the two consider the effects that follow as namely Security or luke warmnes or fulnesse and self conceitednesse and so false Restings are of as dangerous a consequence as the other Thirdly Humility is by resembling of such property of words and actions in an other as is most lovely in the eyes of himself and others and here lies a sad deceit when men doe only resemble the words or carriages of another which it may be in that party flowes from a principle or power of God in him and by a resembling of him and getting into his form think their condition is the happier and so glory in it more then before so that though his Humility flow from a divine work in him yet the others is but shaped out of what is expressed by or from him and here lies much danger especially if man Rest in the same The forth way whereby humility comes most commonly to be attained And the way indeed is from the enjoyment of God thereby man comes not only to have the effects or branches cut off but the cause or root of the same taken away So as now man hath it not in the form or shape but in power and substance and now man is truly what he seems to be but not before whereby as the Creature is humbled so God is exalted and this is the Creatures joy though not his Rest wholly This humility now is the effect of God enjoyed whereby man is made to partake of Gods natrue and this nature breaks out into these particular effects but now this very effects of humility though it be from the enjoyment of God yet it is not the Rest of a Saint but the cause which is God The next part is the gift of Utterance which is that many have that knows not God and many have not which sweetly enjoy him So that man who is freely carried forth to utter or make known any thing he conceives is truth yet there is neither cause of trusting to it or Resting in it neither is there cause why a Soul should the more glory in the enjoyment of it or be troubled in the want of it The last part or Gift we shall speak of is Memory This part of Memory is that which doth most sweetly adorn man in the visible making of it forth and it makes man much adored for it it is 1. Away to grow very profitable in respect of him that hath it and beneficiall to them for whom he imployes it as namely In that dispensation of hearing after which the party which enjoyes this Part is able to repeat or declare almost verbatim what he hath heard this makes him very profitable in what he hears in respect of gathering knowledge and benificiall to others from the improvement of the same This is the reason why two Ministers so professing of themselves studying their matter the one brings it in a peece of paper and the other in the same method or forme though in his understanding becaus the one excels the otther in this Part of Memory and this makes the one more esteemed then the other and the one to appear more weake then the other But alas though all these were in one man in a higher strain then I have declared yet they all were but a poor Rest or cause of joy or contentment to any heart and truly when God appears so as to manifest himself the Soul shall see the weaknesse and foolly of his spirit to be satisfied in the whole not to be any cause of Rest though they were dispensations of God and were freely given by God For all these may be in a very hipocrite or in a meer naturall man First of all to conclude this Rest 1. It is an abuse of a Gift and an affornt put upon the Giver to make it either cause of Rest or an evidence of a true enjoyment of God 2. That soul most commonly who is not led in the Spirit either to behold God or enjoy him to be the Rests of spirits is most usuall it can hardly be prevented to Rest upon such Rests as we have declared but consider that must be the Rest of any who sees or enjoys not one manifested to him to be above it Man must have some Rest either true or false But that must be the safe Rest the which no hipocrite doth at tain nor can enjoy which is God manifested in the Spirit further why should any man place his Rest upon any thing which will come to nothing or is given to change Or why should we make that the ground of our happinesse which is but a tallent given to be improved which may be taken away at the Owners pleasure being given onely to bee improved and then mans Rest and peace ceaseth and in this particular doth â—he folly of mans heart appear in abusing the end of every dispensation as of this of Parts As. First The abuse of Parts lyes in the boasting and glorying in the gift and not in him that gives it And also in this to make them his Rest 2. For a man so to glory in them as to make again of them improve in them for to get honour and preferment and glory in the World This I fear was partly the end of Simon Magus in desiring the gifts of God Alas all gifts are empty without God be Manifested in them and poore contentment do they afford to him that Rests in them And here men are setting them in Gods place and labouring to dispossesse God who is or ought to be the satisfaction of the heart And this is another abuse of Parts A world of deceit lyes in mans heart about gifts or parts if abused First They will not make forth themselves unlesse it be where they be honoured or else they labour for the same by the improvement of them being the most free where it 's the most applauded and the most straitned and wary of that place where it is not adored and exalted and set up above the proper station of the creature being much cheered when exalted and much cast downe when rejected or at least not so applauded as he requires or expect here is man much abusing Parts and setting them in Gods stead in the which man shall be brought to a losse when God doth â—â—â—ifest himself in that heart The fourth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is Zeal for the truth Zeal in the matters of God is that which the most go through before the manifestations of God yet though it be good in its place and a dispensation to be owned yet it is but a deceitfull Rest We know the cry of him in the Scripture who was Resting and glorying in his Zeal for God when he cryed come see my Zeal for the Lord of hosts So we know many mens Zeal goes before their knowledge of God in the spirit We hear of a zealous Saul who was mad of Zeal in persecuting the Church Act. 22. 3 and
a bundance 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 yea though his knowledge be according to or attained in the Scriptures if he Rest there before he hath got it in the heart by expersence 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 either oppose it or else they get the form of it into their notion or understanding and the next upportunity they have they declare it as 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 Bud these are those who have a form of God or the truth in their understandings and want the power of that truth in their Spirits And so many a soul rests in this very part of knowledge Now the Reasons of a souls resting here are partly these following First From a comparison made in his own spirit with others that are in lower dispensâ—tions 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 marvel 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 upon the gifts of knowledge is from want of a right infâ—rmation 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 dispenâ—â—tion of God and good in its place yet it is not to be rested upon as though the soul 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 high security and such a security being but carnall as being without ground It is the way in the second place to a self-glorying and creature exalting and to the displeasing of God Thirdly It is the way to fall into all manner of loosnesse under pretence of freedome and knowledge of truth and that is no sinne though â—t do 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 carnal 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 notioÌ„s and 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 his dayly growth and encrease in knowledge he dayly growing in knowledge daily more established on his own bottomes though not so thought by himself This dayly encrease of knowldge in himself the benefit that sometimes is redounded to others by that doth increase the flame and ads 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 to expresse In conclusion it attains matter to expresse and
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 do all shadowes and whatsoever is Gospel-administration cease to that particular soul 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 soul 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 hold forth Christ in the Spirit to come now such cease 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 himself 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 have the Seals 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 own being seen and enjoyed in these formes which do hold forth his thus coming into the heart now none but those who do 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 thereof was come God appeared in a more glorious administration so will God depart and cease to be seen in new Testament-formes or administrations when both the substance of them is come and a higher dispensation doth appear leading the heart out of them to a more glorious and immediate enjoyment of himself This is to follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth This is to hear a voice behinde man saying This is the way walk in it Isaiah 30. 21. 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 dayly from one forme into another until he bring the soul 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 hath 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 lead 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 press'd out after formes and being members of Congregations and the enjoyment of pure Ordinances thinking to find so much in them and to conceive so much from them and when they come there behold nothing but dâ—iâ—es 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 lead by God into these forms neither did they see God clearly 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 forms and living in them and doting too much upon them and rejoycing too much in them and judging all that speake not for them or joyne 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 lead each man out of his dispensation and form though never so low to drink into one Spirit Let him that is so much either bent for formes or wholly against them beware that he do 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 preâ—ence 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 conscience in the use of formes not enjoying higher makings forth of God and yet he hath but got a notion of this into his understanding and yet is ignorant of living or injoying God in the Spirit 2. Let them beware of as great an evill on the right hand as on the
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 wearâ— because God comes not in his time and rewards it for its breathing after and working to attaine God or Christ Now the soul being falsly led out by his own heart he 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 he 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 be 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 Internalls 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 make their Tabernacles is the use and application of the conceived and imagined extent of Christs death which being so fully declared in the letter without any more they believe 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 sactions 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 more 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 terrors of death have or do seise 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 Scripture saith He 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 he is the ground of true faith when he is altogether deceived 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 gtound to believe but upon this ground When the poor heart is altogether ignorant in his own breast of the manner of Gods coming to reveal 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 pains and diligence wherein he fils his head with so much of the Scriptures as indeed he makes it so glorious as it Conquers his spirits and many more into a solacing himself in this very particular when indeed he is missing the chiefest good which is the life of him who puts an end of all controversie to all such disputes when he comes to appear in the Spirit But alas before no marvell though the poore Soule be running from mountaine to hill though he forgets him who is the Resting place of Zion Therefore soul thou that makest thy habitation amongst the briers and thorns 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 have 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 himself in a dispensation which shall be dissolved For both man in he 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 soul and from hence when many come 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 apprehended 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 most commonly Satans way to apply himselfe to such a cuâ—e for to cause a soul
in the heart which may arise yea if men instead of approving do deny it to be truth yet the souls 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 â—he Creature who wants the same may well make use of others But flashes if they be deceiveable pretend to come in with a witnesse and therefore many call this a witneâ—se 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 oâ— flashes which I may say is almost the last Carde Satan can play in a soule to deceive him in his transformings do live in most great joy light notions or pretended liberty thinking from a meer perswasion 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 Carde plaid gallantly by Satan to keep the creature below the enjoyment of God in â—he 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 a believing 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 pass 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 appear 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 gos 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 flie away Isa 60. 19 20. and the darknesse of the Creature shall be expelled and God shall become unto the soul an everlasting light Rev. 21. 3. 24. so that God and the Lamb shall live in his heart and be light and glory to him so as his Sun shall never go down 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 same 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 darke soul when it s possessed with much darknesse the lest 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 and at last is taken away and the creatures hopes and expectations are frustrated Whereas to such a soul 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 Ephes 5. 13 yea the very transforming of Satan Fourthly Flashes in this nature do 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 part for if the heart be of an opinion that it is possible for a soul 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 stil 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 soul can doubt again after he hath enjoyed a manifestation of God Then Satan will transform himself 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 poor creature Rests satisfied in and upon what the Creature calls his manifestations of God now flashes that usually attend a creature that is truly enlightned by God though not fully possessed with God yet he being waiting for the coming 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 do underprop and support a weary fainting spirit in his spirituall travell to his land of Rest so as he is made to wait with free submission to God untill it enjoy an appearance of God in the Spirit 2. Instead of causing a man
head where he 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 too low an Element for any spirituall heart to make his habition 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 fight 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 spirituall 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 a spiritual 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 pessession 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 speak of Is the great Experiences many have of deliverances given them by God from inward and outward straits 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 souls 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 hell being filled with horror and fear and looking upon God as nothing but a revenging and tormenting God in which torments of spirit he lies groaning and mourning before God being swallowed up in darkness and bondage attempting all means to get freedome and liberty from this his sad wofull and miserable estate wherein soules sometimes get deliverance one of there three waies 1. Eiâ—her 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 apprehensiâ—n that which before he desired which stopping of the mouth of conscience and 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 he lobours to apply a false remedy thinking to put the soul thereby into a state of security or else mediately by his instruments in the Ministery wherein they come to daub with untempered morter and so speak â—eace to man before God speak peace within man and so do as the Lord saith Heal up the wound of the Daughter of his people fasly and from this have many poor 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 be satisfied where he 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 come souls sometimes to have their deliverances and for a space Rests untill it break forth again The third way wherein many others attaâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—erances is from God As the Children of Israel from their land of bondage tyranny 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 be rested upon as they are deliverances seeing they may be true or false which untill a higher dispensation of God cannot infallibly be discerned Secondly A Soul may be delivered from a resolved self-Murther or Destruction when temptation doth violently attend that way yet notwithstanding though he be abundantly preserved by God in his inward straight wherein Satan would have him become his own executioner but 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
Christ who in name is called the Manifestation of Love 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 look thus that not onely 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 come 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 want 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 clearly 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 dwell 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 â—hen shall we know that the manifestation of God to us is the Revelation of Christ in us 3. Christ spiritually discovered in men and so knowne by them and so becoming Rest to them is a clear 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 chiefly as he shall become the light and glory of God within us for as he was in the forme oâ— flesh he was a mystery 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 he would advance them in some great place as appeares So that it was Gods great design which was held forth in that forme of flesh which is the sum of that Scipture 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 We 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 do 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 spirit of man and so set up a Temple in the creature according to the 22. verse Then shall all those lights which before the soul hath been 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 there be 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 stall become a compleat light unto that soul So as he shall not stand in need of any inferiour light but they shall be dissolved when the glory of the Sun appeareth 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 Iohn 1. 9. verse He is here called The true Light which lighteneth everyman 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 received him for though Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light in deceiving a creature yet notwithstanding when his true light appears in any heart it doth both discover it and destroy it according to that in the 2 Thes 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 of his coming And true it is that Satan both in matter of formes