formes through counterfeit resemblances unto TRUTH to beguile and mislead unstable souls and is daily detected and discovered under all professions or visible formes of Saintship whether more or lesse refined whether earthly and sensual or heavenly and Angelical Hereof there are in these dayes of ours but too many living instances who as Lots wife are turned into Monuments of Gods righteous judgment declared upon them for the admonition of others And that we may not leave this subject without endeavouring to contribute some assistance towards the resolving of that great Question how the true Spirit may with certainty and infallibility be known and distinguished from the false I shall briefly recommend to consideration as conducible to the discovery hereof these following particulars The Spirit of TRUTH is evidently and infallibly distinguished from the spirit of lies and falshood three several wayes by which we may make a trial and judgement of the spirits whether they be of God or no. First by the evidence and witnesse which is given of it by the three that bear witnesse in heaven where the Spirit of TRUTH shines forth in its supreme original light and self-evidence as we have at large shewed in the first and second Chapters Secondly by the Record and witnesse that the Sonne or Christ the true Spirit gives of himself in his flesh or humane nature causing the truth to shine forth in the face of Jesus opening what he is and what he did by coming in the flesh suffering and rising againe according to the Scriptures which 1 John 5. 6. is rendred thus This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that heareth witnesse because the Spirit is truth even the witnesse shining forth in his Spirit and person who whether considered as being and subsisting in the WORD OF LIFE before his being made flesh or considered as after his coming in the flesh living dying and rising againe hath a witnesse born of him in heaven by the FATHER WORD and SPIRIT which Three are one and also in earth by the SPIRIT WATER BLOOD declaring themselves in and upon him as he was found in the fashion and habit of a man which agree in one Thus in the same person we have the greater witnesse which is the witnesse of God or of Christ as he is God and the lesser witnesse which is the witnesse of man or of Christ as he is the Son of man and in both these considered also as testified unto by the Scriptures we have the compleat witnesse which God hath testified of his Son By reason hereof 't is said 1 Joh. 2. 12. Who is a liar but he that denies Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father Whosoever sees not nor acknowledges the TRUTH as witnessed and shining forth in the face of Jesus the Son of man with those that are rightly admitted to serve in the first Sanctuary among the many that are called can much lesse behold it as witnessed and held forth in the brightnesse of Gods face or of the blessed Trinity with those who are culled out of the former and rightly admitted into the holiest of all among the few that are chosen By both these witnesses and records in harmony with the outward Word we do come to know him that is true as the right and whole object whereon through faith we are to fix our eye in the proper forme character and distinction which he gives of himself from all idols or counterfeit appearances of him whatsoever The third or last witnesse which is given us of the true Spirit is that which immediately and necessarily flows from his indwelling presence in our hearts growing up there more and more unto a perfect day by working out in the conscience and spirit of the beleever a confōrmity unto Christ in his death and resurrection causing a dying to sinne and a living unto righteousnesse in the full extent of both as we have opened For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Examine therefore your selves whether ye be in the Faith know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobate And If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead awell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwellesh in you and so the Spirit it-selfe comes evidently and infallibly to witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God as having this Spirit of Adoption poured into our hearts for if we be adopted children then we know we are heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And though we are now Sonnes so as it doth not yet appeare what we shall be when we come to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus at the full manifestation of the sonnes of God yet now we know that we shall then be like him and that we shall then see him as he is yea by faith we now see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and by this knowledge we have of him in the mean time we come to see and experience him that is true and that we are in him that is true even the true God and eternal life having the witnesse in our selves through that holy anointing which is TRUTH and no lie teaching us of all things and abiding in us as a seed to preserve us from the evil and snare of all false and seducing spirits Abide therefore in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you CHAP. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him HAving already in general laid open the methods of Satan the weapons of his warfare together with the diligent and skilful prosecution of his designes upon mankind to seduce them work them off and forever deteine them from their duty and faithfulnesse unto Christ their true Husband and Lord we shall come now in a more particular manner to shew how closse an attendant he is upon the foregoing works of Christ in the hearts and consciences of men considered under the former dispensations walking about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure watching what he can find in such hearts that in the BEGINNING are Gods and Christs owne workmanship as hath beene shewed and trying whom he may corrupt from their first
that sacrifice Jer. 32. 35. which was expresly prohibited Lev. 18. 21. and they threatned with death that should be found practisers hereof Chap. 20. 2 3. yea if men be found conniving in such case as loth to discover the offender God farther declares that he himself wil come forth in his wrathful appearance or face to do execution as it is written v. 4 5. If the people of the Land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not or cause not execution to be done upon him then will I set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off and all those that go thus a whoring after Molech This just judgement and severity of God in his proceeding against this sin as practised in that lowest and most literal sense under the Law will be found in the issue not to be lessened or mitigated but rather much heightned and raised to appear in a more flaming execution of vengeance upon all such in whom this sin finally takes place in a more sublimated and spiritual way to the offering up of their own living bodies and the sensual comforts thereof in a strange fire to the Devil which they ought by fire from heaven taken off the true Altar Christ to have offered up in sacrifice unto God Rom. 12. 1. Secondly the same Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that intimates this way of mortification does also mention the proportionable vivification accompanying it called there the resurrection which such false guides do affirme to be already past in them looking for nothing as future or to come of hell or heaven to the quickning or raising them up into the utmost perfection of life and glory as their attainment whilst herein this life and before that redemption of the body mentioned Rom. 8. 23. which the Saints and the creature it self yet groane after and wait for This resurrection of theirs is called 2 Col. 18. a worshipping of Angels in a voluntary humility intruding into those things which they have not seene as taking it for granted they are hereby made the true spiritual seed and that they are enter'd within the veile as having passed through the STRAIT GATE and undergone the BAPTISME of the HOLY GHOST AND OF FIRE and so that they are also come to be intirely under the teachings of the Father as actual possessors and inheritors of his everlasting Kingdome and glory In all this they are seduced and made through strong delusion to beleeve a lie being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde to the despising and undervaluing of Christ the Mediatour yea 2 Pet. 2. 1. to the bringing in of damnable heresies privily by cunning sleights and beguiling insinuations even to a denying of the Lord that bought them in the incommunicable properties of his Godhead by esteeming and at length in down-right termes asserting themselves to be God or at least to be as much the Sonnes of God in all respects as Christ himself in his own person who is God blessed for ever in consequence whereof we shall finde them at length owning an everlasting and general salvation of all men and Angels This is that posture of spirit into which that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan swells up those that are thus deceived by him in down-right opposition at length to Christ and God asserting himselfe in them and so causing them to assert and own themselves through his inspirations and indwelling presence in them to be both Christ and God Father and Sonne or another while to affirme that there is no God no Heaven no Hell no Angel or Spirit as the Sadduces for if he can perswade them either that he is God or else that there is no God at all he hath enough And in order to make this witness of theirs to stand and take place against all opposition from the true light when he has cried down the living WORD OF GOD into a meere equality on all accounts with the creature or advanced himselfe and his children into the room and place of God himselfe or partnership at least with the WORD in his incommunicable properties but then findes that the outward Word of God can very difficultly be made use of long to countenance either of these designes by degrees he labours to draw them into a state of alienation to that also rendring even the written Word nauseous and despicable to them and causing them to fall a slighting the Scriptures this outward Word of God which rightly represented gives forth the discovery and pleads for the true interest of the inward and living WORD and so professedly to disown all bodily or outward worship and service whatsoever as carnal and inconsistent with the spiritual service they performe Hereupon some of them also forbid marriage and other lawful creature-comforts as called to abstinence and a Virgin-life by which Rule the spirit they live and walk in judges marriage unlawful and commands to abstaine from meats two signal characters of this spirit held forth undeniably to our view 1 Tim. 4. 3. And in all this they carry a shew of wisdome in wilworship neglecting of the body and all things done in honour or satisfaction thereunto as hath been said To these also belong those characters in Jude and Peter where it is said of such that they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time or under pretence of highest light and spirituality to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and so at last returne with the dog to the vomit and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire yea and that avowedly in point of judgement now as a condition they can satisfie their owne consciences in and in which they undertake to justifie themselves against all contradiction These by Peter are called spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own self-deceivings in their feastings with others having eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls and alluring through much wantonnesse them that were cleane escaped from those that live in error Yet all this while they will confidently own themselves as lovers and favorers of the Spirit of TRUTH notwithstanding that they live unto a spirit of falshood in the sight of God even in whoredome and defilement with the father of lies But because many of these may be so meerely deceived as verily to think themselves with a chaste and Spouse-like affection to be embracing of Christ their true Lord and husband and so may be doing what they do ignorantly and not wilfully the Scripture sayes in such case Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them with a holy severity out of the fire lest otherwise they finally perish for this is that kinde of sinning which is unto death and therefore unpardonable when it is done knowingly and wilfully This false seducing spirit is capable of putting forth it self in a greater or lesser degree in and under all
as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
nor qualified him with the power of sacrificer whereby the spotless Lamb was to be slain become a pass over meat and a supper to feed on in order to nourish the trubelievers unto everlasting life and to have the blood thereof shed poured forth and sprinkled upon the houses or hearts of his chosen ones for God to see as a token whereupon he promiseth to pass over them and that the plague of his eternal wrath shall not be upon them to destroy them Exod. 12. 13. Through the sprinkling of the blood of this passover it is then that they shall be secured from that destroying vengeance which overtakes and slaies the first-born the very chiefest dignity of the fleshly and natural seed that it touch not them or come neer their dwelling Heb. 11. 28. Hence then we say that Christ was active in the working out another sort of obedience then that wherein a meer conformity to the law of the first covenant consists which stood in his obtaining a perfect victory over the principles of his first activity answering to the voice of the Law which saith he that doth these things shall live in them so as by bringing these his fleshly principles into the cessation and rest required by the law of the new covenant he attains the end for which they were at first given him arriving at that most neer and intimate union with the Father which only by faith or the exercise of a newness of life and operation can be attained in which union God finds his Rest as well as the creature his and which is entred into or fallen short of by believing or not believing Heb. 4. 1 3. These second sort of works are called James 2. the works of faith as the obedience of the second covenant and in the case of Abraham are there said to consist in the offering up his Isaac upon the Altar by which act was declared the power of his faith as it wrought with his works and as by works it was made perfect prevailing with him to present the life of his fleshly seed or first activity in sacrifice upon the Altar as discovering that so to cease from his fleshly works or activity in the exercise of that newness of operation wherein as by a resurrection from the dead his first works though laid as it were to rest were to be fulfilled and established Thus we see how the activity and workings of Abrahams faith mastered and overcame the workings and activity of his fleshly seed and principles in the sacrificing whereof God declares himself so well pleased Gen. 22. 16. that he saith By my self have I sworn because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice Abraham then in obeying this voice of God and not fparing the life of his fleshly seed and principles had the blessings of the new-Covenant established upon him evidenced and confirmed to him upon this act of his faith all which we are to understand not as principally relating to the person of Abraham but Christ the true Father of the faithful whereof Abraham in this was but the type or figure who by performing this condition in himself did it on the behalf of the whole seed as surety unto them of the better Testament established upon better promises then the first Heb. 7. and in this act of his obedience to them imputed presents them righteous and without blame before the throne of God and makes them capable of the blessings belonging to this new and everlasting Covenant Thus was faith imputed to Abraham for righteousness that is to say the righteousness of faith wrought out by Christ himself in his own person as performing the condition of the new and everlasting Covenant and so becoming the Father root or common parent to all true Believers is imputed unto Abraham in stead of his own personal righteousness whether that of the Law or that of his own believing and exhibited to the eye of his faith as the matter of his Justification and the sole and only obedience wherein he stands accepted whereof he hath to glory before God Rom. 4. as found spotless and without blame in his sight This was conveyed to the faith of Abraham as in a lively figure and type thereof in his act of offering up his Son upon the Altar Unto which type or figure the antitype or truth doth most exactly answer and agree in Christs own sacrifice when he offered up himself through the eternal spirit without spot unto God actually sacrificed the true Isaac crucifying in himself the life of his fleshly seed and legal principles voluntarily laying aside the use and ceasing from the exercise thereof as single and alone that in the room thereof he might not only bring into exercise and use the newness of life and operation set up in him by faith but compleat these crucified fleshly principles as single and alone in their operations by bringing them forth again through the regeneration with greater vigour beauty and perfection then ever in subjection to and harmonious co-operation with the life of faith to the fulfilling thereby all righteousness as well relating to the first as second Covenant This second sort of activity in Christ flowing forth in newness of life and operation and becoming perfect through the ceasing of his first is the exercise of that faith by which he and the whole spiritual seed enter into Rest fighting through all opposition to the removing of every thing that lets and lies in the way thereof and therefore is in Christ the true Abraham or Father of the faithful offering up the true Isaac or the fleshly seed in Christ in the principles and activity thereof In which also he is the true Joshuah leading the natural man into the true Land of Canaan or heavenly Country into which the principles of Moses or of the Law could not bring him In this as in the performance of the true duty of the Sabbath Jesus our God and Saviour went before us as our example in thus ceasing from his works Heb. 4. that we also might not think it much in imitation of him to be ceasing after the same manner from ours since we stand obliged to the same Sabbath-observation as we desire to enter into Gods rest Through this working power of faith in Christ he was taught this new obedience suffering himself to be taken off his first activity or works with so advantageous a change as to have a higher and a better spring of operation set up in the room thereof through the Fathers witness and teaching wherein the disability or weakness that is brought upon the first principles and their activity as to their single exercise is abundantly recompensed with admission of them in
a subordinate and subjected way to be inseparably harmonious co-workers with that second and better activity of faith which blessed association of these two in the last Adam is much better then the one that is single and alone in the first making up of twain that one new man and new name which is better then the name of sons and of daughters in the children of the first Covenant Hence it appears that Christ in his active obedience did not only conform to the Law as a legally righteous and holy man doing the work of a servant in the spirit and life of the Son fulfilling the righteousness of the Law by faith but that he did also perform the proper works required by the Law of the new-covenant consisting in the holy observation of the true Sabbath and bringing his fleshly principles into subjection unto and useful co-operativeness with his heavenly and spiritual in the exercise of faith And so Christs active obedience we see distinguisheth it self into the works required to be done by the first and second covenant This hath brought us to the second sort of Christs obedience which is called passive as consisting in that wherein he was a sufferer which also is capable of a twofold consideration First in respect of that which he suffered under the power and activity of faith carrying his natural judgement and will into a voluntary captivity to the teachings of the Father that trained him up to the doing of his Fathers will with the denyal or not doing of his own as properly his in the activity of his fleshly or legal principles or secondly as relating to that wherein he was made a curse for us appointed and delivered up by the Father though still with his own consent to bear the punishment due unto sinners and perform that in his own person wherewith Gods Justice might be satisfied and sin expiated as it is written by his stripes we are healed the just is punished and the unjust is set free Christ was in the first of these respects truly and properly a sufferer as he that submitted himself to be bereaved and deprived of the exercise of these principles in and upon the operation whereof in the judgement of the natural man as single depended the performance of the condition of the first Covenant wherein all mankind was concerned as it is written He that doth these things shall live in them So as the weakness and disability which he suffered to be brought upon himself in this his operation might seem to be the way to expose him to the curse and wrath of God threatned upon non-performance of the condition of the Law as it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them and therefore was hard even for Christs natural man to undergo costing him many a tear groan and cry before his natural judgement was fully silenced and made to yield to it as giving full credit to this report of faith calling for obedience hereunto as to the voice of God Isa 53. And as this seemed hard to Christs natural judgement so nothing was more bitter and cross to the inclinations and desires of his natural will then to have his natural spirit thus broken abased humbled and laid low in such a poor destitute and weak condition as to become a worm no man unable to make resistance or defence for himself by the exercise of that activity that was properly his own which is hereby taken out of his single dispose in order to be brought forth in newness of operation through the power and activity of faith or the seed and principles flowing forth from his second union wherein he and his Father are one and the life he lives and the will he does is not his own exercised single but in conjunction and association with that of the Father Howbeit in this we are not to understand the natural man of Christ as meerly passive or violently bereaved of the use and exercise of this his first operation and activity but are to consider him herein as convinced in judgement and gained in will to the forbearance thereof and cessation therefrom and so voluntarily submitting his own hands in this regard to be bound and his feet tyed upon undeniable reasons and clear demonstrations to the eye of his faith of a far greater good to be redounding to him by the same This Christ asserts Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self who might keep it and exercise it if I would for I have power or freedom to lay it down and also to take it up according to the commandment which I haveh rein received from the Father and because I do it in the way of choice and freely not by compulsion therefore it is my Father loves me Thus also Christ testifieth of himself Joh. 8. where he saith I am one that bear witness of my self or I have a principle in me that can declare it self in the proper life and operation of a natural righteous and holy man as one made under the Law and walking in all the ordinances and commandments of God therein blameless Yet saith he Joh. 5. 30 31. to come forth in the single exercise hereof is not my manner of acting for of my self I can do nothing or I am taught by my Father to do nothing but in association with him as I hear I Judge and I am thereby instructed not to do my own will or go forth in the single exercise of my first activity but to seek the will of the Father that sent me even to the offering up in sacrifice my own proper will and desire For if I should bear witness of my self my witness single were not true or authentique to make out truth according to your law which Ioh. 8. 16 17 18. requires two witnesses for the establishing of every truth therefore saith he there is another with me in association that never leaves me to my single actings and I know that the witness which he gives of me is true and that the testimony which I give flowing from that anointing is truth in the full and compleat evidence thereof That then which in this first sense Christs natural man was a sufferer in consisted in the weakness and disability which was brought upon the fleshly mind to resist the powerful workings of his faith or spiritual mind unto the obedience where of it is voluntarily made captive as the only way and means to be brought into the Rest and Cessation required by the Father in respect whereof it is that he saith he can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these doth the Son likewise and so is no loser by this kind of weakness and inability but rather a rich
Jesus our Lord. But the justification and sanctification received upon the terms of the first covenant which are conditional and depending upon the creatures continuance are subject in a time of tryal to fail the persons concerned therein unto whom through the common relation which all mankind is taken into with Christ as he is flesh of our flesh bone of our bone like unto us in all things sin only excepted there is given as in a way of common grace and salvation first a relative holiness and righteousness in ballance to the relative unholiness and unrighteousness derived to the first Adams posterity as they stood related to him their common parent in his fallen state which is freely conferred upon them with offer and promise to bring them out of the bondage of corruption they are in by nature if they will hear and obey Secondly there is an actual exercise of long-suffering and patience put forth towards them freely on Gods part by vertue of the satisfaction he hath received on their behalf in the sacrifice of Christ by reason whereof he declares himself willing not to impute unto them sins past or present if through obeying Christs voice they shall render themselves capable of such benefit and shall not by their wilful personal sinning against the grace offered them and persisting therein so far abuse the benefit of Christs sacrifice as wholly to render themselves unworthy thereof Thirdly there is an actual imputation of Christs legal righteousness to all such as obeying his call in the first-covenant are thereby made the seed which is of the Law born after the flesh and become actual members of his natural body From what then hath been said concerning Christs active and passive obedience we may discern how far Christ therein wrought out mans redemption as he stood in the relation of a common person and parent to both seeds and as their surety undertook on their behalf to fulfill the righteousness of both Covenants in himself and this after such a manner as to be able to derive and communicate the benefit thereof unto them in a way of the Justification and Sanctification required by either of the two covenants respectively and this either singly and apart each from other or joyntly and together to the rendring those righteous in him that were helpless sinners and wretched ones in themselves Christs obedience then hitherto treated of in the two forementioned branches of his active and the first branch of his passive though it doth procure all that which is needful to make man righteous and holy according to what is required by both covenants yet it is not that properly which expiates the guilt of sin already committed nor frees from the curse of the Law in order to which Christ was made a Curse for us and did bear the punishment due to our sins which without blood could not receive remission at the hands of Gods Justice Heb. 9. There is then yet remaining a second part of Christs passive obedience to be opened wherein this did consist and in respect of which it behoved Christ to suffer as a Malefactor without the Gate a reproachful accursed bodily death with all the heightning circumstances accompanying the same from God Angels and men to the bruising of his heel in which also the Scriptures are very plain and express saying that upon him God laid the iniquity of us all Isa 53. who were as sheep gone astray and 1 Pet. 2. 24. he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree and chap. 3. 18. it is said that he being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust and 1 Tim. 2. 4 6. Who gave himself a ransom for all as willing to have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Christ by being made thus a curse for us redeemed us from the curse of the Law or did that in way of satisfaction to Gods Justice by reason whereof God thinks fit and finds it just to acquit and discharge sinners from the curse and wrath of God due unto them by the Law Which benefit is either renewed to us conditionally and in reference to the first Covenant-obedience by us engaged in to live and be tryed by or is given unto us absolutely and in reference to the second Covenant-obedience as living by faith and interested in the sure mercies of David that never fail Those that partake of this benefit in the first sense are spoken of Heb. 10. unto whom having been once enlightned and then sinning willfully after the knowledge of the truth to the treadding underfoot the Son of God accounting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin but they fall again not only under the first curse but the second death or final ministry of Gods fiery vengeance which no sacrifice of Christ will be admitted to atone on their behalf for ever Psal 49. 8. but like sheep they are laid in the grave for death to feed on they go to the Generation of their Fathers and never see light But those that partake of this benefit of Christs sacrifice in the latter sense have at once a perfect and absolute remission of all sins vouchsafed to them never to be recalled more as it is written Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more This being laid down we shall now proceed to shew first the particulars wherein Christ did undergo Gods wrath and was made a curse on our behalf by way of satisfaction and ransome for the sins of all mankind which properly was our due to have undergone in our own persons and secondly to open the nature of that wrath from God which Christ was capable of undergoing and that was thought meet and required by God to be executed upon him and undergone by him in the work of our Redemption For the particulars wherein Christ underwent the wrath of God and did bear the punishment which was due only unto sinners the Scriptures declare them to be these First Christ was exposed as a mark which was aimed and shot at all the daies of his flesh by the rage and malice of wicked Angels and men and as a spectacle of open scorn and reproach to be trampled upon by his insulting adversaries as if he had been a worm and no man unto all which God was thus far contributing as to suffer it and sit silent as a Spectator yea by his providences and outward dispensations rather furthering then hindring it and this in persuance of his declared mind herein even unto the Serpent himself Gen. 3. 15. when he told him speaking of Christ the seed of the woman he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel For the exercise of all this rage of Devils and men against him did bring to pass no other thing but
by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves were not wise but justly comprehended under the rank of foolish virgins over whom the Apostle was jealous with a godly jealousie hoping to have presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ but now fearing lest they should be beguiled and sin after the similitude of Adams transgression through the subtilty of the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light These among the Galatians were they that Paul stood in doubt of as discerning in them principles that would carry them no higher then the first Covenant before whom therefore he laid the distinction of the two Covenants and the two seeds even under the Gospel those that might be born after the spirit and those that might be born but of the flesh only one of the free woman the other of the bond And among the Philippians this sort of Professors were so prevalent that the Apostle was very sharp ch 3. v. 2. v 18 19. calling them those of the concision dogs and enemies to the cross of Christ whose God was their belly and whose glory was in their shame minding earthly things walking in a quite different strain from them who forgetting what is behinde press forward to the mark ver 14. of perfection brought to light by the death and resurrection of Christ worshipping God in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh It would be endless to rehearse the several passages in the remaining Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles deciphering this generation of Professors in the times they lived Teachers of the Law that knew not what they said nor whereof they affirmed as to the lawfull use of the very Law it self who by not holding faith and a good conscience which is interpreted Heb. 10. 23. a not holding them fast but in such wavering uncertain principles as the first Covenant ministers concerning faith made shipwrack and so lost their good conscience too at last drawing back into perdition Like the Jerusalem complained of Ezek. 5. 5. c. where they were so far from walking up to the light of the Covenant with God which they were under that in their walkings they fell beneath the very light and principles of heathens not doing according to the judgements of the nations round about them but becoming adulterers and adulteresses such as defile the Temple of God and therefore such whom God would destroy Lastly as once for all we may see this generation of men in their holy profession and visibility of Saintship incorporated together with the true spiritual seed in every one of the seven Churches mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters which are usually accounted to be typical inreference to the state of the Church under the Gospel from the Primitive times to Christs second coming In every of these churches Christ makes the distinction between the Spiritual Seed that had the spiritual ear and the carnal Seed that had it not but who in and under those very Church-forms were the Nurseries of all hypocrisie apostasie and other Spiritual uncleannesses and defilements there and were not of the faith nor in the faith of those that overcome but were such as from whom the Candlestick and light they had from Christ might be removed verifying therein that saying of his speaking of this generation as they should continue under Gospel Ordinances when he was foretelling the end of the world under the type and figure of the destruction of the material Temple in Jerusalem Verily verily saith he This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled his mystical meaning herein being that this crooked and perverse generation mentioned Deut. 32. 5. who were always resisting the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. and were to succeed in that enmity which they bear unto the true Spiritual Seed to the very end of the world according unto what God declared from the beginning when he said I will put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent should continue till the serpents head be wholly broken and he trampled under foot and the Saints heel wholly bruised or the measure of Christs sufferings remaining to be wrought out in his whole body the Church fulfilled These are they which call themselves Jews but are not in spirit and truth though they pass currant in the judgement of mans day for the only visible Church of God excluding the heathens on the one hand as Sathan appearing in his own likeness and the true spiritual believers on the other hand as the same evil spirit transformed into an Angel of light The third sort of subjects belonging to the last administration of Christs kingdom are they who in faith and patience do possess their souls following the Lamb whither soever he goes not loving their lives unto death but through the blood of the Lamb being received into the unity of the faith of the Son of God have the use of spiritual senses set up in them enabling them to hear and obey what the spirit saith unto the Churches and so are worshippers of God in spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh enjoying within themselves the witness of a better and more enduring substance then what is experienced under the first-covenant-ministry through this law of the spirit of life which the spiritual sied are made under have that overcoming power of Christ ever present with them in the actings of true and saving faith which overcomes the world and gives them the victory over all opposition not but that they also in walking as men have the same common weaknesses as other men are liable to many failings and miscariages but as they are born of God and walk and live in that spirit sin hath no more dominion over them to make them fulfil the lusts thereof Gal. 5. 16 18. These therefore are distinguished from all the earth-born sons or children of the first covenant by their higher and more divine birth as born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. not but that they are born also of all the other principles as well as othermen possess them in common with others something of the corrupt nature with the heathen and something of the renewed nature with the Jew or worldly Christian but they have over and besides a birth of God which none of the other two have living thereby in that light and life which no man hath seen or can see wherein they are a sort of heavenly seers and men of God that enter with Christ within the veyl and are admitted into the sight and enjoyment of God in the very brightness of his glory and express character of his person shining forth in the face of Christs second appearance and herein are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ partaking after this manner of the divine nature it self wherein they see God face to
to the flesh through which they clean escape the pollutions of the world and then turn aside from the holy commandment delivered unto them in the ministry of this first covenant These are they that are under the dominion of the law or of Christ as he is the Minister of circumcision of Gods first appearance exhibiting himself to the eyes of their mind in the righteousness of his natural man as he is God manifested in flesh and so witnessed unto by the Scriptures as a holy commandment unto which he begets and requires conformity in them Here he is to be seen and conversed with as on Mount Sinai in the holy place or worldly Sanctuary where his Angels are his chariots even thousand thousands of Angels to administer the glory of this kingdom under him and as his forerunners to prepare the way whither he himself intends to come and vouchsafe his own perpetual presence and abode So then until Christs coming in the flesh into the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man the Word Law or Rule of this kingdom also was spoken given and administred by Angels called the law and Ministry of circumcision or of Moses contained in the two tables together with the Judicial laws and fleshly rites and ordinances of divine service those relating to the second table these to the first and to the material temple-worship which were to contiune till the time of reformation at the comming of the true Temple it self when the WORD was made flesh But Christ being come and having in the body prepared for him fulfilled the will of the Father in offering up himself in the flesh without spot unto God through the eternal spirit and with his own blood entred into the holiest of all he thought fit no longer to dwell in Temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. but abolishing all the former fleshly rites and worldly ordinances belonging unto the Temple-worship that was then he did build up out of the ruines thereof a spiritual Temple 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. which Temple saith the Apostle Paul unto the Corinthians are yee which yet is but such a kind of building for permanency and abiding as the former For whosoever of you saith Paul shall defile this Temple him shall God destroy whoever you be that after your being enlightned and having received the knowledge of the truth shall not hold fast your confidence unto the end but become such servants as are to be cast out of the house making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Thus there is an Israel after the flesh kept up and continued under the Gospel as well as under the law who are now under Christs immediate government by his spirit in the ministry of his first appearance and according to the tenor of the first covenant as they then were under the law and had the word spoke unto them by Angels in the Mosaical ministration both being but one and the same earthly Ierusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children in which it is most true still that they are not all Israel that are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham the Father of the faithful so pretending to be believers are they all children but in Isaac crucified offered up Isaac shall thy seed be called that is to say they that are the children of the flesh and of the living and natural body only are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed that were raised out of a womb as good as dead and sprang up to Abraham after that he had received the promises as they respected his fleshly seed by Isaacs restauration as from the dead the figure of Christs death and resurrection This earthly Jerusalem is the worldly Church under the Gospel the incorporated body of visible Saints called out and separated from the world who for their Law and Rule own and profess the written word and the spirit of Christ received and held forth in no higher a ministry then that of Christ as he is the head and root of all natural purity and perfection singly considered declaring themselves herein a holy or a separated people by a manifest self-distinguishing profession according to the measure of their receiving from Christ and growth up unto him from all heathenish worship yea and corrupt Christian professions or practises walking in all the ordinances and judgements of Christ held forth to them from the Scriptures in the various forms thereof which their light leads them to receive This visible temple or worldly sanctuary of God is a true Church as they walk in the light and according to the truth of this Law under which they are and as shall be shewed the nursery or womb of all the true spiritual seed Rev. 12. 1. c. Where it is described by the woman cloathed with the Sun the day of Christs first appearance and having the Moon or heathenish Gentile state under her feet being exalted into a glory far above them and made use of by God to bring forth the manchild or heavenly seed that are to rule the Nations with a rod of iron which in their divine birth are caught up to God and to his Throne and so much farther exalted above the earthly Jerusalem then she is above the rest of the Nations This earthly Jerusalem in the times of the Law had judicial Laws for the heightning of a civil Magistracy into a sutableness unto the divine service of this worldly sanctuary But since Christs ascension and the spirituality of this very temple to be continued under the Gospel till the fulness of the Gentiles come in and the mysterie of God in Christs fleshly dispensations shall be finished although many attempts have been made and endeavours used to revive a like Magistracy again in conformity to the judicials of Moses in the very letter of them there hath seldom been found any considerable progress or success herein forasmuch as Christ is rather pleased to detain his people in subjection and captivity under the powers of the world and the Magistracy kept up by him over men as men during the season of sufferings allotted to them in which as souls under the Altar of persecution they cry out How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth and are enabled by faith to see through and above the visible powers and thrones of this world into the ministry of Christ by his Angels who are all the while Magistrates and Rulers in a higher sphere and capacity then the others and who as the times of Christ draw near who is the only Potentate and KING OF KINGS shall shew themselves to be his servants taking vengeance in flames of fire upon all ungodly men that are his and his peoples implacable enemies By what then hath been said we may see how consistent this second branch of Christs Rule over men is with
do become degenerate plants that bring forth sowr and wild grapes whose grape is the grape of Sodom their wine the wine of Gomorrah and so are turned out of the house cut off from the vine as branches sit for the fire being trees twice dead and so plucked up by the roots once dead in trespasses and sins as children of wrath in the first Adam and dead again after their renewal to natural righteousness and holy flesh in the second Adam by sinning again after the similitude of the first Adams transgression Under this general head of Christs subjects in this second dispensation we may take notice of two sorts of professors very numerous and famous in their generations who as well teachers as disciples do content themselves with these principles and operations of conscience and spirit and bless themselves in them saying we shall have peace here as not enough aware of the frailty and slipperiness of this state or of that root of bitterness that in and with all these is or may be springing up in them to the defiling of many and causing them at last to draw back unto perdition if they be and continue strangers to that saving faith through the power of which only men are preserved to eternal life The first sort are those that hold general Redemption or that Christ died for all men the other are those that under the name of Orthodox are their fierce and implacable Antagonists herein each bearing both a true witness and a false one against another and both of them excluding and opposing upon divers grounds the true righteous seed that live by faith which faith the Scripture describes to be a heavenly power and operation of mind whereby Christ as he is the very image itself and substantial brightness of Gods glory works himself into the soul and causeth himself to subsist dwell and be evidenced there He that believeth on the Son of God hath this witness in himself and by it is taught to see that whoever they be that live but singly in the natural powers and operations of mind before described as perfect holy and righteous as they are and there rest will be in danger of miscarrying before they come to the end of their Race and so will fall short of the true mark of their high calling There is not any thing which Christian experience may more convince us of if we will be ingenuous then of the fallacy and mistake which most men run into by laying hold on some shadow and figure for the good thing it self which if they knew their own minds they themselves would have and therefore it is so much in their eye and desire in the shadow But the subtilty of the devil is such that when he cannot work the mind to a downright opposition of the truth he engages the understanding by the means of a right figure and shadow of TRUTH to oppose and keep out the very image itself that is the substance and the glory that is to follow In this stratagem the devil may be traced from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end imposing upon and deluding men whose short-sightedness at their best is such that their thoughts and Gods thoughts differ as far as heaven and earth which faith reconciles and makes co-workers together in due subordination and perfect harmony By reason of this distance between man in his most holy and righteous natural operations and the heavenly mind of Christ men yea good men are with Samuel running to Eli as thinking he cals them when they should go to God and are taking Eliab the first-born for David the youngest son Christ in his first appearance for Christ in his second and so with John in the Revelation are worshipping the Angel and fellow-servant for Christ the Lord of all and to bring this neerer to our purpose now in hand they take the covenant of nature for the covenant of grace making those inconsistent and to fight one against another that are brethren and dwell together in unity if they were rightly explicated and understood Thus with the letter of truth men endeavour to bear down the spirit of it Upon these grounds those that are for the general extent of Christs death finding the truth of their belief expressed in the letter of the Gospel as indeed it is satisfie themselves in that and rest there thinking it sufficient to try and judge all men as they reject or own and fall in with this litteral knowledge of the Gospel which they profess and give a good and faithful witness in becoming herein the more established first because they see that to be behind them which they take for the first covenant from whence they conceive themselves well escaped that is the personal righteous actings and holy operations which the natural conscience exercises itself in as looked upon to be that wherein our life consists which they wholly renounce and disclaim witnessing their life in another even in the righteous one through the propitiatory vertue of his blood and sacrifice which they indeed may yea ought as children of the first covenant the Jews being obliged to as much as we have shewed by the Law and as they were inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem But secondly they are yet the more confirmed in their perswasion because those that pretend to be before them and above them in light do evidently contradict and deny unto them most cleer certain and undeniable truths undeniable I say admitting that which ought to be admitted to wit that the witness which is given by this sort of professors amounts no higher in its significancy and right application then to exhibit to us the state and terms of the covenant of works as it consists in the knowledge of Christ after the flesh And so all that which they say concerning conditional reprobation free-will falling away and the like as relating to the children of the first covenant will find that from the Scriptures which will justifie it Their Antagonists therefore would lose no ground by granting what they say as thus stated and considered But that which keeps those that call themselves Orthodox from doing this is that they judge it would be a giving up of their cause when indeed it would but drive them to the surest and most unresistable grounds upon which to maintain it as is most evident if you will be at the pains to take a short view of their principles and witness also For these great and lofty opposers of the general point do in like manner as the others did find that in the letter of Scripture which renders undoubtedly true what in their witness they hold forth asserting a certain number of Elect by name chosen from all eternity given unto Christ of whom he is to lose none As the fruit of this love we find also the gift of peculiar grace to some not to others which cannot fail nor be fallen from and commandments given them to do which
the natural will or judgement in all the power and light thereof at best whilst unregenerate have no skil in nor know how to set about but as fools and little châ—ldren men must be found at the feet of Christ that he may give them a new birth and so teach and enable them thereunto But now these that thus have a right litteral knowledge of the Gospel are necessitated as to the life and power of their inward principles to fall in with and agree upon the same natural righteousness holiness and perfection in kind with their opposers and make use of their weapons to fix the truth of their witness taken up by them from theletter of the Scripture in such expressions as belong to the new-covenant-life in the second Adam upon those principles of the first Adams purity and perfection or the life of the covenant of Works as restored in and by the blood of Christ which the Scripture never intends if rightly understood but indeed on this account doth undeniably cast the cause upon those that are for the common and general Redemption who are not to be blamed for what they assert as to the extent of the benefit of Christs death to all men but for denying the truth of that witness held forth by the other which ought to have its due place and to be owned by them as consistent with theirs if they understood it yea as that which alone can give perfection and stability thereunto which therefore if rightly stated and acknowledged by them would return shame sufficient upon their adversaries discovering them to be self-condemners as opposing that very thing in the spirit and truth of it the grace faith and principles of the second-covenant-life which they do so zealously contend for in the Letter as to the peculiarity and durableness of the benefit which the true Saint receives by the death of Christ and as agreeing with that in spirit and truth the single activity and life of first-covenant-principles which they implacably oppose in the letter These are the contradictions that with great confidence and censoriousness are maintained on both sides in this our age whilst truth it self suffers every way and is unacceptable to either none being more ready then these to lay Heresie Blasphemy and high Notions at the wrong door of others in hopes to make themselves appear the sound and good Physitians Thus we see under the shadow and letter of the covenant of Grace the truth and spirit of it opposed and kept out and those that do it miserably tearing out their own bowels and pleasing themselves with names for things Whence it is that none are more confident of their being within the covenant of Grace freed from any danger of the covenant of Works then this latter sort of men who do that honour and right to the covenant of Grace as to be for it in their mouths but remove their heart far from it and hug in their bosoms the principles and life of the covenant of Works as that which they will not part with by any means but in such case will rather as with weeping may be said of them become enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. And herein they are hardned also two waies First by considering those that are behind them who maintain the doctrine of works against the litteral witness which they give unto the covenant of grace whence they conclude themselves free from any danger of being comprehended under a covenant of works Secondly by the consideration of their witness that pretend to be above them and to hold forth a Kingdom that consists not in word only but in power who under pretence of spirit and power do either with those called Ranters set up the doctrine and inspiration of devils in opposition to the truth of their witness that is but in the letter introducing again the filthiness of the flesh whereby to destroy the righteousness and holiness of the natural man which is not done away as some falsly and scandalously affirm we say by conformity with Christ in his death but is thereby fulfilled for that garment is made yet more pure and white by the blood of the Lamb and is kept spotless by this means to the second appearance of Christ or else they do annihilate the creature-being and assert perfection to consist in a swallowing up thereof into the pure being of God even in that glory wherein he is in communicable and saith I am and there is none besides me as the Familist and such who gather up all at last into a state of eternal salvation or rather into no state of creature-being at all and so in effect making neither heaven nor hell The contrary unto both these opinions is freely and fully asserted in this treatise in the believers conformity to Christs death and resurrection a doctrine which nevertheless in the true and full extent of it is accounted very offensive and scandalous in these daies of ours even amongst those that are most zealous for it in the letter who possibly may oppose it ignorantly for a season but when it comes to wilful sinning in this case it carries its own fire about with it whereby to devour the adversaries This little excursion I judged not unuseful for the cleerer and fuller asserting of the doctrine of the cross and death of Christ as it operates upon and is mis-judged by those that are yet under the first covenant considered as dispensed by the Son himself in his first appearance wherein he is a minister of the circumcision in the truth of it the righteousness and holiness of his flesh or natural man being the law or covenant of works in its highest and most glorious administration In this respect Christ is said himself to be made under the Law who also doth effectually teach those that follow him in the power of his death and resurrection how the Law may be used lawfully and according to the true intent of the giving of it So that Christ by coming in the flesh and considered as giving himself singly in and by the means of his first appearance doth beget unto himself children of the law or first covenant whose knowledge of him is only after the flesh and who though they be taken by him in to his house and built up with him in his flesh as one Tabernacle and habitation unto God yet attain no higher thereby then to be in the holy place and to minister and serve before the Lord there in a state figured out by the charge of the Levites under the Law who notwithstanding their officiating and performing service unto God in the Temple are capable of being for ever excluded from coming into the holiest of all there to do the office of a Priest or to come neer to any of those holy things which are within the veil in the most holy place and to be made
things sin only excepted which as the Law or holy commandment ministred by him is given them to keep without spot and unrebukeable unto his second appearance 1 Tim 6. 14. and as was typed out by the Manna is then no longer to be fed upon as singly ministred nor is to be gathered when this true Rest or Sabbath appears but melts away before the heat of this more glorious Sun and brighter day of Christs second appearance to them as having attained its end calling with the Angel Gen. 32. 26. to be let go and ceased from because of the day-break of Christs second coming and the sounding forth of the voice of God from that most excellent glory in which even this first ministry is also comprehended and fufilled This is Israel after the flesh whether considered as they were shadowed and typed forth by the fleshly seed of the Jews in general or as they were in truth the circumcision of Christ made without hands in time of the law or of the Gospel among Jews or Gentiles who as such are called Jer. 2. 21. wholly aright seed and Isa 5. a vineyard of Christs in a very fruitful hill fenced cleansed and planted with the choisest vine in expectation of their bearing good fruit and bringing forth right grapes but many of them in the end do bring forth sowr and wild grapes From these then thus considered are distinguished those under the Law that were only such outwardly their circumcision being only that which was outward in the flesh who having singly the form of knowledge according to the law contained in ordinances and outward observations knew not what it was to be a lew in spirit so much as in a conformity of inward perfection and life to Christ in his headship to the natural man These are described Ier. 32. 23. as those that walked not in Gods Law nor did any thing of all that God commanded them to do in the spirit and power of the commandment parallel unto whom are those in these daies under the Gospel who seem exceeding zealous of outward Ordinances and observations consisting in worldly rudiments as touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using whilst they remain strangers and enemies in their minds by wicked works even to that life of natural righteousness that is required by the Law not being renewed in and by Christ as his seed and off-spring so much as after the flesh nor made true members of his living body as planted into a likeness and conformity with him in his natural perfection of fleshly life And as the inward fleshly Israelite differs thus from the outward so is he in eminency far above all that rectified and reformed state of nature effected by the ministry of Angels in and upon those who are not yet actually taken out of their first corrupt natural root the old Adam but stand yet related as members to that head notwithstanding all the change brought upon them by the first dispensation For such are not as yet truly feeding with Christ at his fleshly table nor eating and drinking in his personal presence whilst they go forth singly in the acting of what is natural right and just and have no other foundation for their peace with God or means of maintaining fellowship and communion with him but the righteous and good works which they do according to the light dispensed in that first ministry and government whereas the Israel that is after the flesh as renewed in the flesh of Christ and becoming children of the first covenant are receivers of Christ himself in his first appearance for the foundation of their converse with God and the means of maintaining their fellowship and communion with him In this respect they are said to have faith accompanied with a good conscience but such as may be lost and shipwracked 1 Tim. 1. 19. and 5. 12. such a faith as in comparison with the faith that works by love and springs from the root of the Heavenly Adam is accounted as no faith at all Deut. 32. 20. but is rather to be esteemed the knowledge with which men are in danger of being puffed up 1 Cor. 8. 1. and such a receiving of the truth which as it may consist with so also may be without the love of it in the spirit and power thereof in which manner they receive it who afterward sin wilfully and so come to be denied any longer continuance of the benefit of Christs sacrifice for the expiation of their sins Heb. 10. 26. These with the stony ground receive the word with joy and are believers but when their faith comes to its trial Iam. 1. 2 3. they prove waverers and unstable such whose faith fails in the time of need wanting the incorruptible seed of the heavenly Adam to bear them up and make them durable Through this temporary faith they are admitted into Christs presence to eat and drink with him at his table and are enabled to do many wonderful works in his name and to make a very fair shew in the flesh and yet have no abiding city nor ever enter into the true Rest but only from the top of this Mount Pisga they may have a view and prospect into the true Land of promise the kingdom that cannot be moved that is in spirit and power appearing to them as a Land of distances very far off and may see its Lineaments and proportions though never be able to enter into the life and power of it as in like manner from the top-perfection of the first dispensation a survey may be taken of the earthly Jerusalem and of the glory of Christ according to the flesh without ever being actually translated into it or knowing of Christ in the life and power of his first appearance unto which many of those that go under the name of Quakers do seem to arrive CHAP. XVII Shewing the nature of that kingdom and Rule of Christ in the Saints which consists not in word and in the form of godliness only but in power and in the life of saving faith the first fruits whereof appear in those hearts that are made conformable to Christ in his death BY what we have laid down in the two foregoing chapters it plainly appears that Christ hath subjects and faithful walkers with him under both the former dispensations wherein he suffers the tares and the wheat the children of this world and the heaven-born sons of Zion to grow up together for a while without any discrimination being not yet come to the harvest that finishing work of his wherein he makes up his jewels Mal. 3. 17. setting apart his choise treasure unto himself and causing a manifest distinction and difference to shew it-self between the wicked and the righteous between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between those that draw back whose soul God takes no pleasure in and those that go on to the saving of the soul Heb. 10. 38 39. We are
reserved in heaven for them ready to be revealed in the last time They that are born of this seed are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God and through the power of faith and the abiding of this seed in them are kept unto salvation without any possibility of sinning unto death or any danger of final falling away having by vertue of their reception of this seed in the heart through the gift of God the nature of true believers communicated unto them even the unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God which makes them members of the new Jerusalem children of the promise who are born after the spirit and have that anointing whereby they know all things immediately from the head and fountain itself and need not that any man should teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. which was given to their head the true Aaron without measure running down upon all those that dwell together with him in the unity of the faith of the son of God even to the skirts of his garments upon the lowest members of this NEW JERUSALEM consecrating them a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD with himself to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God This new nature in the seed of it whilst it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen is called faith even the faith that justifies spreading over us the propitiatory covering of Christs spiritual headship and EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS in which we are made to stand for ever spotless and without guile before the Throne of God Those that are of this faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and are of that one seed that are heirs according to the promise The work of this faith and new birth when once wrought out by Christ in the heart and conscience is to breed patience and that patience experience and that experience hope even that hope which maketh not ashamed The patience which is wrought out in every regenerate one by this faith is called the obedience of faith that when it hath had its perfect work maketh us perfect so as to want nothing arming us with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to suffer in the flesh in order to put an end to sin and to work off the soul from the will desire of the flesh into an absolute subjection and conformity to the heavenly will of Christ wherein he is one with the Father and so enabling us to keep the word of Christs patience which is indeed the Law and Rule under which the true believer is subjected until Christs second coming being to rest in the grave with Christ untill the remainder of his sufferings be fulfilled in his whole body the Church under the certainty and with the comfort of his promise that those that thus suffer with him shall also raign with him and those that thus die with him shall also live with him And that all true believers are thus observers of this Rule according to the patern left by Christ in his own sufferings purifying themselves as he is pure keeping the word of his patience and performing the obedience of faith which is required by the law of the new covenant we shall endeavour to make known as in the experience thereof and Testimony from the Scripture it is held forth For through the comprehending power of Christ as he is the head and root of this spiritual seed and precious faith which is obtained by Gods chosen ones they are separated from the very womb yea they have grace given unto them in Christ Iesus before the world began and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in him being accepted in the beloved In this respect Jacob was loved and Esau was hated or the one was accepted and the other was refused in their mothers wombe the children being not yet born neither of them having as yet done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Howbeit we are not in Scripture sense nor in truth as some unwarrantably affirm actual believers until by effectual calling we are made receivers of whole Christ in the seed as before described And therefore the Apostle Paul who is a remarkable example herein though he had received grace in Christ Iesus as in his head before the world began and as thus comprehended in his head was separated and distinguished from the womb in whom the purpose of God according to the election was to stand yet it pleased not God to call him and by revealing his son in him to make him actually a believer and new creature until he had spent many years even a great part of his life in a sowerness and rigidness of spirit under the dispensation of the Law flaming out at last into cruel and fierce persecution of the Church of God though in all still preserved by his head from wilfull enmity For saith he I did it ignorantly In like manner all the children given to Christ by the Father whereof he is to lose none are thus separated and distinguished from the rest of the world as the beloved seed according to Gods purpose from the womb and so according to Gods purpose are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began Yet until it pleaseth God by his grace to call them whether they be in the state of circumcision or uncircumcision they live and walk according to the principles and Rule of that dispensation they are under For so we see in the great instance of Abraham the father of the faithful as by Stephen he is described to us Acts 7. in the manner of the calling with which he was called and whereby he was made actually a Believer and a new creature which was by Gods appearing to him and by the power of his WORD working in him calling and bringing him out of his own Country the land of his Nativity and from his natural relations into the land which he should shew him causing him herein to resign up his natural judgement and will entirely to his disposal and through faith to obey for he went out not knowing whither he went which first remove of his was out of the state of degenerate nature and his heathenish life into the earthly land of Canaan as that was a type and figure of the heavenly and into circumcision or experience of that communion with God which is by the first Covenant whereby the filth of the flesh in his heathenish state was cut off and cleansed and he in minde as well as in body brought into the figurative land of promise even to a conformity in mind and spirit to the Law the perfection of Christs flesh or natural man In this promised land perceiving by faith that it was but the type and shadow of the good things themselves the heavenly Country which was
and blood which interprets all this dealing of Christ in the worst sense as if his mind were wholly turned away and that he had given over to be gracious any more to them that are under this hour and power of darnesse And so seemes worse then a thousand bodily deaths to those in whom the spiritual birth is but low and therefore not unfitly compared to the child in the womb and at the breast where it is said Wo unto those that are with child and give suck in those dayes Yet saith Christ this is but as the waters of Noah which is only to be once done to drive the believer into the Arke even the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection from the dead and then forever to exempt them from such danger any more as having provided that for them which enables them to swim in those waters which drown the world in that pure river spoken of Rev. 22. 1. proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb which compared with Ezek. 47. appears to be a description of the Vision of Holy Waters where they are risen up as a river to swim in which those that are without the Ark attempting to live in must needs be drowned it being above all the measures of their attainments and capacities to receive as members of the first building or worldly Sanctuary And because there is not any thing more highly importing the true Saint then to get well through this wildernesse and not lose the way or fall short hereof under any pretence whatsoever we shall yet endeavour more particularly to handle and declare that which is to be experienced under this dispensation First in respect of what Christ doth and is the worker of by his withdrawing and refusing to continue any longer a Bridegroome in his first appearance to the soul Secondly in respect of the workings of Satan the Tempter who is not idle in this hour and power of darknesse to set on this appearance of wrath from God and Christ Thirdly in respect of the workings of flesh and blood that to the last are violent opposers and resisters And fourthly in respect of the workings of Faith or the new creature disposing the soul to let patience have its perfect work under these manifold tempt ations thereby to make it a perfect and compleat sharer with Christ in his sufferings as the rule and patterne set by him for the obedience of faith which under all this beholds him that is incisible and hath an eye to the recompence of reward in attaining the glory that followes and arriving unto the state of the resurrection from the dead never to die more but for ever to remaine free from the power of sinne and death As to that which Christ works in the heart of the true believer by his separation and refusal to be any longer a Bridegroome to the soul in and by his first appearance It consists chiefly in two particulars First in the preparation used by him to fit the soul for this his absence Secondly in his actual withdrawing and for ever hidng his face as to any farther shining forth upon them singly in and by his first appearance and in that respect becoming as perfectly dead and separated from the soul refusing ever to converse more in the single exercise of that his heshly life according to which the soul is to know him no more The preparation herein used by Christ to fit the soul and support it to bear such an absence of his is lively presented to our view by his carriage in this respect towards his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh when he tells them beforehand John 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Chapters the necessity of his departure from them that he may go to the Father and the expediency of it for them in order to his coming againe and presenting himself to them in a richer compleater glory then what they conversed with him in before Little children sayes he yet a little while I am with you the Bridegroome is with the children of the Bridechamber but this fellowship as to the joy fruits and comforts of it is not lasting it is but for a little while here is no abiding City there is therefore a necessiy of looking out for one to come And I am going a farre journey saith he to receive a Kingdome and returne and ye shall seek me when I am withdrawn and be looking for me to appear again in my fleshly glory but till a change be brought upon you to enable you to follow me in my death you though my Disciples and the Jewes that are far short of you cannot come to me whither I am going But through believing in me you shall be brought to my Fathers house into a heavenly City the Jerusalem that is above where are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you also may be And whither I go you know and the way you know by the workings and teachings of the new nature that is in you through believing and your being borne of God Besides saith he I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth in the first-fruits thereof whereby you shall come to have an understanding in him that is true and that you are in him that is true the Spirit whom the world cannot receive because it sess him not nor knows him being not borne from above as you are but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you to bring you out of your forsaken comfortlesse condition and cause you greatly to rejoyce though now for this season you be in great heavinesse through manifold temptations and to love him whom you have not seene with the eye of sense and in whom though you see him not yet believing you rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory These things I speak saith Christ whilest yet I am present with you and before I depart from you by way of preparing you to bear my absence and My peace I leave with you in this your comfortlesse condition as to sense which peace of mine I give unto you not as the world gives it but in a far more excellent and choice way in which none shall be able to interrupt you conveying it to you as a new name in a white stone which none can read but he that hath it and as hidden Manna the sweetnesse and joy whereof no stranger intermeddles with And therefore let not your hearts be troubled nor be you afraid ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come againe unto you if you loved me you would rejoyce because I say I go unto the Father for my Father is greater then I. And now I have told you before it
several as they may without the seed of saving faith accompanying them how high and heavenly soever they may seeme to be they are but common grace and may be fallen from and so those may perish that have them But where such gifts are followed with that farther work in the soul which is the proper fruit and effect of the third Ministery containing in it things that accompany salvation then those very gifts hereby washed in the blood of the Lamb do change their fading and failing property and become saving and everlasting In the righteousnesse then of Faith both the former righteousnesses are fulfilled and established upon better principles and Promises then those of the first Covenant to the making the possessors thereof heirs of God co-heirs with Christ and so partakers of the Divine nature entering them into the glory that is within the veile and setting them downe with Christ on his Throne as he is set downe with the Father on his Throne in the fulnesse and perfection of both Creations having all power in Heaven and in Earth put into his hand This is the Mortification and Vivification the dying to sin and living to righteousness witnessed unto by the Scriptures and shining forth in the face of Christ as the Truth that is in Jesus unto which we are made conformable by being planted together with him in the likenesse of his death and resurrection comprehending in it all that righteousnesse and holinesse which is but in part and is upon right grounds pleaded for either by the Natural or Legal Conscience and holding forth over and above that which is higher and of a better and more durable kinde then theirs But however it be that the defect and miscarriage we are speaking to that is incident to Natural or Legal righteousnesse lie not in this that it is counterfeit or hypocritical but that it is that which is but in part and which therefore does unwarrantably exalt it self into a competition with or opposition to the whole as it comes to passe in those who make such ill use of Christs first appearance as thereby to resist and keep out his second yet we are neverthelesse to acknowledge that there is much counterfeit work to be found in the world as daily experience sheweth both as to light practice principles and converse amongst those that pretend fair to be great proficients in that righteousnesse and holinesse that makes up the answer of the Natural or Legal good conscience who do not truly live in the principles of either of these states but make a flourish with meere notion head-work and light without heat together with some overly performances as desirous of a share in the praise of men with those who truly live in such principles by a meere outward plausiblenesse in converse whilst their inward part is full of ravening and wickednesse Others also that are unsincere and faulty in their very principles we are to discover and lay open for the preventing of the deceit with which under these the Devil lies in wait to insnare and turne men aside from the TRVTH This sort of men in whom are found these corrupt principles whereby they become men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith speaking lies in hypocrisie the Scripture expressely takes notice and warnes us of above all the rest as the great engines the Devil makes use of for the instillation of his Doctrine by faire speeches to the deceiving of the hearts of the simple Since therefore there is such deceivable work kept on foot in men by that grand Impostor Satan and that under pretence of their dying to sin and living to righteousnesse in many feigned shews of mortification forbidding of marriage and commanding to abstain from meats which may be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh all which is so far from being comprehended in the righteousnesse revealed by the Gospel as any part of it that under a counterfeit shadow and similitude thereof it stands in direct opposition thereunto begetting in the conscience such a dying unto Christ or the Spirit of TRUTH as imports and plainly speaks forth a living unto Antichrist or the spirit of lies and fashood prophesied of as that which with great confidence will be obtruded by the witnesse and practice of divers in the last times 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. and elsewhere since I say these things are so I have held it my duty in very faithfulnesse unto the TRUTH not to passe by the same in silence without giving my Testimony against all such deceitful workings in those who having departed from the faith give heed unto seducing spirits speaking lies in hypocrisie or in feigned resemblances unto TRUTH Of such the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 11. for whose sake he was exceeding jealous lest the Corinthians through their influence and subtilty should be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity of mind which they ought to bear as chast Spouses unto Christ their one Husband v. 2 3. Such saith Paul are false Apostles Prophets and professors of Christ transforming themselves into the appearance of Christs true witnesses and followers and no marvel For Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of righteousnesse taking upon them to personate true mortification or dying to sinne and true vivification or living to righteousnesse whose end shall be according to their Works ver 13 14 15. This sort of men as appeares in the examples of Hymeneus and Alexander have been once enlightned and through the receivings of grace and attainments under the first Covenant have had that which the Scripture calls Faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. who notwithstanding do put away their good conscience and concerning faith make shipwrack being the adversaries on the one hand which Paul exhorts Timothy to maintaine a good warfare against as well as against the Teachers of the Law on the other hand who being ignorant whilest they are under the Law how to pursue the true end of it run out into unprofitable heady disputes and endlesse questions having once turned aside unto vaine jangling understanding neither what they say nor wherefore they affirme v. 4 5 6 7. But stumbling at that stumbling stone in Sion and rock of offence to enemies Rom. 9. 33. but of defence and salvation to his chosen beloved ones Psal 95. 1. the same Christ becoming to these a sanctuary or place of refuge to them a stone of stumbling even to both the houses of Israel a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem Isa 8. 14 who going about to establish their own righteousnesse do not submit unto and so fall short of the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. Both these sorts of men on
the one hand and the other upon distinct accounts are to be reputed enemies to the TRUTH in the Spirit and Power thereof as is at large set forth 1 Tim. 1. the first of which are also meant and described 1 Tim. 4. 1. where they are said to be those that are departed from the Faith through giving heed unto seducing spirits and to inspirations of devils in those transformed Ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11. 15. who labour to vent the doctrines of devils such as devils either are authors or objects of through whose Ministery they come to have itching ears formed in them 2 Tim. 4. 3. ready to hearken to all that the Serpent transformed into an Angel of light presents to them by way of instruction and under colour of divine inspiration as taking upon him the Prophetical office of Christ and thereby undertaking to carry them forward to what is more spiritual and to heighten them in their experiences of what SPIRIT and POWER is In this very way he offered to impose upon and deceive if it had been possible Christ himself when perceiving that all the literal Religion and legal worship of the Jewes would not hold him but lay short of his light he shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them the utmost creaturely perfection or natural glory which he was able to give the prospect and representation of in his own Angelical nature being of that highest rank of creatures in the whole first Creation and that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye saying All these will I give thee or make thee to live in if thou wilt fall down and worship me This temptation then which Christ resisted these seduced ones fall under and are snared and taken with to the making of them love and believe a lie and to yield up themselves in a fixednesse of service duty and love unto this false spirit as unto Christ the true Prophet And the better to induce them hereunto and strengthen them in the beliefe of a lie Satan in this his coming as an Angel of light is accompanied with power with signes and lying wonders acting the part of a great friend and favourer of all that is spiritual heavenly and high not opposing at all their having the understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge yea or their having of all faith to the working of miracles or removing of mountaines their speaking with the tongues of men and Angels but unto all these attainments he is conducing as much as in him lies in all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse to serve his designes by gaining the greater credit and authority hereby in their hearts and affections and so the more unperceivably beguiling and winding them over into the belief of a lie and that in a point of highest concernment unto them prevailing with them to receive him in their love and affection even that adulterous spirit and deceiver of the Nations in this his Angelical brightnesse instead of Christ himselfe THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH and SON OF THE LIVING GOD and that considered as shining forth in the glory of his SECOND COMING In consequence hereof he makes them to resigne up all the powers and operations of their minde absolutely into his hands in obedience to his dictates and inspirations upon which they hold themselves obliged to be alwayes waiting in the posture of passive silence in a Counterfeit imitation of the true conformity unto Christ in his death and resurrection So then by this meanes the Devill is found sitting in the Temple of God as God to the apprehension of those who thus possesse him or if you will whom he thus possesses as also to the imagination of others their deluded proselytes where he is opposing and Exalting himselfe above all that is called God And as in former times by JANNES and JAMBRES he withstood Moses through a lively and skilful imitation of his works and miracles so in the latter dayes by such instruments of his as these he shall resist the TRUTH to the causing of many to stumble and be offended thereat for the resemblance sake which this false spirit is able to forme of it Which false and counterfeit appearance of his as we have said the Scripture sets forth and describes under these two heads MORTIFICATION and VIVIFICATION with a Character of Condemnation upon them in the very description made of them Such mortification is spoken of 2 Tim 2. 17. in the case of HYMENEUS and PHILETUS whose word is there said to eate like a canker Intimating what kinde of mortification the word by them ministered did produce even such a one as is caused in the body by cancerous humors carrying certaine mortality in it if not timely prevented not being a mortification in order to health and life but unto unsoundnesse and death These teachers with their followers are men of corrupt and unchast mindes towards the true Lord and husband under all their abstinence and seeming mortification Againe 1 Tim. 4. 2. this mortification is called the searing of the conscience with a hot iron importing the dead and insensible frame which thereby is brought upon the minde to any other delight love or desire save only towards this false spirit with whom it is as it were bewitched to the contracting a spiritual benummednesse and coldnesse to all other lovers whatsoever to the world and all seen things or bodily objects answering unto the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of sensual life yea and also to Christ himself the true and living God so as to become past feeling in the case of any checks accusations or reproofs from the SPIRIT OF TRUTH in order to a totall and full resignation of themselves up to the dictates inspirations and commands of this false and seducing spirit In this sense and on this account we may finde men giving their bodies to be burned 1 Cor 13. 3. yielding up themselves to be deprived of all their natural or sensual comforts yea many times the most lawful of them thereby offering themselves up as in sacrifice unto these satanical flames wherein they are in danger to be everlastingly burning as in a fire that can never be quenched For this searing of their conscience as with a hot yron is but the first fruits in these SONS OF PERDITION of that resurrection into everlasting contempt designed unto such VESSELS OF DISHONOUR as on the other hand the true mortification and resigning up of the natural will and desire to Christ is the first fruits in the true SONS OF GOD of their resurrection into everlasting life This sinne of their under the Gospel as it is more spiritual seems to be pointed out to us by that sinne under the Law committed by those that offered up their children to Molech causing their sons and their daughters to passe through that material fire and to yield up their very bodies in the most literal outward sense and acceptation to be burned in
purity and simplicity through the actings and lustings of their owne wills till he fix them at last in an unchangeable defection from and enmity against God that created them and Christ that bought them We shall here therefore declare what effect the power of Satan hath in the renewed natural consciences of men causing them to deteine the truth manifested in them in unrighteousnesse and rendering them unworthy either of keeping the good they have or of receiving any further or gre 〈…〉 by the blood of Christ who hath more grace and mercy in store for those that approve themselves faithful in the lesser measures committed to them For such is the long-suffering and forbearance which by Christs ransome is procured from God on the behalf of fallen man that he will have none to perish for want of meanes to be saved but does so provide for them according to the state they are in that all may if they will be led unto repentance and come to the knowledge of the TRVTH which the witnesse of God set up in them faithfully hearkened to will enable them to feele after but when it so comes to passe that in stead hereof they do abuse this good will of God towards them and through the impenitency and hardnesse of their hearts go on to despise and neglect the grace tendered to them then does God think fit to reveale his wrath from heaven against such ungodly and unrighteous men that hold the truth of God in unrighteousnesse accounting them unworthy of more favour who under all their receivings of the witnesse of TRUTH declaring it self in the work of their consciences and the protection and encouragement which in the practice of and conformity unto the same is afforded to them in this state from the wholesome and good impressions of the holy Angels as the benefit of their Ministery and charge do despise all this already shewed them being willing to be hardened by Satan and bid defiance thereunto walking on in wayes of unrighteousnesse highly provoking and displeasing unto God notwithstanding all the faithful dictates inward motions of light and impressions in their owne minds and consciences to the contrary of which number are they of the Nations Kindreds and Tongues throughout the whole world whether acquainted with the holy Scriptures and things contained in them or not being such as live without Law and perish without Law who being founded upon the principles of right reason or the common enlightning work of God in the conscience according to the measure and degree received do refuse to reteine the Truth thus manifesting it self in them in a way of righteous and holy operations and walkings according to the rule of that first dispensation and as taking pleasure in the contrary and preferring before it the corrupt conversation of the old Adam consisting in vanity foolish uncleannesse and noisome lusts do prosecute the same with all greedinesse till they come to be wholly alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them and affected by them because of the blindness of their hearts rendering them at last past all sense and feeling of the evil they commit being given up by God to this uncleannesse of spirit through the lusts of their owne hearts as the due reward unto their wilful disobedience that as they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge but rather chose to break with God so also he held it just to break with them and give them over to a reprobate mind to do things that were not convenient and to be filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness becoming full of envie murder debate deceit malignity whisperers back-biters haters of God despightful proud boasters inventers of evil things disobedient to parents without understanding Covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgement of God by that self-evidencing TRUTH with which all are enlightned more or lesse that come into the world do most wickedly and profanely imprison the workings thereof suppresse slight and reject all its motions and counsels declaring to them continually that they that do such things are worthy of death and going on in opposition and defiance thereof not only to do the same things that bring downe finally the wrath of God but take pleasure in them that do them Under this head of openly prophane persons what multitudes of subjects unto himself as their Lord and Ruler does the Prince of the aire gaine who works in these children of disobedience carrying them captive unto his owne will to accomplish his designes and maintaine his quarrel against all shew and appearance of godlinesse even in the very forme of it as well as the power and to render them in this corrupt interest of theirs the more formidable he embodies them as it were in one corrupt love and desire filling them with one common spirit of uncleannesse alienation and enmity to the life of God and godlinesse in any kind which influences them in all their operations whether considered as private persons in their actings betweene man and man or as publick persons in their Ministery of Rule and Government over one another according to the various formes and administrations thereof under which through Gods providence they are placed and become related to all which conspiring as it were together in one spirit and combined in one corrupt interest are as a universal Dominion and Rule which the god of this world maintains greatens and manages against Christ and his spiritual seed considered either under the first or second Covenant as a distinct jurisdiction of his owne keeping all that are under him in this sense as much as lies in his power without all appearance or influence of any other God but himself So as they are properly described in the Scriptures to be such as live without hope and without God in the world Therefore it is that this corrupt interest and prophane spirit considered as dispersed through the Nations Kindreds People and Tongues in the whole world is called the beast Rev. 13. which John saw coming out of the sea foaming out its owne filth in a way of open profanenesse having seven heads and ten hornes and upon his hornes ten crownes and upon his heads the name of blaspemy or evil speaking against godlinesse in any kind unto whom the Dragon gives his power and seat and great authority that is does so influence and advantage them in all their actings of Magistracy in the capacity of publick Persons and Rulers in order to render and keep them subservient to this corrupt interest that he gives them all manner of prosperity and successe in the exercise of all power and tyranny to the greatning and advantaging of themselves in the things of this life and of their worldly being who finding and experiencing the sweet of this gaine do shew themselves obedient and faithful in all their actings to the interest of the god of this world which they serve and are
to the ripening of them unto perdition and final falling away from God NExt unto those we have described in the Chapter foregoing the Devil hath another sort of subjects as we have already shewed that escape this first snare and danger of being drawne aside and seduced unto prophane and unrighteous lustings and operations such who in that respect may have beene found exercisers of good conscience and to have walked therein with Paul having proceeded from under the first dispensation into the Rule and Dominion of the Law as owning themselves in a professed subjection and conformity thereunto that is to what is righteous holy spiritual and good in its nature and kind not only as it is within themselves but as they are made righteous in another terminating in the very knowledge of Jesus Christ himself according to the flesh by meanes whereof they come to escape the pollutions of the world and to be purged from their old sins but are still in a wavering unstable state so as to be capable of turning aside from the holy Commandment delivered unto them and to have a latter end worse then their beginning as by wilfull sinning after their receiving in this manner the knowledge of the truth they come to lose the benefit they once had of the sacrifice and blood of Christ as the atonement and propitiation for their sins through Gods forbearance towards them These do not as the former deteine the truth in unrighteousnesse or in opposition to righteous and holy operations but rather quite contrary deteine the spirit of falshood and deceit in and under all their righteous and holy actings making a faire shew in the flesh a long time to the deceiving both of themselves and others whilst as the Temple of God they suffer a false spirit to inhabit them in the roome of Christ and of God shewing himself to be God or personating the likenesse and similitude of God in and under which he opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God In these iniquity works not plainly and down-right as in the others but mysterously as lying under all manner of formes of godlinesse whatsoever from the most sensual and bodily to the most spiritual and Angelical discovering no opposition at first nor for a long time against godlinesle as it shines forth in the dresse of formes worldly rites and institutions that are legal or evangelical as to the letter of them and as it appears in the lowest or highest figures and similitudes of God that can be given by the tongue of men or Angels But they have a root of gall and bitternesse in and under all this springing up against godlinesse in the power of it and as in its perfection of beauty it begins to dawne and approach in the first fruits that the Saints enjoy by the Spirit of adoption which is to shine forth more brightly and fully at Christs second coming The coming of Satan into these is after he hath beene once cast out of them as a spirit of grosse and open uncleannesse Mat. 12. 43 c. by the power of Christs first appearance as the stronger then he who when he is thus cast out walks about in dry places seeking rest and finding none seeking a place where he may be fixed and sure to abide which he findes none so prepared to be as those who have beene once in a large and high manner enlightned and cleansed after all which they may so fall away that it may become impossible to renew them againe to repentance being such to whom there remaines no more sacrifice for sinne but a certaine fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devoure them into this house therefore whence he was cast out he thinks it his best way to return and when he is returned into this his house againe he finds it to be for his purpose as that wherein he may rest undiscerned and unsuspected being empty swept and garnished and then he goeth and taketh seven other spirits more wicked then himselfe more fierce cruel and full of rage against the power of godlinesse and they enter in and dwell there as in their resting place out of which they shall never be driven or ejected more Of this number are all Hypocrites and Apostates all that receive the grace of God in vaine who though they have both faith and a good conscience yet not such as will abide triall or can be held by them without wavering and therefore such as at last will faile and come to shipwrack in a storme being but as the house built on the sand These are they that begin well Start at entrance into the race set before them with the true Saint running well a good while in the same going together to the fleshly Tabernacle of Christ or house of God as friends as appears by that last plea of theirs where they say Lord Lord have not we eaten and drunk in thy presence propresied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and done many wonderful works yet at last they go forth from the true Saints because they were never of them as to the divine birth and spiritual seed having never beene made partakers of the divine nature as the true heirs of God according to the promise are in pursuance of the great and precious promises declared in the New and everlasting Covenant to the cleansing them from all filthinesse of spirit as well as of the flesh which the other came short of having had only a cleansing or washing away of the filth of the flesh Neverthelesse through such cleansing only and washing away of the filthinesse of the flesh they gaine the appearance visibility and reputation of the right Saints in the judgement of mans day or of such professors 2 Cor. 10 12. who measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves are not wise but though Virgins as cleansed from the filth of the flesh yet prove at last but foolish Virgins having oile in their lamps but none in their vessels holding all the grace and receivings of light from Christ upon a fading tenure which will not endure nor hold out to the end in time of greatest need even at the bridegroomes second appearance who are therefore distinguished in the seven Churches mentioned in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation from those that overcome as the true heirs do who are therefore made pillars in the house of God never to go forth more whereas these that made up a considerable party in every one of those seven Churches were such from whom the Candlestick might be removed and whose names might be blotted out of that life they in the BEGINNING received These therefore are Christs excommunicated ones the branches that have beene once in the Vine and have partaken with the good Olive-tree in its fatnesse but afterwards have proved to be such branches as were fit to be cut off prepared by their great and high illumination for the
same heightning and purity which other parts of the Creation shall arrive unto through the general restitution of all things Magistracie it self as ranked among the rest is proportionably to receive For brasse sayes he I will bring gold and for yron I will bring silver and for wood brasse and for stones yron I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors righteousnesse Violence shall be heard no more in thy land wasting nor destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise This restauration seemes to hold proportion with the degenerating of Magistracie figured out in Nebuchadnezzars Image Dan. 2. 32 33. Whose head was of fine gold his armes and breast of silver his belly and thighs of brasse his legges of yron his feet part of yron and part of clay which when it shall be sunk downe into this its lowest and most corrupted state is to receive a change wherein it shall be raised up to its primitive height and glory We are then from hence to be assured that Magistracie had a primitive patterne and Rule unto which Isa 1. 26. referres which though as to the practice of it it will hardly be found yet hereof the judicials of Moses were a shadow and type as through which did shine forth a Magistracie yet in promise in the man Christ Jesus which Moses beheld as the true Original in the Mount when he received the command to see that he made all things according to the patterne shewed him in the Mount and who saith of Christ Deut. 18. 15 18. A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear which compared with Isa 32. 12. shewes that this Prophet is also a King in the sense now spoken of where 't is said Behold a King shall reigne in righteousness and Princes shall Rule in judgement and a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and the shadow of a rock in a weary land So then faith sees or may see an image and Rule in Christ by whom Kings Rule and Princes decree justice unto which Magistracie it-self in its Primitive institution and right exercise is or ought to be conformed the knowledge of which truth was powerfully set upon Davids spirit enabling him Prophetically to describe it 2 Sam. 23. 3 4 5 6 7. saying He that rules ever men must be just ruling in the feare of God and he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sunne riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grasse springing out of theearth by cleare shining after raine Which though David did not fully experience in his personal administration of this rule which was in him as in the type nor yet could find it like to be in his house as to the fleshly seed yet he foresaw it and accordingly prophesied of it as a thing to come by the exercise and administration thereof in the hand of Christ and his people in the latter dayes and so first describes wherein Magistracie consists as considered in the purity of its institution and the right exercise thereof when he saith He that rules over men must be JVST ruling in the fear of God and secondly when he shewes also the use which Christ will make of it when it shall by him be brought into practice according to its first patterne even for the thrusting away of all the sonnes of Belial as so many thornes that have laine goading in the sides of Gods suffering Saints for a long time which cannot be taken with hands but the man invested with this Magistracie and power shall be able to touch and subdue them as fenced with this rod of iron and staffe of a speare and they shall be burnt also with fire in the same place The fire that comes forth out of the mouth of Gods witnesses shall also slay them as concurring with this sword to the utter destruction of all Gods enemies As a true result then arising out of this Scripture it doth appear First that there is a rule over men which is Gods Ordinance capable to be brought into its exercise and practice amongst them according to the purity of its institution which being called a Rule over men and not in them signifies that the exercise thereof refers to the outward man or outward concernes of men in their bodily converse in this world Secondly that he that is to be in this power as qualified to exercise this Rule is man first Christ himself as he is the Son of man and then the Saints as gathered into one glorified body with him But this will be only at the time of Christs second coming Neverthelesse man in his earthly state as the figure and type of this is and hath beene qualified for the exercise of Magistracy from the beginning to the end of the world which seemes to be as one of the pillars whereby Christ bears up the World through the vertue of his blood when otherwise by the fall the earth and all the inhabitants thereof had beene dissolved and run into confusion Psal 75. 3. keeping this promotion at his owne disposal so as ver 6 7. It cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth downe one and setteth up another in the variety of formes and administrations wherein it is and hath beene exercised in all ages throughout the whole world And as the meanes of qualifying men hereunto Christ hath beene keeping up his witnesse even the fear of the Lord in the consciences of men under the threefold Government and Rule which he sets up in them which he preserves as a distinct jurisdiction from the outward exercise of Rule by man but as conducing to the better managing and carrying on of that outward Government in the hands of men For when the Scripture saith that the Rule of Magistracy is over men we are to understand by this terme the proper sphere bounds and limits of that office which is not to intrude it self into the office and proper concernes of Christs inward Government and rule in the conscience at large before discoursed by us but is to content it self with the outward man and to intermeddle with the concernes thereof in reference to the converse which man ought to have with man upon the grounds of natural just and right in things appertaining to this life wherein the Magistrate or higher power is not only the proper Judge but hath the right of coercion thereunto if not obeyed And the more illuminated the Magistrates conscience and judgement is as to natural justice and right by the knowledge of God and communications of light from Christ under any of the three dispensations before mentioned the better qualified is he to execute his office and the more accountable he is to God and man in default thereof So in
threatned with destruction the Mystical earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church under the Gentiles is therein comprehended and also meant as that which shall at the end of the world and in the last times be found in a most corrupted declined estate of Apostasie 2 Thes 2. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. unto which therefore several characters and signes are appropriated that cannot be understood to be accomplished at the destroying of the material Temple and outward Jerusalem but are necessarily to be meant of this Mystical one as the Heavens that are remaining to be shaken yet once more Heb. 12. signifying the removing of those things that may be shaken as of things that are made that those things that cannot be shaken may remaine This Mystical earthly Ierusalem is that which shall not have one stone left upon another as well as the other Typical Ierusalem not so much as any visibility or forme of worship shall be left to her but she shall be given to the Gentiles or prophane world who shall tread this holy City under foot fourty and two moneths And to make this hour and power of darknesse the more terrible there shall be warres and rumours of warres Nation shall rise up against Nation and Kingdome against Kingdome and there shall be Famines and Pestilences and Earthquakes in divers places yea all these things shall be but the beginning of sorrows For as thus warres and troubles and sorrowes shall be in reference to the outward man so also deceit and errour by false Prophets and false Christs shall arise causing much defilement in reference to the inner man whence will flow great declinings and apostasies from holy and righteous principles for saking of the truth or a waxing cold in the love of it amongst the inhabitants of this Mystical earthly Ierusalem and not only so but there will spring up a root of bitternesse and an implacable persecuting spirit against the faithful WITNESSES of Christ that shall in those dayes be found in her to the afflicting killing or flaying of them and letting their dead bodies lie unburied in the street of this great City which the Nations shall come and destroy for all her whoredomes and apostasies as they did the literal Ierusalem God putting it into their hearts to agree together and burne this Whore with fire And then they themselves that are thus made the rod of Gods anger and executioners of his vengeance on this great City shall not escape but Zach. 14. 3. The Lord shall go forth and fight against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battel For a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour ver 13. So Mat. 24. 29 30. Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sunne be darkned and the Moone shall not give her light and the Starres shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken And then shall appeare the signe of the Sonne of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourne and they shall see the Sonne of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory actually entering upon the exercise of his Kingdome and this First by sending forth his Angels and gathering together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other as into one glorified body with himself to the constituting of this GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the FIRST-BORNE which shall be made up partly of those the Lord brings with him and partly of those which shall be found alive and remaing unto the coming of the Lord or shall be in the natural body during the thousand years all which shal be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye by way of translation as it was with Enoch and not see death Whereby their mortal shall put on immortality and their corruptible shall put on incorruption and death and the grave shall be swallowed up in victory The first in order then which Christ quickens at his coming shall be his own Mystical dead body for the dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes 4. 16. that is those that have beene slaine and have born the marks of the dyings of Jesus upon them who are called Rev. 20. the souls of them that were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus and for the WORD of God who all of them at this time through the quickning power of their Head shall live and reigne with him the first-fruits who hath already for a long time beene living and reigning at Gods right hand as it is written 1 Cor. 15. Every man in his owne order Christ the first-fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming whom he builds or raises up with himself into one spiritual and glorified body v. 44. causing them thereby to bear the image of the heavenly and last Adam as they have borne the image of the earthy or first Adam and this in the utmost perfection thereof as arrived to the measure of the stature of that fulnesse and perfection which declares and manifests it self in Christs heavenly manhood enabled to exercise in copartnership with him the power and glory of a threefold humane life and perfection in which he went before them First when upon the laying down of his natural body he came into the exercise of a life proper to the spirit of a just man made perfect in likenesse and equality with that of the holy Angels who stand in a superiority of life unto the earthly man even of Christ himself Heb. 2. 9. Secondly when he also came forth in the exercise of a humane bodily life raised up in a glorified and incorruptible forme never to die more Rev. 1. 18. in which he conversed with men the fourty dayes betweene his resurrection and ascension Thirdly when yet farther he came forth in the exercise of a divine humane life in which ascending to his God and their God to his Father and their Father he was exalted into a unity and copartnership in life and operation with the ROOT OF DAVID the WORD OF LIFE the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead This is spoken of as the fruit also of his resurrection from the dead Ephes 1. ver 20 21. When through the mightinesse of Gods power that wrought in him he was raised from the dead and set at Gods owne right hand in the Heavenly or in the first and Heavenly Tabernacle that is set up in the WORD treated on by us in the first Chapter farre above all prin ipality and power and might and Dominion and every name or particular nature and being not only in this world but also in that which is to come In which life ver 22. 't is said that to the humane nature of Christ it is given to be the Head over all things or