity of confirming the creature in labouring in all transformed actions to confirme the creature in his assurance of the truth of what he enjoyes and so upon all occasions addes to what he hath done and so the poore Creature Rests satisfied in and upon what the Creature cals his manifestations of God now flashes that usually attend a Creature that is truly enlightened by God though not fully possessed with God yet he being waiting for the comming of Christ in the Spirit is sometimes attended with flashes or light of joy but they if from God most commonly have these ensuing effects 1. They doe underprop and support a weary fainting spirit in his spirituall travell to his land of Rest so as he is made to waite with
element and like a Fish whose element is in the water so with the spirit of man he cannot act in his right sphere untill he come into his first originall Being which is Christ in God 2 Cor. 5. 19. so as now it acts in God and lives by God and is taken up with God and cannot live in any thing else not as a Saint So that the truest comparison that can be made of such a spirit is the Needle and the Dove which truly holds out this to us First That Christ the Arke is the center and the sure being of the spirits of Saints Secondly There is no safety or true Rest for the beleeving spirit but in this Christ Thirdly That it is impossible for any spirit who knowes Christ truly to be his Rest being once touched by the divine and holy being of Saints to Rest below the same though many things may transform-themselves selves within the Creature like unto it yet upon them he cannot Rest no more then can the Needle towards the East and West but it is truly known by such a spirit not to be his first being and originall and so disclaims it as Christ did Satan in his temptation but is carried forth the more in vehemency of spirit flying continually without Rest untill he be got into the Arke which was the place from whence it came and in truth it is of such a latitude as all the world is not able either to give Rest unto it or produce true or full contentment in it The fifth decription of true Rest FIftly It is the centring up of a spirituall man in a spirituall place not made nor created but a being of himselfe stands by himselfe having his dependency upon none else 1. Here is the subject matter of Rest and that is the spirituall part of man which is created again and born of the Spirit John 3. 3. for first of all no uncleane spirit or thing shall come there Rev. 21. 27. nothing shal enter into it but that which is become sutable to it That which is borne of the Spirit is that which must enter into this Kingdome of Rest and peace Secondly This spirituallity which is made in the Creature is produced by God possessed in the Creature for as a carnall heart cannot live in God no more can God manifest himselfe in any unpure spirit so as God before he manifest himselfe to a Spirit he makes it sutable to that glory which shall iâ— measure be revealed unto it So also before God give man Rest in himselfe he sets man of himselfe to live in himselfe for no carnall minde or will can attain God before by God it be attained and before God manifest to the heart the Creature is attained by him he workes a glorious worke of the New Birth in him so that if man were carried up into God which is impossible before he be borne of God there is such a disproportion betwixt the purity and holinesse of God and the corruption and carnalnesse of mens spirits that the Rest of the soul oâ—uâ—ld be no Rest for there would be nothing but war and enmity so that God alwayes puls downe mountaines of flesh pride and selfe and makes the crooked waies of the heart plaine Luk. 3. 5 6. and brings downe those false Rests and Christs in the Creature and so after makes known a glorious Center to the creature Now the spirits being made spirituall by being Borne againe it is made spiritually to judge receive and discerne the Truth of this glorious and spirituall Place 1. Cor. 2. 15. which no man in the flesh or by the flesh can attain to 1. Tim. 6. 16. whom never any man in the carnall minde hath seen nor can see So that mans Resting place together with the subject Resting in it must be spirituall and of himself Now secondly This place of Rest is Spirituall so that man if hee bee in any true Rest It is not carnall formes or ordinances which shall cease Neither is it the rarest Qualifications or expressions of creatures neither is it glorious apprehensions or puffings up of flesh no our Rest is beyond these as far as the light of the Sun is from the Candle Hee is an unexpressible Spirituall Being One who makes all things spirituall that are spirituall by that spirituallity in the fulnesse of it that dwels in him He is the expresse Image of God Heb. 1. 3. yea he is God equall in Nature though inferiour in place operation or expression He is One in all things He is above all things and in him all things consist Col. 1. 17. So he being the Fulnesse and the Cause of spirituallity He himselfe must needs be spiritual So that any soul Centred up in him lives above all carnall Formes Ordinances Qualifications common holinesse or fleshly puffings up eyther in false apprehensions or in inward delusions Hee is none of these but is above these which is the spirituall mans Rest And this spirituall Rest is nothing but God who is all and none besides him who enjoyes all in himself and we in him and by virtue of our being made born and begotten of him we become One with him and of him So that now being borne of him it is impossible that the Nature of God in us can Rest or bee satisfied but alone in him and by him it being of an everlasting and infinite nature but now as it is infinite and of God in us so it throws off all below God and wholly and alone returnes to him and Rests in him Now thirdly This Rest is not any thing Created or depending upon any other power but its own Christ as he was in the flesh is none of the Rest of Saints Hee is a Rest of them as he becomes one with them in the Spirit so as he is one with God and we with him One in God and we in him 1. Cor. 6. 17. Joh. 17. 21 22 23. Yea very God and we by him 1. Cor. 8. 6. 15. 45. So that He is a Spirit not made nor created but making and creating all things for and of himselfe Col. 1. 16. Rom. 11. 36. And all by him was created not as he was in any form or shape in the flesh without us not so to be a Rest but as he is God made manifest in the Spirit within us How ever men deem of him yet he is the Eternall Spirit and the Father of all spirits Heb. 9. 14. though distinguished from the Father in divers acts shapes or formes yet he dwels substantially in the God-head and in whom dwels all the power and fulnesse thereof Col 1. 19. 2. 9. And though he might be in the forme of flesh as man yet then he was in the power and fulnesse of God as God So that he is In and Of Himself and he that knows him aright knows that saying And he that is experienced in that spirituall union and conjunction will say That his Motion Glory Dependency and all
speak of was Christ Secondly we see the place where it centers before it is made manifest and that is laid open to be in the Father Thirdly the way whereby they knew it and also to be theirs was twofold First by the manifestation of it Secondly by opening the eyes of a souls understanâ—â—ng whereby they come to see that life which now to them is made manifest further he is the life of Saints spiritually considered Coloss 3. 3. 4. here he saith when Christ our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory So that he is here Saints life called and more fuller experienced in every heart who hath found him fully made manifest within their spirits againe he is life of Saints as he becomes the spirituall resurrection of Saints for before ever God bring any Creature into the enjoyment of himself he brings the Creature into a spirituall death not in the body but in the spirit and being layd in the grave aloâ—â— Christ as he is the spirituall life of Saints must be their resurrection I meane the resurrection of their spirits from this spiritual death as he is a dispensation of life and therefore it is written Joh. 11. 25. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live So that Christ as he is to become the spirituall life of Saints proves an inward resurrection to them in the manifestation of this their life which indeed Paul did experience when he spake these words Gal 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that though Paul had been buried into Christs death yet notwithstanding when Christ came to be manifested to him then he proved a resurrection of life in him and by this life was Paul madâ—â—◠〈◊〉 for untill Christ our life comes to be manifest we lye dead voyd of any spiritual life or motion in us and this was figured out in the matter of Lazarus death when Christ came he found him dead and buried voyd of life or motion wherein at last the very breath of Christ breathed out in way of voice Lazarus come forth raised him up and gave life unto him Ioh. 11. 43 44. Two things are here spiritually holden forth First a spirituall death of Creatures when Christ comes to breath upon them the breath of life Secondly by his thus comming speaking and breathing occasions life because his words are spirit and life thus spoken So that it is said The hour is comming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Now in all this is held forth unto us The spirituall resurrection of all Saints by Iesus Christ coming in the spirit into them so that though this particular be the least looked after yet it is of the highest concernment and not that which most men doat of so much after death So that if we look upon our spirituall resurrection we shall see that the coming of Christ in the Spirit is a manifestation of Spirituall life which proves a spirituall life which proves a spirituall resurrection in such Creatures and in time their Rest and Center Now he being the life of Saints Then first we may observe That Saints life is Iesus Christ Though before they are making out of their own actings according to the law of works do this and live yet now they see that life is destroyed and the cause of all actions to God flowes from this life principled in them and though they are making a life out of enlargement or holinesse in conversation yet this is a life above it unbottoming the creature off from it and centring the Creature in a stable and solid life Secondly the Saints live because Christ lives in them for though before their livâ—â—â—re hid with God yet they were not to live in 〈◊〉 â—o themselves with joy and peace untill it 〈◊〉 manifest from God in them so that they are made to live from the manifestation of life in them whereby they come to know it and so to be made to live by it for ever Cast a Saint into any condition he lives very sweetly because he lives by the life of Christ in him yea he lives sweetly with contenâ—ednesse because Christ lives in him So now to summe up this Christ as he is a spirituall dispensation of God in the Spirit is a Spiritual life by vertue of which life in Saints are Saints swallowed up with it and so centred up in it So that the center or rest of a Saint is eternall and everlasting which is Christ the spirituall life of God in us by which life the Creature doth not only live to but live to do This life is the motion of his spirit so as by this life he doth not onely live but lives to it so that the creatures spirits are wholly set apart to live to God This life is the living in the Spirit and not in the flesh hereby comes the life of Saints to be a life of love and a life of God because they are not at Rest from all their own labors and now all things are acted in them by that Spirit of life which is Christ dwelling in them now Saints wholly live to God by the life of God in them and thus are Saints centred up in God or Christ because their spirits are carried up above the creature into life which is Christ in them becoming spirituall and eternall life to them Fifthly This spirituall Christ as he comes from God and is manifested by God and so known by us and become Rest to us he is spirituall redemption and deliverance Now to looke upon Christ in the Spirit he cannot be manifested but he becomes a spirituall Jesus that is a Saviour of spirits for he was not a Jesus as he was in the flesh but he was a Jesus as he was to come in the Spirit for the flesh could not doe it Yet it was a figure of that spiritual salvation and liberty which Christ is in the hearts of Saints For indeed Jesus Christ is salvation it self and where he in power and glory there is salvation that is he is a Saviour or a deliverer of the creature out of that spiritual slavery and bondage in which he lives So as he is become freedome and redemption to the heart and therefore he is said to be made unto us Wisdom and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that is he is manifest in us and so is become a spirituall redemption to us freeing us spiritually from our inward bondage and slavery both that bondage of self and Sathan whereby we are made to live in spiritual freedome and all this freedome and deliverance is Christ in the spirit as he is a spirituall dispensation designed of God for the same purpose though many souls do work out their own salvation by their doing whose salvation is false others having
is Jesus Christ made so by God to us whereby he becomes our Righteousnesse a Righteousnesse which destroyes all ours in the flesh and makes us-live in the righteousnesse of the Spirit So that now beleevers in this kind shall not be found naked but cloathed with Christ their righteousnesse they shall not be condemned for they shall be made stand in the righteousnes of another And to be covered with the roabes of the Lamb made beautifully by Christs beauty and comely by his comelinesse so that the same shall dwell in the spirits of Saints that dwels in the Spirit of God and that shall be made a beleevers to be imployed for God and to God now beleevers who are made to Rest in Christ are incompassed about with truth and righteousnesse in which their spirits shall live with freedome and unexpressible joy for ever And now as this Christ dwels in them as a dispensation of God so he carries them up in their spirits to live and Rest compleatly in God so as now they live where Christ lives which is in the bosome of God so that the great designe of God in this Christ spiritually comming is wholly to gather up the spirits of creatures into the Spirit to live dwell or rest therein and to this purpose he is called the Power of God and indeed he is so a divine a Power come forth from God to accomplish the great designe of God in the Spirits of Saints and therefore Saints finde sometimes that this Power works in them mightily and never ceases till it gathers up the creature wholly into God to Rest compleatly in him So that to conclude all when Saints are truly at rest in God then in the first place the will of the creature shall be centred up in the will of God and so â—he will of God shall become the will of the creature so as the will shall cease to act any thing but what is acted by the Will of God so that the Will of of Saints shall be gathered up into the will of God and their Will being centred up in his Will Here shall it be said The creature hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. 10. and now his Will Rests in God though before the Will was bent against God and would not be limited but all things must be carried on according to the Will of flesh but now it acts so no more but now with Christ not my will but thy will be performed so as now his will is at Rest he wils nothing of himselfe it is carried on by the Will of God Secondly The mind of the creature is centred in the mind of God so that creatures mindes one thing with God and the same Principall of truth is possessed in the mind of God So that now the mind is wholly made spirituall and none but God doth possesse it So as now the mind doth solace it self takes sweet contentment in God whereas it may be a small time before God did not dwell in the mind but corruption or sin at that time there was not such solace in God but rather in lust and sin neither did the mind delight in God or rest upon him whereas now being spiritually possessed with it is sweetly made to live above all in God who is now become the ease and rest of the mind Thirdly The affections of men are centred up in God and wholly swallowed up with him So as now the creature lives in heaven That is with his affections in the presence of God with great delight and so he comes really to dwell with God nothing can come and take up this creatures affections being they are placed upon God being made spirituall by God So they act as God acts in them yea the affections of the creature and Gods are made both one so as they wheel both from one principle and by one and the same power Love moves Gods affection if it can be so said so it moves the creatures affection to God God is ravished with the creature and the affections are ravished with God he delighteth on the one hand and the creature on the other So that Christs and Saints delight and joy are both one Fourthly The Spirits of Saints are at Rest because they are eased of all heavy loades and burdens Christ hath given them Rest who are eased and unloadened of every yoak and burthen so as now his wearinesse is at an end and no more in his spirits but all taken away and his spirit lives in compleat liberty and freedome Fifthly He is set free and is at Rest whom God hath made to cease from his own works and now God works all in and by his Spirit That though he hath bin a long time travelling towards Canaan yet now he is got within the land That now God flowes in npon his spirits with immediate feedings and refreshments and so now fully satisfies the heart with all things desirable and desired so as the Spirit lives in compleat satisfaction in all things as he is sweetly possessed with him who is become all things to him and by this acts no more in himself nor by himself but now it is that he is dead thereunto and is so quickned in the Spirit as that now the worke of Gods Kingdome is made exceeding glorious and is carried on exceeding gloriously So that â—ot by arm or strength of the creature but by the Spirit The creature being ceased from all self-actings this soul truly that Rest in God Further he is at Rest in God who hath truly passed through the state of inward resurrection and now is Ascended into God for as Christ in his fleshly form was not at Rest because he was not ascended so no more is the spirits of any spirituall man at Rest in God untill after his spirituall resurrection he be ascended into God to dwell compleatly in God for Christ coming in the manifestation of the Spirit begets a resurrection in us and the powerfull effects of that life begets an ascension of our spirits into God So that now the soul having ascended can no more descend into these low things which keepes below and short of his Glory but when he appeares in the Spirit within us and discovers his glory to us it doth so overcome the spirit as indeed it is caught up with it for ever to live in it for impossible it is that the spirits can live below God which occasioneth trouble and wearinesse who hath before truly lived in God by the vertue of God made manifest to live in them Secondly It is impossible that any soul can live and Rest in God and so ascend into God before there be a manifestation of the life of God in the creature for it is God descending in his appearance or manifestation in us That both begets a resurrection and ascension of us so that we ascend by descending and live Rest in him by his being manifested to live and Rest
WG THE SAINTS TRAVEL TO THE LAND OF CANAAN WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED Seventeen false Rests below the spirituall Coming of Christ in the Saints Together with a brief Discovery of what the Coming of Christ in the spirit is who is the alone Rest and Center of Spirits By R. WILKINSON A Member of the Army Arise yee and depart for this is not your Rest because it is poluted it shall destroy you with a sore destruction Mic. 2. 10. There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God Heb. 4. 9. London printed for Giles Calvert at the black spread-Eagle at the west end of Pauls 1648. To the Reader FRIEND and Christian Reader It is the property of Divine truth after it is manifest in the spirit to inflame a soule with it and to swallow up the spirit in the glory of it so as it is as impossible for a soul to enjoy Truth and not to declare it as for a man to carry fire in his bosome or mouth and not be burned Saints are mightily constrained after they enjoy Truth from the fire of Love to declare it Now I having had sad experience of the waies of my own heart how I have constantly Rested below God and so have fallen short of his glory This being my condition for a long time though in every particular seeming to me to be God and of God and in it my condition happy where I was continually running from mauntain to hill because I knew not the true Rest But at last it pleased the Father of spirits to reveal himself and by the same to make them manifest Whereupon I have had much wrastlings in my own spirit about putting the same out to publique view but at last was forced to break through much opposition in my own heart and to put it out in this imperfect Form That if it be the wisdome of God in the same others by mee may learn to beware yet I would not have been without the experience of the same seeing it is the will of God now to dissolve it Wherefore Christian Reader I shall commend these ensuing particulars to thee and thee to the wisdome of the Spirit whereby thou mayest judge of the same in love First If thou canst close with the substance of my discourse and after finding some circumstances which are either contrary to thee or obstructive to thy principles yet do not fly out into bitternesse of spirit against what thou judgest truth neither against that which thou judgest no truth but receive the one and let the other alone until God reveale the same unto thee lest thou bee found calling light darknesse and darknes light and speaking evil of things thou knowest not but in meeknesse judge and Rest Secondly If thou hast not passed through these or all these Rests or Dispensations or hast not as yet attained to many things herein expressed yet let them have thy charitable thoughts and do not as the most do fly out against them as Errors because they are not either within their reach as to high for them or because they are contrary to their present principles and so would unbottom them or because they are not according to what they have been taught or is experienced in them But judge of them in love and where any thing is above thy experience I wish thou mayest be silent in it and waite to know it if it bee of God and if it be to low for thee let it receive encouragement from thee as thou hast passed to thy estate through these Administrations Thirdly Christian Reader passe by any infirmity thou seest either in expression forme or method look upon them to bee a discourse of experience more to edify then to please the fancy by curiosity of words in mans wisdome 1 Cor. 2. 4. Fourthly Do not judge me to deny any thing which I do not here affirme because I am speaking spirituall things within But look upon it as a spirituall and inward discourse holding out the two great Mysteries viz. The Mystery of Christ made manifest in the Spirit within man and the Mystery of the creature to himselfe Do not think I am going about to destroy the low workings of God I am not Neither be much daunted if God hereby lets thee behold the face of self and false Rests so as it brings thee to a losse But believe it thy greatest losse may in time become thy greatest gain For that which moves mee to write these few lines is that if it be the will of God Creatures may see the many false waies and Rests below God That Creatures may not live short of his glory as I have done Therefore I shall desire that I may not be mistaken either in my intentions or expressions and therefore shall commend this farther to the Reader First To take off a scruple which may lye upon many whether I do deny these seventeene Rests to be dispensations of God and the way God leades men into their spirituall Rest which is Christs Coming in the Spirit That I may cleare this and make farther way I acknowledge it is Gods way to lead Creatures through these particulars But the corruption of selfe and the deceiveablenesse thereof will-resemble the leadings of God and so will labour to live and keep the soul to Rest short of God and man in going after the waies of his own heart may seem to be led by God But in these particulars I labour to drive on two things The first to discover unto men what the way of mans heart is when it will deceive and what glory it will appear to the Creature in untill God undeceive it so that I am first to undeceive Creatures in their unsound confidence concluding their estates to be so high that they are at Rest in God when they are covered with a covering but not of the Spirit And though the heart bee putting God in the forefront of its actings yet it is but Jehues deceite and treachery of spirit Secondly I labour to un-deceive it that though it hath attained any or all these seventeen and have not had an appearance of Christ spiritually in them so that they know when and how and what Christ infallibly was that still that soule is but yet in a changeable condition And it may as well be Satans transformings in him as any dispensation of God to him and to let the Creature know that though he have passed through all this yet he wants one thing to be his Rest and Center which when it comes will discover the truth of all these Dispensations and if they be of God they shall be dissolved if they be of self or Satan they shall be destroyed So that to unbottom Creatures That they live not upon vanity and lyes and that they may not Rest before the true appearance of Christ in the Spirit I have set forth these imperfect lines Farther I would not have any think that I deny Scriptures Ordinances Christs coming in the flesh
a poor Rest yet thus it is men by abundance of paines and diligence in the Scriptures and in books doe get abundance of knowledge and after it is gotten they Rest upon the same as though it were to enjoy the manifestation of God to enjoy much knowledge here they abuse a dispensation of God and transform it into another use then ever God ordained it for So that though a man have never so much knowledge yet though his knowledge be according to or attained in the Scriptures if he Rest there before he hath got it in the heart by experience as he hath got it in the head for discourse his Rest is much below the substance of Truth For no man is to Rest in any thing without him so known untill it be within him and then he Rests not in God because declared in Scripture but upon God because revealed and experienced in him and so is fully known by him The third way whereby this Knowledge comes to be attained is from the declarings of the experiences of others he by the same stores himself with points of experience as well as points of Judgement and here he can speak all manner of Languages as well as those that enjoy truth in them so that he can speak of points of judgement with those that are for that discourse and points of experience with those that are for that having a form of both in his understanding and from that is able to make out himself as those who sweetly in the power of Truth enjoy God But for this latter he hath but stolne the word from his Neighbour hee hath got his experience to discourse of And this is the great deceit of mens spirits in our daies for when they hear of a precious high Truth of God which they never heard of before they eyther oppose it or else they get the form of it into their notion or understanding and the next upportunity they have they declare it â—â— their own whereas though they were convinced of the truth of it yet they were to waite for the enjoyment of the power of it in themselves and that it might be sealed by the Spirit in them 1 Cor. 4. 19 20. But many conceive if they can but remember a truth though they have it not in the power of it in themselves that the very believing of it and assenting to it is the experience of it And these are those who have a form of God or the truth in their understandings and wanâ— the power of that truth in their Spirits Amd so many a soul Rests in this very part of knowledge Now the Reasons of a soules resting here are partly these following First From a Comparison made in his own spirit with others that are in lower dispensations or weaker in knowledge or discourse then himself but especially Professors who live in high thoughts of their estates and he thus comparing his condition with theirs and seeing it so far excell theirs makes his conclusion If their condition be happy then mine is much more in respect of what I have enjoyed more then they I am not any way inferiour to any almost surely I am in a happy estate if any The second Reason followes from the high estimation others have of him especially men of the rarest abilities and solidest judgements and this addes fuel to his fire of conceipt and makes his Rest the more glorious And this is the reason that if at any time the approbation of those cease to be what it was that it occasions much distraction and want of peace within himselfe for when part of a mans cause of Rest and peace is taken away no marvell then if part of his Rest and peace go along with it Whereas he that Rests in God is freed in the Spirit and is as Mount Zion which can not be moved Psalm 125. 2. Let mans apprehensions cease or encrease he is not lifted up by the one or cast down by the other but he hath a continuall testimony within himself which abides for ever The third Cause or Reason of his Resting vpon the gifts of knowledge is from want of a right information of judgement in the difference betwixt a form of truth in the understanding and the power of truth in the heart not opposite to the other for though mans knowing God in generall or from heresay be a dispensation of God and good in its place yet it is not to be Rested upon as though the soule had in this a reall enjoyment of God Now a man may know a thing in generall and may believe in it assent to it and obey it and make a large profession of it yet if he enjoy not God in that very thing it is but a dispensation below the power of Truth So that we see here that men may get things into the head before they be in the life and power of them in the heart which if Rested upon brings with it a dangerous consequence As 1. It is the way to a high security and such a security being but carnall as is not without ground It is the way in the second place to a self-glorying and creature exalting and to the displacing of God Thirdly It is the way to fall into all manner of loosnesse under pretence of freedome and knowledge of truth and that it is no sinne though it doe this or that For no marvel when a man hath no more then a form of God in the head and wants the power of God in the heart then that soul fals into a carnall loosnesse whereby truth is evil spoken of and the party thus doing justifying his action by his hardnesse of spirit which by it he is brought into And this is the reason why many when they have received high notions do hold them forth do walk very unlike Truth is because they have it but in the head and want the power of it in the heart They have it from others or some other way and not from God and so they cannot stand in the day of temptation and so return like a Sowe to the wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 22. Again a Soul is further established in this condition from the dayly growth and encrease in knowledge he daily growing in knowledge is daily more established on his own bottomes though not so thought by himself This daily encrease of knowledge in himself the benefit that sometimes is redounded to others by that doth encrease the flame and addes fuel to the fire of this false Rest The second excellent Part or Gift upon which men Rest is Prayer and this is made an Idol of by such parties who Rest upon it But first of all when a man sets his face towards God it would gladly pray but wanting this proper Gift it useth formes but after it sees the vanity of that dispensation and the emptines of it it now would gladly pray in the Spirit and continually is complaining for want of matter
of them when indeed they are but a Testimony or a Record to set forth in a Mystery what Eternall life is And because the Scriptures say that weary soules are to come to Christ for ease and Rest therefore every soul who in his own fancy and imaginations doth judge himself to be weary may come to Christ and so by his being weary there is way opened for his coming to him For First It may be the heart may be weary of sin because it brings judgement or condemnation Or Secondly It may be weary because of his long travel to and waiting for Christ Thirdly It may be weary because it can no longer abide in these dispensations of Gods leading Fourthly It may be weary because God comes not in his time and reward it for its breathing after and working to attaine God or Christ Now the soul being falsly led out by his owne heart hee instead of coming to Christ onely Rests upon his bare apprehension of this in the letter from his sutability to it in his own spirit and here he feeds and remaines with ease comfort and peace in his own spirit and this hee makes his Tabernacle Though it be true that Scriptures were given to be a visible testimony or declaration of God or Christ according to which God workes in man yet they were never given to bee an inward Testimony or a Rest unto man but the Truth of the letter must be both Revealed Known and Judged of by the Spirit and not the Spirit especially in Internals by the Externall letter neither qualifications in man sutable to the letter in mans apprehension is a ground of faith or Rest without an inward Testimony and Manifestation by the Spirit of the Truth of these qualifications The Eleventh false Rest THE next Rest in order to this upon which men Center their spirits and makes their Tabernacles is the use and applycation of the conceived and imagined extent of Christs death which being so fully declared in the letter without any more they beleeve it upon this Testimony and here is the ground of their joy peace assurance and Rest Now I shall not go about to speake evil of any point of judgement in reference to any particular factions but to come to lay open my own experience and false Rests which in so doing I may come to lay open a way whereby those that are led by the same deceite may come to see it in themselves and so may from sad experience seale to the Truth of what we are saying for many who have gone through this dispensation and have beleeved this to be a Truth when now alas they see that they were both ignorant of what this Christ was or what was meant by his death wanting the knowledge of it in themselves now the terrours of death have or doe sease upon them and instead of being joy and peace unto them it hath produced death and sorrow in them But first of all This soul who is thus Resting upon Christs dying for all he sees the Scriptures saith Hee gave himself a ransome for all The conclusion is this of such a spirit If for all then for me and this he beleeves and this saith hee is the ground of true faith when he is altogether decived For the ground of faith is something out of the Creature in God before time revealed and made manifest from God to the soule in time upon which the soule builds his faith Rests upon it and is kept unto all time in the glory and splendor of it but the soul wanting this in a particular way of discovery he makes the other the ground of his confidence for refreshment peace safety and happinesse and he concludes First That no true faith can be but this Secondly that none have any ground to beleeve but upon this ground When the poor heart is altogether ignorant in his owne breast of the manner of Gods coming to reveale Truth yea himself in his Son by his Spirit whereas now mans ground of his happinesse lyes not in a misunderstood Scripture without him but in a right discerned revealed and known God within him Thirdly This soul daily encreaseth in the assurance of this his Rest by his daily study paines and diligence wherein he fils his head with so much of the Scriptures as indeed hee makes it so glorious as it Conquers his spirits and many more into a follacing himself in this very particular when indeed he is missing the cheesest good which is the life of him who puts an end of all controversy to all such disputes when he comes to appear in the Spirit But alas before no marvell though the poore soule bee running from mountaine to hill though hee forgets him who is the Resting place of Zion Therefore Soule Thou that makest thy habitation amongst the briers and thornes and barren mountains Arise these are not thy Rest they are from a corrupted judgement and therefore are corrupted and if thou stay here they shall destroy thee with an utter destruction all are not proper Rests which are dispensations and manners of Gods leadings but the pure promise of Rest is neither in any thing before in Death and Resurrection but in the ascendings of the heart and spirit of a Creature into God by the descendings of God into the Creature which did raise him from death and the grave and now hath opened the Heavens to him by receiving of him into glory for as Christ did not make his Rest and abode in any carnall or fleshly dispensation though in the same he did enjoy the Father so no heart is to make that his Rest which Christ did not make Every heart so long as it lives below the glory of God so as it is not glorified with God is a heart centring himselfe in a dispensation which shall be dissolved For both man in the dispensation of Christ in the flesh or in a crucified buried or raised Soule is not to abide but in a glorified ascended soule into God where the life is the unchangeable glory and splendor of God dwelling in man glorifying of man in which is the life and center of man truly and unchangeably centred The Twelfth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is a closing with and drawing comfort from the promises expressed in the Letter of the Scriptures This closing thus with and applying the benefit of promises the whole life center comfort cause of joy peace duties diligence what not to many a soule and from hence when many comes to declare their manifestation of God all they have to say is at such a time a promise was made forth unto them or cast into their thoughts by which they apprehend God and closed with it and from thence did draw comfort and peace from it and this is all the experience of God that is manifested to them or that they have This causes abundance of Rest and security to many a heart and luls them a sleep which is
free submission to God untill it enjoy an appearance of God in the Spirit 2. Instead of causing a man to Rest they declare against it and doe discover the vanity to it of many other Rests it hath been Resting upon below the enjoyment of God in the Spirit so that it is so farre from it as it as it is an Angell appearing unto whom man would gladly fall down and worship Rev. 19. 10. 22. 8. yet it saith to the Creature as the Angell said to John Worship me not so saith the Flash Rest not upon me I am but as a Messenger from God I am not the Dispensation of God appearing in the Spirit I am in the forme of an Angell I am not the God upon whom thou must Rest and worship 3. Flashes from God begets a higher breathing in the soul and a greater dis-satisfaction in the soule until it come to enjoy an appearance of God in the Spirit of glory it is so farre from causing a soule to Rest as indeed it workes a contrary frame of spirit which is a restlesnesse in the heart untill it come to enjoy that which in the flash is represented to it also if so be that there hath been any with-drawings back of the heart from seeking after God this Flash doth mightily stir up the heart of that Creature from that principle of the contrary nature namely a breathing after and a restlesse satisfaction untill it come to pâ—â—sesse God in the Spirit of glory The fourteenth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this which partly the Creature passeth through is the appearance of God in formes and administrations under which the Creature is mightily ellevated in his Spirits as Johah was with his Gourd which God gave him which workes a great displeasure in the heart when God would have the Creature brought into a higher dispensation of God Administrations I must confesse are appointed by God and in the same he usually appeareth in a low manner so as hee sometimes doth give the Creature much refreshment in the use thereof but not to bee the Soules Rest as though this were a full manifestation of God in the Spirit but to set the heart in a frame to see by this the great glory that shall be revealed unto him in the Coming of Christ in the Spirit for thus it workes If God be so glorious in a glimpse of himself in a forme how much greater will be the appearance of himself in the spirit which instead of Rest thus working it is made to have a higher breathing in its spirits after the Rest which he sees afterwards to bee enjoyed from God so that the heart is led by God through those many dispensations of God to see beyond them Rest to be enjoyed from God which cannot be enjoyed in these low Administrations under which he breaths and lives but others they instead of this Rest highly satisfied in their spirits making it their glory and Rest of spirit to be an enjoyer of those Administrations and appearances of flashes in the same making it the ground of all their Rest yea making it their God of Rest As though the Children of Israel should have said Here will wee Rest as beleeving we are in the Land of Canaan when God led them under and through those many Administrations by appearing in the forme of a Cloud of Fire for I looke upon this to be the very symptome of this manner of Rest we are a speaking of I doe not condemne the Children of Israel for their following the leadings of God in those Administrations neither do I condemne any man who is in the use of formes seeing God led them in and unto the same and that it is that which supports their spirits namely their seeing and apprehending God in such a forme as the soul is employed in with these provisoes Namely First The not Resting here Secondly The not conceiving this to be the enjoyment of a Saints Rest but his way to goe or to be led in his travelling towards the Land Thirdly His expecting of and waiting for the Coming of Christ in the Spirit which shall swallow up and go beyond his present sight of God in formes whereby he shall come to possesse the same in that manner as is more glorious then his fight which shall never be more taken away or changed into another forme But when a Saint who pretends to see the appearance of GOD doth Rest here concluding this is the true Rest and the appearance of God in the Spirit and so doth not only cease waiting for another Coming but opposeth and speakes against it This is a false Rest and not to be owned as of God For the many dispensations Christ went through before and after his death yet his Rest was not in the same but was a waiting after hee was to have passed through these Administrations and Dispensations of God to enjoy a higher then all these which was his Ascending into the glory of God in the Spirit and to make this his habitation and Rest and to be as a stranger and pilgrim in all the other Administrations in the flesh in which he did enjoy many appearances of God yet hee passed through them all and at last was made to enjoy his Rest which was the glorious enjoyment of God after his ascension into God farre beyond all formes and Administrations yea beyond the Manifestations of God in the measure thereof And so Rest in the same glory which is to be every beleevers Rest for the Rest of Christ is the same Rest of every Beleever and the same glory he Rests and breathes in is to be the Rest and breathing place of every Beleever And as Christ cannot nor shall never be changed into any other forme then now Hee lives Rests and breaths in so shall it be with every heart who shall be truly centred upon God He shall never be changed into any other forme Rest or glory then he is in when he comes to be truly stated in his living everlasting Rest below which he is not to be looked upon either by himfelfe or others to be in any true substantiall Rest yea though this do worke much peace and joy in the heart of such a party to see the appearance of God in formes and administrations yet though a soule may delight here under some considerations yet to make this his Rest and habitation is to live in and upon Jonahs Gourd or as if the Children of Isr ael should have rested in the wildernesse when God did refresh them with Manna and so in the same have made their habitation short of the Land of Canaan for God appearing in the forme of a Cloude or Pillar of fire was not for this end that they might make their habitation there No more is the appearance of God in any Gospei forme but to be as that spirituall leading into a place where God shall appear in more fuller glory and shall no more change his
forme but shall appeare alwaies in the same glory in and to the spirit of such a Creature So that what changeable forme God is pleased to appeare in to us is to be no Rest or habitation of us but to be led into higher enjoyments or after higher enjoyments of God by the fight and appearance of him though in a low or very meane manner in the form discovered For the end partly why Christ appeared in divers formes to his Apostles and so to many now is because he would not have any Rest in or upon his forme or appearance but that they might be as he was dying to all these and waiting for his ascending into God where he might be for ever swallowed up with the light and glory of God and there to make his and all Saints habitation and Rest The fifteenth false Rest THe next Rest which I shall speak of is The Gospel Faith of Jesus Christ as men cals it which indeed hath some ground of Rest both from Scripture and reason as they thinke Men in our daies have given distinctions of Faith as namely Historicall Temporall and Saving But leaving the two former I come to the latter and shall un bosome my sad experience of deceit in the same 1. Concerning this Saving Gospell Faith I owne their is a Faith which in Scripture is termed Saving yet that which men cals both beleeving and saving I finde not to be so And first of all men cals true Faith A dependance upon Christ or beleeving Christ dyed for them according to the Scripture Now Faith is neither a dependancy upon Christ or beleeving according to our common exposition that Christ dyed for us these if they be so in the heart as a Creature doth conceive yet they are but the effects and fruits of Faith in its spirituall act upon or towards God but this many make their Rest and shelter that if they can but beleeve Christ dyed for them at Jerusalem and that thus beleeving they can goe out of themselves that is onely deny their own righteousnesse and beleeve that Christ is theirs and that he dyed for them this is a Rest sufficient when indeed the poore heart is both ignorant what Faith is and what going out of himselfe is For never can a creature go out of himself to Christ or God before there be a cleere manifestation of God in the heart Now the Creature who is thus Resting upon his beleeving in Christ is altogether ignorant of any manifestation of God to him or in him For Faith is a supernaturall and divine light of God communicated to the soule by the Spirit of God which after this manifestation of light the creature comes to see and behold the glory of God by which Faith he is made to beleeve yea which beleeving is an effect or act of the said Faith upon or towards the same God which is revealed Now in the first place Beleeving is not Faith but an effect thereof Secondly Beleeying is an act of God in us to himselfes and so no Rest Thirdly Nothing which flowes forth from man to God is to be a Rest No act whatsoever is to be a Rest as it is purely exercised in man though of God but mans Rest is to be One who acts all in man who is God Many men are thinking highly of themselves because the Scriptures declare a Christ crucified for man and they are made to beleeve he was so for them and so are made to deny their own workes of doings and to depend onely upon this Christ â— which indeed the poor hearts be ignorant of and know him not neither have any manifestation of Jesus Christ in them in any particular way but onely from their own imaginations and fancies they still confidently beleeve that this Christ is theirs and he dyed for them and here they Rest and make their habitation concluding this to be Faith and the knowledge of Christ which indeed if such a Spirit knew what Faith were or the knowledge of Christ were this would be dissolved if not destroyed and it would finde it's faith and knowledge to be an un-sound and nn-safe Rest to be centred upon So that I say that that is not Faith or beleeving which men so cals and if so it were no ground to Rest upon For In the first place A man must truly know within himselfe what Faith is before man can truely beleeve Secondly Hee must also know what this Christ is he beleeves in before he can depend upon him and beleeve truly in him Thirdly There must be a cleare manifestation of God or Christ in man before there can bee any true knowledge particularly of him by man Fourthly Christs dying at Jerusalem shall then bee known to the heart in a more spirituall manner then ever And the workings of that death shall be found in that heart to bee such as formerly it did not conceive of Fiftly He shall know that dependency upon Christ and his former beleeving in Christ the truth of which he hath formerly tryed by visible signes and marks is now made to be a fancy not Faith and an effect of darknesse not of light And now he findes another dependency and beleeving in him flowing from another ground then before he knew and that the matter hee Rested upon in his own imagination which he before called a Christ dying for him is now changed being it was but his carnall conceptions and fleshly teachings and actings and now he is made to see the spirituall sense and so to judge of the truth of an ever dying yet ever living transfigured glorified Christ so as now he is making his habitation not amongst the beasts of the field in his former fancies and fleshly teachings but in the spirituall heavens where lives all Just men made perfect and all perfect men made to live by or in the life of God or Christ so as he is changed into glory and his Rest is made glorious Sixtly When this is come to passe men shall know really the Mystery of Faith and why it is called a Mystery and that same spirit shall know a difference betwixt the Mystery of Faith discovered to the Conscience coming as it were from God and the keeping and exercising of the Mystery of that Faith in a pure Conscience to God and that beleeving is not Faith as it purely comes from God discovering it selfe and the Mystery thereof to the Conscience But it is the exercise of that said Mystery of Faith by God in Conscience to God So that the Mystery of faith in it selfe is one thing and beleeving and dependency upon Christ if true is another thing But the effect or exercise of the Mysteriousnesse of faith in a conscience which is pure to or upon a God that is pure Seventhly Men may beleeve Christ died for them and from this beleeving may practise such things as are required by him yea may have much peace joy in the same And in this his own works
Creature with it and giving the soul full contentment in it First It is an unexpressible glorious Center the Lord promising in Isaiah that hee would accomplish a glorious worke in silling the hearts of his People with the knowledge of himselfe hee Centers all in this To him shall the Gentiles seek and his Rest shall be glorious Isa 11. 10. Yea the Rest of Saints is the very Substance of his glory which glory is Christ when hee comes to bee manifested in his Saints and to bee admired by them 2 Thes 1. 9 10. Secondly It wholly takes up the Creature who is Centred in it so as now the soul or spirit is wholly swallowed up of God and unexpressibly overcome is such a soul The glory of God which is Christ is that which swallows up mens spirits and the more it appeares in them the more it overcomes them so as now they are taken up in their spirits being gathered up into it with nothing else but it So as now the soules delight ioy solace is now alone in nothing but in him who is become a glorious Center to him Thirdly The Rest of Saints gives Saints full contentment the full satisfaction of Saints lyes in living and Resting compleatly in this glory which truly is Christ so as man sometimes is lost in the greatnesse of it The least manifestation of this glory doth fill the creatures capacity so that until the capacity be enlarged with more of God it can desire no farther enjoyment or discovery of it so as now his spirit is filled with glory And that which makes it the more satisfactory is the Centring of the spirit up in it Now Christ in the Spirit becoming a Saints Rest all other seeming glories which before the soule was sheltred under and lived upon are now vanished and decayed and the greatnesse of this glory which is the Vision of God yea the manifestation of his glory in man takes up man into it to live wholly in it and so to remaine in compleat satisfaction and contentment of spirit for a great part of a soules Rest consists in this very particular to wit the gloriousnesse thereof together with the swallowing up of the creature with it and the giving the spirit a compleat contentment in it for it would be in time a place of wearinesse unlesse it were a place giving the creature full contentment Secondly It would be no place for Saints to delight and solace themselves in unlesse they could bee wholly taken up and seallowed up with that which of necessity must be enjoyed from it and unlesse it did exceed all glory that could bee imagined it could be no Rest for the spirit of a spirituall man So that it must be an unexpressible glory swallowing up of mens spirits with it and giving that spirit compleat satisfaction and contentment in it The fourth description of true Rest IN the fourth place This Rest is a carrying forth of the Creature out of the creature into the place where he had his first Being to live for ever in him who is now become his manifested Being First before wee speak of the Rest it self we will observe That there is no true Rest for the creature in himselfe for if man either Rest in his pure naturals or upon any refined property in himself he Rests out of his proper Element I mean as he is a spirituall man yea It is both unsafe and unsound so to doe neither can man with any solid delight or true contentment Rest in or upon any eyther pure naturals or refined properties or parts within himselfe though man could attaine to his first principles and purity yet if he Rested upon them he would live below the true Center of Spirits for indeed the Rest and proper being of all spirits especially those that are renewed is the Eternall Word of God which Word is Christ who made all things in the World of nothing into which nothing they are to returne But the spirits of men or especially that renewed spirit of Saints that came down from the Father of spirits who begot this spirit in them not by flesh but by himselfe in his spirituall breathings and actings in the Creature which spirit of man cannot live in any true element neither can it live satisfied untill it come into its proper and originall Being from whence it came for every thing is in its right place when it is returned into its originall and place from whence it was derived so that the spirit returnes to God that gave it Eccl. 12. 7. and the flesh of the man into the dust from whence it was derived so that man as he is carnall and flesh it cannot be possible that the spirit of any should take much delight in the same so as to make it the satisfying Center But yet after it is renewed it may be compared to Noahs Dove it sees the Deluge and looks abroad in the flesh to the Mountain of former self-actings and pure naturals yet it cannot rest in the same neither can it take any delight therein but is made to returne to the Arke Jesus Christ who though he is in the soule yet above it as the Arke above the water so Christ above the Creature though within it as the Deluge in the world so that the Creature as man is no fit place for a renewed spirit to be centred up in but he must by divine power be brought out of himselfe into that eternall being of spirits who is said to be above man though in man Eph. 4. 6. as the Arke above the Deluge though in the world Now man cannot truly Rest in himselfe But Secondly The place into which the soule is carried is and was the first being of his spirits and now manifested so to be to the Creature which being was Christ this Christ was Gods eternall thoughts of Love in which man had a being and now comes in time as a Being to be manifested in the Saints so the one was the unknown Being of Saints before time where they lay in the Love and heart of God which nothing could remove them out of it the other Rest is the known Rest and being of Saints made manifest unto them in time which knowledge begets a returning of spirit who with much weaâ—inesse of spirit have been waiting for such a day of Redemption Luke 21. 28. that it might return into its first originall and being and to be fully secured in its God which before it neither knew nor did experience So that after the heart hath a discovery of this Being it is like a Loadstone touching the Needle the Needle can stand no way but towards the North and South so with the spirit of man after it is touched with his Being and center manifested it is not able to Rest in all the glories or excellencies that can possibly be imagined untill it be returned into its being he is like a wicked man or man of this world who cannot act but in his
in us so that in this particular the creatures life is swallowed up and gathered into the life of God and as God continues living in them they shall continue living in him and as God hath taken up them to be an everlasting rest for himself so he hath appointed and made himself an everlasting Rest unto them So that now they are ascended in their Spirits into God and there sweetly live in God And lastly he lives sweetly in God and so Rests in him who hath God in him to be an everlasting light in him So that his Sun never goes downe nor Christ in him never ceases to shine forth in light and glory to him So as according to that saying There shall be no night there Rev 21. 25. so also Revel 22. 5. Though some thinke that this is a very high state yet experience and Scripture do testify That it is a state injoyed or shall be injoyed by all or most Saints in these our dayes Isa 60. 19. 20. We see the Promise God makes with his people is this That the LORD shall be unto them an everlasting light and God their compleat glory Esa 60. 19. yea in the 20th verse Their sun shall no more goe downe neither their Moon withdraw it self for the LORD shall be their everlasting light and the dayes of their mourning shall be ended Here we see that in the first place there is a state that soules may be clouded in though they have precious workings of God upon them Secondly this state is attended with mourning Thirdly there is a degree that is above either where there shall be neither withdrawing of light or clouding where all mourning shall fly away but the soule shall be filled with divine light and God shall never cause any more clouds to come upon such a soul but his light shall be everlasting and the glory of God shall fill his spirits for ever so that God shall become the glory of such a spirit in which glory the spirit shall rest for ever so that there is a fulnesse of glory to be enjoyed in the spirits of the Saints when God doth dwell in them and become a disâ—ensation of glory to them I speak this in reference to the shallow capacity of the creature and that fulnesse of glory to satisfy the same in every appearance of glory within the creature so that now when saints come to enjoy this dispensation from God it being an everlasting dispensation of God in them which cannot wax old or decay so are they made to live unchangeable in the same And this is the stayed Rest of saints For one thing there is in this That no soule can truly rest in any dispensation unlesse it be a dispensation which abides for ever and cannot be dissolved so as his Rest cannot be dissolved likewise so that to Rest thus is stayedly sure and everlasting unperishable and undissolveable and also he rests in God who lives in everlasting joy and peace so as nothing can disturb his peace nor dissolve his joy so as to cause either to cease For come what condition will upon the body yet his spirit is swallowed up with joy he doth not power upon creatures as formerly he did but now he lives by rejoycing and rejoyces by living Nothing without him is a trouble to him such a trouble as touches his spirituall joy He receives alwayes praises alwayes and depends alwayes so that his spirits are kept in everlasting joy and peace and all sorrow and mourning is flown away no more sorrow of spirit is known by him neither doth he experience any more spirituall pain within him but in stead thereof is establisht peace and joy for evermore FINIS
of this dispensation shall be discovered whether it be of God or man if of God it shall be dispelled by a higher if of man or Satan it shall be destroyed So that to Rest upon this estate though attained from God though it should prove a dispensation of God it would be a Rest much below the Center of the soul which is God The Second false Rest THe second Rest most commonly of Soules after a common restraining the Creature from grosse evils is a work seeming to the Creature something higher and that is in obedience unto what the Law of God requires The first is A negative Obedience from something The second is an affirmative Obedience to something and this seems to the Creature to go beyond the other and so become a surer foundation of Rest when indeed it is all one with the other and still short of the true Rest And here comes it to passe that in this dispensation man hath no longer peace then he acts sutable to the Law break the Law and it breaks the neck of the Souls peace Keep it and it keeps the Soul in peace And secondly in this condition it comes to passe that the Creature is wholly cast down and begins to question all he hath yea the very foundation of all when in the least manner he doth transgresse But still the soul is in a very low and empty dispensation but mans obedience to the Law wherein he intends by his obedience to it to get happinesse and life from it flowes from these particulars following 1. From a convincement of his misery out of God in which he sees a want of God upon which he runnes unto the Law being convinced by it to see what is required of it He now resolves makes Covenants Vowes renewes them often and purposeth to doe what the Law requires To this end he fals aboard of praying reading keeping Sabbath and spends nights and daies in labouring to attaine to what the Law requires And 1. The Law requiring as the principall part of it Love Now this is the daily complaint of such a soule in this dispensation Oh that I could love God then I could believe God loved mee then it being the principall part of the Law I could believe it were fulfilled either in mee or for mee then should I enjoy peace and Rest in my spirit not knowing that our love to God flowes from the manifestations of Gods love in us not considering that the Law is fulfilled by another not knowing that peace and Rest flowes from the enjoyments of God and not from sutable Quallifications to the Law of God but now when the soule hath as he conceives got so much love to God as partly the Law of God requires it Rests concluding this That love to God is an infallible Token of Love from God Yet not knowing that the way to judge aright of my love to God is from the enjoyments of Love from God And here lies the great deceit of many spirits Again The Law requires Sabbath keeping and many such like comands are required The soule cryes Oh that I could keepe the Sabbath Oh that my heart could keepe close with God upon that day and here the soule labours to bring his heart into that frame not to think his own thoughts or speake his owne words whereupon he sets a praying in the morning and exercises himselfe in all duties agreeable to the day now if he keepe the day so exact as he thinkes the Law requires he Rests with much peace but if he be dead and cold and unprofitable in these Dispensations he employes himselfe in then he can have no peace all the weeke but is mourning and grieving he hath broke the Law and here is partly the frame of such a spirit And the second cause of his thus actings is from an apprehension of wrath and a condemning conscience and hell within it would doe any thing to asswage the wrath and fire of hell in his owne conscience What would not a soule doe or attempt to remove the same being at present too heavy for the soule to beare now it would doe any thing to stoppe the mouth of a condemning conscience though it will pretend what it doth is for no such matter but the flatterings of the heart and the glosse it puts upon the actions of the Creature in this Dispensation Now the soule not discerning satisfaction given to God by another it labours therefore to satisfie God for the breach it hath made betwixt it and God though I say the heart here will glosse its actions and say to the contrary But now it seeing a breach this breach must be made up before there can be peace Now the soule not seeing the breach made up by Christ he labours to make up the breach by his actuall obedience to the Law of God And therefore is it that men teach this Principle The way to attaine Grace and favour with God is by such a humiliation or sorrow as they call God And here they prove Aegyptian Task-masters to set the Creature upon doing when he hath no straw to worke withall Exod 5. 13 14. And this is usuall with Creatures in this Dispensation when they see themselves in bondage to get freedome by doing And so comes it to passe many breake prison before they be set free by the Spirit As for instance when the soule can finde such a Qualification in him or such a frame of Spirit in him as the Law requires having a long time laboured for it he judgeth himselfe to be set free by Christ when it is but a conceited freedome as an effect of his obedience and not as an effect of the obedience of Christ revealed to him in the Spirit And in this particular the Creature is like a horse that is fallen into a bogmire he labours to plunge himselfe out lest he perish there and indeed plunges himselfe faster in and brings himselfe into a nigher way of perishing Thus the Creature seeing himselfe falâ—â— into misery and bondage he labours and plunges to free himselfe untill he plunges himselfe into higher bondage and as the horse will not give over and lye still untill he hath wearied himselfe no more will the soule cease acting to free himselfe untill he be wearied and worne out of breath And then he shall be forced to wait untill He who delivers Saints out of the pit where no water is come and deliver this Spirit out of his slavery and bondage And also in an estate of darknesse the like the Creature labours for light and being encompassed about with pits on every side and being in darknesse he will not stay untill the Light come or the day dawn but at last for want of a Guide which is the Spirit he fals into the pit where he lies more sadder then ever John 16. 15. These are the common though sad effects of those who run before God leades them and either the Creature Rests after he hath
attained qualifications sutable to the Law or else brought up into a higher obedience to the Law or he remaines sensibly miserable of the greater misery in it then before which though it be more sadder to the apprehension yet it is the way of God in the Creature thus to frustrate the expectation of the Creature in its labouring to worke happinesse for it selfe untill happinesse be revealed within it The Third cause is from the principle of Nature and here the Covenant of workes is most sutable to the principles of Nature Nature would alwaies be doing though in its doing it instead of acting to God is acting from God For it is impossible that man can truly act â—o God before there be an acting of God in him So that man cannot ascend up to God before there be a descending of God into the soule which Descendings I call a reall manifestation of life within man which is God being a Fountaine breakes forth againe from man unto God And before that though soules act never so gloriously yet they are but Adams running away from God and from the principles of Nature clothing themselves Gen. 3. 8. Which in time though man Rest upon it proves selfe Righteousnesse or a Righteousnesse according to the Law and not the Righteo usnesse of God by faith and so his Rest and peace shall be taken from him and destroyed in him 4. The cause from which his thus acting flowes is from self-love and this will goe beyond any thing formerly mentioned Self-love in the gaining of its owne ends will thinke nothing too difficult to attempt nothing too deare to part withall unlesse the things we are now speaking of which is mans selfe When a man is swallowed up with selfe instead of being swallowed up with God whatsoever the Creature is put upon when swallowed up with God this Creature thus led forth out of self-love will resemble the same if not goe beyond it nothing that stands in the way of the Creature thus possessed is too deare to it or too hard to attempt it Put Jehu upon pulling down Idols it made him very zealous it made the Scribes and Pharisees give almes and spend themselves and suffer theirs to be spent to attaine their ends It will put a man upon fasting much praying often yea if it be to hazard life or liberty it is free if it may but accomplish its owne ends which is most commonly from a convicted happinesse or glory either inward from God or outward from man Self sees a promise of life and happinesse handed out in the Law to those that keepe it as namely Doe this and live it never considers what it could doe and now can doe but now it labours to try what may be done that an undone soule may be made happy Oh the consideration of happinesse doth so affect a soule convinced of the want of it that as the love of God enjoyed doth draw out that soule that enjoyes it too much for God so this soule possessed with the love of selfe doth draw out the Creature not out of himselfe yet to doe or act any thing that may procure happinesse to it selfe Also self-love in this particular would not freely have all from God nor would it be beholding to God for all then it should have nothing to glory in but God Witnesse those cryings out Must the Creature do nothing must he not take paines with his owne heart to prepare it for God Must not the Creature seeke and knocke and pray and be prepared for Christ Not considering it must be a meere passive Goe through the sufferings of Christ or rather to have fellowship with him in his sufferings that is to be subject to the will of God and to suffer God to dispose order or burne up in the Creatures spirits as he pleaseth onely the soule to be a patient in the workings out of life untill he can act from the enjoyments of it The Lords way is to destroy or burne up all the Creatures preparations for God and all that stuffe the Creature hath within him or attained by him and strips the Creature naked of all either in him or done by him and brings him as an empty soule to him who is the fountaine of life and to be revealed in him Now to take away an objection which is that the Creature must labour though not for life yet for a manifestation of life To this I answer That the life whereby man acts to God is by the power of life revealed from God for before it be re-revealed man is dead it is the revealing of life into man which gives life to man So that man can neither truly act for life or the manifestation of it before man be made alive by it which is not before the manifestation of Christ which is life to the soule Secondly That as mercy and love was prepared freely of God in Christ without the Creature so it is to be revealed freely by Christ in the Creature and after it be revealed in man It is that grace which is in man acts out from man unto God That occasioned these words from Paul Yet not I but the grace of God which was with mee 1. Cor. 15. 10. Then let these following particulars be considered of 1. That man who doth obey God though his obedience be never so seemingly glorious yet if he Rest upon and be satisfied with it he Rests below the true Rest which is God For though the Creature yeilds obedience to the Law or any other Truth as the Truth requires yet he is not to Rest upon it though it be of and from the Lord it being flowne from that which is to be the soules Rest 2. That soule who being convinced of the want of and its misery without God and from this labours to get God by acting to God though his action be never so glorious it being to get his person acceptable from the glory of his action and Rests here conceiving the acceptation of his person from the glory of his action that mans Rest and Conception is false This was the reason why Abels Sacrifice was acceptable and Cains was not because Abels person was acceptable and Cains was not for Cains action was as seemingly glorious as Abels was But the acceptation of an action must flow froÌ„ the acceptation of a person It is not nor cannot be that any mans person can be accepted with God from the glory of any of the Creatures actings to God Then it should be of workes and man hath something to boast of Neither is my obedience to God a true evidence of my enjoyment of God and acceptance with God For the young man in the Gospell who was nigh to the Kingdome of God did yeeld obedience to the commands of God and yet he wanted that one thing necessary which was to be the Rest of his soule 3. That the Resting upon any obedience to God performed in the exactest manner by the Creature will
bring nothing but death and sorrow to the creature in due time When man kindles a fire and Warmes himselfe in the sparkes thereof God upbraids the creature thus by telling him his end should be to lye downe in sorrow That is When God comes to appeare upon any soule in love he burnes up all these false Rests the creature hath beene making for it selfe That is What the creature drawes comfort from to himselfe if it be from the glory of any action that is for a man to kindâ—e a fire and warme himselfe in the sparkes or fire he himselfe hath kindled Isai 50. 10. 11. Now God at last brings the creature to see the vanity of all his owne actions and upon this there is nothing but death to what he hath beene living upon and sorrow annexed for his thus living upon it and Resting in it Therefore confider No acting forth of the creature to God before the creature receive a divine power from God is acceptable with God for God accepts of no obedience but either that which he did by Christ for us or by Christ in us Now a man may doe great things by a power of Nature which I call a power of God in its dispensation Which power or from vvhich power a man acts in a way to God that is seemingly to God and for God but in conclusion proves not so now God approving of no action by us unlesse it be from the fountaine of himselfe in us And seeing our actings to God are changable and may seeme to perish though never so rare It is no sure Rest for any soule onely he who is unchangable in us must be revealed to us before any true Rest can be received by us Now the condition of a Soul in these low dispensations is like unto a man affrighted by an enemy and being so he labours to preserve himselfe from death by him he runs to secure himself at last he findes to his apprehension a place of Rest and safety he being almost weary afterwards it appears not so to be but his adversary pursues him so that he is not safe and so from place to place he runs to get shelter he finding none he is forced to yield himself up to the mercy of his adversary So it is with a Soule seeing God to be his enemy he flyes as Adam did thinking to secure himselfe and cover himselfe but God pursues the Soul and findes him out where the Soule not finding any safe Rest yields himself freely with trembling and feare up unto God to be at the mercy of God God aâ— I may say pursues a Soule and when it would be Resting upon any thing below himself he drives it from its station and so man runs from Rest to Rest and every Rest he makes is more glorious then another But God speakes unto the Soule as he did to the Apostles Arise let us go hence John 14. 31. as if he should say You would be Resting in this condition but it is not a condition of Rest and safety I will bring you higher and that shall be when I will discover my self in the Spirit that you shall not Rest upon my flesh as I am in a shape but upon me as I will be transfigured before you or rather in you in the Spirit So as now Arise and go up that is higher So also is God most commonly saying to such Soules Arise this is not your Rest Mic 2. 10. if thou stay here it shall destroy thee with an utter destruction Therefore to conclude This man runs from mountain to hill and forgets his Resting place untill God hedgeth up his waies and makes the soul at length Rest in himself The third false Rest THe next Rest of a Soul below the true Rest is The excellency of Gift which doe so mightily adorn the Creature as thereby the Creature is led into high conceits of the glory and excellency of its condition The first Part or Gift we shall speak of is Knowledge Multiplicity of knowledge is such a rare Part as makes a man seem much like a Saint not carnall in the matters of the world but spirituall conceived in the matters of God and this doth mightily puffe up the Creature And indeed much knowledge attained in the notion unlesse it be experimentall there is an impossibility to keep the soul from Resting in it or being puft up with it And First of all I shall discover how most commonly the Soul attains this The first is from a quick apprehension in the understanding of things which is a common gift in nature which is a ready way to attaine much knowledge together with an enlaged capacity that he can receive and keep what he apprehends so as he comes to gather in knowledge apace into the notion so as the Soule glorieth the most in the improvement of that gift or part in which he doth the most excel This Creature he is very fluent in discoursing of the best things and will be alwaies delighting the most in arguing of those things he hath the most knowledge in and he being very gallant in discourse gathers knowledge in every thing he undertakes and here he glories to overcome any with argument Or Secondly To be adored or had in high estimation for this his knowledge And this applanding of him makes his estimation of the glory of â—his own condition to be heightened here he looks upon himself to be a Saint in glory he having these parts of knowledge makes him as often argue against truth as for it that others may see the wit and knowledge he hath and by strength of wit be able to speak of higher things then those who sweetly enjoy God Yea for parts of knowledge goes beyond and by all is preferred before them Now having thus attained knowledge in the head though he doe not experience the same he Rests satisfied in his condition Secondly Knowledge which man Rests upon is a knowledge got by paines and diligence of things without him That which is got by much pains the Creatures is more apt to Rest upon so as for the notionary knowledge of the Scripture he exceeds He is mightily fluent in the letter and is able to speak much from the same and this doth furnish him so as now he makes it his glory to speake of and know much of the letter though it is without him and not experienced in him But alas what is it for any man to know much in this nature and there Rest This is but the shell of Truth the Substance is Truth in us experienced by us To reade Truth in the letter without me and to know it there is a dispensation but to know it by the Spirit within me must be a higher dispensation and the Dispensation of Rest For what is it for any man to get all the Scriptures into memory to furnish him with knowledge able to dispute or preach yet unlesse he know the same within himself it 's but
to expresse In conclusion it attaines matter to expresse and in the attaining matter doth much abuse the same but the means most commonly wherein it doth attaine it is first by often frequenting private and publike meetings where it steales away the expressions of others and when it sees one man enlarged it is made to admire that part in them and cry out O if I could pray as such a one can then I should be at Rest and enjoy much peace It presses forwards and by paines and diligence it attains that enlargement as that now it excels others and is now admired by them who before was admired by it so as now the poor Creature can speake three or four hours in prayers and can hardly comprehend himselfe within the space of one houre and here lies the deceipt of the heart that here the Soule makes his Rest and this to be a sure evidence of his interest in God But alas how blinde and unsound this present evidence is let Scripture and experience testify for alas a hypocrite or one who at all knowes not God may excell in the seeming glory of this Part yea excell those that live in the highest enjoyments of God and here many soules make this dispensation a meer Idol they draw all their peace and comfort from it for if in this part the Creature excell he will be the oftner using of it living most upon it draw most comfort from it and glory the most in it for if ever the Creature be straitned in this particular he begins to droop and be sad and full of trouble but if either in publique or private he be enlarged much again he is mightily refreshed and lifted up And secondly If at any time he cannot have those cōmon opportunities or set times then al his peace is gone and it is because his peace is grounded upon his often praying and his great enlargement in so doing and indeed the soules blindnesse lies here for the Creature takes his enlargement to be a manifestation or evidence of the presence of God Now a man may pray long and often and excell all in externall form and yet have none of the presence of God manifested at all in the same neither is a straightning of the Creature in expression to be any cause of sorrow or trouble if God be manifest neither is it an evidence of his not being manifested within So here partly lyes the ground of a souls thus Resting or taking satisfaction or peace to his spirit in this dispensation Now I would not be mistaken that I am speaking against this form or dispensation when a man is not commanded by the form but he is commanded from a power within so as he commands it and useth the same according to the end for which it was appointed For I looke upon the same as to be a dispensation of God But I looke upon the Resting in it or having peace by it to be a corruption of a mans owne heart and a deceit thereof First Therefore I commend these things following to be considered of all That though a man should be never so glorious or admirable in this particular dispensation so as in the same he may be able to speake a whole day together yet his heart in this may deceive him and if it doe not yet it is no safe Rest or cause of peace or satisfaction or there is no safety in the excellents part that can be received but they take their wings and flee away and here is not that in them which men conceive Secondly Man may have these parts in the glory of them and yet have no fellowship or commmnion with God in them aud so they may be rather snares them sure Rests Nay if it were so as many souls doth enjoy God in them or rather communion with God in the same yet it is neither the duty or enlargement which is or ought to be the Rest but God made manifest in the same The third Part or Gift is Humility And this sometimes comes some of these waies following 1. Either from an instinct or property in nature O◠2. From a self-reasoning Or 3. From resembling the truth of Humility that is in another Or 4. From or as an effect of the enjoyment of God First It is in many who in the least have no divin◠workings of God in them any way made manifest yet they are excellent in this very particular which makes them very lovely in the eyes of all men so that a little of God will be seen in such a Creature but meerly without the manifestation of grace such Soule doth appear to be gracious such a spirit as this ◠can hardly be given to passion but full of meeknesse and love and moderation and yet this parties gifts a◠common or naturall to him He cannot be almo◠otherwise this disposition is so naturall But others b◠nature are of a turbulent spirit and full of pride an◠choller which makes him to become odious to all and hererupon when he becomes odious to himself◠he fals in the second place to reason thus O how lovely doe others appear to me how humble and low are they What a proud spirit am I of How am hated and become almost odious to all I will goe se if I can help this carriage of mine Now this Soul one looks to take away the effects though the cause abid◠and here he labours to frame his speeches and his jesture and actions and so by much paines gets a form of humility and now carries himself very sweetly towards all so that now there is a strong change wrought in this person so that he is admired by all and chiefly by himself who was of such a high carriage and of a proud and turbulent spirit and now he is of a calm and quiet spirit this appears to be a great change and so judging of it he is highly exalted in his opinion of himselfe and conceives he hath enjoyed abundance of grace from God that hath thus humbled him when indeed he hath it but in the forme of it not in the power having the branches and effects taken away for the present in the outward expression of it but transformed into another shape and that 's more inward making of him more spiritually proud and so have high conceits of the happinesse of his condition and so Rests Secondly It reasons thus God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. Now in his highnesse of carriage or turbulency of spirit he looks upon his condition as to be resisted of God whereupon he prayes and useth what meanes he can to restraine himselfe saith he It may be I may be I may come to get a better temper of spirit whereby I may not become both odious to God and man Now I say at last he attaines a form or shape of what he doth desire and Rests satisfied in the receiving of it Though I say he is outwardly but
zeal in persecuting the Church Act. 22. 3. and out of conceit he did God good service Rested satisfied We know the Scribes and Pharisees who were the most Zealous for Sabbaths and prayer and other points of Worship yet they make it their Rest but come to our daies and see if we swarme not of the same only seeming professors of God who are very Zealous for the same things and from their very Zeal are made to Rest with high thoughts of their condition But how far this zeal which is most commonly led with more affection then Judgement will bring man into a form of Truth First It will leade man into a whole conformity to what it doth conceive to be truth that it shall according to what it hath serve God in all good conscience Acts 23. 1. and according to the Law to be unblamable and untaxable Then his conversation shall bee very strict in the observation of what the Law requires and hee shall act the same with much vehemency of spirit taking all opportunities for the doing of the same Secondly It will carry the soule on to suffer cheerfully what he may meet withall in this very particular Thirdly he may by Zeal afflict his body sore 1 Co. 13. 3. with fasting and mourning under pretence the one to honour and obey God the other for dishonour brought to God So as he may be almost spent in body and spirit and estate in prosecuting the things of God according to his light Farther hee may out of Zeal come to Gospel precepts and may be Zealous for that light in externall formes which is there required to be obeyed so as he may gather Churches and may suffer much in the conforming to and practising with so much vehemency the Ordinances coÌ„monly practised by the Churches in the Apostles and our daies so as his Zeal may lead him out to teaching and helping forward that worke studying night and day to finde out matter to furnish himselfe for edification so as for paines in the Churches and for Zeal to observe the severity of those formes and any thing required to bee practised in the said Churches so as now it will have communâ—on in Ordinances with none but those of his own stamp judgement being mightily carried forth to judge and pity those who are opposers of that light Now this soul through Zeal may goe thus farre yea to act up to the highest things the Scriptures doe require in matters of visible practise and yet be not at all taught in the Spirit neither got into the life and power of what he doth professe but meerly zealous for shadowes and wants the power so as he is commanded by the form and not the forme by the power dwelling within him Now grant farther That such a soule did act in truth according to this dispensation yet notwithstanding in this particular there were no cause of Rest for nothing visibly seen flowing from the Creature ought to be its Rest but some invisible flowings into the Creature which is being and substance from which and unto which a Soule through Zeale for God acts Also a Creature thus zealous Rests not at home but reformes abroad also beginning with his own family and so goes abroad to others and labours for a reformation and practises the same with much Zeal so as he can not endure the visible appearance of any sinne in himself or others He may help with much Zeal the purging of Cities and Nations of drunkennesse or swearing or any open prophanesse he may be for punishing of evil doers in this particular with much severity and seeming to be much troubled at the neglect of it he may rejoyce much in this practise and may help forward this work in a Nation very much and yet this no Rest at all also he may be zealous yea mad of Zeale for the worship of his God in reference unto others not only taking all opportunities to inform them in the same but using all Coercive powers for confirming them thereunto so as he may be an instrument to bring families and most part of Cities into this outward conformity to the matters of worship and here hee lookes upon an action done of great moment and weight and partly makes this an evidence of his true enjoyment of God by Reason of his zeale for God and the effect thereby produced which is the good of many Now the cause of a Souls thus Resting partly flowes from want of the information in judgement of the great deceite of the heart in putting man by zeal upon such publique actions and then to cause it to Rest and further it conceiving it's Zeale for God and from a principle of God not being acquainted with a Pharisaicall Zeale to be seâ—n of men or to get a name amongst men or that Zeal which men have but not according to knowledge or the Zeale Paul had before conversion which excels both for vehemency and downrightnesse is the Zeal of many a Professor who are at Rest in our daies Now a poor Creature because he is made to suffer freely and to hazard life and liberty in the prosecution of his Zeale he is much puffed up under these considerations 1. That now this is a suffering with and for Christ and therefore he shall reign with him and enjoy much from him 2. That this is a parting with all for Christ and a great point of self-deniall and so an evidence of a disciple of Christ when indeed the Soule is in himselfe and hath not at all attained that estate to forsake himselfe Therefore let every heart though never so Zealous for God take notice that his heart may deceive him in his Zeale and his affection may blinde his judgement and so it proves blinde zeale Or Secondly Consider that though it be such Zeale as is good and to be approved of in it's dispensation yet not at all to be Rested upon nor to be an evidence of any true enjoyment of God though he pretend God in the fore-front as Jehu did The fifth false Rest THe next Rest of a Soule though I might not have spoken of it because I have partly given it forth yet that things may be the more opened it s the Creatures Righteousnesse or sanctification and outward holinesse wherein both in carriage and words he doth most sweetly in probability savour of high enjoyments of God This is to be a testimony of the same to others though not to himselfe yet notwithstanding his Rest is to him a high evidence of the true and reall possessings of God when alas it is continually a vanishing Rest and evidence and when the Creature stands in need of it it is taking its wings and flying away and proves a miserable comforter in the saddest straits of a Soule But first Let us consider that true holinesse of a person made manifest in actions flowes from the justification of a Soule made manifest in the Spirit so that the truest holinesse or outward sanctification
doth wholly flow as an effect of Justification made manifest As for instance The Fountain and the streames The streames are an effect of the Fountain flowing from the abundance contained in the same so it is with God made manifest in the heart he being the Ocean or Fountain comprehending all streames within himself doth issue out of himselfe those streames of Sanctification or holinesse in conversation from himself thus abiding in the Creature So that a man may have the latter in as high a manner though not in truth as he that hath God truly manifest and no way to be discerned but by the light of truth dwelling within which makes the truth or falshood of such things in this nature manifest and before the same enjoyed the Creature is in darknesse and it is as possible for a man to see twenty miles in a very darke night as for a man really to judge of the truth or falshood of his own condition before this light come in from God which expels those cloudes as the shining of the Sun doth the cloudes and here lies the darknesse of a heart when it is made to see the want of God it looks into the frame and disposition of mens spirits abroad who are under a name of profession and being much affected with them and drawn out in love to them it gets into such relations or society and it sees abundance of holinesse flow from their conversations now it being away to reprove that party not having the same conversation in holinesse of walking or power against corruption it cries out O that I were so holy in conversation as such a one is O that I had such and such a power against corruption as they have and could be alwaies discovering of good things as they are or could have my minde fixed upon heavenly things as they have O how heavenly doth such a one walke and this is his construction or application O if I could be but so I should then be at peace and Rest then I should think my condition happy but alas here is such abundance of carnall mindednesse and of corruption in my conversation and a wearinesse in things that are good here the Creature takes up a daily complaint and to every Saint is making his condition known and cannot Rest quiet untill he have resembled or attained such a measure of knowledgee to discourse of God and so much power against corruption as to walke in conversation like those whose conversation did convict him and ashame him Now having attained so much in shew and that now his affections seem to be bent upon good things that now God is his meditation and his continuall ponder that now when it s thus the Creature hath much peace sometimes upon the view of the same and when it cannot walk thus it hath neither Peace nor Rest Now here the Creatures heart deceives him and makes him Rest upon that which may be in truth and not in truth or upon that which is given to change and abides not one and the same for ever Now al this a man may have and yet have nothing manifest in truth and though it might be said that these are true in there place yet not appointed for Rests but for effects of that which was in truth within for he that saith he dwels in him ought even so to walk as he hath walked Now holinesse in the highest degree as it flowes out from man is but an especiall effect of the dwelling of the Spirit of God or an effect of his Rest in him not to be a Rest but to manifest to others that he dwels and Rests in God For to me that Soule who Rests and dwels in God must have his conversation but especially his inward walking like God for to others that look upon a Saint thus pretending to dwell must judge of the same by that fruit that flowes from him in one kinde or another though it is not to be a testimony to himself who thus liveth he having another testimony which speaks or evidences Peace 1 John 5. 10. upon more sure grounds yea and lets the Creature see a ground or place of Rest going as farre beyond this as the streams are short of the Fountaine and the body of the Sun beyond the least glimpse or shining thereof Man I may say who is Resting in peace and quietnesse of spirit from these visible branches if they be true is one who still hangeth upon the outside of the Arke and like the Pharisees Resting with glorious outsides and washing of the outside of Cupâ— more to be seen of men or justified before God then to be as an effect of that truth within made forth for the glory of God The one of these ends did Cain act for and the other end did the Scribes and Pharisees act for so that a house builded upon such a foundation as this seems to be as glorious as that which was builded upon the Rock but it was not so safe for with every blast storm that comes against such a spirit it fals into its former state it was in before thus builded so were the devout Women and golden Sepulchers and whited walls builded upon such considerations as these they were outwardly holy and seemingly pure but were within full of deadly poyson and were put for outward glory not adorned with the Spirit so it is very likely that the said Spirit that Rests upon this seeming though thought by himself true holinesse is a Soul altogether full of deadly poyson and deceite which in time may be discovered and then the Creature shall see another Rest more sure and safe then this and shall lose by it yet Love shall save him though it be a fire for to burn up what of this Rest was of himselfe so that I say such a soules foundation of Rest shall fade as Solomon in all his glory First Then this Spirit thus Resting is away to keep it below true assurance for in this Rest there can flow no true cause or ground to the Creature to be assured thereby Secondly For a man to Rest here it will be but to make a house which ere long it may be God will batter about his ears and so prove labour in vaine as many can speak by sad experience Thirdly Whatsoever flowes from a man pretended to God before there be an inward revelation in that man of God and makes the same a true evidence of his enjoying this God thus revealed and so Rests his thus doing is but his own righteousnesse and not the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ revealed by faith Fourthly That the party thus acting doth go no farther then a point of bodily exercise for what a man doth in point of holinesse pretending for God and after doth owne it as a true evidence or any causeof Rest as God To me it appears and in the judgement of Scriptures that mans action is but bodily exercise for nothing is or ought to be either
by Christ to the sonnes of men wherupon the creatures spirit is set a waiting for it and at last comes to enjoy it So in Free grace when God represents this truth to let man see he is Free in all his dispensations man being thereby convinced of it his heart is set a waiting for the enjoyment of the same within him which he sees in God above him that is above his reach of enjoying and so he doth not let him Rest though he see a truth until he comes to have the manifestation of it within him and in the power and life of it enjoyed by him So as the generall knowledge of Free grace before it be known particularly in the creature by the manifestation of it from God will be no secure Rest or satisfaction for any soul First The creature in this condition may receive it with much joy as witnesse them Mat. 13. 20. yet be short of having the power This truth is very pleasant to many especially to those that have been the greatest workers for Grace whereupn their delight is much taken up either in hearing reading or discourse that tendeth to the declaring of this truth and it is a dispensation of God in some men but not a Rest unto them Now men who are made to Rest here may have high notions of this Truth and may be more able to speak of it then those who have enjoyed it in a geneâ—al manner but come to the particular workings of it in the soul and many proves shallow there only they declare it as they see it to be a Scripture truth But he that Enjoyes sees it to be an Experimentall and a Scripture Truth Now some men have learned what he beleeves and Rests upon it only from report or men declaring their experiences or what the Scripture doth relate of others but have not any Teachings of God what it saith according to the Scriptures in them by Experience And here sometimes man is not compleatly furnished to declare this Truth But one who doth enjoy Truth within doth a little discern where such a soul is to wit have heard and from hearing do declare and yet not brought into the Kingdome of Truth to see and experience it with in himself Further Man may daily increase in the Notionary knowledge of this Truth wherein he may appeare a Tall Cedar in his owne eyes and in the eyes of others and grow up into high Notions and Light and is able to speak of very high and glorious lights yet if he here Rest it may prove in conclusion but a feeding upon winde and husks Furthermore In this knowledge of Truth may man solace and refresh his spirits continually in the apprehension of the same and yet it is but seeming not reall satisfaction or refreshment if he there Rest trusting to it to be God himselfe for want of information of the difference betwixt what is a Truth in it selfe seen so by me and a Truth mine manifested within me not knowing the foot-steps of truth without man from the foot-steps of truth within man not knowing a difference betwixt the deceipt of the heart in its deceivable workings making glorious Rests of that which is none and Truth nakedly discovered from or by God in the heart with its End and Testimony so as the creature is not satisfied with any thing though it be a truth without him until he finde the very being of that Truth within him Therefore whosoever he bee that reads these few lines Let him beware of these things following First that he judge not that to be a place of Rest to his spirits which is but in shew not enjoyed in substance nor absolutly passe sentence of any thing untill there be a Divine light within which makes it manifest Yea though they may come so far as to be convinced of the truth of Free grace and of the transcendent Excellency of Christ in God yet Rest not until thou sinde it in thy soul manifest from God then shalt thonseal it to be a Truth yea thou shalt have it fealed up for Truths by the Spirit of GOD within thee Also to take notice I do not despise nor condemne this dispensation not to be of God first to see by Scriptures these to be Truths But I here labour to unbottom and to un-center any soule who meerly Rests in the Notion of them Thirdly To beware of condenming these things because they have no Experience of them or because they come nigh them or because if they be Truths they have nothing left them but waite untill they see a Light within to discover the truth or fallacy of them to them Jer. 17. 9. and if so be they see not the deceite of their hearts or those false Rests in them wee are speaking of yet do not condemn them who have both seen and known them as though they sought to destroy the foundation of God in Saints but looke upon me as one owning any dispensation of God in its place proper to it The Eight false Rest THE Next Rest we desire to speak of in order to this is the Knowledge of Christ in the flesh Either considered as he is declared in Types and Figures under the Law or as he assumed Nature upon him and so consequently dyed at Jerusalem Now for the first In reference to Types and Figures which at this time are the dispensation of Ordinances either practised before or since his Coming How many in our dayes are they that meerly Rests upon such shadows some practising of such Types as held-forth Christ to come some in those that were practised after his Coming and here they satisfie themselves As instance the cry of most Wee enjoy the pure Ordinances of Christ wee are Members of the Church of Christ we are partakers of those outward priviledges purchased by Christ Instance the peace and comfort they enjoy in them the glorying and the high conceite they have of themselves above others that do not practise with or enjoy them witnesse their deadnesse flatnesse when they want them and their life and peace in the enjoying of them witnesse their binding up in them and their whole Experience contained in this particular When I was imployed in such an Ordinance I was fil'd with joy or I was made to be satisfied with the seeing of God in it when the poor Creature it may be knowes not what God in all or any thing is but if it be enlarged or have some particular â—â—shes of comfort it makes that to bee the presence of God and meerly under these fleshly practises or carnall relations do many Rest satisfied But Secondly To Rest upon Christ come in the flesh is to Rest upon the beleeving the report the Scripture gives concerning him as being borne of a Virgin and suffering and being buried and the like and if they beleeve this and can but heare enough of the Letter preached to this purpose they Rest as beleeving such a particular to be true and
here or joyne one with another witnesse their crosnesse of spirit what a smell of false principles this of Rests appears withall and truly argues much deceit and unpossessed like with God If one either hath attained higher or live in the use of Ordinances waiting for the reall enjoyment of God being lower why should that heart who hath either enjoyed more or lesse of God have such an unlikenesse of any thing of God in him seeing God is love and he that dwels in the lowest enjoyment of God dwels in Love but truly the being bound to formes or bound up in formes and the using of them before we be led unto them by God occasions all this Resting in and condemning of all that doe not in all things walk up into and in the use of these formes and Church relations which the letter of the Scriptures owns to be a dispensation of God But Secondly As this is the cause of and doth much savor to be occasioned either by our being bound up in them or falsly led out to them so also it is occasioned by the want of a divine principle within whereby that principle of God might command our formes and Church relations and not formes and Church relations command the souâ—e so as the Soule onely seeing something in the letter wanting a divine light within to discover unto him either the time place manner or end by this it comes to passe why he is darke in and Rest upon and is commanded by and so bound up in the form repuired in the letter being ignorant of truth in the Spirit but to come more fully to the thing in hand This in my judgement was the Rest of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. 17. in her concluded riches yea in her insensible poverty and thus it prevailes with many a heart First When especially the Soul hath been much under the Law and hampred by the Law and so kept in a cloude from the view of Gospel truthes and now come to see a clear truth in that which he so much opposed he is so taken up with it as he hath no peace untill he fals in obeying of it so gathers peace comfort and Rest in the same thinking it is now got into a very high estate and the very name of a member of a Church together with the greatnesse of the love of God in bringing this Creature to beleeve and obey who was darke opposite yea a despiser of the same this doth help forward his Rest in this particular Secondly It considers and reasons with it selfe now I am got into the communion of Saints and enjoy now their society which before it wanted fellowship with and also from consideration of the purity of the Ordinances it now enjoyes It before was alive in the use of corrupted Ordinances now it enjoyes them in the purity of them before in and amongst a mixed people or he had fellowship with devils 1 Cor. 10. 20. now with Saints but truly though this be a Laodicea condition yet it is a false Rest for there is no true Rest either in the purest Ordinances or visible relations for these a man may enjoy and be ignorant of the enjoyment of God in them as the wofull experience of many will seale unto and testifie the truth of whatwe are speaking of Thirdly Another cause of Rest in these relations flowes from his continuall growth in Gospel light and his encrease and growth of knowledge and most commonly the whole bent of such a spirit is taken up with labouring after the knowledge of points of judgement and with matters nice and curious things which most commonly pleaseth the fancy and understanding and to know such things it is his continuall study and end of all his labour when still he wants the life and power of Christ in his heart neither doth he know him but either by his profession or by hear-saies not in any true way of experience Fourthly Another cause flowes from his conceived peace and comfort he enjoyes in the same and thus he reasons before I had no peace either in conscience within me or from Ordinances practised by me but now I enjoy much peace in my condition when indeed he may have stopt the mouth of conscience his peace come in from a false ground not spoken from God but drawn forth or Imagined in his particular practise Many a soule feeds upon an imaginary peace when it is ignorant of peace truly manifested in the heart and in this most commonly doe the affections blinde and bribe the judgement and so peace remaines onely in the imagination and not enjoyed by any powerfull manifestation But if mens hearts in Church relations may so utterly be deceived then it stands in need of these ensuing cautions 1. Beware of making thy being a member of any Church to be either evidence to thee or ground of peace in thee neither let any conceive better of their conditions because they are in visible fellowships and neither let their joy or peace be the more unlesse they doe uprightly enjoy more of the discoveries of God to them then they did before 2. Beware that thou thinke not thy outward uniting in a visible manner with Saints is a uniting thy spirit more unto God or God uniting himselfe more to thee or that for or in thy present practise thou art got the nigher to God lest thou Rest more secure in thy present condition then before for carnall security doth most commonly follow the most of men in those dispensations 3. Beware thou goe not before God leade thee for most commonly when God leades man into formes when he forsakes them he leades them out of them into that dispensation God will appear in therefore beware that thou be not led by thy owne imaginations then thou shalt not be left in and bound up in formes but shalt continue in them so long as God continues in the same But many who live and make a God of their forms they neither know when God leads or not leads when God is present or not present it s all one if they can enjoy the desire of their hearts and that which speaks peace to them namely Their formes and Church relations It is to them yea its life and happinesse in them But in the next place observe Though God do own all or the most formes and administrations yet it is but for a time untill a higher dispensation appear or the substance of that forme be enjoyed and then God departs from it and seldome or never appears in that forme any more especially if the soul be caught up into God for as the old Testament formes which were of Gods own appointment and God was in them for the time they were to be used so also they were to cease 1. When the substance thereof was come Heb 5. 18. 2. When a more glorious administration was and did appear then did God both depart from them and dis-own them and they no where
to be practised after these two did appear So it is with new Testament formes they have and had their time and yet have when God will and doth appear in them yet it is but untill God appear in a higher dispensation and bring the soul into a higher administration then doe all shadowes and whatsoever is Gospel administration cease to that particular soule in the use of them what they were before I would not be mistaken I doe not say they cease to all and every person whatsoever but to such a soule as is in this dispensation namely he who is caught up with God and carried by God out of the forme God ceasing to appear to that particular soule in that forme the Lamb leading the soul gently out of one dispensation into another untill he be wholly swallowed up with God Secondly Such a soule as can truly say the substance of such a forme is come in the Spirit and enjoyes the same within him for there are some formes and administrations which holdes forth Christ in the Spirit to come now such ceases to be in the use of them at his coming as those old Testament formes did hold forth as we say Christs coming in the flesh which was both the substance of those formes and a more glorious administration of God so it was in the decrease of John and the encrease of this more higher and glorious administration so it shall be in Christ his coming in the Spirit into every soules heart then these formes that Christ appeared in in the flesh shall cease in his coming in the Spirit Now some Gospel formes doe cease to none but to such as have enjoyed the enjoyment of Christ in the Spirit For as Christ led the Apostles from the Tabernacle condition in his transfiguration so he will when he appears transfiguring himselfe in every heart as the Apostles so every heart shall cease to make any forme yea the New Testament formes Tabernacles to dwell in for ever as many makes them now in our daies also there are administrations which hold out Christ already come Which 1. Is not to be practised before 2. It is to be practised after his coming As I shall name one especially It is the administration of Praise which is alone the work of those that are Redeem'd and have the Scales of the vision of God opened and are caught up with God into Heaven to sing songs to Zions God in Zions language by Zions spirit in that holiest of holies which is the place of Zion and those brought into the God-head to sing Praise but now God in this condition is departed from them to this heart not to every one being seen and enjoyed in these formes which doe hold forth his thus coming into the heart now none but those who doe enjoy God in a more glorious dispensation are to cease acting in those dispensations or formes he yet continues his presence to them in for as God did cease and did not appeare in the forms of the old Testament and they were no more to be used after the substance therof was come God appeare in a more glorious administration so will God depart and cease to be seene in new Testament formes or administrations when both the substance of them is come and a higher dispensation do appear leadind the heart out of them to a more glorious and immediate enjoyment of himselfe This is to follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth This is to hear a voice behinde man saying This is the way walke in it Isaiah 30. 1. And to be led by a pillar of fire Num. 9. 16 17 18. and sometimes by a Cloud to mans spirituall Rest and not to stand in and under one administration all ones daies and to be in one place for ever But to finde God leading daily from one forme into another untill he bring the soule into the perfect enjoyment of him who is the glory and substance of all formes this for the want whereof makes many to make them their Tabernacles and Rest yea their home yea their God peace and happinesse which if they be taken away their God is gone and their peace have taken its wings and flown away this is the reason why many in Church relations have a name they live and yet are dead that is they have a name of Saints and Christians but they want the nature of them they have a profession but want a possession This is the reason why many come to have a burning up in their spirits and are brought to a daily losse they run faster into formes and Church relations then God did leade them therefore in them God leaves them for this reason the expectations of many are frustrated which causeth nothing but death and sorrow when they have longed and prest out after formes and being members of Congregations and the enjoyment of pure Ordinances thinking to finde so much in them and to conceive so much from them and when they come there behold nothing but driness and emptinesse and the want of God and so have suffered losse This is partly the reason of all the rents and breaches in all Churches Congregated and why they cannot stand is because they were not led by God into these formes neither did they see God cleerly go before them but some by affection some by mis-information and some out of zeale so that now very little of God appears either in their coming in continuing with or parting from thus being bound up in formes and living in them and doting too much upon them and rejoycing too much in them and judgeing all that speakes not for them or joynes not with them yea this is the reason why we are devouring one another because we all doe not look for and expect that the glorious appearance of God will leade each man out of his dispensation and forme though never so low to drinke into one Spirit Let him that is so much either bent for formes or wholly against them beware that he doe not so dote upon them as to neglect the Summum bonum the chiefest good and let every heart that is against forms beware of these ensuing things 1. That his living above formes be not a pretence of his own and no true and reall thing for many are mightily deceived in this very particular thing they live so high as they live above all formes and Ordinances in the Spirit when alas they are yet living in a form of knowledge scraped up either from their own industry or else got from hearing others report their experiences or apprehensions and he presently conceiving it to be a truth conceives it to be his truth and so fals off crying out and judging all those that live yet out of conscince in the use of formes not enjoying higher makings forth of God and yet he hath but got a notion of this into his understnading yet is ignorant of living or enjoying God in the Spirit 2. Let them
other to be that in an especiall manner which both in word and action hee seemes to be and that he do not pretend to live in God above all formes when indeed he neither lives in God nor knowes what it is to be led by God out of the same into that which is truely sweet if the soul were led into that he pretends to enjoy The Tenth false Rest THe next Rest which in order we shall speake of is a Sutability to the externall letter or some quallified frame wherein this Creature takes his joyfull Rest in the view thereof Indeed when a man is wounded yea deadly unlesse there be speedy helpe in this condition the Creature will bee willing to enjoy any Chirurgeon for the Cure thereof yea him that but pretend faire and by his skill do give some ease therein at present and hopes for the future though this party do it but to serve his owne ends not from any principle of good to the party who is the patient yet he being ignorant of his faire pretences he heales up his wounds though falsly and afterward the wound breakes forth again to the greater damage to the party Thus it is with a poor distressed wounded helplesse heart whom it may be God is a preparing for mercy he lying in such a desperate condition would gladly have his wound Cured by God but there coming a pretended Physitian into the heart speaks like God appearing to the Creature to be God and to heale in the same way God heales Soules yet the soul being ignorant accepts of it and freely entertaines it whereby it comes to have a time of peace and Rest onely because he apprehends his desperate wound to be cured And thus souls do in a time of straights accepts of those proffers when in another condition he would not but at present necessity putting the soul upon it Now soules that live under the sight of the want of God would in the sight thereof be in a way to attaine God seeks and presses to know in this case what to do at last it lookes upon the Scriptures in this case to be the only Teacher whereupon hee gives himselfe to a diligent searching of the same where he meets withall some places how the Saints were formerly quallified and these preparations they had within them whereupon he sets a labouring with his own heart to bring it into such an estate of mourning humiliation or repentance with hungring after God as also loathing fin and having a wearinesse and burthen under it and when he hath thus done hee runs to Scriptures and seeing his condition sutable to that he makes Scriptures the ground of his faith and so cures his wounds by it and so drawes peace and comfort from it Now the creature being ignorant of any other work he wrests from this Scripture influence as is pretended and from thence concludes his enjoyment of God and that now from some perswasions of spirit concludes it to be the witnesse of the Spirit when indeed the creatures heart in this case is not upright and he being in darknesse is not able otherwise to judge of himselfe or his condition neither of his heart which do tell him that this his sutability is upright but the soule wanting the manifestation of light he is not able to passe true sentence upon the same but Rests and man makes his habitation here and though he pretends to make Scripture the ground of his thus beleeving yet it is his quallifications and sutability to Scriptures which is the ground of his thus Resting and beleeving Or Secondly That which in this case the soule is most establisht in is when it may be a Creature is in some sad condition a Scripture is cast in immediately upon the soule un-sough-out or laboured for and this sutable to the soules condition from which there is ioy and peace yea sometimes the heart is so ravisht with it and so over come by it as indeed it 's hardly able to expresse its joy and peace yea sometimes the heart is so overcome as it cannot expresse it or hardly knows for the present where it is But here lyes the Angel-like designe sometimes of Satan to come in the same manner and with the same effects to deceive that God comes in with to save and so transformes himselfe into Gods shape And one of the cheefest waies he hath is to apply himselfe in such a way of working like God as he may the most prevaile with the soule and resemble God and so keep the soule much below God Now Scripture way Satan thinking is most like Gods way of any other especially when he brings in Scriptures sutable to the condition of the party and so that he may cause the soule to beleeve that at such a time God was pleased to manifest himselfe by casting in such a Scripture so sutable so as now his transformed worke is the more surer seeing it hath such a foundation as this yet this he doth of purpose to deceive Thirdly Man 's owne Memory or fancy being upon some serious meditation may in the same manner and way bring and represent before the soule such a Scripture and here lyes most of the deceite of the fancy and and imagination thus to work this way there coming in a Scripture into the thoughts of such a soules fancy and imagination to drive on his owne Designe makes it as it were a nose of wax to apply it to what use or way hee please yet he will make it the ground of his imagination and fancy and so man this way comes to Rest upon a deceite and fiction and not upon any ground in the glorious manifestation of God Now Scriptures it is true doe display in a Mystery most Precious things which if a soul did enjoy them their thus enjoying of the Truth there displayed would be a Rest unto them but so long as a man reads Truth in the letter without him until he can read it in the Spirit within him there is little cause of Rest to such a heart As Instance For a man to be overwhelmed in grosse darknesse and in this darknesse the soule not able to behold the glory of God Now from his reading in Scriptures hee sees God there expressed to bee a Light and to be full of Glory yet notwithstanding from the fight of this in Scripture though he want this light within him and his darknesse to be expelâ—ed out of him yet he Rests with the fight of this in the Scriptures satisfied as though God were become light and glory in him and had expelled all darkness out of him and hee carried up to behold it truely and live in it so that that I drive at is to unbottome any soul of making a nose of wax upon the letter and because Christ saith in an upbraiding way Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to have Eternal life so many now think to have this Eternall life in the Scriptures or in searching
most commonly Satans way to apply himselfe to such a cure for to cause a soule to Rest below God as is sutable to a Soules condition so he brought in a promise to Christ He hath given his Angels charge over thee c. Mat. 4. 6. Here he came to apply himselfe sutable to the condition of Christ O when once a soule is brought into a Pinacle condition wherein he is brought to see the glory of much then Satan lobours to cause the heart to fall downe and worship him hee coming smoothly and bringing the Promises of God a long with him to back the truth of what he doth and here after the soule is betrayed by represented glory in a promise meerly cast in from Satan wherein the soule fals down and worships the very cunning working and the high exalting of Satan and in this condition he is brought to see and apprehend high things and is brought into a Pinacle to behold almost the glory of every thing made over by Satan to the Creature in a promise upon the soules submitting to him and upon this Pinacle he sets him that is he causes him to Rest and so the poor heart being not wise in the Spirit is deceived and betrayed though the actions knowledge light joy Rest of this soule be glorious and for God in his own eyes yet it is but Satans transforming himselfe into an Angel of light resembling or coming in and working in the Creatures heart in the gloriests manner and shape God workes in But Secondly Others being wounded in Spirit and weary in soule for the want of any glimpse of God leaving no means un-attained to get his soule cured and unburthened and having Rested upon many false props before and being unbottomed of them he tries this particular it being of a higher nature and more likely to speake peace unto him viz. a running to Scripture to finde out some particular promises sutable to his condition and having found out some sutable Promises either presently seems to speak to him from a sutablenesse in him so it may be being a conditionall Promise or else the soule meditates a while upon it and it runs much in his thoughts and at last he closes with it strikes this load and burthen of his spirit here he drawes comfort and peace from it yea it may be so much as indeed the soule is mightily overcome in his spirits with joy and can doe nothing but rejoyce upon which he Rests builds his faith as he cals it and so concludes it to be a manifestation of God I will not deny but God may make these waies if in truth cause of support unto a soule in his travelling towards his Rest But for a soul to strike saile cast Anchor and have all the waves in his heart stayed and his very wearinesse of spirit at this present put to a period is as if the children of Israel had stayed either beyond the red Sea or when God gave them Manna before they came to enjoy a reall possession of the land of promise though God did this either to refresh their spirits and so to under-prop them or else to give them it at the desire and repining of their spirits to see how they would use it or abuse it Now this being a discription of a Saints Spirituall travell though God should cause a glimps of glory or heavenly Manna to refresh a heart to be given to a soule in the view of a Promise yet for a soule to Rest in this and make it his habitation it smels too much of mans deceite and abuse of every dispensation and a daubing up his spirit with untempered morter and so hatches Cockatrice Egges and weaves the Spiders Webbe so that it is but a kindling of a fire man warming himself in his own sparks whose conclusion shall be death and sorrow and before ever the creature know what true Rest is by sweet experience hee must be brought to a death in all these But from my own experience of the fallacy of my own heart and the contrariety of the false Rests that I have gon thorow I make bold to propose these ensuing particulars to such a heart not intending to weaken the workings of God in any poor heart though under low Administration but only to discover the nakednes of man in the way of his own heart And First of all When did the Lord manifest himself to thy soule and give thee a particular right unto and interest in this promise the application of which thou makest thy Rest Secondly How was God Revealed to thy heart in this promise Or whether is it not the great necessity thou hast of it that makes thee fly to the promise and suck sweetnesse life comfort and Rest from it Or is it God in Christ clearly Revealed unto thee in the same For it was necessity that made many run to the Ark and hang upon the outsides thereof though none but those that were within were saved Scribes and Pharisees did challenge a propriety in God and all externall priviledges but it was but from a sutablenesse of holinesse they had to the promise and not Revelation of God in them discovering the Truth the of God to them Thirdly What inward Testimony of God hast thou for thy great joy peace Rest And what is thy inward Evidence that witnesseth the truth of what thou enjoyest For every one that beleeveth hath a Testimony within himselfe 1. Joh. 5. 10. And every heart that hath ever seen the appearance of God within him hath found a lively Testimony coming along with that Manifestation of God which is the only proofe of the truth of what he enjoyeth and not any Qualifications nor outward Testimony either of man or from man 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fourthly How was peace in this particular enjoyed by thee Was it from some inward Voyce of God or discovery of the same Or was it from such a sutable form of words to thy condition either cast in or found out in searching Or was it from a clear Manifestation of the glory of God in thee sutable to those formes of words in the Scriptures without thee whereby the forme of words came to be made good to thee so that thy comfort peace satisfaction or Rest do not flow from the forme of words as thou seest them in Scripture without thee but from the enjoyments of God within thee sutable to that without thee Fiftly What glorious power of God was made out in thy spirit in thy thus closing with Promises Thy thus closing may seeme to be done in power but the spirituall Coming of Christ in the manifestation of his glory is so great as indeed it is not ordinary but extraordinary in the heart of him that knows his coming A Promise Closed with before Christ come in the Spirit may seem to be done in glory and power by reason it may be hee could not before beleeve nor live in that freedome or joy he now lives in
but the coming of Christ in the Spirit doth so farre surmount that as indeed the other appeares nothing when this is come Eph. 1. 19. Mat. 24. 30. Sixtly Whether is it the Manifesting of God to thee that gives thee a right to the Promise and from this thou closest with God Or is it that sutablenesse in thee to the words of the promise that gives thee a being whereby thou closest with it If it be the latter it is not right For all Promises are in Christ Yea and Amen And He is the ALL in them and if hee bee revealed he gives a being to them yea to the creature to live in that being as He is the ALL in them So that the substance of every promise must come into the soule and be Revealed in it before the form of words can truly pronounce comfort peace life happinesse or Rest to it So as his Rest is not upon the form of words as in Letter expressed but upon the Being of it which is God manifest Now many a heart doth feed upon husks out-sides and externall formes of words and fals short of being caught up into his glory and so Resting in the being of all Truth Here it comes to passe that the Creature makes every thing a God and will shape and form out God according to its imaginations and so labours to dispossesse God and to set up its owne shape in Gods stead Now Promises whether they be sought or cast in they are to be no Rest unto any heart for the words of the promise are like unto a figure or type it testifies something to be given to the Sons of men but when a soule is in the possession of those things then it doth not rejoyce upon the words holding out the thing but upon the substance of the thing possessed in the heart but many on the contrary hand for the want of this runs after conditionall promises and when it seeth not the condition of the promises performed in it hee labours after a sutablenesse to them before not daring to apply them but when hee hath got his heart into such a frame as he imagineth to be sutable to the condition thereof he Resteth there applying life and comfort from it concluding he hath a right unto it from this particular But if at any time he breake the condition his peace is gone because the cause of his peace was his exact performance of the condition of the promise Secondly But some are higher then this and they see a vanity in this and they look upon Christ as the perfermer of the condition and if he can but beleeve Christ hath done it and then hee hath a right unto the fame whereupon he useth meanes to get his judgement convinced of this that Christ died for him and in Conclusion he gets himselfe convinced of the same and here Rests Concluding the promises are his because Christ in his when indeed both the ground of his conclusion and confidence is false and so he comes to be deceived Thirdly Another that Rests upon promises before Christs spirituall Coming is when a man hath layne in sad darknesse and bondage and hath a long time waited for a discovery of God and at last some apprehensions of Christ comes into his understanding whereupon he stands convinced in his owne judgement that Christ is his Whereupon hee for the greater encrease of his Rest Comfort and Peace runnes to promises and applyes them as having a right to them in his owne apprehensions by Jesus Christ Here is that which begets the strongest confidence that Christ is come in the Spirit which works that joy and peace the soul thinks shall never be taken from him whereas after a while man is not so quick fighted nor so cleare enlightened but it suddenly lyes in the grave as that which must vanish in the spirituall appearance of Christ in the heart Now this is the great designe of Satan to keepe the poor creature on the out-sides the husks and would have the Creature wholly to live below the glory of Truth which is the coming of Christ in the Spirit of glory But hearts truly principled before Gods appearance are made to waite for him from a great power of himself not in any of these things to Rest before they in the glory of the Spirit come to Enjoy him Mat. 25. 10. The thirteenth false Rest THE next Rest in order to this Is great strange and excellent flashes of God so I tearme them and as they the most appear yet they may be true or false resembled or reall First We shall speak of Flashes of light in the understanding And neither touch them as they are true or false 1. If they be but flashes they are no reall manisestations of Christ in the Spirit and therefore in the first place They are not of a Witnessing nature they bring no reall Testimony of God along with them but leaves the creature dark and empty in and of this particular but Christs coming in the Spirit is not without a Witnesse which is both unresistible and satisfactorye but flashes whether they are of God distinct or opposite they have no Testimony of the Spirit to witnesse the truth of God to man by the Spirit withiâ— man as man is below under the dispensation of a flash whether true or false So secondly They are not of a powerfull Nature they are very weake in comparison of the power of Christ coming in the Spirit For first They do not dispossesse Satan of his habitation whereas the coming of Christ in the Spirit doth Mat. 12. 28 29. Secondly They do not dispossesse the Creature of living in himfelf or they do not carry up the Creature into the glory of God in the Spirit they being of too low a nature no more then flashes in a dark night can bring the Creature into the beholdings of and living in the glory of the Sun so that they are not compleat Revelations of glory neither powerfull in effecting the same worke which is accomplished in the coming of Christ in glory 3. They do not satisfy the heart of any they may seemingly give contentment for the present yet the spirit not altogether satisfied whereas the coming of Christ in the glory of the Spirit doth fill and satisfy the heart of any in whom he appeares Mal. 3. 10. Mat. 5. 6. yea his coming causeth a running over of the souls Cup yea it is uncontainable mans capacity not being able to receive or comprehend the same for the want of this satisfaction power or witnesse of the Truth of Christs coming he being but under a flash he runnes to Ministers and men of experience to heare their judgement being not satisfied in himself and according to their approbation and judgement he most commonly receives the more or lesse satisfaction and so rests whereas if it be Christs coming in the Spirit a soul need not run to any Creature in the World to bee satisfied in the Truth of
he may abhâ—rre and detest not setting them up with Christ and this he may do from a Scripture notionary knowledge onely got in the head where hee is swallowed up with his conception of his enjoyment of Christ and God by beleeving and so may live in a way of Dependency upon Christ as he is declared and set forth to dye for man at Jerusalem from which knowledge beleeving and dependency there is begotten much deadnesse and security in which he may suffer and rejoyce he may dye and live in it exalting God much in word and seeming actions and yet all this time ignorant of the ground and Mystery of faith yea ignorant of the knowledge of Christ which begets the true exercise and living by faith Yet if this which I now say were true yet it were to low an Element for any spirituall heart to make his habitation or Rest but in this same they are to be as men of hope 2. Thes 3. 5. waiting for and hasting unto the Coming of Christ in the Clouds 1. Thes 4. 17. where they shall enjoy and have a Dispensation of Glory and so shall be for ever with the Lord for the Mystery of faith is the pure sight of an un-known un-seen God Isa 33. 17. and the pure sight of God in this great Mystery is from the pure enjoyment of God is the Kingdome of heaven and glory and this must be within and enjoyed by every spiritull heart This is the place of safety where Saints Treasure lyeth and where they are to make their Rest habitation and abode Col. 3. 1. This safe Rest is not procured by neither is it a dependency upon one a heard of Christ but it is a carrying up of a spirituall crucified Spirit into a glorious God who was and now is made manifest to live with to Rest upon and to have a habitation in for Ever and for Ever And here the spirit remaines in safety and in glory triumphing in him and being swallowed up with him is carried up into the light and life of God knowing him in all things enjoying him in all things seeing him to be the light and life of all things being now gathered up into his will is wholly disposed by him and therein with God is satisfied and so Rests whereas mens beleeving is very unsound and if it were not yet it s very unsafe being given to change And being it is but some exercise of something in man yet it being but an effect it is not to be a Rest but man is rather to be carried above it after the possession of him who can give Rest and ease all heavy loades and burthens of the creature Mat. 11. 28. 29. The sixteenth false Rest THe next Rest we in order shall speake of Is the great Experiences many have of deliverances given them by God from inward and outward streights making them evidences of his love and matter enough to conclude safety Rest and happinesse and in this particular there is some glosse and seeming cause as afterwards shall be produced And first of all we will come to spirituall deliverances as First Inward conflicts of spirit occasioned either by a discovery of the want of God or of a soules misery without God which occasioneth condemnation and apprehensions of wrath and so sorrow mourning and griefe of spirit in which condition the soul lyeth as in hel being filled with horrour and fear and looking upon God as nothing but a revenging and tormenting God in which torments of spirit he lyes groaning and mourning before God being swallowed up in darkness and bondage attempting all meanes to get freedome and liberty from this his sad wofull and miserable estate wherein soules sometimes get deliverance one of these three waies 1. Either from extraordinary paines and diligence wherein he thinks if he could but do this or that or attain so much humiliation or mourning or repentance then he should be happy and in freedome whereupon in conclusion he attaines in his own apprehension that which before he desired which stopping of the mouth of conscience and a breaking prison before God deliver together with a conceite of a Cure applyed by God when indeed it is a curing the wound of such a soul falsly which in time will break forth to the greater damage of the party Or secondly It is freed by some cunning Sophister of Satan either immediately by himselfe wherein hee labours to apply a false remedy thinking to put the soul thereby into a state of security or else mediately by his instruments in the Ministry wherein they come to daub with untempered morter and so speaks peace to man before God speak peace within man and so doth as the Lord saith Heal up the wound of the daughter of his People falsly and from this have many poore hearts been mistaken when at any time they have been in and under such torments of spirit they have not rested untill they have run unto Ministers to see what they will say some of them putting them upon doing some of them applying cures to them and here a poore heart thinks to bee satisfied where hee never Rests but runnes from one to another from creature to creature seeing if he can get any thing from them sometimes coming away with much peace other times coming away with a lesson of doing and by these means comes soules sometimes to have their deliverances and for a space Rests untill it breake forth againe The third way wherein many others attain deliverances is from God As the children of Israell from their land of bondage tiranny and task-masters which though God himself did free them yet notwithstanding was not to be their Rest but to be their first step toward their Rest So though God do sweetly deliver a Soul from and out of this trouble and perplexity of spirit yet it is not to be a Rest unto him or to be a habitation for him to dwell in but to be as it were the first step to his Rest Now some mens deliverances are of God and some of themselves and some of Satan but none of these are to bee rested upon as they are deliverances seeing they may be true or false which untill a higher dispensation of God cannot inâ—allibly be discerned Secondly A Soul may be delivered from a resolved selfe Murther or Destruction when temptation doth violently attend that way yet not withstanding though hee bee abundantly preserved by God in his inward streight wherein Satan would have him become his own executioner yet it is not any sufficient Center for any spirit Or thirdly If it be a deliverance of the creature from the wrath to come presently lying in the apprehension of the creature yet not to be a Rest or any cause thereof Fourthly If it be a deliverance of the creature from some violent corruption or lust within him so as now God hath as it were freed his spirit from that Lordly power of inward corruption so as now he is freed
from sin which formerly hath both dishonoured God dishonoured Truth and taken away his peace Now sometimes when this comes to be subdued and the soul delivered from the same he Rests upon it and concludes from it great cause of safety and security and as an infallible Testimony of Gods love and here he makes his center when indeed the heart cannot have true Rest in any deliverances wrought for it by God but must be carried up above the same into the Deliverer who is God so as in inwards so in outwards bee it of what nature or quallity soever yet many after the receipt hereof wax the more secure make a God of their deliverances ct so Rest upon them with which though they were in love yet they are not given for that end no more then God delivering the Children of Israel at the Red Sea should afterwards be a stop unto them and a center for them before they came into the land of Promise Or that deliverance of Daniel or of the Three Children or of Jonah none of these were to be a cause either of Security or Center but to be rather accompanied by God to put their spirits out of themselves after him who was to be a Rest unto them and a Deliverer of them so that the common or speciall deliverances of God in these cases are abused and the end thereof dealt deceitfully with and they are made that which God did not appoint them to be viz. Rests and that which satisfies the creature with the receipt thereof yet in the second place I doe not deny this to be one of Gods dispensations and the way he deales with spirits both to discover themselves with the vanity and misery attending the same where mans heart is made a heart of misery preparing for mercy this being the way to Rest and peace happinesse and glory when God comes in the first place to free the soule from this his deliverance though it be of God still as the other is the way to happinesse so his deliverance the way to rest that is the way to make the heart enter into it and be centred in it For though the Rest in this deliverance be discovered yet it may be long before such a heart do enter into it as David saith plainly return unto thy Rest O my soule for the Lord hath delt bountifully with thee Now though God may have dealt bountifully with a soule yet that soule may not be returned nor centred in his true and proper Rest though it be in a further worke then deliverance inward or outward So that in the first place many hearts it may be have been in deep distresse of Spirit in the pit where no water is and now are it may be in such a condition as they are at great freedome and live in much joy yet such a heart it may be freed in his own sense and yet intended by God to be brought into his former bondage and misery because his wound is falsly cured and having not been willing to waite Gods time is faln thereby into carnall and unsafe security therefore soules had need beware of false deliverances 2. Satan that Spirit of deceit may drive on his design in this particular to have a soul delivered by deceit seeing before he could not prevent the cause of the sense of his misery seeing he could not prevent that he labours to deceive the Creature by proposing and working deliverance for it before God deliver it the heart being willing to imbrace and to have deliverance before his time 3. If this be not but that God goes forwards to make such a heart a heart of misery and so prepare it for mercy and worke admirable diliverances for it both within and without yet notwithstanding it is not sufficient the soule Rest here but such a heart is to wait for a higher dispensation of God this being Gods leading way thereto The seventeenth and last false Rest THE next and last Rest which wee shall speake of is by some waited for and by others pretended to be received to wit The extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit whereby both worship without and God within is confirmed and in their apprehension sealed up for truth Now for my own part I look upon both either in the condition of waiting for it or in the pretence of the receiving of it to be un-sound or an un-safe principle 1. In a waiting way there are who are waiting to have the Spirit powred down in such a manner as they shall be able to doe miracles and visibly to cast out devils But I thinke this is a meere mistake for those casting out of devils and visible powers given to the Apostles and Saints was given only as a dispensation of God in that administration the Apostles lived in and not to be any dispensation intended to be given to any other after that administration was confirmed and setled 2. Those visible powers were given them for the confirmation of the Gospel in a visible forme to sâ—ale the truth of that forme of words which was to be left unto all ages Now if we had new Scriptures to write and a new Gospel to declare then I confesse for the establishment of the same it would be necessary to have the same confirmed by visible miracles and powers But 3. It was given to be a figure of the glorious manner of the workings of God in the soule and the casting out of devils and curing sick opening eyes and the like Isa 26. 12. Phil. 2. 13. these were to demonstrate unto us that as the coming of Christ in the form of flesh was attended with these signes and miracles so the coming of him in the Spirit should be attended with inward signes and miracles to wit internall and divine powers the casting out of the many devils within the opening of the eyes of the understanding and the curing the wounds of the soule Luke 24. 45. Eph. 1. 18. Isa 60. 1. Iohn 5. 25. the opening mans eares to hear the voice of Christ within to have a dead Lazarus soule raised up in the Spirit Now the Rest was but as figures though reall of what God did hold forth should accompany the second coming of Christ in the heart Mal. 3. 2. Mat. 25. 12 13. And if soules did waite for this their expectations should not be so much frustrated as it is in the other and shall be And as for the great miracles that shall be wrought must be within and felt by soules when Christ appears in the heart So that these externall powers shall be turned into these sayings The coming of Christ shall be with power and great glory Mat. 24. 30. Now men are deceived I feare who seeke for his coming in any carnall or fleshly way or that he will make that to be the powrings down of the Spirit to wit the casting out of devils c. But it shall be more spirituall and heavenly even the power of the Spirit
within to consume mens lusts and selfe and to cast out all those spirits of deceite which internally doe lodge within the Creature so that the letter which was confirmed by outward Signes after Christ appeared in the forme of flesh shall in the mystery thereof be confirmed to and in us by the internall workings miracles which shall attend Christs spirituall coming in the Soul and that in the Spirit Now I say that neither do mens waitings appeare to be that which men conceive them to be nor if they did enjoy that at the last which they waite for it would not prove that to them nor give that content peace joy and cause of Rest in them nor assurance to them which they expect from it and thinke to attain when they come to attain it I wish that men would turne the wheele into the waiting for the inward coming of these things in a more spirituall manner For my own part I thinke they would enjoy more quietnesse in their spirits for the present and more settlement and Rest peace and safety in them for the future when it comes to be experienced But I think I may say thus much to such spirits that I thinke when they enjoy that they waite for viz. the powrings out of the spirti from which to enjoy power to worke outward miracles it will be in the enjoyment thereof But I should be sorry to live without the enjoyment of God to that day and I am confident all such souls shall be weary before they see the same enjoyed by them But Secondly To all such as have the same in pretence I do not see how they can make them any safe Rests seeing that Saul and many others did goe as far in the gifts of Prophesie or any other gift of the Spirit aâ— any almost who did sweetly enjoy God and that was the cause why those words were spoken They shall say in that day have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils c. Mat. 7. 22 23. Yet see the reply of Christ he did not own them in the same though they did make it their Rest before and their plea then yet it was nothing but that which proved both un-sound and un-safe for them Secondly The workings of Antichrist and the mystery of iniquity doth worke withall deceivablenesse doing great wonders in the eyes of the world yet alas it is both for the deceiving of the party who hath it and for the deceiving of the parties who beleeve it witnesse the worke of the Magicians who when they acted the same things Moses did yet the parties who acted the parties who beleeved the same were both deceived so though there were any in our daies who could doe the same worke that they or Judas did yea greater then they did yet the parties might be reprobates and cast-awaies and however they may be suddainly taken away and therefore unsafe for any soule to Rest thereon It must be the power of God within and those inward miracles which God workes as the effect of his coming viz. The casting out of the devils within and bringing down mountaines of pride and selfe and exalting of his Christ in the soule so as the soule is un-bottomed of all his false props and carried wholly out of himselfe above himselfe into the power and majesty of that Christ exalted to live by and in that same power and glory by which God lives in the heart So that I say to look for outward powers in this case as I and many more have done or if they were enjoyed to make them their Rests both are to me un-sound and every party as well as my selfe shall finde the evill and un-soundnesse thereof Now having discovered as many false Rests as at present I am free to discover I shall in the next place shew how difficult it is and how hard it goes with the creature to part with these his false Rests which are false but in reference to his Resting and abusing the end for which such a dispensation was given The Soul being in the first place as I may say establisht upon them making them his God bee they formes or what they will when it seemes to bee taken away he being brought to a non-plus in his spirit He cries They have taken away my God What must I do So that there ariseth as it were a storme within this creature which begets a spirit of discontent in the creature Witnesse the same in Jonah's Gourd which God had given him yet being abused in the end for which it was given in the taking of it away there was a spirit of murmuring and discontent And thus it is alwayes when creatures would bee Resting upon any thing below God when God seems to take it away from the creature The more the soul was glued to it and Rested upon it and made a God of it the more difficult and hard it goes with the creature to part with the same yea the more discontent doth arise in that heart First then It ariseth from the abuse of our being glued to any Administration so as not to use it to that end for which it was appointed Secondly The cause partly of this ariseth sometimes from the greatnesse of the losse it works in the creature in being to part with the same as many soules it may be have spent the glory of their age and strength to patch up a Religion of their owne and have taken much paines to accomplish the same It may be hath been twenty yeares a professor and hath all this time been labouring to patch up a Rest and having got one in one moment God rases the foundation thereof this works such a losse in the soule as indeed to have many a glorious gift burned up yea many a glorious day of joy twenty yeares profession in one moment laid in the dust and now to deny it self in all his paines and parts of wisdome and knowledge This must needs goe hard and be very difficult with a poore heart to part with all And the Creature will have many shifts and puttings off before he will be made freely to part wiâ—h all and to deny himself in all The condition of such a soul is like a man that all his daies hath been taking pains night and day to comprehend some estate and when he hath got such an estate he fals a building and makes great buildings and when he hath furnished the same takes delight in it and sets his heart upon it and behold when he is solacing himself in what he hath got and done In a moment there is a fire consumes the same to the dust which being beheldby the party he is amazed and much perplexed in his spirit upon which occasion in some it begets death in others discontentednesse and murmurings yea repinings of spirit so as it is not only a day of sorrow but it continues so And this parties losse being exceeding great and his
expectation frustrated he is now at a non-plus not knowing what to do So it is with a heart after God either hath given gifts or something below himself or for the which the creature hath been labouring all his dayes and at last having attained so much as now he Rests with the Church of Laodicea in a conceited happynesse When God comes to burne down this house the soule hath been all his dayes building though upon it may bee a false foundation he layes the Creature and his worke in the dust so as now the soul is stript naked of all his conceited holinesse or righteousnesse and happinesse uâ—on which fight the creature is wrought into an amazment and astonishment of spirit wondring what God is a doing with him In this said condition which works death and sorrow and the grave and nothing but discontentednesse before and a labouring to stand and not to part with the same untill he be forced to it by an unresistible power the soule before is crying what must I be stript naked of all What is all my praying fasting mourning and the like all taken from me so as now I have nothing to Rest upon Must I part with all Oh especially this creatures riches is hard to part with as it was with the young man who wanted all things in the want of one thing who notwithstanding had enough of the World and I feare too much of this wee are speaking of for he was nigh the Kingdome of heaven yet to part with all for a Christ Oh how loth hee was Oh this parting with all goes hard makes many sorrowfull either in respect of outward or inward riches It is most commonly this inward riches which is the life of most professors in our dayes until God unbottome them of their professions and forms and self-doings and fulnesse and the most that are destroyed in our Land I fear are in this particular when poor creatures are so glued to themselves or formes or their own righteousnesse and self-riches that indeed they live upon the same and make a life out of it and a God upon it and so dwell as though they were in heaven when indeed they are neither in the way to it nor possessed with it But if ever God appear either to them or in them God will unveile them so as indeed though they have been professors never so long and in the same are become rich in their own eyes and in the eyes of others yet I beleeve God will burne it up and bring them to a losse and make their high and lofty spirits lye in the dust as he hath done with many in their condition I look that the greatest losers in our dayes shall be the longest and tallest professors though in their losing it may for the future tend to their greatest game yea Englands professors shall ere long cry out of their inward losses more then their outward losses and they shall be stript more naked in matter of spirituals then ever they were of temporals though in the losse of both it may be accompanied with little freedome but rather unwillingness at present and repinings of spirit though at the last they may be delivered from their straits and be cloathed with the Sun and then shall trample the Moon under their feet I doe not speak of professors in reference to any particular faction but I speak of all under what denomination or title soever that are professing God before they be possessed with him who are storing up inward riches but not of the Spirit and Rest upon it as though it were of God which when God makes it manifest by the day according to that Scripture 1 Cor. 3. 3. c. it burnes and is consumed either because it was not of God or else because it was Rested upon below God So that now to be brought out of the Creature and all its own fulnesse or selfe actings are so contrary to it and so for the annihilating of it so that indeed man in and of himselfe wil oppose God stand out against this work of annihilation to have a Creature who before was rich in and of himselfe or from some administration of God below the enjoyment of God in the same and according to which and for the want of which the Creature makes his habitation below Heaven though he lives as an Angell yet as miserable as any devil in reference to his want of God in a way of enjoyment it being thus with a poor heart that to part with his false Rest is so hard and difficult How then comes the soul to see them to be false in reference to his Resting upon them though they may be true as they are an administration of God I say how comes the soule to see them to be false and so either willing to have them either dissolved if they be administrations of God or burned and consumed if they be of the Creature In answer to this we will say both waies in Scripture and experience And First God makes them known to the Creature and him willing at last to part with them by discovering unto him the emptinesse of these dispensations wherin he is made to see the non-satisfaction and un-safenesse thereof if continued in by the Creature as thus either by discovering unto a soule the want of his presence in it wherein it appears to be truly empty or else by frustrating the Creatures expectation in the not enjoying that from these things but in conceit which it did expect to finde in them and receive from them and herein God hedges up the soules wayes with thornes so that now it cannot finde that comfort and refreshment in those things which formerly it Rested upon and drew comfort from now God making them empty and vain to the heart it is forced to cry out as Solomon of the vanity thereof and to say with them in the 24. of Isa 16. verse Our leannesse our leannesse so as now he is made willing to submit to the burnings up of his expectation by seeing the vanity of his conceptions in them Secondly By representing to the understanding a more excellent Rest and center for his spirit both sure and safe this begets a breathing after the enjoyment of that Rest which it is made to see without it not as yet enjoyed by it Isa 11. 10. 13. 16. 28. 8. this same makes the soule willing to forgoe the one that he may enjoy the other For as Canaan was discovered to the Children of Israel to be more excellent and glorious then that place of Aegypt was wherein they were in bondage which made them at their departure from it to be willing to part with the Garlick and flesh-pots so it is with a soule in this case the more the glorious Rest of Christ is represented to any soule the more it doth discover false Rests and the more it doth unbottome every Creature thereof Thirdly They are discovered too and un-bottomed off
these Rests by the departure of God from any administration so as the soule desires not to Rest where God is departed for if it hath been thus with the Creature that the cause of its Rest hath been the appearance of God in such an administration or dispensation yet if now he see cleerly that God is departed from it he Rests no longer being the ground why he Rested was and is taken away or removed for as God promised to be in and appear to his People in the Temple and in the Administrations under the Law yet not for everlasting continuance but that afterwards he did intend to withdraw his presence from them and so to disanull the use thereof so in any dispensation of God below his spirituall appearance in the foul he intends to appeare at such a time as himselfe hath appointed in the use of the same but afterwards to withdraw himselfe from it for some end best known to himself Now this is that I say Gods departing and ceasing to appeare in a Dispensation or an Administration Is that which both discovers the Resting therein to bee false and is a further meanes to un-bottome the spirit of a man for making of it his Rest any longer for that Soul that is led into any Administration by God in the which God appeares when God withdraws from it and ceaseth to appeare any more in it the Soule doth the like also And in this hee follows the Lambe where ever hee goes Rev. 14. 4. So that I say It is the departure of God from any condition which if the creature hath been made sensible of it doth represent the making a habitation in it and the Resting upon it is both below God and contrary to him so as in the same hee is made willing to part with and to see when God is known to be departed from the vanity of making any thing his Rest though given of God untill God do everlastingly appear within man carrying up the soule and spirit of man into himself Fourthly The next way God discovers these to bee false Rests and makes the creature willing to part with the same Is by appearing in a more gloryous Administration to the Creature and this is the reason why Christ comforteth his Disciples when the form of the flesh was to be taken away by telling of them He must go away or else the Comforter would not come Joh. 16. 7. As if he should say unlesse I depart in the forme of flesh or in this outward Dispensation you cannot enjoy mee in a more gloriouâ— Dispensation of the Spirit within you which should for ever abide with you It is the Substance of what God intends to make manifest in your spirits I am but in this fleshly dispensation a figure and therefore I must depart that I may more gloriously appeare within you and lead you into all Truth more glorious then yet you see or understand It was so with John and Christ in the flesh as John did decrease so Christ did encrease Joh. 3. 30. It was indeed the encreasing of Christ in the fleshly Administration that made John in his Administration decrease for the dispensation of God in the flesh of Christ was more glorious then the dispensation of John so that in spirituals there is a giving way to a superiour or more glorious Administration by an inseriour or lesse glorious dispensation for the more of God appeares in any forme the more glorious is that forme now God did more appeare in Christs forme then in Johns which made John decrease and give way unto the dispensation of Christ from whence I observe That no man is to forsake any dispensation so long as God appeares in it and makes it a living dispensation for the Apostles were not to cease walking with or to depart from Christ in the flesh unâ—il God was departed from it and ceased according to it or by it but all the Apostles were to continue in that dispensation so long as it was a living dispensation So it was with the dispensations under the Law they were to continue in them so long as God appeared in them and continued with them So shall soules follow as God leades As the Children of Israel were to abide in any place so long as God abode in it So we And as they did move when God moved from it so are we until we are in our perfect Rest Num. 9. 17. 18. Heb. 4. 9. For it is the presence of God in a particular thing which is both to be a soules Leader Exo. 34. 14 15. and his cause of stay in the use of any dispensation So it was with Moses Unlesse thy presence goe along with us carry us not hence It hath been and stil ought to be That Saints removing out of one condition into another or from one Administration or Dispensation into another hath been by the presence of God either going or removed from such a Dispensation So that there may be a folly in this particular for any man to cease acting in formes or in such an Administration as God hath brought him into and truly appeared in untill there bee a cleare departure of GOD in the same leading it into a more glorious Administration Secondly God seldome doth depart from one Administration until he appeares in a more glorious manner in another As God did not depart from the Administration of the Law until he appeared more glorious in the Administration of the Gospel So it is now That there can be no expelling clouds but by Light so there can be no other way to take off a soule truly from the use of any sorme until God appeare in a more higher dispensation For as the appearance of Christ in the flesh was the summe and substance of the forms of the Law and was not to bee disanulled before the substance came Heb. 8. 1. Col. 2. 17. so it is now The summe and substance of all Formes and Administrations is Christ in the Spirit and untill the Substance of them be come perfectly into every heart there can be no true cessation of that heart in Formes or Administrations which are Gospel Formes or Administrations So that God departing sometimes from an Administration and appearing more glorious in another either within or without is that which both unbottoms the soul of Resting in it and that which makes the creature willing to part with it For the want of this the Jewes not beholding Christ the summe and substance of the Law Come in a more glorious Administration they were unwilling to cease acting in their former Administrations the Veile being not taken away 2. Cor. 3. 14. whereby they had been made to see the Substance of those Formes establisht compleatly in a Christ Col. 2. 10. But lastly The chiefest and onlyest way why the creature comes to bee willing to be most free to part with and to have a discovery of all dispensations below the appearance of God in the Spirit to bee
no Rest Is by the glorious manifestation of God in the Soule whereby First of all He appeares as a glorious Light within man And this Light 1. Expels all the Clouds from off or out of the Creature which kept the Creature from beholding a reall difference betwixt a true Rest and a false So long as man is without this no marvel then though he be not able to discerne whether his Rests be true or false But now when God speaks in a Soule Arise soul shine for thy light is come and the glory of the LORD is Risen upon thee Isa 60. 1 2. Then this true Light shining into the Soule it makes manifest all things whereas the Soule before had a Veile upon him and a Cloud over him but now the glory of God is Risen in such a creatures heart whereby hee is made able to judge by the light of God dwelling in him Secondly As it doth discover what is fallacy so it reveals what is truth it advanceth Truth in the soule though the soule before was ignorant what difference there was betwixt the appearance of God in formes without him and the appearance of God in the Spirit within him of the difference betwixt a transform'd rest resembled and a true Rest in the Spirit manifested of the end of all formes and administations with God appearing in them without the creature before the substance of the same be come in the glory of the Spirit within Now this true Light makes all manifest John 3. 21. and is a clear evidencing light within man discovering Him who only must be the center and Rest of the soule which before it heard of but now comes to see and experience the same This Light removes all obstructions out of the Creature and makes his judgement act according to this Light within him so that it is a Light not onely expelling clouds but clearly demonstrates a reall difference betwixt Truth and Falshood so as now he is made to see the place God hath set every administration or dispensation in with the time place and end Thirdly This Light makes not onely manifest things as they are John 3. 21. and so takes the soule off from them But it doth dissolve all those administrations the Creature hath had without him by the glory of God in the Spirit within him so as the breakings of the day doth dissolve the dispensation of the night so doth the dawning of the day in the heart of a Saint dissolve not destroy any of those administrations or dispensations of God in which God did in some measure appear to the Creature for as the night is of God as well as the day yet the day doth dissolve the dispensation of the night So though many mens dispensations were of God yet notwithstanding when God appears they are dissolved and doe not now appear because a more gloriouser manifestation of God within man hath appeared Fourthly Yea this manifestation of God in the Spirit doth swallow up all other dispensations so as now they are gathered up into the substance thereof who before did send them forth as the light of the Starres and the light of the Moone are borrowed lights or lights inferiour to and sent out from the Sunne and when the glory of the Sunne appeares they all appeare bodily and substantially in the Sunne and as it is that the light dwels in the fulnesse of it in the Sunne and all lights are borrowed from or occasioned by it and that light is that which swallowes up all other when it comes to appear So it is with God appearing in the Spirit he appeares as the fulnesse and the substance or body of all other lights Col. 2. 17. which are true though sent by God in their dispensation to accomplish his own designe yet when God breakes into all soules in the glory of the Spirit this shining of God into the soule 2 Cor. 3. 8. 4. 6. 3. 10. doth swallow up all his former appearances in any dispensation below this and gives way and submits and so gathers up and meets compleatly in the body and substance of them Col. 2. 10. 17. Tit. 2. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 14. which is God truly appearing in the Spirit of fulnesse and glory this makes the heart free to part with any thing though never so dear to it which is obstructive to and keeps the soule from any enjoyment of this glorious dispensation yea this is that dispensation which doth destroy all administrations or formes or dispensations that are not of God what is of God before shall be swallowed up in it what is of man selfe or Satan shall be destroyed by it 2 Thess 2. 8. This is that which truly discovers to the soule all his false Rests though never so seemingly glorious yea though they be of Satans transformings or of selfs resemblings yet it laies them all in the dust and unvailes them to the Creature so as they appeare in their colours and place which sometimes workes a mighty indignation in the heart against the waies of his own heart 1 Cor. 7. 11. when his lewdnesse is discovered unto him so as he is not onely made free to part with the same but he is brought out of love with himselfe for Resting upon the same so much below God or Christ Again in the manifestation of God there is satisfaction Peace and Rest possesseth the Creature in stead of the other this peace dispossesseth the other peace this satisfaction maketh nothing the other whatsoever objection or dis-satisfaction was before or doth arise since now they are all fully answered and the soule compleatly satisfied so as now he is brought out of a dunghill into a pallace from a mean condition into a glorious to wit even to live by the breathings of divine Truth in him so as now he lives because God lives and is satisfied with the flowings in of God and eates of that which God eates of viz. Love Glory and happinesse Nay further there is fulnesse in this satisfaction he fils the soule with himselfe and how can then this soule doe any other but be free and willing to part with any other seeming fulnesse or good when now he is filled with him that fils all in all in all things Eph. 1. 23. So as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. so is the soul truly pro tempore filled with God untill he asswage it or seem to be departed from it or else enlarge the capacity of the Creature with more of himselfe now seeing that God comes in with such a fulnesse into the heart in this dispensation it must needs discover the emptinesse and vanity of his other Rests and cause a sweet willingnesse to part with the one and embrace the other And lastly It comes in power which day of Gods power Ps 110. 3. makes the Creature willing to part with any darling though never so dear and neer to him both freely cordially and with much simplicity of spirit
whatsoever the day of God in its light and glory doth discover to the soule not to be of himselfe this the day of his Power doth accomplish the same to the full in the soule yea though it â—e tâ—e life of a soule yea though it were its God and happinesse in it yet they all are nothing when God and it stands in competition in the soule whether of them should be advanced 3ly Christ made manifest in a heart and his spirituall coming into the same is like unto a fire which burns up consumes al things that are in the soul of his own which keep the Creature below God therfore saith the Scripture Who may abide the day of his coming or stand when he appeareth And he shews the reason therof for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope to refiners fire he is compared the appearance of Christ in the love of the Spirit is like refiners fire to refine purifie yea to burn up and consume in soules what is not of the Spirit and so to bring the creature to a losse though in the fame salvation shall be made manifest as according to the 1 Cor. 3. 13 14. where saith he if any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward but if it burn the creature shall lose thereby yet he must be saved yet it must be by this fire which did consume and burn up his hay and stubble now as mans work shall be revealed by fire so if it be not of God it shall be destroyed by the same which fire is love which is God thus when he brings a soul by his appearing into the greatest losse then is he bringing a soule into the greatest gain so that that which proves destruction of his false Rests is that which brings him to the true Rest and so though it be a losing for the present yet his greatest losse becomes his greatest gain Now I know there is many Rests that are destroyed or dissolved before this day of his coming and as there is one taken away the soule findes and seeks after another and runs from mountain to hill to get ease of a tormenting spirit so as man passeth through many Rests most commonly before this day but now it may be the Creature hath such glorious resembled Rests that it can not be found out before the day of Gods thus appearing then these seeming Rests are they which are discovered upon the appearance of himselfe in the soule But some soules passe through more then we have spoken of some through fewer according as God keeps the soule and alone becomes the leader of him yet many soules that are come thus high have found them by sad experience and others have found some of them and others more yet it is sometimes Gods way to permit the Creature to run out after the waies of his own heart and at last to hedâ—e up his waies Hos 2. 6. where many soules lies at this day in the wildernesse not knowing what to doe being non-plust in their owne spirits not knowing what God is a doing nor what he will doe what they must doe sit still they cannot act they cannot but in their old Road. Having shewed the many Rests Soules passe thorow and the difficulty of parting with them together with the waies and means God wakes the heart willing that now he may enjoy that true and unchangeable Rest of soules which shall be the next wee shall speak of and that is What this true Rest is which the spirits of a spirituall man must be centred The first description of true Rest AND first of all that Rest of Saints or the description thereof It is something lying naturally out of the Creature or above it not of it selfe attained by it But revealed and made manifest in it who is the Rest which alone is God or Christ First Christ it is cleare he lives out of the Creature for he lay in the heart of God John 1. 18. before we had a being and is discovered and revealed by God within us when we have a being which was purposed by God to be revealed from God and therein to be a center and Rest to that heart who doth enjoy it Secondly It cannot be attained by the Creature his abilities falling short of the doing of any such worke but he was the purpose of Love freely intended by God before time and as freely without the Creature comes to be made manifest by God in the Creature in time For it is nothing which the Creature of himselfe can attain which as a sure Rest in the Creature will remaine but it will faile the soule and prove a broken Reed The second description of true Rest SEcondly It is an unchangeable and unalterable Being seen by the soule after it is revealed to him which cannot be shaken after the Creature is centred in it wherein the Creaure is carried out of himselfe above himselfe to Rest securely above all feares First Christ the eternall Being of Spirits God in God only God he it is that is an unchangeable Being Isa 9. 6. Heb. 13. 8. Mal. 3. 6. which alters not neither is given to change for he was yesterday that is before time he is to day that is in time the same he is for ever that is unto all time Heb. 13. 8. Now if we looke upon Christ as Saints Rest wee must not consider him as he was in any forme or shape for so he altered and changed into divers formes and shapes But we are to consider him as he is God Eternal Blessed yea as he is the power of all powers and so he is the foundation and Rest of Saints For as he was in the flesh he was not to be a Rest but as he was in the Spirit so he is Rest both unchangeable and unalterable In whom there is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning James 1. 17. So that now Saints knowledge of him and their Rest in him is sure and abides And this is that which heightens their assurance to see and know that the Rest of their souls is an unalterable Rest that though dispensations change and hee in those dispensations yet the Center of his soul abides for ever and he kept unshaken in it because he Rests and Lives in and upon an unshaken unchangeable Center Now shall the disquieted and molested soul live in peace safety and quietnesse and none now can make it in this case afraid but it lives above all feares and torments being kept safe in this Divine Spirit and power where there is neither cause of jealousie or feare but being they are removed and the creature firmly establisht so that all stormes do not molest him and all temptations do not un-rest him but he lives Triumphant above them Triumphing upon them by that power in which he is Centred The Third Description of true Rest THirdly It is an unexpressible glorious Center or Being wholly taking up the
others that can be spoke of dwels substantially in him and that by him now all things are both preserved and kept Heb. 1. 3. So as all other Rests below this are none at all but only for them that know not this same Eternall Being But now this Christ Hee being such a Mystery and there being in the Earth such dissention about him To give true Definitions of him I will in the next place set forth what this Christ is who is the Rest of Saints We have in short set forth Christ the Eternall Spirit to be the Rest of Saints not as considered in any forme of flesh but as considered in the fulnesse of the Spirit But what Christ is in the fulnesse of the Spirit that is the thing wee are to explaine and clearly to distinguish Christs Coming in the Spirit Discovered AND First of all This Christ which is the Rest of Saints He is the Eternall Word of God spoken in time within every Saint by God upon which Internall yea Eternall Word the Spirit is made to Rest Joh. 1. 1. He is there called the Word of God He is the Word of God two waies First He was the Word of God as God eyther spake when he said Let us make man Gen. 1. 26. which was an expression of God concerning the First Creation and so all things were made by this Word of God Joh. 1. 1 2 3. Or He was that Word God promised should bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. which word by God being spoken was in time made flesh as appeares John 1. 14. which word being spake of God as it was so spake It was before this time in his bosome to be declared in time upon which word of God then we are to Rest and for the manifestation of which they were to waite But secondly This word is more spirituall to us when we enjoy the same word within us and the effect thereof upon us then it was at that present Now he is the internall voice of God spoken within an undone soule which doth Pâ—oduce liberty happinesse freedome and all the Creature can imagine after it is spoken within him For the word that was spoken at first which word was from the beginning 1 John 1. 1. which word was spoken without and in time because the same flesh with us was but figures of the excellency of that internall Word which God will speake within every Creature which Word shall become Christ within man after it is spoken unto man which Christ is a mystery to every one who knowes him not in this sense but to prove this more fuller in the 9. Chapter of the Rev. ver 13. There he is in expresse tearmes called The Word of God which expression I looke upon to have speciall reference to this particular wee are speaking of viz. The being the eternall or internall Voice of God within every Creature and indeed he is made manifest in every voice of God in soules and this Word in Scripture is often called the voice of Christ that is the Voice of God which in name and nature is Christ John 5 25. 28. John 10. 3 4. John 14. 11. For to looke upon Jesus Christ as he is in the Father and so a Spirit wee are to looke upon it that all Voyces that are spoken from the Spirit within us are voyces of God which for distinction sake is tearmed Christ for as he was in flesh he was not this internall Word for the externall Word of God became a Christ in the flesh John 1. 14 so doth the internall Word of God within us become a saving Jesus to us the one without us before our time in the figure which was to passe away and not to continue in that forme and shape for ever to us and so not to be Rested upon but the Internall Word of God within us is a dispensation of God which cannot be taken away or destroyed but abides for ever so as in the 1 John 2. 14. I have written unto you young men because ye are strong which strength was the abiding of this Word within them which Word was Christ which they from God had spoke within them Now this Internall externall Word of the Spirit of Christ this Word is faithfull and true Rev 19. 11. 13. yea unchangeable upon which the Saints Spirits doe Rest and live 2. This Christ is a cleare manifestation of God within us He was the manifestation of God when he was in the figure which was in the flesh there God was manifested in a mystery which mystery was Christ now as Christ without us was God manifested in the flesh so Christ within us is God manifested in the Spirit This Christ within man cannot be revealed in any fleshly forme but he must be revealed as he is in the Spirit one with the Father yea in the Father So that when God clearely reveales himself in any soul this which is now revealed is nothing else but himself in Love handed out by this Revelation Christ so that in Scriptures He is called the vision of God Hab. 2. 2. 3. Here he is distinguished to be Gods Vision which Vision is nothing else but a clear manifestation of God within the Creature formerly made cleare to the understanding of the Creature to be unrevealed and enjoyed by it So as now it teaches the soul perfect and iâ—fallible Truth after manifested to it for as Christ in the fleshly forme was appointed to declare and reveal God to us and so Christ called Christ God they being manifested in the same forme So it is inward the end of this terme Christ within you the hope of glory Coloss 1. 27. was because He was God clearely made manifest within them which had been a mystery hid but now was made manifest to his Saints So that the great Mystery of heaven is Christ who is the clear manifestation of the Father in the heart of Saints Again wee see it plainly declared in the 1. Joh. 1. 1. 2. For the Life was manifested and we have seene it and bear witnesse and shew unto you that Eternall Life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us here the Apostle doth plainly make manifest unto us That Eternall Life which was Christ in God was in time manifested by God which manifestation of Life was Jesus Christ So that He is termed sometimes to be of the Father sâ—â—etimes to come downe from him sometimes to be the Father and sometimes to be the Vision of him and many other expressions there is given of him from whence I note that most commonly every making forth of God in Mercy and Love to his Creatures are commonly called Christ for the difference betwixt the term of the Father and the Son doth not so much consist in Nature and Being but in name and working or dispensation all the acts of freedome and love and light are called Christ in us because it is a spirituall dispensation of God in mercy and love
to us Now Christ as he is the cleare discovery or discoverer of the Father to us so he becomes a Rest of peace and happinesse in us and so that this Christ who in name is called the Manifestation of Love â—is unchangeable in reference to the being and cause of this manifested Love which is Christ for if we consider him as the bosome love of God He is not so Christ to us or in us but as this comes to be manifest to us which manifestation or the thing manifest is onely Christ for I looke thus that not only Christ as he was in the flesh was Christ only in that form and no more but what ever was manifest either by or in that form was in Name the Christ and in Nature Christ in God now Saints Rest is not in Christ as manifested only in distinction but Christ is the Rest of Saints as God hath designed him for that purpose and so comes by God in Saints to be made manifest carrying up Saints to live in the full glory power and splendor of that God who did make manifest himself in this manifestation which is Christ And no other way comes soules truly to know the Father either in love or mercy but as the Father doth manifest himself in this very particular Christ revealed in mens hearts in which men may see God clearly and for the wâ—nt of which Philip was ignorant when he said to Christ Joh. 14. 8. Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us They were ignorant what the Father and Christ were in the Spirit though Christ were with them in the flesh and the reason was because Christ within them was not by God made manifest to them therefore would they have been making Tabernacles in such a low fleshly knowledge where in Truth they knew nothing of him in relation to the Spirit nor of that conjunction betwixt him and the Father that whensoever Christ spiritually was made manifest there the Father was manifest also because there was one undevideable nature and being in such cases betwixt the Father and the Son So that the Saints Rest is in this cleare manifested God within us who in tearm and Truth is called Christ So that now as Christs Center was in the Father and now is to dwel in the fulnesse of his Glory so Saints being in him are carried by him to live with him in the same glory and love and to conclude this when we can say from experience that which Paul said in the Gal 1. 16. That when it pleased the Father to reveal his Christ in him then shall we know that the manifestation of God to us is â—he Revelation of Christ in us 3. Christ spiritually discovered in men and so knowne by them and so becoming Rest to them is a cleare light of God in the Creature which light and glory is onely Christ and thus he is often described in Scripture not onely as he was a light in the flesh without us prescribing rules of light to us but chiâ—ry as he shall become the light and glory of God wiâ—hin us for as he was in the forme of flesh he was a mysâ—ery unknowne yea he was not such a light so as God intended him because he was then but in the figure holding forth what he would worke and what he should be when he was to come in the glory of the spirit within men for his being in the flesh was a very dark dispensation For even the Apostles who were the most conversant with him did know little and were very ignorant of the truth So as indeed they thought he was come to set up a Kingdome in the flesh and that hee would advance them in some great place as appeares So that is was Gods great designe which was held forth in that forme of flesh which is the sum of that Scripture where he is declared to be the light of the Gentiles and to be the Glory of the people Israel Luk. 2. 32. Now to prove it by Scripture that this Christ is in the spirituall coming and advancing in the soule a glorious and Divine Light Wee see it very clear from that Scripture in the 60. of Isa 1 2. Where the Lord declares the manner of Christs spirituall appearing in the soule Arise shine for thy Light is come and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee This same Scripture though men doe labour to deny it to be meant of Christs appearance in any particular soule yet he that hath found the appearance of Christ within him hath found him fully making good these sayings The matter however that here is promised at the raising up of distressed spirits is Light and Glory which light is God appearing in a dispensation of light and glory the which dispensation is Christ in us for he is both the light and glory of God and all things that are either spirituall light or glory discovered is Christ for according to that Scripture Rev. 21. 23. The glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof As if he should say when the Lord comes to dwell spiritually in the manifestation of glory within the spirits of man and so set up a Temple in the creature according to the 22th verse Then shall all those lights which before the soule hath beene guided by whether they were flashes or resembled light now there shall be no need of the same but the glory of God now shall be there to enlighten the same yea Christ shall be the light thereof so that he shall be filled with true light whoever hath the glorious appearance of Christ within him he shall become a compleat light unto that soule So as he shall not stand in need of any inferiour light but they shall bee dissolved when the glory of the Sun doth appeare so that in such a soule to whom Christ is become in this manner a light unto he shall have no night there according to that in the 22. of Rev. 5. verse But the Lord shall fill such a soule with light yea he shall give to such spirits Him in whom there is no darknesse as in a spirituall dispensation and as he is termed in Joh. 1. 9. verse He is here called The true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world He is here called true in opposition to fallacy as if he should lay open many false lights in the world and within men yet he was come as a true light to distinguish betwixt true and false and so he is a distinguishing light in every spirit who hath receiâ—ed him for though Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light in deceiving a creature yet notwithstanding when this true light appeares in any heart it doth both discover it and destroy it according to that in the 2 Thess 2. 7 8 9 10. That though the mystery of Iniquity and Anti-Christ be never so deceiveable and glorious in their workings and transformings both within and
without the creature yet Christ shall reveale and destroy it with the spirit of his mouth and the brightnesse oâ— his coming And true it is that Satan both â—n matter of formes without us and workings within us is transforming himselfe now if ever And truly he within soules workes like God and there is no knowne distinction betwixt his transformings and Christs workings untill there be a true transfiguring of Christ in the glory of the Spirit and this doth finde out all the deceite both of heart and Satan for indeed there is no forme though never so glorious but he will transforme himselfe in it there is no working of the spirit within man but he will resemble it so that none shall be able to know whether it be true or false within him or without him untill this Christ shall appear in light and glory and shall make the same manifest so as oftentimes his thus appearing is compared to the rising of the Sun and the dawning of the day which are degrees of distinguishing light which doth dissolve the imperfect light of the Moone and Starres and is a clear light of it selfe to rule and order to unfold and discover the truth of every thing which under the other dispensations could not be discerned and that is the reason that the Apostle tels them that they have a sure word of prophesy whereunto they doe well if they take heed And he tels them how long it was untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in their hearts This saying untill prescribes and sets out the limitation of time and the accomplishing of the same as if he should say there is a most glorious day to be enjoyed in Saints which day shall appeare but for your direction untill that day you have a sure word of prophesy unto which if God give you care thereof may be as a rule unto you It being a light shining in a dark place and though for the present you walke by the same yet Rest not there but waite for the spirituall coming of Christ within you which in this word of prophesy is held forth to you and then when he comes he shall be a perfect light within which light shall speak truth and leade the soule thereunto but in the interim Looke to that sure word of prophesy which declares and makes manifest the truth thereof This word of Prophesy was the Scriptures this day dawning and day-starre arising was the appearance of Christ in the fulnesse of the spirit within them So as he often in Scripture is called the bright Morning Starre and as concerning his spirituall coming he is sometimes termed under the notion of the day dawning or breaking as in Cant. 2. 17. and in many others onely to shew unto us that the breaking in of Christ into a heart is like the breaking of the light into the earth when the day begins to appeare and the night is expired as also the rising of the Sun to that purpose he is often called the Sun of Righteousnesse which shall arise and be seene in the hearts of men so that wee see this coming of Christ yea himselfe is a true and glorious light of God in the spirits of Saints so as he makes all things manifest to such a heart whether true or false and this light shall cloath every Saints spirit and all inferiour and transformed lights shall be under such a soules feet triumphing over them seeing the fallacy of them Then First it is this light Christ within the creature who appeares as light which doth expell or dispell all those Clouds which are with creatures in whom he hath not appeared for as the Sun doth expell the Clouds in the appearance thereof so Christ in his glorious shinings forth and breaking in into every believing spirit so as the creature before could not apprehend God by reason of these clouds that lye upon the soule now he apprehends him clearly the cause being by Christ taken away Secondly By this light Christ doth discover all the false Waies and Rests of the creature either in opposition to or being below the true and substantiall way of Rest so that this light Christ in his divine Appearances within the creature doth bring a day of losse upon many spirits when it discovers unto them the vanity of their spirits in running after the wayes of their owne hearts and here they come to see the emptynesse of formes or former flashes and now it may be all the soules knowledge and practise must lye in the dust and be unlearned so as this light brings the creature out of love with his owne Wayes so that now he is free to be led according to the teachings of this light Thirdly This light Christ in its spirituall appearing in the creature doth reveale and discover the Father in this light Christ so as the heart clearly sees and knows the Father and the Spirit the Son and the Spirit One and the Spirit to be both so as this light which in reference to name is called and tearmed Christ yet it is God in this light so that God is said to be light and in him is no darknesse The Father is the fountaine of light the Son is the manifestation of light or the light made manifest now here the soule in whom this true light doth appeare doth know God and him thus sent into the heart by Jesus Christ So that Christ as he is the Rest of Saints is a divine revelation of light in which light and glory the creatures spirit solaces it selfe and rests with much delight in the same and our of this form after enjoyed will not Christ appeare but will be unto such a spirit an everlasting light that now as God lives in light so the creature lives in light also which no creature in the flesh can attain to who cannot be seen felt or heard in the flesh in this dispensation but he is above it consuming of it and continually advancing this light more and more in the creature so as this light comes to be advanced and appeare in greater fulnesse so shall the spirits who are centred in it be advanced by it and the greater this light doth appear in fulnesse the more perfect doth the souls â—est appear and the more shall the spirits be filled with it Fourthly in the fourth place this Spirituall Christ or what he is in the Spirit when he comes to be the Rest of Saints He is spirituall and divine Life without which no soul hath spirituall or eternall life injoyed by him for as a man without the soul is dead so are all men without Iesus Christ within them made manifest so that John very fully layes open this truth 1. Joh. 1. 1. 2. for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witnesse and shew unto yon that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us So that we see what the life of Saints is for that life which they here
salvation from some false christ which workes and acts like this Christ yet the Son hath set neither free neither doe they know that alone redemption salvation and liberty which is produced by Christ living or appearing in any heart so that the spirituall Rest of saints is in and upon that salvation liberty and freedome which they have in this Christ who is become this unto them so that all heavy loads and yoaks are removed all oppositions of spiriâ— are taken off and all the wearinesse of spirit removed so that now the spirits are set free and can no more come into bondage but Christ alone is become salvation and liberty to him so that the spirit doth salace it selfe and Rest in him who is become freedome and salvation to him Sixtly Christ the Rest of Saints spiritually known is the wisdome of God in creatures the wisdome of God in Saints is Jesus Christ and there it is said He is made unto us wisdome 1 Cor. 1. 30. So that it is the Wisdome of God which is Christ spiritually known in which Saints Rest Fot if they Rested in the wisdome of the flesh that should be destroyed and so no safe Rest and center for them but the Wisdome of Christ doth unbottome Saints from their own wisdome and establish himselfe even the Wisdome of the God head in the Creature to be a Rest unto the Creature whereas before the Soule and spirit were not a Rest being from its own wisdome plotting and contriving which way to act and what to doe not from the Wisdome of God but from the wisdome of the flesh onely opposing and gain-saying this Wisdome which when the Creature could not bring about what in his owne wisdome he had contrived he must needs be perplexed and so conâ—inue in all trouble but now he is destroyed in that and he is made to Rest upon the Wisdome of God Christ now taking the Creatures place and acting in the stead of the Creature so that the soul is made to walke in and by Wisdome it is that Wisdome which is pute peaceable and undefiled The Wisdome of the flesh is corrupted but this is pure The Wisdome of the flesh hath nothing in it but disquietnesse both to the party in whom it is or in the Kingdome Church or Family where ir is acted and for this reason is occasioned all jarrings and tumults But the Wisdome of God which is Jesus Christ is peaeeable it workes abundance of peace and quietness in the soule Church or Nation where it onely is advanced here is a quiet and peaceable habitation for Saints to Rest and live upon wee see Christ often in Scripture called the Wisdome of God and as 1 Cor. 1. 24. where the Apostle declares Christ in all that are saved to be the Wisdome and power of God though this Wisdome be little esteemed of by the world yet it is highly precious in the esteem of Saints as for instance that of the Proverbs 3. 15. ver where that Wisdome is precious yea more precious then Rubies yea he is expressed to be an un-comparable comparison so that this Wisdome of the eternall Spirit which is Christ in us is desirable and therefore above all things saith the Scriptures Get Wisdome Prov. 4. 5. yea there is a happinesse in the enjoyment of it for it is the principal thing belongs to a Saint Pro. 4. 7. so that Saints are centred up in the Wisdome of God and are wholly delivered up into it to be alone disposed by it so that the spirit lives in sweet quietnesse and Rest the Creature being wholly made nothing in his own Wisdome and the Wisdome of God alone orders all things in him Seventhly That which spiriturlly is called Christ in us is that Peace which is spoken by God to us and received from God by us in which Peace we live and Rest so that Saints are kept in the Peace of God which is Christ to this purpose is the saying in the Eph. 2. 14. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us Here the Apostle sets forth Christ to be the Peace of the Saints for whatsoever tends to peace in the Creatures spirits that I mean which truly tends to the same is Christ for the soule before he appeares in it is like unto the ship tossed with the waves and tempest before Christ said unto the waves Be still this is that Peace the Apostle desires the Saints may enjoy which was the Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding Phil. 4. 7. which was of ability to keepe their hearts in the knowledge and love of God now this is that Saints spirituall Christ a Peace which is able to keep them in the love of God and a Peace which passeth the understanding of the Creature that is a Peace which the understanding of man can never finde out or iâ— able to reach under yea all the understanding in the world is never able to finde out such a Peace for the Creature as this is so that he is tearmed the prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. All the acts of Christ in the spirits of Beleevers are Righteousnesse and Peace It is that Peace which the world cannot give and such a Peace it is as they cannot take away When God speaks Châ—ist into a soul which is Peace in which none can cause trouble in such a soul because Christ is become the Peace thereof indeed men may speak Peace and Ordinances may speak Peace and false Gods and Christs may speake Peace after which there may be trouble occasioned But after God speaks Peace there can none cause trouble but the soule lives and is kept in the Peace of God and none can make him afraid therefore the Prophet did utter these sayings He shall be our Peace when the Assyrians comes into our Land This Christ is the Peace of Saints in every condition so that they live in much freedom and joy because the center and rest of their spirits is peace And lastly This Christ is Righteousnesse and holinesse in the Saints or Sanctification this not onely by experience but by Scripture may be proved The Apostle tels the Church of Corinth That Christ of God was made unto them wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. So that Righteousnesse and sanctification Christ was made unto them so that whatsoever is Righteousnesse in the Spirits of Saints is Christ spiritually dwelling in them this is that righteousnesse that the Apostle desired to be found in this is that divine nature which the Saints are made partakers of to wit Christ the Righteousnesse of God This is agreeable to that saying concerning Christ And this is his Name whereby he shall be called THE LORD OVR RIGHTEOVSNESSE Jer. 23. 6. Jer. 33. 16. He shall not only be called so by them but he really shall be made over so by God to them so that the Righteousnesse of God in us