yea have no glory at all in comparison of that which excels and is to follow 2 Cor. 3. 10. or else as that which will be swallowed up of corruption and changed into a body of sin and death is the wages of mans disobedience and fruit of Gods displeasure for the same In this sense we are to understand man to be made in a mutable and corruptible state as having that set up in him and given to him through the well or evil ordering whereof he may either lose and justly be deprived of it in a way of Gods displeasure or exchange it for a second and more excellent appearance of God the glory that is to follow wherein this also is comprehended and made perfect and durable And that we may the better understand the nature of this changeable state wherein man is found under the first Covenant and see the weakness and faultiness thereof comparatively with that which is designed by God unto man wherein to fix and rest it will be needful for us to be more particular in describing first what man is in his essential properties and operations in that make and constitution communicated to him by the Trinity in his creation and then to shew what was the nature of the communion and converse with God which he was thereby fitted and qualified unto in order to grow up to be perfected in by the means for that end given him by God if the fault were not his own as it is written Thy destruction O man is of thy self Man then as he bears the image of the Trinity is constituted of spirit soul and body as his essential parts which whatever suspension of exercise or temporary alteration any of them may have do never suffer annihilation but make up the proper discriminating form of man by which he stands distinguished from all other the works of Gods hands in both worlds And thus first man is created spirit and made to subsist in his head Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world as we have already shewed where he stands comprehended in the life of Christs natural perfection as he is the Father of spirits in like manner by way of comparison as in reference to his fleshly seed all the posterity of Adam stood in the loyns of their common parent from the time of his creation Yet this is not the state of mans spirit made perfect but is only a first degree of his being which is the foundation laid by God to mans exercise of a bodily and spiritual life and operation incident and essential to him as a man whether he become a vessel of honour or dishonour So that in this state of a created spirit man had a being in his head before he was brought forth in the exercise either of his sensual or rational life and is rather comprehended in his head then actually and perfectly apprehending or enjoying in respect of which first state and invisibility of being he is a dark shadow of the witness of the Father Secondly man is to be considered in his bodily frame as he is made of the dust of the ground and had the breath of life breathed into him by God through which he became a living soul This breathing of the breath of life by God into mans nostrils doth declare first Gods bringing the soul of man into the actual being and exercise of its sensual life which till then lay hid in mans spirit by the means whereof he is furnished with a capacity of receiving and taking in by the organs of sense the knowledge of things proper to him as a man which though it be his weaker and inferiour part yet is first in motion in order to yield its service and subjection to the rational and superiour part This life which the soul leads and manages by actuating and informing the senses serving herself of them is that whereby the report of things from without is let in upon mans reason which is for the most part so prevalent as if the soul were absolutely and intirely dependent upon and necessitated unto the use of the senses in respect whereof some have thought very groundlesly that it hath either slept or ceased to be upon the laying down of the body By this first exercise of a living soul in man is figured out the witness of the Son Thirdly the spirit of man is the foundation and spring unto a rational spiritual or intellectual exercise of life wherein he is capable of associating with Angels and becoming their equal even in his natural capacity of a man which also was actually set up in Adam by that act of Gods breathing into him the breath of life and was as the superiour ruling part in man obtaining the place of Lord Ruler and Husband unto his first inferiour and sensual part which in its actings was to be dependent upon and subservient unto this in all usefulness and harmony Thus in a mystical sense man was made Male and Female in the same person through the setting up this two-fold exercise of life and operation of soul in him sensual and rational This second sort of operation is mans higher and nobler part and shews most the man in it the other distinguishes the man very little from the beast but that the countenance of man looks upward and the face of the beast downward The exercise of life in this higher and more raised part of man Adam obtained at first in perfection and had it in its compleat stature so far as it was capable during its association with its mortal body and while it was on this side the state of being made perfect in spirit and equal to Angels Luke 20. 36. by laying down the body in the grave either to good Angels when they become the spirits of just men made perfect or to evil Angels when they are the spirits of wicked men grown up to the height of their natural stature in spirit and by vertue of that perfect exercise of the rational and intellectual part which Adam had in the body he had a capacity to take in the knowledge and discerning of things immediatly from the inward vision represented to him by the ministry of Angels he had also an intuitive prospect into the nature of all visible and bodily things in their causes without being beholding to the report given by his senses and as a fruit hereof we do find Gen. 2. 19 20. That Adam gave names to every living creature according to their nature by vertue of this his intuitive knowledge which he exercised in a way independent upon his sensual part the property of this his spiritual and rational part being to act as in the body or as out of the body that is to say to serve it self of the use of its bodily senses or not according as they conduce to the furthering and bettering him in his true and right discerning of things man then hath a perfect compleat intellectual and rational life springing up
are the heavenly spiritual seed and from above measured out with a line of life as adopted children and friends of God the latter are the earthly or fleshly seed and from beneath measured out with a line of death as chusing the state of a servant or to remain single and alone in their natural principles enemies to the cross of Christ and resisters of the grace whereby the other are saved which saving grace we shall find 2 Tim. 1. 9. was conferred freely on the Elect without condition according to Gods purpose and given them in Christ Jesus before the world began So Ephes 1. 3 4. They were blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in Christ according as they were chosen in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love Thus we see in what sense the particular beings of men and Angels are the off-spring and seed of Christ children of the first or second covenant frequently so called in Scripture although none but those that are called according to his purpose to be heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ of the Fathers glory ministred to them in and by the new and everlasting Covenant do truly deserve the name of Sons or Children who have a name better then that of Sons and Daughters by the other Covenant From this general consideration therefore of Men and Angels as all are the seed and off-spring of Christ we must come to several distributions of them For First Here we have the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the inhabitants of the true Mount Sion and City of the living God Secondly we have the innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12. 22 23. who are made ministring Spirits to these heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. Thirdly we have the Legions of wicked Angels that made themselves such by their fall and disobedience reserved in chains of darkness to the judgement of the great day Fourthly we have the whole race of mankind in one lump or mass as considered in their natural life and being bearing the image and similitude of God according to his first appearance wherein all are brought forth in the beginning as a state for them not to abide in but from whence to be passing into an endless and immortal state of honour or dishonour All these by name are created and have their invisible immortal substances brought forth by the WORD as his off-spring made to stand up together in and with the man Jesus Christ as their head and are committed to the charge of the Mediator to assign unto them all circumstances for their being brought forth into their visible bodily appearances in this world together with the means and method of bringing them upon the stage of this first creation and the lot there wherein they are to stand and serve in their several places uses and relations according as he hath received command from the Father So that from the time that the man Christ Jesus began to be in the WORD as in his head and root standing up in the sight and presence thereof as the promised seed to come we are to date the beginning of dayes unto the invisible substances of Angels and Men who then also began to be in their head and were ever beholding or rather beheld by their Father in heaven untill they were made actually to exist in continuance of time in their own proper persons and beings CHAP. IV. Concerning the Creation Nature and Ministry of Angels IT is said Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth In what sense Christ is the beginning hath been already opened and how as the Messiah he is the Minister of Gods first appearance in which he is head unto the Angels the Lord amongst them in Sinai by whose voice the Law or first covenant was given where he was compassed about with these his fiery Chariots who receive what is spoken by Christ of the mind and will of God to speak it forth again as the Word they are to publish unto men in the Ministry of the first covenant Heb. 2. 2. In this sense it is said Acts 7. 53. that the Law was given by the disposition of Angels They therefore do obtain the first order and rank of all natural beings in the first creation and are endued with an instrumentalness of being and motion to this use and service of their Head as also to be the subordinate means of all converse which by Christ is maintained between God and the first world unto whom it is put in subjection as Heb. 2. 5. compared with Psal 8. 5. do evidence These in their creation are described by the light which God made on the first day Gen. 1. 34. when he said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good approving this first work of his hands in the beginning of that day and God by his dividing the light from the darkness signified the heavenliness of their frame and constitution as they stand exalted and separate in their beings from all sensual life in the form of invisible spirits whereof the material heavens in their creation are the first shadow which are called Prov. 8. 26. the highest part of the dust of the world as David also giving account of both their creations together Psal 104. ver 2 3 4. saith who coverest thy self with light as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind who maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire in which posture and preparation the Psalmist describes the WORD as he proceeds to the rest of the creation ver 5 6. c. intimating that as man in his bodily state was made dust of the ground so the Angels were made a flame of fire in their natural constitution In this their natural frame they excell in strength and power Psal 103. to execute the commands of their head and in their motion and actings are exceeding high and dreadful comparatively with all other parts of the Creation and therefore these Morning-Stars considered as they are together in one society and corporation amongst whom there is a chief and prince called Lucifer the first son of the morning are the image and glory of Christ as he is the first-born of every creature in like service use and relation as the woman is to the man whose image and glory she is A view of these angelical spirits in their nature ministry and use is lively set forth and represented in the vision Ezekiel had Chap. 1. compared with Chap. 10. as the body unto Christ who is there described by the living creature which the Prophet saw under the God of Israel which living creature is said to have the likeness of a man and is also called
and the works of his hands judging and condemning the wicked Angels for their disobedience reserving them in chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day and taking the holy and obedient Angels into participation and fellowship with himself in the life from the dead by him obtained and possessed as the Lord to whom God spake to sit down at his right hand from the beginning until he made his foes his foot stool through whom as through a Propitiatory covering he did look down upon all the works of his hands and was at rest and well pleased with them as wrought in the Mediator notwithstanding all that had been done by sin or Satan to effect a breach and alineate his mind from them Hence Job 38. 6 7. it is said that God fastned the foundation of the first world and laid the corner-stone thereof viz. in the person of the Mediator by way of provision and preparation against all the power of sin and Satan in their attempts upon it At this the good Angels those morning stars and sons of God rejoyced prying into this mysterie which made them sing and shout for joy as on the same occasion it is said Psal 118. 22 23 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it to see thereby the Devil and his Angels disappointed in their wicked designs who by the bringing in of sin were in hopes to have hindred the growing up of Jesus the BRANCH that was to spring out of this ROOT But Davids ROOT sitting as Lord at Gods right hand had before obtained that power which was to subdue all enemies and lay them flat at his foot-stool Davids OFF-SPRING therefore was in no danger of having his course stopped or race hindred wherein as a mighty Saviour and Redeemer he was to go forth and rescue the whole spiritual seed out of the hands of sin and Satan to bring them unto the true REST and obtain a gracious reprieve and forbearance for the most obstinate and rebellious also And as this was the end of Christs coming in the flesh he is accordingly fitted and qualified thereunto enabled in every particular to fulfil and accomplish the same But that we may the more clearly and distinctly understand and come to see wherein Jesus Christ as man is made this mighty Saviour and Redeemer unto men we shall consider this in three chief particulars all which were the product and consequents of the Word 's being made flesh As first the seeds and principles of a two-fold holiness and righteousness formed and set up in the mind of Christ as he is a man answerable to both Covenants For by the Word 's being made flesh the man Christ Jesus was taken into a twofold union and communion with God through the overshadowing of the Holy-Ghost in the womb of the Virgin becoming thereby in his own person the substance of both Covenants Isa 42. 6. and ch 49. 8. The true Abraham or Father to both seeds as well that of the Law as that of Faith In both which considerations of his man-hood he was substantially or personally united with God or with the WORD he and the WORD making but one Person and one Mediator which no man whatever besides himself is or can be and by vertue hereof he is qualified both as Priest and Sacrifice to pay that ransom and make that atonement for sin which God required The first of these unions he had as made under the Law or first-covenant which produced in him suitable righteous and holy principles unto the rule and tenor thereof enabling him to fulfill all that kind and sort of righteousness therein and thereby required and commanded In respect of which union and the image of God thence springing up in him and adorning of him he was truly and properly made a living soul and in this fashion and habit of a man was to taste death for every man as being in a state subjected thereunto called the natural body in distinction from the spiritual body For 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body as it is written the first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Through this first union Christ had an exercise of life as meer man and in common with all men sin only excepted by reason whereof the workings and operations of his mind though they were in their kind most perfect yet were but those of the first Adams righteousness in the highest purity and perfection thereof The second union and communion then which is contracted between the WORD and Jesus the Son of Mary made him a quickning Spirit and brought him under the Law of the Spirit or of the second and everlasting Covenant as it is written Isa 59. 21. Thus saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever Through which union Christ as man had the Spirit poured out upon him without measure and above the measure according unto which he was the receiver of it as he was under the Law singly considered as him whom God the Father seals and on whom he confers his new name or second image feeding him with hidden Manna and admitting him into the glory within the veil setting up in him the exercise of spiritual senses suited and prepared to converse with the very substantial brightness and similitude of God face to face even apparently in which Moses was the figure of him Numb 12. 8. In this exercise of life Christ as man is made higher then the heavens exalted to a name above every name far above all principalities and powers having herein obtained a more excellent name and inheritance then the Angels unto whom nevertheless as he was made under the law he was made inferiour for the tasting of death In respect of this his exalted state of humane nature he is called Gods first begotten Heb. 1. 6. by reason of whose hypostatical or substantial union with the WORD the Angels of God are appointed to worship him and to acknowledge him in this glory one and equal with the Father alwaies doing that which is pleasing unto him The seed of this union and communion was sown in the humane nature of Christ in the very womb the former and this both together making up that holy thing born of the Virgin that child Jesus who is said to grow in grace and in favour with God and with man like the vine whose fruit was refreshing to the heart of God and of man having the principles and exercise of life springing up in him that were most suitable agreeable to the heart of both being a man of God after Gods own heart as well as a righteous and holy man according to the Law
a subordinate and subjected way to be inseparably harmonious co-workers with that second and better activity of faith which blessed association of these two in the last Adam is much better then the one that is single and alone in the first making up of twain that one new man and new name which is better then the name of sons and of daughters in the children of the first Covenant Hence it appears that Christ in his active obedience did not only conform to the Law as a legally righteous and holy man doing the work of a servant in the spirit and life of the Son fulfilling the righteousness of the Law by faith but that he did also perform the proper works required by the Law of the new-covenant consisting in the holy observation of the true Sabbath and bringing his fleshly principles into subjection unto and useful co-operativeness with his heavenly and spiritual in the exercise of faith And so Christs active obedience we see distinguisheth it self into the works required to be done by the first and second covenant This hath brought us to the second sort of Christs obedience which is called passive as consisting in that wherein he was a sufferer which also is capable of a twofold consideration First in respect of that which he suffered under the power and activity of faith carrying his natural judgement and will into a voluntary captivity to the teachings of the Father that trained him up to the doing of his Fathers will with the denyal or not doing of his own as properly his in the activity of his fleshly or legal principles or secondly as relating to that wherein he was made a curse for us appointed and delivered up by the Father though still with his own consent to bear the punishment due unto sinners and perform that in his own person wherewith Gods Justice might be satisfied and sin expiated as it is written by his stripes we are healed the just is punished and the unjust is set free Christ was in the first of these respects truly and properly a sufferer as he that submitted himself to be bereaved and deprived of the exercise of these principles in and upon the operation whereof in the judgement of the natural man as single depended the performance of the condition of the first Covenant wherein all mankind was concerned as it is written He that doth these things shall live in them So as the weakness and disability which he suffered to be brought upon himself in this his operation might seem to be the way to expose him to the curse and wrath of God threatned upon non-performance of the condition of the Law as it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them and therefore was hard even for Christs natural man to undergo costing him many a tear groan and cry before his natural judgement was fully silenced and made to yield to it as giving full credit to this report of faith calling for obedience hereunto as to the voice of God Isa 53. And as this seemed hard to Christs natural judgement so nothing was more bitter and cross to the inclinations and desires of his natural will then to have his natural spirit thus broken abased humbled and laid low in such a poor destitute and weak condition as to become a worm no man unable to make resistance or defence for himself by the exercise of that activity that was properly his own which is hereby taken out of his single dispose in order to be brought forth in newness of operation through the power and activity of faith or the seed and principles flowing forth from his second union wherein he and his Father are one and the life he lives and the will he does is not his own exercised single but in conjunction and association with that of the Father Howbeit in this we are not to understand the natural man of Christ as meerly passive or violently bereaved of the use and exercise of this his first operation and activity but are to consider him herein as convinced in judgement and gained in will to the forbearance thereof and cessation therefrom and so voluntarily submitting his own hands in this regard to be bound and his feet tyed upon undeniable reasons and clear demonstrations to the eye of his faith of a far greater good to be redounding to him by the same This Christ asserts Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self who might keep it and exercise it if I would for I have power or freedom to lay it down and also to take it up according to the commandment which I haveh rein received from the Father and because I do it in the way of choice and freely not by compulsion therefore it is my Father loves me Thus also Christ testifieth of himself Joh. 8. where he saith I am one that bear witness of my self or I have a principle in me that can declare it self in the proper life and operation of a natural righteous and holy man as one made under the Law and walking in all the ordinances and commandments of God therein blameless Yet saith he Joh. 5. 30 31. to come forth in the single exercise hereof is not my manner of acting for of my self I can do nothing or I am taught by my Father to do nothing but in association with him as I hear I Judge and I am thereby instructed not to do my own will or go forth in the single exercise of my first activity but to seek the will of the Father that sent me even to the offering up in sacrifice my own proper will and desire For if I should bear witness of my self my witness single were not true or authentique to make out truth according to your law which Ioh. 8. 16 17 18. requires two witnesses for the establishing of every truth therefore saith he there is another with me in association that never leaves me to my single actings and I know that the witness which he gives of me is true and that the testimony which I give flowing from that anointing is truth in the full and compleat evidence thereof That then which in this first sense Christs natural man was a sufferer in consisted in the weakness and disability which was brought upon the fleshly mind to resist the powerful workings of his faith or spiritual mind unto the obedience where of it is voluntarily made captive as the only way and means to be brought into the Rest and Cessation required by the Father in respect whereof it is that he saith he can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these doth the Son likewise and so is no loser by this kind of weakness and inability but rather a rich
gainer experimentally finding that when thus he is weakest then he is strongest as brought into such a frame of spirit wherein he is disabled to do any thing against the truth and thereby qualified to do all things for the truth This profitable weakness and disability came not all at once upon Christs natural man but gradually growing up at last into the perfect Rest and Cessation from his own works wherein the true sabbathism consists and in which Christ sets forth himself a pattern for his Saints imitation Heb. 4. 10. This made him say Joh. 8. 28. when ye have lift up the son of man then ye shall know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things and he that hath sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone but is ever bringing the natural powers and senses of my mind into perfect subserviency and subjection to my spiritual which through faith are alwaies exercised in unity with my Fathers will so that I do alwaies those things that please him In this blessed association consists the life of the new creature when of twain there is made one new man by the blood of this sacrifice In this new frame of spirit and newness of life and operation Christ delights to be taken notice of Joh. 7. 28. where he saith ye both know me and whence I am I am not come of my self but he that sent me is true whom ye know not but I know him for I am from him and my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me under the power of whose teachings I am so absolutely and intirely brought that I do not so much as speak of my self much less think or act for he that speaks of himself seeks his own glory but he that seeks the glory of him that sent him the same is true and there is no unrighteousness in him And he it is Joh. 5. 20. whom the Father loves and sheweth all things that himself doth and who will shew him greater works then these that ye may marvel for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them by his immediate witness in the Son so the Son quickens whom he will even the whole spiritual seed by making them one with him as he and the Father are one Thus in this first part of Christs passive obedience he through the law becomes dead unto the law through the law of the spirit of life in the second Adam becomes dead unto the law and life of the first fulfilling the whole law of righteousness by being rendred utterly unable to perform one tittle of it in mans first activity and sufficiency or as left alone to the grace and strength received by the first-covenant principles Thus we have seen Christ not only as the Lamb prepared without spot and blemish in order to be offered up but as he became our passover actually sacrificed for us being in one person as well the priest as the sacrifice fulfilling the righteousness and conditions of both covenants in that newness of life and operation which sprang up in him through faith or the unity of operation he was begotten into with the Father Through this twofold obedience of Christ which in him strictly considered is but one as the obedience of one man or last Adam set up in ballance against the disobedience of the first he was that and did that in his own person wherein after a peculiar manner he is made of God wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption unto the right heirs of salvation and is become the ransom and propitiation for all sinners not for those only who so believe as that they shall be eternally saved but for the whole world as upon the terms of the first covenant renewed in the blood of Christ they are reconciled unto God and admitted again into converse and fellowship with him that by doing the things therein required they may live and so be put upon a new proof and trial whether they will live unto themselves or unto Christ that died for them and rose again Righteousness is hereby capable to be derived yea is more or less derived upon all the seed as well those which are of the law as those which are of the faith of Abraham respectively who is the father of us all or the type and shadow of Christ as he is the common parent unto both by his incarnation through which he had a twofold union wrought out in him becomming therein the head and root unto both these seeds and so to all mankind whatsoever who in one of these two respects are all made alive again in the last Adam that died in the first and this by the law of the first-fruits and root unto which the Olive branches do respectively refer for so it is said Rom 11. 16. if the first fruits be holy so is the lump and if the root be holy so are the branches where the branches are described as of two sorts the one such as may be broken off after they are engraffed in as also John 15. 1. c. having their union by the first covenant only the other those that stand by faith never to be cut off as having their union by the second and new covenant Now the first sort of these branches in right of their union and relation unto their head Christs natural man or living body unbroken and uncrucified have one sort of benefit by Christs sacrifice which is conditional and may be lost The second sort in right of their union and relation to their head Christs crucified natural man or dead body have all that the other have and over and above an additional benefit by the same sacrifice of Christ which the others have not and so the full and whole benefit of his death and that absolutely and without conditions This benefit unto each of the seeds from Christ their head is twofold either such as by way of imputation is their justification or such as by way of inherency is their sanctification respectively there is derived to the one such a justification and sanctification as answers in kind to what is required by the first covenant from him who doth those things thereby to live in them to the other there doth flow such a justification and sanctification as answers exactly to the Law of faith or second covenant unto whom faith is imputed without the works of the Law singly considered and in whom faith is operative to the purifying of the conscience in conformity to the purity and poverty of spirit found in Christs crucified and broken natural man They only that are justified and sanctified in this latter sense shall eternally be saved it being out of the power either of life or death or Angels or principalities or powers or things present or things to come or height or depth or any other creature to be able to separate them from this love of God in Christ
threefold nature and spirit proper to each of them In one of which all the nations of the world live and walk as they are distinguished from the earthly Jerusalem the children of Mount Sinai or the first convenant In the second the fleshly seed of Israel or the worldly Church lives and walks distinguished both from the nations of the world and from the heavenly Jerusalem or the true Mount-Sion And in the third the spiritual seed or children of the Jerusalem that is above do live and walk distinguished from both the former each of them therefore are placed by God under a several Rule and law according to which their lives and actions are to be fashioned and conformed and by which they are to be tried and judged at the last day when the secrets of men of all sorts shall be judged by Christ Jesus according to the Gospel which is of that large comprehension as to take in all the three dispensations First for the nations of the world they have judgements given them by God Ezek. 5. 6 7. with which Israel is reproched as having walked short of them so that the uncircumcision did out-doe the circumcision in the righteousness the effect whereof was contained in the law as in a much superiour and more excellent administration These the Apostle cals Rom. 2. 12. such as sin without law and perish without law but yet are acknowledged as such that though they have not the law as it was given to the Jews yet have a law given them from God the work and effect of which sheweth it self in their consciences accusing or excusing them as they walk up to it or short of it even the law of nature in which they are a law unto themselves having that within them that shall witness for them or against them before the Throne and judgement seat of Christ that is to say the law of natural right and just exhibited to them through the ministry of Angels that are invisible Thrones Dominions Principalities and powers set up by God for this very end as his ministers for terrour unto evil works and as encouragers and Protectors of them that do well as will presently more fully be evinced The second Rule or law containing the judgements and ordinances of God given unto the fleshly seed or children of the first covenant is the WORD of God coming forth in his first appearance or the law proceeding from Mount Sinai witnessed unto by the Scriptures of truth and Oracles of God that were committed to the Jews first and afterwards to the Gentiles which in all the degrees and steps of its administration answers the true measure and proportion of Christs natural righteousness and perfection as he is and so hath been here described the head and root thereof to Angels and men being that holy commandment that either may be turned aside from leaving them that have been under it to a far worse state then it found them in and rendring their latter end worse then their beginning as 2 Pet. 2. 20. c. or else be kept without spot and blameless through the power of faith by the true Saint or spiritual seed The third law and Rule is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus the WORD of God in his second appearance which comes forth from Mount Sion the heavenly Jerusalem consisting not in meats and drinks and worldly rudiments but in the power of an endless life and an everlasting righteousness written out in fair characters in the death and resurrection of Christ when he ceased from his own works and became the beginning and author of life from the dead as the first-born among the many brethren whose names are written in heaven and upon whom God hath written his new name and the name of the new Ierusalem The perfection and righteousness of which second appearance is brought to light fully by the brightness of Christs comming the second time the first-fruits whereof are already given and set up in the hearts and spirits of the children of promise and of the free-woman being the hidden Manna which they feed on the new name which they can read and the holy anointing whereby they judge all things whilst themselves are judged of no man CHAP. XII Shewing wherein the three Rules and forms of administration in Christs mediatorial Kingdom do differ one from another and maintain an entire jurisdiction within themselves but in due subordination and subserviency still of the lower to the higher over the respective subjects that live under them THE first of these is the law and Rule which is given by God to all nations even to the whole world in their corrupt degenerate and fallen state occasioned by the entrance which sin made by Adam overrunning his whole posterity like a spreading leprosie whereby man that by his creation was made a temple of God became a habitation for Dragons a court for owls or birds of the night a hold for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hateful bird so that although there was a natural being life and motion left unto man it was in the next degree to no being at all if not in some respects far worse Yet how great soever this desolation was and how thick soever the darkness be in this howling and barren wilderness-condition of mankind the blood of Christ is of vertue to make the heart of man again rejoyce and blessom as the Rose and the voice of the Mediator can make it self to be heard in the remotest and darkest corners of the world to the opening of the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf to the making the lame to leap and the dumb to sing to the causing the waters of his manifestation to break forth and stream in this desert in one word to the letting in the sound of the Gospel it-self in the shadowy dark appearances thereof upon the very ends of the world in pursuance of the extent of the reconciliation made through the blood of his Cross by whom all things are reconciled unto God whether they be things in earth or things in heaven so as the very creation it self is made capable to serve unto the ministry of the Gospel the heavens to declare the glory of God the firmament to shew his handy work day unto day to utter speech and night unto night to shew knowledge by means whereof there is no speech nor language where Christs voice is not heard their sound going into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world as Psal 19. 1 2 3 4. compared with Rom. 10. 18. doth evidence Thus the invisible things of God even his eternal power and Godhead shining forth in the face of the Mediator may be seen by the things that are made Rom. 1. and that either inwardly by the influence and operations of the holy Angels maintaining and keeping up the witness of Christ in the manifestation of natural justice
and righteousness by way of counter-ballance to the works of the devil and his kingdom of darkness in the world or outwardly by the books of the creature and daily discoveries of Gods providences that are teaching and instructing to the lowest and meanest natural discernings of men And to enable them to the receiving hereof they have a further taste of the bounty of Christ the Redeemer who doth freely renew and continue their life breath and all things unto them upon a new tenure even by the ransom procured for them in his blood by vertue of which none of them do fail of partaking in a common enlightning from him when they receive their beings in this world and have the lamp or caâ—â—le of the Lord set up in them to be as a witness for or against every man according to his works being a light which searcheth the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20. 27. Over the nations then and people of the world thus considered we say Christ doth dispense his Rule and government and gives unto them judgements and ordinances according to which they are to walk Ezek. 5. and in the doing or not doing of them their consciences are accusing or excusing of them and Christ in this his government shews himself by his ministers to whom he hath committed the mannaging thereof either in wrath and terrour against all evil works or an Encourager and Protectour of all them that do well The prime Minister of God on this behalf is Christ The hands in which this government is betrusted by Christ are the invisible Thrones Dominions Principalities and powers of the holy Angels as we have already declared and shall yet further enlarge made by Christ and for Christ the chief Lords and Rulers of the first world and all the inhabitants thereof Regard seems to be had to this administration of government Iob 2. 1 2. where the sons of God or these holy Angels in their administration of this kind of government presented themselves before this Lord Christ and Sathan came also among them having been his circuits walking to and fro in the earth and up and down in it unto whom the Lord propounds the case of Iob as of a perfect and upright man so as there was none like him in all the earth and who accordingly had found Christ owning encouraging and protecting of him as the devil himself alledged Chap. 1. at the same kind of meeting between God and the Angels then held also for saith Sathan to God hast thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side thou hast blessed the works of his hands and his substance is encreased in the land intimating hereby the reward that is administred as to the kind of it by the holy Angels under Christ to the very heathens themselves and the punishment of wrath to consist in the contrary dispensations of God hereunto when he declares himself outwardly a terrour to wicked works and puts forth his hand therein for which purpose these excellent spirits are invested with power might and dominion over all the works of Gods hands in the first world to execute Christs commands as the Hosts and Ministers that do his pleasure in all places of his dominion and are alwaies attending and hearkning unto the voice of this WORD speaking to them as he is the root and head of all natural good and perfection Under these invisible Thrones and higher powers there are visible ones also set up and are Christs ordinance and institution in an inferiour and subordinate ministration of this government of Christ over men which are called the higher powers of the world whether contracted in one universal Monarch as in the time of Nebuchadnezar Dan. 2. or dispersed into many several and distinct forms of Magistracy in the world according as the most high is pleased to set them up pull them down or change them in reference to the present work which he hath to do in the world and to the state and condition of his own people in it either for their bringing into bondage and captivity under the worldly powers or for the leading them out of the same into the glorious liberty by him designed unto them in the last of daies whereof Nebuchadnezars image was a notification once for all and was so interpreted by Daniel himself when he said to Nebuchadnezar the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom power and strength and glory and wheresoever the children of men dwell the beasts of the field and fowls of the heaven he hath given it into thy hand and made thee ruler over them who therefore art this head of Gold Which government in the succession of it shall be dispersed decline and corrupt until it quite break asunder and split in pieces before the everlasting kingdom which is intended by God to be set up in the room thereof Which compared with Cap. 4. 17. makes it yet more evident that this visible government in the hands of the higher powers of the world is superintended over-ruled and influenced throughout by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones or Angels to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of men evidently declaring that promotion cometh not from the East or West or South but Christ who bears up the pillars of the earth when else through sin and the fall the earth and the inhabitants thereof had been dissolved he is the judge he puts down one and sets up another Pal. 75. 6 7. And if then in the inferiour visible administration of this government over men in the hands of men the Rule is given and declared whereunto the governed are to be subject not only for wrath but conscience sake Rom. 13. how much straightlier is every soul obliged to the same Rule as it is administred in the hands of the invisible Thrones at the judgement seat of Angels who next under Christ the supream Minister of God are exercising their Ministry in a way of wrath and terrour against all evil workers and in a way of encouragement and protection unto all those that do well and walk uprightly in the earth Thus according to the orders and decrees of these watchers and holy ones whether declared by their inward ministry in the spirits and consciences of the men of the world or outwardly by the wholsome laws and ordinances of man as the product and fruit of the light by them dispensed or by the visible providences of God is the first administration of Christs kingdom managed and upheld throughout the whole earth and over all the world even the nations that are yet aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise And because it is very cleer from Scripture that the holy ones or Elect Angels are intrusted
them to be Abrahams fleshly seed but saith he ye seek to kill me and therefore ver 39. he denies them in effect to be Abrahams spiritual seed or of the faith of Abraham for if ye were thus the children of Abraham saith he ye would do the works of Abraham and this did not he he did not become an enemy and seek to kill men for speaking the truth which they have heard of God ver 40. If therefore you desire to know what Father youbelong to I tell you plainly you are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it ver 44. So then although God gave to Angels and men at first the goodness and perfection of natural beings and doth freely offer a renewal of the same to men in the blood of Christ by the first covenant made again in force by vertue of his death as the first Testament Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. yet this image and likeness of God wherein they were made and whereunto they are again renewed as it stands single and alone without the other is a mutable and corruptible seed the children whereof are therefore capable to turn again into degenerate plants and into the wild olive tree For God comes down in the ministry hereof as under a veil to the creatures sight and enjoyment in which man fixing and taking up his abode waiting for no further discovery nor expecting or listning after that second voice of him that speaketh from heaven may for ever stand excluded from entrance into or converse with the glory that is within the veil where God is to be seen and enjoyed by the creature face to face By the blood of Christ then man is first made capable to be taken out of the wild degenerate state of nature and to be planted into the good Olive tree the flesh or natural man in the person of Christ and when he comes to partake of the fatness thereof as it singly gives forth Christ in his first appearance or a knowledge of him only according to the flesh which Paul grew a stranger to as he came to be more acquainted with the Cross he is still but in a capacity to stand or fall again as upon his second proof and trial in the renewed exercise of his free will and rectified natural abilities of mind he demeans himself according to which he proves the womb whereinto is received either a divine seed and birth whereof the mediator in his death and resurrection is the author and parent or else a devilish seed and birth whereof the Serpent and old Dragon is the Father growing up into a wilful and fixed enmity against the Cross of Christ One or other of these two seeds all sorts of men do become by the evil and unworthy or the good and worthy use of Christs blood and the benefits of his death and so are either the seed of the woman and of promise or the seed of the Serpent lying children born from beneath of the father of lyes in comparison of the divine birth of the true seed that in the other sense are born of God and from above This latter is attained unto through Gods bounty and free love the Mediator adopting them into oneness of seed with himself as he is the only begotten Son in whom God is well-pleased The other through Gods just permission and Satans prevailing power and influence upon their lust and natural will at its best are changed and corrupted into likeness and oneness of seed with the old Serpent By reason of which different dispensations the innocent good righteous and perfect state of mans nature communicated to him by vertue of the first covenant comes either to grow up into that which is much better even into the power of an endless life or else to degenerate and sink down into that which is much worse even eternal enmity and opposition of mind unto God which is the second death That then which fixeth man in his unchangeable and permanent state of everlasting blessedness or misery is the bringing him forth out of his first wavering and changeable state into oneness of seed with Christ the Mediator in his second appearance wherein he is made to bear the likeness of his death and resurrection or the leaving him to be transformed into oneness of seed with the destroyer and thereby to become a child of perdition The first of these changes mans natural will at its very best lusteth against as the greatest cross that can be brought upon it until by regeneration and the baptism of fire it be prepared broken and subdued into a meet subjection thereunto And the latter change cannot be obtruded by the devil or forced upon mans will but is brought upon him by and with his own free consent which was not found difficult to be gained in the state of mans innocency and purity in Paradise and is not more since Here then we see the seat and original of this enmity between the two seeds springing up in the manner before expressed in their respective heads and roots who are thus to be found as they are in their heads and first principles before they flow forth in the off-spring and are discerned in their distinct operations in the particular beings of men here in this world as deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil for which all men are rendred accountable when they come to stand before the judgement seat of Christ In order therefore to their own voluntary actings herein they are endued with the exercise of a freedome of will which by creation was perfect absolute and uninterrupted and which by the ballance that God since the fall keeps up by the ministry of the holy Angels with their influence and impressions upon the natural enlightned conscience as also by the work of the spirit himself upon those farther illuminated minds under the first covenant against the power and influence of the devil upon mans corrupted and depraved state is so far and truly exercised by man in the several measures and degrees thereof as will render him inexcusable for not hearkning to the light and means tendred and afforded to him through the blood of Christ revealed by the Gospel in one or other of the three forementioned branches of his kingdome So that now upon Gods making man on the sixth day of the creation forming the first Adam of the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life he became a living soul was set up in the first image of God brought forth in the same kind of mutable perfection with the Angels and in all the glory and accomplishments of this first state was a fit subject brought upon the stage capable to be attempted by both these great
the gates of hell to prevail against the very elect themselves that are built on the Rock and are out of his reach to annoy in reference to the certainty of their salvation finding therefore little hopes or likelihood to frustrate them in that he makes it his business to render them of all men most miserable as to any hopes or enjoyments in this life wherein he finds latitude given him in the power allowed to him to bruise their heel Secondly he useth all the means-that lie in his power by subtilty or force so far as Gods permission gives way to him to assault the will and judgement of man how highly enlightned and how far quickned soever upon his single natural root in order to entice and draw him away from his subjection unto God in the natural service and worship that is due from him never leaving till he hath prevailed with and over him to provoke God so highly notwithstanding all his goodness patience and long-suffering to him extended through the blood of Christ as thereby to render himself unworthy of any further love or favour and to move God to swear in his wrath that he shall never enter into his REST. Under these two general heads we shall find as in a constant track throughout the whole Scripture the workings and counter-workings that are kept on foot and maintained between the MAN CHRIST JESUS who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and the MAN OF SIN and grand deceiver Satan who would have no man to be saved but all to be made children unto him who is the father of lyes The means used by Christ to produce renew and maintain the workings and operations of light and life from him in the hearts and consciences of fallen mankind is by setting on foot as hath been already shewed the threefold law and government given and erected by him at the beginning over all the sons of Adam upon the fall through the power and exercise whereof First he doth that to and in the hearts and consciences of the very heathen which fits and qualifies them to live answerable if the fault be not in themselves to the law and government they are under according to the measures of attainment which the meer natural man may have The like he doth unto the children of the first Covenant unto whom he is much more bountiful sutably to the state he farther leads them into And thirdly he exceeds what he doth to both these in the communications of himself unto the spiritual seed whom he suffers not to destroy themselves but takes a course to cross their own wils and desires when they are hearkning to the temptation of their own lust or Satan to draw them away This threefold conscience and spirit of man in the proper principles and operations of each of them whether they are to be found single or all of them together as in sweet harmony thus set up in the spiritual seed our purpose is to treat of and that as particularly and distinctly as we can to fall in with the experiences of all that may be therein concerned looking upon this as the best method we can take for the clear opening and stating the several dispensations of Christs three-fold government and Kingdom already entred upon And therefore we shall consider the principles and operations of each of these consciences either First as they are Christs own workmanship in and upon the heart and spirit of man as the beginning and foundation of those holy and righteous actings by him required under the dispensation whereinto each of them is brought by God or Secondly as they are the lawfull and righteous workings of the spirit of man enabled hereunto by free gift from Christ and in dependance upon him yet as the fruit and travel of his own proper judgement and will rectified in the use of those means prepared and laid before him by Christ to bring him to the right end of all motion which is the true REST whilst as yet he is under works and not under grace or Thirdly as they are the unlawfull and forbidden fruit of mans spirit qualified and enabled from Christ as before expressed when through his own lust he is enticed and through the subtilty of Satan he is ensnared so as lust when it hath thus conceived is the root of all evil operation bringing forth fruit unto death even death eternal in the end if the Lord upon the grounds of his new and everlasting Covenant do not pluck such souls out of this danger and lead them to such a state as contains in it a perfect security and freedom from the re-entry of sin with its prevailing power over them Through the right and distinct consideration of these principles and operations of conscience in the sons and daughters of men we may come to find our selves where we are and whose subjects whether Christs or the Devils and to what Kingdom or dispensation we belong in reference to the one or the other to the Kingdom of Christs marvellous light or to the power of Satans accursed darkness and upon what terms we stand in the one or the other whether in a wavering state consisting in a capacity and possibility of removal out of the one into the other or in a fixed determined state upon which it is impossible for any change to be brought either in a good sense or in a bad in which men are reserved and kept fast either in the bonds of perfect love light and freedom that casteth out fear as the elect or in chains of darkness and captivity unto the judgement of the great day as the non-elect who will be destroyed by the brightness of Christs coming when he shall appear the second time without sin to the salvation of his People And this we shall do if God permit as a service to these present times wherein like little children most are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby men and devils lie in wait to deceive and lead on the ignorant to the Chambers of death CHAP. XV. Shewing more particularly the bounds of that Rule and Government which is set up by Christ in the natural conscience together with the answer of a good conscience thereunto in those that are under this first dispensation IT is most evident by the Scriptures that amongst the nations who are said to be without law as distinguished from the Jews that were under the law there were found doers of the law by nature who shewed the work of the law written in their hearts their consciences bearing them witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or excusing one another Rom. 2. 14 15. Of such Peter speaketh Acts 10. 34 35. where he saith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him according as David
the natural will or judgement in all the power and light thereof at best whilst unregenerate have no skil in nor know how to set about but as fools and little châ—ldren men must be found at the feet of Christ that he may give them a new birth and so teach and enable them thereunto But now these that thus have a right litteral knowledge of the Gospel are necessitated as to the life and power of their inward principles to fall in with and agree upon the same natural righteousness holiness and perfection in kind with their opposers and make use of their weapons to fix the truth of their witness taken up by them from theletter of the Scripture in such expressions as belong to the new-covenant-life in the second Adam upon those principles of the first Adams purity and perfection or the life of the covenant of Works as restored in and by the blood of Christ which the Scripture never intends if rightly understood but indeed on this account doth undeniably cast the cause upon those that are for the common and general Redemption who are not to be blamed for what they assert as to the extent of the benefit of Christs death to all men but for denying the truth of that witness held forth by the other which ought to have its due place and to be owned by them as consistent with theirs if they understood it yea as that which alone can give perfection and stability thereunto which therefore if rightly stated and acknowledged by them would return shame sufficient upon their adversaries discovering them to be self-condemners as opposing that very thing in the spirit and truth of it the grace faith and principles of the second-covenant-life which they do so zealously contend for in the Letter as to the peculiarity and durableness of the benefit which the true Saint receives by the death of Christ and as agreeing with that in spirit and truth the single activity and life of first-covenant-principles which they implacably oppose in the letter These are the contradictions that with great confidence and censoriousness are maintained on both sides in this our age whilst truth it self suffers every way and is unacceptable to either none being more ready then these to lay Heresie Blasphemy and high Notions at the wrong door of others in hopes to make themselves appear the sound and good Physitians Thus we see under the shadow and letter of the covenant of Grace the truth and spirit of it opposed and kept out and those that do it miserably tearing out their own bowels and pleasing themselves with names for things Whence it is that none are more confident of their being within the covenant of Grace freed from any danger of the covenant of Works then this latter sort of men who do that honour and right to the covenant of Grace as to be for it in their mouths but remove their heart far from it and hug in their bosoms the principles and life of the covenant of Works as that which they will not part with by any means but in such case will rather as with weeping may be said of them become enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. And herein they are hardned also two waies First by considering those that are behind them who maintain the doctrine of works against the litteral witness which they give unto the covenant of grace whence they conclude themselves free from any danger of being comprehended under a covenant of works Secondly by the consideration of their witness that pretend to be above them and to hold forth a Kingdom that consists not in word only but in power who under pretence of spirit and power do either with those called Ranters set up the doctrine and inspiration of devils in opposition to the truth of their witness that is but in the letter introducing again the filthiness of the flesh whereby to destroy the righteousness and holiness of the natural man which is not done away as some falsly and scandalously affirm we say by conformity with Christ in his death but is thereby fulfilled for that garment is made yet more pure and white by the blood of the Lamb and is kept spotless by this means to the second appearance of Christ or else they do annihilate the creature-being and assert perfection to consist in a swallowing up thereof into the pure being of God even in that glory wherein he is in communicable and saith I am and there is none besides me as the Familist and such who gather up all at last into a state of eternal salvation or rather into no state of creature-being at all and so in effect making neither heaven nor hell The contrary unto both these opinions is freely and fully asserted in this treatise in the believers conformity to Christs death and resurrection a doctrine which nevertheless in the true and full extent of it is accounted very offensive and scandalous in these daies of ours even amongst those that are most zealous for it in the letter who possibly may oppose it ignorantly for a season but when it comes to wilful sinning in this case it carries its own fire about with it whereby to devour the adversaries This little excursion I judged not unuseful for the cleerer and fuller asserting of the doctrine of the cross and death of Christ as it operates upon and is mis-judged by those that are yet under the first covenant considered as dispensed by the Son himself in his first appearance wherein he is a minister of the circumcision in the truth of it the righteousness and holiness of his flesh or natural man being the law or covenant of works in its highest and most glorious administration In this respect Christ is said himself to be made under the Law who also doth effectually teach those that follow him in the power of his death and resurrection how the Law may be used lawfully and according to the true intent of the giving of it So that Christ by coming in the flesh and considered as giving himself singly in and by the means of his first appearance doth beget unto himself children of the law or first covenant whose knowledge of him is only after the flesh and who though they be taken by him in to his house and built up with him in his flesh as one Tabernacle and habitation unto God yet attain no higher thereby then to be in the holy place and to minister and serve before the Lord there in a state figured out by the charge of the Levites under the Law who notwithstanding their officiating and performing service unto God in the Temple are capable of being for ever excluded from coming into the holiest of all there to do the office of a Priest or to come neer to any of those holy things which are within the veil in the most holy place and to be made
a Name given him above every name either in this world or in the world to come according to that description we find of him Isaiah 4. 2. c. where Christ the BRANCH is held forth in both these capacities called also Zach. 4. the two olive trees or sons of oyl that stand by the Lord of the whole earth by means of the one emptying out the golden oyl of all natural perfection as he is the Son of man singly considered Christ according to the flesh Head and Root of the renewal of natural purity and perfection by vertue of his blood unto Adams fallen posterity and by means of the other emptying forth the oyl of Gods new Name and of all Spiritual perfection as he is the beginning and first born from the dead made Head to the Heavenly body the Church that general Assembly of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven In both these respects this BRANCH of the Lord is to be made beautifull and glorious so as the very fruit of the earth or the earthly Adam shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel Isa 4. 2. For in them the very being of the first Adams perfection considered as built up again in fellowship and harmony with the second Adams perfection through the Resurrection of the dead is as the Ark of the Testament which is to be seen in this Temple whereby the Song of Moses shall be sung as perfectly as the Song of the Lamb as the musick and harmony requisite to be made by the inhabitants of the NEW JERUS ALEM those that are left in Zion and that remain in Jerusalem when God shall have cleansed them and purged them by the spirit of Judgement and burning by the baptism of the fire of the sacrifice of Christs death wherby they are written among the living in Jerusalem that is do become a Heavenly Tabernacle as built up into a life from the dead for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain in which dwelling places of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies the Lord will create a cloud and a smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence ver 3 4 5 6. From this Scripture it appears that after men have had that work pass upon them which baptizeth them into one living Body with Christ making them living Members of his fleshly Manhood and enabling them to bring forth the excellent comely fruits of the renewed earthly Adam ver 2. unless they yet further abide the trial of fire which is to pass upon them by the Spirit of Judgement and burning of the day of Christs second appearance they will not continue long in ZION nor remain members of this earthly Jerusalem but will defile and pollute the Temple and Tabernacle of God set up in them in conformity to the flesh of Christ and so make themselves fit subjects for God to destroy and to swear in his wrath that even this Generation thus far advanced out of Egypt toward the Land of Promise shall never enter into his Rest as those that are but after such a manner Christs house as is intimated Heb. 3. 6. whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end And as those Paul speaks of amongst the Corinthians that walked like men 1 Cor. 3. 3 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are Those then are the Children of the first Covenant who are Christs seed and off-spring as he is the Head of the first Adams natural perfection and doth renew the Spirit and power of that perfection in the purity thereof as a seed in fallen man that shall grow up and prosper even into a Kingdom in the soul so as to be the prevailing principle there and carry the Rule and sway over the corrupt and prophane part causing men clean to escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of him after the flesh only and with this flesh as the true Manna and bread given them from heaven nourishing them up in the beauty and strength of his natural life The character of this sort of Christs children by the first covenant is lively set down by the Prophet Ezekiel instancing in the children of Israel whom God took by the hand and led out of Aegypt under the ministry of the first covenant wherein he was a husband unto them as appears Jer. 31 32. and had made them beautiful and of great renown in the sight of the Heathens round about them from whom they were separated as made perfect through his comliness which he had put upon them Ezek. 16. 13 14. which sort of Gods children Paul ranks those Galatians amongst that still desired to be under the Law in the time of the Gospel Gal. 4. calling them children of that covenant given from Sinai gendring to bondage or of the Ierusalem that now is to wit the earthly Jerusalem in distinction from the children of the other covenant or of the Jerusalem that is above viz. the heavenly For we must not think that this generation of men passeth away through the coming in of the Gospel but is rather much more improved and compleated forasmuch as by the means of Christ death the Holy commandment is now spoken by the Son himself delivered more immediately by the dawning of the light of Christs first appearance in the heart which was in the time of the ministry of the Law the word only spoken by Angels as committed unto them to mannage through whose ministry or disposition Acts 7. 53. the circumcised seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob received it who were as figures of this circumcision to be made immediately by Christ himself among the Gentiles without hands by the pouring forth of his spirit upon all flesh and building them up with him into one living body as the true Israel of God after the flesh all which amounts but to the compleating of Christs living body through this first-covenant-work of his set up in the heart and conscience called in Scripture the FIRST FAITH which may be departed from and prove a faith that fails as being held upon wavering and uncertain principles until it be fixed by the baptism of fire and have that brought forth in fellowship with it which accompanies salvation to wit the incorruptible and immortal seed of the perfection of the second Adam causing them to dwell on high and placing them upon the munitions of Rocks where bread is given to them and waters that do not fail The Rule that is given unto this fleshly seed or children of the first covenant is the pattern of Christs natural life and perfection as he appeareth in the fashion of a man and form of a servant like unto us in all
abundantly confirm and make good the justification which is not of works but of grace according to Gods purpose The very nature and kinde of this faith may suffice to all unbyassed judgements to shew that those that are justified by it are not justified by works since in its principles and seed it is quite differing from that which is by the Law or born after the flesh which is of works so as the one is differenced from the other in the very kind of perfection and life both as to principles and works the seed and the fruit of each yea and this faith of the right kind considered as abiding in Christ not in us is that that properly justifies the believer For if it be by grace it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work And besides the Spiritual Seed are beloved as they are chosen in Christ before the world began and are distinguished as so accepted in him from the fleshly seed before they have done either good or evil This chusing in Christ is not the justification by faith inasmuch as that act of God never passes upon us till we be actually believers For though we have being in our head who is blessed and beloved before the world began Ephes 1. Yet we are not made to be in our own persons of that Spiritual Seed untill we have the righteousness of our head actually imputed to us and so are made to stand without guile or spot before the throne of God whilst as yet we are ungodly and bear about with us a body of sin and death unsubdued and unabolished which nevertheless in the end by faith is overcome and wholly done away The working power then which is put forth by faith in the heart and conscience of him that is the true Believer is to be distinguished from faith in the first act singly considered as the new birth and reception of Christ to inhabite and dwell there as the root and author of all spiritual life and perfection which indeed is rather itself the work or workmanship of Christ as the suitable reception that he makes for his indwelling presence in the heart then any effect of the power of faith working patience and experience there in pursuance of the end for which it is given which is to work the spirit of man either under the first or second dispensation to a compleat and full resignation of its understanding will and desire unto the teachings light and life of this faith evidencing him that is invisible and giving entrance into the glory that is within the veil shewing what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe Which glory is not seen all that while to the natural senses and discerning but the life and workings of faith wherein the spiritual part of the believer does exceedingly rejoyce the fleshly or natural man in the Saint unsubdued cannot bear but hath its reluctancy against lusting to envy ready to oppose resist and contradict the same to the utmost and is all the season of the trial of faith in great heaviness grief and despondency through manifold temptations whilst the believing part is exercising love on him whom the natural senses cannot reach nor come to the sight of In whom though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious girding up the loyns of our minds in sobriety and hope For the power of faith is such in its operation that it overcomes the world and all the powers of flesh and blood in us at the best which serve but to be made conquest of and triumphed over by faith in order to be nailed to the cross of Christ for the slaying of the enmity which thereby would be springing up to the choaking of the spirtual seed the crucifying afresh the Son of God and trampling under foot the blood of the everlasting Covenant as an unholy thing This power of flesh and blood that ends and expires at last under the conquering and triumphing power of faith causes for a long time a sore and fiery trial in the soul through the sharp contest and dispute that arises between the heavenly powers and spiritual senses on the one hand and the fleshly and natural powers in the same Saint on the other by reason of which the soul is often inclining and falling back into the life of the flesh and workings of the natural will instead of being strengthned in the inward man and fixed there in love and true Rest against all contradicting whatsoever made by flesh and blood whether pure and holy flesh or sinful and corrupt So that oft the party which faith by its power makes for it self in the heart and conscience of the believer is deserted and in a manner given off through the prevalent reasonings and desires of flesh and blood which make resistance in this warfare to their last breath or activity that remains in them And first when faith cals the heart to leave its natural state its kindred and relations in the heathenish world the morality and civility whereof seems to have much to say for it self after the corrupt part in it is cast off the natural powers and faculties of the mind in that state rebel and resist a long season not knowing how to submit though upon hopes of a land of promise specially when they must not know or cannot be made acquainted whither the soul is going and are therefore constantly representing all discouragements imaginable to hinder its obedience to this call of faith till at last they be over-ruled and brought under But secondly when through faiths workings by the power of the Law or Ministry of Christs first appearance the soul is brought out of the corrupt degenerate state of nature hath turned its back upon the land of its nativity and is come to the earthly Canaan to the circumcision of the flesh not in the letter only but in the spirit for the righteousness of works by the first Covenant then hath faith another Call or second voice to the soul causing it to sojourn as a stranger even in the land of promise and to look upon this earthly Jerusalem as no abiding City but that out of which it must also pass into a heavenly Country the Jerusalem that is above forgetting the things that are behind or unto which it hath already attained and pressing forwards to the mark for the price of its high calling to be clothed upon as with its house from heaven Through the call of this last voice of faith all flesh and the glory thereof is blown upon and made as nothing Isa 40. 6. the voice said cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field perishing and fading in a moment
the grass withereth the flower fadeth away because the spirit of the Lord blows npon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the WORD of our God shall stand for ever ver 7 8. So then at length the believing part in the Saint cometh to see and experiment the emptiness nothingness and fading of the best natural perfection and fleshly purity not only in legal worldly rudiments and principles but even in Evangelicals so far as they consist in the knowledge of Christ himself but according to the flesh Whereupon the believer becomes willing to be crucified to all confidence esteem or desire of Rest and abode in them seeing a patern left by Christ himself herein when he suffered in the flesh that we also might be armed with the same mind and by being crucified in the flesh may come at last to cease from sin attaining a perfect freedom there-from by the resurrection from the dead And now what high thoughts and proud imaginations do rise up in the heart fit to be brought down and subdued by the cross of Christ then which nothing is more grievous to the soul which loves this Absolon it s own uncrucified fleshly mind and the enlightned reasonings thereof in their very rebellion and endeavours to out it of the everlasting kingdom yea it struggles hard and wrestles vehemently to keep its Isaac from being offered up in sacrifice Oh! how with Zipporah doth the flesh cry out against faith as a bloody husband thus to require the full resignation of the judgement will and desire of the pure holy natural man as well as that of the corrupt All this it doth require and no less will serve its turn then the bringing of the exercise of these natnral senses as they are contesting with and resisting the workings of faith into perfect captivity to the obedience of faith and into perfect rest and silence in the grave of Christ where they are to be bound as in chains and fetters utterly disabled for ever acting more in any resisting or contradicting way unto the power and life of faith and so indeed are set free and have their truest liberty given to them to act more fully then ever in harmony with and subserviency unto the workings and life of faith Thus Rom 8. it is said If Christ be in you the body or flesh is dead because of sin but if the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies or crucified fleshly senses by his spirit that dwelleth in you to the bringing them forth in a better and more excellent way of operation then ever they had before For these fleshly senses as they are planted into the likeness of the death of Christ are made one dead body with him and so are shut up for ever in an everlasting impossibility to act against the truth but only for the truth to act in a way of resisting and contradicting the workings of faith but in subjection and subordination to â—â—em This is that we mean by the obedience of faith and keeping of the word of Christs patience which is required by the law of the new covenant the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as it frees us from the law of sin and death which is so far from destroying the law that it fulfils it and so far from abolishing the good works required by the law that it disannuls only the unlawful use of them setting them up in their right and lawful exercise not single and alone without the faith that is saving or in resistance and contradiction to that faith nor so mixing them with a faith that fails whereby both faith and a good conscience may come to shipwrack but making them in such manner the fruit and children of the operation of the faith of Gods elect as that against such there is no law This is the gathering together into one dead body with Christ wherein all his elect must be found as fashioned into a similitude with him in his death and that for the filling up of the measure of his sufferings in the whole number of his beloved ones that so at last they may arise likewise with his dead body and be gathered together into one glorified body with him or into a similitude with him in the glory and power of his resurrection when they shall be like him and see him as he is when at this appearing of Christ who is their life they also shall appear with him in glory The hope and expectation hereof grounded upon the promises made to this purpose in Col 3. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 21. and many other places of Scripture is that that hath born up the spirits of his people and faithful ones in all ages that have been made willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goeth from desponding and sinking away under all those insolent affronts and contradictions they have met with in their several generations from their insulting unreasonable adversaries the inhabitants of the earth who flourish prosper in the world while they are chastened every morning disciplined under the cross of Christ miscarrying as to all that 's visible and overcome in those hot contests oppositions and assaults which the seed of the Serpent lusting to envy will not fail to exercise them with who indeed could have no power against them unless it were given them from above as Christ the head of this spiritual seed told Pilate in his own personal case Ioh. 19. 11. and as power was given from above against that great Master Lord so is it also given to them to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Rev. 13. 7. but though at present they be so overset by worldly powers that they cannot work any deliverance in the earth neither do the inhabitants of the world fall before them Isa 26. 18. yet at this second coming of Christ he will call up the dead bodies of these his crucified Saints and faithful witnesses not only into a state of security from the destroyer but into a singing and triumphing condition ver 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust Both these states of the true Saint are most lively described Isa 54. which we shall endeavour to give some short tasts of for our clearer enlightning in the present truth specially as to what concerns the former branch the Saints conformity with Christ in his death The other consisting in a conformity to him in his Resurrection-state we shall reserve for the latter end and conclusion of this discourse CHAP. XVIII Concerning the Saints conformity with Christ in his death particularly opened and cleared from those mistakes which the enemies to the Crosse of Christ are apt to brand it with BY conformity with Christ in his death which some have been
and blood which interprets all this dealing of Christ in the worst sense as if his mind were wholly turned away and that he had given over to be gracious any more to them that are under this hour and power of darnesse And so seemes worse then a thousand bodily deaths to those in whom the spiritual birth is but low and therefore not unfitly compared to the child in the womb and at the breast where it is said Wo unto those that are with child and give suck in those dayes Yet saith Christ this is but as the waters of Noah which is only to be once done to drive the believer into the Arke even the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection from the dead and then forever to exempt them from such danger any more as having provided that for them which enables them to swim in those waters which drown the world in that pure river spoken of Rev. 22. 1. proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb which compared with Ezek. 47. appears to be a description of the Vision of Holy Waters where they are risen up as a river to swim in which those that are without the Ark attempting to live in must needs be drowned it being above all the measures of their attainments and capacities to receive as members of the first building or worldly Sanctuary And because there is not any thing more highly importing the true Saint then to get well through this wildernesse and not lose the way or fall short hereof under any pretence whatsoever we shall yet endeavour more particularly to handle and declare that which is to be experienced under this dispensation First in respect of what Christ doth and is the worker of by his withdrawing and refusing to continue any longer a Bridegroome in his first appearance to the soul Secondly in respect of the workings of Satan the Tempter who is not idle in this hour and power of darknesse to set on this appearance of wrath from God and Christ Thirdly in respect of the workings of flesh and blood that to the last are violent opposers and resisters And fourthly in respect of the workings of Faith or the new creature disposing the soul to let patience have its perfect work under these manifold tempt ations thereby to make it a perfect and compleat sharer with Christ in his sufferings as the rule and patterne set by him for the obedience of faith which under all this beholds him that is incisible and hath an eye to the recompence of reward in attaining the glory that followes and arriving unto the state of the resurrection from the dead never to die more but for ever to remaine free from the power of sinne and death As to that which Christ works in the heart of the true believer by his separation and refusal to be any longer a Bridegroome to the soul in and by his first appearance It consists chiefly in two particulars First in the preparation used by him to fit the soul for this his absence Secondly in his actual withdrawing and for ever hidng his face as to any farther shining forth upon them singly in and by his first appearance and in that respect becoming as perfectly dead and separated from the soul refusing ever to converse more in the single exercise of that his heshly life according to which the soul is to know him no more The preparation herein used by Christ to fit the soul and support it to bear such an absence of his is lively presented to our view by his carriage in this respect towards his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh when he tells them beforehand John 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Chapters the necessity of his departure from them that he may go to the Father and the expediency of it for them in order to his coming againe and presenting himself to them in a richer compleater glory then what they conversed with him in before Little children sayes he yet a little while I am with you the Bridegroome is with the children of the Bridechamber but this fellowship as to the joy fruits and comforts of it is not lasting it is but for a little while here is no abiding City there is therefore a necessiy of looking out for one to come And I am going a farre journey saith he to receive a Kingdome and returne and ye shall seek me when I am withdrawn and be looking for me to appear again in my fleshly glory but till a change be brought upon you to enable you to follow me in my death you though my Disciples and the Jewes that are far short of you cannot come to me whither I am going But through believing in me you shall be brought to my Fathers house into a heavenly City the Jerusalem that is above where are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you also may be And whither I go you know and the way you know by the workings and teachings of the new nature that is in you through believing and your being borne of God Besides saith he I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth in the first-fruits thereof whereby you shall come to have an understanding in him that is true and that you are in him that is true the Spirit whom the world cannot receive because it sess him not nor knows him being not borne from above as you are but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you to bring you out of your forsaken comfortlesse condition and cause you greatly to rejoyce though now for this season you be in great heavinesse through manifold temptations and to love him whom you have not seene with the eye of sense and in whom though you see him not yet believing you rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory These things I speak saith Christ whilest yet I am present with you and before I depart from you by way of preparing you to bear my absence and My peace I leave with you in this your comfortlesse condition as to sense which peace of mine I give unto you not as the world gives it but in a far more excellent and choice way in which none shall be able to interrupt you conveying it to you as a new name in a white stone which none can read but he that hath it and as hidden Manna the sweetnesse and joy whereof no stranger intermeddles with And therefore let not your hearts be troubled nor be you afraid ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come againe unto you if you loved me you would rejoyce because I say I go unto the Father for my Father is greater then I. And now I have told you before it
desolate and a widow for a little moment This act of his in a word is called the hiding of his face from the heart that he had been espoused and married unto by the first Covenant and so hiding as never to be seene or known more after the flesh or in the single light and life of this his first Ministery which is caused two wayes First by the dawning and near approach of the glory of his second appearance which by coming in place turns the Sun and Moon of the first natural glory into darknesse and blood before this great and notable day of the Lord which Christ is willing to suffer and to own it to the soul as that which deserves not the name of glory in comparison of that which doth excel and therefore judges it meet for him in his first perfection and light to decrease as the other increases upon the soul whereby doing this by degrees the soul is not found naked but still becomes cloathed upon with a greater as it is uncloathed of a lesser perfection and between both sin and all evil conscience consisting in the filthinesse of flesh and spirit is kept out more firmly then ever so that as the Mannah of Christs flesh failes and the nourishment thereby decayes the hidden Mannah comes in the roome as bread that is given upon the munition of rocks and waters that will not faile but become a Well springing up to eternall life and a seed of life and light increasing to a perfect day Thus the Sonne resignes up the Kingdome to the Father in the beleeving heart giving way to the Fathers ruling over the heart in his roome that God may be all in all and that by the Sonnes decreasing till he voluntarily abase himself as low as Gods footstoole in obedience unto the Will of his Father he may bring down all enemies with him into the same abasement and subjection whether they will or no to the putting down all rule all authority and power that would under pretence of friendship to his first appearance be enthroning themselves there which thus are triumphed over in this grave to the leading captivity captive And therefore Christ as the Sonne singly considered in his first appearance doth absolutely refuse any longer to continue a Husband and to command in that capacity but gives up his rule into the Fathers hand and comes again along with him in that new glory as second in the Throne and abides ruler over the soul for ever Thus the Bridegoome takes himself away and discontinues his rule in the heart as he is married and entertaines converse with the soul in and by the first Covenant wherein he is known according to the flesh and by this his separation from the soul doth bring the natural man of the Saint into a most perfect wildernesse-condition for barrennesse disconsolatenesse and untrodden paths to sense and reason together with exposednesse to all manner of trials and temptations from within and from without and into this forsaken Widowhood doth Christ purposely lead the beleever for the trial of his faith and to work that work of repentance and change in his mind which is never to be repeuted of even to arme him with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus when he suffered in the flesh to the ceasing or causing of sinne for ever to cease and be abolished And therefore makes it his own work which he fixedly carries on in the soul against all its reluctancies wrastlings and strivings to the contrary as the great discriminating work of his love to his chosen generation the chastenings wherby he reaches the true sons and heirs of salvation the obedience of faith and which he prevailes with them patiently to endure that thereby they may be brought into subjection to the Father of spirits and live This is the discipline wherwith Christ exercises the many sons that he is bringing up unto glory being but the same he exercised in and upon himself Heb. 2. 10. and ch 12. 6 7. not thinking fit to deale thus with bastards v. 8. but leaving them to their liberty content to be out-wrestled and over-mastered by them to their crucifying in themselves the Sonne of God afresh and putting him to open shame in a counter-endeavour to his voluntary resignation of power and enmity to his Crosse setting up the Sonnes Kingdome in their hearts in competition with and opposition to the Fathers which the Sonne himself disclaims hiding his face as one ashamed thereof Thus Christ the Bridegroome takes himself away and becomes dead to the soul that was as his married wife calling to the Saint to follow him into the grave where he shall find that out of the devourer comes meat and out of the strong Lion of the tribe of Judah slaine and crucified doth proceed sweetnesse And as Christ in this manner thinks fit to hide his face and leave the soul in this state of weaknesse and disconsolation in reference to his first presence and communion with the fruits thereof so Satan the great Tempter finding it as it were dark night with the Saint when no man can work nor see his way he then as a wild beast comes out of his den judging it his time to stir and move all his engines of battery on all hands to adde affliction to the afflicted and to bear down to the very pit the broken sinking-spirited Saint in this night of his sorrowes and sufferings and is encouraged hereunto from the general rule of permission given unto him by God as the fruit of that enmity which God said he would put between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent to the bruising of the Devils head and the Saints heele when therefore the Devill sees he cannor prevaile by all his temptations and deceits against the preparation-work that is used by Christ to fit this Saint for sufferings as the oile or ointment poured out upon his head disposing him to conformity with himself in his death but is rejected and cast off by the Saint as he was by Christ the Head when he was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted and when by Peter he was moved to spare himself in confidence that such things should not befall him then this great destroyer comes as a down-right enemy to assault the suffering Saint from all corners as he did Job in his sufferings set before us by the Apostle James as meet for our consideration and as the forerunning type of the end of the Lord in his death upon the Crosse In which remarkable exercise of patience we may behold the enraged malice of this restlesse spirit the Devil at such a time as this For First he endeavours to set God against Job upon pretence that Jobs godlinesse was all for the gaine he had from it and by it and not out of any true love to God or godlinesse for its own sake and as a means to discover the faithfulnesse and to trie the
several as they may without the seed of saving faith accompanying them how high and heavenly soever they may seeme to be they are but common grace and may be fallen from and so those may perish that have them But where such gifts are followed with that farther work in the soul which is the proper fruit and effect of the third Ministery containing in it things that accompany salvation then those very gifts hereby washed in the blood of the Lamb do change their fading and failing property and become saving and everlasting In the righteousnesse then of Faith both the former righteousnesses are fulfilled and established upon better principles and Promises then those of the first Covenant to the making the possessors thereof heirs of God co-heirs with Christ and so partakers of the Divine nature entering them into the glory that is within the veile and setting them downe with Christ on his Throne as he is set downe with the Father on his Throne in the fulnesse and perfection of both Creations having all power in Heaven and in Earth put into his hand This is the Mortification and Vivification the dying to sin and living to righteousness witnessed unto by the Scriptures and shining forth in the face of Christ as the Truth that is in Jesus unto which we are made conformable by being planted together with him in the likenesse of his death and resurrection comprehending in it all that righteousnesse and holinesse which is but in part and is upon right grounds pleaded for either by the Natural or Legal Conscience and holding forth over and above that which is higher and of a better and more durable kinde then theirs But however it be that the defect and miscarriage we are speaking to that is incident to Natural or Legal righteousnesse lie not in this that it is counterfeit or hypocritical but that it is that which is but in part and which therefore does unwarrantably exalt it self into a competition with or opposition to the whole as it comes to passe in those who make such ill use of Christs first appearance as thereby to resist and keep out his second yet we are neverthelesse to acknowledge that there is much counterfeit work to be found in the world as daily experience sheweth both as to light practice principles and converse amongst those that pretend fair to be great proficients in that righteousnesse and holinesse that makes up the answer of the Natural or Legal good conscience who do not truly live in the principles of either of these states but make a flourish with meere notion head-work and light without heat together with some overly performances as desirous of a share in the praise of men with those who truly live in such principles by a meere outward plausiblenesse in converse whilst their inward part is full of ravening and wickednesse Others also that are unsincere and faulty in their very principles we are to discover and lay open for the preventing of the deceit with which under these the Devil lies in wait to insnare and turne men aside from the TRVTH This sort of men in whom are found these corrupt principles whereby they become men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith speaking lies in hypocrisie the Scripture expressely takes notice and warnes us of above all the rest as the great engines the Devil makes use of for the instillation of his Doctrine by faire speeches to the deceiving of the hearts of the simple Since therefore there is such deceivable work kept on foot in men by that grand Impostor Satan and that under pretence of their dying to sin and living to righteousnesse in many feigned shews of mortification forbidding of marriage and commanding to abstain from meats which may be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh all which is so far from being comprehended in the righteousnesse revealed by the Gospel as any part of it that under a counterfeit shadow and similitude thereof it stands in direct opposition thereunto begetting in the conscience such a dying unto Christ or the Spirit of TRUTH as imports and plainly speaks forth a living unto Antichrist or the spirit of lies and fashood prophesied of as that which with great confidence will be obtruded by the witnesse and practice of divers in the last times 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. and elsewhere since I say these things are so I have held it my duty in very faithfulnesse unto the TRUTH not to passe by the same in silence without giving my Testimony against all such deceitful workings in those who having departed from the faith give heed unto seducing spirits speaking lies in hypocrisie or in feigned resemblances unto TRUTH Of such the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 11. for whose sake he was exceeding jealous lest the Corinthians through their influence and subtilty should be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity of mind which they ought to bear as chast Spouses unto Christ their one Husband v. 2 3. Such saith Paul are false Apostles Prophets and professors of Christ transforming themselves into the appearance of Christs true witnesses and followers and no marvel For Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of righteousnesse taking upon them to personate true mortification or dying to sinne and true vivification or living to righteousnesse whose end shall be according to their Works ver 13 14 15. This sort of men as appeares in the examples of Hymeneus and Alexander have been once enlightned and through the receivings of grace and attainments under the first Covenant have had that which the Scripture calls Faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. who notwithstanding do put away their good conscience and concerning faith make shipwrack being the adversaries on the one hand which Paul exhorts Timothy to maintaine a good warfare against as well as against the Teachers of the Law on the other hand who being ignorant whilest they are under the Law how to pursue the true end of it run out into unprofitable heady disputes and endlesse questions having once turned aside unto vaine jangling understanding neither what they say nor wherefore they affirme v. 4 5 6 7. But stumbling at that stumbling stone in Sion and rock of offence to enemies Rom. 9. 33. but of defence and salvation to his chosen beloved ones Psal 95. 1. the same Christ becoming to these a sanctuary or place of refuge to them a stone of stumbling even to both the houses of Israel a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem Isa 8. 14 who going about to establish their own righteousnesse do not submit unto and so fall short of the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. Both these sorts of men on
the one hand and the other upon distinct accounts are to be reputed enemies to the TRUTH in the Spirit and Power thereof as is at large set forth 1 Tim. 1. the first of which are also meant and described 1 Tim. 4. 1. where they are said to be those that are departed from the Faith through giving heed unto seducing spirits and to inspirations of devils in those transformed Ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11. 15. who labour to vent the doctrines of devils such as devils either are authors or objects of through whose Ministery they come to have itching ears formed in them 2 Tim. 4. 3. ready to hearken to all that the Serpent transformed into an Angel of light presents to them by way of instruction and under colour of divine inspiration as taking upon him the Prophetical office of Christ and thereby undertaking to carry them forward to what is more spiritual and to heighten them in their experiences of what SPIRIT and POWER is In this very way he offered to impose upon and deceive if it had been possible Christ himself when perceiving that all the literal Religion and legal worship of the Jewes would not hold him but lay short of his light he shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them the utmost creaturely perfection or natural glory which he was able to give the prospect and representation of in his own Angelical nature being of that highest rank of creatures in the whole first Creation and that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye saying All these will I give thee or make thee to live in if thou wilt fall down and worship me This temptation then which Christ resisted these seduced ones fall under and are snared and taken with to the making of them love and believe a lie and to yield up themselves in a fixednesse of service duty and love unto this false spirit as unto Christ the true Prophet And the better to induce them hereunto and strengthen them in the beliefe of a lie Satan in this his coming as an Angel of light is accompanied with power with signes and lying wonders acting the part of a great friend and favourer of all that is spiritual heavenly and high not opposing at all their having the understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge yea or their having of all faith to the working of miracles or removing of mountaines their speaking with the tongues of men and Angels but unto all these attainments he is conducing as much as in him lies in all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse to serve his designes by gaining the greater credit and authority hereby in their hearts and affections and so the more unperceivably beguiling and winding them over into the belief of a lie and that in a point of highest concernment unto them prevailing with them to receive him in their love and affection even that adulterous spirit and deceiver of the Nations in this his Angelical brightnesse instead of Christ himselfe THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH and SON OF THE LIVING GOD and that considered as shining forth in the glory of his SECOND COMING In consequence hereof he makes them to resigne up all the powers and operations of their minde absolutely into his hands in obedience to his dictates and inspirations upon which they hold themselves obliged to be alwayes waiting in the posture of passive silence in a Counterfeit imitation of the true conformity unto Christ in his death and resurrection So then by this meanes the Devill is found sitting in the Temple of God as God to the apprehension of those who thus possesse him or if you will whom he thus possesses as also to the imagination of others their deluded proselytes where he is opposing and Exalting himselfe above all that is called God And as in former times by JANNES and JAMBRES he withstood Moses through a lively and skilful imitation of his works and miracles so in the latter dayes by such instruments of his as these he shall resist the TRUTH to the causing of many to stumble and be offended thereat for the resemblance sake which this false spirit is able to forme of it Which false and counterfeit appearance of his as we have said the Scripture sets forth and describes under these two heads MORTIFICATION and VIVIFICATION with a Character of Condemnation upon them in the very description made of them Such mortification is spoken of 2 Tim 2. 17. in the case of HYMENEUS and PHILETUS whose word is there said to eate like a canker Intimating what kinde of mortification the word by them ministered did produce even such a one as is caused in the body by cancerous humors carrying certaine mortality in it if not timely prevented not being a mortification in order to health and life but unto unsoundnesse and death These teachers with their followers are men of corrupt and unchast mindes towards the true Lord and husband under all their abstinence and seeming mortification Againe 1 Tim. 4. 2. this mortification is called the searing of the conscience with a hot iron importing the dead and insensible frame which thereby is brought upon the minde to any other delight love or desire save only towards this false spirit with whom it is as it were bewitched to the contracting a spiritual benummednesse and coldnesse to all other lovers whatsoever to the world and all seen things or bodily objects answering unto the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of sensual life yea and also to Christ himself the true and living God so as to become past feeling in the case of any checks accusations or reproofs from the SPIRIT OF TRUTH in order to a totall and full resignation of themselves up to the dictates inspirations and commands of this false and seducing spirit In this sense and on this account we may finde men giving their bodies to be burned 1 Cor 13. 3. yielding up themselves to be deprived of all their natural or sensual comforts yea many times the most lawful of them thereby offering themselves up as in sacrifice unto these satanical flames wherein they are in danger to be everlastingly burning as in a fire that can never be quenched For this searing of their conscience as with a hot yron is but the first fruits in these SONS OF PERDITION of that resurrection into everlasting contempt designed unto such VESSELS OF DISHONOUR as on the other hand the true mortification and resigning up of the natural will and desire to Christ is the first fruits in the true SONS OF GOD of their resurrection into everlasting life This sinne of their under the Gospel as it is more spiritual seems to be pointed out to us by that sinne under the Law committed by those that offered up their children to Molech causing their sons and their daughters to passe through that material fire and to yield up their very bodies in the most literal outward sense and acceptation to be burned in
a threefold respect Magistracy may be brought into its lawfull exercise over men and where it is not so it is the sinne and abuse of those that exercise it and deteine it in unrighteousnesse contrary to the light within them which they live under and ought to be faithful unto Before we go farther then we are to acknowledge that Magistracy or Rule over men may be exercised amongst all Nations in general in a lawful and right manner suitable to their dispensation and light received and as such is as a weaker or stronger sort of Rule of and from Christ set up amongst them and ought not therefore so much as in its lowest dispensation in the righteous exercise thereof to be judged condemned or disobeyed byany as accounting it a part of the fourth Monarchy or seat of the beast since it is so only as considered and found in its corrupt use and fixed enmity against Christ and his Saints Againe by this also we may take notice that we are not to be in bondage to the Judicials of Moses as in the letter of them they conveyed the Lawes of Civil Government to the people of the Jewes since the spirit and original patterne of those very Judicials is set up by Christ in men through his resurrection from the dead to enable them unto a righteous ruling over men in the fear of the Lord by the pouring out of his Spirit upon all flesh and thereby qualifying them unto that office as wel as to all other Christian duties performable by the renewed natural man So as it would be a returning back againe unto Moses contrary to his owne charge Acts 7. if we should bind up our selves to his Judicials For Moses himself saith A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me him shall ye hear in all that he shall say unto you as well for the enabling of you to the right discharge of Magistratical duties as the rest of that work which the Christian is to be conversant in according to his command So that instead of going thus backward we are to go forward and to be still enquiring and learning out more of Christs mind in this great work as by steps and degrees he leads us thereunto through the influencings of his Spirit in a way of righteousnesse and by the daily renewed outgoings of his providence And doubtlesse if Moses Judicials are thus to be left behind as they that have lost their force and obligation no humane ordinances or positive Lawes must expect to be perpetual and exempt from change and removal if the Lord please by a visible hand of his owne in judgement and righteousnesse to fold them up as old garments and change them as vestures of the worlds old fashion to make way for the new heaven and new earth that Christ is bringing into their roome whose abolishing and taking away in such a case is their improvement perfection and establishment according to the Primitive and best Constitution of Government This being by way of preparation and introduction laid down we shall now proceed to shew more particularly wherein Magistracy as to the purity of its constitution and righteousnesse of its exercise doth consist Magistracy then is the Rule which God hath ordained to be exercised over the outward man by man himself qualified thereunto to act in righteousnesse and in the fear of the Lord in discharge of this his high and great trust and so is an office meerly respecting Rule and Government over men in their outward concernes which is capable to be rightly used or not according as the persons entrusted therewith are qualified and do exercise the same the office of it self being good and the end for which it is set up being according to Gods Ordinance and institution for the ministring of punishment to them that do ill and encouragement and protection to them that do well And men may lawfully arrive and attaine unto this office and dignity either in an ordinary way through the endeavours and free choice of men or extraordinarily by the immediate call of God himself to the exercise thereof making those that are to obey willingly subject in that day of his power For the office it self it is as we have shewed in Gods institution a Rule that is set up over the outward man in righteousnesse and in the fear of the Lord obliging the persons intrusted with this power to put forth righteousnesse in all their actings that appertaine to their publick charge in the judgements and statutes given for the right ordering and regulating of humane societies in the outward converse of men one towards another and in the common protection safety and defence which by them is to be provided with reference to those that are under their charge And as in this the principles of natural justice and right in their highest improvement are to be their Rule so the fear of the Lord should oblige them in an humble dependency upon him and trembling posture of mind before him to be watchful in not suffering any thing to be done by them that may carry in it hinderance or opposition to the breaking in of higher discoveries upon them as to the very exercise of the Magistratical office in the purity and perfection wherein it is promised to be brought forth in the last dayes by Christ himselfe unto which they should alwayes have willing and ready minds to make way and to submit Upon such grounds Magistracy may be preserved in its lawful use and exercise as a faithful servant waiting for the coming of his Lord and the persons exercising that authority are to be accounted as the Ministers of God to us for our good of whom we are to be afraid if we do evil and whom we are not to fear if we do well because they are to be a terrour only to evil works and a praise to the good In which respect the Apostle sayes true Christians must needs be subject as having an obligation leadin them thereunto not only for wrath but for conscience sake Rom 13. 5. The power that appertains to this office is all the strength that man is capable of being formed into either in a way of counsel or force to prevent and resist all assaults that may encounter the same in way of disturbance or opposition to the end that righteousnesse in the outward converse of men may run and be in Authority and Rule against all contradiction thereunto from the malice of Devils or men And therefore we are not to conceive as most are apt to do that man in his innocent state and sinlesse nature stood in no need of this office of Magistracy for it is not only useful to restraine from unrighteousnesse and disorder occasioned by sin and the fall but also to conserve and maintaine men in the good order and right disposition of things wherein by their creation they were placed in a preventing way unto the disorder and danger that lust