Abraham largely experienced by your Father and by him now recommended unto you Keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement that he may fulfil unto you all the rich and precious promises of the Gospel belonging to Abraham and his believing seed the seed of Promise that are found walking in his wayes Observ. 4. Fourthly and lastly observe That it is a duty incumbent on believing parents to mind their children and houshold of walking in the faith and keeping in the way of the Lord doing that which is just and right So also is it the duty of children to obey such charge and be found so living and walking in the spirit and way of the Lord as they expect the blessings of Gods Covenant with Abraham to be made good unto them But here this Query may be offered How did Abraham walk and 〈◊〉 The answer is In a Family-way 't was Family-worship There were in his time no formed Churches or Societies of a larger kind made up of divers families embodying themselves and walking in communion together That which he was capable to do he did He catechized and instructed his Relations spreading abroad amongst them the savour of the tithes of that Grace which through mercy he was partaker of This was the state of the true Church then as to its outward form If larger visible Societies and collective Bodies or Churches of Saints be now interrupted this Family-way of Religion and Worship may be kept up and so things return to their primitive way again as in the dayes of Abraham To this Ioshua professes he will have recourse when the purity of publick Worship fails Iosh. 24. 15. If saith he it seem evil to you to serve the Lord if you be for other goâ—â— or other wayes of worship than God requires I will quit your publick societies as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Use 1. My word of exhortation then to you is When publick worship is to be had in purity without defiling of your Consciences use and frequent that But if that bedenied or is not to be found frequent private and family worship yea however it be as to the publick let these be kept on foot with all diligence Be found still in the way of the Lord own that where ere you see it and joyn in it as the Lord shall please to open the way for you and give opportunity Whatever you do be not conformed to this world in the spirit way principles affections no nor religion thereof Quit those worshippers that are confident in a spirit and way that is liable to apostacy calling that heresie which is the only true way of worshipping the God of our Fathers Amidst the great variety of Churches and ways of Worship that this world abounds with be not by any means induced or forced to observe and become subject to the ordinances of man in things pertaining unto God Give unto God the things that are Gods Give also unto Caesar the things that are his If he unlawfully require more you may lawfully refuse to obey him let him take his course wherein any 〈◊〉 proudly God will be above them If one Church say Christâ— another Lo there and the trumpet that 's blown in both give but an uncertain sound look up to Christ himself with the Spouse in the Canticles and say O thou whom our souls do love tell us where thou feedest and makest thy flock to rest at noon under the scorching heat of mans persecuting wrath He will discover to you the false Babylonish spirit that lurks in such Churches and Teachers as to the deceiving of themselves and others are but transformed into the likeness of the Apostles and Churches of Christ 2 Cor. 11. And he will by his Spirit if rightly sought to and waited on infallibly direct you to the true shepherds tents those spiritual pastors and assemblies that walk in the footsteps of his ancient flock even in the faith spirit and way of Abraham Isaac Iacob and their families who are now in the kingdom of God and in the way doctrine and spirit of the Evangelists and Apostlcs And as I would have you to quit all false Churches and reject the Babylonish spirit whatever curious dress insinuating appearance or refined form she shines forth in so much more yet would I have you to loath and depart from all manner of prophaness and common debauchery whatever countenance or encouragement it may have round about you in the Land of your nativity Do but keep in the Way live and walk in the Faith and Spirit of Abraham and all is done This your Father hath found joy and comfort in upon very large and plentiful experiences but most remarkably in his Prison-state As troubles and straits from without have encreased upon me I have been more enlarged within The more I have been shut up on earth and from earthly Relations and enjoyments the more have the Heavens opened upon me and let down to me the larger sights and tasts of the glory and enjoyments of the world to come Vse 2. Lastly I charge you as the utmost desire of my soul to God on your behalf be obedient to the Lord walk humbly with him and keep close to him Let your heart be right with him Be stedfast in his Covenant not turning aside like a deceitful Boâ— Be not off and on with him yea and nay but in Christ yea only and then all the Promises of God in Christ to you will be Yea and Amen to the glory of God the Father Then if any of you lack Wisdom or particular direction in any difficult circumstances ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given you But then ask in Faith the stedfast Faith of Abraham nothing wavering for he that wavereth must not think or expect to receive any thing of the Lord Iames 1. 5. 7. Christ hath assured you that whatsoever you shall ask in his Name he will do it and the Father will do it Ioh. 14. 13 14. and chap. 15. 16. that is whatsoever ye shall ask in the power and exercise of a living saving Faith or of the heavenly Anointing and new Name of Christ in and upon you it shall be done unto you For whatsoever ye thus ask will be asked by you in the will of God that ye are begotten of Jam. 1. 18. or according to the will of your heavenly Father And this we know that whatsoever we ask according to his will he heareth us 1 John 5. 14 15. Yea though ye be but young and weak in this Faith and in the expression of it if as new-born babes ye do but truly desire the sincere milk of the Word and brokenly stammer and lisp forth such desires to God ye will find acceptance with and answer from him not only according to but abundantly above all that you are able to ask or think No Mother can have so tender a regard to the cry of
Israel Chap. 41. 8 9. Thou Israel my servant Iacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend unto whom I have said thou art my servant I have chosen thee and not cast thee away Here the holy seed or divine birth of God's Image that makes the true Israelite by faith is described to be of a nature and quality that is incorruptible securing him in whom it is whether Iacob the chosen servant or the seed of Abraham the chosen friend as well as chosen servant from ever being a castaway Hereby is intimated what it is to be the chosen faithful servant and no more and what it is over and above to be the chosen and intimate friend that is called and admitted to see God face to face a friend speaks with friend Thus of Aaron it is said Exod. 4. 15 16. That Moses should speak to him and put words in his mouth and saies God I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do And Aaron shall be thy spokesman unto the People he shall be to thee instead of a mouth and thou shalt be to him in stead of God Consider how interpretable this is of the son of man glorified the great Prophet of all in the person of the blessed Mediator set down on the right hand oâ— the Majesty on high who still reteins the form of a servant or perfection of his natural man in its incorruptible form with which as with a mouth typified by Aaron he comes forth as a head to the holy Angels and Iacob his chosen servant in a suitable way of converse and fruition to their capacity speaking therein to the body of the People whilst at the same time he is in his spiritual manhood exalted to an equality with the eternal WORD as the man God's fellow admitted to a communication with God face to face as fâ—iend speaks with friend In this glory he is more properly the very mouth of God typified by Moses in a capacity andâ— fitness for converse with the Bride the Lambs Wife as head to the general Assembly of the first-born who are a sort of saints of greater dignity and preheminence by whom the manifold Wisdom of God or secret Name his WORD shall be made known to principallities and powers Ephes. 3. 10. The lowest sort of all these heaven-born Saints that have but the single portion of the spirit have not onely by the external influence of Christs heavenly Nature such a change as the legal or first Covenant Saint has from the polluted to the cleansed and reformed state of the natural man which make but a member of the mystical earthly Ierusalem that may become the spiritual Sodom but by the very seed of Christ's heavenly nature sown in them they have an inward real partaking of the divine nature or that new principle of Life which baptizes the natural state into a conformity with and subjection thereunto advancing it thereby for ever into a sublimated incorruptible form It is in his Light onely with whom is the fountain of all Life and perfection that we can see Light Psal. 36.9 In the spiritual new-creature discerning onely of a divine communicated understanding and superinduced form can we see that objective light or unveiled glory of God that renders the true heir everlastingly blessed But even amongst the children of the heavenly kingdom the children of the Resurrection there are some of a first and others of a second Resurrection into a more exalted state of Life and glory Yet all the Vessels of glory great and small will be filled from the Ocean of those unutterable riches of divine Glory that are in Christ which no natural eye can see There will be no want or envying one another there Concerning ORDINANCES HAving already spoken joyntly concerning this Sufferers Principles and Doctrine I come now to mention his way of worshiping God and what his Judgement and Practice was as to Ordinances After that way which men call Heresie did he worship the God of his believing Fathers Abraham and the rest Acts 24. 14. He was for worshipping God in spirit and in Truth such the Father seeks to worship him Joh. 4. 23. He lived walked worshipped prayed spake in the spirit and so as the oracles of God 1 Pet. 4. 11. ministring as of the ability that God gave him that God in all things might be glorified This language and way of Worshipping God that is so despicable to man is that onely which hath the praise of God He kept the true mystical Sabbath not thinking his own thoughts c. Esay 58. 13. He was baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire He did in such sort eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ that he was thereby brought into a conformity with Christ in his death and had eternâ—l Life abiding in him Iohn 6. 54. This is satisfactory to God in this point that that answers his well pleasing What further shall be said shall not be in order to please but instruct convince and stop the mouâ—hes of gainsaying men Tit. 1. 9. He that worships God in the power of the single or double portion of the spirit of Christ does undeniably worship him in spirit and truth The power of godliness comes in with this new creation Spirit All Worship Righteousness Ordinances or whatever performed but in the renâ—wed reformed enlightned gifted adorned state of our first-creation spirit amounts but to the form of godliness that faith that may be shipwrack'd that interest in Christ and that good conscience that may be lost 1 Tim. 1. 19. They that have not the divine nature in the sence above expressed 2 Pet. 1. 4. are blind and cannot see afar off vers 9. they discern not the land of distances the new Ierusalem They may have great illumination excellent gifts and in the confidence of these they say they see what get they by that Therefore their sin remaineth Iohn 9. 41. that is is unpardonable there remaineth no more benefit of Christ's sacrifice to them There remaineth onely at last upon final refusal and resistance of the new-creature life spirit and way of worship nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery inignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10. 27. and Chap. 6. 4 8. Their light their seeing takes away all cloak for their sin Iohn 15. 22 and 24. The warning which the true spiritual watchman gives them if neglected and despised by them does dangerously set forward this work through their miscarriage under it and becomes a savour of death to them Act. 13. 40. 41. but even so a sweet savour to God as prospering in the thing whereto he sends it and accomplishing his pleasure 2 Cor. 2. 16. Esay 55. 11. These keen concisionists that cannot afford a good word for the true circumcision that worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh or in the knowledge of Christ after the flesh they
are hot about the outward circumstances of worship time place and the like Christ reproves them in his answer to the woman of Samaria at Iacobs Well Neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem shall ye worship the Father but in spirit and truth Joh. 4. 23. Neither in this Form nor that but excluded out of all Synagogues has the true Church and Spouse of Christ been worshipping God this twelve hundred Years and upwards in her mourning persecuted wilderness-condition out of which she is shortly to appear and speak for her self By this Sufferers reckoning the time times and half a time or three years and a half are very near expired those forty two moneths and one thousand two hundred and sixty days prophetical for years all which do character and point out the same Epocha in Daniel and the Revelation for the Churches abode in the Wilderness from the time of her flight mentioned Rev. 12. 6. She will very shortly be called up out of the wilderness by the name of Shulamite which comes from the same word that Solomon and Salem do signifying Peace This true peaceable Pilgrim and Spouse of Christ that in her Life and Testimony hath been so disgustful to this world out of which she is chosen as to be reputed by all the Inhabitants of the earth a wrangling Heretick a Blasphemer and one that turns the World upside down will shortly come up out af her political grave or exclusion from all authority or allowance in Church and State into the exercise of true Christian Polity in both in association with the holy Angels who with the risen Witnesses will make up the two hosts before whom no opposite power of contradicting man wil be able to bear up See for this Cant. 6. 13. Return return O Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee What will ye see in the Shulamite as it were the company or dance of two Armies Mahanaim relating to Iacobs two hosts of Angels and Men when he was to meet Esau Gen. 32. 1 2. and importing the victory these two obtain over all their enemies as also their dance or triumphant rejoycing after the victory And all this yet amounts but to the preparatory work for the second coming of Christ by plucking up every thing that offends so as at last there may be nothing to hurt in all the holy mountain Mat. 13. 41. Esay 11. 9. But how shall the risen Witnesses handle their enemies when spirited and set upon their feet as a Nation born at once and in one day Esay 66. 8. Rev. 11. 11. 'T is answered fire shall proceed out of their mouth to devour any that would hurt them and in this manner must they be killed that is at the desire of the believing risen witnesses angels that are a flaming fire Psal. 104. 4. will destroy any men that oppose them Fire goes out of the saints mouth that is by prayer to God on which the angels are commissioned to do execution immediately and irresistibly without more ado Thus fire went out of Elias his mouth to devour the two Captains and their fifties Angels were the executioners 2 King 1. 9 12. Those acts of Elias were but Types and shadows of what will be done in the end of the world at the winding up of all dispensations towards the highest even the personal coming forth of Christ with all his New-Ierusalem Armies following him Rev. 19. 14. As to what will be performed by the risen Witnesses relation is had to Elias and to Moses Rev. 11. 6. Where 't is said They shall have power as Elias had to shut heaven that it rain not and to smite the earth with Plagues as often as they will as Moses did in Egypt It may appear what work one Angel can make with whole Armies of men a hundred fourescore and five thousand Assyrians were slain by an angel in one night in the Leagure before Ierusalem 2 King 19. 35. But to return from this Contemplaâ—ion of the true New-Ierusalem spirited Church and Spouse of Christ and what she will do when she comes out of the Wilderness consider we a little the general posture of all visible Churches even at this day as this Sufferer hath left it represented to us in writing There are many Churches in the World that make a profession of the Name of Christ under several Forms and Denominations according to the variety of Judgements and Interests of the Rulers Members thereof There is a Church called Catholick or Universal headed by the Pope who pretends to be Christs Vicar There are also National Churches heâ—ded either by a Civil Magistrate as the Church of England or by general Assemblies as the Church of Scotland hath been with other Reformed Churches There are also particular Independant Congregational Churches distinguishing themselves into variety of Sects and diversity of Judgements and Opinions as well about the way and order of the word of matters of worship and the service of God as in what they hold Fundamental in matters of Faith These all make up one Body as to the owning and upholding a Church in some outward visible Form who notwithstanding all their differences and protestings against one another do generally agree together in one mind as to the preferring of the Church in Name Shew and outward Order before what it is in Spirit and Truth as it is the real and living Body of Christ. Hence it is that the true Church indeed the very living real spiritual members of Christ's Body have been for many hundred years a dispersed captivated people under all worldly powers civil or Ecclesiastical and never been suffered to use or enjoy a freedom in their Communion together and the purity of God's Service and Worship but are upon one pretence or other restrained by Humane Lawes and suppressed as Hereticks Schismaticks Fanaticks and such as turn the World upside down while those that have the repute and credit to be the Church or Churches of Christ under some one of the Formes and outward Orders bâ—fore mentioned have the Powers of the World on their side and are contending one with another who shall be uppermost and give the Rule of Conformity in Doctrine Worship and Church Order to all the rest by Compulsion and Persecution But the dayes are now hâ—stening apace wherein the living Members of Christ's Body shall be made manifest in distinction from all those that have the Name to live but are dead Thus in brief you see his Judgement concerning the Church Concerning BAPTISM he writes thus THere are several Baptismes spoken of in the New Testament and the Doctrine concerning them hath been so dark and mysterious that there is little yet extant in the Writings of men concerning the same that carries with it satisfaction There are two general tearms under which all Baptismes mentioned in the New Testament seem to be comprehended that is to say Of Water and of the holy Ghost and Fire Water Baptism is twofold and
Deut. 32. 19 21. and Christ after him Mat. 9. 12 13. Cleansedness from the pollutions of the World corruption of Nature revival from their death in trespasses and sins hinders not but Satan may re-enter old sins recover dominion and so the members of that building on the sand that kingdom or heaven that may be shaken Heb. 12. 26 27. may come to be trees twice dead fit only to be plucked up by the roots cast into the fire and burned Iude 12. and Heb. 6. 8. 2 Pet. 2. 20 22. Mat. 7. 22 27. and Chap. 12. 43 45. Ezek. 16. 38. And as it is not the present freedom from natural pollution so neither is it the ornament of excellent gifts supernatural or infused humane learning much less natural parts and acquired humane learning the tongue of men and angels all dexterity of expressing â—heir conceptions either intuitively or by a sound of words incident to those two choicest ranks of treasures in their first-creation-capacity that can secure them from being but as sounding brass or tinckling cymbals 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 1. Ezek. 16. 1 15. A great noise they may make a great repute they may have as the onely compleat interpreters of the Oracles of God yet all amounts but to an indistinct uncertain sound No man can tell thereby how to prepare himself to the battel 1 Cor. 14.7 8. and Ezek. 33. what weapons or what armour to provide They give no right character of those spiritual weapons mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds in our selves and others 2. Cor. 10.4 or of that whole armour of God Ephes. 6. 11. wherein alone the true believer is able to wrestle it out not onely against flesh and blood but against Principalities Powers Rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places vers 12. The onely new-creature spirit in man that is greater than he that is in the world 1 Iohn 4. 4. is set at naught by those that warrant the first building secure is contradicted blasphemed called the devil The wisdom of God is by them tearmed the wisdom of the Serpent Did not matters go thus between Christ and the Master-builders in Religion amongst the Iews They reject the chief corner stone Psal. 118. 22. Mat. 21. 42. and how is their house like to stand it may indeed be emptied of filth swept cleansed garnished with excellent gifts and ornaments Mat. 12. 44. 2 Pet. 2. 20. 1 Cor. 12. 31. Ezek. 16. 9 13. Yet in all this flourish there may be a deep unsuspected ignorance or inadvertency of the more excellent way the way of love or state of divine Life wherein the stones of their building members of their Churches are capable to be brought forth by being broken and formed up anew into an unchangable harmony and indissoluble union of spirit with the Lord 1. Cor. 6. 17. If this be gain-said the onely spirit and spiritual harness that accommodates men for a successful contest with the devil and all the powers of darkness is wholly laid aside How then shall we fight the battels of the Lord when that very faith is decried as a diabolical fiction that is the onely principle of Life in men whereby to undertake resist conquer triumph over the devil and swallow up death it self into victory Let us no longer be flattered by our crafty over-reaching adversary into a security and satisfaction in such armour and weapons as he knowes he can strip us of at pleasure and re-enter The renewed spirit of man however accomplished and adorned with spiritual gifts the wisdom the righteousness of man are not the spirit the weapons the armour of God nor can secure any man from the most fatal and irrecoverable apostacy Many stars of the first magnitude as to all this glory and ornament have often been known to fall from this kind of Heaven or Kingdom of man's righteousness Besides all the sad instances in former ages for this have not the late years of Englands deliverance brought upon this stage of ours and exhibited to our view multitudes of teachers and professors who have notably shined forth in this glory wisdom and righteousness through the knowledge of Christ after the flesh accompanied with excellent gifts and yet through a spirit of enmity and contradiction a root of bitterness springing up in them Heb. 12. 15. against the more excellent way the Life of Faith the Cross of Christ the true Circumcision which worship God in the spirit Phil. 3. 3. have most evidently apostatized from and lost even that they had yea and have been the meanes of betraying the whole Nation afresh and rolling all back again into more insufferable bondage than ever We may say and hear this with weeping And moreover do we not yet daily experience an instability in such principles ornaments weapons armour Are not multitudes of professors at this pass still yea and nay off and on with God and so with sin and satan to And will it alwayes be so well Will these wavering Principles this unstable kind of life and righteousness if not quitted for a better be ever able to secure us from a final parting with God and entire closing with the devil as one spirit with him The unstable nature of man's first-creation at best must either ascend into a fixed union with Christ in spirit and so contract an everlasting disability to any thing which is evil 2 Cor. 13. 8. or else it will descend into a fixed union with the devil and thereby contract an everlasting inability to any thing that is good The first created freedom of man's will to good and evil the liberty of the sons of men however renewed again by Christ will be finally swallowed up either into a diabolical freedom to evil onely and not at all to good or into a divine freedom to good onely and not at all to evil which is the glorious liberty of the sons of God wherewith Christ makes those that receive him free indeed John 1. 12. and Chap 8. 36. Let us then put off the armour of man even of the renewed old man as David did Sauls and put on the whole armour of God the new man which after God is created in wisdom righteousness and true or everlasting holiness Ephes. 4. 24. Then the spiritual Goliah will certainly fall before us 'T is the divine new-creature-Life onely with spiritual weapons can over set all his power of darkness and detect all the crafty stratagems and methods of delusion to the last period of his mystery of iniquity Professors in the first-building flourishing in the wisdom glory and righteousness of the Law or of the ruling activity of renewed humane Nature and rectified rational Powers though received from Christ himself as no mean fruit or benefit of his death if they oppose contradict and blaspheme the true fighting conquering and reigning principle of divine Nature in the second they do thereby become worse than those foolish and contemptible
up of Life It will make them of the same mind that was in Christ willing so to suffer in the flesh under the power of his spirit as to cease from sin or from that state that can return back into sin again 1 Pet. 4. 1. This incorruptible form atteinable onely by the fire-baptism performed upon the natural man at his best by the single portion of the spirit of Christ is called spiritual and denominates the whole person a spiritual man though yet in the mortal body in distinction from those who have but only the renewal of their first-creation form by the influence and gifts of the same spirit All that these receive is but the goodliness of flesh renewed adorned nature which is decried and blown upon by a second vice a superior dispensation and ministry of the same spirit as a perishing vanity after the first voice has done its work made a straight path for God in the desert by rectifying the rational powers in bewildred man Esay 40. 3 8. Our corruptible tabernacle is to be taken down This mantle this filthy garment this vile body flesh and blood at its best is to be chaned into the likeness of Christs glorious body his heavenly man by the mighty power and transforming operation of that spirit whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 21. We must put off the old man at best and put on the new which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes. 4. 22 24. Col. 3. 9 10. That Image of God received by the first-creation and all the wisdom glory and righteousness thereof is but shadow to what is to be received by the new creation 'T is but self-glory self-wisdom self-righteousness and when these are opposed to the wisdom righteousness and glory of God in the new creation they are Idols shadows preferred to substance the Law or ruling Principles of our first creation Life to grace and truth in the second Some few Results or Corollaries of what hath been said in this matter take as followeth 1. The Spirit of God the holy Ghost the divine Nature which the Scriptures do evidently assert and declare to be communicable to men exceeds not in its reach and significancy the natural and spiritual creature capacity in the person of the Mediator whereby individual angels and men are brought into an everlasting union with him in one or both as he is one with the Father Iohn 17. 22. 2. Where-ever the Seed of eternal Life is sowne by Christ's causing himself to be received in the single or double portion of his Spirit it will mar the visage or wisdom of man it will take him off from his way of working righteousness and worshipping God in the oldness of the letter of the first creation and enable him to perform all in a more excellent and acceptable way in the newness of the spirit of the second Paul in his own person gives us notice of this distinction which he stood in from those youthful flourishing professors that were reigning as Kings at the righteousness of the Law performable in their own spirit 1 Cor. 4. 8. 10. With such he said he durst not compare himself 2 Cor. 10. 12. who pleasing themselves and applauding one another in a way of mutual self-deceivings and commendations are not those whom the Lord commendeth as he rather desired to be vers 18. They have but the inward heart-circumcision in the letter of the first not in the spirit of the second creation whose praise is not of men as is implied Rom. 2. 29. 'T is worth observation that even in the ancient Hieroglyphical divinity of Egypt no service or worship of God was accounted acceptable and well-pleasing but what was performed by some divine power of God himself in them 3. There are two distinct sorts of everlastingly saved men such as receive the single and such as receive the double portion of the spirit Both pass under the fire-baptisme The former are exalted into association with the elect angels and have for the immediate and adaequate object of their fruition and converse God as shining forth to them in the incorruptible form of Christs natural Manhood The latter and more exalted sort of Saints are taken into association with the spiritual manhood in Christs person and have for the immediate and adaequate object of their fruition and converse God as shining forth to them in that highest and most exalted creature form in Christ's person And by and through these who do properly constitute the general assembly and Church of the first-born the spirits of just men and the holy angels even those principalities and powers in heavenly places do as at second hand receive that manifold wisdom of God that shines forth more immediately upon the Church Ephes. 3. 10. 4. The highest sort of these Saints are not Christ or God much less the lower Christ is the head root and parent to both these sorts of glorified men in his twofold creature capacity or manhood natural or spiritual And Christ as he is the purely divine form or image of the invisible God is head to both these creature-headships in his own person and God is the head of Christ considered as in his purely divine form 1 Cor 11. 3. 5. Christ in his creature-capacity is the maker redeemer and heir of all things in both worlds as all things were created by him so for him Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2. and Rom. 11. 36. Of him through him and to him are all things 6. Men that in their first creation were made little lower than the Angels Psal. 8. 5. are in the second or new creation made equal to the elect angels and all those of the double portion are advanced quite over the heads of all the angels into an immediate association with Christ in his most exalted creature-capacity on the Throne of his glory even in that more excellent creature name than the angels have Heb. 1. 4. Behold then the heavenly order in the whole family of God First God himself the head of Christ and that as Christ is the Image of the invisible God very God Secondly Christ himself as thus considered in his capacity purely divine head to his twofold creature-headship the natural and spiritual man in his own person Thirdly Christ in his twofold creatureship as the immediate head to all spiritual and natural men and angels in his heavenly family his members his body mystical Fourthly Behold these also in their two grand distinctions of superiority and subordination spiritual and natural Fifthly There may seem also to be intimated in the Scriptures a gradual difference of capacity in the individuals of either of these two ranks of everlastingly glorified men Dan. 12. 3. and 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars and one Star differeth from another Star in glory Variety of intellectual light or discerning is resembled in Scripture
into an absolute compliance and unchangable harmony with his will Rom. 12.1,2 Crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts Put off the old man These and many other Scriptures of like import do all together and each of them apart compendiously imply the whole duty of man even all that God requires of him which is to humble himself under the cross of Christ and walk for ever with the Lord. So Psal. 50. 23. whoso offereth praise glorifieth me So the Septuagint render it in Greek In the Hebrew 'tis whoso sacrificeth confession which the Caldee renders whoso slayeth his evil or fleshly concupiscence that is the fleshly or natural mind The renewed mind of man is out a labile wavering corruptible thing This is not onely to be confessed but the confession or thing it self that is confessed thus to be is to be sacrificed and offered up to God by a living active faith If not it will resist the spirit of God refuse his new-creation work seek to save its own life keep it self whole and unbroken and fo will evidence it self in conclusion to be that carnal mind that 's enmity to God and works eternal death to man Rom. 8. 6. To come roundly and freely off with the sacrifice of self in the full Scripture latitude thereof by a thorow self-resignation is the great duty of man and the onely true and acceptable offering of praise to God Truly and substantially to praise God amounts to no less than this offering Le ts not please and delude our selves with a noise a found of words shadowes for things substance truth 28. Know then O vain man that without works thy faith is dead Jam. 2. 20. What works the works of an active saving faith the fruits that flow from the proper spring and principle of new-creature Life in man One great work of this faith is to lay hold on the unchangeable and everlasting righteousness of God in Christ's person Another great work of it is to crucify the fleshly mind or principles of humane nature however renewed so as for ever to disable them either for working sin or righteousnesse in the single first-creation activity or Life thereof A third work of it is to enable man to worship God in spirit and truth and to perform all righteous works towards God and men in a more excellent and acceptable way and with more steadiness and certainty than ever the renewed natural mind with all its ornament and furniture could perform such things Without such a faith and the workings of it it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Thus by being disabled to perform one tittle of the Law in the single activity of our corruptible though renewed mind we come so to fulfil the whole Law in the continuing and incorruptible principle of new-creature life that against us there is no Law that has any thing to say Gal. 5. 23. Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we come by this means onely to establish and fullfil the Law Rom. 3. 31. Mat. 5. 17. They that believe in God must be careful to maintain such good works to wit the works of faith Tit. 3. 8. This is the letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. We shew hereby that God's spirit which is set up in man by the new creation is better at working righteousnesse than mans spirit that was set up in him by the first-creation Any works we do as born of God in the new-creation are better on all accounts than what we can do as made of God in the first whatever work is good in the honest Heathen or legal Christian shall be owned and out-done by the spiritual believer in his more excellent principles and way The highest Principles of Life in man include ratifie and out-do all that righteousness that is performable in the lower In such Principles was this Sufferer a worker of righteousness such a worshipper of God as the Father seeks and approves of such a true Son of peace such a peacemaker as hath bin described but reckoned a man of contention for that very reason He was content with Paul to be a fool for Christ despised for Christ the poor and needy man with David As a true Embassador of Christ and minister of the everlasting Gospel he warned and besought the sons of men to consider their own true interest in becoming not onely almost but altogether such as he was except his bonds His Life was not like other mens nor his Ministry His wayes were of another fashion as they reason Wisd. 2. 15. therefore have I writ his Life after another fashion that mens Lives use to be written treating mostly of the principles and course of his hidden Life amongst the sons of God that the sons of men may the better know and consider what manner of man it was they have betrayed persecuted and slain For this read on from vers 15 to 23 of Wisd. 2. which I quote not as Scripture but as a notable character of mens rational conviction and acknowledgements together with their false reasonings and most perverse deductions therefrom in the present case We are esteemed of him as counterfeits or hypocrites he absteineth from our wayes as filthyness He maketh his bâ—ast that God is his Father Let us see if his words be true If he be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him from his enemies Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture that we may know his weekness and prove his patience Let us condemn him with a shameful death for by his own saying he shall be respected Such things they did imagine and were deceived for their own wickedness hath blinded them As for the mysteries of God they knew them not nor discerned the reward of blameless soules Thus not owning any need of an Apology for having been so large in the exposition of his divine Life Principles and Doctrine save onely this that I have spoken these things rather as an instruction to the living than an Apology for the dead I return to the more publick and overt acts of his humane pilgrimage and conversation amongst men having mentioned the private passages thereof in the beginning Would you know his Title in reference to his countrey He was A Common-Wealths-Man That 's a dangerous Name to the Peace and Interest of Tyranny I have lately met with two new State Paradoxes in Print which speak ruine to all that own that Title 1. That the Common-Wealth is not safe while Common-Wealths-Men are alive 2. That the Lawes are not safe while they are alive that every day call for the aid of the Law These Assertions carry with them such an appearance of contradiction to say no more that I am not so much an OEdipus as to unriddle them The Character of this deceased Statesman with whose Principles those two sayings carry little
you a Question Do you imagine that you have banished Antichrist out of your coasts your Churches by excluding the Romish beast the heathenish part of the Antichristian Church Iewel Reynolds and Whitaker against Hâ—râ—iâ—g Hart and Bellarmine as also other famous and learned Wâ—â—â—â—â— of the Protestant interest White Mede and many more have from the Quiver of common reason and humane Writers drawn out and shot such arrows at that Beast that her wounds are incurable by any other Engine save the Sword and Belluine force What will you say if the very Protestant Churches in what ever variety of Judgement as to this or that particular so far forth as they have mistaken the One thing necessary the great fundamental Point or different foundation of the two Houses Christ mentions one on the sand the other on the rock Mat. 7. and have rested and gloried wholly in the lesser glory of renewed adorned man that 's to be done away should at length prove the Mystical Babylon however confidently they have passed for the true heavenly Spouse and People of Christ Under this conceit of your being the true everlasting Spouse of Christ how confident have you been that the Kings of the earth should joyn interest with you and espouse your quarrel in order to pull down and tâ—ar in pieces the beastly Idolatrous Antichrist of Rome What a cross blow would it be to your expectations in this kind what a sad and amazing disappointment if it should fall the other way If the Kings of the earth in the most bruitish degenerate state of wordly Monarchy should strike in with Rome against you and accomplish that prophesie upon you as the genuine intendment thereof Revel 17. 16. Shall I ask you another Question with some tendency towards a disquisition into this Riddle Do or can you imagine the Popish party and Religion in the posture it has stood these many hundred years can in her Spirit Doctrine and Principles be that glittering Strumpet which for inward Ornament holiness and exceeding likeness to the true heavenly Spouse of Christ did so dazle Iohns eyes in Patmos amidst all his ravishing Visions of God as that he wondred with great admiration to hear her tearmed by the Angel MYSTERY BABYLON the GREAT the MOTHER OF HARLOTS and ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH Rev. 17. 5 6. MEDE and many others have evidently and undeniable demonstrated that Popery is the very sink of all the old Gentile Theologie of Daemon Gods in their worshipping and praying to Angels and the souls of deceased men Some great Authors or Patrons and advancers of their most ridiculous Idolatries they have formally canonized for Saints and do pray to their departed Souls as Heroe's a rank of Demi-Gods inferiour to Angels If any were more notoriously vile in their idolatries more eminently serviceable in the propagating advancing thereof so more useful to Demetrius his subordinate Shrine-makers and Image-mongers Act. 19. they have been advanced in their Apotheoses after the manner of old heathenish Rome into the very order of Daemons or Angels and so their prayers to them as well as to fallen Angels come properly under the title of Daemonolatry or worshipping of Devils Yea the most superstitious abominations and gross bodily whoredoms that ever were found scatteredly up and down in any the most bruitish heathen States since the world began are pack'd up all together in the Papacy They may set up a Pantheon a Temple for the Catholick or universal Worship of all the old heathen Gods in all Nations as old Rome did Here 's their Catholick Religion They fall down to Stocks and worship Stones graven and molten Images the works of their own hands They are sadly derided for it with the rest of their old brother-heathens by God himself at large Esay 44. They take a piece of wood with part whereof they rost their meat and warm their hands and the residue they make a God Horace a heathen Poet scoffs at the same folly bringing in an Image that applauds it self for its good hap that when it was a rude mishapen piece of wood the Carpenter was thinking to put it to some inferiour use but all upon a suddain it came into his head to make it a God Yea the very Turks abhor the Popish Imagery and image-Image-worship as more against the Common light of Reason than any thing they have in their Mahumetane Moseh's or Parish Meeting-places If Iohn then should have wondred to hear that such a heathenish Church as the Romane now is and has long bin when represented to him in the Spirit Principles and gross Idolatries thereof should be called the Whore of Babylon might not all the world wonder at Iohn for his paines He might indeed in such a case have wondred the other way that that should at all be called Mystical Babylon as having so much creditable resemblance of the true Spouse of Christ as to pass for it There is no such thing as gross whoredom of body or soul in Religion or Conversation in the whole World if it be not in the apostate Romane Church in a transcendent manner 'T is certainly then some clearer finer-spirited Church which Iohn wondred should be called The Mother of Abominations some such Church as he was ready to think if Christ hath any such thing as a chaste Spouse upon earth that will keep close to him and never apostatize this is she Thus Samuel said of Eliab Iesse's eldest son Surely the Lords anointed is before him 1 Sam. 16. 6. 'T is answered there The Lord seeth not as man seeth vers 7. That that man admires and praises God regardes not and that which man regards not is of highest esteem with God Paul was no body with those that were wise and honourable in Christ as to the glory of man by him renewed in or put upon them but mean while was he whom the Lord commended 1 Cor. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 10. 12. 18. But to help open your eyes you see Popery is such a mass of gross Idolatries and commonly discernable Abominations that the very present Magistracy whom you are apt it may be to have some hard thoughts of would seem so resolute against it as to make it criminous for any to blemish their repute with such slanderous imputations as if they had the least intendment that way If you chance to object How comes it to pass then that all the more refined sorts of Christian Meetings are disturbed killed imprisoned hurried up and down from post to pillar grossly abused and injured before their Iudgement seats and the Mass onely quiet and what is next it the dry impertinent publick Assemblies under Episcopacy If you say further what mean they to force those Oathes upon us that were originally intended for the keeping of Papists quiet Why may we not expect England should shortly be made a Shambles when some moderate Papists themselves bolt out something that 's hatching which they reckon too black for them to