as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
the grass withereth the flower fadeth away because the spirit of the Lord blows npon it surely the people is grass The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the WORD of our God shall stand for ever ver 7 8. So then at length the believing part in the Saint cometh to see and experiment the emptiness nothingness and fading of the best natural perfection and fleshly purity not only in legal worldly rudiments and principles but even in Evangelicals so far as they consist in the knowledge of Christ himself but according to the flesh Whereupon the believer becomes willing to be crucified to all confidence esteem or desire of Rest and abode in them seeing a patern left by Christ himself herein when he suffered in the flesh that we also might be armed with the same mind and by being crucified in the flesh may come at last to cease from sin attaining a perfect freedom there-from by the resurrection from the dead And now what high thoughts and proud imaginations do rise up in the heart fit to be brought down and subdued by the cross of Christ then which nothing is more grievous to the soul which loves this Absolon it s own uncrucified fleshly mind and the enlightned reasonings thereof in their very rebellion and endeavours to out it of the everlasting kingdom yea it struggles hard and wrestles vehemently to keep its Isaac from being offered up in sacrifice Oh! how with Zipporah doth the flesh cry out against faith as a bloody husband thus to require the full resignation of the judgement will and desire of the pure holy natural man as well as that of the corrupt All this it doth require and no less will serve its turn then the bringing of the exercise of these natnral senses as they are contesting with and resisting the workings of faith into perfect captivity to the obedience of faith and into perfect rest and silence in the grave of Christ where they are to be bound as in chains and fetters utterly disabled for ever acting more in any resisting or contradicting way unto the power and life of faith and so indeed are set free and have their truest liberty given to them to act more fully then ever in harmony with and subserviency unto the workings and life of faith Thus Rom 8. it is said If Christ be in you the body or flesh is dead because of sin but if the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies or crucified fleshly senses by his spirit that dwelleth in you to the bringing them forth in a better and more excellent way of operation then ever they had before For these fleshly senses as they are planted into the likeness of the death of Christ are made one dead body with him and so are shut up for ever in an everlasting impossibility to act against the truth but only for the truth to act in a way of resisting and contradicting the workings of faith but in subjection and subordination to â—â—em This is that we mean by the obedience of faith and keeping of the word of Christs patience which is required by the law of the new covenant the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as it frees us from the law of sin and death which is so far from destroying the law that it fulfils it and so far from abolishing the good works required by the law that it disannuls only the unlawful use of them setting them up in their right and lawful exercise not single and alone without the faith that is saving or in resistance and contradiction to that faith nor so mixing them with a faith that fails whereby both faith and a good conscience may come to shipwrack but making them in such manner the fruit and children of the operation of the faith of Gods elect as that against such there is no law This is the gathering together into one dead body with Christ wherein all his elect must be found as fashioned into a similitude with him in his death and that for the filling up of the measure of his sufferings in the whole number of his beloved ones that so at last they may arise likewise with his dead body and be gathered together into one glorified body with him or into a similitude with him in the glory and power of his resurrection when they shall be like him and see him as he is when at this appearing of Christ who is their life they also shall appear with him in glory The hope and expectation hereof grounded upon the promises made to this purpose in Col 3. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 21. and many other places of Scripture is that that hath born up the spirits of his people and faithful ones in all ages that have been made willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goeth from desponding and sinking away under all those insolent affronts and contradictions they have met with in their several generations from their insulting unreasonable adversaries the inhabitants of the earth who flourish prosper in the world while they are chastened every morning disciplined under the cross of Christ miscarrying as to all that 's visible and overcome in those hot contests oppositions and assaults which the seed of the Serpent lusting to envy will not fail to exercise them with who indeed could have no power against them unless it were given them from above as Christ the head of this spiritual seed told Pilate in his own personal case Ioh. 19. 11. and as power was given from above against that great Master Lord so is it also given to them to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Rev. 13. 7. but though at present they be so overset by worldly powers that they cannot work any deliverance in the earth neither do the inhabitants of the world fall before them Isa 26. 18. yet at this second coming of Christ he will call up the dead bodies of these his crucified Saints and faithful witnesses not only into a state of security from the destroyer but into a singing and triumphing condition ver 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust Both these states of the true Saint are most lively described Isa 54. which we shall endeavour to give some short tasts of for our clearer enlightning in the present truth specially as to what concerns the former branch the Saints conformity with Christ in his death The other consisting in a conformity to him in his Resurrection-state we shall reserve for the latter end and conclusion of this discourse CHAP. XVIII Concerning the Saints conformity with Christ in his death particularly opened and cleared from those mistakes which the enemies to the Crosse of Christ are apt to brand it with BY conformity with Christ in his death which some have been
head of the woman is the man the head of every man is Christ and the head of Christ is God testifying hereby to faith which hath Christ for its object in all it receives the method wherein God proceeds as he creates all things by Jesus Christ for saith he God is the head of Christ or the Trinity by their immediate operation do first comprehend the person of the Mediator in God himself and then do send him forth as the true Messiah making him the Minister of Gods first and second appearance to the creature in the capacity of head and root to both creations Thus Secondly Christ is the head unto every man comprehending all mankind whatsoever as well they that are of the earth earthy as those that are of the Lord from heaven in himself who is the root to both creations and from thence causes them to flow forth and exist as his off-spring in their particular nature and proper persons in their several generations from the beginning to the end of the world Lastly Man is the head unto the woman in his creation so made by God unto Eve that therein he might as a shadow and figure illustrate not only the truth and reality of being which Eve had in her head but withall the true end of her being so comprehended that she might not abide single and alone cut off from dependance on and duty to her head but be brought into compleatness of being through her return into the neerness and intimacy of marriage-union with him yet without losing the property of being which she is made to have as the woman in distinction from the man This is the figure and resemblance of Gods method and proceeding in creating all things by Jesus Christ which haply the wisdom of man will carp at thinking to find absurdities in it through the deceits of Philosophy and worldly rudiments that are not after Christ but faith sees through all these Clouds and if need be interprets the riddle shewing that the truth which is spoken in Gods word hath also its testimony from humane principles so far as they have any rectitude in them It is plain That the worlds were made by the word of God that is God from eternity gives being unto the WORD as image of the Trinity and the WORD through the excellency of power and glory which he hath in and with God was able out of nothing to create both worlds giving them their beginning and foundation in himself as he became the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead In which state he that thus was the first and was also the last did with his call cause all things in both to stand up together as by name in his sight and presence when he took notice of them recorded them in his books whilst as yet they were not fashioned and did behold them in the particular forms wherein afterwards they were to be Thus in the beginning was the WORD the WORD was with God and the WORD was God in this WORD was life even the life of both creations and therefore also of the man Christ Jesus that was fore-appointed the head and original pattern unto which as well the natural as spiritual man were to be conformed who did as the truth and substance it self at last appear and minister the true sanctuary which God pitched and not man accomplishing all that was written in the Volume of Gods book for him to perform for the abolishing of sin and death and the bringing forth of life and immortality to light In this his Angelical and spiritual state wherein the man Christ Jesus stood comprehended in the root of David before the world began he was figured out unto the children of Israel by the two Cherubims of glory covering or shadowing the Mercy-seat Heb. 9. 5. and by the two Olive-trees or the two anointed ones standing by the Lord of the whole earth Zech. 4. 14. which compared with 1 Kings 6. 23. will make it appear that Solomon was not ignorant of this great mysterie in that he made the two Cherubims when he was to build the Temple and set them up therein of Olive trees or trees of oyl to signifie the mediation of Christ in spirit in his head as these two Olive-trees were the two golden pipes that emptied out the golden oyl Zech. 4. 12. of all Gods communications unto the works of his hands in both worlds This is that Jesus who whilst comprehended in his head and for a long time shadowed and typed out as the promised seed that was to come in the flesh had notwithstanding all the actions of his head and root attributed to him as much as when in the very image it self he was made manifest and therefore is said to be that Jesus by whom all things are and were created and are of him and to him and for him in subordination to the Word Thus is Christ the son of man in heaven before he descended and was made flesh and in this heavenly state of his man-hood doth not actually exercise his humane life but his life is the same with the life of the Word all whose actions are imputed unto him as Abrahams were unto Levi who is said to have paid Tythes to Melchisedec in his fathers loyns so Jesus Christ may be said to comprehend in him and the actings of his mind the particular forms and life of all in both worlds to be manifested and brought forth in their proper seasons into their visible appearances in the worlds by him and at his pleasure for whom they are and were created And when we say that the particular life and form of every creature is thus comprehended in the heavenly manhood of Christ the meaning is either immediately or mediately For he that is thus before all things is not created alone but in and with this head they all consist or stand up together as in their head capable to exist in themselves in their heavenly invisible part at the pleasure of their head before they be brought forth into their mortal and visible frame and fashion in this world In which sense all of them are Christs off-spring and seed known to him by name whether such of them as are given to him by the Father to be trained and brought up by him as children of the second new and everlasting covenant or those of the first whether they be inhabitants of Mount Sion or Mount Sinai of the heavenly City that is above or of the earthly and fleshly Jerusalem whether they be men or Angels they are all his off-spring in one of these two respects and are to receive their natural or spiritual perfection from him as he is the Minister of Gods name in his first or second appearance unto them whence it is that Christ saith to his Father Heb. 2. 13. Behold me and the children which thou hast given me in distinction from the rest of the world the former of these
the natural will or judgement in all the power and light thereof at best whilst unregenerate have no skil in nor know how to set about but as fools and little châ—ldren men must be found at the feet of Christ that he may give them a new birth and so teach and enable them thereunto But now these that thus have a right litteral knowledge of the Gospel are necessitated as to the life and power of their inward principles to fall in with and agree upon the same natural righteousness holiness and perfection in kind with their opposers and make use of their weapons to fix the truth of their witness taken up by them from theletter of the Scripture in such expressions as belong to the new-covenant-life in the second Adam upon those principles of the first Adams purity and perfection or the life of the covenant of Works as restored in and by the blood of Christ which the Scripture never intends if rightly understood but indeed on this account doth undeniably cast the cause upon those that are for the common and general Redemption who are not to be blamed for what they assert as to the extent of the benefit of Christs death to all men but for denying the truth of that witness held forth by the other which ought to have its due place and to be owned by them as consistent with theirs if they understood it yea as that which alone can give perfection and stability thereunto which therefore if rightly stated and acknowledged by them would return shame sufficient upon their adversaries discovering them to be self-condemners as opposing that very thing in the spirit and truth of it the grace faith and principles of the second-covenant-life which they do so zealously contend for in the Letter as to the peculiarity and durableness of the benefit which the true Saint receives by the death of Christ and as agreeing with that in spirit and truth the single activity and life of first-covenant-principles which they implacably oppose in the letter These are the contradictions that with great confidence and censoriousness are maintained on both sides in this our age whilst truth it self suffers every way and is unacceptable to either none being more ready then these to lay Heresie Blasphemy and high Notions at the wrong door of others in hopes to make themselves appear the sound and good Physitians Thus we see under the shadow and letter of the covenant of Grace the truth and spirit of it opposed and kept out and those that do it miserably tearing out their own bowels and pleasing themselves with names for things Whence it is that none are more confident of their being within the covenant of Grace freed from any danger of the covenant of Works then this latter sort of men who do that honour and right to the covenant of Grace as to be for it in their mouths but remove their heart far from it and hug in their bosoms the principles and life of the covenant of Works as that which they will not part with by any means but in such case will rather as with weeping may be said of them become enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. And herein they are hardned also two waies First by considering those that are behind them who maintain the doctrine of works against the litteral witness which they give unto the covenant of grace whence they conclude themselves free from any danger of being comprehended under a covenant of works Secondly by the consideration of their witness that pretend to be above them and to hold forth a Kingdom that consists not in word only but in power who under pretence of spirit and power do either with those called Ranters set up the doctrine and inspiration of devils in opposition to the truth of their witness that is but in the letter introducing again the filthiness of the flesh whereby to destroy the righteousness and holiness of the natural man which is not done away as some falsly and scandalously affirm we say by conformity with Christ in his death but is thereby fulfilled for that garment is made yet more pure and white by the blood of the Lamb and is kept spotless by this means to the second appearance of Christ or else they do annihilate the creature-being and assert perfection to consist in a swallowing up thereof into the pure being of God even in that glory wherein he is in communicable and saith I am and there is none besides me as the Familist and such who gather up all at last into a state of eternal salvation or rather into no state of creature-being at all and so in effect making neither heaven nor hell The contrary unto both these opinions is freely and fully asserted in this treatise in the believers conformity to Christs death and resurrection a doctrine which nevertheless in the true and full extent of it is accounted very offensive and scandalous in these daies of ours even amongst those that are most zealous for it in the letter who possibly may oppose it ignorantly for a season but when it comes to wilful sinning in this case it carries its own fire about with it whereby to devour the adversaries This little excursion I judged not unuseful for the cleerer and fuller asserting of the doctrine of the cross and death of Christ as it operates upon and is mis-judged by those that are yet under the first covenant considered as dispensed by the Son himself in his first appearance wherein he is a minister of the circumcision in the truth of it the righteousness and holiness of his flesh or natural man being the law or covenant of works in its highest and most glorious administration In this respect Christ is said himself to be made under the Law who also doth effectually teach those that follow him in the power of his death and resurrection how the Law may be used lawfully and according to the true intent of the giving of it So that Christ by coming in the flesh and considered as giving himself singly in and by the means of his first appearance doth beget unto himself children of the law or first covenant whose knowledge of him is only after the flesh and who though they be taken by him in to his house and built up with him in his flesh as one Tabernacle and habitation unto God yet attain no higher thereby then to be in the holy place and to minister and serve before the Lord there in a state figured out by the charge of the Levites under the Law who notwithstanding their officiating and performing service unto God in the Temple are capable of being for ever excluded from coming into the holiest of all there to do the office of a Priest or to come neer to any of those holy things which are within the veil in the most holy place and to be made
several as they may without the seed of saving faith accompanying them how high and heavenly soever they may seeme to be they are but common grace and may be fallen from and so those may perish that have them But where such gifts are followed with that farther work in the soul which is the proper fruit and effect of the third Ministery containing in it things that accompany salvation then those very gifts hereby washed in the blood of the Lamb do change their fading and failing property and become saving and everlasting In the righteousnesse then of Faith both the former righteousnesses are fulfilled and established upon better principles and Promises then those of the first Covenant to the making the possessors thereof heirs of God co-heirs with Christ and so partakers of the Divine nature entering them into the glory that is within the veile and setting them downe with Christ on his Throne as he is set downe with the Father on his Throne in the fulnesse and perfection of both Creations having all power in Heaven and in Earth put into his hand This is the Mortification and Vivification the dying to sin and living to righteousness witnessed unto by the Scriptures and shining forth in the face of Christ as the Truth that is in Jesus unto which we are made conformable by being planted together with him in the likenesse of his death and resurrection comprehending in it all that righteousnesse and holinesse which is but in part and is upon right grounds pleaded for either by the Natural or Legal Conscience and holding forth over and above that which is higher and of a better and more durable kinde then theirs But however it be that the defect and miscarriage we are speaking to that is incident to Natural or Legal righteousnesse lie not in this that it is counterfeit or hypocritical but that it is that which is but in part and which therefore does unwarrantably exalt it self into a competition with or opposition to the whole as it comes to passe in those who make such ill use of Christs first appearance as thereby to resist and keep out his second yet we are neverthelesse to acknowledge that there is much counterfeit work to be found in the world as daily experience sheweth both as to light practice principles and converse amongst those that pretend fair to be great proficients in that righteousnesse and holinesse that makes up the answer of the Natural or Legal good conscience who do not truly live in the principles of either of these states but make a flourish with meere notion head-work and light without heat together with some overly performances as desirous of a share in the praise of men with those who truly live in such principles by a meere outward plausiblenesse in converse whilst their inward part is full of ravening and wickednesse Others also that are unsincere and faulty in their very principles we are to discover and lay open for the preventing of the deceit with which under these the Devil lies in wait to insnare and turne men aside from the TRVTH This sort of men in whom are found these corrupt principles whereby they become men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith speaking lies in hypocrisie the Scripture expressely takes notice and warnes us of above all the rest as the great engines the Devil makes use of for the instillation of his Doctrine by faire speeches to the deceiving of the hearts of the simple Since therefore there is such deceivable work kept on foot in men by that grand Impostor Satan and that under pretence of their dying to sin and living to righteousnesse in many feigned shews of mortification forbidding of marriage and commanding to abstain from meats which may be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh all which is so far from being comprehended in the righteousnesse revealed by the Gospel as any part of it that under a counterfeit shadow and similitude thereof it stands in direct opposition thereunto begetting in the conscience such a dying unto Christ or the Spirit of TRUTH as imports and plainly speaks forth a living unto Antichrist or the spirit of lies and fashood prophesied of as that which with great confidence will be obtruded by the witnesse and practice of divers in the last times 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. and elsewhere since I say these things are so I have held it my duty in very faithfulnesse unto the TRUTH not to passe by the same in silence without giving my Testimony against all such deceitful workings in those who having departed from the faith give heed unto seducing spirits speaking lies in hypocrisie or in feigned resemblances unto TRUTH Of such the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 11. for whose sake he was exceeding jealous lest the Corinthians through their influence and subtilty should be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity of mind which they ought to bear as chast Spouses unto Christ their one Husband v. 2 3. Such saith Paul are false Apostles Prophets and professors of Christ transforming themselves into the appearance of Christs true witnesses and followers and no marvel For Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of righteousnesse taking upon them to personate true mortification or dying to sinne and true vivification or living to righteousnesse whose end shall be according to their Works ver 13 14 15. This sort of men as appeares in the examples of Hymeneus and Alexander have been once enlightned and through the receivings of grace and attainments under the first Covenant have had that which the Scripture calls Faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. who notwithstanding do put away their good conscience and concerning faith make shipwrack being the adversaries on the one hand which Paul exhorts Timothy to maintaine a good warfare against as well as against the Teachers of the Law on the other hand who being ignorant whilest they are under the Law how to pursue the true end of it run out into unprofitable heady disputes and endlesse questions having once turned aside unto vaine jangling understanding neither what they say nor wherefore they affirme v. 4 5 6 7. But stumbling at that stumbling stone in Sion and rock of offence to enemies Rom. 9. 33. but of defence and salvation to his chosen beloved ones Psal 95. 1. the same Christ becoming to these a sanctuary or place of refuge to them a stone of stumbling even to both the houses of Israel a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem Isa 8. 14 who going about to establish their own righteousnesse do not submit unto and so fall short of the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. Both these sorts of men on
formes through counterfeit resemblances unto TRUTH to beguile and mislead unstable souls and is daily detected and discovered under all professions or visible formes of Saintship whether more or lesse refined whether earthly and sensual or heavenly and Angelical Hereof there are in these dayes of ours but too many living instances who as Lots wife are turned into Monuments of Gods righteous judgment declared upon them for the admonition of others And that we may not leave this subject without endeavouring to contribute some assistance towards the resolving of that great Question how the true Spirit may with certainty and infallibility be known and distinguished from the false I shall briefly recommend to consideration as conducible to the discovery hereof these following particulars The Spirit of TRUTH is evidently and infallibly distinguished from the spirit of lies and falshood three several wayes by which we may make a trial and judgement of the spirits whether they be of God or no. First by the evidence and witnesse which is given of it by the three that bear witnesse in heaven where the Spirit of TRUTH shines forth in its supreme original light and self-evidence as we have at large shewed in the first and second Chapters Secondly by the Record and witnesse that the Sonne or Christ the true Spirit gives of himself in his flesh or humane nature causing the truth to shine forth in the face of Jesus opening what he is and what he did by coming in the flesh suffering and rising againe according to the Scriptures which 1 John 5. 6. is rendred thus This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that heareth witnesse because the Spirit is truth even the witnesse shining forth in his Spirit and person who whether considered as being and subsisting in the WORD OF LIFE before his being made flesh or considered as after his coming in the flesh living dying and rising againe hath a witnesse born of him in heaven by the FATHER WORD and SPIRIT which Three are one and also in earth by the SPIRIT WATER BLOOD declaring themselves in and upon him as he was found in the fashion and habit of a man which agree in one Thus in the same person we have the greater witnesse which is the witnesse of God or of Christ as he is God and the lesser witnesse which is the witnesse of man or of Christ as he is the Son of man and in both these considered also as testified unto by the Scriptures we have the compleat witnesse which God hath testified of his Son By reason hereof 't is said 1 Joh. 2. 12. Who is a liar but he that denies Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father Whosoever sees not nor acknowledges the TRUTH as witnessed and shining forth in the face of Jesus the Son of man with those that are rightly admitted to serve in the first Sanctuary among the many that are called can much lesse behold it as witnessed and held forth in the brightnesse of Gods face or of the blessed Trinity with those who are culled out of the former and rightly admitted into the holiest of all among the few that are chosen By both these witnesses and records in harmony with the outward Word we do come to know him that is true as the right and whole object whereon through faith we are to fix our eye in the proper forme character and distinction which he gives of himself from all idols or counterfeit appearances of him whatsoever The third or last witnesse which is given us of the true Spirit is that which immediately and necessarily flows from his indwelling presence in our hearts growing up there more and more unto a perfect day by working out in the conscience and spirit of the beleever a confōrmity unto Christ in his death and resurrection causing a dying to sinne and a living unto righteousnesse in the full extent of both as we have opened For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Examine therefore your selves whether ye be in the Faith know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobate And If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead awell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwellesh in you and so the Spirit it-selfe comes evidently and infallibly to witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God as having this Spirit of Adoption poured into our hearts for if we be adopted children then we know we are heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And though we are now Sonnes so as it doth not yet appeare what we shall be when we come to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus at the full manifestation of the sonnes of God yet now we know that we shall then be like him and that we shall then see him as he is yea by faith we now see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and by this knowledge we have of him in the mean time we come to see and experience him that is true and that we are in him that is true even the true God and eternal life having the witnesse in our selves through that holy anointing which is TRUTH and no lie teaching us of all things and abiding in us as a seed to preserve us from the evil and snare of all false and seducing spirits Abide therefore in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you CHAP. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him HAving already in general laid open the methods of Satan the weapons of his warfare together with the diligent and skilful prosecution of his designes upon mankind to seduce them work them off and forever deteine them from their duty and faithfulnesse unto Christ their true Husband and Lord we shall come now in a more particular manner to shew how closse an attendant he is upon the foregoing works of Christ in the hearts and consciences of men considered under the former dispensations walking about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure watching what he can find in such hearts that in the BEGINNING are Gods and Christs owne workmanship as hath beene shewed and trying whom he may corrupt from their first
between two either to render our selvs guilty of the blood of men in the Age wherein we live by holding our peace or else to endanger the making our selves a prey by speaking so as to become hatred in the house of our God Hos 9. 8. and be accounted fools and madmen yea spectacles and wonders even in Israel But the precious faith here witnessed unto teaches us to glory in tribulation to endure great hardship as good souldiers of Iesus Christ and a great fight of afflictions till men become weary of reproaching and wondering as those to whom it is given not only to believe but to suffer for Christs name sake Hereby the true Believer prevails over his greatest oppositions and is born up when he fights with beasts at Ephesus or with absurd and unreasonable men who not having faith are in their encounters with that which they know not compared to bruit beasts with whom to maintain a right combate the true witnesses of Jesus Christ take not upon them to dispute out their faith into unprofitable janglings from the nicety of words and the wilfull mistake of sincere intentions but do content themselves to be for the use to which Christ designs them as GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS to hold forth and bear that light which will by its own evidence and demonstration clear up it self in its proper time and in the mean season shelter and defend those that own it standing in very little need of the wit eloquence and abilities of men to back and sustain it over all which the power of the cross is by Paul brought in triumphing when he says Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer and great reasoner of this world hath not God made foolish the very wisdom of this world 1 Cor. 1. 20. And indeed experience in these days of ours as well as what former times have afforded hath set before our eyes in very legible broad Characters this generation of unreasonable men 2 Thes 3. 2. so long ago complained of by the Apostle who not having faith are led by degrees through the frowardness of their legal spirits to oppose it till they come in the way of Gods just Judgement to lose the right use of their very natural powers of mind as to sober and ingenious reasonings and become absurd like those teachers of the Law 1 Tim. 1. 7. who were famous for strife and jangling but neither understood what they said nor whereof they affirmed These the same Apostle Phil. 3. 2. stiles Dogs evil workers and the CONCISION that are very keen and sharp in barking biting and devouring wherein if they find they cannot do hurt enough themselves they will be calling out to others for assistance but know not how to carry themselves like men or reasonable creatures towards those who are the true circumcision and worship God in the Spirit rejoycing in Christ Iesus and having no confidence in the flesh ver 3. Of these the Scripture bids us beware more to signisie to the Faithful witnesses of Christ before hand what they are to expect then in the least to weaken them in the discharge of their duty even to the offering up of themselves if need be in the service of the faith which they profess For truth hath least cause of anything to be discouraged by opposition since it is able to cloath the lovers thereof with the whole armour of light by way of defence even against the gates of hell it self And since the days are hastning fast wherein there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made known so as that which hath been spoken in the Closets and in darkness shall be heard in the light and proclaimed on the house tops Luke 12. 2 3. why should the true Believer and righteous man be afraid to present the most inward thoughts of his heart in characters to be read and seen of all in assured expectation that the Lord will come to execute judgement and convince the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds and hard speeches against him Surely such a fear as this belongs more properly to the hypocrite who looks fair to the eyes of men but God knoweth his heart and seeth it full of blackness and corruption who therefore by his own immediate stroke will in his due time lay such open also to the sight of others Iob 34. 26. To conclude then Thou art desired who ever thou art that shalt think fit to peruse this Treatise not to be prejudiced at the first view or by taking things in parcels without a full and serious weighing of the whole but by a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures whereon the things here witnessed unto are grounded to examine whether they are so or no. And if then thou shalt finde a harmony and consistency resulting springing up to thee as well from the inward as outward Word this leisurely Survey unto which thou art invited will be found to have been of no small advantage to thee in thy making a right judgement hereof And if some of the Chapters that are more Theoretical in the begining of this Treatise as well through sublimity of the subject-matter therein handled as the narrowness and insufficiency of expression be thought knotty and abstruse the other which are more practical and speak directly to the works of God in the consciences of men as the several draughts and copies of what was first requisite to be represented to thy view and contemplation in Himself the original patern Head and root of all will I perswade my-self be found very easie and familiar specially to those that are experimental who as they travel farther into this discourse will come out of the deep waters of the manifestation of Divine glory in God himself into such shallows as are more suited to humane capacity where not only the true Saint but even the natural man and that under different dispensations one coming over the head of the other as superior and more excellent and in the several measures and degrees of proficiency and growth under each may not only finde his legs and feel the ground under him but see his face as in a glass finding himself represented to himself as to his present state and appearance or as to the proper principles in the prevailing power and activity whereof he lives And if it be objected that it were more suitable to the Laws of method first to have propounded what is more obvious in way of condescension to the lowest capacities and so to have handed the Reader along into greater deeps The Answer is plain to any intelligent Reader which is that the matter requires and enforces this Method I have used which therefore I conceive to be more genuine and natural besides that no true and right prospect can be given or taken of the Copy till the original hath been first in our eye as the top-stone whence only we may be enabled
to a more safe and un-erring intuition into the whole Fabrick If the newness of many things thou meetest with offend thee consider with thy self what unsearchable riches are to be found in the WORD of God whose best wine is kept for the last when Christ shall be admired in all those that do believe amongst whom he that is feeble at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Zach. 12. 8. and this by the means of the WORD who as a mysterie has lain hid in God from the foundation of the world and is no new Commandment but that which was in and from the beginning the old Commandment appearing only new because the darkness in which it hath been a long time veiled is passing away and far spent so as the true light now shines in Iesus Christ according to the revelation of the mysterie which was kept secret since the world began but is now made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith Rom 16. 25 26. Again if thou findest the language rough tedious and unapt to convey the discovery of such excellent glory as is shining forth in the face of this living WORD of God quarrel not with the treasure for the earthliness of the vessel through which it passes but allow something as remembring that thy self also art in the body and confined and be ready and willing in thy place to supply what is deficient my design having been more to intend the knowledge of things then the elegancy of words Lastly if in the opening of mystical and dark prophesies that which principally is aimed at and applied throughout in this Discourse be the inward and spiritual meaning of them Know that it is not to exclude thereby their literal and historical sense but to shew how well both may stand together In which case such Essays deserve to be born with considering how much of the one sort is made extant by many pens already and how little of the other Farewel I am thine in the love and service of the truth H. V. From Belleau April 20. 1655. A TABLE OF THE Chapters Chap. I. Wherein is shewed that the foundation and first Rule of all true and right knowledge of God is seated in Christ the living WORD as the blessed Trinity by their own immediate operations do make themselves personally visible therein Chap. II. Concerning the holy Scriptures their authority and use with the harmony and analogy which they hold with the living WORD Chap. III. Concerning the creation of all things by Jesus Christ who is the mystery that lay hid in God from the beginning and makes himself manifest as well by the works of creation as of redemption Chap. IV. Concerning the creation nature and ministry of Angels Chap. V. Concerning the creation of man on the sixth day Chap. VI. Concerning the fall of man the steps and degrees to it with the bitter fruits and consequents thereof Chap. VII Shewing that God on the seventh day ended the works which he had made and produced the Rest and fixed state appointed to the first creation which Christ the Medidiator as he is the minister of Gods second appearance is the Author and accomplisher of Chap. VIII Shewing the conviction and judgement that came upon men and Angels for their sin and disobedience by the shining forth of the al-searching light of Gods second appearance in the WORD before which every creature stands naked and discovered Chap. IX Concerning the WORDS being made flesh for the performance of the whole will of God in reference to mans redemption and salvation Chap. X. Concerning the benefits that do inseparably accompany Christs person where he is received either by the first or second Covenant according to the tenour of both which there is vertue in his blood to reconcile and bring men to God Chap. XI Shewing the subordinate use that the elect Angels are of unto Christ in his bearing up the pillars of the creation that else had been dissolved through the fall and the place which they have in the threefold general administration of his mediatorial Kingdome set up in the world Chap. XII Shewing wherein the three rules and formes of administration in Christs mediatorial Kingdome do differ one from another and maintaine an entire jurisdiction within themselves but in due subordination and subserviency still of the lower to the higher over the respective subjects that live under them Chap. XIII Shewing the fixed enmity and warre that is maintained and kept up by Satan against the Rule and Kingdome of the Mediator in the world in order to make of none effect unto men the inestimable price and usefulnesse of Christs blood in their fallen state Chap. XIV Shewing the continuance and progresse of the war between the subjects of Christ and Antichrist and the terms and issues upon which they joyn Chap. XV. Shewing more particularly the bounds of that Rule and Government which is set up by Christ in the natural conscience together with the answer of a good conscience thereunto in those that are under this first dispensation Chap. XVI Concerning the Rule and Dominion which by the Law Christ exerciseth in the minde of those that are made children of the first Covenant together with the answer of a good conscience thereunto in such as are subjects unto Christ under this second dispensation Chap. XVII Shewing the nature of that Kingdome and Rule of Christ in the Saints which consists not in word and in the forme of godlinesse only but in power and in the life of saving faith the first fruits whereof appear in those that are made conformable to Christ in his death Chap. XVIII Concerning the Saints conformity with Christ in his death particularly opened and cleared from those mistakes which the enemies to the Crosse of Christ are apt to brand it with Chap. XIX Giving a general view of the counterworkings of Satan to the Government of Christ in all the forementioned administrations thereof Chap. XX. Concerning death to sin and life to righteousnesse considered as well in the distinct Branches and parts thereof as in the full extent and comprehensivenesse together with the discovery thereby of that which is counterfeit hypocritical or otherwise defective Chap. XXI Shewing particularly the evil seed that is sowen in the natural conscience by Satan through which he works men off from their subjection to Christ in his first dispensation and fixes them in rebellion against him Chap. XXII Shewing in particular the workings of the mystery of iniquity in the consciences of the children of the first Covenant to the ripening of them unto perdition and finall falling away from God Chap. XXIII Concerning the common interest wherein the Devils subjects meet and correspond under both the dispensations before mentioned which yet by the wisdome and power of Christ
four and twenty Elders who both stand thus represented in Christ their head in his being Minister of Gods second appearance or the beginning and first-born from the dead the High-Priest presenting himself within the veil in the immediate presence of God bearing on his brest the names of the Children that God hath given to him from all eternity And for as much as Revel 5. 6. there is mention made of a Lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth that John beheld in the midst of the throne and of the four Beasts and of the Elders which argues them to be distinct from them let me therefore as a further witness to the life and glory had and enjoyed by this true Messiah the Ministring WORD of Gods first and second appearance from the foundation of the world endeavour to open to you the analogie that is between him in the exercise of this twofold Ministry of his and this description of a Lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seveneyes which is the power and light put forth by him as he is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and ending of the whole Creation of God which the number denotes being in himself the perfect measure line and original exemplar of both Creations the spirit sent forth by God as the light life and influencing power unto them both respectively and so having that in a far greater eminency in himself as Head and Mediator then what they have in themselves As first he is King of righteousness in the Ministry of Gods first appearance and then King of peace in the Ministry of his second and in both Melchisedec a High-Priest that implies a sacrifice a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Thus the eternal life and blessedness prepared by God according to the free and good pleasure of his will to be communicated and imparted unto his chosen vessels whether men or Angels being too big and full to be received by them in their first make and fashion of building there is a means prepared for a new make and fashion of Creation for them whereby that which is in part is done away as it stands single and alone and yet is found again in the whole when that which is perfect is come and made to be their portion and inheritance whereby Gods peculiar ones are made to have that which other natural beings at their best have in common with them and yet have over and above that height and bredth and depth and length of the enjoyment of Gods love and peace which all the wisdom and discerning of the most capacious natural understanding whatsoever remaining upon the foundation of the first building can not reach nor attain Christ thus considered as Mediator is described Dan. 7. 9 10. by the antient of daies who is brought in fitting upon the same Throne as Rev. 4. whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wool his Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten Thousand times ten Thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the Books were opened even the Books of the Lamb that was slain from the foumdation of the world And behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the antient of daies verse 13. Here the offspring and root of David meet in marriage-union and the man Christ Jesus returns and ascends into the glory where he was before or in the beginning and they brought him neer before him so neer as both do make but one blessed Person of the Mediator who laies hold on the seed of David his own off-spring thus to bring him neer to him and gives him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him whose Dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall never be destroyed That this Antient of daies is the Son of God considered in the fulness and riches of his Mediatorship as hath been before opened is plain by comparing this with Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. where the same description is made in most particulars of him as in this seventh of Daniel adding this that out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword which is the proper character of the Living WORD of God Heb. 4. 12. and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength This compared again with Ioh. 5. 22 23. where Christ saith the Father judgeth no man but htah committed all judgement unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father doth import that by this Antient of daies is meant that antient state of things and works of old which was set up in the Mediator from everlasting Prov. 8. 23. and was made manifest in the beginning when he became the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead assuming in the dispensation of the fulness of time into neerness of union with himself the man Christ Jesus as the branch his servant the polished shaft hid in the shadow of his hand to accomplish his designs and be in his use and service the means of perfecting all that entercourse into which God thinks fit to admit the particular beings of men and Angels with himself in which state he is prefigured by the two Cherubims made at the end of the mercy-seat for the shadowing of it and by the two Olive-trees that stand by the Lord of the whole earth CHAP. III. Concerning the Creation of all things by Jesus Christ who is the Mysterie that lay hid in God from the beginning and makes himself manifest as well by the works of Creation as of Redemption IT can never be sufficiently observed how the WISDOM of God in the most difficult and knotty points to the reason of man doth without gratifying at all the curiosity of flesh and blood assert the truth of his own operations Thus Heb. 11. the Holy Ghost as taking for granted what he speaks of doth in short down-right terms declare ver 3. That the worlds were framed by the WORD of God and that by faith this is known to be so In which light it is also discovered that those things which are seen by our natural eye had a prae-existence in their proper head and cause and so had also those things that are not seen but to our spiritual discerning relating also to their proper root The method of which relative and radical being of things in their head in gradations one above another so as the inferiour subordinations of workmanship are the typical significations of them that are above is shortly and mystically yet fully and admirably laid down by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11. 3. where he saith that the
nor qualified him with the power of sacrificer whereby the spotless Lamb was to be slain become a pass over meat and a supper to feed on in order to nourish the trubelievers unto everlasting life and to have the blood thereof shed poured forth and sprinkled upon the houses or hearts of his chosen ones for God to see as a token whereupon he promiseth to pass over them and that the plague of his eternal wrath shall not be upon them to destroy them Exod. 12. 13. Through the sprinkling of the blood of this passover it is then that they shall be secured from that destroying vengeance which overtakes and slaies the first-born the very chiefest dignity of the fleshly and natural seed that it touch not them or come neer their dwelling Heb. 11. 28. Hence then we say that Christ was active in the working out another sort of obedience then that wherein a meer conformity to the law of the first covenant consists which stood in his obtaining a perfect victory over the principles of his first activity answering to the voice of the Law which saith he that doth these things shall live in them so as by bringing these his fleshly principles into the cessation and rest required by the law of the new covenant he attains the end for which they were at first given him arriving at that most neer and intimate union with the Father which only by faith or the exercise of a newness of life and operation can be attained in which union God finds his Rest as well as the creature his and which is entred into or fallen short of by believing or not believing Heb. 4. 1 3. These second sort of works are called James 2. the works of faith as the obedience of the second covenant and in the case of Abraham are there said to consist in the offering up his Isaac upon the Altar by which act was declared the power of his faith as it wrought with his works and as by works it was made perfect prevailing with him to present the life of his fleshly seed or first activity in sacrifice upon the Altar as discovering that so to cease from his fleshly works or activity in the exercise of that newness of operation wherein as by a resurrection from the dead his first works though laid as it were to rest were to be fulfilled and established Thus we see how the activity and workings of Abrahams faith mastered and overcame the workings and activity of his fleshly seed and principles in the sacrificing whereof God declares himself so well pleased Gen. 22. 16. that he saith By my self have I sworn because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice Abraham then in obeying this voice of God and not fparing the life of his fleshly seed and principles had the blessings of the new-Covenant established upon him evidenced and confirmed to him upon this act of his faith all which we are to understand not as principally relating to the person of Abraham but Christ the true Father of the faithful whereof Abraham in this was but the type or figure who by performing this condition in himself did it on the behalf of the whole seed as surety unto them of the better Testament established upon better promises then the first Heb. 7. and in this act of his obedience to them imputed presents them righteous and without blame before the throne of God and makes them capable of the blessings belonging to this new and everlasting Covenant Thus was faith imputed to Abraham for righteousness that is to say the righteousness of faith wrought out by Christ himself in his own person as performing the condition of the new and everlasting Covenant and so becoming the Father root or common parent to all true Believers is imputed unto Abraham in stead of his own personal righteousness whether that of the Law or that of his own believing and exhibited to the eye of his faith as the matter of his Justification and the sole and only obedience wherein he stands accepted whereof he hath to glory before God Rom. 4. as found spotless and without blame in his sight This was conveyed to the faith of Abraham as in a lively figure and type thereof in his act of offering up his Son upon the Altar Unto which type or figure the antitype or truth doth most exactly answer and agree in Christs own sacrifice when he offered up himself through the eternal spirit without spot unto God actually sacrificed the true Isaac crucifying in himself the life of his fleshly seed and legal principles voluntarily laying aside the use and ceasing from the exercise thereof as single and alone that in the room thereof he might not only bring into exercise and use the newness of life and operation set up in him by faith but compleat these crucified fleshly principles as single and alone in their operations by bringing them forth again through the regeneration with greater vigour beauty and perfection then ever in subjection to and harmonious co-operation with the life of faith to the fulfilling thereby all righteousness as well relating to the first as second Covenant This second sort of activity in Christ flowing forth in newness of life and operation and becoming perfect through the ceasing of his first is the exercise of that faith by which he and the whole spiritual seed enter into Rest fighting through all opposition to the removing of every thing that lets and lies in the way thereof and therefore is in Christ the true Abraham or Father of the faithful offering up the true Isaac or the fleshly seed in Christ in the principles and activity thereof In which also he is the true Joshuah leading the natural man into the true Land of Canaan or heavenly Country into which the principles of Moses or of the Law could not bring him In this as in the performance of the true duty of the Sabbath Jesus our God and Saviour went before us as our example in thus ceasing from his works Heb. 4. that we also might not think it much in imitation of him to be ceasing after the same manner from ours since we stand obliged to the same Sabbath-observation as we desire to enter into Gods rest Through this working power of faith in Christ he was taught this new obedience suffering himself to be taken off his first activity or works with so advantageous a change as to have a higher and a better spring of operation set up in the room thereof through the Fathers witness and teaching wherein the disability or weakness that is brought upon the first principles and their activity as to their single exercise is abundantly recompensed with admission of them in
Jesus our Lord. But the justification and sanctification received upon the terms of the first covenant which are conditional and depending upon the creatures continuance are subject in a time of tryal to fail the persons concerned therein unto whom through the common relation which all mankind is taken into with Christ as he is flesh of our flesh bone of our bone like unto us in all things sin only excepted there is given as in a way of common grace and salvation first a relative holiness and righteousness in ballance to the relative unholiness and unrighteousness derived to the first Adams posterity as they stood related to him their common parent in his fallen state which is freely conferred upon them with offer and promise to bring them out of the bondage of corruption they are in by nature if they will hear and obey Secondly there is an actual exercise of long-suffering and patience put forth towards them freely on Gods part by vertue of the satisfaction he hath received on their behalf in the sacrifice of Christ by reason whereof he declares himself willing not to impute unto them sins past or present if through obeying Christs voice they shall render themselves capable of such benefit and shall not by their wilful personal sinning against the grace offered them and persisting therein so far abuse the benefit of Christs sacrifice as wholly to render themselves unworthy thereof Thirdly there is an actual imputation of Christs legal righteousness to all such as obeying his call in the first-covenant are thereby made the seed which is of the Law born after the flesh and become actual members of his natural body From what then hath been said concerning Christs active and passive obedience we may discern how far Christ therein wrought out mans redemption as he stood in the relation of a common person and parent to both seeds and as their surety undertook on their behalf to fulfill the righteousness of both Covenants in himself and this after such a manner as to be able to derive and communicate the benefit thereof unto them in a way of the Justification and Sanctification required by either of the two covenants respectively and this either singly and apart each from other or joyntly and together to the rendring those righteous in him that were helpless sinners and wretched ones in themselves Christs obedience then hitherto treated of in the two forementioned branches of his active and the first branch of his passive though it doth procure all that which is needful to make man righteous and holy according to what is required by both covenants yet it is not that properly which expiates the guilt of sin already committed nor frees from the curse of the Law in order to which Christ was made a Curse for us and did bear the punishment due to our sins which without blood could not receive remission at the hands of Gods Justice Heb. 9. There is then yet remaining a second part of Christs passive obedience to be opened wherein this did consist and in respect of which it behoved Christ to suffer as a Malefactor without the Gate a reproachful accursed bodily death with all the heightning circumstances accompanying the same from God Angels and men to the bruising of his heel in which also the Scriptures are very plain and express saying that upon him God laid the iniquity of us all Isa 53. who were as sheep gone astray and 1 Pet. 2. 24. he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree and chap. 3. 18. it is said that he being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust and 1 Tim. 2. 4 6. Who gave himself a ransom for all as willing to have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Christ by being made thus a curse for us redeemed us from the curse of the Law or did that in way of satisfaction to Gods Justice by reason whereof God thinks fit and finds it just to acquit and discharge sinners from the curse and wrath of God due unto them by the Law Which benefit is either renewed to us conditionally and in reference to the first Covenant-obedience by us engaged in to live and be tryed by or is given unto us absolutely and in reference to the second Covenant-obedience as living by faith and interested in the sure mercies of David that never fail Those that partake of this benefit in the first sense are spoken of Heb. 10. unto whom having been once enlightned and then sinning willfully after the knowledge of the truth to the treadding underfoot the Son of God accounting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin but they fall again not only under the first curse but the second death or final ministry of Gods fiery vengeance which no sacrifice of Christ will be admitted to atone on their behalf for ever Psal 49. 8. but like sheep they are laid in the grave for death to feed on they go to the Generation of their Fathers and never see light But those that partake of this benefit of Christs sacrifice in the latter sense have at once a perfect and absolute remission of all sins vouchsafed to them never to be recalled more as it is written Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more This being laid down we shall now proceed to shew first the particulars wherein Christ did undergo Gods wrath and was made a curse on our behalf by way of satisfaction and ransome for the sins of all mankind which properly was our due to have undergone in our own persons and secondly to open the nature of that wrath from God which Christ was capable of undergoing and that was thought meet and required by God to be executed upon him and undergone by him in the work of our Redemption For the particulars wherein Christ underwent the wrath of God and did bear the punishment which was due only unto sinners the Scriptures declare them to be these First Christ was exposed as a mark which was aimed and shot at all the daies of his flesh by the rage and malice of wicked Angels and men and as a spectacle of open scorn and reproach to be trampled upon by his insulting adversaries as if he had been a worm and no man unto all which God was thus far contributing as to suffer it and sit silent as a Spectator yea by his providences and outward dispensations rather furthering then hindring it and this in persuance of his declared mind herein even unto the Serpent himself Gen. 3. 15. when he told him speaking of Christ the seed of the woman he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel For the exercise of all this rage of Devils and men against him did bring to pass no other thing but
body is hereby quickned and brought forth as into its maturity and ripe age in a fulness of stature agreeable to this his raised and exalted state his corruptible having put on incorruption and his mortal having put on immortality to the bringing to pass in himself the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory And now the same Jesus that was crucified and slain by vertue of the compleat exercise of his spiritual senses enters within the veil converses with him that is invisible and sits down at Gods right hand retaining withal in perfect use the exercise of his natural senses powers and faculties of soul and body in a glorified state as being in one and the same person the fulness of Jew and Gentile the perfection of the spiritual and of the natural man joyning them both together in one sheepfold whereof himself is the one great shepheard and overseer This reconciliation Christ hath wrought through the blood of the Cross making in himself of twain one new man having slain the enmity thereby broken down the partition wall and removed that which else would have letted the bringing of life and immortality to light This is the form or fashion of Christs heavenly manhood wherein is to be found the perfection of both seeds built up together in perfect love usefulness and peace and this heavenly image thus wrought out in Christ is the law that shall go forth out of Sion prophesied of Isa 2. 3. and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem that shall establish the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains and exalt it above the hils causing all nations to flow unto it This is the pattern of the house spoken of also Ezek. 43. ver 7. and 10. wherein was the place of Gods Throne and the place of the soles of his feet to dwell in the midst of his people which was to be measured by the house of Israel to make them ashamed of their iniquities and Idols And v. 12. this is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy CHAP. X. Concerning the benefits that do inseparably accompany Christs person where he is received either by the first or second Covenant according to the tenor of both which there is vertue in his blood to reconcile and bring men to God CHrist in the 42. and 49. Chapt. of Isaiah is called The Covenant said to be him that God gives to be a COVENANT to the People to establish the earth and cause to inherit the desolate heritages to say to the prisoners go forth and to them that sit in darkness shew your selves The way wherein Christ given as a COVENANT to any soul is by becoming the received Lord and Christ in that heart ministring a participation and fellowship with him in spirit by the power and presence of himself there either in his first or second appearance and changing that soul into the likeness of himself more or less in one of those his appearances Thus according to the first Covenant he visited the Children of Israel in Egypt brought them out of the house of bondage and baptized them unto Moses in the cloud and in the red Sea causing them to eat the same spiritual meat and to drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of the ROCK which followed them which ROCK was Christ yet with many of them God was not well pleased but as he saith Jer. 31. 32. That my COVENANT they brake though I was an HUSBAND unto them and Isa 63. 8 9 10. he saith Surely they are my people children that will not lye and so upon that condition he was their Saviour admitting them to the benefit of his sacrifice In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them out of the house of bondage and carried them all the daies of old but they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned from the way of love and pitty he exercised towards them before became their enemy and fought against them Thus also Ezek. 16. he ministers life to them decks them with excellent ornaments yea with his own comeliness and spreads his skirt over them After all which they provoke him with greater abominations then ever before and then he and they part again and he becomes their enemy It is evident then that upon such conditional terms as are comprehended in the tenor of the first Covenant Christ can and doth cause his own reception in the hearts and consciences of men and that there are inseparable benefits attending and accompanying this manner of reception of or believing in Christ which is begotten and held but upon the wavering principles of the first Covenant which in respect of its uncertainty is found fault with by God Heb. 8. 7 8. First they that are thus made receivers of Christ are called out of the world to come out of that heathenish state wherein men live as without God and Christ in the world and so are made of the number of those many that are called whereof there are but few chosen and endued with the wisdom from above which will make their calling sure Secondly Christ is made unto such RIGHTEOUSNES in a way of Justification who having made himself a sinoffering for fallen man is pleased even upon the tenor of this Covenant to make them the RIGHTEOUSNES of God in him that is to afford unto them the benefit of his legal righteousness whereby he satisfied the Law so that the Law hath nothing to say against such yea to make them that in him which God in righteousness imputing the benefit of his sacrifice unto them doth accept and is the justifier of them by in declaring Christs righteousness unto them as a propitiation for all their past sins and so to be continued to them as long as they shall do well In which sense God argued with Cain Gen. 4. 7. Whilst thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lieth at the door Through this Propitiatory-covering of Christs blood they are under SANTCUARY and in a City of refuge from Gods wrath and the avenger of blood kept unto the faith to be revealed till by their wilfull sinning and making themselves unworthy of further or more grace there remains no more sacrifice for sin This Justification the world hath in common with true believers as well as the first faith and calling before mentioned Thus t is said 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. that God our saviour will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth who ver 6. gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time The third benefit inseparably accompanying this kind of Christs giving himself by the first convenant is that which we call
having put all its Inhabitants in this sense in subjection unto the government of the Elect Angels to be a terrour unto evil works and a protection and refuge to them that do well who therefore Eccles 5. 8. are described to be those that are higher then the highest ministers of justice in this world or then the supreme powers here below and yet saith the text there be higher then they which are Christ the WORD of God and the blessed Trinty In reference to the Angels therefore in this their office and administration of justice under Christ it is said Deut 32. 7 8. The most high divided unto the nations their inheritance from the daies of old or the beginning of the world when he separated the sons of Adam according to the number of the Angels as the Septuagint renders it or under their rule and government as he separated the day from the night in this visible world by two great lights that he set up in the material heavens the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night Gen. 1. 14. 16. typifying this office and ministry of Angels as to the government of the sons of Adam all the nations whereof in their earthly state God made of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth but thought fit upon the fall and sin of the first Adam to set the bounds of their habitation according to the number of the Angels or measure of their natural perfection as subjected made subservient to Christ their head being in this respect the shadowy image of Christs first appearance in which they are able to proportion suitable manifestations of Christ to the natural discerning of men in what state or condition soever they are found whether such as are without law or such as are under the law The first of these know no higher rule at present then this shadowy image of Christs natural perfection reflected and beamed forth upon them from the face of angelical glory where the sound of the Scriptures hath not yet been heard who therefore as heathens are said comparatively to abide in darkness as under the rule of the lesser light typifyed by the moon the ruler of the night these are the uncircumcision in the flesh living remote from and as it were without Christ and God in the world as aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of promise yet in a capacity to seek the Lord if haply they may feel after him and finde him though he be not far from every one of them being that light that enlightens every one that comes into the world The second sort of men are those sons of Adam that are higher enlightened by being brought beyond this first shadowy image of Christ unto the Ministry of the Law and placed under the dominion thereof becoming actually thereby of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh being made partakers of the first Covenant renewed in the blood of Christ and so called the circumcision in the flesh and in that sense Israelites children of the first Covenant to whom pertains the Adoption and the glory and the Covenants who are called Jews children of God or visible Saints resting in the Law or taking up their station in Christs first appearance or natural perfection making their boast of God as knowing his will and approving the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law whether considered as ministred by Moses or by the flesh of Christ who therein is the head-perfection of it who are confident that they themselves are guides unto the blind lights unto them that sit in darkness instructers of the foolish teachers of babes which have the form of the knowledge and truth of the Law or first ministry of Christ whose praise is of men Rom. 2. 29. who in one word are made the children and off-spring of Christ according to what he is as head and root unto the perfection of the natural Creation single yea even unto himself according to the flesh considered as a meer man or in the fashion and likeness of the first Adam in his sinless and incorrupt nature Both these sorts of men being still but the sons of the first Adam or of an earthly descent and birth fall properly under the Ministry of Angels in the hand of Christ whom he hath appointed in a twofold dispensation serving in the one to veil and in the other to unveil him in his first appearance as he is KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESSE being in the witness they give herein as two great lights in the firmament of the spirits of men the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night In this latter they are as the Moon to rule the Kingdom of darkness whereinto all mankinde in their fallen corrupt state are plunged renewing and setting up something of that light in the natural spirit of man with which every man is enlightned that comes into the world however degenerate his condition be in all other respects in the other they discover the Sun that is to rule the day of mans further enlightned judgement when he is separated from amidst all the corrupt world and is clothed with a visibility of Saintship profession wherein he hath the praise of men that measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves amongst themselves without having the true Spiritual light of Christs second appearance to help their discerning therein 2 Cor. 10. 12. and so are not wise but are such children Deut. 32. 20. in whom is no faith who notwithstanding all the commendation they assume unto themselves are not they whom God commends This generation of men are Israel according to the flesh whether under the Law or under the Gospel which are not to pass away till the sufferings of the whole spiritual seed be fulfilled but shall be found in that great city Jerusalem mentioned Rev. 11. 8. which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified and amongst whom the dead bodies of his witnesses must lie unburied three days and an half ver 9. Thus the most High divided to the Nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam not only into their several countries and local habitations but into the day and night of his administrations of Rule over them and communications of light life and power to them after their Fall when he set the bounds of the people according to the number of angels made by him ministers of his Kingdom of natural righteousness as hath been declared The third sort of people in that distribution of the Sons of Adam are the true Jacob or Spiritual Seed that are of the Faith of Abraham whether Jews or Gentiles and right Heirs of God according to the promise that are not only Sons of Righteousness as the former in the perfection of the natural man but SONS OF PEACE where of twain springs up one new man through the blood of the
face in his own similitude apparently conversing with him as friend speaks with friend having the natural powers faculties of their mind which they still possess in common with other men so subdued and made subject to this higher birth of the divine will and presence in them that they are taught to do the will of their father in earth as it is done in heaven and to be the fulfillers of all righteousness not only of that which is according to the rule and law of the spirit of life that they are under exclusive to the rest but what is according to the law and rule of Gods judgements given either to the Jew worldly Christian or to the heathen in the right way of subordination wherein they ought to be practised and observed according to the will of God when we are so made one with Christ as he is made one with the Father ever doing that which is pleasing and acceptable in his sight These are they then in the general whom we mean by those that are born after the spirit and of the free-woman that are from above of the Jerusalem that is above the heavenly City whose builder and maker is God by his own immediate hand forming and setting it up for that end in the person of the mediator as that wherein Christ as the first begotten from the dead might become the head to this whole seed of spiritual believers whose names are written in heaven This divine birth is that through which we believe to the saving of the soul and therefore is described Heb. 11. 1. c. under the name of faith and is said to be the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen giving the sight of him that is unseen to every natural eye and bringing the soul to the knowledge of the inward living WORD through the knowledge of whom we come to understand that the worlds were framed and how they are since upheld and governed By the power of this divine birth Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice then Cain and the famous men of God in old times whose genealogy as all partaking of this spiritual seed is derived in that Chapter from Abel downward through all the old Testament obtained a good report or lived that life which was in repute with God and which he owned as wel-pleasing and acceptable unto him These are they that throughout the new Testament also are to be understood for the seed of true believers there spoken of unto whom as their pattern in spirit these worthies Heb. 11. are propounded that they might run the same race having so great a cloud of witnesses set before them looking also to Jesus not only as he is the author and beginner of our faith in the ministry of his first appearance but as he is also the finisher of it making it the faith that fails not which is attained in and by the new covenant or ministry of his second appearance through which he doth not only appear a King of righteousness conveying a seed of righteousness answerable to the perfection commanded by the law but also a King of peace conveying a seed of everlasting peace and absolute reconciliation between God and the soul through the blood of the Cross wherein the perfection of the life of faith consists For wherever the single seed of righteousness is in any without this other seed of peace blessing will not stay or long abide in that heart nor will the profession of faith and a good conscience be held fast and without wavering and danger of falling away But where both these seeds are cast in together to live together as brethren in unity the elder serving the younger they are the two that are better then one mentioned Eccles 4. 9 10. who shall have a reward for their labour and when one falleth the other shall help him up but woe to him that is single and alone For the wavering unstable principles of the first holy and righteous seed are never rightly fixed nor made durable or abiding unto life eternal but by this higher divine birth whereby the first hearing of the word becomes mixed with faith and produceth in the heart that ground which brings forth the good seed in abandant fruitfulness without any danger of miscarrying This new-creature-life and glory is signified by the white stone and new name that none can read but those that have it who feed upon the hidden Manna and are admitted to sit down at table and meat with the Son in the Kingdom of the Father having the seal of the living God in their foreheads by which they escape out of all trials and spiritual dangers and are brought forth as gold refined by the fire These are they that are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire into the name of the Father Son and Spirit in the truth of the thing in the living WORD and not only in the shadow and figure held forth in worldly rudiments and carnal ordinances being the chosen vessels which God selects out of those many which he hath called causing them to bear his own name his new name whom he makes pillars in his house never to go forth more These are the true seed of the promise as it is written not to seeds as of many but that one seed which is Christ who are now sons though for a season under the veil and form of servants unseen in their true and proper appearance yet at last they must be like unto Christ their head in their heavenly glorified man-hood as saith the Scripture we shall be like him and see him as he is And as thus the spiritual seed considered as living by the faith that fails not are one sort of the subjects under this third dispensation of Christs Rule so there is a counterfeit spiritual seed that are described Jude ver 12 13. who are to be numbred under this third rank of subjects as the second sort under this third administration intruders into this spiritual society of true believers being spots in those feasts of love wherein they feast with them sporting themselves with their own deceivings feeding without fear clouds they are without water carried about of winds foaming out their own shame wandring stars and 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 17 18 19. having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls cursed children who have for saken the right way and are gone astray who speaking great swelling words of vanity allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that had clean escaped from them who live in errour being themselves the servants of corruption whilst they promise liberty to others unto whom is reserved the mist or blackness of darkness for ever Thus man in a threefold respect is the subject of these three kingdoms and dominions of Christ and is so vastly distinguished from himself in these three states that he seems to have as it were a
them to be Abrahams fleshly seed but saith he ye seek to kill me and therefore ver 39. he denies them in effect to be Abrahams spiritual seed or of the faith of Abraham for if ye were thus the children of Abraham saith he ye would do the works of Abraham and this did not he he did not become an enemy and seek to kill men for speaking the truth which they have heard of God ver 40. If therefore you desire to know what Father youbelong to I tell you plainly you are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it ver 44. So then although God gave to Angels and men at first the goodness and perfection of natural beings and doth freely offer a renewal of the same to men in the blood of Christ by the first covenant made again in force by vertue of his death as the first Testament Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. yet this image and likeness of God wherein they were made and whereunto they are again renewed as it stands single and alone without the other is a mutable and corruptible seed the children whereof are therefore capable to turn again into degenerate plants and into the wild olive tree For God comes down in the ministry hereof as under a veil to the creatures sight and enjoyment in which man fixing and taking up his abode waiting for no further discovery nor expecting or listning after that second voice of him that speaketh from heaven may for ever stand excluded from entrance into or converse with the glory that is within the veil where God is to be seen and enjoyed by the creature face to face By the blood of Christ then man is first made capable to be taken out of the wild degenerate state of nature and to be planted into the good Olive tree the flesh or natural man in the person of Christ and when he comes to partake of the fatness thereof as it singly gives forth Christ in his first appearance or a knowledge of him only according to the flesh which Paul grew a stranger to as he came to be more acquainted with the Cross he is still but in a capacity to stand or fall again as upon his second proof and trial in the renewed exercise of his free will and rectified natural abilities of mind he demeans himself according to which he proves the womb whereinto is received either a divine seed and birth whereof the mediator in his death and resurrection is the author and parent or else a devilish seed and birth whereof the Serpent and old Dragon is the Father growing up into a wilful and fixed enmity against the Cross of Christ One or other of these two seeds all sorts of men do become by the evil and unworthy or the good and worthy use of Christs blood and the benefits of his death and so are either the seed of the woman and of promise or the seed of the Serpent lying children born from beneath of the father of lyes in comparison of the divine birth of the true seed that in the other sense are born of God and from above This latter is attained unto through Gods bounty and free love the Mediator adopting them into oneness of seed with himself as he is the only begotten Son in whom God is well-pleased The other through Gods just permission and Satans prevailing power and influence upon their lust and natural will at its best are changed and corrupted into likeness and oneness of seed with the old Serpent By reason of which different dispensations the innocent good righteous and perfect state of mans nature communicated to him by vertue of the first covenant comes either to grow up into that which is much better even into the power of an endless life or else to degenerate and sink down into that which is much worse even eternal enmity and opposition of mind unto God which is the second death That then which fixeth man in his unchangeable and permanent state of everlasting blessedness or misery is the bringing him forth out of his first wavering and changeable state into oneness of seed with Christ the Mediator in his second appearance wherein he is made to bear the likeness of his death and resurrection or the leaving him to be transformed into oneness of seed with the destroyer and thereby to become a child of perdition The first of these changes mans natural will at its very best lusteth against as the greatest cross that can be brought upon it until by regeneration and the baptism of fire it be prepared broken and subdued into a meet subjection thereunto And the latter change cannot be obtruded by the devil or forced upon mans will but is brought upon him by and with his own free consent which was not found difficult to be gained in the state of mans innocency and purity in Paradise and is not more since Here then we see the seat and original of this enmity between the two seeds springing up in the manner before expressed in their respective heads and roots who are thus to be found as they are in their heads and first principles before they flow forth in the off-spring and are discerned in their distinct operations in the particular beings of men here in this world as deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil for which all men are rendred accountable when they come to stand before the judgement seat of Christ In order therefore to their own voluntary actings herein they are endued with the exercise of a freedome of will which by creation was perfect absolute and uninterrupted and which by the ballance that God since the fall keeps up by the ministry of the holy Angels with their influence and impressions upon the natural enlightned conscience as also by the work of the spirit himself upon those farther illuminated minds under the first covenant against the power and influence of the devil upon mans corrupted and depraved state is so far and truly exercised by man in the several measures and degrees thereof as will render him inexcusable for not hearkning to the light and means tendred and afforded to him through the blood of Christ revealed by the Gospel in one or other of the three forementioned branches of his kingdome So that now upon Gods making man on the sixth day of the creation forming the first Adam of the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life he became a living soul was set up in the first image of God brought forth in the same kind of mutable perfection with the Angels and in all the glory and accomplishments of this first state was a fit subject brought upon the stage capable to be attempted by both these great
things sin only excepted which as the Law or holy commandment ministred by him is given them to keep without spot and unrebukeable unto his second appearance 1 Tim 6. 14. and as was typed out by the Manna is then no longer to be fed upon as singly ministred nor is to be gathered when this true Rest or Sabbath appears but melts away before the heat of this more glorious Sun and brighter day of Christs second appearance to them as having attained its end calling with the Angel Gen. 32. 26. to be let go and ceased from because of the day-break of Christs second coming and the sounding forth of the voice of God from that most excellent glory in which even this first ministry is also comprehended and fufilled This is Israel after the flesh whether considered as they were shadowed and typed forth by the fleshly seed of the Jews in general or as they were in truth the circumcision of Christ made without hands in time of the law or of the Gospel among Jews or Gentiles who as such are called Jer. 2. 21. wholly aright seed and Isa 5. a vineyard of Christs in a very fruitful hill fenced cleansed and planted with the choisest vine in expectation of their bearing good fruit and bringing forth right grapes but many of them in the end do bring forth sowr and wild grapes From these then thus considered are distinguished those under the Law that were only such outwardly their circumcision being only that which was outward in the flesh who having singly the form of knowledge according to the law contained in ordinances and outward observations knew not what it was to be a lew in spirit so much as in a conformity of inward perfection and life to Christ in his headship to the natural man These are described Ier. 32. 23. as those that walked not in Gods Law nor did any thing of all that God commanded them to do in the spirit and power of the commandment parallel unto whom are those in these daies under the Gospel who seem exceeding zealous of outward Ordinances and observations consisting in worldly rudiments as touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using whilst they remain strangers and enemies in their minds by wicked works even to that life of natural righteousness that is required by the Law not being renewed in and by Christ as his seed and off-spring so much as after the flesh nor made true members of his living body as planted into a likeness and conformity with him in his natural perfection of fleshly life And as the inward fleshly Israelite differs thus from the outward so is he in eminency far above all that rectified and reformed state of nature effected by the ministry of Angels in and upon those who are not yet actually taken out of their first corrupt natural root the old Adam but stand yet related as members to that head notwithstanding all the change brought upon them by the first dispensation For such are not as yet truly feeding with Christ at his fleshly table nor eating and drinking in his personal presence whilst they go forth singly in the acting of what is natural right and just and have no other foundation for their peace with God or means of maintaining fellowship and communion with him but the righteous and good works which they do according to the light dispensed in that first ministry and government whereas the Israel that is after the flesh as renewed in the flesh of Christ and becoming children of the first covenant are receivers of Christ himself in his first appearance for the foundation of their converse with God and the means of maintaining their fellowship and communion with him In this respect they are said to have faith accompanied with a good conscience but such as may be lost and shipwracked 1 Tim. 1. 19. and 5. 12. such a faith as in comparison with the faith that works by love and springs from the root of the Heavenly Adam is accounted as no faith at all Deut. 32. 20. but is rather to be esteemed the knowledge with which men are in danger of being puffed up 1 Cor. 8. 1. and such a receiving of the truth which as it may consist with so also may be without the love of it in the spirit and power thereof in which manner they receive it who afterward sin wilfully and so come to be denied any longer continuance of the benefit of Christs sacrifice for the expiation of their sins Heb. 10. 26. These with the stony ground receive the word with joy and are believers but when their faith comes to its trial Iam. 1. 2 3. they prove waverers and unstable such whose faith fails in the time of need wanting the incorruptible seed of the heavenly Adam to bear them up and make them durable Through this temporary faith they are admitted into Christs presence to eat and drink with him at his table and are enabled to do many wonderful works in his name and to make a very fair shew in the flesh and yet have no abiding city nor ever enter into the true Rest but only from the top of this Mount Pisga they may have a view and prospect into the true Land of promise the kingdom that cannot be moved that is in spirit and power appearing to them as a Land of distances very far off and may see its Lineaments and proportions though never be able to enter into the life and power of it as in like manner from the top-perfection of the first dispensation a survey may be taken of the earthly Jerusalem and of the glory of Christ according to the flesh without ever being actually translated into it or knowing of Christ in the life and power of his first appearance unto which many of those that go under the name of Quakers do seem to arrive CHAP. XVII Shewing the nature of that kingdom and Rule of Christ in the Saints which consists not in word and in the form of godliness only but in power and in the life of saving faith the first fruits whereof appear in those hearts that are made conformable to Christ in his death BY what we have laid down in the two foregoing chapters it plainly appears that Christ hath subjects and faithful walkers with him under both the former dispensations wherein he suffers the tares and the wheat the children of this world and the heaven-born sons of Zion to grow up together for a while without any discrimination being not yet come to the harvest that finishing work of his wherein he makes up his jewels Mal. 3. 17. setting apart his choise treasure unto himself and causing a manifest distinction and difference to shew it-self between the wicked and the righteous between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between those that draw back whose soul God takes no pleasure in and those that go on to the saving of the soul Heb. 10. 38 39. We are
these meere heathenish subjects even out of the world it self as restored in several measures and degrees to some purity and rectitude of natural principles by the coming of Christ in the flesh and by the preaching of the Gospel to every creature under heaven he therefore winds about and changes his course by transforming himself into an Angel of light and declaring himself a friend unto Christ considered in his first appearance and as he is the restorer and renewer unto man of his first purity natural perfection knowing that by this his dissimulation and feigned complyance with Christ as vile and false a spirit as he is he can come in by flatteries into those souls and consciences whence he hath beene cast out and kept out by force and can returne as unsuspected and take up his place and state in the very Temple of God shewing himself that he is God by all the signes wonders and evidences that flesh and blood can expect from him to approve himself by to the deceiving of the very elect themselves if it were possible and using all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse he knowes how to greaten and enlarge his Dominion and Rule by this second branch of it in the use he makes of enlightned restored men the children of the first Covenant that are under the Dominion of the Law married to Christ by that Covenant and who will admit no Rule nor Government over them but such as is consistent with the righteous and holy operations and actings that are required by the Law in those that work as debtors unto it whereof we have at large spoken in opening the mysterious workings of sinne and Satan that are taken by the occasion of the Commandment working death by that which is good so that the Devil makes a surer game for himself this way then the other for out of this grave there is no redemption but it must be let alone for ever There remaines no more sacrifice for sin nor place for repentance when after such enlightnings there is a drawing back and falling away through a root of bitternesse springing up against the dawning and approaching glory of Christ in his second and heavenly appearance Such backslidings and declinings of heart are fatal as having mingled in them that seed and nature of sinning for which God swears in his wrath whoever becomes wilfully guilty shall never enter into his rest but be delivered up to beleeve a lie that they all that are such might be damned and perish everlastingly because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved but after they had received the knowledge of it became bitter haters and opposers thereof When once this Decree of Gods wrath comes in its execution upon any soul denying unto it the benefit of the sacrifice of Christs death let men have beene never so farre enlightned to the escaping of the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Iesus Christ to the attaining of excellent spiritual gifts having all knowledge all faith that can be had without the love of the truth shining forth in the Crosse and Resurrection of Christ all this and all the righteousnesse they have done shall be no more remembred but in the iniquity they herein commit they shall surely die and their old sins from which they had beene washed and purged returne with vigor and power againe upon them making their latter end worse then their beginning So then the Devil is no loser at last by temporizing for a while and giving as it were leave unto his subjects these sonnes of perdition to conforme to the Lawes of his enemy and walk with the Saints as friends and fellow subjects in Christs Kingdome for when they break and part these drawing back to perdition whilst the true heirs go on to the saving of the soul the Devil finds his reckoning in the winding up and serves himself of this his deceitful compliance by himself and his instruments with Christ and the true spiritual seed to paythem home at last with inveterate rage and malice signified Rev. 12. by that flood of water which he poures out after them if it were possible to drowne and destroy them utterly as is most apparent also in the action and carriage of the He-goat in Daniel that pretended a long while to be for Christ the Prince of the heavenly Host and to engage on his and their behalf against the RAM till hereby he had strengthened the Kingdome to himself and then Christ and the true Saints have the slip given them and none more enraged against them at last then the HE-GOAT none that speaks greater words against them or more ready to piece up in association with the RAM which he before had beaten downe and got the perfect mastery over This will be found by experience a most certaine truth that Hypocrites and Apostates when once they come to wilfull sinning and with Saul to discerne that God hath left them and is departed from them as to what divine presence and fruits of it they had before beene made sensible of none will be more ready to joyne avowedly with the Devil and the worst of his instruments to accomplish their rage against the suffering Saints of Christ who by this meanes have all the power of the world not only withdrawn from being their protection but declaring it self in visible opposition to them and have little other defence left them then in faith and patience to possesse their souls as the poore destitute and needy ones of the flock of Christ Which dark dispensation and season is hastening apace being as it were the midnight-state wherein the Bridegroome shall come the second time without sinne unto salvation and unto which all things must work as the last times draw to their end when the falling away will be greater then ever and the rage of all the Churches enemies most enflamed and implacable and when all visible protection and defence shall be as good as taken away from the true spiritual seed and suffering Saints to the making of such a time of trouble as never was since there was a Nation Yet the Scriptures do declare that although the ordinary visible protection shall be taken away and withdrawn from the holy people and their power of the arme of flesh broken God will however be a little Sanctuary unto that residue and remnant which he shall preserve faithful unto himself under all the trials and shakings that shall be brought upon the world For Zach. 14. 3. It is said Then shall the Lord go forth against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battell which ver 13. interprets to be in the case of Gideon when a great tumult from the Lord was sent amongst his peoples enemies so as they did lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour and rose up one against another until they all fell together like Abners and Ioabs men at the poole of Gibeon and became a prey
same heightning and purity which other parts of the Creation shall arrive unto through the general restitution of all things Magistracie it self as ranked among the rest is proportionably to receive For brasse sayes he I will bring gold and for yron I will bring silver and for wood brasse and for stones yron I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors righteousnesse Violence shall be heard no more in thy land wasting nor destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise This restauration seemes to hold proportion with the degenerating of Magistracie figured out in Nebuchadnezzars Image Dan. 2. 32 33. Whose head was of fine gold his armes and breast of silver his belly and thighs of brasse his legges of yron his feet part of yron and part of clay which when it shall be sunk downe into this its lowest and most corrupted state is to receive a change wherein it shall be raised up to its primitive height and glory We are then from hence to be assured that Magistracie had a primitive patterne and Rule unto which Isa 1. 26. referres which though as to the practice of it it will hardly be found yet hereof the judicials of Moses were a shadow and type as through which did shine forth a Magistracie yet in promise in the man Christ Jesus which Moses beheld as the true Original in the Mount when he received the command to see that he made all things according to the patterne shewed him in the Mount and who saith of Christ Deut. 18. 15 18. A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear which compared with Isa 32. 12. shewes that this Prophet is also a King in the sense now spoken of where 't is said Behold a King shall reigne in righteousness and Princes shall Rule in judgement and a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and the shadow of a rock in a weary land So then faith sees or may see an image and Rule in Christ by whom Kings Rule and Princes decree justice unto which Magistracie it-self in its Primitive institution and right exercise is or ought to be conformed the knowledge of which truth was powerfully set upon Davids spirit enabling him Prophetically to describe it 2 Sam. 23. 3 4 5 6 7. saying He that rules ever men must be just ruling in the feare of God and he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sunne riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grasse springing out of theearth by cleare shining after raine Which though David did not fully experience in his personal administration of this rule which was in him as in the type nor yet could find it like to be in his house as to the fleshly seed yet he foresaw it and accordingly prophesied of it as a thing to come by the exercise and administration thereof in the hand of Christ and his people in the latter dayes and so first describes wherein Magistracie consists as considered in the purity of its institution and the right exercise thereof when he saith He that rules over men must be JVST ruling in the fear of God and secondly when he shewes also the use which Christ will make of it when it shall by him be brought into practice according to its first patterne even for the thrusting away of all the sonnes of Belial as so many thornes that have laine goading in the sides of Gods suffering Saints for a long time which cannot be taken with hands but the man invested with this Magistracie and power shall be able to touch and subdue them as fenced with this rod of iron and staffe of a speare and they shall be burnt also with fire in the same place The fire that comes forth out of the mouth of Gods witnesses shall also slay them as concurring with this sword to the utter destruction of all Gods enemies As a true result then arising out of this Scripture it doth appear First that there is a rule over men which is Gods Ordinance capable to be brought into its exercise and practice amongst them according to the purity of its institution which being called a Rule over men and not in them signifies that the exercise thereof refers to the outward man or outward concernes of men in their bodily converse in this world Secondly that he that is to be in this power as qualified to exercise this Rule is man first Christ himself as he is the Son of man and then the Saints as gathered into one glorified body with him But this will be only at the time of Christs second coming Neverthelesse man in his earthly state as the figure and type of this is and hath beene qualified for the exercise of Magistracy from the beginning to the end of the world which seemes to be as one of the pillars whereby Christ bears up the World through the vertue of his blood when otherwise by the fall the earth and all the inhabitants thereof had beene dissolved and run into confusion Psal 75. 3. keeping this promotion at his owne disposal so as ver 6 7. It cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth downe one and setteth up another in the variety of formes and administrations wherein it is and hath beene exercised in all ages throughout the whole world And as the meanes of qualifying men hereunto Christ hath beene keeping up his witnesse even the fear of the Lord in the consciences of men under the threefold Government and Rule which he sets up in them which he preserves as a distinct jurisdiction from the outward exercise of Rule by man but as conducing to the better managing and carrying on of that outward Government in the hands of men For when the Scripture saith that the Rule of Magistracy is over men we are to understand by this terme the proper sphere bounds and limits of that office which is not to intrude it self into the office and proper concernes of Christs inward Government and rule in the conscience at large before discoursed by us but is to content it self with the outward man and to intermeddle with the concernes thereof in reference to the converse which man ought to have with man upon the grounds of natural just and right in things appertaining to this life wherein the Magistrate or higher power is not only the proper Judge but hath the right of coercion thereunto if not obeyed And the more illuminated the Magistrates conscience and judgement is as to natural justice and right by the knowledge of God and communications of light from Christ under any of the three dispensations before mentioned the better qualified is he to execute his office and the more accountable he is to God and man in default thereof So in
the want of which it now groaneth and travelleth as in paine as deteined under the bondage it is fallen into by sin and is stretching out its neck as it were with a holy impatiency after these times of refreshing that are to come from the presence of the Lord by the sending of Jesus a second time and revealing him with power from heaven to restore all things and accomplish the full redemption of the body which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3. 19 20 21. But considering the distinct and large handling of this weighty subject from testimony of Scriptures and otherwise in Volumes lately made extant together with the reserve which Christ thinks fit to keep in his owne hands as well of the time as the exact patterne and material circumstances of this his Reign it shall suffice me to be joyning in testimony unto this great truth according to the general prospect thereof which hath beene given in to my faith in some small glimpses as well from the inward as outward Word of God in a patient and humble expectation of the clearer and more certaine description thereof as the things themselves are drawing on which Christ in his times will fully shew by the brightnesse of his owne coming unto which the children of light and of this day are exhorted to be hastning as that which is hastning upon them that so it may not overtake them as a thief in the night at unawares but the mindfulnesse thereof may keep them in a meet posture with their loines girt and lamps burning as men waiting for the coming of their Lord. Paul in 1 Tim. 6. 15 16. does call these dayes the times of Christ in which he will shew that his judgment and power shall bear sway in distinction from and opposition to the power and judgement of mans day now in exercise and credit throughout the world himself being the blessed and only POTENTATE the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS that must take place with his everlasting Dominion This Scripture compared with Rom. 8. v. 19 to v. 24. Acts 3. 19 20 21. 1 John 3. 2. Hab. 2. 3 14 20. 2 Thes 2. 8. Phil. 3. 20 21. Dan. 2. 44 45. and Dan. 4. 3. and Chap. 7. 26 27. does evidently declare thus much that the hidden life and immortality wherein the man Christ Jesus does remaine with God as him that is invisible seene only to the eye of faith by the true sons and heirs of salvation shall have a season and time to be manifested and brought to light openly before the eyes of all and this two manner of wayes First in a way which shall be peculiar to the spiritual seed and extend only to them who having died with Christ shall now live with him and having suffered with him shall now reigne with hiw as gathered into one spiritual and heavenly body with himself through his changing their vile body into the likenesse of his most glorious body according to the working of his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Secondly in a way which shall be common to all natural men yea to the whole creation of God so as every eye shall see him and every tongue shall confesse him and every knee shall how to him either voluntarily or by compulsion as unto the only POTENTATE unto whom they owe their subjection and that in the right of the redemption by him procured for them who became a ransome for all to be testified in due time through which they shall be actually and entirely delivered from the bondage of corruption and restored into their Primitive purity natural life and glory upon the same tearmes of mutability as wherein Adam was at first created yea with this advantage over and above what he had not only a being taught by his experience but assisted with those means which he experienced not in the manner they shall do together with a freedome from any exercise of that old Serpents power or subtilty upon them who during the time of the whole thousand years shall be bound and sealed up in the bottomlesse pit by the power of Christ Rev. 20. 2 3. and so totally disabled to deceive or beguile the Nations any more all that while as he beguiled Eve that Christ may rule in righteousnesse amongst them without disturbance nothing being left to hurt or destroy them in all his holy mountaine or Dominion if they destroy not themselves for they shall be left unto the full and entire scope of their own free will self-managing and disposal that they may be as good as they themselves shall desire to be and have the means at hand to keep them so if themselves be not in the fault That which Christ will do at his second coming is intimated by those greater works he speaks of John 5. v. 20 to v. 30. at the sight whereof every one should marvel In which Scripture we find a twofold power that shall then be exercised by Christ First a quickning power for Christ shall then quicken whom he will calling whom he pleases out of their very graves whether spiritual or literal and they shall hear his voice and come forth the grave at his call shall yeeld up her dead not being able to resist the power of this quickning spirit of his who then as by the voice of the Arch-Angel the trump of God 1 Thes 4. 16 shall visibly declare the exceeding greatnesse of his power over death and the grave it self in the sight of the whole world to the admiration of all and to the stopping the mouths of the greatest enemies and gain-sayers that would be apt to contradict and oppose the glory of his Kingdome Secondly a Judicial power For Christ shall then receive authority from the Father to execute judgement also and that as the Sonne of man according as it is also expressed Acts 17. 31. He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Thus then as the Father hath life in himself that is to say the proper life of God absolute supreme irresistible and Almighty the SONNE OF MAN shall then also come forth in the exercise of the same life in unity with the Father it being given to him in like manner to have life in himself and to effect and execute all that which he desires and thinks fit in both these respects in the exercise of the same absolute and Almighty power of God himself By reason whereof it shall come to passe that all men shall honour the Sonne even as they honour the Father and whosoever honoureth not the Son shall be proceeded against in judgement and in the execution of Gods wrath as if he had not honoured the Father For unto the Sonne of man in this day of his