of them when indeed they are but a Testimony or a Record to set forth in a Mystery what Eternall life is And because the Scriptures say that weary soules are to come to Christ for ease and Rest therefore every soul who in his own fancy and imaginations doth judge himself to be weary may come to Christ and so by his being weary there is way opened for his coming to him For First It may be the heart may be weary of sin because it brings judgement or condemnation Or Secondly It may be weary because of his long travel to and waiting for Christ Thirdly It may be weary because it can no longer abide in these dispensations of Gods leading Fourthly It may be weary because God comes not in his time and reward it for its breathing after and working to attaine God or Christ Now the soul being falsly led out by his owne heart hee instead of coming to Christ onely Rests upon his bare apprehension of this in the letter from his sutability to it in his own spirit and here he feeds and remaines with ease comfort and peace in his own spirit and this hee makes his Tabernacle Though it be true that Scriptures were given to be a visible testimony or declaration of God or Christ according to which God workes in man yet they were never given to bee an inward Testimony or a Rest unto man but the Truth of the letter must be both Revealed Known and Judged of by the Spirit and not the Spirit especially in Internals by the Externall letter neither qualifications in man sutable to the letter in mans apprehension is a ground of faith or Rest without an inward Testimony and Manifestation by the Spirit of the Truth of these qualifications The Eleventh false Rest THE next Rest in order to this upon which men Center their spirits and makes their Tabernacles is the use and applycation of the conceived and imagined extent of Christs death which being so fully declared in the letter without any more they beleeve it upon this Testimony and here is the ground of their joy peace assurance and Rest Now I shall not go about to speake evil of any point of judgement in reference to any particular factions but to come to lay open my own experience and false Rests which in so doing I may come to lay open a way whereby those that are led by the same deceite may come to see it in themselves and so may from sad experience seale to the Truth of what we are saying for many who have gone through this dispensation and have beleeved this to be a Truth when now alas they see that they were both ignorant of what this Christ was or what was meant by his death wanting the knowledge of it in themselves now the terrours of death have or doe sease upon them and instead of being joy and peace unto them it hath produced death and sorrow in them But first of all This soul who is thus Resting upon Christs dying for all he sees the Scriptures saith Hee gave himself a ransome for all The conclusion is this of such a spirit If for all then for me and this he beleeves and this saith hee is the ground of true faith when he is altogether decived For the ground of faith is something out of the Creature in God before time revealed and made manifest from God to the soule in time upon which the soule builds his faith Rests upon it and is kept unto all time in the glory and splendor of it but the soul wanting this in a particular way of discovery he makes the other the ground of his confidence for refreshment peace safety and happinesse and he concludes First That no true faith can be but this Secondly that none have any ground to beleeve but upon this ground When the poor heart is altogether ignorant in his owne breast of the manner of Gods coming to reveale Truth yea himself in his Son by his Spirit whereas now mans ground of his happinesse lyes not in a misunderstood Scripture without him but in a right discerned revealed and known God within him Thirdly This soul daily encreaseth in the assurance of this his Rest by his daily study paines and diligence wherein he fils his head with so much of the Scriptures as indeed hee makes it so glorious as it Conquers his spirits and many more into a follacing himself in this very particular when indeed he is missing the cheesest good which is the life of him who puts an end of all controversy to all such disputes when he comes to appear in the Spirit But alas before no marvell though the poore soule bee running from mountaine to hill though hee forgets him who is the Resting place of Zion Therefore Soule Thou that makest thy habitation amongst the briers and thornes and barren mountains Arise these are not thy Rest they are from a corrupted judgement and therefore are corrupted and if thou stay here they shall destroy thee with an utter destruction all are not proper Rests which are dispensations and manners of Gods leadings but the pure promise of Rest is neither in any thing before in Death and Resurrection but in the ascendings of the heart and spirit of a Creature into God by the descendings of God into the Creature which did raise him from death and the grave and now hath opened the Heavens to him by receiving of him into glory for as Christ did not make his Rest and abode in any carnall or fleshly dispensation though in the same he did enjoy the Father so no heart is to make that his Rest which Christ did not make Every heart so long as it lives below the glory of God so as it is not glorified with God is a heart centring himselfe in a dispensation which shall be dissolved For both man in the dispensation of Christ in the flesh or in a crucified buried or raised Soule is not to abide but in a glorified ascended soule into God where the life is the unchangeable glory and splendor of God dwelling in man glorifying of man in which is the life and center of man truly and unchangeably centred The Twelfth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is a closing with and drawing comfort from the promises expressed in the Letter of the Scriptures This closing thus with and applying the benefit of promises the whole life center comfort cause of joy peace duties diligence what not to many a soule and from hence when many comes to declare their manifestation of God all they have to say is at such a time a promise was made forth unto them or cast into their thoughts by which they apprehend God and closed with it and from thence did draw comfort and peace from it and this is all the experience of God that is manifested to them or that they have This causes abundance of Rest and security to many a heart and luls them a sleep which is
forme but shall appeare alwaies in the same glory in and to the spirit of such a Creature So that what changeable forme God is pleased to appeare in to us is to be no Rest or habitation of us but to be led into higher enjoyments or after higher enjoyments of God by the fight and appearance of him though in a low or very meane manner in the form discovered For the end partly why Christ appeared in divers formes to his Apostles and so to many now is because he would not have any Rest in or upon his forme or appearance but that they might be as he was dying to all these and waiting for his ascending into God where he might be for ever swallowed up with the light and glory of God and there to make his and all Saints habitation and Rest The fifteenth false Rest THe next Rest which I shall speak of is The Gospel Faith of Jesus Christ as men cals it which indeed hath some ground of Rest both from Scripture and reason as they thinke Men in our daies have given distinctions of Faith as namely Historicall Temporall and Saving But leaving the two former I come to the latter and shall un bosome my sad experience of deceit in the same 1. Concerning this Saving Gospell Faith I owne their is a Faith which in Scripture is termed Saving yet that which men cals both beleeving and saving I finde not to be so And first of all men cals true Faith A dependance upon Christ or beleeving Christ dyed for them according to the Scripture Now Faith is neither a dependancy upon Christ or beleeving according to our common exposition that Christ dyed for us these if they be so in the heart as a Creature doth conceive yet they are but the effects and fruits of Faith in its spirituall act upon or towards God but this many make their Rest and shelter that if they can but beleeve Christ dyed for them at Jerusalem and that thus beleeving they can goe out of themselves that is onely deny their own righteousnesse and beleeve that Christ is theirs and that he dyed for them this is a Rest sufficient when indeed the poore heart is both ignorant what Faith is and what going out of himselfe is For never can a creature go out of himself to Christ or God before there be a cleere manifestation of God in the heart Now the Creature who is thus Resting upon his beleeving in Christ is altogether ignorant of any manifestation of God to him or in him For Faith is a supernaturall and divine light of God communicated to the soule by the Spirit of God which after this manifestation of light the creature comes to see and behold the glory of God by which Faith he is made to beleeve yea which beleeving is an effect or act of the said Faith upon or towards the same God which is revealed Now in the first place Beleeving is not Faith but an effect thereof Secondly Beleeying is an act of God in us to himselfes and so no Rest Thirdly Nothing which flowes forth from man to God is to be a Rest No act whatsoever is to be a Rest as it is purely exercised in man though of God but mans Rest is to be One who acts all in man who is God Many men are thinking highly of themselves because the Scriptures declare a Christ crucified for man and they are made to beleeve he was so for them and so are made to deny their own workes of doings and to depend onely upon this Christ â— which indeed the poor hearts be ignorant of and know him not neither have any manifestation of Jesus Christ in them in any particular way but onely from their own imaginations and fancies they still confidently beleeve that this Christ is theirs and he dyed for them and here they Rest and make their habitation concluding this to be Faith and the knowledge of Christ which indeed if such a Spirit knew what Faith were or the knowledge of Christ were this would be dissolved if not destroyed and it would finde it's faith and knowledge to be an un-sound and nn-safe Rest to be centred upon So that I say that that is not Faith or beleeving which men so cals and if so it were no ground to Rest upon For In the first place A man must truly know within himselfe what Faith is before man can truely beleeve Secondly Hee must also know what this Christ is he beleeves in before he can depend upon him and beleeve truly in him Thirdly There must be a cleare manifestation of God or Christ in man before there can bee any true knowledge particularly of him by man Fourthly Christs dying at Jerusalem shall then bee known to the heart in a more spirituall manner then ever And the workings of that death shall be found in that heart to bee such as formerly it did not conceive of Fiftly He shall know that dependency upon Christ and his former beleeving in Christ the truth of which he hath formerly tryed by visible signes and marks is now made to be a fancy not Faith and an effect of darknesse not of light And now he findes another dependency and beleeving in him flowing from another ground then before he knew and that the matter hee Rested upon in his own imagination which he before called a Christ dying for him is now changed being it was but his carnall conceptions and fleshly teachings and actings and now he is made to see the spirituall sense and so to judge of the truth of an ever dying yet ever living transfigured glorified Christ so as now he is making his habitation not amongst the beasts of the field in his former fancies and fleshly teachings but in the spirituall heavens where lives all Just men made perfect and all perfect men made to live by or in the life of God or Christ so as he is changed into glory and his Rest is made glorious Sixtly When this is come to passe men shall know really the Mystery of Faith and why it is called a Mystery and that same spirit shall know a difference betwixt the Mystery of Faith discovered to the Conscience coming as it were from God and the keeping and exercising of the Mystery of that Faith in a pure Conscience to God and that beleeving is not Faith as it purely comes from God discovering it selfe and the Mystery thereof to the Conscience But it is the exercise of that said Mystery of Faith by God in Conscience to God So that the Mystery of faith in it selfe is one thing and beleeving and dependency upon Christ if true is another thing But the effect or exercise of the Mysteriousnesse of faith in a conscience which is pure to or upon a God that is pure Seventhly Men may beleeve Christ died for them and from this beleeving may practise such things as are required by him yea may have much peace joy in the same And in this his own works
a poor Rest yet thus it is men by abundance of paines and diligence in the Scriptures and in books doe get abundance of knowledge and after it is gotten they Rest upon the same as though it were to enjoy the manifestation of God to enjoy much knowledge here they abuse a dispensation of God and transform it into another use then ever God ordained it for So that though a man have never so much knowledge yet though his knowledge be according to or attained in the Scriptures if he Rest there before he hath got it in the heart by experience as he hath got it in the head for discourse his Rest is much below the substance of Truth For no man is to Rest in any thing without him so known untill it be within him and then he Rests not in God because declared in Scripture but upon God because revealed and experienced in him and so is fully known by him The third way whereby this Knowledge comes to be attained is from the declarings of the experiences of others he by the same stores himself with points of experience as well as points of Judgement and here he can speak all manner of Languages as well as those that enjoy truth in them so that he can speak of points of judgement with those that are for that discourse and points of experience with those that are for that having a form of both in his understanding and from that is able to make out himself as those who sweetly in the power of Truth enjoy God But for this latter he hath but stolne the word from his Neighbour hee hath got his experience to discourse of And this is the great deceit of mens spirits in our daies for when they hear of a precious high Truth of God which they never heard of before they eyther oppose it or else they get the form of it into their notion or understanding and the next upportunity they have they declare it â—â— their own whereas though they were convinced of the truth of it yet they were to waite for the enjoyment of the power of it in themselves and that it might be sealed by the Spirit in them 1 Cor. 4. 19 20. But many conceive if they can but remember a truth though they have it not in the power of it in themselves that the very believing of it and assenting to it is the experience of it And these are those who have a form of God or the truth in their understandings and wanâ— the power of that truth in their Spirits Amd so many a soul Rests in this very part of knowledge Now the Reasons of a soules resting here are partly these following First From a Comparison made in his own spirit with others that are in lower dispensations or weaker in knowledge or discourse then himself but especially Professors who live in high thoughts of their estates and he thus comparing his condition with theirs and seeing it so far excell theirs makes his conclusion If their condition be happy then mine is much more in respect of what I have enjoyed more then they I am not any way inferiour to any almost surely I am in a happy estate if any The second Reason followes from the high estimation others have of him especially men of the rarest abilities and solidest judgements and this addes fuel to his fire of conceipt and makes his Rest the more glorious And this is the reason that if at any time the approbation of those cease to be what it was that it occasions much distraction and want of peace within himselfe for when part of a mans cause of Rest and peace is taken away no marvell then if part of his Rest and peace go along with it Whereas he that Rests in God is freed in the Spirit and is as Mount Zion which can not be moved Psalm 125. 2. Let mans apprehensions cease or encrease he is not lifted up by the one or cast down by the other but he hath a continuall testimony within himself which abides for ever The third Cause or Reason of his Resting vpon the gifts of knowledge is from want of a right information of judgement in the difference betwixt a form of truth in the understanding and the power of truth in the heart not opposite to the other for though mans knowing God in generall or from heresay be a dispensation of God and good in its place yet it is not to be Rested upon as though the soule had in this a reall enjoyment of God Now a man may know a thing in generall and may believe in it assent to it and obey it and make a large profession of it yet if he enjoy not God in that very thing it is but a dispensation below the power of Truth So that we see here that men may get things into the head before they be in the life and power of them in the heart which if Rested upon brings with it a dangerous consequence As 1. It is the way to a high security and such a security being but carnall as is not without ground It is the way in the second place to a self-glorying and creature exalting and to the displacing of God Thirdly It is the way to fall into all manner of loosnesse under pretence of freedome and knowledge of truth and that it is no sinne though it doe this or that For no marvel when a man hath no more then a form of God in the head and wants the power of God in the heart then that soul fals into a carnall loosnesse whereby truth is evil spoken of and the party thus doing justifying his action by his hardnesse of spirit which by it he is brought into And this is the reason why many when they have received high notions do hold them forth do walk very unlike Truth is because they have it but in the head and want the power of it in the heart They have it from others or some other way and not from God and so they cannot stand in the day of temptation and so return like a Sowe to the wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 22. Again a Soul is further established in this condition from the dayly growth and encrease in knowledge he daily growing in knowledge is daily more established on his own bottomes though not so thought by himself This daily encrease of knowledge in himself the benefit that sometimes is redounded to others by that doth encrease the flame and addes fuel to the fire of this false Rest The second excellent Part or Gift upon which men Rest is Prayer and this is made an Idol of by such parties who Rest upon it But first of all when a man sets his face towards God it would gladly pray but wanting this proper Gift it useth formes but after it sees the vanity of that dispensation and the emptines of it it now would gladly pray in the Spirit and continually is complaining for want of matter
break my heart It may be so and not so but though it be God discovering yet it is no ground for any soul to Rest satisfied with or to be an evidence of reall enjoying of God because that it is a dispensation which passeth away when a higher dispensation of God appeares then would mans Rest be disolved and not bee an everlasting Rest But Saints Rest is that which cannot be dissolved but it is an everlasting Rest to him that is Centred in it The Seventh false Rest THe next Rest is that which many live upon is the Notion of Free-grace though they have no manifestation of it in particuler to their own spirits and here the very apprehensions of it being formerly opposed by it now being convinced of the truth of the same not from any enjoyment or powring forth of the Spirit only he hath his understanding enlightened and his judgement convinced either by seeing it to be a truth in Scripture or from hearing it preached by others or from the undeniablenesse of the truth of it in it selfe he is made to assent unto it as a truth and never matters nor understands it must bee particularly witnessed to be his truth from the same Revealed within him But he not understanding this he sees now only the emptinesse of mans doing and the vanity of putting the creature to act to get Love or Life from God And so that only now all the creatures acting to God must be from Gods acting into the creature so that now he is an enemy to that before he wasa speciall friend of viz. his own righteousnesse and that he is now gon as far in an extreame on the other to Rest satisfied onely with a Notionary knowledge of this sayd truth Also he sees in this that nothing but a Christ can or will doe good to spirits and yet knows not this Christ within himself Now some times man only getting a Notion of this Truth in the head comes in the end to much loosness and fleshly walking 2. Gal. 17. and can put it off with a very fairer slight First God is free in his dispensation man can doe nothing unlesse power be given unto him I did such and such a particular because of the Woman that is by reason of such weaknesse I am yoked with all or if God did intend I should not have committed these sins he would have given me power against them and I shal admire free grace the more and I shall love the more the more is forgiven me So though he hath no manifestation of God at all for the pardon of sin yet he lives continually in this stream believing free grace is a Truth this is to have it manifest when the creature sinnes to beleeve it is freely pardoned upon the Cross when indeed now it sleeps in security and loosnesse And the reason partly of its loosnesse and yet of its security is First he hath got but the light of it that is to say such a light as doth discover a truth in this to him yet he wants the life and being of the thing made nanifest So it comes to passe he professes this particular yet he doth not possesse the same in the nature of it so he hath a name that he liveth and yet is dead so that he hath it in the head but wants it in the heart he hath got a form of it in his understanding whereby he can discourse of it and declare it to others yet he wants the power of this said truth in the heart within him and when a man hath the forme figure or likenesse of a thing and wants the power glory or being of the thing no marvel then if a soul in a time of straits come to fall short of what he doth prosesse in his practise he not being able to stand wanting the foundation that he should be formed upon and the power of the same which should keepe him upon that being or foundation Also it may be he hath this truth taught him by man and not from the teachings of God within Now grace in the heart appearing doth Teach man to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world But there is a cunning deceit in the heart that in some doth if possible can be prevent the same and it reasons thus I see this Truth is spoken against by most and that those that are for Free-grace are such men as walk very loosly and as soon as ever they believe this that they are no more like the men they were before but walke they care not how but saith the soule that would make it a peaceable and honourable Rest least they should say so of me I will walke alittle more wisely then they doe And here before men he walks very like Truth though there be a heart within him not upright in what he doth and partly it is to get a good name amongst men for such as walke loosly that profess God they are hardly esteemed of any the world hates them for their judgement the other cannot favour them for their loose practise Here they will labour to apply a remedy to this disease in reference to one pâ—rty and that is the Saints They will amongst Saints I say carry themselves like them and resemble them in their practise as the Magicians did Moses Yet this is not from a divine principle of love but for some other end or from another principle Againe Some walk like Truth because they make it a Testimony of Gods dwelling in them for saith the Scriptures He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked 1. John 2. 6. Now saith the creature if I should walk loosly it would appear to my selfe and all That God dwelt not in me but now by my outward and he thinks inward though he be deceived conformity to Truth I may make it an evidence of my dwelling in Truth and such a man as this must needs curb himself of those things that another swallows because it is his ground of peace and Rest Again A man may shun loosnesse that hath but the notions of free grace because it is the way to make Disciples and get the affections of men to applaude and admire what flowes from him so as he is mightilys esteemed yea instrumental to dispense those truth that dwell not in him so as it may bee hee is an instrument of begetting sons like unto himselfe that is to beleeve Free grace is a truth and to be convinced of it and despise working which is opposite to it and here they both sit down and Rest Not knowing the manner of Gods dealings with the creature which is most commonly to enlighten or convince man of a truth and set the heart a waiting for it before hee gives him an enjoyment of it As for instance He first convinceâ— man of a Divine fulnesse in God and a supply given from God to bee dispensed
by Christ to the sonnes of men wherupon the creatures spirit is set a waiting for it and at last comes to enjoy it So in Free grace when God represents this truth to let man see he is Free in all his dispensations man being thereby convinced of it his heart is set a waiting for the enjoyment of the same within him which he sees in God above him that is above his reach of enjoying and so he doth not let him Rest though he see a truth until he comes to have the manifestation of it within him and in the power and life of it enjoyed by him So as the generall knowledge of Free grace before it be known particularly in the creature by the manifestation of it from God will be no secure Rest or satisfaction for any soul First The creature in this condition may receive it with much joy as witnesse them Mat. 13. 20. yet be short of having the power This truth is very pleasant to many especially to those that have been the greatest workers for Grace whereupn their delight is much taken up either in hearing reading or discourse that tendeth to the declaring of this truth and it is a dispensation of God in some men but not a Rest unto them Now men who are made to Rest here may have high notions of this Truth and may be more able to speak of it then those who have enjoyed it in a geneâ—al manner but come to the particular workings of it in the soul and many proves shallow there only they declare it as they see it to be a Scripture truth But he that Enjoyes sees it to be an Experimentall and a Scripture Truth Now some men have learned what he beleeves and Rests upon it only from report or men declaring their experiences or what the Scripture doth relate of others but have not any Teachings of God what it saith according to the Scriptures in them by Experience And here sometimes man is not compleatly furnished to declare this Truth But one who doth enjoy Truth within doth a little discern where such a soul is to wit have heard and from hearing do declare and yet not brought into the Kingdome of Truth to see and experience it with in himself Further Man may daily increase in the Notionary knowledge of this Truth wherein he may appeare a Tall Cedar in his owne eyes and in the eyes of others and grow up into high Notions and Light and is able to speak of very high and glorious lights yet if he here Rest it may prove in conclusion but a feeding upon winde and husks Furthermore In this knowledge of Truth may man solace and refresh his spirits continually in the apprehension of the same and yet it is but seeming not reall satisfaction or refreshment if he there Rest trusting to it to be God himselfe for want of information of the difference betwixt what is a Truth in it selfe seen so by me and a Truth mine manifested within me not knowing the foot-steps of truth without man from the foot-steps of truth within man not knowing a difference betwixt the deceipt of the heart in its deceivable workings making glorious Rests of that which is none and Truth nakedly discovered from or by God in the heart with its End and Testimony so as the creature is not satisfied with any thing though it be a truth without him until he finde the very being of that Truth within him Therefore whosoever he bee that reads these few lines Let him beware of these things following First that he judge not that to be a place of Rest to his spirits which is but in shew not enjoyed in substance nor absolutly passe sentence of any thing untill there be a Divine light within which makes it manifest Yea though they may come so far as to be convinced of the truth of Free grace and of the transcendent Excellency of Christ in God yet Rest not until thou sinde it in thy soul manifest from God then shalt thonseal it to be a Truth yea thou shalt have it fealed up for Truths by the Spirit of GOD within thee Also to take notice I do not despise nor condemne this dispensation not to be of God first to see by Scriptures these to be Truths But I here labour to unbottom and to un-center any soule who meerly Rests in the Notion of them Thirdly To beware of condenming these things because they have no Experience of them or because they come nigh them or because if they be Truths they have nothing left them but waite untill they see a Light within to discover the truth or fallacy of them to them Jer. 17. 9. and if so be they see not the deceite of their hearts or those false Rests in them wee are speaking of yet do not condemn them who have both seen and known them as though they sought to destroy the foundation of God in Saints but looke upon me as one owning any dispensation of God in its place proper to it The Eight false Rest THE Next Rest we desire to speak of in order to this is the Knowledge of Christ in the flesh Either considered as he is declared in Types and Figures under the Law or as he assumed Nature upon him and so consequently dyed at Jerusalem Now for the first In reference to Types and Figures which at this time are the dispensation of Ordinances either practised before or since his Coming How many in our dayes are they that meerly Rests upon such shadows some practising of such Types as held-forth Christ to come some in those that were practised after his Coming and here they satisfie themselves As instance the cry of most Wee enjoy the pure Ordinances of Christ wee are Members of the Church of Christ we are partakers of those outward priviledges purchased by Christ Instance the peace and comfort they enjoy in them the glorying and the high conceite they have of themselves above others that do not practise with or enjoy them witnesse their deadnesse flatnesse when they want them and their life and peace in the enjoying of them witnesse their binding up in them and their whole Experience contained in this particular When I was imployed in such an Ordinance I was fil'd with joy or I was made to be satisfied with the seeing of God in it when the poor Creature it may be knowes not what God in all or any thing is but if it be enlarged or have some particular â—â—shes of comfort it makes that to bee the presence of God and meerly under these fleshly practises or carnall relations do many Rest satisfied But Secondly To Rest upon Christ come in the flesh is to Rest upon the beleeving the report the Scripture gives concerning him as being borne of a Virgin and suffering and being buried and the like and if they beleeve this and can but heare enough of the Letter preached to this purpose they Rest as beleeving such a particular to be true and
that is all that is required of them to salvation and indeed so it is and something more But Thirdly To Rest upon Christ come in the flesh is to beleeve from the Letter of the Scripture without any powerful manifestation of the spirit that this Christ who did according to Scripture dye at Jerusalem dyed for them And here many satisfie themselves with very high conceits of their condition and here alone men Rest upon the bare Figure As if men under the Law should have made Circumcision and the enjoying of Sacrifices in that common manner they were performed to be a ground of Rest and so contented themselves in the use thereof as conceiving themselves to be made happy by the Type and Figure and not by that which was Typified out in the same So concerning Christs dying at Jerusalem it was a Figure of the spirituall death of the creature with Christ and also of his resurrection Now when we come to be buried with him into his death Rom. 6. 4 5. and also come to be with him raised up from death that is into the clear enjoyments of God where we are made to live in the God-head from it living in us John 14. 17. then doe we fully understand and know this Christ and this eternall Life and not meerly for a man to conceive because the Sriptures doe declare that this Christ is come and the Creature assenting to the whole history and believing of it that this is the knowledge of Christ which is eternall life for unlesse the Creature know him so to be to him that is eternall life to him Col. 3. 3 4. that as the Scriptures do declare him so to be in the knowledge of him so the Creature findes it true within himselfe from the experience of him in his own soule his knowledge is but carnall not living spirituall knowledg for that man that Rests upon him as he is declared in Scripture before he be revealed within his soul both that mans Rest and knowledge is but carnall and fleshly for we see that all men almost in England or in any place where the Gospel is but published doe believe that he is crucified and is risen and this they know from the testimony of Scripture but doth every man know the minde and mystery of truth Doth God reveale it to every one Can any know the minde of God in these particulars either by the History or any other way but by the Spirit of God then it must he that before this Christ come to be spiritually known hee must be spiritually revealed within mans heart 1 Cor. 2. 10. Gal. 1. 16. So that to hear of a Christ and not to enjoy him from being revealed within is but very unfafe and unsound knowledge to Rest upon and that which brings not along with it eternall Life as witnesse 1 John 1. 1 2. He clearly expresses that this Christ which is eternall life was made manifest unto them and was their knowledge of from which knowledge they had fellowship and communion with him 1 John 1. 3. This knowledge is spirituall and according to Scripture spiritually revealed before it be truly and experimentally known now the Sriptures doe not reveale Christ within any man neither doe say the yto any particular soule thou such a one Christ died for thee but it is the same spirit which did declare the Scriptures which must reveal what this Christ is Secondly What the mystery of God in his so coming or what mystery God did hold out in the figure which was his fleshly coming too and for thee in particular And lastly Thou must doe as he did passe from death to life and after being buried with him before thou live in the Kingdome of heaven with him or indeed know what that Kingdome or place is which men carnally conceive to be above the Skyes though the spirituall knower of him knowes it in â—nother place Now what is it for a man to fill his head full of the history concerning the birth and death of Christ unlesse this Jesus a Saviour or this Christ which is the light and glory of God be discovered and revealed within him sutable to that precious Testimony of Pauls knowledge of this Christ Gal. 1. 16. where he speakes of this Christ to be revealed within him for Christ as he was in the flesh cannot be revealed but Christ as he is in the Spirit or Christ as he is the great design of God typified out in the flesh and revealed in the Spirit either as a light or as life or as he is the breath of God or as he is the clear manifestation of God wherein man comes to know him to be his Jesus that is his Saviour or inward deliverer or wherein man clearly beholds The Father in him and he in the Father John 24. 11. which cannot be discerned as he was in the flesh but as he is in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 8. that being a figure thereof wee see this knowledge the Apostles wanted when they said Lord shew us the Father John 14. 8. they having no more knowledge of Christ but as he was in the flesh they knew not that the Father was in him and he in the Father Iohn 14. 11. upon this knowledge were they Resting when they said Lord it is good for us to be here Mat. 17. 4. when they would have been making Tabernacles of Rest before Christ did transfigure himselfe within but Christ bids them Arise let us goe hence as if he should say This is not a proper Rest for you John 14. 31. It is a very low dispensation goe I will discover my glory to you by transfiguring my selfe within you then shall you see partly the mystery of my selfe then shall you more spiritually understand and know me And also sometimes the carnall and fleshly knowledge the Apostles had then put them upon carnall conceptions as in these phrases expressed When wilt thou restore the Kingdome to Israel And many more expressions as desiring fire might come from above where Christ tels them they knew not of what spirit they were the one place tels them they looked upon him as to be one who was to have a great power in the World namely To be an earthly King to live in outward pomp and glory the other doth signifie they understood not the great designe of God in his coming so as they in this dispensation were very low as many are in our daies and would gladly have been Resting in the knowledge they had which was Christ in the flesh that was known by them and declared and preached by them also but still they remaining under the clouds and ignorant of the mystery of Christ in reverence to his coming in the Spirit yet God was daily leading them to behold their ignorance and more into the Mystery of Jesus So that though men pretend to escape the common pollutions of the World by such a knowledge of Christ in the flesh yet it is not a
beware of as great an evill on the right hand as on the left and that is That they be not living upon an imaginary God and not the true for it is the way of the Creature to give so much way to his fancy and imagination that whatever it proposeth to be God it lives upon and rejoyceth in and brings the Soul into deep and carnall security with high imaginations of himself being able to apprehend and discourse of deepe and high things and yet want the life and power of any one of them 3. Beware of Judging if thou be broke off from formes those that thou hast left behinde thee in the use there of Confidering that God is in all formes of his own appoinment and that their dispensations may be of God and that they shall there abide but their appointed reason And therefore let thy carriage to them and thy judgement of them be as much as possible may be without offence unto them and for the winning of them and that when God sees a higher dispensation fit for them he will leade them into it only my soule desires they may not be so glued to them as to live in them and not to waite for a higher dispensation from God only in the want thereof they are in the use thereof God owning and appearing unto them in them so that I could wish the wisdome of God may appear so in the hearts of those who doe pretend thus high to live in God that it may truly appear to themselves and to others God led them into the same not themselves I have experienced both the contrary evils and therefore I speake so that if God be love as in his dispensation God is so to him that knowes it not then it must break forth from us if it be living in us to look upon children and babes with a tender eye and respect so as judgement may passe away and the spirit of burning which is Love may appear amongst us Thirdly As others are under mens Teachings so looke thou be under the Teachings of the Vision of God Heb. 2. 3. and that thou speake or pretend to enjoy no more then is taught within thee by the Vision of God for in the want thereof sad experiences testifies we Peecing and patching Religion and high notions together and make it their delight and joy Oh the teachings of God doe open the very heart and the secrets of the sealed Booke and beleeve it to live wholly above all in God It is to live such a transcendent life as is better and sooner spoken then enjoyed and known in truth for there must be such a death within men and a passing from death to lise by man that indeed men may hear of the thing and get it into their imaginations but to enjoy it in the true and reall manifestations thereof many in this shall in their conceits be brought to losse for to have the Scales of the Eternall brightnesse and glory of God opened in the appearance of the Vision in a mans heart to have the very splendor and glory of the divine Being Revealed within man and to be wholly caught up in the whole out of all things so as the soule is wholly swallowed up with God in all things so that now neither eye hath seen nor care hath heard neither by mans heart can be imagined the depths of the life glory and enjoyment of such a heart yet it is his common meate and teaching of the Spirit within him so that no manâ— teaching can reveal the life and center of such a heart but it is better experienced then can be declared it is so transcendent a life and being Yea further for any man to live so in God as he enjoyes God in all and seeth God the life and being of all yea it is not his judgement but hee findes all these things effectually within him For a man may be of the judgement concerning living wholly in God to be the onely Life and yet not to know this from the experience of the visions teaching within himselfe Now it is no benefit for any to be of this and that judgement unlesse he live in the clear enjoyment of the truth he is convinced of in his judgement and understanding here is the glory of a Saint indeed not to know a truth because it is the judgement of any neither because it is his own judgement but that he have within him the truth teaching of it to him from the life and power of it in him So he knowes the Sun to be the Sun not from hear-saies but he seeth the life and glory of it having his eyes opened to behold it and findes by experience the heat and powerfull operation of the same upon him as well as upon the earth So with Saints they doe not receive their Life Light or experience of God living in a Saint from hearing of it but God breakes forth in their spirit and so gives them the fight of the glory light and splendor of God within themselves So soule beware thou be not overcome so with hear-saies as to rest satisfied with the meer notion of God and truths and yet be at this time but a blazing starre who shall fall and cease to be what thou at present both to thy selfe and others seems to be onely for a time thou may by this notionary light in thy understanding and judgement be a blazing star to discover what thou hast for the deceit of thy self and others and yet it is not the light of the being of truth in thee but a borrowed light got from others or in thy imagination or conception which shall suddenly perish and then thou shalt be left in the dark as a man in the Clouds reserved for the great day Oh to be Taught of God is a Jewel it will teach Truth and not lye Therefore in the last place It is worth waiting for though thou waite in silence and in death untill thou do enjoy it lest thou pretend to have that thou hast not and to enjoy that thou enjoyest not for in so doing thou shalt go with a lye in thy Right hand and shelter thy self under vanity and lyes Yet I would not be mistaken that either I am against formes in their time and place and manner neither that I deny that a soul may attaine to such a glorious enjoyment of God as must yea all formes and shadowes may flye away and be dissolved though not destroyed and the person forme and use thereof shall be swallowed up with glory But I defire to compose the great difference that lyes in mens attainments when they all cannot speake one thing or enjoy God in one dispensation then they fall one condemning another â—o as they cannot make out for good of each other that which they enjoy of God in their present dispensations Secondly To unbottom the one of Resting in and living upon or making his everlasting Tabernacle in those Shadowes and the
WG THE SAINTS TRAVEL TO THE LAND OF CANAAN WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED Seventeen false Rests below the spirituall Coming of Christ in the Saints Together with a brief Discovery of what the Coming of Christ in the spirit is who is the alone Rest and Center of Spirits By R. WILKINSON A Member of the Army Arise yee and depart for this is not your Rest because it is poluted it shall destroy you with a sore destruction Mic. 2. 10. There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God Heb. 4. 9. London printed for Giles Calvert at the black spread-Eagle at the west end of Pauls 1648. To the Reader FRIEND and Christian Reader It is the property of Divine truth after it is manifest in the spirit to inflame a soule with it and to swallow up the spirit in the glory of it so as it is as impossible for a soul to enjoy Truth and not to declare it as for a man to carry fire in his bosome or mouth and not be burned Saints are mightily constrained after they enjoy Truth from the fire of Love to declare it Now I having had sad experience of the waies of my own heart how I have constantly Rested below God and so have fallen short of his glory This being my condition for a long time though in every particular seeming to me to be God and of God and in it my condition happy where I was continually running from mauntain to hill because I knew not the true Rest But at last it pleased the Father of spirits to reveal himself and by the same to make them manifest Whereupon I have had much wrastlings in my own spirit about putting the same out to publique view but at last was forced to break through much opposition in my own heart and to put it out in this imperfect Form That if it be the wisdome of God in the same others by mee may learn to beware yet I would not have been without the experience of the same seeing it is the will of God now to dissolve it Wherefore Christian Reader I shall commend these ensuing particulars to thee and thee to the wisdome of the Spirit whereby thou mayest judge of the same in love First If thou canst close with the substance of my discourse and after finding some circumstances which are either contrary to thee or obstructive to thy principles yet do not fly out into bitternesse of spirit against what thou judgest truth neither against that which thou judgest no truth but receive the one and let the other alone until God reveale the same unto thee lest thou bee found calling light darknesse and darknes light and speaking evil of things thou knowest not but in meeknesse judge and Rest Secondly If thou hast not passed through these or all these Rests or Dispensations or hast not as yet attained to many things herein expressed yet let them have thy charitable thoughts and do not as the most do fly out against them as Errors because they are not either within their reach as to high for them or because they are contrary to their present principles and so would unbottom them or because they are not according to what they have been taught or is experienced in them But judge of them in love and where any thing is above thy experience I wish thou mayest be silent in it and waite to know it if it bee of God and if it be to low for thee let it receive encouragement from thee as thou hast passed to thy estate through these Administrations Thirdly Christian Reader passe by any infirmity thou seest either in expression forme or method look upon them to bee a discourse of experience more to edify then to please the fancy by curiosity of words in mans wisdome 1 Cor. 2. 4. Fourthly Do not judge me to deny any thing which I do not here affirme because I am speaking spirituall things within But look upon it as a spirituall and inward discourse holding out the two great Mysteries viz. The Mystery of Christ made manifest in the Spirit within man and the Mystery of the creature to himselfe Do not think I am going about to destroy the low workings of God I am not Neither be much daunted if God hereby lets thee behold the face of self and false Rests so as it brings thee to a losse But believe it thy greatest losse may in time become thy greatest gain For that which moves mee to write these few lines is that if it be the will of God Creatures may see the many false waies and Rests below God That Creatures may not live short of his glory as I have done Therefore I shall desire that I may not be mistaken either in my intentions or expressions and therefore shall commend this farther to the Reader First To take off a scruple which may lye upon many whether I do deny these seventeene Rests to be dispensations of God and the way God leades men into their spirituall Rest which is Christs Coming in the Spirit That I may cleare this and make farther way I acknowledge it is Gods way to lead Creatures through these particulars But the corruption of selfe and the deceiveablenesse thereof will-resemble the leadings of God and so will labour to live and keep the soul to Rest short of God and man in going after the waies of his own heart may seem to be led by God But in these particulars I labour to drive on two things The first to discover unto men what the way of mans heart is when it will deceive and what glory it will appear to the Creature in untill God undeceive it so that I am first to undeceive Creatures in their unsound confidence concluding their estates to be so high that they are at Rest in God when they are covered with a covering but not of the Spirit And though the heart bee putting God in the forefront of its actings yet it is but Jehues deceite and treachery of spirit Secondly I labour to un-deceive it that though it hath attained any or all these seventeen and have not had an appearance of Christ spiritually in them so that they know when and how and what Christ infallibly was that still that soule is but yet in a changeable condition And it may as well be Satans transformings in him as any dispensation of God to him and to let the Creature know that though he have passed through all this yet he wants one thing to be his Rest and Center which when it comes will discover the truth of all these Dispensations and if they be of God they shall be dissolved if they be of self or Satan they shall be destroyed So that to unbottom Creatures That they live not upon vanity and lyes and that they may not Rest before the true appearance of Christ in the Spirit I have set forth these imperfect lines Farther I would not have any think that I deny Scriptures Ordinances Christs coming in the flesh
bring nothing but death and sorrow to the creature in due time When man kindles a fire and Warmes himselfe in the sparkes thereof God upbraids the creature thus by telling him his end should be to lye downe in sorrow That is When God comes to appeare upon any soule in love he burnes up all these false Rests the creature hath beene making for it selfe That is What the creature drawes comfort from to himselfe if it be from the glory of any action that is for a man to kindâ—e a fire and warme himselfe in the sparkes or fire he himselfe hath kindled Isai 50. 10. 11. Now God at last brings the creature to see the vanity of all his owne actions and upon this there is nothing but death to what he hath beene living upon and sorrow annexed for his thus living upon it and Resting in it Therefore confider No acting forth of the creature to God before the creature receive a divine power from God is acceptable with God for God accepts of no obedience but either that which he did by Christ for us or by Christ in us Now a man may doe great things by a power of Nature which I call a power of God in its dispensation Which power or from vvhich power a man acts in a way to God that is seemingly to God and for God but in conclusion proves not so now God approving of no action by us unlesse it be from the fountaine of himselfe in us And seeing our actings to God are changable and may seeme to perish though never so rare It is no sure Rest for any soule onely he who is unchangable in us must be revealed to us before any true Rest can be received by us Now the condition of a Soul in these low dispensations is like unto a man affrighted by an enemy and being so he labours to preserve himselfe from death by him he runs to secure himself at last he findes to his apprehension a place of Rest and safety he being almost weary afterwards it appears not so to be but his adversary pursues him so that he is not safe and so from place to place he runs to get shelter he finding none he is forced to yield himself up to the mercy of his adversary So it is with a Soule seeing God to be his enemy he flyes as Adam did thinking to secure himselfe and cover himselfe but God pursues the Soul and findes him out where the Soule not finding any safe Rest yields himself freely with trembling and feare up unto God to be at the mercy of God God aâ— I may say pursues a Soule and when it would be Resting upon any thing below himself he drives it from its station and so man runs from Rest to Rest and every Rest he makes is more glorious then another But God speakes unto the Soule as he did to the Apostles Arise let us go hence John 14. 31. as if he should say You would be Resting in this condition but it is not a condition of Rest and safety I will bring you higher and that shall be when I will discover my self in the Spirit that you shall not Rest upon my flesh as I am in a shape but upon me as I will be transfigured before you or rather in you in the Spirit So as now Arise and go up that is higher So also is God most commonly saying to such Soules Arise this is not your Rest Mic 2. 10. if thou stay here it shall destroy thee with an utter destruction Therefore to conclude This man runs from mountain to hill and forgets his Resting place untill God hedgeth up his waies and makes the soul at length Rest in himself The third false Rest THe next Rest of a Soul below the true Rest is The excellency of Gift which doe so mightily adorn the Creature as thereby the Creature is led into high conceits of the glory and excellency of its condition The first Part or Gift we shall speak of is Knowledge Multiplicity of knowledge is such a rare Part as makes a man seem much like a Saint not carnall in the matters of the world but spirituall conceived in the matters of God and this doth mightily puffe up the Creature And indeed much knowledge attained in the notion unlesse it be experimentall there is an impossibility to keep the soul from Resting in it or being puft up with it And First of all I shall discover how most commonly the Soul attains this The first is from a quick apprehension in the understanding of things which is a common gift in nature which is a ready way to attaine much knowledge together with an enlaged capacity that he can receive and keep what he apprehends so as he comes to gather in knowledge apace into the notion so as the Soule glorieth the most in the improvement of that gift or part in which he doth the most excel This Creature he is very fluent in discoursing of the best things and will be alwaies delighting the most in arguing of those things he hath the most knowledge in and he being very gallant in discourse gathers knowledge in every thing he undertakes and here he glories to overcome any with argument Or Secondly To be adored or had in high estimation for this his knowledge And this applanding of him makes his estimation of the glory of â—his own condition to be heightened here he looks upon himself to be a Saint in glory he having these parts of knowledge makes him as often argue against truth as for it that others may see the wit and knowledge he hath and by strength of wit be able to speak of higher things then those who sweetly enjoy God Yea for parts of knowledge goes beyond and by all is preferred before them Now having thus attained knowledge in the head though he doe not experience the same he Rests satisfied in his condition Secondly Knowledge which man Rests upon is a knowledge got by paines and diligence of things without him That which is got by much pains the Creatures is more apt to Rest upon so as for the notionary knowledge of the Scripture he exceeds He is mightily fluent in the letter and is able to speak much from the same and this doth furnish him so as now he makes it his glory to speake of and know much of the letter though it is without him and not experienced in him But alas what is it for any man to know much in this nature and there Rest This is but the shell of Truth the Substance is Truth in us experienced by us To reade Truth in the letter without me and to know it there is a dispensation but to know it by the Spirit within me must be a higher dispensation and the Dispensation of Rest For what is it for any man to get all the Scriptures into memory to furnish him with knowledge able to dispute or preach yet unlesse he know the same within himself it 's but
transformed into another likenesse the cause yet remaining which of the two consider the effects that follow as namely Security or lukewarmnes or fulnesse and self conceitednesse and so false Restings are of as dangerous a consequence as the other Thirdly Humility is by resembling of such property of words and actions in an other as is most lovely in the eyes of himselfe and others and here lies a sad dâ—ceit when men doe only resemble the words or carriages of another which it may be in that party flowes from a principle or power of God in him and by a resembling of him and getting into his form think their condition is the happier and so glory in it more then before so that though his Humility flow from a divine work in him yet the others is but shaped out of what is expressed by or from him and here lies much danger especially if man Rest in the same The fourth way whereby humility comes most commonly to be attained And the way indeed is from the enjoyment of God thereby man comes not only to have the effects or branches cut off but the cause or root of the same taken away So as now man hath it not in the form or shape but in power and substance and now man is truly what he seems to be but not before whereby as the Creature is humbled so God is exalted and this is the Creatures joy though not hiâ— Rest wholly This humility now is the effect of Goâ— enjoyed whereby man is made to partake of Gods nature and this nature breaks out into these particulaâ— effects but now this very effect of humility though iâ— be from the enjoyment of God yet it is not the Reâ—â— of a Saint but the cause which is God The next part is the gift of Utterance which is thâ— many have that knows not God and many have noâ— which sweetly enjoy him So that man who is freeâ— carried forth to utter or make known any thing hâ— conceives is truth yet there is neither cause of trusting to it or Resting in it neither is there cause why a Soul should the more glory in the enjoyment of it â— be troubled in the want of it The last part or Gift we shall speak of is Memory This part of Memory is that which doth most sweetâ— adorn man in the visible making of it forth and â— makes man much adored for it It is 1. Away to grow very profitable in respect of him that hath it and beneficiall to them for whom he imployes it as namely In that dispensation of hearing after which the party which enjoyes this Part is able to repeat or declare almost verbatim what he hath heard this makes him very profitable in what he hears in respect of gathering knowledge and beneficiall to others from the improvement of the same This is the reason why two Ministers so professing of themselves studying their matter the one brings it in a peece of paper and the other in the same method or forme though in his understanding because the one excels the other in this Part of Memory and this makes the one more esteemed then the other and the one to appear more weake then the other But alas though all these were in one man in a higher strain then I have declared yet they all were but a poor Rest or cause of joy or contentment to any heart and truly when God appears so as to manifest himself the Soul shall see the weaknesse and folly of his spirit to be satisfied in the whole not to be any cause of Rest though they were dispensations of God and were freely given by God For all these may be in a very hipocrite or in a meer naturall man First of all to conclude this Rest 1. It is an abuse of a Gift and an affront put upon the Giver to make it either cause of Rest or an evidence of a true enjoyment of God 2. That Soul most commonly who is not led in the Spirit either to behold God or enjoy him to be the Rests of spirits is most usuall and it can hardly be prevented to Rest upon such Rests as we have declared but consider that must be â—he Rest of any who fees or enjoyes not one manifested to him to be above it Man must have some Rest either true or false But that must be the safe Rest the which no hipocrite doth attainâ— nor can enjoy which is God manifested in the Spirit further why should any man place his Rest upon any thing which will come to nothing or is given to change Or why should we make that the ground of our happinesse which is but a tallent given to be improved which may be taken away at the Owners pleasure being given onely to bee improved and then mans Rest and peace ceaseth and in this particular doth the folly of mans heart appeare in abusing the end of every dispensation as of this of Parts As First The abuse of Parts lyes in the boasting and glorying in the gift and not in him who gives it And also in this to make them his Rest 2. For a man so to glory in them as to make a gaine of them and prove them for to get honour and preferment and glory in the world This I fear was partly the end of Simon Magus in defiring the gifts of God Alas all gifts are empty without God be manifested in them and poore contentment do they afford to him that Rests in them And here men are setting them in Gods place and labouring to dispossesse God who is or ought to be the satisfaction of the heart And this is another abuse of Parts A world of deceit lyes in mans heart about gifâ—s or parts if abused First They will not make forth themselves unlesse it be where they be honoured or else they labour for the same by the improvement of them being the most free where it 's the most applauded and the most straitened and weary of that place where it is not adored and exalted and set up above the proper station of the creature being much cheered when exalted and much cast downe when rejected or at least not so applauded as he requires or expects here is man much abusing Parts and setting them in Gods stead in the which man shall be brought to a losse when God doth manifest himself in that heart The fourth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is Zeal for the truth Zeal in the matters of God is that which the most gothrough before the manifestations of God yet though it be good in its place and a dispensation to be owned yet it is but a deceitfull Rest We know the cry of him in the Scripture who was Resting and glorying in his Zeal for God when he cryed come see my Zeal for the Lord of hosts So we know many mens zeal goes before their knowledge of God in the spirit We hear of a zealous Saul who was mad of
Rest or evidence of the true enjoyment of God in me which is any way done by or acted from mee but something in the which I am a passive and no active in which must be something of God coming in from God which doth give a testimony of truth to me and reveales the true Rest in me And if I Rest otherwise my Rest is not that which I take it to be So that it 's alone the power or glory of something coming to mee and not the actings of that to God from me which is all the hearts Rest of a Saint But there lyes so much deceit in the heart Jer. 17. 9 10. that the Truth must be known by undeniable testimony in man before the makings of it fotrh can in truth be discerned but as I said before man lyes in darknesse until there be something in the soule which is a cleare light giving the creature to know Truth from truths Testimony for any action of deceit from the heart to God as so pretended will not be without reason and ground yea and Evidence proved to bee true by the heart but still this Light which is God within is that which discovers man to himself yea the winding of deceits in the heart though never so cunningly acted by the heart The Sixt false Rest THe next Rest is deep Humiliations strange castings down of spirit wherein the creature is made to goe through sad torments of spirit and hath gone through a hel in his own Conscience he having passed through many sad dangers and having been ready to Destroy himself or lay violent hands upon himself and daily mourning under the apprehension of these particulars following First Under the apprehension of an angry and revenging God looking upon him as one ready to destroy him and altogether unsatisfied concerning him but expects the speedy execution of vengeance and wrath to be powred down upon him without measure here the soul lyes tortred continually ready to despaire of any hopes of recovery yet trying if he can get such a measure of humiliation as will Answer the greatnesse of the evils committed against God which did procure it Secondly He lyes mourning under the apprehension of a condemning Conscience Looking upon him selfe thus That if his heart Condemne him how much more will God who knoweth all things Thirdly under the view of â—hose grosse evils committed against God wherein sin flowes in apace in the view of it and they are Laid in order before the souls eyes Psalm 50. 21. which are so loathsome to him under this consideration that they have brought him into a condition of misery damnation wrath and slavery for ever unlesse he can get so much deep afflictings of spirit he looks upon himself as altogether uncapable of enjoying mercy Whereupon he fals a mourning and greeving fearing continually destruction until it be got into such an estate of breakings of spirit as it thinks answers the greatnes of its evils when it hath done thus It makes a Rest upon it and counts it an evidence of its acceptance with God not knowing that its heart may deceive it and though it pretends thus to do yet it may be out of fear and for false ends to get salvation and not from love or salvation Revealed to it but only it is broken because it hath brought misery upon it selfe Secondly If it be of God then it is made to see the vanity of its Rest here and to wait for the enjoyment of him alone who can apply a remedy to its wounded spirit but if false it looks upon such deepe humiliation to be a Cure to it or an assured Testimony of the love of God towards it here it 's put upon fasting and starving the body taking revenge upon it self Who hath been a cause of bringing it into this extreame misery untill it hath almost destroyed it's body with pining and afflicting of it When indeed this is nâ—t a Sacrifice which God much delights in if man Rest in it For to afflict a mans soul and to houl upon hâ—â— Bed and to Fast yet may all this be Hipocriticall and forced from the creature under the notion of destruction without it or a way to attaine grace and favour by it Now true Soul-breakings flowes from Love-meltings The Love Majesty and Glory of God being discovered to man do truly break man so that he doth not Rest upon his brokennesse but upon him who by love brake it The proud Pharisees did exceed in this and many others who made it their Rest and blessed them selves in so doing and said they fasted so often and wept to much and were so and so afflicted when indeed they lived upon it and gloryed and Rested in the same I know though it might be confessed this is the way of God yet it is not to be a Rest to any man For man is not able to judge of any Truth until the Light break in upon him which makes all things manifest and then shall man judge righteous judgement The heart will perswade man he acts from love when he doth not so and he humbles not himselfe to be seen of men or to get salvation or the removall of a condemning conscience or to stop the mouth of conscience or to get a frame of spirit that God might manifest mercy when indeed the heart is altogether it may be deceiving of it and yet not able to judge of the same by reason of that night of darknesse that lyes upon it wherein it is kept in the clouds Now the cause of the creatures Rest in this particular lyes here First In those many deliverances wrought out for him in this condition as if the Children of Israel should have been satisfied and Rested after God had brought them out of the Land of Egypt or that after they were brought through the Red Sea they should have made that their Rest evidencing thereby that God would bring them into the Land of Canaan when though God had delivered them yet afterwards he did destroy them So with many which God hath wrought strangely with in this particular in delivering them from strong temptations and making them to see much of power yet afterwards they do not wait for the enjoyment of the promise but murmur against God and fall at last upon making a God to themselves of the glory of their wisdome and strength and naturall parts and light and they fall down and worship the same as though this was that God who did deliver them and so Rest satisfied believing they are worshipping and enjoying the true God Secondly The creature reasons thus Surely it is God which doth discover sin unto me for if Satan should discover it it were the way to destroy his owne kingdome therefore my sight of sin and my sorrow and mourning for it and those deepe afflictions which I have had for sin must needs be of God and surely it is both love from God and love to God that doth thus
secure estate but a low dispensation which wil dissolve in a higher appearance of God Therefore though men both know and beleeve that there was a Christ crucified in the flesh yet let them not Rest untill they know it in Spirit Then shall a man see Christ daily crucified before his eyes First In him Secondly By him Thirdly For him And fourthly Crucifying of him That he shall say with Paul from experience I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. then shall the soule know both what it is to be crucified by or with Christ and also what this Christ is that lives within him which is become life unto him then he shall know it is not flesh but Spirit and life that lives in him neither shall he be satisfied with hearing of his deaâ— at Jerusalem but with experiencing partly the mystery now made manifest in him and so comes to be known by him then shall he say Though I have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know I him no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. Being he knowes him in the new Creation being made to see and discerne in the Spirit and so behold Christ in the vision of God Hab 2. 3. which is so far from being beheld before as a true crucified estate as indeed there is nothing but darknesse and rebellion in the heart to such an estate onely the soule living and rejoycing in some carnall conception of God and Christ and yet the heart is empty of his light and glory and indeed running from the Fountaine to the streames and from the substance to the shadow or figure as I might plainly lay open how all the actions of Christ in the flesh attributed to him are but reall Types and figures and shadowes of either good things to come or to be revealed in soules I cleerly see that sometimes he spake in Mystery and sometimes yea altogether he acted in Mystery as holding forth what he did in his coming in the soul being a more glorious dispensation then that under the Law as the coming of him in the Spirit is from his comming in the flesh so that what miracles and acts transcendently acted by him above all that was made and is experienced by those in the Spirit who enjoy him who discovers all as namely his raising Lazarus and at the marriage turning water into wine and his healing sick and opening eyes and so all passages flowing from him of this nature were buâ— figures still of what he did and would doe in and for soules and so not only in matters of doing but also in matters of sufferings they are reall figures of the same truth substantially experienced in Saints both place persons condemnation Crosse death â—buriall his agony or withdrawing before his grave and resurrection his not ascending immediatly after his death to his Father but afterwards ascended in the fulnesse of time All these in every particular are known in the true and spirituall sense of them by those that have had fellowship with him in his death and Resurrection and so hath passed from death to life and now is risen within and dwels with him in Heaven and so is swallowed up in the God-head and is rose in the Fathers glory and now is filled with the Spirit this time is the time of knowledge and this is wisdomes time wherein he comes to be satisfaction to them and also is justified by them this is the time when they sing nothing but praise and glory to the Lamb who doth not onely deserve to open the Book Rev. 5. 9. and the Seales thereofâ— but hath opened the Book and discover to the soule the Cabinet and storehouse of the glorious Mystery of the Father and Christ into which City of glory and light the soule is made ro enter and Rest and live for ever that now all things are become new Rev. 21. 5. to and with such a soule the very Kingdome of God and the mystery thereof is opened Rev. 10. 7. and now the Tabernacle of God is with man Rev. 21. 3. and now this glorious mystery Christ is manifested in life and power and become the hope of the compleat glory and fulnesse thereof Col. 1. 27. to be made manifest when it is made capable to comprehend it from being comprehended by it and swallowed up in it then shall this heart dote no more upon shadowes or broken Cisterns or figures of good things to come but he shall be gathered up into God and Christ and shall possesse them in the fulnesse of them The ninth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is visible Church communion or the relations under this notion O this I may say is one of the Idols of Israel and I may say as God was a saying once Come and see yea behold what the Children of Israel is doing in the darke O the darknesse of such Soules who Rest in and under such dispensation truly if I should speak the naked truth and nakedly discover every false Rest I never in my own experience did finde more grosser darknesse sease upon my spirit then did sease upon my spirit under this dispensation Secondly Never more false Laodicean security Thirdly Never more pride and self conceitednesse then at that present ready to judge every one that were not in relation in reference to Church communion to be no Saints 2. Looking more at the practise of Ordinances and being members of Churches then at the reall experience of such a soule 3. More longing after the encrease of members then of their living in the Spirit which were members 4. Judging every one if they were but in and under such Relations to be Saints though they had little yea indeed no experience of God at all refusing communion with such being not of my judgement though they knew what communion in the Spirit was and closed yea joyned with those who were ignorant of it because they were Church members This having been mine and still are many mores at thispresent what Church are they of Are they Baptized What judgement are they of Which doth argue both an Idolizing of and Resting upon these poore dispensations of babes and Children It hath been with me and I feare hath been and is still with many more a coldnesse of love to those yea a condemning also because they have or doe not close with us in every particular in matters of Judgement or formes of worship though the parties live in very high enjoyments of God and are passed these childrens and babes dispensations and all this testifies a Resting upon our formes and manner of worship as for instance An Independent so called and an Anabaptist and so many more as the godly Presbyterian and others under divers distinctions of formes how bitter they are one against anothers what a distance they stand one from another witnesse their preaching and printing and in the same their bitternesse Instance their refusall to
most commonly Satans way to apply himselfe to such a cure for to cause a soule to Rest below God as is sutable to a Soules condition so he brought in a promise to Christ He hath given his Angels charge over thee c. Mat. 4. 6. Here he came to apply himselfe sutable to the condition of Christ O when once a soule is brought into a Pinacle condition wherein he is brought to see the glory of much then Satan lobours to cause the heart to fall downe and worship him hee coming smoothly and bringing the Promises of God a long with him to back the truth of what he doth and here after the soule is betrayed by represented glory in a promise meerly cast in from Satan wherein the soule fals down and worships the very cunning working and the high exalting of Satan and in this condition he is brought to see and apprehend high things and is brought into a Pinacle to behold almost the glory of every thing made over by Satan to the Creature in a promise upon the soules submitting to him and upon this Pinacle he sets him that is he causes him to Rest and so the poor heart being not wise in the Spirit is deceived and betrayed though the actions knowledge light joy Rest of this soule be glorious and for God in his own eyes yet it is but Satans transforming himselfe into an Angel of light resembling or coming in and working in the Creatures heart in the gloriests manner and shape God workes in But Secondly Others being wounded in Spirit and weary in soule for the want of any glimpse of God leaving no means un-attained to get his soule cured and unburthened and having Rested upon many false props before and being unbottomed of them he tries this particular it being of a higher nature and more likely to speake peace unto him viz. a running to Scripture to finde out some particular promises sutable to his condition and having found out some sutable Promises either presently seems to speak to him from a sutablenesse in him so it may be being a conditionall Promise or else the soule meditates a while upon it and it runs much in his thoughts and at last he closes with it strikes this load and burthen of his spirit here he drawes comfort and peace from it yea it may be so much as indeed the soule is mightily overcome in his spirits with joy and can doe nothing but rejoyce upon which he Rests builds his faith as he cals it and so concludes it to be a manifestation of God I will not deny but God may make these waies if in truth cause of support unto a soule in his travelling towards his Rest But for a soul to strike saile cast Anchor and have all the waves in his heart stayed and his very wearinesse of spirit at this present put to a period is as if the children of Israel had stayed either beyond the red Sea or when God gave them Manna before they came to enjoy a reall possession of the land of promise though God did this either to refresh their spirits and so to under-prop them or else to give them it at the desire and repining of their spirits to see how they would use it or abuse it Now this being a discription of a Saints Spirituall travell though God should cause a glimps of glory or heavenly Manna to refresh a heart to be given to a soule in the view of a Promise yet for a soule to Rest in this and make it his habitation it smels too much of mans deceite and abuse of every dispensation and a daubing up his spirit with untempered morter and so hatches Cockatrice Egges and weaves the Spiders Webbe so that it is but a kindling of a fire man warming himself in his own sparks whose conclusion shall be death and sorrow and before ever the creature know what true Rest is by sweet experience hee must be brought to a death in all these But from my own experience of the fallacy of my own heart and the contrariety of the false Rests that I have gon thorow I make bold to propose these ensuing particulars to such a heart not intending to weaken the workings of God in any poor heart though under low Administration but only to discover the nakednes of man in the way of his own heart And First of all When did the Lord manifest himself to thy soule and give thee a particular right unto and interest in this promise the application of which thou makest thy Rest Secondly How was God Revealed to thy heart in this promise Or whether is it not the great necessity thou hast of it that makes thee fly to the promise and suck sweetnesse life comfort and Rest from it Or is it God in Christ clearly Revealed unto thee in the same For it was necessity that made many run to the Ark and hang upon the outsides thereof though none but those that were within were saved Scribes and Pharisees did challenge a propriety in God and all externall priviledges but it was but from a sutablenesse of holinesse they had to the promise and not Revelation of God in them discovering the Truth the of God to them Thirdly What inward Testimony of God hast thou for thy great joy peace Rest And what is thy inward Evidence that witnesseth the truth of what thou enjoyest For every one that beleeveth hath a Testimony within himselfe 1. Joh. 5. 10. And every heart that hath ever seen the appearance of God within him hath found a lively Testimony coming along with that Manifestation of God which is the only proofe of the truth of what he enjoyeth and not any Qualifications nor outward Testimony either of man or from man 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fourthly How was peace in this particular enjoyed by thee Was it from some inward Voyce of God or discovery of the same Or was it from such a sutable form of words to thy condition either cast in or found out in searching Or was it from a clear Manifestation of the glory of God in thee sutable to those formes of words in the Scriptures without thee whereby the forme of words came to be made good to thee so that thy comfort peace satisfaction or Rest do not flow from the forme of words as thou seest them in Scripture without thee but from the enjoyments of God within thee sutable to that without thee Fiftly What glorious power of God was made out in thy spirit in thy thus closing with Promises Thy thus closing may seeme to be done in power but the spirituall Coming of Christ in the manifestation of his glory is so great as indeed it is not ordinary but extraordinary in the heart of him that knows his coming A Promise Closed with before Christ come in the Spirit may seem to be done in glory and power by reason it may be hee could not before beleeve nor live in that freedome or joy he now lives in
what is discovered for HE comes with a Satisfactory Witnesse which doth answer all objections and satisfy all doubts in the heart which may arise yea If men instead of approving do deny it to be Truth yet the soules Testimony within it selfe doth bear up his spirit that he is able to say All men belye the Truth Rom. 8. 16. he not in the least being daunted in his assurance thereof though it be opposed by man or devil neither can such a heart be shaken if all the men of the World should arise against the same coming to disprove it Prov. 10. 25. 30. Also he that runs to any visible externall Witnesse pretending Christ is come in the Spirit is a creature altogether ignorant of his said coming and lives much below such a coming for to me this is an infallible Truth that if any man pretend Christ is come into him in the Spirit and yet wants an inward Testimony or Witnesse for it and so is forced to make use of visible Testators he is a man plainly wanting the enjoyment of the same for God in such a case never leaves himself without a sure satisfactory unresistible and undeniable testimony which indeed the Creature who wants the same may well make use of others But flashes if they be deceiveable pretends to come in with a witnesse and therefore many cals this a witnesse they being perswaded of the truth of what it enjoyes But this is as much below the witnesse of the spirituall coming of Christ as the light of the stars is below the light of the Sun How many under a state of flashes which I may say is almost the last Carde Satan can play in a soule to deceive him in his transformings doe live in most great joy light notions or pretended liberty thinking from a meer perswafion they have within them they live in very high enjoyments and doe beleeve they have a witnesse of the Spirit within them for the truth of what they beleeve when indeed it is but a formed imagination and a Card plaid gallantly by Satan to keep the Creature below the enjoyment of God in the Spirit and to live in freedome and Rest when not in truth and in the Lord. Further this is the reason partly of many ups and downs in the heart whereby the Creature is one day beleeving and another day doubting because it is not living in the enjoyment of Christ in the Spirit but may be is under some flashes and so it comes to passe that it is unsetled and unfixed in God Fourthly Flashes are of no long continuance they are not of an enduring nature for they presently appeare are presently gone and so though the Creature had a great deale of light and joy yet when the flash comes to be taken away away goes all the Creatures joy and light and he is left in the cloudes of darknesse and sorrow again Whereas when Christ comes in the Spirit it is not so then all sorrow and mourning shall flee away Isa 60. 19 20. and the darknesse of the Creature shall be expelled and God shall become unto the soul an everlasting lights Rev. 21. 3. 24. so that God and the Lamb shall live in his heart and be sight and glory to him so as his Sun shall never goe downe but he shall live in the light of God and the Lamb for ever and ever For his coming in the Spirit is after the Resurrection of a soul out of the grave whereby he is carried up in the light and glory of God from the descendings of that light and glory from God so as there is a living in the light God lives in and a swallowing up in the fame glory God is swallowed up withall but a flash leaves in its withdrawing the Creature in the same it found him in if not worse for a flash of light or joy is like a flash of light in the Skye upon the darkest night it appears to be the greater the greater the darknesse is So upon a dark soule when it s possessed with much darknesse the least flash that can appear in that is very great and admirable so that the heart being no otherwise able to judge lookes upon it as a manifestation of God yea may be a very glorious one yet it is not so at last is taken away and the Creatures hopes and expectations is frustrated Whereas to such a soule as lives in the day naturall or spirituall hardly can discerne or take notice of such a flash or light because it is so much inferiour to the light and glory of the Sun and day which now is appeared and shines either within him or without him These flashes in the first place if they be of Satan the very end thereof is to lull the creature asleep in the bed of security and there is no resting of the same by any poor creature For First It workes and comes in sutable to the Creatures necessities pretending redresse for the same Secondly It comes with a glorious resembled form or shape God workes in and so it becomes a transformed Satan and not a transfigured Christ Thirdly It is not able to discern the same by reason of the absence of the true light which makes all things manifest Eph. 5. 13. yea the very transforming of Satan Fourthly Flashes in this nature doe come with furniture to back the truth of what it doth declare or speak if there be any jealousies arise in the heart as sometimes there is yet it doth furnish him with strength to mannage the entertainment of it and his joy and peace from it and here Satan plaies his parts for if the heart be of an opinion that it is possible for a soule to doubt after he hath enjoyed a manifestation of God then he will put a Creature upon doubting to make good that false un-sound and un-experienced principle of men that the truest faith is accompanied with the greatest doubtings and here the heart is still deluded and kept in strong perswasions of the truth of his flash 2. If the heart be of that judgement that it is impossible that a soule can doubt againe after he hath enjoyed a manifestation of God then Satan will transforme himselfe into a capacity of confirming the creature in labouring in all transformed actions to confirme the creature in his assurance of the truth of what he enjoyes and so upon all occasions addes to what he hath done and so the poore Creature Rests satisfied in and upon what the Creature cals his manifestations of God now flashes that usually attend a Creature that is truly enlightened by God though not fully possessed with God yet he being waiting for the comming of Christ in the Spirit is sometimes attended with flashes or light of joy but they if from God most commonly have these ensuing effects 1. They doe underprop and support a weary fainting spirit in his spirituall travell to his land of Rest so as he is made to waite with
to us Now Christ as he is the cleare discovery or discoverer of the Father to us so he becomes a Rest of peace and happinesse in us and so that this Christ who in name is called the Manifestation of Love â—is unchangeable in reference to the being and cause of this manifested Love which is Christ for if we consider him as the bosome love of God He is not so Christ to us or in us but as this comes to be manifest to us which manifestation or the thing manifest is onely Christ for I looke thus that not only Christ as he was in the flesh was Christ only in that form and no more but what ever was manifest either by or in that form was in Name the Christ and in Nature Christ in God now Saints Rest is not in Christ as manifested only in distinction but Christ is the Rest of Saints as God hath designed him for that purpose and so comes by God in Saints to be made manifest carrying up Saints to live in the full glory power and splendor of that God who did make manifest himself in this manifestation which is Christ And no other way comes soules truly to know the Father either in love or mercy but as the Father doth manifest himself in this very particular Christ revealed in mens hearts in which men may see God clearly and for the wâ—nt of which Philip was ignorant when he said to Christ Joh. 14. 8. Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us They were ignorant what the Father and Christ were in the Spirit though Christ were with them in the flesh and the reason was because Christ within them was not by God made manifest to them therefore would they have been making Tabernacles in such a low fleshly knowledge where in Truth they knew nothing of him in relation to the Spirit nor of that conjunction betwixt him and the Father that whensoever Christ spiritually was made manifest there the Father was manifest also because there was one undevideable nature and being in such cases betwixt the Father and the Son So that the Saints Rest is in this cleare manifested God within us who in tearm and Truth is called Christ So that now as Christs Center was in the Father and now is to dwel in the fulnesse of his Glory so Saints being in him are carried by him to live with him in the same glory and love and to conclude this when we can say from experience that which Paul said in the Gal 1. 16. That when it pleased the Father to reveal his Christ in him then shall we know that the manifestation of God to us is â—he Revelation of Christ in us 3. Christ spiritually discovered in men and so knowne by them and so becoming Rest to them is a cleare light of God in the Creature which light and glory is onely Christ and thus he is often described in Scripture not onely as he was a light in the flesh without us prescribing rules of light to us but chiâ—ry as he shall become the light and glory of God wiâ—hin us for as he was in the forme of flesh he was a mysâ—ery unknowne yea he was not such a light so as God intended him because he was then but in the figure holding forth what he would worke and what he should be when he was to come in the glory of the spirit within men for his being in the flesh was a very dark dispensation For even the Apostles who were the most conversant with him did know little and were very ignorant of the truth So as indeed they thought he was come to set up a Kingdome in the flesh and that hee would advance them in some great place as appeares So that is was Gods great designe which was held forth in that forme of flesh which is the sum of that Scripture where he is declared to be the light of the Gentiles and to be the Glory of the people Israel Luk. 2. 32. Now to prove it by Scripture that this Christ is in the spirituall coming and advancing in the soule a glorious and Divine Light Wee see it very clear from that Scripture in the 60. of Isa 1 2. Where the Lord declares the manner of Christs spirituall appearing in the soule Arise shine for thy Light is come and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee This same Scripture though men doe labour to deny it to be meant of Christs appearance in any particular soule yet he that hath found the appearance of Christ within him hath found him fully making good these sayings The matter however that here is promised at the raising up of distressed spirits is Light and Glory which light is God appearing in a dispensation of light and glory the which dispensation is Christ in us for he is both the light and glory of God and all things that are either spirituall light or glory discovered is Christ for according to that Scripture Rev. 21. 23. The glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof As if he should say when the Lord comes to dwell spiritually in the manifestation of glory within the spirits of man and so set up a Temple in the creature according to the 22th verse Then shall all those lights which before the soule hath beene guided by whether they were flashes or resembled light now there shall be no need of the same but the glory of God now shall be there to enlighten the same yea Christ shall be the light thereof so that he shall be filled with true light whoever hath the glorious appearance of Christ within him he shall become a compleat light unto that soule So as he shall not stand in need of any inferiour light but they shall bee dissolved when the glory of the Sun doth appeare so that in such a soule to whom Christ is become in this manner a light unto he shall have no night there according to that in the 22. of Rev. 5. verse But the Lord shall fill such a soule with light yea he shall give to such spirits Him in whom there is no darknesse as in a spirituall dispensation and as he is termed in Joh. 1. 9. verse He is here called The true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world He is here called true in opposition to fallacy as if he should lay open many false lights in the world and within men yet he was come as a true light to distinguish betwixt true and false and so he is a distinguishing light in every spirit who hath receiâ—ed him for though Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light in deceiving a creature yet notwithstanding when this true light appeares in any heart it doth both discover it and destroy it according to that in the 2 Thess 2. 7 8 9 10. That though the mystery of Iniquity and Anti-Christ be never so deceiveable and glorious in their workings and transformings both within and