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
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
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
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
but the coming of Christ in the Spirit doth so farre surmount that as indeed the other appeares nothing when this is come Eph. 1. 19. Mat. 24. 30. Sixtly Whether is it the Manifesting of God to thee that gives thee a right to the Promise and from this thou closest with God Or is it that sutablenesse in thee to the words of the promise that gives thee a being whereby thou closest with it If it be the latter it is not right For all Promises are in Christ Yea and Amen And He is the ALL in them and if hee bee revealed he gives a being to them yea to the creature to live in that being as He is the ALL in them So that the substance of every promise must come into the soule and be Revealed in it before the form of words can truly pronounce comfort peace life happinesse or Rest to it So as his Rest is not upon the form of words as in Letter expressed but upon the Being of it which is God manifest Now many a heart doth feed upon husks out-sides and externall formes of words and fals short of being caught up into his glory and so Resting in the being of all Truth Here it comes to passe that the Creature makes every thing a God and will shape and form out God according to its imaginations and so labours to dispossesse God and to set up its owne shape in Gods stead Now Promises whether they be sought or cast in they are to be no Rest unto any heart for the words of the promise are like unto a figure or type it testifies something to be given to the Sons of men but when a soule is in the possession of those things then it doth not rejoyce upon the words holding out the thing but upon the substance of the thing possessed in the heart but many on the contrary hand for the want of this runs after conditionall promises and when it seeth not the condition of the promises performed in it hee labours after a sutablenesse to them before not daring to apply them but when hee hath got his heart into such a frame as he imagineth to be sutable to the condition thereof he Resteth there applying life and comfort from it concluding he hath a right unto it from this particular But if at any time he breake the condition his peace is gone because the cause of his peace was his exact performance of the condition of the promise Secondly But some are higher then this and they see a vanity in this and they look upon Christ as the perfermer of the condition and if he can but beleeve Christ hath done it and then hee hath a right unto the fame whereupon he useth meanes to get his judgement convinced of this that Christ died for him and in Conclusion he gets himselfe convinced of the same and here Rests Concluding the promises are his because Christ in his when indeed both the ground of his conclusion and confidence is false and so he comes to be deceived Thirdly Another that Rests upon promises before Christs spirituall Coming is when a man hath layne in sad darknesse and bondage and hath a long time waited for a discovery of God and at last some apprehensions of Christ comes into his understanding whereupon he stands convinced in his owne judgement that Christ is his Whereupon hee for the greater encrease of his Rest Comfort and Peace runnes to promises and applyes them as having a right to them in his owne apprehensions by Jesus Christ Here is that which begets the strongest confidence that Christ is come in the Spirit which works that joy and peace the soul thinks shall never be taken from him whereas after a while man is not so quick fighted nor so cleare enlightened but it suddenly lyes in the grave as that which must vanish in the spirituall appearance of Christ in the heart Now this is the great designe of Satan to keepe the poor creature on the out-sides the husks and would have the Creature wholly to live below the glory of Truth which is the coming of Christ in the Spirit of glory But hearts truly principled before Gods appearance are made to waite for him from a great power of himself not in any of these things to Rest before they in the glory of the Spirit come to Enjoy him Mat. 25. 10. The thirteenth false Rest THE next Rest in order to this Is great strange and excellent flashes of God so I tearme them and as they the most appear yet they may be true or false resembled or reall First We shall speak of Flashes of light in the understanding And neither touch them as they are true or false 1. If they be but flashes they are no reall manisestations of Christ in the Spirit and therefore in the first place They are not of a Witnessing nature they bring no reall Testimony of God along with them but leaves the creature dark and empty in and of this particular but Christs coming in the Spirit is not without a Witnesse which is both unresistible and satisfactorye but flashes whether they are of God distinct or opposite they have no Testimony of the Spirit to witnesse the truth of God to man by the Spirit withiâ— man as man is below under the dispensation of a flash whether true or false So secondly They are not of a powerfull Nature they are very weake in comparison of the power of Christ coming in the Spirit For first They do not dispossesse Satan of his habitation whereas the coming of Christ in the Spirit doth Mat. 12. 28 29. Secondly They do not dispossesse the Creature of living in himfelf or they do not carry up the Creature into the glory of God in the Spirit they being of too low a nature no more then flashes in a dark night can bring the Creature into the beholdings of and living in the glory of the Sun so that they are not compleat Revelations of glory neither powerfull in effecting the same worke which is accomplished in the coming of Christ in glory 3. They do not satisfy the heart of any they may seemingly give contentment for the present yet the spirit not altogether satisfied whereas the coming of Christ in the glory of the Spirit doth fill and satisfy the heart of any in whom he appeares Mal. 3. 10. Mat. 5. 6. yea his coming causeth a running over of the souls Cup yea it is uncontainable mans capacity not being able to receive or comprehend the same for the want of this satisfaction power or witnesse of the Truth of Christs coming he being but under a flash he runnes to Ministers and men of experience to heare their judgement being not satisfied in himself and according to their approbation and judgement he most commonly receives the more or lesse satisfaction and so rests whereas if it be Christs coming in the Spirit a soul need not run to any Creature in the World to bee satisfied in the Truth of
from sin which formerly hath both dishonoured God dishonoured Truth and taken away his peace Now sometimes when this comes to be subdued and the soul delivered from the same he Rests upon it and concludes from it great cause of safety and security and as an infallible Testimony of Gods love and here he makes his center when indeed the heart cannot have true Rest in any deliverances wrought for it by God but must be carried up above the same into the Deliverer who is God so as in inwards so in outwards bee it of what nature or quallity soever yet many after the receipt hereof wax the more secure make a God of their deliverances ct so Rest upon them with which though they were in love yet they are not given for that end no more then God delivering the Children of Israel at the Red Sea should afterwards be a stop unto them and a center for them before they came into the land of Promise Or that deliverance of Daniel or of the Three Children or of Jonah none of these were to be a cause either of Security or Center but to be rather accompanied by God to put their spirits out of themselves after him who was to be a Rest unto them and a Deliverer of them so that the common or speciall deliverances of God in these cases are abused and the end thereof dealt deceitfully with and they are made that which God did not appoint them to be viz. Rests and that which satisfies the creature with the receipt thereof yet in the second place I doe not deny this to be one of Gods dispensations and the way he deales with spirits both to discover themselves with the vanity and misery attending the same where mans heart is made a heart of misery preparing for mercy this being the way to Rest and peace happinesse and glory when God comes in the first place to free the soule from this his deliverance though it be of God still as the other is the way to happinesse so his deliverance the way to rest that is the way to make the heart enter into it and be centred in it For though the Rest in this deliverance be discovered yet it may be long before such a heart do enter into it as David saith plainly return unto thy Rest O my soule for the Lord hath delt bountifully with thee Now though God may have dealt bountifully with a soule yet that soule may not be returned nor centred in his true and proper Rest though it be in a further worke then deliverance inward or outward So that in the first place many hearts it may be have been in deep distresse of Spirit in the pit where no water is and now are it may be in such a condition as they are at great freedome and live in much joy yet such a heart it may be freed in his own sense and yet intended by God to be brought into his former bondage and misery because his wound is falsly cured and having not been willing to waite Gods time is faln thereby into carnall and unsafe security therefore soules had need beware of false deliverances 2. Satan that Spirit of deceit may drive on his design in this particular to have a soul delivered by deceit seeing before he could not prevent the cause of the sense of his misery seeing he could not prevent that he labours to deceive the Creature by proposing and working deliverance for it before God deliver it the heart being willing to imbrace and to have deliverance before his time 3. If this be not but that God goes forwards to make such a heart a heart of misery and so prepare it for mercy and worke admirable diliverances for it both within and without yet notwithstanding it is not sufficient the soule Rest here but such a heart is to wait for a higher dispensation of God this being Gods leading way thereto The seventeenth and last false Rest THE next and last Rest which wee shall speake of is by some waited for and by others pretended to be received to wit The extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit whereby both worship without and God within is confirmed and in their apprehension sealed up for truth Now for my own part I look upon both either in the condition of waiting for it or in the pretence of the receiving of it to be un-sound or an un-safe principle 1. In a waiting way there are who are waiting to have the Spirit powred down in such a manner as they shall be able to doe miracles and visibly to cast out devils But I thinke this is a meere mistake for those casting out of devils and visible powers given to the Apostles and Saints was given only as a dispensation of God in that administration the Apostles lived in and not to be any dispensation intended to be given to any other after that administration was confirmed and setled 2. Those visible powers were given them for the confirmation of the Gospel in a visible forme to sâ—ale the truth of that forme of words which was to be left unto all ages Now if we had new Scriptures to write and a new Gospel to declare then I confesse for the establishment of the same it would be necessary to have the same confirmed by visible miracles and powers But 3. It was given to be a figure of the glorious manner of the workings of God in the soule and the casting out of devils and curing sick opening eyes and the like Isa 26. 12. Phil. 2. 13. these were to demonstrate unto us that as the coming of Christ in the form of flesh was attended with these signes and miracles so the coming of him in the Spirit should be attended with inward signes and miracles to wit internall and divine powers the casting out of the many devils within the opening of the eyes of the understanding and the curing the wounds of the soule Luke 24. 45. Eph. 1. 18. Isa 60. 1. Iohn 5. 25. the opening mans eares to hear the voice of Christ within to have a dead Lazarus soule raised up in the Spirit Now the Rest was but as figures though reall of what God did hold forth should accompany the second coming of Christ in the heart Mal. 3. 2. Mat. 25. 12 13. And if soules did waite for this their expectations should not be so much frustrated as it is in the other and shall be And as for the great miracles that shall be wrought must be within and felt by soules when Christ appears in the heart So that these externall powers shall be turned into these sayings The coming of Christ shall be with power and great glory Mat. 24. 30. Now men are deceived I feare who seeke for his coming in any carnall or fleshly way or that he will make that to be the powrings down of the Spirit to wit the casting out of devils c. But it shall be more spirituall and heavenly even the power of the Spirit
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