one Spirit In the verse before he had said What know ye not that he who is joyned to an Harlot is one Body For two saith he shall be one Flesh. v. 16. Here the discourse is clearly of the Body As the earthly Marriage maketh two Bodies one Flesh the Heavenly Marriage maketh them one Spirit The union between our glorified Lord and our Bodies in the Resurrection is as immediate and entire as between our Saviour and our Souls so that these also are Spirits and one Spirit with him Is not his Body then first a Spirit Doth not the Union between the Divine Nature and his Blessed Body make that a Spirit and one Spirit with itself The glorified Body and Soul of a Saint are one Spirit They are one Spirit with the glorified Body and Soul of their Jesus with the three Persons in the Trinity with all Beautiful and blessed Spirits All are one Spirit Yet are they all distinct Spirits If the distinction were taken away the Harmony the Beauty the Musick the Marriage-joy and Marriage-love in Heaven were all lost Obj. But you will say how can this be Are not Body and Spirit contrary How then can a Body be a Spirit Ans. Flesh and Spirit are every where in Scripture opposed one to the other but not so a Body and a Spirit Those very Terms on which the Contrariety is set so frequently by the Holy Ghost between Flesh and Spirit shew that the Heavenly Body the true Body the Body of Life and Glory is a Spirit I shall instance only in a Twofold Opposition one where the Flesh and the Spirit are set as Life and Death the other where they are set as the Truth or Beauty itself and the Vail upon it 1. The First is Rom. 8. 6. To be carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace In each of these Words Life Peace all Joys of Life and Immortality are expressed by the language of the Spirit Both together are Joys heaped upon Joys Blessedness upon Blessedness to express the Infiniteness in which they rise up ever New though there can be never any thing more Or the Circle of Eternity where all Fulnesses of Life and Joy run one into another multiplying themselves upon themselves endlesly Life is the Flourishing State of Things a Perpetual Spring The Happiness of Princes the Blessedness of the Divine Nature is sum'd up in Life Live O King The Lord liveth Peace is the whole Gift and Legacy of Christ to His Saints My Peace I leave with you My Peace I give unto you It is All the Good that goeth along with His Presence and Appearance in His Immortal state Hee stood in the midst of them saying Peace be with you when He appeared to them after His Resurrection Peace is the Plenary Rest of all Parts and Faculties of the whole Person in a perfect Union with and full Fruition of their proper Objects in Perfection The Greek Word for Peace signifieth the Band of all Perfections the Circle of Eternity All things within and without linked together in the Golden Chain of a Blessed and Divine Harmony making an Ornament of Beauty for the Soul to put on making a Musâ—ck to charm the Soul into the Divine Sleep of the sweetest and deepest Complacency The Hebrew Tongue expresseth Both Perfection and Peace by one Word This is the Name of him who was the Eminent Figure of Christ in Glory Solomon This is the Name of Jesus Himself as He sitteth upon the Throne of the Divine Nature in the Kingdom of the Spirit Isa. 9. 6. The Prince of Peace Some translate it very properly The Prince The Peace or Perfection Shalom But to apply this to our purpose The Image of things as they stand in the Spirit is in it self the Appearance of things in this Image is to those who see it Life and Peace that is Eternity of Blessedness Heaven it self But the Image and Appearance of things in Flesh is not onely Dying or Dead It is Death itself The Life of Nature and of Flesh is a Shadow onely of Life and the Death of the True Life which is in the Spirit This universal Image of things which we call the World comprehending the whole Creation in all its Beauty is no more than the Grave in which the Spiritual Image lyeth sleeping the sleep of death 2. The second Opposition between Flesh and Spirit is that of the Truth and the Vail upon the Truth Job 4. 24. Our Saviour saith The Father seeketh such Worshippers as worship Him in Spirit and Truth Spirit and Truth are here joyned in the same sense as Spirit and Life go together Job 6. v. 63. The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life The Spirit is the Truth and the Life The Flesh is a Dead Counterfeit as a Picture is the Counterfeit of a Man being neither the Life nor the Truth 1 Joh. 6. 6. The Spirit beareth witness For the Spirit is the Truth The Spirit is the last and onely Witness For the Spirit is the Truth itself the Universal and Eternal Truth There are two Maxims in Philosophy that All Truths and the Essences of things are Eternal The Truth then and Essence of a Saint's Body and of Christ's the true and essential Body is a Spirit in the Eternal Spirit It is not Living but Life it self The Body of Flesh is a Vail upon this True Body which is an Immortal Spirit So it is expresly named Heb. 10. v. 20. where Christ is said to have entred and made a living way for us into the most Holy Place by the rending of the Vail that is His Flesh. The true Body is a Spirit and Spring of Immortality in the most Holy Place the Eternal Spirit When it cometh forth from thence into the open streets and fields of this Creation it casteth over itself the Vail of this Fleshly Body In Death it rendeth and casteth off this Vail of Flesh so it returneth pure and naked in the Resurrection into the most Holy Place into the Eternal Spirit again where it ever stood after an unchangeable manner in its simple and unvailed Beauties So is that Mystery of the Gospel accomplished in the blessed Body of our Saviour No one goeth up into Heaven but he who come down out of Heaven the Son of Man who is in Heaven Qu. But you will ask me now What becometh of this Body of Flesh in the Râ—surrection Ans. What becometh of the Seed of a Plant in the Spring and the Summer The Plant first contracteth its Parts and Powers its Beauties and Sweetâ—â—sses under a Vail while it maketh itself a Seed Then again it breaketh this Seed casteth off the Vail discovereth by degrees its entire Form with all its Flowers and Fruits As before the Plant was hid and imprisoned in every poâ—nt of the Seed so is the Seed now Flourishing and rejoycing with all its several vertues and pleasant Forms in every part of the Plant. We read
thy mind let me briefly offer to thy larger thoughts upon them these few Considerations 1. It is possible for us then to have wrong Notions and Opinions of Spiritual Truth when we think we have the rightest How easily do we mistake an Object and the true colour of it when we see it through a dyed and colour'd Medium The Staff that is streight in the Air seems crooked when it is seen under Water through the grossness and inconstancy of that Element Such are all our views our reports of Divine Truths whilst we take in and give forth the Copies of them through the thick colour'd and spotted Glass of our Natural Vnderstanding Thou confessest thy self to bee a poor fallible creature thou bemoanest daily thy Ignorance before the Lord and beggest of him that thou mayest understand thy own Errours Be not then too hasty in charging thy Brother with false Notions whilst thou thy self art not exempted from mistakes Do not think thy self an Infallible Iudge of his Errours whilst thou art but a Fallible Discerner of Truth for thy self 2. It is impossible for us to have clear Notions and Opinions of Spiritual Truth whilst we are in this dark and distant World We now see but through a Glass darkly We are in a confused state We can better make a shift to puzzle and perplex the Notions of another than we know how to disintangle and extricate our own The Sun appears not to us in his true brightness and glory but as a red bunning fire when we see him in the mornings and evenings through those earthly vapours and mists which interpose Such Fogs are still gathering between the God of Truth and our Vnderstandings whilest they dwell below We are as yet but like the blind man in the Gospel who upon the first touching of his Eyes saw Men like Trees How fond and obstinate should we think that man who going forth in the twilight when it is impossible clearly to discover and distinguish any thing is however very confident he sees and reports all things aright All our Notions of Spiritual Truths here below are at best but as a Twilight in which Light and Darkness meet How unreasonable is it whilst thy own Light is shaded with so much Darkness to think there is no mixture of Light in thy Brother's Darkness 3. It is impossible for us to have full and comprehensive Notions and Opinions of Spiritual Truth whilst we are in this separated and divided state Our knowledge here below is not only dark as was said before but partial St. Paul with excellent reason puts these two together 1 Cor. 13. 12. We now see through a Glass darkly we know but in part or in division It is indeed the partiality of our knowledge which causes and encreases the darkness and difficulty of it and turns it into a Riddle That will be plain easie and pleasant to us when we come at once to see the whole body of Divine Truth when we shall in one view behold the entire frame and universal harmony of it the connexion proportion consent and sympathy of one Truth with another and of each Truth with every Truth which being now seen alone puzzles perplexes intangles and labyrinths us Spiritual Truths are now Aenigma's to us because we know but in part in division All our Notions and Opinions here can be but broken things but little pieces of Truth We are all running away with scattered bits and scraps of Spiritual Truth every one fondly calling his own share the entire Purchase But we know not how to put things together Some are zealous for one others for another part of Divine Truth whilst we contend for one we are apt to let go another whilst we are seeking after one we lose another We continually mistake one another and the Truth in each other through our partial discovery of things We have so much light so much knowledge as through the darkness and ignorance mingled with it and prevailing over it serves us to wrangle dispute and quarrel with our Brethren but not enough to receive and comprehend them We have indeed a Notion of the Indivisibility of Truth and are sure of it in the Theory but we know not how to make it out in our practice It is true that is not Truth which cannot dwell with any with every Truth but all Truth is not yet thus reconciled in the head of any Good man on Earth although it be so in every Good man's heart he is in love with all Truth but has not yet found out all its Alliances the whole compass and circle of it Truth is one in it self but it is broken into I know not how many pieces as it is in us and those pieces through the darkness mixt with them in our spirits fighting one against another The next state will give us a clear and comprehensive view of things all the divisions of Truths and of Spirits will then be at an end Those Truths those Spirits shall then be reconciled and run into the Embraces of one another that seem now to stand at the greatest distance and defiance Then the Darkness shall no more predominate over the Light nor employ it thus unnaturally to contend against it self but the Light running together from all parts and every where mingling with it self shall swallow up all the Darkness But we have now only a glimmering prospect of this happiness It is impossible to attain here to a full view of the whole face of Truth which is great and glorious as God All our present Notions and Opinions are too narrow too contracted to take in those innumerable Raies and Beams of Divine Truth which are every where scattered and dispersed among all the Children of Light Thou hast but one little part of it in all thy Notions and Opinions thy Brother has another part in his Instead of undervaluing his share it becomes us much better to acknowledge the shortness of our own and to say of God with Job upon another occasion not much different Job 26. 14 Lo these are parts of his waies but how little a portion is heard of him 4. The same Spiritual Truth may communicate it self to us in various different and contrary Notions and Opinions The whole state of things all along throughout the Christian World is a sufficient proof of this matter It is somewhere well observ'd by our Author to this purpose as they say in Philosophy The Essences and kinds of things are unmoveable and ever the same However there be an infiniteness of uncertainty and change in the Individuals by the variety and change of outward accidents So if you compare one good man with all other good men in all ages you will every where find the same New Nature the same inward savour and rellish the same Divine Principle and God-like life in them all Whilst the inward forms of truth and goodness upon their understandings and the outward expressions of them in their conversations and
he can pay to thy own notions and Opinions concerning it can possibly be Holiness is the Character and seal of the Spirit of Truth The result of this consideration is plainly this That we should not lay too great a stress upon our own notions and Opinions nor despise our Brothers That we should make the image of God and not our own likeness the reason rule and measure of our Brotherly Love Observing still in all our Christian converses that excellent League which our Saviour himself has established He that is not against us is with us Whilst we see the same truth vitally influencing and quickening the Souls and spreading itself throughout the lives of good men of different and contrary sentiments let us no longer judge another by his comprimising with our own sense of things but his agreement with us in the substance power efficacy and Spirit of the truth Thus the primitive Christians judged before the iniquity of the times and a worldly interest corrupted the simplicity and quenched the first and purer warmths of Religion No man was then censured for his Opinion that lived well although there were very strange notions then commenced So much and so justly did those better ages of Christianity prefer a God like life to the rightest notions and Opinions Nor did they want the highest Example Authority and Reason in this matter God himself having told them and us He is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10. 34. And again Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and Drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men That is shall be justified in the day of all Divine and humane Principles Whatever his outward form or inward Opinion be Whether he eat or eat not Keep a day or keep it not So it be to the Lord to Charity and to Aedification 5. All the truest and best notions and Opinions we can have of Spiritual truth here below are to be done away when we arrive at that state above So the Apostle expresly tells us 1 Cor. 13. 9. 10. We know in part and we Prophesy in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away We shall then lose all our present Notions and Opinions of Spiritual things not in a blackness of Darkness and Death violently breaking in upon and overspreading them But in the brightness of an unmixt and eternal light arising upon and comprehending them in iâ—self They shall all be blotted out not as water quenches the fire But after such a manner as the Beams of the Sun do put it out by drawing up the finer and more fiery parts into themselves They shall be put out not as a Candle is by the Extinguisher But as the darknesses and shadows of the night are swallowed up by the light of the morning Or rather as the several colours of light in the first dawning of the day are afterwards drunk up into the pure and perfect light of the encreasing day It is yet but a morning light with the most enlightned Souls here on Earth In the first breaking of the day the Light you know appears to us in a variety of colours one after another Till at last as the day comes on all those colours are changed into an unstained and pure light Such are the discoveries of Spiritual things to our understandings whilst our true day is yet but Springing All our Notions and Opinions of them are as so many colours of light growing clearer and clearer unto a Noon day brightness Now all these colours vanish Now all our mistaken dark mixt short and disproportioned notions and apprehensions break up into a light which has nothing of privation mixture imperfection or shadow in it But till then it is impossible for us to have such Notions Opinions of Spiritual truth as can admit of no change or emprovement We are here in a growing travelling state And whilst we are so motion is better then rest We can now no more stint and fix our sense of things then we can hinder and stop our own growth Or keep day out of the World when the Sun arises It is not here our reproach but our praise to be still changing our minds to be still transformed in the renewing of them that we may prove what the good and acceptable will of God is To change for emprovement to alter our minds for the better is not our inconstancy but our virtue This is only to change as all things do when they encrease nothing speaks us more rooted fixt and established then such a change Thou art not it may be of the same mind at this instant thou wert in a few daies past neither dost thou know what mind thou shalt have to morrow The spirit of man changes Opinion every moment And what one reason brings in this hour a stronger may carry out the next Nor will the good Spirit if thou art indeed acted and informed by it suffer thee to rest in thy present light and much less in thy remaining darkness Thou art not yet so knowing so good as thou shouldst be if thou canst be satisfied with thy self and thy present Notions of things Art thou not waiting for Christ to touch thine Eyes a second time Dost thou not pray for his Spirit to lead thee into all truth Can'st thou be contented to lose thy share in the riches of that glory thou art yet a stranger to Thou thinkest it may be that thou understandest all mysteries and hast all knowledge but still all thou canst attain to here below is but a little part of what is yet to come And will be done away when that which is perfect appears Why then dost thou lay so great a weight upon those Notions and Opinions which thou hadst not the other day which thou mayst lose to morrow and which are finally to be swallowed up Why should an obscure dark intricate curious unnecessary uncertain and fading Notion and Opinion be imploy'd to the prejudice of that Charity that shall never fail All our Notions and Opinions are changeable temporary transient and perishing things They pass away and confute themselves whilst we are contending for them but Love is a lasting permanent and Eternal Duty and perfection This shall remain when all our Notions and Opinions of one sort and another shall for ever cease to be Shall either sink down into their first darkness out of which they sprung Or rise up into and happily lose themselves in their Original Light 6. Let us seriously consider how mischievous the want of that moderation I am pleading for â—has all along been to Christians and to Christianity it self What depths of inward filthinesses have the differences and animosities of good men about Opinions discovered in them and
to Man 5. Cause The Manages of Providence 1. Cause The Relation of God to Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God All Mankind all creatures are gathered up into one point of Life which is Love the Unity of Life in God There is one God the Father of all Ephes. 4. 6. God is a Father in Fulness in Sweetness 1. God is a Father in Fulness Luk. 20. 38. Our Saviour speaks thus of God He is not the God of the Dead but of the Living For all live to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things live to God After the same manner with the same force you may reason thus God is not the God of the Dead but the living of the unclean but the pure of the impâ—rfect but the perfect of the miserable but the happy of the fading but the eternal For all things are living pure perfect happy eternal to God So all things have pure happy eternal lives in God These are the Original and Radical Lives the First the Fairest Seeds of all things in the Divine Nature Thus God is All. This is the Fulness of God 2. God is a Father in Sweetness God is Love 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is Love in the Fountain As waters in their Spring so is Love in God It makes him flow into creatures it makes him flow forth in Love upon the creatures and still he pursues he chaseth one Love with another in a Stream till all return to their Original Thus as St. Paul Speaketh Rom. 11. 36. All things are from him thorow him and to him From him as the Fountain of Love thorow him as the Stream of Love to him as the Sea of Love All Cattel are mine upon a thousand bills saith God Psal. 50. 10. As a Father looks upon his Children as his own as Images parts of himself himself multiplied So is God a Father in Sweetness These two the Fulness the Sweetness of God as a Father are the First Ground of Hope and Root of Happiness to the creature The Fulness is that which we call the All-sufficiency of God the Sweetness is that which we call Free Grace These are the Two Pillars in the Temple of Glory Booz strength Jakin He will prepare The Fulness of God is one Sweetness the other 2. Cause The Mediation of Iesus Christ There is one Mediator the Man Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 2. 5. Our Lord Jesus is Mediator two waies He is 1. A Divine Head to the Soul 2. A Divine Seed in the Soul 1. Our Lord Jesus is a Divine Head to the Soul 1 Cor. 11. 3. The Head of every man is Christ. This is the difference between God and Christ God contains eternally all the creatures in one Nature and Person in himself God is One. Jesus Christ comprehends the creature in one Person not Nature together with himself Therefore as in one place he is said to be the Head of Man 1 Cor. 11. 3. So in another place he is called the Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Our Blessed Saviour is God uniting the different Natures of God and the Creature in One Person and that his Own Person From this Person he communicates the Being of the creature and streams forth immediately into it in a different Nature and Person In this Person he holds the creature in its proper and distinct Being by being annext and united to himself Thus the Lord is a Head to Man And as the Head puts a beauty upon the Whole Body so doth Jesus Christ upon the whole Creation by making himself a Head to it 2. Our Lord Iesus is a Divine Seed in the Sâ—ul He is called the Seed Gen. 3. 16. 19. till the Seed came He is the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3. 15. But what Woman is this He is the Seed of the Earthly Woman Eve For he lies hid in her as in a Womb. He groweth up out of her in the Virgin Mary clothing himself with her Flesh. But there is another Woman besides this which is a Mother and hath her Seed a heavenly Mother of a heavenly Seed St. Paul makes mention of her Gal. 4. 26. The Hierusalem above is free which is the Mother of us all Jesus Christ is a Seed God is the Father this heavenly Woman is the Mother the Spiritual State of the creature He derives himself from both these He unites both these in himself So he lies in the earthly Woman the fleshly Image and becomes her Seed in the second place a Seed thrice over bearing hâ—r abiding in her bringing her forth the second time As every creature hath this Seed in it so it hath lying hid in it the Eternal Beauty of the Divine Nature the Immortal Beauty of the Spiritual Creature which both are wrapt up together in this Seed to grow up together out of it in their Season Thus our Saviour is a Divine Seed in the Soul These two Christ the Head of Man the Seed in Man expound that of St. Paul Ephes. 1. 4. He hath elected us in him We are elected in Christ by a double meaning 1. We are made the Desire and Delight of God in Christ as in our Head 2. We are design'd to be saved by Christ as the Seed of Grace and Glory 3. Cause The manifestation of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 3. God will have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth As in Hebrew so in the Greek of the New Testament and hath various significations Sâ—metimes iâ— shews a Cause sometimes an Instrument sometimes a Means or Way so Iob. 17. 3. This is eternal Life to know thee the only true God and that is in or by him whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. So 't is here God will have all men to be saved and come that is by coming to the knowledge of the Truth The manifestation of the Truth is One Cause of our Conversion to Holinesâ— and Happiness But what is Truth said Pilate to Christ. Christ had often said of himself I am the Truth We read of him Rev. 1. 5. that he is the Faithful Witness And he is said to reveal the Father No man knows who the Son is but the Father No man knows who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him The First Truth in General and particular is the Life of God and the Life of the Creature in God Jesus Christ is Truth as he is a True Discovery of this Truth He reveals the Father that is he opens the bosom of God he manifests the Life of God as it enfolds the Life of the Creature in it self he manifests the Life of the Creature as it abides in the Life of God and grows upon the same Root with it This is Truth But what is the Manifestation of this Truth in Man No man can come unto me except the Father draw him saith Jesus Christ Ioh. 6. 44. To come to the Truth to have the Truth manifested in us are both the same thing The
what all this means by another a plainer Parable John 12. 24. If the Corn dye not it abides alone But if it dye it brings forth much fruit The â—lâ—shly Appearances of Christ are the Talents un-multiplyed the Corn abiding alone While they so continue they are solitary melancholy bearing little fruit of Glory to God or Joy to the Soul But then the Soul casts these Talents into the Bank then she sows this Corn when she resigns them to God when she crucifies them and dies to them by the power of the Death of the Lord Jesus in her Now the Soul hath them within her rising again in the Spirit after a Spiritual manner Now she receives them again with an increase of Holiness Peace and Joy Now the Lord Jesus saith to the Soul Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful in a few things in poor low and dark manifâ—sâ—ations Thou hast submitted them to my will and yielded them up to the power of my Death I therefore will make thee ruler over many Thou shalt no more be subject to low and single Appearances Thou shalt reign in the power plenty and variety of more Glorious Manifestaâ—ions Enter thou into these high and Spiritual Discoveries of God in which thy Lord and Saviour now enjoys Himself So the Kingdom and Ioy of the Lord shall be thy Kingdom and Ioy. Application Use. 1. Examination There is nothing of more concernment to us than to distinguish and discern aright our Joys Sensual and carnal Joys are apt to make us sensual and fleshly ignorant and brutish as the Beasts Delusive Joys make our Souls as Devils in the form of Angels of Light Spiritual Joys when they are truly such make us most like to God The Delights of Nature and sense are indifferent things lawful if they be lawfully used They are therefore to be taken with much moderation and caution as the Wine that St. Paul speaks of to Timothy Drink not alwaies Water but drink a little Wine for thy healths sake Delusions and false Raptures of Spirit are a sweet Poyson which are taken in greedily and kill so much the more speedily The Soul is naked open free simple in her joys she mingles herself inwardly and deeply with the Spirit of her joys As Herod offered to the half of his Kingdom to Herâ—dias when she pleased him with dancing before him It is then a thing of great moment to understand the nature of our Joys that we may know when to admit and to reject them How and to what height to cherish or check them I will propound Four Tryals of our Joy 1. Tryal The First Tryal is this Spiritual Joys ever spring from a Spiritual sense of the Love of God towards us Rom. 5. St. Paul speaks of his Joy v. 5. Rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God He goes on discoursing of the growth strength effects of this Joy Then v. 5. He shews you the Ground of his Joy The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that he hath given us Spiritual Joys can give an account and a reason of themselves There are Three things which go to make up the Reason of Spiritual Joy when it is Right 1. The Love of God not any Loveliness of our own or the Sweetness of any Creature 2. The Discovery of this Love in an open manifest way with a Fulness and Clearness like a Liquor that is poured forth and spread abroad 3. The Holy Ghost making this Discovery and evidencing it by his own presence and power in the Soul This is the Reason which Spiritual Rejoycings and Gloryings give of themselves The Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which he hath given us Are your Joys ignorant sudden and violent such as spring from no appearing cause and can give no account of themselves Whence do your Joys arise from a Sense of the Love of God or from a Reflection upon your Selves upon any thing of or in the Creature Whence have you your Sense of the Love of God Is it wrought upon you by Fancy by the strength and frequency of Imagination or by the Persuasions of your own Souls or by the Reasonings of your own Hearts consulting with themselves and with the Letter of the Scriptures without the Holy Ghost by any of the Words or ways of mans Wisdom or Power without you or within you If your Joys be such as these you have reason to suspect and fear them least they be from the Father of Lies and not from the Father of Lights from the Fountain of bitterness and enmity not of sweetnes and Love 2. Tryal The Second Tryal of your Joy is the Effect of it Spiritual Joys increase Spiritual Strength in the Soul as they increase themselves Nehem. 8. 10. Go your ways saith Nehemiah to the People Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared For this day is holy to the Lord. Be ye not sorry for the Ioy of the Lord is your Strength Thus the Lord Iesus speaks to the Soul in the Ministry of the Gospel Go your ways Feed upon the Fat of my Glory Drink the Sweet of my Love Sond forth Portious and Manifestations of this Glory and Love to them who have nothing of it yet prepared and set forth in their own Spirits This day is holy to me in it you are to live altogether to me and in the Light of my Appearances Then let not your Hearts be heavy nor your countenances sad For my Ioy shall not weaken or betray you My Ioy shall be a Presâ—rvative against Corruptions a Strength against Temptation the Power of a new life carrying you up on high into further Communion with God and Conformity to him There is a Threefold Joy that takes to itself often the name of being Spiritual 1. A Joy flowing from our natural temper and Complexion from sparklings of Blood or Flashings of melancholy is many times mistaken for a Spiritual Joy But this Joy dissolves it makes the Soul airy light and loose it exposeth the Soul to Vanity and Sin 2. A Iâ—y brought forth by an Evil Spirit of Delusion carries the Appearance of a Spiritual Joy This swells the Soul makes it vain-glorious confident secure in itself In this State the Soul easily falis into Temptation â—asily falls in the Temptation 3. Spiritual Joy truly so called This Knits the Union between Christ and the Soul more close and strong It gathers up the Soul more fully into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus St. John saith He that dwells in Love dwells in God It is as true He that dwells in Spiritual Joys dwells of a Truth in the Lord Jesus Vanity Lust Passion Pride come to the Soul in other Joys and find her fittest for them But when they come to the Soul in her Spiritual Joy so far as she is in that Joy they find nothing in her nothing to comply with
in then this Beautiful Image Man becomes a Monster and brings forth Monsters Now Gyants are born Man comes forth in a greatness and force resembling the Image of God in Man but is in the true Form and Principle of a Beast The Divine Image is fallen imprisoned dead in the midst of all this Greatness Thus of a truth Sin is the highest Incest the most unnatural confusion the true Engendring of Monsters 3. A Sinner makes himself a Devil A man by Sin withdraws the Creature from the Image of God sets it up in its own Principle and Image so maintains it in the place of and against the Image of God Rom. 1. 25. St. Paul sets forth the Nature of Sin after this manner who changed the Truth of God into a Lie serving the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever See here the nature of the Devil discovered in a Sinner When thou fatherest any Sin thou by that Act makest thy self the Father of Idolatry Lies and Murther 1. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Idolatries Thou settest up the Creature above the Creator and servest that more than thou dost him Sacrificing thy Heart thy Love and thy Life to it 2. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Lies thou settest up the Creature as if it were something of and in itself when as it is meerly nothing save as it is in the Image of God 3. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Murthers Thou killest and destroyest the Image of God which is the First Murther and the Fountain of all Murthers Thou changest the Truth of God into a Lie Thou makest away that Image of God which is the Truth and Life of all the Creatures by setting up instead of it those things which as they are in themselves without that Image are not only Vanity but a Lie too He knows very little of the Nature of Man of the Creature of God who knows not Sin to be the most ridiculous Apishness that he may despise it the most horrid Monstrousness that he may hate it the highest Devilishness that he may tremble at it and fly from it So much for the Second Instruction which shews us what a Sinner is 3. Instr. What a Saint is Then a Man begins to be a Saint when the Natural Image of God begins to be restored in him with advantage with the advantage of the Super-natural Image bringing it forth again from itself and itself in it together with it The Kingdom of God brings forth itself and the Kingdom of Nature a Second time in itself Behold I make all things new Saith Jesus Christ when he appears in the Soul The Second Adam revives and restores the First Adam in us but as in its own Spirit and Bosom that so the Earthly Man may become Heavenly and Immortal I will conclude this use with Consolation to Two Sorts of Mourners Gods Mourners 1. Consolation You who have lost the Innocency of your Natures in Sin and Guilt be you comforted in the knowledge of this The Righteousness of God the Eternal Image of Glory shall break forth in your Souls and bring forth the First Image of Beauty your Natural Innocency again upon you with an Increase of Glory It is the Lord that justifies who shall condemn Saith St. Paul Rom. 8. 34. Who or what Guilt shall condemn thee or be able to sink for ever the Innocency and Beauty of thy Nature though it now have lain long buried under thy Lusts The Lord the Lord himself shall come and this Beauty of thine shall come with him and thou shall see it again with Joy 2. Consolation You who have lost the Chearfulness of your Spirits and the sweet Pleasantness of your Natural tempers in Melancholy and Terrours comfort your selves in the knowledge of this The Spring of Joys the Eternal Spirit the Spirit of our Lord Jesus shall open itself within you and shall send forth from itself the ancient streams of your first Peace and joys of your natural chearfulness Your natural Spirits shall once more dancâ— and sing together in this Spirit All your Springs are in this Heavenly Image the Springs of your first Innocency Beauty Peace Pleasantness All shall open themselves again upon you from the Bosom of this Image at the Appearance of it never to be shut more And this Heavenly Image shall certainly appear in you Only do you wait with Hope and Patience for the appointed Season Do notmourn at the Death of any natural Beauty or Content as without Hope ever to see it again the Hour comes apace and perhaps now is in which thy dead Innocency and Joys shall hear the Voice of the Son of Man Jesus Christ in thee and live again by him Do not doubt but believe The Earth shall hear the Heaven The Earthly Image of Life Paradise and Heaven in thee shall be awakened again in thy Spirit by the manifestation of thy Saviour in thee Thine Eyes shall see thy Redeemer and he shall stand the last upon the Earth Thine Eyes shall certainly see Jesus Christ when he shall redeem the Earthly Man in thee with all its Excellency and Sweetness from these Powers of Sin Fear Death and Hell which have carried it captive And thou shalt see this Jesus the Heaven of God the Heavenly Image last of all standing and appearing in thy Earth thy Earthly Man thy first Image Be of good chear faint not Death shall not prevent this Blessedness Thou shalt live when God shall do all this thine Eyes shall behold it and thou shalt taste of it and feed upon it For God hath undertaken it and he will bring it to pass Behold I make all things new saith He who is the first and the last Believe and wait for these words are True and Holy Revel 21. 5 6. And he that sate upon the Throne said Behold I will make all things new And he said Write write upon your Hearts this Sentence behold I the Lord make all things new For these words are True and Holy And he said unto me It is done This is the Finishing of all things the ending of the Mystery I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I will give unto him that is a thirst of the Fountain of the Water of Life Freely that is without any thing of Suitableness to it or Satisfaction for it without any Condition or Confinement 3. Part The Activity of the Soul in God This is the Third and last Part of Divine Ioy. The Psalmist expresseth Joy by Shouting and Singing Psal 65. 13. The Pastures are clothed with Flocks the Appearances of God are Green and Flourishing they bring forth maintain and put forth themselves into numerous Flocks of Saints the Valleys also are covered with Corn The lowest State of things in the Flesh and the Natural Man are cloathed with Jesus Christ and grow up into him who is the Bread and Beauty of Eternal life they Shout for Joy they also
Superiour and Inferiour One above Another below In that above is the Fountain of Pleasure from thence the stream descends which makes that below ever-green and flourishing with delights Eden signifies Pleasure or Delight which name in another word is given to Christ as he was eternally in the bosom of the Father Prov. 8. 30. I was by him one brought up with him Delights from day to day Jesus Christ in his Heavenly Image in the Substance and Essence of the eternal Light is Eden the Paradise above In his earthly Image the sweet Shade where all his Beauties seem at once to sleep and spring he is the Paradise below There is he the Eden and the Fountain in the midst of Eden Here the Garden watered by the River going forth from Eden A good Heart hath in itself both these Paradises the Fountain and the Stream Eden and the Garden Cant. 4. 15. The Lord Jesus calls his Spouse A Fountain of Gardens a Well of living Waters flowing from Libanon The holy Heart is both the Fountain which makes all things Gardens Paradises which way soever it flows and those Gardens too It is both Libanon with the Fountain in it and the Gardens below in the vallies in the midst of which the Living Waters from this Fountain run along Reasâ—n The Heart is that Spirit which is the first Spring and Principle of Life in man Prov. 4. 23. Keep thine heart with all Diligence For out of it are the Issues of Life All the treasures of this World its Light Forms Vertues operations are first in the Sun From thence they flow forth in various Streams all round about him while yet they are still comprehended in him as being not only their inmost Center but also their outmost Circle of Light and Life So is the Heart or Spirit of Man an Invisible Sun in the midst of him far more great or glorious than this which we see in which all forms and acts of Life like Beams rise up first and fullest from whence they are dispensed and dispersed The Hebrew word to keep imports a double sense 1st Diligently observe thine Heart what Spirit or Principle it is by which thou art acted Such as this is such is thy whole Life If thy Heart be a Substantial true pure Spirit thy whole way and work all thy Joyes are Substance Truth Light Immortality as the Visions of God If the Heart which is in thee be shadowy thy Life is vain and empty the dream of a shadow Is thy heart corrupt and polluted then are all thy Streams poisoned death lurks and sports itself in them with an innumerable company of Devils 2. Keep that is preserve thine own thy true Heart with all diligence Abide in Christ and his Love as the only root of Life from whence alone spring the sap greennesses flowers fruits of true Sweetnesses Beauty and Blessedness Watch day and night that no other Spirit put forth itself in thee for every other Principle besides Christ and his Love will certainly prove a Counterfeit and instead of a Heart out of which the Issues of Life ought to be a root of bitterness There is a Twofold Heart 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 1. There is a Natural Heart This is the supream part of the natural Soul the Angelical Spirit in Man 1 Thes. 5. 23. St. Paul prayes The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have the natural Man divided into three parts which are equally capable of being sanctified or by defilement made subject to blame 1. Spirit 2. Soul 3. Body The Spirit is as the Fountain the Soul the Stream of Life The Body the Channel in which this Stream runs along The whole Man is one Beam sprung immediately from the Divine Glory The upper end of the Beam where it is fullest and brightest immediately united to and rooted in the supream Light makes the Spirit The lowest point least and darkest almost vanishing into the Shade with which it mingles its light where it toucheth the Earth is the Body The Soul is the middle of that Beam partaking of both these dividing and uniting them like the Firmament between the Waters above and the Waters below the Angels being the Waters above the Firmament and Corporeal Lives those below The Spirit is the Angel in Man or Man in the Similitude and Society of Angels the invisible Image the first Treasury of all his Natural Beings Beauties and Life which afterward descends and distinguisheth itself into the varieties of Inferiour Acts and Appearances St. Paul therefore in the forementioned place calls it their whole Spirit The Body is the Outward and Visible Image the Shadow below of this above The Soul is the Life by which the Spirit descends into the Body maintains communion with it and gathers it up again into itself According to these Distinctions and Descriptions Solomon discourseth Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The name of God there signifies Gods or Angels for whom it is frequently and expresly used in the Holy Scripture The Jews say it properly imports the Divine Nature as it is cloathed with the Angelical God in the midst of all his Holy Angels coming forth into the Creation descending to be the Head of it It is an English Proverb If men could live without the company of Women men they should converse with Angels This is true when the Spirit which is the Head and the Man in us withdraws itself from its Shadowy Image the Body which is as the Woman it finds itself in the Form of an Angel and in the Society of Angels From the Angelical State and Company it descends into the Body Thither it returns again when it leaves the Body This is the Natural Heart the Angelical Spirit in Man made in the Similitude of God as he cloaths himself with the Angelical Image as with a Garment of Light and so vailing his naked unaccessible Glories comes forth to be the Head of Angels This Spirit is the Immediate Seat of the Divine Presence the Glory the Angelical Throne Here the precious things of the Sun and the Moon of the Invisible and Visible Image of the Divine Nature here the Riches of the whole Creation appear together in their fullest Lustre and most beautiful Order The Letters of the Latine Name for Heart Cor make the first Letters of those word Camera Omnipotentis Regis which being interpreted are the Chamber of the Almighty King It is a common observation that the Heart of Man is Triangular which therefore cannot be filled with the round World but only with the Trinity This Heart of which we speak is properly Triangular consisting like the Angels of these Three Essence Understanding and Will the proper and Immediate Type of the Trinity which as it can be
always in pangs of Love to bring it forth and form it in us But to conclude this Reason This Holy Spirit this Spirit of Unity and Unity of the Spirit is the Spiritual heart of which we speak St. Paul Ephes. 3. expresseth it by being rooted in Love This is that Root which we have in the eternal Love of God in that Love which is God in God as he is Love This is the new Heart which is bred and cherished in the bosom of the Father These Heavens above us comprehend in their Circuits all things here below which as learned men teach us are figures images of their vertues sent forth from them But they have fixed in themselves innumerable Bodies of Light and Glory far exceeding all things here They say that these Heavens are Circular because that round Figure is most caâ—acious and beautiful as being an Image of the Unity of Angelical 〈◊〉 How great and glorious a Circle then vastly transcending the Heaven of Heavens is this Divine Unity this Spirit which is the new heart of a Saint All the Heavens and this earth lie within the compass of it as Light shadows which it casteth from it self But as for those Treasures which are proper to it which are fixt in it how infinitely more innumerable how infinitely richer are they The mind of Christ with all the Beauties and Brightnesses there the deep things of God with all those Lights and Joys unfathomable to every natural Eye and Heart lie within the Circuit of this Spiritual Principle A great Philosopher call'd the Angelical Spirit in man which is his Natural Heart the Flower of the Soul It is so indeed as the Blossoms upon Fruit-Trees but the Divine Spirit the Spiritual heart is the Fruit 1. Use. Seek this good heart which hath so good a Treasure in it That you may seek it with all affection and diligence take these Three directions Believe the Truth of this Principle Consider the Preciousness of it Understand your Propriety in it 1. Believe the Truth of this Principle When the Apostles asked the Christians in Samaria whether they had received the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not so much as heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. Is not this the temper of many amongst us of most of the sensitive and natural Spirit in us all We do not so much as believe that there is a Holy Ghost much less that this Holy Ghost is poured out upon any Soul as a Heavenly Anointing from above or dwells in any heart as the Principle of a supernatural and eternal Life He that comes to God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Fix in thine heart with an unshaken faith these two Radical Truths from which all the fatness and sweetness of the Tree of Life is derived into our Spirits 1. That God is 2. That there is a Union between God and Man in One Spirit Say frequently to thy self It is true It is the first Truth upon which all other Truths are built that there is a supream incomprehensible Being which shines through all and fills all the Fountain and Measure the End Perfection and Blessedness of all Beings It is as true that this ever-glorious God descends in Jesus Christ to sow himself by his own good Spirit as a Divine Seed in the heart of man below that by the unvailing of his original Excellencies he shines as a spiritual Sun from above into the Soul to quicken awake and call forth this Seed in the vertue of which the Soul springs into a new and heavenly Being comes to God by the fresh Participations of his life grows up into his Likeness pleaseth him is possess'd and enjoy'd by him possesseth and enjoyeth him with an unexpressible fulness of all mutual and Divine Pleasures When the Merchant in the Gospel found a Pearl in the Field he went and sold all to purchase this Field If you have discovered this rich Pearl of the Divine Nature as a Root at the bottom of yoâ—â— Spirits go exchange every Principle Power and excellency to give 〈◊〉 self up to the conduct activity fruitfulness enjoyment of this alone 2. Consider the preciousness of this Heavenly Principle Es. 6. 13. God compares his people in the greatest desolations to an Oak whose Substance is in it when it hath cast its leaves so saith he the Holy Seed shall be the Substance thereof Consider here three Precious Things in this good Heart which is the Seed and Principle of Grace in us 1. This Spiritual Principle is a Substance Solomon complains of all things under the Sun the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing He brings this as an Argument and effect of their vanity All things here are Shadows only and so empty unsatisfactory endlesly raising expectations and desire but never answering them When this Spirit which is far above the Sun is received by thee when this becomes the Principle of all thy faculties which sees in thine Eye hears in thine Ear understands and wills in thine heart when this is the Treasury from which all Objects come forth to act those faculties then thine Eye will be satisfied with seeing substantial Beauties thine Ear will be filled with substantial Melodies thine Understanding will sit down to a Heavenly Feast of substantial Lights and Truths thy Will shall lie down to a Sweet and Eternal rest in a bed of substantial Embraces and Joys in the midst of the Substance and Essence of Goodness itself 2. This is the Holy Seed The Heavens over our Heads are pure They are free from that gross and dark Matter with which all Forms of things are mixt here on Earth This Purity of theirs is their Transparency Light Lustre Harmony Vertue Incorruptibility Yet they are Corporeal and Bodily their bright Beauties shall be turned into Darkness and Blood The Angels are purer far than these Heavens They have no Cloud Clog or Dross of Bodies Yet are they mixtures of Light and Shade Their Glories are vails upon the true Glory They wax old as a Garment and are changed Their Nature is subject to stains and falls But this Principle which is the Seed and Heart of a Believer is purer than the Heavens or the Angels It is the Spirit of God the true Light in which there is no Darkness Simple incorruptible Unchangeable 3. This Principle is durable It is a Fountain springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life John 4. O precious Treasure Eternity is defined to be the full and unbounded Possession of all Good at once in One. Pearls have their price because they have their lustre in a lasting Substance This Holy Seed is the onely Pearl of price both for its Lustre and for its lastingness The Will of Man naturally moves to good The greater the good is and the more clearly it appears to us so much the more natural and powerful are the motions
murmurings whisperings hard thoughts evil speakings or any such thing Heaven is not now open upon you neither do you see Jesus as he comes up out of the Baptism of his Sufferings into a Resurrection of Glory with the Eternal Spirit in the Form of a Dove in a Form of Love resting upon him The Priests in the Temple were Morning and Evening to trim the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick by pouring in fresh Oil that the Light might not go out by day nor by night Your Persons O ye Saints are the Temple your Spiritual and Divine part the Golden Candlestick the Heavenly Person of your beloved is the Light in the Lamps of this Candlestick If you would preserve this Light of Glory continually shining in you be continually pouring in from that vessel of Love the Heart of the Father fresh Love which is the Golden Oyl of the Spirit in which the Life and Light of the Divine Nature burneth and shineth eternally But to conclude my discourse concerning these Three Sins The Scripture saith Covetousness is Idolatry We make an Idol of every Image besides the Lord Jesus alone which we set up in our Hearts as real and excellent to bow down our Souls to it by our esteem and affection Every Idol hath its Devil in it St. Paul saith plainly What the Gentiles Sacrifice to Idols they Sacrifice to Devils You cannot eat of the Table of the Lord which is his Glorified Person to feast upon the Delicacies of his Beauties set before your Spirits there and eat of the Table of Devils which is this world to feed upon the Dainties of the Flesh here You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord which is his Spirit to take in the Wine of Spiritual Sweetnesses from this and drink of the Cup of Devils which is the Spirit of this World to swallow down the riches and pleasant things of that 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. We read of Spots at the Feasts of the Saints who are those that have Eyes full of Adultery St. Jude expoundeth those Feasts to be Feasts of Charity that is Love-Feasts which were Joyned with the Supper of the Lord. The Appearances of Christs Person in the Visible Angelic l Divine Images are our several Love-Feasts An adulterous Eye in the moral sense which looketh upon any visible Object after an undue manner is a Spot upon the First Love-Feast The adulterous Eye in a legal sense which looketh upon any Fleshly or visible Figure of things is a Spot upon the Second The adulterous Eye which setteth its Love upon Created Forms on Earth or in Heaven is a Spot upon the Last and best Love-Feasts All these Spots are Clouds upon the Person and stains upon the Beauty of Christ which at once dishonour and grieve him darken and defile us making us unworthy and uncapable of his blessed Appearances to us As an adulterous Eye of Lust so the blood-shot Eye of Wrath is unable to look upon this Heavenly Object or to bear the brightness of his Glory I will wind up this Use with this solemn adjuration and charge If there be such a Person as our Jesus if this Person have such unsearchable Treasures of Beauty and Joy in it if the presence and appearance of this King in his Beauty as a Bridegroom as a Spiritual Sun in the hearts of the Saints be no dream or fancy but the very Spirit and Truth and Life of the Gospel I adjure and charge you all his Saints by the Hinds and Roes of the Field by the lovely Person of your Christ by the pleasantness of his Appearances in you that laying aside Covetousness casting away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit putting off all Wrath Malice Envyings and evil speakings you fix your Eye upon fill your Souls with the Beautiful and blessed Person of the Lord Jesus This is your own Fountain Drink waters from this Fountain alone Behold your selves one another all things in the Light of this Person of these Beauties as they lie here as they are comprehended in this fairest greatest and most Divine Image of all Loveliness Christ is the Truth The Appearance of things in the sweet Light of his lovely Person is True This is that Truth which if you walk in it shall dwell with you for ever shining with a precious and living lustre in the darkest places of Sorrow or Death In this Truth live at peace live in love within your selves with one another with all things So the God of Peace and Love shall be with you Amen Reas. 3. I now come to the Third Reason of the Doctrine our Lord Jesus is the fairest of all things because he hath all the parts of Beauty compleat and entire in his person That work with my own Spirit and with all Spirits which is my design and delight is to woo them for Christ and espouse them as chast Virgins to Christ. Eccles. 12. 10. We read that the Preacher sought out acceptable words and the words which he found out were upright Solomon was a figure of Christ in glory King in the Hierusalem above This Glorious Person is the Preacher the Text and the Sermon Acceptable words in the Original Language are words of delight as you may see in the Margin If ever it be fit to seek out pleasant and delightful words it is on this Subject when we treat of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties If ever it be necessary to take care to speak right words it is now when we speak of him whose Person is the Center from which all the lines of the Gospel of Evangelical Truths Graces Comforts Glories Spirits are drawn into which they all run in which they all meet My endeavour therefore is that all my discourses may be steps from one Scripture to another that by the explications and applications of these I may enlighten your minds to the sight and warm your affections to the love of these Blessed and Heavenly Beauties There are four Parts of which all Beauty consisteth 1. Variety 2. Harmony in the variety 3. Light in the Harmony 4. Life in that Light These four meet all eminently and transcendently in the highest degree in the Person of our Saviour 1. There is all variety in the Person of Christ. Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Observe how St. Paul cometh to this total Sum at the foot of the Account to this Conclusion of all Fulness in Christ. From the 15 th v. to this you have the whole Compass of Things in Nature Grace and Glory From the 15 th to the 18 th you have the Circuit of Nature in the full extent of the Creation with its Creator First there is God as he is the Author of Nature Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God v. 15. Then you have the whole Creation He is the First-born of every Creature or of all the Creation The First-born is the Excellency of Dignity the Excellency of Strength Every
Fountain of wisdom above with the voice of our Faith to seek it as Silver in every thing round about us the pure mettal in the oar of the Creature by the Flame of our Love to dig for it as hidden Treasures within our selves below the Foundations of this Creation by Humility and the Cross This is the Comprehensiveness of the Knowledge of our Saviour 2. The Second Excellency in this Knowledge is the Efficacy This divideth itself into three Branches It worketh Grace 1. Universally 2. Powerfully 3. Kindly 1. The Knowledge of the Lord Jesus worketh Grace Universally It worketh all Grace together in a sweet Harmony John 17. 3. In a bosom-discourse between himself and his Father where he is most naked sweet and free the Lord Jesus saith to his Father This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and Him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ God is True the Truth as he is God He is the True God as he is the Onely One Jesus Christ is sent forth from him as he is the Brightness the Effulgency the Outshining of his Glory his essential Image Thus is he also one with him The Father cannot be perfectly known by him if he be not perfectly one with him This verse hath in it a figure called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing expressed as two like that a Cup and Gold for a Golden Cup. So here to know the only true God and Jesus Christ sent forth from him is to know that God who is the Unity and Truth in Jesus his essential Image in which he comprehendeth and cometh forth into all manner of various Images the outgoing of his Divine Essence in Eternity and Time Eternal Life is the whole Work of God upon the Souls of the Elect from the Beginning to the End the Divine Life begun in Grace on Earth compleated in Glory in Heaven I have formerly said that Knowledge maketh the Spirit One with that which is Known How should this endear the Knowledge of our Blessed Lord and quicken us to follow hard after it The true Knowledge of our Beloved maketh us One Spirit with Him and transformeth us into His Image which is the whole Armour of God put on at once the compleat frame and fabrick of all Grace rising up at once in the Heart All Graces are One in the Person of Christ. By taking him in and being made One with Him we take in All Grace and are molded into All Grace in One according to the measure of the Revelation of our Lord Jesus in us The want of having this Pattern upon the Mount Jesus in His Heavenly Form in the Eye of our Spirits is the great reason why the Tabernacle of God goeth up so imperfectly and brokenly in us One Saint is careful of his way but goâ—th sadly on another is chearful but careless One is sweet and slight another serious and soure censorious One is zealous and ignorant another high in his Light and loose in his Life Particular rules and precepts are like a Watering-pot which a man carrieth up and down in his hand watering his flowers and plants singly and slightly While one is watered the other withereth The Discovery of our Saviour in His Spiritual Person to the Eye oâ— our Spirits is as the gentle Rain from Heaven which at once watereth thy whole Garden and descendeth to the Root of every Truth Grace and comfort in thee Grow saith St. Peter in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. l. l. Grace indifferently universally in the whole Nature and Kind is inseparable from the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. These two mutually breed and feed each other All Grace in the entire Frame and Harmony is the similitude the Image of Christs Person as it is in Glory formed in us As Christ riseth and shineth forth upon us this Image springeth up groweth clearer and fairer As this Image cometh to perfection so Jesus Christ is seen more perfectly in it as in a Glass If you be compleat Christians grow at once proportionably in all Grace in Light in Life in Love study the Heavenly Person of your Bridegroom grow in the Knowledge of him As the Eye of the Husband should be the Looking-glass of the Wife by which she adorneth her self so let this glorious Person of thy Beloved be that Spiritual Glass in which thou O Queen O Believing and loving Soul dressest thy self 2. The Knowledge of our Lord Jesus worketh Grace powerfully Psal. 19. 5. The Sun cometh forth like a Bridegroom out of his Chamber and a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of Heaven to the end thereof nothing can hide it from his Heat St. Paul testifieth to us Rom. 10. 18. that the Lord Jesus is the subject of the Spirit in this Psalm When he cometh forth from the Chamber of Invisible and Spiritual Glories in his Resurrection He cometh into the Soul at once as a Sun for Light and Glory as a Bridegroom for Love and Beauty as a strong man for Life Power and Progress When he riseth and shineth out in us he encompasseth our whole Person and Life from one end to the other he searcheth out every corner in both There is nothing so close so dark so corrupt so hard so unclean so dead so comfortless that can hide itself from the convincing enlightning consuming softning cleansing quickning comforting heat and power of his Appearance Every Beam of the Sun is a Figure of the Sun sheweth the Sun itself and carrieth along with it three Things Light Heat and Influence or Vertue Such is every Spiritual Truth in the Soul It is a Beam from the Person of Christ. It beareth a Figure of his Person and setteth his Person open and naked like a clear Sun before the Soul drawing the Eye of the Spirit to that and terminating it alone upon that Each Spiritual Beam each Glance every Discovery of Christ bringeth with it into the Soul a Light of Knowledge a Heat of Love a Convincing Converting Melting Transforming Chearing Sanctifying Spiritualizing Glorifying Influence and Power Go then in all thy pantings in all thy Prayers by night and by day cry to this Blessed Person Arise O Sun shine O Light that my Soul may become a Spiritual Garden that my Garden may flourish with all Spiritual Plants of Truth Grace and Joy that all my Spiritual Plants may give forth their smell and vertue by thine Appearance 3. The Knowledge of Christ worketh all Grace and maketh it most kindly Psal. 110. 3. The Spirit saith to Christ in the day of thy power thy people shall be a willing people in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the Morning the Dew of thy Youth The word Power signifieth also Armies Willing hath a twofold sense a natural pleasant Freedom and a Princeliness The Morning is the Person of Christ in the Glory of the Spirit who is called in Scripture the Day-spring the Light the Sun-rising When this
Believing Soul seeth and smelleth the Heavenly Flower of Comforting Love living and flourishing in this Root of Eternity the Divine Unity The Spirit himself whose Unity is the Band of all Peace and Joys is now with thee and in thee a Comforter the Fountain of all Living Comforts 5. Believe and Faith will set in thine Eye this Glorious Unity as the Crown of Glorifying Love Jesus Christ saith expresly among his last Words John 17. 22. That Glory which thou hast given to me I have given to them that they may be One as we are One. This is the concluding and crowning Glory This is the Glorifying Love Love in Glory the Unity made Perfect The Father hath given Glory to Christ by giving him the Being of his heavenly Person which is the Glory and himself in that Being a Glory in that Glory Jesus giveth the same Glory to us himself and his Father to make us One Glory with themselves that the Unity may be the Glory and each in the same Spirit may be a Unity of Glories O! believe Can any thing be desired sweeter sâ—rer greater by any Soul than to be one Love one Glory with Jesus Christ and his Father Faith planteth thee into this Love into this Unity 3. Argum. Faith by planting thee into the Unity of God bringeth thee into the Light of God The Eye of Faith seeth the Truth of Things as it is in Jesus and Jesus as He is in the Unity of the Spirit Ephes. 4. 21. If yeâ— have been taught in Him as the Truth is in Christ. Ephes. 4. 3 4 5. Keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Band of Peace One Body One Spirit One Lord. The Light of Faith is the Light of the Divine Unity as the Light of Sense is the Brightness and Glory of the Corporeal Unity which is One Sun This Light discovereth the Truth of things in the Secret of the most sacred Unity in the Lord Jesus as He is One in the Unity of the Spirit How different is the Appearance of things to Sense and to Faith What different Lights shine in the Diversity of flesh and in the Unity of the Spâ—rit In the latter of these are seen all beautiful and pleasant things all things in Beauty Pleasantness in Heavenly Immortal Forms And this Sight alone is the Truth Believe so shalt thou see thy self in Christ in One Glory Thou shalt know that this which thou now seest is the Truth thy True Person and Form Now thou shalt cry out with Joy and Wonder Behold I am fair I am altogether fair It is easie for me now to believe that I am my Beloved's and that His desire is toward me while I see my self in this Glass of Christ's Glorified â—erson in this Circle of Glory the Unity of the Spirit Believe So shalt thou see all the Saints in One Glory with Christ and shalt know that this is the Truth of every Saint Then shalt thou stretch forth thine arms to them and say How is my heart enlarged towards you Ye are as I am all look like Princes the Sons of the great King My joy is fulfilled in You all Believe For when thou behevest thou shalt see all the Works of God in a Vision of Truth and Glory Thou shalt see them in Christ as Christ is One in the Unity of the Spirit All shall appear to thee like the Joynts or white Circles of the Thighs of the Spouse Cant. 7. 1. Jewels the Work of a curious Arâ—ificer Mâ—ster-pieces of Divine Love they shall be all to thee as the hands and fingers of thy Beloved Rings of Gold with a precious stone set in them Circâ—es of Divine Light and Life figures of the Supreme Unity with that Glorious Unity itself set in them to enrich them Believe O what a Paradise in the third Heavens is a Believer caught up into when first the Eye of Faith is opened in him Yea as often as it openeth itself in him He beholdeth all Forms of Things as they are in Truth this Truth as it is in Christ this Christ as he is in the Unity of the Spirit With what pleasure like that of a Resurrection from the Dead when all things that ever we conversed with rise together with us into the same Glory doth a man now look round about him and say O all ye Appearances of Things that ever were or are to be Are these your Forms your true Forms Is this sight of you which I have now in the Divine Unity the only Truth Then the Believing Soul stretcheth forth her hands to them all and cryeth out with wonder and delight my Father my Mother my Husband my Wife my Brethren my Sisters my Children all the delights of my Eyes all the Sweetness and Joy of all Relations are ye all Use. 4. You who are planted by Faith into the Divine Unity shew the Fruits of this blessed Root in Purity and Love 3. Let a Divine Purity shine in thy Life O Christian. The Unity of God is his Simplicity The Simplicity of God is his Purity The Purity of the most excellent things is their freedom from mixture The more they are themselves the more they shine the more pure and precious they are Live and walk in the Unity of the Spirit Galat. 5. 25. Behold thy self and all things converse with all as they appear as thou meetest them in thy walks in this circle of the Divine Unity Sleep not the sleep of Sense or Flesh lest thou be hurried in Dreams into the Land of Darkness where the Light is Darkness where there is no Order no Unity Awake into the Light of this Blessed Unity So shalt thou be ever with God So shalt be ever like God 2. Be unmoveable in Love God is Love because he converseth with all things in the Light of his own Spirit alone which is the Light of Lovelâ—ness and Love Be thou a Child of God a Child of this Light and so a Child of Love Be a Priest of Divine Love Be ever within in thine own Spirit as a Temple of Holy Loves filled with the Glory of that God which is Love Know nothing any more in any Appearance besides that which sheweth itself to thee in this Temple by the Light of this Glory Object Here an Objection cometh in our way which may arise in every understanding against all this discourse which we have had concerning the Divine Unity and Divine Love Doth not God see Sin and hate Sinners Ought not we to do so Ans. I answer affirmatively the Divine Nature both in God and in the Children of God discovereth the deformity of Sin by a most clear Light and hateth it with a most perfect hatred I shall confirm and explain this Answer by four particular Answers 1. Ans. Sâ—n is a privation of Holiness which is the Beauty of Spirits as Darkness is a privation of Light and every Evil of some Good Privations are known only by their contrary habits God and all Holy Spirits see
Fountain in the Person of the Father For there Love is in its Glory There is a Three-fold Crown the Marriage-Crown the Crown of a King the Crown of a Conqueror There is accordingly a Three-fold Glory 1. There is the Glory of Beauty This is that of the Sun which sendeth forth his Beams thorow all things and outshineth all things among the Earthly and Heavenly Bodies 2. There is the Glory of Soveraignty which ruleth over all 3. There is the Glory of Victory which subdueth all things to itself and maketh every thing an Ornament to its Triumph This Three-fold Crown doth Love wear this Three-fold Glory is it cloathed with in the Person of the Father It is the Eternal Sun which enlightneth enliveneth sweetneth cheareth all things by its Beams sent forth thorow all from the heights of the Heavens above to the depths of the Sea and the center of the Earth below It also infinitely surmounteth all things in Beauty and Sweetness as it shineth Eternally It is the great King that swayeth and ruleth all every where by its Golden Scepter It is the Glorious Conqueror which pierceth deep into the hearts of all which subdueth all to itself by its flaming Sword of Paradise turning every way By this Sword it cutteth off and consumeth all Flesh and Earth to keep that out of Paradise and from the Tree of Life By this Sword it refineth and converteth all into a pure and Heavenly Flame into Spirit So it bringeth them into Paradise to the Tree of Life in the midst of it Every thing every where doth Victorious Love make the Subject of its Conquests and the Ornament of its Triumphs This is Divine Love in its Glory in its Fountain This is the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father This is the Glory of Free-Grace 2. Inlet into the Fountain of Divine Love All the Riches of Love are seated in the Person of the Father The Apostle applyeth the Riches of Grace to the Father Ephes. 1. 7. According to the Riches of his Grace Three things meet in Riches Preciousness Plenty Power Every thing is purest and so most precious every thing is most united and so most plentiful and so most powerful every thing thus is richest in its Fountain The first Person is the Fountain of Divine Love For in him are the riches of Grace Love is Richest in the Father The heart of the Father is the Treasury of Love No where is Love so pure so unalâ—ayed so precious as in the heart of the Father Traffick O Man for the Treasure of this Love with all thy faculties with all that thou hast and art This Merchandise is beyond that of Gold and Rubies Traffick to this Coast of Spices to this Land of rich and precious Cordials the Land of the purest Love the heart of the Father No where is Love so plentiful in such abundance as in the heart of the Father The heart of the Father is infinitely larger than the Sea yet doth Love cover it as waters do the Sea where it is deepest when it is fullest Cast thy world of Sins O guilty Soul with all thy Mountains of guilt into this Sea of Love Love shall cover them that they shall never appear more If thou seek for them thou shalt not find them Come drink thy fill of Loves O dry and thirsty Soul from this rich and full Spring in the heart of the Father Come thou most insatiate Soul cast thy self into this full Sea of Loves in the Bosom of the Father hath thy self roul thy self in the midst of its rich Billows which rise as high as Heaven No where is Love so powerful so irresistible so full of vertue as in the heart of the Father Wash thy heart in this Fountain and it shall be healed of the Leprosy of every Lust. Lay thy heart down in this Spring in the Bosom of the Father and all its hardnesses shall be dissolved Drink in these waters of Love fresh from the heart of the Father and it shall be a powerful Cordial in thine heart It shall restore thy Life thy Strength the complexion of thy Soul thy Beauty thy Spirits thy Joys as at first as in Paradise as in Heaven as in thine Eternal Original 3. Inlet The Father in the Trinity is the Fountain of all Relations and so the Fountain of Love Father is the sweetest of all Names the Name of the highest tenderest purest and most perfect sweetness A Father is the first Relation and the Fountain of all Relations Adam was first a Father then a Husband So the Humane Nature from him streamed forth into Husband and Wives Sons and Daughters Brethren and Sisters into all Degrees of Kindred Allyances and Friendships Ephes. 3. 15. St. Paul saith that from the Father the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Some render that word Family the Fatherhood or Paternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Fathers in that Relation all the Fatherhoods and Paternities of every Father in Heaven and Earth lyeth first in that first Father the first Person in the Trinity as in their Fountain What comfort is this to every tender careful grieved Father of every sick sinful or lost Child The true Father to thy Child which acteth the part of the Father behind the vail of the shadowy Father in thee is the Father in the Trinity He is the strength sweetness and truth of the Relation every where The Paternity the Fatherhood every where is named from him But if we take the word according to our Translation it affordeth us the same sweet sense more fully The whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named from him from the Father of our Lord Jesus A Family is a chain of Relations which are as so many Links in the chain fastned one to another Father Mother Husband Wife Brother Sister Children Friends All these are named from the Eternal Father All these sweet dear names of Union of Love agree first most properly most truly to him who is the Supream Unity the Original and Fountain of all Unions of all Love All these are named from him He is the true Parent in the Parents the true Child Husband Wife Brother Sister Friend in thy Child thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother thy Sister thy Friends He is descended into all these shadoweth himself under them subsisteth as the truth and substance in them It is this descent of his in them this Presence and Appearance of his which giveth these names to them Love is either the Relation itself or the Blood which runneth along in the vein of every Relation Every Relation is a Union Every Union is Love in its proper kind and degree The Original the Fountain of all Unions of all Loves of all Relations is the Supream Unity which is the Father the first Person in the Trinity All Relations in Heaven and Earth all Unions are broken pieces of the great Diamond of Divine Love The Father is this great Diamond of Divine Love
thou settest before him his Love himself in various Manners in various Mysteries The Onely Coin the Onely Currant Money the Onely Means of Commerce in the Kingdom of Heaven is Love the First Supreme Eternal Love the Gold of Eternity the most high and most Glorious Unity in all varieties stampt with all Figures 2. The Father in giving his Love maketh no Condition with Sinners He doth not say I give thee my Love for that Sinner upon Condition that he be humbled that he accept of my Love that he believe in thee The Gospel is a Covenant of Grace The Covenant is All Love The Covenant is Compleat in the Person of Christ who is The Divine Love Eternal Love in a Divine Infinite Eternal Person I have given him saith the Lord by the Prophet Esaâ—ah for a Covenant to the Natiâ—ns All Preparations Qualifications Acceptations are not Conditions of This Love but Infallible Consequents not Causes without which the Covenant hath no Force but Irresistible Immutable Effects of it By Grace ye are saved Ephes. 2. The whole Work of our Salvation from the Begining to the End from the first Design in Eternity to the last Act in Eternity is Pure Love Divine Love shineth in upon a Dark Spirit Enlightneth Awakneth Convinceth it by Its own Heavenly Brightness Divine Love burneth up flameth in a Defiled Dead heart raiseth a Divine Life and Sense in it melteth it consumeth its Dross maketh it new The Love of the Father in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus is the Golden Mine out of which a Saint is first taken the Flaming Mint where he is Melted refined made pure Gold and stamp't with the Divine Image Rev. 1. 5. 6. He saith St John of our Lord Jesus hath loved us and washed us in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of the Father in the heart of Christ is our onely Fountain All the Blood which streameth from the Wounds of Christ to wash us runneth down from this Fountain This Love is the Costly Ointment running down upon all our Persons anointing us for Priests and Kings Poor Soul which lyest in thy Sins which lyest a Slave in Chains at the bottom of a Dark Deep and Miry Dungeon The Love of the Father in the Person of the Lord Jesus cometh to thee It taketh thee into itself as a Bath of most pretious Blood in which It cleanseth thee from all thy filth cherisheth all thy parts bringeth thee to thy self to a Divine Beauty to a Divine Warmth sense and Life This Love setteth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Crown upoâ— thy Head It infuseth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Spirit into thee 〈◊〉 changeth itself in thine Iron Chains into Bracelets of Gold upon thee in thâ— Dungeon into a Temple and Palace It filleth thee this Temple this Palace round about thee with Its own clear and Proper Appearance in the Glory 〈◊〉 God Thus it dwelleth with thee Eternally Thus the Love of the Fatheâ— in the heart of Christ softneth enliveneth washeth thee with Its own Blood maketh thee by itself a Priest and King to itself Eternally I have done with the first Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Freedoâ— Use. 1. The Gospel is compared to a Marriage-Feast for a King's Son Goâ— the Father is The King His Son is the Bridegroom Eternal Love attendeâ— with all The Lovelinesses and Joys of That Love are The Feast Thou 〈◊〉 Man O Sinner Thy Soul is invited to this Feast of Love not onely to 〈◊〉 Guest but The Beautiful Blessed Bride The Ministers the Angels The Spirit of Love himself are sent forth as Eâ—bassadours to bring thee to This Marriage 1. Obj. Say not I am Unworthy Unlovely in my Sins and shame Answ. This Love is free It seeketh not but bringeth Loveliness along with it This Love is itself The Wedding-Garment and the Marriage-Crown This Feast as thou eatest giveth thee strength Beauty and a Right to it This Feast of Love maketh Its Guest This Marriage of Love maketh a Bride Obj. 2. How can I leave my precious and pleasant Things for This Love Answ. Canst thou not part with a single dying Flower in thy hand for a Root of Flowers to set in thine heart in thy Garden The Love of God is The Root of all Precious and Pleasant Things in Eternity Canst thou not part with a Shadow for the Substance a Picture for the Life a Counterfeit for the Truth a glass Diamond or Pearl for a right Diamond the true Pearl All thy Pleasant Things here are Shadows Pictures counterfeits This Love is All Pleasantnesses all Preciousnesses in their Substance Life Truth Obj. 3. I am weak I shall dishonour This Love I shall be disloyal to It. I shall return to my Lusts. Ans. This Love requireth no Qualifications but worketh all Give up thy self to be the Creature of This Love This Love will make Thee a Heavenly Bride to itself out of Nothing out of Contrariety Enmity This Love will be both a new a Divine Creation of Thee and a Continual Preservation This Preservation shall be a Continued Creation of Love Resign thy self to This Love which is the onely Fountain of Life and of all Loveliness Use. 2. Love again Who planteth a Vine and drinketh not of the Wine The Father planteth Jesus Christ his Love his Vine in thy Soul Let him drink of the Wine of thy Loves Love thy God with the same Freedom Simplicity and Sweetness with the Same Naturalness Nakedness and Force with which he loveth Thee Use. 3. Love one another as God loveth you Pour forth all your Love into the Bosom of Christ. There let it run into the Bosom of every Saint of every Creature There love one another without Distinction without Condition Freely receive one another into embrace one another in the Riches of the Grace and Glory of Jesus Christ as the Father receiveth and embraceth you Use 4. Abide in the Love of the Father 1. Abide in the Father's Love by Faith in the Lord Jesus The Glorified Person of Christ is the Land of Life the Land of Love the Love of the Father is the Sweetness and Fatness of this Land Faith is the root of thy Soul in this Pleasant Land By Faith thy Soul is vitally fixed in this Divine Soil in the midst of all the Sweetnesses and Pretious Sap of Divine Love By Faith thou drawest the rich heart of this Glorious Earth the Love of The Father to thy self Thou feedest upon It nourishest thy self by It and growest up to an Entire Tree of Love 2. Abide in this Love by holiness Holiness is the lovely Fruit which springeth up out of the Love of the Father and is Its Food Holiness is the Purity of the Spirit by which the flame of heavenly Love liveth and spreaded itself there Holiness is the Spiritual Chastity of the Soul to her heavenly Bridegroom 3. Abide in the Father's Love by keeping his Commandments The Commands of
to take thy Person into the Arms of his Preventing Loves to breath bis Preventing Loves into Thee as a New Life the Spring of a New Beauty excelling that which was lost by Thee in Paradise incorruptible that never fadeth not passeth away Ladies and Queens have sometimes hatched Eggs in their Bosoms Thy dead deformed Person will thy Saviour hatch in the warm and naked Bosom of his Preventing Loves unto a Divine Life that shall answer Love with Love and flourish in the Loveliness of every Grace every Glory through thy New-born Soul and body according to their proper seasons Having known the Love of the Lord my Spirit laboureth yet not my Spirit but the Love of the Lord Jesus in my Spirit laboureth by all means to bring forth itself in the fresh and full Sense of its First its Free its Preventing Sweetnesses in your hearts as a Spring of Living Waters in a dry and barren Wilderness But as a tender Mother taketh a beloved Child weak and peevish laieth it in her lap poureth a Cordial down into its stomack so will your Jesus do with you O Grieved Spirits who are weak without strength froward will not take in his Love He will take you lay you upon his knees and pour this precious Cordial of his Preventing Loves into your Mouths Then will it go right and sweet down to the bottom of your heart There it will become a Well springing up with pure sweet and plentiful Streams of every Spiritual Truth Grace Comfort or Joy unto Eternal Life This is The First State of Love in the Lord Jesus Preventing Love 2. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father a Fulness of all Assisting Love 2. Cor. 14. v. 7. 8. 9. St. Paul had a thorn in his Flesh messengers of Satan sent to buffet him He prayed thrice that he might be delivered from them He had this answer from the Lord My Grace is sufficient for Thee Many tender-hearted Saints who feel their Lusts as Thorns in their Flesh who feel their Passions as the Messengers of Satan the Angels of the Dragon buffeâ—ing them cry out frequently in the Agonies of Fear and Grief O this Lust O this Thorn in my Flesh Sure at last it will wound me so deeply to the heart that it will let out the Life-blood of all faith hope grace and comfort O this Passion O this Messenger of Satan It will one day carry me back again into those Chains of Darkness and that Bottomless Pit out of which I seem to my self sometimes to have escaped But O Believer tossed with the Tempests be comforted Fear none of these things Look up continually to the Blessed Person of your dear Saviour lifted up into Glory in the midst of your Spirits See the Father pouring forth himself into the Fulness the Glorious Fulness of all Assisting Loves in his Bosom Pray continually and hear this Blessed voice from the Mouth of your Saviour continually sounding in your ears My Assisting Loves are sufficient for Thee Obj. But some Soul that wanteth Comfort will say When the Lord Jesus hath once by his Preventing Love planted a New Principle and Habits of Grace in me he now expecteth that I should improve this Principle and act these Graces If I do this and make use of that which I have I may comfortably look for his Assisting Love and that more Grace should be still given me But what New Loves can I promise my self to accompany me and carry me on in my way while I so ill requite the Lord Jesus for his First Loves that I suffer his Gifts to lye unimproved his Graces to lye unactive in me hid in the Earth by my Sloth or Sensuality Answ. I shall proceed in my answer to this Objection by Three Steps 1 Stâ—p This Objection wrappeth up together in it something True something False 1. This is False That the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus dependeth upon our Emprovement of Grace already received from him This is not True No by no means Assisting Love is as free as full as absolute as much all as much alone in Carrying on the Work of Grace in us as Preventing Love is in Beginning it God hath poured forth in Christ the Fulness of all Assisting Love I am the Truth the way and the Life saith our Saviour Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Life of all Grace in the way as much as in the Beginning or End Without me ye can do Nothing Every Act of Grace every thing in every Act of Grace which distinguisheth it from a meer Non-Entity from an Absolute Nothing Every Degree of Spiritual Being in the whole Life of Grace with all the Exercises of it through the whole way from the Beginning to the End is all alike Immediately from Jesus Christ. That which is True in the Objection is this the Emprovement of Spiritual Principles the Exercise of our Graces are attended with Clearer Illuminations Sweeter Enlargements more Divine heighthnings of all heavenly Truths Graces and Consolations in us On the other siide when Faith is not acted when holiness is neglected Darkness Decay Distress and Death dwell upon us But these things are all entirely Consequences and Effects not Causes or Attractives of Assisting Love The Assisting Love of our Lord Jesus is as the Sun which by its Presence bringeth Light Warmth Fruitfulness Life Beauty Pleasurealong with it When it withdraweth itself leaveth the Cold hardness Storms Desolation of Winter behind it The Bridegroom chargeth the Virgins of Jerusalem by the Roes and Hinds of the Field that they stir not up nor awake his Love until She please Cant. 2. 7. The Angels of heaven which are the Invisible Ministers by whom all things move in the whole Order of Second Causes are here understood according to the sense of some learned Divines By the Virgins of Jerusalem The Roes and hinds of the Field are the Pleasant Loves and Lovelinesses of the Eternal Spirit in the heavenly Person of Christ. The Law of the Eternal Beauties and Loves of the Divine Nature lieth upon all things upon all the Ministers and Armies of God that the Spouse of Christ be never laid to sleep or awakened but according to its own good pleasure as it is One Spirit with the Lord Jesus by a knot of Everlasting Love as a Queen at the Right hand of her King set down in Heavenly Places with him in him upon the same Throne When the Divine Principle which is the Bride and the Spiritual Man in a Saint retireth itself and goeth to its rest in this Night the Wild Beasts Bruitish Lusts Raging Passions come forth to prey upon the Natural Man covering it with filth wounds But when the Day spring ariseth from on high when the season cometh for this Man this Heavenly Seed Bride to awake to stir up her self and come forth again in this New Morning the Beasts return to their Den Lusts and Passions sink down into their own
Principle he stood under the curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the curse to the utmost extremity 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a light of Divine Glory in a life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with Immortality 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus through his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death These are the five Propositions which set forth the trouble of Christ at his Death In the other two followeth his Triumph 6. Propos. This Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went entirely forth from the Natural or Temporary Principle and so from under the Curse 7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity and singleness of his Supernatural the Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall briefly open these Propositions in their order 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus John 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The second Person in the Trinity from which the other two Persons the Father and the Spirit are inseparable the eternal and essential Son of God which hath the fulness of the God-Head in himself in its most express Image and greatest Glory he in his own Person in this Eternal Person and Sonship was made Flesh. This Eternal Person this Essential Son of God was that Flesh. This Flesh was that Person that Son which had the Father and the Spirit inseparably with himself and was essentially one with them O Christians study this union of the two Natures Divine and Humane in one only Divine Unchangeable and Eternal Person which is the most glorious and Ever-blessed God This is the deep and rich ground of the Christian Religion out of which as the true ground of the Heavenly Paradise the God-Head itself makes to spring all the precious mysteries of the Gospel all Evangelical Truths Graces and Joys in their most Spiritual Beauty Sweetness and Life Understand this Pray for the understanding of this for a sight sense and feeling of it within your own Spirits that it is God God himself in his own only Divine unchangeable undivided Person in your own Form in your own Nature in your own Persons and Spirits which is your Jesus your Saviour Redeemer Husband and King your Ransom Atonement and Righteousness your Beauty your Life your Joy your Root Branch Flower and Fruit. This union between the Divine and Humane Nature in one Person in our Lord Jesus is the Original and Reason of the union between you and this Jesus which is God in Person to which Person thorow this union you also are immediately eternally united in one Spirit in one mystical Person which is Christ as St. Paul speaketh as there is one Body and many Members so is Christ. A Spiritual knowledge of this union of two Natures in one Person and that God himself is this Person will sweeten all sufferings of life to you and perfume the Grave Open the Eyes of your Spirits and behold with joy and wonder the going of your God and King in the Sanctuary of this Earthly Body It was the ever-glorious and immutable Person of God in the most high and holy Trinity which made itself Flesh in the Womb of the Virgin which was that Flesh which in that Flesh eat drank slept talked and walked upon the Face of this Earth which passed under all the clouds thorow all the storms of life here which hung upon the Cross dyed and lay down in the Grave O with what a Divine and delightful Glory hath this Divine presence and Person silled and cloathed this Flesh this Earth all the natural actions and passions of this Flesh on this Earth Clouds Storms the Cross Death and the Grave to the Spiritual Eyes of Believers What living Plants of Paradise how beautiful how laden with most pleasant and Immortal Fruits are all these springing up out of this Root this Divine and Eternal Person What Jewels are they of incomprehensible virtue sweetness and lustre hanging upon this Person See your selves O all ye Saints even the lowest and the least conformed to this Image It is the immortal Seed and Son of God in you it is your Jesus the most glorious Person of God himself in this Seed in you which is made partaker of Flesh and Blood which walks on Earth and acts all the parts of the natural Life here which passeth thorow all the Clouds and Storms of life which suffers dies and lies in the Grave The Spoase saith of Christ he is a bundle of Myrrh he shall lye all night between my Breasts Thus the Humane Nature of Christ saith to the Divine Nature Thus the Earthly Nature saith to the Heavenly Nature to the Divine Seed to the Lord Jesus to the Divine Nature in the Lord Jesus thou art my bundle of Myrrh thou liest all the night of this life and death between my naked Breasts What corruption can I see in the Grave itself What Divine Sweetness breaths forth itself in all States What Divine Treasures of Life and Immortality fill and overflow all while we thus lye most intimately united entirely wrapt up in each other in the most sweet and glorious Unity of one Divine and Eternal Spirit one Mystical Divine and Eternal Person 2. Propos. God in his own Person as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth stood at once in a twofold Principle the one Natural and Temporary the other Spiritual and Eternal The Lord Jesus was truly and really a man in every point like unto us sin only excepted as the Scripture speaketh in the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus he did bear in himself the Earthly and Natural Image he stood in an earthly and natural Principle He came forth from the Father into the World So was he made a Servant and made under the Law But the Lord Jesus was in Person the Eternal Son of God In this Person alone did the Humane Nature of Christ with its Natural Principle and Fleshly Form in this world subsist The second Person in the Trinity was the Glorious and Invisible Root which through the Divine Nature sent forth sustained lived and appeared in the spotless Flesh of the Lord Jesus Thus
undivided Circle of Eternity always at once in every moment and cast of his eye he saw possest and enjoyed all pleasantnesses In this Face of his Father which is the Light of Eternity he saw his own Face as he passed thorow all changes Even then when he cried out that he was forsaken by his Father he beheld this forsaking of him himself thus forsaken in this Glass the face of his Father in the midst of all Pleasantnesses one of the Pleasantnesses one with all the Pleasantnesses there The Aâ—gels that take care of Children here below in the midst of this their work on Earth ever behold the Face of the Father in Heaven How much more is it true of that Person who is the Face of the Father who is one Essence and Substance with the Father who unites the Humane Nature to the Divine Nature in the Unity of this Person Shall not he much more see the face of his Father in Heaven while he is on Earth or in the Grave serving the little Children of his Father his younger Brethren as their good Angel This Face in which all Pleasantnesses are at their fulness at their heighth was that Joy set before Jesus Christ upon the Cross for which he enâ—ured the Cross and despised the shame I shall now conclude this discourse of our dying and dead Saviour of his sacred Body living and immortal in Death with those four thiâ—gs which were too wonderful for Solomon the way of a Ship upon the Sea of an Eâ—gle in the Air of a Serpent upon a stoâ—e or a rock of a man with a maid or as it is in Hebrew in a maid The most learned Jews teach us to understand this as the Mystâ—ry of the Messiah The most learned of the Christian Divines give us such a Gloss as this upon it while they make this place from the authority oâ— the Jews themselves to prove against them that the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin 1. The Man in the Maid is the Heavenly Man in Womb of the Virgin 2. The Ship upon the Sea is the Humane Nature in its Union with the Divine Nature Sailing along in its course of time and life here below upon the Sea of Eternity 3. The serpent upon the Sâ—oâ—e or the Rock is the deep and Glorious wonder of Death in the Person of Christ who is the Rock oâ— Eternal Life and God himself who lives for ever 4. The Eagle in the Air is the Humane Nature risen and ascending in the Spirit to the right hand of the father above all Heaven to the utmost heighths of all Joys and Glories of the Divine Nature and Eternity Before I leave this Subject I will point out one Use and Application of it When a Voice came with Thunder to the Lord Jesus declaring Love and Glory from on high upon him Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples Tâ—is Voice came not for my sake but for yours In like manner these glorious things are spoken of Christ in his life and in his death not for himself only but for all his Saints Christ and all the Saints are one seed To that one seed to all the Saints in Christ to Christ in himself and in all his Saints are all the Promises made All those pleasant things which we have spoken of Jesus Christ and of his holy Body in Death are true of him as his Humane Nature is joyned to the Divine Nature in one Divine and Eternal Person which is the most High God The same things are true in us also who believe in him by that Mystical Union which joyneth us to the Lord Jesus in one mystical Person and in the Unity of that Spirit which is also the most high God one with the Father and the Son While we live as Saints by the Faith of the Lord Jesus we live not but Christ liveth in us we live and we are Spiritual only as we are Spirits the Birth of the Eternal Spirit and one Spirit with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection from the Dead All things in Heaven and on Earth of Soul and of Body of Life and of Death are Spirit and Life to us It is true that while we live on Earth a fleshly Spirit a fleshly Image in which Satan hath his Throne have a part in us not as our true selves but as our disguises our diseases our enemy as evil Dreams in our sleep These ofâ—â—n prevail over the Spiritual Man in us and captivate us to many sinful Lusts fears and Griefs But still the Spiritual man in itself which is our true self puts them under its feet and makes them Captives to the Light Love and Immortality of the Spirit The Spirit in us is like the Sua which when we think it under a Cloud or eclipsed by the Moon is so only to our Earthly Light but in truth and to itself it is upon its own Throne of Light triumphantly above the Clouds and the Moon comprehending them in the brightness of its own Glory But besides this in the moment of Death this fleshly Spirit and Image is for ever cast out of all power and rule in a Saint and is entirely subdued to that pure and Heavenly Spirit which is the true Saint which now withâ—â—t any interposing vail or interrupting interval perpetually sees the glorious Face of Jesus Christ in it self which is one Spirit with him and the Glorious Face of the Father in Jesus Christ. Yea one advantage of unexpressible Joy and Glory hath the death of a 〈…〉 of Christ. The Death of Christ had all the stings of 〈…〉 crâ—â—ture â—ver felt or can feel the guilt of Sin 〈…〉 Wrath of the Father all the Powers of Hell in 〈…〉 these stings are taken out of the death of a Saint Christ is risen all the Powers of evil subdued captivated and changed into mysteries of eternal Light and Love in the Glorified Person of Christ by the Virtue of his Resurrection A Believer living and dying stands in the Resurrection of Christ is risen with him in him A Believer is married to Christ as he is risen from the Dead His Life his Death thoroughout all things of them both are Divine Fruits of this marriage-bed brought forth in the Bosom of God to God Break forth then O ye Saints into singing both living and dying tune your last breath to this song of the Lamb and say like him I have set my glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him before me My glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him is at my right hand therefore shall I not be greatly moved Therefore doth my Soul rejoyce in Death my Body also sweetly rests in the Grave as in a Marriage-bed in the midst of all Divine delights as Flowers of Paradise strewed upon it It rests in the Bosom of my glorified Jesus my hope This sweet and sure hope is he that will never leave my Soul in the state of Death nor suffer his Holy One