life perisheth and man returneth to his Earth to his very corruption again yea and taketh unto himself seven Devils worse then the former For the higher that man is raised by this breath from the Lord the lower he falls when this breath is withdrawn It is the spirit of corrupt man getting or advanced by the Lord into the purest ways and forms of Religion which bringeth forth the filthiest abominations 4. In the result of this corruption and evil will befall you in the latter days Sin most naturally brings forth death Corruption or putrefaction is a degree of and a direct passage unto death And it will break forth and appear in the latter days Man must have a time to corrupt in which he is to be let alone but in the latter days when his end draws nigh death hastens apace his corruption then begins to open it self and to discover the death which lay hid in it Then that evil which man hoped all this while to secure himself from will begin to manifest it self to be in the nature of his own spirit or in the nature of that sin and corruption which he hid within the nature of his spirit He hath hid his destruction in his own bowels he hath hugged it in his bosom in the midst of all his designs to escape it and in the latter days when it is grown ripe and strong thence it will start seize upon him and devour him When the Lord hath throughly tryed the spirit of man and when man hath throughly corrupted himself then will he lay the ax to the root of this tree and cut it down that it may cumber the ground no longer He hath cut down the Iews already Their latter days wherein evil did befall them have overtaken them and he will also cut down the Gentiles The Iews were not the seed for after the death of Moses they did corrupt themselves and discover that they like the rest of the world were but flesh Neither are the Gentiles the seed for they also after the death of that life which did flow from the Spirit into Christ and his Apostles did also corrupt themselves The uncircumcised and unclean spirit of man did enter into this Temple and Worship as well as into the former Therefore the Lord will both cut down the spirit of man and will also down with all that into which the spirit of man can enter and then will he bring forth his own Truth his true Temple his true Worship his true Worshippers 5. In the ground of this death and destruction to man because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands All the motions of man anger God All the works of his hands are filthy and corrupt in themselves and provocative to the eye of his nature and spirit All mans knowledg all his life all his ways of Worship Faith and Obedience in every kind every thing that suits the eye and judgment of his spirit and wherewith he thinks to please God is lothsom to God This lothsomness stirreth up in God his indignation which causeth him in the proper season thereof to bring death upon man and to bring him to Judgment after which cometh the second death Then it shall be known who have been led by the Lord and who have truly followed him though the spirit of man now laughs at all who walk not with him in his way of understanding Then shall all see and know who are righteous and be forced to confess from their very hearts saying Verily there is a reward for the righteous a competent reward a full reward unto them for all the sufferings and misery which have attended them in their way and passage hither Blessed is he whom the Lord leadeth by the proper cross attending every dispensation through trouble and death into life But excessively miserable is that man whose fleshly spirit remaineth in any dispensation or who passeth from dispensation to dispensation with his life unslain therewith feeding upon the Ordinances duties enjoyments or any other holy or spiritual things of God and thereby fattening and fitting himself for death and destruction against the great and terrible day of the Lord God Almighty according as the spirit of Christ in David speaketh Psal. 94.12 13. with a gloss whereupon I shall draw towards a conclusion Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked There is a pit digging for the wicked into which when it is finished when it is every way made large and deep and piercing enough the whole wicked spirit of man shall either fall or be cast or partly fall and partly be cast into it Till this pit be digged it is a troublesome time to the seed but a quiet time with man The spirit of man is now at ease He can serve he can please he can enjoy himself in his whole course both of nature and religion yea and he can also secure himself from future danger from danger at the last He hath made a covenant with death and with Hell is he at agreement When the overflowing scourge passeth it shall not come near him It is for unbeleevers for sinners for persons who know not God or obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ to fear death and Hell or eternal destruction But when this pit is digged the Spirit of the Lord with his light will search out the spirit of man under all his disguises and what ever hath not the true breath of life in it shall be cast into and dye in this pit There are persons also to whom God will give rest from the days of adversity Those who have all along been persecuted by all sorts of enemies and afflicted with all sorts of miseries that spirit which hath been hunted wounded grieved distressed all the day long by the cruel spirit of man and Satan shall be rescued from the jaws of each and be refreshed Those who are leavened with the life of Gods most holy Spirit who are so new-changed by it that they have none of that life none of that spirit left remaining in them which the Lord cometh to destroy the Lord will give them rest When the Lord cometh forth to hunt take and devour the spirit of man those in whom that spirit is already dissolved shall not be in fear or danger of his severity but shall find the abundance of love sweetness peace and rest administred to them by the same hand which will then so eagerly and fiercely prosecute the spirit of man Then they who have hitherto been at ease shall be troubled and they who have hitherto been troubled shall have ease And to you who are troubled rest with us When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed c. 2 Thes. 1. The ways whereby God leadeth his to this rest are
hath been testified unto you and from whence that testimony may come for ought ye know Have ye dealt ingenuously with the Lord in this point or rather have ye not watched for the halting of those which have testified that so ye might harden your spirits in your own invented ways For if ye could make good that they once were the Lords yet they are not now his unless the same spirit and light did again lead into them and quicken them The Lord loveth Spirit and Truth but regardeth not a dead form although it were the very same wherein his Spirit once did live Can ye blame the Lord for preparing a stumbling block for you or for suffering or giving you up to stumble when ye your selves desire it Ye will have such and such Ordinances paths and practises to be the ways of the Lord every one according to his own imagination and cannot endure to hear any thing to the contrary Ye will be judging and measuring the things of God before ye have received either an eye or light or measure from him But I injure you ye have eyes ye have light ye have the reed of the Word and can measure things aright by that It is well so it must be But assuredly the Spirit of the Lord hath tryed and judged all your light all your ways all your knowledg and practises in Religion and hath found them scanty in his ballance scanty even of that true light nature and spirit which he seeketh to worship him and which he alone delighteth to be worshipped in Alas Sirs ye may please your selves awhile but ye cannot stand before the blasting breath of the Lord which bloweth upon all flesh and corrupteth it If the Lord hath testified against your duties as being things which he requireth not at your hands against your Ordinances and ways of worship as not being those which he hath appointed against your graces as not being of the nature of his Life and Spirit against your evidences for Heaven and happiness as not being such as will endure his tryal and touchstone yea against your very foundation as not being that which the Spirit of the Lord hath layd but which your own spirits by your own art and skill a little heightened perhaps by your study of the Scriptures and other exercises of your mind have fastened and built all upon I say If the Lord hath testified these things against you the Lord will not fail to make them good and whatsoever your confidences to the contrary are ye shall not prosper in them O consider this if ye love your Souls It is not a building upon Christ after the flesh it is not either a beleeving or obeying from any rational knowledg from a knowledg of the understanding though the heart and affections be never so much heated therewith accompanying it never so vigorously which will save any man but a building of a new nature upon the new nature of Christ. It must be a building of a new nature for Christ saveth his building his people his seed his Church and it must be built or founded upon the new nature of Christ for Christ himself saveth not according to the oldness of the letter but according to the newness of the Spirit It is not the building of such a new nature upon such a Christ as man will call so but a building of the truth upon the Truth Alas what a poor imaginary thing is the Christ which many if not most apprehend Christ consisteth not in the name but in the nature and in the spirit of the thing Now who knoweth the nature of Christ or of that God which dwelleth in Christ Who knoweth the nature of his Wisdom the nature of his Goodness the nature of his Greatness the nature of his Life Spirit c. Who knoweth the nature of the Father which begat or the nature of the Son who was begotten either in his life or death yea who knoweth himself Man doth not build himself I mean his own nature upon Christ but that which he calleth himself upon that which he calleth Christ. Here will appear to be strange work when the Lord searcheth into it Wonderful serious are men in their Religion and yet through the present thick darkness little do they know what they do Little do they perceive how they build an imagination upon an imagination It is very true that the Apostles had a true knowledg of Christ and that they came forth with a true knowledg of Christ and it then being the time of light that the Spirit of the Lord also went forth to quicken that knowledg where it pleased him unto the hearers But what knowledg is it whereupon men now build Who now knoweth the nature of the Lords Anointed which is the only Saviour Who looks into the Scripture now with a new eye I am sure with an old eye no man can see the things of God But I see the things of God wilt thou perhaps say therefore my eye is new Nay but thou seest with the old eye and therefore thy sight is not right Take heed lest thou be convinced of this too late O Lord God that ever man should give scope to himself in so great vanity as to lay the stress of his own eternal condition upon the motions of his own blind dark nature But who doth thus I acknowledg to thee O man that in thy light and according to thy measure thou doest not so but in the light of the Lord and according to his measure who doth not so Tell me true Doest not thou built upon Christ according to thy creaturely understanding Ah Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life the fleshly reason the fleshly understanding the fleshly affections of man are too gross to enter into either The first Adam how excellent soever cannot lay one stone in the building of God The eye of mans purest Reason cannot read one line in the Book of God O who knoweth God or his Christ or his Worship or any of his Truths We have a great deal of knowledg in the world why all sorts know but yet my spirit saith to all the sorts of this present generation Who knoweth God neither do I speak about the degree but concerning the true nature of knowledg The gross unclean spirit of man which it still is in the midst of all its Legal and Evangelical washings cleanness and purity cannot possibly see or be acquainted with the Lord. No unclean eye no unclean heart no unclean hand c. can ever come near the Life and Nature of God but only that which is truly changed Nothing can live in the presence of God but that which hath the true Life and Nature of God in it which groweth not from any institution or form of Religion whereby so many appearing changes are wrought in the world but from a true seed sown in the spirit of man by the Spirit of the Lord. Now do not mistake me
wisdom of it appear folly All the Imaginations of man hitherto have fallen and can these stand My Soul in the inmost judgment of it upon the deepest observation search trial sense and experience saith they cannot but that there must needs be a future estate of things wherein all shall be set to rights wherein righteousness which hath here been always oppressed shall be rewarded and iniquity which hath as yet flourished shall pine in pain and misery as also That the present life and happyness of man consists in union and communion with light in the several kinds and degrees of it proportionable to his estate and in a separation from darkness in the several kinds and degrees of it My advice therefore to all persons for their own good and safety is not to run away with notions and apprehensions of things but first to measure them And he that is not able to measure them let him not receive them but let a man only receive what he is able to measure What the eye of the senses can truly judg of they may acknowledg and thus may the eye of reason do also and as for the eye of the spirit though it be cleerer and stronger then either of the other yet it is not safe for it to proceed further then so It will be as dangerous for it to receive beyond what it can understandingly judge as it is for the eye either of sense or reason Now tell me He that in sensible things shall conclude all one and not understanding himself shall venture to eat or drink poyson in stead of good and proper nourishment or He that in things of reason shall do the like in their kind what palpable and irrecoverable dangers doth he incur hereby Nor is the hazard or damage less in things of a spiritual nature and concernment Let him therefore that is in this present state of weakness in danger of miscariage in his apprehensions and motions and liable to misery thereby I say in pity love and tenderness to him Let him take heed and not make his eye useless by entertaining such a beam as will exclude or such a mote as will interrupt the truth and cleerness of his sight VI. Of the Various false New-births and the true one which are distinguished by their root and nature IOHN 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit THere are two ways of distinguishing the things of God The one by the root from which they spring The other is by the nature which they receive into themselves from their root All the Religion of man all the life that man is capable of cometh from a fleshly root and when it is sprung in him it is still but fleshly in it self or in its own nature The truth of God the true nature of God springeth only from the spirit of the Lord and remaineth spirit wheresoever it springs transforming and making that also spiritual which is truly united to it More fully thus There are two seeds which spring up in this world The natural and the spiritual the earthly and the heavenly the seed of this outward world or nature which seed is Adam the seed of another world of a more inward world or nature which seed is Christ. Proportionably there are two Mothers Wombs or Roots in whom these seeds are begotten wherein these seeds are conceived and from which they spring which are Hagar and Sarah the Ierusalem below and the Ierusalem above Nature and Grace or the spirit of this world and the Spirit which is of God In these the seeds are hid and out of these they arise the one from the one the other from the other The fleshly seed comes from the fleshly mother out of the fleshly womb from the root of flesh The spiritual seed cometh from the womb and out of the root of the spirit Nor do they only proceed from the root but they also partake of the nature of the root each do of that root from which they spring so that that which springs from the Earth from the flesh from the root of this common nature is of the Earth is of the flesh is of this common nature and that which springs from the root of the Spirit of God is spirit with that spirit Yet more largely Every thing is and acts according to its root The whole nature course and end of every thing is answerable to the nature of its root According as the root is from which the seed of the tree springs for the tree grows up from a seed and that seed comes from a root such is the nature of the tree such is the estate and condition of the tree such is the fruit of the tree and such will be the end of the tree This is a general truth but particularly in this place applied to Religion All things in Religion are according to the root from which they spring All things in Religion may grow upon any treâ— whether natural artificial or spiritual but that which distinguisheth them in their root Now there are two great roots as there are two great conditions two great courses two kinds of fruit and two great ends of things so there are two great Originals of things Nature and Grace Flesh and Spirit God and Man There is the earthly and the heavenly root the sinful and the holy root the humane and the divine root These roots as they are in us have each of them their own rise their own nature their own properties their own fruit their own course their own end The fleshly root in us hath a fleshly rise a fleshly nature fleshly properties is in a fleshly estate and condition runs a fleshly course brings forth fleshly fruit and tends to a fleshly end viz. to corruption The spiritual root in us hath a spiritual rise a spiritual nature spiritual properties is in a spiritual estate and condition brings forth spiritual fruit and tends to a spiritual end He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting This is that which putteth the great difference between things making the one happy in their misery and the other miserable in their happiness namely the difference of their roots The high the flourishing estate of some in all manner of knowledg in all manner of enjoyments comes to nothing the low barren desolate estate of others is very precious because of their different roots Babel is unlovely in her greatest lustre and glory even when she is built very high and adorned with the greatest spiritual riches magnificence and beauty but Sion is lovely in her greatest ruines desolations even in her very dust and all upon this ground because of their several natures which they have from and which are fed by their several roots in all their changes It is the root of the flesh from which Babel springs and
by Christ and his Apostles But though God is and will be just in judging every man yet every man is unjust in condemning another because he hath the same seed of unrighteousness and corruption with his brother which would lead him aside as it doth his brother were he every way in his case So that a man in condemning another condemneth himself though he doth not see it IX Of the Certainty of Christ in his knowledge concerning the things of God and particularly of his well-grounded testimony concerning the way to life and consequently of the certainty of the knowledg and testimony of his seed in their generations they being of the same nature and Life with him JOHN 12.50 And I know that his Commandment is life everlasting EVery man desires everlasting life but no man knowes the way to it and alas who can guide him Who knoweth any thing almost in spiritual matters but as for this great thing viz. Wherein everlasting life consists or which is the way to that everlasting life which God hath held out and promised to his seed O how deep and hidden is it Yet he that hath the light of God he knows He that is enlightned by God he may see God and the way to him and he may light others out of their darkness as Christ saith ver 46. I am come a light into the World that whosoever bâ—leeveth on me should not abide in darkness He that hath the seed and principle of the life in him he may understand the touch of that life he may know the commands of it and he may speak them here in this world and tell the world that he doth know what he speaketâ— though the world never was nor never will be able understandingly to receive this testimony either from Christ or from any of his seed But the ignorance and darkness of man concerning the light and knowledge of God do not make them the more uncertain in that spirit where they truly reside but they do know the truth and the life though man cannot know that they know it And I know that his Commandment is life everlasting Severall things here would be considered to make way to that observation which ariseth from hence 1. What this Commandment of the Father is Ans. The great Commandment of God is to beleeve on his Son or if ye will on him through his Son It is of this Christ is speaking ver 44. Iesus cried and said He that beleeveth on me beleeveth not on me but on him that sent me Mans bottom is rotten therefore God adviseth him to quit it and fasten upon the Rock for all such and such only shall be saved That which God points man to in all his dispensations yea that which his very nature is pointed to is life There is a Command of God in the nature of man to the nature of man to seek after life after everlasting life There was in the very nature of Adam a desire of a more excellent state and injoyment of God then that wherein he was brought forth and it was not ill in Adam to obey this only he should have stayed there the pleasure of the Lord and have waited upon his wil and guidance for a remove And this Command though it was more full and compleat in Adam yet it is also still written in the nature and heart of every man in its degree and when God pleaseth to awaken the heart of any man in this respect he can make it appear and act very livelily there There is also a Command concerning the way to life Mans darkness and impotency is also written both in his nature and in his present state and there may be also found in the nature and state of man by him that hath a quick eye a command to repent and beleeve That natural light which is in man shews him so much of himself and so much of his God as may justly incline him to turn from the one and to look towards the other Thus much of the Gospel for so it is in a sence and therefore may bear that name is written in mans nature though the thing it self the Gospel it self the new nature it self repentance and faith it self are the seed of Christ the seed of Christ's sowing the seed that springs from the Root of his nature and that repentance and Faith which ariseth thence is not written in the nature of man Now mark In that dispensation of the Gospel by Christ either as it was at first given out or as it hath been in any degree renewed since God doth both open those lights and commands which are in the nature of man for God taketh into and bringeth forth in that dispensation such things as were sown in the nature of man and also le ts out a further light and adds further commands proper to that dispensation So that this is the commandment of God two waies First It is the commandment of God to the new nature there is a law of life teaching and commanding to that the truth It s nature teacheth it to beleeve for faith springeth up in its nature And its nature teacheth it to repent its nature teacheth it to loath this present state of man yea the very excellency of mans nature Secondly There is a commandment of God to the old nature both to do it after its kind to repent beleeve and obey according to the law of its life for man who came from God and his Christ is to worship and serve God and his Christ in his capacity and there is also a command to this old nature of man to look up for a new seed for the seed of a new life that so he may do it in truth Man is to live holily and righteously according to the law of his shadowy nature and being and also to pant after the substance though that panting from and according to that nature which is peculiar to the seed man is not capable of in himself So that this is his Commandment this is Gods great commandment to both the seeds to the natural and to the spiritual to the seed of Adam and to the seed of Christ namely that they pant after and cleave unto him through his Son 2. What is the everlasting life which is wrapped up in this commandment Ans. It is a Life of a different nature of a more inward nature of a more setled and abiding nature then the life of the nature of man in it self is capable of It is the Life which mans life is but a shadow of and which mans life was broken to make way for It is the Life which was promised long agoe to the seed even from the begining and is reserved for their enjoyment at the end It is a Life promised to an incorruptible nature and as the nature to which it is promised so the life also which is promised is not capable of corruption as both the nature and life of man is It is a Life
that passeth not away but purifieth perfecteth and preserveth the vessel wherein it is sown It is a Life which both indures in it self and leads to that blessed enjoyment of life in which the seed and the spirit of man in and through the seed shall settle and abide for ever All Adams nature all Adams excellency all Adams life all Adams enjoyment content and blessedness thereby how soon did it fade but this Nature this Life this Principle with all the glory and blessedness to which it tends shall abide for ever This life was not written in Adams nature or in the command to his nature but in the command to Christs nature and to man through that nature The nature of Adam was led aside from the commandment to death but the nature of Christ is led and is guided safely through this Commandment to life even to that life which alone can satisfie the desire and thirst of his nature even this Life everlasting which is here mentioned 3. What this same knowledg of Christ here is Ans. This knowledg of Christ is the comprehension of his own nature or his comprehending of the thing in his own nature It is the seeing of it with his own eye the measuring it in his own understanding As man measureth natural things within his reach by his natural understanding so Christ measureth spiritual things in spiritual light with his spiritual understanding and what he finds proportionable to the measure of his spirit which is truth he knoweth to be truth As man what he truly measures in the true light of reason with a truly rational understanding he knoweth to be truth there So what Christ measures after his way in this his spiritual Region he knoweth to be truth here Christ the true nature with the true eye saw the true thing in the true light so that his light his knowledg is truth I know c. Man proposeth unto himself vain waies and Satan invents many Devices for him but God who is truth speaketh truth and proposeth only truth unto him He proposeth the letter of truth not only by Moses but by the meanest of his Prophets but by Christ the spirit thereof The words which I speak unto you they are spirit they are Life Christ as he is the truth in an especial manner so he hath an especial ministration of it which he began in his own person and carried on in his disciples and Apostles And both he and they had an especial knowledg of the truth that dwelt in them and which they were chosen out for the service and Ministration of Christ lay in the bosom of the Father before he came into this world There he saw things There he saw this Life and the way to it And when that knowledg which he had in him before springs up here in him in this World he knoweth what it is He is sure it is that truth which he beheld in God in the days of old and which now he receiveth quick lively pure and clear from the Spirit of God in this his new state and station And I know that his Commandment is Life everlasting Let this seem what it will to you let it seem never so contrary to the will of God never so contrary to that dispensation of his by Moses Let it seem never so strange to all the people of God upon the face of the earth yet I know that it is the truth I know that it is the true and the only way to life even to that Life which was promised to the nature of the seed and which the nature of man also so much desireth I know that life is wrapped up in this Commandment and that they that receive it receive Life and that they that follow and obey it in truth in the true nature life and spirit of it cannot miss of life of Life everlasting And I know that his Commandment is Life everlasting 4. What kind of Faith is this what kind of beleeving is this which contains everlasting life in it which draws everlasting life along with it Ans. 1. It is the belief of the spirit of man for that is it which is exhorted to beleeve and that is it which is to be saved The Son cometh not to save himself but to seek and save lost man It is for him he bringeth forth and layeth down his own Life but yet that way whereby he saves him is by that Faith which he receives and acts from the nature of the Son in him 2. Though it be by mans spirit or nature beleeving in the Son whereby he comes to be saved yet this Faith with all the motions of it are comprehended and acted in the holy Spirit Every motion of man that tends to life is performed in the spirit of God As every thing that is spirituall comes alone from the Spirit so it only lives and moves and acts aright in the Spirit All the repentance mourning joy hope prayer c. that are Spirituall as they spring from the spirit so they grow up and come forth in the spirit praying alwaies in the holy Ghost 3. It is from a new Root The faith that saves is from the new birth The faith that saves this old nature springs from a new nature He that is not new Born hath not an eye to see Life nor an heart to desire it nor a foot to walk in the way of it So that though I said in the first place it is the beleef of the man yet that is not primarily and most properly true for it is the belief of the new Life in the man which also needeth salvation in this state wherein it is bred and brought up here in this world from whence it entring into springing up in taking possession of and leavening the man it becometh his also It purgeth out the old nature of the man and infuseth this new insomuch as this is now become the nature and life of the man also So that not only now Christ in the man beleeveth but the man also beleeveth in and through Christ which dwelleth in him and hath changed him into and communicated unto him his own nature The way being thus cleared the Observation it self will now appear more manifest which is this Obser. That Christ held out from true light from certain knowledg that beleeving is the way to Life Christ did not guess at it or imagin it strongly as we do at most of the things we speak of but he knew that his Commandment is life everlasting The certainty of Christ in the things of God ariseth from this four fold ground First From his own nature Secondly From his union with the Spirit Thirdly From his Life and Fourthly from his Light Each of these contribute much towards but all of them together can make up no less then an absolute infallibility 1. From his own nature The nature of Christ is Divine He is not of this Earth but from above He is begotten by God
their flesh shall return any more to folly There is a threefold Liberty which are wrapped up within one an other A Liberty of the nature of the creature A Liberty of the nature of man and A Liberty of the nature of the new man which being grown unto perfection restoreth the Liberty of man and of the creature bringing it forth a new in it self Adam by his fall brought both himself and the Creation into bondage with him into which bondage the Son enters or in this depraved and lost Earth the seed of Life is sown who by breaking through these bonds which it doth by the power of its Life for though this life may submit unto yet it is impossible it should be held down by the Law or the curse redeemeth both Adam and the Creation This leaven entring both into the man and into the creature spreads both over the man and over the creature and by breaking its own bonds breaks the bonds both of man and the creature and by challenging assuming and possessing its own Life and Liberty bringeth man and the creature into Life and Liberty so that though their Life and Liberty is utterly lost in themselves yet it is found again in Christ and found more pure more perfect more stable there then ever it was in them Happy is that man happy is that creature which can find the way to true loss to true bonds but that is as impossible to man to the creature as it is to it to save it self And this is calling into Liberty Brethren ye have been called unto Liberty namely the breaking forth of this life in the man which wrapping the man up in it self and bringing the man forth again with it self maketh him both taste of a new nature and of his own nature anew I confess calling here in this place may denote that invitation and inlet into the visible state of the Gospel which then was usual which in comparison of the state of the Law was a state of great Liberty though in respect of true thorow Liberty it be a state of great bondage and the spirit of life in the seed did groan under it for want of freedom as well as it did in the Saints of old under the yoke of the Law But calling into Liberty in the true nature of it is the advancing of the new nature which nature is sown here in bonds into the possession and enjoyment of it self and the redeeming of the nature of that man in whom the new nature is sown out of the bonds either of its own corruption or of any dispensation of God wherewith it is exercised in this its corrupt and enslaved estate So that in this Liberty First There is a free spirit or nature begotten and brought forth Secondly There is a spreading of this over the man conveying into him or taking him into the same free nature Thirdly There is the advancing of both into a free state and the bringing forth of the creature in and with them both Now perhaps some may yet in truth of spirit desire to hear somewhat more particularly and distinctly concerning this Liberty that they might have a more distinct and demonstrative view of some things which have been already glanced at for whose satisfaction First I shall touch a little at mans slavery and then propose to consideration the principal parts of this freedom Mans slavery consisteth chiefly in these three things 1. He is enslaved to himself or to the Law of sin and death which dwels in him which is now become himself His understanding is a slave to dark and corrupt princples his will to vain and destructive desires That little reason that is yet remaining in his understanding and will is a slave and subject to the Law and curse of that corruption which dwels in him 2. He is enslaved to Satan He rules him at pleasure This world the whole state of this world the whole frame and motions of mans spirit all the powers and operations of his nature lie in that wicked one and are disposed of by him So that man cannot see the true light not of reason because the God of this world blinds his eyes nor can he observe or obey what he doth discern of good further then God winds him up and assists him by some power which sometimes he lets forth upon him in a dispensation which for that season refresheth the ingenuity and integrity of his nature setting it on work for God and towards good but otherwise the spirit of man stands at a distance from that light of Holiness and Righteousness that shines upon him in any of the dispensations of God because Satan binds his heart his hands his feet his whole man So that there is no true liberty in the freest nature or clearest reason Satan doth but cozen a man in making him beleeve either that he can or will dispose of himself according to the light of reason but only in those whom God by his wisdom love and pleasure turneth from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God 3. He is enslaved to Laws Ordinances and Observations either such as were written in his own nature which yet have a dark being and residence there and which God can stir up at any time for any end or design of his or such as are dispenced to him in such or such a state Thus God hath pleased to use many waies for the exercise of man in his present broken condition Thus the Iews were exercised with severall Laws and kinds of Discipline and so also the Gentiles or beleeving Christians after them The former of these was a state of great slavery and the latter was not a throughly free state though it might very well be accounted free in compare with the former There was indeed a true taste of the truth in that State but the State it self was not the truth but only a more compleat shadow then the Law and therefore must vanish and give way whensoever the truth appears This is the sum or main of the slavery of man whereunto the severall inferior parcels of it may be referred Now the freedom of the seed and of Man and the creature in with and through the seed lieth chiefly in three things also To let pass freedom from corruption and vanity which though it be wonderfully excellent and not to be found in the air where we breath yet that may so easily be supposed and is so fully comprehended in the other as I cannot but omit it Therefore to let that pass I say freedom consisteth in these three things 1. In a disobligation from all Laws of an inferior nature That man cannot be free who is in subjection to any laws or ordinances of an inferior nature spirit or principle then his own life is The Lord hath given laws and ordinances to man in his severall states and conditions all which the life advanced to its own proportion of liberty in Christ is free from
afterwards how loftily did they look upon the rest of the world and scorn them even as dogs Neither were the converted Gentiles altogether free from this snare but they were apt likewise to boast not only over the rest of the world but over the Iews also Rom. 11. 2. The flesh will also take advantage hereby to corrupt it self in its Rest. There is a rest for the people of God a rest from all the toilsome motions of the humane spirit which the flesh will lay hold on to neglect what it should do and the doing whereof doth not contradict or interrupt this rest but floweth from it The flesh by this liberty will be apt to think it is become its own and may neglect any duties or ordinances duties of love and service ordinances of worship c. as it shall think good whereas the flesh hath no more liherty in this respect then as it is drenched into and truly led by the spirit The spirit of the Lord is free and so far as our spirit yea and as our flesh also is taken into the spirit of the Lord it partaketh of this freedom But the flesh which is in part thus advanced must know its place and distance It must know as well how to descend stand and walk in its present place relation and order as to ascend and maintain fellowship with the Lord. But this the flesh till it be throughly mortified cannot learn to do but will be continually seeking its own honour and ease and abusing all the light life and liberty of the spirit therefore the Lord hath great reason to keep the flesh very short even in his choicest ones 3. The flesh will also think it hath liberty to do what it pleaseth and so will make use of this liberty to glut it self with all manner of vanity and sensuality The flesh which naturally longeth to take its fill of the delights of the flesh doth as naturally incline to take all advantages and will not stick to bend aside the very light life and liberty of the spirit thereunto O what draughts of vanity will it now swill down when once it feels it self fenced from the fear of that danger which was its only curb Now will every fleshly spirit take its swindg according to its temper and inclination some in more gross and sensual some in more refined and spiritual pollutions Thus that wherein the breath life and spirit of the Gospel lieth An holy Temper an holy Rest and holy Motions the flesh getteth into and corrupteth and thereby eateth out all the excellency and vigor of life which was let out in the dispensation destroyeth that precious savour and leaven which it had from the life conceiveth with some new seed of spiritual filthiness and at last bringeth forth a more unclean filthy birth of the flesh then its womb was capable of before But by love serve one another Man would have liberty to reign He would have every thing serve him He maketh use of his Light his Life his Liberty to serve himself and to make every thing else serve him But the life in Christ and his seed which floweth from the Love of the Father and dwelleth in love delighteth to serve It will be serviceable to every thing but especially to that nature which is the same with it self This nature teacheth it not only self-love which every nature teacheth but also to love its neighbor here as it self Christ though he was a King and had a Kingdom yet he came not here to reign but to serve And all his seed who partake of the same life follow him who is their guide in the same steps As they have the same nature of love with him so the same nature guideth them to the same service of love The love that is in Christ and the love that is in the Saints maketh their humane spirit with all the life liberties and enjoyment of it which it either hath in it self or receiveth by the Gospel to serve both the life of their own spirits and the life in one another and that under all the weaknesses in which it is sown or can grow up It is more pleasant and natural to Christ and his seed to deny their Liberty and enter into bonds for the advantage of others then to enjoy it for their own satisfaction The Liberty of their natures the Liberty of their spirits they cannot lose and as for the Liberty of any outward practise it is not of so much value as to be maintained to anothers prejudice Liberty can exercise and enjoy it self as much in the forbearance as in the use nay it is direct bondage not to be able to wave it in such a case He is a slave he is in bonds he hath not a large and free spirit who can only reign but cannot serve who cannot deny himself with the same ease and content wherewith he observeth himself He is bound up in his Nature he is restrained in his Liberty He is free but in part he hath not arrived at the compleat temper of the life for the life can do both and hath a time and season for both XI Of the low Ebb which the Lord Christ was brought to by his Death and Sufferings PSAL. 22.6 But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people THis is the state and condition of Christ in the time of his Death This is his dying sence or his sence when he is dying of his own state and posture therein In the midst of his life while the Power of God rested in him and the Glory of God shone upon him he was a God and no man He was one with the Father one in substance one in life one in motion operation and enjoyment But now in the season of his Death in the time of his desertion and affliction while that life fails and gives up the ghost for want of the presence and influence of God and by the power and force of the enemy as he was before lifted up far above the state of man so now he falls far beneath it I am a worm and no man That excellency which is in man that excellency which may yet be found in man even in his broken state Christ is stripped of when his own life dies so that in truth he is not a man not so much as a man This is not an hyperbolical or passionate expression but the expression of a true sense from a true understanding Which will appear more cleerly if we consider these things which are most eminent in man as his Beauty his Majesty his Wisdom his Strength his Intercourse with God all which Christ was stripped of in the time of his Death in all which respects he was more like to a worm then a man 1. For the Beauty of man Man is evidently the most lovely the most comely piece of the whole Creation He is as it were the extract the quintescence of the Creation
but him in natural motions he hath to do with him chiefly He is the chief thing which God eyeth and God is the chief thing which he eyeth in every thing I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal. 16.8 Mark There is a mutual conjunction a natural union between God and Christ for this posture of each here floweth from it and pointeth at it they place themselves by one another they mind one another they stand by and to one another Christ seteth God before him and God placeth himself by Christ standeth at his right hand and this is their mutual content delight and safety They are well secure and perfectly at hearts-ease while they are together All misery from the begining to the end ariseth from their separation and distance and will soon vanish when the whole course of that is perfectly over Thus Christ is in his life But now in the death of Christ it is far otherwise Christ in his death falls not only beneath this Glory but also beneath the glory of man God when he breaketh Christ breaketh him more terribly then he hath yet broken man leaveth not so much excellency in him as he hath yet left in man but he beholdeth himself and who ever can look upon him shall find him more in the condition of a worm then a man There is no more beauty in him then in a worm no more majesty in him then in a worm no more wisdom or strength in him then in a worm He hath lost all his light and all his strength in the things of God He knoweth not how to beleeve hope pray or do any thing which requireth life and assistance from God and yet his nature cannot but do these things in a very vehement manner though not after the same rate of understanding and life which he possessed before nor with the aid of so powerful an influence But in what ever he is or does or what ever befals him God regards him not God takes no more notice of him then of a worm Christ who served God with the strength of his life all the days of his life what a stranger is God unto him in the time of his death Call he may again and again in his extremity for relief for support for somewhat to stay his fainting spirit but no news no return no regard from God no more then the worm has that crauls upon the ground My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night and there is no silence to me Psal. 22.1 2. I am a worm and no man A reproach of men That is somewhat more Man is pitied by man in his broken estate but Christ is reproached To have been high and then to fall low is a matter of reproach especially where a further ascent was spoken of and asserted Christ and the people of God talk of neerness to God and further advancement by God yea of perfection in God therefore when they are thus forsaken as they are really and perfectly forsaken in that fleshly dispensation wherein they are at first brought forth and for a season assisted and owned and their life broken and slain they become a grievous reproach Man cannot forbear upbraiding Christ when he beholdeth him dying When man feels his own life which Christ so disdained and still testified against I say when man feels this so far above the Life of Christ as it appears to be and indeed is when Christ is dying he cannot but reproach Christ. Christ is such a proper object of scorn to the spirit of man in the time of his death as cannot but draw forth scorn from him For man to see and feel himself alive and free from that death wherewith he was threatened and the death to fall upon Christ who threatened it even such a death as concludes his death for ever to mans eye and secures man from all that danger which might accrue to him from the Power of Christs Life and which man might stand in some feare of this cannot but stir in man the spirit of derision and cause him in his very heart to reproach Christ. A reproach of men And despised of the people Christ in his death is not only a reproach to man but to the very people of God also The fleshly people of God cannot but then despise this life As they cannot but in some degree honour it when they see the sweet and powerful shining forth of it Never man spake like this man He hath done all things well c. So they cannot but despise it when they see it declining Such is the temper of fleshly Israel and such the way of Christs appearing that the truth and glory of his life is more hidden from them then from the world and their despite of him in his death is greater O how they please themselves in their fleshly zeal and devotion when they find the spirit and life of Christ dying in and passing through his flesh All they that see me laugh me to scorn There is nothing feels greater contempt nor more universal then Christ in his death The eye of man universally contemneth him yea the whole heart of man laughs at him with the greatest derision and disdain that can be High low rich poor Jew Gentile and every sort and sect among each loath Christ in this state He is now become the abhoring of all flesh They jeer at him they trample upon him with the greatest laughter and scorn and without the least regret They spit in his face they buffet him they shoot out the lip they shake the head He is a worm and no man with them too He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him This is one expression of the great contumely in their spirits This is the man that trusted on God for deliverance This is that great and glorious life which came from God which so depended upon God which was so sure to be secured by God The wisdom of man should fall the strength of man should fall but he should be preserved and delivered by God He would not walk in the way of man nor he should not come to the end of man God loatheth man in the midst of all his wisdom righteousness and excellency but this is the beloved of God the delight of God Behold now what he is Behold now where he is Now let God arise and save his choyce one his beloved one He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him O foolish man Ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his Glory If Christ will reap the great Glory and riches of the increase of his life ought he not to reduce it into a seed and to sow that seed in a
is from the true knowledg of himself Man would fain be broken There is an apprehension upon him that the way to life is through death for this which he possesseth he may see he may feel and so may easily be convinced that it is not life and therefore he cannot but long and earnestly desire to pass through it that so he may come at life But this Baptism none can baptize himself with He alone can do it who baptized Christ. It is the Life alone which is capable of this breaking for the outward vessel belonging to the seed or in which the seed is sown hath its capacity in and from the Life and he alone can break it who formed it The Lord alone can build and the Lord alone can destroy this kind of fabrick This wise and accurate destruction requireth the same skill and vertue which issued out and built up the nature and Life of Christ and his seed The Prince of darkness can never attain so much as to administer any degree of this death further then he is inabled instructed and assisted thereunto from the root of all things whose wisdom skill and power goeth along perfectly in every thing though it be not comprehended in or apprehended by any thing Now as all death and brokenness hath affliction and misery in it so this beyond all And as man will aspire after this death so he will fancy that he hath this kind of misery upon him but yet in the midst of all his pangs he knoweth not what belongs to it There are three great scenes in the death of Christ in each of which there are many various strains steps and degrees all which man can imitate very accurately but cannot reach to the truth of any of them 1. There is the death of corruption The life and spirit of Christ cometh forth with power against the corruption of mans nature and with the sword of God slayeth it in so much as he in whom the life of Christ is truly sown and springeth up shall find himself dying unto his sinfull nature dayly This is one scene 2. There is the death of the excellency of mans nature Sin must dye and righteousness must live yea and then righteouseness must dye also When the life of Christ at first breaks forth in man O says he that this filthy nature might be destroyed and that I might be brought forth in holiness and righteousness but little doth he then think that all this holiness and righteousness must come to judgment and dye also The Spirit of the Lord can judge and find fault with the very nature and life of the Image of God not as it is now corrupted but as it was at first planted in the first Adam The same God which sindeth fault with the first Covenant can also find fault with the first creature as it was brought forth under that covenant and can so judge it unto death and destruction 3. There is the death of the Son even of all the excellency of his life and nature as it was brought forth in the flesh Eternal life in the life thus received dyeth Christ thus alive dyeth even to the nature of this his life and to the spirit from whom he received it The Spirit who gave him this life and who kept this life pure in him he slayeth it yea Christ himself offereth up this life without spot to God through the eternal Spirit These are the three parts or stages of death which God mentioned at the beginning upon mans fall namely The death of the Serpent the death of man and the death of the Son Now there are counterfeits of all these Many seem to be dead to their corruptions who are not and many seem to be dead to the excellency of nature when it is but by the skill life and excellency of nature that they attain this seeming death Many also seem to drink very deep into the death of the Son who never yet tasted of that life of his which is to dye This is the first thing whereof this condition consists viz. A throughly broken state in it self 2. To this there is added in the second place a through sense of it in themselves They are not only broken but they feel themselves broken They are not only stripped and left naked but they feel both their stripping and nakedness In other cases a man may be poor and miserable yea blind and naked and yet take himself to be rich and happy c. but it is not so here This kind of breaking is lively and of quick sense in the spirits of them that are broken This is such a death as he throughly feels who dyes Christ felt himself to be a worm and the seed of Christ feel their brutishness and want of understanding Adam was cast into a deep sleep while Eve was formed out of him but Christ is awake and by the quickness of his awakened spirit forms his Church and the vigor of that life in his Church suffers in its death 3. There is also a through sight and contempt of it by the world and of them because of it God carries on the death of Christ and his seed openly in the eye of the world As God kindleth and setteth up this lamp in the view of the world so he putteth it out also in their view The symptomes of this death the symptomes of this breaking are so visible and manifest that it cannot be hid That life that power that activity that stirring of God in their spirits words behavior whole course c. is put out and gone They as manifestly appear all this season in the world without it as formerly they did with it And the world now despiseth them That which gained esteem and glory from the world being gone they cannot but despise them and so much the more by how much they began to honour them There is such a lustre and glory in the life of Christ when at any time it discovers it self within mans center as man cannot but acknowledg and subject himself with all his life and excellency before but when man sees all this fallen and himself still standing where he was This which made such an appearance above him being fallen beneath him Christ being dead and he alive how can he now but despise this appearance of the life and lustre of Christ and so much the more because of its former glory The exceeding low fall of the highest glory is most contemptible Never man spake as Christ spake and never man did as Christ did even to the eye and in the sense of the world He hath done all things well c. What Power and Authority did he bear in the very spirits and consciences of his greatest adversaries How did he every where so take with the people that his malicious and unjust enemies durst never meddle with him But in his death in his broken state he lost all He was not only a worm and no man when he
was forsaken of his God in the truth of his estate and condition but he also felt it and he did not only feel it himself but his enemies saw it too yea it was palpable to the common eye of the people and to all that beheld him All that see me laugh me to scorn they shooâ— the lip they shake the head saying He trusted in God th the would deliver him c. Is this the man that had so much interest in God Is this the man in whom the Power of God did so appear and who could do such mighty things by the Power and Vertue of God Is his Doctrine and Miracles his great Union and Communion come to this They shake their heads as at a deceit as at a delusion as at a piece of vanity they mock they spit upon him they buffet him c. They crown him in derision They reproach yea they abhor in their spirits the very power of his life in the day of his death Use. Behold O Christians the death of the life of Christ behold the Baptism of Christ the miserable passage to the Crown If ye will become Christs ye must dye not only to the corruption and shame but also to all the glory and excellency of this world and yet not stop there neither The life of Christ will put out the life of all other things and when it hath done so there is a death for it too The Spirit of Christ in the seed must pass through its own blood into the holy of holies Alas Sirs If there were nothing to pass through but a death to this world what an easie matter were it comparatively to be a Christian What an easie matter were it to despise and trample upon this world by vertue of such an excellent life in the Spirit To have that spirit in the seed broken which delights or may delight in the world it is bitter indeed to man but alas that bitterness is nothing in compare with that bitterness which ariseth from the breaking of the new life in the new spirit Would ye know what this is Why measure it by this by the sweetness of this life Do ye know how sweet it is to taste the true nature of the Life of God! to enjoy and live upon the breath of his Spirit to walk in the light and love of the Lord If ye truly know these things the true sweetness of them then ye may be able to give a guess at what it is to have them broken But as there have been counterfeit Images all along of the Life of Christ so are there also of his Death O what pains do several sorts of men take to find out this Death yea and to meet with the anguish of it but all to no purpose for the Lord alone can light and the Lord alone can extinguish this Lamp I kill and I make alive This holdeth true every where but here most especially The Lord alone can bring forth the next strain of life and the Lord alone can bring into this narrow passage of death XIII The Course and End of Man DEUT. 31.29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands THis people who were the choyce of God among whom the seed of life was sown was a type of the spirit of man truly representing his nature and state more especially in these five particulars following 1. In his difficulty to be woond up to the mind and will of God in any dispensation There was a great deal of work with this people to bring them to any pass Continual Instructions continual Corrections a mighty current of Power and Providence did God both put forth and maintain to cause them to beleeve and obey both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and yet it proved a very difficult task to winde them up to either Thus it is with the spirit of man God is at a very great expence to bring him to any thing He is fain to let forth of his own Spirit of his own Light of his own Power and batter him out of all his fleshly holds before he can bring him to submit to him and walk with him in any of his dispensations 2. In his sudden backsliding This people did naturally fall from God They were hardly drawn up but did slide down of themselves What a work had God with them to make them beleeve and wait upon him what a many wonderful Works did he shew to draw them up to trust him to follow him to love him c. but alas how soon did they forget his Works and retire back into the fleshly principle and course of the Heathen and this both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and also in Canaan Thus it is also with the spirit of man Let God never so powerfully convince and engage him in the light and life of his spirit yet he naturally slinks back from it He corrupts himself in every dispensation of the Lord seting up his own lusts there serving them and forgetting the Lord his Maker and Redeemer He makes every path and truth either of the Law or Gospel serve his own carnal spirit in so much as though he walk in all the ways of the Lord as he accounts them yet he serves himself in all and not the Lord in any Mans flesh mans reason nay mans vanity and corruption gets into every way of the Lord polluting it self there and prophaning all the holy things of God It turns out of that which is indeed the way and walks in that which though it still calls it the way yet is not but only a way of its own for the very Ordinances and Institutions of God after the spirit of man hath entered into them and molded them to his own bent God will no longer own them but terms them his ways and inventions 3. In the season of mans corrupting himself which is after Moses his death after the death of the Witnesses after the departure or death of that life in him which seized upon him overcame him and as it were forced him into the ways of God When the light of God cometh down upon man and overbeareth his spirit he cannot but follow it but when that light is gone he returneth to himself again He turneth from the life from the purity of that into which he was led retaining only so much as will serve the ease quiet content and satisfaction of his own corrupt spirit There are gales of the Spirit of God which descend upon this earth the spirit of man Where these blow strongly man is hugely changed He hath as it were a new spirit in him whereby he is after a sort naturally led to follow the Lord. But when the Lord withdraweth this breath his
partly Instructions and partly Corrections He breatheth his Spirit into them and by the power and vertue of his rod beareth down and subjecteth their spirits He burneth up their dross aforehand that he may make them fit to be saved and that it may be righteous for him to save them in the day of the worlds destruction He striketh them down he layeth load upon them he humbleth them exceedingly until he hath fitly tempeâ—ed them to hear and then he teacheth them the Law of his Life And thus he reneweth both his knocks and his beams of light as their condition need and capacity requireth O happy happy thrice happy are they whom God leadeth though through a wilderness and the dismal exercises thereof into his land of rest All that severity of Discipline under which they are now nurtured and trained up is nothing to that misery which they shall then escape or to that life and blessedness which they are hereby prepared for I shall close thus They that trust in lying vanities vanity shall be their recompence Yea they that trust or hope in God or in Christ or in God through Christ after the strength of their own apprehensions fastened upon or gathered from the Scriptures and not according to the knowledg and power of the truth as it is in Iesus shall find even these objects vanity to them their faith and expectation upon them vanity also and their end misery when they sink into death and destruction with the world yea and that somewhat deeper then the world But they who in truth are taught and led by the truth to wait and hope under their bondage and misery for the truth how extravagant or rediculous soever they may appear to all the various eyes of the several sorts of Religious persons from the strange exercises of God upon them shall be owned by the truth The root nature yea and all the motions of the spirit of the creature even in all the dispensations of God is rejected for in the true state and nature of things it is not that which the Lord can accept It is dark in all its light dead in all its life a captive and a slave in all its liberty an hater and a rebel in the midst of all its love and obedience and therefore how can the Lord who searching the spirit cleerly knoweth and discerneth this in the spirit but throw it aside notwithstanding its glittering appearances of light and life from him of precious faith and hope in him and of sweet love and obedience towards him But the root nature and motions of the seed under all its disguises in the midst of all its darkness death bonds captivity and estrangedness from God is his delight is his heir it is the heir of his nature and spirit and therefore shall undoubtedly inherit the truth and glory of life in him He that hath ears to hear let him hear the spirit which testifieth the same thing now as it hath done all along the Scriptures O let him who desireth the truth of salvation harken to the voice of the spirit of God in the Scriptures and not give ear to such fictions as his own spirit doth most naturally form out of them XIV The happy End of the holy Nature and Course of the Seed of Life which the Spirit of Life through all the various dark paths of sin death and misery most faithfully guideth it unto or The sweet and happy End of the Righteous PSAL. 37. vers 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace THe perfect or upright man is he who is of an entire stamp or nature and who walketh entirely with God in every dispensation from the Law of this nature The very nature of man is imperfect He is a transgressor from the womb Let him never so honestly and ingenuously dedicate himself to God and to righteousness yet he cannot for his heart walk with him or live righteously But the other cannot but do so And however he may slip from the weakness of his present estate yet his nature still sets him right again Now there is no man more miserable in his present condition then this man The unrighteous the unholy spirit of man can thrive in the world or flourish in any form of Religion but this man not having the spirit of this world cannot seek or enjoy it nor deliver himself from the oppressions and sufferings which are multiplied upon him by it Nay he is persecuted also and grievously afflicted by the powers of darkness which will not spare him in this their hour Yea his God estrangeth and hideth himself from him he hideth his face from the house of Iacob chastisiing him sorely continually Because of that corruption which cleaveth unto him and which his feet are still gathering the holy God which loveth truth and purity is ever and anon casting him into the fire The Lord by his Spirit of Judgment and Burning doth most naturally search try and judg the spirits of his people until he hath purified and perfected them Alas how sad therefore must it needs be with them in the midst of all these The world may live and flourish but they are still withering and dying The world may enjoy the freedom of its natural spirit after a sort but theirs is in bonds The world may laugh and rejoyce because of the contents they find and can reap and enjoy in the things of the world and in their several forms and exercises of Religion but these cannot but weep and lament that they are left desolate and have no Comforter These are the sick ones these are the blind ones these are the lame ones these are the poor ones these are the naked ones these are the peâ—secuted ones these are the oppressed ones whose misery no eye can see no heart conceive no tongue express Any misery that man meeteth with the spirit of man may pity him in but this is a kind of misery which the spirit of man knoweth not and these are the persons whom he judgeth and whom his heart is hardened against But mark the end of this man Look upon all this distress all this misery all this lamentably hard travel in its end For the end of that man is peace There is no knowing of any thing as it now appears under its vail in this dark shadowy world but if you would understand any thing aright keep your eye fixed upon it and observe it to the end In the end flesh when it is stripped of all its seeming glory will appear what it is and in the end spirit when it is unclothed of all its deformed rags will appear what it is If you consider the perfect man without the discerning of his end he will appear the poorest most miserable most contemptible thing that can be but if your eye can truly follow him unto his end you will have another ghess sight of him there for the end of that man
is peace The end of a man is that to which he tends that toward which his nature and all his motions bend their course that unto which he grows that which all his exercises and varieties in all the several dispensations through which God leadeth him contribute to Every thing hath its end There is an end of every dispensation and an end after every dispensation There is an end of all troubles an end of all motions an end of all rest an end of all peace which is known in this world Now there are two great Ends according to the two great Natures which are sown in this world which are Death and Life Ioy and Sorrow Anguish and Ease Heaven and Hell Peace is that quietness of Nature wherein it is and enjoys it self and what it desires Trouble is the disturbance of Nature Peace is its settlement There is trouble and there is peace now to be seen in the world but they are but shadows but the trouble and the peace which is the substance of the thing is to be discovered in the end and then that peace which belongeth to the nature and life of the perfect man shall be dispenced to him All old things all old trouble all old peace shall pass away and this new trouble and peace succeed and take hold of things according to their nature estate and degree But what this Peace particularly is none can apprehend but he who knoweth the nature the spirit and the trouble of the perfect man yet if you desire an outward description of it take it thus It is the perfect serenity and calmness both of the liquor and of the vessel of Life in the Land of Rest Where whatsoever might annoy or disturb is removed and which aboundeth with whatsoever may ease or refresh There is a Peace which passeth all understanding to conceive not only the extent but the very nature of it which is the end of the perfect man or at which the perfect man shall arrive in his end Here his inmost spirit clothed with his natural soul which is also encompassâ—d with an outward bodily garment shall sit down in their proper seat of perfect rest When the holy house or habitation of God is opened into which no unclean thing shall enter but be disturbed by it and suffer from it according to the nature and degree of its evil then shall this holy Child of God be admitted and welcomed into its own place and portion of rest and peace there Take notice also by the way of one great advantage this perfect man hath in any present dispensation of God The world is now very dark and barren and if a little light should break forth it would mightily refresh it But alas man would be lifted up above himself and distempered by it at present and afterwards he would dye again and become more miserable But the perfect man would both enjoy it more truly more fully more substantially at present and also not be in such danger afterward Because it would not be his life but his life would rather be Lord over it and so his chief happiness not depending upon it his chief happiness would not pass away with it Miserable is that man who is only differenced from the rest of the world by a present dispensation but happy is he whose difference lieth in the root of his own nature which changeth not in the midst of the varieties of all conditions or dispensations A lamenting and pleading Postscript HOw deep and true a sense my spirit hath had of my Fathers brethren and kindred according to the flesh understand me aright both of their present sad estate and future misery and what grief and lamentation it hath occasioned in me it so nearly concerning them of whom I once was and whom I always have loved and cannot but love tenderly still the Lord only knoweth Many times in the bitterness of my Soul have I complained in spirit and said unto my God O Lord God Behold how sweetly and comfortably that stands in others which thou hast so forcibly broken down in me If it were of a true substantial enduring nature why was it broken down in me Was I not most naturally formed by thy hand into plainness into simplicity into a low beleeving broken self-denying frame of spirit and this nakedly hanging not upon any worth or excellency in it self but upon the free dispensation of Life from thee of thine own meer grace from which it came and by which it hoped to live O why did the severity of thy hand go forth so bitterly against it How couldst thou find in thy heart to wound trample upon and destroy such a poor worm and no man But if it was of a nature devoted to death and destruction why is it suffered to stand in others Hast thou snatched me as a brand out of the fire O who can either endure to be so snatched out or to undergo the scorching heat thereof when it is once let loose upon his spirit Or how shall I bear the miserable sight of so dreadful burnings as must be kindled upon that which is left behind When thou once kindlest thy fierce flames ah what shall become of the poor dry stubble It is easie now to find a shelter while thy wrath is at a distance but alas what shall cover poor naked Adam for the most religious man which is not truly renewed is no better when thou walkest toward him with the bright piercing flames of thy Light O how tender hath my spirit been of this seduced wandering generation and yet thou hast made me only a stumbling block and not an help unto them Thou hast enforced me among others to give out a testimony against them and several warnings unto them but in such a way and after such a maner as they could not possibly avoyd being offended It is true O Lord Their spirits have not been able to withstand or acquit themselves in thy sight of what hath been testified against them but yet the testimony hath not come forth so as they might be able to consider and receive it It hath been spoken in such strange dialects as they understood not and also accompanied with such strange appearances as might seem rather to become the spirit of Satan then of God Yea Lord Satan hath made such a noise There have been such multitudes of his loud voyces and languages that thy low still voyce might easily be drowned No doubt O Lord but thou wilt be able to justifie thy self in all these things but in the mean time what shall become of these poor Souls Shall they always wander and please themselves this little moment which is their only time with strange invented vanities such as foolish vain man may admire and magnifie but the Spirit of the Lord knoweth not nor cannot own Dear Friends Let me plead a little with you once more from the tender love and pity of my Soul toward you Do ye consider what