the visible exercise of all power in heaven and earth essentially belonging to the Throne of his Fathers glory And then will his father visibly place this his son on the said Throne as clothed vvith his Robes and strengthned vvith his girdle to exercise his whole Government put into his hands As the distinct Testimonies of the Mediatour in his invisible divine and creature-natures will he visibly set his creature-son and branch on his holy Hill of Sion committing to him the exercise of all his own rule and power in a visible dominion over that House of Juda and Israel that comprehends the whole heavenly and glorified earthly family of Christ The season for this hath yet been by God kept in reserve figured by the clothing of litteral Eliakim in which Christ our mystical Eliakim as son to the mediatour his invisible father is to have all the distinct glories of that mystical fellowship and unity that his divine and invisible creature-nature live in so hung upon him as to be visibly seen and acknowledged by the whole world Their distinct testimonies will be known and owned at that second comming of Christ in our glorified nature in which he will cause to shine forth his invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature And so also by the man Christ shall be Administred and given forth the distinct and differing measures of his fathers divine glory as the everlasting Portions of blessed Angels and Saints according to their respective receptivities as vessels of greater or less capacity even from Cups to Flagons And in this universal Kingdom of his Father shall the Man Christ be established as a Nail in a sure Place for evermore And by him shall blessed Angels and Saints ascribe the glory due to the purely divine nature and the invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature The Son and Branch acknowledges all his Power to be from his God and Father in personal union with him He declared that of himself in our single fleshly nature he could do nothing and that he receives all his ruling power as exalted into personal union with his God and Father therein Thus comes the Son and Branch to be possessed of all the strength and power of the Mediatours whole person And so is enabled not only to see but do all things Whatever the Father doth that doth the Son also For all the Power of the Father through personal union becomes the Son 's The same Will lives in both But this Will as living in the Father cannot be declared to or received by creatures but as descending to and manifested by the Son On this ground Christ himself declares The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son So the whole will of the Father is executed by the Son Hence in obedience to the Father All must honour the Son as they honour the Father Thus does Christ shew how all that power which originally is his Fathers comes to be his and that all which is his thus again becomes his Father's and he exercises the same in perfect subjection to his Father Yet is the new creature-will of the son distinct from the divine will though one with it through personal union with the divine In this union and absolute subjection will Christ as son and branch rule his spiritual kingdom as declarer and doer of the divine mind which could no otherwise be known or done Christ would not put any weight on himself in the will of our single fleshly nature Yet is he one that beares a distinct record or vvitness to himself and will by the command of his Father give it unto him as exalted into personal union with God and as so the truth he told the Jews worthy of their belief For in our exalted nature is he the only immediate object of faith to Angels and men and the only way and means for their knowing or comming to the father Christ justified his bearing vvitness to himself as thus considered to the Jews on their offence at his owning himself in this union with the father as knovving vvhence he came and vvhether be vvas to go He knew he was to return by way of resurrection into that life whence he descended as spirit of the branch into our fleshly nature in which he enjoyed the divine glory of his father through union with his root before the foundation of the World and this for the compleating his mediatourship So is there a threefold distinct will in the mediatour in perfect unity This was figured by the tvvo or three vvitnesses under the Law whose joynt testimony was sufficient to pronounce sentence of Life or Death on any one For so will that will of the mediatour be which shall be pronounced by Christ in our glorified nature as the mouth and visible declarer of the united wills in his whole person His glorified humane will though the lowest through perfect union with the higher and highest becomes equally authentick with them in its distinct witness So over the kingdom that descends to him by the gift of his father will he exercise a visible rule in his new-creation life and glory at his second comming Christ's own testimony to this his spiritual kingdom at his second appearance did cost him the life of his first And thereby did he finish his vvork on earth even in his single earthly humanity that he had long before perfected in his invisible angelical state The visible repetition thereof he was neither afraid nor ashamed of before the evil powers of this world For when by the Jews brought before Pilate he positively asserted he had a kingdom but of a spiritual nature and not of this World to be brought to light by the death of our earthly nature in him The joy of his spiritual life state and kingdom set before him made him-willingly take the bitter Cup of death to his natural spirit as the only way and passage to the said spiritual life and kingdom wherein to exercise the whole of the divine and creature-power of the mediatour Having then seen the distinct testimonies to this visible spiritual kingdom of the man Christ from the threefold will of divine and twofold creature-nature in the mediatour we are next to consider the distinct testimony given to the same by the true spirit of saintship in all Ages In order to this enquiry consider first what is the spirit of true saintship that has from generation to generation given testimony to the visible spiritual reign and kingdom of Christ This spirit of saintship is at a great distance from the divinity yea perfectly distinct from the first immediate conjunction of the divine and creature-names or natures of the mediatour on the one hand and from the single first-creation name nature or spirit on the other The true spirit of saintship in the members of Christ's Heavenly or Earthly glorified body is found allwayes in a true subjection to the man Christ as their new-creature Lord and Head And
by the compleat death thereof as to all changable first-creation life And ascended into the everlasting new-creature and divine life of God the Mediatour his Root and Father in which fitted for the visible rule of his spiritual kingdom on earth For this blessed thing are Saints out of or in the body all vvaiting as his Members Servants and blessed Retinue to enter with him into the actual possession of this Glorious Kingdom in the visibility of their before hidden Spiritual Life which will be the manifestation of the Sons of God The glad tydings of this second comming of Christ in his spiritual glory to Reign as that of his natural birth in order thereunto will be first signally given by his angelical Messengers as that which will most certainly bring Glory to God in the highest Heavens through a union of peace with his new Heavens and Earth or higher and lower ranks of Spiritual Saints together with undeniable marks of his good vvill to all Men in general that are under his happy government Luke 2. 14. All men that have not excluded themselves by a fixed enmity to this spiritual king shall have their Eyes so far opened at and by his appearing as to see and admire his long-suffring towards them and his restoring to them what at first they lost So will the whole new World joyn in unanimous praises to God through Christ their new-creation King And if this be so a distinct considering the spiritual nature as well as certain visibility of this kingdom will be requisite and this so much the more as the day of his second comming approaches and drawes neerer This growes more evident dayly from the general decay of all natural and moral goodness amongst men and the increase and abounding of all Iniquity litteral and mystical that as foretold will accomplish man's day and period this World Through the extream abounding of iniquity nothing of support or comfort will be left spiritual Saints or reasonable men but a rightly Informed Faith as to the certain approach of the Lord in his spiritual kingdom In the stedfast wel-grounded hope hereof are they called on by Christ to lift up their Heads as knovving his second appearance and consequently their full redemption dravvs nigh and will soon be accomplished For this great and most concerning thing and Truth have we a Cloud of Witnesses in Scripture even for the glorious Comming and Kingdom of our Lord as also an account of the distinct hands by which given divine and creaturely or both together God in his infinite divine Essence the Mediator in his conjunctive divine and creature-nature and the pure creature-spirit of Faith living in a succession of spiritual Saints from first to last do all agree in their Testimony to this Truth The Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. is all opened by Christ the Branch which Paul earnestly desires Saints may be filled vvith the rich and full assurance of And 1 Cor. 11. 2 3. treating of the same high and glorious Truths he layes down the original and fundamental Ordinances of Truth as he received them from Christ's own hand He declares it necessary for men to know That the Head of every Man is Christ and that the Head of the Woman is the Man and the Head of Christ God In these gradations of a three-fold-Headship he summ's up the essential Foundations of all Truth divine and creaturely to wit of God in his divine unity then of the Mediatour in his supream divine and creature-composition and then thirdly of Christ as Son and Branch the appointed means for rendring the said divine and creature-glories of God the Mediator visible to blessed Angels and Saints The highest of these Ordinances of Truth though last expressed is That the Head of Christ is God God the Mediatour in his conjunctive divine and creature-form of God confesses and ownes the single and uncompounded divine Essence as his absolute Head and Father This is the first and highest Ordinance of Truth Next unto this Christ is the head of every man that is Christ as Mediatour in the first and highest conjunction of divine and creature-nature is the immediate Head of himself as the first-born Creature and Resurrection-Lamb and consequently of every Angel and Man in both creations natural or spiritual And then as the third and last Ordinance of Truth is the Man Christ as Resurrection-Lamb in his spiritual new-creation Life Head of the Woman or Natural-state in Christ's person as brought into subjection to the new-creation Man and also of all his heavenly and earthly glorified Saints and Angels or Church Col. 1. 18. There is a like relation of Father and Son in the Mediatour's creature-nature Root and Branch as of the divine Father and Son in the divine nature And so is his Creature-nature throughout and on all accounts the supream creature-likeness of the infinite divinity 'T is the absolute and peculiar Prerogative of the divine nature not only to be the original of its own Being from Eternity or to be what it is without all begining but also of that purely divine Form and Image of it self in the Mediatour to whom God in the single divine Esence is Head and Father It is therefore said 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God in the divine Essence uncompounded with any creature-being and in distinction from God in this supream consideration One Mediatour betvveen God and Men mediating between and therefore consisting of two natures divine and creaturely A Mediatour is not of one but God is one To the Mediatour in this Composition is the single divine Essence Head And the divine nature or purely divine form of God which is one with the divine essence as the immediate former of his own creature-spirit from everlasting Prov. 8. 22 23. stands in a headship or superiority to that creature-spirit which is his own divine workmanship in his own person As the purely divine Son of God is he under a like impossibility with the Father of being immediately seen or known by any but the divine Being it self For in this divine relation of Father and Son are they fitted only for the fruition of each other And so the divine Son lay shut up in the bosom of the divine Father till the good will and mind of both was to build a creature-house for themselves which was the Root and former of all meer creature-beings in both Worlds Heb. 1. 2. This original Word or creature beginning vvas in God and vvith God and vvas God And by it vvere all other things made John 1. 1. 3. The distinction of divine and creature-nature in the Mediatour is intirely preserved in their personal Unity His creature-nature is called the Beginning His divine is without all beginning Again the infinite divine builder of the supream creature house for himself is above the house so built by him though taken into personal union with the divine Inhabitant thereof as is implied Heb. 3. 3 4.
time the spirit in them did signifie vvhen it testified before hand the suffering of Christ and glory that should follovv 1 Pet. 1. 11. And it vvas revealed to them that not unto themselves but us under the gospel-dispensation witnesses both of his comming in flesh and state of grace or resurrection-life which was to follow they did minister such things The Apostles and other Saints in the gospel-day received that spirit not before given Jo. 7. 39. by which the mystery of Godliness became opened even through Christs being manifested in flesh justified in spirit and in our nature exalted into heaven All this visibly accomplished in Christ's person is the sum and substance of the gospel-testimony The resurrection-state is now no longer a land of distances very far off but brought neer and set open in Christ's glorified humanity Hence is the gospel-dispensation much more spiritual then that of the Law the object of faith being now brought into sight though spiritual saints under both these dispensations found a like acceptation with God The elders and worthies under the Law vvere through their powerful faith pleasing to God Heb. 11. 39. as well as spiritual-saints under the gospel They obtained a good report by faith They willingly and cheerfully confessed themselves strangers on earth or as to their natural state and principle though not actually possessed of the spiritual and heavenly This better thing vvas kept in reserve as neither given to nor received by them in such manner as after Christs comming for the compleating of their blessedness and finishing of that faith he was authour of before But the whole seed of faith spiritual saints before and under Law and Gospel agree in their witness to Christ's resurrection-state as that new name and life vvherein alone any ever were or can be saved or receive the vision of the divine glory And though the gospel-ministration be more glorious then that of the Lavv as a ballance to this priviledg of saints under the gospel those under the Lavv vvere made the first-fruits unto Christ in his resurrection-state in our nature For to their imprisoned spirits shut up in the faith of what was to be revealed Christ appeared and in the first degree of his resurrection-life preached it to them or bestowed it on them rendring the state of those just spirits a paradise by entring among them in his resurrection-life and glory And after this he poured forth his glorified spirit on saints in the body which rendred them powerful experimental witnesses of his resurrection-life and new name Thus the whole generation of faith whether as prophetical messengers before Christs comming in flesh or declarers of him after come have all most harmoniously agreed in their testimony to the spiritual nature and visibility of Christ's kingdom here treated on And thus having seen the testimony of the divine nature itself and the infallible creature-testimony of Christ and his saints to this truth as a secondary general confirmation of it we may observe the various types and figures in Gods providential workings for strengthning his Peoples faith in this important truth Even before the fall every voice of God to man was to point out this spiritual State of Rest he was to look after But all this counsel of God was neglected by him Yet did God even after the fall and before the giving of the Law warn Noah of this his twofold great design to wit of taking down the old or first creation-World and setting up that new one in which to establish this visible kingdom of Christ As a token hereof vvas he commanded to build an Ark and by his obedience to God therein did he condemn that sinful World which wilfully neglected the voice of God therein But Noah by faith saw Christ in that resurrection or kingdom-state figured by the Ark as a spiritual Rock of safety to himself and whole spiritual seed from that destruction figured out by the floud which all Angels and men that obstinately fix themselves in the old World or first-creation state against God and the second bring upon themselves And this deluge or destruction of man-kind by water points out the far greater destruction by fire in that day of the Lord wherein he will destroy the very heavens and earth on purpose reserved for the exercise of Gods long-suffering For their abuse of all will ripen them for a final consumption by the fire of God's wrath 2 Pet. 3. 7. Then even amidst those flames will he most certainly set up that spiritual kingdom in which shall be a like visible protection and safty to his saints as Noahs litteral Ark was to him and his family The next remarkable type of this spiritual truth before the giving of the Law was Abrahams conquest of the four Kings as figuring out not only the corrupt but righteous principles of nature in men and Angels which as singly naturall are all in a combined interest against the spiritual seed of faith and Christ their head These are signified in Abrahams person and his followers And their victory was a type fthe compleat and final conquest our spiritual Lord Abraham with all his saints will obtain over all that come against them to oppose the setting up of his spiritual kingdom visibly in the world After this have we another signal figure hereof in Gods remarkable dealing with the Egyptians as his enemies on behalf of the Israelites his friends in his marvellous wayes of punishing the one and delivering the other by his own right hand and out-stretched arm Both were types of that irresistable power in which Christ in these last dayes of greatest bondage and oppression to his people will give them a more remarkable deliverance then ever In these last and worst of times will be a combination in religious and civil principles against them figured by the Egyptian powers and the Magicians by the latter counterfeiting and by the former persecuting the new-creation spirit and power they both hate which Christ is ready to break forth in and thereby to bestow on his spiritual Israelites an absolute deliverance out of all their litteral and mystical captivities And by the same power will he so judge and deal with his enemies of all sorts as never to suffer them to rise up more against him or his spiritual Israelites Moses his whole government with the sanctuary and other things in his ministration were speaking figures and significant voices of this universal kingdom of Christ No circumstance in the civil or religious constitution of that government but remarkably signified the present truth And by signal sounds of his providence under every dispensation has the Lord been declaring and setting this truth before the faith of his People The sanctuary or tabernacle was not to be fixed as in its resting-place till his People were possessed of their resting-place the typical Land of promise Next this was Solomon's Temple on various accounts a signal type of Christ and of what he was to do